♪ good evening and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lead, dereliction of duty. as the debate rages about when and how to reopen the country in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, i truly wanted to deliver an optimistic message on this spring sunday, but i'll have to save that for the end of tonight's show. because i found even my most basic assumptions about our nation's leadership called into question. in addition to my own presidential run, i've met with every sitting commander in chief since 1982.

working more intimately with some administrations than others. i haven't agreed with them all on every issue, but partisanship aside, i can say that they all recognized the gravity of the office. at least after the shock of a national tragedy. which is why after more than 60 years as an american citizen i can honestly say i have never imagined a day in which we would find ourselves endangered, not just by foreign aggression, a terrorist plot or even a viral pandemic, but by the advice, the guidance of our own president, who in the midst of one of the greatest losses of life this nation has ever seen has not only undermined governors struggling to keep their states together, but has also dangled hope in the front of the american people in the form of

species -- medical advice and jokes about bleach injections as a remedy for coronavirus infections. it would be akin to president george w. bush telling the people of new orleans to swim in the toxic floodwaters of hurricane katrina because there weren't enough boats. to my knowledge, he didn't do that. it's painfully obvious that president trump never thought a crisis of this magnitude would force him to become a statesman. but nearly two months into this outbreak it's fatally obvious that we are on our own in the face of dual domestic threats. a lot to cover this hour, so let's get started. joining me now is democratic senator tammy duckworth of illinois. she's a member of the senate armed services and small business committees. and was recently named to a

congressional task force advising president trump on how to best reopen the economy. welcome, senator. >> it's good to be on, al. >> tell me what you hope will come out of the task force in terms of reopening the country. we're seeing some states already moving -- some of us saying way ahead of time that they should be. what do you hope your being on the task force can do and what do you hope the task force can do? >> well, i'm pushing very hard for us to ramp up the number of tests we're able to do. we can't move forward without widespread testing, without knowing exactly how many people have the virus and being able to move forward in a way that we don't have to go backwards. you don't want to move forward and then have another spike and have to put people back into a shelter in place order again. so my role was make sure that we

look forward in a methodical way with full testing. unfortunately, the white house is not -- >> now, you've heard the president and others around this issue, and part of the problem is there has not been enough testing. those that have been tested, we see even right in your home state of illinois the racial disparities. and many of us are concerned that our front line responders and all will bear the brunt of any premature reopenings of so-called business as usual, senator. >> well, absolutely. and the communities of are really being hurt so much more than other communities. african-americans are just 16% of the population at the low end, but they're 43% of the people who tested positive for the covid virus. it's why in the senate i started the environmental justice

coalition with cory booker because our african-american, latinx communities are the ones that have the highest level of things like asthma, resulting of pollution, which means they're more susceptible to illness. so whatever we do, we need to make sure that we provide testing in a widespread way, but that we get help to black and brown communities especially because -- and by the way -- our fronds are doing an amazing job, bust let's not forget about the janitors and people working in nursing homes and grocery stores. they're front line workers, too. >> absolutely. and they are in danger. many of them in positions where they can't work at home and they need to be able to survive. likewise, you're on the small business committee. we see that there are many minority-owned, black-owned businesses that did not get any of the money or a large

percentage of -- from the first $2 trillion stimulus package. do you hope as it goes live tomorrow morning at 10:30 that there will be because some funds are now earmarked for the -- for the -- those communities, those small businesses that it will reflect a more fair distribution of the stimulus money and the bailout -- it's not a bailout, it's really a stimulus package. >> well, i certainly hope so. but more importantly, we are going to be watching to make sure that it is so. you know, small businesses don't have relationships with wells fargo and jpmorgan chase and all these large banks. they're banking with small community-owned banks, credit unions. you know, in chicago we have one black-owned bank in the entire city. >> right. >> we need to make sure those

organizations are able to help their customers, small businesses access these funds. >> now, let me ask you one question that i really wanted to ask you because you were a blackhawk pilot. how do you respond to the president making an appearance at west point and they're flying all of these military men back into the ceremony? his speech is going to bring 1,000 west point cadets back to campus. i mean, how do you respond to this? >> well, i'm absolutely disgusted. this is a failed strategy. no commander would endanger his troops the way this man would just for his own personal ego. remember that this is 1,000 cadets -- >> right. >> and they're going to be stuck there -- they're going to have to report to their -- and some of them may even get sick. and let's not forget about all of the workers that work there that are going to have to come

back to work in the cafeteria, janitors, everyone. he is expending a lot of taxpayers dollars for his own personal ego and endangering the lives of troops. the man has no shame. >> no doubt about that, senator. thank you. sorry for the audio, but we did get your words out. senator duckworth, thank you very much. joining me now is democratic senator sherrod brown of ohio. he's a member of the senate banking and a.g. cultural committees, thank you, senator. >> thanks, it's an honor to be with you and a special privilege to go right after senator duckworth who is a terrific, relatively new senator who joined us a couple of years ago. thank you. >> let me ask you -- let me pick up what she just went in terms of she attacked the president for this west point cadet graduation where they're flying 1,000 people back in. they're going to do a parade of sorts.

i mean, is this just about self-aggrandizement? we're in the middle of a pandemic here. >> well, i think we know the answer to that question. it surprised nobody that the president of the united states would do such a thing. he, as senator duckworth said, and she served her country valiantly as we know. senator duckworth said it put no -- no commander would put his or her troops in harm's way unnecessarily like that. this is so the president can -- can have a really good photo-op. it's an election year obviously. he thinks it makes him look tough and strong. it doesn't make him look anything like that. and he puts -- he puts his men and women that he is the command -- of which -- whom he's the commander in chief, puts them in unnecessary harm and unnecessary harm's way. there is no excuse for that kind of thing, but it's sort of par for the course for donald trump. >> senator, there are people all over the country that are trying to provide food for seniors and

the homeless and others that are not available, food deserts in many of the communities i work in. we've seen the world central kitchens work with us and national action network and other groups. yet there are -- there are graphic pictures of produce rottening, rottening and being turned back when that food could be used to help in a lot of these pantries and food banks that are literally feeding people. how do we reconcile that we have people that are literally needing food and produce rotting in certain parts of the country and we're throwing away produce? >> well, it is inexcusable and it's, i mean, a logistic issues, but fundamentally there is no national effort coming out of this white house. there is no national effort to connect farmers who can't sell their produce for a whole bunch

of different reasons. dumping milk. all that. to connect them with food banks or other suppliers. there is no national effort coming out of the white house to produce protective equipment for not just nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists at hospitals, but other front line workers. as senator duckworth said, front line workers like grocery store clerks and bus drivers and custodians and security people and all the people making deliveries, all that. there is no national effort out of the white house to scale up -- to scale up testing. and when you think about that, this president got about a seven or eight-week -- delayed seven or eight weeks because he continued to deny the obvious that this was a pandemic. he's not brought the forces of the fed -- the powers of the federal government forward to do what he needs to do on testing, contact tracing, quarantining, isolating. he's not done what he needs to do to get equipment.

safety equipment out to people. and he's not done what he needs to do -- he talks about how well a friend of the farmers he is, but he's not a friend to farmers or consumers when he doesn't come together with a plan to work out, to minimize the food waste as much as possible and get that food to so many hungry people in this country. >> what would you say is the formula that we need to follow to reopen the country? when do we know we're at that point? many of us have said that we clearly are not there now. georgia, the governor there is wrong. what are the steps that you've introduced for reopening? >> i sent a letter to the president some time ago saying the first thing you do is improve and enforce worker safety protections. this occupational legs administration always sides with corporations over workers. we're working on legislation to fix that, but we still need strong enforcement coming out of

osha. that's not just hospital workers, it's all front line workers we've talked about, grocery workers and security guards and the people that do the laundry at hospitals, all of them. it's also protections for the new workers coming in, the workers returning to work as we slowly open the government, whenever that is -- the economy. and then it's serious, much broader and deeper testing than contact tracing. making sure we can isolate people in quarantine. we need to do all of those. otherwise, if we open in an unsafe way then the chances are pretty high that we'll have the -- the economy will have to be closed again after the numbers of people that get sick spike. and it's just -- it is absolutely unforgiveable to open too fast, to expose too many people, to see illnesses -- coronavirus infections spike and then have to sort of reconsider do we close the economy down again? that would -- that would be the worst of all worlds. i know the president's eye isn't

entirely on the election, but he needs to occasionally think about workers in this country. and when i say workers, i mean whether you work on salary or for an hourly wage, whether you work for tips, whether you swipe a badge or punch a clock, whatever type of work you do or you're home taking care of kids, they need to come first, and that's something this president never really has thought about doing. >> you are aware of the racial disparity -- the disparity impact on blacks and people of color. in fact, you introduced the legislation asking for the racial demographics. why is that important from where you sit? >> you see the number of people that are -- that are sick and are dying is in my state 20% of infections and deaths, roughly 20% are people of color. the state is about 12% african-american. a couple percentage of americans -- latino americans. we're simply not even addressing the health disparities -- and i

hope, reverend, as senator harris and senator warren and i work on this bill it will really show exactly what's happening here. but i hope one of the only good things that could come out of this pandemic is we really will have a national effort to deal with the issues of disparity. disparity of wealth brought on in part by jim crow, in part by -- and then -- then red lining in neighborhoods. disparities in housing. disparities in income and wealth and health. we simply haven't addressed that in this country the way that we should. i'm hopeful coming out of the pandemic, particularly if we can gather this information, to really put it in front of americans. not like most americans shouldn't know about these disparities in housing and income and wealth and our health, but we -- it's just, you know, when you see the rates of infant mortality, it's so glaring and we finally have to do something about it. >> absolutely.

ohio senator sherrod brouwn, thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure, reverend. thank you so much. >> let me bring in my panel. lori watkins is a democratic strategist and former policy director for president obama's 2012 re-election campaign. and rick tyler is a republican strategist and msnbc political analyst. rick, we usually this time of day, even on the weekends, try to wait and see what time the white house briefing is going to start. and last night and tonight there was no briefing. could it be that the president has been pulled back because of his disinfectant press conference the other day and then he tried to tell us don't believe our lying ears and eyes, he didn't say what he said, and then he said it was sarcastic. is this the reason -- according to "the washington post," the president has spoken for more than 28 hours now in these briefings. in 35 briefings, he spoke for 28

hours. since march 16th. eating up 60% of the time that the officials spoke. and over the past three weeks, he spoke for more than 13 hours, including two hours spent on the attacks and 45 minutes praising himself and his administration. but just 4 1/2 minutes expressing condolences for coronavirus victims. rick, is that why we're seeing a weekend off from these briefings, that they realize that this may be damaging his re-election? >> yes, and republicans up for re-election, particularly on the hill and their donors have finally had it. quick the injecting with disinfectant or somehow getting a uv light on the inside of the body would somehow get rid of the virus, despite the fact that disinfectants have been known about since 1916 and became in wide use in 1934.

you'd think over 100 years that somebody would have this thought that popped into trump's head. of course he thinks he's a genius and nobody would have thought of that. he made a complete idiot of himself, we're the laughing stock of the world and, of course, took them over 24 hours to come up with the excuse that i was just -- i was just being sarcastic, which is a go-to excuse. he was clearly not being sarcastic. he was looking at what i call now spin dr. deborah birx who couldn't stand up and refute this idea of somehow people injecting or ingesting distincts. so disinfectants. i said in the very first week there is nothing useful coming out of these briefings anyway. we get very little information. when we do get good information, it is often contradicted by the president. it is a net negative. they are actually destructive. and we do need somebody, because as the former senator just said,

this governor does not have a plan. they are doing literally nothing except managing a pr campaign. there is no plan -- there is no comprehensive plan on ppe on an ongoing, it's all ad hoc, or ventilators or masks, but what we really need, rev, is two kinds of testing. we need testing so that at home where people can find out if they have covid on an ongoing basis. this virus may be with us for a long time. we also need testing to find out whether people have it and if they're immune from it for some period of time. until you get that, opening the economy is simply hopeless. >> now, lori, president has a go-to all the time, blame obama. i mean, he will just for whatever reason, if the streetlight turns red when they were crossing green, it's obama's fault. and the fact is that president obama had addressed the fact

that a pandemic could happen and had put a task force in place. is this -- and i'm talking politically now in terms of the election. is this blame on obama going to resonate beyond his hardcore base that is anti-obama and believe the birther argument that was his main schtick coming into politics? >> absolutely not, reverend al. the president has overexposed himself. what we see is him constantly freestyling from the podium. he sidelines medical experts and we have seen it start to sabotage his re-election campaign. trump has shown time and time again to now just his -- not only his aides but to the american people that he's constantly pitting the economy versus health care. we see that he's doing this time and time again, and we've seen him be pulled back from the podium this weekend and just cancel the briefings altogether.

people want this president to lead in a way that makes sense. we are all in the same storm here, but we are not all in the same boat. >> right. >> and the president needs to send a very strong signal to the american people that together we can go from stressed to strong because so many people are anxious, they are fearful, and they are -- they're hoping that something good will come out of this. and they have a lack of confidence in this president when he continues to come out and speak to the podium and say the most ridiculous things that he's been saying lately. >> rick, we have seen the polarization that this behavior and his rhetoric has caused. because if you look at the polling on those that are for reopening almost immediately or at least very shortly and those that are saying, no, we're not there not -- yet, it seems to be along partisan lines. it seems that the governors that are moving toward opening in

some measure now are red-state governors. this polarization is dangerous when this virus doesn't know republican, democrat at all. why are we look at a polarized reaction to a virus that is not at all -- the coronavirus is not dealing with the geopolitics of america in a presidential election year. >> it is -- it is incomprehensible, the idea that somehow your reaction to the coronavirus defines whether you're a liberal or a conservative or a democrat or a republican. as you say, rev, the virus doesn't care -- doesn't care what you are at all. it doesn't care -- doesn't care your ethnicity, race, your color, nothing. if you are -- stand to close to somebody, you can get infected. and as i say, we need a plan -- we could begin to reopen. not everybody wants to reopen. democrats want to reopen.

republicans want to reopen. everybody wants to reopen. we need a plan to reopen. it can't be just an ad hoc -- what we need to leadership is show that one of the metrics to reopening and how we sustain it and how will we keep people from getting infected? other countries have done this. south korea is doing this. they -- what they do is they contact people -- they identify through testing who has the virus. they isolate. they contact trace. they treat. and they repeat. so it's not a complicated formula, but it is very hard and very comprehensive. but this president does not want to take on something that would be, you know, part of -- responsible of governing. >> yeah. >> he just wants to manage it somehow in a pr campaign and hope it will go away. well, it is not going to go away. >> no, it is not going to go away with magic or a miracle. laurie watkins and rick tyler, i have to leave it there. >> thanks, rev. coming up, congress passed

another coronavirus relief bill this week, but does it go far enough to help those who have been hit hardest by this pandemic? first, my colleague richard louie with today's top news stories. richard? thank you, rev.

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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. i'm richard louie at msnbc headquarters with an update for you. let's start in wuhan, china, where the global coronavirus pandemic began. officials saying there are zero cases in hospitals there. the city reporting more than 46,000 cases to date. and as of today, the number of new covid-19 patients, that stands also at zero in wuhan. top doctors from john hopkins say the u.s. has reached the plateau of new daily coronavirus cases. doctors cautioned, though, the u.s. is not out of the woods yet. tomorrow the small business administration resumes taking

applications for the paycheck protection program, an additional $710 billion to keep small businesses afloat after running out of money earlier this note. senator kamala harris and representative ted liu join me thursday 3:45 for a video summit on ways to slow and stop racially choorj attacks. to register, visit the link on screen or the social channel. stick around. "politicsnation" continues right after the break. ation" continuet after the break. fine, no one leaves the table until your finished.

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a few days after the last bill became law, stories began to surface of an extreme disproportionate rate of death amongst african-americans in several cities. this bill begins the process of addressing the disproportionate death rate, but oversight and

advocacy from the public and congress will still be needed. >> with confirmed coronavirus cases in the u.s. approaching 1 million, over 50,000 deaths and more than 26 million unemployment claims in the last five weeks, americans are desperate for solutions. especially americans of color who have been the hardest hit by this pandemic. congress passed yet another relief package this week to soften the blow. so what's included in that bill? more than $300 billion more for the paycheck protection program, $75 billion for hospitals, $60 billion for the economic injury disaster, loan fund and just $25 billion for expanded coronavirus testing. joining me now is democratic congresswoman karen bass of california. she's the chair of the congressional black caucus.

congresswoman, many feel that the first bill, the $2 trillion, did not really address a lot of the problems in our communities of color. the black community specifically. and that we hope that this one corrects it. i've been in meetings, as you know, and conference calls and all with business leaders and faith leaders and people on the ground. and i've said one thing, if you think i'm angry, you should talk to the chair of the black caucus karen bass because -- >> that's right. >> she's -- you're more angry than i was. where are we with all of this? >> well, first of all, i definitely think we made a step forward. and we made a step forward by including the testing in, and i just have to tell you, too, that that testing would not have been there if it hadn't been for the advocacy of the democrats in general, but the congressional

black caucus and specifically representative barbara lee. we had to fight for it. we know there is a disproportional death rate, but we really only have anecdotal evidence at this point. for example, that's just hospitalization. what about the infection rate, et cetera. getting the testing done needs to be focused and concentrated in the areas where we know we have this extreme disproportionate rate. >> now, listen to beto o'rourke, the former texas congressman. he had a stark message about this this morning about who was disproportionately impacted. listen to beto. >> is it we reopen this state, we'll be sending people who earn $7.25 an hour, who are going to desperately be trying to feed their families into harm's way. meaning it's much more likely that they and their family members are going to get sick and are going to die, and it's disproportionately going to be found among african-american

families and latino families in this state. that's a trend that we've seen borne out across this country. so when our lieutenant governor says there are more important things than living, let's remember who he's asking to die. >> wow. >> and i think that's a very stark statement. >> right. >> because he's saying that when they talk about, well, there's more important things than living, meaning the economy, they really volunteering, though, mostly lives that are people of low income, black lives, those are the ones that are in these places that they're opening up. someone called my radio show this morning and say, what are you talking about in georgia when you're talking about opening up areas that we dominate? there's the racial element here, madam chair lady. >> well, absolutely. he certainly wasn't talking about sacrificing his own life, and i think we absolutely need to go and focus where the problem is the worst. and so far that has not

happened. so the bill made an important step forward, but it certainly didn't address that. we need to have concentrated testing. we need the contact tracing. we need also to look at the treatments. but one of the things that i believe is happening, rev, because i worked in the medical field for a long time. i want to know how african-americans and latinos are being treated when they do show up to the hospital. you know, whether or not they're being sent home. whether they're told, well, come back when your symptoms are worse. and my concern is is that the focus is on the underlying health conditions -- because if you're going to talk about diabetes and hypertension and other economic problem, you're essentially saying that nothing can be done now about what is happening. and so there needs to be a strategy to send the fire department where the house is on fire now. and not just in general. we all know that this is a national embarrassment, the fact that the richest country in the history of the world can't

figure out how to test its population. i also think the administration is not that concerned about testing because they don't want to know how bad the problem is. >> wow. tomorrow morning, 10:30, the sba loans are -- for small businesses go live where people can apply. and there's some money set aside for those that are in smaller businesses. because many of the black businesses didn't get any or no amount to talk about -- and i've had chuck phillips on here last night, bea, and we've been working, robert smith and many of our corporate leaders, tanya lombard and others have been working around the clock on this. no one has been more diligent than you. are we going to see more of the businesses on the ground in our communities get the money they need? because they are the ones that really are suffering and are facing closings. >> i -- absolutely, we are, but

i know that there is still going to be more that's needed. so tomorrow, actually, the congressional black caucus is having a telephone town hall about just this issue. how to access the money. whether you are a small business for profit or a not for profit or a church, and so if your listeners want to go to the congressional black caucus website, they can register for the town hall. we also did a town hall on friday with families who have relatives that are incarcerated. because you also cannot look at the communities with the disproportionate death rate and disconnect that from those who are incarcerated. >> right. >> we think there needs to be early release, but we need to make sure that the people that come out are tested and treating as well. >> all right. california congresswoman karen bass, thank you for being with us tonight. coming up, with coronavirus decimating the population, who's still advocating for one of the

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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. from washington state to west virginia, the nation's prisons are struggling to contain the coronavirus crisis within their walls, and in one state, arkansas, nearly 40% of the coronavirus infections are concentrated in just one of its correctional facilities. but the original epicenter for this pandemic within our prisons is chicago's cook county jail where authorities recently released nearly 1/4 of its population as more than 440 inmates have tested positive for coronavirus. six having died from the disease, according to the jail officials.

making it the largest source of infections in the nation just two weeks ago. in emblematic of many prisons during this outbreak, where 6 by 8 foot cells have major social distancing largely impossible, unless, of course, you're sick and in solitary confinement. joining me now is the executive director of the john howard association, a correctional oversight and prison reform organization. jennifer, what is going on to really deal with the need of testing and to dealing with the fact that many of the people in prisons, first of all, most of them are there awaiting trial, haven't been convicted of anything. many of them are there because they couldn't afford bail. and yet they're there really given a death sentence if we continue to see them in

situations -- they can't social distance and in many cases they are not being tested. jennifer? >> thank you so much for having me. yeah, this is of enormous concern to the john howard situation. we are an independent citizen correctional oversight organization in illinois. we go into all the prisons to monitor for conditions of confinement, conditions of the people who are encars rated in our prisons. you're exactly right, the cook county jail is a place where the majority of the people there are there pending resolution of their cases. they have not been convicted of anything. and the things that are keeping them in prison are wholly unacceptable reasons to keep people in a place where they are being subjected to not only a life sentence but a death sentence because of covid-19 and the way it spreads inside of

correctional facilities. >> now, has there been any improvement in the testing since this came out about cook county? because i remember it's been maybe three weeks ago i called president trump about dealing with this nationally. i know reverend jesse jackson right there in chicago, one of my mentors, has been raising this issue. have we seen any improvement since this has become a national disgrace? i mean, we are actually locking people up, risking their lives, many of them may be found not guilty of a crime but could become infected, or even worse, lose their lives. >> absolutely. so there is pending litigation against the cook county jail right now to answer some of these questions. unfortunately, it doesn't seem that testing has increased. and we are looking for ways to get larger segments of the population out more quickly. and it's just not as easy as it

should be, frankly. the john howard association spends the majority of our time inside the illinois state prisons. and one of the things i've come to see is that as we push for decarceration, as we push for more segments of the population to be released, they are not tested. and part of that is this cdc guidelines don't make it clear how important that is for that to happen for these populations who have been in environments where exposure and contagion are so rampant. >> well, who is the persons that are in charge there, let's say for cook county, where does the political pressure need to be applied so people around the country would know? is it their correction commissioners, is it their local sheriffs? where should the pressure be applied and is there a way to

legally sue on behalf of these prisoners? >> there absolutely are ways to sue, and a lot of wonderful advocates and public interest attorneys here in illinois are already pursuing those courses of action. unfortunately, litigation isn't always an immediate fix or a quick fix. courses of action. unfortunately, litigation isn't a quick conviction and we need everybody advocating for this group of people, and advocating with the state's attorney, with the sheriff's office, with local elected officials. we need everybody in on this conversation and exerting pressure in order to rapidly increase the decarceration in getting people out of both the cook county jail and our state prison system to protect lives. >> that is a nationwide problem. cook county is o.j. simpson bollic of what's going on. thank you for being with us. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. with us

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this pandemic is something that none of us have experienced in our lifetime. there is no one in this country that has not been directly impacted in some way, shape, or form by what is going on with the coronavirus as well as the implications it has both for our daily lives, the education of our children, and the economy. we are all, despite whatever political party, despite however we worship god, or if we don't worship at all, whether we are male or female -- what weavever are, we are all impacted. and it has exposed some of the

things that had not been readily available to the light of day with many americans. it has exposed the racial imbalance. it exposed the class imbalance. it has exposed how vulnerable we are to those in high places that are not prepared to look beyond their own personal self aggrandizement. it is also a time that all of us need to figure out wherever we are, whatever station we are in life, what we are going to do about it. i decided to sit down and write a book called "rise up". it is coming out in a few weeks. you can go to amazon.com and preorder it right now. because movements don't go from the top down. it goes from the bottom up. and those of us at the bottom need to rise up because those at the top clearly are not prepared to lead during these times. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i will see you back here next week at 5:00 p.m. eastern time saturday and stun. after the break, my colleague,

andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. e.stun. after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. ustun. after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. nstun. after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. dstun. after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. astun. after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. ystun. after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. . after the break, my colleague, andrea mitchell picks up our news coverage. tuk,drur ♪ 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

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good evening. i'm andrea mitchell as we continue our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here are the facts at this hour. we are now on day two without a white house coronavirus task force briefing. before yesterday's absence, the last day without a briefing was easter sunday. the president, who blamed the

media yesterday for why he did not hold a briefing took to twitter again today to lash out about so-called unfair press coverage and journalists reclaims one noble prize as his -- i assume he was referring to pulitzer prizes. he received criticism for suggesting disinfectant should be injected to fight coronavirus. today, the coronavirus response coordinator, dr. deborah birx, responded to the president's comments saying disinfectant is not a treatment when asked by chuck todd on meet the press. mean while, the first states are slowly reopening for business this week n. most cases, without heeding the white house guidelines about first waiting