good morning, everyone.

washington provided little assurance to worried americans over the weekend. the president rejected call toes use wartime powers to address ventilators, masks and other equipment. the senate failed to pass a stimulus bill aimed at boosting workers and the filtering economy. that news sent stock futures tumbling once again. mitch mcconnell tried to set another vote for 9:45 this morning, 15 minutes oofr the opening bell hoping a tanking market would put pressure on democrats. the vote is now scheduled for noon. the work was xlicomplicated aft senator rand paul announced this morning that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. paul is now in quarantine.

meanwhile, as the number of cases spiked over the weekend, now at nearly 35,000, more states and cities are announcing variations of lockdown orders. louisiana's state mandated lockdown starts at 5:00 p.m. today. with hospitals across the country desperately in need of protective equipment, 3m says it is shipping half a million masks to new york and seattle. at a news conference on saturday, new york governor andrew cuomo said his state is purchasing nearly 2 million masks from american and foreign countries. at a white house briefing last night, president trump offered some numbers for emergency supplies heading into new york. he said more than 186

respirators, 444,000 surgical masks along with thousands of face shields, surgical gowns and gloves have been sent to this state. the coronavirus continues to rampage across the globe with italy recording more than 1,400 deaths over the weekend and the total death toll the highest in the world nearing 5,500 as the country moves to ban all travel within its boarders. germany banned all gatherings of more than two people. chancellor angela merkel quarantined herself after coming into contact with her doctor who was infected by the virus. spain, the third hardest hit country after china and italy looked to extend its state of emergency as nearly 400 people died on sunday with the overall health toll reaching more than 1,720 people. iran, the most affected country in the middle east rejected u.s.

assistance in tackling the outbreak. and north korea confirmed that president trump had sent a letter to the country's leader, kim jong-un, offering the reclusive nation help with combatting the coronavirus. while over the weekend, the north koreans fired two short range missiles into the sea of japan and this summer's tokyo olympics could be postponed according to the international olympic committee as australia and canada said they will not be sending any athletes to the games if this event happens this year. joining us now from rome, nbc correspondent claudio lavonga. also in london via skype, nbc news international correspondent cal perry. good to have you with us. claudio, let me begin with you, if i can. italy now has become one of -- if not the epicenter in the world outside of china, still reeling after a deadly weekend. what is the latest situation there, overall? >> good morning, ayman.

the situation was so bad that the number of infected and those that died from coronavirus spiked to new record highs and that's why the prime minister here on saturday said that this, the outbreak of coronavirus in italy is the most difficult crisis that italy is facing since world war ii and that is why, from today, he ordered for all factories, all shops, remaining shops that sell or produce nonessential goods to be closed, not essential goods like medicines or foods. and we're talking about car plants and the fashion industry. the landmarks essentially made in italy is now grind to go a temporary halt. now the government to stem the contagion has tightened the ban on the lockdown. he has banned residents from traveling from town to town. they are closing down parks,

closing down playgrounds, limiting outdoor activities all to stem the contagion that seems to have no end in sight. ayman. >> claudio, stay with us for a second. cal, give us a broader perspective across europe right now. we mentioned spain, germany, france all report something significant developments coming out of those countries. how has the rest of europe responded as they are watching italy and spain grapple with this? >> spain, germany and france have wide restriction owes people being able to go outside, people being able to go to work, schools being able to function, groups larger than ten, sometimes groups larger than two people in some of these countries are not allowed. here in the uk, however, we are frankly a prime minister who is trying to explain the situation as serious, but at the same time is urging people to work from home, is urging people not to go out in groups.

it was only yesterday when we saw pubs and restaurants closed, we saw schools closed here on friday. so you have what is a vigorous debate at the very least happening on television if not a lot of anger towards the government here, many believing they're not taking the situation seriously, that they need legal restrictions, that the government needs to step in and legally restrict people from being able to go outside and go out and about. the medical professionals here and experts in the uk will tell you we're probably about ten days behind where italy is. and the pictures coming out of the hospitals in italy and the picture that claudio is painting you is horrifying. the government is saying they want to shelter the elderly. they've activated the army to deliver food to the elderly here in the united kingdom. but, again, those restrictions just are not stringent right now. i think in the next 24 hours, it's likely that the uk will

fall into a more serious situation when it comes to people being able to get out and about. >> a lot of people have been looking at italy and saying that they're somewhere ahead of the curve. compared to the united states, obviously not ahead of the curve with the number of patients, but they're also wondering, this lockdown has almost been in place in italy for i want to say almost ten days if not closer to two weeks, but there's no indication that the lockdown is still working given that the numbers continue to climb or are they start to go climb down and we're just not getting that sense? >> well, we're now on day 13 of the lockdown so we are nearing the two weeks that doctors have said that we should wait for to see signs of effects of the lockdown. and we have seen finally at long last some signs on sunday that the contagion may be slowing down. i say may because the number of

those who test positive from coronavirus and dieing of coronavirus are still very high. sunday, it was 650 people who died from coronavirus and 400 who got infected. those numbers are high, but they are a lot fewer than the ones from the day before. and this is the first time it happens so there were 150 less people who died and a thousand less people who tested positive. now, is this the beginning of the downward spiral of the coronavirus outbreak here in italy? well, we'll have to wait for today and, of course, the next few days to see whether that trend continues. >> guys, thank you very much for that per expect i. back here at home, the senate failed at its first attempt to pass an economic rescue package. jay caruso joins us now. good to have you with us on this monday morning. give us a quick reality check where things stand on capitol

hill. >> well, apparently they're going to take another vote i guess around noon to try and get this bill through. the democrats are -- i'm going to be blunt here. i think they're acting a little bit unreasonably. i know there's certain things they want in the bill. they want more infrastructure spending, spept expansion on social security. they also want what they claim is more stringent controls of the money that the business community is going to get, but i don't know exact -- they haven't explained exactly what that is. i don't know how many of them have had time to read the bill to go into specifics, but there are certain things they can do down the road if they want to get more of these protections in place. but right now, if the immediate need is what everyone is talking about, this is not a partisan bill. i think it's imperative that they kind of get moving here and

if they want to get this relief out in the next few weeks, they're going to have to do this quickly. >> explain to us the process as it stands. some would think if the republicans have the majority of the senate, why can't they just get this passed if that is how simply it works? >> well, because this is legislation, not a judicial nominee. so they still have to overcome cloture, which is 60 votes that is required to move the bill to the floor for an actual vote. they didn't reach that threshold and now they have to kind of circle back and redo it. >> so let me move on to the number of coronavirus cases here in the u.s. more americans are obviously being asked to stay at home. could we see the federal government issue new guidelines? as i recall, the last one that we had from the coronavirus task

force was essentially the cdc saying no mother gatherings than ten people. >>. >> yeah. i don't know how much further you can go. i've never been to a gathering of two people which is what italy said. >> you would have to force two members of your family out of the picture. >> yeah. that would be it. if pets are included, i'm in trouble. i'll have to go out on the pado or something. i don't know. i think we're going to have to rely a little bit more on the states. for example, florida has been doing this, but at the same time, they're worried about the beaches. i think there's been a lot of pressure on the governor to sit and say, look, people aren't listening. it's time to see a statewide closure of the beaches. so it seems to be based on geography, we're going to stay indoors. in my neighborhood in arlington,

virginia, it was eerierl quiet when it's usually kind of crowded. vaunts are closing around here, here involuntarily, some are not. as we've seen, if we look at the numbers on march 13th compared to now, it's grown quite a bit. it's better to stay indoors if you don't have to go out. >> right. >> it seems like common sense, but then again, common sense sometimes doesn't apply. >> it seems also the white house is beginning to echo that sentiment. you hear more and more the language of federally supported, let the states deal with it, let the governments deal with it, but we're going to federally support you when we can. jay caruso live for us in washington, d.c., always a pleasure. thanks, jay. and still ahead, we are digging into new reporting that claims the justice department is seeking new emergency powers amid the coronavirus pandemic and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are voicing their

concerns. plus, what dr. anthony fauci is saying about the president's white house press briefings and what he's doing to keep trump's remarks fact-based. that is an uphill challenge. s fd that is an uphill challenge. 25% of your mouth. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

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the department of juftsz is seeking new emergency powers that would ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergency situations. the doj's report details the department's request to lawmakers on a series of topics ranging from statute of limitations to asylums to the way court hearings are conducted. their requests propose that congress grant attorney general william barr power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings in times of emergency. the requests are unlikely to make it through the democratic-led house. politico notes that the move has

tapped into a broader fear among civil liberty's advocates and some of president trump's critics that he would use for a moment of crisis to push for controversial policy changes. a department spokesperson declined to comment. danny, what do you makes of the justice department's request fo powers amid this crisis? >> anytime you delay the period of time in which a defendant is held in jail or in prison or detained or his actual trial, you run foul of potential constitutional consideration, including speedy trial. we have a constitutional right to a speedy trial once arrested and prosecuted and any delay

implicates that rule. you also have the situation where if somebody is being detained, it may seem like no big deal to push off a trial for six weeks or six months, but at the same time, that individual is sitting in a detainment facility awaiting their trial. that is not a pleasant place to spend a pandemic in a building full of people crowded together against their will. >> there is no doubt. .but is it likely that the department of justice will be given such powers inspect what are the implications for people facing trial during an emergency if suddenly we see congress grant the doj this power and

ultimately change the timeline of how this will get done? >> it is unlikely this will get done. we have democratic control of the house. so it's not likely the doj will push through this legislation. in a time of pandemic, it's possible, but it seems unlikely. it's not unprecedented because if you recall, president lincoln suspend habeas corpus. in times of emergency, the government prosecutors often try to suspend individual civil liberties and criminal -- mostly criminal rights because the reality is the rights of a criminal over somebody accused of a crime are inconvenient for the government. that is really what it comes down to. the problem is some of the rights that they're asking for may run afoud foul of an individual's constitutional rights. speedy trial has to be

safeguarded. >> is there any way they could grant the doj power with a limited time frame saying you can only do this for 60 days while we get this pandemic under control? >> if that is what they're asking for. so there may not be a lot of fight about extending a statute against some large corporation seeking to do a merger. so that is probably not going to be a problem. but it may just be the beginning. still ahead, the global death toll from the coronavirus is continue to go rise, but new york city is now the epicenter of that pandemic here in the united states. what the governor is saying about efforts to contain the spread, that's next. t forts to e spread, that's next. i know that every single

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new york's stay at home order went into affect last night. they are now reporting 16,887 cases of coronavirus. governor andrew cuomo says they should prepare to be in isolation for up to nine months. >> this is not a short-term situation. this is not a long weekend. this is not a week. the timeline, nobody can tell you. it depends on how we handle it. but 40%, up to 80% of the population will wind up getting this virus.

all we're trying to do is slow the spread. but it will spread. it is that contagious. again, that is nothing to panic over. >> as we have been trying to do every day, break down the numbers with bill karins. let's bring him in. he is joining us this morning from his home. bill, good to have you with us. always a pleasure to see you, my friend. let's talk a little bit about the numbers. they a they are continuing to rise. new york city with 4,000 new cases really making it almost half the population of patients in this country alone. >> yeah. and if you take the patients around southern connecticut, new jersey, southern new york, it is half of all the cases in the country. so let me show you that first on the graph. so we're going to wait and see. when are we going to flatten this thing out? you noticed at the top of the show, 35,000 cases. that's the number we're going to go past today. you can see the blue line still shooting up. so we haven't really flattened

it yet. it was still kind of closed. we have to go at least a week of getting lower numbers to say, okay, now we have flattened this curve. you can see how rapidly we've gone up. it took nine days to go up from 100 to 1,000. it took about eight days to go from 1,000 confirmed cases to 10,000 confirmed cases. so you get the general idea here. and unfortunately the death curve of fatalities in this country match these curve almost identically. so we're hoping this week we can flatten it and hopefully some of our social distancing will come into work. so that's the update on the curve. again, one day i'll sit here and tell you that it has gone down. we have some concerns in the northeast. we haven't had a lot of snowstorms. we have a storm that's going to be moving through. you're waking up to a little snow in areas of pennsylvania and new york. we've had thunderstorms overnight in areas of tennessee. as we go throughout the day today, a lot of people, you know, we're stuck inside. over the weekend, it was nice in

the northeast. people were able to go to the parks, today will be a rainy, cold day. areas of northern new england, it will get the snow. it's all gone by the time we get to tuesday. some people will be out there shoveling snow later tonight and tomorrow morning. mostly talking about areas of central new york, new hampshire and portions of southern maine. some of those areas could get 6 to 8 inches of snow. hartford down to new york city, may see a few snowflakes. the rest of country, summer like. ayman, thank you to you, all the floor people, the control room people, all the people that have to go into 30 rock. i feel fortunate that i can work from home, but it's very important what you guys are doing and we appreciate your sacrifice. >> bill, we appreciate that. stay safe, my friend. still ahead, senator rand paul tests positive for coronavirus and now other lawmakers on capitol hill are voicing their concerns. plus, president trump appears to

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welcome back, everyone. we begin this half hour with the vote to advance a nearly $1.8 trillion stimulus bill failing in the senate. republicans needed 60 votes and were unable to win over any

democrats meaning no aid will flow to the economy including checks for individuals, help for small businesses and bailouts for big corporations until a deal is reached. according to "the washington post," the major sticking point is a $500 billion pool of money for loans and loan guarantees which republicans want to create which some democrats are labelling a slush fund because the treasury department will have discretion on every who receives the money. it would send $1200 check toes many americans, bolster the unemployment insurance system and disburse a broad range of emergency funds to help reinforce hospitals and other areas. >> we had a high level of bipartisanship in five different working groups. over the last 48 hours. where members who were

participating were reaching agreement. and then all of a sudden, the democratic leader and the speaker of the house shows up and we're back to square one. so we're fiddling here, fiddling with the emotions of the american people, fiddling with the markets, fiddle, our health care. the american people expect us to act tomorrow. and i want everybody to fully understand. if we aren't able to act tomorrow, it will be because of our colleagues on the other side continue to go dicker when the country expects us to come together and address this problem. >> and democrats blocked mcconnell's attempt to set up a second vote, delaying the vote until after the senate comes into session at noon. meanwhile, house speaker nancy

pelosi signaled the house will move forward with its own bill which could set the two chambers on different tracks and delay any final agreement on a potential bill. republican rand paul is now becoming the first u.s. senator known to have tested positive for covid-19. the announcement came from his twitter account. he was feeling fine and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. the "new york times" reports paul had been informed that he was been in contact with two individuals who had tested positive for covid-19. the kentucky senator, instead, pressed on with his schedule which included voting on the senate floor and attending a gop luncheon. politico reports privately some senators are raising concerns over paul's diagnosis says he was seen at the senate gym

sunday morning swimming in the pool. senators mike lee and mitt romney is now self-quarantining after close contact with senator paul, but senator marco rubio who was seen dining with him on friday has not announced plans to do so yet. senator kristin cinema took issue with paul's decision tweeting in part, this, america, is absolutely responsible. you cannot be near other people while waiting for coronavirus test results. paul's chief of staff defend dollars his boss writing in part, we want to be clear, senator paul left the sneed senate immediately upon learning his diagnosis. insinuations that he went to the gym after learning of his results are completely false and irresponsible. well, president trump's press briefing yesterday started on notes of unity and strength, but quickly turned to him appearing to mock senator mitt romney's decision to self-isolate himself

and to him complaining that no one thanked him for giving up his presidential salary. >> for those of you who are feeling alone and isolated, i want you to know that we are all joined together as one people. eternally linked by our shared national spirit. we love our country. a spirit of courage and love and patriotism. no american is alone as long as we are united and we are united. we're very united. people are saying things now that three weeks ago, they didn't talk that way. for those worries and afraid, please know as long as i am your president, you can feel confident that you have a leader who will always fight for you and i will not stop until we win. >> on top of senator paul now

four senators are in isolation and the rules say that in order to vote they have -- >> who are they? >> romney, senator lee, senator gardner and senator rick scott. >> two of them -- >> rick is coming out. >> with the critical stimulus vote expected -- >> romney is in isolation? >> yes. >> gee, that's too bad. go ahead. >> detect sarcasm there, sir? >> no, none whatsoever. >> i committed publicly that i wouldn't take the full $150,000 salary. it's a lot on of money. whether you're rich or not, it's a lot of money. and i did it and nobody cared. nobody -- nobody said thank you. nobody said thank you very much. now, i didn't commit legally. i just said i don't want it. i don't want my salary. i work for zero. nobody said, oh, thank you vemp. but i guarantee you if i ever took it, you would go out after me, you in particular would go out after me like crazy. >> all right. joining us now managing editor of the washington examiner

magazine jay caruso. jay, i can see it's hard for you to take that seriously when you're listening to the president in a moment of national crisis asking for praise for not taking his salary and taking a shot at a senator who potentially could have coronavirus. so with the senate fail to go pass the stimulus package, let's talk about something more serious. how does this affect the timeline now lawmakers pushing for an aid package to americans who desperately need it today? >> that's the whole thing. it's going to take a little extra time. it could take another couple of days. and at a time when people are -- mass layoffs are starting, people are going to start running into points where they've got bills that they have to pay, they have rent that they have to pay, mortgages, that kind of thing. the faster, the better. look, at times like this, people are always going to complain about the details. but you know what? when you have a national emergency like this, and i said i've never seen anything like that and i'm nearly 50 years old. i've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.

so when you have a situation like this, a kind of one in a lifetime thing that happens, just go ahead and get something done. worry about the details later. there's always going to be time to fight and squabble and get into political arguments, but you know, the thing is, people need help and so they don't have a lot of time to sit around waiting for politicians to sit there and come over -- overcome their political differences. >> so do you get a sense from this political gridlock that you're seeing in washington affect the ability to actually fight the pandemic itself? >> well, the thing that's interesting is i wrote in our issue this week covers coronavirus extensively. and the one thing that i wrote was that it's ridiculous that partisan politics cannot -- isn't getting pushed aside because of this. and i said it's an enemy that doesn't have an ideology. so it doesn't care how much money you have. it doesn't care what political party you are. it's going to attack and that's where it's the kind of situation

where, okay, at least for the time being, let's say a week, let's put the politics aside, let's get an aid bill out there and then we can go back to arguing over details and coming back and saying we need to make changes here, we need to make changes there, but get something done right away. >> jay caruso, always a pleasure. stay safe. stay healthy, my friend. can still ahead, dr. anthony fauci has appeared as a voice of truth for americans. what the health expert is saying about his public pushback against president trump's many misleading claims, next. t presiy misleading claims, next.

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with a relaxing commute. a nice long lunch. and how about those skyscrapers? run with us on a john deere gator. nothing runs like a deere. yesterday there were questions with the malaria drug. >> are you going to use the drug that someone says from an

anecdotal standpoint not completely proven by must have some effect? there are those who lean to the point of giving hope and saying give that person the option of having access to that drug. and then you have the other group, which is my job as a scientist to say my job is to ultimately prove, without a doubt, that a drug is not only safe, but that it actually works. >> so that was dr. anthony fauci, the head of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. dr. fauci gave a pair of interviews this weekend which were he dressed the pushback about false claims of president trump about the pandemic. fauci told science magazine, quote, i told the people it

doesn't comport because two or three months earlier would have been september. the next time they sit down with him and talk about what he is going to say, they will say, mr. president, don't say that. but i can't jump in front of the microphone and push him down. okay. he said it. let's try and get it corrected for the next time. and in an new york with the "new york times," fauci said, quote, i have been telling the president things he doesn't want to hear. i have had to say something different than what he states. it's a risky business, but that's my style. i say it the way it is and if he's going to get pissed off, he's going to get pised off. thankfully, he isn't. i don't want to intars him. i don't want to act like a tough guy like i stood up to the president. i just want to get the facts out. and instead of saying you're wrong, all you have to do is continually talk about what the data are and what the evidence is. and he gets that. he's a smart guy.

he's not a dummy. so he doesn't take it -- up to now, he doesn't take it in any way that i'm confronting him in any way. he takes it in a good way. let's switch gears and bring in our colleague bill carin wes a quick look at the number and the charts. bill. >> obviously, we talked about the cases before. it's a little subjective. let me show you the chart that is the important one. the one that puts the pit in your stomach. this is the fatality curve as we go throughout the total deaths. it took about two weeks to get up to a hundred and we have quickly in the last five days went from 100 fatalities in our country to 441. and you can see how steeply that curve is rising. it won't be until that curve flattens and eventually goes down, that's when we will finally start to see maybe we're

getting on top of this thing. let me show you the new cases you have over the weekend. new cases on sunday, 6,508. the area of red is the northeast. that's where a majority of cases still are. but we've seen an increase over the weekend, significantly in the midwest, also. this is the calendar that we've been showing you as far as cases by date, you noticed that three weeks ago today, we were only at 100 cases. today by the time it's over with, we will be close to about 4,000 cases. let's transition here and get you your forecast because, obviously, we're going to have some weather concerns as we go throughout this pandemic. areas of the northeast today, a heavy rain moving in during the day. we will see cold enough conditions in interior new england and some mountainous

areas, the berkshires, back up through southern new hampshire and maine, you'll be shoveling snow. obviously, the east coast has that storm today. a new storm coming into the west on monday. another rain event on wednesday. so if you don't want the bad weather, you know, cold and rainy and you can't get outside as much, you feel more isolated in your home. from the northeast, there's a rainy monday and a rainy wednesday. by the end of the week, things start to improve in the southeast. and i think it's important, you know, we're still in the epicenter. my county has the most cases in all of new jersey. this weekend, our hospital sent a letter to all the residents in town to donate as many masks as they can. one of my er friends that was in the icu this weekend, he said it's a war zone. >> bill, stay safe, stay healthy, and even those in the community trying to help. still ahead, new reporting

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all right. president trump and other lawmakers downplayed the threat of the coronavirus for weeks, but new reporting reveals he and his aides received u.s. intelligence information that outbreak could, in fact, turn into a pandemic as early as january according to the "washington post." the intelligence report did not specify when the virus would come to america or give particular steps on how to tackle it. but it did track the spread in china as well as in other countries and warned chinese officials appeared to be downplaying the threat. president trump, however, seemed to trust in his relationship with xi jinping, whom trump believed was providing him with reliable information about how the virus was spreading in china, despite reports from intelligence agencies that chinese officials were not being candid about the true scale of the crisis.

white house deputy press secretary responded to the report telling the "post" it's more than disgusting, despicable and disgraceful for unnamed sources to attempt to rewrite history. it's a clear threat to this country. up next, looking at axios' one big thing. coming up with the number of cases jumping to 35,000 over the weekend, current medical supplies and stalleder inations in the senate, the response efforts is being left to local and state officials. reaction from two members of the house, congresswoman haley stevens and debbie mucarsel-powell joining "morning joe" in just a moment. g "morning joe" in just a moment. w do you ? aveeno® with prebiotic oat. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this. and you feel like this. aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin healthy™ i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues.

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...do your sneezes turn heads? try zyrtec... ...it starts working hard at hour one... and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. zyrtec muddle no more. axios. is joining us now from washington, d.c., with a look at axios am initial politico reporter jonathan swine. good to have you with us on this monday morning. what is the one big thing for us? >> it's the axios on hbo entire with china's ambassador to the

united states. this is a rare extended interview with china's top government official in the u.s. lots of very difficult questions for him to answer about cover-up of the initial outbreak of the virus in wuhan and the three critical weeks where this was allowed to spread where chinese officials were hauling in some of the whistleblower doctors and forcing them to retract their statement, censoring public health information on social media and putting out false information to the public. we covered a lot of ground in that interview and he made quite a bit of news. >> quite remarkable. let me ask you this, though, china's ambassador apparently defended the country's decision to expel u.s. journalists. let's watch a clip and get your reaction to it. >> okay. >> "the wall street journal" ran an article with very insulting language on the entire chinese nation. that caused a lot of anger among the chinese people, so the government had to respond.

>> so jonathan, go ahead. >> well, it was kind of revealing because the next question i asked, you might disagree with something that's written is that a reason to expel journalists and he said, well, the question might be should they have written the article in the first place. so they're not really pretending to care about free speech. this is a strong pivot from the chinese government, expelling journalists from "the new york times." it's a signal of the new direction in which the government is heading. >> do we have any idea about the administration's positions right now towards china in terms of how they're dealing with them? the president suggested earlier or the report suggested that the president really trusts president xi of china to give him the truth about this. >> yeah.

that's not true. i mean the relationship is probably as bad as it's been throughout the three years of the trump presidency. there's a huge information warfare campaign going on between the two sides. china is putting out a lie, frankly, that the virus originated in the u.s. military lab and the u.s. are trying to really pin this on china, calling it the chinese virus. >> jonathan swan, thank you very much. we will be reading axios am in just a bit. that does it for us on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. if i win, it's going to cost me a lot of money. it costs billions of dollars to become president. when i ran i said it's going to cost me a fortune. look at my legal costs. i think it's hard for rich people to run for office. there are a lot of rich people around, got a lot of rich friends. cost me billions of dollars to be president, especially with all the m