♪ ♪ welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. tonight with election day six months away, states across america reopen as cases keep going up amid deep reservations about how safe it really is. but with 30 million americans out of work, what will the new economic and medical realities be? i talk to senator chris van hollen. later on the front lines of the research, i'm joined by one of the head scientists of the remdesivir trial along with a public health expert training people on how to start contact tracing millions of new yorkers. but first, there are certain things that we can all agree on right now. we can all agree that there are

more than 1.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases here in the united states, and that more than 67,000 americans have died. and we can all agree that the economic toll is staggering with more than 30 million americans filing for unemployment. but what americans and public officials can't seem to agree on is how and when to reopen the country. by tomorrow, 33 states will have begun the process of at least partially reopening. a recent gallup poll found that 44% of republicans and just 4% of democrats said that they're ready to return to normal activities. and this week we watched as protests broke out in states like michigan where a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect. of course, it was just two weeks ago when the president called for the liberation of certain states, michigan included. and this week the president tweeted his support for those protesters calling them, quote,

very good people, and urging governor gretchen whitmer to "give a little". the disagreements and the divides are plain for all of us to see, including former president george w. bush. >> let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. in the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants, we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of god. we rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise. god bless you all. >> the current president's response to that message of unity, a tweet this morning in which he said, bush was, quote, nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest hoax in american history. referring, of course, to his own impeachment. and with that i'd like to welcome in my panel white house reporter for the washington post ashley parker, national political reporter for the

washington post and moderator on pbs robert costa and former rnc chairman michael steele, all msnbc political analysts. it's great to have you all on board. robert costa, let me start with you. you and your colleagues at the washington post had a deeply reported and lengthy account of the past 34 days between march 29th and now and how these decisions were ultimately made. you write about how the president has been kind of caught between the doctors on one hand and his economic analysts on the other and how he is kind of lurched in between the two as they have tried to make decisions, but that now ultimately the president wants to move decisively toward the economists. what is the assessment of whether we as a country are ready to do that without putting thousands more lives on the line?

>> thanks for highlighting the piece, kasie. what we started with was the public information, the president driving to get the country reopened. we all saw it. we all heard it. but then when we started to peel back the layers of this white house and this administration, what we found over the course of several weeks was an administration that was looking for factors in the states, looking for clues, looking for encouragement from governors. and also encouragement from their own economic advisors including kevin hassett who is doing economic analysis about how this whole pandemic would progress. and they were looking to those factors, perhaps at times at the same level, sometimes weighing them more than the health factors. there were divisions inside of the white house. that's not to characterize the entire administration's handling. this is an administration that was trying to back up the president's hope that this could end quickly and get businesses restarted, knowing that there

would be, of course, an immense political risk at this juncture, and also health risks as you outlined. >> yeah, ashley parker, let's talk about the president and his personality and the way that has contributed to the decision-making here. to what degree has that shaped policy? i mean, we know that all the time he is driving sometimes whi whimsically. some of the doctors broke through with him, but have we moved past that, at the point they are able to convince him of a policy motive or not? >> well, that remains to be seen going forward, but the doctors have an incredibly difficult task. i will say they are always going to give their medical scientific

data-driven fact-based opinion. sometimes that breaks through, sometimes it doesn't. but the doctors you've seen who have been most successful and have been able to breakthrough are the ones who are better at managing the president's moods and whims. so one of them is dr. birx. she's quite good. we've been told not just -- you've seen her quite good in public at the lectern, sort of never actually contradicting the president, offering just a slightly different take or phrasing him before she offers a bit of nuance that his statement didn't include. but our understanding is privately as well she has a very good rapport with him, and that's something that has helped in the instances where the medical community and the health professionals have been successful, move the president to a policy outcome that they wanted. that said, there are a number of instances detailed in this fantastic story by bob and my other colleagues and other stories where the president has

made a policy decision because of something he watched on cable news, because of something he heard from a friend who he called late at night or early one morning, and that, of course, is what these doctors are -- health professionals in general, quite frustrated with him trying to guard against. >> so, this week the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose above 1 million. white house senior advisor jared kushner framed the administration's response like this. watch. >> we're on the other side of the medical aspect of this. and i think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. so the government, federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story. and i think that that's really, you know, what needs to be told. >> so, in defense of those comments, white house press secretary kaley mcanneny pointed to the production of ventilators as the success story. but robert costa outlines in the

post story we've been talking about kristen seemed to reiterate this original stance, this is an historically new challenge and we've really risen to the occasion. when history looks back they'll say we saved a lot of lives. michael steele, how is history going to look at this period? i think a lot of people watched and listened to what jared kushner had to say and they're looking around in their own lives. maybe they lost their job or they've lost a grandparent and they're saying, how can you possibly be calling this a success story? >> yeah, casey, i don't see them looking at it the way jared described. in fact, the facts don't paback that up. the reporting as indicated doesn't back that up. the reality is americans are experiencing something very different from what both the white house and the president and jared are talking about. and so it's really telling to

me. i listened to my friends just now go through their reporting and share with the american people what they have been covering. and what does it say, that people have to tip toe around the president on something like this, that you can't say this and you've got to be deferential about that, and you have to pump him up about these other things? instead of just saying, mr. president, this is a dire situation we're in. what steps do you need us to take? here are a few recommendations you should follow. but that's not this reality. that's what history is going to record, quite honestly. not the sort of rosy starry eyed view of how things are playing out, but rather how they actually are, with 67,000 americans dead as of this moment. we'll see what tomorrow holds. and if i have any appreciation of anything, with the lack of testing that's going on right now in the country, all right, with the lack of availability of

p.p.e.s and other necessities that the states are having to encounter, i suspect the number of cases of those infected and unfortunately the number of those dying is not going to lessen, but increase as more and more governors out there are saying, oh, let's just open up and try to get back to normal. >> certainly going to be a very -- test that has very real impact on a lot of people. bob costa, real quickly, you all talked to jared kushner about this. do you buy the white house line jared kushner is talking about ventilators when he talks about this being a success story? it certainly didn't read that way in your piece. >> part of the benefit of working at the post, we have a lot of space in the paper to explore the different facets of the administration's response. in every one of our interviews with officials, we heard the success story in their view about ventilators, that they feel the supply and the demand have been met in an adequate

way, in their view. at the same time, our reporting shows as much as the administration has confidence on that front, many governors in both parties, whether it's larry hogan a republican, or gretchen whitmer a democrat, feel they don't have the supplies they need on testing. to michael's point, the swabs, the reagents, contact tracing ability. the supply and demand issues have been addressed in an adequate way according to many governors and aides we've spoken to in recent weeks. >> certainly when you talk to members of congress in both parties, there is an acknowledgment that the testing is simply where it needs to be to move forward with the reopening. we're just getting started tonight. two states, two cities, two very different approaches to reopening as the weather gets warmer. plus i'm going to talk to senator chris van hollen on plans to work tomorrow for dozens of senators, as maryland resorts to drastic measures to test the people who live there.

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in just a few hours -- tomorrow -- the senate will reconvene for the first time in more than a month. and like everything else, the capitol is going to be different. ahead of the return, the capitol physician issued guidelines for cleaning and monitoring health. masks will be optional if you can stay 6 feet apart. already we've seen how masks have turned into something of a political test.

this past week vice-president mike pence, the man leading the white house's coronavirus task force, chose not to wear one during a visit to the mayo clinic despite a rule there that says you have to. of course on the very day the cdc issued guidance that americans should wear a face covering, the president said he wouldn't. >> i just don't want to wear one myself. it's a recommendation, they recommend it. i'm feeling good. i just don't want to be doing -- i don't know, somehow sitting in the oval office behind that beautiful resolute desk, the great resolute desk. i think wearing a face mask as i greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, i don't know. somehow i don't see it for myself. >> so we'll see how senators handle it, but it is worth noting that about half the senate is over the age of 65 and, therefore, at higher risk. not to mention that one senator

rand paul tested positive back in april, getting his results just hours after he had used the common senate gym. and while senators have the right not to wear masks, the reality is that wearing a mask is about protecting others, not about yourself. it is to protect staffers who go home to their families or house mates. it's about the people that make lunch for senators in the senate dining room, the crews that clean senate offices and the guards that provide security for all of us around the capital. we reporters will be at the capital, too, reporting on what congress is or isn't doing to fight this pandemic. and we, of course, all want to protect ourselves, our families and lawmakers at the capital as well. joining me now to talk about this and much more is senator chris van hollen of maryland. senator, thanks for being here. you wrote a letter because many of these people that we're talking about here are your own constituents. they're marylanders.

they come into the capital to perform many jobs, many which are essential in this pandemic as you all reconvene at the capitol. do you expect your republican counterparts to wear masks? we saw a remarkable political divide when the house was briefly back to vote. many republicans didn't have them, democrats did. has this turned into a political issue or statement? >> look, kasie, it's good to be with you. and unfortunately, what should be a health care issue has become a political issue. as you say, we've got hundreds of marylanders who work on capitol hill along with residents from the district of columbia and virginia. and it's all of them, the work force, that i'm worried about. as you said, the purpose of wearing the face mask is primarily to protect other people from the person who is wearing the mask. and it's really important that we protect the cafeteria workers, the custodial service

workers. so i hope that senators will recognize that if they fail to adhere to the guidelines put out by dr. monahan and the rules established by the district of columbia where, of course, the capitol is, it would be putting those workers in danger. and this is a hot spot. this area remains a hot spot, and we don't want the united states senate to become a coronavirus vector that really makes the situation in this area even worse. we've lost over 2,000 people in maryland, the district of columbia and virginia to covid-19. >> the senate also we learned late last week didn't have the capacity to conduct rapid tests the way the white house had. they said you and your colleagues would not be able to get tested unless you were ill. that was then apparently changed. the secretary of health and human services offered several rapid test machines. mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi

said, no, we're not interested. we want to be held to the same stand arpd as other americans, many of whom are still struggling to get a test. do you think that was the right decision to turn down this rapid testing for lawmakers as you reconvene? >> i do think that was the right decision because these tests are in very short supply. here in maryland we're scrounging all over the country, indeed all over the world to try to get all the different components of tests. i heard president trump's response, which was, oh, we have plenty of tests, so why is the senate turning it down? why is the house turning it down? well, it's right they have plenty of tests for the president and folks at the white house, but come to my state of maryland and people who need to get tests are not getting tested. so i think it was the right decision for the house and senate to say, we don't want to be treated, you know, better in the sense of having greater availability of testing than our

constituents. >> speaking of getting tests from all over the world, i think everyone was pretty stunned to see governor hogan, you know, cutting a deal with south korea to fly his own tests here, then using the maryland national guard to have to protect them. the president, "the washington post" reported, apparently very angry about this demonstration. do you support the governor in doing this? and why is it necessary to -- i mean, it seems as though what the federal government is doing is putting that testing capacity in jeopardy to the point you have to use national guard soldiers to protect it. >> well, a couple things. this shows the incredible short-sightedness and negligence on behalf of the trump administration in providing testing equipment. you talked earlier about ventilators. but the reality is when it comes to testing, we need to be

producing a lot more. the president still to this day has not fully utilized the defense production act, despite the fact many of us have called on him to do that. and what we learned here in maryland with respect to the 500,000 test kits from south korea, was having one piece of a test is still inadequate. you can have 500,000 of one part of a test, but you need all the legs of the stool. if you don't have the swabs to take the test, having 5,000 of one component doesn't do you any good. if you don't have the transport kits. if you don't have the re-agents. and that's why it's essential that we don't have governors having to try to grab tests from all over the world because, in fact, if you don't have the same number of each one of those items, you don't have the ability to do large-scale rapid testing which is why we've got to as a federal government use

the defense production act and fully deploy those powers. >> really pretty remarkable scene to see everyone trying to compete on their own when, in fact, democrats and republicans -- mitch mcconnell, in fact, acknowledging this week we're not where we need to be on testing trying to reopen. senator chris van hollen, thank you for being here tonight. i'm sure perhaps we will see you on the hill at some point this week. so thank you very much. >> thank you. >> when we return, after weeks of churn, joe biden meets the press. to america's frontline responders, thank you. tide cleaners is offering free laundry services to the family of frontline responders.

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would you please go on the record with the american people? did you sexually assault tara reade? >> no, it is not true. >> welcome back to "kasie d.c." that was the apparent democratic nominee joe biden denying he sexually assaulted tara reade when she was an aide in his senate office in 1993. biden, under increasing pressure to explain, answered questions about reade's accusations friday. the former vice-president has asked the national archives to release any records they have of a complaint reade said she

filed. however, she now says that complaint wouldn't include the sexual assault allegation. when the archive said they didn't have personnel records, his campaign asked the senate to try and find them. he has yet to ask for his papers to be opened at the university of delaware for a records search. meanwhile, the president's campaign, president trump's campaign has seized on the accusation. >> well, i would think if you were, accused of something and you were totally innocent, you would go to any length possible, judge, to try and clear your name, including allowing people to open up files like that. >> any length possible. she said. president trump, let's remember, has been accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct by dozens of women. he has denied all of it. in the first white house press briefing in more than a year, kaley mcanneny was asked about

trump's accusations. she called them old allegations. long time columnist e. jean carroll said she's waiting for trump to provide a dna sample to be tested. she accused trump in 2019 of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid 1990s. trump has not only denied all the accusations against him, but also dismissed the women who came forward. this is how the president talked about the women who accused him in 2016. >> every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. total fabrication. [ applause ] the events never happened, never. all of these liars will be sued after the election is over. [ cheers and applause ] >> let's contrast that, shall we, with vice-president biden.

this is how he said any allegation against him should be handled. >> women have a right to be heard and the press should rigorously investigate claims they make. i'll always uphold that principle. but in the end, in every case the truth is what matters. in this case the trugth is the claims are false. >> now, we should note that as far as we know, none of the more than two dozen women who have accused president trump of misconduct have been sued as he claimed he would do. in fact, he's actually been sued by one of them, summer. she accused trump of defamation for calling her a liar. that case is still ongoing. now talk about more of this with my panel, ashley parker, robert costa, michael steele. michael steele, let me start with you because a lot of republicans are turning back as they're talking about tara reade and joe biden and they're pointing to brett kavanaugh and pointing to how brett kavanaugh

was treated whether it was by the media, whether it was democrats and how they talked about his accuser saying, believe all women, do you think that is the fair and right comparison here, to come back around on this question about joe biden in this particular allegation? does that make sense to you? >> in many respects it doesn't. i think they are very, very different set of circumstances and scenarios. one, you know, united states senator. the other happened during a high school encounter. there are a lot of aspects of this that i think that go to joe biden's point around how you go about getting the facts and how you set forth before the public what those facts are. the problem with this type of

comparison, beyond what aboutism and you did it, too-ism, you tend to politicize something that shouldn't be politicized. all of us, the principals involved and those observing this, should take it as a matter of course to see what is discovered. what information does come out. joe biden has asked the archivist and the senate to open up his files. i agree with elise jordan, that it probably would make sense just from the perception or perception that you deal with the university documents as well, particularly given you're pretty sure there's nothing there. but it takes the doubt out, and it puts on a level playing field her claim and his counterclaim that it's not true. and then you can begin to go from there. >> ashley parker, maureen dowd

had an op-ed. you know each other well. joe says it ain't so. she touches on the me, too, movement and this question about kavanaugh. she writes, to suggest that every woman who alleges sexual assault is as credible as the next is absurd. the idea no woman could ever be wrong hurts women. half the human race is female. who has never been lied to by people of both genders? democrats always set standards that come back and bite them. they have created a cage of their own making. some pointed out there were a lot of women who had to go out and defend joe biden before he went and did that interview with mika and defended himself. how does this fit, this debate, this back and forth, what about-ism that michael steele was talking about, how does it fit the broader push of women who are frankly sick of having to choose between the lesser of two evils all the time? >> at the end of the day from a

purely political question, it's something the democratic party and democratic voters are grappling with right now. and every woman, every man, thankfully, is going to make their own decision. i've spoken to female voters who believe that her accusations are credible. i've spoken to female voteers who believe her accusations are not credible. as michael steele said, there is a lot of evidence that needs to come out and more discussion to be had. female voters believe her accusation is credible and they will vote for joe biden over trump. on the one hand, it has become political because the democratic party is grappling with it at large. in the voting booth it is a decision for each individual voter. >> and, robert costa, how is trump's campaign looking at this? i mean, the president himself

did an interview that seemed to undercut some of the messaging or certainly what his campaign has been trying to push when he said, you know, essentially his advice was to fight it. he said, i fought all mine, i denied all mine. joe biden should fight back against this. i mean, considering the president's own history, is this something that the trump campaign can use in the next six months? >> kasie, they already are trying in the ranks of the trump campaign to weaponize this episode and accusation. at the same time, the trump campaign is different in its approach than president trump. president trump has always approached matters of sexual misconduct and sexual assault allegations with a fight mentality, denial, fighting publicly with the accusers. so his comments about vice-president biden have been far less barbed and politically charged than we have seen from his campaign.

and that, in some instances, changes the balance politically in how republicans are approaching this because they're not speaking in a unified way in the same way about these accusations. and the president, at the end of the day, despite having all these political strategists and advisors, he runs the republican party. he is the standard bearer for the gop. and so at this point it does not seem to be the point of the spear of the attacks against vice-president biden. you've seen more favorable ground in the eyes of the republicans in attacking his record on china, the senate and other issues. >> all right, robert costa, ashley parker, michael steele, thank you all very much for your reporting, insight and analysis tonight. it's always great to have all three of you. when we continue, two cities, two states, two very different approaches. other i'm going to talk to the mayors of jersey city and austin, texas, up next. is critical to everyone's health, there is one thing we can all do together:

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call it a tale of two states. the governors of new jersey and texas are taking very different approaches when it comes to reopening amid the pandemic. despite seeing a drop of infections and hospitalizations, new jersey is very slowly reopening, while texas, which is already reopening some restaurants, malls and movie theaters this weekend, just saw its second-highest day of infections for more on this on joined by the mayor of jersey city, new jersey, and the mayor of austin, texas. gentlemen, thank you very much for being here. and mayor adler, let me start with you because you have already had some of this -- these areas where people tend to congregate in large groups starting to open up, which i think for a lot of us here certainly in d.c., we are still under a strict stay-at-home orders. maryland is one of the states that's slower to close. so watching from this vantage

point it seems stunning people are getting back to some restaurants and things like that. what are your concerns? do you feel confident that you are prepared to handle any potential consequence of this? and do you think the governor has struck the right balance? >> you knows, we're real concerned down here. no one really knows what the result of this experiment is going to be, which is why we have to watch it real closely. i wish the governor had waited a little bit longer for us to get testing capacity in place, tracing capacity in place. but frankly, nobody knows anywhere in any of these states or any of these cities what relaxing is going to do. i am concerned we're going to end up with a second spike, so we're going to be real vigilant about watching the numbers on a daily basis to see the first inkling of an increase, which we know is going to happen just by the additional interactions.

the question is at what rate is it going to happen. >> are you concerned at all, mayor adler, about your hospitals becoming overwhelmed or do you feel comfortable you are prepared to avoid that scenario? >> well, i'm confident that we're going to be able to avoid that scenario because what we've learned over the last six to eight weeks is how quickly as a city we can shut this down. but i'll tell you, people don't want to go back to -- if we're going come out of this, they don't want to go back, which is why i'm willing to do this more and more gradually. that's ultimately the security we have, that the community over the last six weeks has enabled us to learn what it takes to shut it down. and ultimately that's the only resolution that we have if the governor is overshot here. we're going to be watching. there is great concern. i, for one, am not going to be going to restaurants.

and it looks like most of the people in the city, regardless of what the rules are, are playing this more slowly because that's what makes sense to them, too. >> well, that, of course, is the question. mayor, you guys have handled things differently. you announced free testing to anyone even if they don't have symptoms, and that you're also working on additional contract tracing programs. do you feel that a slower approach waiting for having more testing in place will ultimately give people more confidence to start actually stepping back out into the world? >> you know, i agree with mayor adler we are in uncharted territory here. absent a vaccine that is not in the near future. the reality is we need to taken kremt incremental steps forward. do more tests, make people feel

more comfortable. people know more today than seven weeks ago with their responsibility to social distancing. i feel you need to respect the public that they're going to make smart choices and gradually move forward carefully. >> >> what's your view, mayor fuop, of how the federal government has been helping your jurisdiction or not? and then your governor as well and the role that he's played. >> you know, i'll start with the federal government. fema has been helpful for us and we're hopeful we're going to have a lot of our costs and extra expenses reimbursed to the normal process. the loss of revenue we've seen as a city is going to continue to be a challenge. we're going to have the same challenges every other city has. reimbursement around testing and expenses for police, we hope fema -- and our conversations have been productive on that front. the federal reserve expanded their policies for cities that were 250,000 or larger. so we're excited about that.

and that will give us some added room with regards to capital and bonding, and so we're thankful on that. and we wait to see more from the federal government over the next couple weeks. on the stateside specifically, you know, i think the government has been rightfully cautious and careful. we have more covid positives in new jersey and in hudson county and jersey city specifically than most other cities and more than many states. so i think it's right to be cautious and careful. >> mayor adler, let me ask you the same question in terms of the federal government. we talked briefly about governor abbott. what have your interactions been like with fema, with other federal agencies, and what would you like to see congress or the president be doing differently? >> well, you know, at the very beginning of this, the real confused messages coming out of washington made it very difficult initially to really be

able to mobilize the community with the message they were hearing, was that this was not a serious thing. we're past that now. we're real thankful for the money that's come in from the federal government. i would like it to be more flexible than the money is. one of the huge issues we're facing in the city right now is that the money that was paying for our police and for our first responders, just the revenue that comes into cities now has been shutdown in a lot of ways. sales tax revenue were reliant to a large degree on that. so increased flexibility would be really helpful. and i still don't understand why we don't have national purchasing of the supplies and the testing and the p. p.e. i don't know why we're all off trying to source that ourselves. >> a pretty remarkable situation. we're thinking of all of you and your constituents, mayor steven

ad letter. >> and congratulations, we saw your wife is pregnant with your second child. >> thank you. >> it's great to have a bit of good news in such a dire time. >> thank you. >> thank you both for your time tonight. coming up, nascar plans to start their engines in may, but what about the future of the national pass time? >> i hope that there is some form of baseball this summer, even if it's just tv. and i do that for -- i feel that strongly, one, because i'm an avid baseball fan. but also it's for the country's mental health to have the great american passtime be seen. >> certainly would be good for my mental health. coming up next, reporting on plans in the works at major league baseball to try to get the major league 2020 season started. we're coming back after this. afs you're on t-mobile, taxes and fees are included.

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and hope to be. ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato is right for you. at cam dem yards today the best seat in the house was fans looking through the gates. in a sport that celebrates its statistics, a whole new category, games unattended by fans. >> he will get ahold of that

one. >> reporter: while the hits echoed among the seats this image may echo much farther. >> i was actually at camdem yards that day as well, what a preview that very strange moment might turn out to be in 2015, the orioles and white sox bahama the first to play inside an empty stadium that game followed the riots sparked by the death of freddie grey in police custody. now, five years later, we could soon see many more games amid the coronavirus pandemic. bob nightingale reports major league baseball officials have become cautiously optimistic the season will begin in late june and not only would it be played? but it would be played in major

league ball parks. bob, thanks so much for coming on the program tonight i love baseball. my son is 8 months old, i am so sad at the idea of his first summer being without baseball. this obviously isn't ideal but it would get us part way there what does your reporting tell us how this came to be. what the considerations are, and how likely it is we are going to get baseball this summer? >> well, the governmental and public health officials, you know, they start saying what we think we can get this thing done at the starting term right now. we need more tests. more tests are available and as ball players and major league baseball say as long as the public has testing. and we can test, too, let's do this thing. they feel much more comfortable doing their own ballparks, rather than in arizona and florida. the sponsorships will love us,

too. with the advertising and yards. >> i was going to ask you about that, we had heard a lot about potentially setting up shop in arizona. everyone in hotels, why did they decide this was potentially the better way to go? >> the players didn't want to be just quarantined in arizona, not seeing their families before four months, four-and-a-half months. they're saying things in arizona and florida, being their hometowns. i think the beauty of it would prefer that as well. they can see the camden yards, wherever they want to watch their games, see the advertising the dimensions everything else. i think it's a much more familiar surrounding and the players will love this really. >> you have done a lot of coverage of mlb's commission rob manfred. we saw reporting today this week here in washington that mitch

mcconnell called him to kind of encourage him to bring baseball back. there have been some reports that president trump has tried to weigh in. is the commissioner swaeed by political pressures on this? what kind of pressure is he under? >> really more encouraged by it i guess more than anything else. public health officials are saying we want baseball. the public needs baseball people miss it. even if you continent be at the ballpark early on, hopefully, the fans can come back late summer, maybe starting with a thousand, 2,000, go to 5 or 10,000 by the end of the year. just to see the baseball on tv, hey, they'll take it. >> i certainly will take it. let's talk about the game. are you reporting thoo they're going to realize in three division east, central and west we won't have the american and national league.

so i have two questions for you. first of all, is there a designated hitter? and second of all, how do you get to a world series out of this? >> i'm a little unclear on the details of that you know, they've had so many ideas. this is like the fifth or sixth idea. i think they want to make sure players don't want to have these guys go coast-to-coast. if they don't break up the division, they can still keep the same way. then the nl east teams or the al east teams, central central, west west. but they want to reduce travel as well. everything is wide opened right now. they do not have anything to bid on. but their hope is they will have perhaps 12 teams. they want to expand it from ten to at least 12 who knows? they have been talking about all different formulas, formats, maybe adopt what the double

elimination bracket. or worse a march madness style. they have not come up with a concrete plan. >> all right. i am certainly interested to know. i think my husband's family might tear themselves apart with the yankees are in the same division as the mets. thank you very much for your reporting and for a little bit of hope in a lot of darkness here. thank you. coming up in our next hour, remdesivir gets a green light as a cure for coronavirus continues. i will talk to a lead researcher. plus, will contact tracing help us safely open the economy. millions of americans aren't waiting to find out. we have another hour of kasie d.c. coming up next. r hour of k d.c. coming up next. give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance

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welcome back to kasie d.c.. amid so much talk about viral spread, food shortages, policy failures, unemployment and all the rest of really difficult headlines, every week we will try to find some time to talk about research into what's working or what could work to help restore basic health and safety. it is a race around the world from promising developments at oxford university around a vaccine to the drug giant roche trying to sail to 100 million tests per month after getting

approval to french researchers look at nicotine can serve as a possible protective medicine to a group of billionaires working on a self-described manhattan project and trying to find back channels to advise the trump administration. even the white house has their own secretive working group. >> who is in charge of that operation overseas? >> you know, we have you know who is in charge of it, honestly? i am, i will tell you, i'm in charge and i'm the one that get blamed. don't forget if we come one a vaccine in record time, they'll say i should have done it faster. >> weeks ago we talked to emory researchers as they set out on a clinical trial. now remdesivir has been given emergency fda approval andreaed that to warm wet and thousands of people in places like

piedmont park in georgia as you can see there, not wearing masks or social distant distancing. it all adds up to concerns of what lies ahead. joining me now is dr. carlos del rio, one of the principle investigators at emory university in atlanta not far down the road from the scene you just saw there thank you very much for coming on the program tonight. people have been hearing so much about remdesivir in the news. you know, doctors fauci, birx, other public health officials talking about the promise that it's showing. can you just walk us through what remdesivir can and can't do for people with coronavirus and how much hope it should give people that it is a significant way forward out of this pandemic lockdown situation that we're in? >> sure, casey, let me just walk

people through because april 29 was a very confusing day. the lancet released a study done in china that showed no impact on remdesivir. if you looked at the study, they were unable to enroll fully, the new york journal of medicine had retrospective look showing it didn't have any impact. what was leaked on friday and later confirmed through relief was that in a very well conducted randomized double blind placebo controlled trial, the standard, way of conducting the trial, funded by the naid with the support of gilead. there study when the data and safety monitoring board looked at the first 400 participants have not yet completed the study. they saw that the placebo, there was a decrease in the number of

days that they require support and most importantly support in the hospital from 15 days to 11 days. and improved survival with a mortality of 8% remdesivir and 11% of those are placebo. that was not a significance. but there clearly was a trend there. so based on those finds it was the excitement occurred. the reality is if you can decrease the number of days a patient requires oxygen that requires support, you can see a decrease in an improvement in spooifl survival time. it will be good news. let's be real clear, it's a good finding. it's not a cure as you were showing payable. it's a solid hit. maybe it's a double but it's not a home run. this is not a grand slam. there there is not the cure. this is not a solution. the faa approved emergency

authorization for patients with severe covid. again this is not the fda approving the druchlth it's granting emergency operation for the use of the drug in severe covid. with refar from finding an answer, we are far from finding a cure for this disease. >> can you explain a bit about the category of drug that remdesivir is. >> according to my understanding, a drug that didn't work with ebola, but that was developed in the context of trying to fight that and is there a reason to hope that because this type of drug shows some effects that maybe we have some tools that will allow us to figure out other treatments more quickly? >> so, correct. this the a drug. it's an anti-viral drug n. humans, the rna preliminary. this is an rna virus like ebola was. it's inhibiting the replication of the virus. it gives you hope that other rna

inhibitors may have access, may have activities in this virus and many others are being investigated, including one developed here in emory eidd 2801 that is now starting clinical trials. but it also gives you the opportunity, could we combine this anti-viral drug that will block the process, we know a lot mortality comes from the inflammatory process. the naid, the national institute of infectious disease that funded the remdesivir trial is starting a study that we're now calling act 2 because the remdesivir study was called the act study. so this is the second act. which is remdesivir plus an io-6 inhibitor. a drug that will block ideas. can we combine a severe anti-inflammatory drug for survival. there is a lot of hope, clinical research that needs to happen. at least we are beginning to see. we have cracked open the door.

there is an opportunity to see that yes this is not all bad news. we can find a way forward. i think through science we will. >> certainly for me to hear that, i know for so many people who are looking for these glimmers of hope. let me ask you, you are working on a vaccine trial at emory. we've heard some optimistic news from you know scientists at oxford university have been studying this. can you update us on your efforts and how quickly or promising your trial for a vaccine is right now? >> well, first of all, there are over 70 vaccines in pre-clinical or clinical trials. dr. fauci said when he well talked about vaccines we need lot of shots on goes and we need a lot of hose shots to become goals. in other words, we are not look for one vaccine to work. we are looking for multiple vaccines to work. the vaccine we are involved with

is a novel type of vaccine. it's an mrna vaccine, a vaccine that ensures part of night the human body and starts an immune reaction, an immune response as a result of that we are just in the phase 1. the phase 1 is just a safety and introducing of the drug and the vaccine. and the naid just approved to expand this study for older populations. so once we have completed enrollment, that's enrolled here just at emory and at kaiser in washington state. once we complete phase 1, then we're rapidly moving into phase 26789 phase 2 is really the real deal. this is the efficacy part. over 4,000 people will be enrolled fairly rapidly and then we will have to see in those that get the vaccine get infected. don't get infected versus p place placebo. the vaccine shows up, it decreases the risk of infection. now issue is once are you ready, you say we have a vaccine, the

data safety board just like remdesivir may stop the trial early. once we have a vaccine, then you have to produce millions and millions of doses. i think that will be the really big challenges. how do you go from an effective vaccine to having enough vaccine to immunize everybody that needs it around the world. >> all right. dr. carlos del rio, thank you very much and to your team as well. we very much appreciate your time. >> the state of new york plans to deploy thousands of contact tracer, in the coming weeks to try and monitor those that come in close contact with people who are covid-19 positive. it's a part of a pilot program led by former new york city mayor mike bloomberg and john hopkins' university. joining me now is crystal watkins. she helped launch new york's initiative and wrote a national plan for contact tracing during this pandemic. thank you so much, crystal watson for being with us tonight. and i'm hoping you can explain

to us a couple things, because i think there is a lot of both hope and also concern about how contact tracing works, how you both execute it in a way that is effective, while also protecting people's privacy. but let's start with the big picture. where are we in terms of our capacity to trace people's contacts right now? >> right. so i think what we need across the country is really a large work force scaleup we haven't seen before for public health. so what we think we need is about 100,000 contact tracers across the country doing this work. we've seen recent everyday that state plans and activities that have already been done may have us up to around 30,000 right now so we're on our way. governors i think are taking this seriously and many states like they are in new york.

so we're getting there. but we still have a long way to go to keep that capacity that i think we need. >> so when people think about how this may impact their own lives, say because they came into contact with someone who was later sick or they are sick, themselves. and people are trying to figure out who they may have infected along the way, they're thinking about oh okay, how do i keep track of all of these people? tech companies talked about putting apps on people's phones to do this the chinese have used an app in their contact tracing efforts. how do you strike the right balance between the public health necessity here and making sure people's privacy protected. should people be nervous to put an app like that on their phone? >> it's a really important question. i do think there is a balance to be struck here. as i said, we need a large work force to do this technology isn't going to negate that. it will be a necessity. we need the people to do this.

but the way i look at these technologies is they may be a who, force multiplier and help public health do its job and identify more contacts and do it quickly. because we need to do this quickly in order to slow the spread. so, i do think there may be some trough tradeoffs in privacy for the data that public health need to do this contact tracing. but it's important to note that public health has been doing this a very long time with other diseases. they know how to hand testimony sensitive information. it's something they do on a regular basis. it is needed to help identify if you were in contact with someone who is sick with covid-19, you got a significant contact. i personally want to know if that happened, especially if i don't know the person, if i what's at the grocery store or somewhere else. i do think these efforts are really important and there is a balance to be struck with technology. but they may be helpful to

public health here. >> that's a really good point. speaking of the human effort that is required to actually get this done. you as we noted worked on this pilot program in partnership with new york and in cities across the country are trying to figure out how to do this how long does it take to train somebody to figure out how to trace contacts? is this something governments will be able to do in weeks, months, longer? what are we looking at? >> yeah so contact traceing is a really intensive process, resource intensive. but it actually doesn't take that specialized of skills. what my university is doing. my fellow researchers at the university are working on a training program to help train people up. and we think that it can be done relatively quickly, within a week probably once you get someone enrolled in the training. so, overall, i think this is possible for us to do as a country.

it just takes commitment, commitment and resources, commitment of time and really just this vision that we do need this large scale work force that we've never trade to recruit before. >> it's incredibly important work. professor crystal watson, thank you so much for walking us through all of this we are wishing the best to you and your team as you figure this all out. thank you very much. first, it was meat processing. now there is concern about everything from potatoes to canned food. we will talk about the strain on the supply chain and as the trump administration dispatches the intelligence community to look for connections to a lab in wuhan, china, kendelaney joins me with his reporting. kasie d.c. is back in a few minutes. s reporting. kasie d.c. is back in a few minutes. good morning, mr. sun.

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united purpose. >> the future doesn't belong to the faint hearted. it belongs to the brave. >> a great people has been moved to defend a great nation. >> all of us can extend a hand to those in need to those in need . in a tweet today, president trump said, quote, intelligence has just reported to me that i was correct and that they did not bring up the coronavirus subject matter until late into january. just prior to my ban in china from the u.s. according to our reporting at nbc news, warnings began appearing in the president's daily brief in early january. the "new york times" reports, quote, the national security office responsible for tracking pandemics received intelligent reports in early january predicting the spread of the virus in the united states and within weeks was raising option leak keeping americans home from work and shutting down cities

the size of chicago. mr. trump would avoid such steps until march. even if the warnings didn't get through until late january as he claimed today, here's what he was telling the american people from that point forward. >> we think we have it very well under control. a lot of people think that goes away in april with the heat. we're in very good shape. because of all we've done, the risks to the american people remains very low. we are finding very little problem, very little problem. it's going to disappear. one day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. it will go away, just stay calm. >> joining me now is nbc news correspondent covering national security and intelligence, ken delaney, it's good to see you. i hope you guys are hanging in through all of this difficult period. can you explain to us what is really going on here, the time line what does our reporting say about what the president perhaps he wasn't paying attention to it. but what did he having a says to and when did that happen?

? >> reporter: great to see you as well, kate. there are to issues here. one we are reporting, the washington post reported and c this n confirmed this came up in a written product, the president's daily brief more than a dozen times in january and february. that is the highest level of intelligence, it's written for president and goes to national security advisers. the secretary of state and oughts. the thing is, casey, it's widely reported donald trump does not read his intelligence breach. he takes an oral briefing three times a week so no one has been able to confirm exactly when a human being first told donald trump about this coronavirus outbreak that it was emerging from china. i have seen reported tonight put out by the white house this first happened in late january. but we do know as you said in the intro, look, we've reported the intelligence community as far back as november was seeing science of a health crisis in wuhan.

certainly by january they were ominous and serious warnings coming out of the intelligence community. we don't know what the language of those was. it looks like everybody was taken by surprise. i mean, even dr. anthony fauci as late as january 21st was saying on fox news americans had nothing to worry about this virus so it's a mixed picture, but one thing is clear. there were warnings in the president's daily brief that apparently donald trump was not reading. >> yeah. now iparentally he's trying to defend himself by saying, okay, my intelligence officials said they never mentioned it to me until at least the 24th. the other thing i wanted to ask you about is this question about the wuhan lab. we know it's been debunked, this virus was man-made or modified or anything like that. as you've reported, the intelligence committee has been sort of paying attention to the question of whether it was an accident at a chinese lab. and secretary pompeo on abc's this week went pretty far and said, quote, these are not the

first times that we've had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a chinese lab. who ill the intelligence committee continues its work. they should continue to do that and verify we are certain, there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in wuhan. does our reporting back up that there is significant evidence of this? i was surprised to hear pompeo say this today. >> well, there is significant circuittial evidence, absolute lit. for example, there was an early research pa inthat showed the earliest cases of the coronavirus had no connection to that wet market in wuhan. and the bat that carries this type of virus is not found within 100 miles of wuhan, but samples of those bats across china are taken from caves and brought to these, not one but two labs in wuhan studying coronavirus. one very close to that wet market. and in january, according to senator tom cotton, who has written about this, the top epidemiologist in the chinese military was assigned to that

lab so there is a circumstantial case. after the president said he had seen convincing evidence that gave him a high degree of confidence the virus came from a lab. i checked with intelligence source. they are not on that page. they say we don't know. we don't have smokeing gun everyday either what i that kould would conclusively prove and we have no assessment it came from the lab or that it occurred naturally other than as you saw last week the director of national intelligence put out a statement that said we think it wasn't man-made. it did come from china. we are investigating whether it could have come from this lab. or both labs. >> all right. well, i guess we will see. ken delaney. thank you very much for your reporting as always, stay safe, my friend. when we return, states and cities go it alone to give life saving test itself and gear. just out today, northeastern states are creating their own supply chain for ppe. new york city will partner to produce its own tests.

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new york remains the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic with over

316,000 cases. but the bronx is emerging as new york city's coronavirus capital with more than 38,000 cases and more infections per capita than any of the city's other boroughs according to health department data. the city is taking the unprecedented step of shutting down the 24 subway service for deep cleaning every night, impacting the thousands of workers that use that as a mode to get to work. joining me now is the congressman of new york. thanks so much for being on the program tonight. i want to ask you, first, about the prospect of re-opening and the plans to begin the re-opening. the bronx of which you represent a large swath has been so particularly hard hit. what are your concerns for your constituents if the re-opening happens too quickly? >> well, it's very dangerous. we have to do this very

carefully. in my district, there is not one zip code that doesn't have less that doesn't have less than ten cases for a thousand people that have tested positive. over 16,000 people have tested positive in the entire district. it's the smallest district geographically in the country. people literally living on top of each other. it will be extremely dangerous to open irresponsibly prematurely. it can set up another spike in the number of cases. >> what is it about the geography question i think underscores some of the challenges here and a lot of people who live in your district are living in multi-generational homes and other situations that make it harder for them to distance. how do you address that with your constituents and what are you telling them in trying to you know give them advice and help for getting through this? >> well, first, very overcrowded

apartments, sometimes ten people living in a two bedroom apartment. what we are telling them is, if you test positive, even if you have very slight symptoms or no symptoms at all, i'd like to solve, there are 11,000 rooms downtown in hotels, you could stay there and avoid contaminateing your family members. it is important that we do that. >> let's talk for a second about the broader mission that you will be facing when the house does finally come back. do you think that, first of all, nancy pelosi made the right decision in delaying a return for the house of representatives and i understand the conversations have centered on not coming back this monday may 4th, but perhaps the following monday. do you think that that is going to be a safe time for all 435 of you and your staffers to be here

in washington working? >> we have to lead by example, obviously. we can't ask the american people to have social distancing to take these precautions to save themselves and their families and go out ahead in the crowded house chamber and expose each other to being positive so we have to lead by example. i think her decision is prudent. i think she is taking care of the house and the american people by doing so. but again, overcrowded situations in my district are horrendous and that's why we're asking people that test positive, go downtown, stay there for 14 days or more until you are not positive and come back home. so you know in multi-generational families, they have maybe a grandmother there, a mother, a mother with diabetes or high blood pressure or respiratory illnesses, a target for this horrible virus that seems to be really

misunderstood. no one really even the scientific communities are having a hard time understanding this virus. >> of course. and, one of the things you and several of your colleagues in the congressional hispanic caucus wrote to the speaker about was to make sure to try to remember puerto rico in the next relief bill. they're talking about funds for state and local governments. i know there are a lot of puerto ricans who live in your districts. it's very important part and a group among your constituents. what are you looking for in terms of aid for puerto rico? and are you confident that they're going to get help? >> they should get help. they got hit by another earthquake. puerto rico has maria until today. then the earthquake, another earthquake on top of that, also the pandemic hit puerto rico as well. so they really need help. they haven't gotten up and got up and started. they haven't recovered from

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disruption to the food supply as meat processing plants struggle to keep production going while ensuring the safety of their workers. a study released bety cdc found nearly 35,000 employees throughout 115 facilities have tested positive for covid-19 and that number could be much higher because of testing limitations. many facilities that temporarily close bot of outbreaks are looking to re-open after president trump signed an executive order deeming meat processing plants a essential infrastructure. in iowa's blackhawk county they fear if the tyson's food plant re-opens after linked to 90% of the coronavirus cases. new keps over canned and frozen

vegetable shortages that prompted some law makers to call on the president to extend his executive order to those industries. joining me is editor-in-chief at the food and environment reporting network. sam, it's great to have you on the program tonight. i think the top line question here for a lot of people is, a, are they potentially facing disruptions to their you know grocery store she was for some of these other areas, vegetables, other things? and also, how do we balance those needs with so many of these workers who are being pushed back into these plants without the ability to do any of the social distancing that we know will keep them safe? >> yeah. i mean, it's a huge problem. so far, we have food shortages. people who are heart is of food primarily its primarily due to

unemployment, lack of money, that's why food banks are seeing such demand. but the meat with the problems at meat plants right now, you know, as you pointed out, affecting thousands of workers. and something like 20 plants closed, there has been like a 35% drop in production. so that should start to ripple through and cause higher prices. at least that's what analysts are telling us f.. >> and your food and environment reporting network wrote about the meat processing plants this past week and one employee in colorado said that she called her supervisor to report she has been exposed. they told her, well, you're not symptomatic you should come together and if she was going to take off to quarantine she would lose her job. is this a situation that

according to your reporting is playing out across the country for people in these situations? >> yeah. we did a major investigator story in collaboration with mother jones and our reporters actually spoke to two workers on the line as well as those who were out sick. you know, and also the family members of these workers. and so, we found that there was really an extensive lack of ppe for these workers. there was as simple, you know, lack of hand sanitation supplies in one planet lack of hot water to wash your hands and so workers were going in into situations in which they were working very closely together and essentially it's a high risk situation. this isn't me describing this we

had a report from the california department of health and environment, which had, wrote a scathing letter to one of the meat companies rjbs about their conditions at their plant and actually ordered them to shut down for two weeks to correct these, this situation. also self quarantine of the workers. they re-opened before that two-week limit and, according to some of the workers that we talked to, not only in this plant but at other plants, there were still you know lack of safe working conditions. >> what have we seen so far on the legal front with this? this is a kind of a brewing battle for the next bill in congress, republicans are talking about trying to limit liability for you know companies who say things like o you have to go back to work, if, for instance, they're ordered to do that. i mean, are there legal actions on behalf of these workers already unfolding? >> i think i did see one suit.

i would have to double check that i would expect that, you know, there might be legal actions in the future. there were certainly spontaneous walkouts by workers at plants because they were really concerned about the safety of the conditions that they're working in. and what irony is there are a good percentage of these workers are undocumented. so at the same time that they're not allowed to legally work in this country, they're considered essential workers who must work. so they're really caught in this catch-22 situation. >> yeah, for sure. quickly before i let you go, as we turn from meat plants to potentially some of these other caning plants, fruits and vegetables, is it easier for workers in those kind of facilities to social distance, to get the kind of protection that it would be at these meat plants where the process, itself, just simply demands that

people stand very close together? >> well, at our site, the fern.org, we have done extensive reporting on farm workers, for example. in the feeltsd they're relatively safe. in their living conditions, they're living, dozens of people in one house or they're transported to the fields and buses or you know cramped trucks. and so there really is an opportunity, if this, if coronavirus strikes, in the field itself, that it could take off. and in california, for example, we're starting to move into the harvest season there. and so in the next month or so there may be those kind of conditions. i will point out, though, at the same time that we're talking about shortages, farmers are plowing under like an enormous amount of food or dunk milk down the drain, simply because the markets that existed for that those products, either schools

or commercial restaurant as you know closed down and there weren't avenues for that food to get to people who really need it so we have this situation of incredible, an incredible amount of food waste at the same time that people are lining up if record numbers at food banks. >> it's incredibly sad to see both the pictures of those lines and also pictures from farmers who are having to do exactly what you described. thank you so much for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. when we return, mollieball talks about her new book which details nancy pelosi's fight to govern in a dramatically changing world, from her relationship with the president to handling divisions within her own ranks. handling divisions wr own ranks. people used to care. heck, they'd come

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. it was never going to be easy in the nearly 500 days since nancy pelosi's second tour as speaker, she held together her caucus while passing landmark relief legislation for coronavirus, led to impeachment and withstood early grumbling within her party. in the new book, mollie ball brings the defining moment, including when alexandria

ocasio-cortez joined a group of environment am activists to march on pelosi's office. the confrontation turned into a lovefest. pelosi found the activists inspiring and affront her plan to reinstate the committee eliminated. it diffused the idea of a rift with the left, and before long aoc announced her support for pelosi as speaker, noting that any alternative was likely to be less progressive, not more. joining me now, time magazine national political correspondent mollie ball, the author of the upcoming book "pelosi." mollie, great to have you. i love the sketch in the shot. here's hoping the rent my room account is watching us. but the picture you have on the cover of the book has really become the iconic photo of pelosi in the trump era from when she walked out of the white house, put on those sunglasses, wearing that red coat, a coat she has since said is still in her closet. if she wears it again she would

be sending some sort of signal so she hasn't yet. walk us through, what do you think -- what did you learn about nancy pelosi the person that helps explain how she is tussling right now with the president? first in those high-profile encounters and now they reportedly haven't spoken in months. >> yeah, well, you know, i think that that image that's on the cover, it's on the cover for a reason and not just because it looks cool, right. i think it says a lot about nancy pelosi and it says a lot about the moment that we're in, that that image became a meme, that that image became sort of iconic. this is someone who i argue in the book has spent 30 years being one of the most effective legislators, probably of our era. and yet it's only now that she's really being appreciated after, you know, her last speakership, and years in the minority when the democratic party collectively decided she was a liable, she was a burden, she was somebody they were hoping would move on, and now suddenly

there's been a recognition that, oh, she's really very good at her job. and i think a lot of people can't imagine anybody better to lead the democrats at this moment. and so you have this moment, you have the moment where she was standing at the podium with the president, a lot of moments with nancy pelosi becoming memes. i argue that's because we are in a place in the culture who can appreciate a woman who is confrontational, confident, taken on president trump like no other member of the democratic party. i think the image says a lot. i've learned a lot about nancy pelosi and about women in politics and perception and the role of perception in politics from watching the way the perceptions of her have changed over the course of her career. >> how does she view herself in terms of operating as a woman in politics? i mean, i think she's in some cases faced criticism for perhaps taking a more older school view, having to have succeeded in a man's world.

but at the same time she talks about, well, you know, i don't talk about the fact i'm a woman. i just get the job done. how does she view herself? >> you know, i think you have to keep in mind when she got to the house in 1987, she was one of 23 women. 435 members of the house of representatives, and there were less than 25 women. so she really had to make it in a world where there were not a lot of women to back her up. when she was first running for leadership to become the first woman to lead a party in the congress, one of her older male allies, jack murtha said, don't lean on this woman thing too hard because there are a lot of men around here. she won't get a lot of votes from women. i think it's interesting the way she combines feminin irngfemini strength.

diffuse the idea that women are soft or 0 weak. you have hillary clinton famously putting on a maggie thatcher person a, trying to be as strong and hawkish as possible. nancy pelosi has never done that. she has always foregrounded her family, foregrounded her fem femmenenity. there's no doubt about how tough she is. i think it's an interesting model for female leadership in a world where never having had a woman president, never having had a woman lead a party in congress other than nancy pelosi. we don't have a lot of role models for how that should go. >> how does this all play into the role she's playing now as congress works to pass coronavirus legislation? it's pretty clear she's drawn lines in the sand and essentially demanded that the administration come to the table. how do you see kind of her personality and what you've

learned and written about in the book playing into these negotiations? >> well, it's not her first rodeo, right. she's been in these tough negotiations before including at a time of crisis. in fact, it's not even the first time. she has been charged with sort of helping an unpopular republican president, arguably bailing him out in order to save the country from economic collapse. that was also the situation when she teamed up with george w. bush in 2008 on the tarp program which at that point was the most money the federal government had ever spent. obviously dwarfed by the coronavirus legislation now being passed. so she would -- from her perspective, she is doing something that might be bad for her party politically, right, because she's helping the president politically by coming to his aid in this situation, and yet she feels it's for the good of the country. at the same time, she does demand to be at the table. she demands respect. she believes the american people put the democrats in charge of the house of representatives for

a reason, and so we saw early in these negotiations the republicans complaining that she was being obstructionist, that she was being demanding. it was because she did believe she needed to be at that table. >> all right. "pelosi" is available starting on tuesday. molly ball, it's good to have you. i can't wait to read it in full. that's going to do it for us on "kasie d.c." we'll be back next week 7:00 to 9:00 eastern. coming up next, two members who are in a difficult position go to work and risk their health. or stay home and risk their finances. that's coming up next on msnbc. but for now, from me, good night from washington. meet jim. for jim, comfort is king.

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hey there, i'm joshua johnson at nbc news world headquarters in new york. it's very good to be with you tonight. as some americans are getting ready for work tomorrow, perhaps monday will be your first day back at work since the coronavirus shutdowns began. the u.s. has more than 1.1 million confirmed cases and more than 67,000 known deaths. still, many states have begun to jump start their economies. by tomorrow, 33 states will have some businesses reopening. every state in territories waiting for treatments or a vaccine to help us feel safer getting back to work. president trump is pushing hard for this revival, partly because the economy is key to his reelection strategy.