Director, kari watkins, discusses the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. Its sunday, april the 19th. Ahead, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has surpassed 700,000 in the u. S. And the death toll in our country, nearly 39,000. A number of states are beginning to bend the curve, leading to a new debate on how quickly can or should reopen. That is the starting point on this sunday morning. Join in on the conversation. If you live in the eastern or central time zones, 202 7488000. Ut west, 202 7488001 is your state ready to lift restrictions . Tell us where you live and what you think. You can always send us a text , onage, 202 7488003 twitter, or on facebook. Look at the numbers around the world, courtesy of Johns Hopkins university with total confirmed cases at 2. 3 million and deaths around the world in excess of countries. Ths in 185 yet today at the white house and the Daily Briefing the president at this about states trying to reopen and his recommendation. [video clip] him the we released guidelines, a number of states led by democratic and republican governors have announced concrete steps to begin a phased opening. Texas and vermont will allow certain businesses to open on monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions. Tell you that the governor of texas, greg abbott, he knows what hes doing. Hes a great governor and knows exactly what hes doing. Montana will begin lifting restrictions on friday. Ohio has advised nonessential businesses to prepare for a phased opening starting may 1. Host we are posting all of these briefings not only at the website,se on our but on key websites across the country. What should happen in your state, clara . Caller we should stay where we are at this point. Because there isnt testing. I went to the store yesterday, Grocery Store and i asked people , you look around, you think to yourself no one knows if you have it or dont have it and until that happens, you can lift all the restrictions you want, im not going to a hairdresser or a restaurant. It doesnt make any sense. For the people in the other states that are protesting and want everything open, good. All of you get together and get sick, dont expect us to fix it for you. Thats how i feel. Some of this makes no sense whatsoever. Its so illogical. And there are people who have died. We are talking about not winning a Football Game or something. Were talking about peoples lives. Trust me, im not wanting to check out yet, im 72. That inr instant North Carolina is doing a great job but they recognize it is a stepbystep process and they are working diligently to get the testing up. If we can test and know who is a carrier, who has had it, who hasnt had it, it allows to know where we are with the virus. Without that its like you are blind. So, i dont understand that at all and i think the people in new york city would tell us pointblank they dont get it either. Thats run coming from. Headline fromthe bloomberg news. Deaths in los angeles hitting a new record. Michael, watkins glen, new york. What should happen . Heres what i think. I think the governor has taken the right step, Governor Cuomo stepping up to the plate, not political games. They are trying to push our state to go back to work, i get it, i know that the economy is hurting, ok . Sense,have to be common people. We have to get some testing going for everybody. People should know when we do have it or not because you could be Walking Around with it and not even know it. Im going up to the store to get something and im noticing families walking in with their kids and everything and no one its likeon arrogant they dont take heed to the governors warnings and something needs to be done about that. Its just promoting spread. If it spreads, its a nondiscriminatory. It will spread to anybody. Andrew cuomo, you are doing a good job. Keep up the good work. Stay the course. Dont let these people tell you, because it is going to costless lives, as it already has. Hes in a tough spot and as far as mr. Trump goes, he needs to be helping our country more. Hes not doing enough. Thats the real truth. I see him get up on his pulpit and tell the American People that he is the greatest and everything is great, its going great. Its not. Thats a delusional lie. Enough said. You guys have a good day. Stay home, stay safe. From the sunday magazine, there is this. The epicenter inside new york citys hospitals as they face the pandemic. This is from dwight kirkpatrick. Host that from lizzie on the twitter page. Another facebook comment from jane, saying its time to begin the process of reopening the states. Host more of your comments, coming up, but first harley from dryden, new york. Caller i just got a couple of questions, maybe they arent even questions. Comments. For those people that think the country should open today, i wonder what would happen if they were on their beachfront property and the thunder and Lightning Storm came up. I wonder if they would take cover. Think its not safe to be out there by the water during a thunderstorm. Their chances of getting struck by lightning are probably in the area of 100 million to one. Yet they are concerned enough to where they are going to get to a safe place. The other hand, if you are one of these people that think the government should open right now and the beach should be open and you are out there on that beach and theres a number of andle on the beach with you then you leave the beach and you ,o over to your mothers house maybe to have a drink with her , i meanlunch with her that is pretty stupid. Host thank you for the call from new york. Stephen has this from the pit Facebook Page. From usa today, there is this from the governor of georgia, ryan cap. Brian kemp. Joining us from oakland, california. Good morning to you. A pleasure to hear from you. Im saying no, its not ready. Its data, data, and the other word is testing. We all need to be tested. But iny in california, the rest of the United States of america. Its as simple as that. No political games. Its about health. Michael, thank you. This from jeff in tennessee. Host the cover story of time , they are looking for recommendations on what to expect as they return to a new sense of normalcy. Bill those inside, senator fritz, former doctor, from tennessee, who will be joining time onp. M. Eastern wednesday night. Josephine is joining us, next up from livingston, new jersey. Good morning. Caller i think at this point until we can test everybody, my answer is no. Let me just say, i have to give up going to mass. I know how hard it is for me to look at people dying and people protesting. Its like they are stamping on their graves and saying get out of my way, go die, get out of my way, ive got to make my money. What about older people . 40 of those in hospitals that have died were young. , greed, greed is taking over this country. Being our brothers keeper. Theres no question. Die, getthat people go out of our way, weve got to make our money and thats it. Lisa has this on the twitter page host we are asking you if you think your state is ready to reopen. Many of the stayathome orders have been in place for well over a month. Phil murphy, the democratic governor of new jersey had this to say yesterday. [video clip] there is an absolute evident and natural pentup desire to begin to get back to normal. That is shared by everybody, including us, right . This is not like we dont see that. But we have to continue to make our decisions based on the facts and based on data and science. We have to have a plan, you know . If you saw our lives behind the curtain, you would see a number of parallel tracks being run at the same time. The most important of which is to put the house fire out. You would also see, i was on a call earlier today about the elements that we need to have in place for our economy. I mentioned it with leadership were last night and with other members of the federal side of theledger, talking about urgent need for financial support. Judy, and me to some extent, talk about what the Healthcare Infrastructure needs to look like to be in place in new jersey, to give us the confidence that we can begin to open that up. That is the reality that we see. We want to get back to some kind of normal. Who wouldnt . We want to do that. But we cannot do that if it means we put lives at risk. We just cant do that. So, we will continue to call the shots based on the facts. Host the debate continues this sunday morning. Usa today, from florida beaches reopening amid. He Coronavirus Crisis people in louisiana people enthusiastically flocking. This from Governor Desantis of florida. Caller is from florida. Fort lauderdale. Tom, good morning. These people seem to be thinking that trump wants to open the spigot without restrictions. Have they read the phases . Theres nothing unlimited about what they want to do. Tok, donald trump is trying tell this nation dont live in fear. I dont blame some of these people. The media is teaching us that we are supposed to live in fear. The thing about grieving . Greedy . Gimme a break. Everybody is greedy in some way. Dont tell me that everyone who calls and doesnt have their own form of greed, money or power. How much do they donate to charities, when they talk about greed . The thing that i fear is the economic collapse of this country. You know, there is an implied value in money. When you give money to somebody else, you are extending value that you created for value that they created. When the government just sends money out to people, there is no implied barter value for the money. Falls to being able to pay it back. We are not paying back out that. The debt we are running up, i dont know if it is ever going to be paid back. It means the barter value of our money increases or actually disappears, which creates inflation. What happens is somebody who has goods that you want, you say well i have the money for it. The guy that has the goods says everybody has got a lot of money. You dont have enough. Thats how inflation takes over. Mentioned the debt. David lynch of the washington post, has that story on the front page. Record debt load driving the economy to the tipping point. Host also from the New York Times, they have what the next year or two may look like as scientists foresee a long road ahead with republicans aiming to make china a scapegoat in the coronavirus. Fred is next, from perry, ohio. Good morning. You are on the air. Yeah, i was thinking like myself, where i work, im essential, so i got to go to work. Say, im in defiance of social distancing. We didnt do a ballet around each other. I would say maybe technically we were in violation lots of times. But i was thinking, people talk about data. I tell you right now, locally, i would never volunteer that because i would be afraid they would shut us down. If you repressed data, you dont have all the data. I think my story kind of lens weight, how dangerous is it . I dont know, but i think there is a lot of data not being considered for political reasons, you know . I can lose my livelihood . Host was your job . Caller i dont want what is your job . Caller i dont want to sound paranoid, but i dont want anyone to figure out what i do, im afraid it will shut me down. You know, its like little tidbits of history. Fauci says he doesnt want us to shake hands. I remember mussolini outline that in italy. People,it, 10 congregating 10 people . Syria. That was from if 10 people congregated in place, you tell them to disperse. I see a lot of bad signs. This is from a viewer in massachusetts who says hello from massachusetts. Host this is the headline from the wall street journal go to octavia, joining us from georgia. Good evening. Good morning good evening i should say. Good morning i should say. Caller our governor about two weeks ago just realized it could be spread without symptoms. He clearly didnt have a clue as , no onewas going on takes anything that he is saying seriously, but i want to make the point that most of the Major Companies in the area have taken. He lead number six eek it will be week number of six of me working at home next week. Most companies are taking a casebycase to do whats best. Host thank you for the call. Samuel with a text message saying that no state is ready to reopen and the only reason cases are down is because the states are closed because we are practicing social distancing. They are down and if you want them to rise again, they sure to reopen. Inside of the New York Times, exploring antibodies as a way back from lockdown. Next up is hat, joining us from miami, florida. Good morning. You are on the air. Think that any state is ready and part of the issue is the economic struggle that some folks are facing and thats because the state and federal governments should have instead of replacing the income ,hat was lost by businesses debt and mortgages and so forth. Not to cancel them, but with Health Restrictions coming in for businesses and individuals, they should have been similarly a temporary moratorium and all of that was kind of focused on keeping the Food Supply Chain open, keeping utilities functioning and health care. That is the extent of my comment. Thank you for your time. Host a viewer in charleston, west virginia, with this text message. The Associated Press has this story dealing with the disparity among minorities and those lower income americans. Virusacial toll of the. Ws even starker host good morning, bill, from chesterfield, virginia. I think we should ignore the statements the president s makes, hes into selfpromotion. My opinion is that the weaker governors make decisions based on fear of the president and not for their constituents. I caution people against doing that could do themselves harm as well as others just to be on the bandwagon. One more thing, if you look at the Companies Across this country that have closed and sent people home, i dont feel that they did this just to hurt the president for political reasons. They looked at the situation for what it is an decided to do whats right for the majority of the people. Bill, thank you for the call. This remark on the Facebook Page host andrew cuomo have these remarks yesterday about where and when and how new york state will reopen. [video clip] dictate thers strategy and you have different numbers in different parts of the state. Raised the countervailing point, yeah, that is someone who drives from place to place. I understand that and we are trying to balance that regional approach. I dont want people going to new jersey and connecticut versus new york and how do we coordinate that, but you have different situations based on numbers. That from andrew cuomo in albany. Paul is joining us in uniontown. Caller i know that we are not ready to open. In southwestern pennsylvania and we have had people dying over the weekend. [no audio] host are you still with us . You dropped off, i apologize. We would love to hear more about whats happening in uniontown. Ray, laconia, good morning. Caller how are you this morning . Host fine, how are you, sir . Caller im so tired of hearing ignorant people on the right saying that we should reopen, worried about a damp a check and a job and they dont worry a damage about lives. All of you people protesting, god help you if you get sick. You are not going to appreciate it at all. For them to point at old people, they can die, what the hell . Im 69 and have suffered two strokes in last month and i still want to be around for a while. Im not about people being stupid and ignorant. Wake up, america. Get rid of this white house, we are all in trouble. Thank you, ray. Governor abbott was asked about reopening his state and how that process would work. Im issuing executive orders today that would begin the process of opening texas. , opening texas must occur in stages. Obviously not all businesses can open all at once. Some businesses that open without standards would be more open more likely to set us back rather than propel us forward to. A more strategic approach is required to make sure we dont reopen only to have to shut down once again. First, there will be openings announced today that include activities that should pose minimal or no threat to expanding covid19. Openings willonal be announced on april the 27th after further input from the advisors and the medical staff. Third, even more openings will isannounced in may, when it determined that the infection rate has continued to decline and that Hospital Capacity remains available and when testing capacities are significant sufficient to contain outbreaks. Host that from friday with Governor Abbott of texas. This is the headline inside of the washington post. Host gary is joining us from georgia. Good morning. Good morning, steve. How are you doing this morning . Host good, how are you, sir . In. Er hanging i think this should be a decision that people make on their own. If you feel that you need to go back to work and you can and you are able, thats fine. If you dont, you dont have to. But to sit around and wait on the government to come rescue , remember them people that was sitting on the bridge in new orleans . Thats whats going to happen to you. ,he media have one thing going they have got this narrative about testing. Everybody thinks testing is going to be the answer. If you get tested today, that dont say you are good for tomorrow. Unless they are going to mandatorily test everybody in the United States, testing is only good for the time that you have got it. Dont tell you what everyone else around you has done. People, stop playing politics with it. This wasnt President Trump possible virus. He is trying to fix it. Lets Work Together to see if we cant come out of this before it really does ruin the country. Host thank you for the call. This from new jersey. Note from inside of the washington post, a remembrance on what happened this day 25 years ago. 168 deaths, 15 children, the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Happenedack at what and the legacy, 25 years later. 6 00 for you on the west coast. Bob is next, from michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. Have you changed your format