it has been another dark week in the history of the country. over 300,000 confirmed cases of covid-19 and more than 8,000 deaths. and the numbers keep climbing. president trump still seems unwilling to fully embrace the warnings from his two top health experts. and states are meanwhile fighting each other for basic supplies. this has left much of the public confused. but tonight there are growing concerns that black and brown communities who tend to be in the higher populated areas have higher rates of certain health risk factors such as diabetes, who traditionally have lower incomes and higher rates of uninsured people, those communities will be harder hit when this is all said and done. but before we get started, let

me say this, i'm using this platform to call all houses of faith to keep all services online during holy week starting with today's palm sunday, through passover, and up to and including easter sunday, next week, then ramadan later in the month. churches, mosques, synagogues have been holding virtual or even drive-through services for weeks now in the face of this pandemic, with so many options why ask your parishioners to put their lives in danger by gathering in person? for example, not far from here, today mass at st. patrick's cathedral in new york was streamed online in keeping with safety guidelines. and even pope francis was able to still celebrate mass minus the tens of thousands who have joined him at the vatican in the

past years. so keep praying, but do it from home. joining me on the phone now is the governor of new york, andrew cuomo. welcome, mr. governor. >> good to be with you, reverend. thank you for your words. thank you for your leadership. >> thank you. let me say this, you and i have known each other, worked over 30 years. you have always been a straight shooter, whether we agreed or not on any given subject, we always were straight with each other. i never found anyone more straightforward than you. where are we in this pandemic? are we anywhere near the flattening of the curve? you said that new york is an example of the rest of the country. the country has come to know and trust your word. where are we at this hour, governor cuomo? >> well, thank you. thank you for your kind words, and right back to you. you're right. we haven't always agreed, but we always have been 100% straight. i think the dialogue has always been helpful. the short answer is, reverend, nobody knows.

the -- we've been tracking the numbers every day, today for the first day we had a drop. we have to wait for tomorrow's numbers, but the optimistic view is that we're starting to see a turn in the curve, and then the turn in the curve can either be a plateau, where you have a high rate and you bounce up and down but basically at about the same level and then start to drop, or it could just be a precipitous drop down which would be most beneficial. >> now, where are we in terms of the ventilators? i know you've been asking for equipment, you have been asking for ventilators. the president said he sent to new york, he sent to other place, and the governors are playing politics. where are we with the health equipment that we need? this is not about politics, this is life and death. where are we, governor cuomo? >> look, we don't have it. we don't have the supplies we need. what we're doing, reverend, which we have never done before, we have about 100 hospitals in

downstate new york plus or minus, and literally on a daily basis we share supplies and staff among the hospitals who has masks, but doesn't have gowns. who has gowns but doesn't have chemical agents to do testing. and we literally on a day-to-day basis go back and share material because we just don't have it. ventilators, which nobody could really have predicted this situation that you would need thousands of ventilators, we only have 4,000 ventilators in this state when we started. this disease goes at the lungs and you need a ventilator for those who need to be intubated otherwise you can't be of help to them. every state was left on its own basically. the federal stockpile can't meet the need, and it has been chaotic. there's no one who will doubt

that. but, you know, at one point, you have what you have, and you have to do with what you have. the old expression, you don't go to war with what you want, you go to war with what you have. we're doing new york smart and new york tough and we're sharing. >> now, what are you saying to governors and others around the country -- you gave that warning, today it's new york, it will be you next. what are you telling them they should be aware of and how they can get ahead of the curve that you didn't have the benefit of? >> well, we are the first ones in, right? and we're at a much higher intensity level than anyone else. your point earlier was very right. this is a function of density more urban areas, more dense communities, it communicates faster. but we are writing a playbook, if you can, we're going through all the lessons we learned. so we can share it with other states. and more importantly, what i'm saying to my governor colleagues

around the nation, the federal government can't help you here if they wanted to, we have to help each other. there will be a different time when it gets more intense in different parts of the country. as soon as new york gets through this, rev, we'll help every other community and not just with lessons and learning, but we'll send our people, we'll send our equipment to help any other community that we can. >> lastly, there has been a sense of unity where people that maybe have not worked together before are trying to work together that i've seen around new york and a lot of that spirit i would give you credit for trying to set that tone. and even president trump and you have talked often, he's even returned my phone call, though i will not say that i've stopped raising serious questions about him. in the spirit of unity, what appeal have you made to new yorkers that has resonated so

that so far we have seen new yorkers and hopefully it can be duplicated, understanding we're all in this together. >> reverend, a little context. remember, there's been no governor in this nation that's been more critical of the president than i have been, and the president has not attacked any governor in this nation more than he's attacked me. >> oh, you watched his briefing yesterday, i see. go ahead. >> it's not that it stopped, but it is toned down. what i said to the president is we have to put the politics aside here. we disagree on a lot of issues, we agree on one thing, we have to work together to save lives. and if he helps new york, i'll be the first to say it. and if he's not doing his part on new york, i'll be the first to say it. to new yorkers i say you look at those nurses and those doctors and those emergency rooms and they are the heroes of today. the way the nypd and fdny ran

into those burning towers on 9/11, these nurses and doctors who are walking into these emergency rooms every morning, they are staring death in the face and they keep going and new yorkers have to do their part. this social distancing, the masks, staying at home is the least that we can do. and new yorkers rise to the occasion and they understand our social obligation one to the other. i think they're responding. >> so we can say that we do not know if we flattened the curve until we see the numbers tomorrow, and we still don't have all of the equipment that we need. >> for sure. we need tomorrow's numbers, and then the next day. some people say maybe it's a one-day bounce, maybe it was saturday reporting. there's all different theories. we need to see the numbers. >> all right. thank you for calling in. i appreciate it. new york governor andrew cuomo. >> thanks. now we want to talk about the dire situation in the black community and underserved

communities around the country. joining me now is congressman jim clyburn, democrat of south carolina. he is the majority whip. earlier this week he was appointed by speaker nancy pelosi to be the chair of the house select committee on the coronavirus crisis. thank you for coming on. let me ask you, in your capacity now in heading this bipartisan committee to move towards a second stimulus, we're hearing from many about different views on how this first stimulus package is rolling out in terms of reaching people and in terms of small businesses and many businesses in our areas. you have been able to assess the rollout thus far, though the small sba part started friday, have you been able to make early assessment on how this is going? >> first of all, reverend, thank you very much for having me. yes, we have.

it's very disappointing. the small business rollout so far is not measuring up to expectati expectations. i'm very hopeful that we can correct some of these things in the next several days. the administration has some real challenges on its hand and hopefully we can get this done. many small businesses if we're not careful will never be able to come back from this crisis. we want to make sure that does not happen. we also have some challenges with the faith community. i'm pleased to report tonight, just received notice several hours ago, that the requests that we made, bipartisan requests from congressman johnson and senator richmond and yours truly in the minority w p whip, we sent a letter to the

irs requesting some clarification on how they will deal with churches and charities. we have a very positive response. i think that the churches and the charities will be satisfied when they go about their businesses tomorrow. so the challenges are there. we are trying to do what we can to meet those challenges. so far it's going pretty good except for small businesses. i think we cleared up the issue revolving around social security beneficiaries. i think that they have gotten their situation cleared up. they don't have to file the income tax forms that they were first told they would need to file. >> so social security recipients do not have to file income tax in order to get their $1,200?

>> my understanding is they decided they won't have to do that. now there are those who may not have ever filed and that would be a problem getting a social security number so we can get it out to them, but if you ever filed, last year, year before, your numbers are on there in the system, and they will be getting checks directly to you. >> i want to commend you and others on fighting to get the churches and non-profits covered by this sba part. i know senator chuck schumer also was helping to champion that and has been in touch with us. they do other than faith , they do community service. >> absolutely. >> early data shows black americans have contracted and died of coronavirus at an alarming rate this is from propublica. as of friday morning, african-americans made up almost

half of milwaukee's 945 cases, and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is only 26% black. in michigan, where the state's population is 14% black, african-americans made up 35% of the cases and 40% of the deaths as of friday morning. they imbalance is quite troubling, congressman. >> yes, it is. that's what i was talking about last week or the week before when i said that this crisis is an opportunity for us to restructure our health care system, restructure our educational system so that they can reach those people in low-income communities, in rural communities, and that is what i was talking about. i don't know how anybody can look out and see that here we are with children out of school and there are some indications

this virus may recycle in the fall, which means our kids will lose a second year of school. they need to get broadband into these communities. in order to do that we have to restructure things in order for broadband to be accessible and affordable in rural communities and in low-income communities. chuck schumer said to me on one occasion that 25% of the school children in new york city are without broadband. we have to make broadband accessible. we have to make it affordable. that's the only way we will be able to educate our children, especially in a time of crisis like this one. and medicare has not been expanded in a lot of states. 14 states. south carolina is one of them. we have to have telehealth or telemedicine, if you prefer, in these communities. you can't do that without

broadband. you can't get broadband without restructuring the way we are doing things. so i don't know why anybody would want to weaponize that comment. i stand by that comment, i think it's an accurate one. >> now, you are chairing the bipartisan committee moving towards a second stimulus effort by the house. what do you hope to correct and expand upon as you work with your colleagues towards a second effort here? >> well, i have to say kudos to speaker pelosi. when she saw that the president was sort of tipping his hands on how he was going to deal with the oversight that was built into the legislation, she decided to look back on history a little bit. if you fail to learn the lessons of history, you are bound to repeat them. back in 1941, harry truman, then a junior senator from missouri,

look at what happened after world war i and saw 116 communities were formed and trying to look at how the country could correct some of the problems from world war i. he decided to go before the senate and ask the senate to set up a single committee to be proactive, to act before the fact, so that we won't have price gouging, we won't have fly by night organizations setting up to do business when they are not prepared or qualified to do business. so we won't have profiteering. a bunch of fraud. any time you get this much money floating around, there's going to be profiteering, there's going to be fraud, there's going to be price gouging, that's what this committee is all about. it's going to be a cares 2. there will be more money going

out to people and corporations. we need to make sure there's no fraud, no profiteering and no price gouging. that's what this community will be about. >> all right. i'll leave it there. thank you very much for being with us, house majority whip jim clyburn. thank you again for being with us. >> thank you very much for having me. >> joining me now is the democratic senator from minnesota, amy klobuchar. thank you for being with me. >> thank you, reverend. >> let me start personally, you and i have gotten to know each other in the last few months, i got to know your husband. we sat near each other at all the debates as he was there at ringside cheering you on. we understand that he suffered from a coronavirus attack and that he is -- i believe has gone home now. give us an update on where he is and how this impacted you personally. a lot of people watching need to understand you are not just

talking as a political leader, you're talking as one who your loved one, your husband was a victim of this virus. >> exactly. and first of all what a great group you had on the show, and torepresentative clyburn, i did want to address the double standard when it comes to people without money and the minority community. my husband's story is not unlike a lot of stories. started out with cold symptoms. he eventually started coughing up blood. goes to the hospital. we don't find out the results of the test for five, six days. then he's hospitalized for low oxygen, and he spends five to six days there, and his oxygen levels were incredibly low. he finally turned it around. he's home. i'm happy to report he's doing well. and ate some spaghetti today. and is in good spirits. but one of the hardest things we

experienced that everyone is experiencing including those losing loved ones, you can't be by their side, you can't hold their hand. you can't hug the health care workers that are taking care of them. that's for good reason, but that's what i would tell anyone who goes through this experience where someone is isolated or ends up in the hospital to understand those rules are there for good reason. >> now, as we look at the stimulus bill and it is starting to roll out, you heard congressman clyburn, those of us in the civil rights community are concerned about whether everyone gets their due and that big corporations don't swallow this up and misuse it at the expense of small businesses and every-day people. you've been making sure that promises made are promises kept. how do you feel about the rollout so far and what you are looking for as you monitor

what's going forward? >> my first concern is on unemployment and that we added that $600 per week for so many people. that's going to be state by state. the second one is the small businesses, as the congressman just pointed out, we have to make sure this goes to small businesses that don't maybe have an existing relationship with a huge bank. the huge banks will probably get their money out, but we have to find a way to get to it especially for minority-owned businesses or we will exacerbate what is already a problem with income inequality in this country. the third thing i'm concerned about, and this may be in the next package, of course, is just our democracy itself. >> right. >> we need more funding for mail-in voting, for keeping -- >> tell me about that. i know here that you and -- i believe congressman wider have proposed a bill. tell me about that. there's real concerns, primaries

are still going forward. and are we afraid of if there's a second wave of this, what happens with the november election. you talk about this mail-in vote becomes very, very important. >> it does. and what we want to do is get much more funds out and speaker pelosi supports us on this, as do republican and democratic secretary of states throughout the country. so they can ramp up. all of them have some kind of mail-in balloting. let's make it easier. let's get the postage out there, especially for people who wouldn't automatically have a stamp in their drawer. there's all kinds of things we can do to expand that, including having the polls open 20 days ahead across the country so people don't congregate. what's happening now in wisconsin is a travesty. the democratic governor tried to postpone it, the republican legislature won't. i think you may know why. it's because of a very important wisconsin supreme court race, where a very conservative incumbent is on the ballot, that

seems to be motivating the republicans in wisconsin to put that election in front of the safety of voters. right now to give you a sense for african-american voters, there used to be over 100 polls that would be open in milwaukee. >> that's right. >> there's going to be, as far as we know, only five. >> right. >> used to be 100. now they're talking about five. and that primary is tuesday. >> it's tuesday. so here's what we did get done. the democratic party extended the mail-in balloting for a week. hopefully people can still try to get those ballots. and it's a travesty. we don't want this to happen in november. it has happened for good reasons in other states, republican and democratic governors postponed their elections. we can't have that happen in november. in this is completely in our power. we don't have to set up a new system. that's why we're fighting in the next package to make sure there's funding, despite what

the president has said -- you know what the president did? he requested an absentee ballot from florida, from palm beach. >> wow. >> now he's saying he thinks it's some kind of unnecessary thing, a rigged game to have mail-in balloting. i would look to republican secretary of states throughout the country that want this. and we have to get that funding in it. >> all right, minnesota senator amy klobuchar, give me regards to your husband. >> i will. thank you, reverend. >> thank you for being with us. joining me now is democratic congressman val demmings of florida, member of the house homeland security committee. congresswoman, let me start with what i talked to both congressmen clyburn and senator klobuchar sure about, that's the roll out of the stimulus money and how the areas or the districts that are african-american and other underserved communities are the

ones that are going to suffer disproportion naturall disproportionately in those communities. your response and concerns about them? >> reverend sharpton, look, i share whip clyburn's concern as it pertains to access, as it pertains to broadband. a lot of times the people in our community just don't have access. it's been a nightmare. i had a tele-town hall a couple nights ago. we had over 7500 people on the call. and many of the complaints involved trying to apply for the benefits that are available. we heard many people in our communities don't have relationships with big banks. they have taken their life's savings to put into their small businesses, their mom and pop businesses, and so i see my job and other members of congress job to make sure we develop processes for people who have

access -- or have access challenges to be able to apply for the benefits just like everyone else. and we're going to do everything here to make sure that we are able to put the two together. >> in your homestate of florida, your governor has been very slow on trying to deal with stay-at-home and was widely criticized for that. i will talk to the mayor of miami shortly. but in terms of where we are seeing different parts of the country, do you think that the president ought to set a national stay-at-home mandate around the country? >> if we look at the data, a lot of times it's hard to convince some people of the facts. the facts are stubborn things. if you look at the data, there's no doubt in my mind that we do need a national stay-at-home

order. on march 1st the florida surgeon general declared a public health emergecy. our governor waited 30 days before issuing a stay-at-home order. i'm sure you know even that order has called -- he issued two orders in a short period of time. even those orders have created confusion and chaos because they basically contradict themselves. we do need a national order as it pertains to stay at home. we seen in those states that took proactive steps in the beginning the numbers have already started to -- or the curve has started to flatten. we've seen positive results from that stay-at-home order. florida's nowhere near seeking that as of yet. so we're not expected to peak until the 1st of may. so it is critical that we have

national direction. especially for governors who just can't seem to make the tough decisions for themselves. >> i have to ask you this quickly. i'm out of time. yesterday in the president's briefing he was asked about his firing friday night of michael atkinson, the inspector general who handed over two congress the whistle-blower's report. he attacked the whistle-blower, he attacked atkinson and he attacked again the whole house impeachment process. you were part of the house team that prosecuted it in front of the senate. do you have any response that in the middle of this pandemic the president would just elaborate and go out of his way to attack all of you? >> in the absence of leadership good things don't happen fast enough, and bad things continue to happen. michael atkinson was doing his job. he was defined by director mcgwire as a valued and trusted employee. but michael atkinson has run into the same problem as many

other decent, honest people of integrity who are trusted and valued employees run into this administration, this administration does not want them. while the president -- we're in the middle of a pandemic, while he wants to continue to be the distracter in chief on matters that are not anywhere near as critical as this pandemic that we're facing, others will have to step up as we all have seen and lead the way to make sure that we do what the president's primary responsibility is, and that is to protect the american people. >> all right. florida congresswoman val demings. thank you for being with us again. let's bring in michael steele, the former chair of the republican national committee and an msnbc political analyst and christina grier is an associate professor of political science at fordham university and the host of the podcast

faqnyc. let me go to you first, chairman steele. the president has in many ways tried to come off in the last several days at the beginning of his briefings in a unifying way. and then he just seems at some point to go back into his attack mode and name calling. i mean, it's just like those of us that have wrestled with him, followed him for years, he seemingly just cannot help it. and seemingly no republicans will stand up and say wait a minute, the country is in the middle of an emergency. people are dying. and for him to do what he's doing, i'll give you an example. he started -- i think i have this -- he started early commending joe biden for agreeing with him about the chinese not being able to come in. then later in the press conference he implied that joe

biden, if he was watching the press conference, wouldn't understand what he was saying, which is almost implying that he wasn't in charge of his facilities. why are republicans not standing up talking about how inappropriate this is given the emergency situation we're facing? people are dying every day here. >> al, reverend al, i can't speak to that issue anymore. largely because i think we all know the answer. there is no space allowed for th that. whether it was going back to the mueller investigation, the impeachment trial, the good people on both sides or baltimore city where you and i were together on behalf of baltimore, pushing back against the narrative by ourselves because there was no other voices, at least from my side, to speak to that. i think the expectation is largely to keep quiet, keep your head down low, this is perfect,

they won't be in banks of microphones having to address those issues that have clearly arisen during the course of these press briefings by the president. so they largely will remain silent. it's unfortunate because the country right now needs concerted, consolidated, focused disciplined leadership to get us through this. and for me, reverend, the epitome of all this was fashioned in the last briefing where the president was defending his son-in-law, mr. kushner, on the question of the use of the word "our" in reference to the stockpile, the federal government stockpile, which stockpiles are very important things we need in this country on behalf of the states. so the "our" is the states, it's not the o"our" is the federal

government. so speaking to the broader health issues, and the broader health narrative, i don't expect at this point you'll have anyone come out that will have a counter narrative to the president. >> professor grier, you heard us discussing how this will have disproportionate impact on the black communities and communities of color given the pre-existing health conditions that we disproportionately suffer from given the density in our communities. how do you as an academic think that we should pressure to make sure that since there is unequal impact that that be considered as we deal with remedying these health concerns as well as these concerns in terms of distribution of stimulus money, particularly in small businesses in our community that don't use usual banking institutions that others may do. >> we've been at a deficit with

this particular president and his administration from day one, this is an administration that doesn't believe in science. this is an administration that has facts, they refuse to read them or process them properly. the president's son tweeted when we were talking about environmental racism, which is a very long academic history of people writing about the systemic and institutional factors that have disproportion naturally affected cities, suburbs and rural towns across the nation for decades and for generations. and the president's son said now the air is racist. yes, the air can be racist. we know about the disproportionate rates of asthma, diabetes, we know these communities are disproportion e disproportionately affected by covid-19 in detroit, milwaukee. we see people like elizabeth warren pushing for racialized

numbers because we know this and trump administration has a specific world view as to who is worthy of actually getting their attention and getting their funds. we know banking has disproportionately affected black communities because we've been red lined and pushed out of financial sectors. so this is of great concern when we're doling out the $1,200 there will be many communities who don't even see this money until sometime in april -- august or september where rent is already due. april 1st has passed. a lot of economies are in the gi economy, freelancers, they don't have salary jobs. these are people working right now, they are the ones picking up the trash and cleaning buildings and working at restaurants and driving our buses, and sustaining -- >> at great -- i might add at great risk. they are doing it because they have to at grace risk. i have to leave it there. we're out of time.

we'll keep this issue out there. a lot of the media is not dealing with the difference in who will bear the brunt of this. we will on this show. michael steele and christina grier, thank you both for being with us. >> thank you. coming up, florida became one of the last states to implement a stay-at-home order for its residents. my conversation with miami mayor francis suarez is ahead. at 10:00 tonight we take you into the red zone. inside italy and one city hit extremely hard by the coronavirus pandemic. those on the front lines of the fight there have a warning for us here. watch our special report "coronavirus into the red zone" tonight at 10:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. i recently spoke to a group of students about being a scientist at 3m. about that one 'a-ha' moment.

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on friday, florida's republican governor, ron desantis, became one of the last governors to institute a statewide stay-at-home order. desantis had been criticized over photos like this one a week ago, closer to the camera is an empty stretch of beach in a county with a stay-at-home order. but crowds gathered just over the county line where no order was in place. joining me now is florida --

from florida is the mayor of miami, francis suarez. he had been quarantined for 18 days with the coronavirus, but this past week was reunited with his family. welcome, first, mr. mayor. >> thank you. it's an honor and pleasure to be with you. >> can you share with us what you went through before i ask you about the policy issues, what you went through and what can you say to people around the country about the seriousness of this? i still see people that i don't think grab the gravity of what we are dealing with here. >> yeah. what we're dealing with is a silent killer. we're dealing with two very, very different effects of this coronavirus. you can either be asymptomatic like i was, in which case there is an enormous danger that you can be someone who propagates the virus to other people

without knowing about it, that's why social distancing is important, contact tracing is important, or you can be a category of people who are severely impacted, hospitalized, ventilated, and so many who are -- who we're losing these days. the 18 days were difficult, being away from my family. i was fortunate that i was fairly asymptomatic, didn't have major symptoms. as soon as i exited quarantine after being reunited with my family and taking two negative tests, the first thing i did was donate plasma. that plasma has already been transfused into a critically -- a critical patient in critical condition and is showing signs of recovery. i'm hopeful that if that patient fully recovers this is something that former covid-19 positive people can do to help those in need. >> now, how do you react to your governor being so seemingly

reluctant to order a stay at home as other governors have around the country? he allowed it to go forward during spring break. we saw thousands of youngsters down in florida. you're the mayor of a city that's a tourist town and took a different position. how do you react to this? >> i'm glad that he came along and did it. i think that -- we were the first city -- actually the second city in dade county to put a stay-at-home order. the first city to put a curfew. probably one of the first cities in america to cancel large events. we canceled ultra, which is a music festival with 150,000 people from 105 different countries, and another which would have been about 250,000 people. some of those images that we saw in the beaches of miami are not forgivable. unfortunately i don't have the jurisdiction over the beaches in the miami area, but one of the things i saw that was compelling was i saw a graph where they traced cell phones from a very small section of fort lauderdale

for a two-week period for spring breakers, they showed where those spring breakers went over the following couple weeks. you could see those cell fons th phones that were anonymously tracked go throughout the country. it's incredible what a policy decision -- the impact it can have. >> all right. wow. we're out of time, thank you so much for being with us. miami mayor francis suarez. thank you again. >> thank you. coming up in one moment, as the coronavirus outbreak threatens the well-being of millions of americans, my next two guests are fighting back with acts of kindness. first, here's a news update with richard lui. >> all right. some stories we're watching this hour for you as we track the latest on the coronavirus across the globe. developing in britain, british prime minister boris johnson has been admitted to the hospital 11 days after testing positive for covid-19. a statement from his office says

it was done as a precaution because his symptoms are not improving. a rare televised address from queen elizabeth, the second this evening from windsor castle. the queen thanked front line health care professionals and called on britons to practice self-discipline. so far there are more than 47,000 confirmed cases in the country, and more than 4,900 deaths in the uk. back here in the u.s., in new york city, the epicenter of the virus, the state's case load is hitting near 125,000 and nearly 4,200 deaths. new york governor andrew cuomo pointed out today that the number of deaths over the last 24 hours has ticked down slightly. nationwide doctors are dealing with 322,000 cases, 9,000 people have died. that's nearly 1,500 in the last day. the federal government is working with state officials to get much-needed ventilators to some of the hardest hit areas.

for now, back to "politics nation" with reverend al tharptothar sharpton. >> even as coronavirus ravages the u.s. economy, thankfully most of us are still able to take those most basic of human staples for granted. but millions of americans have found themselves desperate if not destitute almost overnight. now wondering how they're going to feed and house themselves. their children, their parents. and my next guests have devoted themselves to helping the newly vulnerable secure those two basic human needs, food and shelter. joining me now is nate mook, ceo of non-profit organization world central kitchen. and frederick joseph, founder and executive director of we have stories and creator of the coronavirus rent relief fund. let me go to you first, i want

to go to you because, mr. mook, we worked with national action network and other organizations partnered with you around the country. we're in several cities. as you have given out this pre-packaged food and i've been on the line in harlem at our headquarters with it, i know we're doing it in other cities as partnerships, i know how your people make everyone stay six feet away from each other, make sure we're all having on gloves, the face masks, it's done with all the precautions, but it is amazing the amount of people -- we're talking about thousands of people that come to headquarters every day to get these prepackaged foods. give people around the country of a sense of how necessary this is. this is not just some giveaway stuff. this is needed. >> you're absolutely right, reverend. this is -- we are, in addition

to this being a health crisis, an economic crisis. this is a humanitarian crisis right now in our country. we have millions of people out of work. businesses are closed. existing school services that are instituted to support our most vulnerable communities are not functioning as they need to be. and so we have hundreds of thousands if not millions of people across this country that are food insecure right now, that don't have access to food to get through the day. schools have been doing a pretty good job of getting breakfast and lunch to students, but that doesn't cover everyone. doesn't cover our seniors who are stuck at home. doesn't cover our communities that don't have access to a lot of food on a regular basis. so, you know, it's critical now that we, as world central kitchen, continue to grow and scale up and meet the need across the country, especially in new york city with what's

happening there now. >> now, frederick, you also likewise are dealing with people that are almost destitute in terms of how they deal with housing. explain exactly what you do and the need for it. >> yes. so what we saw was that right now there are many organizations, many government stimulus bills being created but there's an immediate need, a dire need for people to have cash on hand right now. the people who have lost their jobs in the last few weeks, the people who have no access to simple things such as groceries for many of us, right? so we created a fund where instead of people having to apply with long forms online and things like that, we're actually using twitter and instagram to get $200 micro grants to people for sharing their stories and their need.

we're making those payments via cash app, paypal and zell so people have money instantly as opposed to waiting three weeks from now for unemployment benefits so on and so forth when the lights are about to be cut off or their children don't have baby formula, or their rent is due, and you know, your landlord is threatening eviction. >> all right, we thank both of you for your work. it is needed. and people should support it, in any way they can. frederick joseph, and nate mook, my thanks to both of you. and if you would like to donate to the world central kitchen, or the coronavirus rent relief fund, please head to their respective web sites, you can see the information right here on your screen, and breaking news, the white house says it will hold a briefing with the coronavirus task force at 7:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch it here on msnbc.

my final thoughts are next. we'll be right back. my final thoughts are next we'll be right back. your every move. like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. this is my son's favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady.

yesterday was the 52nd anniversary of the assassination of dr. martin luther king. i remember it because i was 13 years old and had become the youth director of the chapter of his organization in new york, the year he was killed, and the impact of his death made me as i

had already been a boy creature for many years, and grew up in the black church, made me define what kind of minister i wanted to be. dr. king was the kind that said you must serve the people. you serve god by serving and fighting for the people and protecting them. that is why it is such an outrage to me that some ministers, pastors, rabbis, pa conducting in person services at a time that we have such clear threats to their health and even their lives. how can you celebrate palm sunday today, representing, giving palms of jesus and his triumph, going into jerusalem, by darkening it, by having people risk their lives to come and get a palm? how can you next week on easter sunday celebrate the resurrection by having people

risk their own deaths? it is thee logically unsound, and sociologically backward. i thank dr. king, i only saw him twice, i was raised, with his lieutenants, i think i would be on the side that we're supposed to be standing for the well-being of those, and not the well-being of our edifices and our rituals. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i will be back next weekend at 5:00 p.m. eastern with politics nation. up next, my colleague craig melvin picks up our news coverage. picks up our news coverage now, there is a roundup brand product made just for your lawn. so you can put unwelcome lawn weeds to rest. draw the line. with roundup for lawns there's no better way to kill lawn weeds to the root without harming your grass. it's a great day to be a lawn. draw the line with the roundup brand.

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good sunday evening, everyone. craig melvin here. it is 6:00 on the east coast now. and right now, the white house coronavirus task force is meeting behind closed doors in the situation room, we're told. we just learned moments ago, we will be getting a live briefing from that task force, roughly an hour from now, 7:00 eastern. the team, the coronavirus task force team, now warning they are especially concerned about colorado, washington, d.c., and pennsylvania, over the next two weeks, i'll talk to the mayor of pittsburgh about how he is getting his city ready,

especially as of right now, more