tonight. we thank you for being with us. please join us here tomorrow evening. good night from sussex. ♪. elizabeth: good evening. i'm elizabeth macdonald, welcome to "the evening edit. stocks did rise for the first time in three days. the dow surged more than 400 points, u.s. energy secretary urging house lawmakers to buy oil for the strategic reserve. we're awaiting the white house coronavirus presser coming up in a few minutes. president trump has ordered u.s. navy to destroy any iranian gunboats that harass american ships at sea. there is pushback at that, that he would violate international norms. this after 11 iranian gunboats crossed 9 the bows and sterns of

american ships. iran successfully launched first american military satellite. that is was a success as nearlyhundred drug rules are trials are happening around the world to fight covid-19. the president said nearly 300 active drug and vaccine trials are underway right now. also, this is happening as well. the president is moving to sign an executive order to temporarily suspend for 60 days immigration to the u.s. for people seeking permanent residency. also breaking news, the pause will also apply to green card awardees who are currently overseas. welcome to the show right now as we await the president. he is about to speak at any moment. let's bring in ohio representative, steve chabot. good to have you on. the your reaction to the

temporary order seeking a pause not just for those seeking permanent residency but also green card applicants? the president says he wants to protect health and jobs as 22 americans million americans are out of work. your reaction to this. >> this current environment it is more important than ever we regulate who is coming into the country. under the federal law the president has broad authority to regulate immigration enforcement. so i think he is doing the right thing, especially with these emergency circumstances. you know right now the government can tell american citizens they're not allowed to go to the mall. so we certainly ought to be able to tell people that are coming into the country potentially illegally they need to follow our laws. so i think the president's exactly right. elizabeth: you know democrats and media critics are saying this is an attempt to divert attention from the president's failure to stop the spread. your take on that? 75 countries around the world,

75 countries also restricted their borders. we're looking in europe, china, canada, mexico, iran. new zealand is getting applauded the way it handled its outbreak. new zealand did block its borders as well and stopped people coming in. your take on the criticism against the president right now? >> the president is doing exactly the right thing. we have a right as a sovereign nation to defend our borders and determine who comes into the country. we've been trying to enforce the laws for years with mixed results. this president is serious about it. i take my hat off to him. this is the right thing to do. we have a sovereign nation. we ought to be able to determine who comes here and who doesn't. elizabeth: all right. the president is saying 20 states are moving to reopen soon. they now include, tennessee, texas, south carolina, colorado and georgia, new hampshire as well. media critics say that could cause more infects. the governor of illinois, quote, people may die because the

president is tweeting out liberate several states. politicians and media are getting pushback. they're earning paychecks as they criticize protests in 31 states, 22 million out of work. thousands of small businesses deemed nonessential. they may not make it. your reaction to this controversy? >> as a nation we're trying to find the right balance to reopen the economy. the president is getting some criticism. he is trying to do it in the safest manner possible. he has issued guidelines. i happen to be on the task force about reopening the country. there are 32 i believe members of congress. so one out of every 12 of so or are us working with the business community, the health care professionals and we are listening to the experts, medical experts how to do this and do it correctly. we also got to get the economy open ultimately and we got to do it right and he is delegating as he would under the constitution to the local communities and the

states that make the determination as when they actually open. so it is guidelines from the president and the task force and the federal level, which will be uply meanted -- implemented ultimately by the local folks. elizabeth: attorney general william barr is suggesting that the justice department will join citizens in lawsuits against states. ag barr says there is unprecedented pressure by states on constitutional civil liberties and their rights. we're talking about the first, fourth, fifth amendment at stake here. you know, protests are growing in about 31 states. we're tracking them. the media is slamming these protesters for not doing things like social distancing. your reaction to that criticism? >> well i think the attorney general has not only the right but the obligation to protect the constitutional rights and civil liberties of the american people. he has not indicated that he is going to take action but he is saying that if, if circumstances

arose, well then he would make that determination but, it is, i think the attorney general is on spot on on this. elizabeth: we have news coming in that hawaii officials in hawaii, arrested two individuals for violating quarantine. stunning new development there. this is also what is happening as well. really sure prizing new test results con furthermore that two people were infected in santa clara county on february 6th. that is much earlier than initially believed. that means more people may have been infected and have antibodies. that is a remarkable finding. also a new study done by usc and l.a. county public health find 55 times more cases realized. hundred of thousands likely affected now with antibodies that means plasma treatment, that maybe means get back to work sooner.

>> it does, liz. there may well have been more infections at an earlier stage. that is what that california new information gives us, and what we ought to be doing is using that information. we have to know who has the antibodies and who do not through testing. that is why in the latest legislation, that the senate took up yesterday and house will be taking up tomorrow, there is $25 billion over and above what we've already put aside for testing f we can find out who has the antibodies and use that protect more of us we'll be automobile to make sure there are fewer people who are infected with the virus, and especially those that are particularly vulnerable, you know, that those that have preexisting conditions of some sort. they have heart disease. they have lung conditions, they have diabetes, they're particularly vulnerable and we need to protect that population. so that news we're finding out, we ought to use it.

elizabeth: you know the next stage, i think there is billion in testing to significantly expand testing. the president is saying 5000 labs have ramped up ready to go across the country. the fda approves the first at home less from labcorp. the president will use dpa to ramp up testing. he is getting pushback being slow to do testing. new york governor cuomo is saying the blame game is full on. he gets it that the media is attacking the president. even governor cuomo seems to be coming to the president's defense here. >> yeah, there has been so much fingerpointing and politicizing of this. i think the president is right to want to have more testing. he wants to reopen the government. we in congress basically is putting aside additional dollars to make sure that appropriate testing is being done.

so i think you've to the a pretty good working relationship. but as we've seen some people are going to politicize this thing. they will take shots at the president. but i think when you look what he has done he is trying to reach the right balance, to keep the public safe, keep the public healthy, but at the same time, get this economy open but get people back to work. elizabeth: yeah, prior pandemics and epidemics states oversaw their testing. states ran their own stockpiles before the clinton administration launched the national stockpile in 1999. your take, missouri joining mississippi suing china. major backlash against eu and suing china. countries are not believing china anymore. you're seeing it happen in social media in the middle east, asia, global petitions against china. your take on that? >> i commend those states and

their attorneys general for suing china. we don't know, you know, where it is ultimately going to end up. whether they will be successful or not. china will try to use the defense, what is called sovereign immunity, where a nation basically is able to prevent itself from being sued under many circumstances but there are ways around this and china has been a bad actor here. we know that the started there. whether it started in the wet market. i actually introduced legislation in a bipartisan manner to prevent those wet markets from continuing to go on around the globe, endangering us here. whether it was a wet market that started this or whether it was a laboratory, it was in china and china has been a bad actor. they haven't been, they ought to be held accountable. elizabeth: all right. we have to leave it there. steve chabot. congressman, thanks for joining us. here's the president. >> a lot of tremendous things are happening. the number of new positive cases continue to decline nationwide. recent hot spots appear to be

stablizing. the hot spots are in some cases very interesting what's going on and they're going down, they're going in the right direction. cases in the boston area are now declining. the chicago curve appears to have flattened which is terrific and detroit has passed its peak. these trend demonstrate our aggressive strategy to battle the virus is working and more states will soon be in a position to gradually and safely reopen that is very exciting t was very exciting even today, watching and seeing what's happening and people are getting ready and they're all excited. i do want to mention a man who has done a very good job for us, dr. robert redfield was totally misquoted in the media on a statement about the fall season and the virus. totally misquoted. i spoke to him. he said it was ridiculous. he was talking about the flu and corona coming together at the

same time and corona could be some little flare-ups we'll take care of. we'll knock it out and knock it out fast. that is what he was referring to, coming together at the same time. i think rather than waiting i would ask dr. redfield to come up, say a couple of words just to straighten it out, he didn't say it was a big, explosion. the headline in the "washington post" was totally inaccurate. the statement was not bad in the post but the headline was ridiculous, which as i say that is fake news and cnn is fake news like crazy. they had just totally the wrong story. which they knew. they were asked to change it and they wouldn't do that. and, it was false. so i will ask dr. redfield to, who is a real professional to come up an explain, please. thank you, doctor. >> thank you, mr. president. really do think it is important to clarify this as we build the confidence of the american

people. when i commented yesterday that there was a possibility of the fall, winter next fall and winter could be more difficult, more complicated, when we had two respiratory illnesses circulated at the same time, influenza, and the coronavirus 19, buff i think it is really important to emphasize what i didn't say. i didn't say it would be worse. i said it was going to be more, more difficult and potentially complicated because we'll have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time. i want to emphasize that we continue to build the nation's public health infrastructure to insure that we have the capacity to stay in the containment mode. those who heard me talk before i have told you that in january and february, up to february 27, 28 this nation had 14 cases. we were in the containment mode. unfortunately the virus

overwhelmed we got in extreme mitt failing. we're building that public health capacity now to make sure we stay in the containment mode for upcoming fall and winter seasons so we will not need to resort to the kind of mitigation we had to this spring. i have confidence that our public health response of really case recognition, we talked about, isolation, contact tracing, combined with our plans for increased surveillance, particularly, for the most vulnerable will be an effective public health strategy so our nation will be able to maintain itself in the containment mode. again, that will be supported by the american public continued cooperation obviously in the areas of personal hygiene and the types of social distancing strategies that may be appropriate. the key, to my comments and the reason that i really wanted to stress them, was to appeal to the american public to embrace

the flu vaccine with confidence. one of the greatest tools we have as we go through the fall winter season that into get the american public to embrace the influenza vaccine and thereby minimize the impact of flu to be the corespiratory disease we confront. thank you very much. reporter: talk to dr. redfield? >> he was misquoted. totally misquoted. he said they could come together. they didn't talk about that. and his whole purpose in making the statement was to get a flu shot, so that next fall, we don't have such a big season of flu. and we possibly won't. but as you said, it is possible, if the corona even comes back and he doesn't know it is going to. neither do i. we spoke at great length. i think the doctor will speak, if you like to continue but we may have some embers. we'll going to put them out of corona but we may have a big flu season. that is different.

flu is very different from corona. reporter: follow up. dr. redfield, did the interview with them, you said the possibility of the assault of the virus on our nation will be much, even be more difficult than the one we just went through. when i said this to others they kind of put their head, they don't understand what i mean. we're going to have a flu epidemic and coronavirus epidemic at the same time. is that what you said to the "washington post"? >> yeah. that is what i was trying to say to you just a minute ago, that issue i was talking about about being more difficult is that we're going to have two viruses circulating at the same time. this spring that we just went through, february, we had benefit of having the flu season ended, so we could use all our flu surveillance systems to say, whoops, this is coronavirus. we need to focus. next fall and winter, we're going to have two viruses circulating and we're going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the

coronavirus. so the comment that i made, it is more difficult. doesn't mean it will be more impossible. doesn't mean it is going to be more, as some people have said worse, it just means more difficult because we have to distinguish between the two. what i was wanting to to do, what i want to do again here, appeal to the american public to recognize they can really help like they did with mitigation which they really helped, i need them to help now to best prepare us by getting the flu vaccine and taking flu out of the picture. >> may not even have corona coming back. reporter: but, but i'm sorry, that quote is accurate, right, sir? that is the quote from "the washington post," you were accurately quoted, correct? >> i'm accurately quoted in "the washington post," as difficult. but the headline was-- >> read the headline. reporter: headline says cdc director warns second wave of coronavirus likely being more

devastating. >> that is not what he said. headline -- >> i actually think it is actually going to be, i think the american public it going to heed the requests, to relook at their vaccine hesitancy, vaccine with confidence of flu. i'm confident that the public health infrastructure we're putting together now, across this country, so that we can early case diagnose, isolate and contact trace, as i say, block and tackle, block and tackle. that system is going to be there and we're going to be able to contain this virus. reporter: why did you repeat the article as being accurate. >> you weren't called. >> we talked about this yesterday, when youd is me this question and someone i think used the word did devastating. i want to really recognize again to the american public, when we first interacted with this virus for the first time in february and march, time frame, we didn't have an understanding of a

transmissibility, all of its symptoms. we do now and i think, what we're building together in, when we talk about the public health infrastructure, it is very much working on surveillance piece but i think we also know the strength of the american people and their ability to immediately understand how to protect themselves by not touching their face, making sure that they're washing their hands but the other piece i wanted to talk about and we mentioned yesterday also, that we have the summer, while we have flu surveillance that we can utilize and syndromic management we can utilize, we have all of that time to prepare clearly the testing algorithm you would need in a flu, potentially if covid came back, potentially. and so we are preparing for that potential right now and i think we spoke to you all about that and talked about how we're not only preparing for today and tomorrow but we're preparing for

six months from now, three months from now and making sure that all of these pieces are in place. i think what dr. redfield clearly was asking for, just like we asked for every american to follow the guidelines, he is saying please add to that guide lines getting the flu shot. and maybe you're protected. >> he said good chance covid will not come back? if it comes back, it is very small confined area we put out? >> well the great thing is, we'll be able to find it earlier this time. and i think that is what we're talking about. we'll find those cases earlier. so what dr. redfield said, we would be able to stay in containment phase. what we're also hoping and we talked about this about four or five weeks ago, that we're hoping that the flu infections also go down because people are much more aware of respiratory illnesses and how to protect themselves. want you to get your vaccine but we also want to also protect

individuals from getting the flu because of the vulnerability we know in certain populations to flu and the devastating out comes to flu. we could prevent and decrease both of those things. so i think we are assured that the cdc is putting in place today what we are going to need in the fall so that we can stay in containment if potentially the virus comes back. >> and if it comes back though, it won't be coming back in the form that it was. it will be coming back in smaller doses that we can contain. but what the doctor was saying, and i spoke to him at great length, he was saying if it should come back together, now you have a flu and the embers of corona, but in my opinion, from everything i have seen, it can never be like anything that we witnessed right now. would you say that is correct? >> absolutely. >> nothing like what we talked, what we gone through we will not go through. could you have some embers of

corona and you could have a big flu system and if they combine if they come together, if they come together, it is not great but we will not go through what we went through for the last two months. reporter: mr. president, that a correct statement? >> i understand that the united states will certainly be more prepared in the fall but how can you say that you know it won't come back in the same level that it has today? >> what, it is estimated, might not come back at all, jeff. it may not come back at all. he is talking about a worst-case scenario you have a big flu and some corona. if it does come back it will not come back, i have spoken to 10 different people, it will not be like it was. also we have much better containment now. before nobody knew about it. nobody knew anything about it. we understand it. now if we have pockets a little pocket here we'll have it put out. it will go out and go out fast. we'll be watching for it. it is also possible it doesn't comeback at all. reporter: i understand the containment but i don't know understand how you don't come

back on a big scale? >> i didn't say it's not. if it does it will come back on anything near what we went through but you could have a mess where they come at the same time. and if they come at the same time, the flu is not the greatest thing in the world, jeff. it is not the greatest thing either. if you come at the same time you have them both. if we have embers of corona, coupled with the flu, that's not going to be pleasant but it is not going to be what we've gone through in any way, shape or form. yeah? reporter: if you don't think it will come back -- why are you still directing taxpayer dollars be spent on emergency procurement ever ventilators, 10,000? >> we have to have them for other reasons. something else cocome. we didn't know about corona. now we know about corona. look what happened, now we did have the h1n1 swine flu, we had that. we have other things that have happened. we had various forms of flu but

nothing like what we've had here, nothing at all like what we've had here with the virus. but something could happen. i think the stockpiles, we're making hundreds of thousands of ventilators right now. nobody writes about that. at one time all they talked about ventilators because you didn't think it was possible for me to solve that problem, and i solved it. nobody can believe it. i spoke to world leaders today who desperately need ventilators. they said the job you've done, and we're sending 500 to mexico. then another 500 to france. we're sending some to spain. we're sending some to italy. we have testimony, being made by the thousands. and world leaders, i spoke to prime minister, i mean i went through a lot of different calls today. i won't even tell you, but you went through, i can give you a list if you want, i went through a lot of cause to a lot of leaders. spoke with pakistan. they would like to have some ventilators. we're going to get them some ventilators. but they all said to me one

thing it, was incredible that you solved the ventilator problem because that was a big problem. the testing problem, we've done more than you in other nation in the world. go a step further. if you added up the testing of every nation in the world, put them together, we've done substantially more than that you people aren't satisfied. so let's say we had 350 million people in the united states, all right, let's say. if we gave everyone of those people a test, 10 times, so we give 350 people a test 10 times, the fake news media would say, where is the 11th time? he didn't do his job. of trump didn't do his job because you have a lot of bad reporting out there. it is very sad. and it is so bad. reporter: that is not true. >> you're one of the leaders of the bad reporting. reporter: that is not true. >> let's get on to another subject, i wanted that to be cleared up f you want we can get on to later. i want the vice president to speak but you ought to get the news accurately. you ought to write it, if you

look what you wrote about the ventilators and when we became the king of ventilators, we're making different factories all over, ventilators, by the thousands, in fact mike got back from wisconsin. first thing he did called up, i said how's it going. are not going to believe. he just saw is a plant a factory where they're making ventilators. i think i can say the words were unbelievable. he said it was unbelievable what he saw. the quality of the equipment. the professionalism. tremendous number of, how many workers would you say were there? >> over 4550. they doubled production and are about to triple production -- 550. >> nobody now it could be done. fake news was unhappy it could be done. you guys don't -- reporter: who is unhappy. >> because you never messenger it. there is no stories what a great job with ventilators. we're supplying ventilators all over the world. no other country could have done what we did.

that is great story. you say trump was slow. slow? we were so fast. plus we put the ban on so much earlier when nancy pelosi as an example, you don't say this, when she is having her rally in san francisco in chinatown in san francisco, nobody wants to say that. if we didn't -- doctor fauci said this, if we don't close our country to china, we would have been so infected like nobody's ever seen. when you saw the chart, and with we were at the top of the list in terms ever success, nobody wrote it. is anybody going to use that chart? nobody wrote it in terms of mortality. you saw that. nobody wrote it. germany and our country. the most successful in terms of mortality. nobody wrote it. it would be great if you wrote the truth but let's get on with it because i want mike to speak. we'll take some more questions on the assumption you would like to, i think you probably will. it has been encouraging to watch states begin to open up as, really has been, it is a beautiful thing to see, as

restrictions are lifted. we must maintain vigilance and continue practicing social distancing. i encourage governors to follow a careful, phased approach. i want to remind all americans to adhere to our guidelines, very important. the governors are going to adhere hopefully or they're going to do what they think is best. i want them to do what they think is best but ideally they will adhere. wash your hands, avoid close physical contact as much as possible, wear a face covering when distancing is impractical. there are cases where we flattened the curve and really made progress, we must guard against a dangerous rebound. that we don't want a rebound. the doctor doesn't want a rebound. these people definitely don't want a rebound. i don't think you want one, you, especially. we have don't want rebounds after all this death, death, that we've suffered.

not work, i don't view work, i view it death, that was unnecessary. should have never happened. should have never left that little area where it started. you know it. and i know it. and they know it. in our all-out war defense the virus we continue to make great strides on testing, famous testing, doing more than anybody else anywhere in the world. nothing funny about that, john. most of the governors have never faced a situation like this before. but we're helping them find unused testing capacity within their states. tremendous testing capacity the governments in many cases didn't know they had. additional capabilities are coming online every day. we're coming up with new equipment like the lab bottom laboratories equipment -- abbott laboratory equipment. on site, five minutes, great success, everybody wants it. you can only make so many of those machines. we have many other forms of testing. we have many other machines that do it very quickly and by the

millions, by the millions. our task force issued its reopening guidelines earlier. than april 30th to give governors the time they needed to develop testing capability and capacity and customize plans for their states which many of them did. we have had some governors do a fantastic job on testing and a lot of other things. i spoke, as you know, governor cuomo was here. we had a great conversation on testing yesterday. they're doing really good job in new york. we're working very closely with each of the states to help them succeed. i spoke earlier today with governor newsom, california and that was all about testing, that conversation. he has been scaling up really well, really good job. i agreed to help him get some of the critcam supplies that california needs to make use of the tremendous capacity that they found. this is a tremendous testing capacity. i'm going to do it very quickly.

he need certain things. we'll get that to him very quickly. could he get it himself? yes. i could get it faster. he understands that. he has done a great job. we'll have it to him. we'll have a lot to him over next few days. and we'll beef it up the following week, a lot additional. he has done a really terrific job in california. some of the governors have done a a fantastic job working with us. i told the governor of georgia, brian kemp i disagree with his decision to open certain facilities which are in violation of the phase one guidelines for the incredible people of georgia. they're incredible people. i love those people. they are, they are great. they have been strong, resolute but at the same time he must do what he thinks his right. i want him to do what he thinks is right but i disagree with him on what he is doing but i want

to let the governors do -- if i see something totally egregious, totally out of line i think i will do. i think spas and beauty salons and tattoo parlors and barbershops in phase one, we're going to have phase two very soon. it is just too soon. i think it is too soon. and i love the people. i love, i love those people that use all of those things, spas and beauty tu parlors and barbershops, at that time toot losser -- tattoo parlors they can wait. not too much. safety has to predominate. we have to have that. i told the governor very simply i disagree with his decision but he has to do what he thinks is right. i'm excited to announce that in the coming weeks the air force thunderbirds, the incredible and the navy blue angels, equally incredible, will be performing

airshows over america's major cities and some of the cities that aren't major cities. they will be doing a lot of work. a lot of very dangerous flying. it is dangerous. you know the odds when you start going at massive speed and you're 18 inches away from each other. that is dangerous work. your son is a great pilot and i don't know, can he be, could he be a thunderbird? i don't know. >> we'll see. >> i think he probably could from what i hear. i don't know if i want him to be. it is incredible what they are able to do sacrifice our front line what we're doing we're paying tribute to the front line health care workers confronting covid. it is really a signal to all americans to remain vigilant during the outbreak. this is a tribute to them, to our warriors. because they're equal warriors to those incredible pilots and all of thefy fighters that we have for more of the traditional fights that we win and we win

and we want to win, we always win. sometimes we don't want to win. so we just go to a standstill but that is always, that is not the way this country works. operation america strong was the idea of our great military men and women thunderbirds and blue angels crews who wanted to show sport to our health care workers just like military members in time of war fiercely run towards the fight. i want to see those shows. i have seen them many times. i can't get enough of them. on july 4th we'll do what we had at the mall as you know. we'll be doing it. last year was tremendous success. i imagine we'll do it, i hope i can use the term forever. that was great success. it was pouring, raining so hard. it was raining at, i was about as hard as i have seen in a while but it was an amazing

success. didn't bother the pilots. didn't bother the military. didn't bother the crews we had there. so we'll be doing that again on july 4th. our great military is operating at 100% during this crisis and thousands of troops are deployed alongside civilians and covid hot spots, you see them all over. i spoke with governor cuomo and when i spoke to gavin newsom and many of the other governors, they wanted to know if we could have military help with the medical, and we gave it to them. in every case they said fantastic. i have mean just fantastic. new york city, mayor de blasio called me to say it was inspiring to watch. he was there when the military came in. he said it gave everybody spirit when he saw the professionalism and the spirit that they had. they walked in and they helped a lot of people. doctors, nurses, respiratory

technicians and professionals. it was an incredible thing but they all, everybody that saw them going to work said that was something special. so we're going to have some tremendous airshows all throughout our country. that is in honor of what we're all going through together and people that are helping us so much and unfortunately the people who have passed away from something that should never have been allowed to happen. following around the clock negotiations yesterday the senate answered my call to replenish the paycheck protection program so millions of additional workers can keep getting a paycheck. we just increased it by $310 billion. i urged the house to pass the bill without delay n our first round we provided $350 billion around it went at record speed to american workers and small

businesses. and it's really been an incredible, incredible success. i want to thank the banks, the big banks, the little banks, the commercial banks of all kind. we had the community banks who were fantastic by the way, community banks. and as you know this was an interesting story. in recent days i have called for harvard, that is harvard university, which has a 40 billion-dollar endowment fund, to return the money that it was allocated under the cares act. i'm pleased to announce that harvard has announced today that they will not accept the funds, nor will stanford university or many of the others that were involved both on university level, also on a company level, some of the companies were bigger than people had represented or bigger than people had thought and strong enough that they didn't need the money. so there is a certain at of

money that we are not sending. soon as i heard it, i said stop funds and for the most part i guess they stopped it mike, right? they stopped it but we're not, they're not accepting the money and that's great. so i want to thank harvard, i want to thank stanford and the other companies, in the case it is broken differently between colleges and companies but i want to thank the companies and the other great universities. there are some great ones. legislation passed by the senate yesterday also reserves $30 billion in loans for small financial institutions that serve minority and distressed communities, very important. we're determined to protect our african american, hispanic-american and minority workers who have been hit so hard by this hidden enemy. my administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to address the full spectrum of needs in these communities,

supporting both health and economic revitalization. first my administration is committed to providing testing that is needed to fight the virus in distressed communities. in the last month alone we have already sent over $1.4 billion to our nation's 13,000 community health care centers. think of that, 13,000. to increase testing and treatment in the you know served areas. we're expanding access to telehealth. telehealth has become a big deal. i've been reading about it for years. all of sudden because of thises it has become a big tinge. people can't leave their houses. they didn't want to leave their houses for various reasons including they wanted to follow the guidelines. the legislation passed by the senate yesterday, i want to thank everybody, great vote, great. as you know it was a unanimous vote. how often do you see that? but the legislation passed by the senate yesterday includes a

decisional $125 billion to further expand testing an provides even more funding for community health centers in various forms of epidemics and pandemics and we'll be working on that because as per a couple of your statements and questions before, we want to work on that for the future. we hope this doesn't happen again ever. but last time of this magnitude, 1917. that is a long time ago. so we want to be prepared. and we are prepared. as i told you we're building up hospital, not only our stockpile which is built up greatly, being built up greatly but hospital stockpiles. we're getting them what they need. we're working out costs arrangements with them and we're getting them a lot of the ventilators which are the hardest thing for them to get both from a cost standpoint and a technical standpoint. at the same time we're also supporting the establishment of new testing sites focused on

these communities. 40 sites have launched so far. there are plans to launch dozens more in the next three weeks. we're coming up with testing apparatus and testing plans that are incredible when you look at the numbers. some people are very, very big on testing. big on testing but some people are much less big than i am i will tell you and they're professionals. but we want to have south that nobody can talk about gee whiz, i wish we had more testing. nobody has done it like we've done it and nobody will and we're getting very much stronger. we have incredible professionals doing it. so many different tests have evolved. people are finding it even hard to believe. my administration is working closely with governors to insure that they have the testing infrastructure in place to reduce further spread of the virus. if they are so inclined to use the testing apparatus, including strategies for older

individuals, low income americans, minorities an&native americans. as part of the effort, white house task force headed up by mike, incredible, i say it every time, say it to anybody that wants to listen, mike pence has done an incredible job, really incredible job, thank you. he is providing technical assistance through all 50 states through one-on-one phone calls as they develop and implement their plans. in addition my administration's committed to restoring black and hispanic communities to full economic health. they want to be healthy economically and physically and that is what we're doing. to that end today i'm directing white house opportunity and revitalization council led by secretary ben carson to focus its effort on supporting underserved communities impacted by the coronavirus. so ben carson is working on that with mike and myself and, a lot of other people. i will ask tim scott, who was so

helpful with the opportunity zones, that is economic answer to a lot of problems and tim scott was fantastic. i will ask him to get involved with you. i'm sure he is willing to do it, from south carolina. i asked the council to identify what additional funding will be required from congress beyond what has already been provided. we're really building ourself a strong base and we're building ourself a wall that is very different from the kind of walls that you've been hearing me talking about but it is nevertheless, in many ways performs the same function and hopefully it will perform it equally as well. furthermore the council will seek input from the private sector and community leaders how we can best support minority and distressed communities. as president i'm absolutely determined to deliver a great future for americans of every race, religion, color and creed. before our nation was attacked

by this horrible enemy our african-american, hispanic-american citizens were prospering like never before, best employment numbers ever. not only african-american, asian-american, hispanic-american, every american, we were breaking records at every level. we had almost 160 million people employed. we were never even close to that number. we were also breaking them economically, highest stock market number. highest numbers of every kind. i think we're going to be back there, and i think it will be much sooner rather than later and you think we'll surpass the numbers including our employment numbers but i will not rest until that prosperity has been fully restored and, again i really believe that we're going to lift those numbers higher than ever before and it won't be as long as people might think. a lot of very smart people are looking at that and they're betting, you have to look at

what is going on with the stock market n order to protect our great american workers i signed an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the united states. this will insure unemployed americans of all background will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens. crucially it will also preserve our health care resources for american patients. we have to take care of our patients. we have to take care of our great american workers and that's what we're doing. so i have just signed it just before coming into the room and very important. very important. and as to amending it or extending it, that we can do at the appropriate tile but it is now signed. earlier today the first lady and i planted a tree on the south lawn of the white house in recognition of the 50th annual earth day. i was glad to announce we will begin to reopen our national parks and public lands.

we want americans to be able to satisfy and be really safe. we want them to satisfy their family that safety is going to happen and it will happen and maybe even at a level like never before. we have learned so much but we want them to enjoy these great national treasures as we continue to take reasonable precautions. hopefully it will be just reasonable. my administration has directed more than $7 billion in federal funding to support the development of treatments, diagnostics and therapies. that is something that doctors you hope i can really work on. that is something powerful. nih, industry leaders are establishing master clinical trial protocols to test multiple promising new drugs at the same time. they're doing a lot, we're doing a lot of testing right now. more than 1600 locations across the country have signed up to

administer convalescent plasma to patients infusing with antibodies of those who recovered. when think recover, last time, practically the first thing they say i want to give my blood so it can help other people. they want to give their blood. it is incredible. they're laying in bed. still in pretty weakened conditions. say i want to give my blood. that is happening all the time, isn't it? if you recovered from the coronavirus i ask you to consider contacting your local blood or plasma donation center to arrange a donation that could potentially save many lives. we would love for our nation and loyalty for our fellow citizens we will safeguard our families, care for our neighbors, heal the sick, protect our workers around build the future for a country that is the greatest country anywhere in the world and we're only going to get greater. thank you very much. mike pence, please.

>> thank you, mr. president. white house coronavirus task force met today and despite the fact there have been more than 843,000 americans who contracted the coronavirus and we grieve the loss of 47,000 of our countrymen, according to dr. birx and her team we see encouraging signs because the american people have been putting into practice the guidance that has been issued by the president and this task force and they have been taking to heart the guidance of state and local officials. mr. president, as we learned today we are continuing to see declines in all the major metro areas around the country that have been most impacted. the numbers remain low and steady, on the west coast, in washington state, and in california. the new york metro area,

new jersey, connect cut, all appear to be past their peak and as our scientists may reflect in a few moments we're also seeing the positive rate going down. which is actually even as encouraging as the declining cases the detroit metro area appears to be past its peak, seattle area as i mentioned is stable. new orleans metro area is the most stable of all the large metro outbreaks. we also are continuing to see stabilization and even declines in houston and atlanta and nashville and baltimore and indianapolis and elsewhere. this is a tribute to the american people, to the fact that the american people have taken to heart the guidelines. the social distancing, the personal hygiene, the recommendations that you use the drive-through at a restaurant, rather than going in a restaurant and avoiding groups of more than 10.

on the president's behalf, on behalf of our entire white house coronavirus task force we just want to urge all of the american people to continue onward. we all want to reopen america. and we want to reopen our states and our communities as soon as it is safe and responsible to do so. but i want to say to my countrymen, the fastest way to reopen america is to continue to do what you've been doing. the fastest way as president trump has said many times to get our country working again is to put the coronavirus in the past and we are on our way to doing just that. you know for early on the president called for not only the full power of the federal government but he called forth the full wave of the american economy and i had the privilege yesterday to travel to madison, wisconsin, and see american industry and american workers at their very best and i want to thank the ge health care team in wisconsin.

as well as the union machinists that i spent time with all day yesterday. it was extraordinary, and mr. president, in earlier this month you used the defense production act to insure that supplies could flow to ge and general motors and ford and other companies that, that were prepared to repurpose manufacturing lines and hire new workers to construct ventilators and at this particular plant they have literally, the unions sat down, the machinist union sat down, in less than one week negotitated a new contract with ge health care that allowed them to bring in workers from around the country. they doubled, they doubled their work line in one week. they're about to triple it. they have been going 24 hours a day, three shifts, seven days a week. and the president promised that by harnessing the power ever the american economy we would have 100,000 ventilators in 100 days.

thanks to the ingenuity and hard-working americans i was with yesterday and other companies, we'll actually have 110,000 ventilators in 100 days. they were all wearing t-shirts, mr. president, i brought one back for you, simply read, union machinists save lives. and to that great team at ge health care, i want to say all of america is proud of you and grateful for you. we're also grateful to all of our health care workers at every level and all the work they're doing and we're proud that our national guard and american military are at their side. as our task force learned today more than 31,000 national guard have been stood up around the country and the president in the last day extended what's called title 32 authorizations for all national guard personnel through may 31. so we'll continue to partner with states as the national guard plays a vital role in testing an in cleaning nursing homes and in standing up states response. military personnel,

mr. president, we have more than 5500 active duty military personnel including as of yesterday 964 medical professionals in the uniform of the united states working in 17 hospitals in seven states around the country. we're also very proud of our team at the va. the va has addressed its capacity issues. it has not seen cases among veterans in its facilities increase. so they're deploying teams to focus on nursing homes. in massachusetts the va personnel have disinfected two different newsing homes. in new jersey they literally taken over two state nursing homes and deployed 90 dr.s and nurses. in florida we're sending 16 teams to assist in nursing home operations. as the president also mentioned in addition to what i saw yesterday in madison, wisconsin, we continue to, we continue to build our strategic national

stockpile. it is growing again with ventilators. nearly 11,000 in supply. 901 new ventilators will be added, transitioned in the the near term, every american i think can be confidents should the need arise for your family member facing serious consequences from the coronavirus to need that equipment to help them breathe. that equipment will be there. as we said yesterday in wisconsin and you said, mr. president, i think it should be a grape source of comfort to every american that no american who has required a ventilator in the united states has been denied a ventilator. that is testament to our health care workers, a testament to every american, putting mitigation principles into practice and it is a testament to all these great companies. speaking of great companies american businesses are stepping up. it was on april 1st that i traveled to a walmart distribution center and the president reached out to the

president and ceo of walmart to ask walmart to get in the gowns business. mr. president, i'm glad to report to you that we heard today at the task force that walmart is producing 8.4 million gowns and they will be delivered into our commercial supply to health care facilities around the country by the end of june. they are hardly alone. honda is producing 500,000 face shields. new balance is making 100,000 masks a week, in a very real sense. the american people have stepped up to make sacrifices and endure the hardship that social distancing has required. but american businesses of every size and every means have come together to respond to the president's call. it really has been a whole of america approach and our message from the president's white house, coronavirus task force is to tell the american people, it's working. we're getting there.

we have can see light at the end of the tunnel. we can see the day that we can reopen and put america back to work but it is going to take all of us continuing to make the sacrifices necessary to practice those desminutes to get us to a place where we can reopen safely and confidentially. with that, mr. president, i will call dr. fauci up for his reflections and we'll move on. >> thank you very much, mr. vice president. so i'm going to just take off from where i was at the podium a few days ago to kind of reiterate some of the things that the vice president said but kind of connect the dots where we were, and where we are now, i think we're going to be. so remember, a couple of weeks ago we talk about the fact that we were going to have a really bad week pause the deaths, particularly driven by the situation in new york were going to get worse and worse but yet as that was happening, we're starting to see some turnaround, some flattening and some coming

down. as you heard from dr. birx and will likely hear more, that that is continuing. so what has happened is that the mitigation that we put in with the first 15 days, then the 30-day mitigation program, of physical distancing worked. so it got us to where we are today. it is a successful formula. it is the basis for our being able to say that we can now think seriously about reopening america. and for that reason, we put together a carefully thought out and, i believe well-delineated and described program for opening up america again. and you know what it is, it is the guidelines we announced a few days ago. those very guidelines are based on a version of the successful formula that god us -- got us to

where we are. what i'm trying to say is that the program is not one that is going to be turned the lights on in america, we're finished. we're not. we have to proceed in a very careful, measured way and if you look at the guidelines, they are careful, and they are measured. there are certain checkpoints before you can think about going into a phase one. then things relax a little as you go into phase two, and relax a little and you go into phase three. now we live in a big country and it is heterogeneous, and there are different types of outbreaks in different parts of the country so the speed which one can go from one to another at the point at which you can even begin to think about the phase is going to be different. so the one thing that i know, the urge we all have to get out there and get it over with, let's get back to normal, for a

lot of good reasons, there is a lot of suffering economic, otherwise in this country because of that, but again as i pleaded early on weeks ago, i plead with the american public, governors, mayors, people with responsibility, i know one has the need to leapfrog over things. don't do that. do it in a measured way. this is a you can successful fo. the problem is if we don't do that there is likelihood we'll have a rebound and the one way not to reopen the economy is to have a rebound we can't take care of. so please, again, let me just close by pleading with the american public in general and those who are responsible leaders to carefully consider how we get back to normal. thank you. reporter: dr. fauci, could you talk about your expectations for the fall? we heard from dr. redfield and dr. birx, what do you think for the fall? elizabeth: i'm elizabeth macdonald. you're watching the evening edit

on fox business. well, that does it for us. thanks for watching. join us tomorrow night as we stay on this developing story. have a good evening. >> if you leave the virus to its own. tomorrow. [♪] lou: good evening. we are turning right now to breaking news. secretary of state spike in pomo sent a -- mike' pompeo sent a direct warning to return saying there will be repercussions for their launch of a satellite into space and they must be held accountable. >> there is an obligation to goo the united nations and look at whether this missile