captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. on the newshour tonight: >> enjoy your home. stay. >> woodruff: battling the. pandem how the united states is responding now, from s at stem the crisis.nt efforts to then, pandemic eminomics. we e how covid-19 is taking a financial toll, and the efforts to brunt the losses. plus, the mayor of san francisco on dmatic efforts there to contain the outbreak. and, the vote goes on. we have onhe-ground reports, as a trio of k states hold presidential primaries, despite the risks of coronavirus. all that and more tonight's pbs newshour.

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>>idelity investments. >> the john s. and jamesat. knight foun. fostering informed and engagedun commities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the trump administration is pushing tonight for a huge new economic relief package to fight financial damage done by the coronavirus pandemic. that comes as u.s. officials confirm 100 dead nationwide out of 5,300 cases, but with no word on how many have recovered. meanwhile, wall street recovered

some today, as the dow industrials gained back 5%. and, the european union member states moved to close their borders. one n, b begins oovage. >> brangham: as the financial pain from this outbreak grows every day, treasury secretary steve mnuchin assured elericans thatf is coming. >> we're looking at sending checks to americans immediately. and what we've heard from hard- working americans, many mpanies have shut down, whether it's bars or enstaurants, americans need cash now and the preswants to get cash now. i mean now in the next two weeks. >> brangham:nuchin didn't specify an exact amount, but did say t,at it will be significan perhaps $1,000 per person for many people. he did add that millionaires wouldn't be getting checks. and president trump again todaym sought to ears about the growing pandemic. >> by making shared sacrifices and temporary changes, we can protect the health of our people, and we can protect our

economy, because i think our economy will come back very rapidly. we'll see what happens afteray. that. if we do this right, our country, and the world, frankly, but our country can be rolling again pretty quickly. >> brangham: the administration is also urging congress to pass a huge economic stimulus package, one that could inject $1 trillion back into the u.s. economy. it reportedly will include a massive tax cut for workers; $250 billion for small business loans; and $50 billion to help airlines hit hard by a lack of demand for travel. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell promised swift action on the aid package.en >> it's my ion that the have passed signifand boldtil we new steps above and beyond what the house has passed. >> brangham: and senate democratic leader chuck humer

echoed that urgency. democrats are working on their own version, one focused less on industry bailouts and tax breaks. >> our proposal is big, it's bold, but it is also targeted. the parts of the hh sectorans in and the economy most in need now. >> brangham: in the meantime, much of the united states remains in self-imposed isolation at home. many people are heeding the white house's advice that people avoid groups of more than ten people. but there are still many examples of young people packing into bars and restaurants.. today thony fauci pleaded with them to put their needs aside to protect others. >> don't get the attitude, "well, i'm young, i'm inlnerable." you are-- well in some respects, you are certainly less vulnerable than i am. however, what you mighten inadvey do-- and i know you don't want to do that-- you don't want to put your loved ones at risk.

particularly the ones who are elderly and the ones who have compromised conditions. we can't do that without the young people cooperating. please cooperate with . >> brangham: dr. deborah birx also helps lead the federal response, and she praised efforts targeted at seniors who are especially vulnerable. >> i really want to applaud the private sector, who are now creating senior-only shopping times.xt i think that'sordinary. i think that shows what american brings and i think oth countries will learn from us about how to really prt seniors in this type of way. >> brangham: school districts across the country continue to close, and some districts, like this one in oak grove, misuri, are now handing out breakfast and lunch to families who rely on their schools for meals. >> we want to make sure that we're erring on the side of safety and making sure that our student communities ar as possible. >> brangham: elsewhere, closures and cancellations continue to pile up.. trick's day celebrations

were noticeably muted, after many bars and restrants coast to coast were forced to close, and parades were canceled. wnt some revelers still managed to enjoy their o personal in three states, arizona, florida and illinois, democratic presidential primaries went on as planned.re but there we reports of abnormally low voter turnout, and of poll workers refusing to show up. io postponed its state primary just hours before voters headed to the polls because of healthco erns. l d in florida, governor ron desantis says het local authorities decide whether to close beaches, but he's ordered all of the s bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days. melswhile, overseas, in brus announced they're to sealnion their external borders to contain the oureak. nearly all non-e.u. citizens would be barred from entering

the 27 nation-bloc for 30 days. iran, which is among the hardest hit nations in the middle east, set up a highway checkpoint today to check travelers temperatures. iranian state television warned that millions could die in the islamic republic if people ignore public health warnings. in another troubling development, this novel corodvirus continues its spr across the african con innocent. even though testing the scant, more thaf150 intions have now been confirmed in at least 26 of the 49 countries inaf sub-sahararica. but in chinain the city of wuhan, which was the initial break,ter of this out there was just one newly recorded up next today. for the pbs "newshour," i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: for the latest on the federal response, we tesn to our lisardins, who's been tracking the fast-moving developments on capitol hill, and yamiche alcindor,

who's following all of the news coming out of the white house. hello to both of you. yamaguchi, first, what information do we have about this enomic stimulus package? >> well, this morning steve mnuchin said they were considering plan to give every single american $1 million. they said millionaires might be excluded from that. the treasury secretary says thea thinkscould happen as early as next two weeks. he said the checks could be up to $1,000 for each person. the president, though, has also been on the phone with executives from industries like the restaurant industry, the cruisehip industry, and supply chain industries, and he wants billions of dolls to go to those industrs, as well. the white house is also pressing congress, they say to, pass the bill that was passed in the house. they want gop senators now who have some issues with the bill

on the hou side, they wt them to just vote for the bil so they can get that out of the wawoso they can starrking on this trillion dollar stimulus package. it was remarkablto hear the prsident say he wants everyday americans to get a check in the mail to deal with this virus. >> dawndy: so lisa, separately proposals onhe congress. demoats say, wait a minute, we have a different plan. we think other things are the priority for the big sti deal coming, but let's lock at what democratic leader chuck schumer was proposing today. first, $400 billion would go to hospitals and medical supplies. then the rest of it, $30 billion in the democrats' plan would go to unempled to, workers who are laid off or who are losing tie on the job. now, could they talk about

including a payment in this deal? uck schumer did not close the door to that, but the truth is negotiations will th tricky. maybre is yet another bill after this. he said, yes, there could now bi multiple slus bills coming down the pike. note that in the democrats' bill and in the white house proposal, there is not spec ciney for industries that have been affected like the airlenes. peight get money in their pocket, but are they going to buy an airline ticket soon?h all of this isat congress is trying to work out. >> woodruff: yet to come. let's forget, it was a few days ago that the house passed a relief bill, a stimulus bill. what's happened to that? >> woodruf right. as yamiche reported, the white house has been pressing along with house democrats to get that through. i can report that leader mcconnell says it will passe through nate. it's a question of when. in the next two to three day, as soon as tonight. it's a procedural issue. mcconnell told me he's told republicans to gag and swallowit they don't love it, but i want

to review, this is verys important, thiwill be the first direct help for americansb passcongress. this is the families first act. this will allow fo two weeks of id sick time for people us.ectly affected by the vir three months of leave time for those who have to care for a child whose school has been closed. now, businesses with fewer than 500 workers only must account for this. larger businesses do not have to that's a problem democrats have with this concession they ma. all of the businesses will have the pay this sick time up front. they will receive a taxdi cre later that. is also a problem that the lawmakers are hoping to address soon. one more thing, judy. i want to go through the timing ahead. first, in the next three dy, pass has the families first act for the people who are sick, getting them help withnd time and childcare. then the senate republicans plan to work on their own on a

possible stimulus bill, come up with an idea. then they will get together with the white house and democrats to negotiate.democrats say that's , let's start the negotiating now, but leader con -- mcconnell wants his republicans to have time to come up with their own plan. how long will that take? >> woodruff: a race against time. separately at the white house t they looked apublic health proposals. tell us what they're saying in that regard. >>he president is approaching the rier veer outbreak like we are a nation at war.ee he says this like wartime and americans shoullook at this as if they can do anything ey can for their nation. he says be vigilant, do what you can to help this virus outbreak stop many this country on testing, specifically something that's been on the mind of a lot of americans every single kay. the white house says the f.d.a., which is a large governing body that los at drugs and testing, they are now giving states the ability to look at andvelop and approve their own testing so

that states likusmassats and other places can come up with their tests and use those tests. the prident, though, has been getting some pushback when it comes to public health because he's been referring to the virus as the chinese virerus. are also some white house officials who called it the kung flu virus toda a lot of critics say it's racist, xenhobic language. the president says that's accurate. he says he's pushing back on t china becauhere saying u.s. service members brought this over to china. buwhat we're seeing is the president pushing back pretty hard, but this is a real cultural issue here that the president is having to deal wito as he's arying to tell people, stay safe, stay individual help, but people are sageng, also don't tarasian americans in this country. >> woodruff: and just finally, lisa, at a time when everybody is being told to stay home, how is congress going to work through this? >> i asked leader mcconnell. there is snare -- ari scein which washington takes some time off after this passes. he said the rules of the senate

will not change. evenhough democrats are interested in the idea of remote voting, leader mcconnell said no. instead what they would do is lengthen out aoll call vote. manning this, so that senators would come in smaller groups to the floor of the sene two, three, four, five at a tile, rather than in groups of ten or more, and extraordinary change, change would he allow in the senate. no remote voting. >> woodruff: interesting. oying to figure out the politithat. lisa desjardins, thank you very much. an now for the wider rsponse by the departments of state and defense, our. >> nick schifrin is here with me now. nick, it was botreh the sry of state and the secretary of defense who had news conferences to dy. wh they have to say? >> first the secretary of defense, mark esperlaid out how the department of defense can help. millions of masks to be given to health and human services. ventilators, as well. military testing labops will be ed up for civilian testing.

governs, of course, beginning to ask the national guard for help. and the department of defense has been etty transparent judy, about how this virus has impacted them. 39 positives across the department, 500 tests. how they have been protecting service members, civilian, depends, there are severe travel restriions. if you areart of the department of defense, you cannot move essentially insi the united states beyond the base or your home. soal distancing inside the pentagon, even the secretary of defense and his deputy cannot see each other in the same room. as for the department of state, there's a handful of case, but we really don't know much beyond that. >> woodruff: so nick, we know the state department has been all this, including talking about propaganda. what are they saying in. >> so yamiche referred to this,r so let'sak this down. there has been a consorted effort by the chinese governmens r anger about the united states inside china and convince the restf the world t none of this is china's fult.

and to that specifically, there was a tweet late last week by one of the spokespeoplefthe foren opinion industry. he wrote, "it might be the u.s. army who brought the epidemic to wuhan." he wro that in english and mandarin. do was retweeted by embassies of china and ambas all over the world. u.s. officials and the experts i talked to say tfs is an efort to deflect blame. the virus originated in wuh. it has nothing to do with the u.s. army. but officials in wuhan covered up the virus, and chinese people across the country widely criticized their on government, so the officials i'm talking to say this is a kind of diversion. the internal criticism, a crackdownnhat xi jiping is doing, but also a diversion for going to be seeing.t that you're so on friday we saw the pentagos spokwoman, melissa fara write on twitter, "this is a communist part of china and they have chosen to promulgate false and

absurd conspiracy theories." then you saw yesterday the secretary of state releasing a statement about strong u.s. objections to the efforts to shift blame for covid-19 to the united states. so the u.s. pushing back on this hard >> woodruff: and i guess in a connection, they have been evicting foreiurnalists, and there was more on that today. >> the connection is the crackdown. the connection is the unwillingness of the chinese communist party to accept any kind of responsibility, and to really crack down on any kind of blame inside. ris was the lagest expulsion of foreign journalists in china since mao. any"new york times," "washington post," "wall street journal," all evicted from country.ists china says this is in response to u.s. moves, including capping here in the united states and designating that state-run media as forei mission, but it is on criticism, especially now,n

especially at a moment when we are dealing with the impact of a coronavirus that did start in wuhan, and it is less a response to u.s. moves than -- and a real sense that this is slencing of criticism, especially at a key moment as secretary of sta pompeo said day. >> i regret china's decision today to frther foreclose the world's ability to conduct free press operations. frankly, this would be really good for the chinese peod e, really gr the chinese people in these incredibly more information, morees whe transparency are what will save lives. >> judy, the fear is that theu. -china relationship is getting worse right now at the time that the world is facing an economic and dical crisis. >> woodruff: as if we needed another issue. all right. nick schifrin, thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> now thk e tal federal aid for an ailing economy. it came today as wall street recouped some of monday's record losses. the dow jones industrial average close at 21,23.ow the points to the nasdaq rose 430 podints an the s&p 500 added 143. much of the market's reaction was because of the prospect of a major stimulus package, including the idea of potentially giving americans as much as $1,000 apiece. jason furman is an economist who administration after the financial collapse. he's now a professor at harvard university who advocated for that basic idea. he joins me now from massachusetts via skype.so furman, thank you so much for being with us. first of all, in you view, is the trump administration

identifying correctly what the needs are in this economy right now? >> i think today ws a really important st in identifying those needs. they're understand tg that we neact in a way that's really big, that is really fast, and at gets money directly to the families that are going to be most affected by everything that's happened. sohere's more i'd like to see, but i thought today was a very important step. >> woodruff: so they're talkg about $850 billion, mnuchin later threw out the number $1 trillion, including as you mentioned tat $1,000 per individual. why is that in your mind a o idea? >> the economy is going to go througthe largest dislocation it perhaps has ever gone through. have hurricanes hg everyously part of the country and every part of the gloobal enomy simultaneously. ofts of people are going to lose

money as a resulhis. it would be great if we cou go out and find exactly whose tho people were and compensate them, but that's just a really hard thing to do. and so what they have chose on the do and i have advocated is to pai wth a broad brush. make sure you're not missing anyone and get as much money out there in the pckets of families as we can. >> woodruff: for some famili, $1,000 will be a lot of money. for others it's not going to mark much of a difference. why is thht the rigumber? >> i think $1,000, per person, c $500ld. so if you're family of four, yo0 would get $3 i think it should happen again if it's needed. if the unemployment rate goes up, if the emloyment rate goes down, then there should be another round. that should be automatic in the legislation. and finally there are a lot of gher channels the federal government has tt money the testimony list that need it. it should be using them inad tion to this. expand unemployment insurance, expanding nutritionalas stance, expanding assistance to the states for medicaid.

none of those were in the white house package and all of those are essential complements to the ideas they have been talking about. >>uff: jason furman, as you know, there is also talk of tax cuts, thpresident i particular has expressed a strong interest in a payroll tax cut. that is not in the plan rightwh now. >> i think a payk roll taccut in the best of times is a suboptimal policy. it gives a lot to people who make a lot of money, less to people who don't. authink right now it would be a crazy policy, b it would give nothing to people who aren't getting payroll, and itu tells you, if nt to get this money, you have to stay at your job, and i don't think either of those are the right messages forhis moment in time. it appears the white house has wisely shelved that misguided >> woodruff: what u see as the businesses that will need the most assistance? we hear the adminisabation talkint helping the airline, helping the tourist

industry. where do you see that need moslt timately should go? >> look, there are of businesses. they didn't make a mistake. they were hit with something huge. the government is having to shus lots of thown. absolutely appropriately for the sake of our health, but that has a lot of damage. so i thk some degree loans and compensation for all of that is appropriate. airline hospitality, mass tansit, by the way, has been hit very hard is. i think they need help, as well. and then i would include small and medium-sized businesses all across the country. >> woodruff: do you seehat we're talking about now as the extent of what is all ultimately going to be needed? what more could be done, because we're facing the great unknown right nw? i think it's a very open question how lo the essentialut wn of much of america lasts. if it last more than two or three months, i think it could have pronged consequences.em

historically, oyment rates can up very quickly. they never go down very quickly. a business that goes bankrupt can do thaquickly. going unbankrupt is not something that you can . so i am worried not just about the next phase, where we particularly need to help families, but also as we get beyond this phase, making sureec thomy is in a position to rebound, because i don't think they can do that all on its ow >> woodruff: jason furman, professor at harvard university, .hank you so mu >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: new york city's mayor bill de blasio will decide in the next 48 hours if he will order his city's 8.6 million residents to shelter in place in bat the spre com of the coronavirus. amna nawaz speaks the mayor whose city i already living under lockdown.

>> nawaz: nearly seven million s people in th francisco bay area were ordered to stay inside by county officials iorder to s stem tread of the virus. san francisco mayor london breed is one of the officials who made that decision yesterday. she's a democrat and she joins me now. may were breed, welcome back to the newshour. i want t ask you about what drove this decision. two weeks ago you had your fir confirmed case in san francisco. the latest numbers i saw yestday were about 40 confirmed cases. y is this drastic a step necessary now? >> well, i want to be clear that in every decision we made here in san francisco eveneginning with our emergency this la -- declaration on february 25th, it had everything to do with the information we had h from publalth experts. in san francisco, we have aned inle department of public health. they have been working with a number of our county health officers throughout the region, and they have provitd informatioat led to this

decision. it was important to do it to protect public health. we see that there are more cas but we also understand that with the limited numr of test kits, the challenges with protective gear and other ings tt we are lacking, we need to make sure that we are protecting public health, that we are that when people ick andn, so when they need to be hospitalized, we ae at a capacity that can handle the influx of people in our system, and part of what we did and n providing this directive was to really inerrupt and limit the number of people who are interaing with one another. this is why the social distancing order is so important. protecting people reventingng... the transfer of this disease and having it continue to really move forward at such an alarming te. >> woodruff:>> nawaz: let me asu how this is going to work.

people have questions. residents can take a walk. they can per size. they can take their pet out. but you're asking people not to leave their homes unless it is for a basic need. how do you enforce that? what should peoe expect to see? will law enforcement be asking them why they're out and about? do you arrt people whofuse to go indoors? >> just to be clear, our goal is to get people to understand the significance of what we're dealing with and to cy.m we are not here to be heavy-handed with what we're to understand and realize, this is a public health crisis. and what they are doing outside of what they absolutely need to do could endanger peovee's li people are walking around here o san francisco who may even be aware that they are infected with the virus. and that couldaybe transmit to someone who may have ai respiratorsue, someone who is elderly, and who are at risk

of death. and i think that what's important is to understand that we are here to provide the information to the public, to try and ge the public to comply with our directive to, use common sense, and toab thinkout this as a situation where what you are doing could potentially compromise public safety and public health, and so we are asking people to comply and to be good citizens of our city. >> nawaz: mayor breed, last time we met, about two weeks ago in san francisco, yoid you were taking all these steps to get ahd of the spread. you had concerns about the amount of protective equip that you said you neede all the resources for those frontline healthcare workers for a surge, an influx of patients that you know are codoming. ou have right now everything you need to meet the needs of those healthcare workers? >> to bear clewe do not have everything we need. we are working withe c.d.c.,e

nters for disease control trying to be as cooperative as possible but also being very are.essive acted what our needs two weeks ago i sent a letter to the vice president, who is in charge of this task foce to help address these issues espressing the need more protective geafor healthcare workers and also just relly a lot more assistance, a lot more support in our city and i our region, because this is not just something that's imctg san francisco, it's impacting our entire country. tnd we need to make sure tha we're prepared for any situation, and we could meet the needs of our residents, and we can keep people alth owe and safe. the federal government's response. last time we spoke you were very critical of their response. you said there s a falure to respond adequately. what do you make of e federal government's response and the white house ramping up their response in the last week? >> i thi it's... the is... it definitely is needed. but we also need to go even

further. we need what we need when we need it. and we need support and we need resources now. and i'm hopeful now that it seems to be really hitting home with the white house that theya are going toke the drastic steps necessary to help cities throughout this country address this real challeng >> nawaz: the steps that you're announcing with this shelter in place are undoubtedly going to have an economic hit on your cy and the surrounding areas. i talked to one small business owner who said, look, i have bills, i have a family, i have rent. none of those go away, and he's ry concerned about what's going to come after this. what is your message to him? >> my message is i understand, but public health has to be put first. and the good news in san francisco is we have already put a number of steps into place sow thcan help support businesses owners some we arell putting in somepolicies now to

help ease the burden in the future, by t we know theare going to be tremendous financl impacts on our city and we are going to have to deal with that. but we are trying to put forth policies now to lessen the burden. >> nawaz: that's the mayor of san francisco, london breed, joining us tonight. thanks for your time, madam mayor. >> thank you. >>oodruff: and please jon us on thursday when we host a virtual town hal confronting coronavirus at 8:00 p.m. eastern, 7:00 central on all pbs stations and streaming on the pbs app and on the pbs pbs newsr social channel, including youtube, facebook, and twitter.h please wathe hear some of your questions answered by people on the front lines of the crisis.

>> woodruff: in the day's other news presidentl primaries went ead in florida, arizona and illinois, amid the reports of disruptions caused by the viral pandemic. democrats joe biden and bernie sanders waited to see how any proble with turnout might affect the outcome. biden went into the day with a lead of about 150 delegates. we will return to this, after the news summary. in iraq,ockets struck a u.s. coalition base overnight. it was the latest in a series of assault. hours earlier rockets hit a coalition base outside baghdad th no apparent casualties. last woke two americs died in a similar attack and the u.s. retaliated with air strikes on an iranian-backed militia. a russian company says it will sue the united states forio $50 biin damages. concord management says it and another russian firm were falsely accused of funding interference in the 2016 presidential election.

the u.s. justice department dropped the charges on monday, saying a trial could expose classified information. former california congressman duncan hunter was sentenced today to 11 months in federal prison for misusing campaign funds. the six-term republican spent some $250,000 on everything from s children's tuition to parties and clothe shopping. hede pled guilty imber. and, the man who mayo football's best-known player, tom brady,nes leaving the england patriots after 20 years and six super bowl titles. brady is 42. he said today that he will become a free ent, and expects to play someplace else. still to come on the newshour: we have on-the-grounreports, as voters in several key primary states head to the polls. and at home with philip roth. an encore interview with the

late author following e premiere of a mini-series based on his novel, "the ploagainst america." >> woodruff: it is primary day never seen before in modern life, as voters cast their ballots in the midst of a global pandemic. despite concerns of overcrowdint olling stations at a time of social distancing, three states pressed onith their elections: florida, illinois, and arizona.t and s where we begin, in phoenix where stephanie sy joins me now. ephanie, how has the coronavirus affected voters turning outs at the polls where you are? >> good evening, judy.

we're at the central phoenix library. we hlee seen a steady trif people dropping off their ballottings. this is one of more than 150 voting centers in maricopa county. that's where the majority of registered democrats and arizonans live. why do we call them voting centers? because 80olling sites had to be closed under emergency protocols that were activated here in the wake of coronavirus. the voting centers allow anyone to drop off one of these green ballots or to vote in person irregardless of their zip code. so they did do things to address this election. late yesterday, judy, we saw a real show of unity among sa officials here. the republican governor and the democratic secretary of state gave a joint presser and said they would go ahead with this presidential preference elecon. it is a closed primary, only for registered democrats, but the rational saying she felt itd the would only get more dangerous if they delad this contest.

>> woodruff: and stephanie, what can you tell us? you started out by talking about steady trickle. what c you tell us about >> well, judy, that really is the big headline in arizona today. earlier today the arizona democratic par released numbers for early ballot, and this is what they found. b there han more early ballots counted than the entirec vont from 2016. now, that may be, you say, because state officials encourag people to vote early, but here's the other thing: i just got off the phone with the recorder's office here in maricopa county. 27,000 people had voted in person or dropped off baly lots to maricopa county. judy, that is on par with the in-person numbers we saw in 2016. there are still 3.5 hours before polls close here, and if the trend lines continue, judy, this could be the biggest turnout ever for a presidential

preference election here. >> woodruff: so interesytng given evng that's going on. from maricopa county as youus heard. thank you, stephanie. and now we turn to the ste of illinois, where 155 legates are at stake. paris schutz of wttw joins us from outside the chicago boardio of ele headquarters. so paris, i'm going to ask you the same question i started with stephanie, how is th virus, the3 their willingness to turn out and how these elections were held? u> judy, i'm going to give y the same answer i just got. it's caused a lot of confusion. it caused a lot of acrimony, especially early in the morning as polling places changed at the last minute. election judges drpped out by the hundreds for fear of being in eposure to coronavirus. it caused election authorities in chicago to reveal thyt the had urged governor pritzker, a democratic governor her to

postpone's today's election. they said the situation is untenable.no pritzker saidgoing to do that. the election is going to go on. it's nithin his legal authority to do so, he said, so turnout was really low in the morning. ere has been a steady trickle, just like arizona. in chicago we're told it will end the day at around 35%. not abnormally low for a turnout in a primary election, but cehainly much loweran officials here anticipated. the fascinating numbers are the demographic breakdown. older voters, the ones most at risk with coronavirus, hav turned out in huge numbers. they have lapped the field in relation to younger voters, especially voters 18 to 24. the turnout there has been anemic. those are the voters that bernie sanders had counted on coming out in big nmbers. >> woodruff: older voters reliable usually. so we're finally mentioning the candidates, bernie sanders and joe biden. biden ahead in the ps in illinois. what are you sensing from talking to voter

>> well, voters say... asked them a lot about how concerned they were about coming out in edis pandemic, and they said they were concebut they were going to keep a social distance and the civic duty to vote outweighed their medical concerns. in terms of the biden camp, they're very confid the numbers, especially with the older turnout. fact that in theate oft in the illinois, there will be about one million voters whted early or voted by mail. they believe most of those are their voters, oldters. in terms of sanders, they were concerned with the closure of schools and colleges and universities. a lot of their base is on not on campus and scatteredents around at home, they were worried that those studentsou wouldn't turt. both campaign, the biden campaign said after today they believe the race is in effect over if the final tally here is consistent with what the polling sanders' campaign acknowledged it's an uphill fight and they

want to come together an unify at some point, although they're t giving it up juyet. >> woodruff: paris schutz reporting for us with the very latest from the chicago polling place. paris, thank you very much. and now on to ohio where the governor announced late last night literally at the eleventh hour that there would be no voting. karen kasler, you are there for us reporting on what's happened. karen, it was quite a tug-of-war between governor dewine and the judge, and the governor finally said, i'm shutting this down, but what a way to begin or i should say to have a pause in the election in ohio. >> arah, this d with a press conference. governor mike dewine has been doing press confere day around 2:00 in the afternoon. he announced yesterday that he and secretary of state frank larose were going to take action to try the mve the prmary because they were really concerned about voters being able to aintain tht physical distance. and they felt that it wasn't

fair to ask people to abandon eir health and risk their health to exercise a constitutional right. so there wera couple of plaintiffs who went to court to try the move the primary. then governor deine and the secretary of state expected the judge to go along and move it. he did not. he said he didn't have theor auy to do it and said it would set a bad precedent, so then goverr dewine through his ohio department of healthed director isn order saying there was a significant risk to health to voters and he wasng shutown all 3,,000 polling places in the state. poll workers were getting conflicting messageey needed to go to work they didn't. some web sites showed the elwation was delayed, ths on. it was a very confusing time. some voters even showed up a some othose polling places this morning thinking the election was on because they hadn't heard the news. when they had gone to bed at night. >> woodruff: we haven't seen anything like this before. but you're right. it was back and forth.

i was watching it last night keeping an eye on the computer on what the reports were, and you literally didn't know until almost midnight what was going toand. now the vote has been delayed until june, is that right? >> well, there's a lawsuit just filed by the ohio democratic party to try the move that to april 28th. and to have only mail voted, only absentee vg new york in. >> person voting new york election day, so to speak. the governor talked about moving , but thil june 2nd decratic party wants it to be on april 28th. when that final result is.to see state lawmakers want a role in this. they feel like they're the ones who have the authority to set e actual date. >> woodruff: karen kasler of ohio public radio, when you first said only male voting, i first thought you meant only men, but you mentd mail voing. >> mail-in. >> woodruff: karen kasler, thank you so much. now to the biggest prize of the day that. is theristate of flo where

219 tell gaza city are up -- 219 delegates are up for grabs. david smiley joins us via skype. david, tell us about the effected of coronavirus on voters and the election there ir a. >> well, projections that i have heard have ection-day voting down more than 50% today.ou but that be likely made up through an increase partilarly for democrats an increase in early voting and especially mail voting. florida is a no-excuse mail bat bat -- ballot state. we have seen the democratic partyggressively court voters. and the number of voters castinm ballots heir home has gone way up. so the turnout will look somewhere along the lines ofhe 2016 primary even though election day voting will be way down.>> oodruff: we're catching some audio breakup, but i

quickly wanto ask you, going into this, it looked like joe biden in good shape in florida>> eah, biden has been way ahead in every poll.o i think ing into this election, bernie sanders' supporters hoped tht the baseline for his support would be his perrmance against hillary clinton in 2016 when he lost by a 2-1 marn. and it look likehat may be his ceiling this year. smiley joining us from thevid dd sunshine state, we appreciate it. now to examine how all this fits walter of e "cook politicaly report" and public radio's "politics with am walter" joins us on this primary day. where would we be without amy walter on a primary voting day, but this is one like no other. are weoing to -- given these problems with turnout, confusion, are we going to have clarity after today? >> well, these are the twin issues.

we have codition fusion an clarity at the same time. we ma i have some clarity if everything we heard from the reporting on the grod suggests that joe biden will be able to these states that look similar to what we have seen in the polling. we're getting some demographic brkkdowns back from places e illinois and florida, and it does look as if oldvoters making up about 60%, and older voters meaning 45 a older, making 60% of the electorate. so if there is a surge of young voters coming out to keep bernie sanders' political hopes alive, they haven't come there. wee also seeing the elctorate in florida not as big in terms of the latino vote, not as significant as we had seen in 2016. so those tw factors suggest the clarity piece, bernie sanders, if he does not perform well, will be further behind in the dell -- delegate count, almostss imle for him to catch up

or even more difficult for him to get the nominion. so the nfusing part, though, is what happens to all these states that are delaying their vote? some of them into la june. remember, the dnc convention was supposed to be the second week of july. >> woodruff: as we just heard,ac ohioand forth over whether it's june or april. but what's going to happen at thonvention, which a lot of people have been asking. but i do want to ask you about those voters surveyed. amy, you been looking at that, e breakdown according to general -- gender, age, and ce. what else are you seeing? you mentioned age. and i know you also got some information on howmecans are viewing the president's handling of this coonrirus. >> that's right, that's right. >> woodruff: as i said, and think we heard from our reporters on the ground, even in a stated like illinois whereti most of the is in person, that did not deter older voters,

escially those over 60years old from turning out. so you can see there it's about 26%, 65 plus. those under 30 about 16% of the electorate. looking at te coronavirus impact more broadly, this issue of do you trust the president versus other sources of formation, we talked ab this last night about we're sort of siloing ourselves once again, the polarization about do you trust the president do, you not ust the predent. 60% say they do not trust the president. 37% yes. no surprisingly, that breaks down among party lines, as well. 75% of republicans do trust the president, only 8% of democrats do. the thing that i think is somewhat hopeful, though, when you see the next aslide, wht do you think about state and local governments, your state andnt local govern do you trusted them? here you have 72% saying yes when it comes to what the mayor or what governor of m state is doing, i trust the information

th i'm getting from those folks. we've seen a lot of that on the ground. we're in t hearing from communities where there's been only certain precincts agreeing an other pretcincts n based on their political point of view. so that to me is the goodiece of all of this, that even as polarized as we are and ofstrustful of the party we're in the a membe, when it comes to getting and sticking to advice from government officials, voters seem to be confident about that.>> oodruff: that will be interesting as the weeks and months unfold in front of us as people look at what the president is saying and what the democratic nomin for preside is saying and when the president frankly has all the vers of power. >> that's rif:t. >> woodrufo do or not do. amy walter, and we will be talking to you later tonight. thank yoouvery much. >>e welcome.

>> alcindor: finally tonight, a look back at aew hbo series that dramatized american history in which charles lindbergh defeated franklin rose belt. the real lindberg ws an isolationistnd had made anti-semitic speeches. the series is based on the novel of the same name by philip roth, the celebrated writer who died in 2018. i agined the impact of this other history on his own jewish family in new jersey. roth talked to jeffrey brown when the book first came out in 2004 and said the idea cawhen he read that republicans had come close to nominating lindberg. here's a short excerpt. it's part of our ongng arts and culture series "canvas."

>> what if they had nominated lindbergh? and that just started my wheels spinning. and yocan see how, because immediately, you have to... you have to answer that question. and the answer to that question is dense. it's not one line. t "what y had?" i knew lindbergh's history, and i knew about lindbergh's isolationism, and the firstnt thing i to imagine was what would it have been like if an isolationist had been elected lindbergh, by the way-- and we hadn't gone to war? so that was the first, "what if?" but lindbergh carried another hessibility, in that i kne was famous for anti-semitic remarks he'd made during his times as spokesman for americali first, and i rd that he would be a threat or a menace to american jews as idate. >> brown: well, one of the ings you're doing here i you'veot big history you've got one big change to

history but most of your story unfolds with one family. so, how did you decide that you could look at history through the lens of this one small family?h, >> think it's the novelist's way, you know? i think that decision was made for me when i became a writer; that is, to see history through the lives of ordinary people has always interested me. you're correct to say that there was just one change. i was very conscious of that. just change the outcome of the 1940 election, and make everything else as close to which is why i chose my family as the family to whom all this happens. and that excited me because it opened up a question, which is: how would we have behaved in these circumstances? >> brown: it's a work of fiction, but it's a work of memory?it >> well, yes a false memoir, isn't it?an

so it'ct... it appears to be an act of memory, but it's a false memoir use with myself when i wasd writing this book and from-- if you want more falsification-- gosaid to myself whenever stuck, which was frequently, "don't invent, just remember." i think the subject of the book that interested me was, to put what i said earlier another way, how much pressure can you bring to bear on this family, and what will happen when you bring maximum pressure to bear on them? they're all trying to cope with this menace, the menace of lindbergh, and the pressures are enormous. and they're all trying to cope with the humiliation, too, even the little tiny boy, the humiliation of being... of the jews somehow being separated

out, of appearing to be not welcome. >> brown: on the one hand you've written a book of menace-- and it's quite scary-- on the other hand, it didn't happen. book gets it all wrong.y >> brown: fortunately. >> luckily, yes, indeed. >> brown: so is it a book of fear or of hope? >> well, in a manner of speaking, it's an optimistic book. it imagines something that did not happen, and as y said, could itanave happened? the answer is, sure, it could have happened, but it didn't happen, which tells you a slot about the country, t country. >> brown: was it comforting to you as a writer, as a human t beint history resumed? >> (laughs)ye now that you... now that you ask that question.

yes, to know that this came to an end, that this nightmare came ton end. yes, it was a comfort. >> woodruff: see what you cane bring backs laser. n and on tshour online, as more of us are practicing social distancing and staying home because of covid-19, we are compiling some ways to stayge en like how to visit museums from the comfort of your own home. see a list of our favorite virtual exhibits on our website, that's www.pbs.org/newshour. and that is the newshour for now. the newshour for now. i'm judy woodruff. join us online for updated information on covid-19 and primary election results. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, stay safe, and we'll see you soon. un >> majorng for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity investments. >> american cruise lines. >> bnsf railway.

>> consumer cellular >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovatns in education, democratic engagement, and the advancent of internatial peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, l captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone. welcome to amanpournd company. the ever deepening coronavirus fallout. threatening health care systems, economies, social and political infrasucture around the worl new york city goes into lockdown and the health commission her join me. own, the u. kshs goes its way including u-turns adding more confusion to its response. a senior officer joins me. then no matter what central banks do,l globa markets keep going down. top economist jasonurman gives us his take. and the presidential race david axelrod and senior adviser to