hello, everybody. welcome to nbc's special coronavirus coverage. i'm peter alexander here in washington, d.c. we begin tonight with the white house response to the pandemic. for weeks at this particular hour of the day the conversation has been dominated by those near daily updates from president trump and his coronavirus task force. but there is no briefing today for the first time since easter weekend after just a 21-minute briefing yesterday. in which president trump took no questions from reporters for the first time. all of this coming in the wake of the president's comments on thursday that sparked obviously a considerable uproar. >> i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute.

one 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 will be interesting to check. so that you're going to have to use medical doctors. but it sounds -- it sounds interesting to me. >> nbc news tonight reporting that the president's words caught covid-19 task force members and west wing aides off guard saying, "as the president went off script about uv rays and disinfectants aides began trading text messages with one saying this was going to be bad." just yesterday while signing a relief bill in the oval office the president was also asked about those comments, downplaying his remarks, saying that he wasn't being serious, saying that he was "asking a question to reporters sarcastically just to see what would happen." as of this afternoon there are more than 925,000 confirmed

cases of coronavirus in the united states with more than 53,000 dead. the impact of this virus globally tallies up to close to 3 million confirmed cases. and you can see the global deaths approaching 200,000. we want to get to the white house right now. my colleague, nbc's monica alva-s there on her post on the north lawn tonight for us. monica, give us a sense. this was a bit striking to see the president not take questions yesterday. a little more interesting that he's not going to be speaking to reporters in any form today as well. >> reporter: that's right, peter. after last night's markedly short briefing where the president and the vice president didn't take any questions that trend continues today with no briefing on the schedule. and i'm told the president just tweeted about this actually. i'm going to read to you because this is just in. he said, "what is the purpose of having white house news conferences when the lamestream media asks nothing but hostile questions and then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately? she get record ratings" in his words "and the american people

get nothing but fake news. not worth the time and effort." if you take just that, peter, and you look at the last two months, the president has done more than 40 of these daily briefings since the health crisis really started. clearly the president believes it was worth the effort and the time he has put into this, hours and hours, sometimes these briefings veering off into other topics and lasting more than two hours. but as we saw last night, without the presence of doctors either fauci or birx so many questions remained about the president's controversial comments on those potential treatments for coronavirus. and we're told today that the white house continues to evaluate how these briefings should continue and if today is an indication they are going to try to scale back. on certain weekends we have seen them skip a briefing from time to time but what's most notable is the president clearly has a lot on his mind but now that he's been criticized so roundly by these comments the white house is an act of cleaning them

up and they're not exactly sure how to do that so for the time being they're going to rely on his tweets and silence from the actual podium, peter. >> yeah, monica. in my conversations and i'm sure yours as well with white house aides and officials or former aides, now outside the white house, these briefings were intended to put him in a position of leadership, to show him in charge of this, surrounded by some of the top deputies, as it were, within the administration as well. but now there are fears that it's sort of proven as a form of self-sabotage here. there are also real questions tonight as you've been reporting about the absence of dr. anthony fauci in recent days. only there i think once in the last week for these briefings. what are you hearing from your conversations? >> dr. fauci was a near-constant presence at these briefings and if there was a handful of days where he didn't make an appearance, the hashtag where is fauci began to trend on twitter and the white house had to do more to explain where he might be, which of course he has a day job and he's doing very

important work toward a potential vaccine for coronavirus. but this week out of seven briefings he only attended one and that was quite a significant one because he contradicted the president on whether coronavirus will rebound and come back in a second wave in the fall. the president maintains it may not come back at all. he says it might just be embers or pockets, but fauci came up to the lectern and stated definitively that coronavirus will be back and that he is convinced of that. and now this also comes this week as dr. fauci did an interview with "time" magazine where he was talking about testing capabilities and the president was asked about that and he said he did not agree with fauci. so while the two men have disagreed on several occasions the white house maintains they have a good working relationship. and it's worth pointing out that even though the president has once or twice elevated a tweet that contains the hashtag fire fauci he can't actually directly remove him. he'd have to have other members do that for himself. but it is notable that he wasn't there last night. he obviously was here for the

task force meeting, we should say today, he was with the president in the situation room. we saw him on camera. but he's not in these briefings and not by the president's side at least as regularly as he once was, peter. >> monica alba, appreciate your reporting from the white house north lawn tonight. thank you very much. shifting back to thursday's white house briefing there was of course a testy exchange between the president and one of our next guests. phillip rucker of the "washington post." take a listen. >> people tuning in to these briefings, they want to get information and guidance and want to know what to did -- >> hey. i'm the president and you're fake news. and you know what else i'll say to you? i'll say very nicely, i know you well. i know you well because i know the guy, i see what he writes. he's a total faker. so are you ready? are you ready? are you ready? it's just a suggestion. from a brilliant lab by a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant man. he's talking about sun. he's talking about heat. and you see the numbers. so that's it.

that's all i have. i'm just here to present talent. i'm here to present ideas. >> and phil rucker joins me now. he is white house bureau chief for the "washington post." also msnbc political analyst joining us as well heidi przybilla correspondent here covering government and ethics. and john torres, medical correspondent, also an emergency medicine physician who joins us for this conversation. let me start, phil, with you if i can quickly. monica just set up the president's tweet tonight basically trying to explain why he's not going to be hosting a briefing this evening. but within the last hour and a half he also tweeted the following. he said, "was just informed that the fake news from the thursday white house press conference had me speaking and asking questions of dr. deborah birx. wrong. i was speaking to our laboratory expert, not deborah-b sunlight, et cetera and the coronavirus. the lamestream media is corrupt and sick." this just demands a fact check. the bottom line is the president's accusing the media of making things up.

in fact this is the exchange where the president directly asked a question of dr. deborah birx. take a listen. >> deborah, 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. >> so there's your real-time fact check. the president unfortunately is the one who has his facts wrong on this occasion. phil, what's the conversation behind the scenes right now? a short briefing yesterday. no briefing today. a former official telling me what will really matter is what he says on monday. that's what we should be watching. what are you hearing behind the scenes? >> yeah, peter, well, the president's explanation of a few minutes ago for why he's no longer doing these briefings does not comport with the reporting that my colleagues and i have based on conversations with his aides. there was a determination made after what they considered to be a disastrous briefing on thursday that these are not helping him, in fact they're

hurting the president politically. they're showing him out of command of the situation and he's putting false information out there to the american people. when he came out to that briefing friday, a decision was made in the white house that he would not take questions from reporters. that was a concession in terms of how bad it had gone on thursday. and then he's not doing the briefing today, and we're told that he may not be returning to the podium until monday or even later than that. there's a clear decision and calculation inside the white house nat president has agreed to that these breechiefings are damaging to his political standing and so he's going to try to take a back seat. >> and heidi, it's not just the president's aides who are concerned about this. we're hearing from republican allies, republican lawmakers as well who have real concerns this is not serving their or the president's best interests, and it's sort of i think driven home by a new statistic from the nbc poll that we recently posted,

which is that 66% of americans trust their governor. 60% trust dr. anthony fauci. but just 36% trust donald trump. 52% of americans do not trust him on this topic. >> correct. and when you say that his allies are also concerned about this, you're absolutely correct. we know for a fact that individuals such as senator lindsey graham were concerned after he was using his twitter presence as well to call for a liberation of states who are still seeing an increase frankly in the number of infected. and you saw then his aides come to his side and say you're going to have to pull this back, don't support this in the case of georgia. and this is not about, though, just one briefing, peter. this is about the totality of what the president has been doing both on social media and at that podium every day, which is to give the information which is not accurate to the american

people. starting with this is just one person coming in from china, it's going to go away to days and days of promotion of a drug combination which has never been tested together, the z-pak and the hydroxychloroquine where we now have evidence that this was actually being prescribed outside of a hospital setting to individuals amid the fanfare around this drug combination. and then you had this disastrous performance on thursday. and the problem for the president is that he can't just call this fake news. right? he does that a lot. that's his shtick, is to look at a story in the newspaper and say knows are fake sources, that's fake news. whereas every day he's out there saying these things and the american people can see it for themselves. it was less than 24 hours at that time lincoln project, which is a group that is very critical of the president, you know, alienated republicans who turned that around into an online ad,

peter. >> and dr. torres, if we could ask you, this wasn't the president's first dubious medical tip. he's been speculating about science, as both phil and i have indicated over the course of the last several weeks. hydroxychloroquine of course one of those examples. the president said he thought it could be a game changer. he said what do we have to lose here? i'll next my background in a second as i just lost it. but if i can ask you very quickly in simple terms, what is the bottom line here? there are real-life consequences to this, are there not? >> and peter, exactly right. there are real-life consequences to this. with the hydroxychloroquine we've heard stories of especially one gentleman who took chloroquine, which is a velvet of, this a fish cleaning solution but the same thing, and ended up dying because his wife said he did it specifically because he heard the president talk about that. and now we're talking about disinfectants. and i put out message after message, done inhale, ingest, or inject these things, they are dangerous and they could be lethal. so you have to be very careful with them.

and part of the issue is people listen to him, and they think he's getting the information from the scientists and public health experts that he has on his team. but instead what happens is he ends up going a little off script and talking about it himself. he needs to let them talk. these things are nuanced and they're very complicated. he needs to let them do that. >> and phil, if i could ask you, there's also some new reporting from the "washington post" about how the president is expanding his battle with the world health organization beyond his threat to suspend aid to the w.h.o. what more do we know about that? >> well, we know that american officials on behalf of the trump administration are not attending meetings, they're trying to antagonize the world health organization. this fits a pattern, a strategy of the president's, to try to create an enemy here, to find some entity other than his own administration to blame for the swift spread of the coronavirus. and the president in the last few weeks has seized on the

world health organization, accusing it of not sounding the alarm soon enough, accusing it of being biased in favor of china. those allegations of course are disputed by others in the international community. but nonetheless, it pits the united states against an organization that is actively working around the world to try to cure this pandemic and stabilize the health environm t environment. and it's a very tumultuous period in that relationship, and this is only the latest international institution that the president has antagonized and tried to isolate the united states from. remember, he's gone after nato and all sorts of other organizations as well. >> we've got a great panel with phil, heidi, and dr. torres joining us. you three are going to be back with us a little bit later in the hour. i'll ask you to stick with us for the moment if we can. this pandemic is hitting marginalized communities, especially hard right now. but it's particularly hard to know the true extent of the problem ams states are not collecting racial data about

their outbreaks. michigan is a notable exception, and the data there is sobering. in a state where only 14% of the population is black, fully 44% of coronavirus deaths are black people. joining me now, my friend reverend al sharpton, host of "politics nation" on msnbc and president and founder of the national action network. rev, i appreciate your being here to weigh in on this right now. give us a sense of what specifically needs to be happening right now to do more for those communities of color that are disproportionately being impacted by this crisis. and it continues to happen in real time. >> i think first we must go after the testing problem. we clearly have a problem with the testing being adequately done in black communities. when i talk to people in michigan and we have chapters of national action network, reverend charles williams, that we're looking at data, 14% of the population.

as you said, 44% of those that have been tested. and many have not been tested. it could be worse than that, peter. so we need to start with testing and then we need to also equally have access to health care in terms of how they can be dealt with, those that are found to be positive. because what the coronavirus has done, it did not create this racial disparity in health care. it exposed it. it put klieg lights on it. and all of this comes from everything from having improper health facilities, it comes from poverty, it comes from food desserts. it's based on race. and it can only be solved if we have a race-based answer to a racial problem. >> some of those problems are dramatic. let me just pull up for you on our screen right now, this from vox. they write, "essential workers

are taking care of america. are betaking care of them?" they say black and hispanic workers are able to work from home at lower rates than white and asian americans. the higher representation of black and hispanic people, the essential category, likely contributes to the race gap in coronavirus deaths in many parts of the united states. and for so many of those communities, rev, right now who are trying to get access to the loans that may be available, to monies that may be provided by the federal government, that's proving to be a significant challenge as well, is it not? >> absolutely. one of the things that we worked on this week, many of the civil rights groups, naacp, national urban league, legal defense fund has worked with the leaders of the clergy organizations, national conference of black organizations, black faith-based organizations, reverend franklin richardson, is saying that we've got to close this gap in terms of black and people of color

businesses. did not get a lot of the stimulus money for small businesses in the first round. and we're trying to make sure it is not done with this one. and there's all kinds of moves. speaker pelosi has effectively helped fight this. is still not where we want it. but we are determined to make sure that when this goes live monday morning that our businesses gets its share because many of our people, most people work in small businesses. we must make sure those businesses survive. >> rev, lastly if i can, when we've seen these protests in parts of the country right now, we've very rarely seen persons much color joining those conversations. we've also seen reporting about demonstrators carrying confederate flags. is there a racial divide in how americans think about this virus and what's driving it? >> i think there clearly is a racial divide. and i think it's shown at these protest that's are almost all white and as you said confederate flags.

we had one lawmaker in michigan, you started our conversation talking about michigan. we had one senator on the senate floor, state senate floor that had his face mask that had been done as a confederate flag. he ought to be removed from that body. to walk on the floor with the symbol and flag of a group of americans that really was seditious in their actions is no place in this country as well as it being racist, it was one that was rebelling against these united states. this has brought out an ugliness that i think we ought to call it what it is and we need to deal with it in a forthright and unapologetic way. >> msnbc's reverend al sharpton. rev, we appreciate your time on this saturday night. thanks very much. >> thank you. coming up, as president trump tries to fine-tune his messaging on the coronavirus

response, joe biden is rising in the polls. that has republicans calling for a new strategy, going scorched earth on the former vp. you're watching msnbc. more live coverage tonight right after this. ight right after this wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home, from inspiration to installation. like way more vanities perfect for you. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪ nice. way more top brands in sinks and faucets. way more ways to rule your renovation. nice! on any budget, with free shipping. wayfair. way more than furniture.

♪ ♪all strength ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪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 i have always wanted to be a teacher. i've been teaching for over 20 years. with everything going on, we've had to alter our classroom settings. we have to transition into virtual learning. on the network, we can have teachers face-to-face with a student in live-time. they can raise their hand and ask questions. they can type questions. we just need to make sure that the education is continuing.

(vo) at verizon, we're here and we're ready to keep students and teachers connected to the world. that's why verizon and "the new york times" are offering 14 million students free digital access to "times" journalism. this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need.

and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. featuring the emmy award-winning voice remote. access to your favorite apps, including netflix, prime video, youtube and hulu. all without changing passwords and inputs. the most 4k content and movies and shows on any screen. the best entertainment experience all in one place.

we are back now. as president trump struggles to recalibrate his re-election message in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, new polling suggests that joe biden is gaining ground as what they call a generic alternative to president trump. several new polls show biden leading trump in swing states while the recent nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows biden ahead of trump nationally with 49% of the vote to the president's 42%. president trump's sagging numbers have reportedly prompted trump campaign officials to push for a scorched earth strategy against biden. joining me now, senior politics editor for nbc news beth fooey. i appreciate you being with us

on a saturday night. fudge walk us through right now fundamentally the challenge for joe biden is he doesn't have the bully pulpit, he can't go and speak to all of america. he's sort of hidden in his basement, as some would say. but it hasn't hurt him certainly right now as many people view this election in the present moment as a referendum on the guy he's up against. but what would a scorched earth campaign against joe biden look like as we're learning? >> yeah, what you just said is exactly right, peter. this is entirely at this point a referendum on president trump. for joe biden to be leading president trump nationally and in all those swing states as you mentioned when he's barely been in the picture for weeks and weeks and weeks just shows you that right now the country is rendering a judgment on the president and his performance in this coronavirus pandemic. and if that's going to be how the election looks from now until november that probably paints a very, very serious problem for president trump. so like you say, the trump campaign has indicated and shown sort of -- in sort of a small way up to this point how they

intend to wage a campaign against joe biden. they like to paint him as somebody who's close to china when he was the vice president under president barack obama. he of course had all that foreign policy experience. he helped with the pivot to china, so to speak. as a foreign policy position of the barack obama administration. they will try to portray him as too close to china. we've seen this pr supportive groups in addition to the trump campaign, supportive republican groups, portraying vice president biden as a little past his prime, perhaps that he's -- mentally his faculties are not there, that he's a little slow off the stump and that he just doesn't have the mental acuity that he once did. those are the two prongs that we've seen so far. >> let me bring in our panel if i can right now. beth, you'll stay with us, rejoining this conversation phil rucker from the "washington post" and my colleague at nbc, heidi przybyla. heidi, let me ask you about this. this was flagged to us by our friend beth a short teem ago,

that biden leads president trump 60% to 10% among voters with a negative opinion of both candidates right now. which is kind of striking. those who may be sort of disillusioned by the entire political system much prefer the alternative to the current president. will those people show up and vote, and how important will those voters be this fall? >> all voters will be important. and let's be frank. we are facing an unprecedented situation here. as we just saw, for example, in wisconsin given that in all likelihood we are still going to be in a coronavirus bunker mentality in this country come november if we do not have a vaccine. so the question is access to voting and who's going to turn out every single vote will matter. but what is very important right now is that in addition to those numbers, which are fascinating, which you just cited, are the

battleground polls showing it in critical states where donald trump blew through the blue wall, pennsylvania, in michigan, is leading, joe biden is leading by significant margin. even by a hair he's leading in states like florida. so we have a long time between now and then. but this is going to be a referendum on trump, to beth's point, and a referendum on where we are dealing with this pandemic. now, what we've seen so far are that the hot spots are in the urban areas but the epidemiologists are telling us that we're now starting to see some rural spread. that will be right into the heart of trump's base in a lot of these red states where frankly they are far less prepared than the urban hot spots are in terms of hospital capacity, hospital staffing, and these areas we know have a much higher level of co-morbidities in terms of the health status of a lot of the individuals who live in those states.

all of those factors are going to be very, very important. but again, what is voting going to look like in november? nobody knows right now. what wisconsin and what happened there is not a good omen. >> again, for context here as we raise this conversation about americans who are sort of disillusioned here, have a negative opinion of both candidates, 6-1 they favor joe biden over donald trump. in 2016, beth, i know you noted this on twitter earlier today, overwhelmingly those who were disillusioned, had a negative opinion of both hillary clinton and donald trump in 2016, voted for donald trump. phil, to you. i know you speak often with those inside trump world, as you know, the white house and on the outside. what is going through the president's mind right now? he had anticipated, he had hoped, he had planned on this spring being the spring where he tried to define joe biden much the same way that barack obama was able to do that to mitt romney in 2012. >> that's right, peter. and trump right now is being deprived of a really important

argument, which is a strong robust economy. he thought he could carry that to re-election in november. that clearly is not going to be the case because the economy is in freefall at the moment and there's no sign of an immediate recovery. we'll see what it looks like in the fall. but the other problem for him is he doesn't have his rallies right now. he can't put on a show of force in some of these swing states where he packs an arena with 15,000, 18,000, 20,000 supporters. and he's also going to have a really hard time breaking through if in fact he does this offensive against joe biden. americans right now are focused on the pandemic and the economy. there's not a lot of appetite to hear about biden and china. >> yeah. to say nothing of the campaign's inability to sort of grab data from all those trump supporters who are often showing at those rallies around the country, unable to do that right now. no rallies are taking place. beth, i want to ask you about joe biden. one of his biggest vulnerabilities in our latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. we saw he had a net negative,

meaning more people hay negative view of him than a positive view, among that key 18 to 34-year-old group, those young voters, many of whom backed his opponent bernie sanders in the primary. how is he going to be able to turn those voters in his favor and bring them out? >> yeah. it's a really big challenge for this campaign. it was really noticeable throughout the primary season, how few young voters he was getting coming out in primaries all over the country. and of course we've all seen that now bernie sanders is supporting joe biden. it's really going to be up to him and perhaps others in the political world who are popular among younger voters like perhaps aoc, who has not yet endorsed joe biden. so to help make the case to those voters that they really need to come out and support joe biden if they want to see the end of the trump presidency. but it's still going to be a tall order. and because as we're saying here joe biden doesn't really have much of a platform to break through. and you know, it's not clear

that a whole lot of under 30 voters are tuning in to his fireside chats or listening to his podcast. it's perhaps not the optimal way to reach those younger voters. it's going to have to come from surrogates. it's going to have to come from others to make the case that staying at home is going to be essentially a vote for trump. so if they want to see a different president and their preferred candidate bernie sanders, what have you, is not going to be the candidate in that race, then they need to somehow hold their nose if they have to and come out and vote for trump. otherwise, a stay at home message is a vote for trump. >> well, notably biden does have a good surrogate in the former president barack obama. biden celebrating one year since he announced his candidacy. today biden posting a video that's seen by his 5 million followers. it was then shared again by barack obama, who has 116 million followers. it's a pretty decent way to get your message out if you need it. beth fouhy, we thank you for

your kindness joining us on this saturday night. phil and heidi, i hope you guys will stick around a little longer. we need you to. so i'm asking you, please. up next after president trump approved a coronavirus relief package yesterday, congress is preparing for yet another fight on another aid bill to help the country. we're going to speak to the representative barbara lee of california about how this process is going. you're watching msnbc live. (j.k. vo) if you're off the roads for all of us, farmers is here for you. and if you're on the roads for us,

well, we're here for you, too. a $10 million dollar fundls at&t has created to support distance learning tools, curriculum and resources to help educators and families keep school in session because the key to keeping kids learning, is keeping kids connected.

and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

a partner who makes sure every step is clear, swithout even on yoleaving your house. just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you'll only have to pay for the data you need- starting at just $12 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. it's the most reliable wireless network. and it could save you hundreds. xfinity mobile.

we're back now live on msnbc. the house has passed a new stimulus bill to provide $484 billion in coronavirus relief with overwhelming support from the chamber's lawmakers, including in the approved legislation are funds to start a loan program for small businesses as well as additional cash for health care providers and virus testing. but the latest bill is just a fraction of the trillions that have already been allocated for relief. and as the death toll and fiscal demands grow, congress has found itself in a cycle of reacting to

the consequences of this virus with no clear endgame in sight. we are joined now by democratic congresswoman barbara lee of california. she is a member of the house appropriations and budget committees as well. congresswoman lee, we appreciate you being with us on a saturday night. i want to get your take right now. we've seen a lot of money thrown at this crisis in some ways. the first round of ppp, that money for small businesses, was snapped up so quickly, in some cases by businesses that didn't seem so small after all. give us a sense about where we are right now in this and what you think lies ahead. is there more to come? and what needs to be done to improve the value of this money getting to the right places? >> sure. thank you very much for giving me a chance to talk with you. first let me just say i want to thank our essential workers. and those on the front lines because they're doing a phenomenal job to keep us healthy and safe. and we have to in this next bill

make sure that we fund our state and local costs because so many of our essential workers work for state and local government and it is totally unfair and it's immoral not to be able to provide the stipe of jtype of j security, their wages, unemployment compensation and equipment so they can do their job. so we have to fund in this next bill state and local governments. we also have to fund snap. with this last bill we could not get the republicans to even talk about feeding people. when you look at the lines of cars and people all over the country lining up for food, food insecurity is real in the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. so we've got to put more funding into our snap program so that we can provide the basic necessity to people. so many people now live below the poverty line. more people are falling into the ranks of the poor. so minimally we've got to include an expansion of snap.

>> let me ask you if i can about some of the money in this latest round of funding. $75 billion to hospitals, health care providers. another $25 billion for testing as it relates to this virus. there was a kriegs arouconversa now around the country sparked by what's going on in ga good, oklahoma, alaska where they're beginning the reopening process. is $25 billion toward virus testing enough? will that satisfy the need for testing, to rebuild consumer confidence to send people back to their places of work and back to their lives? >> absolutely not. $25 billion is really a significant down payment, but we need to have and we did put into this bill a national testing plan. when you look at the fact that african-american and latino communities and native american communities and asian pafrk communities are disproportionately impacted by this deadly virus, we have to have first the data and the

targeting for this testing. we have to include resources for rapid response testing on the type of equipment that's necessary. we must provide more funding for tracing, contact tracing. and we have to put more funding in for community-based organizations, faith-based. the messages on the health care education that is really necessary in terms of the social and physical distancing. so this is a good first start. we've got to do more and target these resources into where these communities are impacted the most. as i said, african-american communities and low income communities. >> you heard from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell this week saying that state and local governments should consider the option of going bankrupt as opposed to waiting for federal bailouts, referring to them as blue state bailouts, his office did, because most of these states hardest hit right now are states that are mostly

democratic right now. what do you say to mitch mcconnell, who's basically saying those states should go bankrupt? likely your own. >> it's outrageous. first of all, this should not be a partisan issue. people are dying in his state also. and so we have to pull together and make sure we fund state and local governments. mitch mcconnell didn't give a darn about giving corporations and very wealthy people almost $2 trillion in tax cuts. he has no idea with regard to oversight and transparency. we didn't get one republican vote to vote for the select committee that's going to monitor and make sure that our funds are being spent properly. and so you can't tell me that he's going to try to penalize blue states and require bankruptcies when in fact he has supported giving away billions to millionaires and billionaires. we've got to do this together. it's got to be in a bipartisan

way. state and local governments deserve these resources because it's the employees who are on the front lines who need their job. and they need us to protect them while they're doing their job. >> california congresswoman barbara lee. congresswoman lee, we very much appreciate your time on a saturday night. thank you very much. >> thank you. more news right here in just a moment. you're watching "msnbc live." ch. ♪ in nearly 100 years serving the military community, we've seen you go through tough times

and every time, you've shown us, you're much tougher your heart, courage and commitment has always inspired us and now it's no different so, we're here with financial strength, stability and experience you can depend on and the online tools you need because you have always set the highest standard and reaching that standard is what we're made for ♪ and people you can rely on. i'm a dell technologies advisor. me too. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. we are with you. we're with you. we want to help. so we'll be right here. at home. answering your calls. providing support. and standing by you every step of the way. bye bye. there's my career,... my cause,... my choir. i'm a work in progress.

so much goes... into who i am. hiv medicine is one part of it. prescription dovato is for adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment and who aren't resistant to either of the medicines dolutegravir or lamivudine. dovato has 2... medicines in... 1 pill to help you reach and then stay undetectable. so your hiv can be controlled with fewer medicines... while taking dovato. you can take dovato anytime of day,... with food... or without. don't take dovato if you're allergic to any of its... ingredients or if you take dofetilide. if you have hepatitis b, it can change during treatment with dovato and become harder to treat. your hepatitis b may get worse or become life-threatening... if you stop taking dovato. so do not stop dovato... without talking to your doctor. serious side effects can occur, including allergic reactions,... liver problems, and liver failure. life-threatening side effects include lactic acid buildup and severe liver problems. if you have a rash and other symptoms of an allergic reaction,... stop taking dovato and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems,... including hepatitis b or c. one of the ingredients in dovato may harm your...

unborn baby. your doctor may prescribe a different medicine... than dovato. your doctor should do a pregnancy test... before starting... dovato. use effective birth control... while taking dovato. the most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, nausea, trouble sleeping, and tiredness. so much goes into who i am... and hope to be. ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato is right for you. we have much more special

coronavirus coverage right here on the way this evening on msnbc. but first, a programming note. tune in tomorrow night for a brand new episode of "a.m. joy." my colleague joy reid will be joined by house speaker nancy pelosi. that is tomorrow morning at 10:00 eastern. tomorrow morning 10:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. more news after a short break. u. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady. it's a great escape. so many great stories from amazing people... it makes me want to be better. it changes your perspective. it makes you a different person. see what listening to audible can do for you. when taking a break from everyday life is critical to everyone's health, there is one thing we can all do together: complete the 2020 census.

your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, infrastructure, and education. let's make a difference, together, by taking a few minutes to go online to 2020census.gov. it's for the well-being of your community and will help shape america's future. ♪ and i don't count the wrinkles. but what i do count on is boost high protein. and now, introducing new boost women... with key nutrients to help support thyroid, bone, hair and skin health. all with great taste. new, boost women. designed just for you. new, boost women. if we weren't able to stream anything, i think they'd be lost. (vo) we are all home right now. that's why verizon is giving you more of the entertainment you want. dayley is usually watching a tv show, and mckenna is almost always listening to music. we love verizon. i get the shows i need when i need them. (vo) now unlimited plans come with your favorite artists on apple music, shows and movies on disney+, and over 70 top channels of live tv with youtube tv. music plays a huge role in our family. that's how we connect. (vo) plans start as just $35

so your family can mix, match, and save. shop online today. only at verizon. however, there is one thing you can be certain of. the men and women of the united states postal service. we're here to deliver cards and packages from loved ones and also deliver the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way. every day, all across america, we deliver for you. and we always will. 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. to putting your true colors on display. when you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. but when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. so, when you get a check... you can deposit it from here. and you can see your transactions and check your balance from here.

you can save for an emergency from here. or pay bills from here. so when someone asks you, "where's your bank?" you can tell them: here's my bank. or here's my bank. or, here's my bank. because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. visit chase.com/mobile. thats where i feel normal.s an hour, having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected. protected lifetime income from an annuity can help your retirement plan ride out turbulent times. learn more at protectedincome.org. fred would do anything for his daughter! even being the back half of a unicorn. fortunately, the front half washed his shirt with gain. ahhhhhhh. the irresistible scent of gain. in just a few minutes, 7 p.m. in the east, new york city city residents will take part in

what has become a daily ritual, cheering, clapping, banging pots and pans all in tribute to those front line workers who were risking their lives to fight this pandemic. last night there was a special tribute. -♪ >> residents you see hanging out their windows singing "lean on me" by the late bill withers. you can hear the track echoing between those buildings amid the cheers. and this one on the opposite coast pay tribute to those on the front lines as well as. ♪ i left my heart in san francisco ♪ >> san francisco residents were encouraged to participate at

noon pacific time in a citywide sing along of tony bennett's "i left my heart in san francisco." you're looking at former san francisco mayor willie brown, behind the mask, giving a public performance of the song this afternoon. phil rucker, heidi pryzbyla and dr. torres are with me now. dr. torres, you are part of the medical community. you speak to so many of these front line workers. there's been such concern and such overwhelming desire to help make their lives easier, even as they witness such terrible loss. what are you hearing from members of that community about where they are now and what difference those words and that support means? >> you know, i think what i'm hearing from my friends and colleagues that work in the front lines, in the emergency rooms, they're saying that means so much to them, that people understand what they're going through, what they're actually doing and just getting that thank you. it's not something we often get

in the medical community, especially the emergency room. but taking a few seconds out and thank them to get the recognition because they are putting themselves out there and putting themselves a tt high ris and their families at risk, too. they're going to keep going and do what they need to do regardless, but it's nice to get that thanks. >> i made this point on "meet the press" last sunday. you kind of feel in the moment when americans are looking for a sense of community as evidenced by san francisco and new york and so many other cities right now that we have -- excuse me, a me president in the middle of a we crisis, a president who struggles for the entirety of the time that we've covered him to show empathy in moments like this. what is the white house privately, what are aides and allies doing to try to help the president in that way? >> well, peter, it's actually

unclear whether there's much of an effort at all among the white house staff to help the president show empathy because if there is, we haven't seen evidence of it yet. the president very infrequent live talks about the lives lost, the death or the sufferings, the economic traumas of people who have lost their jobs or the people waiting in those hours-long parking lot lines to access food banks. you doesnn't hear about that fr the president very often. instead we hear him talking every day about what a wonderful great job he and his strike have been doing, that he sees light at the end of tunnel and defending his own action, yet the death toll continues to climb. we're at around 50,000 now and it should go a lot higher before it's over. it's not clear there's an effort or strategy to show more empathy, though certainly a lot of americans would probably want to see that. >> i'm reminded the question i asked him about a month ago in the briefing room, what do you

say to americans out there who are scared? seemed like a soft ball but the president instead lashed out at me, as he's done to you, calling me a terrible reporter in that moment. heidi, there are real concerns that politically the president's inability to show that will hurt him. >> if he doesn't do it, why don't we do it. i was struck this morning by a really sad story from my native michigan about a woman who was a health care worker who went to the hospital four times and could not get a test. she's passed away. her name is deb gatewood. there's the 5-year-old daughter of two first responders who passed away. it's rare but some children have died in this pandemic and her name was skyler herbert. beautiful little girl. if you go online, you can see her picture. we as the media can do that, we

can step in and do that. >> yeah, no doubt. you consider the fact that at 50,000, it's enough lives lost to fill an entire baseball stadium, but every one of those seats is filled by an individual with a story like those two stories you just helped share. all of you, my colleagues and friends, i appreciate your time on this saturday night. we are grateful for your time and for watching. after the break continuing coverage with my colleague ali velshi. we'll be right back live on msnbc. msnbc. what is that? uh mine, why? it's just that it's... lavender. yes it is, it's for men but i like the smell of it laughs ♪

does that mean they have to 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, right at home. that liberty mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor

is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath, cough, or chest pain. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance.