The coronavirus. This is their new hoax. We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship, and unify together as one nation. And the whiplash doesnt stop there. Minutes after the president said last night that cargo would be restricted from europe, causing the markets to quiver, the white house said, actually, no, no, no, cargo will not actually be restricted. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. It is thursday, march 12th. Along with joe, whil lillie, an we have mike barnicle. White house contributor, Jonathan Lemire. And from Vanderbilt University, john meacham. He is an nbc news and msnbc contributor. The coronavirus has now entered a devastating new phase, as the World Health Organization declares it a global pandemic. There are now more than 126,000 cases across more than 100 countries and regions. The latest numbers from Johns HopkinsUniversity Ranks the United States eighth in terms of countries with the most confirmed cases. Keep in mind, we have a limit on testing. We learned this morning from the officials in florida that a passenger with coronavirus arrived at Palm Beach International airport from new yorks jfk airport last night. Two sources tell nbc news that in a closed door briefing, the attending physician of Congress ToldSenate Staffers yesterday that he expects 70 million to 150 Million People in the u. S. Will contract the virus. On wall street, the dow plunged 1,400 points into a bear market. More on that in just a moment. Last night, President Trump delivered a Rare Oval Office address and announced that travel from certain parts of europe would be restricted. Much more on that in just a moment, as well. The virus is now taking a greater toll on American Social and cultural life. The governors of california and oregon issued new guidelines last night to cancel all gatherings of 250 people or more. The same for Washington State in certain countries. More than 100 colleges have now canceled inperson classes. The latest being duke, georgetown, George Washington university, uva, and the university of notre dame. The nba, meanwhile, suspended all games until further notice after a player tested positive for the virus. Ncaa march madness games will now be closed to spectators. Sources tell espn that Major League Baseball teams are preparing for policies that could disrupt early season games. With the home openers of the l. A. Dodgers, the Oakland Athletics, and the San Diego Padres in question. There was also this rare statement from mlb, the nba, major league soccer, and nhl, that locker rooms and clubhouses will be closed to the staff and nonessential staff. A face we all recognize is now attached to the virus. After tom hanks revealed that he and his wife, rita wilson, tested positive while in australia. Theres also the first known case on capitol hill. A staffer at senator Maria Cantwells d. C. Office tested positive for the virus. Her staff on the hill and back home in Washington State will now work from home. Twitter, which has dozens of offices around the world, also announced that its employees will work from home. Willie, yesterday afternoon, if you watched the news feeds on either twitter or you were watching tv, you noticed things really started to accelerate quickly. It had been a bad situation. The markets had been falling all day. Suddenly, march madness kangs ellel canceled for the fans going to the games. More stories coming out one after the other. Then the president goes on to deliver this speech. We get the news of tom hanks and rita wilson. We get the news of the nba cancelling the rest of the season. One college after another college being closed. Last night, you had americans, for unlike any time since 9 11, the americans were tuning in to watch their president. They wanted reassurance. I did agree with what the president said, that we are in this together. This is a battle we all have to join together, regardless of our political ideology. It is unfortunate though, that instead of reassurance, it seems that his address only unsettled americans more. If you look at the initial response and also rattled the International Markets, which immediately fell. I will say, the one bit of good news for me as i was watching it was that the president called it a pandemic. Yeah. Hes taking it seriously now. This allows his Administration Officials to go out and act aggressively without being worried, without worrying about being undercut by the president , like azar was undercut and fauci and others were undercut before. They can attack this problem aggressively now, and that is good news. It is also good news for physicians. I have a very good friend who is a physician who, yesterday, told me that half of his clients, half of his clients do not believe, or at least yesterday afternoon, did not believe that the coronavirus was real. They believe it was a hoax. They believed it was a hoax made up by the media. This is a guy who had been their doctor for 15, 20 years. The president has spread a lot of misinformation, did a lot of dangerous things. People on trump, protrump broadcasts have said a lot of really dangerous, reckless things over the past couple days. It is my hope that the address last night pours cold water on all those conspiracy theories and, now, we can all get to the business of treating this pandemic. Yeah. Well get to some of the particulars of what the president said last night, if theyre good ideas, what the impact of those will be. Youre right, america woke up last night. Theres no question. In the space of about 30 minutes, the nba suspended its season until further notice. The president gave that address. We got the news, as mika mentioned, that tom hanks and rita wilson have contracted coronavirus while in australia. That list, to put together with all the other things that came during the day, including the fact you have the congressional doctor telling staffers up on the hill that there could be 150 million cases of coronavirus in this country, america is awake now. We know this is a problem. As you say, you cant help but stop and wonder, those weeks spent calling it a hoax by the president , those weeks spent denying that it was happening, those weeks not doing enough about this, will that lost time come back to haunt this country . We shall find out. Well talk to leading Infectious Disease doctor in a moment. President trump has announced a ban on most travel from europe into the United States for the next 30 days. During an Oval Office Address last night, President Trump explained the new restrictions will begin tomorrow at midnight. The ban applies to 26 European Countries and the zone without border controls. The United Kingdom is not included in the ban, though there have been 456 cases of coronavirus there so far, resulting in eight deaths. According to the department of Homeland Security, the ban only applies to foreign nationals who have been in those countries at any point during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the United States. The ban does not apply to u. S. Citizens, green card holders, or the families of u. S. Citizens. During the address last night, President Trump blamed the European Union for failing to take similar precautions, as those being taken now by the u. S. Taking early, intense action, we have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in europe. The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from china and other hot spots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from europe. To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect friday at midnight. We are marshaling the full power of the National Government and the private sector to protect the American People. This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history. I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures, we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens, and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus. Shortly after the president spoke there, the white house had to clarify some of his remarks. During his address, the president said the restrictions also would apply to cargo shipped into the United States from europe. But the white house later said the ban only applies to people and not to goods. Joe, as you say, the president , at least in his tone and his tenor, taking it seriously finally, after suggesting itd disappe disappear. A couple days ago, saying, stay calm. This will go away. The problem is, there were errors within his speech. Hes talking about this like it is still a containment story and not something that has to be dealt with inside our country. Its here. Right. Health care officials are fine with bans from other countries. Fine with, you know, trying to keep more infected people out of the United States, right . If thats what youre leading with, a ban, if thats your focus, you dont understand, as somebody said last night on twitter, that the killer is already inside the house. Right. So you need to worry first about the killer inside of the house before but go ahead and lock the door. Stop other killers from coming inside the house. But the lead last night should have been testing. The lead last night should have been social distancing. The lead last night should have been relief for workers who are being sent home because their children are home from school. The lead last night should have been a lot of things, and the president just didnt talk about it. He talked, again, about bans. He talked about bans from europe but, somehow, deciding to exempt great britain, which actually makes very little sense. If you look at the numbers themselves. This president last night, sadly, was just overmatched by history. Listen, im going to draw a comparison thats going to make a lot of people upset, Jonathan Lemire. George w. Bush after 9 11 was unsettled. His press conference from the louisiana military base was deeply unsettling. Yet, george w. Bush found his footing, went to gained the res an awful lot of people in those early days after 9 11. The president can do that, but as you wrote last night in the Associated Press, you talked about a president overmatched by this moment and what that means for americans. Ill give you a couple quotes here. Trump continued to play down the virus, slashing into officials, including health and Human Services secretary alex azar for taking up the possible severity of the threat. You go on to write, but the virus has appeared impervious to the president s bluster. The virus does not have a twitter account. Unlike so many others, its resistant to the political bullying or Republican Party solidarity. It is fear of germs and exposing the inadequacies of his administration. Finally, you write, one of trumps most potent political assets is his ability to read a room or a moment. Often issuing longterm planning for instantaneous reaction. But he was slow to come to grips with the threat posed by the coronavirus as it exploded into china. Jonath jonathan, last night, you saw a president finally coming to terms with what he was facing, still relying on some of his old, cheap tricks that may have worked against marco rubio and ted cruz in the president ial primary. It wont work against a pandemic. What can you tell us about how the day progressed yesterday that moved the president from being resistant to calling this pandemic what it was, a pandemic, to the president finally, last night, delivering a sober, if flawed, address, and explaining to americans that this is a Global Crisis . This presidency is in a new place now. To this point, the old tactics donald trump used time and time again arent working. He had to be talked into the Oval Office Address yesterday by top aides, including Vice President pence, who said it was necessary to get out there. Something more dramatic was needed. Theyve been watching the markets which have been tumbling. Theyre seeing the number of cases within the United States borders explode. Last night, the president decided he needed to talk and do something. The initial response, as were seeing on the screen, futures markets werent particularly positive. What the speech lacked was, as you said, any discussion of testing, any discussion of kits. It was not about the issue at home. It remained very much painting the virus as a foreign threat, something we can try to keep out when, of course, it is already here. This crisis in particular seems one that the president is illsuited to address. It is indeed not just because he is long declared himself a germaphobe, but he is so concerned about the economy, which he, in his mind, is so closely linked to the stock market. He tied his own political fortunes to that so greatly. Hes tried to rally it time and time again the last few days, and it has not worked. This is not something he can bluster with on twitter. He cant rally other republicans around it. He now cant rally at all. He was scheduled to have an event in milwaukee next week. He had to cancel that. His opponents, joe biden and Bernie Sanders on the democratic side canceled rallied, as well. The president was reluck tactar. As late as yesterday, there was talk in the white house and campaign of scheduling for event for florida in the next week or so. Theyve had to cancel that, at least postpone it. They realized how unsafe itd be. It deprives the president of not just his life blood we know how he draws energy from his rally crowds but his political weapon. He can command a headline or a moment. Right now, what hes come up with so far has proven inadequate, despite, yes, finally taking it serious enough to deliver the Oval Office Address last night. Right. Well, if people are still trying to figure out what to do, its just anecdotal. What were hearing all around, the president spent nine seconds last night talking about one of the fundamental pillars of dealing with this crisis, and that would be testing. Which still is extremely lacking and limited here in the United States. A lot of people, if theyre not like the folks that we heard coming into your friends doctors office, joe, who think it is a hoax, there are others sort of using their own common sense, trying to figure out what to do. Should i send my child to school . Exactly who should i surround my parent with . My worry is that this pandemic, the lack of knowledge about this pandemic in the u. S. , that could really start ensuing a panic, when the real ramifications of this pandemic start ricochetting around the country. That is growing numbers of people with coronavirus. My sources inside the administration tell me there are more reasons to be concerned about who is working inside the administration. That it is not just the president who sees this primarily as an economic challenge. It is other top officials inside the administration who seem oblivious to the health care pandemic, to the crisis that may be coming in the next few weeks, unless we take dramatic action. There is no evidence right now that the president and all his men and women will rise to the occasion. Let us hope. As the president said last night, we are all on the same team. You know, john meacham, history has examples of president s and of foreign leaders who were underestimated in a time of crisis. Of course, fdr was considered a dilettante with a third rate a third rate intellect who became, of course, the greatest president of the 20th century. Winston churchill had the horrific failures, his alone years, the drinking, the alcoholism and, yet, he saved western civilization in the battle of britain in 1940. Sadly, i dont know that we can have any such hopes for donald trump, but give us some hope from anything you saw last night or that youve seen over the past few weeks. That this president and this administration will rise to really the unprecedented challenges of this pandemic, or at least unprecedented since the spanish flu outbreak broke out in 1918. Yeah. I think you said it at the very top. The fact that he used the word pandemic, that he embraced reality in a way. The fact we are saluting a president for embracing reality tells you where weve been the last three years. But you have to do that. I think that the reality of this, though i agree that he seemed to be almost having a policy discussion on a personal issue, there was a certain lack of syncronicity there, aside from that, he is a tactile reactor. He does react so much to the moment. If, in fact, the one thing that may bring red state and blue state people to the same place in terms of how we see reality for the first time in a long time, if it is this common thre threat, then there is a capacity here for the administration, for the federal government, and hopefully the president will get