captioning sponsored by newshour productio, llc >> woodruff: on the "newshour" tonight, t latest on the toll of covid-19 as another week comes to a close. i speak with vice president mike pence about the white house's evolving response to the crisis. >> wreally do believe that these guidelines will now enable governors and states across the country to craft plans for reopening their states either on a state by state level or even on a county by county level. >> woodruff: then, plans to reopen the country hinge on testing-- but how many kits are deployed? how will they be plus, it's friday, mark shields and david brooks anaze american life at an uncertain and dangerous moment. all that and more on tonight'sbs

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about their plans to re-open the economy. but others are concernedbout the ramifications of easing restrictions too soon. c thes as the pandemic's u.s. death toll topped 33,000 and the number of infections nationwide climbed to some 687,000. john yang begins our coverage. our team ofxperts now agrees that we can begin the next front in our war. >> reporter: presidentrump calls it a "roadmcoap to rery." but some state and local officialsay ta of lifting restrictions is too optimistic, ashousands of new infections and deaths are reported daily. new york governor andrew cuomo: >> how do you plan the reopening? and how do you plan a reoconing of the enomy and at the same time be cognizant of the public health crisis that youe still in? >> reporter: the white house

outlined how the nation's governors could begin lifting restrictions in three phase once the number of infections in their states decline and the testing rate goes up. phase one recommends social distancing and discourages gatherings of more than ten people and nessential travel. phase two limits gatherings to 50 people, and allows travel to resume. phase three proposes a return to normalcy, while isolating any new cases. some governors say they will begin easing restrictions soon... governor gretchen whitmer said today michigan will take initial steps on may 1, justwo weeks away... and maryland governor larry hogan is expected to release guidelines for his state next week. while the presidey said yesterhat governors would have the "freedom" make their own calls, today, he tweeted:" liberate minnesota," "liberate michigan"be and "te virginia," all states with democratic governors who are facing a growing conservative

backsh to measures aimed limiting the spread of covid-19. they are ong 42 states plus the district of columbia under st-at-home orders. and, a new report from new york state underscores t danger covid-19 poses to nursing homes. 20 of the state's homes have reported at least 20 deaths linked to the pandemic. s at least 6900 people living in died to have the .rsing homes as as scientists work to learn more about the coronavirus, ttop world heh organization expert said today it's not clear whether antibodies in the blood of cov-19 survivors protect them against reinfection. meanwhile, the damage the pandemic is doing to the world's econic health is becoming more evident. world bank president david malpass: >> covid-19 pandemic is causing deep economic harm and threening to erase decades of

economic progress and poverty reduction. we're expecting a major global recession.ou estimates suggest a much deeper downturn than the great recession. >> reporr: germany's top economic official echoed that concern.s >> ( trted ): the german economy is in a situation that is more serious than anything we have exposienced in thewar period. it will be probably more severe than what we'vebaeen during the ing and stock market crisis. >> reporter: still, germany-- europe's largest economy-- is poised to lift its partial lockdown. schools will restart-- in stages-- beginning may 4. but a ban on large gatherings, like sporting events and concerts has been extended to august 31. and today the united nations warned that over the next three to six months, cases in africa could increase to 10 million. a u.n. report said the worst- case scenario wld be 3.3 million deaths.

in kenya, doctors are already the infection is still going through the community but we expect an inevitable surge and that should be happening in the next 2-4 weeks. >> reporter: and, an embrace of the new normal on this eastern pews were empty as priests broadcast morning services on television for those observing in the safef tyeir own homes. for thpbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruffda: earlier i spoke with vice president mike pence, named by president trump to head his coronavirus task force, about the administratw ion's idelines for governors, the lack of testing and his message to frontline health care workers t forcre-use and share their protective gear. mr. vice president, thank you very much for joining us. president trump has been clear that he's eager for the country

to open back upgain by may the first. you rolled e out thw guidelines yesterday. how different do you think life is going to be on may 1? it's just 14 days away. >> well, yesterday, by announcies our new guidel for states acrosshe country for reopening up america agn, what presidenwetrump laid out essentially the criteria and what we belve would be the best preparations for states tol beto en up in a time and manner of their choosing.bu as you can see, it is a phased approach and it's all based upon data and in the application of,sef the best coof our scientists and our broader team. the prident also consulted with, with leaders from businesses across the country and also with a bipartisan group of members of congress. and we really do believe that

these guidelines will now enable governors n states across the country to craft plans for reopening their states, either on a state by state level or evenyn a county by cou level, because, judy, in every state it's different. and the guidelines that were issued yesterday were all about equipping our governors and their health officials with our very best recommendations, all the while assuring all of their citizens and the amer wan people thwill continue to partner with our states to make sure that they have enthe equi the medical supplies and the testing to enter in to th reopening plan in an orderly and safe way.ou >> woodruff: entioned testing. the plan, though, does not include a btead testing st. the president continues to say there's plentlaof testing ave. and yet, as i'm sure you know, governors, medical experts are saying ther enough testing going on. 140,000 or some a day is nowhere

near the million or more that's needed. why isn't there, why isn't there more of a faledush for testing? >> judy, i'll tell you that now that we have established a literallan international air bridge, 're moving medical supplies into communities. now that-- we're very confident that that states have the critical ventilators that they need. i can assure you at the direction, ou administration has no higher priority than continuing tol dramaticexpand testing. it was one month ago that we had we had only done 80,000 tests in the united states. but as i sit here today, more than 3.5 miion tests have been performed. and as you say, we're, we're doing about 120,000 tests a day. het as we've communicated to governors aroundountry and will continue to reiterate, there's actsiually ificant amount of unused testing

capacity in those very sa labs. >> woodruff: i-- >> that we're going to look to >> woodruff: and i-- >> we actually believe that we could double the amount of testing that's taking place every day. ife simply brought online all of the testing capabilities in all the labs, and that will continue to be our focus, even as the president is continuing to drive our team forward on identifying new forms ofst g. in fact, very soon we anticipate a new antibody te to be approved that it could literally produce. >> woodruff: but if-- >> 40 million antibody tests a h. >> woodruff: but if i could-- >> so it'll remain a priority. mr. vice president.o hear you, but at the same time, we are hearing from governors, we're hearing from hospital c.e.o.'s, fro frontline workers, that they don't have access to testing. they're also saying they don't have access to the protective equipment t i want to quote to you what a nurse at a new york hospital told us on night.wshour last her name is maria lobifaro.

she's an i.c.u. nurse. she said, "i've worked on a weekend where we were reusing the same gown from nue e to nurse, me protective gown." she said, "when my shift finished, i had to pass that gown on to the next nurse." she talked about seeing pictures of nurses in other countries overseasho were protected, protected by something that looked like a dacesuit. whatyou say to individuals like miss lobifaro who want to know why the federal government hasn't done something to order that this kind of gear, masks and testing be done? >> well, what i would say to marie and to every one of our courageous healthcare rkers, especially in places like new york city, first and foremost, is tha thank you for at you've done to provide the level of care, even during this crisis, that any american family would, would hope for theiloved ones. they've truly done a remarkable job. but, but i can, i can assure

her, whether it whether it be gowns, wheer it be face masks or, or protective equipment, that we, we have and will continue to flow millions of supplies from aroundhe country and around the world, particularly in hot spots like the greater new york city area. i was just informed by our loekgistics team this hat a half a million gowns were literally arriving. we were deploying those, i think 250,000 of those into the new yoeark city lone. but make no mistake about it, the fact that our health care system has not been overwhelmed is a tribute to our doctors and nurses, just like maria. but it's also a real tribute to the fact that the american people ovethe last month and more have embraced those social distancing, those guidelines. we've slowed the spread so our heeralth care wocan have what they need. and we've created a vast array

of resources, flowing millions of supplies into our hotspot areas around the country. and i want marie and every other health care worker to know that we're gonna ntinue to do that even as we work with states, as they make decisions to responsibly open. >> woodruff: two other-- >> in the months ahead. an woodruff: excuse me, two other things ito ask you about. we have been looking ahead, but i also would say it's important to look for a moment at how we got here. the united states today has more coronavirus cases than the major countries in europe combined. more deaths than anywhere. in january, as you know, mr. vice president, there were pervasive warnings from the intelligence community here, from top administration officials. there were mistakes made, no there were delays at the world health organization. buthe president did stop travel to the u.s. on january 30. bu at for da even weeks after that, he said the u.s. is in a good place. heme said he assuredcans

everything is okay. were lost as a result of thee delay by this administration? >> judy, i will tell you that we're, we' gonna get to the bottom of what happened with the world health organization and why the world was not informed by w china abot was happening on the ground in wuhan with the coronavirus. thinere'll be time for thahe days ahead. and the president's made it clear that we're go hold the world health organization and ina accountable for that having been asked by theving, president to lead the white house coronavus task force in late february, that the actions that our president took in january, where he suspended all travel from china-- the first time any american president had ever done that-- bought us an invaluable amount of time to

stand up the national response thodat has us here at a time when our health care system has no and while, while you cite statistics from europe, the european union as a whole, which is roughly the size of the united states, thanks to the commitment of our health care wo trkers, thanks response of the american people, while we grieve the loss of more than 33,000 americans today, the truth is the mortality rate in the united states today is, is far less than half of that in europe. it's a tribute to our, our system. an's a tribute to the amer response. the fact that president trump suspended all travel from china, initiated efforts to get our c.d.c. intchina by mid- february. and by the time we, we

learned of the first community spread in late february in the united states, we were able to surge the resources in and raise up the kind of counter measures that have us in the place that we are tod >> woodruff: if i could just ask one question about the economy. as you know, the uted states is experiencing now the worst job loss we've had since the great depression. and yet, there is a political stalemate on capitol hill with the administration over what to do to help small businesses. republicans say $250 billion. democrats are saying that's fine, but we also need mey for hospitals and for state and local governments. mr. vice president, why not do what both sides want at this moment of crisis for the american worker? y>> judy, we're working v closely with members of congress in both rties. and i know preside trump is truly grateful for the bipartisan spirit that animated all three of the different bills that he signed into law.

we provided resources for our initial re to the coronavirus. we provided free testing for every amican, free paid family leave. but the economic relieckin the third e has been speeding resources to an families. checks are already being received. the average family of four is receiving $3,400. but the paycheck protection program has been so successful that while the president and i were, were in a conversation yesterday with republicans and democrats on a conference call, we learned that the money is completely gone and the initial $250 billion. and it's absolutely imperative that democrats in congress come to the table and provide the additional $250 billion and do it now. the reality is that this fund small businesses deeply impacted

by this epidemic could keep their employees on the payroll for a period of two months. >> woodruff: but why not take care of-- >> as i said, it's been incrediblyopular. and right now, though, it's out of money. and it's unconscionable for democrats in congress toold that funng up and to make small business owners and most especially their hardworking employees, live with the uncertainty of whether they'll the payroll support. >> woodruff: and with the need so urgent, w not do both? >> judy, i will tell you, the negotiatio are underway. we'll continue to work with leaders in bh parties. and as the president said last night, we, we believe that we will be able to reach an agreemen that's only going to happen if democrats in congress come to the table, make a deal and do it now to expand the paycheck protection program. >> woodruff: mr.ice president, we thank you very much for talking with us.

>> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: in the das other >> woodruff: late this afternoon, republicans and democrats agreed federal money will go toward hospitas as part of that $250 billion plan to help small businesses. we'll have more on these developments a little later in the program. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, stocks surged higher on wall street, amid optimism about progress in the fight against the virus. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 705 points to close at 24,242. nasdaq rose more than 11 points and the s&p 500 added 75. president trump's former lawyer michael cohen will be released oom federal prison, as pa an effort to prevent the coronavirus from spreading amo inmates.

cohen will serve the rest of his sentence in home cment. he pleaded guilty to charges that include campaign finance s.fraud and lying to congr cohen will be quarantined for 14 days before he's released. in ukraine smoke from wildfires outside kiev has elevated the capital city's air pollution levels to the highest in the world. the fires erupted earlier this month, around the defunct chernobyl nuclear plant. strong winds fanned the sme toward kiev, but officials there did not detect a spike in radiation. a u.s.-russian crew turning from the international space station was greeted today with extra precautions because of "covid-19." masked personnel helped the three-person team out of the capsule when it landed in kazakhstan, after more than 200 days in space. the workers who met the crew had been monitored for a month and tested for the virus.

and nasa announced today that it will be launchtronauts into spacerom u.s. soil for the first time in a decade. lift-off ifor may 27 from the florida space coas nasa retired its space shuttle program in 2011. unlike previous launches, they'll be using a rocket owned and operated by elon musk's private company spacex c still e on the "newshour," can the u.s. develop a testing strategy to safely bring americans back to work? the sexual assault allegations against former vice president joe biden. mark shields and david brooks analyze another week under the specter of pandemic. plus, remembering the lives of some of those we've lost to covid-19. and much more.

>> woodruff: as states are mulling when to re-open parts of the country, the question of testing remains a central issue. in many places, testing capability has not kept up with the largeremand. and the most recent statistics seem to show that, if anything, the number of tests analyzed by commercial labs has dropped lately. william br has been reporting on all of this and ins me now. william, hello. we heard the vice president say, ght now, tting capacity is about 120,000 per day. he said that could be doubled. but does that come close to meeting the demand, what's needed? >> judy, in a word, no. there's no epidemiologist or public healthfficial i've spoken to who would say we're

enough anywhere near people to really meet this moment that we are in. even the most generous assessmentwe e off by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of tests that are still needed. the issue is we simply don't know the current scale of theid ic and can't be smart about fighting it until we test more people. we jt don't know, right now, how many people are infected, where are they, who are they, and until you know those things -- let's see that you're a restaurant owner, a factory owner, the owner of an n.b.a. basketball team and youra governor, we want to start bringing people back together. how do you start todo that if you really can't tell who, in the genel population is infected and who is not? so it's a recipe r more outbreaks, according to all the public health officials i've spoken to,s we get testing ramped up. many people referred to it testing is the way that you see an epidemic and get your eyes on it and, right now, we are

largely blind. a lot of reasons for why thisd is. based on your reporting, what's the major holdup or holdups? >> there are a slew of reaso why we have lagged behind on testing. there was initially just thisws very s federal response to urge manufacturers and testing companies to get kits together. the c.d.c. men rolled out its own test, that had major meanical problems that delayed things. now the problem we have is a shortage of supplies, the actual, physical supplies that you need to conduct tests. so those a the swabs that you see people having put in the back of their throat or in their nose, those aren short supply. the chemical reagents -- these are the actualem cals ingredients needed to run these tests -- those are also in short supply. i spoke earlier with dr. eric blank, with the association of public healtoratories, and he said that this supply chain problem has been enrmous issue and that one week it's the

swabs are shortf supply, the next week it's the reagents. he also pointed out,s well, that we simply don't have enough tests.d peopleo do these you don't have to be a doctor to it, but you or are not qualified to go out there and start testing people. so we need more of those people trained, and those people also need pive gear, and we know there's an incredible shortage oaithose. so, it's a compounding series of problems, and someone referred to this that our inability to get testing right has been the originalf this epidemic in america, and it continues to be a huge problem. >> woodruffand, william, i did have the vice president about why the federal government hasn't been more aggressive in all s,of t and i think one of companies to address theseush shortages you're describing? >> that's exactly right, that's an argument many people are making. they argue that the president

could have used the defense production act to push companiee to manufacome of the ingredients and testing supplies right here in united states and, if they had done that, we migh be facing far fewer shortages than we are right now. vice president talked about that, and it seems the administration doesn't want to touch that partilar issue. there have been a few occasions when the president has gotten involved, and the have unfortunately yielded broken promises. we saw a month ago the president said anyone who was to get a test can get one. we know that's not true. a week or so after tha he said google would set up a web site that would direct people to find tests. that has not happened. convened a group of retailers and drugstore owners andmpied that there would be a huge network of drive-through testing sites across the country. right now, there are only about -- i think it's about a dozen. so, again, we're still lagging. >> woodruff: at quickly,

william, we know there are some other countries that did do testing more aggressively. what do we know about the results? >> well, there are two -- there is many examples people point to. two nations ineneral, germany and south korea, both of those nations came on very strong with early testing, and we're seeing the results t. they have gotten their hands around their epidemic earlier, they are further along, doing a better job of testing people and tracing who those effected people were in contact with. eth worth noting both of those countries, those efforts were largely organized by their federal governments and that, for the most part, has not been our approach here in the u.s. >> woodruff: william brangham, very, very helpful reporting, thank you so much. >> you're welcome, judy.

>> woodruff: now to the race for the white house. a former u.s. aide has come forward alleging former vice president joe biden sexually assaulted her in 1993. our amna nawaz has the story. >> nawaz: thanks judy. i'm joined now by lisa lerer, a reporter who has been covering this for "the new york times." lisa, welcome wack to the -- back to the "newshour". we should note you have been report the biden campaign. allegations over a year ago about inapproprie touching, him making women feel uncomfortable, that was over a year a, and tara reed was among the women you talked to back then. this am ges we're talking about now is different k it's a much more serious allegation. i'd like you to lay out what is the incident that s alleges happened back in 1993? >> so heration now is that, basically, when she was a young staffer working in then senator biden's senate office in

the spring of 13993, sheas asked by a supervisor to bring the senator an athletic bag. she tracked him down in the capitol complexld bg, she doesn't remember what day or exactly. >> whe she handed him the bag, and biden pushed her up againstd the wall basically started sawedgs her and sexually her.this is not something she td about a year ago when i and other reporters taed about her and she spoke publicly, then i was more sexual harassment. so this is a new and quite serious allegatior. >> rr: we should note in response to previous reporting, kate bettingfold from the biden campaign responded to say the claim is absolutely untrue, it absolutely did not happend cited, of course, vice presi biden's record in serving women and women's causes. also says women should be heard and heard respectfully. you said you interviwed tara. i want to play a quick clip of

the moment where you were asking her about thatid it. >> it happened once, and that's what's so hard about telling the stor he's talking to me and his hands are everywhere, and everything is happening at once very quickly. this happened under two minutes. >> reporter: our job is you assess the credibility, corroborate the stor what were you able to confirm and not confirm about what tara reed told you. t a reed had a friend we oke to at the time who confirmed most to have the details. she said she told her mother. he mother is deceased. she told a friend many, many years later some of the details and alsoheold her brotsome of the details. both of those people confirmed what they heard which was not the full extent of the story but some version. but i also textedozens of people who worked in biden's office both with tara in 1992 and 1993 and the years around that period, and none ofhose

people recall seeing anything kindxual assault. rumors of any they said, information, the offi was considered a great place for women to work on capitol hill and at a time when l offices were hos hospitable to women and there were women in inferior roles and many women felt this was out of character with the joe biden th knew then and now. >> reporter: you've spoken to her almost a year ago d she didn't share this allegation with you then. obviously, we know don't come forward at the time of their assaults is to reportt them, en you talked to her later did she say why she waited many many months before coming forward in another interview to >> that was my question to her when i called her back. she said the first set of allegations, which was presented only in a very vocal paper in california where she list. after that she had a wav of harassment online and death

threats and got scad. she didn't want to bring up the more serious allegation without having protection, either security, lawyer, p.r. person, or someone to help manage the incoming flow of things onci media and other places. she reached out to many, many anyone to take her case. as a result, she ended up talking to a woman who had a ast on "rolling stone" who is a well known supporter of bernie sanders and first started telling of her sexual assault on that podcast. >> reporter: you and many in the media faced criticism for allegedly not going after this claim as aggressmaely ae the claims against brett kaoknaugh. we're g at the man who looks like will be the democratic knoll knee. where does this go from here? >> i think we'll continue to see some atlets reviewryhis s and then i think we have to wait and see what happens. t notably, presidenump has been completely silent on these allegations, though some around

him have not, and they've sent out tweets and other messages about them. but i think, you ow everything is really overshadowed by the coronavirus right now, so the questionas wil bewe move into the fall get more traction, are therens more accusations that come out, or is this sort of all that's out i there? for joe biden in t of sexualern assault right now. generally you look for that pattern. 're not seeing tha here. we'll see how the campaign unfolds which will have a lot to do with, ifact, how the virus unfolds. >> reporter: lisa lerer of the "new york times" joining us tonight. thanks, lisa. >> thanks. >> woodruff: after the pandemic anesses, lhe so-callebusi ford l paychemk protection program ran out of

the allotted $350 billion. there were questions about when and if lawmakers could make a deal to funde money for small business loans. it now appears republicans and democrats ma headeinto the weekend with an agreement. lisa desjardins is here now to explain the latest. lisa, you have been working on this. i knu have been talking to members of congress. what are you learning about hrow muchess they're making? >> reporter: there is progress, judy, but there's not an agreement yet. i don't know iwe can say that there will be an agreement this weekend or not. the progress ithis, judy, republicans have conceded to democrats that this next round of funding extensions should include money for hospitals. that's something democrats have said was necessary and one reason they have not yet passed thincrease for small businesses. hospitals will get some increase money in this next deal. we don't know how much. there is a sign republians are considering another thing that's

important to democrats which is making some of t small business loan money specificly available to community lenders. democrats said some minority and also smaller banks were not able to get enough if yi of that money. now republican leader in the house, kevin mccarthy, sas he's on bond with the idea of we'll have tosee if the white house joins in. this is to say they're making progress, judy. this could be on track to a vote as soon as next week, bufirst we have to have a final deal and we don't have that yet. >> woodruff: and, lisa, we know the democrats were asking some of this money be diverted or given totate and local governments with an injection they couldake into the economy. where does u all that stand? >> republicans have lem with that. they don't think that should be added at this time. there are a few reasons fo that, one is the formula, they believe, is not correct, and they also think stas need more flexibility than democrats may

be willing to agree to. that is still an issue that is unre solved. >> reporter: and, lisa, you've done additional repting on other ways congress is trying to respond to this crisis.l, >> where was an extraordinary phone call today, judy, between senate democrats and vice president pence and his task force team. god, the democrats had the same question you and william brangham had, testig. democrats in the senate asked again and again about testing and they say vice prsident nce did not give them direct answers on the availability and timing going ahead. this led to an extraordinary moment from angus king, independent of maine, a former governor. i want to read you a quote he o vice president pence on the phone today expressing the rising t in washington. he said to the vice president, the president is trying to off-load on the governors the responsibility of testing, and the governors are not in any position to take that on, t turn it over to the governors as if they magicall can conjure

these things is an abdication o deral duty, something a senator said directly to thet presidday, a sign of growing an rp about the testing situation and the present is briefing right now talking about testing, but still a lot of questis as you and william had on this. >> woodruff: no questioning ques is something that continues to come up and, as you said, democrats and members of congress will continue to raise it. we'll see where it goes. lisa desjardianns, you very much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: now we turn to the am gist of davi -- analogy f shields & brooks. david, lte pick up where we left off with lisa and that is off of the white house announcement yesterday basically that the president said we're turning it over to the governors to decide how and when to open up their states to try to begin to get back to normal. but a number of these democratic

senators and medica experts are saying we don't have the testing capacity to make good decisions. what d do you makef what the white house has done here? >> well, it's obviously too little too late. what you want is seebody to gt up there like the c.e.o. and sae where the tests are being made, here's when somebody is going to come in this week and next week and we need millions of them if we're going to do tracking in the near future. it's vague promises to you and it's lack of specificity that's comforting. as of getting it to t states, i have become a bit of a federalist. in an idea world, the virus spreads across state lines so we haveould have a national response, but given where the white house is and threfl of confidence they've displayed, i'm glad a lot of the power is resting with the govs. as this thick begins to bite

economically, i think it's good that the people that are making the crucial decisions are noour gove who have way higher levels of trust and approval ratings than the present who is so divisive. so i'm beginning to appreciate the wisdom of the founders who are putting so much power in the state government. >> woodrf: mark, good idea to give the power mainly into the hands of governors, even without th testing that many of them say they need and don't have. >> judy, i think david makes an interestint. i'd just say the testing is a national responsibility. this is a national, national crisis, a national tragedy. we are at 14,000 tests a day. i'm not a mathematician, but i figured it out on the back of my hand, and that means that we americans would be tested just before new year's' day of 2027, at 146,000 a day. that's just unacceptable. i mean, it truly is.

i agree that the governors are being rewarded with confidence and approval for their leadership, by the irony is that mike dewine's job ratings in ohio up and anew quoamos are up in new yohile the president's are bogged down and ipping and it's a reflection of leadership. two out of three americans are frankly concerned thatre we' going to lift the rules too quickly and that three out of four herns are conceratned the worst of this pandemic is ahead rather than behind us. so this is a time for national leadership. you canelegate authority but not responsibility, and the president has to confront that real wy. >> woodrufl, david, at the same time, the vice president today was telling me we're trusting the governors to make these decisions literally at the same ho president trump was tweeting to the governors of michigan,

minnesota and virginia to liberate their states. d it all has to do with protests, growng protests in some of theseea statesd by democratic governors, people who want the resictions lifted and lifted quickly. what sort of signal does it seng this, the day after, he says i trust the governors. now he's sayingo some of them, here's what you need todo? >> well, the tweets themselves were just hadness. fortunately, what the president tweets doesn'tlways have anything to do with what the administrati is doing, they seem to be two separate entities. but the tweetsun werrmining trust, they were a blatant attempt to shift blame, if there is blame in the months ahead r the economic pain on to the democric governors and not himself. so they were acts of selfish cynicism. i have to saas i watch this

sole thing unfold, to me it's a gigantess test of our social solidarity. can we hang together as a people each other and that includes the companies and the the employers behave properly.l of us, can we gad, the president has been an obvious ive force in dividing us with tweets like sat. but i have to sfar we are hangng together. i think social trust and solidarity is reasonably high. mark, the statisticsay three-quarters of americans think we have to fight the disease before we worry abot e economy, and that's bipartisan support, by and large. the quaran too soon, not toog late, and, so, there's been a reasonable amount of social cohesion, and there's been a rising up of drugompanies talking to people in the healthcare industries, drug companies that neverat cooper are coopeating to get some sort e. treatments or vaccin they're getting the vaccines to the tests at remarkable speed. o

the numb random drug trials has been exponentially growing. so i don't know if leadership is coming from the country, but i do think leadership is coming from the various sectors of our society which m you know, save us. >> woodruff: yet, in part, mark, the president does seem to be responding and feeding, if agu will, into these protests nst the governors who -- many of whom are trying to hold ste line and say we've got to keep social cing weeks longer. >> judy, reckless, irresponsib irresponsible, i mean, this is a president who's not only inconsistent, he's contradictory. he told us he had total and absolute ahority, and yet he has no responsibility. you just can't have it both ways. >> woodruff: david, i want to come back to the announcement that joe biden got this week.id wet know if it was going to happen or not, but bernie

sanders did endorse joe biden this week, followed pretty quickly by form president obama and elizabeth warren, is the democratic race clear to you now that bernie sand supporters are going to ep enthusiastically back joe biden? what doeit look like? >> well, bernie sanders is enthusiastically bacg, which is noorn he did at this stage our years ago. his followe supporrs, somerobly will not. there are a lot of people who voted for sanders in the primary and trump in the general election -- like michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, and nor doubt are some of those -- but the d. j. party, when you look back on the primary, you have to say, even how many peop were in it, it was a relatively bloodless primary. the guy in the front in the beginning ended up winning. it was over pretty quickly even before the virus hit. people are always going to have animosities in this race, but i wouldn't say they were super

high. i would say the democrats are going into the rest of the year in a pretty orderly, pretty unified state. >> woodruff: and, mark, what abouthese endorsements? you could argue, i guess, they were going to come eventually, but bernie sanders has moved quickly to endorse. today i saw he's raising money for the democraticitational coe. does it mean that joe biden's got his act together at this point, marchithng intsummary and into the fall? >> well, jonathan martin of the "times" pointed out democrniatic di which is a perennial story is no longer a story. it's a united party, judy. and i think give credit to joe biden, who's aopular figure himself and has good personal relations, but give prime cret to donald trump. this isn't is possibility it was in 2016 of donald trump, the inlily possible, this is te reality of donald trump, and he is a cohesive agent for the

democrats, he is a uniting agent for the democrats. n ght now, i would say joe biden is golden position. this election, as iof today, a referendum on donald trump. it is not a binary choice with the way romney against obama was, bush againskerry was, it's a referendum election. new mexico '96, btoill clwas inwinner going in. 84 with ronald reagan, it t s a referendum on him. donald trump canve a referendum election. he is on unpopular figure and the majority don't want him r a second term, therefore he needs to run against joe biden, but he can't as long as he's on television two hours every single nighteeming petty, mean snd vindictive, and that is not helping candidacy, which has

to be terrible to tell a president who has a prime time television show of his own. >> woodruff: and when it comes president's got a lock on it. i mean, he's on television all the time talking abou this pandemic. it's a terrible, terrible thing the untry is going through. but joe biden is not going to have as much bxposuween now and november as the eresident. >> that's petly fine. people would like a break from politics, ath i don'k joe biden needs to really campaign. his campaign understood from the start that this was another donald trump, an unlike sanders or warren who ran campaigns they could have run four years before or from now, he ran a trump-centric campaign all through the primary season. he's still doing it. he hadeo today how he laid out how trump was la responding to the crisis. that's how he should be doing, sober, making thesent poi.

as mark indicated, trump had a bump for support earlier on but that's faded. now his approval for handling the virus is underwater as more people disapprove than approve. i think biden needs to do nothing now. we will have plenty of time in f:e summer and fall. >> woodre leave it there. mark shields, proke david brook, thank you both. druff: we want to turn n from the essential workers to remember some of the tens of thousands of americans who havei lost their livthis pandemic. the school teachers, health care workers, musicians, public servants and lveal leaders wheft a permanent mark on their communities. the coronavirus death toll is too large to recognize every one. ort we'll return to this series, to shareof the stories of those now gone, each and every

one precious to theifriends and family. ♪ ♪ vincent lionti, a olist with the new york metropolitan opera for 33ears, was known for his quiet confidence, humility and kindness. vincent's first teacher was his father, victor, who conducted the westchester youth symphony before passing the baton to vincent in 1997. vincent met his wife kristin in the met cafeteria and their family grew by one: nicholas. vincent would have turned 61 this month. judy wilson-griffin dedicated mothers and babies as ah-risk strinatal nurse specialist in louis, missouri. an educator and a leader, judy addressed racial disparities in maternal health care and access to care. to her colleagues anents, she was like a best friend, a sister-- funny, humble, and

gracious. rsdy also served in thu.s. navy as a we was 63. thomas lop known to seattle-ites as the smiling face behind this family-owned food truck for most two decades. born in mexico, the father of five served in t military there before immigrating to the u.s. when he was 24. he made national headlines in 2017 for selling tacos to hungry drivers stranded in a massive interstate traffic jam. he was 44 years old. 74-year-old wayne reese senior was a quiet man anywhere but on the football field. he coached and mentored louisiana high school football players for five decades-- some went on to play in the n.f.l., including one hall of famer marshall faulk. from chein on his students at home, driving them to 6:00 com. practice, and helping

hundreds secure ege scholarships, his family says his shoulders were broad from always carrying the rries of others. captain douglas hickok was a member of the new jersey national guard medical unit specializing in emergency amdicine. described by hisy as "fearless," hickok had prepared ef help with the pandemic's 57reade he was infected. off-duty, thear-old was an and father of two.grillmaster a third generation service u.s. military's first loss to the pandic. ♪ ♪ >> woodruff: there is no way to truly mark the lossefrom covid-19, but we want to end the week on a high note.

it comes from the tony award winning cast of "ain't too proud," the broadway show about the temptations. like so many of us they recently got online to connect and delivered this performance. let's have a listen for our ongoing arts and culture series, "canvas." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ she's got a smile so bright ♪ you know she could have could ♪ve been a candle ♪ i'm holding you so tight no ♪ you kw you could have been a handle ♪ ♪ the way you swept me off my feet ♪ ♪ you know you could have been a broom ♪ ♪ so when you smell so sweet ♪ you know you could have been some perfume ♪

♪ well, you could have been anything thatou wanted to ♪ ♪ and can tell the way you do the things you do ♪ ♪ the way you do the things you do ♪ ♪ as pretty as you are ♪ you know could have been a flower ♪ ♪ if good looks were a minute, you know you could have been an hour ♪ ♪ the way you smile, you could have been a school gir♪ ♪ and baby you're so smart girl ♪should have been a school ♪ well, you could have been anything that you wanted to ♪ ♪ but i can tl ♪ the way you do the things you do ♪ ♪ the way you do the things you do ♪ ♪ ♪ >> all right, brother. there you go. >> woodruff: that young man in the white t-shirt, the nephew of

our director, a world director ry lawrence. and that is the "newshour" for tonighth an's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have great weekend. ank you, please stay safe and good night. or n maj funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by: >> fidelity. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular >> the william and flora hewlett undation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their

solutions t the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made adssible by the corporation for public bsting. atd by contributions to your pbs stn from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. hello, everyone. welcome to amanpour & co. here's what's coming up.on promising cirus news from germany. the super tester. where i the curves flang and somelo ckdown is lifting. then the forces shaping the climate and the debate amid the pandemic. with the scientist katharine hayhoe and her husband, andrew farley. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall! >> the difference the right leaders can make at the right time. historianwn archie on gorbachev and reagan and the end of the cold war.