what is the future of indian/american community. >> we don't want to talk too much about that other than i just got back, it's a long flight. he's a great gentleman, a great leader. it's an incredible country. we were treated very, very well. we really enjoyed it. a lot of tremendous progress was made in terms of relationship. our relationship with india is extraordinary right now. we're going to be doing a lot of business with india. they're sending billions and billions of dollars now to the united states. but we'd rather talk about this right now. >> mr. president, the cdc said yesterday that they believe it's inevitable that the virus will spread in the united states and it's not a question of if but when. do you agree with that assessment? >> i don't think it's inevitable. it probably will, it possibly will. it could be at a smaller level or larger level. whatever happens, we're totally prepared. we have the best people in the world. you see that from the study. we have the best prepared

people, the best people in the world. congress is willing to give us much more than we're even asking for. that's nice for a change. but we are totally ready, willing and able. it's a term that we use, ready, willing and able. we have -- it's going to be very well under control. now, it may get bigger, it may get a little bigger or not get bigger at all. regardless of what happens, we're totally prepared. >> you talked a little earlier about the agency you put in place and travel restrictions you put in place with china. >> good evening, i'm chris matthews back in washington. we've been watching president trump giving a rare press conference to ease public concerns after the cdc warned that the outbreak of coronavirus was inevitable here. well, all right today secretary of health and human services, alex azar, informed congress that the u.s. has a new case of coronavirus, increasing the

american total to 57. that figure includes 42 americans repatriated from a cruise ship off the coast of japan. according to "the washington post" president trump has sought to repeatedly downplay the potential impact on the united states after becoming furious about the stock market's slide. the markets were down again today but only modestly. monday and tuesday, however, were the two worst days in the past four years. earlier today president trump criticized certain media outlets for their reporting on the coronavirus. president trump tweeted, quote, low ratings fake news msdnc, comcast, and cnn are doing everything possible to make the coronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. usa in great shape. earlier today brazil announced its first case of the coronavirus which marks the first known case in south america. the virus is presenting in every continent except antarctica.

there's a mortality rate of about 2%. the world health organization reported that the number of new cases outside china now exceeds the number of new cases in china for the first time. for more i'm joined by democratic congresswoman donna shalala of florida, she served as secretary of health and human services under president clinton. steve schmidt, former republican strategist. let's listen back to the president a moment. >> they look at the indiana model and it's been a very great success. it's been a tremendous model in terms of health care. this is really an offshoot of that. so this isn't a czar -- i don't view mike as a czar. mike is part of the administration. i'm having them report to mike. mike will report to me. they'll also be reporting in some cases to both. i'll be going to meetings quite a bit depending on what they want to do and what message we want to get out. but we've done an extraordinary job. when you look at a country this size with so many people pouring in, we're the number one in the

world with people coming into a country by far, and we have a total of 15 cases, many of which, within a day i will tell you most of whom are fully recovered, i think that's really a pretty impressive mark. now, we did take in 40 people that were americans and they're also recovering but we brought that in so i have a different group. but we felt we had an obligation to american citizens outside of the country that we're trying to get back in. we thought it was very important. >> the stock market has taken a big hit over the past few days. what can you do about that? and if the cdc is right in saying that the spread is inevitable, are you going to be dealing with stock market issues and economy issues for some time to come? >> well, i really think the stock market is something i know a lot about. i think it took a hit for two reasons. they look at the people that you watch debating last night and they say if there's even a possibility that can happen, i think it takes a hit because of that. it certainly took a hit because of this and i understand that

also, because of supply chains and various other things and people coming in. but i think the stock market will recover. the economy is very strong. the consumer is the strongest it's ever been. our consumers are incredible. they're incredible. that's why we're doing well and other countries have not. we're doing great, other countries have not been doing great. our consumer is very, very strong. very powerful economically. >> have you been presented any plans that would involve quarantine cities like we saw in china? what would have to happen for you to take that step? >> we do have plans on a much larger scale should we need that. we're working with states, virtually every state and we do have plans on a larger scale if we need it. we don't think we're going to need it but you always have to be prepared. again, congress is talking to us about funding. we're getting far more than what we asked for. i guess the best thing to do is take it. we'll take it. >> how much money are you willing to give congress if they're going $6 billion more --

>> we'll take care of states because states are working very hard. we have hospitals in states that make rooms available and are building quarantine areas, areas you can keep people safely. we're working really well with states. that's a very big part of it. so, you know, my attitude, if congress wants to give us the money so easy, it wasn't very easy for the wall but we got that one done. if they want to give us the money, we'll take the money and just do a good job with it. yeah, please. >> mr. president, should americans be going out getting protective equipment such as mac masks and so forth? if so, what is the u.s. doing to get the production of masks? >> we may not need it, oounyou understand that. but we're looking at worst case scenario, we're going to be set very quickly. i don't think we'll be anywhere near that. i really don't believe we'll be anywhere near that. our borders are very controlled. our flights in from certain areas are very controlled.

i don't think we'll ever be anywhere near that. >> back to the stock market for a second and the travel-related stocks that have especially been hammered the last couple of days. what would you say to americans looking forward to the summer or upcoming months and saying to themselves should i make summer plans and travel abroad? >> hopefully they'll be able to do that. we think, we hope that it's going to be in good shape by that time. but, you know, they'll have to remain a little flexible. yeah, i would say travel-related companies certainly right now, they would be hurt. at the same time, this ends. this is going to end. hopefully sooner rather than later. i think the business that they lost will be picked up at a later date. but right now they're probably not going to be going to china. they're not going to be going to certain countries where the problem is far greater than it is in the united states. what it's going to do is keep people home and they're going to travel to places that we have. we have the greatest -- it's the

greatest tourism country in the world. instead of leaving our country, leaving our shores, they'll stay here. and again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> what is your response to speaker pelosi who said earlier today you don't know what you're talking about about the coronavirus? i'm also wondering if you'd want to address critics who say you can't be trusted about what your administration is saying? >> i think speaker pelosi is incompetent. she lost the congress once. i think she's going to lose it again. she lifted my poll numbers up ten points. i never thought i would see that so quickly and so easily. i'm leading everybody. we're doing great. i don't want to do it that way. it's almost unfair if you think about it. but i think she's incompetent and i think she's not thinking about the country. instead of making a statement like that where i've been beating her routinely at everything, instead of making a statement like that, she should

be saying we have to work together because we have a big problem potentially and maybe it's going to be a very little problem. i hope that it's going to be a very little problem but we have to work together. instead she wants to do the same thing with crying chuck schumer. he goes out and says the president only asks for $2.5 million. he should have $8.5 billion. this is the first time i've ever been told we should take more, usually it's we have to take less. he shouldn't be making statements like that because it's so bad for the country. and nancy pelosi, she should go back to her district cleaned it up because it's the number one -- if you look at percentage down, that was one of the finest in the world and now you look at what's happening. and i'm just saying, we should all be working together. she's trying to create a panic and there's no reason to panic because we have done so good. these professionals behind me and over here and over there and back here and in some conference rooms, i just left a group of 45 people that are the most

talented people in the world. parts of the world are asking us in a very nice way can they partake and help them. so nancy pelosi should -- and she knows it's not true. all they're trying to do is get a political advantage. this isn't about political advantage, we're all trying to do the right thing. they shouldn't be saying this is terrible, president trump isn't asking for enough money. how stupid a thing to say? if they want to give us more money, that's okay, we'll take more money. some republicans think we should have more money too. that's okay, we'll take more money. but they shouldn't demean the people on the stage who are the finest in the world. they're not demeaning me, they're demeaning the greatest health care professionals in the world. people that do exactly what we're talking about. >> your campaign today sued "the new york times" for an opinion piece. >> yeah. >> is it your opinion or your contention that if people have an opinion contrary to yours that they should be sued? >> well, when they get the opinion totally wrong as "the

new york times" did and frankly they have got a lot wrong the last number of years. so let that work its way through the courts. if you'll read it you'll see it's beyond an opinion. that's something much more than an opinion. they did a bad thing. there will be more coming. >> do you expect -- >> i hope so because shinzo abe is a very good friend of mine. i love the people of japan and i hope it's going to be in good shape. as you know, you have a number of people in japan who have been infected. i hear they're doing a very professional job, which doesn't surprise me at all with shinzo and all of the people you have. i know all of the people very well. i think they'll handle it very well. it's a little tight. they spent billions of dollars building one of the most beautiful venues i've ever seen. your prime minister is very proud of it. i hope it's going to be fine. we hope it will.

>> thank you very much, mr. president. the doctor of cdc just talked about dusting off preparedness plans but coming from you it has more weight. do you feel like u.s. schools should be preparing for a coronavirus spreading? >> i would think so, yes. i haven't spoken specifically about that with the various doctors, but i would think so, yes. i think every aspect of our society should be prepared. i don't think it's going to come to that, especially with the fact that we're going down, not up. we're going very substantially down, not up. but yeah, i think schools should be preparing and get ready just in case. the words "just in case." we don't think we're going to be there, we don't think we're going to be anywhere close. if you look at some countries, they are coming down and starting to go in the other direction. this will end. this will endi. you look at flu season. 26,000 people going up to 69,000 people, doctor, you told me before.

69,000 people die every year from 26 to 69 every year from the flu. think of that, it's incredible. so far the results of all of this that everybody is reading about, and part of the thing is you want to keep it the way it is. you don't want to see panic because there's no reason to be panicked about it. but when i mentioned the flu, i asked the various doctors, is this just like flu? because people die from the flu. and this is very unusual. and it is a little bit different, but in some ways it's easier and in some ways it's a little bit tougher. but we have it so well under control. we really have done a very good job. go ahead. >> mr. president, you mentioned the stock market earlier. to go back to that, to be clear the dow jones dropped more than 2,000 points this week. are you suggesting that was overblown? are financial markets overreacting here? >> i think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the democrat candidates standing

on that stage making fools out of themselves and say if we ever have a president like this and there's always a possibility, it's an election. who knows what happens. i think we're going to win. i think we're going to win by a lot. but when they look at the statements made by the people standing behind those podiums, i think that has a huge effect. >> do you think some of it had to do with the coronavirus. >> i think it did, i think it did. but you can add quite a bit of sell-off to what they're seeing, because they're seeing the potential. again, i think we're going to win, i feel very confident of it. we've done everything and much more than i said we were going to do. you look at what we've done. what we've done is incredible with the tax cuts and regulation cuts and rebuilding our military, taking care of our vets and getting them choice and accountability. all of the things we've done, protecting our second amendment. i mean they view that, the second amendment, they're going to destroy the second amendment. when people look at that, they say this is not good. so you add that in. i really believe that's a factor. but no, this is what we're

talking about is the virus. that's what we're talking about. but i do believe that's -- i do believe in terms of cnbc and in terms of fox business, i do believe that that's a factor, yeah. and i think after i win the election, i think the stock market is going to boom like it's never boomed before, just like it did, by the way, after i won the last election. the stock market the day after went up like a rocket ship. >> at what point would you be considering loosening the travel restrictions -- >> when we're at a point when we don't have a problem. we're not going to loosen the travel restrictions. that's what saved us. had i not made -- mike alluded to it. had i not made a decision not to take people from a certain area, we'd not be talking about way. many more people would have been infected. i took a lot of heat. some people called me racist because i made a decision so early. we had never done that as a country before, let alone early. so it was a bold decision.

it turned out to be a good decision. but i was criticized by the democrats. they called me a racist because i made that decision, if you can believe that one. we have to all work together. we can't say bad things, and especially when we have the best team anywhere in the world. and we really gave it an early start. we gave it a very early start. >> you have consistently called for enormous cuts from the cdc, nih and you've talked about how these are excellent. does this give you pause about cutting? >> no, because we can get money and crease staff. we know all the good people. a question i asked all of the doctors before. some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years. if we have a need and we can get them very quickly. rather than spending the money -- i'm a businessperson. i don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. when we need them, we can get them back very quickly. for instance, we're bringing some people in tomorrow that are

already in this great government that we have. and very specifically for this. we can build up very, very quickly and we've already done that. we really have built up. we have a great staff. using mike, i'm doing that because he's in the administration and he's very good at doing what he does and doing as it relates to this. yeah, go ahead. go ahead, please. >> mr. president, so far -- so far your administration -- >> i picked him, but you're fine. >> so far your administration is only testing less than 500 people and health officials are questioning whether that's enough, comparing to other countries who have tested more than tens of thousands of people. are you planning to test more people? >> well, we're testing everybody that we need to test and we're finding very little problem, very little problem. now, you treat this like a flu. in fact i might ask one of the doctors to come up and explain it. you want to wash your hands a lot, you want to stay -- if you're not feeling well, if you

feel you have the flu, stay inside, sort of quarantine yourself, don't go outside. but there are certain steps that you can take that we won't even be necessary. in many cases when you catch this, it's very likely -- you don't even know there's a problem. sometimes they just get the sniffles. sometimes they just get something where they're not feeling quite right and sometimes they feel really bad. but that's a little bit like the flu, a little bit like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. we'll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner. yeah, go ahead. >> two weeks ago, mr. president, your acting omb director was in this room and was talking about what he expects to be gdp growth for this coming year. he said it was 3% and we've talked about the effects of the coronavirus on the supply chain, the declines in the financial markets. are you still confident that you'll see that kind of economic growth this year? >> no. we're going to have tremendously low unemployment. we're setting records. in fact the administration, as

you know, the lowest average unemployment of any administration in history. our numbers are very low, very good, 3.5, 3.6. but you can't really see what this does in terms of gdp. it could affect it. but that's irrelevant compared to what we're talking about. we want to make sure it's safe. safety number one. but this would have, you know, an impact on gdp. but we're still very, very -- we're doing great, but this will have -- i tell you what has a big impact, boeing has a big impact. a year ago all of a sudden that happened. i think that took away a half a point to a point even. it's a massive company. we had boeing -- we had the general motors strike. that was a big impact on gdp. and of course we're paying interest rates. i disagree with the head of the fed. i'm not -- i'm not happy with what that is because he's kept interest rates. president obama didn't have near the numbers and yet if you look at what happened, he was paying zero. we're paying interest. now, it's more conservative and,

frankly, people that put their money away are now getting a returning on their money as opposed to not getting anything. but i think we're the greatest of them all, we should be paying the lowest interest rates. when germany and other countries are paying negative rates, meaning they're literally getting paid when they put out money. they borrow money and they get paid. whoever heard of this before, it's a first. we don't do that so i totally disagree with our fed. i think our feld hd has made a terrible mistake. even without the 2,000 points and we started off at 16,000 and we'll be at 28,000. we were going to crack 30,000. we have had increases like nobody has seen before. but we're doing well. but we have to watch -- we're doing well anyway, in other words, even despite the 2,000 points. it sounds like a lot and it's a lot but it's very little compared to what we've gone up. but we'll be watching it very closely. but we've been hurt by general motors, hurt by boeing and we've

been hurt in my opinion very badly by our own federal reserve, who has also created a very strong dollar. that's something nice about a strong dollar but makes it much harder to do business outside of this country. >> thank you, sir. a number of your supporters online have embraced these theories or forwarded these theories that the cdc may be exaggerating the coronavirus to hurt you politically. rush limbaugh said this has been weaponized -- >> you don't mean my supporters. you mean people not supporting me. >> yes. >> i agree with that. and i'd like it to stop. i think people know that when chuck schumer gets upset -- he said the same thing with a couple of trade deals that are phenomenal deals now. everybody has acknowledged they're phenomenal deals. he didn't even know they were going to make a deal. what do you think of the deal with china? i don't like it, i don't like it. he talked about tariffs. i left the tariffs on, 25% on

$250 billion. he said he took the tariffs off. he didn't even know the deal. he was out there knocking it because that's the natural thing to say. but when you're talking about especially something like this, we have to be on the same team. this is too important. we have to be on the same team. >> have you seen evidence that the cdc is trying to hurt you? >> no, i don't think the cdc is at all. they have been working really well together. they really are, they're professional. i think they're beyond that. they want this to go away. they want to do it with as little disruption and they don't want to lose life. i see the way they're working. these people behind me and others that are in the other room, they're incredible people. no, i don't see that at all. >> thank you, mr. president. >> thank you very much. >> i just -- >> i don't know who said that. >> thank you, mr. president. tonight you're minimizing the risk of danger of the virus. are you telling the americans except for the ones who are sick not to change any of their

behaviors? >> no. i think you have to always -- look, i do it a lot anyway as you probably heard, wash your hands, stay clean. you don't have to necessarily grab every handrail unless you have to. you know, you do certain things that you do when you have the flu. view this the same as the flu. when somebody sneezes, i try and bail out as much as possible when they're sneezing. i had a man come up to me a week ago, i henadn't seen him in a lg time. how are you doing? he said fine, fine. he hugs me. i said are you well. he says no. he said i have the worst fever and the worst flu and he's hugging and kissing me. i said excuse me. i went and started washing my hands. so i really think, doctor, you want to treat this like you treat the flu. i want to -- it was so nice of you to say thank you very much. go ahead, give me a nice question then. don't ruin it.

don't ruin it with a bad question. go ahead. >> it's really nice to talk to you without the helicopter. but also i want to talk to you been 2014. during the ebola crisis you said you wanted a full travel ban. you said obama was a stubborn dope for not doing it. you also said it was a total joke to appoint someone to lead the ebola response with zero experience in the medical field. now you've an pointed mike pence. >> they listened to what i had to say. ebola you disintegrated, especially at the beginning. they made a lot of progress now with ebola. with ebola, we were talking about it before. you sdindisintegrated, that was. this is like a flu. and this is a much different situation than ebola. and we're working on ebola right now, by the way. we're working on certain areas of the congo. the congo has ebola and caused

largely by the fact that they have war and people can't get there. we can now treat ebola. at that time it was infectious and you couldn't treat it. nobody knew anything about it. nobody had ever heard of anything like this so it's a much different situation. >> let me ask you this. >> yes. >> in the course of the last couple of minutes you have disputed some of what the officials behind you have said about the risk of coronavirus and its spread. do you trust your health officials to give you good information or do you trust your instincts more? >> they said it could be worse. i don't think it's inevitable. i think that we're doing a really good job in terms of maintaining borders in terms of letting people in, in terms of checking people and that's also one of the reasons i'm here today getting the word out so people will know. no, i don't think it's inevitable. i think that there's a chance that it could get worse, there's a chance it could get fairly

substantially worse, but nothing is inevitable. >> mr. president, brazil has its first case. >> that's right, brazil. >> right, brazil. and you have many americans now in brazil for carnival. what are your concerns and what are the procedures and practices that you plan to implement as those americans are trying to come back home. >> yes, we've gotten very strong on people coming in from brazil. it only has one case. it's a big country but only has one case. still, it's a case. we deal with brazil very well. the president is a good friend of mine. he ran on exactly -- it's called make brazil great again. we get along very well. i know you're thrilled to hear that. we get along very, very well and we're working with brazil. we have much worse instances than brazil. you have italy. they have one person as of now, one person in brazil. but italy is a deeper problem.

we're checking people coming in very, very strongly from those. at some point we may cut that off. at some point depending on what happens, we may cut certain additional countries off like we've had to do with china. we hope we can open it up to china as soon as possible. we hope the numbers we've been getting -- we hope the numbers that we've been getting are true on china, where it really has leveled off and started to go down because eventually sometime that is going to happen. >> mr. president, thank you very much. you've said repeatedly that you think the federal government is very prepared, that you're ready for this. >> yeah. >> but if you think that secretary azar is doing such a great job, why did you feel the need to make a change and put vice president mike pence in charge of the federal response to this virus? >> because i think -- i think secretary azar is doing a fantastic job but he also has many e. many other things. if you look at his schedule of what he's doing, including drug prices. i think it's perhaps the most complicated job that we have in government, and i want him to be

able to focus on that. mike is really good at it. they're going to work together, they're going to work very closely together and they're both in the administration. i see them all the time so it really works. this isn't a czar. this isn't going out and getting somebody that's never been in the administration. i have two people that are very talented. it's something i feel good about. i don't want to spare the horses. i have very talented people. i want to use them on this because i want it to stay low or as low as possible. >> mr. president -- thank you, mr. president. i want to get to china. at the beginning of this outbreak, the chinese communist party covered it up. that has been -- that has been the general consensus of everyone. how can you now legitimately trust president xi and the -- >> xi, president xi. >> to be forthcoming and forthright with this pandemic. >> well, i can tell you this, i

speak to him. i had a talk with him very recently and he is working so hard on this problem. he is working so hard. they're very tough and very smart. it's a significant -- it's a significant group of very talented people that are working. they're calling up dr. fauci, they're calling up our people. we're dealing with them. we're giving them certain advice. we actually have through world health, we have them over there also and we have a lot of our people making up that group that went over there. no, he's working very hard. it would be easy to say -- it doesn't matter what i say really. i can tem you, he is working -- i had a long talk with him the other night. he is working really, really hard. he wants it to go away from china and go away fast and get back to business as usual. >> you talked about the flu in comparison to coronavirus. the flu has a fatality of 0.1%. this has a fatality ratio at 2%

to 3%. >> we think. we don't know exactly. and the flu is higher than that. >> there's more people who get the flu but this is spreading and is going to spread within communities. >> it may, it may. >> does that -- does that worry you? >> no. >> that seems to be what worries the american people. >> no, because we're ready for it. it is what it is because we're ready for it. we're really prepared. as i said, we have the greatest people in the world and are very ready for it. we hope it doesn't spread. there's a chance that it won't spread too and then there's a chance that it will and it's a question at what level. when you have 15 people with this whole world coming into the united states and the 15 people are either better or close to being better, that's pretty good. all right, we'll do -- we'll do one more. go ahead. >> mr. president -- >> mr. president, there have been many cases of price gouging on the sales of medical equipment, masks and so on. should the government be investigating that, looking into it? >> if you tell me that's

happening, we will definitely investigate. we don't want that. one more, go ahead. >> are you working with china right now? >> yes. >> also do you worry about -- >> we're working with china. we just did the biggest trade deal in history. we did two of them between usmca and the china deal, the biggest in history. the relationship with china is a very good one. i can tell you that, again, president xi is working really hard. he wants this problem solved, as hard as you can work. thank you, all. thank you, all. i may leave you behind and you can answer a few more questions so you can ask them if you want. >> we've been watching president trump there brief reporters on the response to the coronavirus, of course, contradicting his own health officials. he said it was not inevitable the virus will come here. he also levelled political attacks against democrats, of course the speaker and the democratic leader of the senate. i'm back with democratic

congresswoman dona shalala of florida, former republican strategist steve schmidt and ezekiel manuel. so let's look at this from a number of perspectives. the president of the united states besides being a politician and many times simply an entertainer and a partisan is also chief executive, a role we don't often think about sometimes with him. he's in charge of running the united states government, including the cdc and all the health organizations of the country and working with international health organizations. he's responsible for protecting the general welfare. that's a job. it has nothing to do with pr. i want to go to donna shalala, former hhs secretary under clinton and now u.s. congresswoman under florida. how is he doing on those two jobs, leading the government and leading the people? >> well, he's not doing very well on the coronavirus, let me assure you, because the test of leadership is not talking about something you know very little about and he just confused the

american people about whether this virus is going to spread. all the scientists said it is going to spread and the president gave the opposite impression. and presidents have to know that when they're in a situation like this with complicated science, they put the scientists, physicians in front of them, preferably, by the way, in white coats, and let them reassure the american people, number one, with what they know and what people can do. we just saw a president confuse everyone with his answers. >> let me go to steve schmidt on this. a larger question, both questions, chief executive and leader of the country, head of state. which role was he playing here well or badly? >> well, i think to the secretary's point, there's only three types of questions that anyone will ever be asked. there's questions what do you know, what do you think, what do you feel. this was a news conference that calls for the head of state, the

chief executive to talk about what he knows, not how he feels. we saw a political tour de force talking about how he feels about the coronavirus. you saw him counterpunch very effectively to speaker pelosi, to leader schumer, but in the end he understands looking at the volatility in the stock market that this is one of the variables, something that's beyond his control in a race that could be determinative to the outcome of an election. and so we saw a president up there -- you often say in politics hope isn't a strategy. what we saw is a president up there hoping this is the flu, which it doesn't appear to be according to the world's health experts. >> let's go to dr. ezekiel manuel. dr. emmanuel, he made a couple of comments, one is that the world is getting over this disease. even the cases in this country are recovering, some are getting back to normal.

he also argued it's really not much different than the flu we're used to in terms of mortality rates. >> so actually i found most of what he said a little incoherent. you know, he's a guy who admitted that he's surprised that 25,000 to 69,000 people each year die of the flu. that just tells you how little he actually knows about public health and about the health of the american public because every doctor knows that and lots of health policy experts know that. and he told you, he just revealed how ignorant he is about the situation. we don't know how similar or dissimilar this is to the flu. we know one thing, it actually is more communicable than the flu, it passes between people very, very easily. the current perception is that the chance of dying from it is 2.5% to 3%. most of us experts think that's too high because the mild cases

aren't being reported, so we don't know what the real number is, and that's a really important variable because the real number could be lower or much lower, but then you have to know how many people are likely to get this to know what the total impact on the country is. but his minimizing the fact that this won't spread, it's going to go away. you know, flu won't go away for another two months at least, influenza won't go away two months at least. if this follows the flu and that's a big if, and we don't know whether that's going to be true or not. i thought tony fauci was trying to get people's expectations about a vaccine in line. >> yes. >> we're not going to have data for another 12 months. there's no vaccine for this season. >> so all they have right now is preventative, right? he said stay in your house, wash your hands, don't touch railings, don't make contact with other things as you go through your life.

are those bits of advice of any value in terms of preventing the spread of this disease, doctor? >> well, first of all -- first of all, we really do need to prove the number of people who have a flu vaccine. last year only 45% of adults got a flu vaccine and under 70% of kids. so that would be a very important measure for people to take. sendin second, washing our hands for 20 seconds is very important for people to take. if you're feeling ill, staying home, not going to work, not infecting other people, very important thing to take for this as well as for the regular flu. wearing a mask, that is not helpful as we have found out. we do need to worry about do we have enough masks in this country, are we going to get them to the doctors, not the people sort of playing around. those are important questions. are we going to have enough medications because the supply chain for medications come

through china. that's something that people are really beginning to worry about and there's no evidence that the president or the people around him that have been planning this have really taken that seriously. do we have alternatives? you haven't heard anything about that. so that's part of being a chief executive. i didn't hear any response to any of those major issues. >> well, thank you, doctor. hold on there. president trump directly contradicted, you heard, his own health experts who warned that the spread of disease to this country is inevitable. >> i don't think it's inevitable. it probably will, it possibly will. it could be at a very small level or at a larger level. whatever happens, we're totally prepared. we have the best people in the world. >> congresswoman, let's talk about a normal president, what a normal president, forget party politics for a second, a normal president who's responsible as opposed to what this president is doing. from the beginning of this threat when it came to us through the chinese and what they're going through, give us a

normative. give us a normal right way to deal with this, this danger. >> the right way to deal with it is to listen to the experts and have a very coherent communication strategy so that the administration speaks with one vote -- with one voice on the facts and what people can do about it and gives -- is very straight with the american people about the spread of the disease. but it has to be a daily report. and so they're just beginning to get organized to give us daily reports, but the president is clearly interfering in this. in addition to that, congress has a responsibility to make sure that we have adequately funded at least the first step of funding, and we're talking about large numbers. not only do we have to funding the cdc that the president wanted to cut but also the fda and nih as well as the states need to be properly funded because that's the first line of

defense. it's community health systems, it's doctors, it's hospitals, and we have been underfunding the public health infrastructure in this country for a long time. we need to rebuild it and we need to do that immediately. >> you know, steve schmidt, you and i know politics a bit better than we know anything else. i was thinking, i thought dr. emmanuel was right, wash your hands. even on a political show like this you can learn some things about protecting yourself. just stay clean and keep away from -- if you think you've got it, don't spread it. that's just common sense. there's a definite lie that was told by the president. he just tried to connect last night's debate, which was horrendous in many moments, to what happened to two days before. the democrats are maybe guilty of some things but they're not time travelers. they didn't have a debate sunday night. the stock market went down a thousand a day monday and tuesday, the democratic debate

was tuesday night. how can the most crazy trumpite think what happened tuesday night affected the stock market monday and tuesday mornings? how can anybody believe him? >> yet they will. >> how? >> i think it's important to understand politically that he sits atop a propaganda machine that is unlike anything that has ever been seen in this country. used to be on the campaigns we worked on you'd have the surrogates out there and you would hope that the surrogates were able to maintain some message discipline, right, to deliver the talking points, right, to stay with the themes of the campaign. across this whole country, normal people, not people working on the campaign, it's like they have a chip in their frontal cortex loaded for bear with the trump talking points that are disseminated from the white house, from fox news, talk radio, through their social media feeds. >> i know it's psychological -- >> and so -- but chris, here's the thing. that's the argument he's going

to make. >> he did it. he just did it twice. >> he's going to make it. you watched the debate. what he's saying is these people are going to destroy the economy. i mean the hutzpah of it, to say that the market is down thousands of points not because of fear of a global pandemic but because of the debate is incredible but it's effective. >> it's a lie and the president tried to cover for rush limbaugh. now that we're in politics, a firm foundation here. he said all rush did was say that the democratic big shots like pelosi and schumer were spreading their own hype into panic. no, limbaugh said it was the cdc. he said it was the experts that were hyping this thing. >> for sure, he's going to cover him all the time. >> once you give him the medal of freedom, you have to cover for him. donna shalala, you've done every job. you're president of a university, i'm a big fan of yours. you're also a great athlete fanatic when i love. dr. ezekiel emmanuel, all your brothers are great.

thank you, steve schmidt. coming up, bernie sanders gets the front-runner treatment last night. it's not so great to be up there on that pedestal, is it, bernie, isn't it? they were all going after the front-runner. here he is. >> bernie, in fact, hasn't passed much of anything. >> do something for the people of america instead of a bunch of broken promises that sound good on bumper stickers. >> vladimir putin thinks that donald trump should be president of the united states and that's why russia is helping you get elected so you'll lose to help. -- to him. >> we'll see how he does on defense. we've got much more to get to tonight with bernie sanders actually moving into the front-runner situation if he's not already there. stick with us. intelligent income. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. tell us how much you have, and how long you need it to last. we'll estimate how much you could spend. then you can decide how you'll spend it. schwab manages the complexity with automated, tax-smart withdrawals. that you can start,

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you can also wonder why our competitors don't offer that. ♪ schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. i've been hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight. i wonder why? >> mr. steyer -- >> i think we're talking about -- let's talk about it. >> first of all, first of all -- >> let me go, let me go. >> tom, i think she was talking about my plan, not yours. >> i think we were talking about math and it doesn't take two hours to do the math. let's talk about what it adds up to. let's talk about math indeed. okay, so here's the math. >> whoa, whoa. >> vice president biden, please. >> i guess the only way to do this is jump in and speak twice as long as you should. >> welcome back to "hardball." those were just some of the clashes in last night's rather ugly democratic debate down in

charleston. the last before the primary there on saturday and super tuesday of course next tuesday. well, next tuesday, six days from now. it's vermont senator bernie sanders' first time in the hot seat as the full-fledged front-runner, which he is now, and was on the receiving end from attacks from all of his rivals, even at odds with the audience at some points. watch. >> bernie and i agree on a lot of things, but i think i would make a better president than bernie. >> if you think the last four years has been chaotic, divisive, toxic, exhausting, imagine spending the better part of 2020 with bernie sanders versus donald trump. >> within walking sdandistance mother emmanuel church. nine people shot dead by a white supremacist. bernie voted five times against the brady bill. >> to keep on going, we will elect bernie. bernie will lose to donald trump. >> mayor bloomberg has a solid and strong and enthusiastic base

of support. the problem is, they're all billionaires. >> senator sanders was attacked by his rivals. somebody counts this stuff, 33 times in the course of a two-hour debate. former vice president joe biden leading sanders in south carolina a bit in the polls but fighting for survival if he doesn't win. came off the ropes to strike out not only at sanders but several of his other rivals last night. he was on the offensive. >> bernie in fact hasn't passed much of anything. the fact of the matter is -- i get to answer that. look, the fact is -- i'm not out of time. he spoke over time and i'm going to talk. here's the deal. here's the deal. >> i am the author of the bill to close the boyfriend loophole that says that domestic abusers can't go out and get an ak-47. >> i wrote that law. >> that bill, along with -- you didn't write that bill, i wrote that bill. >> i wrote the bill that took it out of the hands of people that

abuse -- >> we'll have a fact check look at this. >> it was like a teamsters convention. everybody is rough. these were tough people. i'm joined by national co-chair of the sanders campaign and ceo of the center for american progress. what did you think of last night? i mean, your guy. how'd he handle it? why is everybody going after him? >> well, they're going after him because he is winning. it would make sense for them to go after him. but look what he always does. he says whatever the answer is, and he says i'm going to provide people with healthcare. i'm going to give you free public college. i'm going to do childcare. every answer, he pivots back to what's going to help people and that's i think why he is doing well. >> keeping it simple. i mean, people have these needs. people in their 20s want some help with their student loans. as i always say, my student loan was $2,800. these kids have over six-figure debt. tuition and even public college is through the roof. and he says i'm going to pay for it. of course, the question's always going to be financing. where is it coming from?

>> i do think in this debate, you saw for the first time a lot of candidates asking senator sanders questions about how he pays for his entire program. i do think the -- >> well, he doesn't pay for it. i'm just kidding but somebody pays. >> how he would ensure that it is paid for, which was a continuation from the questions that he faced on "60 minutes" on sunday. now, i've been in debates like this with a person who's in the lead and a lot of the question is how do you perry those challenges? but on some questions like the questions about cuba and others, it did expose kind of a little bit of an anger and hostility. >> yeah. let's talk about that because the strength of bernie sanders, your guy, is that he's authentic. >> yes. >> in other words, he doesn't twist and turn. he doesn't pivot. he doesn't play games like most politicians do. he said i liked aspects of the cuban revolution. i was fascinated. he used different terms over the years. he defended it.

by the way, let him talk for himself but he never changes on stuff. >> of course, you have a dictatorship in cuba. what i said is what barack obama said in terms of cuba. that cuba made progress on education. yes, i think -- really? really? literacy programs are bad? >> what does really mean, by the way, as a debateliing point? >> at least he's actually taking on the audience. >> but who was in the audience? i mean, let's be real about it. >> yes, but there were people who had to buy tickets. i mean, it was a disproportionate group of donors in that audience. >> no. no. no. no. i think this is a really important point because this is deeply disturbing. it was the same rules for every debate. the same audience for every debate. >> sure. but did they not charge a $1,700 ticket? >> actually, that's been in

dispute. >> so you are saying there were no donors there? >> that's not what you said a minute ago. you are saying the audience was against him because they're wealthy people. >> there were a disproportionate amount of donors. it was a class of -- >> i think the question is disproportionate. i don't think it was actually different from any other debate, the number of donors. and i think south carolina is a different place who has -- it's a much more moderate states, even the democrats, and you can't just blame people. they might just disagree and i think that's fair and right. >> the problem with the cuba thing is one point some million cuban-americans, he lied to them. he lied about what he was. because i was a kid and we rooted for him. he was a democrat. he was going to bring democracy to cuba. turns out he was going to shoot everybody he didn't like and he was going to make an alliance with the soviets. and then he was going to put in medium-range missiles that can reach every american city but seattle and try to kill us. he was our enemy.

he wasn't just sort of a social democrat. >> here's the real choice. look of the castro, in '59, he had firing squads. he had human rights abuses. bernie sanders doesn't say cuba is the model. >> pete buttigieg argued sanders would be a drag on the other democratic candidates running. down ballot. people running for the house and state legislatures. here he goes. >> if you want to keep the house in democratic hands, you might want to check with the people who actually turned the house blue. 40 democrats, who are not running on your platform, they are running away from your platform as fast as they possibly can. i want to send those democrats back to the united states house. >> can i be the spoiler here? i think it's too late for this debate. i don't know who can beat him right now. >> i think the question is really -- >> who can beat him? >> -- about south carolina. i mean, bernie sanders has built momentum because of nevada. he had close races. the one, new hampshire. and he's built momentum in

nevada. i think the honest question is if -- if -- >> suppose biden wins a big victory this saturday. five, seven-point victory over bernie and tom steyer. suppose that. what happens then? >> i mean, the states in super tuesday are a diverse set of states. they're state that bernie sanders should do really well in and you can see a natural base like colorado and california. but then there are southern, more conservative states. and there is a deep mix there. i mean, i do think 72 hours is a really long time in politics. it's the difference between saturday and tuesday. but i don't want to take away from the fact that senator sanders has built up momentum from nevada. that is absolutely the case and the reason so many people went after him was because of that reason. >> okay. >> the underdog. i mean, he knows the forces that are against him. he is going to be the underdog until he's the president. >> can't be the underdog and the person who's winning.

>> all things reasonable in the democratic party. we are beak in a minute. you're watching "hardball." welcome to portabella's. this guy looks like he's ready for some scampi bites. wait a sec i feel like i know you? oh! have you dined with us before? no, you're -- you're that insurance guy, aren't you? the pasty one? oh, yeah. as if! like i'm gonna go into some spiel about how you can get options based on your budget with the name your price tool. hey, robbie, you tell them about the mushroom puffers? just about to, pam. wait, are we in a progressive commercial? ♪ come on down to portabella's

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we've got a busy few days ahead of us right now.

this saturday, i will be back in charleston for the south carolina democratic primary. joe biden, he has to win i think we all agree. on super tuesday, 14 states that day and we will be in one of the hot ones. that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. >> tonight on "all in." >> we will seek more cases here in the united states. we have to be mentally prepared and also, as a government, prepared. >> the trump administration scrambling on the coronavirus. >> we -- we're ready to adapt, and we are ready to do whatever we have to. >> tonight, the president's response to what could be the biggest emergency of his term. and the muddled messaging from his own team. >> we have contained this, i won't say airtight, but pretty close to airtight. >> then the latest on the outbreak itself as the virus spreads to at least three more