Well play for you his testimony. It is pretty riveting. Well have the latest on the economic picture, as u. S. Unemployment claims now total upwards of 36 Million People. And the latest trump distraction. Its a big one. Now asking republicans in congress to call former president barack obama to testify. It all might be a calculated campaign strategy, but it is a massive distraction. Many believe that this president right now is trying to distract from the neverending dea ineverl of this virus, and using employs and conspiracy theories, and actually raising questions about president barack obama, only part of his massive distraction play. It is taking everything to a new level. We begin though with the cdc yesterday releasing previously withheld guidance documents on reopening american institutions, which appear to be a lot less detailed than the draft recommendations sent to the white house for review last month. Weve been waiting for a while for these recommendations. When you read them, you wonder what the wait was for. According to politico, the new cdc guidelines provide brief checklists meant to help keep businesses and others operating in public open safely. In a onepage document, the cdc offers Decision Making tools for schools, workplaces, camps, child care programs, mass transit systems, and bars and restaurants. The Associated Press reported last week the white house previously shelved cdc advice, providing recommendations for safely reopening. Willie, when you read them, they equivocate, by the way, and theres always a line that says, if its not possible, you dont have to do it, but these recommendations are so basic, we could anybody in america could write them, or is practically already living by them. Yeah. I mean, that reads like a cliffs notes version of the original 63page document the cdc sent to the white house and said, hey, can we get some feedback on this . They were slow walked, slow walked, and now what we have is this very broad, onepage summaries of what you might do if you want to. Effectively, like President Trump wanted a ee eed and gets leaves everything up to the state. President trump visited a plant yesterday in allentown, pennsylvania, where he told the audience to urge their democratic governor to reopen the entire state. I say its the transition to greatness. The transition is the Third Quarter. The Fourth Quarter is going to do very well. Next year is going to be through the roof. We have to get your governor of pennsylvania to start opening up a little bit. You have areas of pennsylvania that are barely affected, and they want to keep them closed. Cant do that. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued a strict stay at home order until june 4th. Partly lifted restrictions in 37 counties across the state. Officials in some counties that remain closed say they will defy the governor and reopen today, leaving local businesses scrambling for guidance. Jim vandehei, i know youve been looking at this story closely, specifically in the state of wisconsin, where you have this tension between Public Health officials worried about opening too soon, with dr. Anthony fauci chief among them, and people wanting to get back to work. In some cases, mayors and people who run businesses saying, i cant stand this anymore. It is time to reopen. Now, they have President Trump the last several weeks encouraging them in that direction. The good news here is that most people, like almost every business, every hospital, every school is figuring out what is best for the people that are going to come back and work for them or go to school there. Theyre not going to act like dopes and do things they think are going to put people at risk. Every business is doing that. Most people are listening to their employer, their school, their governor. Theyre not even looking to the federal government for direction on this. That said, obviously, President Trump is now saying, get back to work. Get back to work. Get back to work. In wisconsin, you had the state Supreme Court overrule the democratic governor and say, all your restrictions are lifted. In the shortterm, you have a real world, unfolding experiment of what happens if you can go back to work. You see some of the portraits and some of the pictures on social media. In some bars, people are crammed in there. Theyre doing shots. Theyre hugging. Theyre highfiving. Some restaurants are open. It differs between what county youre in and what city youre in. In a lot of places, people are being responsible. Theyre saying, hey, im a republican, and maybe trump is saying this, but im listening to the Health Experts and im not going to go out. Now, between whats happening in wisconsin, what already had been happening in georgia, florida, some other places, were going to start to see what happens if people go out in mass, start to resume living the way we all want to live. Do you see a massive flare up in the number of cases and, therefore, the number of deaths . If we do, its going to take a hell of a lot long fer for thin to reopen. You have to shut back down, figure out what you got wrong, and what is the right cadence for getting back to work. It is interesting, the clip you talked about in pennsylvania, where the president is now saying, next year, the economy will roar back. Remember about three weeks ago, it was the end of this year, things will be roaring back. They now realize that by election day, unemployment is definitely going to be in the double digits. That growth is going to be slower than we think. Many more businesses are going to go out of business and not be able to come back into business. People that have job s or had jobs arent going to have them. You see it every day. There is a disconnect between the market, which people are saying, oh, looks like things are coming back, and the reality on the ground. Talk to any business owner. Nothing is going to look like it did before, and it is all going to unfold more slowly than any of us hoped us. Mika, this, of course, is an economic question, but President Trump is encouraging, and also has a cultural question, a red state blue state thing. He retweeted overnight a guy who was in a bar in florida, showing, were all in this bar. None of us are Wearing Masks, and sent that to a message of what he called blue states. The president of the United States retweeted that, sort of to underline that message. This is a president who is sending a message to people, that perhaps they can fly in the face and defy this virus and have that trump attitude toward this virus of, you know, who gives a damn, or whatever you. Remember, on january 22nd, and, of course, if the president is watching i say if, putting it in quotes because he does all the time but january 22nd, he said, we have it totally under control. One person coming in from china. Itll be fine. January 24th, he said, china 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. January 30th were talking january here, where joe biden wrote this opinion piece, warning americans and this president that a Global Pandemic was coming. January 30th, were working closely with china and other countries. We think itll have a good ending for us. Were almost at 90,000 people dead. Oh, february 23rd, we have it very much under control in this country. President trump, those were your words. Thats what you told the American People. Again, when you have 15 people, and 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to zero, that was february 26th. Were in may and almost at 90,000 people dead. He said on february 26th, that was a really good job that we had done. February 27th, the next day, the next day, its going to disappear one day. Its like a miracle. It will disappear. February 27th were in may, and almost 90,000 people are dead. March 7th, no, im not concerned at all. No, weve done a great job with it. Now, the president is Walking Around a plant in pennsylvania, wearing no mask, even though every expert at the top of their field in epidemiology and in pandemics say masks protect other people from your droplets. That you may be carrying it. Since the white house does testing every day, the president thinks hes virus free. The tests that are being used are often inconclusive. Hes Walking Around a plant with no mask, close to people, not even social distancing. He also gave this thought on testing. Take a look. Could be the testing is, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated. But whenever they start yelling, we want more, we want more. You know, they always say, we want more, paubecause they don want to give you credit. We do more. We have the greatest testing in the world. Dont forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world. Why . We do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didnt do any testing, wed have very few cases. They dont want to write that. It is common sense. No, wow. We would have booked a doctor for this segment, but it is so frighteningly obvious, that the president is uttering complete stupidity and is flying in the face of everything that this virus can do to this country. When you have a test, yes, you have a case, and then you know about the case, mr. President , and youre able to isolate the case and Contact Trace the case. Yes, when you test, you have a case. It seems to me, donald trump doesnt want to know about cases. Donald trump doesnt want to know about cases in this country. Perhaps those numbers make him look bad for his president ial second term ambitions. I dont know. Willie, how do you explain this . I dont know how to explain it. Im glad we didnt insult a doctor by bringing him or her on to try to em plain this. Embarrassing. The quote again, if we didnt do any testing, we would have very few cases. Its common sense. Good lord. Thats some ron burgundy stuff there. Unbelievable. Lets turn to the white house. Senior White House Reporter for nbc news digital, shannon pettypiece. Good to see you. Lets talk about what the president is occuup to these da. He had a trip to arizona last week. A trip to pennsylvania. Not the rallies he would like to be holding. Is this more of what were going to see here as he tries to conduct the president ial campaign in the middle of a pandemic . Reporter yeah, thats what white house officials are telling me, to expect more of the official president ial trips to key battleground states. Weve essentially entered phase two of campaign in coronavirus. Phase one were the press briefings, where the president would come out and use the podium for hours at a time. In some instances. Getting his message out there. Advisers told him it was a bad idea, doing more harm than they were helping. He proposed this idea of getting on the road, doing official trips. While these dont look like a campaign rally, theres not a stadium packed full of people, there are a lot of optics that are similar. For example, the soundtrack the president often plays at his rallies, that played before the event in pennsylvania, in arizona. There were some people in the crowd in pennsylvania this is a crowd of workers who had make America Great again hats. The motorcade routes outside of the facility were packed with supporters who had come out to see the president. They were holding campaign signs, you know, trump pence flags, many without masks, packed into close quarters. There was almost a def facto rally going along outside the facility and along the motorcade route. All of this happening while joe biden is essentially stuck at home, in his home studio. The president is capitalizing on the power of the presidency, and the ability to travel on air force one to start taking his message to some of the key battleground states. And trying to change the conversation to president obama and general Michael Flynn. Shannon pettypiece at the white house. Thank you. President trump in recent days ramped up his attacks against former president barack obama. Now, hes calling on congress to have president obama testifying. President trump has accused obama of illegally targeting his associates in a longrunning conspiracy he is calling obamagate. Well note, there is no hard evidence to support the claims he is making. Still, he tweeted yesterday, if i were a senator or congressman, the first person i would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the usa by far is former president obama. He knew everything. Do it, Lindsey Graham. Just do it. No more mr. Nice guy, writes the president , no more talk. It was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. If i were a democrat instead of a republican, i think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago. Im talking with 50year sentences. It is a disgrace, whats happened. This is the greatest political scam, hoax, in the history of our country. I think itd be a bad precedent to compel a former president to come before the congress. That would open up a can of worms. For a variety of reasons, i dont think thats a good idea. I think what were seeing here is the extent that donald trump will go to distract. It is very hard to distract from a virus and from 90,000 people dead and counting. Most people who know trump very well know he will do anything, absolutely anything. That is the perilous position this country is in. The question is how far republicans will go with him. They seem to be willing to do anything. While senator graham says he doesnt plan on having president obama testify, he told reporters yesterday that starting next month, he plans on having his committee hold hearings on the origins of the russia probe. This comes as Senate Republicans push for more investigations into the obama era. Calls for new probes began ramping up yesterday after acting director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell think about that for a second acting director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell, sent congress a list of dozens of Obama Administration officials, who say they asked for documents that led to the identity of Michael Flynn being unmasked from Intelligence Reports between the 2016 election and President Trumps inauguration. Senator and Homeland SecurityCommittee Chairman ron johnson told reporters, quote, we will start requesting interviews with those individuals. Senator graham wants to bring in highprofile Obama Administration officials, including former fbi director james comey, former Deputy Attorney general sally yates, and former director of National Intelligence, james clapper. Graham says he would like to have a report out by october, just weeks before the november election. David ignatius, i want to ask you your thoughts on this but, again, framing it, that this is happening in the middle of a Global Pandemic. That we are heading toward 100,000 americans dead. We dont have the testing we need. We dont have access to a virus any time soon. The country is on lockdown to a vaccine. The country is on lockdown. We are, many believe, careening toward some form of a depression. Now, tell me your thoughts on these questions being raised about the Obama Administration. Well, President Trumps default answer to so many issues over the last three years has been to blame his predecessor, barack obama. This is a pretty Standard Approach for him. Whatever it is, north korea, now the pandemic, it was the predecessors fault. This talk of obamagate is just incomprehensible. Hes never explained what he means, but hes clearly trying to make the countrys move more partisan, to gin up an investigation. Well go back to the points you and jim were making at the beginning. The dimensions of this virus, the pandemic, the consequences for our economy are still impossible to predict. But this is a country thats frightened. Were losing our jobs. Our neighbors are in financial difficulty. We dont know when well be going back to work. We dont know when our kids will be going back to school. We worry about our parents and grandparents. President trump has to be careful, talking to a frightened country. If he seems to be playing politics at a time when were thinking about our health and the health of people we love, i just dont think thats going to play. If you look at the recent poll numbers, mika, theyre telling you that the move away from trump by a few Percentage Points seems to be especially pronounced among older americans. Those polled 65 and older have been moving away from trump in significant numbers. I think thats because those are the people who are most vulnerable, most in need of reassurance, steady policy. Thats precisely when President Trump has not seemed willing or able to offer you. Hes preferred to let this be a freeforall with the states and local governments taking the burden of responsibility. So my feeling is that if he keeps pressing the political card, as through hearings on capitol hill, blaming obama, blaming predecessors, that may exacerbate his problems. It may exacerbate the feeling in the country. Nobody is looking out for my health and safety. Theyre playing politics. Thats going to hurt him