There. Sometimes the positions are being cut. This is creating an atmosphere where folks really dont know what comes next. And its impossible for anyone to speculate, because weve never been through a situation like this. Weve never seen this before. So certainly things are being pushed back, things are being put on hold and no ones quite sure what the next step is going to be. All right. Thank you. Ive been reading axios a. M. In just a little bit. You too can sign up for the newsletter at signup. Axios. Com. That does it for us on this wednesday morning. Im yasmin. Morning joe starts right now. The world depends on are the w. H. O. To work with countries to ensure that Accurate Information about International Health threats is shared in a timely manner, and if its not, to infieldly te independently tell the world whats happened. They failed in this duty and must be held accountable. You have 15 people and 15 in a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. Thats a pretty good job weve done. W. H. O. Took chinas assurances at face value, and they took it just at face value and praised china for its socalled transparency. Theres just some talk in china that maybe the transparency isnt everything that its going to be. Do you trust that were going to know everything that were going to know from china . I do. I do. I have a great relationship with president xi. Our countries are now experiencing you look all over the world, tremendous death and economic devastation because those tasked with protecting us by being truthful and transparent failed do so. And were prepared, were doing a great job with it and it will go away, just stay calm, it will go away. Come on. Goodness gracious. As weve said before with President Trump, its either projection or confession. You know, willie, i dont lecture people on talking too much because i know. I know, its fine. If i lecture people on talking too much. It would be the pot calling the kettle black. Thats why the kids call living in a glass house and throwing rocks. You just dont do it. When donald trump started this spiel yesterday, it reminded me of what John Heilemann said on our show some time ago, that everything trump says is either profession or projection. Every criticism he had of the w. H. O. , you could find ten quotes that showed he was just as bad or worse. And on china. As you showed there with his comments that he had said, yes, i believe in their transparency. I mean, these briefings that were having every day at the white house are exercises in rewriting history, as if we dont have the tapes that were showing you every morning and the tweets that we read to you every morning showing the positions the president s had. And i know well get into it a little bit more, but the w. H. O. , which obviously has made mistakes and obviously has covered for china and obviously has not been perfect as Public Health officials will tell you, is now the person the organization thats going to be pushed out in front of the bus to cover for all those quotes and tweets that weve been reading to you every morning that show where the president was in all of this. John heilemanns with us. John, confession or projection, baby. And when he started talking about china, i all i could think of was that january 24th tweet where he said he talked to president xi and china is doing a great job and theyre being so transparent. And we, the people of the United States, are so grateful to the people of china for what a great job that president xi has done and how transparent hes been. Now this is january 24th. At the same time all of our scientists and all of our doctors are begging china to tell us more. And this is, of course, this is the exact tweet, mr. President. I dont know if you remember it, chinas been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, i want to thank president xi. There is nothing, there is nothing this president has said or written in this horrific lack of leadership that hes shown over the past couple months that actually is more off base than that tweet. And hes attacking the w. H. O. For can we put that tweet up again, John Heilemann . Id like you to read it for me, if you would. I dont know if you have a screen there, but could you read this for us and lets just i want to hear it again. Alas, i do not. I do not have it here so i cannot read that tweet. China has been id love to. Id love to. Has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, i want to thank president xi. Im going to get back to you, John Heilemann, but reverend al, do you have return where you are . Is there any chance that theres no return. That you could read that you could read that for us . And i think whats interesting as we read it, joe, ask that it says china has been working very hard to contain coronavirus. United states greatly appreciates the efforts and transparency. Amen. It will all work out well, in particular on behalf of the American People, i want to thank president xi. Whats interesting to me about that is this past sunday i had dr. Anthony fauci on politics nation and he said he told the white house in mid to late january that the information from china was wrong and that they were facing a serious problem here. This was this was not some hypothetical situation like he said later. This was sunday night on politics nation fauci said that to me and our viewers that he informed them because he became alarmed mid to late january. Which is around the time of this tweet that the president sent out totally opposite of what dr. Fauci told us. And, you know, willie geist, since donald trump was saying that china and president xi were doing such an incredible job at the same time his own doctors and scientists were complaining that they were actually not cooperating at all, would send us no samples that we needed that would help us create a vaccine, start that process or start a process to testing, while the president continued to praise china and said everything was going to work out well for United States, something that he said, my god, he said that into march. Well, yesterday in new york city we passed the 10,000 dead mark in new york city. And, of course, well over 20,000 in the United States after donald trump said everythings going to work out well in january. He said, dont worry about it, its going to magically go away in february. Going to go away in april. Was saying that in february. And in march he was still saying dont worry, weve got this all under control. Here we are in the middle of april when the president said this was going to magically go away, and we had our most number of deaths in april. The deadliest day. And now were almost at 30,000 deaths, willie. Yeah. By the way, i do have a monitor so im available for any reading that will needs to come up further in the show. I like it. But the number yesterday is something we talked about actually in new york city just yesterday, you and i were talking about how we dont actually know the number of dead and its probably far greater than we think it is because or at least than has been reported because people are dying at home. Theyre not doying in hospitals and we have to look into those numbers. Coronavirus deaths surged yesterday to mark this countrys deadliest day yet in the crisis. According to nbc news, nearly 30,000 deaths now have been reported in the u. S. The number of new deaths tripled within 24 hours from more than 1500 new deaths monday to more than 6,000 yesterday. In the state of new jersey where projections had shown signs of improvement, the death toll jumped by more than 350 people. That is new jerseys largest single day increase since the outbreak began. That grim reality is similar now across the u. S. , including in california which reported its deadliest 24 hours. Covid19 deaths gripping washington, d. C. , maryland, and virginia spanning 61 deaths across that metro area. Louisianas fight against the virus is similar. The growing hot spot now has become the fourth state to exceed 1,000 coronavirus deaths. The fatality rate there nearly doubled in the span of just one day. And, as i said, new york citys death toll, mika, exponentially shot up by more than 3,700 victims yesterday after officials included those who never tested positive for the virus while they were alive but now are presumed to have died from it. Just that increase alone has boosted the total number of deaths in the u. S. Nearly 17 . Already the virus epicenter of the world, new york citys towering death toll has now crossed 10,000, despite noting a decrease in total hospitalzations, Governor Andrew Cuomo tallied an additional 778 deaths to the states Staggering Number. Governor cuomo also vowed not to engage in a fight with President Trump over when to reopen new york state. Sometimes its takes more strength, frankly, to walk away from a fight than engage it. The president will have no fight with me. I will not engage it. I sat here every day for 44 years asking new yorkers to remember that this is not about me, its about we. This is no time for politics. And it is no time to fight. I put my hand out in total partnership and cooperation with the president. If he wants to fight, hes not going to get it from me. Period. And you know, we havent talked a whole lot about politics, john heil man, duriem this time. Barack obama yesterday, well get to that as well. But just the politics of this for donald trump are so bad. And its not just because of the pandemic and its not even because of just all of the really stupid things he said from the very beginning. The wishful thinking, the antiscience things that he said, the pro china, just the c kowtowing to president xi and the next day praising them and then kowtowing again. I dont think the media should run the daily briefings, but its not because im afraid theyre helping donald trump. I just theyre not news. But theyre actually hurting donald trump day in and day out. People see cuomo, even lifelong republicans tell me they look at cuomo and theyre like, god, theres a leader. Why cant donald trump stop tweeting . Why cant he shut his mouth . Why cant he just do his job . Obviously those are all rhetorical questions. He cant do it. But hes really damaging his political standing by going out every day and engaging in clownish behavior. And thats, by the way, conservatives not conservatives. You cant be conservatives and support donald trump. Trumpists are even saying that now. Right. Right. I mean, you think about it this way, joe. You know youre on to something in a situation like this in criticizing donald trump when Lindsey Graham agrees with you. And you got someone like Lindsey Graham who never has, you after the years which he used to criticize trump, once trump became president Lindsey Graham will never ever ever say anything to get on the wrong side of donald trump. His job, his sole purpose in life is to curry favor with donald trump, to pump up donald trump, and to inflate Donald Trumps ego and never say a crossword. Even Lindsey Graham is on the record now with reporters trying to send that message, you know, the s. O. S. Message with the blinking his eyes and the hostage video. Hes trying to tell donald trump over and over again, you are screwing this up. These briefings are not working for you. All of your addictions, this one, the one to being in the constant spotlight, trump used to stay away from that Briefing Room as if it was, you know, as if it was the place that contained the crypto night, he never went in that Briefing Room. Now you once he discovered he could go in there and command the stage for two hours edet, na day, hes addicted to it. But even Lindsey Graham is saying you might want to do that once a week, buddy, because its not helping you. Because theres no world in which these briefings are helping dump. Its ju donald trump. Hes telling everyone stop and he just cannot resist the lure of those cameras. Because the one thing hes right about, a lot of people are watching. But the president doesnt understand that just a lot of people are watching doesnt mean that theyre not watching and laughing at you or criticizing you or or angry. Or turning away from you in disgust. Theyre watching, but thats not necessarily wani necessarily a winning hand. They watch train wrecks too. Theyre horrified by that too. And its like the kids in willie wonka where they just keep eating and they keep blowing up and the democrats have to be like gene wilder in the first one, how about this, where gene wilder, as theyre running to doors and doing things theyre not supposed to be doing and blowing up, gene wilder going, no, dont. Stop. Well, democrats have to be feeling that way because, stop, no, please, stop, because hes hes destroying his chance of getting reelected by doing this every day. And, mika, he goes out there. Yeah. And hes scaring the hell out of voters every day by what hes doing. And then when he went out yesterday or the day before, i forget, i think it was the day before, and he started he sounded like mussolini by saying the power of the president is complete and i have complete total authority. You know, rich lowery with the National Review who tries to play it, you know, down the line as much as he can as a conservative, said it was the most reckless thing any president has likely ever said from the white house. And thats a National Review. And, you know, you also have people like brett talking about how reckless those statements are and how stupid those statements. You have a lot of people who have done their best to defend donald trump when they can defend him and attack liberals when he could attack them just finally giving up on donald trump and in these press conferences. These press conferences, donald, mr. President , these press conferences are bad for america. They just are. But also theyre bad, actually, for your political standing. Your polls arent dropping because of the asinine things you said in january and february and march. Theyre not dropping because of pandemic has come to america. Theyre dropping, mr. President , because every night you go on and you show how small you are. You show by your words, youre not obsessed with americans who are dying and suffering. Youre not obsessed on making americans safe and letting them return to work. Youre obsessed with yourself. Not empathetic about the loss of life which is something thats sorely missing in a president. Thats why its damaging him politically. You talk about trumpist or lindsey, but i got to think about the trump supporter who works in a factory that is closed whose wife might be feeling like she might have symptoms who wants to get a test and then they hear the president every night saying we have more tests than any country in the world. Weve done 3 million tests. But yet when they call trying to get a test, theres no test. And theyre scared and they dont know when the next paycheck is going to come in and theyre watching these, theyre not feeling like its a clown show, theyre feeling angry. Theyre feeling forgotten. These are trumps people. They can feel this. They can see the lies for themselves. And President Trump continues to be eager to reopen the economy, saying yesterday that plans are close to be finalized, even as Health Experts warn he is likely moving too fast. As joe mentioned yesterday, we showed you his 30day evolution from its all up to the states to i have total authority. I dont take responsibility at all. Were letting the governors do in their states pretty much what they want. So you have to look you have to look at you have to give a little bit of flexibility. We have a thing called the constitution, which i cherish, number one. And, as you know, i want the governors to be running things. The president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots. They cant do anything without the approval of the president of the United States. When somebodys the president of the United States, the authority is total. And thats the way its got to be. Your authoritys total . Its total. Good god. Yesterday he appeared to back away from his total authority over the states claims saying hell give them the authority that they, of course, already have. The day will be very close because certain states, as you know, are in much different condition and in a much different place than other states. Its going to be very, very close. Maybe even before the date of may 1st. So, that will be for some states. Actually, there are over 20 that are in extremely good shape. And we think were going to be able to get them open fairly quickly. And then others will follow. But were all set, as i said, the governors are going to be opening up their states. Theyre going to declare when. Theyre going to know when. Some can open very, very shortly, if not almost immediately. Well give a date. But the dates going to be in the very near future. So well get it open. Individual states when the governors will be held accountable, if they need things well help them get those things, but we want them to do their testing. We want them bbecause theyr equipped do testing. Some things are going to happen that were not going to like. Like the numbers are heading in a wrong direction. Well have to do something thats very serious. Well have to maybe close em up and start all over again. Well, you know, he talks about testing. The problem is that testing is the failure on the testing front keeps getting worse by the day. You look at it per american. Its catastrophic. Per citizen, the testing is its catastrop