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it is "meet the press" daily i'm chuck todd continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. we gbegin with a difficult question. is the federal government and the president considering surrendering to the virus. with more than 70,000 americans dead the president is telling the public the country must reopen even if it means more death. but he doesn't have a plan. here he is speaking with reporter this is afternoon. >> it seems little question that by beginning the reopening process and continuing it, there will likely be more cases of coronavirus and deaths than there would have been should the nation shut down will the nation accept that by reopening there will be more cases and deaths. >> and i call them worries and the nation warriors. we can't keep our country closed down for years and we have to do something. and hopefully that won't be the case, but it could very well be

the case. we can't have our whole country -- can't do it. the country won't take it. it won't stand it. it is not sustainable. >> consistent with ma message, a range a officials including the president and vice president spend the day yesterday saying they were winding down the coronavirus task force as early as memorial day. the vice president hinted to that. but then he told reporters this afternoon how bad of an idea that would be. >> i thought we could wind it down sooner. but i had no idea how popular the task force is. until actually yesterday when i started to talk about winding it down i get calls from very respected people saying i think it would be better to keep it going. it is done such a good job. it is a respected task force. it is very respected. people said we should keep it going so let's keep it going and we'll be doing that but we'll be adding some people to it

actually. >> the uncertainty surrounding the white house strategy, which we seem to utter about on a daily basis, comes with numerous warning signs that we're not anywhere near ready to safely reopen the country from a public health standpoint. or a consumer confidence standpoint. the 70,000 plus deaths i mentioned have happened in just 67 days. and the death toll is projected to basically double over the next 90 days based on current statewide plans to ease restrictions. you throw a dart at the map of the u.s. and you hit a state where cases are going up, not down. and we don't know how deadly the virus is. but on the lip imi-- the limite case, and we say that is not the mortality number except we haven't seen a change and we haven't been able to ramp up testing to prove otherwise and even though the president is

convinced not to disband the task force he believes the country must reopen even if it is not ready. >> with the doctors saying that there might be a recurrence of the coronavirus in the fall, you could explain why now is the time to wind down that task force. >> well because we can't keep our country closed for the next five years. >> our country is now in the next stage of the battle. a very safe phased and gradual reopening. it is the reopening of our country. >> you're talking about filling up yankee stadium with death. there will be more death. but the virus will pass with or without a vaccine. >> if they held people any longer with the shutdowns, you're going to lose people that way too. there is no great win one way or the other. >> it is 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. >> joining me now with the latest from the white house, the

white house press secretary just wrapped up a briefing. hans nicolles also with us with more insights and kristen welker and robert casta from "the washington post" and the moderator of washington week. also an nbc political analyst. hans, i would like to get a break down and report of what we've heard a lot from the president today. we just heard from his press secretary. it does seem as if the -- this is the president realizing shutting down the task force was a bad idea as far as apparently enough republican politicians called him to say that. so he changes course, but did he? >> reporter: we'll have to see to see how frequently the task force meets, who ends up being on it. the president indicated there are additionals on there. he hasn't teased those out. he said we might get those monday. in the most recent appearance he said that dr. fauci and dr. birx

will remain on the task force. even yesterday when officials said this is starting to wind down they were clear that birx and fauci would continue to play a role in advising and informing the president. if gets down to the question of what is next for the country at the federal response. because what the president is saying in his press secretary just said this is a state-led initiative. the president is going to give the states great deal of leeway is a word he used earlier. there is still a federal rule and guidelines there has to be something on testing. but even on testing they continue to have the argument and they're claiming this idea that the testing capacity is adequate. if they see hot spots they'll go in there and don't think you need widespread testing to provide confidence or to get people back to work. in part because they think if that is the metric for everyone to get a test, then they think everyone would be in their rights to ask for a test every day. we just heard a version of that argument from the press

secretary. so those have been the main themes. one other quick one, chuck, the president and the press secretary's language is changing ever so slightly on china and getting bellicose isn't the right word but it is getting more aggressive and was just asked and said the president's view is one of disappointment and frustration. >> so kristin welker, among the disconnects, is the president and the federal government doesn't believe it is responsible for helping to provide the confidence that is necessary to get people to reopen the economy. just ordering states to reopen doesn't do it. they seem to believe they have no responsibility in providing the confidence necessary to get people to come out. >> reporter: they have effectively, chuck, abandoned the idea of a national testing strategy. and you heard the press secretary as hans just noted remarkably say that to our colleague peter alexander when he pressed her on how people

could have the confidence to go to work if we don't have national testing, if there isn't testing in all of those places of work and she said essentially people would never be satisfied with testing. they would be testing not only every day but would feel the need to be tested every hour. but the reality is, chuck, if you take a step back, people don't necessarily have the confidence to go back to work and in all of the areas that have started to reopen that haven't even met the administration's benchmark for a phase one reopening. and so president trump acknowledges there are going to be more deaths but if you take a step back this is a president with an immense amount of pressure to get these economies all across the country back up and running because he sees his election chances as tied to the economy. this economy that was strong before the coronavirus and now has taken this epic dive. and the president and his allies know in addition to that, he is

going to be judged on his response to this, chuck. >> kristin, just to correct the record, in order to participate in the press briefing, when you walk every day, the press corp is tested, correct. >> reporter: not tested but we have our temperatures taken. i believe there have been some instances in -- >> is it the pool that is tested daily. >> reporter: yes, before you -- i don't know that they're tested daily but before traveling and there have been various days where they've been testing but everyone has to get their temperature taken and you get your temperature taken when you enter the white house and again before you enter that briefing room, chuck. >> so anyway, just throwing that out there because i think it undermines the white house press -- why do we test at all. it sort of -- it really doesn't meet any logic aspect of that as all. the only way people are going to be comfortable going into a building is to know that everybody in the building

doesn't have the virus that day. and if you want people to go back in the building the next day you have to test everybody. robert costa -- >> just to follow up on that point. >> go ahead. >> quickly just to follow up, the officials working in and around the president and the vice president every day are tested regularly. and so i think that underscores the point you're trying to make. >> it just -- right. there was -- robert costa, i want to play this sound because it goes to what hans nichols was talking about which is the search for deflection of blame. take a listen. >> i think next year is going to be an incredible year economically. and with that being said, if somebody lost somebody, a parent or a wife or a husband or any brothers, sisters, if you lost someone, you could never make up for that by saying, well you'll have a great year next year economically. this is the worst attack we've

ever had. this is worst than pearl harbor. this is worse than the world trade center. there has never been an attack like this and it should have never happened. could have been stopped at the source. could have been stopped in china. >> look, this president said he does not accept any responsibility in any aspect of this preparation, the recovery and everything. but he doesn't want to own trying to open the country either, robert. >> reporter: here is the story behind the story of that clip. we see the president is becoming more bellicose, more critical of china in the last 24 hours. his trade deal signed a few months ago with china, it is on thin ice. will there be the agricultural purchases and the energy purchases that china has pledged and if that doesn't happen you could see the president, his advisers tell me make china more of a political foil as he tries to castaway any of blame or

responsibility or criticism from democrats and some republicans about his leadership. >> but, robert, what i don't understand about this china attack is when i've had officials try to convince me of it, of the issue, why aren't you showing us the evidence, and i do think they're putting their credibility on the line here by not showing any evidence of the accusations against china and so it creates a very uncomfortable situation for us in the reporting community. >> reporter: it does. and this is a challenge for people even inside of the administration because the administration is pursuing investigations of what happened in wuhan, about what happened throughout china. at the same time, those investigations have not reached concrete conclusion about where exactly this -- how exactly this virus developed in china and

emerged. so the administration is ready to go to war politically against china and perhaps economically. but there are so many facts that need to be established about the exact nature of this virus and the path it took in recent weeks and until that is firmly established by reporting, by government, investigations, we will not really know if the president's rhetoric is being backed un -- backed up by the facts. >> and i heard one explanation is there is fear -- there is fear of going at china too hard because we need so much ppe from them as we prepare for a second wave or a third wave. hans, kristen and robert, thank you for getting us started. we think we should have a medical perspective aft the top of the show so let's turn to dr. lippy roy a physician and msnbc medical contributor. doctor roy, let me start with this notion of testing and contact tracing and whether this needs to be a federal program

and you heard the press secretary, well testing isn't the be all end all and i understand that, but we got to do something to create an atmosphere of comfort for people to come out. what other ways are there if it is not testing? >> right, chuck. so what we really need right now, we need -- we have two things that are really lacking on a widespread level. we need strategic widespread testing and strategic widespread social isolation, physical distancing. these two things are just not happening on a national level. this is not a win-win. this is a fail-fail. and as a result you're seeing this ongoing rise in cases and in deaths. and let's just bring it -- if i may hone it down from the microscopic of 73,000 deaths down to the microscopic which is a man, a woman and sometimes a

child is dying right now, they are getting sick, they are burdening health care professionals and hospitals and some of the people are dying. these are people that you know, i know, people that we love and care about. so i really think that we need this sense of compassion and empathy from all of our leaders from the mayor of a small town to a governor of a state of 30 million to the leader of a country of 330 million people. so, yeah, testing is not the be all and end all. there is no one thing right now to address the viral pandemic that is a cure all. you need multiple things happening in parallel aggressively at once. the testing, contact tracing, the physical distancing, all of these things and widespread education to people that are maybe just not getting it. they're so worried about work, which i understand, but work won't happen if you don't have

your health. >> so what you just describe, dr. roy, and we had a report on it today in another nbc program, you just described the south korea plan. it is aggressive and that is what they are doing now. one of the features is they're building a temporary quarantine headquarters of where when people test positive they get taken to this quarantine center, essentially the federal government there feeding folks and taking care of them while they stay away from others. is that really the best practices we could be following if we're looking for a best practice around the world? >> yeah, so i'm glad you raise the south korea example. but let's be honest, there are several countries that are managed to be very effective in the way they've addressed this pandemic. i know i'm getting some sense from the press about giving up, that is not the approach to take. we need to be very aggressive.

and the reason i remain optimistic is because, look, we've had epidemics before and we'll continue to have them but in the past epidemics we've used strategies so other countries more than the united states have used a widespread preventative health measures, public health measures that we though to be effective. i think we need to tailor what is already evidence-based procedures in terms of isolation and just practicing good contact tracing and all of the things that we talked about, we're just not doing it, chuck. we need to implement it here. and again communicate effectively and compassionately with our constituents, with our fellow brothers and sisters so they understand why we're doing what we're doing. >> i'm just curious where you see the national picture, we've been showing throughout the day two different curves. with new york, without new york. the point is when you take new york out of the -- of the u.s.

data, our curve is not flattening. it is actually plateauing and not clear whether it is going to go up or down. what does that tell you about what our hospitalization situation is going to be in a month? >> yeah, so it is telling me a few things. it is tells me some positive things. in new york city, where i am right now, every single day i heard from mayor de blasio, new york city and then governor cuomo every day telling us to stay home, stay home, stay home, wear a mask. all of these -- and hand washing. all of these tried and true public health measures and as a result we are seeing a decline after a tremendous amount of effort and unfortunately a lot of loss. but the message still is that there is still high clinical needs in the hospitals here in new york and we're on the decline. >> we're on the decline.

>> i'm deeply concerned about other areas where there is -- it is going up. >> dr. lippy roy, one of our regular now medical contributors. thank you for coming on with us. also a good way to get started. up next, the hearing on capitol hill without dr. fauci, it is a white house decision, throwing bipartisan criticism and i'll talk with the committee's ranking member next and another salute, the blue angels flu over texas and louisiana earlier today. the tribute to the doctors and nurses and emergency responders keeping us safe. we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

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it's important to note that dr. fauci will be testifying before the senate which means he'll be fielding questions from both democrats and republicans. the house, however, and

specifically leta knowy's committee did not act in good faith. >> welcome back. that is the white house press secretary moments ago talking about why dr. fauci was barred by the white house from testifying before a house sub-committee today. she said it was because the democratic chair of the appropriations committee won't tell the white house chief of staff what the hearing was about. that hearing, which was of course about the coronavirus response, not sure what else it would be about, did take place without fauci and there was some bipartisan disappointment in that. >> he's testified hundreds of times on capitol hill. working with democratic and republican presidents. yet now the white house said no. leaving no doubt that it is just frightened of oversight. >> and i want the record to show that i joined the chairman urging that dr. fauci be allowed to testify here. i think it would have been a good testimony useful to this committee. i think useful to this country.

>> also absent from the hill today, most of congress. as the house is not yet returned to work in full due to coronavirus concerns. joining me now is the ranking member of the house sub-committee and a man with a plan for how he would like to see his colleagues come back to the hill. it is republican congressman from oklahoma tom cole. i have rosa dell oro a couple of hours ago and so we hit both of you here. congressman, look, you're a guy that i think believes there is a time for politics and a time for governing, frankly it is an old school way that probably doesn't exist any more. but have you implored mark meadows over there that whatever you think of the politics of the house, that the president barring fauci only politicized things to a point that hurts the republican party. >> well, i've not had a chance to talk with chief staff, i've

talked to the white house about this issue. look, i don't think they're trying to politicize it i just think in this case this particular sub-committee and the appropriations commission why in general has a [ technical difficulties ] >> we have a little -- here we go. >> and we need to -- >> we're having a little bit of trouble there, congressman with your connection there. so i don't know if you can pick up on that so i'm going to ramble for a second while you check and make sure you have plenty of wi-fi coverage on that front. but in order to sort of set you up and tee you up here, let's move to the issue of trying to bring congress back.

first of all, should there be a rejection of that fast testing or not, and is that the best way in your mind to bring congress back? >> well, actually, i favor testing idea. leader mccarthy made it clear he does as well. i think we're doing one and a half two million tests a week now. we need to do more. but that is certainly enough that congress wouldn't get some sort of special deal, just making sure an essential part of the government is up and running. it is exactly the same thing they do at the white house and appropriately so in my opinion. so i think the testing would help. i also think obviously we have excellent advice from the chief physician of the capitol about how to conduct ourselves. you saw in the hearing we did today, everybody had masks except when they were speaking. that was by agreement between chairman and myself. but in between you had them. everybody was spaced.

we had a very productive hearing so i'm convinced congress could come back and get work done. again you have to make appropriate adjustments and precautions but i think today showed we're capable of doing that. i participated in a rules committee hearing a couple of weeks ago, same thing. we obviously voted on the four suppose le. al in an appropriate way. so again, it won't be like before. it will take some extra time, it will be difficult in some ways, but no question in my mind that congress can operate. >> i was talking to a former member of congress the other day who was involved in the post 9/11 planning of how to govern if you had to evacuate washington or couldn't get to washington. and this member of congress said basically all of the ideas got shelved. it was remote voting and all of the post 9/11 reforms, again only for emergency situations, and the leadership at the time had no interest in it. look, you've been in congress quite a bit of time, that is not new that some plan that might

have been a good idea doesn't get implemented, but can you implement an emergency plan now going forward? >> well, i think we already have. remember, number one, the executive branch is in session. the president and the vice president are in cheyenne mountain hunkered down and you do have to change the way you operate. i think the house has already shown it is capable of doing that and we ought to get on with it. there is a lot of important work to do and personally i'm not -- remote voting of any kind. i think you certainly could have committee meetings like the one we had today. honestly didn't involve votes remotely but at the end of the day legislation takes a certain level of physical presence. again, it is not like it was before. you're going to have to take appropriate precautions but it is certainly doable. we have been doing it. the senate is doing it. the executive branch is doing it. so you make adjustments where you have to. but you don't shut down the

government particularly in a time of crisis. >> congressman, in a perfect world would you like to see the federal government run a testing and contact tracing program in order to help lift the states up and be able to implement their own program. it does seem as if federal government is saying this, you're on your own. >> well, we don't live in a perfect world as we all know. it is a difficult world right now for everybody. but, look, i think the appropriate balance is to work within the federal system and that is the federal government lays out standards and stances and recommendations, they're very strong recommendations. and it helps the states implement those things. i think we have a good start on that. the president's plan on how you reopen i think is a good one, phased out. you look at certain standards. but i think at the end of the day obviously the situation in oklahoma is different than new york city, different than los angeles, is different than on a

remote indian reservation someplace. so you're going to have to leave enough flexibility in the system and i think that is what we're trying to do to actually move ahead and get the economy open. but it probably won't be open the same way every place. and we're -- returning to work doesn't mean returning to normal. we won't see normal for quite sometime. this virus is going to be with us for a while. we certainly can't out-wait it by shutting down but there are certain places that are much more respective than others. to me that is the appropriate approach and trying to hit the right balance and that is a tough thing to do. nobody knew much about the virus 17 weeks ago literally. >> no doubt. >> so we're responding to an unfolding, evolving situation. >> congressman tom cole from oklahoma, good to get your perspective. i appreciate you coming on. thank you, sir. >> thank you. appreciate the invitation. up ahead, researchers

working on a very different kind of coronavirus vaccine. are saying they could have had ready by september. is it too about zb -- good to be true? it might be. because they've never pulled this off before. we'll talk to a top vaccine expert next. p vaccine expert next. these are extraordinary times, and we want to thank the extraordinary people in the healthcare community, working to care for all of us. at novartis, we promise to do our part. as always, we're doing everything we can to help keep cosentyx accessible and affordable. if you have any questions at all, call us, email us, visit us online. we're here to help support you when you need us. take care, and be well. to learn more, call one eight four four cosentyx or visit cosentyx.com

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welcome back. in the search for solutions to the coronavirus, there is a new

clinical trial underway right here in the united states in pfizer, the pharmaceutical company behind the research said they could have a vaccine ready by september. now this vaccine is different than the others being researched around the world because it doesn't involve the virus itself. and instead tries to manipulate the subject's immune system to create the antibodies for the virus. so the good news on this is you are not inserting the virus into somebody. however this vaccine research has never resulted in a licensed vaccine. and my next guest is unlikely any vaccine will be ready for the fall even if this technology does exist. let's bring in the dean of the national school of tropical medicine at the baylor college of medicine, dr. otez, you've been our reality check on vaccines. this is another one of these and on one hand sounds too good to be true and as we learned it is

never successfully worked. that said, should we have some hope this could be the answer? >> well, sure. i think it could be the answer. but i think what happening and it is taken me a little bit of time to get my arms around this and my colleagues as well, you're hearing all of the this talk about vaccines ready by the fall, ready by the fall and you hear that from the bioteches, you're hearing it from the big pharma companies and from the white house. and increasingly it dawned on me what they're talking about is the manufacturing ready so that the whole -- this is a whole exercise around -- it is the same attitude that we're seeing about having the ventilators ready and the diagnostic kits ready and having the vaccine ready which means a lot of doses produced but the truth is we're not going to know whether any of these vaccines are safe and

actually work until much later. and as long as we could recognize that and accept that, i am okay with the language. but i think we have to be clear of what is actually going to be manufactured as opposed to what is being ready to administer as a vaccine to the general population. >> all right, so let's play this out. i mean, you keep reminding us that for a vaccine, if we successfully find a vaccine in the next year, how long does it take to get 100 million doses to america? >> well, i think that is it. i think what you're seeing now is all hands on deck to scale up production of multiple vaccine or as dr. fauci said producing them as risk meaning you're going to try a number of different vaccines and scale up and manufacture with the hopes that some of them actually are shown to be safe and effective and so scaling them up is not trivial, especially for some of the vaccines that have never

ever resulted in a licensed vaccine before like that new technology like the pfizer vaccine and some of the others. and that is why i think what we need to have in place is an array of different technologies. they all work by creating an immune response against the spike protein but we need ones that maybe use some cutting-edge technology and also some traditional technologies like ours. ours is a competent protein vaccine similar to the hepatitis vaccine made all over the world. so if you have a portfolio of new technologies and well tested technologies, that will increase not only the number of shots on goal but the quality of shots on goal. >> i'm curious, there is this report from the los alamos lab that there is more violent strain of this virus that is running rampant here in the united states, this mutation. a., what do you make of the report, and does that -- how

does is that alter vaccine research? >> well, you know, this covid-19 virus, the sars cov 2 virus rna virus and they are well-known to mutation and mutation is happening all of the time in this virus. but as far as i know no one has shown that the mutations correlate with increased severity of illness or transmissibility and so far the good news is i'm not seeing mutations that are affecting our likelihood of making a vaccine. in other words it is not a virus that is mutating so much that the vaccine we make today or by next year won't be good any more a year or two after that. so it is a much slower process. so on that standpoint i'm not too terribly worried. >> and one other thing by the way very quickly telling our

producers today as all of this vaccine happy talk runs around the globe and on one hand, look, we're all hopeful that something hits here, you said i think an old-fashioned way of developing a vaccine is going to end up being the quote winner here. what do you mean by the traditional or old-fashioned way. >> well i don't know about a winner. but i think the things you've been hearing coming out of the white house and others are very cutting-edge technologies that have never resulted in a licensed vaccine before. and i'm all for exploring innovation and i'm all for having new approaches to developing vaccines, but in your portfolio what you want to have are some old reliable ones. so, for instance, in china now they've developed and tested and in primates it looks good an old-fashioned vaccine, inactivated virus vaccine. this is the same approach that for instance that jonah salk used to make the polio vaccine

or for the flu vaccine. i would like to see one of those and same with our protein vaccine saying what is the hepatitis b. vaccine so having that balance, they all work by interfering with the spike protein attaching to the receptor but there are a lot of different ways you can do it and at the end of the day you don't know which is the mostective and which is the safest. >> try them all. dr. peter hotez with our vaccine reality check of the day which is almost a daily check-in with you. thanks for sharing your expertise. >> always happy to be here. thank you, chuck. up next, the coronavirus economic relief fight. we'll check in with a key democratic senator back working on the hill after this. i just love hitting the open road and telling people

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this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. welcome back. the u.s. senate is all in session and we're starting to hear at least chatter about what phase four of the relief will

look like so with me now is senator dick durbin democratic minority leader in the senate and also the senior senator from illinois. so senator durbin, let's start with an unemployment report coming on friday that i assume is going to sober everybody up. we know it is going to be an ugly report. the cares package that you passed was essentially designed to get us through the first 60 days of this crisis. i believe we are now in about day 46, 47, however you want to do it. what is the plan to get folks through the next 60 days of this crisis? >> chuck, that is a right question. because as you look at it over and over again, the small business loans are geared toward june 30th and the unemployment is geared toward july 1st. what happens july 2nd? we have to face the reality. this is not going to go away in just a short period of time. and if we are committed to sticking with people who are unemployed, to sticking with small business owners and hopes

that they'll be able to come back in business and get back on their feet, we can't quit on them. we have to stick with it. the alternative is disastrous. it could create even more unemployment and more business failures. we've got to stick with it. >> okay, mitch mcconnell said liability, this idea of aid to states comes with liability protections. what does liability protection look like? what is that line? i think everybody gets it to a point. but and that with this scramble that we're in, but what is your red line on where liability should end, where that protection should end, senator. >> well we don't know what senator mcconnell has in mind. he talked in this the most general terms and pronounced his red line and so what is the line, could you tell us. well we'll get back to you later. we'll have our first hearing next tuesday on the senate judiciary committee.

i'm anxious to see if a nurse decides she's not receiving appropriate protective equipment on the job and wants to hold her employer accountable for illness she suffered there is a cause of action calls workers compensation and the senator is saying the nurse should not have that right. if we're talking about prosecuting on a civil basis, civil basis, those who have been profit earring in this economy on protective equipment, the senator saying this is a covid-19 lawsuit that we can't consider. when you go through the list of cases that could arise from this, there are many compelling instances where you wouldn't want to give a free ride to anybody in these circumstances. >> what about the aid, we sent people direct checks essentially to deal with this emergency spending. it seems like the unemployment situation is going to get worse. we're still going to have some partial shutdowns, do you envision seeing more direct checks, is that going to happen

again, or do you think everything is going to be more along the lines of how the ppp works, the small business program, and it is more unemployment insurance or that and that is it. >> chuck, let's face it. this thing came on in a hurry and we responded in a hurry. a hurry for $2.2 trillion. that was written in eight days, basically eight days. and we spent $350 billion to small businesses and loans in a matter of 16 days and then came back for more. so it is not surprising that we find some parts of it that are just unacceptable and we don't want to duplicate our mistakes. a friend of mine from down state illinois said i just received a check for my mother and it has marked on the address, his mother's name, comma deceased. she died two years ago. what do i do with the check, senator. well, i don't know how that happened. but we better find out whether there is a way to get the money back in the treasury and it doesn't happen again. there are so many ways to

tighten the system. do i believe that direct cash payments are important in the years or months to come, of course. that is the only way to reach some people who are not directly unemployed and may not have lost a business but still need a helping hand. >> you have felt safe this week on the capitol? >> i do feel safe. but this is an invisible enemy here. there is no way of knowing. i wear my mask and i do what i'm supposed to do in washing my hands and using sanitizer and this and that. but i'm aware that i'm in a city that is shut down, where they said everybody living here stay home to be safe. i'm not home. i'm at work. and i should be at work. but i should be working on the covid virus issues not on senator mcconnell's favorite political issue. >> do you think the only reason you're back is to confirm the judge? >> well i looked around and thought of all of the things the senate judiciary committee should be considering this morning, why are we not taking up the question of the

profitearring or testing or making sure that people are held accountable if they misrepresent and do a health scam on a senior citizen. none of those things. what we're considering is a judge from kentucky, i don't think the applauding my spending this week on that as opposed to a national emergency in a public health crisis. >> senator alexander thinks all of you in congress actually should be tested, probably tested daily, because if you're going to go back to your constituents, you guys could be a very efficient, i think he used the words a highly efficient virus spreading machine. should you guys be doing more rapid testing and probably be no matter how the politics looks of it, you're part of this? >> chuck, i can't tell you how many times i think of going home to my wife back in illinois in the next couple of days. coming in with a big smile and i pray to god not the infection, that i might spread to her and others close by in our family. i mean, that's on my mind all the time.

i'm here to do my job. i ran for this office voluntarily. i know what it means. i never dreamed it would go this far. but i knew what it meant in terms of my responsibility. senator alexander is not wrong. if i had the peace of mind of knowing with any certainty i was coming home and not a danger, it would be something very important. >> and this is what it's going to take to get people to participate in the economy. you've got to have some comfort and security. >> that's right. >> senator dick durbin, senator from illinois, thanks for coming on and hairing your view. >> appreciate it. thanks, chuck. up next, the great american pastime is back in action, in south korea, at least. but how do you know which team to root for? we're going help you out. going t

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as any true baseball fan know, baseball is back, in south korea, that is. yes, it isn't happening on american soil, and yes, the fans have been replaced with banners of fake spectator, though they are wearing their masks. safety first. and yes, the team names are different. but there are a few familiar faces. which team do you root for? giants, nats and diamondback fans, you know former all-star matt williams. so consider rooting for the kia tigers. he is their manager. and if you like the a's, cubs, astros, marlins, orioles or reds, you can get on board with the lote giants. they have dan straily. and doan forget despaigne plays for the wiz now. we got all of those covered. and if it's not a player you're looking to connect with, but more of a team and a city spirit, yankees, dodgers and

cubs fans, you have the dosan bear, the big city powerhouse that won it all last year. for angels, mets and white sox fans, you get to root for the lg twins. yeah, corporate sponsorship. they're forced to play in the bears' shadow. hey, it may not be american baseball, but it is a baseball america. and you know what? the game's played pretty well over there too. thanks for being with us. thanks for trusting to us to spend an hour with us. msnbc's breaking news coverage continues with "the beat" with ari melber, right after this break. eak. working to care for all of us. at novartis, we promise to do our part. as always, we're doing everything we can to help keep cosentyx accessible and affordable. if you have any questions at all, call us, email us, visit us online. we're here to help support you when you need us. take care, and be well. to learn more, call one eight four four cosentyx or visit cosentyx.com

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welcome to "the beat." i am ari melber. we cannot report tonight that america's virus curve is dramatically flattening. we do know the trump administration formally told states and thus the country and you that states should wait weeks until the curve drops before going through reopening. and yet despite that, here is president trump today.