robe crisis of confidence shakes the nation. president trump: to unleash the full power of the federal government this effort today i'm officially declaring a national emergency. two very big words. robert: president trump is tested. like nevbefore. a divided congress takes a first step. >> testing. testing. testing. we can only defea this outbreak if we have aaccurate determination ofts scale and scope. robert: next. announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> before we talk about your investments, what's new? >> well, audrey's expecting. twins. >> grandparents. >> we want to put money aside for them so change in plans. >> all right.

let's see what we can adjust. se we would be cto the twins. >> change in plans. >> ok. >>om, are you painting again? you could sell these. >> let me guess. change in plans? >> at fidelity, a change in ans is always part of the plan. announcer: additional funding is provided by -- the estate of arnold adams. and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation.it coed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington,

moderator robert costa. bert: good evening. we begin tonight with the rapidly unfolding story here in shington. leaders at both ends of pennsylvania avenue are now confronting a test to the american system.ai uncey has gripped institutions and sentors. health care, the economy, national security, and politics. president trump declared a national emergency on friday. two days after addressing the coronavirus. the novel president trump: the action i am tllaking wipen up access to up to $50 billion for states and territories and localities our shared fight against this disease. we're announcing a new partnership with private sectto vastly increase and accelerate our cacity tofo test the coronavirus. we want to make sure that those who need a test can get a testy

very saf quickly, and conveniently. robert: and on capitol hill, house speaker nancy pelosi has worked all week on ag sweep aid package with treasury secretary steven mnuchin. >> f to putilies first, our legislation secures paid leave with t weeksf paid sick leave and family and medical ave for thoseffected by the virus. and for those who lose their jobs, we are strengthening unemployment insurance, a critical step to protect workers' economic security. frobert: then earlieday evening, the speaker announced that she has, quot reached an agreement with the administration to rolv outstandin challenges. joining me tonight to open their notebooks are fou reporters who have deep sourcing and insights into the washington dynamics of this global pandemic. kim kim, senior washington news correspondenur boston's n.p.r. news station. toluse olorunnipa, white house reporter for "the washington

susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today." an heidi przybyla, correspondent for nbc news. susan, we begin with you. writing a biography on speaker pelosi, she is at the center of the actn as we come to this table tonight. it is unclear whetherresident trump at this moment, 8:00 p.m. on friday night, eastern time, will actually sign on to her agreement that she aounced. treasury secretary steven mnuchin was on fox business a few minutes ago saying there is an agreement. what can you tell us about where this is all the weekend?r >> nancy pelosi i did reach an agreement but it was with the treasury secretary, not with the president and i think negotiations we see going on now are between mnuchin and his boss. donald trump. it's really extraordinary that find a situation where it's not clear to us if the treasesu etary can confidently speak for the president suspect house republicans are holding off on

endorsing this deal until they hear from trump. nancy pelosi has suggested she might bring this up for a votei anyway t even if republicans don't sign on. she could probably get it to the house. but without trump's support probably can't get it through the senate and certainly coul't get the president to sign it. robert: why are house republicans toluse waiting for president trump? >> because they are completely tied to him ever since the 2018 midtn which so many of the moderate republicans lost their seats. the remf se republican party is -- has become the trump party. they have realized that if they're going to keep their seats and going to be able to have any future inhe party, they have to be completely tied to president trump. and reallyait for his call in terms of what exactly they're going to do.wh her or not they can support this is going to be based on whether or not the president tweets something saying i support this bill. so far, there's a lot in this bill that democrats like. paid familyea, sick leave, support for the uninsured. there's not a lot of what president trump want when it comes to things like trying to get a payroll tax cut or other tax cuts for businesses orha industries he thinks are impacted by this pdemic.

so right now, president trump is sort of w to see whether or not he will support liis and until he says so, these house repns are not going to move. >> the troubling part is that he'snown what they're negotiating the broad outlines and contours of it. and he's also know that the reason why the markets were soothed today was on the expectation that there would be such a deal. and what the specific outlines of that were, were known to l of us. so if the president at this hour is not t supportive ofs deal, what more is it going to take? because pelosdid compromise as well on a number of elements l here,e the payroll tax cut -- or like the payroll tax cut which the president wanted actually. but also the -- they were going to use tax credits, i believe, instead of directis ance. so she's compromised her part. and if we get toonday, and the senate comes back which mitch mcconnell has made clea they're coming back, they're not going to take the recess, and the president hasn't signed on to this,y get readr

another wild ride. robert: and we're looking at, kim, a washingtonhais divided along nnsylvania avenue. speaker pelosi h pursuing agreement with the treasury secretary. president trump at the same time declaring a national emergency. it -- what do you make of the standoff as a reporter? >> well, don ld trump t president wants to seem that he is in control of this. that he's always beenro in co of this. and blaming everyone else for everything that goes wrong. so in that sense he doesn't want nancy pelosi to be the face of what is movingonorward. you're saying that washington is divided right now. one thing that coronavirus has done on the hill is unite lawmakers. lawmakers were looking to get some sort of relief and get some sort of relie quickly. condemnation of administrators and people in the administration who went before congress this week to explain how we got to this point on coronavirus. it angered people on both sides of the a the division is between the hill andnu pennsylvania av and you have donald trump who has been angry throughout the

week about somehow h thine gone, who -- like i said, sought to divert attention to e other pland now he's trying to control it to allow nancy pelosi politically to take t narrative and to take that victory lap is probably very difficult for him. >> it's hard to rea a deal when the president and the speaker the house are not speaking. and they haven't been speaking since impeachment. for which donald trump is bitternd blames nancy pelosi for handling. but there's a -- there's -- something like this had happened before which is during the big financial meltdown, speaker pelosi was in office when and geor bush was in the white house. they had not spoken for months because of their -- her oppositiono the iraq war. but when the economy melted down, he did talk to her. they did do negotiations that got a crucial bailout bill through. and i see echoes of that in this debate today.ha robert:s such an important point. because you think about this moment. how do we giv it context and -- in that 2008 example, is a key one. but inside the white house, do

they see where it requires bipartisanship and perhaps on the payroll tax cut and othersu the white house may have to give? >> 2008as the end of george w. bush's presidency and wasn't running for re-eltion and president trump is running for re-election and that's made so how this white house is responding. they're looking at this through a political lens and looking at the stock market aen the pres is looking for ways to sort of boost his position before the election even the payroll tax cut that he's talking about he wants it to last through the election. so that americans aren't hurt economically as they go to the polls to decide whether to give him another four years in office. sohat's a majorifference in the way president trump's white house is dealing with this and one of the reasons why it'lt been diffi to get republicans and democrats on the same page. >> movinthese things quickly, though, is -- there's no -- there's no parallel to this ino termhe importance of getting this done quickly. because this deal is not even ne and we're talkinbout having to potentially do a now of economic stimulus possibly, helping specific

industries. and the whole point here is to soothe very panickedn. nat and in doing that, you want to try and do it quickly to show that at least washington is all on the sameage and getting america what it needs. what the things that have been happening in other countries where we knowhat these things have worked in terms of getting people to stay home, when they the one thing that makes us really unique from europe is e fact that we don't have paid sick leave. and getting that message out to people that we have -- understand the historic calamity that this could cause, in gettg everybody on the same page, you know, i just don't see how this isn't going k against him if they don't get this done this weekend. robert: and your point about a third round of deals and negotiations, it's very possible. when i w -- on capitol hill this week, everyone is talking about they already had the $8 billion deal. they're doing this deal now. but if the economy continues to

move to full stop, you could see bailouts of industries being discussed. a wleay a of major measures from the federal reserve to ongress to deal with this crisis. >> yeah. if we're heading into a recession, and there are a lot of signs that we are, itbe coul deep recession. it could be a serious recession. it could strikevery cornerf this nation because of the nature of thisandemic that we're facing. and at that point, you will need congress and the white house to be -- doing some things to jui the economy. because for one thing, the federal reserve has done a lot of what it has to do. it has exhausted a lot of remedies they would have for helping an economy that's fallen into a recession. robert: let's step back and discuss the president. because beyond ts ay's n addressed the nation on march 11 and as toluse wrote in the post he has turned inward and imposed travel restrictions on one fourth of the world's population and critize other nation's response effort and refused to speak with th house speaker and defied the warnings

of his own public health experts. s approach reflects his us against them mindset, tendency ton ass blame, and is combative view of geo politics. oo kim, when you at the president's news conference toda and his address to the nation earlier this week, you see him at one moment surrounded by corporate leaders trying to show calm and eadiness and lashing out at reporters and critics. where is he at this moment? >> it's hard to tell from one moment to the next. we also saw him thiee call for unity and to put partisanship aside. anhe immediately went to his twitter account and started attackingts democnd blaming the entire thing on the obama administration. just -- you talked about that $8.3 stimulus package, emergency package, donald temp said h wanted $2.5 billion and that said no, no, you need ess more. we'll give that to you. and so all the while we havhee seen president not only be all over the place but his instinct was to try d tonplay

it. because he saw it as a political threat to say that people would get better. to say -- even today, he's saying we have everything under control. we have this website that people can go to and findheut wherecan get tested. the website isn't en done yet. so it's his instinc to try to downplay things and talk himself out of things. he'sor learning thatavirus is the one thing that he cannot talk himself out of. robert: that speech he gave helped -- helped by jared kushner and steven miller based on yr reporting and others. >> yeah. the speech was a disaster in the end because we saw wha ppened in the mark ds the ne. we saw the white house and the administration having to clean up a lot of the president's mistakes. the president's travel ban on europe was panned by public experts. and even the way he delivered it was not in line with what the actual policy was. so i think what you saw today was a president trying to sort of have a do-over and have anher chance to talk to the markets and talk to the public and say that he is -- in control. because usually behind the oval -- behind the resolute desk in the oval office in the prime time address you normally expect a presidento show that

they have control over a crisis. and that's not what we s with president trump's sor of fumbled statement on wednesday. robert: was part of the strategy tget c.e.o.'s to stand behind him and offer a few words? >> yese. weeen that throughout the trump presidency. and he's always sort of called on tha he likes having powerful people around him to praise what he's done. oe's tried -- he tried to get them all up t the podium to talk aut how great of a and i think that'ing to get that co-sign from c.e.o.'s and powerful people as a key part of his presidency. robert: there will have to be a lot of accountability down the roadbout whether those centers are set up in parking lots and whether the corporations are follo through as kim said on the website. and you see this political warrior in president trump. he's fighting, battle after battle, grievance after grievance, and upoidn ay, he had this exchange with our pbs colleague yamiche alcindor. >> you said that you don'tre ta onsibility. but you did disband the white house pandemic office.

president trump: i think it's a nasty question and when you say me, i dn't do it. >> anthony fauci is on the recordaying hey, it wou have really been helpful had we had this office. and to kimberls point, the one thing that trump has been consistent abo is misrepresenting the gravity of this threat. i went back actually in my reportinghis week and looked at the evolution of his statements. on the same day in south korea, we had our first diagnosis here. so you actually- it's a perfect parallel. whre we did difly was that we had a president who was risk. tely downplaying the whereas the south koreans were mobilizing. now, it's true, fauci said we have a very different system here. we're dependent on hugging the private sector. whereas the goverent ther was able to martial all of its resources. but to come out and tell the american people that we are doing great things and we're really ahead of the curve is just factually false. robert: let's stick with that point. when you're talking to your top ces in both parties, do they have confidence in the inst utions, in the

government, in the coming two weeks, will eryone work from home, and schools are closed, to come through? >> no. i think there's a lo uncertainty. i think that's one reason the markets are going crazy. and it's one reason there's so much attention on what the doing. t i the president, the most powerful official -- in our naon, this is an existential threat for president trump in a way impeachment was not. impeachment, 37 days ago, it seems like aifetime ago. but the challenge that he faces in handling the coronirus is one that could determine -- it's already changed the political landscape for 2020. it could determine his legacy of his first term and whether he has aecond term. robert: have you ever seen anything like this kind of test duringour years of coverage of the presidency? >> yes. i think 9-11 was that kind ofst i think 2008 financial meltdown was a really serious test of our system. so i d't think this is unprecedented. i but a really serious challenge for the president. >> but you talk about that lack it's not just within -- it's

within the administration itselfin i'm hearpeople in agencs and the administration including the department of labor w don't know what flair own sick leave pomcy is and whether they can work from home. it's people on the front lines, health care providers are trying to comply with the directions tt they're being given. and they can't because they state officials are begging the federal gernment, open up the reserves so that we can get protective equipment for our give us some more direction. and it's not coming or it's coming way t slow. and at this rate, we don't know and of course most of all is theesting. there's a lack of access to testing. about 200 tests that have been ten -- have taken place in the sta of massachusetts. over 100 positnse. which m that's over 50% of those that are tested. and they said they would have a capability of 5,000 tests there's seven million people in massachusetts. just how thisst how far know this virus has spreadithout the data.

>> the ohio director of health said that she thought there could be up to 100,000 people in her state alone who have contracted it alrthdy. house and senate and house doctor said at the endl of this told, we could have millions and millions of people who contract ts virus. that what we are doing now is just mitigation. that what we're trying to do is -- ire you've seen this flatten the curve phrase what we're simply trying to do is prevent a spike in the number of cases. and to kee it consistent so that we're able to treat people in the hospitals. but the president did notpeak to some of the most important concerns that americans have today which is timiarng. whethose tests going to be online? i know for a fact people are going to hospital -- hospitals, e.r. rooms, and not able to get tests. even when they're showing symptoms today. secondly, the equipment. he said that they were going to

be sening -- buying up new equipment and ventilators. is it going to be enough? because fauci ominously was quiet about whether we're on e same track for italy right now. and italy is a horrible disaster. weave fewer hospital beds per capita than the italians do. so these are the things looking forward, you know, just saying don't worry, america. it's gng away. which he said on -- on tadnesday. andding up there and trying to reassure people that we've closed the borders and that is going to be the solution is not going toork when they see their neighbors and their friends getting sick. if that's where we're headed. : robe going on inside the white house as they hear these concerns from citizens, and hear reports in the press? >> the same level of chaos we've seen in this white house the last three years -- robert: a new chief of staff, what explains that? >> tt'he tone that the president has set. you see high turnover. you've seen a o in-fighting and the president put people against one another.

he's hired people who aredea logically very different from one another who have seen that they benefit from being able to sort of fight it out in front of the president and lrove theialty to him. so now we're seeing that same dynamic play out at a time after global pandemic and people trying to apiece the president and not necessarily focusing on the public health focus that they should be focusing on. and very clear that that same to l of chaos is ill suited this global pandemic and presidentrump's sort of play it by ear, fly by the seat of your pants approach does not work well within a political crisis that ste from a global pandemic. and the -- and kimberly said the president'sorbility to of just talk thi down and talk this away is not something that he can do at this point of this crisis. you're and susan, talking to americans. "usa today" has conducted a concerns that are out there. and beyond what toluse was talking about presidential a leadersh test of the white house and congress. you're seeing fear in this country about the economy.

>> yes. and when didhis -- this poll this week about how americans' lives have been affected, by the coronavirus, people expressed more concern financial effect than they did about the health effect. and that goes tohy ts matters so much to president trump. how many voters have you talked to who have said i don't like president trump's tweets but i like what i see happening in my 401-k. when they look at their 401-k it may not look as bright.s befo that's a big part of what americans are concerned about. i do think the concerns about the health issueare about to go up as people start to see the effect in their commubtth. >> and i package going to work if people are walking around who are asymptom at and i can spreading the disease --i asymptom and spreading the disease and two week leave when half of america doesn't have $400 in savin and i'll take a sick day and i'm not 100% sure it has to get at the underlying

problem which is getting people to stay home instead ofng treahe symptoms after the fact. robert: and we end where we begin with speaker pelosit driving along with president trump. leader mcconnell really waiting onhe side as those two leaders cobble together their own position. >> and we've seen him do that a number of times before. when it comes to tdt. e too is waiting to -- to toluse's point toro hear the president. and make sure thats he i lock step onboard before he backs this. so i ink the -- keeping the senate in session, not letting that there is an urgency here and they do need to move quickly but at the end of the day the buck stops at pennsylvania avenue. and it will hhee to be president to back it before republicans will fall in line. >> the president said pelosi and -- and would eventua ty talk ay haven't talked yet. robert: we're going to have to leave it there. thank you to our guests for joining us and offering your time and insights on this friday night. nd thank you for joining us. we will continue this conversation on our "washington week" extra with the focus on

the 2020 presidential race. it airs live on our social media. and is later posted on our website. i'm robert costa. good night from washington. for "washington w is unding provided by -- announcer: additional fundingis rovided by -- the estate of arnold adams. and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. committed t bridging cultural differences in our communities.

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