Secretary mark esper. Analysis from dr. Jen ashton, tom bossert, Chris Christie and rahm emanuel and a look inside the vulnerable prisons. And a mass grave site. We need help. This week, here now chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning, and welcome to this week. As we come on the air this morning, the country now braced for what could be the toughest week yet in this crisis. Covid19 cases continue to climb here, now more than 300,000. More than 8500 americans have died. The hottest spots now in the northeast new york, the epicenter, more than 63,000 cases in new york city, almost double that across the state. Governor cuomo warns the peak is coming in the next seven days and, quote, were not yet ready for the apex. In new jersey, the death toll has climbed past 800, well past the number of its citizens killed in the 9 11 attacks. Administration officials are now warning of new hotspots pennsylvania, colorado, washington, d. C. , along with detroit and louisiana. Quote, there will be a lot of deaths, president warned at his saturday press conference. But he also mused about allowing Easter Services to go forward next sunday, pushed hard to reopen the country as soon as possible and veered into politics, with a mix of attacks and praise for his chief rival. I think the probable president ial candidate for the democrats will be joe biden. And he agreed that i was correct when i stopped people from china very early very, very early from coming into our country. I appreciate the fact that he did, because i was called xenophobic, racist, i was called many things. And former Vice President joe biden joins us right now. Good morning, mr. Vice president. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me on your show. I appreciate it. I wish you well. Sure thing. We just heard President Trump there talking about you at his press conference yesterday but his team also said, he also said this week he would be open to taking a phone call from you, has that phone call happened and if it did, whats the most important thing youd tell him . It hadnt happen. Im happy to talk with him. I would tell him what we went through a similar crisis, you have to move swiftly. We have to move more rapidly. You have to implement the defense production act. Create, you know, a defense production act for banks that give out Small Business loans, you got to faster than slower and we started off awfully slow. He indicated that i complimented him on dealing with china well, you know, 45 nations had already moved to keep block china personnel from being able to come to the United States before the president moved. Its about pace. Its about its about the urgency and i dont think theres been enough of it. The president has said many times that hes worried about the cure is going to be worse than the disease, does that concern you at all and isnt there a point there, if this lockdown goes on for too long, the Public Health concerns could be grave . Well, the Public Health concerns can be grave and you know, you saw whats happening in singapore, they moved very rapidly to bring down the coronavirus, down to zero, and then they began to open up, they had very, very tight restrictions in terms of social distancing, et cetera, staying in place, now its coming back, and so, you know, what we need most of all, and its not the president s fault at all, but we need most of all, a vaccine. But in the meantime, we have to take all the efforts we can to prevent the spread and lower that curve as they talk about and move from there. George, well need not only the last c. A. R. E. S. Act that congress passed, well need at least two iterations of that i believe to help the economy. Weve seen also the new guidelines from the cdc saying they believe the public should wear masks in public. President trump said hes not going to do it, but several other leading politicians are, when you go out in public going forward, will you be wearing a mask . Yes, look, i think its important to follow the science. Listen to the experts. Do what they tell you. Its, you know, he may not like how he looks in a mask, but the truth of the matter is, follow the science, thats what theyre telling us. If i go out in public, and i havent gone to commercial places of late, i havent gone to my local church, et cetera, there are no services actually, but my generic point is, you should follow the science. And your Campaign Videos have been quite tough on the president. You say his failures is going to cost lives, is that whats happening now . Well, look, what i have been saying is that hes moving too slow, the coronavirus is not his fault. But the response is his responsibility. Look, there are a few things he can do he can immediately and fully implement the defense production act which i and many others called for a long time ago. Hes just getting under way with it. Theres still no defense production act for gloves, masks all the things that First Responders need. We should create a Bank Defense Production act. We got to get those Small Business loans out. You saw what American Express did excuse me, bank of america did, they said, unless you already have loans with us, unless you have a credit card with us, were not going to even though theyre governmentguaranteed loans were not going to process those loans. We got to save jobs and we got to save peoples businesses. We have to ramp up testing. We have been talking about 4 million tests are going to be available, where is it . Whats being done . You got to open up enrollment for obamacare, lot of people dont have insurance, this president is trying to take away obamacare across the board which will leave people naked to this problem were facing, and we have to finally get some data how this coronavirus is really hurting africanamericans and minority communities, these are things that should be done now. But you need a supply commander in charge of it all, right out of the white house, in direct response to the president , so we know where to get what we have to get and get it quickly. Back in 2014, president obamas department of Homeland Security warned that a pandemic was the highest risk of a natural cause. Should your administration have done more to prepare . We did a lot to prepare as you know, george. We set up an office, a Pandemic Office within the white house, and we expanded cdc. In other countries, we could observe, see when things were coming, how things were moving. We put people in china. We did a whole lot of things and they got a very detailed breakdown on this by a briefing, the trump administration, when we transitioned out of office, but the president dismantled almost all of that and he drastically cut the budgets for the cdc he didnt follow through on what we suggested was a real problem. Its going to continue to be a problem, you got to learn lessons from this. We can to do much better and get to the place where we can, you know, these viruses as you know, george, they have no borders. You cant build a wall, you cant have, you know, people at the border trying to stop it, its beyond that capacity, you have to know whats coming, where its coming from and how to deal with it. Lets deal with the situation with captain crozier from the uss theodore roosevelt. As you know, he was fired earlier this week, the president said yesterday he 100 support that decision, your response . I think its i think its close to criminal the way theyre dealing with this guy. Not his conduct. The idea that this man stood up and said what had to be said, got it out that his troops, his his Navy Personnel were in danger in danger look at how many have the virus, i think the guy should have a commendation rather than being fired. Finally, sir, i want to turn to some politics before we go, wisconsin having its primary on tuesday, your opponent sanders said that should be put off and the governor joining the chorus, as well, it looks like thats going to happen, is that wise . Well, look, i think they should follow the science, i what ive been hearing, i have been following like you have, like everyone has, watching the court action, its still in court now but i think whatever whatever the science says is what we should do. And does that hold for the convention as well . Are you open to the idea that it just may not be possible to do the convention in august . Yes. Well, well have to do a convention, may have to do a Virtual Convention. We should be thinking about that right now. The idea of holding a convention is going to be necessary, but we may not be able to put 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people in one place and thats very possible. Again, lets see where it is. What we do between now and then is going to dictate a lot of that as well. My point is, you just got to follow the science. Listen to the experts. Listen to the faucis of the world and if thats the case, its the case. But we cant let we have never allowed any crisis, from a civil war straight through to a pandemic, we have never, never let our democracy take second fiddle. We can both have a democracy and elections and at the same time correct the public hea it time we start thinking about how were going to hold elections, whether well have to spend a lot of time figuring whether we do, is it going to be mostly by mail, or how are we going to make it available to everybody . And i think has to be i know you talked to Bernie Sanders about your Vice President ial pick. Tell us a little bit about how thats going. Is he ready to unify behind your candidacy and is he giving you any recommendations . Well, look, what i have said about the presidency, i was apologizing because, it was a bit presumptous for me to set up a committee to go through the process, and youve been through inher lig the background checksi i wa bernie, i dont want to any way to demean your effort but if we dont start now we wont be able to get there. He was very gracious, he understood. It wasnt about asking him for recommendations of nominees for Vice President. It was about saying to him, bernie, i feel somewhat foolish since although im likely to get the nomination that, in fact, its not officially done yet and im moving forward with a committee for Vice President ial selection and to be able to set up a circumstance where the background checks could be done, as you know they take a lot of time, and if they dont start now or shortly in the month of april, its going to be hard to get it done. So i was basically apologizing and making it clear that i was pushing him. That was the extent of our discussion about the presidency. Mr. Vice president , thanks for your time this morning. Thank you. Thank you, george. Good luck to you, man. Thank you very much. Defense secretary mark esper is up next. Retary mark esper is up next. To be most successful, connectivity is vital. Verizon, really for us, has been a partner for years. Allows us to stay connected to our 80 plus locations across the country. We use verizon throughout our entire day. Its an integral part of how our practice runs. We need our project managers and our superintendents to be able to communicate. We dont have to be together to work together. vo at verizon, were here, and were ready. Were open 24 7 online with tools and support to help your business stay connected at verizon. Com ready. Unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. Im part of a community of problem solvers. We make ideas grow. From an everyday solution. To one that can take on a bigger challenge. We are solving problems that improve lives. But right now, the world needs all the good that we can do. To everyone working to keep america strong, thank you. 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You know, we just heard from former Vice President biden saying the treatment of captain crozier is close to criminal. He was removed before an investigation, is that appropriate . George, before i answer your question, let me step back and Say Something about the broader issue we have facing us, the coronavirus, from the beginning, going back to january, dod has been allin in terms of helping the American People and protecting our people. We have been ahead of the curve. I have laid out three priorities for our commander and all of dod. First, protect our people. Second, ensure we retain our National Mission capabilities and three, support the president s part of whole of government response. Im proud of the americans in the military today helping their fellow americans, many of our Service Members deployed from home, many risking their wellbeing. Im very proud of them. With regard to your question about the captain of the teddy look, secretary modly made a tough decision, tough call, i have full faith and confidence in him and the Navy Leadership and i support their decision. And the president said you were involved in that decision as well. David ignatius is reporting this morning the president wanted captain crozier fired, is that true . This was secretary modlys call. He came and briefed me the night before the morning of, he sat down and talked to me, i recommendations, it was the secretary modlys call and i told him i would support it. Did the military leaders agree with secretary modally . Im not going to comment on our private conversations. You can talk to them separately. Its an issue of trust and confidence in the captain of the ship. So what happens to captain now . Well, george, i cant talk too much about it because im in the chain of command, theres an investigation ongoing and it may fall on my desk at some point in time. But id like to talk about this Global Pandemic facing the country, maybe the greatest since 1918, and tell you how dod is weighing in and helping the American People. I do want to ask about that and i know the president said the medical personnel have been sent to new york, what exactly are they going to be doing and is the pentagon now prepared to allow covid19 patients, suffering from covid19 to be treated on the comfort in new york. Sure, we have personnel deployed across the country. Seattle and dallas and elsewhere. In new york alone, we have over thousand well be sending up over 1,000 medical professionals today, tomorrow and the next day, and a late change as of yesterday, we decided a few hundred of those would be deployed in new york City Hospitals to augment the hospitals there. So what youll find is that the Javits Center will become a 2500bed hospital. The largest hospital in the United States run by the United States military. Were all in on this, ahead of need. With regard of comfort and mercy, we sent those ships up a several days. They also arrived ahead of need. We prepared to open them up to covid19 patients as necessary. I have delegated that authority to the norcom commander whos responsible for the operations in the United States. We have been keeping those in reserve. Because we know this will move around the country. This virus will move around the country and these ships are a thousandbed medical capacity thats deployable. Thats mobile. But, again, if the virus gets so bad in new york city and l. A. , well be prepared to open them up to coronavirus patients. We dont want trauma patients to become coronavirus patients as well. Thats a real concern. Have you sent out all the respirators you have . Many of those are deployed with our hospital ships, field hospitals we sent to new york, seattle and elsewhere, we have prepositioned several hundred outside of new york and we have others that were prepared to ship wherever were told to ship them. You said at top of this interview that the pentagon has been ahead of the curve every day, in january, did pentagon receive an intelligence assessment on covid19 in china last december . I cant recall, george, but, we have many people who watch this closel