hello, everyone. i'm alicia menendez. 88 days, just under three months, since the first confirmed case of covid-19 was identified in the united states. the disease killing thousands every day. that's not stopping calls to get back to business. many experts are urging governments to take it slow, but some people are gathered in large groups to protest, and there are reports that some of the protests are organized by pro-trump, pro-business political powers. plus it took less than an hour for people to pack the beaches in jacksonville, florida. i'll ask the mayor about that and his plans for south florida. and we have an analysis of why the president is trying to blame the world health organization. and also, how did money meant for small business end up going

to big business? and in the midst of this pandemic, access to abortion now in jeopardy. the acting president of planned parenthood is here to react. economic activity is at a standstill and many americans are hurting. and there are protests today with people demanding businesses reopen in several states. the protests in maryland was organized by a group named reopen maryland to pressure the republican governor, layer ree hogan, to end lockdowns in the state. joining me is ali vitali. what are you hearing from the protesters there? >> reporter: alicia, these protesters have been out here for a few hours. they're mostly protesting from my cars. you can see them driving around one of the circles here, protesting for the governor to reopen the state. now, we've seen these kind of protests before in places like michigan and virginia. those states happen to have democratic governors, but this seems to be a bipartisan push from a small minority of people

in these states. of course, larry hogan, as you mentioned, is a republican here and he said just a few days ago that he understands the frustration. he understands why people want to see these states reopen. but at the same time, now is not the moment to do that, he said. he is looking at cases continuing to climb here in maryland. more than 2,000 confirmed coronavirus cases already. and so he's saying that while he's thinking about what a reopening might look like, he has to see certain parameters be met in order to get to that place. as for the protesters, some of them are out here with pro-trump signs. there are certainly political undertones, but one woman i talked to said she's here because she's struggling to make ends meet. >> why is it important for you to be out here? >> i need my job. i need to work. i need money. i have no money coming in. i have employees. i don't qualify for unemployment. is this worth our life, our businesses? if we can't live, we might as

well die. >> reporter: and, alicia, we hear when governors brief regularly, every day, we hear them talk about the desire to reopen because they know about the economic toll getting greater. but at the same time needing to continue to take steps to make sure that the human toll does not get worse and certainly not worse than it needs to be. of course all of this comes against the backdrop of president donald trump tweeting over the course of the last few days for people to liberate their states, urging them to reopen. and of course that word liberate has certain undertones to it. we're seeing protests to that effect, urging officials to reopen the governments even as some of the science and some of the data say these states just aren't in a place to do that yet. >> all right, ali. thank you so much for that great reporting. four meat packing plants in pennsylvania shut down recently, after hundreds of workers were exposed to and contracted covid-19. now the state plans to allow them to reopen, sparking concerns from employees at one

plant, who say now enough time has passed and the risk of getting sick remains too great. maura, what are the employees there telling you? >> reporter: alicia, it's been about three weeks since this plant behind me was opened. there's about 1,400 workers that are employed here and they're going to be doing a soft reopening starting to monday, gradually bringing in more employees as they practice some new worker safety guidelines put into place by the state. they're looking to practice social distancing and have workers wear masks, as well as get temperature checks. but obviously when you're on an assembly line you're in a crowded plant like this, workers tell me they're often shoulder-to-shoulder, whether they're on break, lunch, or working on the line. so it's a crowded space and workers tell me that their safety is a big concern, even going back to work with these new protections put into place. i spoke with this woman who has worked at the plant for ten years and she is very concerned, although he's confident that the company is putting in new

protections for her, she's concerned about bringing the virus home to her husband and her daughter. i also met a security guard, bobby, just this morning who actually decided to quit his job here because he's been here as the plant has been putting the new protections into place and he's not confident these new protections will be working for these workers in this space. he said that the quality of the gear they're going to be giving the workers is not up to par with what he's comfortable with, so he decided to quit his job here today. take a listen to what he told me just this morning. >> i feel like the words plexiglas and the words face masks can be safe, but when you see what they actually supply the people, that's nowhere they're safe. they're giving us face shield that are flimsy. i quit. i thought to myself i'm either going to be filing for unemployment. i just got off a 16-hour night shift, but i'm not putting myself at personal risk just for the sake of this company. >> reporter: so, alicia, these

protocols on paper look like they might be a good solution, but obviously it's really going to take the management enforcing some of these regulations and obviously as we heard from bobby, and workers are not sure how high quality the protections are going to be. those are two workers across the country who are on their own front lines as they go to food processing plants like this one just to provide food for us and everybody else around the country during this pandemic. >> all right, maura. thank you so much. now to florida, where it took less than an hour for the beaches to fill up after the governor there relaxed lockdown measures. with pe now is miami mayor, francis suarez. i'm sure you saw these images coming out of jacksonville. you know what all of the healing officials say. you go back too early, there are major health risks. when you see those images, does it seem to you to be a mistake to have reopened these beaches? >> it is very concerning.

you have to understand that duval county in jacksonville is a city county. they have about 800,000 people in the population. we have about 30 million in population in terms of our county and they have about 800 cases, we have 8,000 cases. so if you see so quickly people failing to respect social distancing, then it is very, very scary for what can happen if we start opening up too quickly here in the city of miami and miami dade county. >> can you tell us a little bit about how you're working with the governor and state officials to plan for at what point you will know it is time to consider a gradual reopening? >> on monday i'm meeting with -- i have a telephone meeting with an epidemiologist for the state of florida and we're working with infectious disease experts here in miami. we have been very proactive and aggressive on the front end of this, canceling events early on.

we're one of the first cities to issue a stay-at-home order, curfew as well. and we don't want to lose those gains. those gains resulted in us having a plateau or reaching a high point in late march and, you know, they talk about flattening the curve and the curve descending, we still have not seen a major deskengz. what we're seeing is a plateau, the high point was 1,300 cases and we had an upswing, 1,100 cases. so that means that although there's a lot of good in terms of, you know, what is happening from the stay-at-home orders and the curfews that we've implemented here locally, we're still not out of the woods. and i'm concerned if we're not careful that we could see another flare-up. >> mayor, i'm sure you saw the state report taking a look at covid cases in florida, in miami, a pattern we're seeing

across the country, which is black miamiens dying at a higher rate. at the federal level we've heard a call for a lot of research and data looking into the racial disparity. for you as a mayor, where do you see the responsibility of local government to tackle that disparity? >> well, we have to first acknowledge it and i think it's evident that that exists, and i think the second thing is we have to do everything that we can to not just help alleviate that disparity in those communities for covid-19, but those oftentimes are disparities that we see in terms of creating an equitable city. so we're working on that tirelessly. we're trying to do everything we can to help people get on their feet in this difficult time. and we know most of the economy is closed. we're doing things to help people find employment in terms of essential businesses. we're helping them, you know, in our net offices be able to get unemployment benefits. and obviously we're doing free tax filings for them to be able

to get their stimulus check. so we're doing a variety of things and we're trying to do some things that are a little bit more experimental in terms of using products and security deposits for rents. we're not leaving any stone unturned to be able to help people throughout these difficult times. >> we know, mayor, that testing is critical in all of this. where is testing in miami dade? >> we are pretty proud of the symptomatic testing that we're doing. i would say that anybody who has symptoms is getting tested within a 24-hour period and getting results between two and four days. the concern i have is asymptomatic testing. and the other concern i have is people who have already tested positive, like i did, and want a negative test so that they can feel confident to go back to work or do something else, like donating pla m donating plasma. and we're nowhere they're those things. we need tests that are reliable and we haven't been able to

identify one yet. and then of course post positive testing to help people feel confident that they can go back to work and their employers feel confident that they can go back to work. >> all right, mayor suarez. thank you so much for your time. $342 billion in federal loans gone in a matter of days. but not all of the stimulus money is going to mom and pop shops. we'll tell you about the surprising businesses getting their hands on the cash while others are being left out in the cold. plus it was a big week for joe biden. we'll talk about his message of unity, taking on president trump and his response to the covid-19 crisis. give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need!

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afloat, $350 billion federal payroll protection program intended to help them has run out of money. as the senate works to inject another $250 billion into the program, some activists are warning of the dangers have black and latino small business

owners not have access to these funds. from a "newsweek" op ed, the failure to provide emergency relief to entrepreneurs in our communities will lead to economic insecurity at a scale that could trigger the extinction of black and brown businesses for generations. the writers of that piece are with me now. ceo, and author of "leap frog" the new revolution for women entrepreneurs. and michael blake is a new york state assembly member for the 79th district, vice chairman of the committee and a candidate for u.s. congress in the bronx. i want to get your take on a headline that was taking a lot of buzz yesterday, which is that according to filings with the securities and exchange commission, restaurant chains received millions from the paycheck protection program. are those small businesses? >> not at all. and the reality is we have to understand what's happening right now is a challenge in many of our communities. our small businesses, black and

latinos are not being -- and the challenge we're seeing is the intentionality of the program that was supposedly to help our businesses on the ground and it did nothing of that. black and latino and american businesses are always being left behind and the ppp program did exactly that. and quite frankly, for donald trump and others, they should stop tweeting about liberation and start negotiating right now to help us on the ground. >> talk to me a little bit about the role that banks are playing in all of this and the bias that is baked in there that is affecting these communities. >> absolutely. i do want to make one point, though, is that we can't put the shake shack in the same bucket as a ruth's chris. ruth's chris is a franchise. a shake shack is in fact a wholly owned company that has stores in multiple places and that means you've got one single

massive employer, versus when you go to your local cinnabon that's owned by your neighbor. so i want that nuance to be really clear. in terms of the bias, at the end of the day banks are there to maximize their profit and to triage in a way that favors their highest ticket customers. that is their job. and so when the government enlists a bank or in this case many, many banks that had existing relationships with the sba, there needed to be something in the legislation to ensure very simply that cronyism wasn't the law of the land, that they didn't favor their big ticket customers. they got a clear message we're triaging the same way that a hospital triages who is sickest, we're triaging who needs the money the most and that means the smallest businesses. that means the people who will absolutely be the lifeline for their communities and that is not what the legislation did. so it's not surprising to me, those of us that saw the legislation, we could see the

nightmare about to unfold and it has been worse than even our worst nightmare. >> assemblyman, in your article you highlight that for the next federal relief package, chuck schumer and nancy pelosi proposed the next round be distributed via community development financial institutions. why is that so important? >> because letting the big banks help us on the ground, when we think about the collaboration and i'm doing this interview from the 3rd avenue business improvement district and the collaboration that they are doing is helping our businesses. when you think about how only 70 businesses out of the 23,000 in the bronx, was able to get funding, it's because the larger banks did not help. and so the next bill, not only do we have to work, we need companies to collaborate with us on the ground. when we think about this, this is about helping our restaurants, helping our barber shops, helping our beauty

salons, who otherwise may not have access to this. and honestly, the intentionality of trump and the republicans and what they're doing is disgusting, because ther tryiy' trying to award big banks and large entities. and our frustration repeatedly is stop continuing to pro vote white supremacy out of the white house, but help get colladollar the ground that we need right now. >> we've talked about banks and we've talked about the way the legislation was written. what would you want to see in future legislation to get this right? >> i think there's some history that needs to be fixed. the initial legislation provided no guardrails to prevent banks from abusing this. so we have to go back and fix that. and that's not unprecedented. when the katrina relief came out, it didn't come out perfect and amendments were made and changes were made. so we have to go back and fix all of the things that michael blake was just mentioning are broken. forward-looking, we really have

to focus on ensuring that there's triage that focuses on the businesses that need it most and that we provide, as michael said, tech to make sure that the small local banks don't choke because we're going to see a peak and a surge in the amount of applications. the other thing that i think is problematic is that we excluded 1099s, which means if you're a restaurant owner and the majority of your employees are independent contractors that get 1099s rather than being full-time employees with payroll, then you are getting absolutely no relief. and we need to re-evaluate that decision to ensure that folks who are independent contractors, gig workers, are not totally getting cut out of this picture. i also think the other thing that's going to have to happen is that we have to collect data. at the moment we are not collecting data. so people like michael and myself and so many other leaders in the space do not easily have access to who is getting the money and who is not. i don't think that's an accident and it needs to be fixed. >> natalie and michael, thank

you both so much for your time. coming up, the president has been quick to criticize the world health organization's response to the pandemic, but critics are asking the same questions about his own administration. we'll talk about the federal response next. and tonight, watch lady gaga, paul mccartney, elton john, taylor swift, jennifer lopez, stars join forces for one world together at home. it's a global entertainment special to support the world health organization in the global fight against covid-19. that's tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern, here on msnbc. do grow apart from their friends, or from the things they love to do? with right at home, it doesn't. right at home's professional team thoughtfully selects caregivers to help with personal care, housekeeping, meals - and most of all, staying engaged - in life. oh, thank you, thank you. you're welcome. are you ready to go? oh, i sure am. we can provide the right care,

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i'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization while a review is conducted to assess the world health organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. so much death has been caused by

their mistakes. >> leaders around the world are criticizing president trump's move to halt funding to the world health organization. on january 9th, the w.h.o. issued its first warning on the spread of covid-19 in china. but it took nearly a month after that warning for president trump to take any action. on february 2nd, trump blocked travel from china a move 38 countries had already taken. throughout february, the w.h.o. warned coronavirus could be worst than any terrorist attack. >> with 99% of cases in china, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world, unless we use the window of opportunity that we have now. >> president trump, however, spent the month holding campaign rallies. >> looks likes by april, you know, in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously

goes away. i hope that's true. this is the new hoax. >> it wasn't until march 13th, two days after the w.h.o. declared a pandemic, that president trump declared a national emergency. so why did it take so long for the trump administration to respond? memos and emails obtained by "the new york times" shed new light on the debate raging behind-the-scenes at the white house. they show the top disaster response official at health and human services decided on february 24th to recommend that trump publicly support the start of mitigation efforts like school and sports cancellations. but before they could discuss it with the president, the w.h.o. was returning from india after another official went public with a warning, sending the stock market down sharply and angering trump. the meeting to brief him on the recommendation was canceled and it was three weeks before trump would reluctantly come around to the need for mitigation. joining me now, one of the authors of that piece, eric lipton, washington bureau correspondent at "the new york

times," alex thompson is a national correspondent for politico and nbc news national reporter. eric, i want to start with you. you have looked through all of these emails. what picture do they paint of lapses that were happening at the white house during this time? >> i think what you saw was in january there was increasing apprehension this was quite a serious threat and that it was something that the united states needed to be taking immediate steps to prepare for and things like preparing, you know, for potential hospital expansions and for personal protective equipment. and that was the kind of thing that was being discussed in january. by the middle of february there was a realization that community spread had already started in parts of the united states, and that the united states needed to be moving immediately in the places where the virus had started to spread to initiate what's called mitigation, which is closing schools and closing businesses and protecting people from, you know, reaching a peak and causing massive death.

and that was apparent to the health experts in these email chains and also to senior people at hhs by the third week of february. but there was no action by the white house until three weeks later. >> alex, i think part of the reason that these emails are so important is because we are so deep in this crisis right now, when we are on the other side of this plateau there are going to be questions about how this happened, who let this happen, and what we do as a nation to make sure this never happens again. when you read these emails, when you see what was happening behind the scenes, what does it tell you about efforts moving forward? >> i think it paints a pretty clear picture that the united states federal government didn't take this seriously enough for way, way too long. and the recent fight that the president is picking with the w.h.o. is a very classic trump political tactic, which is he wants to distract from his own potential mistake or misstep.

he's done it basically every single time. and there's no doubt the w.h.o. made mistakes in january, that they were too deferential to china's information, that there wasn't enough human-to-human, you know, spread of the disease. but the w.h.o. quickly got into gear by the end of january and throughout february, something that the united states federal government has not done. so i think what we're going to see by going through all these emails is we are going to hopefully come and reorganize the federal government in a way that in the future can respond much more swiftly. >> there's a question that we always ask about this administration, which is who has the president's ear, who is the president listening to you. when you look at these emails and you think about the efforts moving forward, who does it seem has influence in his decisionmaking? >> alicia, the answer is himself. he goes with his gut instinct. i think he is his own adviser

and communications director and chief of staff and he believes he knows enough to go with his gut. and watching his reaction, watching his handling of this mess, you kind of get the image of a corporate ceo who knows there's a major problem with this company, but thinks he can downplay it and make it go away and conceal it and try to keep his shareholders upbeat. only in this case the consequences are so much more catastrophic and they go so much more beyond this micro level of his own house. the thing i'll say about the w.h.o., his trying to de-fund that. it is very much of a piece with the trump-ian mentality, which is that bad things come from outside the united states and the answer is to shut down the borders and that's how you get the wall and the tariffs and banning travel. that's how you get going after international organizations like w.h.o. the problem here is so much more complicated, which is that by the time he did impose those travel restrictions, the disease was already here and the person-to-person spread was well under way and that's what he

really struggled with, getting that under control. >> part of what i was struck by reading these emails was, one, the various recommendations that were offered by healing officials, but also the reality that it was going to be very hard for states to implement any of these things without federal action. what should the government have been doing, let's say, if they had acted a month in advance of what they ultimately did? >> there's several things. first of all, when you have -- once you have your first death in a community from a contagious respiratory disease like this, you have about a week to act and ner terms of mitigation efforts, the shutting of schools and businesses, which is unfortunate to think in the modern era that we need a take a backwards-looking step. but unfortunately without vaccines and immunity that's the only thing we can do. but you have a one-week window. and if you don't do it then, the number of deaths, it's going to be california versus new york state. california moved faster than new york state did.

but what was really needed was federal leadership is essential in that situation. these governors are being pulled in different directions and they don't have the cdc behind them. it's up to either the surgeon general, the head of the hhs, the president to come out and say it's time for us to act, we have to make sacrifices. this is going to hurt the economy, but we have no choice here in places where someone has died or the infections are moving to act now and mitigate. and that did not happen. so the governors were left to sort of make choices on their own. some of them went faster, some slower. and all you need to do is look at the map now and you can see the places that went faster and slower, and more people are dying in the places that went slower. >> alex, one of the things that stood out to me from eric's reporting was the fact that the president really wanted to move once he saw the stock market beginning to crash. that was a major influence in his thinking. when you look at this conversation about reopening the economy, how much does that then play into his thinking? >> oh, i think it is incredibly

significant and consequential in terms of his thinking. trump is very attuned to media coverage of his administration. the reason why he was so concerned with the stock market is because he feels that if the stock market is doing well, then americans will feel better. now, the reason why he keeps going back and forth about we need to reopen the economy, we can't reopen the economy, is because he understands, and i think his campaign people understand, that americans are hurting. americans just had 22 million jobless claims in the last month. donald trump knows that this is not quote, unquote, playing well and that's why he is so eager to try to restart the economy. that's why he's tweeting things like liberate virginia and why he's encouraging people to take ownership and try to reassert themselves. donald trump is reacting because he knows that he is not in a good place politically and someone that declared his

re-election the day after his inauguration, you know that he is very concerned about how things are going to go in november. >> all right, eric, alex and sa hill, is you all so much. up next, the endorsements are rolling in for joe biden. we'll talk about the former vp's plans to bring his party together and how he's taking on the president over the federal response to the coronavirus. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea.

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nope. not motor? it's pronounced "motaur." for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. for those who were born to ride, here's the thing about managing for your business.s when you've got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds- things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, there's the dell technologies cloud, powered by vmware. a single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. that should clear things up. i'mitch mcconnell isi apa powerful senator.. so powerful he's already taking a victory lap against the coronavirus in tv ads. even though medical experts

say hundreds of thousands of americans could die. millions are being laid off. and he actually blocked emergency research until drug companies could overcharge for vaccines. what good is a powerful senator if he's hurting us? as joe biden becomes the apparent democratic nominee, he's ramping up his attacks on president trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. >> the president says he ha takes no responsibility. he's president of the united states of america. coordinating this effort is the president's responsibility. he likes to say he's the wartime president. he needs to be able to step up and act like one. not ha rang the press for hours on end while people are dying and friends and coworkers are dying, and family members and

friends are dying, while trump is having a temper tantrum about his not. >> keeping his sights forward, biden this week says he's putting together a post-election transition team and won't rule out announcing any of his new cabinet members before november. the most anticipated being who he will pick as his running mate and fellow democrats are beginning to cool less around biden with former first lady michelle obama reportedly to endorse him soon. biden's week kicked off with major endorsements from former opponents and president barack obama. >> today i am asking all americans, i'm asking every democrat, i'm asking every independent, i'm asking a lot of republicans, to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which i endorse. >> there's one thing we've learned as a country from moments of great crisis. it's that the spirit of looking out for one another can't be restricted to our homes or our workplaces, or our neighborhoods

or yoour houses of worship. it also has to be reflected in our national government. that's why i'm so proud to endorse joe biden for president of the united states. >> we can't afford to let donald trump continue to endanger the lives and livelihoods of every american. and that's why i'm proud to endorse joe biden as president of the united states. >> i would like to bring in the former senior adviser for the bernz 2020 campaign and the founder and president of solidarity strategies. also with me is the news content development executive and an msnbc contributor, and a democratic strategist and a partner at strategies. i want to start with you. this is unprecedented. there's no play book for how to run for president in the middle of a pandemic. what is the vice president's team thinking about how they approach the next few months? >> i mean, i've got to think they are thinking about how do we approach this in a digital

fashion. we've seen joe biden have those events where bernie sanders, which was really good for him in terms of getting the endorsement of bernie sanders and try to get themselves out in the digital world. i think they're also going to have to say, hey, we're going to do this digitally, even if the president himself, president trump, goes out and starts campaigning and doing big events again. we're going to have to set the tone and terms of the conversation and basically try to say, hey, we care more about your health than we do gathering you in a large room, so joe biden can shake hands. but i think they're going to have to spend a lot of time figuring out what their digital strategy is and getting in front of people. your previous guest, alex, i noticed a tweet he had out there, the obama endorsement video has 1.7 million views on youtube, but joe biden's actual youtube page only has about 39,000 subscribers. all of these things, they're going to have to recalibrate in

this wrororld we're in. especially if they believe we're not going to be able to substantially open up for months. >> chuck, those are a lot of endorsements that rolled in this week, and yet i think there is a question of how much each of those individual endorsements matter and how much, if vice president biden wants to bring some of those more progressive voters to the table, he is going to have to present policies and a vision that are in line with those who are seeking a candidate that presented more of that. so how much do these endorsements matter and how much is the vice president going to need to actually move on substance and policy? >> look, i don't think the endorsements mean a whole lot. what the endorsements do, and what they do with their time -- because the vice president can only be in so many places, so you're going to need barack obama, you're going to need bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. places in the country and talking to voters, who they particular identify with and get them to turn out for joe biden. just an endorsement and walk

away means almost nothing, but if you have barack obama and elizabeth warren and bernie sanders out talking face-to-face with voters who trust them and say it's time to all come back if we're going to beat this maniac in the white house. >> the vice president has said that he is committed to choosing a woman as his running mate. i want to play you some sound, val demmings was on with my colleague, earlier today. take a listen. >> if joe biden asked me to serve as his vice president during such a critical and tough time for our nation, of course i would say yes, to continue to serve the people who need the help the most. we are ready to have a woman. i think we're certainly ready to have an african-american woman in such a critical leadership role. we have several women who are ready, willing and able, and i just hope and pray that vice president biden will select an

african-american woman to serve beside them. >> i am so struck, as i am sure you are, by the fact that normally when people are asked about their possibility of their being a running mate, they demure and don't want to talk about it and move onto their next talking point. across the board, we have watched women from val dem, to elizabeth warren to stacey abrams saying yes, i am willing, i am able, here's the case for why i would be a great running mate. what is going on here? >> well, it's no surprise to me that women are stepping up to the plate and that they are showing real leadership in this moment of crisis for our nation. you know, vice president's team is going to have to make a big decision in the next few weeks and coming months. good news for the democratic party is that we have an abundance of riches amongst our women candidates and the work that they have done. and so that's something that i'm really looking forward to seeing. i think they're going to have to get somebody who has high name

recognition who can really energize our base and build a broad coalition. and to build upon the successes and the strength of vice president biden. >> chuck, you have received a lot of act oh laids for the work that you did on the sanders campaign, bringing latino voters to the table. those voters are going to be absolutely critical for biden going into november. tell us a little bit about the work you're doing now and what lessons you think you learned from this primary that you think are applicable to this general election. >> you know, i think about all of the conversations we've had over the years of the ways we would have done this if we had unlimited resources and we went right to the community and gave them the message they wanted hear. i didn't do anything different than what other peers would have done in the same situation. we're taking this now and we're rolling it and we want to take it across the states, the battleground states and in real time talk to latinos to turn them out for every election down the board, from president down to congress and senate and all the way down to the state level.

there needs to be more investment in our community if you want our community to show up. and at a point in time when this virus is affecting people of color, it's exactly the time we should have nuestro pac and deliver a message that will drive the community to the polls. >> chuck, i'm just looking at your background. no one gets more points for being on brand than you, my friend. thank you all so much for your time. red state governors are pushing to reopen their states to elective procedures. will that include abortions? up next, i've got the ceo of planned parenthood. my gums are irritated. i don't have to worry about that, do i? harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. it works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. gum detoxify, from crest.

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- we were so relieved to learn there are treatments for td. - learn more at talkabouttd.com. the entire country is focussed on battling the coronavirus pandemic, red states are waging a quiet war on abortion access. although texas filers have removed their filing after a lower court ruled on their restrictions there. several states have attempted to enact abortion bans as part of their coronavirus lockdown restrictions. those bans are now being challenged in court to varying results. the effects of which could linger even after life returns to normal. with me now is the acting president and ceo of planned parenthood and the planned parenthood action fund. good to see you, thank you for your time. i want to start by talking about texas. yesterday the texas tribune reporting although governor greg

abbott loosened a band on surges, he said it would be up to the courts doe side if his orders included access to abortions. what's behind leaving it to the courts? >> at a time we should be expanding access to health care, politicians are using this pandemic as a cover to further restrict access to safe and legal abortion. and we know that, you know, what we are seeing on the ground, women are getting in their cars, they are driving to states like california to colorado because they understand that abortion is time sensitive, it is a essential medical procedure and, you know, when they are in a desperate situation they will continue to identify the ways in which they can gain access to it. so, you know, they're using the courts to push their agenda and we are fighting back every way we can. >> i want to get your take on the decision reached by the fifth circuit court to allow

pill induced abortions. why is that not sufficient? >> why is it not sufficient? because it is -- because there are many circumstances under which a person may need access to an abortion a medical abortion, a medication abortion will give you up to a certain gestational limit but surgical abortions are also time sensitive. again, what's happening is, it's causing people in a pandemic, when they should be sheltering in place, to get in their cars and drive a dozen hours to a neighboring state to gain access. so it's putting their lives at risk. they are potentially spreading the covid-19, they could be more susceptible to it, so they're using this pandemic as a way of of essentially pushing an agenda against abortion when it's clearly putting people more at risk. >> just this week planned

parenthood filed new lawsuits against bans in arkansas and louisiana. what is your case there? >> yes, we are -- look, we're continuing to fight this fight. this is -- again, the abortion we know is essential, it's time sensitive. so every time these restrictions come up, we have to go and fight. you know, we know that women are the majority of the essential workers in this country, majority of the health care providers, majority of folks home schooling, so the idea that when we should be sheltering in place, doing everything we can to flatten the curve, what we're asking of people seeking abortion is to get in their cars, get on planes and further create exposure is ridiculous. it's just pushing a political agenda. i think, you know, using the courts as opportunities to push

back on restrictions is one thing. there's an emotional whiplash to it. if you just really just trying to detail the impact of what these orders are doing, it's asking our providers to make calls and say i'm sorry your appointment has been cancelled and now you have to make a plan to travel or they're asking, you know, women to call into clinics to find out. the crisis itself has already laid bare the cracks in our health care system and the same politicians behind these attacks are the same politicians who have done everything like not expand medicaid, to force programs like planned parenthood out of title ten, they're not trying to expand health care in a time of pandemic, they're trying to restrict it and that's what we're fighting for in all of these states. >> i only have about 30 seconds, but i'm curious you've increased tell services to all 50 states, what are your providers seeing

when they're getting those requests? >> we've been able to expand access to things like family planning and birth control, sti screening and wrap around services to abortion, we're able to see patients and check them in and understand what their circumstances are and do post follow up, i think like many other health care providers our ability to move forward quickly in the last few weeks around telehealth is quite revolutionary. these are things that oftentimes take a tech date adecade and we able to do it in 10 days. we'll have all telehealth in all of our affiliates by the end of the month. that's one of the great things we've seen in this pandemic. >> that wraps it up for this hour. joshua johnson picks up our coverage at the top of the hour. he'll talk to the governor of

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