holt will anchor a special report on the coronavirus pandemic with crucial real time information plus analysis and health advice from all the experts. that's at 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc, nbc or streaming on nbc news now. my thanks today to all of our guests for spend time with us. . welcome to wednesday. i'm chuck todd here in washington where the scope of crisis facing our government and its citizens is unlike anything we've seen in america since at least world war ii. certainly in many of our lifetimes. local and federal officials including the president are comparing the fight against the coronavirus to a war but due to an ongoing testing shortage, officials are industristill scr

because they don't know the full extent of where the enemy is, where it's going or how lethal the enemy may be. it's why we're kind of in this no man's land. you're looking at reports out of washington state, ohio, alabama, louisiana documenting shortages and rationing of testing. in some places, drive through testing is being suspended because there's too many patients and not enough tests. in today's brief iing, the response coordinator acknowledged there's still so much we don't know. still. about the size and scope of the virus here in america including even how it's spreading. >> there was a series of scientific articles published about surface contamination. i think none of us really understood the level of surface piece. so we're still working out how much of it is by human human transmission and by survface. >> right now, many of the engines of american life are being shutdown.

the u.s. canada agreed to close the border to quote all nonessential travel. detroit's biggest three automakers have shut down all plants. the u.s. census is suspending field operations. market fell so quickly today they had to halt trading again and moments ago, we learned the floor of the new york stock exchange will effectively close all trading will now be done electronically starting on monday and many of the engines of american life that are still running are being redirect ed t fight a war where we are in some need of some reconnaissance which raises concerns that we are flying blind against this once in a lifetime threat. that raises questions about how we're mobilizing our extremely limited resources to fight this virus. officials are anticipating massive shortages in equipment, facilities and personnel. the president said he'll invoke act to allow manufacturers to make products to fight the virus

whether they want to or not. the government will say no, you need to make masks, ventilators and other equipment in short supply. but how do we know if we're even deploying it to the places we need it and if we don't know where the cases are, how do we know where to put extra hospital beds first? the president is seeking $500 billion in direct payments to taxpayers as part of a massive trillion dollar package that will likely come back and get bigger and bigger. this is obviously aim ed at preventing the economy from entering a total tail spin in order to slow this virus spread. but how do we know if that will be enough if we don't understand the threat? how do you know who to bomb? you know you have an enemy, wu you don't know where the enemy is is. imagine that. meanwhile, the number of known cases has begun to rise. it's now confirm nd all 50 states and while the ramp up in testing is fuelling some of this rise, there's little doubt the

number of cases is far higher. connecticut officials feel there are more than 100 times more cases than what current testing shows there. once again, it's hard to mobilize to fight a war if you can't pinpoint where the front lines are so right now, policymakers and health officials are just assuming they are literally everywhere which is why we are in this national shutdown mode. with me now is dr. paul sax from brigham and women's hospital in boston and dr. james hamlen from the yale school of public health and staff writer at the atlantic. dr. sax, i feel like everything keeps comie ing back to this testing issue in that while we don't need to test to see if the virus is here, it does seem as if we don't know where it's, where it's concentrated the most. we don't know where, we know we're going to get smacked hard but is it boston? is it dallas? is it you know, we don't know

where and it seems to go all back to this issue of not being able to test from the start. >> well i agree with you the testing is a critical part of the mitigation strategy. we really need to know who has it so these people can be in isolation. we have to prepare at the hospitals, that's where i'm working now, for an increase in cases. as a result, we're make iing a y special effort to make room for those patients and to really shift what we're doing to prepare for coronavirus cases. >> okay, but i guess the question i have is is there any way we're ever going to catch up on theesting front that will allow us to get our resources more sparingly or is this just something we're never going to catch up? >> i think we're going to catch u up. the reason i think that is because the combination of

academics and industry are really working very hard right now. to solve the testing problem. for example, many large medical centers now have in hospital testing that can evaluate in patients. that's very cal and commercial and industry testing the is ramping up. so things are much better than they were a couple of weeks ago, but i agree, we have a long way to go. one of the chief problems is that the materials for testing are in relatively short supply, but people are mobilizing to get those in. >> where are those, what is the material we're missing? >> there are a couple of things. one is just even the simple aspect of the appropriate swabs for the test. there are some places that have shortages of those. but by redirecting testing to ko vindividual testing, we can the solve that problem. the other is something called, the testing media that also needs to be ramped up. but these are relatively simple

problems. i think they can be solved and as i mentioned, the testing situation is better although not all the way solved. >> i want to play something else that dr. birks said about millennials in general and what we've learned about this disease because i'll tell you this, it felt like new information to me from what we learned last week. take a listen. >>. >> there are concerni ining rep coming out of france and italy that some young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the icus. it may have been that the ma n millennial generation, our largest generation, our future generation, that will carry us through for the next multiple decades, there may be disproportional numbers among that group so even if it's a rare occurrence, it may be seen more frequent ly in that group and be evident now so we're looking at that information very carefully. we have not seen any significant

mortality in the children. but we are concerned about the early reports coming out of italy and france. >> so i heard that two ways. iered it number one, we're still learning more about this virus. we don't know as much as sometimes i think experts made us think we knew about a week ago, but second, it seemed intent on sending a message, a bit of fear to millennials like hey, listen up sober up. >> right. this is a disease we've often been talking about in terms of mortality. what percentage of people are dying and among younger adults, young, healthy adults, it does seem to be much, much lower percentage than among older people, but the number of people who require hospital care and who need some form of supplemental oxygen, might immediate a bed for a night or two nights, is not going to be insignificant. it is not a disease that anyone

should expect that they can easily ride out without any medical treatment at all so there's a potential there for people, young, healthy people, to be in emergency departments alongside other people who would be extremely high risk if contracted. >> and it does seem as if i saw dr. fauci, he did some podcasts today, i think he did bar stool sports. the point is it's clear that the government thinks millennials in general are not taking this as seriously as they want folks to take it. not just about their own health x but about how they could be suh u per spreaders. >> well, i, i've seen also a lot of millennials who are taking it very seriously and who are spread iing the message that it important as a matter of social responsibility, that you don't, that you're not cavalier about this. but it's not about your own health. it's about the risk of spread

ing it to someone who is higher likelihood of passing away and i think we don't, we really don't have a handle on the spread, within young healthy adults because we have not within testing especially there. the die nosices is mainly deployed for people who come to the hospital for people who have a fever and cough and there's really high suspicious and we are not just, people right now who are calling up their doctors and saying i have a cold i think, almost all of them are not being tested. >> dr. sax, how blind are we? dr. hamlen just brought this up. we're not 100% sure how it's impacting younger folks because we haven't tested a broad sample of younger folks. it's only been a concentrated sample of younger folks showing symptoms. >> you're absolutely right. and i think some of the more encouraging news from for example italy and it's nice to see some encouraging news from

italy, is that they actually have in one town, tested almost everybody and have been able to identify people who have the infection have relatively mild cases are isolated then have converted transmissions to nearly zero. so that kind of program, which we saw previously in korea and china is what ultimately we need to aim for. what's happening on the ground right now in u.s. hospitals is that we are trying to prepare for a situation where we don't know the true numbers and therefore, are expecting things to csignificantly worsen. >> is there way we could, i've been waiting to see if the government was going to essentially say okay, we're going to, we're going to do a concentrated amount of testing in four regions in this country. we're going to pick them, do random samples in order to get a better grasp on how this virus, how quickly this virus spreads in different communities. how it infect, impacts different

people of different age groups. are we doing that and we just don't see it? >> i think right now, the tests are being deployed where they're neededed. so we're using them to effectively administer hospital care in the best possible way and we don't have the capacity to do the widespread studies that would ideally be happening at the same time! correct me if i'm wrong here, don't mean to interrupt you, correct me if i'm wrong here, this is done with the flu quite often. almost in a year round basis. >> we have a system in place for the flu. we have rapid diagnostic tests for the flu. we have health care system that's pretty used to identifying the flu in a lot of people who know when to call in to their doctor and report symptoms of the flu and this is new and so a whole new system is

having to be invented and that's ramping up quickly, but still not quickly enough. >> dr. sax, you have an opinion as to why this sort of the similar, the flu system couldn't, couldn't work here? >> well it's an excellent idea, but the difficulty of course right now is there's also a very strong infection control component of the coronavirus testing. so unlike influenza e testing, which happens in doctor's off e offices all the time, coronavirus testing, we're not recommending it be done in just a doctor's office and so for example, many places including our own institution, have created drive through testing sites and that a is in order to prevent it from spreading to others. remember this is a virus that is seeing a population that has really no immunity to it and there's no vaccine for it. that would hinder the broad survey lay vance you're describing, but it's an excellent idea and something i hope we can do. >> you brought up personnel. it seems to be that's the next

big thing that everybody seems to be worried about. we can turn a factory on and possibly make more ventilators. you can't just turn a factory on and make more health care work ers if they get sick. how much of a concern is this for you, dr. sax then dr. hamlen. >> it's a huge concern and i really want to just credit my colleagues who have all really almost to a person, stepped up and said they want to help. that's one of the really remarkable things about a crisis like this. you know people are doing things outside of their usual comfort zone and answering questions, offering to cover services. so that is important. very important. and i'm worried about the personnel definitely, but so far, we're able to fill in. i'm also worried about personal protection equipment. i think that's critical that we conserve that and use it for health care workers because the people on the front lines need to be protected. >> dr. hamlen, what is your

concern? personnel, vebt ventilators, all of it? >> started out thinking about ventilators now i'm thinking about who operates them and i'm not as concerned about here in new york or where dr. sax is in boston where there are lots of medical centers, going to be parts of america where there's a, there are hospitals with maybe one intensive care specialist who if they get sick, the whole system would shut down and you think about these external factors also like schools being closed, health care workers having to take time off to take care of their kids and that's a whole chain. not just doctors and nurses, but everyone who makes a hospital function and you see that the systems could easily break down for reasons other than the doctor themselves getting sick. >> i was just going to say, you're describing if any cities between that 20,000 and 50,000, that size, i think it sound sz

like thats like that's where we're the most concerned. limited personnel. limited resources. limited perhaps areas to get them quickly. thank you for both coming on with us today. i appreciate it. >> you're welcome. up ahead, the senate has just approved a bill to help americans through this crisis and they're already working on another one. we're going to capitol hill. and europe on lockdown. we're going to go live in rome with a look at those conditions there because u a lot of people say where italy is today could be where we are in two weeks. y d be where we are in two weeks life isn't a straight line.

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...simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] a bill aimeded at trying to help americans through the coronavirus crisis. the senate approved the original aid. it includes free coronavirus

testing for the uninsured as well as medical sick and family leave. the vote took extra long as they limited the number number of members due to social distancing. republicans in the senate are now working on the next phase of relief which will likely include money sent to americans. the trump administration would like one sent in april and one in may. we don't know where the senate will come down but the trump white house is asking for $50 billion for the airlines, 150 billion for others and two rounds of direct payments to americans of $250 being each and there would be a small business interruption bill as well. joining me now, leanne caldwell. stuff got done today. what's the timeline on this? we know the white house would like to see the first check cut to americans on april 6th. if you think about late fees when it comes to rent, that can be about the 10th of the month for some. so that would be just in time.

what's if the likelihood the senate would act that fast? >> well senate republicans have been meeting over the past couple of days. they've been divided into task force tackling different sections o f the bill and they have a deadline of tomorrow morning to get their proposals to mitch mcconnell. it's been relatively easy. i'm told because it really tracks what the white house wants. what was laid out in the treasury proposal and so they're just kind of putting pen to paper and making it into legislative law type of language. but then after that, it's unclear because of course they're going to have to sign off to the white house, but also the democrats, too. majority leader mcconnell wanted to take the reigns in this round of negotiations because he stood on the sidelines in the last, but he's still going to need democrats to pass it. he needs 60 votes in the senate and a house of representatives led by democrats to get this through. so while things are moving really quickly at this stage,

it's only republicans right you know, crafting this legislation with some input from democrats, but until they get the sign off from the parties, who knows, chuck. they want to move really quickly, but how quick, this week, next week, week after. unclear. >> i got to think that and you tell me what you think is most likely. i know they're trying to talk about this as one package, but when i look at the industry ideas versus the direct payments, i know the way that senate works. the direct payments, i think you can find your 60 votes quickly. when you start talking about industries, you're going to have people left and right, all right, who got their senate seats, they believe, based on bad votes by their predecessors for previous bailouts. they're all going to want to have a say in that. i have a feeling that will, if they link it to the direct payments, americans will never see those checks. >> and there's not a lot of love lost for some of these

industries including the airline industry, too. everyone knows they're going through a tremendous situation, but there's some baggage there. literally. >> no pun intended. >> i know. but -- >> there's a fee. >> the talk up here on capitol hill is that they're trying to avoid a direct bailout. they want it in the form of loans. but u it's still going to be complicated because you have these drastic portions of the bill. the small business loan portion. the bailout for the corporations then the individuals and so getting that all together is tough. >> well, sounds like they're going to have to come up with some unique challenges. we'll see what they come up with. i want to turn now to the number two on the senatedurbin. i was just thinking why do i have a feeling ken feinberg is going to have a job b in about six months figuring out how to dole out money. what industries get money and

what industries don't. first, let me start with where your head is at on these direct payments? seems like on that, there's bipartisan agreement that some money needs to get into the pockets of working people as quickly as possible. what's the best pass? separating it out from the rest of the bailout package or trying to do this all at once? >> well, there are two or three different ideas, chuck. maybe even more. what is unusual about this approach is that senator mcconnell has decided to start it with an entirely partisan approach to it. he sits down with his own republican senators and goes through it for a couple of days then we sit and stand outside the door hoping to be invited in for a conversation. that's totally different than we found with the first two bills that dealt with this coronavirus crisis. those first two bills were done on a bipartisan basis in a timely way. i thought we did it the right way. senator mcconnell says we're going to do it differently. well we don't know what they're going to produce. they have to take it by the

white house first then come see us perhaps tomorrow morning. but in terms of helping families directly, there are a lot of ways to do this and a lot more i think sentiment for helping these families on the democratic side or at least as much as there is on the republican side. >> well, walk me through your approach. what do you think is the best approach? direct check? is it a monthly basis for maybe the duration of this social distancing period? or a monthly basis based on whether your state is in a state of emergency? what's your thought process here? >> can i start with something basic. i don't need $1,000 check. members of this senate don't. you don't. the people who need these are the ones who are away from their jobs now because they're sick. there are people who are trying to, been laid off for a period of time. they're working for companies that have told them you got two more weeks and you're on your own. those are the people who need a thousand and maybe more so let's gear it up for the folks who truly need this money to get by

and not send it to everybody under the sun. one of the starting points. second ly, we want to build int this a guarantee if if you're going to eventually lose your job and go unemployment insurance, you're going to receive enough from unemployment to pay your bills. currently unemployment compensation in most states is not up to that and we've got the think of it in new terms for this new challenge. >> so you would like to see both a one-thyme fee or maybe a set of payments in addition to a higher bump in unemployment insurance as well. >> yes. and i can tell you when it came senate payments a number of come together on the democratic side with a specific proposal. triggers as to when we're finally through this krcrisis a the economy's back on its feet, but until then, stick these families. one check, two checks, as nice as they may be, those checks aren't going to take care of all the membproblems many people ar

going to face. >> as i was talking to my colleague there, we know there's a bunch of industries that are going to feel as if they need help. we've seen these things. what's the likelihood that you guys end up doing a t.a.r.p. like fund? i say it this way. you throw in maybe it's a trillion dollar fund. that somebody runs, maybe it's ken feinberg, where you can draw your credit from there. that it's sort of a one time, because it seems like every industry is going to claim impact here because every industry is impacted and it feels like you have to have it directed into one space. no? >> and i can tell you, i've been taking phone calls from across illinois for the last 72 hours. the leaders in business and each one of them has a very compelling story to tell me about what's happening to the restaurant industry. what's happening in the entertainment industry. what's happening of course in the airlines industry. which has many dimpbfferent par connected to it. it is not as simple as it first

sounds. i think we've learn ed a lesson like we did in 2008 with the stimulus package and t.a.r.p. and the like. we want to make sure we're not sending money to those who are going to misuse it. we want to make sure the first priority are workers and their families. we want this economy back on its feet. we don't want any windfalls to people who don't need the money. we ought to be careful with taxpayers dollars and i think you hear that on both sides. >> ip de think that and i think experience with t.a.r.p.s to do that. i'd like to read you a quote from ron johnson where he's asking about the balance here and he's talking about here we have a virus where 97 or 98% of the population is going to be fine over time. but he's concerned you know, we're wrecking the, we may wreck the economy in the first place. the point being is what is the balance and this balance between lives and economy and both, it becomes, it becomes tricky. does it not?

>> well i can tell you, it is tricky because if ron is just referring to those who are going to lose their lives as a result of this, that is one thing. but there are people who are going to find compromises that have to be b made in their own lives who are going to survive this, but go through a very painful time. i might say to ron, take a look at illinois near the wisconsin border. the fiat krchrysler facility th just announced it will close. we're not saying these people are facing a dead ly verdict whn it comes to coronavirus, but they're going to pay a price for this crisis we're facing and we're trying to find ways to help those wisconsin and illinois workers through this difficult time. that to me our first responsibility. >> are you concerned that it's going to get harder to get people to follow these guidelinguidelin guidelines if they're like hey, this didn't happen in my

backyard? of course and you made a report about millennials. the first fatality yesterday was a 61-year-old retired nurse who had been staying close to home for the couple of weeks. she had gone to a funeral two weeks ago. that's all her family could remember leaving the house for. yet, she had visitors. one of those visitors may or may not have known they were sick enough they shouldn't have been this. so we're all in this together. we can't let up. we've got to be serious about this. because even after it peaks, i hope sooner than later, we can have a recurring problem with this virus if we don't take it veersly down to the point where it's not a danger to the people of this country. >> as my brother-in-law said to me today, when you see this many political leaders on both sides of the aisle warning you about something, maybe it's even worse than i thought. that's one attitude to have and you need to take it seriously. thank you very much. up ahead, the very latest on the

lockdown in europe. join my colleague lester holt tomorrow night for a prime time report on the coronavirus. he'll have crucial information plus analysis and advice. that's tomorrow, 10:00 p.m. on all the networks of nbc news. >> tech: don't wait for a chip like this to crack your whole windshield.

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welcome back. the entire nation of italy has

been on strict lockdown for nearly a week but coronavirus cases and deaths have continued to climb al e though we heard that piece of good news from dr. sax and one part of italy. still, the country reported 475 deaths today. the largest death toll in a single day since the virus appeared bringing the number of death to 3,000 and the number of new cases reached over 4,000 today bringing the current total to ready for this, 36,000. france, germany and spain have also seen increases in their cases. cases in spain already reaching as high as 14,000. all three countries have ordered strict lockdowns and some places in the u.s. are considering similar lockdowns to keep the situation in italy from coming here. richard engel talked to neil ferguson who's advising the white house's task force. here's what he told richard. >> how far behind is the united states compared to italy or

other european countries that have seen pretty big outbreaks? days, weeks? >> so i think some areas of the united states are probably a week or two behind italy. italy was u the worst affected european country, the first one. we think transmission started there in mid january or so. in the united states compared to germany and france, i think again the united states is bigger but the worst affected areas are probably comparable to what's happening in france, the u.k. and elsewhere. >> ferguson also told richard that whether the death toll is in the millions or tens of millions is what the government does now. joining us from rome, claudio. i really wanted to have you on for this very reason. you know when italy is normal and you know when life is not normal. so tell me this. number one. how is italy handling the

lockdown that they've been under i guess you're on week two or three of this. we're on day four i guess in this country. so o we got a long way to go to catch up to where italy is mentally. how would you say italians are handling this mentally? >> well, to be honest, chuck, first of all, good evening. i was very surprised at how well they've been coping with this and how respectful of the rules the italians of the rules because you probably know, italians are not particular ly keen to obey rules most of the time when it comes to cueing up you know. there's a big mess, they're not really standing in line or any other rules as such but in this particular case, it must be because they were dealing with their own health and this is a threat to their own health that suddenly, the government comes up and says whoa, guys now tough stay home indefinitely. at least until april 3rd, but

who know ifs that will be extended. overnight, there's nobody else in rome. i mean this is the streets are empty. rome is deserted. i've never seen it so beautiful because you probably remember from your times here in rome, we were together here once a few years ago, it's packed with tourists, with italian, a lot of traffic and suddenly, there's nobody around. this is really beautiful. but i hope i'm never going to see it again. because the reason behind it is not so beautiful obviously. so yeah, very surprised at how well they responded and how well they're cope iing, chuck. >> it's sort of, i have a lot of faith in americans and first couple of weeks, it how -- is it more they know believe their officials because they've seen this death toll rise? sadly has that helped reenforce the notion that hey, the government leaders were right? >> yes and no. in the sense that you gave that number earlier on and you did

mention that today, they reported 400, in the last 24 hours, there were 475 deaths. so it was the biggest, the highest daily death toll since the beginning of the epidemic at the end of february and that must have been really disheartening for italians because they are now on their tenth day of the lockdown and they've been asked to do a big sacrifice and of course the americans will, to just stay inside the house unless they have a real reason to get out. for such a prolonged period of time and that is a sacrifice socially, economically for so many in so many ways. if they see that after ten days, the numbers are skyrocketing, we're talking about a big rise. 475 is so much higher than the previous record, two, three days ago, which was 368. so they must be thinking when i. >> and what, and what i'm doing

even working. i guess that's something they have to fear. claudio, in a very quiet rome. you're right. never that quiet, not at h this time of night. stay healthy, my friend. thanks very much. and later, how do you try to control the coronavirus in one of the most densely populated states in the nation. going to talk to connecticut's governor about the steps he's taking to stop the spread there. taking to stop the spread there. ♪

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welcome back. a public health official in connecticut is estimating that for every positive coronavirus in the state there are 100 more. by that estimate, connecticut would have the 96 cases it's reported, it would have nearly 10,000 cases and they just confirmed their first coronavirus related death. the governor joined me now. he did his daily press conference. thanks for coming on.

let me start with where, how prepared do you feel in your state? what is your biggest concern when it comes to preparation? >> it was a tough briefing today because as you point out, chuck, it was first fatality. and that really brings it home. wuhan province is a long away way. just told a lot what's going on in italy. maybe that's a hoax or that's a far away but when it happens in your own state and when it's fatality, it really brings it home and we feel it. look, are we ready? we've had every chance to get ready and i keep telling people we don't want to be italy. so we closed our schools earlier. we closed businesses. especially our restaurants. and our bars. we're trying to take people, take this very seriously. you don't want italy to happen in connecticut. >> what is, have you run into the problems that some other states have, basically particularly gen z, college

kids, high school kid, right now, they just view this as extended spring break. >> chuck, i got to tell you, it was st. patrick's day weekend last weekend and our bars were packed. and that's why i got together with andrew cuomo and phil murphy and we said we're going to do this together. we closed down restaurants and bars at the same time. pretty tough to on the eve of st. patrick's day, but we have to send the message, it's serious. >> where are you on testing kits? on ventilators? hospital capacity? >> well, hospital capacity i could work on. i can deal with that locally in terms of expanding into intermedia care facilities. we're trying to shut down our elective surgeries so we can open up more facilities there. we really need the federal government to step up.

when it comes to ventilators, can't get that on amazon. that's a priority. some urban districts, we got some swabs. got three or four days of that. so we're limited there. as well as ppe, the protective clothing. we're having a hard time getting nurses to go into the nursing homes unless they can get the protective clothing. >> on the financial front, you saw what congress is going to do. you've got to focus on keep iin your state healthy. all of that. i guess at this point, you hope congress can fill in the gaps when it comes to paying the bills and all of that. what would you like to see them do first? >> i think unemployment compensation is key. we, you know, usually in a recession, we had on maybe 5,000 claims a week. yesterday, we added 12,000 a day. in one day. >> oh my gosh. >> we've got enough to keep going and secondly, the paid sick leave is so important. because if b somebody's feeling ill, you want to make sure if they're paycheck to paycheck,

they don't feel like they've got to go to work and they go home. >> any concern there's ever too much money that's going to get shovelled out the door? >> in my old life, i would have gotten concerned. as governor, we need it right now. we've got more overtime. i see what's going on with our hospitals. they're overwhelmed and they're keeping up really well at this point. a week from now is an eternity. >> it is. governor, i know these are trying times. i'm sure you're not getting much sleep, much rest, thanks for coming on and sharing your vi views. >> i love your show, can chuck, thank you. >> thank you, governor. up next, believe it r or no or not, at the tail end of this show, we'll do a quick 2020 election update. uick 2020 election update. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference.

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[sfx: bikes passing,] [sfx: fire truck siren, ambient sounds] onstar, we see them. okay. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. thank you, onstar.

my son, is he okay? your son's fine. thank you. there was something in the road ... it's okay. you're safe now. let me say especially to the young voters who have been inspired by senator sanders, i hear you. i know what's at stake. i know what we have to do. our goal as a campaign and my goal as a candidate for president is to unify this party and then to unify the nation. >> welcome back. after sweeping wins in what's expected to be the last in person elections for a while, joe biden directed an appeal from his home in delaware. by now holds a 315 delegate lead, leaving sanders almost no mathematical path to the nomination. sanders is currently assessing the state of his campaign, but

he has not yet been moved to exit the race. he did have a little scrum with reporters. one reporter said what are you going to say to your supporters? there has been a flurry of reporting today. and bernie snapped stop with this, i'm dealing with a worldwide crisis. you're asking me these questions. right now i'm trying to do by midwest to make sure we don't have an economic meltdown and people don't die. that enough to keep you busy for today? let me bring in greg wasserman, our guru of election counting these days with the cook political report. mr. wasserman, in some ways, the bernie sanders reaction i think tells you he knows -- he knows the state of his campaign. he knows the state of this race. he just is maybe not ready to deal with it on his timeline yet. >> that's right. he knows the score. and joe biden needed to do two things last night. he needed to basically come across as a president, and he

needed to be magnanimous to bernie sanders supporters and essentially show bernie some respect. and i think he accomplished both those things in his short remarks. much better than he did by the way in the debate, i felt. >> let's talk about the bigger picture here. in some ways the nomination is essentially over. there is a lot of logical nightmare issues having to do with delegate selection and all of that. but i want to set the presidential race aside here for a minute. we have a slew of congressional primaries that we have no idea when or if these primaries are going to be held. it feels as if this is not -- we look at it via -- through the prism of the presidential race. we don't realize how much uncertainty there is below the ballot. just walk us through this. >> that's right, chuck. there are seven states out of 50 that have already held primaries, but there are 26 that are holding congressional primaries, or are scheduled to between now and the end of june.

that's a majority of states. and these states are going to have to figure out, especially the ones that are scheduled to vote in april, how do we move towards a mostly vote by mail election. >> right. . there are four special congressional elections that are scheduled to be held in that time frame. fortunately for the highest stakes one, which is in california's 25th district, 65% voters in that district are already on the permanent absentee vote by mail list. so moving to an entirely mail election there is not as logically challenging as it will be for some of the other states scheduled to hold primaries. >> i have a feeling this issue of vote by mail, we're probably going to have to figure out how to institute in all 50 states between now and november. where do you think that is going to be the biggest challenge to implement? you know, we've got about -- the good news is that we have more than half the states have some vote by mail program. so building that out seems feasible, but there are 16 states that don't.

>> right, and chuck, the states that are really heavy on election day vote tend to be some of the highest stakes in the electoral college. we're talking pennsylvania, wisconsin. michigan very recently has tried to move towards more advanced voting. but florida is in relatively good shape compared to the other. >> right. >> texas has had robust early voting in person, but, you know, can they transition to a full vote by mail election in a state that has, you know, tens of millions of registered voters. that's a serious, serious undertaking in a pretty short period of time. >> yeah, and while there is no such thing as delaying election day, is there a scenario where we could say from november 3rd to november 20th is election period where they extend voting hours by days rather than by

hours? >> that starts getting tricky, chuck. and there are all kinds of reasons already for people to be concerned about access to the ballot. >> right. >> and to the extent that states are embroiled in legal challenges over the length of the voting period, that opened the door for people to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the election that in my opinion is quite dangerous. >> we got a lot of work to do in figuring out this election schedule. dave wasserman, i imagine we'll be talking more about that. thank you. that's all we have for tonight. we'll be back with more meet the press daily and a chuck toddcast. answering questions about the impact of the coronavirus and the 2020 election. there are a lot of really good questions so keep them coming. "the beat with ari melber" starts right after this break. "meet the press daily" is

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good evening. i'm ari melber, and thanks to you at home for joining us as we bring you the latest information on this ongoing coronavirus outbreak. tonight a surge in cases continues. we're reporting this virus has officially reached every state in the nation. well over 7,000 cases nationally, and 132 deaths. we're seeing a severe increase in just the last 24 hours. you see it here. in fact, when we began this