hello. i'm alicia menendez. we're following breaking news this hour. there's new leaked audio of president obama criticizing the trump administration over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. the criticism came on a conference call held with former obama administration staffers. joining me now is msnbc's mike

mem lee. you have been working on this story all afternoon. what can you tell us? >> former president obama has been fairly conservative about whether and when he chooses to speak out publicly about issues that democrats especially have been concerned about in terms of as they follow the actions of the trump administration. but we got significantly greater insight into the president's thinking as he held a conference call on friday night with more than 3,000 alumni of his administration. during that call, he hit on a number of topics, including the coronavirus pandemic, calling the trump administration's response an absolute chaotic disaster. he also talked about the justice department's decision to instruct prosecutors to drop their prosecution of michael flynn. as an example of what the rule of law is in this country is at risk, he said this is how drok raess become ought tock raess. he took five questions from some

of his a llumni. he also talked about disinformation in our political process, especially as it relates to the general election now and joe biden as he faces president trump. he said that his two daughters, as he's spending a lot of time with his family, had actually shown him tik tok videos that have gone viral that are part of an effort to discourage democrats especially from supporting joe biden in the fall. he said he doesn't have the answers in terms of how to address this, but he said that's why he was on this call. it was part of a process to keep his large community of former staff engaged in the political process, and he said that they all need to do everything that we cannot only to find solutions to problems like this, but to do everything, as he said he plans to do, to help elect joe biden as president this fall and also to elect a democratic senate to go along with the democratic house. he said this is the only way the country is going to get back on track, dealing not just with the issues involving the coronavirus, the economic fallout, but the large range of issues that democrats are

seeking to address, including climate change in the years ahead. >> mike, this is of course, as you said, leaked audio. in your reporting did you get the sense that we will be hearing more from the former president publicly, perhaps remarks similar to this? >> well, of course it's hard to know what we'll see in terms of public events from the former president. we're all under this sort of lockdown stay-at-home order. but what we saw from the former president last month when he came out and endorsed joe biden was really the beginning of what aides say is going to be a very active campaign schedule for him in the fall, whatever form that takes. but it was very clear in that video when he endorsed joe biden, it was a long video, 12 minutes long, that he had a lot to get off his chest. now, i don't think that he intended for these comments last night to go public, but they also understood that when you have that call with that many people, especially those who have been desperate to hear from him on issues, it was likely these comments were going to come to light. so we should probably expect to hear more from him in the weeks

ahead. perhaps not as bluntly, but certainly touching on a lot of these issues. >> all right. as always, thank you for your great reporting. on that call, the president also talked about the justice department's decision not to prosecute president trump's former national security adviser, michael flynn. president obama saying he's ut the basic rule of law in the country. we'll talk about that in-depth later in the hour. the unemployment rate in the u.s. has hit 14.7% according to the u.s. department of labor, the worst since the great depression. over a decade of gains since the 2008 recession slashed. over 30 million americans have filed for unemployment since mid march. with me now is nbc news political reporter. monica alba. what is the white house saying about the numbers? >> reporter: the president and top economic advisers here were bracing for a brutal jobs report. they expected those numbers to be as bad as they were, and that's why several things are

under consideration to potentially jolt the economy in the weeks and months to come. we're told that there's a possibility of pushing tax day back. it was already moved once. it could move back again to later this year at several different increments. we're also told there are measures that might go into effect that wouldn't require congress. but bottom line, this wasn't the top of mind agenda item for this white house yesterday. you saw white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany come to the podium and give an extended statement on michael flynn before getting to any questions on the jobs report. and the president himself also had a lot to discuss in an interview with fox news. he eventually did come to discuss the economic situation and the jobs numbers by saying that he promises all of those people who have lost jobs, their jobs back. which is quite a vow leading into the general election campaign, where he will be making that a centerpiece of his pitch. the white house and president effectively saying i got the economy to the point it was at

before the coronavirus pandemic, i can do it again. but that is quite a large bet to make as his own advisers, people like larry kudlow and kevin hassett have said, it will take into the third or fourth quarter and we may not see real growth until next year after the 2020 election, alicia. >> have these numbers affected the administration's thinking on when states will reopen? >> reporter: it certainly helps them understand this push and pull, because if you just look at this week, for example, this is when the president wanted so many states to begin their processes. and as you see businesses open up and people take to the streets to go to places they used to go, to go get a haircut, to go try to get some more food or things from essential business items, they are also worried about a potential spike or rebound in cases. and look no further than here in the white house itself where the president and his top aides were confronted with these two very close staffers who tested positive for coronavirus this week.

one of them was one of the president's valets and the other one was pence press secretary katie miller. on in a week where they wanted to be talking about looking to the future and going forward, they actually had to spend a lot of time talking about how something like this could happen and how close it could get to the west wing. we have put in new measures. they're going to try to do more cleaning and contact tracing. they have said that people that surround the president and vice president most often, they should be wearing face coverings. that's something that we haven't seen personally yet, but they expect that to start to be a practice really where we've seen that be the case with almost every american and individuals, as the cdc has guided. it's not something we've seen happen with the president and the vice president has only done it on a handful of occasions. >> thank you so much. medical officials say increasing testing is the only way forward for our country, the president has a different take. >> look, we have so much testing, i don't think you need that kind of testing, that much

testing. so the media likes to say we have the most cases, but we do by far the most testing. if we did little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. by doing all this testing, we make ourselves look back. >> let's bring in former secretary of health for the department of health and human services. let's look at the facts. we need 500,000 to millions of tests per day to reopen. the covid tracking project says that for the first week of may the country did about 250,000 tests per day, half of the absolute minimum. what is it going to take to get to where we need to be when it comes to testing? >> well, everyone agrees that robust testing is the scientific foundation for understanding the pandemic and then reducing future suffering and death. and what we need right now is a system that makes tests available, accessible, affordable, convenient for people and offers results in an

accurate way, in a timely fashion. we don't have that yet. we are doing better. there are some 8 million tests that have been done so far and that's 200,000, 250,000 tests a day. but everyone agrees that number should be increased by orders of magnitude, by three or four or maybe more. and in the future as people want to rejoin society and go back to school and go back to work, they're going to want to know what their testing results show. so we need to put more emphasis on this going forward. >> the fda this week put out an update about a possible at-home test. i wonder how optimistic you are about that update. >> well, that will help certainly with the convenience. that will also offer us new challenges with respect to processing those or receiving tests on the other end in those laboratories. but we need every new idea and intervention to make these tests accessible and affordable for people. and by the way, the testing is just one step here. we need to have more emphasis on

contact tracing because that will identify who is infected and needs care, it will identify who has been exposed and needs to be quarantined. these are the only ways that we can move forward in the future. >> when we talk about testing and we keep coming back to a fundamental question, which is whether or not the testing and tracing can be effective if it is not done as part of a national coordinated program, what is your take? >> that's a great question. in the face of a national medical emergency, we have yet to see a truly national coordinated response. so testing is one issue. the contact tracing is going to need national support. by the way, our public health workforce has been really cut back over recent years, so the contact tracers can help revitalize the workforce. and then we need states working together and not competing against one another for tests and kits and supplies and ppe. so the more national coordination we have on all of

this, the better off we're going to be. >> there is, of course, the testing and the tracing components of this and then there is also the vaccine portion of this, the biotech company moderna got clearance for a phase two trial this week of its vaccine. can you give us a sense of what those types of trial entail? >> well, we are very grateful for the dedicated scientists in this country and around the world who are working 24/7 to get us the best vaccine possible in the shortest time possible. there are many vaccine candidate trials going on, but this is a very time-consuming process that goes through testing in laboratories and animals and then several phases in humans to look at safety and efficacy. so this is going to take time. the best estimate by dr. fauci and others is that we're not going to see a vaccine that will be available for the public until sometime next year. so we have to keep that in mind in the meantime and be as

aggressive as possible about social distancing, hygiene and other public health issues. >> doctor koh, you know as well as i do that we have seen incredible racial disparities when it comes to who is contracting this virus, who is dying from this virus, as we talk about testing and tracing and as we talk about a possible vaccine. how do we also make sure that all of those things are implemented in a way that is even across our society? >> that's a very important question. we have an increasingly diverse society. i am the son of an immigrant, so i am very sensitive to that issue and appreciative of that issue. and unfortunately in crises like this, the fault lines of society get exposed with respect to increasing burdens on communities of color. and we're seeing the early data come out and that's unacceptable. so we need to heighten education and outreach to people at risk, especially communities of color, and emphasize the important of prevention and ultimately treatment and vaccines when they

become available. >> dr. howard koh, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. around the country, many doctors are finding themselves fighting on two front. there's the coronavirus on one hand and then there's the steady stream of misinformation and harassment coming from conspiracy tlaerists and internet trolls. one doctor said that dealing with such people have been, quote, the second most painful thing i've had to deal with. ben collins joins us now. what is going on here? what are the most common conspiracy theories doctors you've spoken with are having to confront? >> the most dangerous stuff you hear is don't wear a mask or the hospitals are empty, there's nobody in here, things like that. that leads people to believe that, frankly, the coronavirus doesn't exist. and that is the most pervasive thing that's been going around the internet in the last week. i'm sure if you have a crazy uncle or something, you probably saw this on your facebook page

in the last few days, to do the opposite of what doctors and experts are saying. and this is a very expensive disinformation campaign pushed by antivaxers and people who have been waiting for this for years. this doctor i talked to a couple of days ago, he told me he doesn't know how to handle this anymore. he tried to fight back and say, look, i have an icu with 200 people and i'm coming home to read stuff about how my hospital is empty. it's not helpful. and he went outside and heard the 7:00 cheer with all these people who were cheering his work as a doctor and he just didn't know what to believe anymore. the louder people on facebook, or the anonymous people outside who are supporting him. so it has taken a physical toll on doctors but it's making it harder for them to do their jobs. >> there's the misinformation and then there's the harassment. how prevalent is the harassment?

>> it's incredibly substantial. there are videos on youtube telling people that doctors are part of the deep state plot or part of the chinese conspiracy theory. this is where it gets dangerous for doctors, where they're afraid to go to work and do their jobs. and the social media networks have done nothing to stop this stuff. the bad actors that profit off these things are just going to make another one because they still have their accounts. dozens of doctors put out a petition to twitter and facebook and google and youtube and instagram saying you guys have got to help us out here. we can't just be sitting on the internet after a long shift fighting by ourselves. you guys have got to help because we're the frontline workers and you guys are making money off of the engagement that these conspiracy theorists have on your networks. >> as you say, the responsibility really rests with the social media platforms, but

in addition for someone who is watching and wants to be a good steward, what is the best way to fight this disinformation? >> the issue is experts say it really is a top-down thing. we've got to fix the pipes. you can't operate in this ecosystem when everything is a little bit poisoned and polluted. until then, bring people to good authoritative sources. there was a terrible video called plandemic that said don't wear your mask, it's giving you coronavirus. it's terrible stuff. bring them to direct sources, bring them to the people who are criminals effectively and you can drive them to more authoritative sources and show them the facts behind these glossy videos that are trying to make you believe the opposite. and be gentle and kind. maybe they will listen to you. >> thanks so much. coming up, lawmakers are working on a new round of relief for americans. so how will they make sure the

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lawmakers working on a new round of coronavirus relief want to expand access to those who have been hit hardest by the pandemic. the way the first relief package was distributed to hospitals didn't take into account the medicare advantage plans that hospitals in underserved communities often rely on. now in you legislation is hoping to change that. joining me now is florida congresswoman debbie marcel powell. talk to me about the first round of relief, the way the funds were distributed and what you think they got wrong. >> well, you know, what we've seen is that a lot of hospital systems, for example, have not been able to get the funding that was initially over $100 billion to provide testing relief, treatment relief for those hospitals treating

covid-19 patients. but what i want to point out is that what we're seeing now, which is very troubling, is that minority populations, communities of color, are being disproportionately affected by covid-19. and covid-19 has proven to be the perfect storm affecting the latino and hispanic communities. so i actually have introduced the medicare advantage covid-19 treatment act that would cover treatment, covid-19 treatment, for those who participate in medicare advantage, and this is particularly important in my district, in florida. we have over 2 million people that rely on medicare advantage for their health care, but also in puerto rico. it's about 700,000 puerto ricans rely on medicare advantage to receive treatment for covid-19. >> to that end, 13 members of the hispanic caucus sent a letter to hhs urging the federal government to help puerto rico battle this outbreak.

it reads it is imperative that the federal government provide the tools necessary during this pandemic to sustain the availability of beds, testing and surge capacity to care for the u.s. citizens in puerto rico. pre-covid, was puerto rico equipped to handle a crisis of this magnitude? >> no, we already saw puerto rico still hurting from hurricane maria. we have been advocating and putting pressure on fema to release those fun, to provide relief for puerto rico. and then the series of earthquakes that destroyed the island. so their public infrastructure was already at a breaking point. and it is very concerning that puerto rico has the lowest level of testing than any other state in the united states. we need to support our puerto rican brothers and sisters that are suffering through the pandemic. just last week they got affected by another earthquake. so it's incredible to me, alicia, the lack of response by the administration to support americans living in the island.

there are american citizens, i want to remind everyone, our puerto rican brothers and sisters have been through enough and they need the help and support, which is why i'm very proud to have joined chairman castro on that letter asking the administration to provide relief for the island. >> you penned an op ed with your fellow representatives in the houston chronicle about how hard the latino community has been hit by this virus. how are you hoping to protect those are most vulnerable? what do you want to see in this next round of relief that can really be targeted at this community? >> look, what we've seen is that about a third of our latino communities have lost their jobs. they don't get paid sick leave, they are uninsured. we cannot leave our latino community behind. i represent a district that has 70% hispanics that live here and covid-19 has really lifted the vail of the inequities that we have been facing. we need to provide resources

through mobile clinics, going into the communities. we need to make sure that we provide hazard pay for essential workers, most of them latinos and african-americans that are going every single day to make sure that they're taking care of patients that are affected by covid, that are making sure that they're stocking our supermarkets so that we can go and purchase the items we need. we need to protect these workers and provide them with the right equipment and provide treatment for them. another thing that i also want to highlight is that the trump administration has really created fear among latino communities, which is why i've seen that there are a lot of latinos that are hesitant to go and get tested or to go and get the treatment that they need because they fear that either they're going to be charged with a public charge rule or many of them that are living in mixed status families fear that they're going to be deported. >> representative powell, thank

you so much. >> thank you. still to come, former president obama says the rule of law is at risk. there's new leaked audio of a private conversation with his former staffers. hear his reaction to the justice department's decision to drop charges against michael flynn. plus, birth control is at the center of a case before the supreme court. i'll talk about the challenge to the mandate in obamacare, the president and ceo of planned parenthood. that's coming up on msnbc. however, there is one thing you can be certain of. the men and women of the united states postal service. we're here to deliver cards and packages from loved ones and also deliver the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way. every day, all across america, we deliver for you. and we always will.

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welcome back. news today, former president obama breaking with precedent to criticize president trump by name in a conference call with former administration staffers. take a listen. >> the news over the last 24 hours i think has been somewhat downplayed, about the justice department dropping charges against michael flynn.

and the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free, that's the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic -- not just institutional norms -- but our basic understanding of rule of law is -- >> joining me now, alex thompson, politico national political correspondent and axios political reporter. they will both get extra credit if they know which person i am talking to at any given moment. alexi, let's start with you. what do you make of the timing of these comments and the fact that they were leaked?

>> it's certainly surprising that they were leaked. we rarely sea leaks from obama world. and to your point, it's a rare moment where we're hearing the former president's opinions on the current news, because he's usually staying in the shadows and behind the scenes. but this case with michael flynn was a major victory for president trump and president obama warned president trump about flynn's ties to russia during their transition period. he had a personal stake in this and really a lot of things with president trump are personal for former president obama. and we hear that in this message that he was saying to obama alumni folks. we hear the way he is clearly signaling that he is now willing to be more directly engaged against president trump all as a way to get democrats to rally around joe biden. and i think that's interesting. i feel like this call signals how obama is now entering into the campaigning phase for joe biden by being more forceful against president trump and his handling of the coronavirus and what's going on with michael

flynn. >> alex thompson, i wonder if you agree with alexi's assessment that this is foreshadowing of the style we're going to see coming from president obama as we get closer to the election. >> yeah, such an interesting question. i think it was notable that obama made these comments in semi-private. a lot of people were invited on this calls, up to hundreds of obama alumni. so it leaking is interesting, but there's an a dynamic between barack obama and joe biden. joe biden has constantly talked about how he wants to do this on his own, which is why i think you haven't seen obama necessarily get out in front of what joe biden is saying. and so it is very possible this is a preview of what obama is going to argue on the trail. obama also talked about what he considered to be the inept tud of the trump administration dealing with coronavirus. that could be a huge part of

this. but there's a lot of interpersonal dynamics going on here in terms of joe biden wants to do this on his own. he doesn't want obama to win this one. he doesn't want obama to be the one leading all the attacks. so i think you're going to see a little bit of obama going out and coming back in over and over again as the months go forward. >> i do want to shift gears with both of you. we're learning that a second member of the trump team has tested positive for covid-19. katie miller, the wife of steven miller, and one of trump's valets. what is the white house saying behind the scenes about these two new cases? >> it's fascinating that this is happening because we've seen how the white house and the president himself are not taking this virus as seriously as other folks, by not wearing masks all the time and things like that. based on my reporting, until the white house changed the testing to daily after these cases happened, my understanding was that west wing staffers who were deemed to be working in close

proximity with president trump were being tested every few days, maybe once a week. but they weren't testing folks who worked in the eisenhower executive office building. and the problem is that's a huge gap in the white house testing. if you're only testing people who work in the west wing but then those folks are interacting with people who aren't being tested and then you're interacting with the president again, it makes complete sense that multiple people are contracting covid-19 because of those gaps in testing. maybe they're reconsidering that now, but i haven't heard anything. and the last i heard was that they weren't testing everyone who was interacting with west wing staffers, just west wing staffers. >> alex thompson, i want you to listen to how president trump responded to news that another staffer had tested positive. take a listen. >> so they tested positive out of the blue. this is why the whole concept of tests aren't necessarily great. the tests are perfect, but something could happen between a test where it's good and then something happens and all of a

sudden she -- she was tested recently and tested negative and then today for some reason she tested positive. >> i wonder what you make of that answer and of the fact that there are cases of people going back to work at the white house, testing positive, sort of undercuts this argument across the board that states are ready to reopen and people should be headed back to work. >> you're already seeing the head of the fda, one of the most important agencies dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, and he's now having to go into self-quarantine for 14 days because he was in a meeting with katie miller. what you're going to see is the white house, one of the criticisms of the response has been they have not really done a lot in terms of contact tracing across the country. that's keeping track of who you've been exposed to, where people were and trying to isolate them. so what's happening now is that's been a problem in the country. it's now a problem in the white house itself. the white house is trying to

figure out who did katie miller come in contact with and they're trying to -- basically it's a microcosm of the bigger problem going on in the country. >> alex and alexi, thank you both, as always, so much for your time. he was a revolutionary and an icon of rock and roll. little richard has died at the age of 87. little richard broke musical barriers with his flamboyant costumes and gender bending performance. he was born in macon, georgia, in 1932 where his parents gave him his nickname because he was skinny. his hits included "tutee fruity" and good golly ms. molly. his manager confirmed his death this morning, adding the physician had been sick for a few months. little richard died at his home in tennessee, surrounded by friends and family. ♪

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birth control under the affordable care act. obamacare ex excused certain nonprofits to provide free birth control in their health care plans, the trump administration rule allows any employer to refuse coverage on religious or moral grounds. joining me now, alexis mcgill johnson, the acting ceo of planned parenthood action fund. two major issues at play. one, you have the broader exemptions for which employers can deny coverage, and then you also have the absence of al aern t -- alternative arrangements. what does that mean practically for people? >> today is actually the anniversary of birth control, alicia. 60 years ago the fda approved birth control for usage and for family planning and ten years ago the aca was approved. and here we have the supreme court right now considering whether or not employers or universities, because of their

personal beliefs, have the ability to deny access in coverage in their insurance to birth control. we know practically nine out of ten women have used birth control in their lifetimes, so the idea that we could still be having this conversation 60 years, much less ten years ago, it just seems to be so out of touch, really, with where most people are. >> what is the vagueness of trump's rule allowing employers to refuse to cover contraception by citing, quote, moral objections? >> we were a country that was founded on freedom of religion, but we're also a country that was founded on ensuring that one's religious beliefs don't also impose on others. and so, you know, in a practical sense, yes, everyone has a right to their moral belief regarding contraception. but that does not mean that

their moral believes should be imposed on my ability to get access through a federally sponsored program to ensure health coverage. and i think that's really what was at stake. the justices, particularly the female justices on the court, were incredible rock stars as we were able to listen when they talked about justice ginsberg and birth control was considered to be essential in this plan and that we were just willing to throw all of that to the wind. that, to me, seems to be one of those things where we're allowing moral beliefs to really on an impact level undermine our ability as nine out of ten women to get easy access without hassle and no cost to us to birth control. >> one of the arguments that was made in front of the supreme court in favor of the trump rule

was that other means of accessing birth control are widely available. i wonder what you make of that argument. >> look, this is about discriminating against -- it's essentially discriminating against women because of one's moral objections and we've seen this over and over again. we've seen the trump administration pushing policies to undermine access to sexual and reproductive health, whether it was the attempt to miss mantle ata or an attempt to focus only on ab stenance programs or using the gag rule to prevent title 10 health providers from telling patients how to access safe and legal abortion. the administration is clearly focused on denying coverage and access for basic health care. and when you have nine out of ten women who use birth control or will have used birth control in their lifetime, that is a very clear point of

discrimination. we're not denying access, there's no objection to perhaps vasectomy charges or no consideration as to whether or not a certain, you know, heart medication would be denied. and i think that the justice really pointed that out when she named the slippery slope, that if someone objected to a covid-19 vaccine, would an employer university be able to say that your coverage would not be included in that. >> alexis mcgill johnson, thank you so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. and tonight, don't miss the first-ever streaming event, won't stop. coming together with a message of positivity during the pandemic. watch tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern streaming on nbc news now or nbc news social channels.

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cities that rely on public transportation, coronavirus is wreaking havoc on essential transportation workers. in new york, thousands of transit workers have tested positive for covid-19. one of them who has since returned to work wrote an op-ed in "the new york times" saying the conditions created by the coronavirus drive home the fact we are essential workers, the one hos who keep the social order from sinking into chaos yet we are treated with the utmost disrespect as though we're expendable. since march 127th my co-workers say we are not essential, we are sacrifici sacrificial. federico is former u.s. secretary of transportation under president bill clinton. i wonder as a policymaker how you think of this issue, secretary, how you both balance the need to protect these transit workers but also the need to keep public transportation up and running. >> i think there are several

aspects to this safety issue. on the one hand, we have to do a much better job of protecting the workers. i agree they are essential workers. and perhaps masks and gloves and cleaning supplies and all the precautions some agencies are taking is not enough. maybe we need to look at hazmat suits, just as today when workers the go to clean up buildings that have hazard material, they have to wear hazmat suits. perhaps that's an area we have to begin to look at when someone is going into a contaminated area where you know that simply wearing a mask or glove is not enough. secondly, we have to make sure that when workers are tested, and they should be tested regularly, if they are sick, they should be allowed to go home and provided quality health care and paid time so they don't feel forced or compelled to go to work sick. because they'll simply get other workers sick also. i remember when i was secretary of transportation in the 1990s, we started putting in testing for drug use for transportation

workers. it was very complicated, very controversial, but maybe we need to test workers to make sure they're not sick and if they are, they're allowed to stay home and recover and get paid. the flip side is the customer, the traveling public. we need to make sure the customers themselves are not bringing in disease to the workers. so when you go to an airport, you should wear a mask. you should be perhaps tested to make sure you're not traveling with a disease where you're going to get fellow passengers sick or workers that you're dealing with sick. remember after 9/11, we put in security systems at airports and public buildings to make sure that people didn't bring in weapons or other questionable materials. perhaps we ought to be looking at new machinery that tests individuals going into airports, transit systems, and other transportation facilities to make sure they themselves are not sick. in that fashion, they don't

contaminate fellow passengers or critical workers that people who are working in our transit systems. and i agree with the sentiment. a lot of these transit workers are not respected much. i hope when we come out of this pandemic we have a different world view of how we look at fellow citizens, people on the front lines doing the hard work in transportation or wherever and to treat them with respect and to realize they're risking their lives to provide a service to all of us as passengers. >> we are talking about forms of transportation that are monitored by state and local governments. how much insight should they be getting from the federal government about how they should continue to operate? >> well, i think it's a partnership, and one of the responsibilities of the federal government is to share new information, new insight that either the government through its own scientists and engineers have or which it gathers from world bodies. but that information should be shared in partnership with local

and state agencies. remember this, when i was secretary of energy, we have these extraordinary laboratories all over the country with very intelligent engineers and scientists who are working on everything from nuclear weapons to climate change to all sorts of things. we ought to ask them to begin to do some analysis on how they can provide and discover new safety measures for both workers and for traveling public. we have the ability in this country, we have the intellect, we have very gifted individuals who can help provide this information to states and localities. if you have a small transit agency in a small town in the western part of colorado, for example, they don't have the resources and the research to develop all this critical information. but the federal government does and has a role to work in partnership with states and localities to make sure they get the best information, the best scientific information, and in some cases, technology, which they know how to develop. >> all right.

secretary, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> that wraps it up for this hour. i'm elicia menendez. joshua johnson picks up coverage at the top of the hour. i will be back at 4:00 p.m. eastern. i have members from florida and arizona on their push to reopen and what more the federal government should be doing. ♪all strength, ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪ ♪won't wait,♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it ♪all strength, no sweat

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"show me what you're made of." so we showed it our people, sourcing and distributing more fresh food than anyone... our drivers helping grocers restock their shelves. how we're helping restaurants open pop-up markets. and encouraging all americans to take out to give back. adversity came to town. so we looked it in the eye. and it won't be us... that blinks first.

i'm joshua johnson in new york. good to be with you today as we hear more from states on rekindling their economies and as we hear from barack obama. if there was any doubt as to what the former president really thinks of president trump, we may have just heard those thoughts in obama's own words. we'll get to that later in the hour. we are focused on coronavirus across america. nearly every state is reopening for business this weekend in some way, easing their stay-at-home restrictions. many of us desperately need to get back to work. the labor department says unemployment is at nearly 15%. that is the highest level since world war ii. businesses are under tremendous pressure to reopen. workers are feeling the pressure too, especially with so many unanswered questions. will they be fired if they refuse to go back to work? will they lose their unemployment? if they do go back on the job, will they be