they're used to that, as you know, if you've ever loved a dog. that is our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night from our temporary field headquarters. president trump once again clashes with dr. anthony fauci, this time over the expert's warning about reopening the country too soon. there's also a new warning about the u.s. economy. the fed chief says things are likely to get worse without more stimulus. also, major concerns about the accuracy of the coronavirus test used at the white house. one study found it missed almost half of positive cases. good thursday morning, everybody. we have a lot to cover this

morning. we're going to begin with the president criticizing dr. anthony fauci's remarks to a senate committee that reopening the economy too soon would cost lives and set back the economic recovery. here is dr. fauci on tuesday. >> there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control. which, in fact, paradoxically will set you back, not only lead to go some suffering and death that could be a voided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery.voided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery.>> dr. fauci yesterday was a little cautious on reopening the economy too soon. do you share his concern? >> about reopening what? >> reopening the economy too soon in some states. >> look, he wants to play all sides of the equation. i think we're going to have a tremendous fourth quarter.

i think we're going to have a transitional third quarter. and i think we're going to have a phenomenal next year. i feel that we are going to have a country that's ready to absolutely have one of its best years. next year with all of the stimulus and all of the fact that it's a -- it's a pent up demand like i haven't seen. >> when you say dr. fauci is playing both sides, are you suggesting that -- >> well, i was surprised by his answer, actually, because, you know, it's just -- on me, it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools. the only thing that would be acceptable, as i said, is professors, teachers, etcetera, over a certain age. i think they ought to take it easy for another four weeks, five weeks, who knows, whatever it may be. >> when it comes to schools, dr. fauci did say different regions would take different approaches. as far as making students and parents feel safe about returning to school. dr. fauci said the likelihood of having treatment or a vaccine in time for the fall is, quote, a

bridge too far. let's get into this. joining me now, hans nichols. good morning to you. great to see you again this morning. with quite a bit of a different background this morning, i did enjoy the garage, but i guess you made a move this morning. let's get into this a bit this morning, hans. the president basically rejecting what dr. fauci said and his dire warnings against reopening the country too soon and not necessarily following those guidelines. why not adapt and say yes, we need to get the economy up and going, but we need to follow the cdc, the white house guidelines. we need to be cautious about our reopening versus completely saying the opposite of what fauci said. >> well, schools are becoming, you know, a domino in sort of

the white house's theory of how you need to open up. and it is not a domino like you think, but it is one of the key steps that they need to happen for parents to get back to work. schools and summer camps, you hear that from white house officials privately, but it gets to what the white house sees and the task force is a difference among demographics. you can't have one without the other. >> partly true, to me, the broader picture of what we got yesterday was the first public conflict between trump and fauci and the president put him on notice saying that answer is not acceptable. as you noted, fauci cleaned up his answer a bit on what they meant with schools and vaccines

and can you go back to school before a vaccine. but the president clearly wants to move faster. yesterday we talked about this and he waited until that meeting in the oval office and we had the real tension. >> it's understandable that they would have caution about reopening some of these schools. also, with regard to vaccines, you have dr. rick bright set to testify in front of congress today about the administration's response to the coronavirus. what can we expect to hear

today, hans? >> this is the beginning. this is the beginning of the president's response to coronavirus really being challenged and questioned he on capitol hill. someone who is part of the trump administration who feels aggrieved. this will be some dramatic testimony later today, i expect. >> thank you so much for joining us. the supreme court struck down tony ever's stay-at-home orders yesterday. according to the milwaukee journal sentinel, the 4-3 ruling automatically lifts restrictions on the order. the decision is coming after evers had begun lifting some restrictions because the spread of the virus had slowed across the state. to put any new limits in place,

evers and the republican-controlled legislature will need to work together to deal with the unpredictability of the outbreak. the evers administration is set to release a new plan today, yet republicans have yet to offer one of their own. and federal reserve chairman jerome powell calling the pandemic the biggest issue affecting the economy for years and says we could be in a recession for years. >> the scope and speed of this down turn are without modern precedent. we are seeing a severe decline in economic activity and employment and already the job gains of the last decade have been erased. since the pandemic arrived in force just two months ago, more than 20 million people have lost their jobs.

additional fiscal support could be costly, but worth it if it helps avoid long-term damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery. >> president trump toemd reporters yesterday, i don't know, it depends. the president did not directly comment on powell's latest warning, but he did offer some encouragement to the chairman. >> i know that the chairman has -- and he's done a very good job over the last couple of months. i have to tell you that. i've been critical. it's called the most improvement player award. the chairman, he's my mip right now fort last two months. i think he's done a very good job. >> and as democrats plan to vote on their latest stimulus

proposal, they are sparring with republicans over the rising debt expected to reach $3.7 trillion by the end of 2020. the $3 trillion plan would provide aid to state and local governments, assistance to workers, extension of unemployment benefits beyond july. and another round of direct payments for families across the country. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell called the bill aspirational yesterday when speaking with reporters. >> what you've seen in the house, nancy, is not something designed to deal with reality. but designed to deal with aspirations. this is not a time for aspirational legislation. this is a time for practical response to the coronavirus pandemic. >> however, democrats are calling republicans worries over the rising national debt a new found concern. here is speaker of the house nancy pelosi on monday speaking to chris hayes.

>> it's interesting to see what they're saying becoming now renewing their fiscal hawk positions that they could barely remember. i have confidence in going big with what we do. when i saw them give a $2 trillion addition to the national debt in order to given 83% of the benefits to the top 1%. that was so irresponsible in terms of it did nothing for the economy except heap mountains of debt on our children. still to come, the key case for the electoral college could have ramifications of 2020. and will the justice department have a harder time dropping its case against michael flynn? the unusual move from the judge, coming up. those stories plus a check on your weather with bill karins when we come back. s when we come back. (music)

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welcome back, everybody. the sentencing judge in the case of michael flynn has asked a retired federal judge to challenge the justice department's motion to withdraw charges against flynn for lying to the fbi. emmet sullivan has appointed a judge to recommend a nonbinding recommendation. the appointment follows a coauthored opinion piece in "the washington post" in which gleason wrote this, quote, the law provides that the court, not the executive branch, decides whether an indictment may be dismissed. the responsible exercise of that authority is particularly important here where a defendant's plea of guilty has already been accepted. let's get into this.

danny cevallos, good to see you on this thursday morning. has this ever happened before that a judge appoint egs anothe judge to argue against the department of justice? >> yes, it has. it's happened with this judge in a prior case, a very famous case involving alaska senator ted stevens where the judge did appoint an independent person to look into the prosecutor's -- what the judge called bad conduct. don't be fooled, though. these actions are very rare. this is the kind of things allowed in civil cases, but is unheard of in criminal cases. so this is something that is

certainly new. >> danny, stand by because i want to get your thoughts also on the last case of the supreme court session concerning the electoral college which could have major ramifications here. so the question is can he electors have the power to control elector's votes fearing chaos could result otherwise. let's take a listen to this. >> i want to follow up on justice alito's line of questioning which suggests if

it's a close call or a tiebreaker that we shouldn't facilitate or create chaos. and you, i think, answered and said it hasn't happened, but we have to look forward and just being realistic, judges are going to worry about chaos. >> so the outcome of the cases from colorado and washington, as well, could impact any close affect. danny, there were two cases that had different outcomes in the lower courts, but now it sounds like the real motive, the real goal here is to avoid chaos this november. tell us what happens here. >> the core issue here is that the constitution gives the states almost complete authority to choose their electors and then those electors go on, once elected in the november election, they go on to do the actual voting for the president.

but while the constitution gives the states complete power to appoint these electors, it doesn't appear to give them complete power over them after they're appointed. and the argument is by restricting the way they vote, they're violating those electors constitutional rights. for example, the first amendment and the rights to vote. so this is an issue that is left unresolved by the constitution. and justice kavanaugh's position is interesting because traditionally, looking at the results of a decision is something -- is a criticism that's leveled against liberal justices, conservative justices are known for never worrying about the outcome, but at the cortex and what it calls for. so this is a very interesting decision by justice kavanaugh. >> danny cevallos, thank you as always, my friend. great to see you this morning. let's switch gears here and get a first look at your forecast with bill karins.

hi, bill. good morning. >> good morning. great to see you. we have a couple of issues to talk about, severe weather and we're waiting to see if we're going to get that first tropical, maybe a subtropical or a tropical storm off the florida coast as we go through friday, saturday. we have some thunderstorms that have been rolling through the central plains, areas from dallas down to san antonio. nothing too bad, nothing too severe, but it is probably going to wake people up in the dallas area. later on this afternoon, who is at risk for severe storms? you don't want to lose power, right? that's the potential as we go throughout the day, 21 million people at risk of severe storms. it's going to get very warm. the humidity is going to surge and we're going to see strong storms in the areas of southern new england and into massachusetts, connecticut,

large hail, damaging winds, but tornado threats very low in areas of the northeast. finally, talking about the tropics, still a 70% chance this will develop by the time we get through the weekend. it does look like it should develop late enough to only bring rains to areas of southern florida and then it should develop north of the bahamas. this is just a reminder that our hurricane season is pretty much already here. that's the least of what we need. we should see an above average number of storms. we just don't know where they're going to go. >> let's hope they're more mild storms than what we've seen in past years. still ahead, a new poll showing the president is locked in a dead heat with the former vice president biden. in a state where the republican normally leads, also new reporting on concerns about down

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welcome back, everybody. the lincoln project announced it is campaigning to garner support among republicans and independents for joe biden's white house bid. the hill is reporting the group as launched republicans and independents for organizations independent of biden's campaign, focussing on battleground states. this is the latest project to back the former vice president after endorsing biden's presidential bid just last month. and a new internal poll in georgia is showing joe biden and president trump in a dead heat in that state. the poll, conducted by public opinion strategies supporting georgia governor brian kemp is showing biden and trump separated by 1 point, 47 to 46. both candidates sitting within the poll's four-point margin of

error. so some pretty astounsing numbers there. the report reads in part this, republicans are growing increasingly worried that president trump's shaky political position will not just cost them the presidency, but also sweep in a democratic senate majority and further diminish their house minority. the latest round of polling is showing the president lose to go joe biden as well as gaining ground in red state senate seats that once looked like long shots from georgia to montana to kansas. there's a growing chance that democrats may capture control of the senate with a seat or two to spare. and it goes on. the current political environment is reminiscent of 2008. two years after democrats swept control of the house and senate under president george w. bush, it's mostly remembered for barack obama's historic

election, but the democrats down ballot dominance was just as remarkable. still ahead, new concerns about the accuracy of the coronavirus tests used by the white house. also, we're going to talk to two doctors about a major concern among medical professionals during this pandemic, the mental health of those on the front lines. we will be right back. those on the front lines we will be right back. this is an athlete, twenty reps deep, sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected.

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welcome back, everybody. we're going to begin this half hour with revelations that the coronavirus tests from abbott

laboratories used at the white house to get rapid results may miss as many as half of positive cases. we have a new report from new york university langone health claiming that abbott's id test missed at least one-third of positive cases detected with a rival test. abbott has since refuted the study which has not been peer reviewed by other scientists and has not been edited or published by an academic journal. abbott claims that the study used the rapid test quote in a manner that is not intended to be used. it is unclear how the samples were tested. an fda spokesperson says the department is now looking into this new information. also, advice from the cdc on how to safely reopen the country during the coronavirus pandemic was more detailed and restrictive than the plan released by the white house last month. a 63-page document obtained by

the associated press, which is more detailed than other previously reported segments of the shelved guidance from the cdc shows how the thinking of cdc infection control experts differ from those in the white house, managing the pandemic response, including recommendations to help communities decide when to shut facilities down again during future flare-ups of covid-19. the ap reports the white house's opening up america again released april 17th including some of the cdc's approach, but made clear that the onus for reopening positions was solely on state governors and local officials. by contrast, though, the organizational tool created by the cdc advocates for a coordinated national response to give community leaders step by step instruction to, quote, help americans re-enter civic life with the idea that there would be resurgence of the virus and

lots of customization needed. the white house said last week nat document was a draft and not ready for release. now being questioned is the role played by nancy beck. the president's nominee to be chair and commissioner of the u.s. consumer product safety commission in the decision to shelve these guidelines. emails obtained by the ap show beck was the cdc's main point of contact inside the white house about the proposed recommendations. beck, whose position requires senate confirmation is, in fact, not a medical doctor, has no background in viralology, as well. she is scheduled to appear before the committee later this month. members of president trump's coronavirus task force are reportedly putting pressure on the centers for disease control to reziez death counts. according to two officials, the white house has pressed the cdc to work with states to change

how they count coronavirus deaths and report them back to the federal government. officials are saying that in particular, dr. deborah birx has urged cdc officials to exclude from death count reporting some of those individuals who either do not have confirmed lab results and are presumed positive or who have the virus and may not have died as a direct result of it, according to three senior administration officials. those cdc officials interviewed say they are pushing back against that request claiming it could falsely skew the mortality rate. let's get into some of this. joining me now, yahoo! news mental health contributor dr. rothstene and dr. roy. thank you both for joining mess this morning. very much appreciate it. i want to talk about the mental health ramifications on front line workers. we have seen evidence of this

across the board over the last couple of weeks. specifically a physician, dr. lorna breen who subsequently saved lives and subsequently committed suicide. it is obviously having major health effects, mental health specifically. dr. harstene, have you seen an increase in many of these issues among front line workers? and how are they dealing with them? >> you know, there is an increase we're seeing. we're noticing that, you know, calls to suicide hot lines are up, call toes crisis hot lines are up, so it's not just front line workers. across the board, we're feeling a global stress. put yourself in a doctor, emt, firefighter position where er dealing with this stress and trauma firsthand. and i think we believe that we need a mental health diagnosis

to die by suicide or have depression or anxiety. and the truth is, the mere presence of the stress and the trauma every day over and over with the risk of your own health, at the risk of your family's health, all of these things is enough in and of itself to create an increase in depression, to create a increase in hopelessness, an increase in fear, that it could lead to some of these things. so we are seeing an increase and i think we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg, to be honest. when we come out of this and everybody is able to exhale, i think we're going to see an increase in traumatic stress and in posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology as we begin to flat line out. >> yeah. i mean, you could compare it to soldiers at war, that when they are in it, they don't necessarily recognize how it is affecting them and it is only when they return home and they're able to take a breath and a moment that they recognize the real ramifications of what they have dealt with and the numbers of deaths that they have seen, especially these doctors,

these nurses, these emt workers that are on the front lines. there is this worry of burn out, right, as they are working every single day, 24 hours a day to help fight this virus to make sure that they're keeping americans safe across the country. what are you hearing with regards to burn out across the country with these front line workers? and are there guidelines that these medical workers can follow to help identify if, in fact, there is a problem that they are not seeing within themselves? >> yeah. good morning, yasmin. you're absolutely right. and i think it's important for the public to remember that clinician burn out was an epidemic before this pandemic. it's important to remember that burn out isn't just stress. we all experience stress. but burn out, particularly among physicians, is emotional and physical exhaustion that is related to deep personalization and an inability to get

satisfaction out of work. and it's associated with negative consequences, including a decreased quality in patient care, an increase in medical errors, increase in drug addiction and alcohol and depression and suicide. so it's important to recognize the symptoms of burn out that people are having and, yes, it's not just -- it's doctors, it's nurses, it's emts, it's a lot of front line workers. but, you know, doctors face unique challenges because ultimately the liability and ultimate responsibility of a patient's health care and safety lies upon the shoulders of a physician. they feel that burden. and now in the surge of all of these patients coming in with covid-19 in addition to the other sick patients that regularly go to a hospital, physicians are feeling a sense of overwhelming burn out.

>> doctor, take us through some of the guidelines that these physicians, these emt workers can follow to identify if, in fact, they have a problem that they have -- they cannot see within themselves. >> i think i'd love to point out that one of the things some of the hospitals are doing is the psychiatry departments are creating support groups and options for them to go talk to people. and i think that's a really important thing because now we're create something community around the struggle and the health of running, running, running. they're able to stop and slow down and talk about the concerns, the fears, the worries. so i think some of the warning signs are exactly what dr. roy was talking about. and in addition, do you notice a change in demeanor? do you notice a change in mood? do you notice there's more tears? do you notice there's more stress? all of those things are things we need to be looking at. dr. roy, you mentioned the challenges that physicians placed before this pandemic.

does it make it worse for them that they recognize the pressure that so many people are putting on them right now to help save this country, really, from this pandemic, seeing them as sort of god-like characters right now on the front lines? >> yeah. i'm really glad you asked that question. i can tell you that i talked to my fellow colleagues all over the country and many of them are not comfortable with this label of heros. most people who go into the field of medicine do so because they just want to be impactful. and they just want to do what is right and care for people. there's a lot of pressures and challenges that come with that, including a high number of patients, of really sick patients, but what we're seeing

is unique challenges. people just want to do the right thing and take care of people while they're sick. >> thank you both. still ahead, while president trump rails against the use of mail-in ballots over concerns of corruption and cheating, republicans flip a democratic-held seat with a special election victory in california. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. k at "morni" is back in a moment.

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working on the front lines, and here's one small way that you can help them in return. complete your 2020 census today. 2020 census data helps communities plan funding for hospitals, clinics, and emergency services across the country. an accurate count helps public health officials know who is at risk, and first responders identify the resources they need to protect our communities. complete your census at 2020census.gov and help shape our future. the problem with the mail-in ballots, it's subject to tremendous corruption. tremendous corruption. so i'm against it. and if you look at the bill that nancy pelosi is putting in, it has a lot to do with elections. we're not going to lose elections because of that. and i do think you should mention the fact that the

republicans won two major congressional seats last night. i think it's really worthy of mentioning. >> president trump there sounding off yesterday on mail-in ballots, claiming it would result in tremendous corruption and cheating. meanwhile, in a contest conducted almost entirely by mail, republican mark garcia has won the seat vacated by democrat katie hill who resigned in november amid an ethics investigation. garcia will fill out the remainder of hill's term and smith and garcia will face off again in november's general election for the subsequent two-year term. with that, let's get a check on your weather with bill karins, who has also been tracking the numbers for us with regard to this pandemic.

bill. >> good morning. let's talk about the curves once again. so getting into the fatality curve, yesterday we had another big number. but it wasn't as big as a lot of wednesdays we had previously. we hit the milestone of about 85,000 total fatalities. yesterday we had a little ever over 1700. so it's a slow down trend. as far as the cases, a little over 21,000. also the lowest since late portions of march. and as far as testing goes, we did hit another milestone. 3% of the u.s. population has been tested. some people have been tested more than once, but today we will go over 10 million total tests. let me get you into your weekend forecast. heavy rain threat on friday from areas of texas to the ohio valley. some severe storms could be possible in the northeast on friday. then on saturday, there's been drenching rain still from houston north wards up into arkansas, then missouri. that nasty weekend weather continues in the great lakes on sunday.

much of the east coast will be about perfect through the upcoming weekend. so some good, some bad. >> all right. thank you, bill. still ahead, we're going to go live to cnbc for an early look at what is driving the day on wall street. and as we go to break, a leap of faith as new zealand lifts lockdown measures there. the mayor of queenstown, new zealand, celebrated with a sunrise bungee jump in a suit no less and a tie leaping into stage two of coronavirus restrictions, taking effect across the country today to allow for the businesses to reopen and give the green light for regional travel. what a way to open up. we are back in a moment. to ope. we are back in a moment. how do you get skin happy 24/7?

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welcome back, everybody. fed chair jerome powell warned yesterday that the struggling u.s. economy may need even more help from congress if it wants to get through this pandemic. jewel anna is joining us live

this morning. we know the house is set to vote on a bill this week, a bill that republicans and the senate is basically going to be dead on arrival when it does get there. talk fed chair. >> it's interesting you mention where we stand in terms of congress, yasmin, because there is an interesting interplay on the monetary policy side of things and congress and government on the fiscal side of things. yesterday, we had a federal reserve chair, jerome powell, painting a negative picture in the outlook for the economy. he's putting pressure on the fiscal side of things, urging congress to initiate more aid. he is saying that we may very need additional support for the u.s. economy. he said that the kind of economic hit that we're looking atprecedent. in terms of market reaction to the comments, the dow sank more than 500 points yesterday. powell making clear it is going

to be a bumpy recovery for the u.s. economy. the future is highly uncertain and subject to significant downside risks. on the topic of negative rates, this has been a big point of debate among financial experts, whether the u.s. could move into a negative rate environment. >> president trump has recently, once again, praised the idea of negative rates, saying that they are a gift to other nations. yesterday, jerome powell dashed any hopes of negative rates in the united states. those are the latest comments. as you say, and as jerome powell made clear, certainly, we need to keep an eye on washington at this stage. >> we know the global health crisis that we are facing right now has begun to trigger a whole other crisis, as well. talk us through this. >> this crisis that you're talking about is a food crisis. it's not one in the traditional sense. it's not the fact that we are -- we don't have enough food. there actually is a lot of food. the u.n., the food and

agriculture organization, weighed in, saying you can have a food crisis with lots of food. that's the situation we're currently in. the pandemic hit the world at a time of plentiful harvest, but there's issues preventing food from getting where it needs to go. fewer people to manage crops, supply chains disrupted. more government support is needed, is what the experts say. >> cnbc's julianna tatelbaum, live from london. great to see you this morning. axios' one big thing. my dog is barking because they're getting up. coming up on "morning joe," former democratic candidate pete buttigieg is out with his first down ballot endorsements. oh, broadcasting from home. "morning joe" is moments away. iy grandfather was a federal judge in guatemala. he was an advocate for the people... a voice for the voiceless. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com

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and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. welcome back, everybody. joining me now with a look at axios a.m., editor in chief for axios, nicholas johnston. talk to us about axios' one big thing today. >> today's o ee's one big thing

pandemic that broke america. eight weeks in, the united states is no closer to any kind of national solution strategy for reopening government, reopening states, defeating the coronavirus, and moving beyond this crisis. when you dig in on the reporting, the cultural battles we've been fighting the last decades have been brought into the pandemic. you see it in the partisan breakdown and the polling itself when we ask americans, "are you worried the pandemic will infect someone you know, or someone in your family will get the coronavirus?" democrats are far more worried about the pandemic than republicans. we're seeing it in the data around the death count. when you ask americans if they believe the death counts are too high or too low, there is a partisan breakdown on that, as well, going up to the president and other administration officials. it's led to a litany of problems in recent weeks as we've tried

to respond to the pandemic. a rollout of the promising drug which was botched because of miscommunication between agencies. there is no strategy for moving ahead with additional aid in light of 25 million americans unemploy unemployed. no meaningful discussions in congress for further aid for unemployed americans and also states with huge budget shortfalls. when we talk about contract tracing, this is a key part of the test and trace response to the virus, a vast majority of americans say they wouldn't trust a program like that by the federal government. misinformation is bubbling up again. the number one book on amazon for a number of days was a conspiracy theory book about sort of the fight of public health and the anti-vaccination effor efforts. one american news, as promoted by the president, had a conspiracy theory video, linking the conspiracy to anthony fauci, bill gates, and the chinese

government. those things take off like wildfire on social media and have to be put out by youtube, facebook, et cetera. think back after other times of crisis. leaders like to lead a response. here, we've seen george bush with a youtube video where his face rarely appears. barack obama has been relatively silent, except when he criticized the administration. president trump recently attacked them both on twitter. >> we've heard a lot of negatives here. >> right. >> from all of this reporting. >> how about something happier? >> what hopes do you have amidst your reporting you're finding? >> let's move to a happier note. when you dig in below the national numbers and get down to the state numbers, and we see something much more positive. nationwide, approval ratings for governors and local officials is 71%, more than almost twice of

what it is for president trump and national officials. state by state data, we're seeing promising trends in many states as they begin to reopen. the data is moving in the right direction. something awesome that happened recently with us, we did a story about what we thought were the state and local officials that had done the best job in responding to the coronavirus. we were deluged with people writing saying, you forgot my mayor and governor. i think they're doing a great job. on a national basis, we've seen a drip. state and local levels, people are happy with what their officials are doing. >> nicholas johnston, thank you, my friend. >> thanks. >> i will be reading axios a.m. in a little while. you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this thursday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. the scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent, significantly worse than any recession since world war ii. we are seeing a severe decline

in economic activity and employment, and already the job gains of the last decade have been erased. since the pandemic arrived in force just two months ago, more than 20 million people lost their jobs. almost 40% of those in households making less than $40,000 a year lost a job in march. additional fiscal support could be costly but worth it, if it helps avoid long-term damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery. >> federal reserve chairman jerome powell with that warning about the economy yesterday. we'll get another look at just how bad things might be when the weekly jobless claim nurp numbe released 8:30 eastern. welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, may 14th. along with joe, willie, and me, we have white house reporter for the "associated press," jonathan lemire. we'll get his reporting on the president's trip today to