and taylor goldsmith, apologies to matt damon. "nightline" is next. we now return you to your regularly scheduled panic attack. this is "nightline." >> tonight. virus crisis management. divisive debate in the great lakes state. protest and pressure to reopen. >> i have a job to do, and my first job is to be a michigander. >> don't call the woman in michigan. >> now talked about as a democratic veep running mate. plus, navajo nation wounded by covid-19. the native-american reservation facing one of the highest infection rates in the country. with crush beiing poverty and bn promises. and to serve and protect. at the very epicenter of the pandemic, first responders

joining forces. "nightline" will be right back. forces. "nightline" will be right back. that could mean an increase byin energy bills.. you can save by setting your heat to 68 or lower... unplugging and turning off devices when not in use... or just letting the sun light your home. stay well and keep it golden.

good evening. thank you for joining us. cases of covid-19 still rising tonight in at least 18 states. yet, bit ey the end of next wee least 32 states will be easing restrictions. caught in the middle, michigan

in a debate over the right time to open for business. it's 5:00, and michigan governor gretchen whitmer is spending the afternoon taking the calls of her constituents. a state still in the clutches of covid-19. >> i thought i'd just check in and see how you're doin'. >> reporter: today she's making calls across the state trying to ease concern in uncertainty. only 14 months into her first term, now this democratic firebrand is staring down a crisis that could help propel her all the way to the vice presidency. or drive an even deeper wedge into her already-divided state. >> each of these executive orders are, these are powers i never imagined i'd have to use as governor, and yet we've had to execute some really tough decisions. >> reporter: the life-long michigander has had an ascension to her job.

she won her 2018 gubernatorial race by almost 10 percentage points. but now it's a watershed moment for whitmer who's emerged as one of the most vocal and controversial governors. earning her own moniker from the president. >> don't call the woman in michigan. >> i have a job to do. i'm democrat and proud to be a democrat, but i'm a governor of michigan, over all almost 10 million people, weather they voted for me or not. >> reporter: auto workers and a vulnerable community paying some of the highest toll in this pandemic. in late february before michigan confirmed any cases she activated the state's emergency response center. >> i've signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency. >> reporter: 11 days later the state confirmed its first cases. the governor launched one of the most robust responses in the country. shutting down schools and issuing a statewide stay-at-home

order. you used the term aggressive action. why lead in that way, to have a muscular response when other governors have made different decisions? >> well, michigan has the tenth largest population. we currently still have the third largest number of deaths from covid-19. our hospitals were at capacity just days into it. a trajectory we were on says we would have had 200,000 people need to be hospitalized right now. now it's about 4,000. and so these actions have worked. >> what do you make of the trump administration's response to this pandemic? >> i said early on that i think that we should have a national strategy. i know that that was something that got the attention of my critics and that that was something that they latched onto. but i didn't say something that other governors haven't said too. >> reporter: her criticism has been returned by the president. and by some of her own constituents. earlier this month, operation

gridlock, a protest that was in part organized by the michigan conservative coalition, drew thousands to the capital building. residents defying the state's stay-at-home order. >> it's time for our state to be opened up. we're tired of not being able to buy the things we need, go to the hairdressers, get our hair done. it's time to open up. >> the call to action was to stay in their cars. if they had done that, it wouldn't have been so concerning. but they congregated without masks. people were flying confederate flags, which is not something you see very often at the michigan capital. people had antichoice protesters were out there and open-carry advocates were out there. this was more of a political rally than it was a statement of the stay-at-home order. >> i was there for six and a half hours. it wasn't a trump rally, as she liked to say. >> reporter: rich kowalski drove nearly 100 miles to join the demonstration.

a construction contractor who recently had to lay off a quarter of his employees. >> i've never protested anything in my life, but i feel like i was, and i am, being punished to a certain extent and i have no control over that. i can't go to work, i can't practice my trade, i can't make money to support my family. >> reporter: he says he has applied for ppp and for the first time filed for unemployment. >> what can i do with $160? i can't even barely pay my phone bill with that. i could lose everything. >> reporter: he stopped taking a salary to help keep his business afloat. he understands the need to stop this deadly virus but not how the directive was implemented. >> people, if they're told what to do and told how serious it is, i believe they would follow the guidelines. but a blanket closure, it's going to hurt our economy. >> reporter: his thoughts on the governor's policies are echoed in pockets across the state, all

the way in kalamazoo. >> i thought they were horrible. i think she's ruining our state. why do we have to kill the economy to save lives. >> reporter: uncle and nephew both named fred say that 70% of the cases have been in three counties. >> if you look at all the concentrations, they're all around the big city. i think some limitation could be done there, and i think it's very, very wrong for our governor to limit the rest of the state the way it is. >> reporter: here in this part of michigan, farming is all these men have ever known. >> my grandpa bought this farm back in 1917. it has been in the family ever since. >> reporter: all across the country, the dairy business has been in flux. many of these farmers' products end up as milk in your coffee or cheese on your pizza. the food service industry has been shut down. their milk has had no place to

go. >> to get it bottled is a big issue, when 70% of the milk product we produce as farmers goes into food service agencies, all of a sudden this processing facility cannot handle the bottling department of it. >> reporter: with nowhere for the milk to go, farmers across the nation have had to take the devastating step of dumping their dairy. they haven't had to dump yet, but still their profits have been slashed almost in half. >> this has had a huge effect on us. if you could somehow put the cows into an idle mode for a while, that would be great. but it doesn't work that way. >> we thank our farmers for being a critical part of our food supply, and yet right now in kalamazoo we're watching numbers that are concerning. if we have a growth in kalamazoo or a rural part of michigan we won't have the kind of hospital systems that can meet a need that a community that is growing out of control. covid-19 doesn't recognize county line. >> reporter: in detroit, the

epicenter of this state's outbreak, state representative tyrone carter knows that all too well. >> it was a fire, and she took a blanket and threw it over the entire state to try to smother this fire. >> reporter: just after sitting down. >> can you wait two minutes? be right back. >> reporter: some business to attend to. a house vote on the state's republican-controlled legislature, to challenge governor whitmer's emergency powers. and which way did you go, if i may ask? >> no. i think she's done a great job. >> reporter: he stands by the governor's stay-at-home order. >> it's impacting certain areas more than others. so, hmm, is it geographical? an ethnic issue? >> when 14% of our population is african-american and yet 40% of our deaths are african-american michiganders, it tells you that we have got a real racial

problem in our state and that michigan is not unique from the other states in the united states of america. >> reporter: the industrial giant of the state, auto makers also not immune, as the case count rose in march, the humming on the manufacturing line of the big three silent. >> it is 6:35. and i just pulled into the parking lot at work. >> reporter: but two weeks later, a fraction of workers around detroit returned. >> good morning from flat rock assembly. >> reporter: no longer to make mustangs but masks and face shields. >> got to stand on the x. >> reporter: this has been a second home for cindy park hearst since it opened. >> stand on the yellow line, remove your glasses, get a temperature scan. >> you're good. >> thank you. >> grab a face mask. >> reporter: these 600 or so

auto makers, some of the first to experience an uneasy new normalcy when industries return. >> i do think there's going to be some apprehension. nobody wants to get sick. nobody wants to expose their family members and loved ones, so we have a lot to adjust to. >> reporter: the pandemic and jobs looming especially as a presidential election approaches. it is an open secret that you are reportedly on the short list for vice president as joe biden's running mate. >> all i'm focussed on is trying to get through this global pandemic that has ravaged my state, and i'm appreciative of the fact that he has called to check in, asked thoughtful questions, given my counsel since i've navigated this. >> reporter: i ask this respectfully as someone rumored to be on the short list of vice presidential candidates for joe biden. as you know, a sexual assault

allegation has been raised from years ago. >> i know as a survivor myself that those two things are important to me personally and i think important to women everywhere and important to our country. i'll add that in doing that investigation it has appeared as though there's not been, you know, much beyond that to the story, and i would just say that the joe biden that i know, these stories are inconsistent with what i know and what i've seen in terms of the work that he's done to support women. >> reporter: in a statement, his campaign says in part, biden firmly believes that women have a right to be heard. what's clear about this claim, it is untrue. this absolutely did not happen. whether or not governor whitmer ends up on the ticket this fall remains to be seen. but at governor of a swing state, that will be crucial in the presidential election her profile and scrutiny on her will undoubtedly continue to fro. >> i'm doing everything i can to

do right by the people of michigan to save lives from covid-19, and that's why i've implored everyone to remember, we are not one another's enemies. the enemy is the virus, and it doesn't distinguish by people based on their political parties. >> coming up next for us, looking for a hive line lifelin navajo nation. prep up. step up. prep up. to help keep you free from the risk of hiv. from the makers of truvada, there's another prep option: descovy for prep. a once-daily prescription medicine that helps lower the chances of getting hiv through sex. it's not for everyone. descovy for prep has not been studied in people assigned female at birth. talk to your doctor to find out if it's right for you. step up. for health and body. prep up for your one and only love or many loves. for kings, this queen, and you royals in between. for my now. our now. and my future. our future. step up. prep up. descovy is another way to prep. descovy does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections,

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here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: the doctor has been practicing emergency medicine from the back of a car but there are limits to what this team can do. ems has shown up because the patient is saying he has shortness of breath and asthma. >> reporter: and covid-19 is surging through the community, the peak weeks away. the doctor is the co-founder of the health initiative at ucsf. he's teaming up with groups and doing rounds at this hotel in gallup, new mexico where the unsheltered and sick can go to get off the street and away from extended families. >> the headache's bothering you? >> yeah. >> any blurry vision? no. >> reporter: historically, the u.s. government hasn't helped

much. breaking dozens of promises with native-american tribes, and congress has approved $8 billion for travel assistance, but that money has to be split amongst 574 tribes. but navajo president says receiving those funds is complicated. >> sometimes it goes through the federal agencies before it gets to the tribe or goes through the state before it gets to the tribe. we're using that same process and we have to wait. we have to submit for these fundings, but the need is now. >> reporter: it's estimated about 30% of the people who live on the navajo reservation do not have access to running water, which is why they use pumps like this. and that makes the constant hand washing necessary during a covid-19 outbreak that much more difficult. since early march, grassroots groups have worked to provide food and water. the navajo and hopi family effort raising over a million dollars, setting up this

makeshift hand washing station and distributing it around the reservation. >> it's just one fix to address the hygiene issue. don't wait until people are sick, because the conditions that are making people more sick and more at risk are right out on the street. >> reporter: the navajo reservation is larger than west virginia, but its population of about 300,000 has access to only about 20 icu beds. the indian health services says they have had to build additional hospital beds to prepare for a modeling prediction of over 200 additional patients a day and over 100 icu-level patients across the area. in the vastness of the reservation under the shadow of chimney butte is where michelle tom grew up. >> as you can see where i'm from -- >> reporter: also without running water or power. she's now the only navajo emergency physician at this care clinic in winslow, arizona. you're getting people pulling up to the parking lot who have to

be intubated even though it's not a hospital. it's an urgent care. >> yes. >> reporter: the closest area is up to an hour by chopper and three hours by ambulance. growing up, tom says she never saw a medical professional with a face like her own. >> i never saw a native-american as a nurse or doctor. >> reporter: wow. >> sometimes there's a disconnect when language and cultures are not meeting. and we know that just by studies and even by experience you're not going to have the best health care. >> reporter: she left her family and moved to an apartment an hour away to try to memorize the risk of infecting the group of people she's trying to save. >> my job is immensely hard, because i have such a connection to my people and to my land. our elders, our teachers, our

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