Everybody. It is may 19th. Im yasmin vossoughian. We have a lot of ground to cover this morning. Were going to begin with the big picture. A quick overview of where things stand this morning, the Los Angeles Times writing in part about the president s efforts to distract and spread disinformation. They write this, quote, trump fired yet another Inspector General, raged against a government whistleblower and repeatedly tweeted videos of a local tv reporter being harassed in new york all since friday. He also amplified a sinister Conspiracy Theory he dubbed obamagate in which he alleges, but never specifies crimes by his predecessor. Experts struggle to think of a historical parallel where the office is turned into a megaphone for wholesale fabrications and bizarre claims in an efrtd to confuse voters and salvage his own political future. And now this. In a stunning claim that has prompted warnings from Health Experts, the president says he has been taking a daily dose of hydroxychloroquine for over a week. And a warning from the fda about potentially deadly side effects. President trump telling reporters just yesterday that he does not believe hes been exposed to the virus, but decided to take the drug after consult, the white house physician. Watch this. The front line workers, many, many are taking it. I happen to be taking it. Hydroxychloroquine . Im taking it, hydroxychloroquine. A couple of weeks ago i started taking it. Why, sir . Because i think its good. Did the white house doctor recommend you take that . White house doctor, yeah. No, he didnt recommend it. A lot of people are taking it. A lot of front line workers are taking hydroxychloroquine. I dont take it because people say, hey, maybe he owns the company. No, i want the people of this nation to feel good. I was waiting to see your eyes light up when i say this. But, yeah, ive taken it for about a week and a half now. Im still here. What is the evidence that it has a preventive effect . I get a lot of positive calls about it. But i get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy. And i say, hey, what do you have to lose, okay . What do you have to lose. So i have been taking it for about a week and a half. Every day . Yeah, every day. I take a bill every day. At some point ill start. What id like to do is id like to have the cure or the vaccine and that will happen i think very soon. So the white house physician released a statement saying this, after numerous discussions he and i had for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks. He added that the president is, quote, in very good health and has remained symptom free. A white house official familiar with the president s decision telling nbc news that President Trump started taking the drug after his valet tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month. White house aides were caught off guard by the president s decision to publicly disclose that hes been taking the drug. That white house official said only a small group of aides knew the president was even taking it. President trumps latest endorsement of hydroxychloroquine prompted new warnings from Health Experts against using this drug. Not wanting people to run out and buy it. Dr. Vin gupta said hydroxychloroquine can cause fatal heart arrhythmia and warned that the president is, quote, putting himself at risk. And in a tweet yesterday, dr. Leani wen wrote in part this, there is no evidence for hydroxy chore quinn being effective in treatment of covid19 or prophylaxis to prevent the disease. This is a medication that has serious sides effects. I am very concerned about President Trump continuing to model behavior that could harm millions of americans. Watch this. If you are in a risky population here and you are taking this as a preventive treatment to ward off the virus or in a worst Case Scenario you are dealing with the virus and you are in this vulnerable population, it will till you. I cannot stress enough, this will kill you. In reaction to those comments, the president fired off several retweets from users attacking the fox news host along with the network itself with trump saying, he is, quote, looking for a new outlet. So the Biotech Company maderna announcing its vaccine candidate appeared to be safe and was able to build an immune response against the virus in a small group of patients. Patients between the ages of 18 and 35 received a low level of a new vaccine. This is suggesting but does not prove that some level of immunity and represents the first of many steps in a long process. The president will be proceeding by continuing in additional age groups. Next comes a face of 600 people with a third phase involving thousands of healthy people. Joining me now, hans nichols for us. Hans, good morning to you. Appreciate you joining us today. What a day yesterday was, right . The president announcing to the press that he started taking hydroxychloroquine when his valet tested positive with the coronavirus. Why state this publicly and why take the risk, looking at every study out there saying that there are major ricks for heart arrhythmia and there is no science to prove that there is any preventive positives for taking hydroxychloroquine . The president is comfortable with the risks and hes heard enough anecdotal evidence from doctors hes talked to, from friends in the industry that he thinks this can have a positive effect. So this is the president playing his own doctor. Obviously, they ran this through the white house medical unit. They hinted that there were conversations by saying they ran this through the intraoffice agency. So at the president s request, hes decided to take this proif a profalactic. He had very little interaction with katie miller, the press secretary, the Vice President , and todays actions show he may be more concerned than he let on. And there is a certain amount of gamesmanship, there is a certain amount of showmanship. And, you know, it wasnt just the press that was surprised. It was many members of his own administration and i suspect the Political Team will be polling this and then well get a house reaction and not just from nancy pelosi and house adversaries and political allies. And now who else is doing this . Who else is modeling . And what do they think about the president almost selfmedicating. Hans nichols, stick around for me. Im going to talk to you again in just a bit. I want to address this new news with regard to Vaccine Development out of maderna biotech firm. Still ahead, everybody, were going to be digging into the new reporting that the la latest watchdog fired by President Trump was investigating additional information. And then, of course, a check on the weather with our own bill karins when we come right back. Karins when we come ghrit back we live in uncertain times. However, there is one thing you can be certain of. The men and women of the United States postal service. Were here to deliver cards and packages from loved ones and also deliver the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way. Every day, all across america, we deliver for you. And we always will. Welcome back, everybody. The state Department Inspector general first thought to be fired for investigating personal tasks assigned to a Department Staffer was also investigating the approval of arms sales to saudi arabia without congressional approval. Officials telling nbc news they believe Inspector General steve linick was fired in part for investigating saudi arms sales that congress had previously rejected. Elliott enginel confirmed that investigation late monday. Lawmakers are both sides of the aisle are demanding a more complete sdmranexplanation for linicks firing. Chuck grassley sent a letter to the president on monday. Grassley reminded trump the law requires detailed explanations for dismissing a Inspector General. And then the president confirming on monday that secretary of state pompeo requested the dismissal, but didnt directly address the issue of retaliation. Watch this. Mr. President , isnt there at least a conflict of interest if that i cant tell you. I dont think so. I think maybe he thinks hes been treated unfairly. Again, he wanted to he asked me if that would be possible. I said ill do that, sure. I think it should have been done a long time ago, frankly. This is a man that has had some controversy, this Inspector General. Again, i dont know anything i havent even read much about him. Everybody agrees that i have the absolute right to fire the Inspector Generals. So secretary pompeo later dismissed the idea that his request for fires wag regarding an investigation into arms deals. Because i simply dont know, im not briefed on that. Its simply not possible for to to be an act of retaliation, end of story. The state departments under secretary for management telling the post that a concern over linick had grown because of a pattern of unauthorized disclosures or leaks to the news media about investigations that were in an early draft form. He added that officials have no evidence linick was personally responsible for the leaks. Danny, lets get into this a bit. You have pompeo and other state Department Staff claiming that the ig himself might have been doing things that were not authorized by the ig statute. Talk us through this ig statute. As you said, the allegations were that there may have been leaks coming from the office, not necessarily from linick himself, but political counterinsurntsy calls for burning down the whole village, firing everybody. And since hes the boss, they get rid of him. The other supposed thing he wasnt doing, this ig, was promoting the values and ethics put out by the secretary of state, mike pompeo. But all of this doesnt matter because under the statute, the president can use the thinnest of reasons to fire an Inspector General. The courts addressed exactly this issue when obama fired then an Inspector General in 2009 and he challenged it in court. And basically the court said that as long as you Say Something like ive lost confidence in this Inspector General, thats good enough under the statute. Which is why you see that language in almost every firing since. Lost confidence. But what if it is for political reasons, does congress and we talked about this yesterday with regard to checks and balances and waivivi the flags of checks and balances, as well, does congress have any way of checking or overriding if proving this is for political reasons . Probably not. The president really does have almost complete authority to fire and doesnt have to give a lot as far as reasons for why. The penaltys power to appoint and fire is pretty broad in this area. Danny cevallos, my friend, thank you, as always. Good to see you this morning. Still ahead, the Trump Administration will reportedly make a new announcement about bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing to a new plant in the United States. That new reporting is next. The United States. That new reporting is next for business as usual. Or is it . What if business as usual means putting people first. And understanding their needs . 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Weve implemented shorter hours, so we can sanitize our stores from top to bottom while also restocking our products. But if anything, these days have reminded us why we do what we do. Because despite everything thats changed, one thing hasnt, and thats our devotion to you and our communities. Were working together, instore and online, through pickup and delivery, to make sure you can still get the essentials you need. And as we move forward, know that our First Priority will always be to keep you and our associates safe. The Trump Administration expected to announce a massive 354 Million Contract today which will bring medical manufacturing needed for covid19 patients back from overseas with a Brand New Company. The companiel, flow corporation, is based out of richmond, virginia, and would be responsible for manufacturing generic medications and pharmaceutical ingredients which are mainly produced in china and india right now. The 354 million fouryear contract has the potential to be extended to teven years for a total of 812 million. White house trade adviser Peter Navarro said that the project will, quote, not only help bring our essential medicines home, but do so in a way that is cost competitive with the sweat shops and solutions agents of the world. It is unclear why the white house has selected a Brand New Company for such a massive contract. I want to switch gears here and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins standing by for us with your weather outlook. Good morning, bill. Good morning. Once again, we got some beautiful weather out there, but we have some problems that are going to develop in the days ahead. So we got rid of our tropical storm. It wasnt a big deal because it wasnt a strong tropical storm. That is now off the coast. You see that spin over illinois. We have a lot of heavy rain over jaers of ohio, kentucky. Its been raining the last couple of days. Flash flood warnings around columbus, ohio, right now. From cincinnati to lexington, also. And were under a Flash Flood Watch for 14 million people. The problems in ohio are going to be the problem for the next two to three days and especially in north carolina. This evening, if you want to go out there and enjoy some fresh air, beautiful in the northeast. From charlotte back through the appalachians to kentucky is problematic. And into wednesday, you notice this storm, its going drift. Its not going to move. We are going to get some heavy rain in the carolinas over the next couple of days. Were going to be talking about some significant flooding possible. Those dark balloon colors, thats up to 5 inches of rain. Isolated areas could get 8 inches of rain. That will cause the rivers to rise over the next couple of days. So the forecast for today, you want beautiful weather . New york, philadelphia, really up towards boston, hartford should be great, too. Chicago, still a little cool, some showers around. How about the heat in south texas today . Full out summer, 97 in san antonio. And well deal with more showers and thunderstorms in miami. And a look at your forecast for tomorrow. Another great day from d. C. Northward, early springlike weather. Yasmin, overall, looks like pretty quiet in most areas. Well have to watch the flooding over the next couple of days. May may is our next tornado month. Still ahead, what House Speaker nancy pelosi is saying about the president s admission that hes taking an unproven drug to prevent coronavirus. N un drug to prevent coronavirus. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. As far as the president is concerned, hes our president and i would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, morbidly obese, they say. So i think that its not a good idea. That was House Speaker nancy pelosi taking a jab at the president. Trump telling reporters yesterday he doesnt believe hes been exposed to the virus, but decided to take the drug after consult, the white house physician. Despite studies questioning its effectiveness at treating the virus and a warning from the fda about potentially deadly side effect. Also, the u. S. Has given the World Health Organization a 30day dud line to make major substantive improv