on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night from our temporary field headquarters. ♪ good morning, it's wednesday, april 8th, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. i want to get right to the many fast moving developments with the coronavirus. the u.s. recording the world's highest number of deaths for a single day yesterday. and the second highest number of newly confirmed cases. we're now closing in on 400,000 cases and 13,000 deaths, as you see here. new york city also suffering its deadliest day. the death toll there has now topped 4,000. more than were killed in the city back on 9/11. now, during the white house briefing yesterday, the president lashing out at the world health organization and threatening to withhold u.s.

funding. he accused the organization of not being aggressive enough countering the global spread of the coronavirus. >> they called it wrong. they called it wrong. they really -- they missed the call. they could have called months earlier. they would have known. and they should have known. and they probably did know. so we'll be looking into that very carefully. and we're going to put a hold on money spent to the w.h.o. we're going to put a very powerful hold on it. >> but just minutes after making that statement, the president then reversed course and walked back what he said about funding. >> is the time to freeze funding during the w.h.o. during a pandemic? >> i mean, i'm not saying i'm going to do it, but i'm going to look at it. >> you did say -- >> no, i didn't. i said we're going to investigate it. we're going to look at it. if you look back over the year,

they're very much -- everything seems to be very biased toward china. that's not right. >> all right. let's do a brief fact-check here. so president trump accused w.h.o. of missing the call. but in reality, the organization sounded the alarm in the early days of this crisis, back on january 30th, the w.h.o.'s director general declared the coronavirus outbreak, quote, a public health emergency of international concern. that very same day, president trump held an event in michigan where he said this. >> we're working very strongly with china on the coronavirus that's a new thing thanks a lot of people are talking about. hopefully, it won't be as bad as some people think it could be. but we're working very closely with them. and with a lot of other people in a lot of other countries and we think we have it very well under control. >> so, in the days and weeks

after that the president also continued to downplay the dangers of the coronavirus which health experts say ended up slowing america's overall response to it. joining me white house reporter for politico gabby orr. gabby, let's get into this a little bit hordes to the world health organization and the president's messaging, missing the mark, as this pandemic was developing around the world. what do you make of withholding funds from the world health organization. the president stating there yesterday evening in that briefing, the possibility of wanting to withhold funds amidst this pandemic in trying to tamp down the spread? >> well, this president has long been critical of multinational organizations including the w.h.o. this is something that his administration has tried to do before. notwithstanding, in fact, if you go back to february and you look at the trump administration's budget proposal they attempted to cut funding to the w.h.o. almost in half. so, i do think this is part of a

trend that we've seen since president trump took office. but to do this in the middle of a pandemic, as america relies on not only the global coordination and the incoming shipment supplies from other countries and help from the world health organization is a different situation. and i think there are a lot of people inside the white house who are urging president trump to back away from that, even as he tries to put a meaning to w.h.o. as a scapegoat. he's done this with the media. he's done this with china. now, he's just trying to go to another place where he can put the blame for his own response to the coronavirus. >> yeah. now is not the time to put politics with the world health organization when we're in the midst of a pandemic. speaking of the w.h.o. as well, you talk about testing, right? the president could have been ahead the curve on testing had he taken the w.h.o. tests that were originally developed with regards to figuring out coronavirus. so, we well know, at this point,

the president has faced a lot of criticism over his slow response to this coronavirus. how is this pushback being received? >> well, it's interesting because a lot of the governors who are really facing -- they're facing it hard by this pandemic are in places that will be critical to the president's election in 2020 and he has tangled with them over testing, over the availability of ventilators and health care workers and medical supplies. take michigan, for example. the president has increasingly been hostile to governor whitmer, and he really encounters, you know, certain entanglements with a lot of these governors who are going to play an important role in the 2020 election. and their own approval rating is sort of rising as we see the president's approval rating for his handling of this crisis go

down. and that's something that paying close attention, to i know just speaking with president trump's advisers that they're well aware of the president's position. and how he is perceived, versus how a lot of these popular democratic governors are perceived so that is important for him to be mindful of, for him to pay attention to. particularly as he talked about the availability of vaccines, treatments, virus testing. >> it will be testing to see how things emerge politically, once the dust settles with the coronavirus. gabby orr, thank you so much. we're going to talk to you in just a little bit. moving on, china ended its lockdown in wuhan of the city. city reopened after ten weeks, 76 days exactly. with officials allowing people

out of wuhan for the first time since late january. travelers, some of them head to toe in protective gear rushed to take trains and planes out of wuhan. so far, there were no direct flights to beijing in international locations. passengers had reportedly to pass three temperature checks before boarding a plane. but lifting wuhan's lockdown is only the beginning. businesses there face tough conditions. neighborhood authorities continue to regulate the movement of people according to the "the new york times" report which frame the return to life in wuhan as a distant dream, yesterday since the first time since the pandemic began, china reported no deaths. joining us live from beijing, janis mackey frayer. janis, it's great to see you this morning. talk about what officials are saying with regarding to lifting the lockdown in wuhan. >> reporter: well, we have seen

some easing of restrictions in the past few weeks that allowed people to get around in the city a little more, to get out of their homes a little more without the time limits that have applied for the last 11 weeks. what today marks is the end of the official travel ban, which means people can leave the city, come back into the city more freely than they have been since late january. they do need to pass a series of tests as you mentioned. and even to book a ticket on a flight or a train requires each person to produce a green health code. this is now the gold standard for freedom of movement in china. it's a code generated in a phone app that's widely used to track covid-19 cases that proves you are indeed healthy. so in order to even book a ticket you have to be able to produce that. this is one of the ways that china is trying to monitor

covid-19 cases even as they know and are now acknowledging that there are asymptomatic cases that they needs to concerned with. because as conditions ease especially in a place like wuhan which, of course, was the epicenter of this pandemic, there are concerns that people who could be asymptomatic could open new transmission routes for the virus and possibly trigger the second wave of infection that's feared here. >> so, let's talk about some of that video we're seeing there, janis, reports of people rushing to leave wuhan at this point. talk to us more about that with regards to what you know. and what sort of regulations are still in place. >> reporter: well, think about it, yasmin, 76 days of lockdown, of being told you that can't leave your house. that you need a pass to even walk through your door. that one person from your family can go and get groceries every couple of days. and knowing that the hospitals

were being overrun with thousands of people, battling what was still then a mystery virus. and every person, all 11 million people in wuhan were affected by this, be it through sickness, uncertainty or by death. so, to have this now lifted and perhaps a degree of freedom of movement signifies a remarkable shift. that said, there are still no illusions. there are restrictions that are still in place. there are still concerns. it's by no means a normal life, but it is, at least, a bit better today. yasmin. >> almost, janis mackey frayer for us. great to see you today. still ahead, everybody, wisconsin becomes the first state to hold a primary election when most states are under strict stay-at-home order. plus, while the country is focused on the coronavirus, president trump has ousted two inspector generals and publicly

criticized a third. those stories, and, of course, a check of your weather when we come back. yes. it's the first word of any new discovery.

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welcome back. wisconsin voters waited in long winding lines for hours. many wearing face masks and some garbage bags in order to cast their votes in yesterday's primary. wisconsin was forced to hold the election after two of the courts ruled monday that it could not be postponed due to health and safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. and heart-hit milwaukee, the city only opened five of its 180 voting locations due to worker shortages. and green bay offered two, instead of the usual 31. more than 2500 national guard troops were dispatched to help run polling stations and distribute hand sanitizer. however, we will not learn the results of yesterday's primary until april 13th after a federal

court ruling prohibited the results from being released before then. amid the coronavirus pandemic, president trump has removed the inspector general tasked to oversee the 2.2 relief package. the ousting of glenn fine is president trump's latest attack on watchdogs who serve as oversight on the executive branch. on friday, trump fired michael atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who forwarded the complaint that ultimately led to the impeachment in the house. on monday, the president condemned the acting health and human services watchdog over a survey of hospitals about the coronavirus response. top democratic lawmakers swiftly condemned the president's latest actions. house speaker nancy pelosi tweeted, the sudden removal and replacement of the acting a.g. is part of the retaliation of the president against independent overseers fulfilling

their duties to conduct oversight on behalf of the american people. let's get into this a bit. joining me now, msnbc legal ant li analyst danny cevallos. great to see you. there is a law requiring the existing attorney general to over see the response to the efforts. what happened to that oversight after the firing of the a.g.? >> taking a step back, inspectors general are a relatively recent statutory creation. and the very existence of their job is that they exist within the executive branch, but they investigate the executive branch. and so that creates a very awkward situation for the very nature of inspectors general. and the interesting thing about them is that generally speaking they can be removed for any reason. they serve at the pleasure of the president. and i suspect that somebody's gotten in trump's ear and let him know that as long as he states that he's lost confidence in the inspector general, well,

a court during the obama administration has concluded that even this minimal statement of reasons for firing an inspector general are enough. that's enough, under the statute, in most cases. there's some exceptions. a few inspectors general that require more. but generally speaking, the president can remove them for any reason. they need to do is provide 30 days' notice. >> let's talk about wisconsin's primary here quickly, danny. there is a good chance a lot of folks are going to be challenging the results when the results actually do come out. someone at some point will challenge the results because of yesterday. what do you make of that? >> first, they're going to challenge the results based on the same wisconsin statutes that ordered the election to be held. and those are the same statutes that were key in the court's decision finding, the wisconsin supreme court decision finding that the governor did not have the power with an executive

order to override the statutory requirement that wisconsin hold its elections on a particular day. so, the challenge will probably come to the exact same statute that this statute denied its citizens, at least the allegation will be, denied its citizens that statutory and arguably constitutional right to vote and have their vote be counted and heard. >> all right, danny cevallos for us. thank you, great seeing you, danny. still ahead, everybody, as the coronavirus moves across the country, data shows that african-americans are facing an alarming rate of infection. we're taking a look at the racial disparities, next. it's a voice on the other end of the phone. a note to say you're on our mind. a willingness to come to you. the world and how we interact with each other is changing. but that will never change who we are at lexus. now, more than ever, you and your needs come first.

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. welcome back. president trump says his administration will release data in the coming days on the racial disparities among those affected by the coronavirus. but the small amount of data that's already been released paints a devastating picture. in milwaukee county, for

example, blacks make up 28% of the population. and 73% of the covid-19 deaths. in louisiana, 70% of deaths are among black people who make up only 32% of the state's population. in illinois, 15% of residents are black, yet, they represent 43% of deaths. and in michigan, 14% of the residents are black, yet, they represent 40% of the covid-19 deaths. the president could not explain why blacks are more likely to die from the virus, but dr. anthony fauci could. >> we want to find therapeutics. we want to find vaccines, that will solve everybody's problem. but why is it that the african-american community, is so much, numerous times more than everybody else, we want to find the reason for it. >> we've known literally forever that diseases like diabetes,

hypertension, obesity and asthma are disproportionately afflicting the minority populations, particularly the african-americans. unfortunately, when you look at the disproportion of the bad numbers that get people into intubation and often lead to death they are just the co-morbidities that are unfortunately disproportionate in the african-american population. we're very concerned about it. it's very sad. there's nothing we can do about it right now except to give them the best possible care to avoid those complications. >> also after that historically lack of access to health care as well. i want to bring in meteorologist bill karins standing by for us. tracking the weather as always, bill. but also tracking the numbers with the coronavirus. yesterday was a tough day for new york. we were warned it was going to be a tough week overall. and also across the country,

cases continuing to go up. >> yourselasmin, it's going to tough one or two weeks, it's the lag once we get the positive cases, then the deaths from the positive cases are a week or two later. roughly 2%, 3% in this country, we had an example yesterday, 32,000 new cases that will be 1,500 deaths two weeks from now. don't expect this curve to go down soon. as we mentioned yesterday, almost 2,000 fatalities. the previous record was on saturday, 1,350. so we're about 600 higher than that. but yesterday was a horrific day and unfortunately, we'll expect more days similar to this. as far as state by state went. all of the states had a record number of new fatalities in a 24-hour period. obviously we mentioned new york. new jersey, 229. georgia jumped way up on this,

they had only a little over 200 going into yesterday's count. then added 119. michigan, 118. you can see massachusetts and illinois on that list as well. let's jump to the weather front we do have dangerous weather, we have big thunderstorms that are ending they just went through washington, d.c. they're done in new york. there's a little wet weather still until areas of west virginia. but later on this afternoon, we've got this area we're going to watch for enhanced risk of severe storm. we could get pretty good size storms in ohio valley and tennessee valley on the radar around 10:00 p.m. this evening. that's when the storms are going to start blowing up. an overnight threat. maybe overnight tornadoes, southern indiana and kentucky, and eventually tennessee. tomorrow, what a nasty day in the northeast. yasmin, for our friends in northern portions of maine we could be looking at 6 to 12 inches of snow as we go throughout your thursday.

>> wow. >> i know, that's an ugly day tomorrow. >> that is not the news that folks want about now. thank you, bill. as bill was just mentioning, still ahead, everybody, deaths from coronavirus in new york hitting a new high. but health officials are still voicing optimism about reaching a plateau soon. also, the latest on boris johnson's condition after the prime minister spent the second night in the intensive care unit. we're going to get a live report from london, coming up next. attention guardians of the grass, navigators of the turf and keepers of the green. to the rural ramblers, back to the landers, head turners and stripe burners. run with us on a john deere mower. because this is more than just grass. it's home. search john deere mowers for more. that's unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not because you have e*trade

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we begin this half hour with the

state of new york reeling from the largest single day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic began. 731 people died between monday and tuesday. the number of fate facilialitie empire state has risen to 5500. that's almost half of the total deaths reported across the united states. >> that is the largest single day increase. and we talk about numbers. but that 731 people who we lost behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a mother, is a sister, is a brother. so, a lot oaut ot of pain again for many new yorkers. >> health officials believe that the spiking death toll indicates that new york is battling the outbreaks apex. it projected a plateau is next

as a three-day average of hospitalizations and intensive care admissions are slowly dropping. and the city of los angeles has ordered all city residents to wear face covering while shopping at essential businesses. one of the nation's most aggressive mask actions. the mayor said he started midnight friday morning, businesses can refuse service to any resident who does not supply with this mandate. in addition, essential business employees will also be required to wear face coverings. and employers must cover the cost of purchasing these items. the move comes as the l.a. county health director is calling for even stricter stay-at-home orders this week telling residents if you have enough supplies in your home stay inside and do not leave. and speaking on msnbc last night, governor gavin newsom has he has secured 2 million masks

for california and other states. and if the nation fails to protect american citizens during the coronavirus outbreak, he's up to the task making a pledge to keep everybody safe. >> there's been great coordination. especially over the last little while. we've given him a lot of equipment, a lot of ventilators, a lot of equipment of all types. and i will protect you if your governor fails, if you have a governor that's failing, we're going to protect you. but the governors are working well with us over the last period of time. >> all right. jointing me once again, white house reporter for politico gabby orr. gabby, good to see you once again. the president vowing to protect americans if governors do not do enough to stop the spread of the coronavirus. we want known for a long time governors have wanted the president and the administration to step in repeatedly in their state. are we looking at action from a national level at this point? >> that's a great question,

yasmin. i know there's a lot of discourse happening inside the administration about what president trump can do, either through executive order. or just through his power as president. in order to protect americans. one of the things on the table that dr. anthony fauci has talked about at a lot of these daily press briefings that we're seeing is some type of national order or national curb. of course, the big question is does president trump have the constitutional authority to actually do something like that. does he need congress approval or something that he can do during executive action. and those questions have been brought to the white house counsel and people advising the president and by the coronavirus task force. >> i also know you that have a new story out this morning, gabby, about how evangelicals who support the president are pushing him now to punish china. what more do you have on this? >> yeah. it's a really interesting

situation where the president is, you know, has this relationship with evangelical voters that has been strong throughout the course of his presidency. in very rare instances have we seen the break with the president. the pullout of syria being one of the only examples. and now we're seeing a growing ire of voices on the political right who really do want president trump to take more aggressive actions to hold china accountable for what they view as a cover-up of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the hubei province in wuhan last january. he's facing challenge by the allies to hold china responsible. whether that's coordinating an international investigation into

china's practices and the way they handled the spiral outbreak, or whether it's issuing new sanctions against china. all of this is being discussed by a lot of the president's closest allies. >> great reporting there, gabby orr for us. thank you, gabby. great seeing you this morning. let's head across the pond now. british prime minister boris johnson spent the second night in the intensive care unit. he's being, quote, closely monitoring. officials say johnson is receiving standard oxygen treatment and was breathing without any ventilator assistance. johnson was admitted to the hospital late sunday after suffering coronavirus symptoms for more than ten days. his battle with the deadly virus has shaken the nation as the uk is now in its third week of lockdown. experts say this will be the deadliest phase of the nation's coronavirus which has already taken the lives of over 6,000

people there. joining us from outside the hospital where the prime minister is being treated, nbc correspondent chatman bell. chatman, i'll start with you, boris johnson spending his second night in the icu. what is his condition as of now? >> reporter: well, yasmin, we're expecting an update later today, however, we haven't heard anything later this morning, but we do know he spent the second night in intensive care. he's in there for close monitoring, his medical team thought it would make sense for him to remain there. and importantly, even though he's receiving standard type of treatment, he's not on any mechanical ventilator. he's breathing on his own. the foreign secretary rand who has been deputized said he's a

leader. there's been outpouring of response from the royal family and the queen. we understand from downing street that boris johnson, while he's in the hospital, will not be having his weekly audience with the queen. he was doing that by phone to practice social distancing before going in the hospital, though, they say, he remains prime minister. the queen releasing a statement yesterday that she sent a message to mr. johnson's family and his pregnant fiancee wishing he has a speedy recovery. saying he is in their thought, this message echoed from leaders around the world but we're expecting to hear about his current status today. >> and the queen giving quite an address over the weekend as well. kyle, scientists are saying that the uk is about to see the

deadliest days yet. what new measures, if any, is the country taking to fight the spread? >> reporter: well, the country is where it was a week ago, where it was literally three weeks ago with this sort of lockdown measures. watching the morning news programs, this morning, the mayor of london saying that 14 transport workers have skuuccumd to the virus. urging people if they don't need to be on public transport that it's essential that they not do so. i think a lot of people here as we all sort of in this country wait to hear about the prime minister, and so many people identifying with the prime minister, of course, because he's in the same situation as everybody else are discussing whether or not there should be harsher measures. this all really started this debate about harsher measures in the uk, over a month ago, when there was some discussion about what is called herd immunity. the government saying that if many people were contracting the virus, that in the long run that could actually help the country. the problem with that is,

medical officials had sort of said, look, is this much more deadly than the flu. this is not the standard flu. and the government then kind of reversed its stance. a lot of criticism is continuing to this day about whether or not the government put these stringent measures in place fast enough. and important the measures need to go further, yasmin. >> and just for a moment of levity, cal, we just had a cameo from your son in the background. don't get mad at him. it was great to see him in the background there. >> yeah, i noticed. i wish i could say it didn't throw me but it completely threw me. but there you go, yeah, he's headed to school like so many kids in london. >> broadcasting from home. nbc's chapman bell and caliper perry, thank you. and still ahead, your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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i fully expect, though i'm humble enough to know that i can't accurately predict, that by the time we get to the fall, that we will have this under control enough that it certainly will not be the way it is now, where people are shutting schools. i optimistic side tells me that we'll be able to renew to a certain extent. but it's going to be different, remember, now. because this is not going to disappear. >> going to be different. dr. anthony fauci with a positive outlook yesterday about the start of next school year in the fall for the nation's young students and their parents, though, stressing it is not a certainty with that. let's go to bill karins too is standing by for us, tracking the weather for us, as always, but also some of those numbers as we try and flatten that curve, bill.

>> yeah, we're wondering if we're on this plateau. because yesterday we did not beat the overall number we had from new cases that we had from saturday. that number holds at 35,000. we came close, just below it, but we didn't top it. right now at 400,000. the growth rate at 8%. here holding at that level. what that means, every seven or eight days we'll double that number. from a week from now, 800,000. remember, the fatality rate is 4%. 4% of 800,000 will be 32,000 americans. if the math implies that's how many will get up to that number. yesterday, we had 10,000 new cases in new york city. new jersey had 3,000. the areas that really added was georgia, pennsylvania, michigan, even california came in with one of the bigger numbers yesterday. so we still have a lot of new cases being added. even at this higher number, this

plateau, it's not like it's going down get. this shows the steps day by day. you notice the tallest part there on saturday. a dip on sunday. always a lag on sunday with the report. and monday and tuesday, we're very similar. you can kind of see that plateau. we want to see all of the steps level out. we're not going up the steps we're kind of walking on a flat and eventually we want those to go down. on the weather front, i mentioned earlier, a day for storms, 43 million americans severe severe weather from st. louis to atlanta. it will start late this evening and go into the early morning hours. as far as areas like washington, d.c., we did see storms earlier. new york will see improving weather. i want to give the sneak peek. a lot of rain in the country for saturday. then for easter sunday, we're going to watch strong storms and torrential rains in the southeast. not exactly what you want to do when you're locked inside trying

to do social distancing and, yes, even some snow on the back side of that storm. a big easter sunday storm. people won't be traveling bit you want the kids to get outside, at least in your own yard. >> thank you, bill. yes, important to note that. thank you, bill. still ahead, while president trump endorses the drug hydroxychloroquine one leading cardiologist is raising the alarm. that warning is next. ning is net ning is net ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪ ♪won't wait,♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat but when allergies and congestion strike, take allegra-d... a non-drowsy antihistamine plus a powerful decongestant. so you can always say "yes" to putting your true colors on display. say "yes" to allegra-d.

a woman last night, i watched her on one of the shows, good show, laura. and she was -- she thought she was dead. a representative from michigan. she was just in horrible shape for 12 days, 14 days. she thought she was dead. now, is this a democrat representative, a person that, you know, perhaps wouldn't be

voting for me. she asked her husband, she said, please go out. i'm not going to make it -- you have to hear her story. please go out and get it. he went at 10:00 in the evening, he got now, you know, i won't stay works like this at all, four hours later, she awoke and she said, i feel better. the way she told the story was beautiful. i asked my husband to go and get it, he got it. she is now okay. i mean, she was interviewed last night on television. and she thanked me. there are many of those stories. and i say, try it. okay, please. if newer trouble, if you're going to die and you're -- i mean, you're not going to die from this pill. >> so while the president yesterday continued to tout the potential benefits of hydroxychloroquine and the u.s. scales up purchase and use of

the drug to treat coronavirus patients, a leading mayo clinic card yol list cardiologist is sounding a warning. anyone needs to look at its potential side effects. they issued guidance for physicians to more safely prescribe high drox ski chloroquine by providing patients at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, telling nbc news he is most disturbed not by political officials, but by claiming the medication's safety without mentioning the rare side effect, adding, quote, that is inexcusable. coming up, a look at axios's one big thing and on morning show, as we record the highest single death toll for coronavirus, the president vowing to step in and protect the americans should governors fail.

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joining us from washington with a look at axios a.m., cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei. good morning to you. talk to us about axios' one big thing today. >> we're looking at what's happening in my home state of wisconsin with the election there yesterday where you had this extraordinary sort of 24 to 48 hours where you had the governor saying let's extend the absentee voting rights of the residents because of the health scare and because people were quarantined. you then had the conservative state supreme court say you can't do that and the national supreme court validate that. and the reason that it matters, it doesn't just matter to wisconsin. i think you're going to see this as a huge niissue in 2020 as yo are in the run-up to the election. you have so many states that are moving to have mail-in voting. we don't know what the fall is going to be like. we don't know if there's going

to be a resurgence of the virus and if people are going to have a hard time getting out like they did yesterday in wisconsin to vote in a way that isn't putting their own health at miskmis risk. this is happening where we're seeing on both sides court cases challenging aspects of voting. we saw a record number last time and we'll see a record number this time around. >> let's also talk about the firing of the inspector generals. president this week removing one inspector general, attacking another. how concerned should the public be, jim, about this? >> most people probably aren't that familiar with what inspector generals do. they're there, they're supposed to be as nonpartisan as possible as watchdogs to make sure money is being spent and programs are being implemented the way they're supposed to be. there's no doubt that a purge by the president that he calls the deep state that he feels are not loyal to him. one of the things we keep

hearing from people that are talking to the white house, almost the first question that's being asked is did you vote for president trump? they don't want people who are not loyal to him. and republicans will say, well that's any administration does that, everybody wants to have loyalists around them. i can't think of one that's been this blatant about it where they're trying systemically get rid of anyone who the president has privately called snakes, people that they cannot trust, people that might have voted for democrats in the past. people that might have been never trumpers. the reason it matters, ultimately, we just approved $2 trillion in spending. you want to make sure that companies and individuals applying for that money deserve it, that it's being administered the proper way. there's a lot of people out there that are hucksters. there's a lot of fraud when it comes do the federal government. you want partisan people in those places so that that money is spent wisely. we're probably going to have another stimulus in the next couple of months. you might have three,

$4 trillion going out the door. you don't want 5% or 10% of that being misdirected for political reasons or maintenance reasons. you want these things to be administered as professionally as humanly possible. but we're in this era where everything is hyper bipartisan and you have a president who he does not want anybody who he doesn't consider a loyalist by his side working for him, working under him. >> let's also quickly talk here about the coronavirus. only essential workers at that point needing public transportation. are the subways and the bus systems across the country, jim, are they still running? and can they actually even afford to? >> some are, but they're really getting whacked. if you don't live in a place that has public transit it doesn't matter. but if you're in a big city, nobody really wants to be on public transit right now, you dant want to don't want to be that close to somebody else. it requires funding, where budgets are crushed more than

ever. and then think about your own life where things roll back to some sense of normality in june, july, are you going to want to get on a packed bus or subway? it often taikes many years like 9/11, where you have ridership get back to where it was. i think every big city that's been hit by the coronavirus is going to be feeling the budget crunch for a long time to come. we talk about it at the federal level, but a lot of these states, look what new york's having to do. look what's happening in new orleans, detroit, l.a., seattle, any place that's hit by it, you're building hospitals and trying to keep your economy propped up as best you can and there's going to be a big bill for that. and public transit is going to be crushed by it. >> yeah, what will be the new normal is the big question. jim vandehei, thank you. we'll see you again on "morning joe" in a bit. >> thank you. >> we'll also be ridieading axi

a.m. in a little bit. you can get it at signup.axios.com. "morning joe" starts right now. they gave us the ppe, it's mandatory to wear it. so we are here today making sure we do everything safely. i think it's a set of meant to the testament to the people who thought about this election. they worked really hard to make sure everyone who is here, people who are coming in in their cars everybody is here safe. they have very minimal exposure. there's less exposure here than if you want to the grocery store. you can come to a polling place and do it safely. you have the ability to do curbside voting like they're doing here even if it's in a different municipality with drive-up voting. you can request the person come out, they'll deliver you a ballot and check your i.d. you are incredibly safe to go out. >> what a clown. that actually is the republican speaker of the wisconsin state assembly