robert: a crisis ofnc confide shakes the nation. president trump: to unleash the fuer power of the f government this effort today i'm officially declaring a national emergency. two very big words. robert: president trump is tested. like never before. first step.ongress takes a >> testing. testing. testing. we can only defeat this outbreak if we have an accurate determination of its scale and scope. robert: next. announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> before we talk about your investments, what's new? >>s well, audre expecting. >> twins. >> grandparents. >> we want to put money aside for them so change in plans. >> all right. let's see what we can adjust.

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moderatorobt costa. robert: good evening. we begin t wighth the rapidly unfolding story here in washington. leaders at both ends of pennsylvania avenue are now confronting a test to the american system. uncertainty has gripped institutions ands. sent health care, the economy, tional security, and politics. president trump declared a national emergency on friday. twoays after addressing the nation about the novel ru corona president trump: the action i am takincewill open up to up to $50 billion for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against thisisease. we're announcing a new partnership with private sector to vastly increase and o accelera cacity to test for the coronavirus. we want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test ry safely, quickly, and

conveniently. house speaker nancy pelosi has worked all week on a sweeping aid package with treasury secretary steven mnuchin. >> to put families first, our legislation secures paid leave with two weeks of paid sick leave and familynd medical leave for those affected by the virus. and for thosire who lose th jobs, we are strengthening unemployment insurance, a critic step to protect workers' economic security. robert: the earlier friday evening, the speaker announced that she has, quote, reached an agreement with the ministration to rolve outstanding challenges. joining me tonighto open their notebooks are four reporters who have deep sourcing and insights into the washington dynamics of this global pandemic.ki kim, senior washington news corrpondent for wbur boston's n.p.r. news station.ru toluse oipa, white house reporter for "the washington

post." susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today." and heidi przybyla, correspondent for nbc news. susan, we ben with you. writing a biography on speaker pelosi, she is at the center of the action as we me to this table tonight. it is unclear whether president trump at this moment, 8:00 p.m. will actually sign on to her agreement that she announced. treasury secretary steven mnuchin s on fox business few minutes ago saying there is an agreement. whatusan you tel about where this is all heading over the weekend? >> nanc ry pelosi i dch an agreement but it was with the treasury secretary, not with the president and i think thens negotiate see going on now are between mnuchin and hiso . donald trump. it's reallextraordinary that we find a situation where it's not clear to us if the treasury for the president suspect house republicans are holding off on

hear from trump. nancy pelosi has suggested she might bring this up for a vote yway tonight even i republicans don't sign on. she could probably get it to the house. probably can't get it through the senate and certainly couldn'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 midterms in which so many of thens moderate republiost their seats. the remnas of the republican party is -- has become the trum party. they have realized that if they're going to keep their seats and going to be able to have any future in thety p, they have to be completely tied to president trump. and really wait for his call in terms of what exactly they're yoing to do. whether or not tan 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 thatemocrats like. paid family leave, sick leave, pport for the uninsured. there's not a lot of what president trump want when it come to things like tryitng to payroll tax cut or other tax cuts for businesses or inrestries that he thinks impacted by this pandemic.

so right now, president trump is sort of waiting to see whether or not he will support this and until he says so, going to move. are not >> the troubling part is that he's known what they're negotiating the broad outlines and contours of it. and he's also known that the reason why the marketsere soothed today was on the expectation that there would be such a deal. and what the specific outlines of that were, were known to all of us. so if the president at this hour is not supportiv of this deal, what more is it going to take? because pelosi did compromise as well on a number of elements in here, like the payroll tax cut -- orlike the payrax cut which the president wanted actually. but also the -- they were going tax creds, i believe, so she's compromised her part. and if we get to monday,nd the senate comes back which mitch mcconnell has made clear i they're back, they're not going to take the recess, and the president hasn't signed on to this, get ready for

another wild ride. robert: and we' looking at, kim, a washington that is divided along nnsylvania avenue. speaker pelosi pursuing her greement with the treasury secretary. president trump at the same time declaring a national emergency. is it -- wht do you make of the standoff as a reporter? >> well, donaldesrump the ent wants to seem that he is in control of this. that he's always been in control of this. and blaming everyone else for everything that goes wrong. so in that sense he doesn't want nancy pelosi to be t face of what is moving forward. now, you're saying that washington is divided right now. one thing that coronavirus has done on the hill is unite wm ers. lawmakers were looking to get some sort of relief and get some sort of relief qy.c lawmakers were unified in their condemnati a ofinistrators and people in the administration who went before congress this week to explain how we got to this pointco on navirus. it angered people on both sides of the aisle. the division is between the hill and pennsylnia avenue. and you have donald trump who has been angry throughout the

week about somehow tngs have gone, who -- like said, sought to divert attention to other places and now he's trying to control it to allow nancy pelosi politically to take the narrative and to take very difficult for him. >> it's hard to reach a deal when the president and the eaker the house are not speaking. and they haven't been speaking since impeachment. for which donald trump is bitter and blames nancy pelosi for handling. but there's a -- there's - something like this had happened before which is during 2008 the big financial meltdo, speaker pelosi was in office then and george w. bush was in the white house. they had not spokenor months because of their -- her opposition to the iraq war. but when the economy melted down, he did talk to her. they did do negotiations that got a clocial b bill through. an i see echoes of that in this debate today. rort: that's such an important point. because you think about this moment. how do we give it conext and -- in that 2008 example, is a key one. but inside the white house, d

ey see where it requires bipartisanship p andhaps on the payroll tax cut and other issues the white house may have to give? >> 2008 was the end of george w. bush's presidency and wasn't running for re-election and present trump is running for re-election and that's made so much a difference in terms ofhi howwhite house is responding. they're looking at this through a political lens and looking at the stock market and the to sort of boost his position before the election even the payroll tax cut that he's wants it to h last through the election. so that americans aren't hurt polls to decide whether to give him another four years in office. so that's a major difference the way president trump's white house is dealing with this and one of the reasons why it's be difficult toet republicans and democrats on the same page. >> moving these thilys qui though, is -- there's no -- there's no parallel to this in terms of the importance of getting this doneusuickly. be this deal is not even done and we're talking about having to potential do a third round. possibly, helping specific industries.

and the whole point here is to soothe very panickedan nation. in doing that, you want to try and do it quickly to show that at w leastashington is all on the sameage and getting americ what it needs. what the things that have been happening in other countries where we know that these things have worked in terms of getting people t stay home, when they are sick. the one thing that makes us allynique from europe is the fact that we don't have paid sick leave. and gting that message out to understand the historic calamity that this could cause, in getting everybody on t same page, you know, i just to work against h if they oing 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 was -- on capitol hill this week, everyone is talki about they already had the $8 billion deal. they're doing this deal now. but if the economy continues to move to full sto you could

see bailouts of industries being discussed. a wle array of major measures from the federal reserve to congress to deal with this crisis. >>eah. if we're heading into a recession, and there are a lot of signs that we are, it could be a deep recession. it could be a serious recession. it could strike every corner of this nation because of the nature of this pandemic that we're facing. and at that point, you will need congresndhe white house to be -- doing some things to juice the economy. because for onehing, the federal reserve has done a lot of what it ha do. it has exhausted a lot of remedies they would have her lping an economy that's fallen into recession robert: let's step back and discuss the president. because beyond today's news he addressed the nation on march 11 and as tonse wrote i the post he has turned inward and imposed travel restrictions on one fourth of the world's population and criticize other nation's response effort and refused to speak hith these speaker and defied the warnings

of his own public health experts. trump's approach reflects his us against them mindset, tendency to assign blame, and isew combative vif geo politics. kim, when you look at the president's news conference today,esnd his addrto the nation earlier this wee you see him at one moment trying to show calm and l steadiness and lashing out at reporters and critics. where is he at this momen >> it's hard to tell from one momento the next. we also saw him this week call for unity and to putan partip aside. and he immediately went to his twitter account and started attacking democrats and blaming the entire thingn the obama administration. just -- you talked about that $8.3 stimulus package, emergency package, donald trump did he wan $2.5 billion and it was nancy pelosi in congress that said no, no, you need mo. t to you. t and so all the while we have seen the president not only be all over theut place his instinct was to try to downplay

it. because he saw it as a political threat t say that people would get better. saying we have everything under control. we have this website that people can go to and find out where they can get tested. the website isn't even done yet. so it's hisnstinct to try to downplay things and talk himself out of things. he's learning that coronavirus is the one thing that he cannot talk himself out of. robert: that speech he gavehe ed -- helped by jared kushner and steven miller based on yr reporting and other>> yeah. the speech was a disaster in the end because we saw what ppened in the markets the next day. 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 expert w and even t 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 a of hav do-over and have another chance to talk to the and say th he is -- in public control. because usually behind the oval -- behind the resolute desk in the oval office in the prime time address you normally expect a predent to show that

they have control over a crisis. and that's not what we saw wesh ent trump's sort of fumbled statement on wednesday. robert: was part of the strategy tget c.e.o.'s to standehind him and offer a few words? >> yes. we've seen that throughout the trump presidency. and he's always sort of called on that. he likes having powerful people around him to praise what he's done. he's tried -- he tried to get them allodp to them to talk aut how great of a response he has provided. and i thi that's trying to get that co-sign from c.e.o.'s and powerful people as a key rt of his presidency. robert: there will have to be a lot of accountability down the road about whether those lots and whether the rking corporations are following through as kim said on the website. and you see this political warrior in president trum he's fighting, battle after battle, grievance after grievance, and upon friday, he had this exchange with our pbs colleague yamiche alcindor. >> you said that you don't take responsibility. but you did disband the white house pandemic office.

president trump: i think it's a nasty question and when you say me, i didn't do it. >> anthony fauci is on the record saying hey, it would had this office. helpful had we and to kimberly's point, the has been that tru consistent about is misrepresenting the gravity of ais threat. i went backually in my reportinghis week and looked at the evolution of his statements. on the same day in south korea, we had ourirst diagnosis here. so you actually- it's a perfect parallel. what we did differently was that we had a president who was completely downplaying the risk. whs the south koreans were. mobilizi now, it's true, fauci said we have a very different system here. we're dependent on huggi the ivate sector. whereas the government there 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 al just fac false. robert: let's stick with that point. when you're talking to your top sources in both parties, do they have confidence in the institutions, in the

government, in the coming two weeks,or will eryone from home, and schools are closed, to come through?>> no. i think there's a lot of uncertainty. i think that's one reason the maets are going crazy. and it's one reason there's so much attention on what the president is doi. theresident, the most powerful official -- in our nation, this is an existential threat for president trump in a way impeachment was not. impeachment, 37 days ago, it seems like a lifetime ago. but the challenge that he faces in handling the coronavirus is one that could determine -- it already changed the political landscape for 2020. it could determine his legacy h first term and whether he has a second term. robert: have you ever seen anything like this kind of test during your years of coverage of the presidency? >> yesin. i 9-11 was that kind of test. i think 2008 financial meltdown was a reall serious test of our system. so i d't think this is unprecedented. but it is a reallyerious challenge for the president. >> but you talk about that lack of certainty. it's not just within -- it's

within the administration itself. i'mearing people in agencies and the administration including the department of labor who don't know what flair own sick lea pomcy is and whether they can work from home. it's people on the fnt lines, health care providers are trying to comply with the directions tt they'reeing given. and they can't because they don't have the resources. state officials are begging the federal gernment, open up the reserves so at we can get protective equipment for our health care provide. give u some more direction. and it's not coming or it's coming way too slow. and at this rate, we k don'tw and of course most of all is the testing. there's a lack of access to testing. as of this morning, there are about 200 tests that have been taken -- have taken place in the sta of massachusetts. over 100 positive. ich means thas over 50% of those that are tested. and they said they would have a capabilityf 5,000 tests. there's seven million people in massachusetts. it will be impossle to know just how this -- just how far this virus has spreaditut the data.

>> the ohio director of health said that she thought there could be up to 100,000 people in hertate alone who have contracted it already. theouse and senate and house doctor said at the end of this, all told, we could have li millions and ms of people who contract this virus. that what we ardoingow is just mitigation. that what we're trying to do is -- i'm sure yo 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 not speak to some of the most important concs ns that americve today which is timing. when are those tests going to be online? i know for fact people are going to hospital -- hospitals, e.r. rooms,nd not able to get tests. even when they're showing symptoms tody. secondly, the equipment. he said that they were going to be sending --p uyingw

equipment and ventilators. is it going to be enough? because fauci ominously wut quiet a whether we're on the same track for italy right now. and italy is a horrible disaster. we have fewer hospital beds per capita than the italians do. so these are thehings looking forward, you know, just saying don't worry, america. it's going aicy. he said on -- on wednesday. and standing up thee and trying to reassure people that we've closed the borders and that is going to be the solution is not going to work when they see their neighbors and their friends getting sick. if tt's where we're headed. robert: going o 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? >> that's the tone that the you see high turnover. you've seen a lot of in-fighting and the present put people against one ather.

he's hired people who are idea logically very different from one another whoee have that they benefitrom being able to sort of fight it out in front of the president and prove their loyaltyo him. so now we're seeing that same dynamic play att a time after global pandemic and people trying to apiece the president and not necesrily focusing on the public health focus that they should be focusing on. and very clear that that same level of chaos is ill suited to this global pandemic and presidentt trump's s of play it by ear, fly by the seat of your pants approach does not work well within a political crisis that stems from a global pandemic. and the -- and kimberly said the president's ability to sort of just talk this down and talk this away is not something that he can do at this point of this crisis. robert: and susan, you're talking to americans. "usa today" hasonducted a poll about the economic concerns that are out there. and bond what toluse was talking about presidential leadership a test of the white house and congress.g you're seeear in this country about the economy.

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

problem which is getting people to stay home instead of treating the symptoms after the fact. robert: and we end wre we begin with speaker pelosi driving it along with president trump. leader mcconnell really waiting on the side as those two leaders cobble together their own position. >> and we've seen him do that a number of times before. and he too is waiting to -- to toluse's point to hea from the president. and make sure that he is lock step onboard before h backs this. so i think the -- keeping the senate in session, n letti them go to recess is a signal that there is an urgency here and they do needov to quickly but at the end of the day the buck stops at pennsylvania avenue. and it will have to pr the ident to back it before republicans will fall in line. >> the president said pelosi and -- and would eventually ketalk and they haven't t 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 and thank you for joining us. we will continue this conversation ogt our "wash week" extra with the focus on

the 2020 presidential race. l it airve on our social media. and is later posted on ourbs e. i'm robert costa. good night from washington. announcer: corporate funding for "waington week" is provided by -- announcer: additional funding is provided by -- the eate of arnold adams. and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural o differences communities.

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