Predictions, have changed too. We turn to the hurt in this country. Could unemployment reach 19 , nearly 1 in 5 americans . What the president said. And the 70,000 lives lost. We ask what he would say to those families. Good evening from phoenix. Its great to have you with us here. Weve just finished our exclusive interview with President Trump. His first major trip out of washington in nearly two months. The president trying to send a signal that parts of the country are ready to reopen. But hes well aware of the debate. The scientists concerned about what could happen if the country opens too quickly. We know its not just a number. These are american lives. Tonight, the death toll is above 70,000. 2,200 more lives lost in just the past 24 hours. We asked the president about whether there is a danger. Will lives be lost in the effort to reopen parts of the country . How he answered. Tonight, at least 38 states have eased restrictions, while cases are still on the rise in at least 19 of those states. We talked to the president about the two projections that warn about what could happen if we do not proceed with extreme caution. And the americans out of work. I asked, is it possible to reach 19 unemployment . Will 1 in 5 americans be out of work . So many questions youve been asking all along. Will there be vaccine by the end of the year . What does the president say to the families of those who have lost their lives . I want to start with reopening the country. I know this is your first trip back out into the country yes. In quite some time. And youve said that the decision to open the economy is the biggest decision ive ever had to make. How do you and i suppose this is the central question how do you save livelihoods, without risking more lives . Well, i think actually the decision to close the country was the biggest decision ive ever had to make, and ive said that very loud and clear. I mean, we had the greatest economy in history, in the history of the world, not only our economy, it was our greatest economy. Best employment numbers, best numbers in every single way. And they said, sir, we have to close the country. I said, what are you talking about . Close the country . Because nobodys ever heard of such a thing. And we saved millions of lives by doing it and by putting the ban on china very early, it was a big thing. But the biggest decision ive ever had to make is closing the country, and certainly this is now also a big decision but the people want to go back to work. I want to ask you about what dr. Fauci said last night about the reopening of the country. He said, its the balance of something thats a very difficult choice. How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back where you want to be . Do you see it that way . Do you believe thats the reality were facing that that lives will be lost to reopen the country . Its possible there will be some because you wont be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is, but at the same time, were going to practice social distancing, were going to be washing hands, were going to be doing a lot of the things that weve learned to do over the last period of time. And we have to get our country back. You know, people are dying the other way too. When you look at whats happened with drugs. It goes up, when you look at suicides, i mean, take a look at whats going on. People are losing their jobs. We have to bring it back and thats what were doing. Let me ask you about testing. Yeah. Right now in america, you know, early on there were hurdles. Dr. Fauci at the time acknowledged it was a failing. But for americans who do want to go back to work, should they be able to have access to a test now . Yeah. Should they know whether theyve been exposed to the virus . Should they know if somebody at the workplace is asymptomatic . And they simply dont know or do they have to go back to work, having faith in their leaders and you, mr. President , that the workplace will be safe . No, they dont. They have to test if they want. You know, some people are strong believers in testing. So right now, for any American Worker whos nervous about going back, if they want to get tested to see if theyve been exposed to the virus, they can have access to both the Antibody Test they should have no problem. And they should have no problem. And as good as this is, were even getting better. We came up, dont forget, the cupboard was bare. The other administration the last administration left us nothing. We didnt have ventilators, we didnt have medical equipment, we didnt have testing. The tests were broken. You saw that. We had broken tests. They left us nothing. And weve taken it and we have built an incredible stockpile a stockpile like weve never had before. Many people have heard you say that along the way and have wondered though, you know, youre three years into your first term. Youre now applying for the job again. What did you do when you became president to restock those cupboards that you say were bare . Well, ill be honest. I have a lot of things going on. We had a lot of people that refused to allow the country to be successful. They wasted a lot of time on russia, russia, russia. That turned out to be a total hoax. Then they did ukraine, ukraine and that was a total hoax, then they impeached the president of the United States for absolutely no reason, and we even had a 1970 vote by the republicans. Let me ask you about something Governor Cuomo said today, and this is, this is really the debate i think for a lot of americans who really do want to go back to work sure. But who are afraid for their own health. And Governor Cuomo said the question comes down to how much a human life is worth. That you monitor the transmission rate, the hospitalization rate, the death rate. If it goes up, you stop, you turn off the valve, you slow things down. Do you agree with him that that is the way a lot of these governors who are reopening should proceed . No, i dont know id have to see his full statement. Weve gotten along very well. Dont forget Governor Cuomo last week said the president and the federal government had done have done a phenomenal job. He said that. A phenomenal job. Hes saying now you just have to be ready to turn the valve off for a time if you see a spike. I can only tell you what he said last week. Our country has to go back to being our country again. You have people that are not going to stand for this. And i understand them very well. And we are going to put out little embers and little fires and maybe some big fires, but we still have to go back to work. You talk about the embers, and the possible big fires. There were two new studies out in the last 24 hours, i know that the white house has shot down a couple of them saying they werent vetted through your task force. One was from Johns Hopkins that said, the death rate could double if were not careful with this reopening of america by by june. The daily death rate. The university of washington saying we could have 135,000 americans dead by august. What do you make of those numbers, mr. President . A couple of things. First of all, these models have been so wrong from day one. Both on the low side and the upside. Theyve been so wrong, theyve been so out of whack. And they keep making new models, new models and theyre wrong. Those models that youre mentioning are talking about without mitigation. Were mitigating and weve learned to mitigate, but we can be in place, work in place and also mitigate. Weve done it right, but now we have to get back to work. We have to do it. But let me ask you because youve responded to those two studies out with these forecasts, your own numbers have shifted over time. They have. They have. You said 60,000 americans could die. I watched your town hall over the weekend. You said 75, 80 to 100,000 people could die. Which models are you looking at . What should americans be prepared for as we reopen the country and head into the fall where we could see a potential second wave . Well, the upper number was, as you know, 2. 2 million people. And then there are some, some models or charts that showed higher than that. But 2. 2 million people. I always felt 60, 65, 70 as, as horrible as that is. I mean, youre talking about filling up Yankee Stadium with death. So i thought it was horrible, but its probably going to be somewhat higher than that. Are you still convinced well have a vaccine by years end, and 300 million doses which you had spoke of . Yeah. You can never be convinced when youre saying, am i convinced . I could say this, were doing really great. Oxford, johnson and johnson these companies, and i get reports every single day, theyre doing really great. Am i convinced . I cant be convinced of anything. But i think that we have a really good shot of having something very, very substantial. Let me ask you about the tremendous hurt in this country. There are 30 million americans who are unemployed you dont need me to tell you that. Were expecting the new Unemployment Rate this week. There have been forecasts 15 , 16 , 17 . One of your advisers projected an Unemployment Rate of 19 . Thats nearly one in five americans without a job. How bad is this going to get . Well, that is what it is. And, you know, its very interesting. Even the democrats arent blaming me for that. We had to close it up and we saved millions of lives and we did the right thing. Now were getting back to work. The third quarter, i think, is going to be i call it a transition quarter. A lot of people you see it. Ill tell you what, i got on the plane today, there was such spirit. People are starting to feel we land in arizona, i leave from d. C. , i get calls from everybody, all over the country. I just spoke to the governor of florida. Florida is really active. I think a lot of people share that hope, mr. President , but the reality for so many of the families that weve reported on is they cant afford to wait for the next quarter. Theyre just trying to get through next week, or the next dinner they put on the table. Well, weve done a lot for that. Weve done our small business, as you know, our ppp, paycheck, if you want to call it that, where Small Businesses are given billions of dollars, so that they can take care of their employees. Weve done a lot of other look, weve done 2 trillion. And its actually close to 3 if you really add it up but 2 trillion has been approved, and well probably do more. Its a stimulus. Its to keep people employed, to keep Small Businesses open. Let me ask you, because people will look back, and we have an election six months from now, theyre gonna look back to the beginning of this, and theyre gonna wonder what you knew and when you knew it and i have no interest in going back over everything you said. But there was one thing you said that perhaps you could clarify. You said this, this was at the end of february, a full month had gone by, youd stop travel from china, and you said of the cases here in the u. S. , when you have 15 people and when the 15 within a couple of days is going to go down to zero. Thats a pretty good job weve done. Help me understand that moment. Did you really think we were going to have 15 cases in the u. S. . So let me, let me so i you would say, worse than that, i said one person, one time. And its true. There was a time when we had one person in this country. We knew about it. We worked on it. But we have one person, it mushroomed, to 15 people, mushroomed. Other people were coming in, also from europe. But were at more than a million cases now. Dont forget, in january okay, lets talk about cases. You know why were at a million cases . Because we have more testing than anybody else. If we tested as much as these countries down here, okay, who dont do very much testing at all. Look at japan, very little testing. Theyre at the bottom of the rung. Look at south korea, it gets so much publicity. The president of south korea is a friend of mine. President moon, he called up, he said, what youre doing with testing is amazing. If i tested this number of people instead of this number of people, id have far fewer if i see this line . It goes all the way up. Over 7 million tests. If i tested down here at 1 million tests, i would have a lot fewer cases too. I understand the argument youre making, but you understand theres a huge disparity between 15 and more than a million cases. What was it an intelligence failure . Where was the breakdown that we didnt know the scope of this . Look, let me, let me tell you this. I closed the border, if you want to use that term. I banned people from coming into china. There were approximately 40,000 americans. If you were in my position, you you would you would let them come in. You could ask ron desantis, great governor of florida. Those people went through quarantine, they went through tests, went through everything, but they were american citizens. I had to let them come back in. But i came in, and what i did is, i said, against many people, including anthony fauci, who i like very much, including deborah, who i like very much, the doctors, and many other people. They said, dont ban china, its gonna blow over. And they said this at the end of february. Now, at the same time, i want to be optimistic. I dont want to be mr. Gloom and doom. Its a very bad subject. Im not looking to tell the American People when nobody really knows whats happening yet, oh, this is going to be so tragic. I want to be aside from everything else, and im going to use a term, and some people love it. And some people hate it, but i love it. I want to be a cheerleader for our country. I would be remiss if i didnt ask you one more question about the nearly 70,000 americans whose lives have been lost grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. Right. Weve lost more people now than we lost in the vietnam war. What do you want to say to those families tonight . I want to say, i love you. I want to say that were doing everything we can. I also want to say that were trying to protect people over 60 years old. Were trying so hard and and to the people that have lost family and suffered, and just made it, and just made it, we love you, were working with you. Were supplying vast amounts of money like never before. We want that money to get to the people. And we want them to get better. You can never really come close to replacing, when youve lost no matter how well we do next year, i think our economy is going to be raging. Its going to be so good. No matter how well, those people can never ever replace somebody they love. But were going to have something theyre going to be very proud of. And to the people that have lost someone, theres nobody i dont sleep at night thinking about it. Theres nobody thats taken it harder than me. But at the same time i have to get this enemy defeated. And thats what were doing, david. Thats what were doing. The president s message to the families who have lost loved ones. I also asked the president if hes comfortable that the election becomes a referendum on his handling of the pandemic. He said i am, and im not. Well have much more on that tonight on nightline, the extended interview. And i want to bring in cecilia vega, the president , you heard there acknowledging the potential cost in lives as he tries to reopen the country. That was significant. Reporter this is a pretty striking admission. Just think about it. He says theyre still going to move ahead with reopening the country, but there will indeed be lives lost. Hes called this the most difficult decision of his presidency. When to make this decision and how to make it, of when to reopen the country. But his administration and the president himself are laserfocused on the economy right now. At the same time, he has left this decision up to the governors. Really, right now the onus is on the states and governors, and thats exactly where the white house wants this. And the president s team confirming to us that the Coronavirus Task force that weve all become familiar with, the scientists behind him, even in the middle of the crisis, could be winding down . Reporter yes, the president defending that decision a few minutes ago. He says doctors will still be involved. But it seems the task force is winding down, with the Vice President , and doctors birx and fauci. Even as cases continue to rise in some parts of the country, a pretty striking development. Cecilia, thank you. And in new york city, news on children and the virus. We have reported on a rare condition first seen overseas. The alarm sounded in the uk. Are they now seeing something very similar in new york . Heres tom llamas. Reporter tonight, a new concern. Pediatricians in new york seeing a rare condition similar to one seen in europe. Some children with covid19 showing severe inflammation and experiencing a toxic shocklike syndrome. You may remember this 12yearold in new orleans. Inflammation was causing her heart to fail. They had to do two minutes of cpr on her. I never thought i would have to see my child go through anything like that. It was terrifying. Reporter in new york, at least 15 children showing symptoms of the rare condition. What is concerning, were seeing the heart muscle itself is inflamed or injured and weak. Or their blood vessels are so injured that their Blood Pressure is really low. And it leads to Critical Illness where other organs in the body can get severely injured. Reporter doctors say most kids who contract covid19, this wont happen to them. But if it does, it is very serious. Because it attacks the cardiovascular system. David . Tom, thank you. When we come back, the food supply in the country. Is it at risk . Tonight, fast food restaurants no longer serving burgers. No longer serving burgers. Burgers. Can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. 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