caitlyn collins, cnn, washington. >> thanks, caitlyn. for that. as caitlyn mentioned there, experts say the coronavirus testing is absolutely necessary before even considering a return to normalcy. cnn has now learned that as early as january private labs were trying to develop effective tests but they were blocked by the federal government. drew griffin explains what happens and also what didn't. >> reporter: as coronavirus was silently racing around the world in late january and early february, the federal government not only failed to use the massive arsenal of hundreds of laboratories across the united states for emergency testing, it actually left roadblocks in place to prevent non-government labs from assisting. that is according to documents obtained by cnn and interviews with more than a dozen scientists and physicians involved in coronavirus toasting. >> at the very beginning of this pandemic it was the federal government that had the sole ability to do testing and made it very difficult for private labs, university labs to make their own

. >> reporter: two weeks ago caitlyn reynolds was a vice president of a firm that nissen >> 50 times a day since march 16th to get through to the contact center for unemployment to continue my claim, and i have not yet been able to get through. >> reporter: guy halel found the unemployment office website had crashed. >> you would go two or three pages in and before you're out, they will tell you your session is timed out. then you go six pages in, again, they will throw you out, your session is timed out. you will go all the way tells y your session timed out. >> reporter: time ran out on halel at the hotel where he was a manager. he worked in hospitality 20 years. when his hotel at times square closed, he went home to his wife, two children and a new pation, connecting with the unemployment office. >> i think after ten days i was able to submit and go to the next step, which was a phone call. >> your call cannot be completed as dialed. >> try again. >> 606. >> reporter: no one at the unemployment office is answering his call either. >> we are experiencing a high volume of calls at t

. >> caitlyn lane, "the indianapolis star." >> hello, caitlyn. can you hear me? >> loud and clear. >> awesome. two questions. yesterday, a group of nonprofits announced $2.6 million to support the earnings in marion county schools like buying laptop, wi-fi hot spots, fun professional developments that sort of thing so that schools can fulfill mandate by the state. should the state be stepping up to spend some of its surplus or stimulus money on those efforts? the second question for dr. box most likely. could earlier widespread testing at nursing homes could have prevented some of the devastation we're hearing? and if so, why wasn't it made available? other tests steam be testing at higher rate and the mayor of carmel strongly suggested to test all of their employees. >> you want to go first? >> sure. yeah, right, so i don't forget, governor. first of all, we have not spared any testing with regards to any congress gregat living setting. that's why we set the strike teams immediately. that's why we met the testing available. we've actually gone to them personally

caitlyn now says from the beginning you knew. a newly-single kris navigated her entire family to unimaginable triumphs. 700 million followers who are influenced by you. have you ever thought of using that to push a political agenda? kris jenner, the matriarch of the most famous family on the planet, who has taken every obstacle thrown her way and come out on top. - thank you so much for having me! - how are you? oh, my god! it's so good seeing you. good to see you, too. thank you so much for doing this! i'm excited about the show. i'm excited about talking to you. - yeah? - even though i know you. i know, you know way too much about me. but here's what-- here's what i wanna do today. - okay. - i wanna trace your life. we're gonna use objects that you've kept - oh, boy. - and find those building blocks along the way that turned you into kris jenner. well, i'm 62 years old, so this might take hours. - okay, well, let's do it. - okay, let's go. so, tell me what this is. that's annabelle. okay. hi, annabelle. that is my baby annabell

caitlyn collins, cnn, the white house. >>> well, mr. trump's claim that he has total authority certainly raised eyebrows and it sparked a response from several governors who slammed the president's remark. take a listen. >> the president of the united states calls the shots. when somebody's the president of the united states, the authority is total, and that's the way it's got to be. >> total? the authority is total? >> it's total. it's total. the governors know that. the governors know that. you have a couple of -- excuse me. excuse me. >> the president doesn't have total authority. we have a constitution. we don't have a king, we have an elected president. that's what our founding fathers did when they wrote the constitution, and the constitution clearly says the powers that are not specifically listed for the shadow of governments are reserved for the states. >> i'll tell you what i saw when i heard that, this is a president that loves to throw verbal hand grenades. he has the bully pulpit but we're the ones that have to enforce it.

caitlyn collins is out front near the white house to beagain our coverage and in his task force briefing tonight the president was combative undermining guidance from the cdc on the face masks saying go ahead and wear them even when they're nonmedical but then saying he himself will not even be wearing any kind of a mask when it comes to just the mask issue alone. >> reporter: yeah, we knew there had been a lot of debate behind the scenes over whether or not to put out these guidance telling americans when they're going out in public they should be covering their face in some manner. obviously the president said nonmedical tonight because it could cause a run on masks and b let people not pay attention to those social distancing guidelines that they felt like they were protecting themselves but then the president came out there and made some notable remarks by really insisting that this was just voluntary guidance saying tfrs nit was not require and saying he himself is not going to follow it. so he seemed to undercut the fact the cdc is putting out this guidance. and it also comes of co

caitlyn, i'm going to go to you first.many about this meat plant, where it's the biggest coronavirus hot spot in the united states. refugees from around the world worked at the smithfield pork factory in sioux falls, now they face mounting illness and sudden loss of their jobs. talk a bit about this plant. >> so this plant is a beacon, one of the largest employer in the city of sioux falls, more than 3700 people work there, and it churns day and night. it's open 24/7, eight stories tall, they're open on hole dales, and about 85% of the workers are foreign-born, so they're either immigrants or refugees from all over the world. i spoke to people from sudan, from ethiopia, from china, from central america, el salvador and honduras. the work is incorrect are credibly difficult. people talk about having to go home at night and ice their wrists and take ibuprofen, because it's physical. but this is the place where the american dollar stretches very far. imgranlt families talk about being able to buy homes, send kids to college.

. >> reporter: caitlyn squires is a supervisor at cole hardware. customers have been interested in face coverings recently and she expects that to climb. >> there has been a slight influx this morning. i think folks are becoming aware of the mandate, so we are expecting that there will be a surge definitely. >> reporter: they're working to get more of them and different types but it's best to check ahead. in san francisco, the mayor announced new requirements for people to wear face coverings, a scarf or a bandanna will do so long as they cover the nose and mouth at essential businesses like grocery stores and transit. this applies to workers and residents. >> i think it's safer for now. >> till they figure something out or there's, you know, some vaccine for it. i think it's just better to be safe. >> reporter: it's hard to say for sure if more people are wearing face coverings this weekend, but what was occasional for some is becoming mandatory. >> we actually probably weren't wearing them every time, but we now are. >> reporter: health officials

he went after caitlyn, he went after paula reed of cbs. he mounted a furious defense of himself and that same impulse is what drove him in the latter part of the briefing, this outrageous surge of authority. that was him watching today when governors saying trump's not going to get a job done so we are going to move ahead together as regional blocks to figure out how to re-open the economy. donald trump went to the briefing room and said, no, i'm powerful. i'm the one with total authority. that is not based on legal analysis from the white house counsel or his sense of philosophy, it is him asserting power. he gave away the game later when he was questioned on that saying, well, the governors will go along with it. when mike dewine, the governor of ohio, was on with anderson this evening, he tiptoed around what trump was saying, well, the buck stops with me but i'll listen to the president, he has a big bully pulpit. that was the president trying to cope with stuff that was very painful today. >> ryan, you asked the president about his aut

he went after caitlyn and cbs and mounted a furious defense of himself and that same impulse is whatrove him in the ladder part of the briefing this outrageous assertion of the authority. that was him watching today when governors saying trump is not going to get the job done so we're going move ahead together as regional blocks to figure out how to reopen the economy. so he comes in the briefing room and says no, i'm powerful. i'm the one with total authority. that is not based on legal analysis from the white house counsel or sense of philosophy. it's him asserting his power. and he gave away the game later where when he was questioned on that saying the governors will go along with it. when the governor of ohio was on this evening he tiptoed around what trump was saying. lt buck stops with me but i'll listen to the president. that was the president trying to cope with stuff that was painful to thim today. >> you asked the president about his authority over governors. take a listen. >> just to clarify your understanding of your authority of the governors. be specific. for instance.

caitlyn collins has more from washington. >> reporter: as he warned of a challenging time ahead, president trump came to grips with a reality he's denied for months. >> this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks. >> reporter: the president somberly acknowledged the potential for a staggering death toll that his team of experts has warned about for weeks. he said if he took no action, a move no public health experts have suggested, millions would have died instead of the hundreds of thousands that could now. on cnn followed trump's lead and said he took it seriously all along. >> i don't believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus. >> reporter: but in late february the president said this about the coronavirus cases. >> again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> reporter: in fact, the stark numbers caused the president to reverse many of his own arguments including this one. >> the flu in our country kills from 25,000 people to 69,000 people a

. >> our colleague caitlyn collins asked the president if companies that reopen and have employees if they get sick will face liability. >> i'll give you a legal answer. we have tried to take liability away from the companies. we don't want that. we want them to open. i'll get you a legal opinion. >> you haven't discussed that yet? >> no. but we will now. >> i know if you remember, i raised that last week when they started maybe the week before, about companies having exposure if people got sick. they haven't discussed it no one in the white house. that would be one of the first things that you discuss. even though the president is anxious to get the economy back up and running again. it seems like a no brainer. >> of course they have discussed it. in fact i believe it's a subject that came up on the president's call with business leaders on this task force. this illustrates the box he's in. if businesses do not have liability protection, they're going to be very wary of reopening. because of the exposure they face. if the government then indemnifies the company from risk and says we'

brian stelter, caitlyn collins, thank you for that reporting.e'll be right back after a short break. usaa has been standing with them for nearly a hundred years. and we'll be here to serve you for a hundred more. ♪ hello son, i think it's time you join tdad, come on. i'm... going to old spice fiji? dad, i'm an old spice body and face wash kinda guy. hmm, moisturizing. that's why working together ist more important than ever. at&t is committed to keeping you connected. so you can keep your patients cared for. your customers served. your students inspired. and your employees closer than ever. our network is resilient. our people are strong. our job is to keep your business connected . it's what we've always done. it's what we'll always do. shbecause xfinity mobilehen ygives you more flexible data.. you can choose to share data between lines, mix with unlimited, or switch it up at any time. all on the most reliable wireless network. which means you can save money without compromising on coverage. get more flexible data, the most reliable network, a

caitlyn an icu nurse in st.red her story. >> i am getting ready to go get screened, which is also part of the new normal. we have to get screened to enter the building, our temperatures taken, questions answered to make sure that we are not exposing our patients to anything from the outside world. i knew going into nursing going into being an icu nurse i would take care of the sickest of the sickest patients. did i know i would be a nurse during a pandemic? i don't think anything could have prepared me for that but i have seen some of the most amazing things in these last few weeks. we have come together for a support system because nobody knows how to navigate and trying to get overwhelm. as icu nurses, we're used to having access to our patients. we have very sick patients and we're used to going in there and assessing and reassessing them but now we have to really cluster our care to try to cut down exposure time in the room, but at the end of the day, the most rewarding part of this job is to be able to take

work with the fda to reduce that testing period, we are all in and energized andtious about it >> caitlyn is an icu nurse at st. luke's hospital. her intensive care unit is now all covid-19 patients. >> i knew going into nursing, going into being an icu nurse i would take care of the sickest of the sick patients. did i know i was going to be a nurse during a pandemic? i don't think anything could have prepared me for that. we know we're going to get through this. it's a tough road, but at the end of the day, none of my co-workers regret this. none of my co-workers regret being a nurse, a ris pir tory therapist, a doctor. we're here to help our patients. pandemic or not we're here and we will always be here. >> leading off our discussion tonight are ron klain, he served as the ebola-zar during the obama administration and the former acting general and msnbc legal contributor. ron, i want to start with you on both items that we've seen from the president two days in a row. one is this clearly illegal with holding of funding from the world health organization and then since you're a veteran