Yorkers generosity and we will return it double fold. Here is what two new yorkers, congressman Gregory Meeks and reverend al sharpton said about the idea cities and states had to compete against each other for the supplies and that they would have it not been for the acts of kindness. This president is not a leader, hes a liar and thats what hes doing. The part i saw, it made me upset, hes lying again. He says we dont need anything in new york. It is an absolute lie. We are looking at deaths in new york every day going up, were talking about people dying. So this is not about me just attacking donald trump. For him to stand there and talk about the that tomorrows palm sunday, and rather than say we dont need people to gather like many of us have called on clergy men to not risk lives, hes talking about how sad it is hes going to have to watch it on computer, watch his service, and easter were talking about people being infected that could lead to their death. Oddly enough, the third new york born person in this equati equation, fourth, is donald trump. What does it say about his leadership when a country like ours that is so used to holding telethons to help other countries is now faced with the possibility that the Global Community is going to have to come to our rescue . Joining me now is senator tina smith of minnesota, a member of the Health Education labor and Pensions Senate committee. Thank you so much for being here and good morning. Good morning. Donald trump has been paying attention to your state and to a Major Company in your state, 3m. I want to briefly play you what he had to say about 3m during one of his during yesterdays press briefing. Were very disappointed in 3m. They should be taking care of our country and they can sell to others. But they should be taking care of our country. The people that have dealt with them have dealt successfully with Many Companies over the last month. They dont like the way 3m has treated our country. They dont frankly like the representatives of 3m. And no act you said piracy, right . Piracy . There has been no act of piracy. No, there has been no act of piracy, the opposite. 3m has not treated our country well. And if they do, great, if they dont, theyre going to have a hell of a price to pay. To add to that, this is a tweet that donald trump tweeted out, a statement, sorry, that 3m posted after donald trump attacked them, produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done, 3m said. If that were to occur, the net number of respirators available to the United States would decrease. What do you make of this behavior by the president of the United States, he brought the mypillow ceo up to let him talk about religion and he sort of is Picking Companies he attacks and picking other companies to, i guess, promote. Well, this is classic donald trump. And at a time when our country needs leadership, compassion, strength, what we have is this. If this is a Public Health war, we need a general and what we have in donald trump is a pretender. And it just goes to show what a failing it is. Ive urged the president to immediately do a marshal plan of the defense production act in order to marshal all of the resources that the federal government to respond to this crisis. And this is just a symptom of his failure to do that. And using the defense production act almost like a retaliation is just ridiculous. Isnt it the case that donald trump has it in his powers under the defense production act to compel 3m to produce more needed supplies and healthcare supplies for hes the person in charge of that. It is not 3m, it is him. Exactly. This is the president s hes the president. President is treating this whole thing like it is some sort of a pr war when it is a Public Health war. And thats why many of us are urging him to use the full powers of the defense production act to accomplish what we need to accomplish, which is a coordinated, comprehensive effort to get the supplies out into the field of where theyre needed. And, senator, are you concerned that donald trump has placed his soninlaw Jared Kushner, who has no background that anyone can think of, in Public Health, or in handling this level of an emergency, he owns buildings, rents out, you know, commercial and residential real estate, it is not clear what qualifications he has, and he and his wife quite frankly have business overseas that were not really clear what all of that is and whether thats related. Are you concerned that donald trump is getting his soninlaw so involved and putting him in charge . Yes, i am. I mean, we need a general and were getting now is a soninlaw. And the way that kushner a couple of days ago responded to this question about the National Strategic stockpile, and he said, that that stockpile belongs to us, it doesnt belong to the states. What does that even mean when we know that what we are required and in this moment in our countrys history is that we all come together . We Work Together. I dont even know what that means. It is a symbol, a sign that kushner doesnt begin to have the kind of Crisis Management skills that we need so desperately. Now, thankfully we have got governors and many states like our great governor in minnesota who are coming together and are figuring this out on the ground, and frankly to these governors, what the president does and says is irrelevant. Hes not helping them, theyre work around him to get the supplies and the medical needs filled that they have. You can see that with kate brown, right . Kate brown and Governor Cuomo coming together, the white house is almost irrelevant in their struggles. And will there be Senate Hearings to sort of walk through all of the failures that we have seen at the administration level, from the delays in terms of using defense production act, the delays in using federal power, and also his Family Involvement and Steve Mnuchin quite frankly being so involved in the, you know, negotiations over bailout money because it is not there has been promises that donald trump cannot personally benefit from the bailout money, but there are also a lot of loopholes in there, Steve Mnuchin. Thats right. This is why congress so carefully included three separate ways for to provide oversight over how this massive bailout money gets invested. Already we can see the president striving to overcome that by putting his personal aide in charge of being the Inspector General and just overturning what Congress Needs to do, which is to provide eversight. I would think that the American People would want to be able to know exactly how these dollars are being invested and how were making sure that they are spent truly to save working peoples jobs all over america. Yeah, indeed. Senator tina smith, thank you very much, really appreciate your time this morning, stay safe. Thanks so much, joy. Thank you. Joining me now, congressman adam smith of Washington State, chairman of the House Armed Services committee. And congressman Eric Swalwell of california who served on the house intelligence committee. Gentlemen, your two states were sort of the leading edge on some of the tip of the spear for what were seeing rolling out across the entire country. And senator representative smith, congressman smith, ill start with you, how are things going in terms of Washington State and bending that curve of new cases and deaths . Theyre going better in our state. The statistics have shown. There is still a lot we do not know. The we dont have the type of testing we need across the country. Listening to what you were talking about with senator smith, the most Important Message i want to deliver to the country is we need to massively ramp up production of crucial equipment. 3m is focused on personal protection equipment, like masks. We really need to increase that production, but the next wave is te testing. We still dont have anywhere to say we dont have anywhere near the testing we need is the understatement of the week. Were just not getting there. And thats where we need the leadership from the federal government. I concur. I dont think mr. Kushner and others back there quite have the expansive view of what needs to be done to ramp up production in this country because were not going to be able to go back to work anytime soon if we cant do the testing that tells us who had the disease, who hasnt, how can we best protect the public. To get people back to work, need to have the testing regime so you know how to best protect the public. The white house right now is just not producing what we need to produce in this country. We have the capability, we need the leadership. And can you just explain for the average person out there, it is still confounding even to me, im in this business of trying to figure out this information, why cant the United States either simply buy the approved test or why hasnt there been a move to use the defense production acte United States . I cant understand that. Well, thats the key part, mass manufacturing. Like the abbott test that people are talking about, which ill point out, is only a test to see if you have the zedisease. There is a company in california, not far from congressman swalwell, that is can test just as quick, it will say whether you have the disease or had it. The answer to the question is production. You need the manufacturing capability. Ventilators is a good example. Someone told me yesterday there is like 1700 pieces to a ventilator. You need to make sure you produce all of those somewhere. What is frustrating is we have known this for at least a month, probably closer to three, the president has not used his authority to work with the manufacturing capability that we have in this country, to start the process of converting companies to making the things that we need. So on testing, were not manufacturing the kits. Were just now getting to the point where were starting to manufacture the swabs to take the samples. There are steps along the chain. Im not saying it is not complicated. But were the richest country on earth. We have the capability, we have the resources. But the white house is taking the position right now that, yeah, thats up to the private sector, up to the states, and all the president seems capable of doing is figuring out who hes going to blame today. He has power. Power to marshal the resources of this country. I urge him to exercise that power effectively. And congressman, ill throw that to you, you can if you want to answer that question about the california company, which thats even possible for them to be the mass manufacturer, the one thing donald trump bragged about doing, the one thing he said he did is to ban people from traveling to the United States from china. He thinks thats it. He tried to name the virus after the country after the country of china, he said he banned people from coming. New york times is reporting that 430,000 people have traveled from china to the United States. Since coronavirus surfaced. 1300 direct flights to 17 stays before trumps travel restrictions and since then nearly 40,000 americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week in fact. Many with spotty screening. One thing he says he did that he boasts about he hasnt done. Joy, he had every light on the dashboard, blinking red at him. He still drove the car for another eight hours and then wants credit for finally deciding to park it because he banned flights from china. One, nice to see chairman smith. I miss him and so many of my colleagues, but hes right, not only does the president have the power, you have a lot of smart people all over the country who are sidelined and not able to work right now. And a lot of people who would step up and go to work, go to a factory, do what it took to, you know, get the supplies, whether it is testing, whether it is equipment for front line workers, and i think what is underlooked and im glad the chairman brought this up, is to also have the diagnostic to tell people if they already had this, because the more we know about people that already had it, the more we know about the spread, but also it allows healthcare workers who already had it or been exposed to it to go back in first and limit the equipment and exposure they would have to put themes to. So we need a whole of government effort were not yet seeing from the president. Im no Jared Kushner. But it seems to me quite logical that if you had mass testing, you could in theory say a plant that could manufacture the tests, test all the workers who would be involved in it, make sure anyone who has been tested positive can be treated, and isolate themselves, but anyone who tests negative could go into the plant and then they could work on mass manufacturing the tests. It is, like, not rocket science, but seems like the basic is still testing at the end of the day . It is what theyre doing with the luxury that the white house has given itself, but will not give others. The president , no one goes around the president without a rapid test of those individuals. And that type of testing and knowledge is available and could be mass distributed with the right leadership. The other thing i want to go to you on sure. Sure. I was going to say, look, let me just say, i like Jared Kushner. I worked with him on a variety of different things. Hes not a bad guy. But this is an incredibly complicated project. We need as you said a general, and something i suggested to the white house a couple of months ago, Joseph Dunford, the immediate past chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, brilliant guy, managed large, complicated, logistical challenges who works with, worked with defense contractors to make sure theyre producing the equipments to fight the wars we have fought. I said two months ago, should have made Joseph Dunford the czar of this production so we have the type of leadership we need, the type of experience and the type of confidence. It is not too late. Thats why im not giving up. Im not bashing the white house. Change, show leadership, bring the Production Capacity that we need to confront this, this going to be worse than it needs to be. Very quickly, other thing that donald trump has been up to is firing and people are getting people have been cashiered upon his ill have each of you comment on this. Congressman smith, the firing of this Navy Commander who went public because of his people were afraid, his troops were scared, his sailors are afraid, stuck on a ship and afraid of being infected with coronavirus, what do you make of that decision . Here is the problem, ive spoken to the secretary of defense about this, ive spoken to the secretary of navy about it. And theyre all kind of offended that were criticizing them for this. They say the captain of the ship went outside the chain of command. In the email he sent, even if he didnt like eak it to the mediae people he sent it to was not the normal chain of command. The problem is the message being sent throughout the Trump Administration is loyalty is the only thing that matters. They have both assured me, the president didnt tell them to fire this captain. I dont know whether to believe him or not. They got a 29yearold chief of the White House Personnel Department whose job is to go throughout the entire government and get rid of anyone who is insufficiently loyal to the president. So when they fire someone like this, it is obvious to most of us it is go to be driven not by competence, it is going to be driven by are they loyal to the president . There is another virus spreading throughout the white house, that is incompetence. Because they are replacing it with loyalty. So did they fire the ships captain because he went outside the chain of command . Personally i would suggest even if he did, to remove the captain of a ship in the middle of a crisis like this, i dont think it was a wise thing to do. But more than anything, because of the way trump does his job, the rest of us, if the secretary calls me autopsy says we did this, the president didnt put any pressure on us, how can we believe that . Eric, you dealt with this on the intel side. Person after person purged over there. They put a person in charge of the National Intelligence community, who had no experience whatsoever, because he was loyal to the president. No one can have confidence in the competency of this white house, they made it clear that loyalty is what they prize. Yeah. On that note, the firing of the Inspector General who was responsible for producing the report that ultimately led to Donald Trumps impeachment regarding what he did in ukraine, donald trump yesterday used some of his precious time on television we are was supposed to be talking about the coronavirus epidemic, to once again say his call to the president of ukraine was perfect and go on and on and on. What do you make of the firing of the Inspector General . The call was as perfect as his response to this crisis. And i interviewed with the intelligence committee, mr. Atkinson, when he first came in, in september. He wanted to tell us what the whistleblower complaint was about, while he was being blocked, he was following the rules. Even when it was critical for us to know