>> mr. vice president, what is your plan to build more hospital beds so tens of thousands of americans don't die? and how many more ventilators are you looking at ordering so people don't suffocate? >> let me let the secretary step up. i know there is long term planning that takes place at hhs for those circumstances. when i traveled to hhs yesterday we reviewed all the numbers about stockpiles, everything from masks to ventilators to gowns. mr. secretary you might speak about capacity issues. let me say it is a very good question on your part. right now, our focus as the white house coronavirus task force is -- is to have widespread testing across the country using this new partnership with our commercial labs that the president has forged and work with states to make those tests available. we are also going continue to work every single day to promote best practices for mitigation,

working closely with, and supporting state governments for decisions they are making on mitigation to prevent the spread. but the whole issue of personal protective equipment and supplies and the capacity of our health care system is in the forefront of what we are talking about every day. the secretary can address it. >> thank you very much. first, being here at the podium i just want to especially talk about the people in blue behind me. these are the leaders of the united states public health service commission corps that i am privileged to he had loo. over 3,000 of them, america's public health warriors. whether it is going into the eastern congo or western africa to fight ebola, or if it is staffing the nursing home in kirkland, being on the world health organization team in china, or helping to facilitate community-based testing, these are america's public health heroes. and i just -- they rarely -- in

fact i doubt there has ever been a time in american history where the leadership of the corps has had the privilege of standing on this stage behind the president and the vice president of the united states. in terms of our capacity in the health care system any pandemic like this runs the risk of exceeding the limits of our health care system and capacity. we must acknowledge that. that is precisely why the president and vice president's strategy is as dr. fauci has repeatedly spoke, to delay and flatten the curve. the point of this is instead of a spike of the curve, to delay and flatten that curve with the hope that you can keep the utilization of resources to be within the health care system's capacit capacity. in addition to that, the entire point of our pandemic planning

over the last 15 years has been to put extra flex into your health care system. that's why we have hospital preparedness grants that we fund every year through our preparedness program. that's why we have in our strategic national stockpile ventilators, field hospital units like m.a.s.h. units, if you will remember those, that have capacity for holdups of individuals. in terms of supplies, obviously, this is an unprecedented challenge, unprecedented. and so we will work to increase the supplies of personal protective equipment, of ventilators, of field medical unit hospitals that we can deploy. we have tremendous supplies, but we want to acquire more. and that's thanks to the bipartisan work of congress funding the emergency supplemental, that gives us the money to scale up production here and abroad. and we are doing that. we don't disclose concrete numbers on particular items for national security purposes.

but we have many ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators in our system. we have received so far on i think one request for just several ventilators. one of the things in terms of hospital capacity that's going to be really important -- this is a really good learning from china that we got from the world health organization team that went there -- is if we have communities where we have enough capacity where we can put people who are positive with covid-19 and have them be exclusively reserved for individuals who are positive for covid-19, this reduces our need to try to protect patients from other patients because they are all positive already. we need to protect our health care workers and our service workers in those facilities. this gives us reduced burden on personal protective equipment, but also can give us greater capacity as we put field medical shelters up, as we consolidate into single facilities as we don't need individual rooms, negative air flow, isolation, et

cete cetera, a vastly more efficient utilization of our health care system. this is all part of the planning work we have done and are promulgating throughout our health care system. that's our process, and we are building on it though. >> mr. vice president, you talked beefly about trying to make information more accessible on line. can you give us a timetable for when you think a website will be available based on your conversations with google? secondly, this might be to the broader team, can you also talk specifically about how many of these tests have been sent out to states, and how many you still have to send out? >> well, let me say we are working -- we are working with google, but we are working with many other tech companies. we are truly grateful for the efforts of tech companies in disdemocrat nating best practices and guidance for citizens on line --

disseminating best practices and guidance to citizens on line. we have heard from google and facebook and amazon and the public spiritedness that has been reflected there is a credit to those great companies and a credit to all the dedicated americans who work there. our best estimate, and literally the team has been working around the clock since friday, is that at some point early in the week that we will have a website that goes up, the purpose of which will be for people to go and first fill out a questionnaire so they can identify whether they fall into a category that dr. birx described would indicate the need to have a test. then once they go through that questionnaire, then our objective is, as more and more of these sites come on line run by state governments working in cooperation with our team, our public health service team, and fema, and also working in cooperation with local businesses retailers that people

will know how to not only find it, but also the objective would be for them to literally be given a time that they can go and report for the test. but let me let the admiral speak to the timing on the testing and unpack that for you. >> so, in our design, i just want to emphasize, we talk about testing, and we talk about so many things. but we are really talking about people. and we are trying to make this a very person-centric experience to easily access the system, to give clear guidance about how to go, when to go, information that even if you are not really indicated for testing, information you need to help protect yourself and your family. then on the back end, very customized reporting. and we are talking literally about having tell phonic services to call individual who have been tested let them know yes, no, and what the next steps are. we have tried to really envision

this through a patient experience. let me talk about the testing. progressively over this week will will be rollout to two different laboratories of approximately 1.9 million tests. there are many centralized laboratories that behind the curtain that you never see after you give your blood. you saw some of the ceos in the rose garden last week like quest and lab corps that are fully able, ready to run -- they have been testing ready, but fully ready ready to run at the beginning of this week to high through putt testing. the two laboratories around the country that have a different platform one that's amenable to so many labs not the big hugest highest output but very high through put laboratories are progressing. they have to adapt the test slitly to their machines and get used to this. they will start lighting up monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. i can't give you the precise

time line, except it has been an absolute priority of the laboratory associations of thermofisher, the company that made this test. you heard the president predict it might be approved within 24 hours on friday. i think it was five hours after that n the middle of the night that the fda approved that. and that's the one that's going to be widely disseminated, high through put that's going to be available. i know you want a specific time when these will light up progressively over the week. when that happens, it will be a centralized opportunity like in the quests and the lab corps. there will also be distributed opportunities like in all the hospital systems and labs in your area. then that number of 1.9 million goes up dramatically in the weeks coming forward. i am not going to say that the lab testing issue is over because it is not. it is entering the next phase. but the much higher priority now is now that we have the testing available, how do we get people into the system to be tested in the appropriate prioritized way?

and that's what we have really been focused on, information, website, points distribution model that are tried and true, enabling the states, providing them with equipment, supplies, know-how and commission corps officers as needed to help man these or staff these as we move forward. so you will see this rapidly developing over the week. >> all right guys last question. >> mr. vice president, are you considering domestic -- >> mr. vice president, market numbers are down despite the dramatic move from the fed that the president applauded which suggests there is still concern that we haven't done enough to respond to the economic impact of this deal -- of the coronavirus. i am wondering when specifically we will hear from the white house about how you are going to impact or help affected industries like cruise lines, airlines. secondly, i wanted to talk about the legislation that came out.

the white house fought to exclude workers at larger corporations from paid sick leave. i am wondering what you say to someone who flips burgers at mcdonald's or one these large chains that's worried about staying home sick from work. >> let me start with the house legislation. while it gives some flexibility to small businesses which will be reflected in the regulations going forward, no american worker should worry about missing a paycheck if they are feeling ill. we can't say often enough to our fellow americans, if you are sick with a respiratory ailment, stay home. as you have heard here today. over the course of this next week we are going see testing become much more widely available beginning in the areas the cdc will focus us as the

highest priority. but working with members of congress we have made sure that not only is testing free, but we have every confidence that -- that the extension of paid and family leave to americans will be extended in a way that should give every american that confidence. let me say with regard to the economy as whole, i think the treasury secretary has been working very diligently on the president's behalf. we have the supplemental $8.3 billion bill. the how has now acted on important legislation that we fully support and we hope the senate takes it up this week. but whether it be the airline industry, the cruise line industry, or the hotel industry -- as the secretary said recently, we are in just the first few innings of this effort. and the president has directed us to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear

to confront this crisis first and foremost on behalf of the health and safety of the american public. but strengthening our economy, ensuring that those vital industries will be able to find their way through and grow strongly once this coronavirus has passed will be a priority. and we are already in discussions with members of congress in both parties about that next phase of the support. but let me say, as i close, we will be back in the morning tomorrow for a briefing. and also, we will have a health briefing in the afternoon. again, i -- i know i speak on behalf of the president when i say how grateful we are for all the governors in the country, for all the local health officials, everyone that's coming alongside, americans. we encourage every american to continue to use bess practices and common sense, even -- best practices and common sense, even if you are not in a high-risk category as the vast majority of

americans are. remember those people around you who may well be. remember those seniors with underlying health conditions. that's the reason why you need to keep washing your hands. you need to keep practicing good hygiene, cleaning counters and surfaces to make sure that we don't convey the coronavirus to them. finally, let me also just -- let me add to all the wonderful accolades of the public health service personal behind me. these are all heroes. and i have to tell you, having been over at hhs yesterday, having seen the way these people drop everything and are rolling into this effort to expand testing across the country, it will be these people in these blue uniforms that you see at an awful lot of these points of distribution, these community centers around the country. and for all they are doing today, for all each one of them have done throughout their career, i know they have the thanks of this president, his vice president, and the american people. >> sir --

>> mr. vice president. >> how can you say -- >> -- companies? >> so ends the vice president's briefing today. the president coming out in the beginning mentioning the reduction of the federate. we will get to that in just a second. but the big number that comes out of this briefing if you can take away is 1.9 million tests according to the admiral there, that will be rolled out coming this week. more details on that as the guidance will be released tomorrow. tomorrow morning morning, tomorrow afternoon, we didn't necessarily an hour to that. but 1.9 million tests. what will happen to those 1.9 million tests? they will be deployed to 2,000 labs across the country. that has been the question -- when will the health community have the data to understand how fast the coronavirus is spreading, how far has it spread so far? the question was when will they get the tests is this we got the

answer today during this briefing. they are saying 1.9 million tests to be rolled out starting this week. it was expected to be one, two, three weeks from now. but now we are hearing they have moved quite rapidly. they are saying the last 72 hours they have been able to work with a lot of the private partners that they are saying in this public/private partnership to get it done. now these 2,000 labs, these clinical labs are just a fraction of the what is estimated over 200,000 clinical labs in america. but these 2,000 labs are very essential in being able to assess positive or negative when the 1.9 million tests that will be available this week are then implemented. that's just the first week, they are saying. they are saying that number will grow in availability as the weeks move forward. other big headline today. and that is as the president was saying at the beginning of this briefing, the federate is now

zero -- close to zero. to get more on that with this breaking news, stephanie ruhle our chief business correspondent, also an msnbc an corps. how big a deal is this. >> it is a very big deal not just to see the fed do this. but what we are seeing is global coordination between central banks. you are seeing this happen around the world. while central bankers are doing this, they are telling us that they understand the severity of this. they understand what a very big deal it is. what does it mean to have rates cut like this? it means that borrowing is easier. for banks who have a lot of pressure on them right now to extend loans to other businesses, it makes that eas r easier. for existing businesses or individuals it makes things easier. because at this time if you have any sort of consumer basing business, richard, you could be facing your earnings, your revenues going completely stopped, going to zero while the fixed cost of running your

business is the same. we could be in desire straits for consumer businesses. you heard vp pence right there talking about many industries that could be facing difficult times and need rescuing. but the one question we have to keep asking, are all of those businesses using best practices to flatten the curve? because you started this conversation with the most important number. 1.9 million tests. and from the market perspective -- the president loves to talk about the stock market. from investors's and the market's perspective, they care a whole lot more about how many tests are being administered and how much the curve is being flattened. you heard the president start this press conference sort of rattling off the names of companies and ceos. i don't mean to be cheeky about this but what is the president is performing the same show he did friday afternoon. it wasn't an accident that the president chose to hold a press conference just before the market closed on a week that

lost a tremendous amount of money. and you saw as he mentioned those companies, stocks went up. it wasn't until after that press conference we learned that google for example, wasn't going to have a website set up today across america. just then, the president had said that on friday. but you heard mike pence saying, well, it is going to be set up -- he gave vague details -- for people across the country. that's because a day later we learned that a subsidiary of google was early testing a website in the bay area. so this big proclamation that the president made on friday is sort of shriveling to something smaller. now we are already seeing dow futures down, which is concerning because when the fed cuts rates to zero, the president and the fed would certainly like to see the market like that. normally when you see a rate cut the market says yes, people, companies are going to go out there and borrow. i ask you, richard, at a time

like this, do you think people are going to hear the fed cut rates and say honey, should we go out and buy a house tomorrow? how about planning a trip to disney? what they are doing is going to help businesses big and small because they need rates to be lower so they can stay afloat but the normal thing that happens when the fed cuts rates, sparking people to grow and spend, that's unlikely. >> stephanie ruhl great to have you here, chief business correspondent, msnbc anchor. to put into recent context what is a record low in recent time. you have to go back to '08 before the financial crisis then before you saw rates go this year. stephly thank you. reverend al sharpton, being numbers out here. 1.9 million tests certainly for many people across america giving some sense of relief if they feel they need to get a test. >> yes, thank you, richard. and i agree. i must say this before i go back

to the panel. let me tell you what i heard from the president in his opening statement. i think that it was almost a arrogant disregard for the human lives that have been lost and the families that are really suffering now knowing that members of their families have been found positive with the coronavirus. there was not one word of empathy by this president who had called this a day of prayer. he came out and began obviously almost gloating that he somehow was celebrating, as all of us are, what the fed did. but like it vindicated him. he started talking about these businesses that are going to do all of these things. and what really to me was close to obscene was when he says, and they are making more money than christmas. they are even telling me, tell

people to stop shopping. is that what americans need to hear? when they are shopping because they are afraid that they may in fact run out of goods and services that -- or run out of goods and materials that they need in their homes? they are not shopping because this is a holiday. they are shopping out of fear and anxiety. and he is acting as if this is something that is being done in a celebratory way. i thought it was nothing short of disgraceful not to really as the chief executive of this country to not extend some sensitivity to those families that have lost loved ones and to those that are now hoping and praying for loved ones that they have that have been found positive, that their president and their nation are praying for them. and therefore we are going to do these things to try and make sure that this is brought down to a level where more americans

and more people around the world don't suffer. that was totally absent from this president's day of prayer. i salute what the fed did. i hope that we can keep the economy going in a way that will not make people suffer, but i don't want to step over the human lives that have already been lost and that already are suffering and act as though they are something that should be ignored and not mentioned. let me bring in my panel, dr. george benjamin, executive director of public health socials. elina beverly, the former national deputy director of african-american outreach for the obama administration. joe watkins is a former white house aide under george h.w. bush. and jemile smith, senior writer for rolling stone. i am going to get to all of you on your reactions to what you heard, and again, my statement about the president's opening

was only our opening, because we did hear a lot more and got into a lot of questions asked and answered and some that i don't think was raised at all with the vice president and dr. birx as well as the admirals. let me go back to one thing i had raised with you elana before we heard the briefing. and that was -- and i did not hear that addressed -- about those that are incarcerated and those that are being held in detention camps who have forced situations. many of those incarcerated not convicted of anything, waiting trial. we are not hearing any kind of directance or guidance from the white house on those individuals. >> absolutely. just to put a fine point on your opening comments, reverend al, what we don't want to hear is the name of the costco ceo. what we don't need to hear from the president is just take it

easy and relax. people want a commitment from him that there is going to be access -- equitable access to testing, to supports, to mitigation services for those who are most vulnerable, for folks in our commune who may be economically challenged, and for those 2.2 million people who are incarcerated that you mentioned 306789% of the folks behind bars are people of color or african-americans specifically. it is impossible for that community to exercise social distancing. when we are talking about how we are also going to get these new rely leased tests out. we need to make sure that those tests are not distributed based on just zip code or economic status or voting propensity. and i unfortunately don't trust our president to make decisions that are equitable, to ensure that the most vulnerable communities are actually going to receive those tests, to

prioritize those frontline hospital workers so we are able to ensure that they stay healthy and that they can also treat those in need. so i didn't hear the empathy. i now know the name of the ceo of costco. and i don't know that the folks who are incarcerated are going to be treated. i don't know that folks in our communities are going to be treated. and i don't know that our frontline health care work remembers safe. >> reverend joe watkins, you worked for the bush administration. you are a republican. did you hear anything that would give confident to your congregation in philadelphia? clearly, it is good news that we now know it is 1.9 million tests and it is going to be distributed to 2,000 labs, but we still don't know how they will be distributed, or to trust this administration. and am i overreacting when i say there seemed to be no real moral

concern for the human lives? we are talking about real people here, and to just give a list of corporate ceos and how much they are saying tell people to stop shopping was callous to me. >> reverend al, you have always had a reputation and great record of fighting for people especially who are underserved and disadvantaged. i worked in the white house for a republican president. i also serve a poor community, a poor black community. i serve a church in that community. and we are still concerned. we had to shut churn down today, suspend church today out of an abundance of concern for the members of the church, for those who are vulnerable and for people who might come in off the street as we have every sunday who might not be aware of how to protect themselves or protect others. out of an abundance of caution

we suspended service today, probably have to suspend services next week. and i didn't hear how we get the word out to the poorest americas, who don't have access to good health care service don't have health care coverage. how they are going to be protected during this time. i am with you, i think what the fed has done is a net positive for companies and small businesses going forward. i am happy to hear about the 1.9 million tests hare going to be made available but i worry about who they end up serving and whether or not the people in my community where i serve are going to be able to get hold of those tests. i am concerned what this means going forward for poor people. i am looking forward to the advanced guidelines coming out tomorrow to get more information. i am more concerned what happens in the poor community, especially poor black people. >> dr. benjamin, as we were told

guidances will be come out tomorrow, what should we be looking for other than what we have already stated, how they are going to be distributed, who they are going to serve and how they are going to serve underserved communities? again, et cetera about whether there is going to be a real balance and a real distribution that will reach all americans. in terms of the health side of this, what should we be looking for in these guidelines tomorrow? >> let me start by saying as a physician i want the make sure that the public knows that the public health communities that got your back. we are very much concerned about those people that have got coronavirus now, and of course the respect of those people that tragically have already died. and in doing so, we need to make sure that this testing plan gets properly implemented and that everybody has access to it. secondly, we need to make sure that we are effectively communicating to all parts of

the community. i have seen some crazy stuff on facebook which said that people of color aren't impacted by this. of course that's not true. it is true that we are impacted. and we are disproportionately going to be affected should we get coronavirus. we are going to have to work very, very hard to make sure that the communication is in all communities, that it is culturally competent ten. that every barber, beautician, retailer, every church all has the proper information about how to protect yourself, how to get the test, who is at greater risk. it is going to be a her cuelian effort but we are going to have to do it. when we see this guidance we ought to be looking very specifically at that guidance and thinking about how we competent grate that guidance into our everyday lives in communities that are underserved. >> now, jemile, aside from giving your own analysis of what you heard, we also saw that

while the briefing was going on it was announced another city, the largest city in the country, new york city is closing public schools until april 24th, i believe, which is going to have social dynamics within itself because new york, as in other cities, is like the tale of two cities. you have one side of the city that is doing well. you have the other that clearly has challenges. so you are dealing with public school parents who may work. if it is a single parent home or both parents at home who now have a child care challenge, who now have to deal with the fact that the free breakfast and free lrchl in those schools will n-- those schools will be available to their children. as we see cities closing the

schools it raises other social concerns particularly in communities of people of color, black communities and in communities of people considered of lower income. how do we deal with that? why is that not being raised to this administration as well as theed a straz of those cities? >> indeed, i think what is left to us is to be vigilant. i think what we saw there was completely the opposite of what we needed to see. we saw a president who came on and treated a national crisis, a global pandemic, coming onto our shores and spreading within our country as black friday, as if it was a -- you know, a holiday where we just shop all the time. and that was ludicrous. and then we had vice president pence, the person who five years ago was -- helped exacerbate the hiv outbreak in his own state of indiana proving he has learned

nothing from that experience not discouraging any of the social distancing that we need. in fact we saw it on the stage. you could see all of these people stand willing standing there for basically nothing modelling exactly the wrong behavior that the nation needs to be seeing right now. frankly, with regards to the families deal with kids coming home, a lot of these folks who are working, possibly one or two jobs are working at companies which are not getting paid sick leave under this new bill that companies insisted upon companies having loopholes for. when vice president pence was asked that question he completely dodged it. he essentially said we don't want families to be worried about paychecks. what if being sick means that you can't eat? what if being sick means your kids can't eat? the lack of recognition of american realities on the part of this administration is epidemic. and frankly, i think i speak for a lot of people in this country when i say i cannot believe that these people are in charge. >> all right. we will take a break.

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we are back. let me go back to my panel. we are talking to dr. george benjamin, of course, elena beverly, joe watkins, and jemile smith. i want to go back to the point jemile ended with, to you, elena. and that is the $8.3 billion package that the house passed last night. i'm sorry -- friday night, that the senate is to convene tomorrow. many hoped the senate would come back saturday and pass it rye away. but even in that $8.3 billion package which we certainly need a lot more than that, there is a limit in terms of the companies that are exposed in terms of dealing with sick pay. >> that's right. >> or pay leave, companies -- the very large companies, and small companies. give us an analysis for the viewers on where the limits of

this company are. because people that are sitting home that may have to use the sick leave need to understand who this is limited to. >> sure. i am also going to turn it over the jemile in just a second to explain some of his comments as well. but the house bill provides an extension of family and medical leave for 14 days. paid leave. and also pros a new paid leave option again for 14 days for businesses for 5 -- that have employees of 500 employees or less. however, this does nothing for some of the members of our commune who are in the more informal industries, are in the gig economy, if you will, and for those larger businesses where there is not the exception, and it is not the extension, what are we going to do for those individuals who are in the service economy who cannot afford the take off who are living paycheck to paycheck

and in many instances are confused insecure as jemile mentioned a few moments ago in his comments. >> i want to go back to you jemile and elaborate on the food insecure and elaborate on the fact that many of the big companies that the president loves to deal with don't have to deal with sick leave issue according to this legislation. >> right. i mean a lot of these big companies doeb have to pay sick leave, period. -- don't have to pay sick leave period. not just amazons and tech geniuses in seattle but also people working at mcdonald's who may have symptoms coming up. what are they going to do, stay home or make their shift and make their rent on time? that's the thing. we need to really tack about systemic problems. we don't socialized medicine. we don't have guaranteed tuition

for a certain number of economic classes. we hear pence and trump talking about supermarkets will be open. that's i am sure a comfort to some people. but what about the neighborhoods in our communities that don't have supermarkets? they don't even have a ralph's or a vons here in los angeles. they don't exist, and they don't have the transportation to get to them. i saw none of the leadership we needed to see right now from the white house. frankly, i doubt that we will. >> let me ask you, dr. ben minute, in -- dr. benjamin, in terms of the question that was raised by the president and vice president, telling people that did not have the symptoms, don't get tested -- how do we know that everyone responds or has the same type of symptoms for this disease? >> i think it's the going to be important that we -- you know the testing is important.

at the end of the day we are going to have to emphasize social distancing. this means flattening that curve. this means staying away from one another this. means if -- look, when i came into the studio today, the lady at the gate asked me whether i had a fever, i had a cough whether i had been to any of the impacted countries. i got a screening just to get into your studio today. we need to do that all around our nation. we need to make sure that every one of our communities understands that message. and we need to take -- certainly for the next two weeks and maybe longer we need to chill out and stay separate. that's going to be the best thing that we can do. now obviously low income workers have a real challenge here. we are going to have to come up with a plan. once the senate signs this bill they are going to have to roll up their sleeves and determine how to deliver aid to workers

that work in the big economy. >> reverend watkins, you are on the ground in philadelphia and you deal with pash parishioners, people on the ground, did you hear anything that would give comfort to them when you are hearing again school closings, you are hearing the president celebrating companies, saying tell them to stop shopping, we are doing great? he even said one time, relax, we are doing great. who are we that are doing great when you have this kind of ing despite and fear going on -- this kind of anxiety and fear going on. was any of that relieved by what we heard last hour. >> i don't believe any of my members listening are feeling any greater comfort. the people i surf are poor. many of them just out of prison getting their lives back together. to me the greatness of a country

is seen by how we treat our poor. in my opinion, the republican administration has to step up and work hand in hand with the democratic congress to fashion legislation that takes care of the poorest people, makes sure the poorest workers are taken care of so they can feed their families, so they can get the medical attention that they need. there is a lot that i didn't hear in there. there is a lot that the people who i serve didn't hear. we have a distance yet to travel. i do agree, i believe what dr. fauci says, that the worst is yet to come. we have to continue to exercise caution i think going forward, and good judgment, all of us, as well as good hygiene. i also think we need to be -- you said it yesterday, reverend al. you said we needed to pray, but woe needed to put feet on our prayers which means we need to practice being considerate of other people. i liked what you said. i think you are right to say that we should be writing our members of congress and the senate to urge them to do the

right thing. i think going forward that's what i am going to urge my people to do as well. >> all right. we'll be right back. we are going to take a break. we'll be right back with more of my panel and deal with the politics of this. right after this. this get 'em while they're hot. applebee's 25 cent boneless wings are back in your choice of three sauces. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? applebee's 25 cent boneless wings memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. wean air force veteran made of doing what's right,. not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it - with hassle-free claims, he got paid before

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everybody wins. now that's simple, easy, awesome. say "xfinity sports zone" into your voice remote today. we are back. let me get into the politics of the matter. we are in the 2020 election year. and as i heard the president

emphasizing about what the fed had done in terms of lowering the interest rates and dealing with how we are doing well, i couldn't help but think that he has in mind politics, his re-election, that the economy will be doing fine. in about an hour, little over an hour from now, the democratic candidates, the two that are left in that race for the democratic primary, former vice president joe biden and senator bernie sanders, will be debating. jemile, if you were advising either or both of them, how would you tell them to deal with this crisis? and what would you say to them, that they should use that platform tonight to show their leadership as it would be different from the present occupant of the white house? >> well, reverend, i think they

both have different challenges. i think for senator sanders, i think he has the challenge of continuing to separate his platform and help, you know, provide voters an alternative, those voters who are still going to be voting on tuesday. and he needs to help people understand that he is -- has good ideas that should be adopted by the person who is most likely going to be the nominee of the democratic party. for vice president biden he needs to be a proxy president. because the job appears to be vak anltd. he needs to behave as though he is running not necessarily against trump but running to serve this country, running basically unopposed. how would you run if you were unopposed? you would say to the people, i am capable of handling this job, these are the things that i would do, one of the things i would do right now is listen to the scientists i have appointed on my panel. i want to hear more of that from him. he want to hear what his

recommendations would be and what he would do were he in the seat right now. >> elena as we look at the debate, they should of course come up with in my judgment specific health policies, how they would deal with things. i am sure that will be part of the debate. as well as remind people in the middle of this crisis, they should not ignore the crisis that we are in, that it started with this president calling it a hoax and still not really dealing with many issues. would you advise that they have a balance in terms of their own proposals and raise the history of the president in terms of the coronavirus emergency that we are in? or would you just say they should just use their time to just beat up on the president? >> oh, i agree with you that it should absolutely be a balance. i think that specifically, joe biden is going to have to explain how we have a crisis of confidence in this

administration, that we started off, as you mentioned w donald trump calling this thing a hoax. and now we are in a national emergency. he is going to talk about how he will instill trust, how he will be ready on day one to deal with the crisis. he's i'm sure going to reflect on some of the experiences dealing with a public health cry situation like ebola and economic health crisis like to recovery act and the recession and his role as the general getting shovel ready jobs out the door and money to industries that needed it for rebounld. he is going to going to talk about his experience leading in a contrast and contrast that with the misinformation, disinformation and irresponsible actions of this current administration. and then, bernie sanders is going to lift up his progressive elements of his progressive platform and policies speaking to the fact that 87 million

americans are uninsured and talking about what this world would look like if we had a single payer system, if we had medicare for all and how it would be useful in a time like this. of course, he is going to try to figure out ways of his platform to be adopted into what may be joe biden's platform as the presumptive nominee. >> reverend watkins, you are a republican but you as some republicans have expressed publicly have a disdain for the behavior and policies of president trump. how do you think the candidates ought to appeal to those independents and republicans that do not agree with this president and has some kind of embarrassment with some of his behavior? how do they appeal to them to,

therefore, come and vote for me? >> i think that joe biden probably has the better chance to do that, to win people who are in the middle who may be yet undecided, when republicans who don't like the rhetoric of the president but who don't disagree greatly with some of the economic policies, i think joe biden has the best chance of winning the voters, i think a harder road for bernie sanders to win them but bernie sanders has a very strong support base. i think the other challenge becomes is if the two candidates during the debate take off after each other personally, that's a net negative that they should keep it based to the specifics of what they would do if elected president and then they ought to debate the merits or demerits specifically of their proposed programs, that's a better outcome for democrats for this debate tonight. i think the other challenge that

democrats have in the fall is that bernie sanders voters, and the willingness of bernie sanders voters to come on board and support joe biden if he is as many suspect the democratic nominee and those voters can't afford to stay home if the democrats want a shot in the fall and democrats are wise to know that joe biden does very, very well with african-american voters and you need a strong african-american turnout in the fall for democrats to be viable. >> dr. benjamin, what do you want to hear in terms of health policy? because clearly in the middle of this health crisis, health care is going to be on the minds of most viewers, not only of the debate, but in the coming months as we go toward a november election. what do you want to hear from the health association part in terms of health policies that americans need and need desperately right now? >> i want to hear them give

empathy and support to the american people and then once and for all build a comprehensive public health system l with a robust health care system that the next time this kind of thing happens we can handle wit assuredty that our nation deserves. we know how to do this. we have just not done it. >> let me ask quickly, i'm out of time, but i want a yes or no. jamel, does the democratic nominee, we presume it's vice president biden, have to pick a woman or a person of color, black, to be their running mate? >> why not both? yes. >> all right. alaina? >> absolutely. >> joe watkins? >> yes. >> and, of course, dr. benjamin? >> yeah. let me tell you. i hope they will. i absolutely hope that they do.

both a woman and a person of color. >> so when you say both, you mean in one person, a black woman? >> in one person. >> all right. well, i think that -- >> if i don't i can't go home. >> thank you. that does it for me. my thanks to the panel. dr. benjamin, alaina, joe and jamel. thank you to you at home for watching. i want to encourage people, don't go by conspiracy theories and don't go for big gots. there's reports of people expressing and physically dealing with people appearing of asian descent. this is a time to come together and show that we are better than we are given to believe things that are untrue, unnecessary, and that we don't turn on people. we turn toward people. and lift this country through this crisis together. i'll see you back here next

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♪ qwelcome to "kasie dc." >> new federal guidelines to be released with anything and everything on the table. including closing bars and restaurants across the country. we'll consider strategies with two former cabinet secretaries. kathle kathleen sebelius and david shulkin. >> we have kat