First of all thank you for inviting me to join you today. I appreciate the opportunity. We are in the washington metropolitan area we have taken the earliest and most aggressive actions to try to mitigate inflight of the curve so we are a little bit behind the other states that didnt take those actions and hopefully it will not nearly be as bad but we are still on the upward trajectory so now we have in the region as yesterday more than 27000 total cases and we are still on the upswing with respect to unfortunately hospitalizations and respect to folks going into intensive care, icu beds and death in all jurisdictions we are hopeful the steps we are taking will help mitigate the trajectory but unfortunately we are still claiming and not able to get over that hump. The big focus right now is to open the economy across the country so bad is the current timeline and how confident are you that maryland will not shut down or pull back again . And then to save lives and protect people and stop the spread but at the same time and those that are not able to open. So every one of us wants to get things open as quickly as we possibly can. But thats the way the federal plan calls for with a smart and slow and gradual opening. Until you have 14 days of numbers starting to go down. With the core door in the dc region. But when we get there to start more gradually opening things in that effective in a safe way. We been working with the smartest folks in the country like tom who wrote the report for hopkins and Scott Gottlieb the former commissioner who put together a plan for aei and through the National Governors association our plan will take the best ideas from five or six or seven other plans with a really smart scientist in Public Health officials about how we can reopen your business in a safe and effective way and gradually get people back to normal without having that giant spike and overloaded Health Care System the maryland strong roadmap to recovery we are not flipping a switch but laying out a very detailed plan about how we think we can do that safely when the numbers are right. Could you say what does that look like . Before we become Building Blocks were even put a plan together we need to have adequate testing which is critical all over the country to identify how many people we have that have the virus and where they are the Contact Tracing to make sure we contact them we had adequate ppe with personal protective equipment to be ready for a hospital search for those that we would potentially be overlooking the system. Yesterday i had an announcement that has been open for many years we will reopen and 37 days 6700 hospital beds that is an amazing accomplish the accomplishment we brought in surge tends to supplement locations with ventilators and beds the ppe is still not a great situation we have millions coming in every day. With respect to Contact Tracing we signed a contract yesterday to bring in another thousand people when we launched our website that we feel is cutting edge. The last part is testing which is one of the biggest problems in america and a few days ago we Just Announced we had acquired half a Million Masks from south korea which will help us tremendously is more out of the top five states in america have done in the past 40 days. That is the beginning of our plan. Then it starts with phases with high and low in medium risk businesses based on high touch or low touch with physical distancing certain things to get a quality of life where people can get out of their homes and get outside to do things in a safe way with Small Businesses opening and safeway but it will be a while before we start to see anything that involves people being close together we will encourage as much teleworking as possible we still will not be ramping up those nonessential businesses decisions are made yesterday on metro to extend through the end of may, schools we have pushed off through may 15 to make a final decision if they will remain closed for the rest of the year. But hundreds of Different Things to be involved but a lot of smart people are weighing in of these are decisions we want to make carefully and gradually and safely for how we get those that are hurting economically to work with those out of their homes that are going stir crazy. And not endanger them. So were just getting all the best advice that we can. Host you talk about the Labor Department the numbers are coming up with four. 4 million in the us jobless claims today with 22 million americans out of work because of coronavirus so what about those who want to get back to work . What do you say to them . Health and safety is important but theyre trying to figure out how to put food on the table. This is what keeps me awake at night more so than anything else. I understand so we are doing a lot of things. We have more unemployment claims filed in the past month and a half than the whole year before. That is the need we have out there every government has taken steps to help including those are not regular normal w2 employees are a 1099, independent contractor contractors, and now as we ramp up the ability to get them their checks as fast as possible we started state programs but also trying to process the federal unemployment claims and trying to get those folks back to work with business programs to keep Small Businesses from laying off those folks and protect those employees for Small Business has the most difficult time keeping some of them but the real goal is if they come back to work and do it in a way to keep them safe is no question the economy is hurting people. I want to hear how you deal with your differences of opinion with the administration. A lot of People Struggle with that today and im curious are you and other governors taking more risks on stability than you have in recent history how you deal with differences you may have. I have the unique role that not only do i deal with him as a governor on the front line of a crisis right here is the nextdoor neighbor governor surrounding washington, and a member of the same Political Party but also the chairman of the National Governors. Yesterday we had our 16th Conference Call with the nations governors 11 of them with the president or Vice President i have been leading on behalf of the governors to bring up her issues and concerns to address some to the president and the Vice President on the whole coronavirus team. Sometimes thanking them for the work they are doing sometimes pushing on things we think so the way i try to handle it certainly there are people who are trying to be confrontational and just want to be critical. I have tried my best to be this way but my role as chair i represent democratic and governors that are one democrats why try to be as direct as possible but also open and blunt. I say exactly what we think sometimes it doesnt make the president happy. But i dont go out of my way to poke the bear or criticize him i just try to be helpful with suggestions about things that we really need. Host has Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell suggested federal government what about bankruptcy proceedings and the nga what do they think of that in terms of that governors or states are supportive of . Mitch mcconnell probably regrets saying that. Or im not sure. [laughter] or he will. If he doesnt yet i think he will. I think he will change his mind about that. The last thing we need in the middle of an economic crisis is for all the states filing bankruptcy across america and not provide services to those who desperately need them and exacerbating the problem through the economic crisis. I have talked to Mitch Mcconnell the leaders in the senate and the house the governors have been pushing for a 500 billiondollar package to try to deal with a crisis. We have been on the frontlines taking the tough actions required that the federal government asked us to now we have to continue providing the services. So just through july 1st we will have a 2,000,000,081 two. 8 billion shortfall we do have a Rainy Day Fund and we are tripling our bond rating but we could be in a terrible financial situation. I heard a comment is just a bailout for blue states that is complete nonsense these are wellrun states just as many republicans as democrats to support this the president has committed to support the 500 billion of the stimulus bill a bipartisan bill in the senate with republicans and democrats already signing on board i am hopeful we will be between the administration and the 55 governors of america with the territories we have convinced senator mcconnell maybe he should not let the states go bankrupt. Worry aboutt later it sounds like. Thats where all the governors are. Its not just my opinion, and there may be one or two governors in the country that dont feel that way but its a pretty solid position among the democratic governors that theyve thought about people that they can manage their states while. Weve done a pretty good job managing the states physically and people are pretty pleased with the direction. We are going to try to help some of these Small Businesses and people that are suffering. The states are going to have to have the revenue to do that. We dont have a Printing Press like the government does is we have to get assistance. Theyve done good things on a stimulus, but not 1 penny, any of it has come to make up for the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue loss that we have. One more thing on the topic is there anything specifically i know you laid out the direct assistance to the states. Is there anything else the government has not done that it needs to do in the next stimulus bill or that it needs to do more of. I want to compliment to death for taking a shot i think they did a good job republicans and democrats coming together was unusual in washington and a pretty short period of time to get the bills through and i think getting money out to the people that needed it and money out to the hospitals, all the things theyve done and can be effective and there is just one part of that but they missed it as the assistance to the state and local governments. Host how much money do you think maryland is going to need, what doe is your states need . Just in the 98. 90 day. So we will be short by 2. 8 million. Its not over yet and we are looking at the budget budget tht starts to go into next year. The governor put together a detailed proposal and we worked with the secretary of the National Governors association and they came together on it and worked with the Vice President and they seem to have support from them and we have some support from the republicans and others in the democratic senators. I think which mcconnell publicly will be able to get it. Big news over the past couple of days with your wife playing a bigger role helping to broker a massive shipment of tests from south korea. Can you tell us a little bit about how that came together . This is this is a perfect example of how it really pays off big to have the states involved in diplomacy and doing business overseas. My wife happened to have been born in south korea and my first trade mission when i got elected after i became governor i went to south korea and japan and china into the trip started a friendship back and forth where we did a book of business together, cultural exchanges and we developed a pretty good relationship. My wife speaks fluent for reagan and the sort of became a rock star over there. They kind of ignored me and they were saying first lady. Sso youre not a celebrity. [laughter] no, i was just the guy carrying the first ladys luggage. [laughter] but she was a big deal. When th the president and first lady came here to washington for the first time, we sat with them and got to know them pretty we well. We had an event at the residen residence. The first time they went to the residence and president of noon came on the screen and said how proud they were of my life and then he called me what it means a soninlaw to the great people. Later it turned out to really mean something because about sometime towards the end of march we started talking with the ambassador, my wife and i talking about our special relationship and how we desperately needed this because there wasnt enough testing in korea had been done a good jobn this. Working through multiple levels of the transition and we were able to get half a million tests arranged. No passengers on board the fact with half a million tests that would save lives in our state. The relationship really helped and again the public of korea for their assistance. There are two players i find interesting. First is the fact that they have to step in here and do this is just remarkable because the government naturally doesnt lend itself to that but are there any lessons it isnt rove diplomacy but the states naturally shouldnt have to do this and i wonder if theres any lessons you could embark for other state. It is unusual for a state to get tests you couldnt get in your own country i would say that is unusual but in this whole crisis they are on the front lines. Testing is a local thing. Governors should go out and did her own testing. I dont know if everyone agrees on that but that is what they decide to do so we went out and did it and we were searching for every Domestic Company in america to give testing from the federal government and we searched all around the world and we were successful at getting it because of, not just because of the personal tie but the diplomacy that we had. States do. We do have business internationally we dont do trade policy, but a big part of our economy is the business that we do with in other parts of the world so the states should and can develop those relationships and this was just an example of how that can really come in handy sometimes. Before it was just whispering a few companies and from the countries, create some jobs here in the state. Its about saving peoples lives in the middle of the pandemic. A pandemic. It isnt some and that we planned for when we started the relationships that i think that other governors do similar kinds of things and they have had to step up. I believe we were successful at doing that. I want to shift gears a little bit. We are in an Election Year but you moved the maryland primary to june 2. Do you think it will be safe for people to go to the polling places at that time . I dont think it will be which is why i moved to june 2 and then the independent Autonomous Group i asked them to come up with a plan of how to conduct by mail and give it in a safe manner so we dont have people going out to the polls. They came up with a plan because there were certain people that couldnt vote by mail that was mostly people with disabilities, a couple of blind advocates, some people that didnt have addresses, so they made a combination for one place in each county for people that could do the body mail and we are encouraging everyone in the state to vote by mail because we dont think its going to be safe. We dont think we can get the workers and hundreds of people standing in line at the polling places. How about in november. The party on capitol hill basically said we are not interested. It disadvantages us and im not sure if there is any evidence of that. My party on capitol hill doesnt have much to do with it. They will make these determinations and the governors of the states that are going too make the determinations based on what is safe in their state. We are going to see how it works in the june primary and then assess what they look like an old the state board of elections or in conjunction with our Health Department will make those determinations. Weve always had the ability to do both by mail. The difference here is everybody will be mailing it in as opposed to requesting one and we could easily do that. If its safe we just do a combination of both but we have plenty of time to make those determinations and we are goingg to go based on the two goals you are focused on the reentry into the opening of the economy, but there are a lot of predictions about another virus in the winter. How concerned are you about that, and are you sort of already prepared for a potential pullback and having to kind of shut things down again . That is one of the things that i think really concerns me and a lot of other people. You heard me talk a lot about that yesterday with doctor Robert Redfield and doctor fauci talking at the conference in washington. We have a task force i mentioned earlier, a couple of these guys are on thei. Representatives from the top hospitals and systems, some of the best medical institutions in the world getting their advice and its something we have been talking about for a while. It does concern the experts that the virus has the potential to come back. Its factored into the thinking and planning about why we are doing it gradually and careful carefully. Lets get it open and there is no question it would be worse in flashback in the fall and then we are in a much worse position. The economy would be much worse. More people would lose their jobs and i possibly are all trying to avoid that and we cant stop it right now. We just have to try to keep it over rather than spiking it now or in the fall. Its just a hard thing to figure out. None of us have ever been through it before. We have to do it the right way. A point of personal privilege before the wrapup i just wanted to get your take [inaudible] theres a lot of talk about th this. The president is eager and what is your thought on no fans were all the different options on the table . I am a huge sports fan and despite your comment, the orioles didnt lose on opening day this year i can tell you that. Getting back to playing sports i am tired of watching games from 20 years ago on the sports channel, but i think it is withs indeed quite a while before we see people in the stands and i know some of the different sports leagues are having discussions about are there ways to play the game because most are watching on television no