His response. Because of his press coverage, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo, hes expected to meet with donald trump this hour as the New York Times front page today carries the story when new york captures its precoronavirus glory. To cut through the fog of politics, rhetoric and on and off again rivalry thats emerged between the president and the governor of the hardesthit state. Addressing the crisis around testing hopefully once and for all. Theres been a lot of discussion about testing. But i dont know that people have really i think in many ways were talking past each other. I understand the federal governments point that its up to the states and i believe its largely up to the states. But then even the federal government will stand there and do a whole presentation on what theyre doing on testing, lets coordinate who does what. What do the states do . What does the federal government . Ill do whatever im supposed to do. Just tell me what i do and what are you going to do . Were watching the white house for news out of that meeting, its scheduled to get under way as we speak and well bring you anything we learn. Its worth noting that the cuomo trump sitdown comes at a point the trump opening up the states before widespread testing and several Southern States are moving toward their reopening. At least one governor doing so will lead to a spike in cases. Look, i understand the healthcare ramifications as well. You know, ive been getting the calls from people saying we need ppe, you know, we dont have a bed for hospital patients. Weve been working for over a month. Ill say that, you know, when had more people moving around, well probably see our cases continue to go up. Were a lot better prepared for that now than a month ago. Georgia joins south carolina, texas, alaska and tennessee in planning to reopen businesses with none of those states showing the 14day decline in cases that the president s own Coronavirus Task force recommends. Yesterday, we brought you the story about protests against the social distancing measures that scientists thats essential to flattening the curve. Today in another sign that the science will elude the politics, the New York Times reports, quote, its spread also appears to be worsening where the protests have taken place. In kentucky, last week demonstrators stood out the Capitol Building in frankfort and chanted e want to work at the democratic governor. Officials reported a Sobering Development on monday. The state recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases yet in a single day 273. We start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Jonathan lemier is back with. And lena wen and the former chief of staff for the cia and the department of dampefense is back, jeremy bash. Hes singularly focused on the coverage of his response not the functioning of the governments response, does that sync up to what youre writing and reporting . Fact check, true. The president is certainly consumed with how his the president is certainly consumed with how his performance is being received and its a few data points. Theres never been someone whos held that office whos been more obsessed with his Media Coverage than donald trump. Moments where thats been a strength. Hes shown the ability to manipulate headlines, drive stories and able to distract. Right now, of course, this is different. This is a challenge the likes of which he has never faced before. This pandemic. The nation hurtling toward a very deep recession. While, of course, hes participating in these Coronavirus Task force updates, lot of what hes concerned about and were spilling it out in the public here, how hes being perceived. He does feel hes getting unfair Media Coverage. Hes lashing out at his usual foes, cnn and msnbc. And he is taking it out on some reporters in the Briefing Room and so on. One thing thats particularly annoyed him has the positive press coverage that the governors have received. Governor cuomo in particularly, emerged as the democratic counterbalance to the president. His Daily Briefing drawing eyeballs across the nation, looking for sober stats, rather than some of the bluster were getting from the white house itself and the likely democratic nominee joe biden largely sidelined because of the virus, cuomo has stepped up. The president has been very angry, sometimes when cuomo has been critical. Pleased when cuomo has been complimentary. Hes upset when cuomo receives better press coverage. I want to ask you something and this will probably put you on the spot in a way i dont mean to, its remark to believe me whos covered and watched this president as you have every day for the last 3 1 2 years, what seems to sort of occupy as much space in his dark obsessions are the little glimmers theres something pathetic about trumps take on cuomo relationship. When cuomo attacks him he does so as being the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis. Yet, if theres any sort of compliment donald trump like cuts it out like a third grader, plays it in his press conferences. Why isnt anyone in the white house who can say, stop, you look like an idio 2. Theres no one in the white house at this point to change the president s mind. With the exceptions of dr. Fauci and dr. Birx very few others. New chief of staff mark meadows whos in the building now but hes a close trump ally has told people around him he wants to enable the president , hes not looking to curb his instincts at all. And the president isnt in the mood to listen at all. He literally played a few compliments from cuomo in the press briefing over the weekend. More than once. He asked to play it again. Hes taken such heart in those. If hes getting bipartisan support that means hes getting a good job, voters will reward him praps come november. An obsession about things dont matter. Whether a governor compliments or criticizes him shouldnt be the focus. His obsession has always been the same. This is who he was as a private citizen, as a candidate, as a president and continues to be facing the greatest crisis of his administration. Jeremy, spoke to someone whos played a big role in republican politics over the last couple decades and he said the country was going to be okay with donald trump as president. As long as nothing bad happen. Theres real concern on the right that something bad is happening and we might not be okay . Well, a couple of things, nicolle, first of all, for americans who are trying to figure out go out or shelter at home policies, look no further than your federal government, department of defense, your own intelligence community, theyre not going back to work in a week and a half, theyre staying home for the most part, theyre down essential workforces and its kind of i think a terrible signal to the american people, you go out but we in the government hang back. You guys go out there. I think the president and the governors who are pushing people to be out there and to be in harms way really need to rethink that paradigm. Second on this issue of immigration, the president is trying to fan the flames of xenophobia. Americans brought coronavirus here. It was already here in communities and towns and cities. It wasnt those evil immigrants who brought it here. So by posterring it in that fashion i think the president is not only trying to fan the flames of racism and xenophobia hes diverting his eye from the true Public Health crisis that we face. You know, jeremy, we had so many conversations during the russia investigation, ukraine impeachment investigation, about bifurcated economy. Does this pandemic leave the in this case faucis and the birxs enough power to run the policy if you have a president tweeting his support for the protesters. What i always come back to, hes really disdains expertise, he doesnt rely on career professionals. Hes not moved by data, hes not moved by science, when those officials back him up he embraces them and say theyre terrific. When they counter him, his skin gets thinner and thinner. When youre a weather vane, the smallest gust can cause you to change direction. Dr. Wen, i want to ask you about the Southern States that are dipping their toe in the water of reopening without having met what dr. Birx articulated at one of the white house Coronavirus Task force briefings, the 14day decline in cases. Can you talk about the dangers of opening up too soon for some of these states . Well, nicolle, what theyre doing defies data and frankly, common sense. It doesnt make sense when you have an uptick in the number of cases that youre relaxing the restrictions which are really the only things that are preventing a further surge in infections and im really concerned about whats going happen in particular also about the signal that it sends to the rest of the country because we know when the social distancing guidelines are relaxed were not going to see an immediate uptick in cases. Its going to take a couple of weeks, couple more weeks for people to go to the hospital, get ill and frankly have more deaths. In the meantime, other states may be looking at these exam president s, it doesnt look that bad, they open up and were not seeing a rapid increase. But of course what will happen is, theres this lag of time between, between exposure and infection and then severe illness, and in that time im afraid the other states are going to follow these examples. I gijust really worry these governors are jumping the gun and taking action they may believe is the right thing, it goes against what every Public Health expert is advising. Say if youre one of these governors and you want to open up tomorrow, why wouldnt you demand a test for everyone in your state so you can say, okay, granted there could be Community Spread at any point at least well know what were starting from, why hasnt the white house embraced widespread testing to get to what they want which is a quicker reopening. Thats great question and exactly they should be doing, nicolle, we need to know what our baseline is, right, we need to know where we stand so we can also measure our progress. I mean, im also worried that perhaps the white house and maybe even governors may not want to know what the actual numbers are because some of our preliminary studies are the actual number of infections may be many times higher than what theyre reporting. Everywhere were doing a lot of testing in these hotspots like nursing homes, jails or factories, were seeing an explosive number of infections. I mean, i hate to speculate on the reason but i do worry about this just not wanting to know the numbers instead of what were seeing from the white house, these press conferences, theyre justifying why widespread testing isnt needed. We need widespread testing. The key is, how do we get there . You know, jonathan, its one of the things that donald trump and andrew cuomo have fought about. Here are the two men with two different world views on testing. Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was in fact a failing, do you take responsibility for that and when can you guarantee that every single american who needs a test will be able to have a test, whats the date of that. Yeah, i dont take responsibility at all. I accept full responsibility. If someone is unhappy. Somebody wants to blame someone or complain about someone. Blame me. You should congratulations, great job instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question. I want them to appreciate the incredible job were doing. Were doing a job the likes of which has never been done before. I should be held responsible for making sure those 200 labs actually deploy across the state in a smart way. Hold me responsible. If you dont want to take the political heat you shouldnt be in the political kitchen which is called being an elected official in the state of new york. Jonathan, couldnt starve out of stone or ice two more different profiles in the theory that the buck stops with them. Yeah, Harry Trumans favorite slogan. The president not only with this pandemic but throughout his time in office has been reluctant to accept any blame where there have been failures. Most notably of course was the ukraine matter, the impeachment, some republicans express eed se queasiness. The president said it was a perfect call over and over again and hes doing that again now. Day after day those briefings are two hours worth of him saying it was a perfect call. Throughout this pandemic. Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo has struck a very different tone, hes saying some of things that hes imposed upon, these stay at home orders are hard. He says people are upset. If youre angry, be angry at me. Im trying to do it as a safeguard. Other issues in terms of keeping new yorkers healthy. Hes willing to accept that responsibility. The president hasnt given anything closely to similar tone or sentiment in any of his speeches from the white house. Jeremy bash, your thoughts on Governor Cuomos leadership and whatever you think of new york state and whatever you think of Governor Cuomo, its the worlds epicenter in terms of cases and number of deaths. Front page stories in the New York Times how the city of manhattan may never recover. 12k3w4r well, i think Governor Cuomo is governing based on facts and hes not governing based on e go. Hes governoring on facts. Its not a high bar to clear, nicolle, in terms of governing in a crisis. The key thing in a crisis is to match resource with need. Match supply and demand. Put those things together and get resources to people when they need it. Its not about the press coverage. Its basically about crisis manage zblmt jeremy bash, leana wen thank you. When we come back as trump continues to maintain the state go it alone to handle the virus, one state did that. How the widespread failures of the trump administrations has pushed people to get creative. The white house today scramble to defend trumps latenight tweet on halting immigration despite providing details on how it could work. And how coronavirus is exploiting our already failed government response. All those stories coming up. E s. Because we are an essential business. Helping you solve your changing communication and business challenges is our commitment. Were in this together. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. 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. After donald trump insisted states were essentially on their own in the scramble for medical supplies, governor larry hogan secured kits from south korea allowed to conduct coronavirus test. They arrived this morning to meet its goal of testing ining 100,000. Donald trump went after Governor Hogan again at yesterdays briefing. We provided each governor with the names and addresses and phone numbers of the labs where they could find additional Testing Capacity the governor of maryland could have called mike pence and saved a lot of money. Look at these different places. Thats married right there. Could have saved a lot of money, but thats okay. I think he needed to get knowledge. Trump there referring to a list of some 5,000 labs that are prepared to receive tests that doesnt address the lack of actual tests something that hogan pointed out on morning joe earlier today. It was an easier way we would have taken it. Every governor has been fighting to get tests since the beginning of this crisis. You know, the president said that the governors are on their own and they should really focus on getting their own tests and thats exactly what we did. His message changed yesterday, im not sure why. Its not just states fighting tooth and nails over supply, entire hospitals are vying for ma masks and quote cloak and dagger deals. One hospital in massachusetts went through, kwquote it was a stooelt transaction through someone who knew someone who knew someone. Joining us now nbc and msnbc National Affairs analyst john heilemann. That article about the getaway car and disguising the vehicle as a food service truck. Thats about masks and protective gear. Whats happening . John has frozen on us. Jonathan, the president s statements at these press conferences that the states are getting what they need day after day. The report last night posted in the the New York Times the extraordinary measures that hospitals in massachusetts are taking. Why cant they just cant, were trying to be responsive, if theres a better job to do well do it. Well, first of all, let me say there are moments where i prefer a frozen john. Youre right, nicolle, in terms day after day it seems this president is undercut from what he says at the briefing versus what is truly reality. I mean, thats a gripping account what you read there about the masks. Governor of maryland has done this test to justify why he had to step outside the federal government channels to obtain these masks and these are not things that are being done because of ego, theyre being done to try to help their citizens. Citizens is something that our next guest new York Governor Andrew Cuomo who joins us by phone fresh out of his meeting with the president. Governor, how did your meeting go and what did you say to the president . The meeting went well. And i think it was productive. The big issue was testing, as everything knows, thats going to be the next step as we go forward and how do we separate the responsibilities and the tasks on test iing, the state a the federal government and the acknowledgment that we all need to Work Together on this. It has to be a real partnership. And i think we had a very good conversation. The state has laboratories in the state, the state regulates the labs, the state should determine