strong public schools make a better california for all of us. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, continuing our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. here are the facts at this hour. president trump heads to michigan this hour where he will tour a ford plant making personal equipment and ventilators. the big question is whether i will follow state policy and wear a mask. the visit comes as the administration puts cdc guidance to reopen houses worship on hold, calling the safety measures the cdc advised overly

bureaucratic. new jobless claims today are highlighting the ongoing economic pain across america. another 2.4 million people filing for unemployment benefits last week. and this morning the tsa released new guide lines for passengers, including passengers scanning their own boarding passes and placing smaller bags in bins and carrying 12-ounce container of hand sanitizer in their carry-on bag. joining me now, white house reporter kristen welker, white house reporter ashley parter and the co-host of "making the call" podcast. kristen, let's talk about the president. he's expected to leave within the next half hour or so. he's already gone up against gretchen whitmer, governor of michigan. he's gone up against the secretary of state.

he inaccurately tweeted against their bail-in balloting to michiganders. let's talk about whether or not he will wear a mask. >> andrea, he will be visiting a ford manufacturing plant that is now making ventilators. they require people who visit, everyone there wears a mask. the president was asked about this. he said he'll have to see. so we wait and see if he's made a determination about that yet. the white house said he's tested every day, so that has factored into this decision. we have not seen him wear a mask publicly yet, andrea, so it would be a first if he does. he travels to michigan against the backdrop of those tensions you laid out with the state's democratic governor. michigan is dealing not only with the pandemic and those floods that displaced some 10,000 people. the president threatening to withhold aid to the state.

if he says they carry out their vote-by-mail initiative, he's trying to make the case there are higher instances of fraud if you vote by mail. the fact checkers, let me just read you a few of them, andrea. mail ballot fraud is incredibly rare. fact check.org says election experts have said that fraud vine via mail-in ballots are more common in person but still rare. this is something if you talk to the fact checkers doesn't hold whi whole lot of merit but it stems up the president's base and we are heading into an election year. so he visits michigan, a battleground state, with that top in mind. this will be his third trip to a battleground state within three weeks. he's set to depart shortly. it will be a chance for reporters to ask questions about all of that as well as the latest in the coronavirus response, andrea. >> and the politics ever

michigan, battleground state the president won by barely 10,000 or so votes, such an important state. a popular democratic governor who's been protested against by a small minority but very, very vocal minority and the floods michigan is going through and the threat to withhold money from michigan as well, that he then backed down from. >> that's right. it's a critical battleground state and it's one trump's advisers are increasingly nervous about him being able to hold. in part because former vice president joe biden is quite popular there. i believe that's where he beat senator bernie sanders in the primary and in every single county. it's a place where there's a real contrast between the president's message and joe biden's message on trade. the president is hoping his message on trade can resonate in michigan. his attacks we saw about a week ago on joe biden in china, and

it's a state where joe biden thinks his connection with union voters, blue dot democrats who some of them flipped for trump last time, where he can bring them back into the fold in the democratic party. so it's an absolutely critical state. and the final thing as you mentioned, the backdrop is the president's animus with the governor of michigan, it's one of the states he's very pubically and repeatedly attacked, criticized. there seems to be some actual policy and directional differences but it also seems to be driven very much by a personal animus against the governor as well. >> a governor who is high up on a potential list to become the vice presidential running mate of the apparent nominee joe biden. that could be part of it as well. dr. zeke emanuel, i don't want to get you into politics. let's talk about dr. fauci though, who has to "the washington post" discussed his concerns about the branding of the vaccine initiative from the

white house as operation warped speed. he told "the washington post," people don't understand that because when they hear operation warp speed, they think oh, my god, they're jumping over all of these steps and they're going to put us at risk. but also potentially they might also think this is going to happen any time real soon, as the president is talking about a vaccine by the end of the year, which is wildly optimistic, despite some positive signs from some of the developers. what say you? >> yeah. well, we have gotten positive signs and i think the most positive indication we've had this week is that it does look like a vaccine is possible in principle. there was a question whether or not we might be able to get a vaccine that was effective in raising antibodies against the coronavirus because it's been hard to raise or develop a vaccine against previous coronaviruses, but this does -- the new results both in humans and in animals seems to allay that fear and seems like we can at least in theory get a vaccine. now it's important to show in

practice we can have a vaccine and it can actually protect people from coronavirus that's still away. and wharp speed, i think dr. fauci is worried that people, especially the anti-vaxer movement, who already latched onto this phrase as a negative, worry there won't be enough safety testing, there won't be enough evidence of efficacy and people will be put at risk. and it's very important that scientists do demonstrate that this vaccine, whatever vaccine we use -- and probably going to be plural -- are actually safe in thousands of people and that they closely monitor the safety as we roll it out to hundreds of thousands of millions of people! remember, we're going to be giving a vaccine to otherwise healthy people, so you really do have to have a very low rate of side effects. and i think that's really what's motivating dr. fauci. you don't want to feed into the false narrative that vaccines

are dangerous to people, and that there might be more harm than benefit from vaccines. unfortunately, that sort of captures too large a group in the united states. and this play be especially true when we have to administer this kind of vaccine in a new way that you're not necessarily going to go to the doctor's office or cvs or some other place to get the vaccine. so i do think he's being particularly careful. >> that's an important clarification, thank you for that. because we are seeing a big rise in the anti-vax movement at least online. he's probably tracking that as well. i also want to ask you about this columbia university model released today, "the new york times" reporting columbia university public health experts saying that 36,000 lives could have been saved if safety guidelines could have been instituted two weeks earlier than they were. >> yes.

epidemiologists have been saying this for several months now, that the earlier you intervene, the lower the peak would have been and flattening, and we've had various models that have suggested this. i think what's new about the columbia model is this sort of precision of 36,000 for one week and maybe 80% of the deaths had stay-at-home physical distancing and other measures been instituted two weeks before. it does indicate not doing this earlier, the president not taking the advice of peter navarro, the public health individuals, the intelligence community and actually being more aggressive in issuing orders for stay at home and physical distancing probably caused tens of thousands of lives in the united states. i do note he's going to michigan, and this issue of wearing a face mask is a big problem. the president should wear a face mask.

he should do what his own advisers, his cdc says is important. we're now getting increasing evidence that face masks are beneficial in terms of reducing the spread, especially if you're in an enclosed space, where most of the transmission is happening. going outside, there's not that much transmission but indoors is where the transmission is happening and i have noted that neither he nor pence have worn these at many gatherings that are public. vice president pence didn't wear a face mask at the space council meeting earlier. i think they have to begin modeling good behavior for americans americans. if we're going to open up economies, we have to have people regularly wearing face masks. in hong kong, 99% of the people wear face masks. that's not the only difference between hong kong and new york where there's dramatically different results. but it is one of the more important differences.

if we're going to open up businesses, we're going to open up summer camps, other parks, face mask wearing has to become the norm for 99% of the population. >> dr. zeke emanuel, thank you so much. thanks, ashley parker. thank you kristen welker. we will all be watching for the president's departure and anything he might say about all of this. and speaking about michigan and his trip and as to whether or not he will wear a face mask, we should also point out the vice president in florida yesterday was at the coke machine with governor desantis not wearing a face mask. he was surrounded by people. joining us now, michigan's attorney general joining me ahead of president trump's arrival in her state. to the ford plant. thank you very much. let's talk about the letter you've written to president trump asking him to comply with the state orders as well as that plant's order to wear a mask today. have you gotten any response or have you gotten any indication from the white house as to what

he's going to do? >> the last i heard about it is that he was taking the matter under advisement, as we say in the legal community. he had not committed to following our state law or following the counsel of ford. he was asked specifically to wear a mask while he's touring the facility. i guess it's anybody's guess as to what he will do today. why has this become almost a political issue? it's a safety issue, and you can choose or not choose to follow those guidances, that guidance. but it seems in some areas this has become a red/blue issue or some people falsely claiming it's a matter of their rights as an american not to. we have seen protesters in michigan. some of them armed. is that have gone up against the governor. how has this evolved?

is it political or just a divide in america? >> i don't think it would be a divide if we had praise who would be willing to do the right thing. and i think protesters are taking their qs from the president. when he refuses to wear a mask, even though dr. fauci indicated that is best practices, and i must say in terms of our manufacturing plants like the one he's touring today, these are lengthy discussions that were had between our automakers, uaw and governor. they're the ones that decided best practices were in order to properly protect all of the people that work at manufacturing facilities, is simply to wear a mask. it's painless, it's easy to do. but we know that it offers so much protection. but every time that you have the president refusing to wear one, it sends this message to all of his supporters that you don't have to follow state law. you don't have to follow these simple protocols. and it puts all of our state

residents and all of our workers at great risk. >> general, while you were talking you were showing pictures of a barber or haircutting protest at the state capitol yesterday. what was the legality of the president withholding aid as he initially threatened to do from michigan? >> it's completely illegal. there's no sound legal basis for him to do that. but unfortunately we've seen him do that before, even when congress had appropriately appropriated money. we saw this, of course, with ukraine. and i would say him withholding money from michigan is not any different in terms of the illegality of him taking that measure. i guess the difference between the ukrainians and michiganers is we actually vote in the presidential election. i can tell you this, if he decides to withhold money from our state that so badly needs it right now, over 5,000 of our state residents dead from

covid-19. some of the worst flooding in our state we've ever experienced. tens of thousands of people displaced. a $6 billion deficit in our state budget. i mean, 22% unemployment. if right now he decides that for political reasons he wants to withhold money from our state, i can promise you michiganeners will remember this come november. >> dana nestle, attorney general the state of the michigan. thank you so much for being with us today. and the president's former lawyer michael cohen is back home. early release after cohen pleaded guilty to you what a judge called a smorgasbord of campaign misconduct including campaign finance fraud. cohen served the rest of the three-year sentence at his home now as his lawyers request the

sentence be kurt shocut short bf what they call unsafe conditions because of the coronavirus. he's the second trump campaign to be released from prison to serve the rest of their sentence at home. coming up -- another spike in unemployment last week. nearly 39 million americans out of work since the onset of the pandemic. how business owners are stepping up to help the people struggling the most. stay with us, you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ou need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home, from inspiration to installation. like way more vanities perfect for you. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪

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the economic news is still dire for many americans. we learned today 2.4 million more people filed for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total for nine weeks to 38.6 million. this as the president's top lawmakers said they will not enhance what's in place for the pandemic beyond when they're due to inspire in july. joining me now is cnbc tech correspondent jo ling kent and a senior fell kwloe from the university miller center. first, joe ling, let's talk about what's happening to other restaurant workers and areas on the west coast. this sector is being hard hit. >> it is being hard hit and now california is closer to

reopening so when you look at the 2.4 million new jobless claims filed last week in california, they continue to be some of the hardest-hit workers. we're talking about 39 million total jobless claims filed over the past two months since mid-march. and that's the same size as the population of california. inside that large number are a lot of restaurant workers and servers, restaurant industry people who have been very hard hit and part of the problem right now is that as these workers need to go back to work, the unemployment benefits they're receiving are actually just about the same as what they may have been making prior. so restaurant owners are having challenges, things are come florida kat complicated to get these people rehired. we talked to a prominent restaurant owner here in los angeles. here's how she's feeling right now. how are people coping? i think this is a moment of just large question marks. i think there's just a large of

uncertainty in terms of how the industry will get back on its feet. a lot of fear. and i think that feeling of fear is really universal. it's not just this industry, but most. >> now, the fear she's talking about there is really across all industries very dre industries, very deeply felt in the restaurant world right now, of course. the budget office is now saying this recovery, andrea, will stretch out until the end of next year. so you can imagine what that's doing to the balance sheet of these restaurant owners and workers who think about where they're going to be working next and how they will be able to pay their bills and feed their own families, andrea. >> jo ling kent, thank you very much in l.a. and the president and mitch mcconnell were talking at the senate lunch and they are against extending that enhaensed unemployment benefit put under place under the c.a.r.e.s. act,

an extra $600 a week beyond july. there are a lot of people who have not even gotten the first cuts of this because of the backed-up state unemployment benefit system. and we also have gig workers who still haven't gotten theirs. how do they justify not including it past july when this is clearly going to include an economic shutdown that goes into august for a lot of people? >> andrea, as bad as today's numbers were, and they're certainly an improvement from previous weeks, it's important to understand there are about 38 million people who applied for unemployment, add another 9 million gig workers on top of that, that's 47 million people who applied for some kind of unemployment. that's about 30% of the u.s. labor force. these extended payments, as you just pointed out, expire in a couple of months. we know this economic crisis is going to continue well into 2021 and it's way too soon to be cutting off these unemployment benefits because what happens is once these enhanced benefits go

away, you're back to getting what was the norm under state law. and in florida, for instance, if you apply for unemployment insurance, normally you would receive $275 a week. that's less than the amount of minimum wage. that's going to create another problem down the road, because people aren't going to have enough money, they're not going to be able to pay their rent or buy groceries. on top of all of that, still nothing has been done to help cash-strapped states right now. you just had the michigan attorney general who said they're running a $6 billion deficit. the only thing they can do at this point is start to cut teachers and police and firefighters. , the people who are on the front lines of responding to this crisis. so the economic refleefds to be extended at this period of time instead of the u.s. senate spending their time this week confirming more judges. >> and in fact at this hour confirming the new head of national intelligence john radcliffe. chris, we hope we can talk soon.

there's so much more to talk about with you but we're awaiting for the president's departure as well. we have a lot on the plate today. thank you for joining us. coming up -- brazil hitting a record high for new coronavirus as president trump considers a travel ban from brazil. next, we will be live in so poll. e in so poll i don't keep track of regrets and i don't add up the years,

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in brazil's largest city, sao paulo, workers are digging mass graves as the daily death toll reached 1,000 for the first time tuesday and brazil is now the country with the third highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, behind just the u.s. and russia. president trump said he's considering banning travel from brazil, as brazilian president bolsonaro continues to downplay the health crisis. nbc news global correspondent bill neely joins us now from sao paulo. you're near one of the city's largest pa villas. what are people there saying and the governor there saying? >> yes, andrea, soao paulo is te new global hot spot. this slum area ironically called paradise city is the most densely populated area of latin america. we've come to give you an illustration really of how

difficult it is when governors say social distancing is the most important thing because here there are 100,000 people in 1 square mile. people live sometimes six to a room. running water and soap, they're just luxuries. so a lot of the things we take for granted, people here can't really abide by those rules. just a few minutes ago there was a car going through here saying,isaying, please stay at home. if you feel ill, contact us and we'll take you to the hospital. these people are particularly vulnerable. andrea, they're listening to two messages. one is from the president who says don't worry about social distancing, get out to work. the truth is a lot of people in these areas desperately need to work. and then they're listening to the governors who are saying stay at home. lockdown is really important. i spoke to the governor of sool paolo last night and he is frustrated and he's angry at his president because he sees what

the president is saying and doing is not only dangerous but almost criminal. let's take a quick listen to what the governor of sao paulo said. >> this is dangerous. we're going to have someone as president of brazil saying to the people, go to streets, go to restaurants. we have right now a war with two viruses, the coronavirus and bolsonaro virus. >> andrea, as i was saying, the situation really is critical. we were at a cemetery where they're using mechanical diggers to dig thousands of individual graves -- not mass graves but individual graves -- for the next lot of people who are coming. 60 funerals at one cemetery yesterday. as i said, 2,000 deaths in the last 48 hours. 20,000 new cases in one day. so coronavirus spreading more quickly here than anywhere on earth.

and we were at a hospital as well, which was full. indeed, i have just come from a soccer stadium that's been -- they're not playing soccer there anymore. there's a field hospital right across the field because all of the major hospitals are actually full. so a real catastrophe happening here in brazil before our very eyes, andrea. >> and bolsonaro a great aqua light of president trump's. please say safe bill neely and your great producer and camera, be careful there. you're really in a hot spot. thank you for joining us today from brazil. as brazil's president pushes the use of hydroxychloroquine, president trump has said he will stop taking the risky drug at the end of the prescribed course some time this week, according to the president. joining me now, dr. vin gupta, medical contributor and pulmonologist from the university of washington. dr. gupta, thank you. what do you say about what the

president has been doing in terms of the example he's setting by taking this drug? >> andrea, good to be with you. you know, i was struck by that segment out of brazil. i just have to make a comment that it seems like president bolsonaro is trying to do his best president trump impression, whether it's touting hydroxychloroquine to your point, no evidence. what's the is prescription period when there's no indication in the first place for hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis or treatment for covid-19? what's the prescribed course? it doesn't even make sense. the fda is saying there's no case for this. i don't know who is empowering the president to make these decisions. if it's his white house physician, it's irresponsible for his white house physician to do that. it's not in keeping what we're taught in medical school, which was do no harm. that's one. number two, the social distancing piece out of brazil, it makes me think about that research study out of columbia

published yesterday that got a lot of attention. americans, like brazilians, need to feel empowered to socially distance themselves from their workplace and others, meaning they need policies to know they will get a check in the mail if they're not going to work. it's okay their bosses are not going to exact revenge or fire them if they goept show up to work. so it starts from the top. we already know. we already know tens of thousands of americans died needs inially because the president didn't act sooner here in the united states and bolsonaro is doing the same thing in brazil. it's irresponsible, public health malpractice, and people pr dyeing. >> and it's just heartbreaking to see that in brazil and my colleague right in the middle of it, obviously i'm concerned about my colleague and friend, but millions of people in an enormous country that are getting exactly the wrong message from their own president.

>> that's right, andrea. here's the thing, we're having one authoritarian leader here in the united states inform the practices of other authorityian leaders globally. this is nonscientific, this is nonevidence based, but it's obviously having a domino effect. what happens here, people are clearly feeling empowered elsewhere to follow suit. because what the president of the united states says matters. americans hear fill prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine at a rate 46 times higher after the president endorsed it strongly in march. now bolsonaro's following suit and the president's roadmap for who knows what, catastrophe in the study of covid-19. what president trump does matters. it matters for his own health. if he's really actually taking hydroxychloroquine he's putting himself at risk. and now brazilians and americans at risk as we've seen the effects here.

fupt unfortunately tens of thousands of americans have died. >> dr. vin gupta, thank you very much. thank you for being here, as always. we've not seen much of dr. anthony fauci at white house events lately but we may see him in unusual places today. he's took over an account with a-list celebrities including julia roberts, who was more than just a little excited to speak with the good doctor. >> how rad we have maybe the coolest man on the planet right now. wow, clears the room. this is intense. does anybody else -- whoa! >> hi, there. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> oh, this is such a thrill. how are you? >> pretty good, i guess, you know. it's a little bit like running on fumes for a couple of months. >> i would imagine. how much sleep do you get? >> i get reasonably good 5 1/2 hours now. last month i was getting three.

and three doesn't work any more than two, three days in a row. i started to really feel like i was falling apart. >> i'm sorry, sir, but you are not allowed to fall apart. >> i won't, i promise. >> you talked about getting back to normal. don't you think what might help us as a society is accepting the fact that normal is never going to be exactly what it once was. and to accept that and maybe shape that in a positive way moving forward. >> i really like the way you put that. i'm going to plagiarize you later on in the day. if you don't mind. i think you put it in the right way by saying we should look at it almost in a positive way. people say, do you think we'll be back to normal this summer? i say i don't really think so. it may be a new normal but it's not going to be the way we had it before. we're talking about an appreciation for what something like this has done and can do

and take care to get back to as much as normal as we possibly can. and if the new normal is the awareness of our vulnerability to these type of things, that's looking at it in a positive, potentially constructive way. >> that's good to hear from dr. fauci. our thanks to julia roberts and thanks to the one campaign. we will be right back. it's time for the memorial day sale on the

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second wave of covid-19 infections, there's still no unified federal plan to test, contact trace and ensure vital services are not interrupted. but now there's growing support for planning and funding programs like americorps to do exactly that. joining me now are los angeles mayor eric garcetti and delaware senator chris coons, who are both supporting these initiatives. senator coons, we talked to you before about the legislation which is bipartisan. how would this work? >> andrea, thank you for a chance to be on and great to be on with my friend mayor garcetti, who's help lead this effort in los angeles and cities across the country. we have more than 80 co-sponsors in the house and the senate of a bipartisan bill that would expand the existing national service program best known as americorps. it would increase the pay modestly. it would increase the education award earned by members, but it would double this year the number of opportunity slots.

so that would make it possible for 150,000 americans who are currently unemployed or who are looking for an opportunity to serve to be engaged in response. this would be locally led and driven by commissions that already exist all over our country, appointed by governors, that include nonprofit leaders, state and local government leaders, civic leaders and they would approve specifically targeted programs. in some states and cities they might do contact tracing and testing. in others they might help with combating hunger by supporting food banks. in others they might work to support education, to provide needed enrichment and connectivity over the summer and into the fall. there's lots of different ways that a new generation of americans can step forward and serve our nation. i'm grateful mayor garcetti has led a letter that has more than 50 bipartisan mayors supporting this bill around the country. >> and mayor garcetti, you've been a leader out in california.

you've already started expanding contact tracing. how would this work in cities such as yours, as you have one of the largest cities in the country, obviously? >> i want to thank senator kunz for his extraordinary leadership. i'm proud to be alongside him and all of my fellow brothers and sisters across this country. simply put, we have hundreds of people out of work and hundreds of thousands of jobs we need filled. the quicker we can do contact tracing, helping individuals and businesss with benefits from the federal government, maybe even doing things like cleaning up cities and investing in infrastructure, the quicker we can get this economy back going. for a few billion dollars we can unleash a trillion dollars of economic activity sooner. our state says we need a certain number of contact tracers. we're quickly trying to get that but we have out-of-work people and this need. this is a beautiful way to come together just as we did during the depression with the civilian

conservation corps, war on poverty with the teacher corps, it's time for this generation to have its c.a.r.e.s. corps to stand up, step up and do this fork america. >> let me ask you both, the president is now leaving for michigan. he's going into a state that requires wearing a face covering. he hasn't said yet, as far as i know, whether he is going to wear a mask. he has not been seen wearing one and he's also, as you know, done things that go against cdc guidelines and against fda warnings in taking a risky medication. mayor garcetti, what should the president do in terms of the way he models behavior for the rest of the country? >> simply put, he's our commander in chief. i say real men wear face masks. when they're going to be with other people in public, it's our gateway to increasing freedom and more economic activity and greater opening up. i think modeling that is something so important for all of our leaders, and any men who don't want to wear face masks got to get over ourselves and

just do it. >> senator coons, you're view on all of this. >> andrea, i just took my mask off for the beginning of this interview and will put it back on as soon as i'm off camera. scientific studies show if people wear face masks regularly, we can ut can the spread by 80%. the president, a role model, as we heard in your last segment talking about hydroxychloroquine, the numbers of folks trying to get on this medication and take this medication went up dramatically. i was once decades ago on hydroxychloroquine but for an appropriate prescribed purpose, preventing malaria when i was a student in africa decades ago. there's no positive benefit from this. when president trump refuses to take simple steps to follow siechbs, to follow our public health leaders like dr. fauci and the recommendations that we've heard from organizations

and entities around the country that are responsible for leadership on this, he is not just setting a bad example but in some ways actively misleading the american people in a way that has prolonged this tragedy. some time in the next few days we will pass the mark of 100,000 americans who will have died from this pandemic in every state, in every territory. we need leadership that helps us show the way forward out of this. >> senator coons, thank you so very much. mayor garcetti, as always, it's great to have you with us as well. thanks and be safe. and there are also more than 60 million americans with disabilities. for many of them, the pandemic is creating life-or-death situations. 29-year-old jerry flores of rochester, new york, who had pneumonia in january is worried. in an april "time" article she said, quote, iffing i get this, i'm going to die. this is not an unfounded fear. flores has seen ral palsy. she uses a wheelchair.

she needs assistance with everyday tasks including making food and guessing dressed. this means it's tougher for her immune system to kick illnesses. joining us now is a pediatrician, and chief health officer for special olympics for people with intellectual disabilities and other disabilities who perform so wonderfully in special olympics and are unable to do that. they can't train. so many other things they can't have this summer during the pandemic. thank you very much, doctor, for joining us. tell us, how are special olympics coping or trying to help people cope with the enormous strain of the pandemic? >> thank you so much. we at special olympics, when we can't be in our competitions, in our events, we still are every day connecting with our athletes to make sure they aren't socially isolated, to make sure that they don't experience this sense that they are alone. we want to make sure that they're fit at home.

we want to make sure that they have the messaging that they're able to protect themselves, and cope with the conditions we're in with regard to covid right now. we're also working with the cdc to make sure that we get more information on people with intellectual disabilities and make sure we get the data because we know there are high risk populations. and at special olympics, we're often thought of as sports but we are a huge health organization and doing critical work around the country to protect people with intellectual disabilities. we do screenings, we're continuing that, health screenings and continuing our fitness work, our strong minds work to make sure that we have coping skills available and working in advocacy as well. >> how much of a challenge is this for parents of young children, young children with down syndrome and other challenges who are at home who ever vulnerable? their immune systems are

vulnerable. what can be done online? how do you meet these needs? >> so thank you for asking. we have millions of children around the country and around the globe who are out of school, they aren't the conditions in terms of developmental stimulation they typically would. we have a program that is called the young athletes program. it works with very young children under 7 to give them the exercises and activities they can do at home. we are typically in parks and libraries and the headstart system in the u.s. now we're doing this online. it is really difficult, though, for those families to be able to address the needs and get the support that they need. we're also doing that through our family health forums where parents can connect up to other parents online and in even other kinds of settings where there isn't such an online presence using text or using the phone to

be able to do that. we're really trying to connect up every day. the other area that we really need to connect up on is our health care professionals. they're out there every single day trying to do their best for people, including people with intellectual disabilities, but over 80% of health professionals have never been trained on how to treat people with intellectual disabilities and we want to make sure they are doing that. there are four simple things you can do as a health care professional. certainly communication to the family and to the individual with intellectual disabilities. we need to do that clearly. make sure we're not using a lot of jargon or crossword puzzle words we often do as doctors. make sure that we have support people available to them is the second step. make sure that even if that isn't in person, a support person is available by phone or video call. the third thing is to make sure that people with intellectual disabilities are prepared for

the procedures for the situations they might be in with covid. for example, it's hard for anybody to get a nasal swab, particularly for, just as you're saying, a child with down syndrome and an adult -- cerebral palsy. all of that may make it much more difficult to do a nasal swab or to participate in a chest x-ray and hold still. and finally, making sure that we are having a -- >> we're going to have to revisit this, dr. bazzano. i'm glad we got that in. we have to get back to the white house. we'll, of course, continue to touch base with you. and here's the president's comments on departure from michigan. >> we always have to remember that. the people that have lost their lives. if you have any questions? >> mr. president, where are you on funding for michigan? a lot of people are concerned they're flooded out. that's the last thing they -- >> we're looking at the floods.

we have our people from the army corps of engineers there. we have fema there. i spoke with the governor, governor whitmer, yesterday, and we have a very good understanding, but we've moved our best people into michigan and our most talented engineers, designers, the people from the army corps of engineers, and they do these things better than probe anyone in the world. >> what about the funding, though? >> we'll take a look. we'll take a look. that was unrelated to that. >> [ inaudible ]. >> russia and us have developed very good relationship. as you know, we worked on the oil problem together. i think we have a very good relationship with russia, but russia didn't adhere to the treaty so until they adhere, we'll pull out. but there's a very good chance we'll make a new agreement or do something to put that agreement back together. but whenever there's an agreement that another party doesn't agree to, we have many of those agreements around the

world where it's a two-party agreement but they don't adhere to it, and we do. when we have things like that, we pull out also. that's why the arms treaties, if you look at the arms treaties, we're probably going to make a deal with russia on arms treaty and russia will be maybe included in that. we'll see what happens. but we have a lot of things. when we have an agreement, a treaty and the other side doesn't adhere to it, in many cases, they're old treaties, old agreements, then we pull out also. so i think what's going to happen is we're going to pull out, and they're going to come back and want to make a deal. we've had a very good relationship lately with russia. and you can see that with respect to oil and what's happening with oil. >> what about michael cohen getting out of jail today? >> i didn't know that. >> any reaction? >> [ inaudible ]. >> say again? >> -- going to make things worse with russia, increase tensions?

>> no, i think we'll have a very good relationship with russia. i think that if you look at what happened with oil where russia, saudi arabia and us got together and we saved in our country millions of energy jobs. you see oil now is solidifying. so it's the best of all worlds. we're saving the energy jobs, but our drivers have a very low gasoline price. >> are you going to wear a mask today at the ford plant? >> i don't know. we'll look at that. a lot of people have asked me that question. i want to get our country back to normal. i want to normalize. one of the other things i want to do is get the churches open. the churches are not being treated with respect by a lot of the democrat governors. i want to get our churches open. and we're going to take a very strong position on that very soon. >> mr. president -- >> [ inaudible ].

>> including mosques. including mosques. >> [ inaudible ]. >> yes, i wish them well. very well. go ahead. >> the astrazeneca award for doses of a potential new vaccine. how confident are you that one will be ready by the fall? >> you have astrazeneca, which is a great company, and you have others, johnson & johnson. we have a lot of things happening on the vaccine front. on the therapeutic front. therapeutically, we're doing great. and on the cure front, which is the next step. i think we have tremendous things. that announcement i heard came out this morning. that's a very positive announcement, in addition to all of the other announcements. we are so far ahead of where people thought we'd be, but therapeutically, it's very interesting what's going on and cure. so you'll have a lot of big announcements over the next week or two. >> you said the funding for michigan was another issue not

related to the flood. can you -- >> we're helping michigan with their flood, and we have the people to do it. >> you said federal funding for the -- >> we don't want them to do mail-in ballots because it's going to lead to total election fraud so we don't want them to do mail-in ballots. we don't want anyone to do mail-in ballots. if somebody has to mail it in because they're sick or, by the way, because they live in the white house and they have to vote in florida and they won't be in florida, if there's a reason for it, that's okay. if there's a reason. but if there's not -- we don't want to take any chances with fraud in our elections. >> the chinese parliament is passing a national security law cracking down on hong kong. are you aware of this? >> i don't know what it is because nobody knows yet. if it happens, we'll address that issue very strongly. >> what about your plans for the weekend? >> it looks like g7 may be on. we're ahead of schedule in terms

of our country and some of the other countries are doing very well. it looks like g7 will be on. a full g7, and we'll be announcing something probably early next week. >> [ inaudible ]. >> i can't hear you. you have your mask on. i can't hear a word. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we'll be talking to you about it. >> how long do you expect to take hydroxychloroquine? >> i think it's another day. i had a two-week regimen of hydroxychloroquine. and i have taken it, i think, just about two weeks. i think it's another day. and i'm still here. i'm still here. and i tested very positively in another sense. so this morning, yeah, i tested positively toward negative, right? no, i tested perfectly this morning. meaning i tested negative. >> have you taken the antibody test yet? >> positively toward the negative. >> have you taken the antibody

test yet, sir? >> no, i have not. >> columbia university put out a report in "the new york times" today that 36,000 people would have been saved if you guys did social distancing just one week earlier. you believe that? what's your reaction? >> i was so early, i was earlier than anybody thought. i put a ban of people coming in from china. everybody fought me on that. they didn't want it. nancy pelosi a month later was dancing in the streets of san francisco in chinatown so that people wouldn't believe what's happening and i don't even blame that. but i was way early. columbia's an institution that's very liberal. it's a -- i think it's just a political hit job, you want to know the truth. >> you want to have the g7 at the white house or camp david? >> we're going to have it probably at the white house and maybe a little combination at camp david. primarily at the white house. so if we do the g7, when that all comes together, probably it will be in d.c. at the white

house. okay? but there could be a piece of it at camp david, which is nearby. >> [ inaudible ]. >> so, again, our relationship with russia has improved greatly, especially since the russian hoax has been proven totally false and illegal, what they did. this was an illegal hoax. and they got caught. they got caught doing a lot of bad things. so let's see how that turns out. but our relationship with russia has come a long way in the last few months. i think that the open sky will all work out. but right now, when you have an agreement and the other side doesn't adhere to the agreement, we're not going to do it either. but i think something very positive will work out. >> [ inaudible ]. >> what? >> the rocket launch? >> i'm thinking about going. that will be next week to the rocket launch. i hope you're all going to join