. >> our white house correspondent john harwood is with us. peter navarro, the top trade guy at the white house, very close to the president, sent this mim y mim memo in january. the question is, did the president read it, who saw it, who didn't? >> reporter: well, whether the president read it or not, poppy, he's running a government with a lot of people working for him and his government knew about this. look, step back, president george w. bush threw his homeland security adviser fran townsend did extensive work to prepare for pandemics. preoccupation of president bush. president obama dealt with ebola, left behind a pandemic preparedness position. the obama team briefed the trump team when they were taking office about the risks of a pandemic. you had the trump hhs did a huge pandemic preparedness exercise that showed that they weren't prepared. all of that preceded what happened with covid-19 and peter navarro. now we know someone as close to the president as peter navarro, he's very close to him, was warning in january that the u.s. popu

cnn white house correspondent john harwood joins us now. john, he's the head of the coronavirus task force. i mean, the idea that in that room, i can't think of a more telling video than that every single person, doctors and patients, are wearing masks, and only vice president pence at the mayo clinic was not wearing a mask. so, okay, his staff now realizes it was a mistake, maybe optically, but does the vice president think it was a mistake not to wear a mask? >> reporter: well, look, they think it was a mistake because they got negative press coverage about it. but make no mistake this was not an accident. this was a deliberate choice. when you go into a clinic like that, where you know what the policy is, they told you, where you can see that everyone else is wearing one and you're not, you stick out luike a sore thum, the vice president said later he wanted to look everyone in the eye. that would make sense if public health authorities were asking us to wear blindfolds to stop the coronavirus, but they're not. they're asking us to cover

. >> out front now with white house correspondent john harwood and top cnn fact checker, daniel dale. so, john, we know, right now, there is a divide in the white house between the president's economic advisors and his health experts on when to reopen the economy and how, right? i mean, reopening the economy is not just a sort of fling the door open and we're back to normal. it's not going to be that, no matter how much president wants it to be. do we know where his inclinations lie, at this point, though, in terms of what and when? >> well, we know, erin, that the cross pressures on him are more intense than just a couple weeks ago when he faced a similar decision, and decided to keep restrictions on through the end of april, rather than opening the country up by easter. i think some of what's going on is he is going to preserve maneuvering room. see if the numbers change, if the models change their projections. i think some of what he is doing is showing business interests and other members of the republican base that he is listening to them. he feels their impatience and shares it.

joining me now is cnn's white house correspondent john harwood and ron brownstein, senior editor at "the atlantic ." thank you for joining us, especially than holiday weekend, appreciate it. john, you first. president trump is looking ahead to his decision on when to reopen the economy and how soon to do it. you know, he's called it the biggest decision of his presidency. he doesn't actually have control of how this is going to go down. >> that's right. and, you know, he has said he's got economic advisers to listen to and health advisers and he'll listen to his own gut. but i'm not sure how much choice he actually has, for a couple of overlapping reasons. first of all, it is one thing to blow off the warnings of public health officials when the danger is spreading beneath the surface, but is not visible to the american people. it is an entirely different thing after 20,000 people have died, this has been the dominant news story for six weeks and people are frightened. and with all the public health officials saying it is not time to relax those guidelines, from anthony fauci on down.

joining us now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood. hn, leave the questions about intellectual consistency aside for just one second. an interesting view of john harwood there. focus on the what and the why of what's going on with this president's statement. >> well, you have to divorce it from public health considerations because that's not what's driving this. you can tell and the president's made clear, he's spending a lot of his time of watching television, seeing the harsh judgments of his performance and trying to figure out a way to escape blame for that. now, it is long pastime when a cutoff of people coming into the united states would make any difference in this pandemic. the virus is already here and it's spread rapidly throughout the united states. but what the president is doing is appealing to members of his base. remember who his base is. it's disproportionately white voters of lesser education, especially conservative christians, especially if small towns in rural areas that are less densely populated. those are areas th

joining us is christine romans and julia chatterley and john harwood.he top line number, double what it was last week. i think higher than the worst we even expected for this week. >> yeah, it really is a job shock here. you got 10 million layoffs or furloughs, that means just the past couple of weeks, 10 million. it is pointless for me to make a chart of it for you, john. it just looks luike a geyser going straight up. i'm surprised the state employment offices were able to handle this kind of volume. last week we know there were so many people filing for unemployment benefits, they weren't able to get all of them. another notable thing about these numbers, the numbers doubled and it has spread from hospitality and restaurants into just about every corner of the economy, including healthcare. >> yeah. it is everywhere in just about everything, julia, which means that, you know, it is affecting everybody. you are either unemployed now or know someone who is, people are struggling. >> it is -- these are devastating numbers. and to christine's point there

let's go to john harwood with us again this morning. tell us what we know and even, you know, just on sunday, george stephanopoulos asked defense secretary esper about this. >> well, i was going to say, poppy, we -- abc continues to add depth to their reporting, which we're working on as well. but they did highlight on sunday in this exchange between george stephanopoulos and the defense secretary exactly what the warnings could have been, might have been. take a listen. >> did the pentagon receive an intelligence assessment on covid in china last november from the national center for medical intelligence at dia? >> i can't recall, george, but we have many people that watch this closely. >> so you would have known if this were briefed in the national security council in december, wouldn't you? >> i'm not aware of that. >> now, what this underscores is that the coronavirus pandemic is more perfectly suited to expose the eventual initial t vulnerab administration than any other kind of crisis you can imagine. the president through the beg

john harwood, you have this battle royal set up potentially between the white house and states on whoo reopen the economy, parts of the economy, et cetera. is that a battle politically that the president wants? does he really want to take this all the way to the supreme court on this question? does that serve him well in his view? >> reporter: i don't think so. i don't think it is going to turn out to be as big as a battle he felt yesterday when he asserted that authority. i think this was the president blowing off steam, watching governors take the lead and say in effect president trump's not going to get the job done so we're going to move ahead. and he's responding by saying, no, no, i'm the president, i got the power. he sort of gave away the game later in the briefing when he said, well, the states are going to go along with what i want, mike dewine was on with anderson, he's the -- last night -- he's the governor of ohio, he was asked this question. he said, well, you know, the buck stops with me and i'm going make the final decision. but we'll consult with the president. i thin

so, joining me now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood. john, good evening to you, sir. thank you so much for joining us tonight and every evening. we really appreciate it. the president was asked tonight if the country can reopen on may 1st. here's his answer. >> we're doing well in terms of the numbers. i can't tell you in terms of the date. you know, we don't want to -- we don't want to go down and then it's not going up if we're not careful so we have to be careful. as far as distancing, social distancing and other things, certainly for a while -- at some point that's going away. we'll be able to sit next to each other like we have all our lives. >> the dynamic seems to be that the president is eager to open the country back up but experts, at least more now, they're sticking to their guns. >> they are sticking to their guns, and i think if you're somebody in this country which i think is a majority at the moment who is inclined to listen to the public health professionals, you're going to be happy with the tone the president struck in his briefing. because what he s

let's bring in john harwood. john, good to see you again tonight.hank you for coming on talking about this. it is very important for you to be here guiding us. this is what president trump said when asked about wearing masks at tonight's briefing. >> well, i think they're going to be coming out with regulations on that. and if people want to abide by them, frankly, i don't think they'll be mandatory because some people don't want to do that. but if people wanted to wear them, they can. if people wanted to use scarves which many people have them, they can. in many cases the scarf is better. it's thicker. i mean, you can -- depending on the material, it's thicker. but they can do that if they want. >> people just want to know are we supposed to wear masks or not? where's the clear direction on this? >> consistent pattern with the president, don, is that he is afraid of challenging, pushing his base for larger purposes if he thinks they're reluctant. business says don't promote the defense production act, he back walks that. governors say don't tell me

. >> right, want to bring in cnn white house correspondent john harwood. is a staggering figure. one that would not have been believed a month ago. however, if there is one dim ray of light here, it is a smaller number than what we have seen for the previous two weeks, when there were more than 6 million job losses. does that indicate to you any potential leveling off here? >> not necessarily. it could be an artifact of who could apply and processes in the states which are uneven in different state by state. there are some states like florida that have had difficulty letting people apply for these jobless benefits and recording the number that exists out there. this is a catastrophic rolling catastrophe that we're seeing. it indicates the actual unemployment rate in the country is over 15%, haven't seen a rate that high since the great depression. and it is clear that for all the talk about restarting the economy, trying to alleviate this pain, that the key to doing that is what you are discussing a few minutes ago, john, with ron klain, instituting a testi

. >> let's begin this hour with our white house correspondent john harwood. it's interesting the headline says the president says the governors can make their own decision when they could always make their own decision. >> reporter: that's right, and they were always moving toward these guidelines. i think the governors were pleased the president wasn't making too much of may 1st or any date in particular. he did have those gating requirements that deborah birx mentioned, and like he said, some could do it tomorrow if they want. i'm not aware of any state that has met the hospital crisis care, the contact tracing and testing requirements as well as the 14 days of case reductions that would get them into phase 1. but these are consistent with what experts are saying is a gradual reintroduction based on what the evidence is on the ground, and i think that's exactly what the governors in these regional contacts in both the east and the west were headed to do, anyway. >> yeah, it sounds like it. we'll see how many are actually going to reopen, at least in part, t

joining us now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood. john, you told us so, basically, yesterday, when we had you on talking about this. as a policy move, less than meets the eye, which begs the question, how much is this just about politics and where does it fit in with some of the other messaging and challenges the president faces this morning? >> this is pretty much entirely a political song and dance by the president. when you talk about suspending green cards for 60 days, you're talking about in the name of protecting the jobs of american workers who lost their employment over the last month or so, you're talking about 75,000 people in a two-month period based on the rates in 2019 who would be getting green cards. 75,000 as compared to 22 million people who lost their jobs. it doesn't even -- it is barely a rounding error in those estimates. so no, that's not the reason. it is about politics. it is about trying to give his base something to feel good about. he made an exception for all of the larger numbers of people who come in to d

thank you, john harwood. appreciate it, in washington. >>> also you've heard so much from the administration about hydroxychloroquine or chloroqui chloroquine. a group of brazilian researchers are issuing a warning against the use of the drug to treat covid-19 patients. doctors in brazil ending their study of the drug after some developed irregular heart rates and died. we go to senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. there might be any difference, hydroxychloroquine, explain to people if there is a difference and what the study tells us. >> poppy, first came the drug chloroquine, many decades ago and they noticed it was causing some eye problems and so they developed hydroxychloroquine, which is basically the same drug but without those retina eye problems with. hydroxychloroquine is mostly what we use in the united states in clinical trials. in the brazilian study they used chloroquine. it really doesn't matter, because they're both just as effective or ineffective against coronavirus and also as far

john harwood joins us now, and john, of course, the president has fired or moved along or these peoplee lost their jobs or chosen to leave. virtually everyone who testified against him in the impeachment trial and now the inspector general, out. >> that's right. and i think it's important, jim, that we be clear about this. this is not a situation where both sides have a point. it is plain as day that the president is wrong and michael atkinson is right. we had atkinson being vouched for by the doj inspector general michael horowitz. we had the numbinspector genera saying his move was unjustified. there was a quid pro quo for the president to benefit himself politically in return to aid to go to ukraine. that was the allegation. he didn't create the allegation, he passed it on to congress. by the end of the impeachment process, republican senators, ted cruz, acknowledged that 100 out of 100 senators believed, in fact, there was a quid pro quo. that's how you know atkinson was right. so when the president says that michael atkinson was doing a terrible job, what he is actually saying is,

john harwood i will start with you. the president said the briefings were not worth the time and effort. that is a quote from him. that didn't last long. he was back rewriting history and shifting the blame tonight. just can't stay away, can he? >> that wasn't a serious question, was it, don? >> no. no. >> television cameras. television cameras are oxygen to donald trump. he was chason by what happened last thursday when he made the crazy statement about disinfectants and injecting them into the body and light and all of that stuff. he was made a figure of mockery and walked out on friday without taking questions and didn't appear at briefings over the weekend but donald trump's ego, he thinks he can talk himself out of these situations. he was out there today having said he wasn't going to be. he was better today than

but that's the equation right now. >> it is indeed, john harwood, thank you.remy diamond broke the story, thank you, we appreciate it. >>> the economy falling deeper into crisis as another 3.8 million americans filed for first time unemployment benefits last week. that brings the total in six weeks to some 30 million people. full report ahead. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist. nothing stronger. nothing gentler. nothing lasts longer. flonase sensimist. 24 hour non-drowsy allergy relief to ewhether you'reting these uncaring for your. family at home or those at work, principal is by your side. we're working hard to answer your questions. like helping you understand what the recently passed economic package can mean for you. we're more than a financial company. we're a "together we can get through anything" company. now, more than ever. get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. t

john harwood, you first. today was the deadliest day of the pandemic in the u.s. but it's clear that the president is still anxious to rewrite -- or to reopen the country and rewrite history potentially even earlier than his advisers suggest, john. >> that's right. but the president is, as he said today, he's going to defer to states and states are going to make their plans. in fact, he even said, today, that he would stop states if he thought it was unsafe. but i think it was a remarkable news conference that he had today, don, because in multiple ways, he was kind of waving the white flag on offering leadership in this crisis. two examples. first, he comes out and blames the world health organization, and says he is going to cut off funding. now, yes, the world health organization was slow and too differential to china. but more importantly, that is a backward looking step to take that does nothing to solve any problem that american business or worker or hospital patient has right now. the second thing is we know that the big issue that needs to be dealt with be

. >> john harwood joins us now. john, we know the president wants to unveil this.onths down the road. business leaders want testing. what will be in the president's guidelines? >> reporter: well, i think the key is going to be recognizing, as anthony fauci has said many times, it's not going to be a simple on-off switch and it may be different in different places. obviously, as you mentioned, all the large metropolitan areas and the states containing those areas, new york, california, new jersey, recognize that they are nowhere near ready in this pandemic to reopen. but i do think what the white house is going to do is take advantage of a subset of states where there are fewer cases and use those as a signal of the beginning of reopening america. this is what deborah birx, the coordinator of the task force, had to say about that yesterday. >> i'm inspired by the american people who continue social distancing. these cases continue to decline because of the strong work of the american people. i also wanted to let you know that we do have nine states that have less th

let's get more on that with our white house correspondent john harwood. we're go to hear from the president today his plan. we should note it is not up to him, the states want to know what they should do, but what should we hear from the white house today in. >> well, poppy, i think you identified the key variable in what we're going to see. the difference between having this be just more public relations tap dancing from the president versus a real step forward is whether or not he outlines with these guidelines steps that states need to achieve and a commitment by the federal government to help the states achi s s achieve them, particularly testing, surveillance testing, symptomatic testing and contact tracing. those are the things for all of the talk about reopening the economy, business leaders agree, public health authorities agree, state governors who have the ultimate decision making authority agree has to be done. the president spent earlier parts of the week blame casting others for the administration's performance and the catastrophe that we're

also joining us is cnn white house correspondent john harwood. good morning to both of you.et's talk about what this means. the united states gives a lot of money to the world health organization, dr. jha, something to the tune of half a billion dollars. i'll put it up on the screen for you. the u.s. gives the most at $553 million and then the second biggest contributors are bill and melinda gates and their foundation at $367 million. obviously, they have spent much of their life focused on issues like this pandemic. then the gaffe i alliance. then the uk and northern ireland at about 300 million and germany at 200 million. so the u.s. is the biggest contributor. if that half a billion dries up, what does that mean? >> dr. jha with a pregnant pause there. i can tell you we can hear you. >> now we can hear you. >> okay, good. >> sorry about that. >> what i was going to say is that what we know is the w.h.o. is important for fighting the pandemic. especially in -- if we hobble who, we're going to let this pandemic run worse in large parts of the world. you know, the awkward th

. >> john harwood is with us covering the white house. john, the interesting thing is you can go state-by-state, county by county. there will be, in the days ahead, a modest reopening, but when you look more largely at the scope, this great american reopening the president wanted to do like that is going to take months. >> reporter: absolutely. and when you look at the full range of gating criteria that you were outlining before, testing, hospital capacity as well as a 14-day decline, it's not clear that any state meets that criteria right now, and so for all the attention to may 1st and the president's desire to go to may 1st, the actual details of what he has put out -- and it's not long on detail but directionally, suggest that it is going to be very much a phased and data-driven reopening, and that's what public health authorities, that's what governors have said that they wanted. >> i want to put some of this up, john, so people can see it. let's talk through it a little bit. phase 1 is what you want to focus on most right now because

. >> laura: the best -- the best was when you got people like john harwood.n't play it, but john harwood calling the president and authoritarian leader. these are the people who just parrot what the chinese propagandists are saying. so they say, these putin's poodle. were member that about trump, putin's poodle. president xi's poodle. >> lapdog. >> laura: great to see you, you take care. coming up, aoc isn't letting this pandemic go to waste. dinesh d'souza joins us next to expose the latest inanity from her and others like her, next. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. 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, and more savings. plus, get $200 off when you buy an eligible phone. that's simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinitymobile.com today. ♪ >

john harwood covering this for us. take us inside that big decision by the president to pull back. >> reporter: john, what we've seen is another example of the president wavering back and forth depending on the pressure that he gets. as you mentioned, the immense economic pressure had led him to urge states to reopen as soon as possible, put pressure on democratic states and have that friendly phone call with brian kemp on tuesday, and you saw deborah birx at the podium saying that, well, i can't imagine that you could have tattoos safely with social distancing, but people are creative. it was a very accommodating briefing on tuesday. then you had wednesday come. the president had a second phone call after getting pressure from within his task force, and here's how he talked about kemp yesterday. >> i told the governor of georgia, brian kemp, that i disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities which are in violation of the phase 1 guidelines for the incredible people of georgia. but at the same time, h

. >> cnn's john harwood is live are us at the white house with more on this. great to see you. so what do we know about the daily presidential briefings that "the washington post" reported on that the president in, as i said, at least a dozen, back in january and february, they were already trying to sound the alarm of what the coronavirus would look like as it headed here. >> reporter: what these reports do is round out the picture that we had already built in reporting by multiple news organizations including our colleagues at cnn that the administration was informed by china on the 3rd of january and from then on the potential threat became more and more obvious. even if china covered up the extent of the outbreak, we had information about the outbreak that we didn't act upon. what this "washington post" report shows is the way that three particular personal characteristics of the president make him pretty ill equipped to respond to something like this. first of all, he doesn't read very much. second of all, he has a very short attention span and doesn't conceptualize beyond

christine romans and cnn international anchor julia chatterley and cnn white house correspondent john harwoodillion over three weeks is a huge number, 6.6 million in one week, a huge number. any sense, you have a number that big, it has to be everywhere in the economy. >> it is, it is. even in healthcare, you know why, anything that is nonlife threatening has been put on hold here. dentist's offices have closed, other offices have closed because everything is on pause. this is a collapse, really, in the american job market. you've never seen this many jobs gone so quickly. some of these are furloughs, meaning that these employers want to keep these people sort of active and on stand by so they can come back when and if this economy returns again. but this is a tragic kind of number, when this many people are wondering when they're going to get their jobless check and how they pay their rent. about the jobless checks, these numbers are big, shockingly big, but they're probably really undercount the number of people who lost their jobs because people can't get through to the state unemployment

cnn's john harwood live in washington with the details. what does this mean, fewer task force meetings all together? >> reporter: well, we're going to have to wait and see how this actually plays out over time both on the briefing and the task force component. we know that the briefings have become increasingly counterproductive for the president, as dramatized by his remarks on disinfectant last week. as for the task force itself, you've got to wonder exactly what they're doing at this point, given the fact that they've pushed the most important element in recovery right now, which is the testing component, testing contact tracing to enable states to reopen, they pushed that down to the states, they're providing some assistance, and dr. birx has talked about identifying laboratory resources, and they did use the defense production act to enhance the production of testing swabs, but if that is a state responsibility, what exactly is the task force going to add to that? certainly the states have got their shutdown orders and their plans for

cnn white house correspondent john harwood joins me now.e have seen this play out before, president tweets, aides rush to write a policy to match it, but not in the middle of a pandemic. >> that's right. but this is a president who has been very consistent in his operational style. as you know, having covered the white house as i have for some time, the orderly policy making process of most white houses is not consistent with somebody who operates on moment-to-moment impulses, much less moment-to-moment impulses at 10:00 at night. the president, having felt the weight of blame from the public, from other politicians, from the media for his handling of coronavirus, was looking for something to change the storyline, give his base something to get enthused about. he talked about immigration since the outset of his political career, so he tweets he's going to ban immigration. now we know that the agra business, which uses immigrant labor to keep the food supply going, is going to be exempted from this. that's the part of immigration that has th

sanjay gupta and cnn white house correspondent john harwood. great to see both of you. so, sanjay, look, i know we're all so desperate to see some light at the end of the tunnel. lasso any good news from the governors of new jersey and new york and connecticut. and i know that you're going to tell us to temper that and tell us that it is premature, two days does not make necessarily a trend. but what do you see in terms of the curve and also what are the models telling you? >> yeah, well, i mean, you know whether you look at these numbers, obviously there is some signs of hope there. i think that the big question, as you point out, alisyn, is it going to continue? because there's also a lag time, right? we see the people who are diagnosed, the confirmed infections, and then you see hospitalizations and then sadly you see these deaths. so i think, you know, we have to see, is this sort of hold up? because it is a reflection in some ways of the people who are infected, you know, a while ago, alisyn. so you really is to be asking yourself what was happening a few weeks ago

i want to bring in now cnn white house correspondent john harwood and our resident fact checker danielda dani daniel dale, john, you first, 46,000 people have died because of the coronavirus, and tonight we saw our president essentially bullying the medical community into pushing his narrative when it's the science, really, that's going to save lives? >> that's right, and i think, don, what we're seeing is a president who is getting knocked around by the pressure of this very very difficult situation. donald trump is a salesman. all his life he has sold great, fantastic, make america great again, make people rich. this is a grim situation. economically and in public health, so a few weeks ago, he had this idea, encouraged by friends at fox news to pump hydroxychloroquine, as maybe a miracle cure here, so he touts it. he gets rid of the -- or his administration gets rid of the scientist who is saying, no, that may not be a solution. we shouldn't pump research money there. i should say the president has dropped talking about it as some of the bad clinical or initial small trials have come

joining us now john harwood and daniel dale. regulars on the program. always happy to have them. good evening. john. reuters is reporting that president trump said today in an interview that china's handling of the coronavirus is proof that beijing will do anything they can to make him lose in november. is he suggesting that they wanted there to be a global pandemic that would cost more than 227,000 lives all because of him? >> i think that is what he is trying to suggest. president trump has been shaken by the very bad poll numbers. he would lose the election to joe biden if it were held today. he is looking for a way to deflect responsibility for his political situation. he has been saying multiple times in recent days that china is responsible for the situation that we are in as opposed to how he managed the pandemic. and by then saying well, this is happening because china wants me to lose the election. that is an attempt to try to create a story that is the analogue to 2016 and russia was trying to help donald trump win. now he is trying to say that china is trying to help jo

joining us now, cnn's white house correspondent john harwood, daniel dale, and elaina plott with "the new york times." good to have all of you. good evening. john, you are first again this evening. the president says that he's going to announce these new federal guidelines tomorrow meant to reopen the country. we are told that he is laser focused on may 1st, even earlier maybe. so, what's going to determine that happening or not because it's not up to him really, but go on. >> well, it's not up to him. but i think he's focused on may 1st as the date to announce some sort of point of departure for the country. my guess is that the -- it will end up being pretty limited in scope. he'll try to focus on some areas with the least number of cases and declare that they're able to be open. there are likely to be states with republican governors. they will be influenced by him. don't know whether they will be acting against their own interests because they will take some action to relax some of the restrictions. and we'll see a surge of cases. can't predict that. don't know how cold those cold

joining me now is white house correspondent john harwood and jeff zeleny. john, we'll start with you. the death toll in the u.s. has topped 41,000. 8 days eight it was at 20,000. just eight days ago. those numbers are shocking and terrifying. that wasn't the focus of tonight eegs briefing, was it? >> it wasn't, don. and i do think we need to point out there were two bits of news on testing, which is the top issue that the president offered tonight. one is getting close to a deal between the administration and house democrats on not only this small business loan program that's run out of money, but $25 billion additional for testing. that's needed. he also said he's going to use the defense production act to accelerate swabs that are a critical component in testing. so small steps in the right direction. but the striking thing about this briefing was that it was focused mostly not on the needs of the american people, but on the needs of the president's ego, his reelection campaign and his rep itation. he's seen very harsh judgments of his own performance in n

i want to bring in cnn white house correspondent john harwood with more. john, good evening to you.t saying that he's going to suspend all immigration. i mean, this is a -- really a tried and true play from his playbook. what's going on? >> well, we don't know for sure what's going on because all we have is this tweet. we do know that since the beginning of this administration, president trump has been trying to cut legal immigration. it's part of his nationalist make america great again agenda. trying to reduce the flow of people from other countries into the united states. but i got to tell you, announcing this on a tweet after 10:00 at night on a monday night gives every impression of a president who is sitting back in his residence watching tv struggling with the pressure of this coronavirus situation, the harsh judgement that he's getting from the american people, the harsh judgement that he's getting from other politicians, from news coverage. he knows he's in very deep trouble and this is a -- gives the appearance of a panic move to try to rouse his base and figure out someth

cnn's john harwood reports now from washington. john? >> president trump took a surprising late night step in an attempt to get on top of the coronavirus crisis announcing on twitter that he was temporarily suspending all immigration into the united states. they explained the justification and many immigration activities have been put on hold by the coronavirus crisis. the president did not announce a ban on travel into the united states, only on immigration itself. now this comes at a time when the president is facing intense criticism over his response to coronavir coronavirus. they said the president was too late to address the issue. governors are saying he's not providing them enough help with testing which is needed to re-open the economy. this is not a new theme for the president. he's talked about this since the 2016 campaign. he's tried to reduce legal immigration levels throughout his presidency. the question is why would you do it now late at night over social media? i talked with cory shockey who's the head of international r

john harwood, we haven't had a briefing since friday. they have added one to tomorrow's schedule. we don't know what the president's role will be. if his tweets today are any indication the president remains rattled and he's ranting. >> he is focused on himself, pretty much always focused on. that's not so jarring when you have a strong economy. he's not macing well when the chit is suffering. it is jar ing ring to see him fd on himself and his grievances and complaints with his enemies in the press and politics. so what has happened is the american people have seen that and because it's so jarring, it's finally dawned on the white house and others in the political world that their initial assumption was incorr t incorrect. that assumption was that extended times with the president to talk every day on camera bt a the situation, would allow him to turn it to his advantage. it's not it to his advantage because americans don't like what they see. he's behind in follpolls. >> this is what the "washington post" is analyzing. analyzed three weeks of white house briefings. it found that

i want to bring in john harwood and daniel dale. hello to both. john, you first. over 46,000 people have now died in this country because of the coronavirus. tonight we saw the president bullying the medical community into pushing his narrative when it's the science that's going to save lives. >> that's right. and i think, don, what we're seeing is a president who is getting knocked around by the pressure of this very, very difficult situation. donald trump is a salesman. all his life he's sold great, fantastic, make america great again, make people rich. this is a grim situation economically and in public health. a few weeks ago he had this idea encouraged by folks at fox news to pump hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure, so he touts it. he gets rid of the scientist who is saying no, that may not be a solution. we shouldn't pump research money there. i should say the president has dropped talking about it as some of the bad clinical or initial small trials have come in. the same thing with redfield. redfield said something about the combination of flu and coronav

joining me now to discuss, cnn white house correspondent john harwood and our resident fact checker, daniel dale. gentlemen, good evening. john, the president ceded to the medical experts in laying out a multi-phase approach for reopening the country. so walk us through phase one and when this could begin. >> he did, don, and it was a framework that made sense in theory. without specifying how we're going to get there. first of all, you -- the state has to pass through the gate, shall we say, to get to phase one. through the gate, 14 days of declining covid cases. you have to have a hospital system that can operate not in crisis mode, and you have to have enough testing and contact tracing to keep the new outbreaks under control. not clear that any state can meet all those criteria now. but if they get to phase one, here's what it shows. under phase one, vulnerable people will shelter in place. as they are now. telework at workplaces is encouraged. phased return of workers. schools remain closed. avoid gatherings of more than ten people. and minimize nonessential travel. that's for st

let's discuss the government's response with cnn white house correspondent john harwood. jeffrey toobin and chief washington correspondent for politico, ryan lizza. tough job, ryan. good to see all of you. what does the white house need to be focusing on and what's actually happening at these task force briefings? >> well, what happened today was we saw exactly what consumes donald trump most of all. it's not the protection of his constituents, it's the protection of his sense of self. he is right now trapped in a terrible reality of economic devastation, illness and death on his watch. he is watching on television harsh reviews of his performance. reading in "the new york times" the dissection of all of the ways he was slow and behind the curve on this crisis. watching tony fauci go on jake tapper's show on sunday announcing the slowness of the response was costing lives. that was very hard to take. he came into the briefing today with a sense of anger that he was being criticized. he went after caitlyn, he went after paula reed of cbs. he mounted a furious defense of hi

john harwood is here and our resident fact checker daniel dale. john, you first, the president seemed to be aware of how bad this could get. talk to me about his response today. >> don, we saw a president today who had been smacked in the face hard by a reality that's very, very grim. you know, so often the president comes across as somebody who's out of touch with what the rest of us can all see presenting kind of a hucksterish view. he called himself today a cheerleader. it is much harder to do that when you're not looking out at a curve that may rise up sometime in the near future. when it's rising right now, and when you can see the curve steepening in terms of both numbers of cases and the numbers of deaths involved, when you have a best case scenario of 100,000 deaths, that is a situation where even a president who's a cheerleader has got to be knocked back and i think dr. fauci and dr. berks had the effect of grinding that reality into him. so what we saw him say today, the next two weeks are going to be very, very painful. he didn't qualify

i want to get right to cnn white house correspondent john harwood and cnn justice correspondent evan perez. good evening to both of you. evan, this is a big deal. what do you know? >> it is a big deal, don. look, we've been waiting for this exact moment, and it appears that the president took obviously the fact that the country is preoccupied with the coronavirus crisis to finally get rid of michael atkinson, who is the inspector general for the intelligence committee. he is the one who sort of kick started all of the controversy over the ukraine -- the president's leaning on the ukrainian government that joe biden, his political rival. the inspector general was the one who received the whistle-blower complaint and kicked it over and said he had to notify the lawmakers in congress about it. and of course that led to the president's impeachment. we know that the members of congress, the heads of the two intelligence committees in congress were notified tonight that the president was firing atkinson. atkinson was informed tonight that he is essentially being put, don, on a 30-day admin

joining me now cnn white house correspondent john harwood. and our resident fact checker daniel dale. we missed you for a couple days. good to see you. john, you first. dr. fauci is warning the u.s. could be in for a bad fall and winter. president claims experts say the worst of the pandemic is behind us, the virus is going away. who are the experts that he's talking about? >> maybe the ones he sees in the mirror when he's shaving in the morning. maybe the people he sees hosting the evening on fox news. every expert agrees that the virus is going to be with us. the question is the degree. we are getting to the right side of the curb the declining side of the curb in the united states. we're making progress. hoping for more progress over the summer. nobody believes that it's going to be gone and the problem will be over in the fall. question is if we get out breaks and get a resurgence how deep is it simply a few hot spots, is it something nor significant like the spring. and a lot of the determining of that is what we do. how we maintain socia