>> about the mail-in vote for the june 23rd primaries, people on the left and right are saying it may not be a good idea because the board of elections is not up to carrying out this task. so would polls still be open for people to go to? >> yes. polls will be open. >> and you think the board of elections can iron out their problems? >> karen, life is options. you have an election. there are only two options, either people go to the polls or people vote by absentee. there's no other way to do it, right? we're saying you have both options. you can go to the poll, or you can vote absentee. i don't know what else anyone can expect anyone to do. >> is are you mailing an absentee -- >> excuse me. what is the other option? people on the left and the right are unhappy. >> yes. >> what do they recommend? all right. there are only two things. you have an election.

you can go to the poll that it day, or if you don't want to go to the poll, you both absentee. we're doing both. >> are you worried there could be some kind of mistake or the result won't be valid because something might happen -- >> with regard to absentees, everybody goes to the polls. is that what they want? no, they don't want that either. you wait in line and you come in contact with other people, right? life is options. ber bernadette? >> sir, i'm wondering are you sending absentee application or ballot? >> we're accepting absentee applications. art two of the constitution allows for an absentee voting process. there are two provisions. one if you're out of county and the other is a specific list imnumerated in law by the legislature and one is temporary illness. the governor a fum weeks ago

mended the temporary illness including risk of covid-19. we thought this should be use for an actual ballot to vote and we don't think that's within our constitutional rights for the governor's directive powers to overright the constitution, create a mail-in voting system where one doesn't otherwise exist. so what we're saying is everyone gets an application with postage, so this is easy. every registered voter gets one, they can fill it out and send it back in. to the question of whether or not the board of elections can handle this, the provision the governor did a couple of weeks ago allowed for anybody to do this but you had to download the ballot, call to get the ballot, go to the boe. so all we're doing is making this is more convenient for people without access to internet, don't want to leave their homes for fear of covid-19, are able to get an application directly returned to them with postage paid that the executive order allowed for. >> how smart is that? >> we're a week away to may 1.

thousands of new yorkers have rents do and mortgages due. have you given any thought about giving loans an extension so renters don't pay a large payment when this ended. >> we're looking at that right now, a moratorium among them. >> one followup question, we're three weeks away from when the paws order will be done, may 15th. do you have a time frame for that decision? >> about one week. to give people notice. >> the rent free in new york city is controlled by the rent board in new york city and totally controlled by new york city. i know mayor de blasio is calling for a rent freeze but that's outside our jurisdiction. >> can you do that in other sections of the state, utica? >> that's what we're looking at.

but the conversation has been in the city and something i know the mayor is focused on. >> it's really an issue in new york city. >> when might a decision on that be made? >> the new york city decision, new york has to make. what we do on our -- on our executive orders that are going to expire, we have a couple of -- we have a couple of weeks still. so we'll give people timely notice and we're looking at all options. >> governor, the task force -- and i know melissa is spearheading it, has there been an update on the safety of pregnant women giving birth during a pandemic? >> we're going to be giving the governor a list of recommendations this week for executive actions. so you will be seeing something in the next couple of days but we've been meeting every day this week. >> governor, that revenue shortfall open the door for you to list on the cost to schools, do you intend on invoking that power? what cuts do you expect? >> we're looking at that now and

we don't have the decision now. but i will tell you the truth, i've said to the federal government. i have been talking about this for how long, how long, two months. two months. how can you have a federal government in position where they're not going to provide funding to state governments and local governments? small business, airlines, business programs, now some of these large corporations now. apparently have been taking money from the government programs. and they're not funding state and local. when you don't fund state and local, you know who you don't fund? police, fire, school teachers, school officials. what was the possible theory of funding large corporations but not firefighters, and not police and not health care workers? i mean, it boggles the mind. and all they said was don't worry. don't worry, we're going to do it in the next bill. we're going to do it in the next bill. we're going to do it in the next

bill. i said to our congressional delegation, i said to our senators, schumer and gillibrand, don't pass this past bill that they just did unless you have state and local funding because they're not going to do it. don't worry, don't worry, they're not going to do it. as soon as the senate acts, mcconnell turns around and says, oh, i'm not going to do it. the states should declare bankruptcy. bail out to the blue states. bail out to the blue states. again, the most un-american, uncharitable, ugly state of all time. yes, new york had more coronavirus cases than kentucky. you know why? the flights from europe land in new york. the flights were not landing in kentucky. that's why we have the coronavirus cases. that's what the researchers have

now found two months later. that the virus went from china, europe, got on a plane and came here. by the way, the virus probably got on a plane in china and came here. but china maybe landed in california. the european flights landed here. that's why new york has the coronavirus cases. bail out new york? you're not bailing out new york. new york has bailed you out every year. every year it's bailed you out! mitch mcconnell is a taker, not a giver. new york is a state of givers. we put more money into the federal pot every year. we're the number one state in donating to the federal pot. number one! kentucky is the number three

state in taking from the federal pot. they take out more from the federal pot than they put in. every year. every year. but this is america. states, one federal pot, you put in what you can, and the states that need it take it. okay. so for every year new york was the number one donor state putting in more money than it took out. putting in more money than anyone else. and taking out less. number one donor state, kentucky every year was the number three state that took out more than they put in. so later we were putting money into the pot. they were taking our dollars out of the pot. and now he wants to look at new york and say we're bailing you

out? you're bailing us out. just give me my money back, senator. just give me my money back. i mean, it's just ridiculous. declare bankruptcy. okay, senator, pass the bill that authorizes states to declare bankruptcy. sign the bill, mr. president. economy is coming back. we're doing great. pent-up demand, stock market wants to take off. good, pass a bill allowing states to be bankrupt. and then let's watch how the stock market takes off at that great news about our economic resilience. >> nursing home operators have said that they're facing staff shortages because people are getting sick and they have to take staff out of rotations. of all of the volunteers the state collected into a portal, have anyone been sent to nursing homes? >> they've all been sent, the portal is made 100% available to

all nursing homes. >> you don't have to process certain requests? >> no, you get a list. nursing home goes online. here's the whole list. go to the list. here's 60,000 people. hire whoever you want. they all say they're available and want to help. >> governor, thank you. first of all, i actually wanted to tell you something. i'm speaking with reporters from other states and one from arizona told me last night that -- good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. continuing our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, as we reach a devastating number of deaths today across the country. now more than 50,000 americans have lost their lives to this virus. here are the facts as this hour. president trump is being widely criticized today for dispensing dangerous medical advice. at last night's briefing the president suggesting disinfectant be injected as treatment for the coronavirus, to the obvious dismay of dr.

deborah birx. his task force leader watching from the sidelines with a pained expression on her face. doctors almost universally calling his comments irresponsible and potentially lethal. this as the fda warns against a treatment repeatedly touted to treat hydroxychloroquine, citing the drugs hydroxychloroquine have caused heart problems and improper use of those drugs have indeed caused deaths. the first states are opening for business today in violation of the president's own guidelines. and despite warnings from public health officials that it is just too soon. and the white house at this hour, president trump is about to sign nearly $500 billion in aid for employers at hospitals, but millions of unemployed americans are still waiting for their checks from the earlier relief packages. and moments ago, new york state governor andrew cuomo, who had reported that as many as one in five new york city residents appeared to have the virus from antibody testing, now says there

were likely more than 10,000 cases of coronavirus in new york in february, a full month before the first case in the state was officially diagnosed. we begin in georgia today with nbc's blayne alexander, an atlanta barbershop now open for business. what are you seeing there? are people coming? >> yeah, andrea, absolutely. people are coming but they're coming in certainly smaller numbers than they typically would. this is tony's barber studio. he's one of the businesses open today. i want to show you very quickly, inside he's open for business. i'm going to bring you inside of his studio. i'm going to stand right here in the doorway to create a distance. this is going to be, at least for the foreseeable future, kind of the new standard for him. he has customers spaced out. he tells me he's actually taking fewer appointments than he normally would. typically on a friday afternoon in atlanta, this place would have 30, 40 people inside. but now as you can see, the waiting area is taped off, nobody allowed to wait inside.

i will step back inoutside and we can continue. that's what he told me he will be doing for the foreseeable future. he's removing some of the chairs inside to create more space but that's going to affect his bottom line. the interesting thing about tony, and this is something we're hearing from other owners around the state, he said he's only open because he absolutely has to be. he said he's, quite frankly, in dire straits. dire straits financially. he said one of the other barbers that works with him had to find another job during all of this. he's in a place where the rent costs a lot, the overhead. and these are bills that do not stop despite the pandemic. he told me if he didn't have to, he wouldn't be open today but unfortunately he had to make that call. that's why he's taking all of these measures today to open his doors, because he said he still has bills to pay, andrea. >> blayne alexander, thank you so much. joining us now is the atlanta mayor, keisha lance

bottoms. miss mayor, thank you so much for being with us. before i ask you about the governor's policy to reopen -- and i know you have a different position on this entirely, i want to ask you about the racist text you and your 12-year-old son received, by your attempt to protect atlantaens' health. tell me how that affected you and your family. >> it saddened me. it doesn't frighten me, but it saddened me that in 2020 this is what we're still facing in america. the difference between what i received and things that perhaps happened in the 1960 is there was very different leadership in the white house that did not speak in xenophobic terms and didn't in so many ways give permission to this type behavior. so far in our household, it was a teachable moment. i think it really speaks to the larger discussion that we still continue to need to have an america about race.

>> well, for our viewers as well, how did you handle this? how was it a teachable moment for your 12-year-old, for your younger child as well? >> well, my 9-year-old daughter was looking over my shoulder when i received it, so she was literally shocked at the same moment that i was. but just in our house listening to my high school senior share with a sixth grader he's been called the n-word more times than he can count was surprising to me but also heartbreaking to me. for us, it really just was a discussion about ignorance. i reached out to ambassador andrew young, who also served as mayor to atlanta. i said to him, i just need some fatherly advice, how do i handle this with my children? what he reminded me is that racism is an illness and for many generations, atlanta has been a city that we called ourselves too busy to hate, but

clearly, there's hatred that is still throughout america and the mayor of atlanta, i'm not immune to it and neither are my children. >> of course, andrew young, a hero who marched with mr. king and hero to many of us as well for yooerz years, former u.n. ambassador. i don't need to tell you that. mayor, with all of this messaging from the white house, we understand from jonathan lemire and colleagues at the associated press, despite what the president said about strongly disagreeing with governor kemp, that he and the vice president he encouraged or gave a green light to the governor when he was initially planning to reopen? >> well, andrea, if that is true, i think that really speaks to what we all experience in america. we receive conflicting messages

from president trump and from vice president pence. from one day to the next, we're not sure what's accurate and what page we will be on. but i'll just speak to georgia. i just received our new numbers, and our numbers are up 28.8% in positive tests since last week and deaths are up 37.23% since last week. we aren't trending downwards. there's no science or data that supports opening up our state. and when i look at those barbers cutting hair, it breaks my heart. my mother owned a hair salon for about 25 years. so i understand the economic hardships and how many people live from paycheck to paycheck. but what i also know, i guarantee you, those barbers would have stayed home if there was stimulus money in their pockets to incentivize them and to make it possible for them to feed their families. so what i would hope is that

leaders across this country, we will be creative just in looking at ways that we can help people help themselves is. in atlanta we have started a beauty and barbershop relief fund. and we're asking people to donate money to that fund. we've asked evictions be stayed. we suspended smapayments. we have small business loans. there's so much we can and should do on the local level and federal level. but at the state level as well, i think most importantly, the most important thing we can do is be responsible leaders and not put an economic recovery before we put life. >> and just to reiterate, as you point out, the numbers are going up and not going down for two weeks, as is the guidance from the white house, says the president's own guidelines. and in fact georgia, as i understand it, is the seventh worst state in the country in

terms of testing. so there's a lot of work to be done. mayor, i know you're very busy. thank you so much for being with us today. we really do appreciate it. and it's not only in the south where they are seeing these reopenings, oklahoma's governor is also allowing some hair salons, even dog groomers to reopen today. individual mayors though are planning to keep businesses closed, creating a patchwork quilt across the state. joining me is oklahoma's mayor brea clark, one of the first oklahoma mayors to issue emergency restrictions after the governor did not. and now warning her governor against reopening too quickly. madam mayor, thank you for being with us. what's the situation there, are people following you or following the governor? and i'm afraid we have an audio problem. we're going to have to see if we can fix this and come back to

the mayor of oklahoma. sorry. this is working from home from our living room to yours. thank you very much as we move on. coming up -- let's try one more time. i understand i think we fixed the audio. mayor? >> we have. we have, thank you. >> i hear you loud and clear. thank you very much and sorry for that hiccup. everyone is asking whether or not your residents, your constituents are following your guidance or following the governor's guidance? >> for the most part, i know our constituents are following our guidelines along with the other major cities of oklahoma, oklahoma city and tulsa. it just gets really frustrating because now our first responders in response to the confusion are having to go out and educate these businesses who have opened. and i don't think they're doing it with malice. again, there's mixed messaging. so it's a waste of resources all the way around. it is very frustrating. >> and what is the impact there?

first of all, what are you learning from testing, the level of testing there, and the incidents of coronavirus in your town and state? >> our testing is also quite low at this time, but i was very encouraged by an announcement from ou medicine, university of oklahoma and oklahoma medical research foundation yesterday that we will see a very large increase in testing capacity and inventory next week. but my whole point with opening things today is next week is next week. we don't have that testing capacity right now. so it's very, very dangerous to open without it. we need to get to a position where we're proactive, not just reactive. opening businesses where it's sustaining close personal contact is very dangerous. i have had many stylists and estheticians reach out to me and thank me for not reopening because they're not ready and it's not safe to do so yet. to put them in that position is unfortunate. the patchwork where some open

and some don't, it really pits cities against each other. oklahoma is the only state in the nation that ties cities to sales tax the way we do to support our general funds. so it's very frustrating. i described it as "the hunger games" of competing for sales tax revenues. we shouldn't have to put our economies over public health and safety. it's really unfortunate we're in this position. >> mayor breea clark in northern oklahoma, thank you very much. thank you for being with us today. coming up -- bad medicine. the president giving out dangerous ideas for treating covid-19. later, house speaker nancy pelosi joining me to talk about the latest stimulus package and whether it does enough to help americans in need. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. the coronavirus continues to affect us all, and we are here, actively supporting you and your community. every day, we're providing trusted information from top health experts...sharing tools to help protect families from fraud...

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a. there's growing outrage following the president's comments at his daily briefing last night after he offered potentially lethal suggestions of ways to treat covid-19, including injecting disinfectant. >> i see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number. it would be interesting to check that so you -- you would have to use medical doctors but it sounds interesting to me.

>> the president's statements enjoying notably pained reaction dr. dr. deborah birx. and overnight lysol tweeting -- even before the president spoke, the epa released a statement saying never apply the product to yourself or others. do not ingest disinfectant products. and today as we have been reporting, experts have issued a warning against prescribing hydroxychloroquine, as some have been touting, including trials because of side effects and death. let's bring in our white house correspondent, kristen welker, "the washington post" columnist eugene robertson and center for infectious disease and research

at the university of minnesota, michael osterholm. kristen, let's talk about president's claims or suggestions. i don't know that we actually played it yet but just watching dr. deborah birx on that second camera, she looked so pained as she was bracing herself for him to ask her to comment on it. >> that's right. when the president asked her to weigh in on whether or not heat or light could be used as a possible treatment, she was quick to say that it couldn't be, although she was very diplomatic about it. she said, look, heat certainly in the form of a temperature can be helpful to the human body but there's no indication that heat or light can be used as a treatment for covid-19. let me read you what caylee mcnene, the white house press secretary had to say earlier this morning, andrea. she said, president trump repeatedly said americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point he emphasized again

during yesterday's briefing. leave it to the media to irresponsibly take president trump out of context and run with negative headlines. of course, no one is taking him out of context, people are just quoting what he said, andrea. based on my conversations with administration officials this morning, they say that what he said from the podium yesterday had not been discussed beforehand. it was something he clearly ad libbed. he didn't mean to suggest people should inject things like disinfectants into their bodies. they also feel like the shop could have been faster to clear this up. we know president trump as we speak is in the oval office. he's going to be signing that $480 billion aid package into law. that's going to give help to hospitals. it's going to give help to expand funds for more tests. so reporters in the room undoubtedly will ask him for this, andrea. we will wait to see if he has anything to say or any

clarification on the hour, andrea. >> and i wanted to play the exchange between the president and dr. birx about the use of heat, ultraviolet rays to kill the virus. eugene robinson, let me play that and ask your reaction on the other side. >> i would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there's any way you can apply light and heat to cure, you know, if you could. maybe you can, maybe you can't. i say maybe you can, maybe you can't. i'm not a doctor. but a person that has a good -- have you ever heard of that, the heat and the light relative to certain viruses, yes. but relative to this virus? >> not as a treatment. certainly fever is a good thing when you have a fever. it helps your body respond. but not as -- i have not seen heat or -- >> it's a great thing to look

at. >> eugene, that whole performance yesterday, i still don't understand why the dhs, the guy from homeland security, was even giving that briefing on these random issues that have not been fully tested or validated by medical science. >> yeah, it was -- the whole thing was astonishing. it was amazing that here we are the day after, hoping against hope that no one takes the president literally. no one actually tries to ingest bleach or lysol or something like that or somehow tries to introduce internally light or heat, all of which could be dangerous and/or fatal. it's just absurd. it's on the one hand, it's at times breathtaking what the president doesn't know. when he says i'm not a doctor, that's the one thing he said

that you can take to the bank, he's not a doctor. the second thing is he doesn't understand this is -- it is completely inappropriate role for him to play. he's sitting there with one of the world's leading experts on infectious diseases, sitting there kind of numbibly to the side, dr. birx. so why is he even out there? why did he even have the dhs come to give random figures? why doesn't he leave the briefings to dr. birx and dr. fauci and the professionals in whom we trust and can trust? it was just -- it was incredible. there are no words for that exchange. >> and, in fact, what we've now learned from a lot of very good reporting is that the people from the cdc, nancy messagier,

who were warning about the pandemic back on february 25th, were silenced, and that was taken over, in fact, by the white house and by other political appointees. at the very worst moment. i want to bring in a real scientist among us as well, michael osterholm. let's talk about the science that is dangerous about hydroxychloroquine, which has now, today, received a warning, a warning against doctors prescribing it outside of hospitals in controlled experiments. >> well, i think what we're all talking about is clearly statements have consequences, particularly when they lead to certain actions. i find this conversation unfortunate because i can tell you my 10-year-old grandson understood the significance of those statements and the credibility issues around them. i think at a time when we're facing many more months of this pandemic to unfold with many,

many thousands of additional cases, we're all looking for that voice, that fireside chat voice, that moment of clarity about this is what we know, this is what we don't know, as was just said by kristen. we need somebody who will be the leader, who will speak to those issues and unfortunately, we still don't have that. and i think that's going to be something that is only going to be growing more important each week as we continue to go through this pandemic. >> one of the other things the president said in the opening of his briefing yesterday is we're going to have a vaccine soon. as fast as scientists might be working, even on three tests with human subjects, it's not going to be soon. the optimism about what's going to happen and the dispute between the scientists and the president about whether there will or will not be a resurgence in the fall, let me ask you your

considered opinion about if this will come back and how severely it comes back in the fall, depending what we do now? >> it does and surely what we do now will limit the cases. but we have to understand this much like we understand gravity. even if you want to defy in it, even if you don't believe it happens, it works. we know this virus is highly infectious and it will continue to burn through our population well beyond the 10% to 15% that may be infected now. it won't stop until it gets to the 60%, 70% range where we can have what we call herd immunity. think about what we have, 10%, 15% and we need 60% to 70% to see a slowdown in transgression. those are a lot of cases. our only hope is we can get a vaccine sooner or later. some of that could be from immunity related to the vaccine and not illness. but i think you raise a very important point, andrea, we still don't have a promise that

a vaccine is going to be coming. so that's all the more reason why these conversations and credibility are so important because when you think about what is yet to come, it is so, so much larger than what we've already experienced. and we're trying to get people to understand that. that's where messaging is everything. >> very important information, guidance from real scientist, dr. michael osterholm. thank you very much. thank you kristen welker. and the coronavirus is now the leading cause of death in los angeles county, passing deaths from the flu, emphysema and heart disease. this according to health officials. but this as the county and state of california are struggling to deal with the vulnerable homeless populations during this pandemic. there's close to 59,000 people experiencing homelessness in l.a. county alone, according to the annual count conducted in 2019. that's the second highest in the country. joining me now is is the ceo of

nonprofit the people concern, which provides the homeless with interim housing and medical health care and much, much more. john, thank you for being with us. what are you doing to try to ameliorate the problem with such vulnerable people, the homeless population? >> thank you, andrea. and i appreciate you having me on this morning to talk about what we're doing. at the people concern, what we are seeing on the ground is about twice the number of people coming into our facilities as previously -- we fixed the audio here? >> we hear you fine, i believe. >> oh, okay. i'm sorry. i can't hear. i apologize, i can't hear it on my end. so we are seeing about 300 people a day, people experiencing homelessness coming to us for basic services such as food, clothing, showers, access to hygiene products. we are seeing a level of

desperation in these individuals to be able to access services. i have been working at one of our interim housing sites for the past -- every week for the past six weeks. what i can tell you is, and as you see in this video here, the line of people outside our access center waiting for basic services. we're on the frontlines here. our outreach teams are on the streets every single day providing access to care and treatment and making sure that people are not getting sick. if they are getting sick, that they're linked to services and housing as quickly as possible. >> and, john, what about the problem of keeping some kind of social distance? how are you able to do that and the other homeless shelters? >> well, we're doing social distancing and have been ever since the beginning of the pandemic in our facilities. so we're practicing at least six feet social distancing.

we've depressed the number of beds we have in our facilities. we are providing personal protective equipment for both our staff and our residents. we're making sure the facilities are clean and disinfected. but there's a real challenge with that because this requires resources. i think one of the concerns that we have, and we're very grateful for all of the stimulus money that's coming to state and local governments, but essential service providers like the people concerned are doing this work on the ground every day and we're having real challenges with making sure resources are being coming to us directly in this fight. so one of our appeals to our congressional delegation going forward -- and i believe speaker pelosi will be on your show shortly, is that i hope the congress will consider the essential work that providers like the people concerned and other organizations like ours across the country -- this is happening in cities all around

the country, are going this frontline essential work in terms of bringing people signed as quickly as possible, providing health care, providing basic services and we need help and resources now. >> john maceri, thank you so much. urgent concern and indeed, you're correct, house speaker nancy pelosi on the president's push to reopen and also on the aid that is supposed to be coming now from this latest package, that's coming up next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. at papa john's, we want you to know that from our

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joining me now is the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. madam speaker, i want to ask you about what's next, if there's another package to come with all of the needs. thank you very much for being with us. i just understand the president in the oval office has told the press pool he was speaking sarcastically when he talked about ingesting disinfectant as well as some of the other remedies he was asking about yesterday. big reaction to that. what is your reaction? >> well, my reaction is it was consistent with all of his other statements, which had no relationship to science, fact, evidence, data or appropriate way to proceed. so it was consistent. what is also consistent with mitch mcconnell saying let the states go bankrupt, they don't believe in science and they don't believe in governance and

that's why it's hard to get them to accept the evidence that we have a role to do something to meet the needs of the american people in a very direct and stronger way. >> is it a serious problem when the president of the united states talks about something that is poisonous, ingesting lysol or another disinfectant or touts medication that has not been properly peer tested or reviewed, the fda is now warning against the hydroxychloroquine? >> not only that, encouraging the agencies that have a responsibility for approval to approve what they want, what the administration wants, rather than what science demands. this is a terrible situation. but i don't know who's advising him scientifically but you would have thought there would have been a real outrage yesterday when he made this suggestion. as i say, consistent. that's why on easter sunday i

had my own epiphany and said i cannot remain silent any longer. what he is saying is dangerous. the doe delay, denial, deadly, the hoax that will go away, ingest lysol into your lungs, what is this? but nonetheless, let's just go forward and let's say what we're doing legislatively we will provide the resources for our health services and the rest to meet the needs of the american people for our scientists who quickly, as soon as possible, find a vaccine, hopefully a cure even sooner than that, and that we will make sure that there's integrity in how it is developed and integrity how it is distributed. that doesn't exist right now according to what we are seeing from the white house. >> madam speaker, when he suggested yesterday, he said we'll have a cure soon.

but at the same time according to an upcoming whistle-blower complaint that we understand from dr. bright, who was removed from his position in charge of the vaccination research effort, that he's actually, according to his complaint and his version of it, he was removed from his job by pushing back against the recommendation from the president, the push to validate that malaria medication. >> well, my colleague congresswoman of california is the chair of the health subcommittee of energy and commerce. it was her legislation that established part of that, that dr. bright was the head of. she and we all have respected and know his work and respected over time and follow that work. she will be, i understand, will be having a hearing on the subject. and we have to get to the facts, as allegations are made. but this is explosive.

but, again, we want to be hopeful for the american people and to kind of almost minimize the impact of what the president is saying. but when he takes scientists out because they're not quickly giving approvals to his preferred choice of medicines, it's beyond me. that is a danger to our system. efficacy and safety, they're the hallmarks of how a drug is proved in going forward. we have seen some things he has recommended have not been safe. while he was recommending them. it's very sad. again, it's a challenge. but let's recognize it's a challenge and maybe his saying he was just being silly or whatever he was saying about what he said yesterday, it didn't seem so when you saw him say it. he seemed like he was speaking from his usual great authority on every subject. but the fact is that we cannot be deterred but why what he say

those conferences. we cannot be obsessed. what we are doing is talking about him and we have to talk about what our possibilities are as we go into the future. we're hopeful yesterday -- i, myself, i'm personally shaken by the fact 50,000 people died. i'm sure you are too. and most people are. 50,000 people have died. we have to do better. and yesterday we had some hope because we passed a bill that eventually republicans agreed to we would put $100 billion into hospitals and testing so that we could go forward. and it calls for a national strategy for testing. it calls for documenting how it is affecting different communities of color, geography, ethnicity and the rest. we just have to act upon what can be helpful rather than be dragged down every day. it's a tactic. it's a technique, it's a diversionary tactic.

>> madam speaker, i do want to ask you going forward about something else that he said, that there won't be more money for the post office, which is at risk of going under, unless they raise prices on big there anyth about that? >> everything he says you have to -- he says you can pump lyslysol into your body. the post office has over 90% favorability among the american people. they depend on the post office as a public institution. seniors now have always been getting their medicine by mail for a long time now and now even more urgently. people are buying things that are telemarketing and the rest and they're being delivered by the post office.

so at this time, any time it's a bad idea, but it's what they're about, privatization, privatization, privatization. let someone else go make money off someone that should be a public service for the american people. we will have to have that fight. we tried to get funding for the post office in the c.a.r.e.s. one bill. the president i understand personally rejected it. we have to save the lives and livelihood of the american people. we also have to save our liberty, the life of our democracy. voting by mail is central to this in any event, but at the time of the coronavirus, very essential. we had $400 million in c.a.r.e.s. one, we have to have much more than that in c.a.r.e.s. two so people can vote by mail. when the supreme court acting

like party hacks said that the state of wisconsin had to vote on that day and limited the importance of voting by mail, they were doing a republican agenda, but the fact is is that having those people vote at that time was as if we ib nvited the all to the mardi gras, probably caused more infections. people were standing in long for a very long time, keeping social distancing but nonetheless having to be out when they should be home. this issue of vote by mail and also saying every person registered to vote should receive a ballot and that we should have same-day registration for those who have not registered to vote, opening the process, this is what our country is about. the vote, the sacred right to vote and i'm a former state chair of the party, and our purpose was always to remove obstacles for participation,

whether they were democrats, republicans, independents or whatever they were. >> madam speaker, i know time is so short. i do want to ask you that joe biden raised the issue he thinks the president is trying to kick back the election and somehow not have the -- create a rationale not to hold the election on november 3rd as schedule if there's a resurgence of the virus in the fall. it's a constitutional mandate. are you sure that you can -- and democrats can make sure we have the election as scheduled? >> we must. i know there's a danger and people are scared but we must and we will. this is -- he has done so much to undermine our democracy, to undermine our rights, dishonoring the constitution, undermining the integrity of our voting process, denigrating our newcomers to our country. just degrading our environment, our values and the rest so he

has done a lot to undermine who we are as america but the fact is we cannot allow him to do that to our democracy. that will not happen. and god willing maybe some republicans might even stand up for our country, our constitution and our democracy as well. i think they will. >> we have less than ament b mi but i just want to ask you about all those people who still have not gotten their unemployment claims from their first package. is will anything congress can do to ensure states get on the ball with this? >> we really have to support the states in a stronger way because they're getting so many applications for unemployment insurance. so they need more funding for the administrative process that is taken. we put about $1 billion in c.a.r.e.s. one for the states but they need more. one state, rhode island, the

governor told me that one week they had ten applications on a wednesday. the following wednesday they had 10,000 applications. so there's an administrative -- a need for straightive administ resources to facilitate that. there's no reason there should be a delay in terms of the direct payments. they had a delay for the president could sign the check. oh, come on. what is this about? i don't know what is worse, i've been thinking about it at night. shameful or shameless. whatever it is, that was shameful or shameless that they would hold that up when people are crying out and needing that. in fact, we need more in the next tranche and we need -- people want three things i hear from them the most. they want our first responders, our health care workers to have the ppe that they need as they try to save lives, as they risk their own lives to do so and

perhaps even lose their jobs. then they want their checks. they want their checks. they want their direct payment, they want their unemployment check, they want their ppe, the paycheck protection check for small business. the third thing is they do not want any taxpayer dollars going to industries that are enriching shareholders at the expense of workers. that money is destined to keep people in their jobs, no to increase bonuses, dividends, ceo pay or buybacks. so those are three things that make people kind of upset among others and that's exactly what we try to put off with our four bills that we had passed. first one in march, march 4th. it was about testing, testing, testing. here we are a month and a half later, not adequately prepared for the testing but we in the bill yesterday, hopefully that will do that. let me just say this one thing.

the republican part of the technique in addition to being anti-science and anti-governance want to say we held up the bill. they ended up voting for exactly what we put on the floor of the senate on april 9th, which was the day they brought their bill to the floor. the leader of the debate yesterday on the house floor said, well, we could have agreed to this two weeks ago in 16 minutes, democrats and republicans, except the democrats had all these extra curricular stuff, stuff like $100 billion for hospitals and testing, lending opportunities for people who are short sort of in the underbanked category, more money for lending, et cetera, for our small businesses and the rest. they called that extra curricular stuff. take that to the hospital with you when you want to see what the priorities are between us here and what the debate is about. but all of our bills have been

bipartisan. our next bill will be bipartisan and we look forward to getting on with that as soon as possible to save the lives, the livelihood and the life of our democracy. >> we're going to have to leave it there but thank you again. thank you very much, madam speaker. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." i'll be on "meet the press" this sunday with chuck todd, who picks up our coverage just after the break. our coverage just afr the break. took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio and so much more. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide.

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