the democratic states, which happen to have now high coronavirus content, which actually have put in more money than the republican states who are now saying, why should we bail out the democratic states? the democratic states have been supporting them for years. new york every year, $29 billion more paid in than it gets out. new jersey, also a high coronavirus state. $18 billion more every year than it gives out. massachusetts, connecticut, california. and then you look at the republicans who now say, well, we don't want to help the democratic states, they're actually the states that have been taking more every year. virginia, maryland, kentucky. senator mitch mcconnell is kentucky, $37 billion more every year. alabama, florida. everything is about florida.

why? because it's a swing state. and we're in an election year. i get it. florida gets $30 billion more every year than it puts in. what are you talking about, fairness, equity, bailout? you look at where we've been over the past five years, we paid in $116 billion more than we gave back. you want to be fair, just give new york back the money you took, and it would be $116 billion. who gives and who takes? we know those facts and we know the numbers. but, look, this whole discussion that senator mcconnell is raising, that some senators are raising, this is counterproductive, and it will

lead to defeat for all of us. you need a bipartisan bill to pass. you go down this path of partisanship and politics, you will never pass a bill. if you never pass legislation, you will never get this economy back on its feet. so you go down this path of division, you will defeat all of us because we're all in the same boat. there is no separating us. still the united states of america. and this partisanship, we have to turn the page. i know it's how washington operates. i know it's how washington has been operating for many years. but we have to stop, and we have to change, and you do need a totally different mindset.

it can't be it's you versus me. it has to be we, right? we the people. if you don't get back to we and you think about a collective interest, you're going to defeat us all. because it can't happen. and you have to get out of this democrat or republican, red or blue. it's not red or blue. it's red, white and blue. this virus doesn't take democrats-o democrats or republicans. it doesn't kill democrats or republicans. it kills americans. the virus is less scrutinizing and more of an equalizer than the lens we're viewing the virus through. and if we can't get past this now, when can we ever get past it? you have a national crisis. you have a national outbreak, a national epidemic killing thousands of people.

you can't put your politics aside even now? even today? families have fight. yes, families have fights. somebody is going to die and the family is still going to carry forward these silly fights from years ago? nobody remembers how this ever started? if there's ever a time to come together, it is in a moment of crisis. and this is a moment of crisis. and we always understood, and the great ones always told us, that it won't work this way. a house divided against itself cannot stand. if you want to be a leader, you want to go dine in the history books as someone who stood up and did the right thing, well then remember what made us great in the first place, and that's what a great leader would do.

also, last point, each of us must do our part. talking about government, government, government. yeah, government has a lot to do. i understand that fully. citizens also have a role to play. you know who's going to keep yourself safe? you're going to keep yourself safe. you know who will keep your family safe? you will keep your family safe. you know who will keels each oth keep each other safe? each of us have a responsibility. just wear a mask. it's the smart thing to do and always the right thing to do. in all of this complexity, there's still a right thing. you still know what's the right thing to do and wrong thing to do. maybe right thing is a new york expression. i don't think think so. you know what the right thing to

do is. nobody needs to tell what you the right thing to do is. wear a mask. it's not about you. it's about my health. you wear a mask to protect me. i wear a mask to protect you. and wearing a mask is not the greatest intrusion. i don't understand why people think it's such a burden to wear a mask and, look, 99% of the people do it. it's the 1% of the people who don't do it, right, that's who we're talking about. we were talking about this last night and i was expressing my frustration has to why some people just don't get it. what this has been about from day one, this whole exercise, and when i started this on day one, all of these things that we've done, nobody is doing these things because government told them do it.

the first governor in the history of the state of new york to say we're closing businesses to say you must be quarantined. no governor has ever said that. how do i enforce that? i can't. i k how do you enforce making 19 million people stay at home? i can't. i can't. i said from day one, i can give the facts to new yorkers but then new yorkers have to decide and agree that it makes sense given the facts and agree to do it. new yorkers have agreed to do it. all of these things. closing schools, closing businesses, staying home, socially distancing. so now wear a mask. i was saying last night, i don't really understand why this wear a mask is so hard. mariah suggested it may be the way i'm communicating it. i'm just not effectively

communicating. don't laugh. first of all, this is a common refrain in my house from my daughters, that it's me and my lack of ability to communicate effectively. that's a fair statement. i'm guilty. i have no doubt. i am guilty. i am a bad communicator and i haven't been communicating the rational for wearing a mask effectively. so i'm open minded. i understand my weaknesses and my flaws. i'm a work in progress. we're all a work in progress. i'm trying to get better. so mariah's suggestion was, look, why don't we ask new yorkers to produce and ad that the state could run on explaining to new yorkers why they should wear a mask. and the context and the rational and the health reasons and the

social responsibility and it's not that big a deal, maybe there's a better way to communicate it than i have been communicating it. again, 99% of the people are doing it, and that's great. we're talking about that 1%. so maybe i just haven't been persuasive or effective enough in my communication skills. so i said to mariah, great idea, we'll ask new yorkers, produce an ad, 30-second ad. they submit it. mariah's going to be an unofficial adviser with the department of health. pick the five best, put them online, let new yorkers pick the best ad, state will run that ad. it will say on the bottom, produced by whoever won the competition. they will get a lot of acclaim. they will go on to be a big

creative experts and maybe we'll have an ad that communicates this better than i have been able to communicate it to date. so i'm excited about that. and mariah is going to help on that and take it on as a project and i'm excited about that. at no cost to the people of the state of new york, she will be a volunteer. the boyfriend can try to put in, he can submit a possible ad for consideration. the boyfriend will lose, but he can submit an ad. because i'm still governor. and that's what we're going to do. mariah, do you want to add anything, or did i explain it clearly in my flawed communication modality? >> i think you covered it. we'll be providing more information in the next few days. but if you are interested, you can go to wearamask.ng.gov.

>> did i miss anything? >> no, that's perfect. >> see r, sometimes i communica correctly. but you're not alone in criticizing my communication skills and many in this room agree with you. we're new york tough. >> governor, it looks like there's new reporting on nursing homes that increases the numbers by 1,700 total deaths. is that in the official tally? is that in a different category? how is that tallied out? >> i will ask melissa to explain this because i don't know the details, frankly. you have two categories, confirmed deaths and then probable or presumed deaths. and they list numbers in both categories. some people combine the two. confirmed deaths and presumed deaths and have one number.

some people keep them separate. then they're often reported separately or they're reported together. but that has been going on for a while. but, jim, is that accurate? >> that's accurate, governor. we reported in the past, we asked the nursing homes to provide updated information. they originally provided about 3,100 total deaths. the confirmed deaths of those were actually 2,100. that gets added to the official count. we are counting both presumed and confirmed but the confirmed deaths are the ones we're running in the official tally. other localities are submitting unconfirmed deaths. but we want to confirm them as much as we k but now we're putting out the category as you can see because some were reporting both together and it was difficult to tease out. so we asked them to report clearly that line of both confirmed and presumed. >> specifically, isabella geriatric center, someone we

drew attention to this week, they said 98 deaths but the official reporting is less than that, somewhere in the 60s. does it not include hospitals? if someone goes to the facility to the hospital, is it counted differently? >> those are reported in the hospitalization deaths. isabella, it's 31 presumably deaths and it will need to be confirmed one way or another. but we asked those facilities to update, which they have. >> just to be clear, i would take all of these numbers now with a grain of salt. the confirmed deaths, you know what that means. what does a presumed death mean? how do you presume it to be coronavirus? also, the at-home deaths, nonhospital, nonnursing home deaths, just at-home deaths,p when do you actually get all of the numbers on those and how do you confirm all of those deaths

as attributed to coronavirus? so i would just have a caveat with all of these. i think they're going to change over time. >> governor, when you look at the nursing home deaths, why weren't steps taken earlier to protect such a vulnerable operation? as you look back now and knowing this virus is going to be around for a while, are there things, mechanisms that can be done differently so when people are sick in the nursing homes, they can go to the hospital and stay in the hospital? >> well, the -- go in the hospital and stay in the hospital, first, basic point is right, the nursing homes, we said from day one, are the most vulnerable place. because it's old people, senior people who are the vulnerable population in a congregate setting. that's how we -- this nation was introduced to the virus with the seattle nursing home, right? so -- and it was true around the

world also. what can you do better going forward? i don't know. it's something we're studying. we're also doing an investigation with the attorney general to look at it. we did some very harsh things here that, frankly, i wasn't even comfortable with. but the health experts insists, no visitors to a nursing home for two months, no visitors. how do you do that? because all it takes is one person to walk in, test the staff, ppe. we do everything we can. but if there's anything we can learn from this, we will and we will do. you have people who would get sick at a nursing home, sometimes they were transported

to the hospital. that's up to the experts in the nursing home if that's helpful. if they're in the hospital, we also need hospital beds, right? it's not like we can turn hospitals into nursing homes. once a person is better, the person has to go somewhere. they don't have to go back to the nursing home, by the way. the way the nursing home operates, they make a determination if they can provide the best care for the person. if the nursing home says, i can't provide care for this person, then the nursing home must transfer the resident or call the department of health and say this person should be referred somewhere else. i can't take care of this person. we have covid-only facility that's can take people from nursing homes. the nursing home has to make the

decision. so if the hospital calls and says, i want to send back a person who had covid but is now better to the nursing home, if the nursing home doesn't think they have take them, they shouldn't. at all have to do is say no and tell the department of health and that person will go somewhere else. it really comes down to that nursing home has to know what its limits are, who can provide care for and who can't provide care for and we have alternatives but we have to get it from that nursing home first. melissa, do you have anything to add on that? >> no, actually, jim, do you want to speak to that? >> i think the governor said it, we have aggressive measures. no visitors from the outside. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, continuing our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. you've been listening to new york governor andrew cuomo give his daily press conference. today the governor brought one of his daughters, mariah, to

launch an online project that she believes will improve on which she thinks is her father's failure to persuade new yorkers to wear masks. here are the other facts at this hour. president trump is on air force one. his first trip in a month heading to arizona to tour a honeywell plant producing n95 masks and downplaying new scientist models indicating the easing of restrictions and social distancing could lead to a major resurgence in covid-19 cases and deaths across the nation. as the president pushes to reopen the country, a major new poll finds americans widely oppose reopening most businesses and fear infection, believing that the worst is not over. china's state television is calling secretary mike pompeo insane for saying there's enormous evidence the coronavirus originated in a wuhan lab. as dr. fauci is telling the

national geographic, it could not have been manually manipulated. joining us now, the chief of the global initiatives of at the university of pennsylvania and dr. gupta from the u.s. department of metric sciences. the president is pushing back on a number of models that are projecting a much higher death rate and infection rate. he just said today it's because they're not taking into consideration the mitigation. let me play a little bit of what he said as he's leaving the white house lawn. >> it's a report, and that's a report with no mitigation. so based on no mitigation, there are -- we're doing a lot of mitigation. but there will be social distancing and washing their hands and doing the things you're supposed to do. >> dr. emmanuel, we've seen a

number of different projections now, university hospital, hopkins projection, that was apparently a work in progress. where do you stand on this? dr. fauci and others say they are concerned the reopening in many parts of the country is too soon without having first achieved those gateways or guidelines. >> well, let's make three points. the first is that, you know, weeks ago now, it even seems like years, dr. fauci and debbie birx had said, you know, between 100,000 to 250,000 cases of coronavirus, that's what they were worried about. we have had the physical distancing, the other public health measures, the abandoning of large gatherings. they've made a difference. but we should note that we're not getting a big decline in our death rate or new cases. we are seeing a plateau and a slow decline, which suggests

that there's more that needs to be done in general. we would have expected a steeper decline if people were adhering to that. the second point i would make is that as of last week, everyone was talking about a low number of deaths. four weeks ago mid-march, researchers at stanford were talking about 40,000 deaths. as of friday, ihne had 72,000 deaths on its projected website by august 4th. we were at 65,000 friday. that's clearly a mistake and the model isn't accurate. and now they're up at 135,000 roughly by august 4th. i think we're going -- i predicted on friday we're going to have about north of 120,000 deaths by august. and that also suggests that we're likely to have maybe 250,000 deaths before the end of the year. and that is a huge number.

that's a sort of 10% increase in the total number of deaths in the country. and it is the case that the actions by georgia, the actions by texas, opening up public places rapidly without even having a decline in the total number of cases and hospitalizations is very premature and not -- not helping. the american public, obviously, is fearful and not following governor kemp and governor abbott and those people. you've seen very low economic activity. that actually creates, andrea, the worst of both worlds. you have public health measures that are less effective because states have opened up and you have die crease in economecreas activity that is not rebounding because people are fearful they need to stay away. so we need to have good public

health measures and get good economic activity in a very orderly manner. by sending out these contradictory messages, we're not seeing the positive effects. let me just conclude the best thing we can probably do now, and should be a top priority, not higher than vaccines and not higher than testing is protecting the vulnerable populations, especially the elderly. they should be very, very cautious about going out. nursing homes, assisted living homes, nursing homes are peak places, i have been saying this months now. we have to be much more vigorous about that. that will allow us to open up the rest of the population a little more. and i think that's a balancing act and important to communicate that and to get that right. >> let me ask dr. gupta about the models from the university of washington, which was the

go-to model that the white house, dr. birx and others were pointing to day after day at the briefings now suddenly in the last day or so, it's disappeared from the official website. the official cdc website. what is going on there? >> yeah, andrea, thank you for the question and for having me. hard to know. i don't have an inroad to the cdc com's division and it's disappointing to see that was the case. as dr. emanuel beautifully laid out, the ihme model has taken into account the realities of the lack of rigorous social distancing like has been adopted in wuhan, in italy, in other countries where it was homogenous one approach. here we have a patch work approach across states. we can no longer assume those

things as ihme are building into the model. you're seeing suspected deaths double by the end of august. and that range, that estimate is fluid because the model is only as good as the input data that's going into it, number one. and the number two, what are the assumptions around it? you're seeing that while it's estimating 135,000 deaths, that range is anywhere from 95,000 to 240,000 deaths by the beginning of august. obviously, lots of uncertainty. that's what happens with any statistical forecast. it's an estimate. it's a best guess using the best methods available. having said that, it's the uncertainty because who knows what we do when it comes to social distancing policies? obviously 31 states by may 11th will be relaxing them. we're seeing american behaviors really vary add cross the states. in michigan, for example, you saw a security guard get shot

trying to insist on people going into a retail store to wear masks. in ohio, my home state, i was extolling governor dewine for so long for what i thought was great leadership on the front end to shut down the state, to put public health and public health exports at the forefront. you're seeing now he's walked away from mask implementation and those stringent guidelines that we so desperately need. as we see atenuation of guidelines and masks go down, you will see that number crawl up and numbers get advised again. >> that a perfect setup from both of you. thank you very much. we see now that more than 50,000 cases are counted in washington, d.c. and maryland and virginia, with more than 2,000 lives lost in this region. but in virginia, governor raffle northam said he could ease

restrictions beginning next week. larry hogan, standing firm against reopening but saying the beaches in ocean city can reopen to residents this weekend and masks will not be mandatory. joining us now is public leader right in the fulcrum of all of this, the mayor of washington, d.c., mayor bowser. madam mayor, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, andrea. >> what do you think about the fact the curve is not flattening. we see a problem in the district of columbia and it's a region that governor cuomo's been trying to lead the northeast focus group. are you going to work together to flatten the curve because it's still going up in our region? >> andrea, all of our models suggested we would be seeing peaks in washington, d.c. and in this region during the month of may. and we actually feel like we

have flattened the curve. because early modeling suggested that we would be many more thousand cases than we are right now. but what is clear is that this virus is still in our city and our region. there's community transmission and residents of washington, d.c. are still under a stay-at-home order, than includes district government employees. >> now, despite this, of course, you see a lot of pressure from the president. the president talking about reopening, going to arizona today. and you have the senators back here in washington despite that order, under some restrictions, but doing business. i should point out they're vulnerable, they're in the vulnerable group because many of them are elderly. >> now, essential workers and government workers are essential and excluded from the stay-at-home order. so we've been in close contact with the attending physician at the capitol. they have a very extensive set

of guidelines for each of the senators to work with and their staff to work with. so we feel very comfortable with them doing the essential work of the congress. but it is important to note that as we look around to reopenings and phase reopenings, that we have very closely looked to the guidelines, the gated criteria, making sure we see a decline in testing as well as the ability to test and isolate people who are going to get infected. what we know -- and what all of the models have demonstrated, is any reopening, any distance from social distancing, is going create new cases. so our hospital systems have to be ready to support really sick people that are coming into the hospital because of growing infections. >> is the virginia governor northam's discussions about may

15th reopening, is that too soon? >> i don't know what he's seeing on the ground in virginia. virginia is a big state. lots of different regions. we, of course, are very concerned about the counties that surround washington, d.c. we do know that the levels of infection continue to increase in virginia. so we are very concerned about d.c. residents doing nonessential activities in virginia. we're concerned about a couple of populations for sure in our city, vulnerable populations. african-americans are being disproportionately impacted by this virus. we see increasing rates in our latino community. of course, we're concerned about people in congregate settings. so people doing nonessential activities that can bring the virus to their household is a very big concern. we're building our contact trace

capacity here in washington, d.c. as well as our testing capacity because it's going to be very important, if you expose yourself to this virus unnecessarily doing nonessential activity, we want you to be able to get tested and isolate from your family and from your friends. >> and you had originally said that may 15th was a day you were going to be revisiting in terms of when there could be some reopening. have you decided to extend the may 15th deadline? >> we haven't made any decisions as yet, andrea. as i have said, we're looking daily to see what our infection levels are. our hospitals are doing a fantastic job but we do not want them to be overwhelmed by new infections. as you know, i have been paneled on an advisory committee that's giving me advice how to phase

reopening when our medical experts say we're at a point with this infection that we can move forward, with phased reopening. we will not be flipping a switch and turning the district back on because we know that a rebound in infection would take us back to square one and would be much worse than a steady reopening that's informed by our medical professionals. >> i wanted to ask you about the event at the lincoln memorial on sunday night. "the new york times" is now reporting there is a law against people staging on the actual memorial lot on the steps, as has been done in the past. and that exception was granted by the secretary of the interior. i assume it was park and recreation service involved and also to the closing of the memorial. how do you feel about that event? >> we're very proud of all of the monuments and memorials that are in washington, d.c., and we

want to get back to everybody being able to enjoy them unfeathered. i'm always concerned when we put our first responders in harm's way for nonessential activity. as you know, that's a federal property and the interior secretary made that call. and i just -- i don't want to put our police in harm's way unnecessarily. similarly, with the flyover that was very well intentioned and that was meant to send a message to our first responders and medical professionals, it just drew so many people out to the national mall. so we are prepared for our police force to assist park police in disseminating crowds but it's best not to call people out for those type of events when we're fighting a pandemic. >> mayor bowser, thank you very much. thank you for everything you're doing and for all of your

efforts to protect the people of d.c. and the region. >> thank you, andrea. >> good to see you. >> thank you. joining me now, nbc news white house correspondent and weekend "today" co-host kristen welker and nbc news political reporter vaughn hillyard in phoenix, awaiting the president's arrival there. kristen, first to you, the president has been sending a lot of mixed messages and we have been hearing from dr. gupta and dr. emanuel today there is, of course, "the washington post" poll that people are concerned, they're afraid for more infections and reopening too soon. they don't want to end restaurant dining. and yet the president keeps pushing, pushing, pushing, as goe he talks about doing that and going to arizona? >> yes, the president's been really, andrea, downplaying some of the projections we've seen, including the one by johns hopkins which said by june 1st you could see the daily death rate of 3,000. president trump, as you said, making the argument those

figures are based on a nonmitigate strategy. he's trying to make the case, look, we have this mitigation strategy in place. people have been adhering to it for weeks and therefore really trying to downplay those figures. but some mixed messaging by his own top doctor, dr. anthony fauci, who said the bottom line is if states try to reopen too quickly and get back to normal too quickly t. really runs the risk of seeing these numbers rebound. you're seeing so many states across the country start to open up and yet they haven't even met the trump administration's guidelines for a phase one reopening. it does come as president trump is on his way to arizona. he was asked if he's going to be wearing a mask. he didn't answer that yet. but clearly not ruling out the possibility. said he will be looking at that, andrea. of course, this is an official trip. he's going to be visiting honeywell, where they are making masks. but undoubtedly political

implications to this trip as well. this was a stain he won back in 2016 but polls show vice president biden giving him a real run for his money there, andrea. a lot of stake as he heads out on what will be his most extensive trip to date since this coronavirus crisis started, andrea. >> and he's bringing martha mced that, senate candidate senator who's got a tough re-election fight against mark kelly, of course, in arizona. as you point out, that's a key battleground state. vaughn is out there. i know you're an arizonan and you're back in your home state for the arrival of the president. what do you think he's going to find when he gets to arizona in terms of what people want there on reopening the economy? >> andrea, just in the last half hour, there are new numbers here out from the arizona department of health services. the president in two hours is going to be arriving here in arizona with the news that yesterday was the single highest

death total for the state of arizona to date. 33 arizonans passed away yesterday, according to the governor's office. 33. again, the highest single day death rate here in the state of arizona. today just over 1%, andrea, of arizonans have been tested. the president is going to be greeted by republican governor arizonan doug ducey, who's been very methodical in his reopening of arizona businesses. but one day prior to president trump coming to town, he announced at the end of this week retail businesses will be allowed to reopen again. most of those retail businesses as well as hair salons and barbershops. come monday diamond services will be available throughout the state while restaurants choose to do so, while naning cdc guidelines for sanitation and social distancing. the president himself when he was here back in february, before the u.s. had even registered one death, he suggested come april he hopes

the virus would be all but gone with the high temperatures. it's been more than 100 degrees here all week, andrea. i will repeat it, the highest death toll for the state of arizona just yesterday. andrea? >> vaughn hillyard and, of course, kristen welker outside of the white house. coming up -- the battle of the beaches. as some west coast beaches prepare to reopen, the outlook for the jersey shore is less certain. on this special giving tuesday, how young people are coming to the aid of their most vulnerable neighbors. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. these days staying connected is more important than ever.

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in california with improvements in hospitalization rates and testing, governor governor newsom is allowing some businesses to reopen as well as opening two beaches in southern california after local officials submitted detailed plans to keep people properly distanced there. steve patterson joining us from one of those beaches, laguna beach, beautiful laguna beach in california. looks as though it's a beautiful day and people are out there. but are they socially distancing? >> they are, andrea. you know, orange county is, what, 3 million people, 42 miles of coastline and as you mentioned only two community opened beaches. there's a reason for that.

governor governor newsom wants to set an example if you have a detailed plan, you put it into place early and have all of the steps in place, this is what happens. this is laguna beach. you can see people mostly milling about. we saw pep jogging, walking, swimming. all of that is okay. there's a little bit of bunchup in congregation but for the most part they move on. all of that fine as long as they're keeping a strict social distance and not bunching up and crowding the beach en masse. some people were worried, though, maybe this is too fast too soon. wi we spoke to people in town worried about that and we also spoke to the mar spoke to the mayor. this is what he said -- >> i like what we see. people out watching their dogs social distancing, down getting their toes in the water. there are some surfers. it's great. this is active use only. meaning you can't come out, bring your cooler and umbrella, lay down and spend the day. you have to keep moving, exercise in the water or along

the beach. obviously, we don't want to see people bunching up. >> of course, this is not happening in every place across orange county. some communities fighting back. others not submitting their plans yet. some in orange county see the closing of the county as a slight and they want to push back with some legal action to do that but the state is honeful they'll jump on board and have things like this open up. back to you. >> it's so beautiful, steve patterson. thank you. from the west coast to the east coast, uncertainty for some of the summer's most popular beaches. msnbc's katy tur is on the famous jersey shore. governor murphy said there will be guidance on beaches soon. how are businesses there preparing? >> well, the people here are waiti waiting for those guidelines. they're waiting with bated breath. the tourism industry on the

jersey shore is where a lot of people around this state make their money. two, three months of the summer season is where people earn their living, especially in a lot of these beach towns. i'm here as asbury park. there's not a statewide order determining whether or not can you go on the beaches but there's a shutdown of all of the board walks. over the weekend while it was really nice there were people on the beach here in asbury but they're keeping social distanced. you can only come to the beach though in a couple designated entrances. the boardwalk though is shut down. part of the reason is these boardwalks, especially when it gets really nice, get packed with people f you have been to asbury or been to point pleasant, you understand it's nearly impossible to social distance on a busy weekend. they can get as many as 30,000 people. so they're concerned about what the summer season will bring if they do open up, not being able to keep people safe around here. but they're also concerned, andrea, about the businesses. i was talking to a business

owner who's had a family deli for 60 years. says he's seen hurricanes, says he's seen snowstorms. as never seen anything like this. his business is down 2/3 on a daily basis and believes if they're not able to open during the summer, he might be okay because he's been in business so long but he's again unionly worried about all of the businesses around them, many of whom will not be able to survive if the summer season does not happen as they have planned it. >> katy tur in asbury park. of course, katy will have a lot more from asbury park when she and chuck todd in washington pick up our coverage at 1:00 eastern on msnbc. china reacted to mike pompeo calling the secretary of state insane and a liar for blaming the virus on a laboratory in wuhan, despite evidence from

intelligence officials that the evidence is still not clear. here's mike pompeo on sunday. >> i can tell you there's a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in wuhan. >> meanwhile, dr. anthony fauci also seems to be contradicting the secretary of state telling national geographic the beftds was not made in a chinese lab. fauch jid if you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, the scientific evidence is very, very strongly leaning towards this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated. joining me now is msnbc's ken dilanian, who covers national intelligence. ken, the u.s. intelligence chief is directing part of this as part of his confirmation in the senate. john radcliffe, controversially withdrawn by the president after it came under fire last year, and then resubmitted. now he's gathering support from both sides of the aisle apparently. >> that is correct, andrea. it does look like texas

congressman john radcliffe will be confirmed in part because of the chairman of the senate intelligence committee, richard burr, who opposed it last summer changed his view and is now supporting him. in part sources tell me is because he believes radcliffe is better suited for the position than richard grenell, ambassador to germany who has no intelligence experience. radcliffe served on the house intelligence service committee a little over a year, u.s. attorney in texas. part of the controversy over his resume is he said on his website is he put terrorists in prison. and nbc news and other outlets could not find any evidence he ever prosecuted a terrorist case. he's also known as a highly partisan figure who attacked bob mueller in the russia hearings and attacked the whistle-blower in the ukrainian impeachment hearings. we didn't see that john radcliffe today. he was very moderate. he struck a nonpartisan tone. he promised to speak truth to power and promise the whe would

forward intelligence even if president trump didn't like it or he was at risk from his job. he said that over and over as you would expect from someone facing senate confirmation. the issue of the wuhan lab has not come up with. he had not even been briefed on that. but as dr. fauci said, don't contradict the idea the virus occurred in nature, being studied in the lab and being merged accidently, that is a theory u.s. intelligence is asking. no one is suggesting, except perhaps president trump in a confused comment, this was a manmade, genetically engineered virus. the theory is they were studying it, took it from bats in the lab and it somehow infected a lab worker accidently. that is something sources are looking at but there's not conclusive evidence to the extent section mike pompeo is describing and president trump is describing in public, andrea. >> yes, the secretary of state seemed to indicate the intelligence was solid just two days after the intelligence

committee said they're still studying all of this and it was not at all clear. what about the inspector general? the inspector general from the intelligence community, of course, who was so deeply involved in having the launch of all of the ukraine the impeachm inquiry was dismissed by the president. is there any promise from ratcliffe to protect inspectors general? >> he, of course, did promise that, andrea, as you'd expect. someone seeking senate confirmation. he said he'd work closely with inspector generals his whole career. he vowed to support the independence of the inspector general. he even said he supported michael atkinson, the inspector general donald trump fired. there was a difference of opinion over whether atkinson exceeded his authority. so he tried to thread the needle. he tried to distance himself from some of president trump's more extreme actions and rhetoric without actually criticizing the president directly. and everyone watching, remember that the reason he's up there for that job is because he was a dogged partisan defender of

president trump with red meat rhetoric during these controversial ukraine and russia hearings, andrea. >> ken dilanian, thank you so much for all of that. and today is a special day. it's giving tuesday now. a new global day of giving in response to the coronavirus and the great needs. we at nbc are the signature media partner for this event. we want to focus on one group of young people, extraordinary young people giving back by helping seniors disabled and the sick sheltering at home. helping them get their groceries, their medications and other necessities. when the crisis began, they launched a delivery service called invisible hands, providing comfort in everyday needs from a safe distance. and joining me are two of the co-pounder s co-founders of invisible hands. thank you for being with us. tell me about how you came up with the idea. first to you simone. ladies first. how did you come up with the idea and how has it expanded as

this sheltering in place has gone on a lot longer than some of us thought. >> definitely. thank you so much for having us. i mean, this all started about a month and a half ago with a facebook post. i was walking home from my apartment in queens and i saw, you know, my local supermarket. there were a lot of elderly folks doing their shopping. we weren't in full crisis time yet but it wasn't doing -- we weren't feeling great. so i was just thinking, they really shouldn't be outside. they should be home. i posted on facebook, does anyone know a way young healthy people could volunteer to help elderly or immuno compromised people to help out? many didn't know of a way but i would love to volunteer. and then liam called me and said i saw your facebook status. why don't we make something? why don't we be those people? and then we made a website and invisible hands was born.

>> liam, i just love the way this originated out of a facebook post. and now how many volunteers? you have 1200 volunteers helping get medicines and food to the elderly? >> 12,000. >> 12,000? i read that incorrectly. oh, my gosh. it's amazing. and what areas are you covering now? i see it's the tri-state area. >> we're covering all five boroughs of new york, long island, parts of new jersey, westchester, and it's growing every day. more and more people are signing up. we had one doctor actually reach out and say, i take care of patients who have covid, but i always wear ppe and after my 19-hour shifts, i want to help out. can i help out? we had to say no for safety reasons but that speaks to the fact that people are hungry to help and when you get done with that shift at the hospital you say, what else can i do to help?

it's been a test toomt the endurance of people. >> i want to read a text from one of the people you helped. thank you again for your help. i hope you know how much it means to us "olders." it actually brings tears to my eyes just knowing you were there. it's also this human connection you were creating as younger volunteers, i guess you're all in your 20s, or most of you are in your 20s. actually make these deliveries and have some contact with the people who are sheltering at home. >> yeah, i think it's a scary time that we're in right now. we're in this era of what people are calling social distancing which i think is really incorrect. it's physical distancing but embracing social connection. and with invisible hands, that's what we try to do. your volunteer calls you directly. you talk on the phone, get to know each other and you're meeting someone from a different generation who lives in your neighborhood that you wouldn't otherwise meet. we pair people who live close together. you are getting a new friend in your neighborhood who, even in

this time where it feels like everything is pulling us apart, we're trying to find ways to weave the fabric of our neighborhoods back together. >> and how do you cover the cost, liam, whatever overhead you've got? i know it's volunteer efforts. >> yeah, i mean -- >> do you have any kind of fundraising? >> yeah, we'd love as many donations. we can expand our reach further into the state. build up a food insecurity program and continue doing this work of serving those in need. to your point, it's been about this social connection. one lady that i delivered to even tried to set me up with her granddaughter. she subjeent me an email and pie of her granddaughter. it's a wonderful time of coming together when the world is pulling us apart. >> certainly giving you a meaningful thing to do. wonderful effort to help new yorkers and help people in the tri-state area. thank you all so much. and for more information about

giving tuesday now and what to do, what you can do to help, go to nbcnews.com. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online and on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. stay safe. take care of those whom you love, and thanks for being with us today. chuck todd and katy tur continue our coverage after this. these days, it's anything but business as usual. that's why working together is more important than ever. at&t is committed to keeping you connected. so you can keep your patients cared for.

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i am chuck todd. and here are the facts as we know them this hour. new york reported over 1,700 previously undisclosed covid-19 deaths from nursing homes and adult care facilities. governor andrew cuomo said his state is, quote, coming down the mountain in terms of the rate of infection today. so some good news in that region. former fda commissioner scott gottlieb told nbc news today that we are likely to see an increase in new coronavirus cases nationwide, rather than a decrease. he was unsure if we could lower the transmission rate. that r-factor, any further. in a new monmouth university poll, a majority of americans, 55%, say president trump has been largely inconsistent in his coronavirus press briefings while 36% say he's been largely consistent. right now the president is on his way to a mask-making facility in phoenix, arizona. only his second trip out of