first up, america divided, reopen, stay closed. the debate gets heated as some areas see a dip in the curve while others get a spike. >> into the hot zone. are things really getting better here in new york city? we're going check with an emergency room doctor for his take. >> trump under fire for his coronavirus response. whether it's having an impact on his re-election outlook in three very important states. >> new cash up for grabs for small businesses hurt by the outbreak, but it could be gone in an instant. we'll explain. >> a very good morning to all of you. sunday, april 26th. i'm alex witt. this morning, there are more than 937,000 cases of

coronavirus across the country. more than 53,000 people have died. this week, several states will begin reopening. starting tomorrow, restaurants and movie theaters will be open for business in georgia, then in tennessee restaurants and retail stores will open their doors this week. montana, minnesota, and colorado will also start lifting stay-at-home regulations. meanwhile, new york is ramping up testing. governor andrew cuomo announced the state is expanding testing criteria to include first responders and essential workers. health care workers at four of the hardest hit new york city hospitals will also be tested for antibodies. we'll have a live report on the ground in just a momefront that. let's take a look at newport beach, california, yesterday. asperational weather there, right? but about 40,000 people packed the beaches despite a state-wide stay-at-home order. some beaches reopened thanks to the heat wave hitting southern california.

temperatures surpassing 90 degrees yesterday. beach goers still have to be socially distanced. i don't know if the pictures prove they're doing that. also a mamger announcement from chinese media. wuhan, the city where the covid-19 pandemic began, has no remaining covid-19 cases in hospitals. >> in new york this morning, an appeal from more patients after the governor says living through hell has paid off. new york is now going all in on testing, opening up diagnostic testing pharmacies and giving essential workers priority for antibody testing. a colleague is joining me now from outside the mont afury hospital there in the bronx. with a good sunday morning to you, that's one of the places where health care workers are first in line to get the tests, right? >> yeah, that's exactly right. one of four places here in new york. they will be the first ones up, and of course, the targeting for antibody testing will be the hardest hit communities. the ones with the most front line workers or the ones with

the most essential employees. next week, antibody testing will expand to employees as well that are essential. this includes police, fire, ems, grocery store workers, transit operators and the like. as this expands, governor cuomo, of course, urging people to stay patient. he mentioned the numbers yesterday. it is daunting to think about where we're at in relation to the curve, because right now with our current numbers, he said we're where we were on april 1st. imagine that. it was a major emergency on april 1st. so we're nowhere near out of the clear here. take a listen to what he had to say yesterday about that. >> you look at that overall curve. that's the mountain. little perspective. we are back where we were 21 days ago. 21 days of hell. but we're back to where we were. we did what we had to do. which was hard and is hard.

well, what did we accomplish? 100,000 fewer serious infections. that's what 56 days of our relative living through hell has accomplished. and that is a heck of an accomplishment. >> with that accomplishment comes these very small steps to start the reopen process. mta announcing they will expand some temperature checks for their employees. they also are reporting quarantines for their employees are 50% down and more employees are returning to work. over in new jersey as the numbers start to slowly creep down as well, they're reopening things like parks. there will be some minimal park reopenings on monday. they also have eight antibody testing sites in that state. back here in new york, the governor announcing that pharmacies will now be testing sites and be allowed to test for antibodies and covid diagnostic

testing as soon as those ramp up. that will be some 5,000 sites, alex. >> i appreciate all those numbers. but let's not lose sight of the fact the governor in your report said there are expectations of 100,000 more serious infections before we see the end of this thing. thank you for that. >> also new this morning, reports that white house officials are weighing a plan to replace health and human services secretary alex azar. on the short list is a name that has grown increasingly familiar to many americans. let's go to monica alba at the white house. monica, with a good morning to you, i'm not talking about you and your name. what more can you tell us? >> good morning, alex. that's right. there are reports that secretary azar may be replaced in the coming weeks. we should note the white house has denied that, but like so many cabinet officials before him, they have said there are no immediate changes to personnel, but as always, we can see that in just the stroke of a tweet, that can change, and we have seen that happen with so many before him. but reports are suggesting that one of the names that's floating

is dr. deborah birx to potentially replace secretary azar to lead hhs. we haven't heard any reaction from her on that front, but we are hearing from somebody in the administration who is batting down these rumors. take a listen to what kellyanne conway had to say on fox news about this last night. >> secretary azar has served for over two years, was in a situation room yesterday at the task force briefing, was there, i think, most of the week. what i find very curious and a bit disappointing is every time i read a story about a personnel change, these days it has to do with somebody who has oversight over the pandemic. >> you heard there, kellyanne conway refer to secretary azar attending the task force meetings but we haven't seen him in one of the briefings in a couple of weeks. that's significant because if you remember, he was the original head of the task force before vice president mike pence

was asked to step in and take over as chair, and there have been several problematic stories for him in recent weeks with the ouster of rick bright, that vaccine expert who says he's going to file a whistleblower complaint and a couple other questions about the timeline and the administration's response in january and february that put secretary azar in the middle of that. for now, the white house says there are no changes, alex, but we'll follow that as that can change so quickly, as you know. >>eter thing i want to ask you about is the reporting you have on the white house plans to cut back the president's daily briefings. it looks like they got started on that reporting yesterday. >> right. and friday night was one of the first indications that the strategy at least was being re-evaluated and reconsidered because that's when we saw the president and the vice president come out, speak for only 20 minutes, and take no questions from reporters. there was no briefing at all last night. there isn't one on the schedule for today. this comes as aides and allies are encouraging the president to wind back these lengthy

appearances, because sometimes they go on for two hours, they veer off topic, and they make the president at times look like a press secretary instead of the head of the u.s. response to the coronavirus pandemic. so for weeks now, before his controversy comments on disinfectants and uv light and heat as possible treatments for coronavirus, there were aides encouraging thime try to take a step back and say what are other ways you can be out in front of the american people, but does it really need to be on a daily basis? now we have learned that those conversations are a little bit more serious, and this weekend is the first indication that they're at least slightly scaling that back. we'll see if they resume, either later today with a late add or tomorrow, alex. >> perhaps not coincidental, it comes on the heels of that disastrous disinfectant news conference on thursday. thank you for that. >> governors around the country are using two numbers this morning to decide a timeline for opening their states, as the staggering number of deaths in

the united states is now more than 53,000, but then there's this. more than 26 million have lost their jobs since the beginning of march. and now some states are allowing certain businesses to open. others are opening at least beaches and parks. these decisions come with great controversy and even greater risk. let's go to sam brock joining me from atlanta. sam, good sunday morning to you. georgia saw 521 more confirmed cases yesterday. but then you look ahead to tomorrow, theaters, private social clubs, restaurants, they're all going to be allowed to welcome customers. are owners ready for it? >> yeah, i think restaurant owners and movie theater owners i have talked to say they're ready to open. the issue is they don't think it's a good idea right now. smaller businesses, however, it's their economic vitality that's at stake right now, so they are opening in some cases with every possible precaution. with a heavy dose of sanitation, businesses are swinging open their doors in georgia, with a

number of covid-19 cases continuing to rise, not fall. >> we need to be open because we have our family. we need to support our family. >> from spas to barbershops, nail salons and gyms, the revenues are returning. gym owner dan carden said safety is management in a mom and pop operation like carden's classic gym where six feet is mandatory. >> i get in here in the wee hours of the morning while it's dark before any members show up and wipe down all the surfaces. i'm okay with that. it's going to take that to keep the doors open. >> for those wondering how social distancing is possible in places like barbershops. >> i mean, we clean up after every customer. we're wearing gloves. >> or spas. this owner says avoiding contact is impossible. >> we require our clients to come and have masks and gloves and sanitize their hands before they come in, and this way i think it's safe. >> next week, at least a dozen more states are lifting their

stay-at-home orders or opening up businesses. joining georgia, alaska, south carolina, and oklahoma, where spas and salons are already online. >> we're so excited that everybody wants to come back. but it's very hard to navigate that. >> garrett haake is in colbert, oklahoma. >> the governor said personal care businesses like salons and barbershops could open their doors again on friday. while in many big cities the businesses stay closed, in rural areas like here, business is brisk. >> neighboring texas hasn't reopened spas and salons yet, but this owner defying orders, opening anyway, and getting a citation. >> if you cannot afford to pay us, and feed our families and help us because the systems are so backlogged, then you have to let us work. you have to. >> the testing of limits but not enough testing for illness. >> the covid tracking project puts the lone star state 48th and georgia around the bottom ten for per capita testing. with protesters worried about not just their health but their families. >> i say go home and talk to

your elderly loved ones. i would like for my mom to stay alive as long as humanly possible. >> on monday, restaurants and movie theaters can open in georgia. the one cinema own er tells nbc news he's not ready. >> i'm super anxious to do what we do. we built something grade and customers love it, but we want to do it when it's right. >> and we talk, alex, about concerns over testing, but as far as the numbers in georgia, the latest figures, 23,200 plus covid-19 cases, that's going up about 1%, 2%, 3% a day for the last week. the peak is projected in a couple days from now. we know that the federal guidelines are 14 days of decline. georgia still looking at incremental increases at this point. that's raising some red flags. >> oh, boy. thank you, sam brock. >> joining me now, emergency room doctor calvin sun here in

new york. it's awfully good to see you. can i hear your reaction when you hear sam brock saying in the state of georgia with businesses reopening, yet incidents of infection is going up 1%, 2%, 3% a day in that state, the wisdom of reopening in your mind? how do you see it? >> i'm not one to tell anyone what to do, but in terms of common sense, how are you going to run a business if you're infecting the very customers you depend on? if you're putting them at risk and then they go home and bring it back to their family members, and those family members die, my grandfather just died from covid-19 a few days ago. that's from going grocery shopping. and if people die, how do you depend on the patrons you need for your business? you can't run an economy without a health care system. how do you have a developed economy if a health care system cannot function properly because you're not testing enough and you're backlogging and overloading the emergency rooms with second and third waves

because you're opening up? >> i'm so sorry about your grandfather, despite the fact you have worked so valiantly to save so many here in new york. very sorry for your loss there. let's get to the expanded antibody testing in this state. first of all, do you plan on being tested? have you been? >> i have already been tested. i have it on my arm, and the results are as good as the tests. i worked 23 of the first 27 days. the first two to three weeks, i had not enough ppe. i was running around taking the risk. i never developed the symptom, but there's no way i was not exposed. my grandfather sheltered in place, went out once, and got covid-19. i have been in 23 of 27 days in the hardest hit yares in new york and tested negative. even the email afterwards, they took a whole vile of brolood. they said it doesn't mean i don't have it or i don't have antibodies or i have natural

immunity. what if the tensity of the test is 70%, 80% like the swabs. that means there's a 30% chance my result being negative is inaccurate. >> you would love to have a positive, right? presumably, if you had positive and not had symptoms, you would have been one of the lucky ones going forward. >> yeah, forgive me if i have a few trust issues at this point in the pandemic. i don't trust whether having positive antibodies prevents me from getting reinfected, or there are different strains, or that the test also has a positive. it's maybe 80% specific, which means a 20% test a positive test is accurate. i'm still going to go in my ppe. i'm not going to take risks. >> okay. the governor said that it's the lowest number of hospitalizations that new york state has seen in three weeks. do you see that? are the hospitals feeling the relief? from the front lines, do you

think it feels like the numbers are going down? >> i always like to say that i'm a dumb guy in the trenches fighting a fire. i don't see the big picture like a smarter epidemiologist or a big picture public official is able to see from the ground, but you're actually seeing it in the trenches as well. we saw a bounce monday, tuesday, and wednesday, which correlates with the increased number of people who went out for passover and easter weekend. whether that's a correlation where, again, we're in the trenches, but it makes sense because it then tapered off. just yesterday in my shift, it wasn't that bad. so we do see effects of people going out. so people are going to come out more now, encouraged by the data, we are prepared for that surge to come in. i'm there to go back in no matter what. >> anything but a dumb guy, dr. calvin sun. thank you so much, and again, so sorry for your loss about your grandfather, but carry on as you valiantly do. appreciate that. >> new images out of north korea. will they help us answer

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approaching 21 past the hour. good morning, grand rapids, michigan. the seat of kent county, which has reportedly seen a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. it reported 430 new cases last week, and that's compared to 152 new ones the previous week. be aware, everyone. >> new questions today concerning the whereabouts of north korean leader kim jong-un. he's not been seen in public for weeks and was a no-show on april 15th at birthday celebrations for his grandfather, of course, the country's founder. but planet lab satellite images taking over the resort town of north korea last tuesday and thursday, and then analyzed by tlathd north, which is viewed as a reliable source of information on north korea, show a train believed to be kim's. it's parked at what's known as the leadership station. now, nbc news cannot

independently verify these photos. however, joining me is a korean studies chair at brookings and a former cia analyst. her new book goes on sale tuesday, becoming kim jong-un, a former cia officer's insights into north korea's enigmatic leader. a great sounding title. why did you write the book? why now? and what was the most interesting thing you discovered while writing it? >> alex, as we have seen in the past few days, there's intest interest in kim jong-un and everything that the north korean dictator does. but we have seen in the past few years, since kim came to power, is we have seen snapshots that are prone to character aricatur hyperbole depending on where you're looking. i have been following kim ever since -- following north korea ever since his father's stroke in 2008. and since then, i have been watching kim's growth as a

leader, as a young dictator, and how he has developed north korea on his own terms, on his own brand. and since i have been watching him from the beginning and given the fact that north korea is so much more dangerous, especially given what happened in 2017 with the potential for nuclear conflict, that i thought it was time to put all of that knowledge that i gained since i started watching him at the cia into a book that provides his aspirations as well as his fears. and i think the basic argument is that we have to know where he came from to know where he might be headed. >> his aspirations are things that i believe i have discussed fairly thoroughly with a lot of experts, but what are his fears that you discovered? >> what he fears, and i think you can see this from what he has done, is that he has tried to develop north korea into a

more modern 21st century north korea. so the image that most people have of the north is of a famine-stricken economically hobbled country where the people are starving. it is bizarre, it is isolated. but what we have seen in the past few years under kim jong-un's rule, which he has very much amplified is that you have smartphones. you have laptops. you have women wearing fashionable clothing. there are water parks and amusement parks. skyscrapers. so these are things that kim has really accelerated, these developments kim has really accelerated over the years indicate to the extent, to the degree to which he wants to have a more modern north korea to show to the outside world and to his people. and i also think that he fears his people as much as he fears the united states. and that all of these luxury items and all of these hopes and aspirations he's trying to have

with the emerging -- with an existing consumer society is that north koreans can have it all in north korea. they don't have to look elsewhere. >> but do they have it all? because you talk about him opening up the internet, well, with iphones. is the internet open? the fact is, are they able to get western information? are they able to communicate with the western world and those countries right around north korea? i mean, it would seem not, which then begs the question, there's the image of people starving in his country. are people starving in his country? >> well, the u.n. has found that up to 40% of north korea's 25 million people are malnourished and undernourished and chronically food insecure. and so that is the other side of north korea that he doesn't want us to see. and i would say that, no, as much as this is all relative in terms of opening, what north korea has been doing under kim

is to try to push people onto digital platforms so they're creating their own websites. they're creating their own shopping sites to keep the north koreans in and they're creating this alternate reality and alternate universe, alternate virtual universe so people don't have to look elsewhere. >> controlled by the government. >> that said, north korea has a 900-mile porous border with k e china that they rely on for trading and survival. that border makes it a -- it's an interesting way of information to get in, and that is both a danger and a net positive for kim jong-un. >> what do you make of the fact he did not attend his grandfather's celebration on april 15th? what does that tell you? >> kim has disappeared in the past for a day, a couple days, a couple weeks.

but when he missed the april 15th celebration, i don't think that in and of itself was -- is diagnostic of anything being wrong. but that also raised a flag. so i think what we have seen in the past few weeks is a lot of fragmentary information. i have to say, alex, being a north korea analyst for so many years, is that this job is a very deeply disconcerting and frustrating job to be in, given the fact that you have to live with so much ambiguity and you can have so much fragmentary information. so i think while the april 15th absence is not diagnostic of anything being wrong with him, i think given some of the reporting that we have seen in the past few days, suggests that something might be amiss. we just don't know what that is. >> well, it sounds like you were able to pour some of that frustration into clarifications with regard to your book. thank you so much. the book "becoming kim jong-un, a former cia officer's insights into north korea's enigmatic

leader" out on book shelves or on the internet. thank you so much. >> new hope for small businesses hit hard by the outbreak. there's more money available, but you have to act fast.

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i don't think there are any words to describe the things we're seeing. and i hope that this pandemic ends soon. as a doctor who recently graduated not less than a year ago from medical school, never did i or any of my friends and colleagues imagine that we would

be fighting this pandemic. i know that this will make us stronger as physicians. and although these times are very challenging and a lot is being asked of us, we will keep fighting. >> that new jersey doctor promising to keep fighting for coronavirus patients and for all of us, but it sounds by that description like she has been serving in a war zone. here are the latest numbers. there are more than 930,000 confirmed cases here in the united states. more than 53,000 people have died. general motors has reportedly set to bring some workers back to factories tomorrow to prepare for production to resume. all u.s. assembly plants have been idle since mid-march and there's no indication when production will begin. neiman marcus could file for bankruptcy as soon as today. sources are confirming that to cnbc. sources have been closed since march 17th because of kroerns,

adding to the company's $4 billion of debt. they're in talks with lenders and does have plans to restructure. >> in nevada, hundreds gathered in downtown las vegas saturday to ask officials to reopen the state. governor steve sis alack said last week he has no timeline for reopening businesses. protesters, though, waving flags and holding signs say they just want to get back to work. >> i believe the quarantine should have applied to the sick, the elderly, those at risk, those who take care of them. it would have left a lot more money and supplies to take care of those people instead of all of us scrambling to keep a roof over our heads. it's been five weeks and most people even with thousands of calls cannot get through to unemployment. >> moving to massachusetts, governor charlie baker toured a hasbro toy facility making face shields. he said health care workers need the protection more than ever. >> there's no secret that hasbro has provided families with

lifelong entertainment and joy and now they're providing 50,000 face shields every week to local area hospitals in massachusetts and rhode island. this incredibly generous donation will save lives and will protect our health care workers. >> let's take a look at the sunday papers. in "the new york times," testing remains scarce as states weigh reopening. the feature held together by prayers and duck tape. how a brooklyn hospital lays bare disparities in the health care system. on "the washington post" front page, a beach in florida, flanked by a rift in the gop over virus spending on the right and left. how cruise industry decisions carried the virus around the globe. >> then in the new orleans times picayune, shutdown has many drinking at home, and an important sidebar, how louisiana prisons are grappling to prevent the spread. in the los angeles times, a look at digital tracking apps and the

privacy concerns that come with them. further down, racially uneven virus toll also hits the young, latinos and blacks under 50 dying at troubling rate. >> universities are trying to stay financially afloat in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. dozens of schools announcing layoffs, hiring freezes, and millions of dollars in pay cuts. nbc embed is live in charlottesville, right near the university of virginia. with a good morning to you on this sunday, how are financial setbacks affecting schools and students at uva and elsewhere? >> good morning, alex. it's been a really tough issue for a lot of these schools, and of course, students are caught in the middle, too. just down the street at uva in charlottesville, virginia, i spoke with officials who told me that cares act funding that's supposed to come to the universities hasn't come in yet which is leaving them in a tricky situation. they're dipping into philanthropic funds and donations to help students with marriage needs, things like

food, medication, technology to help with zoom classes and as finals are coming up, students are cramming. some aren't sure if they're able to return in the fall in the same capacity they're in now. i talked to some students who said they might be returning as part-time students. there's been a lot of issues across the board. a school in new york, actually, i spoke with a student who told me she isn't sure she's going to be able to make ends meet. take a listen. >> personally, i don't know how i'm going to pay continuing like the next semester. just because, like, i'm already stuck with loans and then i have certain credits i wasn't able to fulfill, and also, i was really reliant on the school's meal plan for just eating, like normally, and that's gone, too. >> so ava right there has been struggling a lot. her mom lost her job. ava lost her source of income as well.

leaving a lot of students in a particularly tough situation as they wait for funding from their universities to come in. half of that cares act funding is supposed to be going directly to student aid, but i will mention at the same time, there are a lot of students left out of that, too. the department of education has said that money will not be going to daca or international students. >> i have to tell you, ava's story is heartbreaking. thank you for sharing it. i hope she gets the help she needs. >> well, the paycheck protection program resumes lending tomorrow after public outrage that some larger corporations were able to receive money even though that program was intended for small businesses. many of those companies are now returning the money back to the federal fund. and joining me now is subeal of yahoo finance. let's take a look at some of the companies returning money. that list includes companies like shake shack, ruth's chris steakhouse, potbelly. they're all returning their loans. was it at the outset an error in the text of the bill that

allowed them to get the fund sng or were these companies overeager and applied for funds that's sho that shouldn't have been allocated to them? >> these companies were very eager to access those funds because many businesses have been impacted by the coronavirus, facing financial losses. but this paycheck protection program was specifically intended for small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. now, the way the legislation was written, it did allow these publicly traded companies to access those funds. that's why we saw these big chains like you mentioned there, shake shack, potbelly, ruth's chris steakhouse, getting millions of dollars in loans because they were able to exploit and take advantage of that exemption. of course, that has left many small businesses out in the cold. the $349 billion that was made available through the paycheck protection program were exhausted after just 13 days. i spoke to a small business

owner, he owns three italian restaurants in new york city. his lender is jpmorgan chase. jpmorgan chase gave tons of loans to these publicly traded companies but put his application on ice, on the day the funds ran out, chase didn't even tell him that. he later on found out that the fund was depleted, reached back out to chase, and then found out that he's in the next round, and congress has approved a next round, so he's hoping. >> a lot of this money now is going to go to these community banks, right? so doesn't that sort of naturally predetermine their clients being the smaller mom and pop shops? aren't those the ones who will actually get this money? >> yes, that's definitely the hope, that the small community banks will offer this money specifically to mom and pop shops. but what the treasury department with the small business administration have done is change the certification for accessing these loans. and what they have done is that now, a company who wants to get

these loans has to certify that they really need it, and that they also don't have access to other sources of funding. and publicly traded companies by definition have access to capital markets. so they're hoping that these big companies won't swoop in again and take all the loans. >> okay. let's move on to unemployment. you have written that as over 4 million more unemployment claims were filed this last week, job applications for essential retail skyrocketed. and that a shift in the way people are buying has moved jobs to other sectors. so the question is, are there enough essential retail jobs to fill the job losses that we have seen. >> yeah, the short answer is unfortunately, there is not. but it does give a little bit of hope to people when it comes to the labor market after seeing the massive meltdown. where we are right now is over the past five weeks, more than 26 million people lost their jobs. so they are applying for these essential jobs. grocers, pharmacies, and food

delivery services. >> okay. we'll see you soon. thank you so much. >> drilling down on the question of antibody testing. if having antibodies doesn't necessarily guarantee immunity, what's the point of test sng i'm going to ask a doctor that question next. 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 ♪

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cannot be reinfected with that virus. joining me now, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the ny school of global public health. this sounds signature, as i say a happy sunday morning to you. is this a matter of time and getting definitive proof or just reminder of how little we know about this virus? >> good morning. thank you for having me. so i would say that it's both time and waiting for definitive proof. so we have only known about this particular coronavirus for almost four months, not quite. and so we're still waiting to see what we can find out about the course of disease. so we're honestly, this is not hopeless, but at this point, we don't have enough evidence to say that any infection will provide protective immunity. >> are you all in, then, on the prospect of testing? because if we don't know at this

point that antibodies indeed guarantee immunity, the question has to be asked, what's the point of this kind of testing? >> so there are two main points for this testing. one is if we do continued testing on people and then follow them up and see what their outcomes are like, if they get reinfected, then we'll begin to have a sense about whether or not we're going to have protective immunity or not. the second thing is if we get tested, we get a better estimate of the overall death rate for covid-19. so most of our mortality rate estimates have been based on the testing that's been done so far that's typically been concentrated among people with moderate to severe disease or health care workers. so it's not a representative sample of everybody who has been infected. so it's likely that current mortality rates have been overestimated. and we have seen a few studies in the past week from new york,

from santa clara, and from l.a. that actually suggest that more people have been exposed to covid than previously known. and that means that the mortality rates are not necessarily as high as had been previously reported among the severe cases. >> all right, doctor, thank you so much. good to speak with you. we'll see you again. >> meantime, new polling in battleground states shows president trump may pay a high political price for his response to the pandemic, but will it cost him in november? it was a life changing moment for me. i had no idea that my grandfather was a federal judge in guatemala. he was an advocate for the people... a voice for the voiceless. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. downy and it's done.

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coming up today on msnbc, i'll speak with california congressman, adam schiff, on holding president trump accountable during the coronavirus outbreak. that is coming your way at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. developing this morning, the coronavirus crisis could be changing trump's re-election calculus in key states. "the wall street journal" suggests rising job losses, coronavirus cases and political tensions may affect the

president's prospects in the states that ensured his victory in 2016. and new battleground polls appear to be backing that up. new reuters/ipsus polls show joe biden leading the president in michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. that's where the poll also showed coronavirus is the top concern for residents. joining me now is brittany shepard, national political correspondent with yahoo! news. brittany, with a good morning to you, let's get to these key states that really helped trump win in 2016. how much do you think is riding on the president's coronavirus response to translate to support in 2020? >> you know, alex, good morning. i think everyone is riding on the president's coronavirus response. a couple of months ago, the trump campaign was betting that they could run on having a rejuvenated economy, strong, strong policy on international affairs, but if you look at what's happening in wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania, biden is leading by 3 to 8 points. that's almost a significant gain for him a month ago.

and it's sounding alarms in trump hq. they are really nervous about a state like wisconsin and michigan, which trump only won by about 10 to 11,000 votes. that's just a couple of percentage points. and right now, you cannot focus on voter turnout. if you think about this next wave of coronavirus that's set to happen in the fall, the republican party cannot believe that they're going to reyjuvenae a whole new group of voters. so they're really banking upon maintaining or re-framing the mind of the sliver of swing purple voters to go on their side. and if they can't get that, they risk losing all of those key seats to democrats downballot, and of course to joe biden, who is gaining on them right in the backseat. >> yeah, the new article that you wrote shows what biden's coronavirus advisory group has been doing. of course, biden has now been virtually campaigning for weeks, but what kind of impact is he

having? how has his message resonating with americans? do you think it is swaying voters in these swing states we're discussing? or do you think his lead may be apparent in the polls, more because he's an alternative to president trump's unpopularity? >> i think, alex, that last point about unpopularity is really salient. what's really interesting about joepd joe biden's task force is that they're actually not advising on policy at all. they're there for operational support, how many people should be with joe biden in his basement when he's filming these town halls and the podcasts, chi surprising to someone. he's getting coronavirus advice, just not from his dedicated group, but he is seeing a bump in polling, mostly because when trump goes out every day at these coronavirus briefings, he's saying something about ingesting disinfectants and uneven on hydrochloroquine and fighting with kemp and that's

making joe biden look very strong even though he has not been capturing the national attention at all. and that's going to be a boon to joe biden. something is good about him being quiet and sitting in the wings and letting donald trump be donald trump. as long as joe biden is attacking donald trump on china and his messaging about pushing more testing, i think his coronavirus strategy is going to be, you know, playing out well for him in these states. >> we shall see. brittany shepard, thank you. thanks everyone for watching msnbc live. i'm alex whiitwitt. next on velshi, what if green energy can't stop climate change? that's the message that michael moore poses in his new and controversial documentary. later on "a.m. joy," house speaker nancy pelosi joins joy reid on getting more help for the millions of unemployed americans. unemployed americans. our homes.

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good morning. it is sunday, april the 26th. i'm ali velshi, and here are the facts. more than 53,000 americans have lost their lives from covid-19 and we are approaching 1 million confirmed cases of covid-19 in the united states. now the white house is considering scaling back president trump's participation in the coronavirus task force briefings due to increased concern about the political