with us. on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night from our temporary field headquarters. ♪ amid criticism from health experts, president trump is defending his use of an unproven drug to prevent the coronavirus. and dismissing warnings from the fda. also new reporting that the trump administration is recruiting doctors to go on television and promote a speedy restart of america's economy. and the cdc lays out its detailed guidance for reopening the country weeks after many states have already begun doing so. good wednesday morning, everybody. it is may 20th.

and i'm yasmin vossoughian. we have a lot to cover this morning. we want to begin with the president. ratcheting up his own defense as health experts criticize his use of hydroxychloroquine, anti-malaria drug as a preventive measure against the coronavirus. speaking to reporters just yesterday, the president defended his decision to take a daily dose. when asked about the fda's warning about possible life-threatening side effects, the president criticized a study of veterans hospitalized in the united states and claimed without evidence that the study was both false and phony. >> hydroxychloroquine is used by thousands and thousands of front line workers so that hopefully they don't catch this horrible disease. or whatever you want to call it. it is a terrible virus. it's a terrible thing. and a lot of people are taking it. a lot of doctors are taking it.

a lot of people swear by is it. one thing that is true, whether you like it or not, it's been around for 70 year, unbelievably effective for malaria and for lupus, and probably effective for arthritis. and what has been determined it doesn't harm you. very powerful drug, i guess, but it doesn't harm you. i have a doctor in the white house, i said what do you think? it's just a line of defense, i'm talking as a line of defense. i'm dealing with a lot of people. look at all of the people in the room. i'm the president and i think i'm dealing with a lot of people. i will on a line of defense. >> fda has said that hydroxychloroquine should not be used outside of a hospital study -- >> no, that's not what i was -- there was a false study done, where they gave it to very sick people, extremely sick people.

people ready to die. it was given by obviously not friends of the administration. and the study came out. the people were ready to die. everybody was old, had bad problems with hearts, diabetes and everything else you can imagine. so they gave it. immediately, when it came out, they gave a lot of false information. >> i just want to be clear the president is saying definitively it cannot harm you. most doctors that i spoke to on our air and i personally have spoke to you that can develop a fatal heart arrhythmia by using hydroxychloroquine. important to note against taking hydroxychloroquine outside of a hospital setting, the fda put out a statement appearing so soften its stance. saying in part, the decision to take any drug is ultimately a decision between a patient and their doctor. hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are already proven to treat malaria.

there's no secret that the united states is leading the world in coronavirus cases by a lot. the u.s. is just over 4% of the world population but represents 31% of total cases worldwide. yesterday, the president put a new spin on that dubious distinction. watch this. >> when we have a lot of case, s i don't look at that as a bad thing. i think look at that in a certain respect as a good thing because it means our testing is much better. so if we were testing a million people, instead of 14 million people we would have far few cases, right? so, i view it as a badge of honor. really, it's a badge of honor. it's a great tribute to all of the testing and a lot of the work that a lot of professionals have done. >> almost 100,000 people, by the way, have died of the coronavirus in this country so far. just over the last ten weeks or so. so the centers for disease control has released its detailed road map for reopening

american institutions after initially being shelved by the white house which said the guidelines were overly specific. the 60-page document is now posted to the cdc website, weeks after states began opening on their own terms. according to "the washington post," the cdc cautioned that some institutions should stay closed for now. and said that reopening should be guided by coronavirus transmission rates. for schools, the cdc recommended a wrath of social distancing policies, as well as cloth masks for staff. and daily temperature screenings for everybody. it also advised that buses leave every row empty, bars add sneeze guards and child care centers limit sharing of art supplies. let's get into this white house reporter for politico daniel lipmann. daniel, thank you for getting up with us. you've got all 50 states now

lifting coronavirus restrictions. and a new task force could be on the horizon, then you have the release of the new cdc guidelines that should have been released earlier as we know at this point. it's a shouldrter version, this a 60-page document. the guidelines were not as strong as originally. how do you think these statements will help guide states moving forward? >> i think businesses of all shapes and sizes are going to be looking at those documents and trying to find lessons that they can learn to protect their customers. protect their employees. even if it's late, there are still useful lessons in that. in the earlier cdc release a week or so ago didn't have any guidance for places of worship because of the trump administration blowback, they

don't want to be seen as telling churches what to do. and i think, in terms of the surge of cases, that's always a concern from epidemiologists and disease control experts. but i should note that we haven't seen any surge just yet from too many states that have reopened. everyone had worried about georgia, you know. but so far, they seem to have contained any new outbreaks. and i think it's just a reminder to increase contact tracing, increase testing, because many states have faced so much pressure to reopen from their residents and from employers and businesses that they're not following the white house guidelines where you have to wait 14 days of declining cases. they're opening up quicker. >> yeah, an increased preparedness, when and if the surge actually does happen as has been reported will happen again, undeniably so in the

fall. let's talk hydroxychloroquine for a moment, daniel. because this story isn't going away, right? the president continuing to take this drug, hydroxychloroquine. continuing to make false claims about this drug saying it cannot definitively harm you. as we well know, that is is not the case. every doctor that i've spoken, to i'm sure that you've spoken to have said on this air that you can develop a fatal heart arrhythmia. you need to be monitored taking this drug. he's denying that warning against the coronavirus. i can't help but ask you what reactions are you getting from washington, from inside, with the president continuing to push the drug? >> i think there is a recognition this might be kind of a smoke screen where he blurted his out pretty quickly after there was news how pompeo had ump urged him to fire that

secretary-general investigating the secretary of state. so, one could draw lines between those two things that he wanted to distract the media. and we even saw vice president pence say i'm not taking that drug yesterday. i think even if you don't like the president and there are concerns about his health, and whether, you know, he's basically so powerful that his own doctor is letting him go along with it. and, you know, this is not something that people should take at home unless their doctor really urges them to. and ri don't most doctors want people to take it as a preventive thing. it's something if you're in the hospital that they will consider to try to get you out of intensive care, you know, as part of a cocktail of drugs to do that. but for someone who shows no symptoms, that's not the type of person that this drug is meant for. >> all right. daniel lipmann, stay close.

i will talk to you again in just a little bit. still ahead, everybody, attorneys for michael flynn ask an appeals court to grant the justice department's request to dismiss his criminal case. plus, president trump is scheduled to tour a ventilator factory today. the big question, will he wear a mask? those stories and then, of course, a check of your weather when we come back. i didn't have to shout out for help.

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welcome back, everybody. and yet another unexpected move in the case of former national security adviser michael flynn. his attorneys asked a federal appeals court yesterday to order the presiding district court judge to dismiss the charges against their client. judge evan sullivan ordered john

gleason. and sullivan wants gleason to explore whether perjury charges are warranted, flynn's attorneys also seek to be reassigned to a different district court judge, arguing sullivan has abused his power. they wright, the district court has no authority to adopt the role of prosecutor or change the issues in the case by inviting or appointing a representative to perform an investigation or prosecution as the court deems appropriate. joining me msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, good to see you this morning. >> good morning. good to see you, too. >> i don't think that flynn's attorneys are going to sit

politely and let outside judges argue that their client should be let go. here they are doing something. legally, accoucan the appeals c tell judge sullivan to dismiss the charges? >> even though this is at an appeals court this is not an appeal. this is called a writ of mandamus. it's an extraordinary action telling a lower court it's not doing what it's supposed to do and to follow the rules. so, these are almost never granted, and they're very rarely ever filed. if you're just playing the odds, flynn is not likely to win. this is a very well reasoned arguments, that the district court, judge sullivan did not argue the rules in an amicus, or a friend of the court to get resolved. the judge saying, look, it's allowed in the civil rules but

not the commit rules. that's kind of a stretch of the civil rules to begin with. and most interestlying, earlier in the case, the court denied a friend from intervening and what i can read from the document it appeared to be some citizen who argueded a case. >> so if appealing to this appeals court goes nowhere at this point, danny, where does that leave michael flynn, is he just awaiting what happens with sullivan inside the court? >> yeah, that's the change string. because if judge sullivan who is likely to probably heallikely tt the case go away, but how do you you force the government to prosecute a case it doesn't want to prosecute? >> how do you? that is the big question.

>> it's a bit of an existential crisis, right. >> yes, thank you, as always, danny. good to see you. still ahead, everybody, after weeks of lockdown, italy is opening more and more of what they also saw a spike in coronavirus yesterday. we'll go live to rome for the very latest. we'll be right back. new sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. or is it? what if business as usual means putting people first... and understanding their needs? if that's your business.

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welcome back, everybody. italy is emerging from its ten-week lockdown with shops, bars, restaurants and churches reopening this week. italy's prime minister announcing the new measures over the weekend, and stressing avoiding further damage to the economy saying, quote, this, we can wait for a vaccine but we cannot afford. but as the country reopens, italy recorded a spike in new cases yesterday with deaths increasing to 162. compared to 99 the day before. and new cases rising sharply to

813 from 451 just on monday. joining me now from rome nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley for us. matt, good morning to you on this wednesday morning. gosh, those numbers are troubling, matt. what are residents there saying about striking the balance as they're beginning to reopen that country more and more. and yet, now seeing this spike and this rise in these numbers over the last day or so? >> reporter: yeah, yasmin, it's a very good question, but the fact of the matter here the discussion here in italy about weighing the economics versus the biology or the medical discussion, that's a very similar conversation than the one going on in the u.s. but we have to remember we simply cannot hang analysis on one day or two days' results. those numbers are going to fluctuate. especially the death rate. whether or not somebody dies on a monday or tuesday, not to make light of that in any way, that's more about the fitness of that

individual person and less about the policymaking surrounding whether or not to open up the economy. those numbers that you mentioned, those are actually down considerably from what they were a couple weeks ago. so, yes, they do spike. we do see massive numbers day do day. remember, when it comes to the economy, the discussion here is different. italy was already considered a sick man before the crisis. it was a heavily in debt country and now they're going to be suffering more economically, yasmin. >> yeah, you're right, with regards to numbers as you and i were talking about numbers a few weeks ago we were talking about numbers in the thousands down significantly now. obviously as states across the country begin to reopen, we will be looking to italy to see how they're doing, right, amidst all of this. so, talk us through, matt, here some of the benchmarks that they need to see in order to further lift lockdown measures there?

>> reporter: yeah, yasmin, good question because, of course, it's less about the numbers and more about preparation for if those numbers suddenly start to spike up. the issue is going to be important the health care is prepared. whether or not they have tracking in place, and the government assures them that they do. and these people want to leave their homes. that's the balance. so there's just no more patience for any lockdown here. this is the western world's longest lockdown. people here are willing to take that risk. it's a biology experiment in action. yasmin. >> our nbc's matt bradley for us. thank you, matt, great to see you. i want to switch gears and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning, bill. >> good morning, yasmin. the least thing we need is a natural disaster, we have one unfolded in michigan right now. in the middle of a pandemic, 10,000 people were told to evacuate. and here's why.

we had a dam collapse. not just one, two dams have collapsed. this is the edenville dam, you can see all of that water rushing downstream through the city of midland. midland has 40,000 residents. that's where a lot of people were evacuated from. there is water in homes. it's expected to go four feet above the highest level ever measured on that river. just a catastrophe in central parts of michigan. now, let's go to the map, we have river flooding in many areas of the ohio valley. we've had a lot of heavy rain in recent days. now, we're going to shift the threat from areas from michigan, indiana and ohio, down into north carolina, south carolina and virginia. this pesky storm is drenching areas. it's going to sit here for the next two days. 10 million people are under flash flood watches. that includes areas from

kentucky to south carolina. greensville to boone to asheville to charlotte, north carolina that's where it's going to hit the hardest. we're expecting the next two or three days, 8 to 10 inches of rainfall. and if that happens in the mountains of the appalachians that's going to cause flash flooding, and possibility of deadly flash flooding. a few spots will hit 100 today, yasmin. and we're still holding on to pretty spring weather in the northeast. imagine, 10,000 people told to go to friends and relatives and not to the shelters. imagine that. >> not necessarily you want to deal with during a pandemic. thank you, bill. still ahead, everybody. the back and forth between president trump and speaker pelosi escalating on the heels of trump's admissions that he's been taking hydroxychloroquine. we're going to show you their new comments. also, the new reporting that president trump and his allies are trying to line up doctors to

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we're going to begin this half hour as the feud between president trump and house speaker nancy pelosi continues to escalate. with new jabs from trump after pelosi criticized him for taking the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure for covid-19. when reporters on capitol hill asked about these comment, trump initially dismissed it, but then hit back at pelosi.

>> oh, i don't respond to her. i think she's a waste of time. pelosi is a sickwoman. she's got a lot of problems, a lot of mental problems. we're dealing with people that have to get their act together for the good of the country. >> shortly after house speaker pelosi defended her remarks on msnbc. >> did you know it would elicit this kind of reaction from the president? >> no, i had no idea. i didn't know he would be so sensitive. he's always talk about everybody's weight, their pounds. i don't even want to spend any more time on his distraction. >> all right. so president trump is expected to visit a ford factory tomorrow where ventilators are being made. cnbc reporting the company told the white house that the president and his aides will have to wear masks. donald trump has so far shunned wearing a mask. and any protective gear. we've seen him in goggles at

some points. that would other protect others there his vicinity. here's what he said when asked about it. >> i don't know. i haven't even thought of it. it depends in certain areas, i would. in certain areas i don't. but i will certainly look at it. it depends on what situation. if it's appropriate, i would do it, certainly. >> so, ford has said its policy is that everybody wears ppe to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. the company says it has shared that policy with the white house. but says the white house will make its own determination. a trump campaign official is confirming to nbc news that republican operatives are recruiting, quote, pro-trump doctors to publicly back the president's push to reopen the country and revive the economy. the communications director for the trump campaign telling nbc news this, anybody who joins one of our coalitions is vetted. so, quite obviously, all of our

coalitions espouse policies and say things that are exactly simpatico with what the president believes. the president has been outspoken about the fact that he wants to get the country back open as soon as possible. he declined to say when the initiative would start. the story was first reported by the associated press which said that the plan to recruit doctors favorable to the president's message to go on transition, to prescribe reviving the u.s. economy as quickly as possible without meeting to set the benchmarks set by the cdc was set by an may 11th conference call. organized by an affiliate of the gop-aligned council for national policy. a recording of the call was leaked and reportedly featured an activist who said she gave the campaign a list of 27 doctors prepared to defend trump's reopening. nbc news has not verified this

recording yet. joining me once again, reporter for politico, daniel lipmann. this story is incredible, daniel. trying to recruit doctors try to push the president's agenda amidst this pandemic. what are you hearing about this story? what more are you hearing about this initiative? are they successful, have they been successful, in recruiting physicians to do this? >> well, touting thousands of doctors out there including doctors who are trump supporters. of course, you can find some doctors willing to lend themselves to this effort and help the white house. i think the broader question is why isn't the white house more focused on increasing testing and contact tracing and other measures that will help them in the end that will ensure there are fewer secondary outbreaks. and that we don't have to shut

down, you know, new states again or cities, that will help the economy. and the president's re-election. the fact that there are those efforts going on isn't a huge shock. but it's also kind of a reminder, you know, some of the priorities that this white house has. >> right. versus expending their energy to help better prepare the country for yet another outbreak that may be on the horizon. you've been doing some reporting, daniel, on the trump administration's $354 million contract with a new company to produce drug ingredients and generic medicines here in the united states. walk us through this. >> yes. so, they are -- we were caught flat-footed in terms we didn't always have the drugs necessary. and some of the drugs that are important for coronavirus patients and others. they are made in other countries, and so we don't have the domestic manufacturing

capabilities. so peter navarro, trump's trade adviser, he's made this a real push. and this contract, you know, that we wrote about yesterday, it's going to a company that doesn't actually have the proven ability to make drugs on a widespread scale. the ceo of the company has also been in hot water before, you know, for an anti-allergy injector that went awry. and also for a drug that increased its prices drastically, you know, an anti-opioid, you know, overdose. and so, this is something that is a concern. and we're going to have to keep track of whether this company is actually able to live up to its promises. creating about 300 jobs in, you know, rural virginia. and this is something that, you know, the trump administration

is touting as a success. but you always have to keep an eye out later to make sure it actually is followed through. >> just quickly here, daniel, any idea as to why they would award such a huge major contract to a company that doesn't necessarily have the capacity to produce what they want? >> well, they've been getting submissions in from various companies. so this is not going to be the only company. but they are really desperate to make sure that we don't have drug shortages here in this country. >> i trust you're going to stay on this story. appreciate you joining us, daniel, as always. good to see you, my friend. >> the department of defense is preparing to battle covid-19 without an effective vaccine until at least next summer. that is according to a draft pentagon memo obtained by task and purpose. the letter offered for mark esper but not bearing his signature, reason, part this.

we have a long path ahead with the real possibility of a resumpence of covid-19. therefore, we must now refocus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of covid-19 occur later this year. now, despite its grim forecast, the draft document lays out a framework for the u.s. military's proverbial opening, which includes a resumption of training exercises increased operational tempo and repositioning and forces to fight the global pandemic. a pentagon official said the document was outdated but declined to provide more specifics. still ahead, everybody, if you've had the coronavirus and recovered, can you get it again or give it to others? a new study out of south korea indicates the answers to those questions. and your "first look" at "morning joe" is back in a moment. - [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi grill.

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mr. president, why haven't you announced a plan to get 36 million unemployed americans back to work? you're overseeing historic economic despair. what's your plan? >> oh, i think we've announced a plan. we're opening up our country -- just a rude person you are -- we're opening up our country and we're opening it up very fast. the plan is each state is opening and it's opening it up very effectively. and when you see the numbers i think even you will be impressed which is pretty hard to impress you. yeah, go ahead, please. >> a very fair and valid question being asked there by a cbs reporter paula reid. the president said you can see reaction there yesterday after being asked why the administration has not announced a comprehensive plan. a question a lot of americans are asking right about now.

while americans are weighing the risk of returning to work. research out of south korea, one of the country's most successful in fighting this virus, shedding light on the question of immunity. nbc correspondent tom costello has more on this. >> reporter: preliminary findings from the south korean centers for disease control suggest that patients who recovered from the co-vvid-19 a then tested again were not spreading the virus. those virus traces appear to be dead, not alive. could it be an indication of immunity? >> i think it's a little too soon to take that and say that we know for sure that people have immunity. but we have seen that people do mount a pretty good immune response to this. and we haven't yet seen reinfection. i think taken together, that is encouraging. >> reporter: in south korea, the findings have convinced health

experts to loosen some restrictions. nbc's kelly cobiella is in seoul. >> reporter: they're greeting this with optimism, meaning that officials would no longer require covid patients who tested negative to quarantine. and that means children are back to school for the first time in weeks. >> reporter: earlier testing announced 1 in 5 new yorkers has antibodies for covid-19 but many never knew they were sick. having the antibodies does not guarantee the immunity. but this report from south korea is further evidence that people who have had the disease and recovered and may have the antibodies could be able to return to work without fear of spreading the virus to others. yasmin. >> all right. our thanks to nbc's tom costello for that report. we want to bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins once again. and i'll stick to the words that the physician used in that piece with tom costello which is it is

encouraging news, to say the least, at least to say we've been through this major thing we've been through, losing over 90,000 lives in this country, is there something to gain that maybe some of the people who have become infected with covid-19 are now immune? we'll have to see what happens there, but it is encouraging, bill, to say the least. >> yes, very encouraging. the curve is not as encouraging, it's slowly getting a little better. let's get into the numbers here. can you believe it's memorial day weekend coming up, right now, we're sitting over 93,000 fatalities and we're on pace to hitting 100,000 around memorial day. yesterday, we had 1502. that's a big number. tuesday and wednesday tend to be our highest number of cases and fatalities that are reported. yesterday, 20,000 new cases that was also the lowest since the end of march. here's something that is a little different, for the first

time since this has begun, california is actually the state that reported the most new cases. you say, oh, wow, that's big news. have to remember, california has easily the most people per state in our country. that number per capita is not quite as alarming. we're still watching the flood thread in south carolina. and a few storms in the middle of the country. and some of those showers linger in the mid-atlantic and storms around texas. by the time we get into the sunday forecast, still dealing with wet conditions in the middle of the country. looks like a really nice sunday and really nice memorial day for much of the east coast. unfortunately sunday for memorial day flood threats into the deep south. yasmin, i didn't even realize it was memorial day weekend until i sat there and had to figure out the forecast, let alone that it's wednesday. >> it's funny, when you said that on air, i thought to myself

it is? i had to look at my phone to fact-check you. yes, in fact, it is memorial day weekend. still ahead, we're going to live to cnbc for an early look at wall street. as we go to break, 100-year-old world war ii tom moore who raised money for the national health service by traversing lengths in his backyard will be knighted for his efforts. the award recommendeded by british prime minister boris johnson and approved by the queen, cams to moore who rose to the rank of captain during his military career. was promoted to honorary colonel. his official title will be sir captain thomas moore under ministry defense protocol. we're back in a moment.

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welcome back, everybody. treasury secretary steven

mnuchin and fed reserve chair jerome powell provided their outlooks yesterday. cnbc's julianna tatelbaum is joining us live from london. julianna, good morning to you, the two the fed and treasury wig to take major losses and will mnuchin distribute that 500 billion that was committed to help small businesses revive after and during the pandemic? >> well, it's really interesting to listen to the testimony yesterday before the senate banking committee. both secretary mnuchin and fed chair jerome powell defended the government's $3 trillion stimulus, a package to fight the economic fallout here. but they did give contrasting forecasts when it comes to the economic outlook. here, jerome powell struck the more cautious tone, ib set offing the fed kwould adjust th terms of its lending. he also indicated how tough it's been to get money to main street because the federal reserve has

been facing criticism around helping wall street but not so much main street. meanwhile, steve mnuchin warned that the u.s. economy faces permanent damming if age if it closed for too long. and in terms of the economic impact of this, the congressional budget office has come out saying they expect the u.s. economy to contract 38% on an annualized basis in the second quarter. so massive pullback. this comes with almost 26 million more americans unemployed now compared to the end of last year. and all of this spending coming from the pressurery meatreasury deficit will balloon in 2020. they do see the recovery in the second half of the year but some of the damage will be lasting. and finally a corporate story, johnson and johnson has been in the news.

they plan to stop selling baby powder in the u.s. and canada. you know they face thousands of lawsuits from consumers who claim that their talc based products cause cancer. they have consistently defended their products and the safety of their products. but they will discontinue sales. they will run down their inventory but no more after that. >> thank you, julianna. great to see you this morning. coming up next, a look at axios' one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," while the president defends the use of hydroxychloroquine as a preventive for the coronavirus, we're going to speak to several health experts about the unproven drug and where the country stands as states continue with plans to reopen. also, an analysis of the deteriorating relationship with china. "morning joe" is moments away. china. "morning joe" is moments away. d, but what i do count on... is boost high protein...

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joining me now with a look at axios am, axios market editor dion. you had your own experience last weekend which you took area twitter followers through. talk us through it. >> yeah. well, today's one big thing is airlines pack in customers like there's no coronavirus. and this was inspired by something i went through myself on an american airlines flight. i was told that they were only selling the airlines or the airplanes to half capacity. i got on board the flight and it was clearly about full capacity. so i tweeted it out, followed up with a couple other tweets, and then started getting a number of responses from some of my followers from just some folks out there on twitter who had seen it saying you know what? i've had the same experience. a friend of mine has had this same experience. other people i know have had this experience. and it just went from there. and i kind of wanted to dig in

and find out, okay, why is this happening in the time when i'm going to grocery stores or if i'm going out anywhere, you're seeing all these signs and regulations about the number of people allowed in a business. why isn't it on an airplane that we're being packed in just about every seat is occupied? >> so did american airlines get back to you at all from these tweets? >> they did, yeah. they were very responsive. they got back to me. they asked me to dm them. i did that and we actually exchanged messages. we exchanged a few emails after that as well. they said basically their policy is to try not to, you know, fill these planes to capacity, but sometimes they do. their policy is basically we're going to try not to sell 50% of the middle seats on the plane and try not to sell seats near jump seats. but, you know, we reserve the right to do that. and what's happened is airlines have drastically cut back on the

number of planes that they're flying, laid off a lot of the pilots and just kind of put the planes out to pasture. and as a result, as airline demand is picking back up, it's meeting the supply which has comedown drastically of about 80% to 90% depending on the airlines, and they're just kind of filling these flights to full capacity sometimes. as we've seen with american airlines, united, et cetera. delta actually does have in place a hard cap of what they say is 50% capacity reducing -- i'm sorry, 60% capacity in the main cabin, 50% in first class, and not selling out those middle seats. but other airlines it's just kind of a suggestion or if we can do it this is what we'd like to do. >> it's interesting because trying doesn't seem like it's good enough, right, in the age of the pandemic when american airlines gets back to you and says we'll try to do this but you're thinking about your own health when you're flying these airlines. is there any possibility from what you're hearing that airlines could change their

policies, american airlines, for instance, institute more strict policies if, in fact, passengers demand it? >> there absolutely is. i spoke to the department of transportation. spokesperson there told me the airlines have all the latitude they want. if they want to add more flights, add more routes, add more destinations they can do that. this is happening because the airlines have canceled a number of routes and destinations and they're packing everybody in. they could offset some of the demand by readding those flig s demand re-adding those flights. there alis some proposed legislation to get the faa involved here and forts airlines to put in mandatory restrictions on the seats they can sell to not have packed planes and diseased people caring the virus going from place to place and infecting other passengers. we know from our study of sars

that coronaviruses can be transmitted very easily between passengers on airplanes, so it's definitely something that i think will get some attention. >> all right. thank you. good to see you this morning. i will be reading axios am in just a little bit. you too can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. mr. president, why haven't you announced a plan to get 36 million unemployed americans back to work? you're overseeing historic economic despair. what's the delay zm what's the plan? >> i think we've announced a plan. we're opening up our country. just a rude person you. we're opening up our country. we're opening it up very fast. the plan is that each state is opening and it's opening up very effectively. and when you see the numbers, i think even you will be impressed, which is pretty hard tomorrow press you. yeah, go ahead, please. >> a lot of these jobs --