Countrys best hope for recovery is doubling down on social distancing. Dr. Anthony fauci this morning with good news about the projected u. S. Death toll inside a stern warning that now is not the time for complacency. I believe we are going to see a downturn in that and it looks more like the 60,000 than the 100,000 to 200,000. But having said that, we better be careful that we dont say, okay, were doing so well we can pull back. We still have to put our foot on the accelerator when it comes to the mitigation and physical separation. Dr. Fauci is warning that the country may serve as a very public reminder to the president this morning as americans are waking up to the headline that 6. 6 million americans filed jobless applications last week since the coronavirus related shutdowns began in the u. S. A few weeks ago. That is daunting numbers follow a reemergence from the president over the past 24 hours about reopening the country sooner rather than later. We have to be on the downside of that slope and heading to a very strong direction that this thing has gone. We can do it in phases. We can go to some areas which you know some areas are much less affected than others. But it would be nice to be able to open with a big bang and open up our country or certainly most of our country and i think were going to do that soon. You look at whats happening. I would say were ahead of schedule. You hate to say it too loudly because all of a sudden things dont happen. But i think we will be sooner rather than later. A new report in the Washington Post shows the gears are already in motion to do all that. President trump is preparing to announce as soon as this week a second smaller Coronavirus Task force aimed specifically at combatting the economic ramifications of the virus and focused on reopening the nations economy. Thats according to four people familiar with the plan. The post says the goal is to get as much of the country as possible open by april 30th, the current deadline trump set for stringent social distancing measures. Though the president acknowledged in last nights press conference that he yet cant commit for a date to his big bang of an economic reboot, it may be no coincidence that his allies in the conservative media and even his cabinet are agitating for an end to social distancing guidelines in the coming weeks. Laura ingraham yesterday on twitter throwing out may 1st, suggesting trump inform the Health Experts that theyll need to adjust their recommendations accordingly. Wow. I cant believe her. This morning on fox news Donald Trumps attorney general moonlighti moonlighting as an arm chair expect, echoing the rush back out to the public. We have to be very careful to make sure that the draconian measures being adopted are fully justified and theyre not alternative ways of protecting people. I think, you know, when this period of time, at the end of april expires, i think we have to allow people to adapt more than we have and not just tell people to go home and hide under the bed. We will have a weaker Health Care System if we go into a deep depression. Just measured in lives, the cure cannot be worse than the disease. Go home and hide under our bed, is that what he thinks people are doing . People are at home, people are struggling. Theyre teaching their kids, doing their jobs. That comment is disgraceful. That unsolicited advice from the president s most loyal and subservient cabinet member, the head of our justice department, collides with the painful reality of our crisis in the u. S. More than 16,000 deaths nationwide, more than 432,000 confirmed cases total, new york, the epicenter, claiming more than 150,000 of those cases. Thats more than any other country in the world, except of course ours. The crisis and tug of war over what happens next is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. The director for the National Center of Disaster Preparedness at columbia university, dr. Redletter. Robert cost is back and former state Department Official rick stengel is back to help me through this hour. Let me start with you, dr. Redlenner. What conclusion is it to think that people are hiding under their beds. People are doing anything but. This is the bravest display of concern for your neighbors, concern for your family to be sacrificing for most people their economic security, their family social bonds to be protecting each other. What are they talking about . Hi, nicolle. Apparently doctors barr, ingram and trump had a meeting and decided they wanted to open the country up and reduce the restrictions at the end of the month. They do so at great paieril of e nation. If they dont do what dr. Fauci and others are saying, i shudder to think where we are going to be. If we have a resurgence of covid19 this is going to be a hellish period of time for america. Im still startled really that the administration is not following the advice of its own experts. I think that is disgraceful. Its frightening. Le but i think that people are adapting as best they can and by the way, nothing i said should undermine the fact that we would all like to get back to business. Of course we would. This goes without saying, but we cannot do that at the risk of more american lives being lost. The equation doesnt work. Its inappropriate. I dont know where these people are coming from that think they can say by some magic fiat that well be done with this by the end of april. Its extremely dangerous and i dont think we should be tolerating it. Theyre going to say what theyre going to say but in the meantime were hopeful that fauci and the other doctors are going to surveil when it comes to when we reopen. The absence of having appropriate testing, we dont even know whos actually got the disease. Many people are mildly symptomatic or nonsymptomatic, and we dont know how many people and to suddenly open the doors and say go back to work and restaurants is really, really dangerous and hopefully some better minds will prevail. Im hoping they will. Let me put you on the spot. If dr. Fauci came out today and said im for the big bang, lets do it on april 30th, would you i guess my point is, do you trust him completely, whatever he came out and said at that podium, do you trust him . You did put me on the spot, nicolle. All of us in Public Health know and respect fauci. Hes been through many, many administrations. Hes a serious person. His word is good and his judgment is good. On the other hand, hes working for somebody whos authoritarian, does not tolerate dissent. I dont know what to make of it. I dont know another Public Health expert that would agree to jumping back into full swing with the economy and people getting back to work. I think we should be very concerned if tony fauci actually said that. I doubt that he would but if you press me, yeah, we trust him but hes working with somebody we dont trust. Robert costa, i put the doctor on the spot to make a point. There is this its not an undercurrent. There is a loud primal scream coming from the right that questions or concerns that come from people like dr. Fauci about drug treatments are being talked down. Attorney general barr called it a jihad for members in the media against untested drug therapies. This idea that everyone doesnt share a burning desire to get our economy back and running is a dangerous smear against everyone who is simply reporting and covering what the members of Donald TrumpsCoronavirus Task force who have a medical or scientific background are saying. I want to ask you this question. This is put everybody on the spot day. Is donald trump someone who can be frightened into doing the right thing from a Public Health standpoint, or is he more frightened of his political fate . Is that why he depth tiesed barr to go out and say these things . Weve seen in recent weeks people like senator Lindsey Graham going to President Trump and say if you open the country too quickly you will own the deaths. Thats something we put on the Washington Post, a powerful anecdote. There are two currents i picked up in my reporting. One, this is a white house that is gripped right now by anecdotal optimism, whether its hydroxy colloolor keen or about economy or the ability to open up in may. This is a white house that despite the data and reservations among officials and experts is very willing to en Grace Solutions that have not been approved by the fda or the idea that the economy could remember. You have to remember amid all that optimism, you also have a reserve, a very deep reserve of skepticism and antagonism toward the federal bureaucracy and toward experts in general. This is an outsider president surrounded by many advisors who are telling him to not listen too closely to dr. Fauci or dr. Birx and trust his own instincts. You have that president so wanting to have a miracle drug or a fast reopening of the government. It wasnt too long ago that he was trying to reopen the country by easter and hes anxious, im told, restless behind the scenes. Anecdotal optimism is a phenomenal way of describing the way this president seems to be functioning. You guys also have some unbelievable reporting today. I believe your colleague, ashley parkers biline about how donald trump is also hobbled by an inability to be at that podium as the leader of the entire country or as sort of the buck stops here kind of leader that people are used to in moments of crisis. Take me through how thats playing behind the scenes. Is there any anxiety that hes doing himself harm by being the face of this response, which is uneven at best and pretty derelict at worst. Heres one area where theres deep concern, on capitol hill. I spoke to Speaker Pelosi at length yesterday and she is running the house of representatives, one of the leaders of the government, and she does not have a relationship with President Trump at this time of crisis. She says on every front hes shattering norms. Hes isolated. Hes not following, at times, the rule of law or the right procedures. You have a government in congress, Senate Republicans who are largely in lockstep with President Trump and House Democrats who feel like theyre not working in a functional way with the president of the United States during a pandemic. When the president is out front, hes out front representing his administration, but theres a lot of cracks behind him when it comes to the broader federal environment. Rick stengel, ive said this about donald trump for years and bill barr for months, that theyre going to desperately miss their credibility when they need it because i think and this chief of staff too, mark meadows. His First Leadership move was to pick someone as White House Press secretary who made the kinds of comments that got trish regan fired from fox news. He elevated someone on the other end of that conversation to the highest public facing Communications Official at the time of a national pandemic. What do you make of the fact that no matter lets hope that the good news holds. Lets hope that the projections are making a bend, that let us lose fewer americans, but what about this credibility crisis at this moment . Well, its like the boy who cried wolf. Hes cried wolf so many times and the Washington Post itemizes the number of lies hes told over the course of his administration. He does have a credibility problem and when he stands up at those coronavirus conferences, theyre more Like Campaign rallies. You see that he gets an adrenaline surge from them in the same way he does to those great stadium rallies that he has and that seems to be why hes doing it. Its something that gives him that kind of satisfaction. Ive been saying for a while now that networks and the cable stations shouldnt televise them live. Theyre like televising Campaign Rallies live. What i would say to the president would be this is the time to be patient. The time when youre not patient is actually the time to exercise patience, and no one a year from now, two years from now, five years from now is going to remember that, oh, you didnt open on may 1, you opened on may 15th or even june 15th. The risk reward ratio is such now that the risk is extremely high. The reward is rather small. Hes got this idea in his head that hes just going to kind of cut a ribbon and open the economy, whatever that means. Theres plenty of parts of the economy that are working right now. We are working right now. The media is working right now. Manufacturing is working right now. The country is not in suspended animation. There are parts of the economy that are working and there are parts of the economy that are adapting and evolving that will become stronger when this is all over. So i just would say please, mr. President , hang on. Listen to what your medical advisers are saying. Dont take this risk because the consequences are ghastly. And just to come back to why i put you on the spot, i think everybody wants the country to come back in a big bang, but ive never gone near a medical school textbook. I know nothing about science, and it seems highly unlikely that when we are lucky enough to say were doing well enough to go back that it will be a big bang. It seems like any recovery, health or community or economic, is gradual. Can you talk about from a medical standpoint what some sort of return to a new normal might look like. By the way, it is going to be a new normal. Were not going to be back the way things were five, six months ago for potentially a very long time. So we are going to be adapting and that adapting is going to be difficult for a lot of people and theres no understating the fact that there are people that are going to be having a great deal of difficulty economically and that is worrisome and thats why i said before and everybody agrees and you said the same thing that the entire country would like to get back to economic normalcy. I kind of wonder, im only a pediatrici pediatrician, i probably shouldnt say this but what would the dynamic be like if this were not a president ial election year. I have no idea. I do know that from a medical point of view we cannot and we should not take a chance with reinfection, a resurgence of this disease by rushing back when we dont need to. What rick was saying is absolutely right. This is painful. Theres no question about it. Its not as painful as a resurgence of this horrendous pandemic the likes of which we actually have not seen since 1918. We have to be very, very careful here and donald trump should not be taking advice from the likes of Laura Ingraham or bill barr. He should be listening hard to his medical experts. Hes got plenty of them, not just the two we see up front most of the time. Hes got agencies full of very, very bright people who are all basically telling him the same thing, dont rush this return. From your lips. Three of my favorite human beings, thank you for starting us off today. When we come back, a crush of reporting today on the problem with trumps thin skin and oversized ego. The New York Times, Washington Post and Associated Press all out with pieces on trumps reliance on the blame game, lies and pettiness to lead the country through the coronavirus pandemic. Aalso ahead, one of the reporters going toetotoe with trump on the daily coronavirus breef briefings joining us. And we go to a hospital on the front lines in the battle against coronavirus for the ground truth of the nurses and doctors caring for the sickest patients in the country in the coronaviruss epicenter. Stay with us. You doing okay . Yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. A striking statistic from todays New York Times. Donald trump has spoken a total of 18. 5 hours in the course of the 28 coronavirus events weve seen so far. If youve watched them all, there are 18. 5 hours youll never get back. Those hours put on full display the president s inner thinking and fundamental character, themes picked up in three new pieces of journalism out today started with the Associated Presss assessment of Donald Trumps blame game. First, it was the media at fault. Then democratic governors came under fire. China, president obama and federal watch dogs have had a turn in the crosshairs. Now its the World Health Organization thats to blame. President donald trump is falling back on a familiar political strategy as he grapples with the coronavirus pandemic deflect, deny and direct blame elsewhere. Then theres the Washington Post today which describes the president s governing ethos this way, quote, a refusal to accept criticism, an insatiable need for praise and abiding mistrust of independent entities and individuals. The New York Times observes today how trump could be his own worst enemy. Quote, mr. Trump does not need adversaries for his misstatements. He does that by himself. The president has contradicted himself without acknowledging that he does so. Then at the next briefing the message may be different again but always captured on camera and therefore difficult to deny or explain away. Its a devastating portrait painted by four reporters across three news organizations drawing similar conclusions about the limitations of this president and the whi