Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20200313

Tested and tests not available in most parts of the country. When will we know how bad it really is . I would think within a week we will start seeing a real acceleration of testing. As we go two, three more weeks, it will be much, much more. So i think were going to see a much different situation than we saw just a few weeks ago. And close contact, the canadian Prime Minister in isolation after his wife tests positive, and Canadas Parliament shuts down. The president of the brazil said he tested negative after a top aide who was with him and President Trump last week in maralago was found to have the virus. Should President Trump now be tested also . Generally speaking, if i was standing next to someone who had been diagnosed with coronavirus, should i isolate myself and find a test as well. Yes. That goes for the president likely in theory at least or leave it to his doctor. I will leave it to his physician, who is a very good physician. Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington, on a day when with america is coming to a standstill. Schools, sporting events, museums, broadway shows all shut down as the nation tries to come to grips with the coronavirus. Administration officials tell nbc news President Trump plans to declare a National Emergency to a press conference this afternoon to allow more direct relief to americans affected by the virus. House treasury nancy pelosi and steve ma mnuchin demanding lawmakers break the gridlock and help those affected by the virus. At this hour there are 6 89 confirmed cases in the u. S. And 41 deaths. On wall street theres positive movement today. Investors buying off the losses for the worst trading day since black monday back in 1987. Right now the market is at 21,and some but it is not alleviating concerns across the country as shelves empty, streets close, Grocery Store shelves are empty, underlining the new normal. The Trump Administration put dr. Fauci in front of all networks to talk about when to selfquarantine, the National Decision to whether or not we have enough coronavirus tests. No denying theres a disconnect people here who have a test to anybody and they go into a doctor and didnt get it. Thats unfortunate. What were looking now is looking forward and hopefully the next few days to a week or so, its going to be a major escalation. Whats changing, dr. Fauci . What gives you that confidence a week from now anyone who walks into a hospital and goes to see a doctor can get a test from coronavirus . Im not saying everyone and anyone. Im saying its going to be markedly improved. Joining me now is nbc White House Correspondent kristen welker. What do we know about the News Conference, and what does a National Emergency mean . What force does that have . Andrea, we know President Trump at that 3 00 p. M. Press conference he announced a short time ago is expected to announce a National Emergency. That would essentially trigger the stafford act, which would unleash 40 billion this funds to deal with this growing crisis. This would give aid to not only those who have been impacted by the virus but for those who are trying to fight the crisis as well. The question though, andrea, will he unleash that full 40 billion . Will there be a component piece to this . In addition to the president s News Conference later today, of course, andrea, all eyes are on capitol hill because we know they have been negotiating a deal that would also provide aid to those who have been impacted by the virus. Im told based on my conversations theyre close to a deal, they would like to vote on a deal in the house by the end of day. Will that happen remains to be seen. But remember, andrea, the senate canceled their recess for next week to continue to try to work on this. That relief package theyre working on would include expanding unemployment insurance, expanded food assistance, food aid as well as covering coronavirus tests and some treatments as well. So this would be a robust package. Again, lawmakers, the white house, really working to try to get something done by the end of the day. President trump, though, taking matters into his own hands. Of course, hes come under criticism for not acting quickly enough and for there not being enough tests. So today an attempt to try and do more, andrea. Of course, one of the problems is Republican Leaders want to make sure that the president will sign on to anything they agree to because in the past weve known that he has undercut his own Vice President when Senate Republicans were told he would sign on to something, and then he did not. So i believe Kevin Mccarthy was seen at the white house this morning, possibly trying to nail that down, kristen. Thats right. We know Steven Mnuchin has really been the point person on this. Hes been working with House Speaker nancy pelosi who does have quite a bit of leverage. To your point, President Trump was asked yesterday if he would support the package democrats had essentially proposed and he said no, he wasnt ready to support it. Yet he felt like they were filling it with too much that didnt pertain to the actual crisis at hand. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi very clear with reporters yesterday she was willing to work with to make changes to some of the that language that the white house found problematic. We know Steven Mnuchin and pelosi have been speaking a number of times per day. Theyve already had a conversation today and, as you point out, andrea, President Trump has also been in close contact with leaders on capitol hill. It is possible, and we know theres bipartisan support for getting something done. This is a problem that is impacting the the entire country so theres immense pressure on both sides of the aisle to do something, andrea. Kristen welker, thuchank you very much starting us off. Joining us now, dr. Deke emanuel, recognized National Public health and chair of ethics and health at the university of pennsylvania, member of the Biden Campaign Public Health Advisory Committee now. Well, dr. Zeke. Thank you very much. No problem. First at this hour, my information is the d. C. Public Health Department is having a Conference Call with physicians throughout the city who are really alarmed they cannot get access to tests. Doctors and hospitals in this city asking for tests and the red tape has not been cut. Yes, i was on the phone i think yesterday with a western governor saying, yes, we have plenty of tests but we dont have all of the reagents to run the tests. Tens of thousands of tests we have just arent any good. We still havent solved this problem and you heard tony fauci say next week. By next week, what is certainly going to be true, is a lot of the commercial labs, labcorp, quest, will be up and running. I dont know how fast roche can get its labs out there. Academies can develop their tests rapidly. Then we have 0 to have the agents to run them, extract the rna and measure the virus reliably and accurately. Why is this test important . If we want to get to the top knowing were at the top of the curve, in the accelerating phase but when we might tip over, you have to have testing and understand what the prevalence is in the community. Governor dewine i think was on cnn yesterday and said he was told by the epidemiology experts they have at least 100,000 cases just in ohio. That has about 5 of the total national population. Thats a very large number, and you multiply that times all of the population in the country and youre talking about millions of people. And until we know what the universe is, where the hot spots are, we cant mitigate. And were past containment really. Were now in the stage of trying to find out reducing the spread. So the containment thing is keep it out. Prevent it from coming into the community. Youre absolutely right. Thats not relevant really now. Were past that. There are places probably in the United States mostly rural places, where that may be relevant. We should still push on that in the rural communities. But in 80 of the country, which is suburban or urban, where 80 of the population lives, we are in the Mitigation Strategy because thats where people intersect and people have it in the community. We dont know how many, as pointed out, because we havent been doing the right kind of testing. And thats what the social distancing, closing schools, closing theaters, is supposed to do. Its to put distance between us so we dont spread it one person to another person. And that, you know, we do know from previous Public Health Infectious Disease emergencies, that can be effective. What im concerned about is you hear this various timeline. Amazon says, workers who can work from home, work from home until the end of march. University of pennsylvania, my institution and most of the ivy league closed to the end of the semester, which is april may. Different timelines. If we ease up on the social distancing, are we simply okay, we postponed, which is very relevant, we postponed cases but we havent eliminated the total number of cases and, therefore, well have another uptick in the number of cases. That has a benefit. Your viewers should know, the benefit is it spreads out the number of cases, doesnt overwhelm the Health Care System or minimize the impact on the Health Care System but it doesnt minimize the virus and we might be back into we have to social distance again and this is a yoyo effect. The president controversially banned a number of flights or people coming in from europe. The w. H. O. Just declared europe is not the hot spot, so that is seeding the spread elsewhere. Anecdotally were hearing people are coming in from International Flights at newark, dulles. One case were told about from newark, a person saying i have been in africa the past two weeks where there i went through airports five times. All of the airports had some sort of screening for covid19. Most of the employees in the airport wore masks and gloves. I just landed in newark, there was absolutely zero screening. Not a sign, nothing about symptoms. No one asked if i had symptoms, no thermometer testing. And thats being replicated elsewhere. I was in oslo monday and tuesday. I flew back on wednesday. I got off the plane. We all got flew off in dulles, got in the peoplemover when you put a lot of people together. Got to passport control. I did my fingers, again, touching a surface, and walked right through. There was literally no information, no questions at all. So i dont think thats whoever that person was is unusual. We clearly have not done the right job in terms of screening at airports. But i would also say, you know, screening at airports, im not sure what it does now. Its here. We know coronavirus is here and in most where the population of the United States is, its out in the community. So preventing another case coming from europe is not going to prevent further spread in the United States. The further spread has to be by to prevent it, social distancing. The president of the United States was with the president of brazil. Hes been tested. Of. Information minister. Actually the president of brazil tested positive. Right. But the president himself has been tested and he says its negative. Theres conflicting reports about that. That be said, should the president be tested . Well, first of all, if you test him immediately after shaking hands, you can get a false positive. You need an incubation period of five, six days. Immediately testing and getting a negative, thats what we in the business call a potential false negative. It was too early. He didnt have enough virus in the system to detect it. Look, i think everyone has to be careful. The president is no different in this circumstance. This virus doesnt distinguish between people who vote democrat or vote republican, people who happen to be rich or people who happen to be poor. So i dont think hes immune. And weve already got, you know, cpac had someone who shook hands with his various mark meadows and others, hes come into contact with a lot of people who are potentially and his doctor has to decide. Hes over 65 years of age so we have to be concerned. One other quick question, youre involved with a lot of hospitals, directly in philadelphia but elsewhere around the country. How close are we to being overwhelmed if this thing is as bad as we think it is . So were not there now. Hospitals aric thatting various measures to try to prevent being overwhelmed. But as we wrote in the new york times, you know, if we get 5 million people, we could easily be overwhelmed. We have about 800,000 hospital beds in the United States. We have about 68,000, 70,000 intensive care units for adults mostly affected by this and less than 100,000 ventilators that are fullfunctioning ventilators. Thats skating very close to the wind, and we do need to build in some search capacity. Probably ten hospitals recommissioning facilities for this. And doing it now. We have to anticipate the worst. We cant wait for the worst to jump on us. You know, maybe it will all be unnecessary. Wouldnt that be lovely . People say youre going to waste a lot of money. I dont know the stock market just lost trillions and trillions of dollars. That seems like a waste too. That isnt going to be reversed really fully even if the stock market went up today until we get our hands on this infection, get it under control and people can feel confident weve got the right measures in so its not going to spread like wildfire in the population and truly overwhelm all of the systems. Dr. Zeke emanuel, thank you very much. Thank you. Quickly, this update from tom hanks, who along with his wife rita wilson tested positive for coronavirus while filming in australia. The actor is thanking australians for helping them. In an Instagram Post he said, quote, were taking it one day at a tile. There are things we can all do to get through this by following the advice of experts and taking care of ourselves and each other, no . Remember despite all of the current events, there is no crying in baseball, hanks. Good advice for all of us. Coming up travel ban. The impact of President Trump blocki blocking european arrivals. Will it help stem the spread of the virus . 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It grabs peoples attention. Then they come to my store. Buy that sofa. And leave happy its easy, and its effective. And its why Comcast Spotlight is changing its name to effectv. Because being effective means getting results. President trumps ban restricting travel from 26 European Countries to the u. S. Will be in full force by midnight tonight. Moments ago the World Health Organization declared europe has now become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The president said the aim of the travel ban from europe is stop the spread of the coronavirus, a move condemned by european leaders in part because mr. Trump announced it without consulting or notifying any of them. Joining me is keir simmons, who is at Londons Heathrow airport. Kooer, what are you seeing there talking to travelers . A lot of anxiousness and i think the World Health Organizations announcement europe is now the epicenter of the pandemic will just make people more fearful. The World Health Organization saying europe has now more cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from china. Look, one of the things that unites us all is human beings. For most of us at least, andrea, at times of unstability and fear we want to be home. I think what youre seeing behind me on planes and still taking off from this, one of the worlds busiest airports, likely to be very much full of people just trying to get home. I have spoken to a number of americans trying to do that. One couple, for example, who were woken up during the night because of President Trumps announcement by their mom, packed, flew here from portugal and now held up at a hotel on their airline trying to get an earlier flight instead of tomorrow. They can still fly back tomorrow though. This deadline tonight limits travel to the United States by european citizens the next 30 days. It does not limit travel by u. S. Citizens. So a lot of confusion as well as concern, andrea. Thank you very much, keir simmons, out at heathrow. Joining me now is the senior policy fellow at the center for global development. Previously he was ahead of performer Disaster Assistance and dealt with ebola and other crises. First of all, the travel ban against europe without warning, which is another question because it so offends allies and confuses them and creates confusion at the airports, was it warranted given the w. H. O. Has now declared europe the hot spot . What concerns me about it apart from the extremely sloppy execution is its a distraction from where we really needed to be focused. What we needed to hear from the president last night or two nights ago, rather, was a plan for how hes going to protect us in this country against the greatest spread in this country. The risk of overseas introduction is not zero but it is far less the risk anyone in this country faces is much more from someone else in their community than a traveler overseas. That still seems to be the focus and seems not to be. The ebola, the mortality rate for ebola was much more terrifying to people. The numbers were, of course, insignificant comparison to this. Yes. The threat here is how quickly and easily this could spread. The threat is the transmissibility and the fact it is hard for even a developed Health System to contain. What we saw with ebola it spread widely with countries with weak Health Systems. When it reached a developed country Health System like ours, we had two cases transmitted here and completely pd to. It didnt pose nearly the threat this does. I want to show a bar graph that was developed by the Rachel Maddow team the other night showing how other developed countries, led by south korea, are doing testing and look where we are. Were down near the bottom. Its remarkable. Its extraordinary. It goes against everything we know about our country. Yes. I think there will be im sure there will be reviews and studies of this for years to come trying to understand how this happened and why this mistake was made. I think what it comes down to and really ties to the travel issue, the Trump Administrations assistance, starting from the president , this was an overseas threat that we would be able to block from coming here. The center of the policy going back to midjanuary was stopping it from coming into our country. And so testing at a wide level in this country didnt seem to be a priority to them because as long as they were testing everyone coming in from china, they were content they were seeing what they needed to see. That was obviously not the case. The president has been tweeting against cdc and Obamas Administration for decades for not developing these test procedures. Is that a fair criticism . Its not a fair criticism to blame the last administration for policies you had the authority to change. What we saw the fda do is kierz an emergency use authorization. They could have done that a month and a half earlier that he did. That wasnt an obama era policy that tied his hands. It didnt tie his hands because the fda waived it. They could have done it a month and a half earlier. The problem here is leadership and this is not a wellrun process from the word go and now were beginning to pay the price for that. Thank you very much for your help and your experience on this. And this just in, the l. A. Unified School District in san diego schools both are closing over the coronavirus threat starting on monday. Stay with us, well have the latest here on msnbc. At fidelity, online u. S. Stocks and etfs are commissionfree. And when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. Thats why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. Talk, talk while our competition continues to talk. 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Call today and find out more. Im proud to be part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. President trump plans to declare a National Emergency in a little more than two hours from now. The declaration will allow more direct aid to americans affected by the coronavirus outbreak and also free states up to spend emergency money. Earlier the president playing the blame game on twitter, slamming former president obama and the cdc, the agency at the forefront of the battle. But the president s tactics are falling short. The ap writing, quote, the virus does not have a twitter account, is resistant to political bullying and Republican Party solidarity and played on lack of curiosity and fear of germs while exposing vibes of inadequacies within senior levels of the administration. Joining me, the author of that story, jonathan lemire, White House Correspondent for associated press. Tell us the backstory of how the president arrived at the speech that he gave with all of the immediate corrections, the confusion internally, persuading him to give the speech. Who was pressing him to give that Oval Office Speech . A few things traditionally more tightly scripted is an Oval Office Address to the nation, particularly a time of crisis, like this one was the other night. There was a divide within the white house as to those who wanted him to give that speech. Others were reluctant. Kelly conway counseled against it. Suggesting he put out a pretaped video on twitter. Others in the room including Vice President and jared kushner, whose role in the Coronavirus Response is growing by the day, suggested the president should do it. According to our reporting, within moments from stepping outside from behind the oval office desk, the president knew he made mistakes in the speech and white house aides quickly had to clean those up, including about the lack the fact that they banned european travel did not apply to cargo. But this is also reflective of how the president approached this throughout. Scattered shot and haphazard. He was slow to get started. Wanted to play it in fear of upsetting china, fear of rattling the markets. Even after they tried to install these briefings and put the Vice President in charge of the response, President Trump stepped on messaging more than once, not just the Oval Office Speech but rambling appearance at the cdc and his frustrations are growing behind the scenes as were reporting today and angry his effort to calm things rattled the markets more. Even if theyre up today, theyve been very, very volatile all week. And we know how important the markets are to him. Jeff nathan, now Jp Morgan Chase and others are predicting a recession. Now theres a 90 chance of recession as a result of this, not a financial crisis but Health Crisis creating an american crisis because the market has shut down. How are investors dealing with that . A number of ways. Investors are buying and selling stocks looking for a reason to have confidence. They just havent seen that. They have not seen numbers, number one, that suggests the coronavirus is under control in the United States because its not. Number two, they havent been satisfied with what theyve seen from the administration in terms of economic stimulus and other economic measures to help employers deal with this crisis. The markets is up a little bit today because of optimism about a package coming through in congress. But the long term for this, theres just no view yet as to how long this is going to take and theres a lot of frustration among investors as well as the general public and others, with how its being handled. Jonathan lemire, the package in congress, democrats were complaining republicans were trying to attack the Hyde Amendment and antiabortion language into that package, which was freeing up other health care responses and having tests require no copays and things like that. And at the same time the republicans were complaining that the democrats were loading it up with all kinds of social programs they didnt want in. They were close to a deal. We know the House Republicans were concerned about voting for it in case the president walked away from it. Sure, thats always been a republican concern. Its so hard to predict where the president will come down on things. But you nailed it, andrea. At a time the nation is looking for unity out of capitol hill and washington as a whole, theyre not getting that and both parties are pointing fingers at each other. There seems to be a deal. Right now the president is meeting with ken mccarthy, republican leader, chief of staff, secretary mnuchin at meetings this morning. Theres hope something will be hammered out in the near future. And were waiting to see what the president says at 3 00 be if this speech can provide reassurance of the nation. Its important noting the time, before wall street closes for the day. In fact, i was just going to make that point. Jeff mason, jonathan lemire, we will all be watching. Thank you. Coming up where are the tests . Why the u. S. Is struggling to get coronavirus test kits out and what needs to be done to break the logjam. Thats next. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports. Your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. 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Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking moments ago in ottawa outside their home saying he will remain in selfquarantine after his wife sophie tested positive for coronavirus. The Prime Minister said shes recovering, feeling well this morning, but we got a dire warning about the disease from americas leading expert on Infectious Diseases. Right here dr. Anthony fauci. So two things were looking for. A, things are going to get worse before they get better. B, whats happening now with many more tests that will be going out very, very shortly, with people now very seriously taking containment mitigation into effect, hopefully we will be able to blunt that peak. Thats what i see in the next few weeks. Dr. Fauci, of course, talking to Joe Scarborough on morning joe. Joining us dr. Torres. Thank you very much for joining us. Im still wondering where are the tests . As i have been reporting d. C. Public health was on a Conference Call this hour with d. C. Doctors, who are complaining they cannot get access to the tests. And thats not unusual. Im getting that from doctors i know across the country too. I have patients that i think need this test because i need to find out if they have this or something else. Im asking for the test and find out difficulty asking for the test and im getting the answer no, you cannot test these. The testing hes talking about, more and more going to go out, up until this point theres difficulty getting them out and people tested. Originally they were just testing people with severe illness hospitalized and then people in contact or areas. Honefully now we open it up to areas where the doctor thinks should be tested. Thats the linchpin. Hes talking about blunting the cases out there, blunting that curve so people dont get sick all at once and overwhelm hospital systems. We can slow that down to a certain extent. We cant do that without knowing where people are sick and infections are and epicenters of these areas to get that contained and controlled. Dr. Torres, thank you again. While were focusing on the coronavirus here at home, a wisconsin congressman is concerned theres not enough test kits at military bases abroad. Hes raising the alarm after learning a number of military personnel with flulike symptoms but negative flu tests have been not tested for the coronavirus. And its a few miles from an afghan town with five positive cases. Joining me now, the wisconsin congressman. Thank you very much for your concern for our military 0 overseas. Have you gotten any response from the pentagon about our military officials taking care of our military troops . Yes, andrea, they told us now they dont have test kits for folks in afghanistan and giving their proximity to the iranian border, given the condition we know of some cities in afghanistan, i think thats unconscionable. We were notified of a loved one of a Service Member who said a number of people have flulike conditions and tested negative for the flu and they dont have the test. Even if you do get the test, unless you get that processed in 72 hours, you can get a false negative or conditions of the test might be ruined. We still have a lot of concerns on the front. The fact is that our troops overseas are vulnerable in many places. We have troops in italy. We have troops at nato bases around the world. And, of course, south korea, japan, elsewhere and asia. How can that be possible that military doctors do not have access to these tests . It shouldnt be possible. We should be having those tests out like we need to get them across the country. We know the Administration Made a number of missteps and im not here to talk about that today but were significantly behind where we should be. Its one thing about getting tests out but its important were proactively testing right people, anyone in the medical system and health personnel, we should be expanding testing. Also very important the labs that do processing were significantly behind. Even though were told this week about were 2. 5 million tests, as of this morning we can only process 25,000 tests a day in the labs at the United States. We still have a serious problem on that front. But we arent addressing this as aggressively as we should be. Joe biden has recommended there be a quick move to start creating 500bed hospitals at key places around the country in advance of what could be an overwhelming need for hospitals, for protective gear, for ventilators. Would you support doing that in the budget, have the military create these standup, popup hospitals . I think we have to consider every option. Were going to have hospitals potentially overrun unless we flatten the curve, which is why i think many of the activities right now to keep people away from big groups, to try to lesson the quickness of the impact of this. But i still think what really matters now more than anything is getting aggressive testing out there, building up our labs ability to process those tests. Otherwise having a lot of tests wont mean a lot. Really then dealing with the underlying issues that should have been dealt with a month ago. Congressman mark poken, thank you so much. Thank you for concern for our troops. Coming up next putting politics aside, rope lines offlimits, rallies canceled, debates moved. And now news of an upcoming primary being postponed. We will give you that information next. Ation next its tough to quit smoking cold turkey. So chantix can help you quit slow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. 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Yet another sign the coronavirus pandemic is changing the Political Landscape of the 2020 campaign. Joe biden and Bernie Sanders have canceled rallies and town halls and sundays debate is being moved from arizona to a studio in washington without a live audience. Theyre also spending more on tv ads and social media, plus set speeches without an audience. Meanwhile President Trump says hes also suspended his trademark rallies. Joining us for the inside scoop, editor at large and msnbc contributor charlie psychs and eugene robinson. Charlie, whats happening out there . Are you in wisconsin today . I should have asked where you are. I am in no. Im in milwaukee today. Youre in milwaukee. So tell me how things are going in wisconsin, the community there, and concerns about testing and schools and the like. And how campaigning is going where you are. Well, you know, like the rest of the country, the Coronavirus Crisis has eaten the president ial campaign. Unlike impeachment and the other things weve talked about, this is affecting everyone. Theres no place you go where people are not talking about this. Theres no one that youre related to that is not affected in some way. So this is a crisis. A political crisis and political issue unlike anything weve seen over the last three years where nothing ever moves the needle. I get the sense that people are watching. People are nervous. People are wondering whats going to happen next and in milwaukee, one of the Big Questions is is this going to effect the Democratic National convention here this summer . Its premature to suggest that it might be postponed, but thats obviously something on everybodys mind here in milwaukee. And, of course, the doctors are telling us that you have to test to know where the hot spots are before you can try to bend the curve as south korea has and has now happened in china, and that is not happening yet here. Well behind the curve. Eugene, lets talk about the politics of this. Arguably, this could help joe biden against Bernie Sanders, because he doesnt have to do as many rallies where sanders has larger crowds. He doesnt have as much money. So he doesnt have to spend as much on travel which is a big amount of money. For a staple of the Sanders Campaign, one of the foundational pillars of the Sanders Campaign is these big rallies where he drew these enormous crowds and then you have all the some excitement and all this. And that goes to donald trump. Same for donald trump. Joe biden, that was not the case. Right . He is not in fact, you could argue that it helps joe biden in that thats not his forte. He never assembled the crowds. He never rallied and roused them the way sanders does. Now, all that is within the context of where the race is today. And i guess the bigger question is whether it impacts the primary schedule. I mean, biden was on a roll, and seemed and still seems to be sort of cruising toward the nomination, very difficult for sanders to catch up. Four big primaries on tuesday. Difficult for sanders to make up old people wont come out and vote. Are people going to come out and vote and are states going to be forced to take measures like louisiana just did . That throws uncertainty into the process. Both candidates first biden, then sanders had coronavirus speeches to contrast themselves with the president yesterday. And sanders is going to have another at 2 00 this afternoon. Lets look at yesterdays and the contrast between the two. Our governments ability to respond effectively has been undermined by hallowing out our agencies and disparagement of science. I can promise you this. When im president , we will be better prepared, respond better, and recover better. We have an administration that is largely incompetent, and whose imp competence and recklessness have threatened the lives of many, many people in our country. Now, charlie, biden had the advantage of he had a whole proposal. He has a whole medical team. He was very specific in his proposals. He says the disadvantage in that he is a target for the president claiming that the Obama Biden Administration caused this problem or caused the slow response to this problem. Yeah. But i thought the contrast was very, very revealing. After President Trumps Oval Office Speech, to see joe biden standing up there and going through in a calm detailed way, it was a reminder of what it would be like to have a president who would deal with this in a this way. A campaign is about saying lets test the fitness of the incumbent president. This is the opportunity i think for joe biden to contrast his experience, his knowledge, and his demeanor with what we saw the other night from donald trump despite what hes going to do this afternoon. Eugene . The contrast was clear. The contrast was clear. The president S Performance could hardly have been much worse. Biden, clearly the goal was to come out and be president ial. And i think he pretty universally agreed he succeeded at that. Of course, he doesnt have the responsibility at the moment that President Trump has. And thats just the fact. Eugene, charlie, great to see you both. And coming up at the top of the hour. Well answer your questions about coronavirus, our contributors and correspondents can talk about the issues. Send a tweet with the question and the msnbcanswers or an emai email talkmsnbc. Com email talkmsnbc. Co or get it to go at red lobster dot com dont just plan to retire. Plan to live. 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And fact check and then challenge the accuracy of official statements. Now here we go to new york with more answers to your questions. Welcome. We are focussed on the coronavirus pandemic. Every day this outbreak grows as does the range of your questions. So lets keep on getting you answers. While we do, keep the questions coming. News msnbcanswers on twitter, facebook, instagram. You can also email was talk msnbc. Com. Theres breaking news in the last half hour. Louisiana is postponing its april 4th democratic primary until june 20th because of coronavirus, the first time weve seen this from any state. And two hours from now the president will officially