♪ >> it's been between 200 and 240,000 american lives lost and that's with full mitigation and us learning from each other of how to social distance. eric: white house coronavirus task force coordinator dr. deborah birx telling fox news sunday we are not quite past the peak of the coronavirus deaths, so far, gillian, more than 66,000 americans have been killed by the coronavirus and with that we welcome you to america's news headquarters from washington. i'm leland vittert. jillian.>> it's great to be wi. i'm gillian turner.

this comes as several governors are making moves to reopen state economies, some americans are back to work, some back to the beach, some back at stores and restaurants. mark meredith joins us from the white house north lawn with an update on president trump. mark. >> reporter: the white house has said it's going to be up to each governor to decide if and when businesses can safely reopen. as you mentioned, we're seeing some 30 governors start to ease some public health restrictions. we're hearing from the white house, reminding people that the virus impacts each the community in different ways. >> we also made it possible for states to open counties independently of the entire state. because again, some of these outbreaks are very local and have to be studied and understood that way. >> reporter: now, tomorrow back in washington, senators are expected back up on capitol hill. the house has potio postponed is plans to return for now, citing health concerns. leaders from both parties are rejecting an effort by the white

house and department of health and human services to offer rapid testing. president trump tweeted about the rejection, writing no reason to turn it down except for politics. we have plenty of testing. crazy nancy will use it as an excuse not to show up for work. that was the president on twitter last night. the white house is bracing for a big week of economic news. the jobs report is due out at the end of the week, give us an idea of what the unemployment was for the month of april. the predictions are pretty dire, believing the unemployment rate will jump to 16 to 19%. the white house says there's optimism that the economy will bounce back. this is what larry kudlow had to say earlier today. >> we are in a deep contraction. there's a lot of hardship out there. we've done the best we can with liquidity and cash to keep people afloat. it's very, very difficult, unemployment as you know is going to continue to rise.

>> reporter: now, the white house is hopeful that the economy can bounce back later this year but also really in 2 2021 that's one message we heard from the administration today. president trump is due back from camp david later on this hour. he has a town hall with fox news later on tonight, with a lot of questions on what the economy will look like going forward. gillian. >> a lot of hope but not a lot of real chance is what my stepfather likes to say, looking ahead to the unemployment numbers for next week, tragically. thanks for that. leland: the president lands back at the white house later this afternoon. one state looking to get back to business is mississippi. they were ready to reopen and now taking a step back after seeing a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths. the state's governor, tate reeves, joining us from the state of mississippi. we appreciate it. you guys aren't yet on the backside of this curve in terms of going down on cases. what's the logic behind starting

to reopen before that happens? >> well, i will tell you, one of the things that you have to realize is every state is different, every state's models are different. what we have seen is that from an economic standpoint even though we've had 200,000 people that have gone onto unemployment assistance which is horrible, a lot of our industries have not been closed down at all. we never closed down outside construction. we never closed down manufacturing, for instance. so when we talk about reopening our economy, different states mean different things when they say that. we have our restaurants are open for curbside and delivery service, for instance. you cannot dine in right now. we had planned on friday to make an announcement to open up a few additional businesses across mississippi and friday morning we received die take that we -- data we had 390 new cases on that particular day and we didn't have time to analyze the data in time to make the decision friday afternoon. but the good news is, we've been looking at it over the weekend, it was a data dump from an outside private testing lab and

total new cases yesterday was 220 and total today was 110. leland: so that might make this next question even more important. this is the white house's guidelines that they say should apply to all states, that the president has put out among others, i'm sure you've seen them. in order to think about reopening, even phase one of reopening, they say there needs to be a downward trajectory of documented cases within 14 day period or downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 1 day period. i don't think mississippi meets either of those guidelines and yet you're going ahead with this reopening plan as you put forth. i guess the question is this. is the white house putting you as a governor in an impossible situation between choosing to follow the guidelines versus choosing to protect your economy? >> well, what i would tell you is that we have been in constant contact with president trump and vice president pence and the coronavirus task force. i've spoken personally with dr. birx and really appreciate her leadership.

what i would submit to you, i'm not going to put words in their mouth, but the reality is, the models don't work the same for every state and the gating criteria don't work in a state like ours where if you look, we never had a peak, we never were above 300 cases on any one day with one exception and that was on friday and that was a data dump. leland: dr. birx was asked that question on fox news sunday. if different states were different as related to the guidelines. here was her answer. >> i think federal guidelines are pretty firm policy of what we think is important from a public health standpoint. leland: doesn't sound like the different states are different and mississippi exhibit you haven't a big peak you should go ahead and open everything up. >> well, what the guidelines also say is that it gives you the ability to not only open up state by state, it gives you the ability to open up county by county. i'll give you an example in mississippi. in scott county, over the last

two weeks, we've had 110 new cases. that's a relatively small county. but the county in the northeast part of our state there's only been one new case in the entire last two weeks. so should we treat that county the same way we treat new york city? i would submit that we should not just like we should not treat mississippi in exactly the same way that we treat louisiana which had a huge spike in cases where they had an enormous number of cases, enormous number of deaths. mississippi hasn't seen that although every single death is terrible. leland: it's no question that every death is tragic, but also the destruction of the american economy is tragic and what's happened to thousands, tens of thousands of peoples lives and businesses and dreams, et cetera. that has another cost. is it-- would it be wise, do you think, to acknowledge the conversation that's going on in terms of this real trade-off that is being decided between economic disaster and public

health disaster? if we not given enough credence in all these conversation toss the real hard truths about the economic disaster? >> well, i think you have to look at both. i think we have to admit that we have a short-term public health crisis in america right now. but we also have a short-term, which could lead to a long-term economic disaster as well. the fact is, in mississippi alone, approximately 200,000 mismississippians have lost ther jobs in the last five weeks. we didn't shut down manufacturing, did not shut down restaurants completely, did not shut down constructions and we still had 200,000 file for unemployment. we have an economic disaster in the country. we have to recognize that. as the president said and many others have said repeatedly, we cannot allow the cure to be significantly worse than the disease. leland: governor, we appreciate your time. i know none of these decisions

are easy or have simple answers. we appreciate you taking the time to come on and talk would bout it with us. >> thank you all for having me and god bless. leland: god bless. we'll see you back here soon. take care. gillian. >> kentucky's governor temporary ban on mass gatherings is getting a legal boost as religious groups seek an exemption. a federal court said it will not stop the order from applying to in-person worship, after a church asked the court to allow the order to apply to religious services. some are declarin declaring todn church sunday in an effort to get people back into the houses of woreship. leland: as the states begin to reopen economies, a number of health officials worry there has not been the steady decline in cases that they think they need to see. the country confirmed 33,000 new infections since yesterday morning. steve harrigan live in atlanta outside the cdc where they're

tracking this nationally. hi, steve. >> reporter: that's right, leland. the numbers continue to climb as more states reopen. at least half the states parly reopening their economies despite the lack of a two week steady decline of new cases of the coronavirus as you spoke with the governor of mississippi, that state had to hold off or at least temporarily postpone reopening more businesses after a spike in both new cases and in deaths on friday. here in georgia, they've been extremely aggressive about trying to reopen business as quickly as possible. the problem is, some of those businesses feel a lot less confident in those reopenings, 50 prom meant restaurants took out an ad in the paper saying they were not going to reopen despite being allowed to do so. they say they feel safety concerns, both for their own staff and for their customers. two major shopping malls in atlanta were scheduled initially to reopen on friday but they pulled the plug and delayed that late thursday night. in new york, the governor has been under pressure to at least

reopen part of the economy in part of the state. he pushed back, saying to do so would be premature. >> everybody talks about this as unchartered waters that we've never been here before and that's true. but even when you are in unchartered waters, that doesn't mean you just proceed blindly, right? >> reporter: in oregon, they're going in the exact opposite direction. the governor there extending the state of emergency for 60 days until july 6th. leland, back to you. leland: somebody from the national restaurant association coming up a little later to talk about the bailout and the issues down in georgia. steve harrigan, thank you. gillian. >> as those infection number continue to climb, healthcare workers face unique stresses, babattling covid-19 on the frontlines. many are facing long hours, combined with pay cuts and in some areas limited resources

including ppe. joining us to discuss the psychological toll all of this takes on our nation's healthcare workers, is family physician, dr. mary kreb. she has personal experience battling coronavirus. i want to ask you first about where you were. we see a lot of data, a lot of numbers that seek to highlight the disparity that covid is having in terms of impacts on poor and wealthy communities. but tell us what that experience feels like and looks like on the ground in real life. >> well, i work in lebanon, ohio, it's a rural area. we take care of poor, we take care of people without insurance, medicaid. it's been unlike anything fells my career. it's been so challenging to try

to keep everyone safe. we want to keep our patient and staff safe, we want to keep ourselves safe. we haven't had the ppe that we need. we have converted to learning telehealth very quickly which has been call egging. -- challenging. we've been having trouble trying to treat the other issues. we still have diabetes and asthma and high blood pressure and heart disease, depression and anxiety. a lot of these things are actually worse and it's also hard to tell which things are covid, which things are other respiratory illnesses so it's been so challenging on a number of different levels. >> you know, you mentioned other diseases that disproportionately affect low income americans, diabetes, mental health issues. tell us about the experience dealing with covid that are really unique to your clinic's patients now. >> well, in a rural area, we don't have as many stores and so the grocery store runs out of a

certain food, then my patrons have a harder time getting it. my diabetics are having a harder time getting the food they need to keep their diabetes under control. we've seen a lot more depression and anxiety, patients who had stable anxiety for years are having a lot more trouble or patients who never had mental health issues are struggling. it's making hard outside of taking care of patients with covid, just taking care of our other issues it's been a lot more challenging and we can't get the tests for things we need. normally i can send someone to physical therapy, i can order blood work, now i have to wait to get that done. or is it worse sending this patient with high risk issues out to get blood work, so there's a lot more challenges that way too. >> for those of us who are not front deline workers taking on e coronavirus every day, it's hard

to imagine the struggle, the challenges to mental health, to well-being, to try to stay positive and energetic treating patients all day long. give us some insight into how you and how your colleagues are coping or trying to cope as best you can with these new and very unique stresses. >> well, it has been very hard. we're all human. we are afraid of getting sick, we're afraid of getting our loved ones sick, many have had friends or family die of this. i lost a friend a couple weeks ago from covid. he was only 50, generally pretty healthy. and i still can't believe he's gone. and i think a lot of it is we have been trained to work through a lot of things and our training we had to do very long hour shifts, we've had to go without food and go without sleep and really push through and i think a lot of us are just

kind of trying to struggle and put one foot in front of the other and we remind ourselves that our patients need us and we've been doing the best we can. >> well, my condolence condolenu on the loss of your friend. on behalf of all of us at fox news, thank you for your efforts in helping front coronavirus on the frontlines and thank you for taking time out of your daily life to come and talk to us about that experience on top of it. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you bet. leland. leland: live pictures now of the lincoln memorial, looking back down towards the washington mall as you can see the preparations underway for the townhall with martha maccallum and brett baer, a two hour special with president trump. the virtual audience is getting assembled, the questions are getting reviewed, that starts at 7:00 p.m. tonight. an incredible couple hours with the president.

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xfinity x1. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. gillian: turning now to the campaign trail, the biden campaign is set to host an event later on today, this comes as he addresses for the first time allegations of sexual harassment and assault. jacqui heinrich joins us from

new york city with more. jacqui. >> reporter: well, gillian, overnight a report surfaced with a second woman claiming former vice president joe biden sexually harassed her when she was 14 years old but documents show biden was not even at that event where it allegedly happened. according to the website law and crime, which has since removed the article, the allegations were from eva murray, the daughter of christine o'donnell, a republican who once ran for senate against biden. she claims biden commented on the size of her breasts at a dinner in delaware. organizers say he was not present, he had a minor surgery that week and in place of aa tend -- attending he agreed to appear in a spoof video instead. they acknowledge it may have taken place some other time. this comes as biden denies a sexual assault claim from tara

reade. biden called on the senate to make public any documents related to her allegations. he did not ask the university of delaware to make sealed senate files public. dnc chair tom perez defended biden this morning. >> the university of delaware and any university that takes somebody's documents, they're taking their policy documents, they're taking their speeches. they're not taking personnel records. in fact -- >> why not just search tara reade in those documents. >> this is like the hillary e-mails, because there was nothing there. >> reporter: meantime, republicans are railing against democrats for what they call a double standard, saying democrats had a different approach to claims against supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. >> brett kavanaugh, every accuser was put on tv, it was wall to wall coverage, they went into his high school year book,

say they needed an fbi investigation. joe biden, five weeks of silence, 19 interviews without a single question. >> reporter: reade told fox news she's faced a barrage of hairsment since she came forward with the allegation. leland: the coronavirus is making american assets vulnerable to the chinese government's checkbook. one congressman's plan to fight back, next. i just love hitting e open road and telling people

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♪ >> there's enormous evidence that that's where this began. we said from the beginning that this was a virus that originated in wuhan, china. we took a lot of grief from that from the outside. i think the whole world can see now. china has a history of infecting the world and have a history of running substandard laboratories. leland: secretary of state there on abc this morning. we're learning more about china's attempts to exploit the coronavirus and the ensuing economic crisis for its own political and economic good. there are concerns over china using cash reserves to buy distressed u.s. companies. republican tennessee congressman mark green has a couple of bills in congress that he says will stop china, also a member of the homeland security committee. i guess you would have to come back in session in the house to

consider these bills. but tell us about them. >> absolutely. thanks for having me on your show. it's really surprising. well, maybe it's not surprising, considering that china bought last year $13 billion worth of eu companies and $25 billion worth of u.s. companies. just this last month, april 7th, bloomberg came out with an article that showed that chinese state-owned enterprises are intentionally buying up national security oriented companies. great examples out there, they bought 22 planes from united and are leasing them back to them. these are infrastructure based, economic based and national security based companies they're buying. what we want to do is to try to create investment guarantees for american investors who will then buy these companies and prevent the chinese from getting them. i don't want to name specific companies, and give the chinese a clue that this particular company is the one they should be buying, but there are plenty that we're aware of. leland: the idea makes sense,

hard to imagine they're going to do too well on that plane investment, but we'll see. it seems to be a difficult place. but the point's well made. this brings up a secondary question, though. for all the tough talk about china from you and tom cotton and others, does china have us by the tail? we're having to beg for ventilators and ppe and everything else. so does it make it so any of these bills as well intentioned as they might be are nonstarters because the president can't afford to sign them and irritate the chinese. >> the bill prevents them from acquiring other technologies that are defense related. i have a second bill that works to move manufacturing from china back to the united states. so you take those examples of ppe where they're holding up shipment toss the united states, -- shipment toss the united states, after checking money on purchases. leland: i understand what the bills will do, congressman. but the question is, can the president afford to sign these

and undoubtedly irritate the chinese which it will do when they become law with the chinese having the companies they talked about, being the only way we can get ppe and the only place we can get ventilators. >> it's worse than that. you look at some of the medications, most aspirin is made in china. penicillin, other drugs, the precursors of which are made in china. we do have to act, we have to do something but at the same time, we can't let them hold us over a barrel. that's essentially what they're doing with australia. australians asked for an investigation into wuhan virus. leland: do they have us over a barrel or do we have time? >> well, clearly we need to act now. leland: okay. all right. fair enough. i'll tell you something, somebody who acted right now is your son mitchell down in ranger school, made it all the way through. we've got a video of you pinning the ranger tab on him there. boy, what a special moment that was, considering it's the same ranger tab you received 30 years

ago. >> yeah, 33 years ago, i graduated in class 587 and colonel jim george, vietnam veteran with a silver star from aan ambush in vietnam pinned tht class on me and i got to pin it on my son as he graduated. all rangers, every person who has gone through that school and earned the ranger tab deserves the most utmost respect we can give them and it's just an honor to be able to do that for my son now. leland: well, a big congratulations to you and to him and hopefully he's going to get a couple of weeks at home, getting good cooking because looks like he could use a few pounds back on. >> yeah, he's in quarantine now, though, unfortunately. leland: well, we'll talk to you when he gets back. good to see you, sir, we appreciate it. >> good to see i. take care. leland: gillian. gillian: new jersey's governor said it's too early to determine whether or not his state can reopen by memorial day. neighboring new york, governor

andrew cuomo is warning against that move. he says it just may be too soon. aishah hasnie is in downtown new york with more. aishah. >> reporter: gillian, that's right there. are about 1,000 nypd officers on the streets of new york city right now, making sure that people are following those social distancing guidelines. the meantime, governor cuomo announcing just a short while ago the creation of a regional consortium to buy ppe moving forward. so together, these seven governors will buy tests, ventilators and medical equipment in hopes of increasing market power and bringing down prices. >> not only should we not have to be scouring the world for this but it ought to be made in the usa. better yet, made in our states. >> reporter: and moving forward, new york state will also require all hospitals to have a 90 day supply of ppe. mayor bill de blasio announcing that for the first time new york city is producing its own

coronavirus test kits, the city will 3d print swabs, expecting 30,000 by the end of this week, on track to produce 50,000 swabs a week. >> by the week of may 17th, we'll begin to pair the locally made swabs with the locally made transport medium and then like that cup of coffee we'll have all the pieces come together for the first time in the city's history. we will have our own test kits produced in large numbers right here in the five boroughs. >> reporter: and another face of this pandemic, a colorado paramedic who drove an ambulance 1800 miles from denver to new york city has passed away, 66-year-old paul carey had been helping first responders for weeks on the ground when he fell ill with covid-19 and sadly he died on thursday at a bronx hospital. gillian. gillian: aishah hasnie joining us from new york city.

thank you. stay tuned. coming up after this program at 2:00 p.m. eastern for fox news sunday, dr. deborah birx sits down with chris wallace to break down the latest on the ongoing race to a coronavirus vaccine, plus new emerging antibody treatments. you can catch that right here on fox news than he'll after the show -- channel after the show. leland: restaurant owners say the ppp bailout is not enough. why they are asking for a special program to help them reopen. ♪ we hope you find our digital solutions helpful to bank safely from home. deposit a check with your phone or tablet. check balances, pay bills, transfer money and more. send money to people you know and trust with zelle. stay safe. stay home.

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"show me what you're made of." so we showed it our people, sourcing and distributing more fresh food than anyone... our drivers helping grocers restock their shelves. how we're helping restaurants open pop-up markets. and encouraging all americans to take out to give back. adversity came to town. so we looked it in the eye. and it won't be us... that blinks first.

♪ gillian: well, the city of lights, that is paris, celebrating frontline medical workers battling the coronavirus with a special sparkling day side display on the eifel tower, the latest in what is a nine-day heros shine bright campaign, landmarks all across the world

are lighting up to honor first responders, healthcare workers and other essential employees. this campaign began last month at the empire state building in new york city. leland: a well-deserved honor there. the restaurant industry is asking congress and the president for 240 additional billion dollars to help reopen in the post coronavirus world. executive vice president of public affairs, the national restaurant association sean kennedy joins us now. sean, appreciate it. why was the ppp not enough? >> ppp is a great program and it's going to do great things for a number of businesses. unfortunately, the business model of the restaurant industry and our very uncertain path to recovery, it isn't compatible and not providing the assistance we're going to need. leland: specifically what do you need assistance in that ppp doesn't provide? >> the first thing, it requires the money to be spent over the next eight weeks. a lot of restaurants, that loan is not -- there's not much to spend when it comes to payroll

because everyone's been furloughed, a lot of restaurants are closed all together. the danger is if you get it wrong and don't fulfill the requirements, you're faced with more debt when that's the last thing the restaurants need right now. leland: we heard from a number of restaurant operators who said i'm not going to take the risk you lined up. why is the restaurant industry different if you will? does everybody deserve a restaurant bailout? because the industries across america have been crushed? >> this is a pandemic obviously that has been apresident-electing a number of -- afflicting a number of small businesses. we're the second largest employer. restaurants were one of the first industries to be shut down, we have about 16 days of cash on hand. we are on day 48 right now of state mandated closures. restaurants are making tough decisions as to whether they'll be able to reopen their doors. we need assistance from congress. leland: a number of restaurants have said we're not going to reopen their doors, which is sad

considering the livelihoods and dreams that are destroyed by that. you get the $240 billion, what will you do with it. >> the goal is not to profit, it's just to survive. $240 billion makes up for some of the lost revenue, makes sure we can reopen with new training and new products that we're going to need in this era of social distancing. a lot of restaurants are going to be very tough to make ends meet if we have fewer tables we're allowed to seat customer in. we need the assistance now. this is probably the most dangerous period that the restaurant industry has ever been in. we need assistance from congress. there's more in the plan at restaurantsx.com. leland: all well and good. you know as anybody coming up through the policy side that you give $240 billion to the restaurants, then the cruise lines want more money, then the airlines want some more money, then hotels want more money. why bail out restaurants and not everybody else or would you be okay with bailing out everybody else for another couple trillion

dollars. >> i'm focusing right now on the restaurants. leland: i bet you are. >> we're the nation's second largest employer and we've been one of the industries that's been shut down the longest. we are a corner stone in every community, doesn't matter republican or democrat, you've got a favorite place that is your own, your community's favorite and that's in danger of losing right now if we don't get the balance right, if we don't get something from congress. leland: the old line reagan had, the words i'm from the government, i'm here to help is the most dangerous words. should this be funded by community banks, giving tax credits, things that can be tailored from every city or state that feels the need to save the restaurant industry. >> our nation's restaurants were closed virtually nationwide. we need a national response. we think the federal government's the right way to do it. leland: you are an excellent advocate for your clients, sir. they're lucky to have you here and come back and talk to us as

this makes its way through congress. we know there's going to to be a lot of ups and downs for so many that work in your fine industry. thank you, sir. >> get take-out tonight. thanks for having me. leland: thank you. good advice. gillian. gillian: i just might do that. with mother's day right around the corner, it's a good moment to show appreciation for moms but also american moms in the front lines of the coronavirus fight. we'll give you some ideas for how to do that, coming up next. for many of our members, being prepared... won't be a new thing. and it won't be their first experience with social distancing. overcoming challenges is what defines the military community. usaa has been standing with them, for nearly a hundred years. and we'll be here to serve for a hundred more.

avoid sick people... and touching your face. there are everyday actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases. visit cdc.gov/covid19. brought to you by the national association of broadcasters and this station.

leland: hospital workers around the country are chronicling their experiences on the front lines as they fight the coronavirus. laura ingal shows us some of their stories. >> here we go. we get to listen to it again. we ex few baited two people in the icu. >> reporter: you can tell a lot from someone's eyes and the tone in their voice and that's exactly how you can see and hear a shift that has occurred in some of the video drylies. we've been -- diaries. we've been following the stories as they navigate treatments, progress and heart break while there are many patients in serious and critical condition, some of the most recent diaries show us glimmers of hope. >> everything is getting better. the amount of coronavirus patients that we're seeing

admitted is much lower than it was before. >> because of our protocols, we are able to treat and leave people at home if their symptoms and condition and vital signs don't warrant emergency transport. >> the curve is coming down. however, the peak of the curve which just passed was at the top of everest and we have a long way to go. >> reporter: these diaries came from healthcare workers from a healthcare system in new york which said the 19 hospitals have treated more covid patients than any other hospital system in the nation and have seen a nearly 45% decrease in covid patients since early april when cases were peaking. >> these are dark times, strange days. i think a lot of the staff and colleagues and everyone's spirits are good. how much longer this is going to go, we don't really know. >> it's absolutely scary.

none of us want to take this home with glues s ---with us. >> this is just endless number of acute patients that we need to attend to here. >> reporter: this hospital will be discharging its 2,000's covid patient next week with hopes that the so-called second wave won't come. in new york, laura ingal, fox news. leland -- gillian: mother's day is a week away now. many moms will spend the special day on the front lines battling coronavirus in hospitals all around the nation. this year, veterans united is teaming up with operation gratitude to deliver messages of appreciation and support to those mothers, along with care packages. here to tell us more about the program is veterans united chief people officer amanda adroday. thank you for taking time out of your day to talk to us about what you guys are doing for moms

on the front lines. tell us a little about this program. it's really awesome. >> thanks, gillian. thank you for having us on. i'm so excited to be able to represent our 3500 employees with the idea that we came up with, which was usually when we send out the care packages, there's hand-written letters that go along with them for first responders and for the military and now with the crisis, we can't do that. so what we did is decide to digitally set up a program where anyone can go to our website at veteransunited.com and click on the for our heros link and it will take them to a place where they can type a letter. we'll go ahead and print the letter and we'll put it on a post card like this and make sure that it goes with all of the care packages that are going to be distributed all around the nation. gillian: and who is going to be on the receiving end of these notes and packages?

tell us about those moms. >> it will be our national guardsmen, our first responders, all of the moms that are in the military. what we're really trying to do is as we get ready to go into mother's day, we know that so many moms can't be with their kids and as a mom myself with a kid on the west coast that i wish i could see, i can't even imagine what it feels like. and so when they send the care packages, the letters will go with them and we just ask that people would push out hashtag here for our moms or hashtag here for our heros and just help us with this letter-writing campaign. there are so many of us that just feel helpless and we want to do something to support our folks and this is one way that we can all come together to do that. gillian: yeah, absolutely. and what you just said had me thinking about the fact that in normal healthy times, american

men and women in service bear this unique burden of not being able to see their loved ones, see them and give them hugs on important national holidays. now, for many of us civilians, it's the first time we're having to experience that as well. a lot of us can't see our mothers this year, we can't send them gifts because they don't want to receive packages and risk contamination, they don't want to see us in person and hug us because that goes against federal guidelines right now. i think there's a lot of sympathy amongst us ordinary americans for servicemen and women this year that's not maybe always so prevalent. >> it has for most of us civilians, you haven't been able to understand what they go through. i was talking to one of my coworkers and a good friend who just got back from deployment and he actually got sent out right after his first baby girl was born and when i was talking

to him on friday, he said i know what i stand for and i know what i signed up for, and so, yeah, it's hard and you miss it but you're here to protect the country and you're here to protect our people and i thought how much goodness is out there. this is the sentiment that all of our first responders and all of our military share and it's just pretty miraculous. gillian: yeah. well, amanda, thank you so much for joining us and telling us about the operation today, representing veterans united. we really appreciate it. >> you bet. have a good day, gillian. gillian: you too. for everyone at home you can send those mother's day messages to the website, you can see it on your screen there, veteransunited.com/operation-gra titude. we'll share some of the messages on our program next week. tune in tonight, president

donald trump will join our own marcmartha maccallum and bret br in washington live at the lincoln memorial, we're airing america together, returning to work, a special town hall. it starts tonight, 7:00 p.m. eastern, right here on fox news. before we let you go, the combat couped challenge has been spreading like wildfire on social media, lots in part due to fox news folks who are getting involved. several of us have been pitching in to try to help during the pandemic. leland vittert, you may not believe, nominated me to take on the challenge which i have now done. i made a donation on behalf of our entire anhq team to lucky dog rescue which is an organization dear to all of our hearts. leland, you introduced us to them and they've been wonderful. leland: it is indeed, lucky dog animal rescue in dc, they bring in dogs from high kill shelters from all across america. you can see us with one of the

dogs rescued from hurricane florence and brought up to d.c. to be saved and gillian's donation will save a number of the dogs you see on their instagram page right now. you can check it out, luckydoganimalrescue.com. as we've been talking so much, there's been so many dislocations in terms of dogs and in big cities shelters are emptied out thankfully but in rural communities they're overflowing because of the economic problems. gillian: yeah, lots of folks being forced to give up their dogs and other pets because of economic or health hardships so it's a great time to make a move, make a donation. thanks, everybody, for joining us this weekend. we'll see you back here next saturday. out and spray. out and spray. well, we used to. new ortho home defense max indoor insect barrier kills and prevents bugs for up to a year without odors, stains or fuss. new ortho home defense max. bugs gone. stress gone. at philof cream cheese.w what makes the perfect schmear you need only the freshest milk and cream.

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