He meant america has prevailed on testing, which is not true. It is true that Testing Capacity has increased considerably in the u. S. As the atlantic pointed out friday, the country faces the same problem today it did two months ago. There are not enough tests to contain the virus. With the president ial election looming, the white house is trying to convince the American People they can have confidence as they go back to the public square. A big part of that is trying to convince americans most whom know better that we have enough testing. As reporters pressed trump on his testing claims today, he abruptly ended the press conference, walking away from his only Mission Accomplished speech. The president wants you to act like a warrior. He said this. Hes used this metaphor, to rush out into public, to risk exposure to the virus. Even his own economic adviser, the one who works in his white house is literally scared to follow that advice. It is scary to go to work. I was not part of the white house in march. I think that id be a lot safer if i was sitting at home than i would be if i go to the west wing. Everybody knows if you go into work, you have been in the west wing, its a small, crowded place, you know, its a little bit risky but you have to do it because you have to serve your country. Things may be very bad at the white house according to the New York Times. Some senior officials believe the disease is already spreading rapidly through the warren of cramped offices ha mathat make e three floors. Three are under quarantine, robert redfield, dr. Hahn, and Anthony Fauci entering a modified quarantine. Part of the problem may be that people in the white house have been cavalier about Wearing Masks you might have noticed thanks in large part to trump, one white house employee saying the president sees it as weakness to wear a mask. Heres trump not wearing a mask on a visit to a mask factory. I think he later claimed he was wearing a mask, you just didnt see it. Vice president pence going mask less at the mayo clinic, and his spokesperson, katie miller who did not regularly wear a mask while at work. Katie miller is one of the white house officials who tested positive for the virus. Trump held a white house meeting for military leaders and members of the National Security team, none of whom wore masks. Not present for the meeting, national guard, Joseph Lindell did not attend because he tested positive before the meeting while he was at the white house. The white house wanted to visit a pennsylvania factory but factory officials asked to postpone, in part because they were worried his visit would jeopardize the workers. The White House Management Office sent white house staffers a memo requiring them to wear a mask or facial covering in the west wing. Probably a good idea they did. I mean, its basically inevitable, right, that all workplaces in close quarters will have to deal with this. Any packed indoor space is going to have the virus at its doorstep, whether its a prison or meat packing plant or longterm care facility or a random call center in south korea. The one difference with the white house is unlike pretty much anywhere else in the United States, there at least they are testing constantly. With the constant tests, the germophobe president you dont want to get sick, theyre having a hard time getting the virus under control. Trump tweeted democrats are moving slowly to reopen the u. S. For political purposes. They would wait until november 3rd if it were up to them. This is the fundamental problem, the fundamental problem from the beginning, and the fundamental problem during the impeachment. He can only understand the virus as part of some grand conspiracy to stop him from getting a second term. Thats the only way he can see it. As opposed to what it is, an inanimate micro organism that follows the pathways that pathogens do. It doesnt care about politics. Its not trying to bring trump down. What is happening in this country in the fight against the virus is not about him. Joining me now for more on what we need to do to safely open the country and what congress is doing to help americans get through this, speaker of the house nancy pelosi, democrat from california. I appreciate you taking time tonight. I wanted to ask you first the metaphor the president is using, and the American People whether theyre residents in nursing care facilities, meat packers, grocery workers need to think of themselves as soldiers, warriors who are doing battle against the virus, and some might die. Thats the price that has to be paid for liberty. What do you think of that metaphor. I dont think much of what the president says. I think we have to set some of that aside and say what we can do to open up our economy. We can do that through what you have been talking about, testing, testing, testing. What the democrats are here to do is to put forth a plan, a plan with a goal, a plan with milestones, a time line, a plan that is unifying. Built on some of the initiatives we have had in past coronavirus legislation. We passed four bipartisan bills. But this is we have three pillars, one, let us open up the economy by testing, and that means testing everyone, tracing, and having the treatment as well as the isolation that may be necessary. And god willing, we get a vaccine or a therapy soon and that would be helpful to opening up, but in the meantime, we have to know the caliber of the problem. They dont even know the caliber of the problem in the white house. We have to know what it is in the nation. And we have to know how it attacks with communities of color in such a bad way. Secondly, we have to have we have to honor those who are on the front line, those who are heroes, our health care workers, our first responders, our transit workers, food, trash pickup, teachers, all of those who have some exposure here. We want to honor them so that were worthy of their sacrifice, and were doing so in a big way by attributing a larger source for state and local government, and then we have to put money in the pockets of the American People. Recognizing the pain, the agony that they are feeling. To those who would suggest a pause, ill say, the hunger doesnt take a pause. The rent doesnt take a pause. The hardship doesnt take a pause, as we see families losing you said over 80,000, thats unimaginable that so many infected and so many on unemployment. We have a big need. Its monumental. Therefore its a great opportunity to say lets Work Together to get this done. Theres a way to open the economy based on science, testing, testing, testing, and lets get on with it. Thats what were here to do. So those bullet points that you just offered, some of the planks of the legislation. The pillars. Right. So the pillars are some sort of National Program for testing and Contact Tracing, some kind of National Program for both aid to states for their fiscal holes as well as i understand it some kind of hazard pay, actually statutorily mandated hazard pay for mandatory workers, or just states who can pay the workers. There are talking points. These are the pillars of our plan to go forward, to make our own environment in a way that is, again, unifying and respectful of those who are sacrificing their lives as well as those that are feeling so much pain through all of this. This is what they need. This is meeting the needs of the American People. Among the provisions, yes, theres state and local government to address the outlays that they have made inviting the coronavirus as well as the revenue that they have lost because of the coronavirus. And it goes all the way down to small from states to small towns, and it is a result of how our members have brought back the concerns of their constituents and i think it will have broad support among governors and mayors, democrats and republicans alike. Yes, there is an interest in doing hazard pay for those who are on the front lines. Is it mandatory so much as it is an imperative to do so. And thats what were writing down now. So im excited about that. Chuck schumer is too. Thats sort of his baby. So hazard pay for people on the front lines, theres an obvious compelling case for that. Aid to states whose fiscal Balance Sheets are going to be destroyed, whether theyre red states or blue states, red towns or blue towns, in Cash Payments or both . We have the Unemployment Insurance but we also have the direct payments, both of which we have had in previous legislation. Right. The Unemployment Insurance, which were seeing record breaking unemployment rates and so many people signing up for it, it breaks your heart, but we have the Unemployment Insurance that will be renewed in this legislation as well as Cash Payments, the direct payments people are craving that. Its i guess what advantage we have sad as it is, is that people see what is happening, even though theyre working from home, but listening to their constituents, theres a lot of pain and heart ache. People dont know if theyre going to be able to put food on the table. Moms have said and Brookings Institution put this out last week that one in five children is food inskeecure in our count. They dont know where their next meal is coming from. They dont know if theyre going to be able to pay the rent. This is very very personal, and we want to address the concerns in a way that is monumental because it is a big, we have never seen anything like it, and we have to be brave, get up there, just make the case, this is the plan, these are the resources, this is how we want to do this, and as we do it, we want to be worthy of those who lost their lives, worthy of those fighting for peoples lives and we plan to do that in a bipartisan way as possible. Thats what i was going to ask you. In the previous legislation there were tough negotiations that happened in a kind of triangular fashion, it was steve ma knew sh mnuchin doing the negotiations for the white house, and Chuck Schumer working together to do that. In this case, the message has been sent from the republican caucus, from Mitch Mcconnell from the white house, basically were done here. There was a headline that gave me a chuckle in bloomberg, the gop rekindles deficit concerns. What is your read of the posture of the white house and Senate Republicans towards additional legislative rescue relief like youre proposing . Its interesting so see what theyre saying renewing their fiscal hawk positions, they could barely remember. I have confidence in going big with what we do. When i saw them give a 2 trillion addition to the National Debt in order to give 83 of the benefits to the top 1 . That was so irresponsible in terms of it did nothing for the economy, except heap mountains of debt on our children. So with this, what were saying is these are investments. All of these things are for the good of helping people in their personal lives but they also are a stimulus to the economy. Ask any, well almost any, i dont know who they would drum up, economists, theyll tell you. Food stamps, imagine theyre against snap, against expanding the opportunity for people to have access to food stamps at a time where the news is full of families and long lines at food banks and we have to help those food banks as well. So this is personal. Its heartbreaking, really. So i have confidence in the American People. America has a big heart, a heart full of love, and people care about each other, and i think when they see what we are doing, and it will be big because the problem is big, and the needs are big of the American People, that it will be more attention paid to what the republicans are saying or doing and then a adjustment can be made. Im optimistic always. I see everything as an opportunity. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the opportunity. Mitch mcconnell has seemed to make some noise to attempt, he had to walk back his comment about states going bankrupt, but he has seemed to make an attempt which is remarkable to me, if i can editorialize, some kind of blanket liability waiver for employers so that they are protected from civil action from employees who may get sick due to the risks they take on working for them. Is that a nonstarter for you or is that something youre willing to talk about. Let me just say this, the best protection for those employers is to support what we want to do in the bill with our osha regulation and it calls for how you can open up and how you space and all the safety. Safety in the workplace is a big issue in our country long before coronavirus, so if the employer takes those presaugcautions, the is protected from a suit because he has taken the protections necessary to protect the worker. Thats how he can protect himself. Its unlikely at a time of a coronavirus that we would say just be cavalier. We know the way it spreads, but youre off the hook if anything happens even if you do not comply with the osha regulations, so we want them to accept the expanded osha regulation and protect their workers, and i think most people are good people that they would want to do that, so well have that discussion but i think we have a common goal. We want people to go safely to work safely, the osha protection is your production, mr. Or mrs. Employer. All rig final question for you. Obviously you and Chuck Schumer and others have worked hard through a series of legislative packages that have been passed in increasing scale and scope to deal with this. As you are set to unveil this latest one, im curious what you think how good of a job have you done, particularly when you look at the kind of comparison between pp skpere and what is dr Small Businesses and the rescue package for large corporations dealt through the fed which seems like its moving more quickly and efficiently. Do you think you have done a good enough job thus far collectively, and the legislation has been passed to address the needs of the American People. I do indeed. I wish we had more cooperation from the white house but even with that, first we passed four bills which are bipartisan. The first one on march 4th. It was called testing, testing, testing, thats how we identified it. March 14th, the next one for ppe, masks, masks, masks, the 28th, the president signed the first c. A. R. E. S bill and we were very proud. House and Senate Democrats to have turned that from a trickle down Corporate America first trickle down bill to putting workers first bubble up bill. It was completely different from what the presenrepublicans had proposed in the first place. The interim bill we started working on the next c. A. R. E. S package, and then all of a sudden a request came from the secretary of the treasury to do more for the ppe. And we took that opportunity under the leadership of lydia velazquez, the chair of the Small Business committee, maxnen waters, so far we havent seen this reach everyone in the communities and we set aside in there. Were waiting to see the results of that, and thats a concern that we have because we want to make sure that it is going to the Community DevelopmentFinancial Institutions, which have connection into the community rather than it just going to people who have a bank relationship. This is for the under banked community and the Financial Institutions that serve them. So we have made a big difference every step of the way, but the president said, when they asked the first bill, it was like 2. 5, 2. 8. We sent them 8. 2, and the president said ill take it, so again, our participation has been very strong, and its important for us to put forth our bill now without too much conversation with other people. Were just springing from the needs of the American People, and the capacity of us to stop the virus by testing, testing, testing, praise and honor those who are on the front line, and help the people who are suffering. And we did that right before c. A. R. E. S 2. We put forth our responsibility bill. Take responsibility, and that largely is what reshaped c. A. R. E. S 1. Yes, i think we have done very well, but we want them to agree on science, and we cant get them to cross that threshold, science, science, science, answer to so many challenges. If you dont believe in science, and you dont believe in governance, you can say lets pau pause, theres no evidence that will convince me because i dont believe in science, and i dont believe in governance. We dont want anymore government than we need. But right now we need a weighing in in terms of resources and policies that will protect the American People as they go forward. And rather than think of them as warriors, we think of them as family, and were all concerned about each one, and when somebody goes out there, they run the risk of taking something home and thats why i see the great wisdom of the American People to protect their own families as they try to accommodate the enormous challenge that were all facing right now. Let me just say one more thing, and that is whatever were doing may seem big. Its never going to be cheaper. The chairman of the fed has said to us, Interest Rates are never lower than this. Go big, and those Interest Rates are propping up the stock market. We want them to prop up the American People as well. Well, that is true. They are propping up the stock market right now, along