good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is heading to capitol hill shortly to meet with senate republicans. as the federal reserve chairman and treasury secretary both answer questions from congress today for the first time about the balance between preventing more spread of the coronavirus and the need to reopen the economy. here are the facts at this hour. fed chair jerome powell testifying all of the job gains of the past decade have been reversed and people earning less are the worst hit by the crisis. top doctors across the country are alarmed the president is taking hydroxychloroquine, despite the fda warning the drug should not be taken outside of a hospital for covid-19 and could even cause fatal heart complications. and the president is threatening to permanently cut off all funding to the world health organization, now holding its global meeting on the pandemic, with china's president

pledging $2 billion and the u.s. only major power not taking part. joining me now, white house senior adviser kevin hassett, former chairman of the council of economic advisers, who returned to be a top adviser to the white house. kevin, great to see you. >> great to see you. >> i want to first ask you about the testimony, about the balance between getting more money out plus facing a huge federal deficit and facing the problem that, as the fed chairman said, is really hurting the least among us in our country, the frontline workers, people most affected and people who are already poorest, and have the least amount of health care. what is the administration going to do about more stimulus money and about the dmaunds for helping state and local governments? >> that's exactly the right question, andrea. what we're doing right now first is making sure the existing programs are being implemented effectively. so we've got more than 4 million loans to small businesses all around the country.

we've mailed about 140 million checks for a family of four that averages about $3,400. we've been doing things to help build a bridge to the other side and making sure those are implemented well. i think that's step one. step two is watch as the economy turns on, assess how quickly things are getting back to normal and think about have a plan for next steps. so we're not watching and waiting, we're watching and planning. if we get to the other side a little quicker than expected, maybe we will take one path and if it looks like the virus is sticking around longer than we thought and slowdown continuing deeper into the summer, then we'll have a plan for that as well. finally, and i finally stopped the filibuster, andrea, if we look at the realtime data we track, you're seeing a lot of hopeful signs. there's one database that's the percentage mostly of retail and restaurants, percentage of u.s. businesses open, it dropped 50% in early april and all the way up as of today to 67%.

the the count the country is getting back to normal. it's not all the way there yet but it's getting there. >> talking about getting back to normal, there are people who still have not gotten their unemployment yet from states. i know that's not a federal responsibility. but the first tranche was not even all pushed out. if you waited months for this tto be accounted for, so many people will be hurt, even the fed chairman, who is a conservative republican by nature, he's been saying more is needed. >> right. you know, i think it's possible more will be needed but right now we need to assess -- >> how do you wait -- >> can i finish one thing? the in moneys have a lot of time been stuck at the states. so for smaller communities under $500,000 we mailed cash to the

governors and municipalities. a lot of the governors are sitting on it. in pennsylvania, governors sort of threatening people to do things his way or he will not give them the money. and then there's the antiquated uninsurance claims for models in some of the states that use this old-fashioned computer language called cobalt. it's like 50 years old and nobody knows how to program it. when we were getting the stimulus checks out, i was up on my first day back on march 20th, and i watched as the democrats insisted instead of writing two checks we use the ui benefits instead to get cash to people. we argued, geez, i wish they wouldn't do it that way because it will get hung up in the states. and in the end the democrats insisted and we, of course, because we had to get the deal through, agreed to it. i think it would have been to have two rounds of checks than go through the ui claim system, because it's so antiquated. >> the unemployment insurance claim system, understandably. one of the worst cases, by the

way, the president doesn't seem to focus on is florida, which has one of the least, lowest percentage of money being pushed out. let me ask you though -- >> which by the way, i don't mean to cut you off, but that's a really good point. just red and blue states -- some red and blue states have antiquated systems so it's totally not a partisan thing. there are a lot of states that do it well and a lot that don't and there's no real color pattern to them. >> to that point though, the fed chairman is saying more needs to be done. the people who are hurting are the people in the lowest sector. you saw this study the other day that's 40% of the people who were really suffering from this were making more than $40,000 a year. that was a fed -- i think it was a minnesota fed study. so how do you balance this, as you say, 65% of the economy is reopening, but not the people at the bottom of the scale getting the benefits. >> right. i think that the thing to think about is that, you know, when

the economy goes down, then it tends to be worse for people who have less skill. so you often see that people with lower skills are laid off first. and the big increase in unemployment, we have 36 million or so initial claims for unemployment insurance, is very, very much going to be disproportionately hurting people at the bottom 100%. so the hope is that we've gotten cash through the sort of $3,400 for the family of four. we've gotten unemployment insurance, you know, basically approved at the federal level for everybody to help tide them over until when they get their job be back. then the question congress will debate, how long will it take to get it back? and it's essential to do that quickly because the people who can least afford not to have a job are the ones to have lost their jobs. >> let me ask you signed the white house, are you wearing a mask? what about the small spaces, you know better than i, they're pretty narrow.

>> yes, i have a mask here. a white one that's comfortable for me. yes, i wear it all the time absolutely if i'm moving about. even as i was being hooked up by your crew, i had the mask on and i tested negative this morning. but just so the crew doesn't need to be nervous. despite that still, i wear the mask to protect everybody around me. >> thank you very much, kevin hassett. i know it's tough for you to come out and take time. thank you for being with us. >> thanks. good to see you. the president has been speaking to farmers. let's listen in. >> when you look at it, numbers are going down. so we're very confident we're going to have a tremendous, tremendous turnaround. we had a turnaround artificially and then we're turning that back on. we will see tremendous numbers. thank you very much.

[ inaudible question ] >> and joining us now is kristen welker at the white house on this busy day. kristen, let's talk about president trump's stunning admission to the nation, the declaration he's been taking that controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for more than a week. that announcement got an equally stunning response from house speaker nancy pelosi. let's watch this together. we're going to have that in a moment. kristen, joining us now and let's talk about this. we will play that sound in a minute. >> andrea, you're right. >> what have we learned? >> it's an announcement that caught some of even his top advisers off guard. i will tell you we got a letter from his doctor overnight that said he discussed the pros and cons of taking hydroxychloroquine with the president but notably that letter did not explicitly say he prescribed it. we did follow up with the white

house, and we're told yes, in fact, after a conversation president trump said that he wanted to start taking the drug after he was concerned he had been exposed. remember, his valet tested positive. that's when his doctor ultimately agreed to prescribe it. we didn't get any details from his doctor about the dosage. it's the president himself saying he's taking one pill per day for about the past week and a half. the reason why this has come under so much scrutiny is because you have the fda, which has come out in recent weeks, and said they do not recommend taking this unless you are in a hospital setting, unless you're being carefully monitored and they've also come out and said there are real concerns about the possibility the side effects could be very difficult, if not deadly, for some patients, andrea. >> from heart arrhythmia.

kristen, you will stand by and be back with us shortly. but first, this is time for andrew cuomo's daily briefing. let's listen in. we can make this works sometimes easier than others. it depends on the economic of that sport and how much is determined by selling seats in the arena or the stadium, et cetera. but to the extent they can start, i encourage them to start. the state will work with them to start. down state we have a number of sports teams. when a team plays, even if there's no one in the stands, it gets broadcast and that gives people at home entertainment value, something to participate in. another reason, frankly, to stay home as opposed to go out and staying home is good right now. so i encourage the sports teams and, again, new york will be a full partner, anything we can do to make it happen and make it

happen safely, we will. memorial day is coming up. that is an important american tradition. we want to honor our veterans. and we want to make sure no matter what happens, we are still honoring our veterans. the state will allow ceremonies, local ceremonies of up to ten people or less. we hope that those ceremonies are broadcast, televised in their areas so people can be part of honoring that tradition. local governments can make a decision that they don't want those ceremonies to happen. they don't want ten people gathering. ten is the cdc guideline is for ten people gathering. that is where the state got the recommend egs from the federal cdc. but i can understand the difference of opinion. so we will leave it up to local government. vehicle parades i think are appropriate and should be

encouraged. and, again, this is an important tradition. many people lost their lives. this is important to many, many families all across this state and nation. it's important to the veterans they be recognized. i think we can do that and i think we can do it safely. new yorkers are doing everything they can as a people. our response has been probably the best demanding in the country because we had the largest number of cases. but every step of the way, new yorkers have stepped up. as a government, we are doing everything we can. we're doing more testing than any other state. we've been more aggressive than any state in nursing home precautions. so we've been smart. new yorkers have been smart. the government has been smart. and that should be respected. now we need a federal government

that is as smart as the people who elected that federal government. because new york to move forward and move forward quickly, we need a federal government as a partner. they're now in the midst of running a number of programs that provide cash benefits to corporations. let's make sure when we're giving those corporations funding that the corporations are actually acting on behalf of americans. i propose something called the americans first law. not america first, americans first law. we learned the hard way in 2008 that you can see government provide billions of dollars to corporations to quote/unquote stabilize the economy. we did this after the mortgage scandal. we gave billions to the banks, remember, because they were too big to fail. so we had to give billions of dollars to the banks.

what did the banks do? many of them turned around and gave themselves bonuses and they gave themselves parties and end-of-year bonuses and special pay bonuses. these are the same banks that created the mortgage fraud in the first place and then get bailed out by the taxpayer and wound up having parties at taxpayer expense. i fear what they're going to do this time is take the money from government, but then they will lay off workers. they're already talking about it. you see these corporations talking about getting lean and restructuring. that means downsizing. why? because they think they have an opportunity. now many of the employees have been laid off temporarily or temporarily at home. corporations think this is an opportunity to reopen with fewer employees.

it would be such a scandal if corporations now took taxpayer dollars and then laid off workers and reopened. it would be such a scandal and a fraud. if these skorpgss were allowed to receive government money, lay off workers, and government taxpayers had to subsidize the workers that were laid off. so my law is very simple, if you take government funds, you must rehire the same number of workers had you pre-pandemic. if you take government funds, you must rehire the same number of employees you had pre-pandemic. if you want to lay people off, if you want to get lean, if you want to restructure, fine. but don't use taxpayer money to

subsidize it. and don't think that taxpayers are going to pay you to lay off employees, and then wind up with an unemployment problem at the end of the day. that's what happened in 2008. i was attorney general. i brought the cases afterwards. i brought actions against aig and against banks like bank of america that took these bailout funds and then gave themselves bonuses and parties. don't make the same mistake twice. the american taxpayers are doing what they have to do. don't make fools of the american taxpayers. second, washington was very quick to fund businesses and corporations. the bills that they passed thus far had been about funding corporations and businesses to keep -- to prop up the economy.

fine. who did they not fund? they didn't fund state governments and local governments. who do state and local governments fund? they fund the hospitals, they fund the police. they fund the firefighters, they fund the school teachers, they fund the food banks. why was washington so quick to fund the corporations and the big businesses but now they have to think about whether or not they want to fund state governments and local governments? the hospitals, the police, the firefighters, school teachers. what sense of priority do you have that you see so clearly the need for corporations but you don't see the need to continue basic services. and what makes this so offensive to me, you turn on the tv, you see all of these ads praising the health care workers and the nurses and the doctors who saved so many lives and worked so

hard, and the first responders who went out there, the heroes of today. and they are and they are, and they should be acknowledged. and they should be funded. if you don't fund new york state government, you know what that means? that means i have to cut aid to northwell, to hospitals, to nurses, to doctors. it means i have to cut aid to local governments that fund police and firefighters. i have to fund funding to schools, teachers, who also have been heroes doing remote learning, et cetera. it's about priorities. it's about values. i understand the large corporations are the ones who fund the political accounts of these elected officials. but let them remember that they get elected by the people. people still vote. people still matter. show the same consideration for

the workers that you showed for the corporations. that's all i'm asking. and that's the americans' first law and state and local government. this is not a partisan issue. this is not democrats versus republicans. i have stayed 100 miles away from any politics all through this. this is no time for politics and this is not a political divisive issue. this is all of the governors in the united states. national governors association represents all of the governors. the white house left it to the governors to do the reopening, right? all of the states are doing the reopening. you can't tell the states go reopen, figure it out and then not provide them with the funding to do it. the head of the national governors association is a republican governor. governor hogan, i'm the vice chairman of the nga. i'm a democrat. in unison, in a united voice, we

are saying to washington, you need to pass funding for state and local governments. the house passed a bill that did it, that also provided funding for testing, which is very important. this testing, tracing enterprise. it repeals s.a.l.t., which is an additional tax on new yorkers for the federal government. but the senate now has that bill. the senate must act. also, there was very exciting news about a company that might be close to developing a vaccine and the federal government is working very hard to accelerate the vaccine, as they should. the testing, the regulations, procedures are about getting a vaccine online. that would be the best possible outcome. but we have to make sure whatever company finds the vaccine, right, finds the pot of

gold, that whatever company finds that, the vaccine then must be available to all people. and it can't be a situation where only the rich, only the privileged can get the vaccine because one company owns the rights and they can't produce enough for everyone. this is a public health matter. this is a national security threat. this should not be about one corporation's privacy. if the federal government is bending over backwards and jumping through hoops to allow this company to develop a vaccine, then let's make sure the federal government sets the rules now and says to any company that develops the vaccine, the next day we have to be in a position with that patent, where that formula can be given to companies all across the globe to produce a vaccine so we can treat everyone.

the last point is this, the world is different today than it was. this is there are situations in life that can happen on a moment's notice and change the very trajectory and definition of your life. you can get health news about an individual that just changes your whole life. what you thought was so important yesterday becomes totally unimportant. this situation, this covid virus, has changed the world fundamentally. i don't believe we ever go back to where we were. i don't even believe life is about going back, right? life is about going forward. this is a different world. it's a different world individually. it is a different world for families. we are all trying to recalibrate and reassess who we are and how

we live and what's important and what's not important. i hope on an individual level that this period will make us a smarter person, a better person, a deeper person. it's made me question a lot of things about my life, a lot of priorities, a lot of things i was doing. lets you think through personal relationships and what's important and where have you been spending your time, and was that the smartest use of time? sometimes when something is taken away, you see how valuable it was. now you can't go see family members if wanted to. you can't see friends if you wanted to. when someone says you can't, it changes your whole perspective. you ask yourself, why hadn't i been? why didn't i? and when i get a chance, how am i going to do it differently this time? i think that can actually be a

good process to go through. painful, but good. but it's also true for government. government is important again, right? government most days, you live your life, government politics, a side show. it's not that important. when does government really become important? probably almost not in my lifetime. when has it been vital? it's vital at the time of war, crisis, real national crisis. but that's the only time it's really vital where you don't have a choice but to deal with and rely on government. well, government is now important again in a way it hasn't been in my lifetime. it matters what government does. government made the difference between life and death here.

government is part of social action. the people who saved lives in this are new yorkers for doing the right thing. but government was part of that, right? it helps organize. today government is going to be held to a different standard. it has to be fundamentally different. it has to be smarter than it was. it matters now what happens. you have to know what you're doing now. not just look like you know what you're doing. not just sound like you know what you're doing. you have to be smart. you're not going to tweak your way through this. you have to be smart. you have to be competent at what you do. there's something called government. you either know how to do it or you don't know how to do it. for many years, just anyone can be in government, you know.

can anyone be a nurse? oh, no, you have to know what you're talking about. can anyone be a doctor? oh, no, you have to know what you're talking about. can anyone be a lawyer? oh, no, no, you have to know what you're talking about. can anyone be a plumber? nope, you have to know what you're talking about. can anyone run government? oh, yeah, anybody can run government. the less you know, the better. that wasn't true. you have to be competent. and it has to be beyond politics. this is not about an ongoing campaign. you're now a government official. you represent everyone. forget the politics. remember people. it doesn't matter, republican or democrat. that's all garbage now. i'm the governor of new york. all new yorkers. i don't care if you're republican, democrat, atheist, vote or don't vote, that's your business. i represent you. you may me to represent you. that's how i see it. and government has to be fair, and it has to be effective.

that's where we are all are now. and that's where we've been in new york. and that's what it means to be new york tough. as a person, as a society, as a collective and as a government to be smart, to be united, to be disciplined, to be loving, that's new york. questions? >> governor, two questions. first, from the mta, this morning mta executives were asked about when reopening hands on long island and new york city, whether people can commute to work via mass transit and whether they have enough capacity. and the president said he's looking to the state for guidance about whether they can run more trains. so would you tell them to do so? my second question is about -- >> new york governor andrew cuomo saying in his briefing today, you can't tweet your way out of this crisis without naming president trump. he said, you've got to be smart. you have to be competent. it has to go beyond politics. this, of course, as the medical

community is raising red flags about the president's admission he's taking hydroxychloroquine despite the fda warning there could be fatal sequencconsequen those who suffer heart arrhythmia. joining me now, dr. john torres and kristen welker back from the white house. dr. torres, the president's announcement is sending shockwaves around the medical community because of the fda warning it should be taken only in a hospital context and there are side effects in some patients that have been fatal. what do you say about it? >> andrea, i think you're right. i think there's a lot of surprise this is going on and a lot of head-scratching as to why it's going on. it's a rocky road for hydroxychloroquine since the beginning of the year. it's a malaria medicine around decades. in a very small study in 2016 it looked like it was helping and then larger studies said it doesn't look like it's doing much as far as the things we

want it to work on. it's not causing people to die less or go on ventilators less. these are in new york, observation alg studies of around 3,000 people. so we know it's not working necessarily like we would like it to work but at the same time fda is coming out saying we're seeing all of these cardiac arrhythmias happening. we have to be careful. it should only be used in hospital settings or clinical trials, where you can be carefully monitored. and some of the side effects for this, it's called hydroxychloroquine, lighter side dizziness, stomach changes, vision changes. those are some of the lighter symptoms. people can get seizures, bronco spasms. and the heart aarrhythmia, as people start getting older, we know president trump last month went to the hour for a couple of hours, we don't know exactly why that happened but there was speculation it was around his heart. if that's the case, he should

not be taking it. so surprise he's taking it. a lot of head-scratching if he might be taking it because we don't know if it's going to work in this fashion, and we do know it might cause issues so you have to be very careful with it, andrea. >> one of the speculations was, first, he's been pushing it repeatedly. fox news has been pushing it repeatedly. he even had visitors to the white house speaking to it, people including an anchor and cardiologist and several patients who said it helped them recover. so there have been a lot of issues about this. and then dr. bright on "60 minutes," the president live-tweeting during that show sunday night talking about the dangers. the president comes out yesterday and he offers he was taking it. we want to show you a little bit of what he had to say and somewhat sharp tongue response from the speaker of the house. >> the frontline workers, many, many are taking it. i happen to be taking it. i happen to be taking it. >> hydroxychloroquine? >> i'm taking it,

hydroxychloroquine. right now, yes. a couple of weeks ago i started taking it. >> why? >> i think it's good. i heard a lot of good stories. if it's not good, i'll tell you right. i'm not going to get hurt by it. >> as far as the president is concerned, he's our president and i would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his shall we say weight group, morbidly obese, they say. so i -- i think it's not a good idea. >> so dr. torres and kristen, i know you have been doing reporting on this, the fda, dr. hahn, has just come out with a statement saying it has been approved for malaria, lupus and that it should be done p. rheumatoid arthritis, and should be done between the patient and

the doctor. that ignores the warning about the serious side effects and the white house doctor did approve this, but what would be your concerns about the president taking it? >> right. what dr. hahn is referring to, it is fda approved for malaria, lupus. once a medicine is fda approved, doctors are able to prescribe it off-label, meaning not what it's approved for, but for something else, because we know it could be safe for certain patients. but we have to be careful for conditions like this we don't know if it will work for covid-19 so we don't know if there's a benefit but we know the risk is there as people and patients get older. then you talk to your patient about here's why you shouldn't be taking it, here's what we don't really know about it. if they push they don't want to take it, you have to have a discussion, that sounds like what the doctor did, had the discussion where he might have pushed to the point where the doctor said okay, i'm giving you the information. but let's give you the medicine because, like you said, it's something he really wanted to start taking even though medically it's not indicated and

there are those issues we're very concerned about. >> and kristen welker, there's no patient more important to this country and the free world arguably than the president of the united states. you've covered the white house. i have covered the white house. the president's health has always been of utmost importance. and this white house has not been as transparent than previous white houses about the president's health and relationship with the doctors. there's been a level of controversy. >> that's right. and we heard dr. torres say he went to the hospital several months ago and we never got the if you details of that. we know he got the first half of the physical and didn't get the second part in part of the covid-19 crisis. one of the things that related to something dr. torres said is this idea of being monitored. we put that question to the white house, is the president

being monitored while he takes he's drug, and the response i got from sign yor administration official was the white house doctor did monitor him appropriately upon describing the drug initially but no word if that monitoring process continues. we anticipate obviously that the president is in very close contact though with the white house doctor. but the questions do continue to mount here, as you see the backlash continuing to pour in, including from the speaker of the house. so far no response from president trump from what we heard from house speaker nancy pelosi but, andrea, we're all watching our twitter feeds to see if we see something there. andrea? >> and you're reporting, of course, as well he began taking it after the valet, his valet was confirmed to have covid-19 and perhaps a day before the press secretary to the vice president katie miller. we have to leave it there for now. kristen, thank you so much for hanging in. thanks to dr. john torres as well. meanwhile the president is about to head to capitol hill. he's going to meet with

republican senators over lunch after his treasury secretary and federal reserve chair fielded a battery of questions today about the speed of the government's pandemic stimulus program. secretary mnuchin getting tough questions from the top democrat shared brown of oh jared brown of ohio. >> how many people will die if we send people back to work without the protections they need? >> we do not intend to send anybody back without preparations. i was there to testify, i was at the senate wearing a mask. i assure you, myself and everybody on the task force, vice president and others, are following the best medical advice. >> how many workers should you have to increase the gdp or dow jones by a thousand points? >> no workers should give their lives, senator. >> joining me now is the author of "economic dignity."

and first to you, garrett haake, the meeting on the hill was so unusual. it was completely virtual with witnesses as well as the senators. what are your takeaways? >> essentially a zoom meeting to discuss multi trillion dollar coronavirus relief efforts. it's really an extraordinary moment here. you saw democrats, led by sherrod brown in that case, really blistering the treasury secretary over reopening plans and whether or not they're satisfied with the process the white house has gone through to get to this point. but by and large the focus of this hearing was making sure the money congress already appropriated was getting to the people who needed it the most. meaning the money in the c.a.r.e.s. act was getting out to the businesses large and small that it is designed to reach. then you also heard from democrats trying to push pressure on federal reserve chairman powell, who, of course, is the other witness here, to expand on comments he made last week about the importance congress do something else in terms of coronavirus relief. several democrats floated

packages that they support, trying to get more from him on the importance of doing that perhaps as a way to put pressure on their republican colleagues. the federal reserve chairman largely stuck to his guns saying the management specific policy decisions are the senate's per view, even if he doesn't believe more will be necessary. that's the arching theme on that day, if you will. the meeting with republican leadership talking about the possibilities of next steps here. the house has already passed their heroes act. the senate so far has been saying they want to wait and see. i think what we are starting to see now is perhaps movement off of that position by republicans. towards what? not yet clear. >> and gene sperling, we heard kevin hassett and we heard mnuchin. they're really holding back on the next tranche, more money, until this money has gone

through the system and that could take months. there's evidence a lot of the money, not only the money being held up by the state bureaucracy on unemployment insurance but a lot of the other money, ppp and other money is not getting to the system. >> yes, absolutely. it is just -- it's kind of beyond belief they're kind of suggesting we need to see more. they're going to come back on -- we will be back june 5th when the may unemployment numbers come out. we will probably be well over 20%, well over the depression level. it's true they couldn't pin powell down on specific programs but somebody on twitter showed him as john cusack in the movie "say anything" holding the boombox over his head but instead of playing "in your eyes" it was saying, send relief to states, individuals, small businesses. because the reality is, and i think you heard governor cuomo

saying this, you cannot let states have a $5, $6, $700 billion short fall and think that will not mean a lost of the first responders, state troopers, officers jobs. and you cannot take the view that kevin hassett did that the government just can't do these things. you're in a crisis. it's your job to make sure uninsurance checks get to people. that should be an all-out natural effort. that will expire at the end of july. and making sure we have unemployment insurance going so people can keep the lights on and support their financiallies until unemployment is well under 10% is going to be just -- is going to be itself a national imperative and crisis and so i think the administration needs to stop the hemming and hawing and start showing they have an action plan to get more money and get the money they out there to the small businesses and the individuals who need it.

>> gene sperling, author of "economic dignity," something we need now more than ever since this pandemic. gene, thank you very much. thanks to garrett haake. coming up next -- states starting to relax restrictions. we're live in california, where some restaurants have been given the green light to reopen for dining in. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. r grill i, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. the ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. overnight, they became our offices, schools and playgrounds. all those places out there are now in here. that's why we're still offering fast, free two day shipping on thousands of items. even the big stuff. and doing everything it takes to ensure your safety. so you can make your home... everything you need it to be.

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as states around the country

move to reopen, in indiana the university of notre dame is perhaps the first major university to say it will have students on campus for the fall semester. and will start two weeks earlier than usual. meanwhile in other parts of the country, infections are rising in north carolina but so is the testing rate. governor roy cooper said he needs more data before a planned loosening of restrictions on friday. and california governor gavin newsom relaxing restrictions early allowing residents to decide what's best for themselves. and sports can be back, without spectators, of course. joining us now is jo ling kent. what is behind the california's governor to reopen earlier? >> yes, this is the sixth largest population in california and this is big news from governor newsom. he cited a data studying cases

overall and icu cases overall that more counties will be able to move further into stage two. we're talking 53 cases. i will read the criteria, you can pursue reopening if you can show that 25 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. so that is certainly good news for a lot of counties who want to reopen some of the their restaurants and shopping malls. but, again, you have to meet the criteria in your local county. newsom is saying he wants to put more power into the hands of local health officials on this front so they can make those decisions. who's also interesting too for those of us who need a haircut or if you're interested in attending a sports event, andrea, by june 1 the governor did some hinting, just hinting -- you may be able to see some reopening the hair salons. you may see sport events without

spectators here. but certainly big news when it comes from the economy, especially retail sales. you saw those drop a record amount last month. so this could help the economy slowly get back going again, andrea. >> jo ling kent, thank you so much. good news for californians. and at the top of the hour, president trump renewed his threat to pull the u.s. out of the world health organization, saying that the w.h.o. has to clean up its act or the u.s. won't be involved with it anymore. this comes, of course, as the organization is hoeding the second day of its virtual global meeting on the pandemic, with most meeting heads of state taking part from around the world, other than the u.s. the president first threatened to permanently eliminate all u.s. funding from the world health organization in a letter to the w.h.o. that he tweeted last night, posting overnight, he attacked the organization writing -- it's clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in

responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. the president previously complained the u.s. is spending about $500 million a year to the w.h.o. >> so we help fund the world health organization. we use it like everyone else does. they gave us a lot of very bad advice. terrible advice. they were wrong so much. always on the side of china. >> of course, that has been fact checked and not proved true. but in any case the w.h.o. is responsible for global health well beyond the pandemic, including malaria, tb, hiv/aids, polio, a host of other issues. nbc's senior national correspondent keir simmons is following the conference. first of all, of course, china's president surprised many conference members by not only appearing but promising $2 billion in aid at the same time the president is threatening to cut off all u.s. aid in 30 days unless the w.h.o. reforms, but he's not clear on what that would be, would that would mean. what's the reaction there? >> that's right, andrea.

exactly what you have is this kind of split screen between the way that america is behaving and the way china is behaving and china is, frankly, quite openly attempting to steal the limelig limelight, trying to steal the stage. and we don't know the details of the $2 billion. it is money to fight the coronavirus. so it doesn't replace the american hundreds of millions of dollars that's being threatened to be withdrawn but the optics are clear. meanwhile, the assembly has just voted on a revolution that does call for an impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation of the history of the coronavirus and what happened in the early days. but it's much weaker than america and australia was calling for. so it doesn't necessarily really kind of focus on china the way that president trump wants. meanwhile, this is his letter to the leader of the world health organization threatening to

remove america, threatening to permanently withdraw the money. andrea, there are good points in here. it does raise the question of taiwan and why taiwan wasn't given observer status, raising the point taiwan would have been able to raise the alarm with coronavirus. and, of course, china doesn't want that. but there are other fact checks that don't stand up. so the president about the report in the lancet medical journal in december 2019. in fact the lancet said today that wasn't december 2019, that was january 2020. very different, looking back at december. very, very different. the president also questioned the leading world health organization's praise for china's transparency. of course, president trump himself praised china's transparency earlier this year. people will pick holes in this letter. they're going to notice while president trump could have given an address to the assembly, he didn't. he could have made all of these

points. brought all of this criticism home to a world audience. the issue really is, andrea, what you see, rightly or wrongly, substantially or not, you see china making proposals, making offers to see america just criticizing. i think optics of that are worrying many, many allies of america around the world. >> as you correctly point out, it's a failure of american leadership and just in terms of the sheer politics of it, if he had gone and done a virtual address the way president xi of china did, and if they had properly fact-checked his criticisms in the letter, he would have been much more persuasive to the rest of the world. >> exactly. it's really not about whether you agree with the president or not, whether you agree with america's stance. after all, there are many, many good questions to ask of the chinese communist party. it's about whether america is taking the opportunity on this world stage to make its points. one other point. yesterday, andrea, we didn't know that president xi was going to speak until just hours before. the chinese kind of sprung it on

people and in a way, i think sprung it on washington and it's just another example of where many people think china diplomatically is outmaneuvering america and allies of america really are worried by that. >> keir simmons, fascinating. thank you so much. great to see you. and meanwhile, asian communities like taiwan and hong kong are restarting after they appear to have contained the spread of the coronavirus. the number of daily new cases slowing to a trickle in the last few weeks. how do they do it? strict precautions are in place as tessa arcilla saw firsthand. she is a hong kong resident smeep was allowed to travel back home from amsterdam over the weekend but had to follow rigid procedures when she arrived. here's her video diary. >> we've just landed in hong kong. before we got off the plane we had to fill out this form from the department of health. it talks about the compulsory quarantine we all have to under go. it also tells us about the location device, the tracking

device the government will be giving us to make sure we don't violate the conditions of the quarantine. so i now have a bracelet that was attached to me. this is going to be my tracker for the next 14 days. hong kong has only been allowing residents to enter the city. foreigners or nonresidents have been denied entry since the end of march. so i've just been told to fill out three different forms. now we're on the bus and being shuttled off to get our tests done. >> staff in pull ppe brief us and tell us how we are supposed to give a specimen. so i've just given saliva sample in the other room. and we were taken to this room where just on chairs and seated apart. i asked how long this would take. they told me could take up to eight hours of waiting. so they've given us some water

and here goes my eight-hour wait. so i got my results. it's negative, but i have to do a test again on the 28th of may. so we all have to do a second test just to make sure that it's hopefully still negative. >> and joining me is nbc's tessa arcilla who is quarantining in her hong kong apartment for 14 days as required. tell us about your experience. how is it going so far? >> well, andrea, first of all, it's been a really surreal experience from the moment i landed. after an 11-hour flight and going through that eight-hour process. and also, having this attached to me because the first thing we do once we get home is we have to turn on that app. first of all, they want to make sure that your phone is really the phone you're using. they call that number in front of you at the airport so when you get home you have to activate the app and i have to walk around this flat to make sure it establishes my perimeter and then i can start my

quarantine. so they know how big this place is. and the very next day, the government did give me a call right away asking if i felt okay, if i had any symptoms to report and if i was really home. so all of this being a very surreal experience, really, and they don't want a false negative. we had that take-home test and we have to submit that saliva swab again in a week's time to make sure there are no false negatives. if i would have been positive, they would have sent me to a hospital. so now i'm at home, day two right now of that quarantine. and this, having to take this in the shower, this is a very, again, very surreal experience. what's interesting is a lot of the people i talked to at the airport, and we're talking about privacy issues and how uncomfortable being tracked is, and this is a different conversation i've had in different parts of the world trying to look into apps for tracking and tracing. the people said if it makes me feel safe and makes others feel

safe, they said they really don't mind having this device. right now this is the way the hong kong government goes. only four deaths so far. they want to keep the strict measures in place entering this city. >> tesa arcilla, thanks so much. this is taking contact tracing to a whole new level. finally, i want to share a sad passing. a remarkable woman. annie glenn. a shy military wife who bravely overcame her affliction with stuttering when her husband, john glenn, became one of the first astronauts in 1962. instant national hero celebrated across the country. even before john glenn became the first american to orbit the earth. annie glenn met john glenn as toddlers practically sharing the same playpen in their small town in ohio. they were married and had two children. after his celebrated nasa career he came to washington where john glenn became a senator. he ran unsuccessfully for president and stayed in the senate. he then returned to space at the age of 77 to help test the

effect of weightlessness on the elderly and became a leading voice for children and for the disabled. in 2017, sadly, she laid her husband to rest in arlington national cemetery in the driving rain on what would have been their 74th wedding anniversary. on a personal note, i got to know annie glenn here in washington. we shared football games, anniversary dinners with her and her husband. annie glenn was smart, loving, engaging. she was truly a wonderful, wonderful woman. remarkable woman. she died in a nursing home near her family. she was 100 years old. she succumbed to covid. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember to follow us online, on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. chuck todd and katy tur pick up our coverage after this break.

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good afternoon. i'm chuck todd. here are the facts as we know them this hour. it is day two of the world health organization's virtual world assembly. the u.s. supported an audit of the response to this pandemic, but criticized a provision that would allow multiple companies, not just the patent holder, to produce a vaccine. last hour, new york governor andrew cuomo proposed a new law requiring companies that receive a government bailout to rehire the same number of employees they