Spike. Good morning. And welcome to am joy. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot could do not have made it more clear why theyre hesitant about lifting stay at home orders. While some are report a decline in cases of deaths, we are nowhere near out of the park. There are more than 1. 1 million cases in the u. S. And nearly 67,000 fatalities. In illinois, more than 58,000 people have tested positive. The death toll there is a little over 2500. In chicago, accounts for more than one third of the cases in the state. In an effort to keep physical distancing measures in place, and at the same time allow High School Seniors to celebrate a rather significant milestone in their lives, mayor lightfoot announced a city wide virtual Graduation Ceremony, and she teased the announcement in this light hearted video on ticktock and later told High School Seniors their Graduation Ceremony would be held in june and will be keynoted by none other than oprah winfrey. Look at her. While elected officials like the mayor are doing everything they can to bring an end to this pandemic, the Washington Post is out with a damning report on Donald Trumps desperate attempts to reopen america come what may. One of the disturbing revelations illustrates how some of his close advisers regard the doctors advising the white house, including dr. Anthony fauci, quote, there is a little bit of a god complex one Senior Administration official said of the group, theyre all about science, science, science, which is good, but sometimes there is a little bit less of a consideration of politics when maybe there should be. Unreal. No, no, actually completely real. These sentiments are being echoed throughout the country at protests aimed at pressuring governors to reopen the economy. Many of the people showing up at these astroturf get togethers are hanging around with no protective face coverings, not practicing physical distancing and going as far as to try to shame reporters covering the story. Take a look at what happened to an msnbc reporter in laguna beach, california, as well as a particularly scary encounter, a reporter had at an nbc affiliate with a protester in columbus, ohio. People are very angry, this is one of them, and then there is people here as well. You know that the company that you work for is lying to the American People and you know that what youre doing is wrong at the end of the day. You know it. You see how nervous you are . Youre shaking. Youre sweating. You cant even see out of them. Im wearing my mask. Your mask is underneath your nose again. You are terrifying the general public. You realize that . Shaking because droplet are how the virus are spread. In michigan, groups charged the armed groups charged the State Capitol which was in session to debate governor Gretchen Whitmers orders. While guns are allowed in the State Capitol, these images make it look like the point of those protests is intimidation, not persuasion. The images are frightening enough that one state senator tweeted this picture of her vantage point, once the armed protesters entered the chamber. Finally, this picture which has been very fired by nbc news, shows a woman outside of the illinois governors Chicago Office holding a sign featuring a nazi slogan, in german the phrase means work sets you free. Nazis used that phrase at concentration camps. At the end of the phrase, the protester wrote jb, which happens to be the first two initials of the illinois governors name. Governor jb pritzker is jewish. Joining me is senator Tammy Duckworth of illinois, a member of the Armed Services committee. Thank you for being here. I want to go back to where i started and talk about this the in chicago, what is happening in illinois, and, you know, yesterday was a pretty nice day and around the country, very difficult to keep people inside, obviously, because it was probably the first nice day in a while, nonrainy, and here is what the chicago mayor had to say warning chicagoans after yet another house party took place. Take a listen. Were not playing games, we mean business, and we are going to shut this down, one way or the other. The time for educating people into compliance is over. Dont be stupid. Well shut you down. We will cite you. And if we need to, we will arrest you and we will take you to jail. You know, this reminds me, senator, of the all of the viral video clips of italian mayors doing the exact same thing, going on air and doing these clips where they were basically threatening people and saying, listen, dont be stupid, you dont want to go get your nails done and look beautiful in a casket. Were at that phase now. What do you make of the status of where we we surpassed the number of dead in vietnam. So it is were not in a good place. Were not in a good place and were not out of the tunnel just yet. We need more test kits, more widespread and free testing for everyone who needs a test or wants a test. We dont have that yet. Until we had that, we cant fully reopen the economy. I fully support Lori Lightfoot and governor pritzker. Theyre doing a fantastic and tough job. As a mom of a 2yearold and a 5yearold and i have my 79yearold mom living with me, im glad these orders are in place because i happen to live with some of the most vulnerable population, just like so many other families out there. And i dont want my children and my mother exposed to this deadly virus. You shouldnt want your family members exposed to it either. Absolutely. What about the i want to talk about the actions of the administration here. There has been obviously nothing but criticism because clearly it is not been a success as Jared Kushner claimed, it has been the opposite of that. We now had this administration, this president replace the watchdog, the ig who identifies the critical medical shortages that we faced. Here is the story on that. The white house waited until after Business HoursNew York Times piece, to announce the nomination of a new Inspector General for the department of who when if confirmed would take over for christie a. Grimm who was publicly asald by the president at a news briefing three weeks ago. Trump is blaming the people who are telling the public about the shortages rather than fixing the shortages. What do you make of the firing of this Inspector General and will there be potentially hearings on it . Well, unfortunately it is a sad, sad firing in a long line of firings of people who are doing their jobs and trying to protect and serve the American People that President Trump has carried out. Unfortunately im not surprised. This is after all an administration and president who when he found out and was warned about this pandemic, this crisis looming back in january and february, spent his time pandering and basically sucking up to the communist head of an authoritarian regime in president xi of china, talking to flattering the man instead of preparing our country for this pandemic. And those protesters that are out there want to protest something, protest the Trump Administrations failure to provide test kits all across this country, protest the Trump Administrations failure to seize control of ppe supply chain early on, three months ago, when they should have gotten this. They want to protect something, protest this failure of the president who has not done his job and continues to put politics in front of the health and wellbeing of hard working every day americans, all across the country. Shame on him. Yeah. Indeed. I want to i want to talk to about some of these other events going on. I hesitate to call them protests, they seem to be astroturf related. I want to take advantage of the fact that i have with me not just the United States senator, but a war hero yourself, senator, and what do you make of i want to ask about a couple of issues. One is bringing back these army cadets to campus for graduation. There has been a lot of criticism of it. Ill tell you what the army said about defending bringing these cadets back to west point, we have to bring the cadets back to west point to begin the process of the physicals they need to take of all the clearance procedures to clear barracks to get their personal items. Army secretary Ryan Mccarthy told reporters during a pentagon news briefing, pressed on why west point couldnt hold a virtual ceremony, james mccondo replied we cant telecommute to combat. Your thoughts on bringing the cadets back for graduation . I dont disagree that the cadets need to clear their barracks and get their physicals and get all that in order. What i disagree with is the decision to put a thousand cadets in a single space for a prolonged period of time while President Trump talks at them. You could bring these cadets back in a graduated series, one group, one small group at a time to get this done so they can then report to their next duty station and be the front line leaders of our army that theyre supposed to be. But to take all thousand of them, bring them back all at once and put them into a confind area in a single space, so the president can talk at them, thats the poor decisionmaking happening right now. And as for telecommuting to combat, come on, this is talking about putting people into a Graduation Ceremony, graduation ceremonies are not combat. I dont think any one of those cadets would hesitate to run into combat, to lead troops into battle. But now youre exposing them to the dangers, and by the way, thats going to affect military readiness. If any of them get sick, what happens to them . It is going to delay them reporting out to the units, out to the army as a whole, and if some of them get sick enough they have to be medically discharged, now you lost all that investment we made as taxpayers in their education for four years and they dont get to start the careers they worked so hard for. Lets make some good decisions here. President trump shows why hes a failure as a commander in chief, why hes not someone who should be leading our troops in any way, shape or form, if he thinks him talking at them and putting them into a single space so that he can just stroke his own ego is the height of narcissism, but not it is not good leadership. You think hes doing it for a photoop . Of course he is. Isnt that what trump does all the time . As that leeaked memo says, they put politics in front of everything else. Hes willing to put politics and his own personal ego in front of getting these thousand young Second Lieutenants out into the troops to lead the force, thats what we should be focused on. Lets make sure we get these guys out there so they can show up at their next duty station and do the jobs they have trained so hard to do. Amazing Outstanding Young men and women, they deserve better than to be needlessly exposed to a pandemic. Let me ask you about these well call them protesters, you had some, we showed earlier a photo of one in which a nazi slogan was used. But just the armed mostly men, mostly white, showing up at these inside even the michigan State Capitol, this isnt what a protest normally looks like. This looks like an attempt to intimidate. What do you make of this as a military veteran . What do you make of that . Donald trump praised them. He tweeted yesterday the governor of michigan should give the put out the fire, see them, talk to them, theyre angry, they want their lives back, theyre good people, sounds like the fine people of charlottesville, what it sounds like to a lot of people. What do you make of these armed gatherings . Theyre out there, theyre out here to intimidate. That nazi slogan is not acceptable. We just ended asian eed asiana awareness month. For me as an asianamerican, really, i mean, it just strikes at my heart. As a soldier, it just strikes at my heart. Thats not american. You want to be american, stand up and look out for your neighbors. Want to be american, stand out and do the tough thing. Tough thing is to, you know what, lets just take care of each other, respect law and order, lets take lets follow the scientists and keep people safe and then together as a community, we can move forward. This president unfortunately continue to divide us. He just panders to the most outrageous, most extreme, when what he should be doing is you know what he can do . Help us help working families. Lets make sure families who have to stay home, who cant go to work, are able to afford to do that. Lets help people who cant afford to pay their rent, folks on medicare and medicaid and people with disabilities. Hes not doing any of that. Are you are you concerned that these kinds of are you concerned that these kinds of protests, whatever you want to call them, are attracting a militia type activity . There has been increased sort of threatening, you know, language about asianamericans, communities more vulnerable now are you concerned this is going to attract more than what are being called protests . Of course. President trump is pandering to the extreme right. Hes pandering to his extreme base now instead of leading the nation and uniting us as a country. This is why we need new leadership in washington. We need someone in the white house who is empathetic, who cares about the American People, all the American People, no what color your background or how rich you are, how poor you are, whether or not you live in michigan or florida or hawaii or anywhere else, we are a united nation. We should move forward that way. These guys out there, theyre just trying to intimidate and divide us. We cant let them do it. I have to let you go. I have to ask, are you being are you being vetted to your knowledge potentially by Vice President joe biden as hes picking his potential running mate . Well, youll have to ask him for that. Im just thrilled that he is going to be our nominee and you couldnt have a more empathetic individual lead the country than joe biden and also in the first lady, dr. Biden. Im just thrilled to have my name mentioned in the same breath as Kamala Harris or amy klobuchar, who is my personal hero. Well, senator Tammy Duckworth, keep us posted. Come back here first if you do think youre going to get the nod. Thank you so much. Be safe. You too. Coming up, the impeached selfproclaimed stable genius thinks it is wise to withhold coronavirus related aid from states with sanctuary cities. Thats next. States with sanctuary cities thats next. Like way more vanities perfect for you. Nice. Way more unique fixtures and tiles. Pairing. Nice. Way more top brands in sinks and faucets. Way more ways to rule your renovation. Nice on any budget, with free shipping. Wayfair. Way more than furniture. No uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. We aint stoppin believe me go straight till the morning look like we wont wait, were taking everything we wanted we can do it all strength, no sweat and. L music fades in . Hey hi last year, officers arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens charged with nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 2,000 murders and in the last year egregiously 5,000 Human Trafficking episodes. So american lives matter. Our brave i. C. E. Men and women matter. You raised that and the president s been kind of vague about this, are you explicitly conditioning state aid on states or cities not saying they would have sanctuary city policys . No, not conditioning anything. Saying that is a negotiating item that the president will certainly bring up. In the First White House press briefing, in more than a year, the brandnew White House Press secretary caylkayleigh mcy backed up her boss. The courts are signaling that that wont fly. On thursday, a u. S. Appeals court in chicago ruled against trumps attempt to withhold millions of dollars in federal Law Enforcement grants to sanctuary jurisdictions. The court ruled that just like it says in the old constitution, congress, not the executive branch, has the power of the purse. And added, quote, the separation of powers is a foundation of our government, not a formality, to be swept aside on the path to achieving goals that the executive branch deems worthy. Joining me now, congressman Eric Swalwell. Here is Donald Trumps thoughts on why it is he thinks it is okay for him to try to withhold aid from states that have sanctuary cities in them. Take a listen, please. Explicitly will you seek to prevent that the next round of aid from going to sanctuary states and cities . Well, number one, we shouldnt have to pay anything anyway, all they do is make it very hard for Law Enforcement. So thats number one. But i think in the bigger picture, i dont see helping cities and states if theyre going to be sanctuary because all sanctuary means to me is it is protecting a lot of criminals. Senator swalwell, your state battled with President Trump on this before. Your thoughts on his thoughts . Good morning, joy. And, deb, nice to see you. It is cruel. First and foremost. But secondly, it is not wise. It is not goi ing to make us healthier. The virus doesnt care about your immigration status. The economy is driven in california, one of the most thriving economies in the world by immigrants. Thankfully Governor Newsom put in place a program where 150 million through a partnership with local charities will provide stimulus dollars