in georgia is, not surprisingly, its largest metropolitan area of atlanta where its mayor keisha lance bottomsees with the governor's decision to allow businesses to reopen. joining us now is atlanta's mayor, keisha lance bottoms. madam mayor, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. so, what happened in atlanta this weekend? suddenly it was legal to operate a hair dressing salon or tattoo parlor. did people just flock to these businesses? >> well, i've gotten mixed information on that. and first of all, thank you for having me. i've heard reports of people standing outside of salons, nail salons and hair salons. i think part of that is is part of the social distancing, not allowing all of the customers in at once. but then i've heard from restaurant owners and hair stylists and others who said that they absolutely will not open up until it's safe to open up. and i think the thing that is really heartbreaking for me personally to hear is that people are having to make this decision between putting food on their table and whether or not they go back into an environme

keisha lance bottoms. she recently went on the record o poation the governor of georgia's plan to reopen the economy last week. we talked about that and more. so check it out. >> mayor keisha lance bottoms thank you so much for joings on the daily social distancing show. >> thank you for having me it san honor to join you. >> trevor: it is an interesting time specifically in georgia right now because you have a governor who has decided to be in many ways the pilot program for america opening up way seern than a lot of people thought any places should open up. you have come out and have been very vocal against kemp opening up the state of georgia but you are the mayor of atlanta. tell us why you are so against this, even though the governor said he considered it and thinks its time to reopen. >> the irony is the governor and i have a very good working relationship. he is a republican governor. i am of course a democrat. and so we cross the aisles quite a bit to work together. but this is something that i fee

i'm joined now by the mayor of atlanta, keisha lance bottoms. mayor, thank you so much for joining us. what are you hearing from hospitals in atlanta right now, as they brace for what's projected to be, if you believe the models, a peak case load in about two weeks. are they telling you they have enough supplies? >> well, right now, we do have enough supplies, wolf. and it's good news for us. it's unfortunate that we have been able to watch what's happening in other cities, but the upside to that, it's given us an opportunity to prepared and increase our capacity. the governor mentioned today that we will be expanding to 200 additional beds at our world congress center. we also allowed essential construction to continue in the city. and so we have a new state of the art hospital wing opening up with an additional 123 beds. right now, we are a bit under capacity in our hospitals, because we have canceled all elective surgeries, so that's given us a bit of breathing room. but just as the entire country is competing to get ppe, we are competing on

atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms and dr. irwin redlinger. we invite you all, of course, to join nicole wallace and myself, 10:00 pm eastern, an nbc special report, testing stand road to re-opening. certainly was a critical subtopic of today's briefing. our special guests tonight will include the governor of new york andrew cuomo, former mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg, to tuque about the difficult road ahead for their states and localities. also that man on the far left. bill gates. we will talk about his efforts through the bill and melinda gates foundation to fight this pandemic world wide. 10:00 even. 7:00 on the west coast on this very network, where now ari melber picks up our continuing confirmage from here. ari. >> thank you, very much, brian. appreciate it. . we have been, of course, keeping an eye on the white house coronavirus coronavirus task force briefing and the interviews, including those interesting little clues about 2020 and the running mate consideration with kamela harris. so we have a lot to get to i want to br

keisha lance bottoms. mayor, thank you so much for joining us on prime time. >> thank you for having me, chris, and i just want to say i'm so grateful that you're doing better. my entire family has been thinking about you and praying for you and your family. >> mayor, thank you so much. i am blessed. i am lucky. my wife has once again proven that she is the stronger part of the couple, the mrs. powered through this. she's out of quarantine. she dealt with it in a fraction of the time, so we are among the blessed. and you know what, my kids, mayor, they feel exactly what you're being told by your constituents, man, i got to get out of here. i got to get back. it's been too long. i can't take it anymore, and that is strong medicine. the mayor says in georgia, i hear you. and it's been long enough. now, what is your level of comfort that when all of these appetizing things open back up, things you know you want, madam mayor, and that i want if i lived in atlanta, that you can do the testing, do the tracing, a

atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms has clashed with the governor over this, and is urging atlanta's peopleon. she joins us inside "cyber hall" relate to. let me start by asking you, are you tracking the number of businesses that have decided to open, business owners have decided to open, as a result of the governor's controversial decision? >> we are not tracking that yet, tamron. what i can say anecdotally, am hearing from a lot of restaurant owners and business owners in the city who are saying that they will not open yet. even as mayor, i have created an advisory council full of representatives from small businesses and some of our fortune 500 companies who are going to give some thoughtful consideration as to when the appropriate time is for us to go back to business as normal. >> tamron:

right, your know, mayor keisha lance bottoms tweeting again today "please stay home", again people alsoto listen to the governor. people are saying to just use common sense, for anybody at home who may be confused, it is certainly confusing, you know, even for me, living here in georgia, to hear one thing from a governor, and the thing from a mayor, but i think what many people are doing is using common sense and doing whatever they feel comfortable with. here, the british government says around 15,000 people booked tests for coronavirus on its new website before it had to temporarily close it. the 5,000 home—testing kits it had available were ordered within two minutes of the site going live. about ten million key workers and members of their households are now eligible for testing, should they show symptoms. the daily total of hospital deaths for people with coronavirus rose by 768, with the total now standing at more than 19,500. our health editor hugh pym has the latest. say ah... pop—up units run by the army, part of the new push in england to boost virus testing. the number of dri

the mayor of atlanta, keisha lance bottoms, is with us once again to talk about how things are goingcity. mayor, for those who have not been following your story, you had the unusual and unfortunate role of running the largest metropolitan area of a state where even the president criticized how the governor was going about so-called re-opening. so tell us how you're doing thus far. >> well, we are continuing to sound the alarm and there is a story that was just released that the governor is relieving even more restrictions in the state. he's expected to lift the stay-at-home order that we have in effect in the state, and it's very disappointing. when you look at our numbers state-wide, you look at the way we rank higher in obesity rates, diabetes rates, high blood pressure rates, and you layer on top of that the african-american community in this state, this could be catastrophic. we have about 50% of the deaths in our state attributable to african-americans, yet we only make up 30% of the population, and i am extremely concerned that we are continuing to dig in as we head in the wro

joining me now keisha lance bottoms. good to see you again. and looking so well. glad to see that. what are you seeing in your city? talk about the toll this has taken both economically, emotionally and otherwise. >> reporter: well, it's been very stressful, alex. like so many people across the country, people in atlanta are anxious. it's an uncertain time. they are concerned about their health and also how they will feed their families. but thankfully, we were able to anticipate some of this as a city. so we put into place a series of executive orders that has allowed us to deliver meals to students, to our public school students and also to our seniors. we have escalated our summer food program that we normally do for kids in summer camp. so we have been able to fill in the gaps. and like the rest of the country, we are waiting over the next couple of weeks just to even see if our stay-at-home orders and some of the other things we have put in place will have an impact. but thankfully, even before the federal government stepped up, we were able to begin processi

amy: atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms said she was not given advancnce notice of f the move d that the numumber of fatatalitis still on the rise. savannah, georgia, mayor van johnson said he is beyond disturbed, noting testing is still lacking and the state has not seen the recommended 14-day dedecline before reopening.. in southth carolina, republican governor henry mcmaster is reopening public beaches, department stores, and some retail businesses starting today. ohio and tennessee said they would start to reopen businesses from may 1. this comes as anti-lockdown protests continue around the countrtry monday. ththe govevernment's top advisen the coronavirus, dr. anthony fauci, warned protests against state lockdowns will backfire and cause a spspike in new case. massachusetts warned itit is becoming a hotspot for the cocoronavirus. in recentes surged days. the death toll is expected to top 2000, this week, with 40,000 confirmed cacases. "the boston globe" printed 16 pages of death notices on sunday, more than double the number of pages this time last yearar. in new york, numbers

but back with us is atlanta's mayor keisha lance bottoms.he's warning the people in her city to stay home. ms. mayor, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me again, chris. >> first, how's the family? >> we're yet holding on. we have a high school senior who hopefully will graduate in some form or fashion very soon. i mean, this is hard on all of us, especially those of us home with kids all day and those of us trying to put food on our tables. even as i watched the president today, i thought of my kids, things i tell my kids multiple times a day, be honest, be responsible, and somewhere along the way it seems that our president just didn't get that message and it's extremely frustrating as a mayor watching where we are as a country as i look at people standing in line for haircuts and get their nails done. what we're essentially saying in georgia is go bowling and we'll have a bed waiting on you. that's not what our approach should be to covid-19. >> that's why we're watching georgia so closely because hopefully, you know, god forbid

. >>> joining us now is the atlanta mayor, keisha lance bottoms. miss mayor, thank you so much for being with us. before i ask you about the governor's policy to reopen -- and i know you have a different position on this entirely, i want to ask you about the racist text you and your 12-year-old son received, by your attempt to protect atlantaens' health. tell me how that affected you and your family. >> it saddened me. it doesn't frighten me, but it saddened me that in 2020 this is what we're still facing in america. the difference between what i received and things that perhaps happened in the 1960 is there was very different leadership in the white house that did not speak in xenophobic terms and didn't in so many ways give permission to this type behavior. so far in our household, it was a teachable moment. i think it really speaks to the larger discussion that we still continue to need to have an america about race. >> well, for our viewers as well, how did you handle this? how was it a teachable moment for your 12-year-old, for your younger ch

atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms, a democrat. you told chuck todd on tuesday at that point you had not spoken with the governor about the decision to start reopening businesses on friday. have you talked to him last night or talked to him today? >> i have not talked with him today, but i did receive a call from his chief of staff to my chief of staff that the governor did want to talk over the next couple days. so i do appreciate the call and look forward to having that conversation with him. i'm deeply concerned about where we are in this state. >> on the same date that the governor announced the guidelines for reopening the state, you created your own advisory council to create a plan for atlanta specifically. what does reopening your city, what is that going to look like? who should people in your city look to, if they're getting different information from their governor and their mayor? >> craig, it's very confusing to people. i've received a number of calls from hairstylists, restaurant owners, people who just don't understa

and joining us now, the mayor of atlanta, keisha lance bottoms, mayor, thank you very much. i know this is a very ditch tff time for you, for everyone right now. we heard you refer to this as "the twilight zone." when you hear these dangerous bits of so-called information coming out of the white house coronavirus task force briefings specifically from the president, where are you turning right now for guidance as this fight against the pandemic continues? >> wolf, thank you for having me. when i hear the president, the first thing that comes to mind is that words matter. our children are listening. and the same way, when our governor announced that it was okay to go to the barbershop and go to the hair salon and nail salon. my 18-year-old came running in to tell me the governor said it was safe to go out. my concern when i hear the president of the united states tout injections, ingestion of household products is that my children are listening. i hope he will allow the professionals and the scientists and the public health experts to speak on this. but i am so concerned abou

here's what atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms had to say yesterday with my colleague joy reid. >> theave beds open in our city is because we have been very aggressive in shutting things down. and i've said this the past couple of days, joy, simply because we have capacity doesn't mean that we should work to fill those beds up. we cannot sacrifice people's lives and enter into the public health experiment for the sake of the economy. >> nbc's sam brock is in atlanta this morning. sam, what's the reaction on the ground from residents and small businesspeople about these reopenings? >> reporter: ali, good morning. there's two tracks of conversations that we're having right now, one with the people who are going back to these businesses, like spas and salons and gyms, who tell me they're comfortable with it, provided that the proper precautions are being taken. the other conversation, ali, is with the protesters, some of the frontline workers who are out there on friday, driving by the governor's mansion and honking. they tell me, if they're going to go back to their work in a restaurant,

keisha lance bottoms joins us. mayor bottoms, thank you for joining us this morning. i want to put up that cover from "the atlanta journal-constitution" this morning, re-opening today. it's happening today in the state of georgia, so what is your message as this process starts? what's the most important thing you want the people of atlanta and georgia and the country to know about this? >> well, good morning, george. i'm glad to see that you and your wife are feeling better. what i would say is simply just stay home. listen to the scientists and there is nothing essential about going to a bowling alley or giving a manicure in the middle of a pandemic. it is -- it's necessary that we continue to distance ourselves to the extent that we have had any type of relief in the state. it's because we have been aggressive, especially in the metro atlanta area, and socially distancing and asking people to stay home. >> but, you know, the governor is insisting this is being guided by state health officials, that it's driven by data. did he explain that to you and what did you say