the u.s. death toll from coronavirus now topping 60,000. president trump is insisting that it is safe for states to reopen. plus, new reporting about how some vulnerable republicans are choosing to distance themselves from trump's response to the pandemic. and new details about what joe biden's accuser says could and could not be included in the alleged sexual harassment complaint she says that she made against him.

♪ good monday morning, everybody. it is monday, may 4th. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to begin with "the washington post" scorching look at the president's month-long struggle to actually reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. in interviews with 82 administration officials, the post is outlining a story of, quote, desperation and dysfunction with a detailed look at what took place in the 34 days between march 29th, when trump actually agreed to extend social distancing guidelines to this past week. during that time, the post is noting that trump was so determined to extinguish the deadly virus that he repeatedly embraced fantasy cure-alls and tuned out both the reality that the first wave has yet to significantly recede and the possibility of a potentially worse second wave in the fall, as we have heard from many experts. according to the paper in early april, tensions were growing between the doctors and

scientists advising the response and the president's economic and political aides. despite having no expertise in epidemiology, white house economic adviser kevin hassett built an economymetric model to guide operations which was embraced inside of the west wing by the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, and other powerful aides. for trump, the analysis provided justification to pivot wrote he preferred to be, cheering an economic revival rather than managing a catastrophic health care crisis that we have been in. three senior administration officials telling the post that the task force members with medical degrees, including dr. deborah birx and dr. anthony fauci they splintered off in mid march and began meeting almost daily. some of them were distressed by what one was quoted as calling

voodoo of the task force. the president insisted last night the united states can reopen the economy while also keeping americans safe from the coronavirus. his remarks came as the u.s. death toll nearly 68,000, surpassing his previous estimate of 60,000 deaths. last night, the president made a new prediction. >> we're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80, to 100,000 people. that's a horrible thing. we shouldn't learn one person over this. >> that number has changed, mr. president -- >> it's going up. i used to say 65,000 and now i'm saying 80 or 90 and it goes up and it goes up rapidly. but it's still going to be, no matter how you look at it, at the lower end of the plain if we did the shutdown. >> quite a lot of experts do contend and argue that had we acted earlier, we would not have lost so many lives as we have lost. let's talk to joe biden here for a moment. so during an exclusive interview

on "morning joe," presidential candidate joe biden repeatedly denied a sexual assault claim made by a former staffer. watch this. >> did you sexually assault tara reade? >> no. it is not true. i'm saying unequivocally, it never, never happened. and it didn't. it never happened. meanwhile, tara reade, the woman accusing the former vice president, says she's not ready to respond after he denied her claims from 27 years ago. over the weekend, reade told "the wall street journal" that she would sit on forea tv interview to discuss the allegations, but no date has yet been finalized. she told the journal she initially had been planning a fox news appearance on sunday but canceled it because of the threats she and her adult daughter have received. reade alleges she filed a

complaint with the senate personnel office and says nothing happened. she also says she doesn't have a copy of the complaint and that none could be located. also new details are surfacing about that complaint against the former vice president. according to the associated press, tara reade says she does not explicitly accuse biden of assault in that senate report. in an interview on friday, reade says twice she did not use the word sexual harassment in filing that complaint. so some dinnersfferences there. according to the interview, reade said she filed an intake form at the senate personnel office, which included her contact information, the office she worked for and some broad details of her issues with biden. on saturday, reade told the ap

there may have been a box on the check to form note ago sexual harassment complaint, but she could not remember and wouldn't know for sure until she actually saw that form. all right. let's talk about this. joining me now, julia manchester. good morning to you, julia. great to see ow this monday morning. let's talk about the types of responses that we are hearing, how voters in general are responding to biden's pushback against tara reade's allegations and his all-out denial that anything happened. >> right. so it's a little early to see how voters are responding to this. remember, this is taking place, obviously, during the coronavirus pandemic. so it's probably not going to be top of mind for most voters. that said, this obviously isn't what the biden campaign wants to be focused on right now. before this, we saw the biden campaign rolling out a number of virtual town halls creating his

own public health advisory, essentially telegraphing how he will respond to this pandemic. but now we've seen the tables have completely turned and he's been accused of sexual harassment. something that puts democrats in a very difficult position because they have to essentially walk this fine line of saying, you know, believe all women, but at the same time, tout this candidate who they want to defeat president trump in november. so not what the biden campaign wants to be talking about right now, obviously puts them in a difficult position especially given the news cycle around the global pandemic. >> so let's talk about the pandemic here and the response overall. how is the white house handling this shift, the notable shift that we have seen from the president from battling the virus now to the economy, getting the economy back on track, reopening states? >> well, this isn't surprising.

you know, president trump has touted ever since he was elected president, you know, the gains made under his administration and touting those economic reforms and such. however, now that all of those gains are gone and we are about, you know, roughly maybe a month over into this pandemic, he's definitely pivoting towards the economy. i think this is due to the fact that he is naturally a businessman, but also the fact that he's up for re-election in november and he's very much hinging on this economy. however, i think this could be negatively playing for him in a number of states because we're seeing that in these states governors are polling higher than he is. and i think that maybe shows how his response is being received in that he's not necessarily paying close enough attention to the public health situation at hand and is, instead, focused on reopening the economy which many

critics say is too fast right now. >> and there's always this overwhelming issue that the economy will bounce back once we deal with the virus and at times you don't necessarily feel like the president understands that. julia manchester, thank you, as always. stay close. going to talk to you again in just a little about it . still ahead, despite predicting a new and higher death toll, the president says some states are not opening up fast enough. more of his comments from last night. also, the latest battle over mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. the state of south carolina is facing new lawsuits. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back.

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welcome back, everybody. on friday, both the national and

state democratic parties became the latest to file suit citing especially heightened dangers to african-americans as grounds for elimination absentee ballot restrictions. the state reports a lawsuit alleges that racial bias in south carolina laws and history make it difficult for african-americans to vote, especially during the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. friday's suit was filed in federal court and followed a petition to the state supreme court seeking the same ballot expansion. joining me now to talk through this and clarify some of it for us, danny cevallos. great to see you this morning, danny. let's get some clarity on this because it seems like a lot of folks are included in this possible absentee ballot, especially in south carolina. the elderly folks, the folks that are most vulnerable to the coronavirus, but not necessarily african-americans and it seems as if this is what this is getting at, this case is getting

at, this suit is getting at. >> elderly folks and sick people are automatically qualified to receive absentee ballots, but many are not. the traditional ideas of who should get an absentee ballot used to be things like i'm overseas in the military or for school or otherwise unable to come to my county to vote. but these reasons that are now advanced six months ago would have been dismissed as the ideas of maybe hype kond ree yaks that are real concerns. there are folks who are home, healthy, not elderly, not sick, who simply want to maintain social distancing to avoid getting coronavirus. in fact, they may have underlying conditions that don't qualify them for an absentee ballot, but that make them particularly susceptible. and then the other thing being challenged is this witness requirement. there's a requirement that if you are going to vote absentee, you have to have a witness come watch you sign your ballot. but the witness requirement, number one, is challenged at not really having any effect on

whether or not you're submitting a fraudulent ballot. after all, if you're going to submit a fraudulent ballot, you'll take the extra step and submit a fraudulent witness signature. that's the second prong of the attack, that the witness requirement doesn't serve any important purpose and it only serves to increase the risk of coronavirus. >> okay. but considering that we are in the age of the coronavirus and this pandemic and we know this timeline is not looking good of when we get back to our normal that we knew of eight weeks ago, this thing could go on for the next two years for all we know. we are inside of an election year. should this law -- can this law expand to include things like a pandemic to make sure that more folks are able to have those absentee ballots?

>> that's what these lawsuits are signaling to do, have a court at least force the state to -- or maybe strike down the law or otherwise allow folks who are going to vote absentee expand that group, include more people, arguably include anybody who doesn't want to compromise themselves by leaving the home and possibly exposing themselves to the virus. what we're seeing here is maybe a clarion call for a future where absentee ballots are universal, where anybody that wants an absentee ballot can get one. >> yeah. and we remember what happened in wisconsin. the primary wasn't canceled there and there was an increase in covid cases. danny danny cevallos, thank you very much. coming up, we're heading overseas where officials are warning the uk coronavirus deaths may get worse than italy's. we'll get live reports, hay. of an outdoor grill indoors,

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welcome back, everybody. the british government deflecting questions yesterday over a coronavirus death toll that is europe's second worst after italy. on friday, the government announced it exceeded its testing target per day, carrying out more than 120,000 tests the last day of april. but officials announcing that same day more than 700 people dieing from the virus. causing britain to be headed in the direction to overtake italy's death toll in just a couple of days as the hardest-hit country in europe. experts still saying britain still need an inive and contract tracing program in order to avoid another spike in infections if the government eases the lockdowns there. joining me now from london, nbc news correspondent cal perry. how is it looking, cal? hearing those numbers, just devastating once again. more than 700 people dieing on a

day as the same day that they're able to test 120,000 folks. >> yeah. we heard the health secretary, matt hancock, promise the country that they were going to be able to test 100,000 people a day by the end of april. and on may 1st, he announced there are 122,347 tests. but hang on, because there were not 100,000 results. 27 of those tests roughly went to people's homes and those tests have not been carried out. 12,000 roughly went to satellite sites. those tests, the results had not been carried out which left only 81,978 completed tests. so when you break down the numbers, you find all kinds of problems. one of the problems is that these tests that went out to people's homes, many of them did not have a return envelope which makes the entire thing pointless because people were calling the nhs and asking how do i get this test in? so testing is still a major problem here in the uk and it's something the government is finally being held accountable for now that prime minister

boris johnson is back. >> what is up with the disparity with regard to administering these tests and actually getting the results? that happened here in the united states, as well, and the vice president tried to walk it back and said well, well, i said we could get the tests, i didn't necessarily said we could get the results of the test. to me, that's one and the same. if i want to get tested, i want to know whether i'm positive or negative. what's the point of getting tested without the results? >> it's the conversation partly that you had with danny cevallos. what is the point of get ago test at home kit if you can't get the results to the lab and find out whether or not you've been tested. and the government not only, as i said, is under fire here, but is having to fix this on the fly and they're running into all of these interesting problems like they opened up a bunch of drive through testing centers, but not many people drive. they're trying to get the tests into hospitals, but hospitals that were noncovid hospitals are

now covid hospitals. people are going to the emergency room here and either contracting covid or bringing it into the hospital. the key is getting doctors and care homeworkers tested. we talked to a mother and daughter who work in the same hospital still haven't received tests. they called the nhs and they were told, well, sometime this week. on a later note, it looks as if they're finally taking care of you, getting you a more professional background than your son sliding down the stairs. >> you like that? i can do all kinds of things with this. we'll go through it this week. >> great to see you, my friends. i want to bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins, as always, tracking the numbers over the weekend. how is it looking? >> sunday is always a little lower so we wait and see what monday and tuesday bring into

it. the fatality number was the lowist since march 31st. by the end of today, we'll be close to 70,000 fatalities since this began. so, yeah, as far as the other numbers went, we've been tracking the daily cases. i did slide the plateau. remember at the end of the last week, we went way up. you can see just to the left of that black area where we were yesterday, we had that jump. i still don't think we're off of it. it goes from the beginning of april through tend of the last week. we'll see if this week does give us any drop, but over the weekend, we had 28,000 cases on average. in april, the bar was set at 30,000 cases per day. so when you hear the daily number of how many cases we had nationwide, we want it lower than 30,000 and hopefully dramatically lower in the weeks ahead. let's get to the weather concerns. the new storm system that we're going to be tracking is now in nebraska. we're going to watch severe

weather later on today. areas of concern from dallas/ft. worth northward, large hail, damaging wind a possibility as they storms roll through missouri and western portions of tennessee. a little cooler in the northeast after your gorgeous weekend. this is going to be an ugly week ahead from the great lakes to the northeast. still hot today in texas. decent weather across much of the country, still hot in the desert southwest. at minute, when i come back, i'm going to talk about the end of this week where it is going to get much colder than it should be in many areas and i have a snow forecast coming up for you on friday and saturday. yes, in may. >> thank you, bill. coming up, everybody, as we head closer to november, some vulnerable republicans are choosing to distance themselves

from president trump's response to the coronavirus crisis. we're going to talk about what that means for crucial battleground states. plus, what vice president mike pence is now saying about not wearing a face mask during his visit to the mayo clinic last week. we're back in a moment. they are the heroes, the helpers - working on the front lines, and here's one small way that you can help them in return. complete your 2020 census today. 2020 census data helps communities plan funding for hospitals, clinics, and emergency services across the country.

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featuring the emmy award-winning voice remote. access to your favorite apps, including netflix, prime video, youtube and hulu. all without changing passwords and inputs. the most 4k content and movies and shows on any screen. the best entertainment experience all in one place. welcome back, everybody. we're going to begin this half hour with president trump's push to put americans back to work despite acknowledging stay at home measures have been effective in stemming the deaths from the coronavirus. trump said during a virtual town

hall at the lincoln memorial last night that some states are not moving fast enough to reopen. >> certain states will have to take a little more time in getting open and they're doing that. some states, frankly, aren't going fast enough. you have some states that virginia, they want to close down to the middle of june and a lot of things that they're doing, i really believe, you can go to parks. you can go to beaches. you keep the spread, you keep -- you take away a certain amount. i really think the public has been incredible. that's one of the reasons we're successful, if you call losing 80,000 or 90,000 people successful. but it's one of the reasons that we're not at that high end of the plain. >> i don't think anybody is calling losing 68,000 people to the coronavirus successful. so some vulnerable republicans up for re-election, they're choosing to distance themselves

from president trump's response to this pandemic. the "new york times" write fearing political implications, they're doubling down on constituent service and hosting town hall style events, avoiding mention of the president whenever possible. the pandemic has sharply raised the stakes for those centrist gop candidates. a piece of the national review points out that while trump's skeptical independence will be the key to winning battleground senate seats, if the president's political condition does not improve, some gop strategists are encouraging candidates to talk about keeping the senate as a check against democratic power, even if it means acknowledging the presidency is likely lost. joining me once again, political reporter for the hill, julia manchester. wow, just hearing that, julia, is astounding to me that that

could feasibly be a response for centrist gops. acknowledging that they feel that the presidency could be lost but want to go affect, obviously, more down ballot races. what do you think the response to the president's handling of the coronavirus crisis will be especially its impact on these down ballot races in november? >> i think it depends which state you're looking at in particular. and in the states outlined in that "new york times" piece, you have michigan, pennsylvania, and essentially it was talking about how they're trying to distance themselves from president trump and try to focus on their more local response. remember, there is a lot of polling that shows that governors in most of the states are actually polling higher than president trump. now some of that could be a result of the fact that people in states tend to see in these crises tend to see their

governors i think a bit more on local media and such. there's a bit on of a more direct response. however, it does speak volumes that during a time of crisis, the country isn't necessarily rallying around the president. but, you know, this is even impacting, you know, republicans and states like new york, you know, john katgo from upstate new york, obviously you have andrew quo know pushing high for his coronavirus balance in that state 37 but president trump is impacting a lot of these responses in these states. and i think you've seen that this has somehow worked for republicans more in the past, but you're going to see their democratic opponents looking to tie them to the president. >> so let's talk about texas and its decision to start reopening the economy there. that decision it seems now worrying lawmakers on both sides

of the aisle, both democrats and republicans. what are the concerns? >> i think the concerns is that essentially, you know, like georgia, would has been kind of a test in all of this, there's a concern that this could be happening too soon in that we are still seeing a rise in cases in a number of these areas. now, governor greg abbott argues that maybe in rural texas, you're not seeing the same sort of cases as you see in dallas or austin. but you're still seeing a rise in cases, i think, in rural america and not as much of an access to health care. so that's the messaging you're really seeing democrats drill down. but republicans, very much, i would say, taking a bit of a risk, relying in the last segment on the economy and pushing for more local businesses to reopen and such. all right. julia manchester, thank you, as always. great to see you this morning. so another place that is

reopening, europe's longest lockdown start to go be lifted in italy, the country's prime minister announcing that phase two will begin today. allowing for more than 4 million people to return to their jobs. the reopening including auto manufacturing such as ver regardry and lamborghini, but smaller businesses will have to remain closed. schools, hairdressers, gyms, a lot of other services will remain closed. bars exami bars and restaurants will reopen forte away only. parks have reopened, as well, and masks are mandatory in all clos closed spaces. restriction owes funerals have been relaxed, but only 10 15 mourners are allowed to attend. italians are allowed to travel in their regions, but travel between regions is restricted.

joining me now is richard engle. some folks are starting to go back to work there, 4 million or so. but talk about the type of measures that are in place from the government to make sure this does not continue to spread throughout the country or we don't see more cases there. is there more testing in place, ready at the go? will there be temperature checks, for instance, as people start to return to work? >> so, first of all, good morning, yasmin, from rome. if you know this city, this is one of the main squares here, normally one of the big tourist attractions right in the center of the old city. and this area is predominantly full of tourists or normally would be full of tourists and full of retail shops. so it's still relatively empty because the clothing shops, the jewelry shops, the hair dresses, they're all still closed. but what you're starting to see

now, today, with this is phase two. that's what it is officially called here. you're seeing factories starting to reopen, but that also means all of the stores that are related to factories. so now building sites can open up. that means stores that sell parts related to building sites. they sell sinks or tubes or toilets or whatever happens to be that's related to that indust industry, they can also open up. so it is a shot in the arm for people. probably the biggest things that most italians will recognize is just the reopening of the park. just up there, you'll see in that green area, that's villa borgese, which is one of the nicer parks in central rome. that is open. people are out, they can take a jog, take a walk, and this gives people that some semblance of normal live is returning. it doesn't mean, however, that

they are opening the valve completely. i spoke to one of the government's health advisers a short time ago this morning and he said, look, italy is opening up the valve a little bit. and they are experimenting. they are not 100% sure that this is going to work, but they're confident enough to do this step. so you may have talked about in recent days, we've heard a lot about it when covering this disease. the "r" number. the "r" number is key. if you have an "r" number above one, that means the reproduction rate of the virus is spreading rapidly. now, the doctor told us that in italy now, the "r" number nationwide is below one. that means they're confident that it is diminishing and not necessarily going to go to zero, but isn't expanding explosively like it was here when the lockdown was first put in place nearly two months ago. >> well, i've got to say, italy, an incredible country, such a beautiful place, so much history

and it is so fantastic to even just see people out and about once again in that country on this beautiful sunny day there. richard engle, thank you, as always. still ahead, what vice president mike pence admits that he should have been doing during this visit to a leading u.s. health clinic last week. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. this is an athlete, twenty reps deep,

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welcome back, everyone. vice president mike pence is now acknowledging that he should have worn a mask during his visit to the myoclinic last week. let's take a listen. >> from early on, the cdc has made it clear that you wear a mask to prevent you from wearing a mask to convey the coronavirus to other people -- >> we should point out that

we're tested, as well. that's why we're here without a mask, as well. i didn't think it was necessary, but you should have worn a mask at the mayo clinic. and i wore it when i visited the ventilator plant in indiana. and i think it's -- it's -- it really is a statement about the american people, the way people have been willing to step forward, practice social distancing, wear masks in settings where they can't do that. and i just have to tell you that i couldn't be more grateful to see the way the american people responded. >> happy to hear that he is admitting that mistake there. so let's get a check on your weather once again with nbc meteorologist bill karins who has been tracking those numbers for us. bill, taking a look at that curve, how are things looking? >> over the weekend, the death toll was a little lower, especially sunday, but the number of new cases that came in was up. but testing was also up, too. so let me get into it. right now, we're probably going

to past 1.2 million total positive cases in the country. right now, we're just shy of that. and if you see what happened on sunday, we had about 27,000 cases. that was our second highest sunday total. i think because some places are closed. there's always a bit of a lag on sunday. that's why i'm only comparing yesterday to other sundays and as you can see there, it was the second highest. a little good news, we have 500,000 people with their test results that came in saturday and sunday alone. we continue to see an increase in the number of people tested. right now, we're about 7 million people tested and a little over 2% of the u.s. population. let's get into this forecast. today we have severe weather we have to deal with in oklahoma and missouri. this is the beginning of a chillier weather pattern, especially in the great lakes and the ohio valley and the northeast. by the time we get to friday, a cold rain is going to move in and it will be all through

tennessee. at the same time, a shot of very cold air for 24789 of year is coming down through the great lakes. and yes, we have a snowfall forecast for friday night and saturday. our euro models are saying the potential for snow in the great lakes, western portions of new york, northern portions of new england and the other problem is it's going to be very cold in the morning. we could have a frost or a freeze as far south as virginia. and anyone who did their early season of planting, those plants could be at risk. >> come on, i don't know how can you go from what we said this weekend to that. >> and it i will be mother's day weekend, too. still ahead, we're going to go live to cnbc for another look at what's driving the day on wall street. as we go to break, we got some positive signs in the global effort to stem the threat of this virus. south korean researchers say reports of recovered patients testing positive for a second time are due to testing errors

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welcome back. global stocks in oil prices have spiraled downwards. cnbc's juliana is joining us this morning from london. talk to us about markets. how are they doing this morning. >> it's great to see you this morning. unfortunately for investors, it looks like it will be another difficult day for investors. on friday, all 11 sectors in the s&p 500 ended the day in

negative territory. we're seeing a sell-off in oil prices and u.s. futures point to a weaker start, as well. in terms of what's weighing on sentiment, president trump ratcheting up pressure in beijing on its role in the global pandemic. it's in tensions on the trade front with a potentially new tariff on beijing. on top of the uncertainty around the pandemic and controlling the he health part of this crisis, investors bracing for potentially more attentiotensioe trade front, as well. in terms of companies, we got news from j. crew group, which has been in the news. today, they filed for bankruptcy protection with a plan to hand over control to its lenders. j. crew made an agreement in virginia to eliminate $1.65 billion in debt in exchange for ownership to its creditors. this is the first big retailer to fail in the pandemic, but

we're bracing for more to follow in its footsteps. in addition, they plan to close stores. the final number of stores to close remains to be seen. worth noting, in addition to closing these store, they've had to shelf what was going to be a potential ipo of its made well business. a lot of changes for j. crew. >> yeah, lots of changes there. let's talk about the food industry here. the food industry was pretty hard hit by the coronavirus, but you actually had one sector of the industry doing pretty well. what can you tell us about this? >> that's right. these are -- the sector you're talking about are food meal prep kits. a lot of people thought this was a fad, the kits where you receive a subscription of ingredients to make different meals. it is a way to expand your cooking skills, try new flavors, and avoid going to the supermarkets. sales of the kits has skyrocketed since people have gone into lockdown. >> i have to say, i'm never good at these kits because i'm never

good at following directions, as most people that work with me on this show know well. julianna tatelbaum, live from london, great to see you. thank you so much. up next, axios' one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," with nearly 20,000 confirmed cases, ohio governor mike dewine has been waging a tough battle against the coronavirus. he'll preview the state's next steps to stop the spread and reopen their economy. "morning joe" is moments away. this is an athlete, twenty reps deep, sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you.

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featuring the emmy award-winning voice remote. access to your favorite apps, including netflix, prime video, youtube and hulu. all without changing passwords and inputs. the most 4k content and movies and shows on any screen. the best entertainment experience all in one place. welcome back, everybody. joining me now with a look at ax owe am, t mrk ax axios a.m. is mike allen. what's the one big thing today? >> gamble on fall. it is likely summer camps open. it had been looking to be the case for colleges this fall. but colleges, if they can't have

students on campus this fall, would face financial catastrophe. students don't have the same experience online. across the country, just in the last couple days, we've seen college after college announce plans to have people on campus in the fall. they're showing their hands, showing their cards about how they plan to manage it. some of the ideas that they have, they're going to try to test students on the way in. some colleges are going to just take freshman who really want that on-campus experience. maybe spread them out in the dorms. maybe still do lecture hall, big classes online. sports with no spectators. this all sounds fine on paper, but axios writer who did this story said telling college communities they can't have

friends, it's easier said than done. being separated isn't the college experience. you go for the liberal arts experience of learning from others. >> there's so much preparedness that so many institutions have to take and figure out with regard to this pandemic, considering the fact that it could go on for 18 months to two years. hurricane season is just around the corner, as we all well know. i know that axios has some exclusive report on how fema is preparing during the pandemic for hurricane season, and having to deal with some of the disasters coming out of that. >> this was an exclusive by jonathan swan from fema. it sounds like a horror movie. the covid-19 calamity meets hurricane season. fema has started to prepare for exactly that. look at the complications and the problems that a disaster like that could bring. how do you evacuate people and social distance them?

how much more space do you need in shelters? evacuate a hospital, people are connected to ventilators. a horrible situation. fema is trying to prepare for something they never have. there's never been a time in our history where every single state and territory declared a disaster. that's what we're facing. a perfect storm of storms. people are worried about the fire season. you have the atlantic hurricane season starting. what if all this collides with a second wave of the disaster? it is a sign that as strained as our country's infrastructure has been, the government is already looking ahead and preparing for something that, frankly, could be even worse. >> i'm sure they got a glimpse of disaster preparedness with the horrific tornadoes that tore across the southeast recently, where so many lives were lost there. >> yeah. >> let's quickly take a -- let's quickly talk about possible white house shakeups that axios

is reporting. is the president considering another white house shakeup here? also, hearing about a possible replacement for the fbi director, christopher wray? >> this is the groundhog day segment of "first look." who is on the outs with the president? who is on thin ice with the president? axios is reporting that christopher wray, the fbi director, is on the outs with the president. the president doesn't trust him, doesn't think of him as his own person. doesn't look like he will be replaced. the president is deferring to the attorney general, bill barr, who wants to keep him. you talk to people around the president, and he complains about the fact that he feels like christopher wray hasn't been hard enough in pushing back against what the president considers corruption at the fbi that came out in the michael flynn case, recent series of documents. and, and this is always the

thing with the president, he doesn't feel like christopher wray is his guy. the reason he is staying now, jonathan swan reports, two things, both practical. one, people around him say before an election, six months to the day yesterday until the election, do you really want to kick over the hornet's nest of firing another fbi director? and this is the ultimate practical point, there is not an obvious replacement. christopher brwray stays, but t president continues to complain about him inside. unheard of situation in any other administration. >> mike allen, thank you, as always, my friend. going to be reading axios a.m. in a little bit. >> have a great week. >> sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this monday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. in the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants.