the big question as we look down the road is will people in michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, say preside say pp has done enough on manufacturing? will they blame him there is still a decline? next month, we have primaries in pennsylvania and wisconsin. >> big test there, as well. mike allen in d.c. always pleasure. thanks. we'll be reading axios a.m. in a little bit. sign up at signup.axios.com. that does it for us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, march 10th. along with joe, willie, and me, we have former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve rattner. after a big day in the markets yesterday, joe, coronavirus is becoming basically the universal story across the board. >> well, it is becoming the

universal story. i think people in america are slowly but surely waking up to the real concerns. they need to have them, especially for parents, grandparents, people of certain ages, people with underlying health conditions. what is concerning me right now, mika, is especially because of the dow drop yesterday, you have people running around on television saying that the coronavirus is a hoax. it is just like impeachment. that it is just like the mueller report. you have actually conservative -- well, not conservativ conservatives. i'm sorry. you have trumpists that are running around saying that this was all concocted by the media as fake news. remember, the president was saying that the media coverage of this was fake news. we heard this time and again. you know, willie, it is very interesting, the president -- if the president and his supporters believe that this is nothing worse than the flu, which has been suggested, i'm just

curious, why is the president's chief of staff this morning in a quarantine? >> self-quarantine. >> why is ted cruz going to be in a self-quarantine for 14 days? because if i'm with you in the same room, and you have the flu, and you go, i have to go home, i have the flu, i go, oh, that's too bad. i keep working. right? but they -- now, because they understand, as ted cruz said, please understand how important this is, how serious this is. follow science. follow medical advice. they self-quarantine. why would somebody on air force one yesterday from congress on the plane, and the second he gets a call and finds out that he had exposure, just mere exposure to the coronavirus, they immediately whisked him to a part of air force one and basically shut him off in a room. now, he's self-quarantined, as well. willie, they can say it is just

like the flu. they can say it's a hoax. i'm just curious, why doesn't the president, if he really believes that, why doesn't he have his chief of staff come in and sit down and brief him today? >> brand-new chief of staff. >> why doesn't he call ted cruz and tell ted to come on up and come in his office today and have a talk with him? sit down for an hour or two and maybe work through some of these things. maybe they can be in a small, contained office. you know why? because donald trump understands it's not the flu. he understands that this is an epidemic. some people are calling it a pandemic. unless we take those safe precautions that some donald trump supporters are suggesting we don't take, then our health care system is going to look like the stock market looked like yesterday. a lot of senior citizens, be they republicans or democrats, are going to get infected. they're going to die. i just -- the recklessness, the

partisanship, the false alternatives, the false realities that these people try to spin out of the white house, these trump supporters try to spin, let's just call it what it is. it is irresponsible, and it is deadly. especially for our senior citizens. >> as you say, despite what the president has been tweeting for the last 24 hours, he does now know how serious it is. he is asking questions. he's been having to answer questions about whether or not he himself has been tested for coronavirus. the white house says no. why would he be tested? he, too, was at that republican conservative conference last week. >> there are no tests. >> well, that's the other problem. presumably, the president of the united states could get a test. those congressmen you talked about, his chief of staff, self-quarantined because they were at cpac last week, the conservative conference. the president was there, too. he was on air force one with the florida congressman you talked about who, last week, was

mocking coronavirus was wearing a gas mask into the well of the house. this couldn't be more serious at this point. just look what's happening in italy. they've effectively shut down the entire country. the dow was down 2,000 points yesterday, as you just showed. the president has to be taking this seriously. it's a crazy thing to say, but at this point, we almost have to look past the president of the united states. we know what he is going to tweet. we know he is protecting his political hide. we know he wants to win re-election. just listen to doctors and scientists. people who know what they're talking about. people who give guidance, not through a political lens like the president does on twitter. >> if this were a conspiracy theory, all to take down donald trump, which i can't believe, listen -- >> started in china. >> -- i can't believe anybody in america would be stupid enough to believe that. but i know there are people on tv who are trump apologists who think americans are that stupid to believe it. just for people that are

depositing that stupid theory, ask yourself this, would italy shut down completely over a theory to defeat donald trump at the polls? no. would china shut down? would all these other countries take such extreme measures? again, it's not logical. it makes no sense. there are actually people out there who are ignorant enough to believe it. listen, if you want to spin your ignorant conspiracy theories about ukraine, listen, if you like the russians and want to be a useful idiot for vladimir putin, go ahead. knock yourself out. that's up to you. i mean, i would -- i would question my patriotism if i did that. but if you don't mind being a useful idiot for vladimir putin, you can do that. here's the problem with this

conspiracy theory, your parents, your grand parents, seniors that you love, that you go to church with, seniors that you love that you know, have known growing up, you put them at risk unless you treat this for what it is. this is a health epidemic that many are already calling an international pandemic. do you know what happens in international pandemics? millions and millions of people die. in 1818/1819, 50 million people died because they didn't handle it the right way. because they didn't quarantine. because they didn't take the steps we're just now beginning to take, which we should have started a month ago. >> joe, you have countries doing drive-by testing. what are we doing? >> nothing. >> people are walking into ers. people are trying to figure out whether they should go to the hospital. because it's dangerous to do so. >> i mean, let's talk about that, willie.

it is unbelievable. st. john's hospital in the rock away rockaways, one person walks in that's affected. because we don't have anything set up like italy or south korea, where they have drive-by tests, one person walks into an er room and basically shuts it down. 40 doctors, nurses, health care providers have to self-quarantine because they're exposed to this one person with a coronavirus that walks in. do you think we have any planning like that, the greatest country on the face of the earth? no. we are so far behind on this. because we have a president who has been denying for a month that this was anything serious. thought he could say, i've been tough. i shut down the borders, blah, blah, blah. >> the virus doesn't lie. >> what are you doing insoid ide borders? that's the question that his staff is still wrestling with with him. because it is the president

above all else in the white house that still is not taking this seriously. i'm worried about seniors. i'm worried about people who have diabetes. i'm worried about people who are frail with underlying conditions who are likely to die if they're exposed to this. >> you know, the reason the president can go out and say, well, we don't have that many cases, is because we don't have the tests to show how many cases we have. we shouldn't even use that number. >> yeah. yeah, i mean, isn't that amazing, willie? yesterday, he said, well, the flu, you only have like so and so many cases every year. >> right. >> we only have 500 in this country. well, because we haven't had the tests. because he botched it up. so we aren't getting the tests. we don't even know how many people are infected, how many people are in senior communities who are infected, who are

visiting senior communities that are infected, what kids have it who may be going the see their grandparents at a senior facility. it is so dangerous. >> those numbers don't begin to tell the story. that number of states probably doesn't begin to tell the story. there is reporting from "politico" and others this morning that two months ago, the world health organization was distributing a test, and the united states was one of the few developing countries that refused to accept that test. we could have been ahead of this. many mistakes made along the way. we are where we are. we have to get tests to these municipalities, these states. we'll have mayor bill de blasio on this morning. i suspect he'll please, like he did last week, for more tests, so they can get a real sense of how serious this is, how many people actually have it. we don't know right now. we know it is more than is being reported, but we don't know what the real number is at this point. >> today is also another big primary day as voters in six states head to the polls this

morning. there are 352 delegates up for grabs, and michigan is the biggest prize with 125 delegates. senator bernie sanders narrowly won the state in 2016. a surprise win that kept his campaign going. right now, biden has 664 total delegates to sanders' 573. we'll get to all of that in a moment. first, let's get the fast-paced developments with the coronavirus. as the number of cases continues to balloon across the u.s. ten days ago, there were at least 89 confirmed cases across six states. this morning, there are at least 725 cases across 36 states. that's because there was testing in those places, and also d.c. the death toll is 26. more than half of those cases are in just three states, washington, new york, and california. more than a dozen local school districts have canceled classes.

more colleges are moving to online only classes, including stanford, ohio, ohio state, princeton, and nyu. a nasa research center in california issued a mandatory policy for employees to work from home after a worker tested positive for a virus. multiple sources tell "variety" that coachella and the stagecoach music festivals will likely be moved to october. billboard reports coachella's organizers will make a decision in the next day or so. pearl jam, madonna, and miley cyrus have canceled shows. "jeopardy" and "wheel of fortune" will begin taping without a studio audience. meanwhile, boston has canceled its st. patrick's day parade. >> which is just -- what a huge cancellation that is. >> usually brings out more than a million people every year. then there's the impact on congress. more republican lawmakers are in

self-quarantine after interacting with someone who tested positive for the virus at cpac. including congressman matt gaitz, who flew on air force one with the president before going into self-quarantine. and chief of staff mark my dmea. and collins, seen shaking the president's hand. and another decided he will not self-quarantine and is back on the hill. willie, take it away. >> it's locked down the country in italy, being described as the country's greatest crisis since world war ii. yesterday, the prime minister announced the country would be restricting its 60 million people from traveling freely, encouraging them to stay home. italian citizens who would like

to travel must now request permission and would need a valid work or family reason. the new restriction measures also forbid anyone from ba gathering in public, also suspending all sporting events. last week, the country closed all schools, which remain closed until at least april 3rd. he contributed the lockdown to securing the safety of the health system, saying we all must give something up for the sake of italy. italy has seen a wider spread of the outbreak outside of any country other than china. yesterday, the death toll jumped by nearly 100 people, bringing the new total in italy, mika, to 463. >> meanwhile, a perfect storm hit wall street yesterday, as fears of the coronavirus collided with a plunge in oil prices. the dow sank more than 2,000 points, losing nearly 7.8%, its worst day since the 2008 financial crisis. s&p lost 7.6%. the nasdaq, almost 7.3%.

the sell-off was so bad that a circuit breaker was triggered minutes after the opening bell, which halted trading for 15 minutes. the plunge in oil prices comes as saudi arabia and russia battle over market share. the demand for oil declined because fewer people are traveling due to the coronavirus. this morning, global markets are trying to bounce. dow futures are pointing to a more than 800 point surge after the president floated the possibility of a payroll tax cut. >> steve rattner, you have charts, but before we get to your charts, let's talk a little bit about what happened yesterday. i don't usually watch cnbc, only because -- i mean, it is a great network, but i usually don't watch it because, as you know, willie and i believe in off-track betting. see rattner there? >> i'm here.

>> i was talking to a wall here. yeah, we do off-track betting, so willie and i don't listen to cnbc. it is cotb. you have to have a certain cable provider to get that one. i was watching cnbc all day yesterday. it seemed while the oil -- sort of the oil wars between russia and the saudis caused a lot of the unrest. by the end of the day, when they were trying to figure out how long this route would go, people were moving back to the coronavirus and talking about the fact that there's just so much uncertainty. the markets don't know what's going to happen. they don't know what the bottom is going to be. they don't -- i mean, they have a supply problem. they have a demand problem. they don't know what consumers are going to be doing. i mean, there were so many questions. they've sort of priced this oil war into it. now, it seems, all the analysts are worried about the

coronavirus and trying to figure out where the bottom is going to be. nobody thinks it is going to be a deep recession that lasts a year and a half, but they think it could be a pretty severe recession. could happen quickly and be more u-shaped. from the analysts you spoke with yesterday on the street and in your business, what caused yesterday? was that perfect storm mika was talking about? if there is a recession, how long do they think it will last? >> well, of course, the stock market is just another version of otb, but we try to do it with a few more numbers. probably get to about the same probability of success in predicting it. look, i think yesterday was a perfect storm of things that came together, and they were all related, of course. started with the coronavirus, which led, as mika said, to a drop in oil demand, which led to a fight within opec between the russians and the asaudis. effectively a collapse of opec, so now everyone is pumping as much oil as they can, leading to oil prices collapsing.

you also have the fact that the market hates uncertainty. the market is not used to public health crises and doesn't fancy itself an expert on public health. you have the fact that, frankly, there was an absence of leadership from washington for a good while. markets hate that. they want leadership. they want the president to stand up and say something. the president spent the weekend playing golf and spent monday at a fundraise r r in orlando. i'll show you the charts and what happened. as mika said, you had this enormous sell-off yesterday, but that brought the total sell-off since the beginning of this event back in february, it brought the total sell-off in the s&p to 19%. that's 1% short of a bear market. 20% is considered a bear market. what is interesting about this sell-off is if you compare it to what happened in 2007, when the market began to sell-off in anticipation of the financial crisis, and you can see this small gray dotted line up here, the sell-off is steeper than it

was in 2007. it has been a record drop in terms of the amount of drop over the period of time it occurred. also not surprisingly, it has been concentrated in a few industries that have been most affected by all this. that includes banks. banks get hurt when interest rates go down. they can't make as much money on their loans. includes airlines. not surprising. people don't fly as much. and it includes energy, which has been absolutely decimated by this. if you look at a few of the stocks, for example, united airlines is down 40% since the peak. citi group is down by 34%. accidental petroleum, to pick leaders, is down by a stunning 71%. let's turn then to what this means for economic growth. already, economists are slashing the forecast for economic growth. this happens to be citi group's forecast. you can use anybody you want. see that back here, for the second quarter, citi group was

projecting a -- excuse me -- projecting a much stronger quarter, and now only 1%. in the third quarter, citi group was projecting over 3%. it is now projecting zero. fourth quarter also cut its projections and so on. so you can see for the year as a whole, citi group is projecting 1% group this year compared to 2.4% growth it was projecting months ago. >> steve, can i interrupt you here? >> of course. >> we look at the projections, but these really, and i respect the economists who are trying to figure out what's going to happen, but we have no idea what this epidemic or what this pandemic is going to be. if it is like italy, then, of course, those numbers will likely be far worse. if it lasts six months, the numbers will be far worse. we're still sort of whistling in the dark, aren't we? because we don't know the extent of this coronavirus. we've all heard, this is not the

deadly virus, you know, this ultimate virus that everybody feared. the survival rate is still fairly high. it's far, far worse than the flu, but it is not what -- the deadliest of pandemics that a lot of people have feared. but if it gets out of control, then we could be shut down like italy for six months. then those numbers will be far worse, won't they? >> sure. we can take a look. it is all probabilities, joe. nobody knows for certain. we're guessing on probabilities. if you want to look -- >> of course, if we get on top of it -- sorry to interrupt. i want to finish the sentence. if we get on top of it, actually, it may not be that bad. the future really is in the hands of our leaders on how quickly and how nimbly they respond to this crisis. >> it is. but the ying and the yang of that, of course, is a more aggressive response, shutting down more of the country, as italy is doing, would have a bigger short-term economic

effect. italy is going to go into recession. that is a virtual certainty. they're already on the verge anyway. the economics. trump has been trying to have business as usual because he doesn't want the country to go into recession, but he is having to recognize the reality. let's look at probabilities and see what the prediction markets think is going to happen. there are other ways to measure this with treasury yields and things like that. this is pretty simple. if you go back before this started, the market was pricing at a relatively low 20% responsibility of recession. the last few days, the probability has shot up to 64% of a recession this year. again, it is a responsibilitpro. we don't know. since there are political implications to this, if there is a recession this year, it doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be a recession before election day. it doesn't necessarily mean it is going to bring down the trump

presidency. there is this distinct -- i think a very distinct possibility of recession. certainly a slowdown. right now, i would say the odds are slightly better than 50% of a recession. >> because of that, and because of all the data steve just laid out, president trump is weighing a number of stimulus options for the economy. let's bring in news correspondent hans nichols from the white house. good morning. what is the president considering here? >> reporter: the president is talking about big picture stuff. payroll tax holiday, whether on the business side or the personal side. the president though has been talking about that for about ten days. there's a real debate, guys, inside the administration on just how big you go with a stimulus measure. importantly, whether or not you get congress to go along with it. most of the talk as of yesterday afternoon was ideas that you would need congressional authorization for. that's a payroll tax holiday that would have some stimulative effect. the administration doesn't know how bad or how resilient the

economy is going to be, and they don't want to overspend in that case. now, in the past -- and we've seen this dozens of times -- when there is a choice between overspending and being a fiscal hawk, president donald trump always comes down on the overspending side. if there is a debate among the advisers, it seems somewhat academic. we see where the president is on this. that is, he wants a stimulus before thebeen talking about it some time, always talked about tax cuts. we see this most acutely, and steve would be well-positioned on this, hon how the president talks about the fed. the president has been working the refs on the fed really his entire administration. he got a little of what he wanted last week when they had the emergency rate cut, but he still wants more. from the president's perspective, he sees this as an opportunity to juice the economy and inject fiscal stimulus, monetary orifi fiscal. will house and senate democrats

go along? a lot of them have been on the record -- steve knows this from 2011 to 2012, doing something additional on the payroll tax side. an interesting conversation is taking place inside the white house. there will be another one when senior officials go down to the hill. mnuchin, kudlow, talking to senate republicans and senate democrats. guys? >> let me ask you, hans, what is the likelihood democrats in the house and the senate would support this wide-ranging stimulus bill that certainly is not going to help a lot of the people who need it the most? let's talk about a payroll tax, for instance. >> reporter: right. >> if you're going to stop that, it's not getting people on airlines. that's not going to get people out at concert venues. the other side of it, it is not going to help people that are going to be stuck at home that are lower income, middle income families that have to stay home with their children when schools are shut down. >> reporter: this gets to larry

kudlow's point of tailored. you're talking about geographic c geographical things you can do. what you can do for hourly workers. they may not want to go to work but are concerned about not getting paid. that's something on the public health side. look, the question of whether or not senate democrats and house democrats go along with stimulus eight months out from an election, in the face of a potential -- as steve's charts are showing -- potential slowdown, it's a big question. a lot of them are on record from '11 and '12 saying we should do something for the country. they're pro payroll tax holidays. from the obama administration, they have a record on that. as to the likelihood, something i learned from steve, economists never say likelihood but probability. i'll say a third. larry somers trick, always say 30% probability, and you look smart either way.

i don't know how to handicap this on the house side. >> it's about a third on the house side. i've learned from you. hans nichols, thank you so much. >> thank you, hans. >> greatly appreciate it. steve, really quickly, donald trump has been working the refs when it comes to the fed and rate cuts. but he got a rate cut, and all that did was panic the market into saying, wait a second, why are they doing an emergency rate cut? this must be bad. why would the fed go ahead and use one of the last remaining bullets in its chamber for another emergency rate cut that's not going to do anything? >> look, i'm much more of a fan of jerome powell than trudonald tru trump, as i think he's done a mostly good job. >> really good job, yeah. >> he has. they did blow it on this rate cut because of the signaling effects. they were kind of saying to the market, we'll probably cut rates

at the meeting, third week of march. 25 basis points. that's what the markets thought. then a 50% emergency rate cut, not done since the financial crisis. that tipped the markets over because it scared the hell out of people, quite frankly. with regard to the stimulus issue, one thing about that. the historical record would tell you that, in many cases, we have failed to act as quickly as we should have. that was the case in 2007/2008. the bush administration dragged its heels on stimulus, and it ended up being done mostly by the obama administration. interest rates -- treasury can borrow 30 years at about 1.7%, 1.5% at the moment. extraordinary opportunity, actually, to do something about infrastructure, which would not have an immediate effect but would get the economy going. i think they should do something. i understand it is complicated. this is a case where we need more leadership and a plan out of the white house. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," as willie mentioned, mayor

bill de blasio joins us for an important update on new york city's response to the coronavirus. first, let's go to bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning to you, mika. six states heading out to vote today. we do have two storms on the map. first is a weak storm with rain moving through areas of the east. it is an umbrella day today. still very warm on the eastern seaboard. you are having light rain pushing through. if you don't want to get wet, have the umbrella. new york, philadelphia, washington, d.c., pittsburgh, it is raining. pouring in cincinnati. primary day forecast. we have great weather for voting today. no problems at all. north dakota. missouri looks great. michigan is clearing out. fantastic voting weather. we will see a few storms and maybe showers pushing through mississippi on and off throughout the day. it is only going to last for a half hour here or there. idaho looks good. washington state should be good most of the day. late in the day, we may have rain coming into areas especially throughout seattle, tacoma area. the other big storm, we've had a

dry winter in california. of course, this is their rainy season. if we don't get water now, you're not going to get it in the summer. that means a horrible fire season coming. we desperately needed this rain today. we're getting it in southern california. if we have bad weather today with flash flooding, mud, and debris flows, it'd be in the mountainous areas outside of los angeles and san diego. for all the voting needs today, things look really good in just about all of our primary states. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ i am everyday people >> announcer: "morning joe" weather is sponsored by servpro. a lot of healthy foods are very acidic

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china had 3,000 new cases a day. they're down to 200. what can we learn from china's approach to the outbreak there and perhaps translate it to the

united states? >> you know, it's really interesting because the world health organization, and also xi jinping, the head of china, have said, use the china model for the rest of the world. but that's not so easy. remember, in wuhan, and then the province that wuhan is in, called hubei province, has 70 million people. they were quarantined. nobody could leave. nobody could come back. it seems to me inconceivable we could do that in the united states. could we really quarantine new york city, san francisco? we're not china. we don't -- our citizens are not going to tolerate the social control, the police presence, the armed police presence, the intrusive surveillance. so i think we've got to do it our own way. i think our way is through science. let's get a treatment and a vaccine soon. let's use good, sound public

health. >> that was professor of global health law at georgetown university, dr. lawrence gostin, speaking with dr. dave campbell, who joins us now. the president jumped in on the press conference yesterday, dr. dave, the daily update on coronavirus. what were the big takeaways? >> we have good news and bad news. the bad news is the numbers have increased in the united states ten-fold in ten days. we know that the president's tone was more serious. the vice president recommended everybody in the country go to coronavirus.gov for information that will help all of us, help others. also, dr. fauci came out and recommended against older people with pre-existing illnesses going on a choose. -- cruise. >> they used the word "mitigation," i believe. are we prepared, if we get testing in place and discover a

significant amount of people need care? >> no, we are not. in 1976, when i graduated high school, there was 1.5 million in patient beds. today, there are under a million. italy predicts they will need 18,000 more beds for patients the end of the month. we're not there. we have a week or two to get ready. >> do we know how many people in the u.s. have been tested so far? >> we do not. secretary azar told us that he cannot answer that question. we do not. >> how is the testing being conducted? like in other countries, you can drive up, and it's very as an septic as it can be. opposed to walking into a hospital and infecting everybody. is the testing being done in a way that prevents the virus from being spread? >> attempts to do that, of course. like the flu, when somebody gets to the er, they're triaged away

from others and a mask is immediately put on them. then the testing pattern starts. go through the flu swab, then they do a viral pcr, and finally, if need be, they send off the coronavirus test to the cdc. >> okay. dr. dave campbell, thank you very much. willie? >> let's bring in professor of medicine at vanderbilt university medical center in nashville, dr. shafter. good to see you. i got the alert. i'm an alum of vanderbilt, classes had been canceled there on campus. that's a trend we're seeing across the country. i'm interested, as we take a step back from 30,000 feet, at this point, obviously, there were things we could have done as a country up until this moment that we haven't done. we are where we are. how are you viewing this right now? how serious is it, and how should americans be looking at it? >> willie, it is serious, and we're rolling out the testing. that's the single most important thing we're doing right now.

that will give us an idea, we hope in about a week or week and a half, how widespread this virus is across the country. is it just focal and spreading, or has it actually now encompassed the entire country? we're moving from containment to mitigation really. the question is how quickly are we doing that? >> so as we spintroduce that te, you say a week, week and a half, i guess it'd be good news if it comes out next week, how soon will we have our arms around how serious this problem is? as we said at the top of the show, doctor, those numbers we see, the charts we put up, the map we put up to say there are a handful of cases here or there, likely are vastly underestimating the scope of this problem. >> well, we don't have those numbers yet, but we already know that it is a serious problem, and we're already recommending social distancing. that's one of the republicasons vanderbilt, as well as other

universities, have closed, going to actual class and switching to virtual classes. that's very important. and the emphasis on people who are older than age 60, distancing themselves from groups. as i like to say, if you're reverent and you are a religious person, don't go to the congregational meeting this weeke weekend. be reverent at home. those sorts of things, i think, are important, because this is a virus transmitted from person to person. the less we expose ourselves to groups of people, the less likely we are to acquiring the infection. >> a lot of people in this country, dr. schaffner, are heeding the warnings and not going to the large gatherings. st. patrick's day parade in boston has been canceled, for example. this goes with school closings, as well, how will we know when it is safe to go back to school? how will we know when it is safe to go to the movies again or gather again? what's the moment in the

progress of this disease where people can say, all right, we're through this, back to life as it was? >> well, we'll be reliant on the numbers that come through. the numbers of new cases that we're seeing. and a lot of those decisions will be made at the local level. listen to your local public health authorities. they'll be giving you the word about when it's okay to resume life as normal. >> dr. schaffner, it's spring break time across this country. what are you saying to families right now who are wondering whether or not they should take that trip? >> i would say think about it very carefully. how essential is that trip? who is taking the trip? are you an older person? if you have an underlying illness, such as diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, maybe it's time to think about that twice. younger people who have more of a risk tolerance and who, if they get infected, won't get as seriously ill, for the most

part, well, maybe they can take the trip. so it's, who is traveling, and how important this venture is that you're about to undertake. >> dr. william schaffner of vanderbilt university, professor of medicine there, we appreciate your insights this morning. sure we'll be talking again. thanks so much. >> thanks, willie. ahead this morning, we'll preview today's six democratic primaries. bernie sanders is hoping to win in michigan today, but polls show joe biden now in the lead. plus, the former vice president has new backing from the leading democratic super pac. "morning joe" is coming right back. apps are used everywhere...

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welcome back. after a string of primary wins, joe biden holds a nearly 20-point lead over the rest of the democratic field, according

to a new quinnipiac university poll. biden now sits at 54%, up 37 points since last month. the former vice president is 19 points ahead of senator bernie sanders, who has 35%. up 10 points. congresswoman tulsi gabbard sits at 2%. ahead of today's primary battle in michigan, joe biden leads bernie sanders by at least 15 points in the great lakes state. a new monmouth university poll shows biden at 51%, followed by sanders at 36%. and the latest detroit free press poll had biden at 51%, ahead by 24 points. joining us now, chairman of priorities usa, guy cecil. you have an announcement about the role of your super pac, what it will play in the 2020 election. tell us about it. >> we've committed all along to stay neutral in the primary, and

we will continue to do that. one thing has become increasingly clear, donald trump and his allies are continuing to attack joe biden and his family. we made the decision, based on the delegate math, to do everything we can to defend joe biden against those attacks, and to make sure we're also doing a little truth telling about this president and about, frankly, the conflicts of interest of his own family in this administration. >> talk about the democratic field as you see it right now. michigan, obviously, notoriously hard to poll. we saw four years ago some of those polls saying that hillary clinton was going to win the state easily. right now, it does look like joe biden has it locked down, unless something strange happens again tonight. so if joe biden wins michigan and has another very good day, obviously in mississippi, how much closer do you think he gets to locking down, at least mathematically, coming close to

locking down almost a prohibitive lead in the democratic primary? >> yeah, if he were to win those states, i think it would be almost impossible for anybody else to win the nomination. the reality is even if he were just to make michigan close, the fact is, by every poll i've seen, we should have an expectation that he will net an enormous amount of delegates out of mississippi, a significant amount of delegates out of missouri. really, in order to keep the math moving in his direction in any way, bernie sanders really needs to see a big win tonight in michigan and not just a close race. as we move through this process, don't forget, next week, we have florida, which i think will do very well for joe biden. it's going to become mathematically harder and harder and harder to catch up, especially if the polls continue to move in this direction. >> now, one of those attacks against biden has been from the rnc, pushing out on social media

montages of his verbal gaffes and slip-ups on the campaign trail. >> the russians are doing it, too, it seems. at least people who are closely associated with the russians are now attacking joe biden, suggesting that he has slip-ups and gaffes. >> president trump has re-tweeted other similar attacks, and it's probably a sign of things to come if pieden w -- biden wins the nomination. author ben howe responded to the montage of biden tweeting out, it's as though you're literally daring me. we picked up the gauntlet. >> you don't like to mispronounce a word. like you come to a great place like this. instead of calling it fort carson, you call is fot fort cr. >> look at the oranges of the investigation, the beginnings. >> we pass criminal -- >> really an anomnous, gutless

coward. and missiles. and god bless the united states. ♪ the name game >> you don't mind, i'll make a quick statement. a man i also have great respect for, justice anthony -- you know who i'm talking about. we appreciate it very much, tim apple. douglas macarthur. mike balton. mike pound. great people. i have the secretary general, ah, stolheim. one mistake, and it's no good. we can't make mistakes, so we don't. go ahead, ken. >> chuck canterbury. from south carolina. >> go ahead, ken. i think i've seen those before. you know, i don't understand

personally, i don't understand why anybody associated with donald trump would even go there, willie. there are actually hours of those clips probably out there where he stammers, he forgets where he is in the middle of his sentence, and slurs his way to the end of that sentence. >> yeah. well, it's not just donald trump now. it's not the people around trump nmsz. t people around bernie sanders making the case. guy cecil, on joe biden, going at his age. it is ironic bernie sanders is a year older. bernie sanders, to his credit last night, said he wouldn't address that and wasn't making it personal. he wanted to talk about the issues. what could happen tonight though, guy, to change the dynamic of this race at all, this massive turnaround we saw over the last week or so, w? winning michigan is critical,

essential for bernie sanders. even winning by a little bit doesn't help him that much. >> first of all, can i say about trump nms trump, this is a typical trumpian thing to do, take your weakness and attack your opponent. hillary clinton was really the puppet. it is joe biden's family that has made money off of the federal government, not his own. and now this. this is what we should expect. these folks have no guardrails, no norms, no shame. it is exactly why priorities is going to make sure we're fighting back against trump while this nomination is going on. this is a delegate game. in order to win the nomination, you have to have the most delegates. if you look at most of the public polling, if you look at 548, which gives joe biden over a 90% chance of going into the convention with a majority of delegates, not just a plurality, things change. what i realized about the election is the people who speak

with the most certitude are usually the most wrong. we need to approach this, recognizing what has been going on in the last week. it is going to be more and more difficult for bernie to catch up in the delegate math, unless he starts winning states big. in order to gain those extra delegates in congressional districts, in order to gain the additional delegates at the state level, one, two, three-point wins aren't going to cut it. >> guy, it's steve rattner. you've done, i think, a great job today, as you always do, of walking a delicate line, delicate position you're in between being neutral but clearly understanding where we are in this process. at what point though do you think you and priorities can really put a foot down on it? we don't want this primary process to go on forever. if it becomes clear, as i think it will tonight, that biden has an insurmountable lead, we need to be united in attacking donald trump. they have $200 million. we have $10 million at the dnc. when can you put your foot on the scale and get this pointed

in the right direction? >> look, ultimately, there is one person who can address this the pesbest, and that is bernd. this next week will be critical. not just for bernie's decisions but groups like priorities who have been studiously neutral in the primary. if we go through today and biden gains delegates, then we get through florida which is, again, a week from today, and biden gains another set of delegates, this race is over. joe biden is going to be the nominee. we're already moving in that direction. while we've always said we'd be neutral in the primary, we need to recognize something that donald trump wrote, arode, and math. we'll let this primary play out in the primary states, but the battleground states, florida, michigan, wisconsin, arizona, we are going to make sure we are both attacking donald trump and what he has done to this country, and we're going to protect and defend joe biden. we hope others will join us in

that cause. >> guy cecil, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. up next, coronavirus continues to spread here in the u.s. now coming within two degrees of separation from the president. we'll have the new developments on that. plus, nbc's stephanie ruhle joins us with the latest on the economic front. new york city mayor bill de blasio will be our guest. we'll be right back. as a struggling actor,

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should the president be tested? he had contact with the congressmen. should the president be tested? >> tested for what? >> coronavirus. >> oh. >> think he should be? >> i thought he should be tested for a long time now. >> wow, that was pretty funny.

weapon to welcome back to "morning joe." house speaker nancy pelosi yesterday. she said there are no plans to close the capitol or change the congressional schedule. seven members of congress have been potentially exposed to the coronavirus, six of whom are now under self-quarantine. the members include congresswoman brownlee ebrownl california. along with six lawmakers from the cpac comm, who tested posit. they told mitt romney he couldn't come. >> he was the big winner. >> yeah. >> interesting, mitt said he couldn't guarantee the safety of mitt romney if he came. >> wow, let's leave that right there. >> of course, it is frightening. could not quarentine tgarquareu of mitt romney at cpac. mitt romney was the only one safe by not going to cpac.

so mitt, 1. matt, zero. willie, listen, our thoughts are certainly with all of those people. >> yeah. >> hope they're all okay. >> good they're self-quarantining. we appreciate that. >> i'm glad, also, that some of those people in that group are starting to take things seriously. there were a lot of people a week or two ago that were mocking this public health epidemic. this possible pandemic. i think cnn is already calling it a pandemic. it is a pandemic in italy, where the entire country is being shut down now. i'm hopeful that other people a week from now will do the same. there are some fox news people, hosts who are aggressively, aggressively saying, you may not like the media, maybe you think the media is blowing it up too much, but there are fox news hosts who are saying, you have

to take this seriously. i'm hoping all fox news hosts. >> it's the right thing. >> i'm hoping all pro-trump hosts on radio will start doing the same thing. because, you know, for a lot of these talk radio audiences, their average listener is 62, 63, 65 years old. those the very people who need to be told what the safety precautions are, and thinking about how the cdc, the reports yesterday are that the cdc actually tried to get donald trump to ask senior citizens not to fly on airplanes. it would be dangerous for them. the trump white house actually ripped that part of the warning out because they didn't want to hurt the bottom line of airlines. they felt the airlines -- it might hurt the airlines financially. they ignored an important bit of health advice from the cdc. i'm hoping that this white house

and that people who like donald trump, people on talk radio will start acting as responsible as some other hosts are now. again, i'll keep saying it again and again, since they won't -- >> science. >> -- senior citizens, as dr. fauci said, don't need to go on cruise lines right now. if you believe the centers for disease control, they don't need to go on airplanes. donald trump doesn't want you to know that. but the cdc does. they want you to be protected. we need a lot more responsibility like that. willie, some hosts last night were just saying that this was a plot to take down donald trump. that is so dangerous, especially for our seniors. >> yeah, that's what happens when you see literally everything through the lens of donald trump. when you view it as your job, as many of his supporters do, to defend donald trump. if everything is a conspiracy, everything has to be defended against. except this isn't a conspiracy. it is a virus that's traveling across the world. it was interesting, joe, there

are some cracks forming over at fox news. there were prominent hosts last night who took a turn and looked into the camera and said to viewers, this thing is serious. let's start taking it that way. let's see where exactly we stand with the coronavirus as it continues to spread. there were at least 89 come fnfd cases ten days ago. 735 across states including washington, d.c. death toll at 26 in the u.s. more than 60% of those american cases are in just three states, washington, new york, and. california. more than a dozen local school districts canceled classes, and more colleges are moving to online only classes, including several schools across california, also ohio state university, princeton, and nyu. a nasa research center in california issued a policy for workers to work from home after a worker tested positive for the virus. multiple sources tell "variety" that coachella and the stagecoach musical festivals

likely will be moved to october. pearl jam, madonna, miley cyrus acts that canceled shows. "jeopardy" and "wheel of fortune" taping shows without a studio audience. boston canceled its st. patrick's parade, usually bringing out over a million people every year. italy locked down its entire country in an effort to contain the coronavirus. yesterday, the italian prime minister announcing the country will restrict its 60 million people from traveling freely, enure encouraging them to stay home. citizens who wish to travel need permission and need a valid work or family reason. the new restrictions also forbid anyone from gathering in public, as well as suspending all sporting events. last week, the country closed all schools, which will remain closed until at least april 3rd. italy has seen a wider spread of the outbreak outside of any country other than china. yesterday, the death toll jumped

by nearly 100 people, bringing the new total to 463. the mayor of new york city, mr. bill de blasio, joins us now. good to see you. you've done a good job communicating. schools are still open here in new york city. what's your update this morning, and how are you looking at this? you've tried to remain calm, obviously, but also you've tried to keep this in some kind of context for this big city. >> willie, 8.6 million people here. we have 25 cases as of this morning. we care deeply about each of those individuals, but against the backdrop of 8.6 million people, and the vast majority of new yorkers, life is going on normally. we want to encourage that. we have to look out for people here, especially those who are over 50 years old and have pre-existing conditions, like lung disease, heart disease, cancer, diabetes. these are the folks we really need to be careful for. if you're under 50 and you're healthy, which is most new yorkers, there's very little threat here.

this disease, even if you were to get it, acts like a common cold or flu. transmission is not that easy. there has been a misperception that coronavirus hangs in the air, waiting to catch you. no. it takes direct person-to-person contact, direct transmission of fluids. what we're finding, we're giving new yorkers a lot of guidance about how to be careful, wash hands more, use hand sanitizer, cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze. if you're older and have pre-existing conditions, don't visit folks who are sick. if your grandchildren have sniffles, it's not the time to see them. new yorkers are pretty tough, and they're listening. they're making adjustments. our schools are running. we've said, even if, god forbid, we found a case in a school, we're not shutting down all our schools. we're not shutting that school down long term. we'll clean the school. isolate individuals with the direct contact, and then get up and running. we'll have a day where a school

is shut to get reset, then get back up and running. because people's livelihoods are at stake. parents need a place for their kids. we can stay safe but still keep our lives going, our economy going. people have to pay the rent. people need money for food, et cetera. we cannot shut down because of undue fear. that's my concern. >> you were here last week expressing concern about a lack of test kits. >> yes. >> we couldn't get the testing to know how many people have it and begin to contain it. has that improved since you were here a few days ago? >> improved but not enough. as recently as eight days ago, new york city did not have the ability to do its own tests. we finally got that ability. what we still don't have is approval from the fda for automated tests that would take us from doing 100 a day, for example, to being able to do thousands and very, very quickly. i can't fathom this, willie. we'veincessantly, letters, phone calls.

fda hasn't approved the thing that would put us in fighting trim to address the situation. >> what do they say? why is that? >> i haven't gotten a coherent answer, and this crisis has been going on for the most of two months. we don't have the supplies of surgical masks, which i do believe the federal government should say, this areregion need this many, and this region needs this many. hand sanitizer is important in addressing the crisis. there is no firm hand on the wheel. localities are taking it into their own hands. we're trying to stay ahead of this, and people see that. they see the local governments are functioning, and the city is functioning. they're acting accordingly. >> joe has one for you. joe? >> so, mr. mayor, help me understand this. you're telling me that in a city of over 8 million people, you're only able to administer hundreds

of tests? >> joe -- >> is that where we are? >> yeah, and they're slow, in truth. we're able to keep getting people tested. if we had the approval from the fda for automated tests, it'd be thousands of tests we could do in a single day with results the same day. >> geez. >> that would help us to get people -- look, a lot of people need to be isolated. it would allow us to make sure that happened as quickly as possible, and we could give people the truth of what is going on. it is unfathomable, after this long, that tests hasn't beenven approved. >> something mika has been talking about for days that has been causing great concern is what happened at st. john's hospital in far rockaway, where one person, a 33-year-old uber driver with coronavirus walks into the emergency room, tests positive for the coronavirus, and the 40 doctors, nurses, and hospital staff members that are around immediately have to

self-quarantine. >> right. >> one person walks in, wipes out a good chunk of the entire emergency room staff. i'm sure you've seen what's happening in south korea, what's happening in italy, what's happening in other countries, where you're having people go up and they're able to drive through, get swabbed, have the tests, just like you're seeing on the screen right now. is there any chance, if the federal government won't do it, is there a chance that new york city could take the lead on doing something like this, so we could protect our health care workers and doctors, our nurses, our health care technicians, our staff members, to make sure we don't have a health care crisis inside the emergency rooms? you multiply out what happened in the far rockaway hospital. suddenly, you have a health emergency very quickly. >> joe, you're exactly right. that was an abhorrent situation. we're in a transitional phase, people are getting used to it,

and the hospital was acting a little more business than usual as we ideally want. those health care workers will be back soon and in the game. that's the only place we've had a situation like this. i think you're right, the kind of precautions a s other countr have taken, we're instituting them around our health care system. number one, absolutely right, keep the health care workers and professionals in the game to help everyone else. most hospitals now have really put a lot of precautions in place. simple idea, joe. someone comes in, they're symptomat symptomatic, they give information about another case, put a mask on them immediately and isolate them immediately. that'll be the protocol. >> coronavirus to politics. >> yup. >> i apologize in advance for asking this question, but you probably are not going to be on tomorrow so i'll ask it today. if the polls are right, and if joe biden wins handily in michigan, wins handily in the other states, then bernie's pathway to winning the nomination suddenly narrows very

quickly. will there be some point as we move forward in the next few weeks -- let's say joe biden does as well as he is expected to do next week in florida and arizona, in some of these other states. will you be telling bernie so consider actually getting out of the race and supporting joe biden? >> you know, joe, respectfully, i don't know anyone in recent american politics who has been counted out more than bernie sanders. 2015, 2016, we were told nothing was there until he was so close to winning the nomination. this year, he was supposed to be an afterthought and became a dominant presence. his ideas are a dominant part of the debate. he is framing the democratic discussion. don't count this guy out. let me put it this way, right now, we're not even to half the delegates being determined. we're in a country, joe, i think you'd agree with this statement, no one understands american politics anymore. it is as unpredictable as it could be. what we do know is a one-on-one

race is different. our first debate next week. i think the dnc made a mistake. it should have happened already, ahead of this mini super tuesday. the one-on-one is an entirely different ball game. no, this thing is not over. i'll tell you something else, our candidate needs to be vetted, joe. i am deeply concerned. bernie started to get vetted quite a bit, and it is important for getting ready for the general election. joe biden hasn't been vetted. he was in a perfect position, early front runner, everyone thought he wasn't going to make it, turned attention to bloomberg, bernie, even warren for a while. joe biden has issue s he needs o speak to. if we don't deal with it now, with the family, have the blunt discussion, donald trump will. >> mr. mayor, he's been in politics since 1974. donald trump has been attacking joe biden unmercifully for the past three, four months. donald trump got impeached because he was so desperate to try to dig up dirt on joe biden.

you really think that -- >> yes. >> -- americans are going to believe that joe biden hasn't been vetted enough? >> i do. i'll tell you why, joe. everything you said was true. here's the problem, joe biden tried to fundamentally change the social security system in a way that would take away benefits from americans, change the qualifying age, et cetera. that's not been talked about. we haven't talked enough about joe biden's role in the crime bill. we haven't talked enough about why joe biden voted for the iraq war. >> bernie supported the crime bill. >> joe biden was the architect of the crime bill. >> bernie supported the crime bill. >> that's fair. my point is, either one of them, the real vetting we need to do is to have it out on the big issues. have it out on the differences. where are we going on health care, for example, where there is real differences? how is there going to be change? joe biden told a room full of new york donors, quote, unquote, nothing will fundamentally change if i'm president. that does not reflect what the

american people or the folks in the democratic party want. we want change. my point is this, have a debate. don't rush to, let's close this down. i think the bernie/biden debates will draw the contrast, the kind of questions we need. whichever one of them wins, i think bernie can still win this thing. if we don't put our candidate through the paces now, we will regret it later on. >> i've asked you the tougher questions. let me ask you a softball question, but you have to promise you'll swing at it hard. ready to knock it out of the park. >> okay. >> ready. >> you'll run around the bases and not wait -- >> i'll do a back flip, too. >> do it kquickly. i'll let you answer this because it's the news. yesterday, reports are that joe biden said that if a medicare for all bill got to his desk as president of the united states, he'd veto it. press the button, go. >> medicare for all means every

american gets health care. >> what does it mean, that joe biden said -- to you as a democrat, what does it mean that joe biden said he'd veto medicare for all bill? >> it means a lot of people all over the country and democrats will be voting today and in the primaries ahead, hearing that actual information would say they don't want joe biden to be our nominee. that's what it means to me. it means he is out of step with what people are feeling in the party, in a country where more people can't access health care even with insurance. the bottom of this is why we need the one-on-one debate badly. the people of this country more and more want universal health care. by the way, in the middle of coronavirus crisis, this is the biggest advertisement. i wish it wasn't, joe. biggest advertisement for why we need universal health care. a hell of a lot more people would have been tested. more people could have been saved if we had a health care system that's easy to use, not one that's incredibly difficult to navigate for so many new

yorkers. joe biden said, okay, i don't want universal health care for all americans. democrats and americans need to hear that and have the debate. it would change. >> all right. you did the back flip. >> joe? >> home run. go. >> joe biden has been saying consistently he was against medicare for all. that's not news. let's go back to something you said a minute ago. hardball question in deference to chris matthews. you said he got really close in 2016. he got really close in 2016, yeah, but that included winning michigan. >> yes. >> if he loses michigan tonight, then he's way behind where he was in 2016. then you have florida, where he is polling really terribly. one-on-one debate in there anywhere. isn't that the point at which bernie has to say, i can't get there? if he loses michigan, if he gets swamped in florida, then the math becomes almost impossible. >> steve -- >> don't we also -- isn't the most important thing to beat donald trump? if we don't unite as a party

behind somebody, soon, we're at a bigger disadvantage than if this plays out to may, june. >> i disagree respectfully. primaries are a good thing when candidates get better. i can speak as a candidate. this is, in a way, the preseason, if you will. you have to get ready for the real thing. also, there's a lot of unresolved issues. if joe biden, who we would all agree was not running a stellar campaign until a few weeks ago. god bless him for what he's done since then. if he doesn't tighten up and have the ability to answer the questions, we're in trouble. the election isn't until november. bernie sanders is putting forward a vision that actually, i believe, would be the best way to beat donald trump. i truly believe this. in the end, you have to have the strongest contrast. donald trump beat hillary clinton by being the candidate against the status quo and making hillary clinton the status quo candidate. if joe biden can't present a

vision of change, we're in trouble. the primary process allows us to get stronger, whether bernie is the nominee or joe biden is. >> let's end back with coronavirus. you have to start your day. >> indeed. >> what is the threshold in this city? other cities will be looking at new york to close the schools. there's this idea of an abundance of caution. let's close them. god forbid we started an outbreak because we weren't careful about this. on the other hand, new york, that has vast implications for child care, for kids getting meals that they count on at school. >> correct. >> where is your threshold for school closing? >> i have science telling me that this disease does not affect children in a meaningful way unless, god forbid, they have serious underlying conditions, like lung disease or heart disease, for example. right now -- i'm a parent. my kids went to new york city public schools. i want to protect our kids more than anything. this is a disease, based on everything we're seeing, that really doesn't present a problem

for our kids overwhelmingly. so i want our kids to stay in school. if there are individual kids who were exposed, we can quarantine those kids. if there's teachers exposed, we can quarantine those teachers. i would advise against these mass closures when we're keeping this situation relatively contained. you know, ask me in a week, ask me in a month. might change. while it is tell lirelativelybe keeping the society together, schools open, and not closing large events. you don't get this disease by walking into an arena where someone else in the arena has it. you get it if you're right up on that person and, somehow, they cough or sneeze really right up on now. i think there is an overreaction. i don't blame anyone for being afraid. we can make this more precise. we know who is in danger. let's put our focus on older folks with pre-existing

conditio conditions, making sure they are isolated from people who are sick. they change their lives some and get help immediately if they have any sign of symptoms. let's not shut down our whole society, which will hurt us in many, many other ways, well beyond what the coronavirus is doing. there are so many negative, unintended consequences to overreaction. we have to have an honest conversation about that. >> let's hope it remains contained. mayor de blasio, thanks for coming by. good the see you. ahead, the economic impact of the coronavirus. stephanie ruhle joins the conversation next. we've reached a tipping point. the chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as democrats blame him and only him for a virus that originated halfway around the world. this is yet another attempt to impeach the president. sadly, it seems they care very little for any of the destruction they are leaving in their wake. losses in the stock market. all this, unfortunately, just

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welcome back to "morning joe." 27 past the hour. live look at new york city. a perfect storm hit wall street yesterday, as fears of the coronavirus collided with a plunge in oil prices. the dow sank more than 2,000 points, losing nearly 7.8%. its worst day since the 2008 financial crisis. the s&p lost 7.6%. the nasdaq, almost 7.3%. the sell-off was so bad that a circuit breaker was triggered minutes after the opening bell, which halted trading for 15 minutes. the plunge in oil prices comes as saudi arabia and russia battle over market share.

the demand for oil has declined because fewer people are traveling due to the coronavirus. joining us now, nbc news senior business correspondent and msnbc anchor, stephanie ruhle. how often is that circuit breaker triggered? >> in times of crisis. something really important to explain, we're not in a financial crisis. this isn't what we saw in 2008. fundamentally, the economy is stronger. we don't have systemic problems across the system. what we have is a public health energ emergency. that emergency is, without a doubt, impacting the economy at all different levels. couple that with an administration that continues to not be forthcoming about what's really happening. even yesterday, when you see alex azar, no reason to complement what the president has done with the country. that has nothing to do with anything. the president is talking about

creating some accommodations, maybe specific industries hurt really bad, maybe a payroll tax, maybe specifically for hourly workers. we're now seeing the market turn to the positive this morning, that maybe we will get some good news. >> i was going to say, stephanie, looks like today will be like certain days last week, where you have 1,000 point drop followed by a 1,000 point jump, followed by a larger drop. looks like the futures today are pointing to more positive news. that'd certainly be good for what was lost yesterday. right now, from everything i'm hearing, and i love to hear what you're hearing, people just don't know what the bottom is pau because they don't know how much this virus is going to ravage the economy. >> without a doubt. it is important to remember that the market isn't the economy. what the economy is going to face. we're a service-based economy. the economy has grown because of consumer spending.

everything around corona, look at italy, you have a country on lockdown. in terms of a global economy, there's certainly not going to be much happening there. the best way to contain corona is to keep people home. that is going to curb spending. we know that's going to impact markets. it is a positive today that you see the president maybe making accommodations. you always have to remember, as far as investors go, they're also looking for a bargain. when the market drops yesterday, long-term investors might say, this is my opportunity to buy the companies, buy the industries i wanted for quite some time. the real concern, what is this going to do to the long-term economy? i mean, think about all the people impacted. >> stephanie ruhle, thank you very much. let's turn to steve rattner. >> yeah, you know, steve, i had a friend yesterday that works in the markets, saying that this was the most hated rally of all time. so many people didn't jump on board because they believe that the market was overvalued.

you were saying late afternoon, after the worst point drop in the history of the dow, said expect people to jump in at some point. they now see this as an opportunity to be part of the rally they missed. >> look, that is always the ying and the yang of investing in stock markets. you see a correction like this, and you think, boy, stocks are 10% cheaper than they were, 20% now cheaper than they were. some of the stocks, as we talked about earlier, down 30%, 40%, 50%. it is tempting. the problem here, as stephanie said, in a public health crisis, it is hard to know where this goes. if it ends up spreading, if it doesn't get contained, you get a serious economic effect. at a minimum, i think i'd be a little more bearish than stephanie about the economy. we'll see significant economic effects, even if it is contained. we'll have something like 1% growth this year. it takes a bite out of the stock market. yes, stocks are more attractive than they were. that much you can say with a lot of confidence.

>> can't you also say, too, that the underlying fundamentals of this economy are much stronger than they were in 2008? americans' savings rates are higher. you look at unemployment rate, much lower. by many measures, this will prove to be a more resilient economy than the economy on september the 15th, 2008. >> no question about that, joe. you're right, completely right. as stephanie said, the financial system is strong. we've done a lot of repair work since then on all of the infrastructure of our financial system and economy. we have low unemployment. absolutely, that is all true. i would just say that there's still a lot of unknowns around about the health crisis, about the coronavirus, that are very, very hard for the market to quantify. all things being -- well, i agree with you, i'd be more positive on the stock market than negative with all the uncertainties. still ahead, bernie sanders was down by more than 20 points

against hillary clinton on the eve of michigan's primary in 2016. then he pulled off a major upset. he's in the same position right now. can he do it again tonight against joe biden? "morning joe" is coming right back. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't.

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♪ willie, the good book says, ask and he shall receive. seek and ye shall find. knock and the door will be open unto you. i've been asking. politically, i think, that the president take this crisis more seriously, because i'm obviously concerned about senior citizens that support him and all senior citizens. our mothers, our fathers, our

grandparents. so the president, of course, with this crisis upon us, with the universities being shut down, with this health care crisis at our doorstep, the president has actually decided to tweet about our show. so that's where the president's mind is. >> right now? >> right now. >> yeah, just tweeted about our show. donald, i've asked you this for years. please don't watch our show. it is better for you. you know it is. it is better for you. it is not better for us, because we've had record ratings this -- well, the past several years. but we think it is better for america that you just keep wa h watching "fox and friends." you say you do. everybody that works with you tells me that you watch us every day. not good for your health, okay? i'm not like the surgeon

general, but i can tell you that you, watching "morning joe" every day, is really bad for your mental health. so we ask if you will please, as a service to the united states of america, and those senior citizens who we're trying to protect, we ask that you watch "fox and friends." don't watch us. stay focused and do what's best for america. willie, come on, he's talking -- we're in the middle of an epidemic that some people are calling a pandemic. >> there are doctors calling it a global pandemic. >> he is worried about a cable news show. that is like, dude, that is some -- that is depressing. >> disturbing. >> if it weren't so depressing, it might actually be amusing. it is not anymore, obviously. he is tweeting about the particulars and the cross-tabs

and the demos of cable news ratings while we're in the middle of this crisis in our country. he also, a minute ago, tweeted, we need the wall more than ever. because of what we're seeing with the coronavirus, he believes we need a physical barrier at the southern border of mexico to help stop the coronavirus from coming to america. that's why i said earlier, and i don't say it lightly, and i don't mean it as a partisan point, you have to look past the president in this moment. listen to scientists. listen to doctors. look past the president. >> tune him out. >> i want to. i really do want to speak to, again, seniors, whether you're republican, democrat, conservative, liberal, whether you support donald trump or can't stand donald trump, please, please do yourself a favor. i say this because i really care about your health. these are frightening times. you know, this may be a joke to the president. may be a joke to a lot of other people in politics. i'll tell you what, if you're in

your 60s, 70s, 80s, these are frightening times. the only thing i ask is listen to the scientists. listen to the doctors. do yourself a real favor, okay? don't listen even to the politicians. talk to your doctor, that you and your family have known for years. talk to your doctor, your family doctor that, actually, you knew before certain people even got into politics. ask them what you should do as a senior citizen, or somebody with underlying health problems, to take care of your own health, all right? don't listen to politicians that are telling you to ignore this or disregard it. here's the funny thing, you know, it's kind of like health care. politicians would say, you don't deserve health care, yet they're in congress, the white house, in the federal government, and they have the best health care system in the world. they're telling you that you don't deserve health care. these are the same people that

said last week this was a hoax. yet, what are they doing? they're, like, in their 30s and 40s and 50s. they're self-quarantining themselves because they were in a room with one person. >> his chief of staff. >> they're locking themselves away for 14 days. like ted cruz, matt gaitz. the president's chief of staff has been tested. he was tested negative. he's still locking himself away for several days. if you're a senior, and people are telling you it's a hoax, they're lying to you. they're doing you a grave disservice, okay? go to your doctor. talk to your family doctor. get advice from her or him. they're the health care professionals whose advice you should listen to if you want to stay healthy and save your laf. >> joining us, white house correspondent for pbs news hour. msnbc political analyst and

former republican strategist, steve schmidt. and chair of the editorial board and u.s. editor at large at the "financial times." jillian. >> jillian, let's start with you. obviously, the "financial times" does such an extraordinary job looking at markets across the globe, looking at political situation across the globe. take us through china, italy, britain, other parts of the world. how are they handling this virus right now, both medically and economically? >> collectively, global markets have just had a heart attack. the good news is that they are coming back a bit today. that incredibly crash yesterday was partly triggered by the oil price saudi and russia. by the way, it is very much targeted against u.s. shale gas producers. it was also the economic impacts of the virus. particular concern about the lack of leadership in the u.s.

in terms of handling it. that's the market picture. you have to stress, as stephanie said earlier, that it is about the economy right now and whether we are going into a recession as parts of the world go into lockdown. now, the good news is that some parts of the world, like south korea, which have been pretty aggressive about trying to contain this, through essentially free checks for everybody and control of movement, they look like they are getting a handle on it. italy is copying south korea and china right now. the bad news is that every government is now faced with a very difficult choice. do they shut things down and try to get on top of this virus and essentially really damage the economy in the short term, or do they try to ignore it and run the risk of a much bigger crisis in the long term that could really hurt economic growth? >> i was going to ask five minutes ago, as i was thinking of you coming on the show, since you cover the whoit houite hous the president and the white house have been sobered by the events of the last 24 hours?

then he was tweeting about "morning joe," cable news ratings, and building a physical border on the southern border of mexico to stop coronavirus from coming to the united states. what is the approach from outside of the president from serious people around the president, serious people at the cdc, serious people at the nih, et cetera, et cetera? what is the approach right now? and are they getting these tests out? are they taking it more seriously than they have for the last couple of weeks? >> it seems that way. it seems as though they are really focused on, one, tamping down any hysteria. trying to give people peace of mind, if they want a test at some point, they'll be able to get the test. yesterday, vice president pence as well as several health officials briefed reporters, saying a million tests will be going out this week, as well as commercial labs will be producing tests. they said it is going to, quote, dramatically increase the ability of people to get tests around the country. they say while the tests are available in all 50 states, it

is still something where there is a process there. they're saying now it is going to be more. the issue, of course, is that you have a president that is contradicting almost every single day health officials in his own administration. you have the president who sees his political future, as well as the economic future of this country, tied directly to his ability to be re-elected. as a result, you see the president saying things that health officials just think are -- and are saying are not the same thing. you have him shaking hands at fundraisers. just yesterday, he raised something like $4 million in florida while trying to juggle l responding to the coronavirus and rush back to d.c. to be part of the briefing. the biggest kmicommunication is the white house is facing is president trump. that has been true throughout this entire presidency. >> and it is getting even more frustrating. obviously, scientists and doctors, health care officials, trying to get the good word out to americans who may be at risk. the president undermines it

undersingle d singl every single day. of course, again, this morning he's showing he lacks the gravitas. he lacks what everybody has known. he lacks a gravitas, lacks a seriousness, lacks the temperament to be president of the united states, and certainly lacks it to carry americans through this health care crisis. steve schmidt, let's go from the president's distressing behavior in the face of a pandemic to polit politics. the politics of michigan and the democratic party. you were with john mccain at a time when he was a front runner, and then everything blew up in 2007 going into the 2008 electi elections. i so remember one time leaving my dad's home in late 2007, when everybody said john mccain's political career was over. the last thing you said before he got out the door was, joey, don't turn your back on mccain.

he is going to win this thing. i rolled my eyes, okay, dad, whatever. of course, john mccain did. he stormed back. he won the republican nomination. here, we see joe biden seemingly doing the same things. talk about those parallels and where you see the democratic race right now. >> well, joe, to some degree, a presidential contest is the greatest competition that exists on earth. it is something that's far more intense than the most intense super bowl or soccer match or world cup. these competitors in the race, they're called upon to show toughness, to show resiliency. they're tested at an unbelievable level. we're seeing something of joe biden's character here. we're seeing what we saw from john mccain. in the darkest moments -- and john mccain would joke, saying,

it is always darkest before it is clompletely black. there's moments like that on the campaign trail when you fall to last place, when you're counted down and out, where no one believes. where all of the cacophony of voices on cable news where nobody believes. when all of the cacophony of voices on cable news are telling you it's over, we lost. so you see something of this mettle with joe biden during this period, during this trial, and see what the stakes are. as we do to michigan i think it becomes very difficult for bernie sanders if he loses a state he won a couple years ago and gets ready to to be wiped out in florida to be any credible case to have a shot at the nomination. then we see what the choice becomes, tested former vice president against a incompetent president in the middle of a health pandemic that merges with the big crisis we have in the country, which is a political

crisis our political class broadly speaking, starting with the president, who's lied 14,000 times, lacks all and any credibility. >> yet he won. i wonder, steve schmidt, how this coronavirus outbreak impacts the election, impacts each of the candidates. even president trump are considered at risk. >> well, i don't know. first off we have all of the candidates are in their 70s. so they're the most endangered population according to the medical experts, number one. number two, my sense is when you listen to the medical experts and not the politicians that we're very much nearer to the beginning of this story than the middle or end. i simply don't know what a presidential campaign looks like without rallies, without encounters with human beings any more than i can imagine the ncaa tournament or nba games being played on television absent any

fans. i think whatever comes is going to have a major impact. what we do know right now is the administration has handled this with profound incompetence. they have gaslighted the american people, they have not taken it seriously. and in the end endangered americans for politics. so upon now in the first time of this administration events that are beyond the control of the administration to spin, manipulate, lie about. we always knew there would be an hour where the trump presidency confronted the harshness of reality and we're in that hour now. >> "the financial times" is running a correlation between president trump's approval ratings to stock market. he ties his fortunes to that, touts it every time it goes up. not so good when it goes down 2,000 points.

>> yes, we have an article from barclays showing how the president's approval rating has moved by the financial markets. live by the dow, fall by the dow. he's desperate to keep stock prices high as we see through his tweets. what we are seeing is more dapgling of fiscal policy measures, the health economy if the coronavirus spreads. it's very unclear what this needs in practice. it really is a rhetorical game to keep prices higher and it will be a very bumpy ride. >> and he's talking about the tax cut and paid family leave, which nancy pelosi and chuck schumer both said publicly they would get behind. how much of this do you expect seeing going forward? what's the likelihood, for example, that payroll tax cut making it through congress?

>> it seems that's though there's going to be some sort of package, likely a brokered deal. the president, of course, is scrambling to get an economic fix to this coronavirus and try to stave off any more stock market falls or anymore economic challenges ahead. but we go back to the idea that we have and will continue to have two different communications from the white house. you have the effort saying the coronavirus and cases will go up, that you will need more tests and this is fog to be something we have to be in for the long haul. then president trump saying there will be some sort of miracle happening. this is really democrats and media trying to go after him and they really want to see the economy fall. what you have, apart from the fact there's going to be some sort of solution, you have this political atmosphere where democrats are really frustrated and republicans are really, really frustrated with each other. whether or not that works out in a long run for a deal for the american people is still something we are waiting to see happen. i likely say something will

happen though because i think both political sides of washington are worried about the effects the coronavirus will have, not only on the economy but working class people. hourly, woulders and children w who depend on going to school in cases where there's free lunch. >> mika, we just had breaking news come across from "the wall street journal" that several airlines are announcing today they're going to severely cut the number of international flights that they have. southwest airlines also cutting flights. its ceo saying that the decline is breathtaking. it's like nothing they have ever seen. it is clear they're heading into a recession. also, the cdc, the cdc again telling our friends that are 60 and older, our seniors to make sure to stock up on items, stock up on goods and just be prepared

because, obviously, we see what is happening in italy and parts of china. the cdc wants to make sure that senior citizens are prepared for that when it happens. i certainly hope the white house starts getting that information out as well instead of tweeting about things that have absolutely nothing to do with protecting the lives of senior citizens and those with underlying health conditions. >> thank you all so much for being on the show this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> the virus, they're working hard. looks like by april in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. i hope that's true. >> oh, my god the president last month saying coronavirus would miraculously go away. since then the number of cases in the u.s. ballooned. >> and that's, again, without the tests.

we need to get the tests. thousands of tests today. south korea testing 10,000 of their citizens per day to make sure they can keep their seniors safe. we need to make sure our government starts doing that soon. >> we will talk to medical experts about that and more on the severe economic fallout. "morning joe" will be right back. back ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪

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good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, march 10th. along with joe, willie and me we have former trizry official and morning economic analyst, steve rattner, after a big day in the markets yesterday. joe, coronavirus is becoming basically the universal story across the board. >> it is becoming a universal story. i think people in america are slowly but surely waking up to

the concerns. especially for their parents and grandparents, people of certain ages and underlying health conditions. what is really concerning me meek, mika, now, especially with the dow drop yesterday you have people running around saying the coronavirus is a hoax, it's just like impeachment, it's just like the mueller report. you have conservatives -- not conservatives, i'm sorry, you have trumpists running around saying this is all concocted by the media as fake news. remember the president was saying the media coverage of this was fake news. we heard this time and again. willie, it's very interesting, if the president and his supporters believe this is nothing worse than the flu, which has been suggested, i'm just curious, why is the president's chief of staff this morning in a quarantine?

>> a self-quarantine. >> why is ted cruz kre self-quarantining 14 days? if i'm in the same room with you and you have the flu, you go home and i say that's too bad and keep working. because as they understand, ted cruz said please understand how important this is, how serious this is, follow science, follow medical advice. they are quarantining. why would someone on air force one yesterday with congress on the plane and the second he gets a call and finds out he had mere exposure to the coronavirus, they immediately whisked him to a part of air force one and basically shut him off in a room. now he's self-quarantined as well. willie, they can say it's just like the flu. they can say it's a hoax. but i'm curious, why doesn't the president if he really believes that, why doesn't he have his chief of staff come in and sit

down and brief him today? >> brand-new chief of staff. >> why doesn't he call ted cruz and tell ted to come on up into his office today, have a talk with him. sit in an hour or two and mean work through some of these things. maybe they can be in a small, contained office. you know why? because donald trump understands it's not the flu. he understands this is an epidemic. some people are calling it a pandemic. and unless we take those safe precautions, it's something donald trump supporters are suggesting we don't take, then our health care system is going to look like the stock market looked like yesterday, and a lot of senior citizens, be they republicans or democrats, are going to get infected and they're going to die. and i just -- the recklessness, the partisanship, the false alternatives -- the false realities that these people try

to spin out of the white house and these trump supporters try to spin, let's just call it what it is. it is irresponsible and deadly, especially for our senior citizens. >> as you say, despite what the president's been tweeting the last 24 hours, he does know how serious it is. he's asking questions, been having to answer questions about whether or not he himself has been tested for coronavirus. the white house says no, why would he be tested? he too was at that conservative republican congress last week. >> there are no tests. >> that's the other problem, presumably the president of the united states could get a test but those congressmen you talked about, chief of staff of staff self-quarantining because they were at cpac last week. the president was there too on air force one, who you said last week was mocking coronavirus by wearing a gas mask into the well of the house.

this couldn't be more serious at this point. italy effectively shut down the country. dow down 2,000 yesterday, as you just showed. the president has to be taken this seriously. it's a crazy thing to say but at this point we almost have to look past the president of the united states. we know what he will tweet. we know he's protecting his political hyde. we know he wants to win re-election. people who can give us guidance, not like the president on twitter. >> if this were a conspiracy theory all to take down donald trump, which i can't believe -- >> started in china. >> i can't believe anybody in america would be stupid enough to believe that but i do know there are people on tv that are trump apologists, who think americans are that stupid to believe it. but just for people that are positing that stupid theory, ask yourself this, would italy shut

down completely over a theory to defeat donald trump in the polls? no. would china shut down? would all of these other countries taking such extreme measures -- again, it's not logical. it makes no sense but there are actually people out there who are ignorant enough to believe it. listen, if you want to spin your ignorant conspiracy theories about ukraine, listen, if you like the russians and you want to be a useful idiot for vladimir putin, go ahead. knock yourself out. that's up to you. i mean, i would -- i would question my patriotism if i did that but if you don't mind being a useful idiot for vladimir putin, you can do that. but here's a 3rproblem with thi conspiracy theory, your garnts, is your grandparents, seniors

that you love and go to church with, seniors you know and love growing up, you put them at risk unless you treat this for what it is, and this is a health epidemic that many are already calling an international pandemic. do you know what happens in international pandemics? millions and millions of people die. in 1819, 50 million people died because they didn't handle it the right way. because they didn't quarantine. because they didn't take the steps we're now just gypping to take, which we should have started a month ago. >> joe, you got countries doing drive-by testing. what are we doing? people are walking into ers, people are trying to figure out whether or not they should do to the hospital because it's dangerous to do so. >> so let's talk about that, willie, it's unbelievable. at st. john's hospital in the rockaways, one person walks in that's infected and because we

don't have anything set up like italy or south korea, where they have drive-by tests, one person walks into an er room and basically shuts it down. 40 doctors, nurses, health care providers have to self-quarantine because they're exposed to this one person with the coronavirus that walks. do you think we have any planning like that, the greatest country on the face of the earth? no. we're so far behind on this because we have a president who has been denying for a month that this was anything serious. he thought he could just say i've been tough, i've shut down the boarders, blah, blah, blah. >> the virus doesn't lie. >> what are you doing inside the boders? that is the question the staff is still wrestling with him with. it is the president above all in the white house that is not taking this seriously.

i'm worried about seniors. i'm worried about people with diabetes, people are frail who have underlying conditions who are likely to die if they're exposed to this. >> and you know, the reason the president can go out and say, well, we don't have many cases is because we don't have the tests to show how many cases we have. we shouldn't even use that number. >> yes. isn't that amazing, willie, yesterday he said with the flu you only have so and so many cases every year. and now we have 500 in this country. well, because we haven't had the tests because he botched it up. so we aren't getting the tests. so you're right. we don't even know how many people are infected, how many people in senior communities who are infected, visiting senior communities infected, kids who may be going to see their grandparents at a senior facility. it's so dangerous.

up next, we will run through the latest numbers on the outbreak. plus, more on the 1-2 punch to wall street, which aside from coronavirus, also has an oil price war to contend with. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ i can't believe it. that chad really was raised by wolves? which one is your mother? that's her right there. oh, gosh. no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. it's really great. well, i'm just so glad to have met your beautiful family. and we better be sitting down now. believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. and aren't necessarily great for your teeth. the acid can actually wear away at the enamel which over time can cause sensitivity and a lot of people start to see their teeth turn yellow. i like to recommend pronamel to my patients to help them protect their teeth and keep the enamel strong.

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let's get to fast-paced developments with the coronavirus. as the number of cases continues to balloon across the u.s. ten days ago there were at least 89 confirmed cases across six states. this morning there are at least 725 cases across 36 states, that's because there was testing in those places and also d.c. the death toll was 26. more than half of those cases are just three states, washington, new york and california. more than a dozen local school districts have canceled classes. and more colleges are moving to

online only classes, including stamford, ohio, ohio state, princeton and nyu. a nasa research center in california issued a mandatory employee for employees to work from home after a worker tested positive for a virus. multiple sources tell "variety" that coachella and stage music festivals will likely be moved to october. pearl jam, madonna and miley cyrus have canceled shows, while "jeopardy!" and "wheel of fortune" will begin taping without a studio audience. meanwhile boston canceled its st. patrick's day parade. >> huge cancellation. >> usually brings out more than a million people every year. and then the impact on congress. more and more congressmen are in

self-quarantine after interacting with somebody who tested positive with the virus at cpac, including congressman matt gaetz, who flew on air force one with the president yesterday before putting himself in quarantine. also, the president's incoming chief of staff, mark meadows and congressman doug collins, seen here shaking the president's hand last friday. kovman gohmert, who also may have been exposed, decided not to self-quarantine and is back on the hill. >> we talk about italy. it locked down the entire country in a drastic effort to lock down the coronavirus, when has been described by some as the greatest crisis since world war ii. the prime minister announced the country would be restricting its 60 million people from traveling, encouraging them to stay home. italian citizens who would like

to travel needs to request permission and need a valid work or family reason. the restrictions also forbid anybody from gathering in public and also suspending all sporting events. last week the country closed all schools, which will remain closed until at least april 3. conti contributed the lockdown to the safety of the health system, saying we all must give something up for the sake of italy. italy has said a wider outspread of the outbreak than any other country than china and yesterday the death toll went up to 100 people, bringing the new total, mika, to 263. meanwhile fears of the coronavirus collided with a plunge in oil prices. the dow sank nearly 2,000 points, losing 7.8%, its worth day since the 2008 financial crisis. the s&p lost 7.6% and nasdaq almost 7.3. the sell-off was so bad that a

circuit breaker was triggered minutes after the opening bell which halted trading for 15 minutes. the plunge in oil prices comes as saudi arabia and russia battle over market share. the demand for oil declined because fewer people are traveling due to the coronavirus. >> steve rattner, i was listening, obviously, and watching cnbc all day yesterday. it seemed while the oil -- sort of the oil wars between russia and the saudis caused a lot of unrest, by the end of the day when they were trying to figure out how long this route would go, people were moving back to the coronavirus and talking about the fact there's just so much uncertainty, that the markets don't know what's going to happen, they don't know what the bottom is going to be. they have a supply problem,ing they have a demand problem. they don't know what consumers are going to be doing. there were so many questions.

they sort of priced this oil war into it. the now it seems all of the analysts are worried about the coronavirus and trying to figure out where the bottom will be. nobody thinks it will be a deep recession that lasts a year and a half. but they think it could be a pretty severe recession. happen quickly and be more u-shaped. what from the analysts you spoke to yesterday on the street and your business, what caused yesterday? was it that perfect storm mika was talking about? and if there is a recession, how long do they think it will last? >> i think yesterday was a perfect storm of things that came together. they were all related, of course. started with the coronavirus, which led, as mika said, a drop in oil demand, which led to a fight in opec between the russians and saudis and effectively a collapse of opec, so everybody is pumping as much oil as they can, which led to

oil prices collapsing. then you have the market hates uncertainty. the market is not used to public health crisis. it doesn't fancy itself an expert on public health. and then frankly there was an absence of leadership from washington for a did while. markets hate that. they want leadership and the president to stand up and say something. the president spent the weekend playing golf and spent time at a fund-raising in orlando. coming up on "morning joe," there is good news and bad news when it comes to the coronavirus. dr. dave breaks that down all next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪

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had 70 million people. they were quarantined. nobody could leave, nobody could come back. it sieves inconceivable to do that in the united states. could we quarantine new york city and san francisco? we're not china. our citizens are not going to tolerate the social control, police presence, intrusiveness of it all. i think we have to do it our own kway and our w way and that's through science. let's get a treatment and vaccine soon and use good, sound, public health. >> that was professor of global health law speaking with "morning joe's" chief medical correspondent dr. dave campbell. dr. dave, the president jumped in on the press conference yesterday, the daily update on the big coronavirus. what are the big takeaways?

>> the beg takeaway is we have good news and bad news. the bad news the numbers increased in the use ten fold in ten days. we know the president's tone was more serious. the vice president recommended to everybody in the country go to coronavirus.gov for information that will help all of us help others and also dr. fauci came out and recommended against older people with pre-existing illnesses going on a cruise. >> they used the word mitigation, i believe. are we prepared if we finally get testing in place and we discover that a significant number of people need care? >> well, no, we are not. we have -- in 1976, when i graduated high school, there was 1.5 million in patient beds. today there are under a million. and italy predicts they will need 18,000 more beds for patients by the end of the month. no, we're not there. but at least we have a week or

two to get ready. >> do we know how many people in the u.s. have been tested so far? >> we do not. secretary azar told us he cannot answer that question, so we do not. >> how is the testing being conducted? like in other countries you can drive up and it's very antiseptic as it can be as opposed to walking into a hospital and infecting everybody. is the testing being done in a way to prevent the virus being spread? >> the attempts are to do that, of course. just like the flu. when someone gets into the er, they're triaged away from others and a mask is immediately put on them and testing pattern starts. they go through the flu swab, and then viral prc and finally if need be, they send off the coronavirus test to the cdc. ment. >> dr. dave camable, thank you very much. willie? >> let's bring in professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at

vanderbilt medical center in nashville, dr. william shatner. good morning. i got the alert. i'm an alum of vanderbilt university, that classes were canceled on campus. that's a trend we are seeing across the country. i'm interested as we take a step back from 30,000 feet. obviously there were things we could have done as a country up until this moment we haven't done but we are where we are. how are you viewing this right now? how serious is it and how should americans be looking at it? >> willie, it is serious and we're rolling out the testing. that's the single most important thing we're doing right now because that will give us an idea, we hope in about a week, week and a half, how widespread this virus is across the country. is it just focal and spreading, or has it actually now encompassed the entire country? we're moving from containment to mitigation really. and the question is how quickly are we doing that? >> so as we introduce that test,

you say week, week and a half, i guess that would be good news if it comes out next week. how soon will we have our arms around how serious this problem is? because as we said at the top of the show, doctor, the numbers we see and charts we put up and math we put up saying handful of cases here and there likely are vastly underestimating the scope of this problem. >> well, we don't have those numbers yet but we already know it's a serious problem and are already recommending social distancing. that's one of the reasons vanderbilt closed as well as many other universities have closed going to actual class and switching to virtual classes. that's very important. and the emphasis on people who are older than age 60 distancing themselves from groups, you know. as i like to say if you're reverent and you are a religious person, don't go to the

congregational meeting this weekend, be reverent at home. those sorts of things are important because this is a virus that's transmitted person to person. so the less we expose ourselves to groups of people, the less likely we are to acquire the infection. >> dr. william schaffner, thank you very much. coming up, the director of "hillary" are joining the conversation and who's who of staffers that know the first lady as well as anyone. that's next on "morning joe." to be honest a little dust it never bothered me.

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reliability and security your business needs. call today. comcast business. beyond fast. i want to vote for a woman, just not that woman. >> her greatest strengths are her greatest weaknesses.

>> she's a smart person and people believe there's deviousness. >> i invoke strong opinions. what you see is what you get. >> chelsea put herself between us and held both of our hands, tried to keep us together. >> you know me better than i know me. i want to push it as far as we can push it. if i say back up, you creep, would i sound angry? >> one of the most admired and one of the most vilified women in history. >> somebody asked me on my gravestone, she's neither as good nor as bad as some people say about her. >> a look there at "hillary," the new four-part documentary streaming now on hulu. >> it is incredible. mika, it's the best political documentary i have ever seen in my life and that's saying a lot. it's extraordinary.

>> i was moved by it. everybody has their opinions on hillary and they found a way to sort of encapsulate all of those opinions plus an unvarnished look at her journey. joining us now is the docuseries director and executive producer nanette burstein. also three people who worked the closest with hillary clinton, former director of strategic communications for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, adrienne elrod. former state department official and senior adviser to hillary clinton, felipe reines. and hillary clinton's longtime adviser and spokesman, nick merrill. great to have you all with us. >> nick, i will start with you, nick, you were like the brad pitt character in "once upon a time in america" in this thing. >> wow. >> every time you came on, bruce lee wants to fight with me? what? makes no sense. >> uh-huh. the >> your expressions with all of

this crazy you know what kept coming at you. when the guy on the plane comes up to you and says, what do you think about hillary clinton's emails on anthony weiner's laptop? i can't repeat what you said on the documentary. but you would never believe that really happened unless we all saw it unfold over the course of that crazy campaign. >> look, it's still hard to believe. i mean, you know, it was a wild campaign. it was a noisy campaign. and at the end of the day what's so amazing about this documentary is when you sort of get out of that time and space and thanks to nanette, the director who did a beautiful job of doing that and creating a context, what you find is this woman we know, and joe i know you have seen before, but i have been seeing every day for 15 years, and you just sort of put

it in the context of the larger last five decades of the women's movement and it's really quite something to watch it all unpacked and watch her unplugged. >> you know what comes out of this is something i have not seen in many other things. i remember, and i told you this story before. i met hillary in 1995 and spent the last few years vilifying her on the campaign trail. i met her and i went on the talk radio show every day, very conservative talk radio show and they go, what do you think about bill clinton? and everybody laughs. what do you think about al gore? then i went after al gore. and then the big wipedup, delivering to the pitcher, what do you think about hillary clinton? they expected me to go to down, and i was like, well, i really liked her. they're like what? here's the weird thing that never seems to come across but i talked to her about three minutes and i was like this is like a methodist from illinois.

there's something that you see in hillary in person that you don't always see on tv that this documentary got to the middle of. >> well, you're absolutely right. first off, joe, i'm in the movie a little bit too. i don't know what character is left over from "once upon a time in hollywood." i don't want to know. but she's had this incredible life for 40 years and it takes at least four hours to tell it. like nick said, nanette nails it. one of the things she nails exactly what you're talking about, the idea that people go into thinking about her as oh, god, enough of her or they think she's shrill. the usual litany. and then they come out of rooms with her and just shocked. i mean, in the 20 years i worked for her one of the most gratifying people i have ever seen were people going into rooms and you can tell some were dubious and what group they

represented. and they would come out and two things they would say, one, she's just not anything i thought she would be. two, she's a lot more beautiful in person. but -- and she would always say do they realize that number two is not necessarily a compliment? but it's -- it really has been gratifying. one of the things that i think is great about the film is when you hear from hillary fans and they say we love it, of course they're going to love it. what's been great is how many people have been hearing from who are republicans and conservatives who spent a lot of time in their life fighting the clintons who are not going gaga but they're saying this is a person that i just didn't really esh perfect. >> i love when cheryl mills, what she said when she was talking to a group of voters and skepticals like that. nanette, i remember the book i read that got me into politics was author shell lessinger's book on bobby kennedy.

and on the dust cover it said his story was the story of our times. he said that about bobby kennedy. he really was. and when i finished watching this, my first question was my god, how did she get through all of this? and then my second question was, my god, how did we get through all of this? i remember this breathing a heavy sigh when 9/11 came up. you really encapsulate the fact that hillary clinton's story is the story of our times. >> yes. i mean, i think it's particularly relevant now, here we are. we just went through international women's day this weekend and we're in the midst of a contentious primary. her story is the arc of the women's movement. it's also partisan politics. how are we so divided? and the other interesting thing about her life is there's this

zealot-like quality. she's been involved in or been influenced by so many historical events over the last 50 years that, to me, when i chose to frame the film in a certain way, i thought my god, there's such an amazing organic opportunity to tell american history just through her intimate story. and so i think a lot of women have been watching it this weekend and feeling -- they really relate both to the nuances and bigger picture, which has been extremely gratifying as a filmmaker. and being someone who grew up -- when i was in my early 20s, hillary clinton came on the scene as a very new kind of first lady. so i have been inspired and following her career for self-years. and it was an incredible opportunity to relate it to a

bigger picture of what we're dealing with now. >> let's look at another clip, and then we'll get to nanette and adrienne on the other side. here it is. >> you can take criticism seriously because you may actually learn something, right? i say that all the time. but don't take it personally. because it can knock you to your knees if you take it personally. and you begin to doubt yourself. everybody has a motivation. the motivation can be petty, it can be ideological, in my case it can be partisan. but that can't affect your core about who you are. >> a woman president, i heard it before said about you, what if she makes a decision based on emotion? >> a lot of people don't even think i have any! i love that. >> so interesting. there were so many ways that

this docuseries, nanette, kind of filled out the entire picture of hillary and a lot of the questions people might have had or opinions they might have had without really thinking fully through. and especially about the monica lewinsky situation, really your heart hurt for her. do you know, though, in your research and i'm hoping to hear from adrienne, was there any thought during that time to consider the monica angle? to consider this young girl was being hung out to dry? was there any thought or consideration to make her whole? >> you know, there was a documentary that was airing when i was making this, six-parter on a & e that had excusive access. she sat down for, i don't know, 80 hours of interviews apparently. and they really framed it from her perspective. i felt okay, that was done and

it was done extremely well. and she logistically couldn't sit down to interview with us because she -- she had done it with them. so i felt like, the one angle of the story that is missing is hearing from former president bill clinton and hillary. and hearing how this personally affected them because that is -- we never heard that before. and she has been so judged by what happened, including, you know, very much so in the 2016 election. so i thought it was really important to understand that, to understand, you know, the decision that she made, is this a real marriage? is this an arrangement? what is the nature of this? why did she make this decision? how did it affect her personally? and why would we be judging her about whether or not she would be a great presidential candidate based on her personal decision to stay in her

marriage? what is that about culturally? why do we do that? >> so interesting. ad adrienne, i wonder if you can skpoupd upon this, it was so interesting to see how voters looked at her and judged her based on something her husband did. and bill clinton, he just didn't get the same treatment. >> yes, mika, i'm glad you raised this point. it's something we dealt with a lot during the campaign. it was something we basically made the point along the lines, why is it her fault? why is she to blame for actions her husband took when he was president more than 20 years ago? but what i love so much about this -- there's so much i love about this documentary series, but one of the things i love so much is you really get to see hillary personality that you don't always see when she's giving interviews. that you don't always see on the debate stage or a rally. you really get to see her true personality shine through. she's wicked funny, one of the

funniest human beings i met in my entire life, she's deeply caring, deeply compassionate. you see that personality shine through. mika, we've obviously been watching and as somebody working on and off for the clintons for most of my time in public life, you don't always see the trajectory these events take place in totality. we've been watching these segments of her life, segments of his life. but rarely do we see it from start to finish. rarely do you get to sit down four hours and watch her time as wellesley and all of the way through the campaign. >> so all of the things you're saying about hillary clinton are true in private with my experience as well, funny and charming and those things. but as adrienne said, it didn't come across in a big rally or it didn't come across in a debate. do you look back now in this campaign that maybe you bubble

wrapped her too much? maybe she was behind the ropeline too much and maybe you should let her be herself? certainly it was donald trump's approach to rip and be himself. maybe do you think if the people saw more of her real personality, maybe she would have won? >> i think there are any given day 100 reasons why she maybe could have won. but many things that happened on the campaign, some of which were in our control, some of which were not, we absolutely made mistakes. one of them was we should have let her be out there now. now i think the thing you have to consider is you're walking a much narrower line if you're hillary clinton. by the way, not just if you're hillary clinton. we just watched this with elizabeth warren. she sort of made an attempt to go out there and do a lot of the things that maybe we didn't. she made a point to elevate things, like we probably took 100,000 selfies but warren was very smart publicizing that. she did all of those things.

and there's a piece yesterday in "the times" about how she was probably punished for that too. it's sort of this investable balance. if you're a woman vying for the highest office in the land between too soft land between t too tough. we definitely didn't get it right, but i think it's harder than it looks unless you have 4 1/2 hours to unpack it and, you know -- >> the russians put their thumb on the scale in favor of donald trump. there was the email story. all those other mitigating factors. but being as close as you are to secretary clinton, what's your view? should you have unleashed her a little more in 2016? >> you know, it's hard answering that question without my head exploding because, you know, for all these years we did everything we could, from our perspective, to put her out there. whether it was interviews, whether it's cooperate with documentaries, with movies, with

her meeting with reporters off the record. i -- we've always been perplexed about the gap between what people see of her, particularly on television in small doses, and what they actually -- what she actually is and who she is. and i, for as long as we've all been working for her and as well as we don't know her, this is something to this day it's hard to solve. and i think the best example would be, think of this hypothetical. everyone is watching this movie and it's fantastic. the only criticism is it's only four hours. could be 6, 10 hours and i'd be riveted. if hillary clinton tomorrow were to say, you know what, i would love if joe biden or bernie sanders picked me to be their running mate? the collective groan from the media with, oh, my god, doesn't she know when to go away, it's not entirely within our power to make everyone open minded about her. when people are open minded about her, they absolutely will

see her in a different way. but, you know what would have been unleashed in terms of talking about 2016? nick, adrienne, the campaign did a good job with that stuff. unleashed would have been when someone said about your email for her to say, enough already. this is stupid. i used some personal email. move on. if you don't want to move on, don't vote for me. she gave a very straight answer. and it just didn't work. nothing worked. and, you know, there's just so much she and we can do. we would have loved to have had this. nanette probably is responsible for more than vladimir putin if we had this documentary the day before election day in 2016. she would be president right now. >> well, i mean, it's important to remember because everybody looks back at 2016 like hillary

clinton got wiped out and there were a lot of mistakes that got made. she won by 3 million votes in the popular vote, and the comey letter. there were a collection of things that happened. we were talking about it yesterday. it was a perfect storm on wall street. there was a perfect storm that last day. even donald trump said we could have had the election ten days in a row and i would have probably only won on one of those ten days. i, do nick, i want to go to you on what we were talking about because we did certainly notice that hillary's campaign in 2016 was a lot more closed off than hillary's campaign in 2008. we were there for both of them. there was a dramatic difference. and we were critical of her for being too closed off, not only from the press but also we thought she should have gotten -- she should have gotten up front a lot earlier with the emails. we thought the press conference was a disaster. she needed to come straight

forward. so it raised all of those questions that are always raised. why can't hillary just be herself? why can't she just say she's sorry? and watching this documentary for the first time, i actually understood. this documentary explained it to me in a way that only people inside the clinton bubble can understand. and i love hillary's expression when she was saying, they said did you say sorry for this? she's like, i don't know. i'm sure i did. and then like another question. like, well, did you say sorry? she goes, yeah, okay, i would say i'm sorry, but it's not going to make a difference anyway. and there was this total cap exasperation with her, which i understand better now, but she is just held to a different standard from everybody else on the ball field. the umpire, if we want a

baseball analogy, tightens the strike zone so much on her. i mean, it's just crazy. >> especially compared to her husband. >> especially compared to bill clinton, donald trump and everybody else out there. >> everybody. >> look, i think you just hit the nail on the head. on the one hand, you're right. we should have put her out there more. we had a candidate who was calling in to cable every morning, and you know, we spent three months trying to sort through an email scandal before we put her on tv. to philippe's point, you know, i think that she was punished every time you heard some authenticity. she thought the email scandal was not a scandal but nonsense, and i think that if we had come out earlier and said that, i'm not sure that would have helped. and the alternative wasn't great either. we were in this position where we spent several months being asked if she was going to apologize to this or that or what can we do to get out of this? and the truth is that the way you end it there, she was held

to a different standard and there really was no winning. we tried a little bit of everything. i think, as i said, we could have put her out there more. at the end of the day this stuff is hard and particularly hard when you don't know what it's supposed to look like. meaning a woman vying for the highest office in the land. she's a human rorschach test. when you're the tip of the spear, it makes it all the more harder. >> you know, it was fascinating to watch. it was really -- i couldn't stop. watched the whole thing through. and it just gets you thinking on so many levels. so thank you so much. the new four-part documentary "hillary" and you can watch it now on hulu. >> nanette, thank you. this is an incredible piece of history. >> thank you all as well. and that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after a quick break. ts that i can get.

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