♪ hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. voters in six states go to the polls today and many of them will have fear and concern over the spread of coronavirus on their minds with schools, travel and business production impacted to limit the spread of the virus and protect vulnerable populations, the cloud of uncertainty and growing anxiety hangs over what would be the big conversation, just hours away from the first polls closing.

there are 352 delegates up for grabs and stakes are sky high for both joe biden and bernie sanders. for his part, biden can seal his fate as the front-runner and bernie sanders may be staring down his last and best chance to regain momentum in the case. coronavirus is driving the news and the conversation this most communities today. local officials holding regular briefings to inform their constituents about new cases, new precautions, school closures and instructions on how best to halt the spread. more than 780 cases in the u.s. a one-mile containment zone has been ordered around a suburb of new york city where the virus is most concentrated in this state. around the globe, the virus has now spread to every country in the european union and the entire country of italy is now on lockdown. global financial markets continue to show signs of

significant strain. demand for action from the white house is getting louder and in some cases defying political affiliation. it's donald trump's own former home land security adviser tom bossert who's warning us, quote, we're ten days from the hospitals getting creamed. his comment follows a fiery op-ed he wrote overnight in the washington post. urging more action from the federal government, quote, this she a classic tip of the iceberg phenomenon. it's also akin to looking at a star the light we see today was emitted some time ago, but the most useful comparison now is to a fire that threatens to burn out of control. it's one we can still contain, enextinguish -- if we act. coronavirus is creating a political reckoning for the president as well. he's been largely unharmed politically from three years of lying on all maners of things,

big and small. but now he finds himself thrown off balance to command authority from the broader population. in a press conference last night, the president admitted the world was blindsided by the virus. after traveling to capitol hill today, trump was light on specifics around how that effort is going. >> i've been briefed on every contingency you could possibly imagine. many contingency. lot of positives. very large numbers and some small numbers, by the way, we're prepared and we're doing a great job with it. it will go away. stay calm. it will go away. everybody has to be vigilant and careful. be calm. it's really working out. lot of good things are going to happen. the consumer has never been in a better position than they are right now. >> leadership like that will be on the ballot in november

according to the democratic presidential candidates as they make their cases ahead of tonight's contests. here's joe biden last night. >> unfontly the president has very -- no competence in how to handle this crisis. not that there's any clear answer that will make this all go away. he's down there golfing today. there's no sense of urgency. the american people want to know that their president is on top of this, understands it and is being guided by science. this administration hasn't moved to the advantage of the capability with the hospitals. the american people are saying, wait a minute, what's going on here? what's happening? and so, just like you, we walked in and joked, no shaking hands. well, i'm following directions of the cdc. if the president were to have just get out of the way, let the

experts at the cdc and others handle this, speak to it, we'd all be better off. >> bernie sanders last night making his case directly to trump voters in a town hall on fox news. >> so when i talk about health care being a human right and all people having health care, the coronavirus crisis makes that abundantly clear. what we need to do right now is make it clear all americans if you're feeling sick, go to a doctor, it will be paid for. don't hesitate to go to the doctor. we say to every worker, if you're sick, stay home. and we'll figure out a way to make sure that you're compensated and get your salary so your family doesn't suffer. >> choosing leaders in a time of crisis is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends.

eddie glad from princeton university and david jolly also joining us. chief white house correspondent peter baker. peter, i have been watching this president closely as have you for more than three years, i've been watching him particularly closely over the last three weeks, his performance's by the admission by his own allies uneven and halting and it really has been revealed some of the price that he has paid for telling 16,000 lies and counting. he would very much like to command the respect and attention of the broader general public, he'd very much like to do and say things that soothe and calm the markets, he does

not have those tools in his tool belt at this point in his presidency. >> yeah, i think, you know, we're seeing a crisis the kind that he hasn't faced before, it's not a human target that he can tweet at or mock or even use military action against and i think that works against his sort of most natural skill set. he's at his strongest when he has an opponent, someone who he joust with. he knows how to do that. he's been pretty successful at that. at least within his own goal set. but this is a very different challenge. i was with him in the last four days in florida. we went to atlanta to tour the cdc. we were on the plane just yesterday coming back, where the crisis came into the plane itself. the congressman was bringing

back, told he had been exposed to someone who had been infected and self-quarantined on the plane. watch this plane -- as we came back to washington yesterday was stunningly familiar on who was on that plane during hurricane katrina, watching the news, the sinking dow, the increasing number of schools that were closing and you felt as you were flying back to washington that you were flying back to a whole different world that would test this president. >> that's unbelievable imagery. you're right, it brings to mind, you know, i'm not saying that the crises are similar, a day of crisis for a president, the president i worked for and you covered george bush flying around on 9/11, where the president and the plane himself becomes the story. as all of these republicans in the president's very close and

rather small inner circle were revealed to have been in contact with the infected patient who was at the cpac conference. mark meadows is another one, the incoming chief of staff, what's the status today of his self-quarantine? >> yeah, mark med douse just picked on friday by the president to replace mick mulvaney as the chief of the staff of the white house. to help him get into re-election turns out to be self-quarantine. he'll be self-quarantined until tomorrow, the end of the 14-day period from the time he would have been exposed to the person who was infected at the cpac conference in maryland. he tested negative for coronavirus. he's not sick himself. he's staying away from people. it tells you that this is wider spreading kind of situation than the president himself wanted to admit. not that long ago he was in the briefing room, he said, just 15

people in america have this. not even a correct then and it's certainly not a correct number now. he's having a hard time finding a balance between reassurance as president in a crisis situation, a crisis that's now affecting everyday people across this country, whether schools are closing, conventions are cancelled, travel has been restricted. >> you know, in any white house fears and incompetence narrative, once it sets in, your public and your political adversaries can always find examples to prove it's true. that's now locked in with the delay in testing, with the mixed messages. rachel maddow had on her show part of a phone briefing and donald trump is still out of

step in terms of substance and an emphasis of his message coming from the top scientist and donald trump doesn't care. he lies about the small stuff. he lies about the big things and he's been lying since day one of his administration when he lied about crowd size. he's lied 16,000 times since he's taken office. we knew that we were going to get this moment with a crisis and he would have no credibility. you have a president right now who's misleading the public, lying to the public, and, you know, biden is right. biden said in that interview with lawrence o'donnell that she should just be quiet and he should and let the experts deal with it, let the scientists deal with it. that's who we need to be dealing with or hearing from because the president lies and he has no credibility at this time. >> you know david jolly, i really believe this is true, if donald trump were capable of fading to black, of shutting

off -- i say this in all seriousness, if he can shut off his twitter and go to one of his golf clubs, bedminster or mar-a-lago said nothing for two weeks i bet his rating would go up ten points. >> i think we're all wondering where we're living this week this is the turning point. american families now seeing the turning point. what the country's asking for is a president who can calm not just the markets but calm their fears. you know, bill clinton built part of his political narrative by saying, i feel your pain. donald trump is asking the nation to feel his. and it's a weird leadership quality. in a moment of crisis and to use the katrina analogy, i knew you and eddie have this

conversation. he said 15 cases, is akin to bush 43 brownie is doing a great job, that moment he can't take it back. whether it's incompetence or not, what donald trump doesn't realize in this minute he the american people are fearful. he's asking people to accept his grievance that he's not getting a fair shake, what's different than katrina, very different, all say it is fox news. the reality is that the american people have bought into a masterful line by donald trump, that the hysteria is actually the media's fault and the democrats' fault. they believe that now. you have to give credit politically to donald trump as president but what it means for a public health crisis should be concerning for not just every american but for the world that you perhaps one of the leading nations of the world whose leader in donald trump is going

to exasperate a health care crisis for his own political benefit. >> eddie. >> ditto. that's right. if we can just pan out, get donald trump out of. picture for a minute, make him blurry. >> i was going to send him golfing. do ahead. >> talk about the politics for a minute. the politics of the moment, for 40 years we have been shredding the social safety net. for 40 years we have been getting engaged in an argument about the role of government, about the role of government, whether government is useful or not. folks have been saying we can outsource or social infrastructure, we can outsource certain things that government should be good at. so here we have, the ugly underbelly of american society,

the richest country in the history of the world with all of these poor people, people who are vulnerable because they're working in the gig economy, they're contract workers. >> look, this is hitting pause and drilling down on. the people that joe biden and bernie sanders are trying to speak to today. bernie sanders has cancelled a rally. he's cancelled an opportunity to talk to these people about these issues. let's have this conversation right here. the decisions about school closures, whether or not they can afford prescriptions, whether or not they can afford to daycare, this is where talking about coronavirus and its impact is really real. these are people who don't have paid sick leave. i mean, this is where where it's not about the president's lack of credibility it's about people being able to pay their rent at the end of the month. >> we have been living in a society, that the health care has been dependent on how much you can pay.

all right, so here we in a moment where the most vulnerable among us may not have the resources to deal with what we're experiencing, so we've already had reporting of folks going into the hospital but the reality of the health crisis and now they have to deal with the reality of health bills. >> tom bossert's the president's home landsecurity. he went on tv and sound the alarm of the president being so gullible and so susceptible to the conspiracy theories being peddled around ukraine, he's at his truth telling again, telling the truth as he understands it from his experience as the country's top homeland security official saying hospitals are about to be overrun. that's terrifying. >> yeah, he also talk about ukraine, he said that this is

nonsense narrative. at the time that was pretty counterintuitive. to david's point earlier, this -- first of all, this isn't the white house's first crisis, most of them have been pretty self-inflicted to this point, right, this is not a crisis people watch on tv only this is a crisis people live in their daily lives. something they worry about. you do sort of wonder, you mentioned the brownie, you're doing a heck of a job thing. one of the first jobs of a communicator, don't give people a comeuppance. it seems the president is doing it every single day. be calm, it's going to be fine. isn't a great look when you juxtapose it to stock market going down, people dying all over the country. >> nicolle, that's being tested.

there's been a group think theory if the maga crowd suffered financial loss or personal loss they would have this comeuppance moment. but donald trump has successfully been able to blame the media and the democrats for that and his followers seem to be buying that line. i mean, this is an interesting moment i don't think we foresaw three years ago that maga could suffer financial losses and personal interruption and still stick with the president. >> some of the information that the president of the united states put out to the general public including to his base when he was at the cdc on friday, he said everyone who wants a test can be tested. that's not true. he said that he was told by the scientists that heed a a head for this. i haven't heard that from any scientist on or off the record. his own friends and allies don't think this is a good fit with

blunt instruments. what's the conversation off tv, off camera and sort off the record with white house sources, peter? >> well, look, i think they're a little bit on edge at the moment. they understand the president hasn't communicated well with the public, he's not connected with the public, the partisan attacks they're taking from the outside have no question gotten them upset but they recognize if you're going to be president that you have to be able to move past those to be a national leader. no doubt president bush took a lot of bashes from his critic c. he tried to correct the problems that he had found and maybe in fact help create. people forget, what president bush did after katrina, he went back to new orleans 17 times and organized $100 billion of

reconstruction. he took lessons from that. fixing what went wrong. >> peter, can i add this in. >> i was the communications director here. i'm sitting here having ptsd. >> i'm sorry. >> it's not -- it's not a moment in presidential history that anyone should shy away in sort of trying to understand what happens, but one of the things that had to be done we had to make a dvd of the press coverage, not only what he was not interested in engaging politics, he didn't care about the press coverage, he wanted to do right by the people affected by hurricane katrina. there was a debate about whether or not it was fair. you know, to your point, this is a white house that is blinded,

they're sucked into the black hole that's the president's self-esteem hole to function. >> this is national emergency moment. president during a national emergency moment is supposed to be a unifier, at least try to be. that's the tradition. who did he see today? he saw the republicans. he hasn't seen the democrats. that's not a unifying moment. he talked about unity. he's talking about unity within his own caucus. why is he not talking to nancy pelosi? just two days ago he made it clear he wasn't go to the ceremonial st. patrick's day lunch that presidents have been going through since reagan because he's so mad at nancy pelosi, considers her to be divisive. that's just a hard, you know, message to be sending at a time

the public doesn't care about partisan divide, they care about their schools and other important questions. >> peter, thank you. after the break, the president on capitol hill today where he huddled with lawmakers on emergency legislation to protect the economy from further impact from coronavirus. this as jitter markets remain spooked. also ahead -- joe biden and bernie sanders make their last-minute cases to voters in michigan. one of the big battleground voting tonight as joe biden continues to surge in the polls there and nationally. and straight talk from joe biden, too much or just right in the time of trump? we'll ask our panel. that's coming up. oming up and save in more ways than one.

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we just had a meeting on stimulus and you'll be hearing about it soon but it was a great meeting. great unity within the republican party. >> a great meeting, but i can't tell you about it. we haven't started with the democrats yet. it's hardly a major economic steps that donald trump promised the markets yesterday in the aftermath of the dow's worst day since the 2008 financial crisis. those remarks from donald trump this afternoon are evident of two things, first, earlier reporting from our colleague that trump stunned his own staff yesterday by putting the cart before the horse announcing a major economic plan before anything had to be agreed to

even with republicans. despite unity within the gop there's still daylight between the white house and their close, close republican friends on capitol hill. and of course, even more among democrats about exactly what the plan forward should entail. mitch mcconnell and conservatives in congress are reportedly uneasy about a payroll tax cut something that trump floated publicly yesterday. the washington post said, quote, trump's overall handling of the converging crises, while spreting misinformation and blaming others, has unsettled many of his republican allies on capitol hill and even inside the white house, where some aides acknowledged that the president is compounding problems with his grievances and con spir toirl mind-set. tell us what is inside sort of the president making these comments, his own staff coming out pretty quickly to yourself to say, whoa, we're not there

yet and the president having to do a little bit of a walkback on capitol hill about where this policy really stands. >> we don't know at this point when the president is going to announce those economic stimulus points. remember, he came into the briefing room at the white house yesterday and said that tomorrow he would be having a major news conference, he would announce major ideas on the economy they had been talking about in a meeting inside the white house. i'm told by officials here that officials were stunned when the president made that announcement last night because there was no plan for a press conference by the president to announce the economic policy, largely because the economic policy hadn't been finalized yet. nothing pinned down in writing. there was nothing to roll out at the time the president announced he would be rolling some things out. he said this would be a dramatic announcement today. so far we haven't seen anything from the president. we do expect a 5:30 briefing here at the white house from the vice president, possible the

president will join that and roll some of those ideas out. but nothing so far. we're getting a lit bit of a sense throughout the afternoon there's some ideas under consideration. >> peter baker from "the new york times" just reported there's really no communication with democrats, is that your understanding, still very much about getting the republicans on both sides of pennsylvania avenue on a single song sheet. >> it appears that like treasury secretary mnuchin is going to be the point person to deal with nancy pelosi. so, mnuchin -- >> because he's so wounded -- i mean, we're in the middle of a national crisis and he can't get in a room with the speaker of the house. >> look, i mean, what the white house would say that's pelosi's fault because she ripped up his

speech. she's been tough on him so the president has every right not to be in a room with her. the idea that we can face to face negotiations between the speaker of the house and the president of the united states is just farfetched right now even in this crisis. you know, what aides here will tell you, look, with can get this done anyway. we can get something done on the hill. they started with republicans today. and we'll see where it goes. but as of right now we don't have any sense what the economic plan is and the president promised that about 24 hours ago and we'll wait and see through the evening tonight they roll out details. >> i don't want to say. >> there's no plan. there never was a plan. what the president is going to do, he's going to blame everyone, he's going to obama, he's going to blame nancy pelosi and he'll blame hillary clinton if he can.

you know, we were talking about how in this time in a crisis, we had ebola not too long, the president brings everyone together. >> a normal president. >> democrats and republicans. and what we're doing here with a narcissist, he only cares about his own political health. >> i watched his tape from the cdc several times. i watched it unedited and different packages. when are we talking about how abnormal this is? this reveals his incapacity for conduct, not just becoming of a president but a grownup. >> the cdc tape, more people talking about it than the standard variety, did you hear what he said episode? >> why is that in. >> i think given the circumstances, i think given some of the things he said, again, he's not choosing his words terribly carefully even at

a time most presidents would abide by -- it's worth pointing out that the idea that democrats and republicans can sit down isn't such ronald reagan concept, john boehner, president obama, harry reid, mitch mcconnell, they warded office call cliffs, there's any -- >> one more in the mix, george w. bush had senator obama and senator mccain to the white house and i would pause it was frankly president obama's sort of steadiness during the financial crisis that really aided him in the final day of that contest. >> absolutely. in retrospect it wasn't a perfect situation but, look, most people -- most americans looking at that fairly that was a moment of gratitude. >> eamon, thank you for spending

some time with us. after the break, joe biden has a sizable lead in michigan. what to watch for tonight's in the six democratic primaries today. that's next. today. that's next. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit! you can't claim that because it's inanimate! people ask me what sort of person should become a celebrity accountant. and, i tell them, "nobody should." hey, buddy. what's the damage? i bought it! the waterfall? nope! a new volkswagen. a volkswagen?! i think we're having a breakthrough here! welcome to caesar's palace. thank you.

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there's one man now who's ready to go to the center of the arena, who's our best shot to beat donald trump. and that person is one person that person's name is joe biden!

[ cheers and applause ] >> we've got some work to do, everybody. we've got some work to do. michigan, i do believe you're going to make the difference in terms of the outcome of this election. i do believe that. >> i watch those speeches, those were electric performances from joe biden's latest high-profile endorsers. senators cory booker and kamala harris addressing the importance of today's primary in michigan, the state where the most delegates are up for grabs. and where a poor performance by bernie sanders could spell real trouble for his campaign to seek the democratic nomination. the "the new york times" lays it out this way, michigan is a b l bellwether. if mr. sanders can't revive his campaign there, he's unlikely to perform much better in ohio.

we're watching both campaigns for updates on this key election day and this coronavirus continues to spread. breaking news at the top of our hour, senator sanders has just announced he'll cancel his rally due to coronavirus, in ohio. eddie. >> so, there's a difference between 2016 and today. >> what's that in. >> there's a difference between the disdain around hillary clinton and the fear and panic around donald trump. what sanders campaign has to figure out how to address the fear and panic that's motivating the decisionmaking of voters. you can have working-class white voters who are all in for sanders and his policies with regards to trade and medicare for all but they are fearful that their neighbors won't vote for bernie sanders. they're fearful he can't beat donald trump in a national

election. i'm looking for what happens among black voters in michigan. compared to what happens with black voters in mississippi. if michigan looks more like nevada, then the biden campaign has to do some work, the support they're talking about in terms of firwall of black voters may very much be regional. we have to look at how black voters turn out in flint and around michigan and detroit and the like. because then we can begin to see, whether or not what we have been talking about actually holds across regions. >> that's so interesting, because i watched -- i watched everything that bernie sanders has done, even more closely since the nevada caucuses when it looked like he was a likely democratic nominee and his message hasn't changed since the south carolina primary, where, again, when we talk about -- a traditional politician might

have acknowledged work to be done. i wonder if there was a missed opportunity to recalibrated, i'm thinking about you, maybe we're talking past each other, i didn't see any effort of resetting that conversation. >> and what he did instead which people were really upset about, he started talking about the establishment. >> yeah. this made me nuts. the establishment -- they were behind pete buttigieg, michael bloomberg. they had nothing to do -- >> you're insulting the black voters who voted in south carolina and the rest of the states in the south last week. you make a really good point because we have to see, is there a change from those southern black voters who voted in the south last week to what we're going to see this the midwest? here's thing, bernie needs to do better with more reliable voters. he does well with young voters. he needs to do better with older

voters. that's his problem. if he can do that he can be back in play. but tonight -- it's do or die. we know that biden's going to have a blowout in mississippi, probably do really well in missouri and michigan we just don't know even though biden is leading, michigan is incredibly difficult to polled. unreliable. we'll see. >> david and then mark. >> look, joe biden apparently by the polls will have a good night although we have to be careful looking too far forward. there's an issue coming in the next week that could gain traction if donald trump proposes a stimulus package, what you'll hear from bernie sanders we don't need tax cuts to artificially stimulate an already-strong economy what we need to do is double the unemployment benefits for those

displaced by coronavirus. otherwise, guess what, airlines rjs you've gotten -- hospitality industry you don't need subsidies from the federal government, so donald trump if this is what you're proposing, what say you, joe biden? because as a wedge issue and a very progressive democratic party, bernie sanders might find some room. >> let me just tell you, news broke, joe biden has also cancelled his event in ohio. coronavirus threatening to reshape the way these candidates campaign. >> i think, you're right. this could be a wedge issue going forward. the campaign can be different. the other thing is, the question, will have the debate in arizona on sunday?

the next sort of natural point to ask this, you're right, i think the campaign will look very different. all right, when we come back, a moment today for joe bi biden with an autoworker in detroit. and the swear jar. we'll tell you about it next. llt searching for a way to help stop your cold sore?

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[ bleep ]. i support the second amendment.

i'm not taking your gun away, at all, you need 100 rounds. i did not say that. that is not true. i did not say that. give me a break. let me give you some context. joe biden was confronted by a person at one of his events that he was obviously making his pitch to who accused him of wanting to take his guns away. joe biden got to straight talk quick. said you're full of bleep. they went at it. i would pause it, david jolly, you're the statesman at the table. you know, let's not be precious. whoever wins the did theic primary, will go against someone who writes to porn stars to keep secret. joe biden doesn't have bet owe o'rourke's position what the

autoworker said. this idea of some con fits case of weapons. >> look, whether or not the autoworker was full of it, or the party narrative that has informed that auto worker is full of it, might be a nuance. what joe biden was speaking to, republican party has mischaracterized the democratic party they want to destroy the 2nd amendmentme. as a republican who got some things wrong on gun and i tried to make it up in office the second amendment is a fundamental right but it's not an absolute right. the talking point of conservatives and fox news that the democrats want to take their guns, that's not the case. the idea of weapons of war needs to be addressed as something that it should be as difficult to get a weapon of war as a security clearance. it's reasonable to expect

background checks for every single purchase. when this autoworker confronted joe biden, joe biden reacted in a very personal and human way saying i'm not trying to take a gun, i'm trying to make the community around you safer and that's the democratic position that the republicans have miscast. if there's a singular issue that we lose sight of it's the issue of guns. if this the moment, the confrontation that allows us to have that debate again, good for joe biden in that moment. >> look, i'd like to see that kind of fire in response with the trump campaign and hunter biden. >> great point. >> look, there will be a debate. what i didn't like what he said, if you want 100 rounds you can have it. >> i missed that.

>> if you want a hundred rounds, there's a debate to be had. it seems to me at that moment, given the fact that we have a generation of americans who have come of age in the age of mass shootings, we have to be very, very careful how we careful how that. >> the news cycle moves to fast we're not even going to remember this video. >> i know. i agree, people want a fighter. we see this over and over again. they want someone who can take it to trump. who is going to fight for them. who can win and when you see that from joe biden, it gives you that imagination. how will joe biden be on stage with donald trump. how will he react. i want to see more of that. >> that was uncle joe. >> i'm going to come back to you on this next story that you set up. don junior versus hunter biden. don't go anywhere. s hunter biden don't go anywhere. i don't add up the years.

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you know what will be great, i'll let you host it. you moderate a debate between hunter biden and myself. come on, let's do it. seriously. we can go full transparency. we show everything and we can talk about all of the places where i'm supposedly grifting but hunter biden isn't. >> i don't even know what to

say. attacks of hunter biden have reae merr reemerged after his father emerged in the polls and now junior is dhchallenging him. we never seen this before. >> if you look to the malia-obamalia obama and megan mccain how this could be decisive. >> there is a serious point about trump benefits by the a asymmetrical way. i think joe biden needs to clear his family's name and whether it's sticking. i don't know what junior has in mud. like a mud wrestling match. i don't know what he was saying there. this is some need to not ignore it, i think.

>> i didn't rule it out. not a candidate for any presidential debate. i think i'm in the mix for mud wrestling, moderating it. >> if you're joe biden, you don't want to dig the fight. this fairly unprecedented attack. the thing that led to his impeachment to relitigate that in which your family is on the defensive. obviously hunter biden is in a rough time and it's ban rough few years for family. i can see why joe biden doesn't want to get down that level. it will be interesting to see them call trump's bluff and see that play out a bit. >> the trump kids have been put on notice that they will be an issue in this election. >> they will. i agree. i think joe biden needs to step up and make sure he protects his family and protects hunter biden but it's not about them. it's not going to be about them. voters are not thinking it's

going to be about hunter biden or don junior. it's not. that's kind of the thing we have to be careful about. >> all right. we could talk about this for unseemingly amount of time. we're out of time today. that does it for us. mtp daily picks up right after the break. mtp daily picks up right after the break. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. [ natural drums and [ music begins to build ]] [ drums beat faster ] unlimited coffee for $8.99 a month. panera, your cup is always full. a lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesn't get everything clean. i tell them, it may be your detergent... that's why more dishwasher brands recommend cascade platinum... ...with the soaking, scrubbing and rinsing built right in. for sparkling-clean dishes, the first time.

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welcome to a very busy tuesday. it's meet the press daily. it's a big night in the democratic presidential primary with nominating contests in six states including michigan which could be bernie sanders last stand against joe biden. we're just moments away from our first look at results from our nbc news exit polls with kornacki at the big board. we'll get to that in just a moment. we have to begin tonight with the battle to contain the spread of coronavirus here in the u.s. as federal and local officials grapple with how aggressively to

respond to the rising threat. in 30 minutes we're expecting an update from the vice president and other members of the white house coronavirus task force as the number of cases in the u.s. continues to rise. now totaling 849, including 28 deaths, 14 states have declared a state of emergency. one of them is in new york where governor andrew coumo announced he was deploying the national guard to help establish a containment zone outside of new york city. more than 100 people have contracted the virus. schools and other institutions will close. facilities will be sanitized and large gatherings will be banned. >> it's a dramatic action but it is the largest cluster in the country and this is literally a matter of life and death. that's not a overly rhetorical

statement. >> that dramatic action following a series of diring warnings about the situation facing other communities in the u.s. as cases rise around the world. the president's former homeland security adviser says we're ten days away from hospitals across the country being overwhelmed. the seattle mayor says they are anticipating 60,000 cases within six weeks unless they act now. this follows increasingly aggre aggressive action internationally with entire countries like italy and israel trying to wall themselves off from the outside world. moments ago, bernie sanders campaign announced they are cancelling his rally tonight due to concerns about public health and safety. right before we went on the air, the biden campaign announced it was cancelling their rally tonight as well. president trump went to capitol hill this afternoon to meet with republicans to discuss ways to combat the growing economic toll of the virus. potentially by cutting payroll

taxes. here he is at the capitol continuing to try and down play the threat. >> right now i guess we're at 26 deaths and if you look at the flu, the flu, for this year, we're looking at 8,000 deaths. 8,000 versus 26 deaths at this time. with all of that being said, we're taking this unbelievably seriously, and i think we're doing a really good job. >> nbc ron allen is in new rochelle. geoff bennett is covering the administration's response from the white house. i want to start with you ron. what kpexactly is happening in this containment zone in new rochelle? >> reporter: the governor of new york said that new rochelle has

one of the largest clusters, more than 100 cases. more than double the case of new york city, a city of some nine million people. they are calling in the national guard to set up a containment area. it sdretretches out from the cer of town and a particular synagogue where a number account for a significant majority of the cases. now, the outbreak here has been traced to an individual. a member of that congregation. lawyer who caught the virus through unknown means. he and his family became infected. the virus spread to friends and other members of the synagogue and other members of the community. the strategy here all along has been to identify people that that group, that family came in contact with and to try and contain it. as the virus continues to spread here, the governor, with help of the national guard is going to try to draw a circle afternoon this area. this is not a quarantine or a mandatory stay inside. they will shut down schools,

houses of worship, other larger institutions in this diameter area. hoping they can stop the virus from spreading. there are a lot of questions about this and the officials have been trying to calm the population telli ining them thi not a military occupation. there won't be any check points. they are urging people to stay calm. the guard will help with cleaning buildings, delivering food and supplies. there are several hundred people self-quarantined because the outbreak has been going on for about a week already. it's a significant cluster. it's the largest the governor says anywhere in the country. they are taking what is a dramatic drastic step to try to stop it because this is the only way they think they can do that. they are urging people to stay calm. they should probably last for about two weeks or so to see how it goes. >> this doesn't start until thursday. i'm a little confused about why there is a two-day delay. >> reporter: logistics. to get the guard here and get word out to the people in the community about what it's going to be and what it's not going to

be. they think it will take those 24 hours or so to get things in place. word is already out. people have been stopping by here asking us what's going on. word is spreading out. it's a very drastic step to try and stop and contain the spread of this virus. the governor, health officials think this is what they have to do to try and stop this. it's been spreading. the number of cases here is soaring unlike anywhere else in the country the governor says. >> doctor, i imagine that if you're told in two days you're going to be not quarantine zone but a containment zone and if you're told to stay there, what is stopping you from picking up and leaving and going to another community? it seems like you could still spread the virus somewhere else because you're not going to stay in that area. >> that's what's going to happen when you panic people. you'll see people lever the area because they don't want to put up with the issues that's going to happen. this isn't quite a quarantine

zone. it's more of an issue of trying to allow social distancing to occur. allow people to get food if they have been quarantined. it's not a lockdown like what we saw in italy or china. this is a little different and it's kind of a hybrid. it will be interesting to see how it works out. it will be disruptive for the residents. >> if it's a problem and there's a hundred people who have contracted it. there are others who are self-quarantining, if this is the hot spot in the country, why not quarantine? >> this is a community spreading respiratory virus. it spreads from person to person. it's not going to be containable. you can social distancing, that might be getting rid of some of the big gatherings that you might have. telling people to stay home. you're not going to completely get rid of that risk. this is going to spread like n1h1 did. just flatten the curve. >> are you expecting to see this happen in other places? >> i do. hopefully this is not going be

the norm but i think they will see other states do this as they their states of emergency and we get more community spraeead. >> i was reading on the 1918 spanish flu and the comparison between philadelphia and st. louis. philadelphia kept planned parade and their cases spiked and dropped dramatically. st. louis practiced social distancing and they flattened the curve and the same number of cases but they were spread out over time. tell me the benefits of spreading them out over time if they're going to be the same number. >> if you spread it out, you allow hospitals to prepare to take care of the patients. it allows hospitals to be able to cope with things at a less intense level and that's what we have seen. it's not always the case it will work. it depends on how much community spread going on. if it's already widespread, you don't get much benefit from doing that. >> explain social distancing. is that still going to a

straup restaurant and not touching your fellow diners? >> it means different for every person. it might be staying at home, cancelling travel. maybe going to a restaurant. trying to limit your social contact with others. there's variable success. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. it's also very context depen dent depending on what's going on in your community with this virus. >> what about hospitals? how concerned are hospitals right now about their ability to treat the patients that are going to come in? >> hospitals are very concerned. big academic medical centers much better prepared their small rural hospitals. what we're seeing is a lot of alarm after what's happening in italy where we have a lot of icu beds being occupied in italy. some issues of shortages, rumors of shortages in italy. >> talks about how you can't come in and treat just regular procedures. you're not a priority any longer because everything has been, all the resources have been moved to

trying to contain the virus. >> right. that's what happened in china. people who had strokes and heart attacks have their care deteriorate because they weren't able to get in. we are worried about that. that's the biggest priority is hospital preparedness. >> geoff, the president was on capitol hill meeting with republicans talking about the economic effects. how flushed out is this plan from the white house and are they pri your t prioritizing th effects over the health effects? >> reporter: what the president floated today isn't plan at all. treasure secretary told reporters that in his dealings with house speaker nancy pelosi, he had been deputized to deal with pelosi to hash out an economic proposal, mnuchin said they are not negotiating because they are not at that point yet. they are having a series of discussions. among the ideas president trump has floated, nbc news has learned, is this payroll tax cut.

zeroing out the payroll tax beyond the election, carrying through the end of the year for both the employer and the employee. he wants to consider extending paid lever to affected work eshs, smaeshworkers, he said they need to do something for the airlines, the cruise lines. i'll tell you, know, when it comes to this payroll tax cut that is not being well severed by democrats or republicans. yes, it's way to quickly inject money into the economy, but doing it only really helps people one who have a job and two, who have full-time work. for those hourly wage workers, that would not be the proper solution. you heard top democrats today say if the white house really wants to limit the economic impact of coronavirus, the way they have to do it is to limit the spread of the virus itself.

to focus on the public health portion and worry about the economics as a secondary issue. >> the democrats have said they're not on board with this payroll tax. are the republicans on board? >> not yet. the reason donald trump came to the hill today is to try to sure up support among his republicans. they were -- the past 24 hours they had been very skeptical and not super supportive of any sort of stimulus regarding coronavirus, just yet. they thought the facts weren't there. the need wasn't there yet. trump came to capitol hill to try to gain support. after this meeting, after this closed door lunch, their mood seems to have shifted just slightly. they seem more open to ideas. they're not dismissing them out right but the devil is in details and there are no details other than what geoff laid out. the fact he would like to zero out this payroll tax. there's other ideas too. republicans want to see how much this will cost.

they want to ensure it will have some impact because they are alwaysalso pointing to the fact congress passed an aids bill for coronavirus. they want to see how that plays out. there's included small business loans and so they want to see what is happening in this economy before they come down on it. the negotiations are just beginning and if this gets bad, you could see, perhaps, maybe some bipartisanship on capital hill if this is impacting member states and districts. there's a lot of elections coming up, not just the president's. >> how seriously is the president taking this as of now? again, he compared it to the flu. seeming to diminish the threat of this disease -- virus. >> reporter: he was asked again if he's been tested since he has interacted with those two members of congress who themselves are now in self-quarantine after interar

interacting with an infected person. president trump said he didn't think it was that big of a deal and if the white house physician thought needed to be tested he would do it. it's hard to tell how much of the president's public statements are him trying to do what he thinks he needs to do to calm the markets, to try to stem panic versus how much he himself doesn't think to use your -- think it's that big of a deal. >> thank you very much. we're awaiting the white house's latest coronavirus briefing. o we'll bring it to you live. i'm going to talk with a leading official in new york's containment zone about why they are taking this step and what it means for all of the people who live there. let's be honest. quitting smoking is hard. like, quitting every monday hard. quitting feels so big. so try making it smaller, and you'll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette.

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why not quarantine that area if there are people that are walking in and out?

would that further decrease the spread or slow the spread of this thing? >> that's a why that strategy. that's the italy strategy. we're not there yet in new york. we're not there yet in this country. i don't want to limit people's mobility. we're not there. >> welcome back. that was governor cuomo explaining more about the containment zone. >> george, thank you very much for being with us. can you explain what this is mean it should be quarantined.

with the virus and they had been tested positive. for quarantine. the restaurants will be hope this week. deep clean houses of war thip and people that congregate. by stopping it will give us chance to cash or breath.

>> they have had contact with people that have been exposed. they do ask people to do the dhings we're supposed to do. they don't go to the hospital directly. call your medical professional. learn as we go along.

we have a mom who is working and the kids are in school during during the day. we're going to see the negative impact. sensible middle ground.

the homes we prefer to stay in homes and go to activities outside of it. i don't think we see that kind of exodus we might see in a different setting. we'll find out over the course of the next few days. the religious entities will shut down for a weekend or two. that could be a discouragement too. i think what we'll try to do is be practical many the way this is implemented and do it in way that gains the support of people. >> are your hemedical resources do you have enough to teal with more cases if they do arise? >> i'd say no if this thing

multiplies the way we expect it to. we have a very capable leader and we have a certain number of nurses and doctors. clearly when the contagion has reached 100 some odd cases, some of the professionals tell us, we'll have to rely on support from the state and maybe surrounding counties and we don't know how much of our circumstances make us unique or if other places will catch up to us with many cases. we're just on the cutting edge of something that will be much more but we'll need additional resources to match up to this. >> thank you for your answer. i know people appreciate honesty and transparency in times like these. thank you very much for joining us and good luck.

the white house coronavirus task force briefing is set to begin in just a few minutes. we'll bring it do you live when it happens. also ahead, the latest on today's six 2020 contests. steve kornacki is at the break board to break it all down. stay with us. board to break it all down stay with us getting older shouldn't mean giving up all the things she loves to do. it should just mean, well, finding new ways to do them. right at home's professional team thoughtfully selects caregivers to provide help with personal care, housekeeping, and of course, meal preparation. oh, that smells so good. aw, and it tastes good, too. we can provide the right care,

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welcome back. as we await the start of the white house's coronavirus briefing, let's turn to big

developments in the presidential primary race. six states hold nominating contests today making this the fourth largest day of the primary calendar. the first polls close about two and a half hours from now and what could be bernie sanders last stand especially if he cannot pull off a victory in michigan, a state he won four years ago but trails to joe biden in recent polls. we are getting our first look at exit polls from today's contests. let's go do steve kornacki. what do you have? >> the disclaimer, early wave, numbers could change. going to give you a sense of the overall picture of the electorate of these states coming into focus. let's look at question we have been tracking across all the primaries asking democratic voters would they rather see a nominee who can beat trump or who agrees with them on the major issues. here you go. you're seeing here in michigan, 57% saying they would rather

have someone who can beat trump. that question asked in missouri as well. very similar finding. 59-37 if you're looking for some comparison. these numbers are in line with what we're seeing in a lot of those states on super tuesday. those numbers basically identical. close to identical to what you're seeing here. another important demographic fault line. 72% white in michigan. 18% black. remember, michigan in 2016 had the highest share of voters who were black of any state that bernie sanders won. actually, checked it in at 21% the electorate did. it was 18% at this exit poll. that was at 21% black. bernie sanders barely won michigan. he was unable to win. michigan was his ceiling there in 2016. mississippi was a big problem spot for sanders in '16. that was a big reason why. you see tonight almost

two-thirds of the electorate in this exit poll is african-american. that's the largest number we have seen so far with 57 in south carolina. this exit poll telling us it's 64 in mississippi. i don't have a graphic for missouri but i can tell you the number there is 17. 17% black in the exit poll. also, among white voters in some of these states this was an important category to be looking at in 2016. you look at michigan among white voters, 37% are non-college white. 35% are white voters with college degrees. this was a group, non-college whites especially as the primary season wore on in 2016 that bernie sanders was doing well with compared to hillary clinton. in the general election it was a group that hillary clinton struggled with. one of the big reasons bernie sanders was able to win michigan in 2016 was support for this sector of the electorate. 37% non-college white. we'll be tracking that closely tonight. how those voters went. you can see in missouri it was

similar story. 45% non-college white there and again, sanders didn't quite win missouri in 2016. came within 1500 votes. it was the closest state in the entire primary calendar in 2016. this had a lot to do with why he kept it close in 2016. we'll see tieonight how it stan four years later. >> we'll be paying attention tonight. we'll be right back. attention tonight. we'll be right back. get 'em while they're hot. applebee's 25 cent boneless wings are back in your choice of three sauces. applebee's 25 cent boneless wings sure, principal is a fibut think of us as a "protect your family as it grows" company.

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i think it's there's no confidence in the president in anything he says or does. he turns everything into what he think s a political benefit for

himself and he's imploding in the process. >> welcome back. joe biden and bernie sanders with some strong words on president trump's coronavirus response as voters are voting. and as we are awaiting the start of the coronavirus briefing. brett stephens, columnist for the new york times. i think a lot of voters might agree with joe biden and agree with bernie sanders right now. they might not like the president but they might be looking at washington all the same and saying if you can't stop sniping at each other now, when we're fin the middle of crisis, how can you expect them to function. >> i'll be interested to see how that might make people vote

tonight. voters in some states view joe biden as a better choice of dealing with a crisis. we know what number one issue is for voters. health care. we know both of those candidates have two very different perspectives on what the future of health care should be in the u.s. you have one candidate in bernie sanders who says the government needs to build a much more robust end to end health care system where all you do show up, get treated and leave which looks pretty good if you're living in another country with a more socialized system and have drive through testing sites. do you trust bernie sanders the deal with the crisis or build a system that's built for this crisis. >> that's such a good point. this is exposing the weaknesses that we have in the social safety net and one of the most glaring weaknesses is the ability to make sure everybody is healthy and remains healthy. >> i do think our country could have driver by testing out.

we could have had millions of tests out with more planning. i do think one of the questions that is prevadi ipervading the is whether voters are looking at this moment really towards a flight to safety. the whole issue makes government competence, makes the ability to have executive experience or having that kind of experience more relevant. we'll see tonight whether that's shaping more interest in biden over senator sanders who has a lot of experience but has less executive experience, has never handled anything like this where the vice president did handle the ebola outbreak.

the coronavirus is going to make the case for medicare for all. what it will make the case is trusting government. when the coronavirus -- >> are they making the case right now? >> this is exactly my point. people said this is china. it's donald trump's chernobyl. there are some things you can't lie and spin your way through, something like a virus this is out of control like the soviet government couldn't lie its way through atomic particles going through the air in ukraine 35 years ago. >> how do you make that argument to people who refuse to believe it's a problem. a family member of mine was having dinner with some adamant trump supporters the other night and they were telling her that the coronavirus was all fake news. >> that's going to be fake news

until it happens to someone in their neighborhood. that's how long that fantasy lasts and this is beyond the area of just having a president make stuff up. i was just reading this extraordinary piece in the wall street journal and a rhode island survivor of the coronavirus. this is a guy who is a vice principal of a school. this will hit people's neighborhoods. people will know someone who was hit by this. having a president who treats this as another kind of real estate deal with he can kind of bs his way through it isn't going to work. i think this is probably not only the biggest test of trump's presidency but it's actually the way in which his entire presidency is exposed for the fraud that it is. >> this also might become an issue, heaven forbid because it might become a constitutional situation. the constitution requires that when the president is unable to perform his duties, the vice president becomes acting president. donald trump has been in places where people who are infected with coronavirus are known to have been.

there are a number of direct vectors to donald trump in the white house that may have gotten him infected. in a very real sense we may be days or weeks away we may be away from mike pence becoming the acting president of the united states. if that happens then that argument, among people who think the coronavirus is a hoax which side bar, for those of you playing the home game, is the dumbest thing i've ever heard. that may become where rubber hits road and every one has to have the same conversation, not politically but praktedctically about wa we do about that. >> numbers may be spiking in way there's no way to paper over it. i think the issue is you'll see more republican governors with states that have problems that are actually acknowledging it. the governor of ohio is telling his people, this is real problem. listen to the facts and that is also going to be a problem where you see republicans, republican executive leaders kacting very

differently from the president. >> there's a lot of questions about how worried people should be. we were having a conversation in the break this is worth having on camera and television as well. are you worried? >> how worried am i? i'm this worried. >> you may not be worried for yourself. i'm not worried for myself now. >> i have elderly relative who is have pre-existing conditions. i'm worried not only for their sake but interacting with them because i don't want me -- i don't want me or my children to be unwitting carriers of coronavirus to them. there's a huge population that is extraordinarily vulnerable. they are physically vulnerable and they are socially vulnerable. people are saying this doesn't hit people who are healthy as the president did. that was one of the most horrendous statements coming from a president to not consider how many people are potentially fatally exposed. >> the ones that are worried about being exposed that are

staying inside their house and are not interacting with people. the trauma of loneliness. >> exactly with senior citizens who already know experience social loneliness very differently. personally i'm not worried. i think there are plenty of demographics in this country who know what it feel like to be ignored by the u.s. government during a public health crisis. if you're african-american, you remember crack cocaine. if you're a gay man you remember what happened in the '80s when hiv was invented and a certain president refused to say it on television. i would love to have better surveillance on how different demographics in the country are dealing with this but fear never saved a life. fear never solved anything. worry doesn't help but war ines may be built in. >> we need a lot more

information. >> we might sdwrjust get it in minute. >> here is mike pence with the coronavirus task force. let oos list let's listen. >> good afternoon. we completed the meeting of the white house coronavirus task force. i couldn't be more proud of the efforts of the men and women standing behind me or all those standing behind them. president trump said from early on this would be a who he will go of government approach and today gives evidence of the fact it's also a whole of america approach. we're bringing the full resources to federal government and the full resources of this great economy and our great business sector to bear in protecting the american people and protecting american families. a few updates from today. as we continue to expand testing availability across the country, testing is now available at all state labs. by the end of this week there

will be more than four million more tests made available in jurisdictions around the country. one million are already in place thanks to the good work of our top commercial labs that president trump brought together yesterday. lab corp and quest are in the process of dribistributing and marketing coronavirus tests all akros america. we're working with state and local officials to ensure that happens as rapidly as possible. as the testing is expanding, we wanted to make sure the american people knew that testing was available to them and that cost would not be a barrier. today president trump assembled a top health insurance executives in america and as we announced earlier today, all of our major health insurance companies have joined with medicare and medicaid and agreed to waive all co-pays, cover the costs of all treatment for those

who contract the coronavirus. they have committed to know surprise billing and they've committed to encourage telemedici telemedicine. it was a year ago that medicaid expanded to pay for telemedicine. medicare pays for telemedicine. now for seniors who may think they are at risk or have contracted the disease, they can get medical advice without having to go to the doctor or go to an emergency room. i know i speak for president trump when i say how grateful we are to see our health insurance industry step forward to meet this need so that no american should be concerned about being able to pay for or afford the cost of a coronavirus test if they deem and their doctor deems it to be appropriate and necessary. the president also went to capitol hill to meet with members of the united states

senate republican caucus. he talked about an economic package. he's calling for payroll tax relief and i think most important to the president we want to make sure that hourly woer workers, hard working blue collar americans that may not have paid family leave today that small and medium size businesses in america would be afforded the resources to provide paid levave so no one would feel they have to go to work if they might have been infected or exposed to the coronavirus. we had a good reception on capitol hill. our legislative teams have fanned out. we'll be working with republican and democrat leadership to move an economic package. larry kudlow will be reflecting on that in just a few moments. we also talked about what are known as n-95 masks and we're worki working, senator deb fisher and others have important legislation that would extend temporary liability protections so that masks that are made for

industrial use could be sold to hospitals to ensure that our health care workers are properly protected and outfitted. we're grateful for growing bipartisan support for that measure and we're going to be working earnestly with republicans and democrats the move a reform that would make more n95 masks available. i'm also pleased to report that we did receive, this prehensive the cruise line industry. advanced screening, medical services on ships, providing for air lift evacuation and land based care at the expense of the cruise lines for anyone that might be not only infected with the coronavirus but with any serious illness. we'll be reviewing that in next 24 hours. the president's objective is for us to make a cruise lines safer even as we work with the cruise lines to ensure that no one in

our particularly as a ru lly vu population is going out on a cruise in the near future. i'm going to recognize dr. fauci to talk about where we are. dr. burks will give us some research she has done on the scope. let me say once again, this is a whole of government approach. from early on president trump has insisted that our government at the federal level, all of our partner at the state level work in concert to protect the american people. as we stand here today, the risk to the average american of contracting the coronavirus remains low but we're absolutely determined to give every american the tools and the information that they need to protect themselves, their families, their workplace, their schools and we're going to work together.

we're going to work together to see our way through this and working with leaders in both parties in congress, working with leaders at the state level all across this nation. i'm confident we will. with that, dr. tony fauci for an update on the status. >> thank you very much, mr. vice president. just to give you a very brief sketch of what we do every day. the cases continue to increase globally. we are paying particular attention to the cases in europe and italy and france and which we're starting the see that up at the same time as the relative number of new cases come down from china but we're seeing in europe is europe is in that up slow. that's something that is expected. that's the way these kinds of outbreaks go. this is not a surprise to anybody. if you look at the history of infec infectious diseases outbreaks. in united states we continue to have new cases. as of this morning there were 712 with 27 deaths. guaranteed by the time of this

evening, that's going to be up. there will be several more. tomorrow there will be several more. we realize that this is something obviously that we have been saying all along that we're taking very seriously. now the question is what are we going to do about there are a s that one can do in order to blunt it. if you look at the curves of outbreaks, they go big peaks and come down. what we need to do is flatten that down. that would have less people infected. that would ultimately have less deaths. you do that by trying to interfere with the natural flow of the outbreak. so, what we're saying today is that although we keep coming in and saying appropriately that as a nation, the risk is relatively low, there are parts of the country right now that are having community spread in which the risk there is clearly a bit more than that and you know the places. you know washington state, california, new york and florida. but what i want to talk to you about today just for a moment or

two is that we would like the country to realize that as a nation, we can't be doing the kinds of things we were doing a few months ago, that it doesn't matter if you're in a state that has no cases or one case, you have to start taking seriously what you can do now that if and when the infections will come and they will come, sorry to say, sad to say, they will, but when you're dealing with an infectious disease, you know, you always have that metaphor that people talk about that wayne gretzky, he doesn't go where the puck is, he's going where the puck is going to be. well, we want to be where the infection is going to be as well as where it is, so what we have here, if you could see that here, it's here is that if you go to coronavirus.gov, remember when dr. birx yesterday mentioned some of the things we put together, these are really simple. keeping the word play safe, keep

the home safe. keeping the school safe and keeping commercial establishments safe. this should be universe cal for the country. everyone should be doing that whether you live in a zone that has community spread or not, when you have community spread, you obviously are going to ratchet up the kinds of mitigations that you have, but at a minimum, this is the minimum that we should be doing. so everybody should say, all hands on deck, this is what we need to do. so i'll stop there and later i'll be happy to answer questions. >> thank you, dr. fauci. >> thank you, mr. vice president and thank you, dr. fauci, for that clarity. we continue to monitor the situation across the country and across the globe and we are very fortunate between dr. fauci and i. we have long-term contacts out there and many of these countries that are experiencing current outbreaks. we continue to review all the scientific literature to look for insights into really determine who is at the greatest risk and that's why we've talked to you about people with immu

immunodeficiencies at any age, people with medical conditions and the elderly and how important it is for all of us to take these precautions in the household to protect others. because we have circulating flu and other respiratory diseases at this time. we all have to act like all of those diseases, any respiratory disease can be transmitted to others and as we said yesterday we're hoping that decreases all the respiratory disease we're experiencing. finally, we got new reports out of china who had nine pregnant women during an acute covid-19 infection and all nine were infected. both and they delivered while they were infected and all nine babies were healthy. and the mothers were healthy so we continue to look for data like that to be reassuring to the american public. at the same time, ensuring that every single person is participating in this response to this virus and taking those precautions that we should be taking every day. if we start doing this today, we will be ready next year for any

of our respiratory diseases because i think we'll be able to show that these simple, simple household, simple work, simple school, simple business approaches across the country can change all of our respiratory diseases so we thank you for getting the message out. we thank you for the participating and ensuring in your households and in households around america that we're protecting all of those that need our support right now. >> thank you, dr. birx and dr. fauci. and this information is available at coronavirus.gov and as we said, we can't say often enough, the risks of contracting the coronavirus to the average american remains low. but for senior citizens with serious underlying chronic health conditions, the potential for serious consequences is very real and make no mistake about it, by practicing these habits in your home, your school and your business, you're not only

protecting your health but you're also protecting those that are most vulnerable. with that, for an update on the progress that president trump made today with our health insurance companies, i'd like to recognize seema. >> as the vice president said we had a terrific meeting with the insurance companies, a real example of a public/private partnership where they agreed to waive so pays for testing and not do any surprise billing and cover the associates costs. the other things they did, they asked the president for more flexibility in medicare advantage plans. and the president agreed to do that and so today we issued guidance to our medicare advantage plans that not own can very waive the cost for the test but go further to removing prior authorization requirements and can waive prescription refill limits. they can allow for mail delivery of prescription drugs and expand more access to telehealth

services in they weren't offering that in their plan. also at cns we continue to work with health care providers around infection control practices. we met with home health agencies and also hospitals and today issued guidance to dialysis facilities as well as home health agencies around infection control. >> a great bit of tension with the "grand princess" and hhs and currenting working through disembarking american passengers, for nationals to their country and wanted to ask secretary azar to speak and update us on the progress. >> msnbc's special coverage continues right after the break. ♪

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i'm ari melber. we are results expected from six states holding democratic primaries. some polls close within the next two hours. here is what we know. these are the first contests since the race narrowed to two major candidate, joe biden and bernie sanders. these are the first tests since super tuesday when biden came back and surpassed sanders in the delegate count and leads by 77 and these are the first primaries since the markets major slump over coronavirus and the oil turbulence. a reminder of just how many events are totally beyond the control of any politicians including the president and how that can up end a race.

now these delegate totals you see are still in flux. over 140 delegates will still be awarded from those contests last week in super tuesday states. tonight, another 365 delegates are up for grabs including washington state, hit hard by coronavirus. both sanders and biden canceling rallies as well that were planned amid growing concerns tonight. now, if general elections are often referred to by that famous statement, florida, florida, florida, well, i can tell you tonight it's all michigan, michigan, michigan. it awards the most delegates and it is a once blue state which hillary clinton lost to donald trump in 2016 and that was, remember, the second time she lost michigan that year because sanders had a huge upset against her then in the primary as well. so this is a state that democrats think they must win back to even get near donald trump this november. so for these two remaining candidates showing strength there tonight is kind of a twofer. you nab the delegates in the short term but whoever wins

michigan will be arguing their projecting strength with their own base for the potential long term. now, there are all kinds of issues here. consider what joe biden is up against here. both candidates have their final pitch. take a look. >> we're feeling good about the state of michigan. i honestly believe that we are the strongest campaign to defeat the most dangerous president. >> that's right. >> at the end of the day we're going to win this thing. >> i've always believed in detroit just like i've always believed in michigan. we need honest, trusted, truthful, reassuring leadership and, look, and that's what if i'm given the honor of being president, i promise you i will provide to the nation and the world. >> this is msnbc's special election coverage. we have an all-star panel. reporters out in the field throughout tonight's coverage. steve kornacki will be here in a moment breaking down new exit polling we have right now.

but we begin with garrett haake live in grand rapids, michigan. garrett. >> the democratic michiganders know full well this is the closest state democrats lost in 2016 and the voters i've talked to today are racked by that. really weighing the electability question that we've talked about weighing on them deeply. i've had voters, supporters of both of the democratic candidates tell me they struggled when it came time to mark their ballot today wanting to make sure they did pick the strongest person to take on donald trump. now, the vote process here in western michigan, at least at this precinct has been smooth. it's a simple ballot, not like we saw in texas, just the democratic or republican primary on the ballot here today. in western michigan where i am right now this is a county where bernie sanders did extraordinarily well four years ago and doubled up hillary clinton here in kent county. a place where he needs to perform equally well again if

he's going to take michigan and for sanders, the expectations came here is tough. he is a prisoner of his own expectations. because he came back from the political dead, polls had him down 20 plus points in 2016 here. the thought he could do so again. so he's not able to write the state off because he's down here, not able to confidently predict victory because he is down here. >> garrett. >> he had something like 8,000 -- yeah. >> garrett, i'm jumping in only because we may take a look at developments in the coronavirus press conference that has been occurring in washington. go ahead and stay with me as our election coverage continues. let's listen in. >> on the economic package unveiled was just used so far the public has not seen it. how big is the package and how big is the payroll tax cut going to be? when will the general public see what you have put together? >> larry? >> we are working out details right now so i don't want to quote any numbers ahead of time.

you know, you make a proposal. we're checking with the leaders of both parties in both houses and see what is doable and where the tough nuts are going to be. i don't want to get into any detail. i think the outline is very important. the payroll tax holiday is probably the most important powerful piece of this but on the other hand i want to draw attention. we can use administration and executive authority, again, to help unpaid sick leave people which is very important. we can use it for the medium and smaller businesses which is very important. other distressed circuits. we have some leverage on tax deferral. we know, i mean, look, i will say again as i have for quite some time, the economy is strong. we also know there are going to be problems ahead. we know there are going to be challenges ahead.

don't deny. we'll see. i want to take that a day at a time and a fact at a time. a statistical release at a time but anyway there will be the broad package and at some point in the near future, we will outline a more detailed package for you. >> the president proposed to the gop policy lunch to remove the entire payroll tax from both employers and employees. that would be 12.4% deduction. back in 2010 we had a % reduction. can you basically eliminate or however number of months the payroll tax without blowing a huge hole in the budget and furthermore, the president told the lunch he'd like to make that cut permanent. how do you do that? >> you know, the payroll tax holiday is a bold move. it's a very bold move and this

has always been a bold president and we've been cutting taxes and rolling back regulations and changing trade deals and opening up the energy sector and doing things nobody thought we could do before john. we've had pretty good economic results before it. we're in a challenge period. i get that. with respect to your question on the specifics, i think there will be a big, a big growth payoff. i think it'll help deal with whatever challenges occur in the next few months. i think beyond that, ameliorating the tax burden on the middle class, the so-called blue collar bloom i've talked about, that's what this is aimed for and what the payroll tax is principally about. by lifting the burdens of those middle class folks i think we'll get a big growth kicker. we've had a terrifically strong labor market as we know. it may stall a bit or not. i'm just speculating on the challenges of the health side.

but i think over time, we'll make it up with much better economic growth and i will remind also that later on way down the road, probably later this summer, early fall we will unveil another package of tax cut and tax reform proposals but this is a bold proposal and this is a bold president and i think it's paid off. >> if you were to make it permanent can you -- to make up for -- i mean, in fiscal yea year '21 social security, unemployment insurance and medicare part a revenues are $1.23 trillion. >> i just say we're not talking about medicare at this point. i'm going to -- by the way, the answer is, yes, you can backfill it and that has been done before because we've had other payroll tax cuts and you mentioned one of them in 2010 or 2011. so the answer to that is, yes, and the answer is we will always maintain a solvent social

security system but, you know, tax reform is very important. economic growth is very important. incentives for middle and lower income workers are very important and in terms of the boldness of this president's policies, despite what some of our critics think, actually it's the middle and lower middle people that have done the best in wage growth terms and i think this is absolutely consistent, this lifts tax burdens on the middle class. i think it's absolutely consistent with his earlier policies. >> mr. vice president -- >> let me also say, john, if i can, the other piece of this is what the doctors have said to us, the experts have said is, if you're sick, if you have reason to suspect you may have coronavirus, we want to you stay home. and the president's absolutely adamant. working with the congress or using his executive authority, to ensure that hourly workers, people working for small or medium size businesses that

don't currently have paid family leave will be able to stay home and be confident they're not losing a paycheck. i think every american can identify with that concern and we're going to work forward whether we do it legislatively or the president has some resources in his executive authority to act, we're going to work to make sure that hourly workers don't feel like you have to go to work sick because you're risking a paycheck. get home, stay home. take those couple of weeks to get better. eamon. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i want to drill something on larry said. in 2018 according to the center for budget and policy priorities federal payroll taxes $1.171 trillions. an enormous figure. you're suggesting you can make it up from general revenue. where are you going to get a trillion dollars from. >> you know, let us muput the proposal out in concrete details

and we'll have much better answers. i want to stay in my lane and the coronavirus story is very, very important here. we will do the best we can, eamon, to give you specific plans and details once we flesh them out. >> yes, please. >> the increased testing capacity. we're still seeing reports of severe rationing in many cases because of the limited supply. it appears to be close to impossible for average americans to get tests without being hospitalized first. so when can the american people expect to see the test kit as valuable at doctor's offices and urgent clear and minute clinics specifically? >> i'll have the secretary step forward and address that but let me say we've made great progress over the last week. a million tests are in the field. every state lab in america can do coronavirus tests. if you're concerned that you have coronavirus, your doctor can contact the state lab, can have the test processed.

by the end of this week another 4 million tests will be distributed. but to your very important question, we're working day by day with the largest commercial labs in america. we had some good discussions today with outside experts, as well, who said that when the president brought the commercial labs in he did exactly the right thing because it's those big companies that have logistics infrastructure all over the country of labs all over the country that can distribute the tests, process the tests whether it's quest or whether it's lab corps and we believe that in the days and week as head we'll continue to see at valuable of tests dramatically rise and we're driving toward that every day. mr. secretary, did you want to add to that. >> maybe dr. redfield can add in. >> oh. >> also. so by the end of this weekend we had 1.1 million tests that were actually shipped. we have another 1 million that are either in transit or waiting for orders so we actually have a

surplus capacity already of tests produced and as the vice president said by the end of this week, there will be another 4 million tests so the at this times are out there. the tests are in every public health lab in the country, they're in hospitals. they're in labs but i think there is a false premise in your question which is the notion that just because i as a person say, oh, i'd like to be tested for the novel coronavirus, i should be going to a minute clinic or some other facility and just walking and saying give me my test please. that's how diagnose noic testing works in the united states or frankly almost anywhere in the world. >> anyone who wants to get tested can get tested the president said -- >> if their doctor or public health physician believes they should be tested, it needs to always be clinically indicated to receive a test so it's a false premise. go to your doctor. if you -- first actually don't go to your doctor, call your doctor's office. if you believe you may have the

novel coronavirus, call the clinic, call the hospital, call the doctor's office so that you don't just walk right in, follow their infection control procedures for doing that. and then they will decide working with you whether a test is appropriate to be done. but there are millions of tests out there now and it's -- as the vice president said, with quest and lab corps getting it at the doctor's office swabbing, their distribution and transport system it's going to be an even better closer to the patient experience as i talked to you on saturday when we met together. >> that's very good. i'll ask dr. birx to speak to it too. she's done a tremendous job bringing our commercial labs to bear on this but to your other point, the president directed us to essentially change the criteria that cdc was giving labs around the country. we heard from governors around the country that people that were only mildly symptomatic

were being told that they couldn't be tested. we changed that. we changed that description and so as the president said, anyone who on a doctor's order wants to be tested can at a doctor's indication be tested now. we're working to fill that need. and we're making great progress every single day but i wanted dr. birx to speak to it, as well. >> yeah, i just wanted to talk to you briefly about what happened in decreasing barriers. i've been a lab person, vaccine developer, a doctor, august those things but i've never in my lifetime of government service have worked with the cdc in a way that every time the state or local government calls and says, i have this barrier, i need a modification to the regulations, that has happened almost daily and the reason we have commercial labs willing to step in immediately is because

the fda has created that ability and posted on their website, i don't know if you've been there, this unbelievable waiver system and the clear definitions where every single hospital, every single university can utilize this testing aililgorithm. that's bringing the super large high throughput companies to the table. this has been unique for me to be able to see this unbelievable dialogue between what states need, what local governments need and federal government being responsive with changing regulations and that has been really wonderful to watch. >> thank you, dr. birx. can i get you right here. >> yes, i wanted to ask, i guess the administration has really touted the success of the travel ban on china and iran. why hasn't that extended those bans to south korea or japan or italy and is it still under consideration or has the administration really shifted to

mitigation from containment? >> well, i'm going to let dr. birx speak to that in a moment, but there's no question as dr. fauci said just a few days ago, we would be in a very different place if president trump had not suspended all travel from china. and we would also, i suspect, be in a very different place if we hadn't issued travel advisories for portions of italy, portions of south korea and initiated screening of all passengers on all direct flights into the united states from both of those countries. i will tell you we had a very -- we had a very thorough discussion today of the prospect of recommending to the president additional travel advisories. what we're doing particularly as dr. fauci said is we're following the facts and we're going to bring those recommendations forward in the

time and manner that we as the white house coronavirus task force determine are appropriate but let me tell you it is literally a day-to-day consideration. and we're going to continue to put the health and safety of america first. dr. birx, did you want to amplify that. >> i think that was perfectly said. >> last question. >> mr. vice president -- >> thank you. tom bossert who used to be a part of this administration had an op-ed where he basically said that the u.s. has ten days before hospitals could be overrun. he recommended that schools be shut down for maybe eight weeks. what does the administration think about that? does it agree that we -- that the u.s. could be at the point where there could be a turning point in the next ten days or so and what about keeping schools open? should they be kept open? >> well, let me say the recommendations that you have

and that every american now has at coronavirus.gov apply to every jurisdiction in the country, every state and community irrespective of whether or not there's been a coronavirus case established. i will tell you that we're working very closely with california, washington, new york, florida to develop community specific recommendations for those areas where we have had what is known as community spread. a number of coronavirus cases that appear that are being transmitted in the community. in the next 24 hours, working with those states we'll be publishing cdc's recommendations for what ought to be done but i want to turn it over to dr. fauci to tell you that we really think the most important thing here is that we continue to bring the facts forward to the american people and that our proposals and our

recommendations while all of these apply to everybody in the united states and it'll help reduce the infection rate of the coronavirus, that for those communities that are being impacted, we're going to develop specific recommendations that will make the most sense for them. dr. fauci. >> thank you, dr. fauci, can you say whether -- is it -- can you wait until there's community spread to make some of these decisions? >> well, it depends on the degree of community spread. community spread could be just the small amount or you could start to see multiple generations but getting to your individual question, everything is on the table for consideration. so the idea that we're not closing all -- i mean i think for the country right now to say we're going to close all the schools in the country i don't think would be appropriate. would school closures be appropriate depending upon not whether you have already the horse is out of the barn but

when you start to see we're getting dangerous here so let's do it. it's incorrect to say now everything is happened bad, let's close the school and it's incorrect to say let's just blanket close the schools in the entire country tonight. i don't think that that would be appropriate. but i do think it would be appropriate to carefully try and do things like closing but there's other things besides closing. to do real mitigation, sometime before you think you really need it, that gets back to what i said a few moments ago about where the puck is going to be. you want to make sure you are not so far ahead you overshoot. >> thanks, guys. >> can the president stop shaking hands with people. he was at the medal of freedom ceremony. on this sign it says you should stop hand shaking if you're at your workplace. in your school or commercial establishments. should the president set that example. i know you've been opting for the elbow bump.

>> i've been shaking hands too. >> what do you make of that? is that necessary do you think at this point. >> as the president has said in our line of work, you shake hands when someone wants to shake your hand and i expect the president will continue to do that. i'll continue to do it. what this is is a broad recommendation for americans. but a really good recommendation is wash your hands often and all the experts tell me that while people want to get the various sanitizing lotions, washing your hands with hot soap and water 20 seconds is just as good as any lotion you can buy. thank you. one or two more. >> is it -- to coordinate a response with all the -- >> is it a plan to coordinate response with all the countries

in the continent. the president of brazil, did he talk about coronavirus with the president. >> i know they spoke about a broad range of issues and i'm confident the coronavirus was discussed. what i can tell you is that our focus is on the health and well-being of the american people. we're going to continue to communicate with nations across this hemisphere and across the country. but what the president's gian us as a mission of the white house coronavirus task force is to see to the health and well-being of the american people and we'll continue to make recommendations to do just that. how about one more. >> thank you, mr. vice president. >> the question, one on washington state. they made a request of strategic stockpile for 233,000 masks and they received half of that. i'm wondering if that report is

inaccurate and secondly on cruise lines, are you looking at a bailout for cruise lines? several of these companies are -- >> so, they got half of the shipment from the strategic national stockpile initially and then when the vice president actually went out to the state of washington that's when the second half of the shipment arrived but i have spoken directly with the governor who we had a superb working relationship and he has informed me that there are some additional personal protective equipment needs that a couple of their hospitals have and we're working through the strategic national stockpile to make sure we are directing and fulfilling shipments to them as needed. >> i want to echo again our gratitude to governor inslee and all the health officials in the state of washington. i was there last week. our teams are working very closely together. we'll follow up on that public report that the secretary indicated but as i said in the next 24 hours, we'll be working

with not only washington state, california, with new york, with florida. and unveiling our recommendations, cdc's recommendations to those areas that have been impacted by community spread and then we'll continue to come alongside those communities to do everything in our power to mitigate the spread. but let me just say again as a resource, thank you all. we'll be back here again tomorrow. coronavirus.gov. practical information for every american, details for state labs that may yet have questions about performing their own tests. we have specifics, enzymes, agent, ingredients that where they can be acquired and how for the performance of coronavirus tests, but for every american i just want to say, again, remember that the risk to the average american of contracting the coronavirus remains low. but, however, the risk to senior

citizens, the serious underlying chronic health conditions, is very significant and it's important for all of us to continue to take all the steps necessary to look after the most vulnerable, to look after our health and i'm confident we'll get through this together. thank you. >> we have been listening to vice president mike pence and other public health officials in the trump administration giving what has become this grim daily tradition now. the briefing on coronavirus. as we have done around here we took some of it and we come back to it whenever there is potential news made. there were several items discussed including potential policies with the administration proposing an economic package. we also, of course, as you can see all around me are following six different states voting nights. polls closing and results coming in within the next 90 minutes. steve kornacki standing by with updates and want to begin given what we heard with the democratic congressman from missouri. we have much to discuss.

first your response to what was said from the white house. >> i am glad to see it is infinitely more organized than it was last week and i think we're getting accurate information from all of the individuals who have been assembled on this team. and i think there probably is a new feeling of reassurance now that there was not there and as long as the information is accurate, i think we're moving in a good direction. we've done $8.3 billion in congress trying to help get all of the necessities that the medical community will need and we'll do anything else, i think, to make sure that the american public is as protected as possible but this disease is going to get worse before it gets better. >> this entire obvious public health concern is plague out against everyone having to live

out their lives. people going to work discussed in the context of a payroll tax proposal and people have to go on and exercise their civic duties and saw voters turning out in the six states today. meanwhile both campaigns canceling ohio rallies tonight out of concern for the virus. you, of course, i want to remind you have endorsed joe biden. your view of how this and the market jitters hang over for what for democrats is still a giant conclusion to the big question of who should take on president trump. >> well, this is one of those unexpected kinds of things that we have come to recognize in the american politics. something we'll blow into a campaign that no one expected and whole nation and the whole world will get a chance to see what kind of leadership we have and compare it to those who would like to replace that leadership and i think that the president started out, unfortunately, and painfully for me by saying this was a hoax and

then i saw someone on your network being interviewed who, a woman who said it was a hoax. and that you couldn't believe nothing that the democrats did and i unfortunately i think there are probably a lot of those people still out there and so they've been put in grave danger but, you know, we've grown accustomed to that kind of thing. it's just now lives depend on the truth and accurate information. >> all well put, sir, and since you mentioned watch are our network i have a hunch you know the person i'm about to turn to on election nights and going to the big board with steve kornacki. congressman, thank you. steve, you have new numbers. >> we've got preliminary numbers from the exit polls, of course, voting still going on in these states but getting our first look here at what the electorate looks like in some of the big primaries. take you through some of the things we're finding. take a look. this is mississippi, one of the states up tonight. you see in the exit poll just what the electorate looks like

in mississippi, almost two-thirds black according to this exit poll. that is the biggest number we have seen yet in any state that's voted in south carolina, the previous high, the number was 57. it's 64% here in mississippi. of course, we've seen the struggles that bernie sanders has had in building support with black voters. we saw earlier this week he had that event in mississippi that he cancelled to go up and campaign in michigan so you see the number here in mississippi. this as we've seen in other places spells trouble for sanders. we will see what that means as results come in. two other big states, missouri, here at 17% black as the electorate here, again, this was actually the closest state in the 2016 primary, sanders versus clinton. he lost to clinton by about 1500 votes here. 17% black and if you take a look in michigan here, the electorate, 18% black, notably michigan in 2016, it had the highest share of black voters of any state that sanders won. this number was actually 21% in

2016. remember, sanders won michigan narrowly. there is no state in 2016 that had a higher concentration of black voters that bernie sanders was able to win in so we'll keep an eye on that and the other divide we'll keep an eye on, demographically among the white voters, that college -- that noncollege/college divide. one of the key ingredients for sanders in being able to win states and be competitive with hillary clinton through the primary season in 2016, there was strong support, green was not a good destroys, strong support from noncollege white voters, the big chuck. the electorate. this is missouri you're looking at, michigan, 37% of the electorate there noncollege white. sanders winning this group by double digits against hillary clinton last time around. we'll keep a close eye, ari, is he able to do that again or has there been slippage? >> fast brackdown and you'll be busy all night. steve, thank you very much. sir.

we have a lot to get to as mentioned, we are tracking two big stories across the united states tonight. this primary with msnbc special coverage throughout the night. six states voting today. the first time we've seen voters have to come out and make a binary choice between the two major contenders left, sanders and biden with a lot more on that throughout the rest of this hour but the other story after steve has given us that briefing is the ongoing concerns over coronavirus. the way it's affecting the markets, the country, the congress, larry kudlow, the economic adviser to the president just speaking out and saying the president wants something bold, something by the way more liberal than what a lot of republicans want. payroll tax credits which go primarily to working people. i want to bring in karen who has been tracking it all, and robert costa at "the washington post." good evening to both of you. robert, we often turn to you for insights into what we're seeing behind the public statements of this white house. these briefings i would note having tracked them have gotten

more diverse professor amelie and they've gotten a bit more organized as one of our guests, a member of congress was mentioning. what else can you tell us about what we saw tonight and how it relates to the charge ahead for this administration which is clearly facing its first big public health test. >> pay close attention in that news conference to the lack of specificity from mr. cut low, president trump's top economic adviser about the payroll tax plan that was presented today to senate republicans. based on my reporting and "the washington post" just published this, there is not a big appetite among senate republicans to rally around the president's idea, mean whooimg, speaker pelosi moving fast on her own stimulus like plans to help certain industries and workers as they deal with sick leave in the coming weeks. there is no real consensus on the gop side despite the president pushing for action. >> you lay it out right there. karen, everyone knows the cliche no atheists in foxholes. fact track, not 100%.

there are atheists that face potential demise yet it may seem there may be no pure free market fundamentalists in the face of this public health crisis. i mean larry kudlow who i've interviewed before is certainly on the right self-described and here he is saying, hey, we'll need the government to subsidize people staying home from work. >> yeah, and, of course, we have what we've seen throughout this administration when he was asked and how are we going to pay for it? he basically did not have an answer for that. i mean the obvious answer is with more deficit spending at a time when we are already running up very deep deficits but it truck in the briefing about the sort of split screen quality we have. we have these briefings, people, you know, the vice president, the secretary of hhs are trying to sort of calm people down and look like there's a real coordinated response here. i was struck by how at the very end both alex azar and the vice

president lauded washington state governor jay inslee and talked about their positive working relationship with him. i mean, this is a figure that president trump has called a snake. so we do have this sort of two sets of dialogue going on here. the president continues to hound on this, that this is some sort of partisan -- the whole virus is some sort of partisan set up for him. >> yeah, and what we're up against here, of course, is the way politics is always so unpredictable. the politics on the hill on what you do with the actual government action and out in the country, of course, democratic voters including today trying to resolve what is now this two-person race. karen, with that in mind with coronavirus hanging over it, take a look. when you ask democrats about handling a major crisis, 65%

favor biden over sanders, karen. >> well, i think they are looking at experience there and probably demeanor as well and as you've said earlier, you know, michigan essentially is the whole ball game tonight and the political trajectory of the state of michigan over the past four years has been extraordinary. as garrett mentioned, it was the closest margin in the country in 2016. donald trump squeezed out a victory in that state by 13,000 votes. it was 0.3% of 1% of a margin but then democrats came back in 2018 and came back strong and won every single statewide office on the ballot. in fact, democratic women won every single statewide office on the ballot so it will be very interesting to see beyond the margins tonight sort of what the shape of the electorate looks like. i'll be look at things like

african-american turnout. will it be higher, a greater percentage of the electorate than we saw in the past? the number of -- exit polls suggest that it's possibly something like a third of the electorate voting in this democratic primary are actually independents. so i think this is also worth watching as sort of a sort of prelude to the fall and an indication of how much the politics of the state have changed. >> both of you stay with me. i want to bring in another voice keeping an eye on this, the new yorker's jelani cobb and the races today. barack obama was already the nominee when the market crashed. >> yes. >> but people kept a close eye on whether this relatively inexperienced by government standards senator was going to lead under crisis and many people said that they felt he handled it bet ever than mccain although handling it meant

addressing the nation about it. >> that's right. >> we heard the congressman tell us he has a problem, his view, with the way donald trump has put out misinformation about this. how does that hang over everything. >> sure, i think that, you know, with barack obama part of this was about his demeanor and so people were looking at him and saying, well, things are bad. things, you know, seem like they're on the road of getting worse but do trust this person has a fundamental capacity to make sound decisions and, you know, john mccain did not have that reputation. another example of this. if you remember back to april of 1992, when those uprisings in los angeles happened in the wake of the acquittal of the four officers who had beaten rodney king that happened in the midst of a presidential election too and bill clinton appeared to be empathetic whereas george bush appeared to be kind of patric patriciaen and people thought he talked about it in a way that

kenoted in one who could lead. you say you can do this and point to your record and put out nice ads but we're going to look at how you behave in this moment this. is -- the true job interview. >> yeah, the job interview and it is not politicizing it for voters who observe. >> sure. >> how everyone deals with it and the fact that the president and larry kudlow have openly talked about dealing with markets before the public health safety factor which they've been criticized for among the other things mentioned is a big part. jelani, stay with us. robert cast that and karen tumulty are with me as well. a special breakdown of how much changed. it was ten days ago that joe biden came from behind, took south carolina and marched through super tuesday. the number of delegates up for grabs greater than the margin of delegates separating sanders and biden. could be a make or break night. we are special msnbc coverage.

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hi, i'm ari melber. six states voting in primaries today. a race up ended so many predictions in political insiders because those predicts tend to go worthless. nights like tonight are up to voters. up to you. now, do you remember where you were just ten days ago when this whole race completely changed after jim clyburn endorsed joe biden and he roared back to win south carolina and revive his

campaign? >> we are blessed with a candidate who understands what it is to restore the goodness that exists in this great country. >> my buddy, jim clyburn, you brought me back. >> you brought me back indeed. south carolina voters and specifically black voters revived joe biden and his campaign is hoping for more support from voters in mississippi today. the polls closing there in just over one hour. now, according to our first round nbc exit polls plaque voters make up roughly two-thirds of those voteing there in mississippi. that's higher than the share of black voters, say, in south carolina which we just mentioned as well as alabama and virginia and this state has many challenges. i want to mention a few tonight. according to "u.s. news & world report" the median person makes $500 a week and among all american states last. 50th for health care.

we are joined now by mile wiley, former counsel to the mayor of new york who is also a candidate this cycle, bill de blasio and jelani cobb. jim clyburn in south carolina change everything for joe biden. how does that relate tonight when we have numbers where african-american voters in the south have gone biden over sanders, 65% to 16%. >> sure, and, you know, if you looked at it, bernie didn't fare well in mississippi last go round in 2016, didn't fare well with black voters in the south. while he made inroads with black voters he's not made them in the south. and there's another point, something that garrett said at the very top of the hour that i think is significant. he pointed out there was a simple ballot in michigan. he said there was a simple ballot and not like what we saw this texas. that means people will get in and get out. that you won't have long lines. and so when you're talking about turnout, you know, when you look at michigan, if there's any

question about being close, it turns out to -- turns into a turnout game, that's going to be a factor there as well. and the final thing i'll say about this, when you saw, you know, the rally that was cancelled in mississippi, and, you know, the decision to go to michigan instead that was really triage. you know, you're not playing in an away game new don't have. going to either working class idea, you know, michigan that there is a stronghold of his voters and joe biden every time will remind what the obama administration did for gm. it points to just how difficult a position bernie sanders' campaign is in. >> maya, it is a whole different race when everybody gets involved. >> whole different race when everybody gets involved and it's a turnout race. i mean this is really fundamental. i think the most important metric is the fact that there is not just who people are voting for but that people are really

coming out in record numbers to vote which the reason that's important is because it matters for the general election. >> that's right. >> if you think about what happened in michigan in 2016 with hillary clinton losing in the general election, we didn't see that kind of turnout in detroit. we didn't see that kind of turnout from the black community. so seeing it in the primary, you know, she lost by 0.23%, it was a very small margin she lost those electoral votes to trump so this is about not just who black people are voting for but that plaque people are turning out in record numbers and i think that's something we have to be very excited about. >> how essential is it for democratic party leaders to be reminded that when you see someone like joe biden who is as i mentioned fifth in new hampshire, no one has ever won the democratic party nomination by finishing less behind second in new hampshire, he was fifth,

10%. but, boy, by this and we're hearing some democrats say, look, this is the obama coalition coalescing too early i think to the say for the general election but how important is it for the party to be reminded, oh, right, when the party wins it's usually on the strength of high black turnout. >> it's extremely important. i think jelani and i spend a lot of time reminding how important we are. >> daily. >> right. and one of the things that happened in managering in in 2016 that folks started raising alarm bells to the clinton camp about black people turning out in michigan and they felt those alarm bells went unanswered. that's not happening right now and part because joe biden -- by the way, black people like bernie sanders. i think it's really important to kind of explode this sort of myth of black people don't like bernie sanders and it's, you know, irrational. they don't not like him. he know who biden is.

he was in the white house not that long ago and understands what they worry about and that for black voters counts for a lot. >> so interesting you mention that as we try to keep our eyes on the evidence because the two national known candidates with the highest the highest favorability among all democrats out of all of the people who ran this year, were biden and sanders, and they're the two people remaining. they're very well liked, even though as like any primary, people are forced to chose in between. i want to thank jelani and maya wily. when we come back, we have cornell belcher, a member of congress, we'll be right back. that is amazing.

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he was a campaign manager for howard dean's campaign in 2004, and cornell belcher, who was recently working with the bloomberg campaign. congresswoman, what's important, particularly with your state voting today? >> well, i think the first thing is our polls are open until 8:00 pacific time. so people still have a chance to get their ballots in if they haven't done that already. i think that there are three things that make it a little bit more difficult to know exactly what the result is going to be in washington state. we feel good about bernie sanders. but this is the first time that we're moving to a primary system. we have been a caucus state all these years, and now we're pr e moving to a primary. the second is you saw the statistics on the screen about how people are feeling about coronavirus. this is serious in our state. we have, you know, 267 cases of people who have tested positive, and 25 deaths in washington state. and so this is occupying a lot

of attention. >> certainly. >> and then i think the third thing is that, you know, there's no question that joe biden had momentum out of super tuesday. how that affects the results, we don't know. but i think that this is an important state because it's a working class state. you saw, of course, that progressive ideas are winning, medicare for all with 64% of washington voters. and that's true across the country -- >> and that brings me -- let me bring in cornell belcher because i only have about three minutes, we got so squeezed with the press conference. cornell, you worked with bloomberg. is joe biden best equipped to pick up that share of the vote throughout this country tonight? >> i think there's a moderate swath of voters out there that joe biden is absolutely better positioned to win. i think the challenge with, and to maya's point, it's not like senator sanders is unpopular,

even with african-american voters. when you look at the challenge of senator sanders, you look at the exit polling and the large swath of americans that are concerned with this crisis and look at how vice president biden has a double-digit lead on handling a crisis, sort of that steady leadership. that a time like this, that's aces right now when americans are in this crisis moment, and so many democrats are looking at trump as a real threat to democracy and their wellbeing. i think at a time like this, sort of these big swath of ideals and change, they're kind of hard to break through when voters are just looking for normalcy. >> joe, given your experience, particularly with primary fights, do you see evidence that bernie sanders is hitting a ceiling in this now two-person race? >> no doubt about it. i'm sure that the sanders campaign wishes that washington state was still a caucus. he does very well. tied buttigieg in iowa, and won

nevada. i think it's not apples and apples. now that washington state is a primary, that's going to be very tough. i mean, it's going to be close or a lot closer even if he does win it. that's going to hurt him in the delegate hunt. then with mississippi and missou missouri, i expect biden will roll up more delegates there. and that does get us to michigan, but even michigan, if sanders somehow pulls it out, he might, it's going to be close. he's not going to make up much there. so i think in the end, tonight i think biden will end up growing his delegate count margin over sanders, and then it's really, really rough to catch him. >> congresswoman, with the 30 seconds or so i have left, i give you the rebuttal. >> well, i would just say that what you see is that working-class folks trust bernie sanders. they believe that he's going to take on the big changes that we need to take on. and i think that at the end of the day, this multiracial working class movement, whoever

is president, and it is not going to be donald trump, we're going to make sure of that, whoever is president has to take on the structural changes that americans are calling for across the country. >> and cornell, as a veteran pollster, what time tonight is the most important time to know how it's looking? >> well, for michigan, when all the votes are in. when all the votes are in, and don't trust the early exit polling because it can be wrong a lot. >> and don't forget about washington state on the west coast. >> west coast represent. and of course, my hometown of seattle that you represent. i want to give special thanks to congresswoman jayapal. your state hit by the coronavirus, and you're able to speak to us about all of these issues. joe trippi, cornell belcher, a veteran of so many campaigns from obama to bloomberg. i'm ari melber and we always

appreciate you tuning in. don't go anywhere, because our election night coverage with the whole gang is coming up next. >> the democratic primary, a whole new race. six new states, two candidates standing. >> this is about the future. >> it's not about the past. it's about our children and grandchildren. >> we have a campaign of energy and excitement. >> tonight, can biden extend his winning streak? >> there's a place in this campaign for us, so join us. >> can sanders bounce back? >> we are trying to bring our people together. >> the big prize, michigan. >> michigan, i'm counting on you in a big way. >> let's win here in michigan. let us win the democratic nomination. >> leading our coverage, rachel maddow, brian williams, nicolle wallace, steve kornacki at the big board. our political team across the country. the road warriors tracking the