President interjected with a joke about the models. The professionals did the models. I was never involved with a model, at least this kind of a model, but you know what . Hundreds of thousands of people they say i want much less than that, i want none, but its too late for that. That really happened. President trump also kept his continuing feud with the governors of our states alive, dismissing new york governors Andrew Cuomos request for more ventilators. Can you assure new york that going into next week that theyre going to have the ventilators theyre going to need . No, they should have had more ventilators at the time. They should have had more ventilators. They were totally under serviced. We are trying to do were doing our best for new york. The president ended the night by firing the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, the one who flagged the ukraine whistleblowers complaint that put the entire impeachment of donald trump in motion. The firing of Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Communitys i. G. Is to take effect 30 days from friday. However, sources tell nbc news that atkinson has already been placed on administrative leave. As the New York Times reports, all of this comes as the president , quote, announced his intent to name a white house aide as the independent watchdog for 500 billion in corporate pandemic aid and notified congress of other nominees to Inspector General positions. Joining us to discuss all of this, our friend jonathan lemire, Associated PressWhite House Reporter and an msnbc political analyst, dr. Ka vee tapa tell, former policy director under the Obama Administration and an msnbc medical contributor, kimberly atkins, Senior Correspondent for bostons public news station wbur and an msnbc contributor, and my friend steve schmidt, a former republican and an msnbc political analyst. Jonathan lemire, i want to hear all of the latest reporting on this white house. There is a precedent. I believe it was the first major hurricane that hit this country of his presidency. He took that tragedy as an opportunity to issue his first pardon for sheriff arpaio. This has some echoes of that using this National Tragedy late at night on a friday night to fire the icig who really did take that whistleblower complaint and put his impeachment in process. Thats right, nicole, and the president has held a grudge, if you will, ever since. We know how he he prizes loyalty, loyalty for this president often is a oneway street. Since the ukraine investigation began last fall, he has harbored tremendous ill will towards atkinson, towards the Inspector General there and wanted to eventually make a move, according to our reporting and others he had to be talked out of it soon after the impeachment trial wrapped up, but he wasnt going to wait any longer, and this is a move he made last
night late on a friday in the midst of the worst Health Crisis this nation has faced in a century, and i think that it is outraged a lot of people in washington. Theres great concern the president , again, is reshaping the Intelligence Community, which should be independent, of course. It plays such a vital role. This comes on the heeheels of w yesterday which was another very scatter shot performance by the president during this Coronavirus Task force breecief. He grew angry about questioning about the national stockpile, the day after Jared Kushner suggested that it was not for the states. Rather it was for the federal government, and then of course hhss website rewrote the definition of the stockpile the day after to reflect what jared said which was sort of shocking to many and Democratic Senators are calling for an investigation
into what is going on here, and then you have the president undermine the council of his own cdc within minutes of the cdc putting out guidelines recommending most americans wear masks. President said not once, not twice but four or five different times he wouldnt do it. He would not take that moment to set an example for the country. Kimberly atkins, our colleague Rachel Maddow says watch what they do, not what they say, and what they do is secr seek retribution against their political adversaries in the middle of a rolling tragedy, an ongoing crisis. This question about ventilators isnt a joke, it isnt a feud between the white house and a democratic governor that hes jealous of because hes a much stronger leader with much higher poll numbers, i might add. 82 of new yorkers support andrew cuomo, trump peaked in
the 40s whether hes dating models or not. In the dark of the night is still seeking revenge around the crisis that he just escaped. Yeah, you know, weve seen repeatedly the president hit back at people who he perceives as questioning his effectiveness or criticizing him, and andrew cuomo has been among the governors who has not been afraid to criticize the federal response when it comes to the coronavirus, and he has found himself under in the president s cross hairs as a result. I mean, weve seen the president himself in his own words express a frustration when governors and other local officials dont give him enough credit, dont show him enough appreciation. That seems to be a part of the job if not a prerequisite for getting the type of federal help
that these governors are asking for. You see some governors being very careful trying not to cross president trump, and you see others who are less afraid to speak out, people like andrew cuomo, people like Gretchen Whitmer in michigan, which is also facing a crisis around the detroit area, and as a result the president hits back in that way. And as you pointed out with the pardon of sheriff arpaio, you see a president who never forgets his political grudges tho mattno matter what the situation is, even as america faces the biggest crisis in more than 100 years with this virus, with the firing of the ig inspector, the Intelligence CommunityInspector General. So none of this is surprising at all. It fits within a pattern that weve seen this president do, but at a time when america is bracing for at least hundreds of thousands of deaths, its particularly shocking to see that happening right now. I want to get to the health headlines, but i just you cant separate them anymore because the person whos making some of these decisions about where ventilators from that national stockpile, which are not his to play with but belong to the people of this country who live in states, maybe jared needs a copy of how a bill becomes a law and how our government is structured, he is doing things, steve schmidt, that reveal that politics is very much at the core of how hes handling even this crisis. The late night firing last night of the icig is something that the New York Times reported back in november he wanted to do. He wanted to get rid of mr. Atkinson in november before his impeachment had really it was after the house impeachment investigation had ended but before the senate trial had commenced. He wanted to eke out retribution then. He was advised that it wasnt a good idea, but last night as the country, many, many people unemployed, jobless, people sort
of sliding off that bottom rung of economic stability into something much darker, and what was on Donald Trumps mind . Firing the icig. Steve, real quick, hes about to start speaking. Yeah, no question, nicole, and i think its fitting that he would do that im sorry, steve, lets listen to him for a minute, and well you bet. Oh, that wasnt him. Im sorry. Go ahead, steve. Well, i think its appropriate, the action. In some measure, nicole, this is the largest intelligence failure in the history of the united states. Donald trump, the administration were advised about this, advised by the scientists, by Public Health experts, by the administration about what was coming, and we saw months of actions of down playing this, and now we reap the fruits of the president s conduct and his
behavior. For him, theres no interest beyond above selfinterest, beyond political retribution. Hes been at war with professionals in the government for years, and i think what we all are reminded of now is that politics is life and death. Thats what it is. And were seeing it play out. Were seeing the incompetence of this president on full display, and it will have tragic results. This is real life, tens and tens and tens of thousands of people who other side would not have died will be dead because of this administrations response to this, the chaos of the response. You want a leader to be able to communicate clearly, to communicate accurately, to calm the country, and what were seeing now are the images of the bodies piling up, the images of long food lines for people who have run out of money, and well see before very long some social disorder in this country. We see vulnerable populations,
child abuse, spousal abuse, all of these ills in society, a society under pressure the numbers increasing. Were at a very fragile time in the country with a leader lacking intellectual capacity, moral authority, or any sense of the magnitude of the moment and the duties that hes called on to perform. Dr. Patel, some of the American People are hungry to hear from our medical professionals, so take us through what we need to know at this hour as this crisis worsens. Absolutely, and bottom line is the social distancing that weve been talking about and hand hygiene, all those things stand, but on top of that, were adding in this nonmedical mask recommendation, and i have to say, nicole, this has been
something that it seems like its been sprung all of a sudden when in the health community, if you talk to any Health Professional weve always known that this could be helpful. However, there has been such a drastic shortage as you know of this essential equipment that there was really this equivocation on how to make this an actionable item for the country. But for americans i have to say today we know that in spite of the president s leadership, we are seeing governors step up and in terms of health were starting to see some progress in some parts of the country, but we still have all those states that have not done these uniform stay at home orders. So again, bottom line, stay at home and if you must go out, if you must go out, think about wearing one of these kind of you could do it homemade. You could buy them. They should not be the ones that i need as a doctor, but you can make a cloth mask that can cover your nose and your mouth, and thats probably all were going
to be able to kind of do as of today. What is the reason that this recommendation comes out now . And i ask you that because ive been reading the different reports about how the more we learn about the virus, its possible that 18 to almost 50 or 60 of people that are carrying coronavirus are asymptomatic. Is that is the mask recommendation tied to growing concerns about asymptomatic coronavirus cases, or is it tied to just the startling pace of the spread . Its both really, and actually, on top of that, its also the fact that these, you know, this is just one of several kind of what we call mitigation measures, so wearing a mask, you know, if people have talked about other countries and how they wear masks all the time, we see lower rates of influenza and other types of viral infections. So youre right that the
startling statistic of one in four being asymptomatic carriers is one reason. The second is we know that if everybody does it that it can work in reducing the spread of the virus, and the third is that i think finally what really brought it to the forefront is the nonmedical part of it. All of us were terrified that there was going to be a rush on surgical masks for the public, and i think that the ability for a cloth mask to not be as effective as my kind of surgical mask but to be 65 to 50 effective is better than zero. Dr. Patel, some of the members of the task force have come out, so if i interrupt you i apologize in advance. I just want to try to get in some more information for people. Is it still safe to go out to the Grocery Store if you have on gloves and you have on a mask . A mask, yes. Gloves can get contaminated, nicole, so a glove can help you in not touching your face, but if you have the mask on you dont need it. You really still need to wash your hands, but yes, it can be helpful if you need to go out for essential work like the Grocery Store or the pharmacy. I asked that for my own family whos getting tired of pb and j. I want to ask you about something more serious. How much harder is the mission of the doctors on this task force, dr. Fauci and doctors birx when donald trump takes to the podium and says hey, the cdc wants you to wear a mask, but im not going to do it. Do what you want. I mean, nicole, look, weve all youve been there. Ive been there. Weve all been kind of behind the president at a moment in time and all i can tell you is i dont i havent talked to dr. Fauci or dr. Birx at all in the last weeks, but i can tell you that they must have been their heart must have stopped for a moment and thought, okay, how do i deal with this . Because there is no way you could script this. Busy time, very busy time. They have another chance, the president s about to start
speaking. Lets listen in. Solidarity and love for the people of our great country. Were fighting for you and were enduring all of this together, and we will soon prevail together. Making a lot of progress. We appreciate all of the great assistance from the governors and people within the states, the relationships have been really very good. I spoke with governor cuomo. Were working very hard to get additional things to new york as quickly as possible. We as you know, we took care of the hospital including personnel, 2,500 beds that we built just recently at javits including personnel, and we opened it up to covid, and thats something that we also did in louisiana, and were doing it in dallas, so we have a
lot of not only hospitals being built but now were manning the hospitals because states are in many cases unable to get additional people to work. Its just an incredible situation. Theres never been anything like this. One of the most important issues in battling this pandemic is coordinating the delivery of the crucial supplies throughout the nation based upon the most Accurate Information available, and weve got the best health care and disaster experts anywhere in the world, and everybody will tell you that, and were dealing with big parts of the world on helping them also through this horrible situation. Were at 151, still 151 nations are going through it. Were working to ensure that the supplies are delivered where and when theyre needed. In some cases were telling governors we cant go there because we dont think you need it, and we think someplace else needs it, and pretty much so far weve been right about that, and
well continue to do it as it really this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasnt done. But there will be death. Were looking for an obvious focus in the hardest hit regions. Some of them are obvious, and some arent so obvious. They spring up, they come, and they hit you like you got hit by a club, an area that wasnt at all bothered. You look at whats going on in new jersey. The governors doing an excellent job, by the way, by how that sprang up. Every decision that were making is made to save looifives. Its really our sole consideration. We want to save lives. We want as few lives as possible. Its therefore critical that certain Media Outlets stop spreading false rumors and
creating fear and even panic with the public. Its just incredible, i could name them but its the same one. Always the same ones. I guess theyre looking for ratings. I dont know what theyre looking for. So bad for our country. And so bad the people understand it, you look at the levels and approval ratings, theyre the lowest theyve ever been for media. So bad for our country, so bad for the world put it together for a little while. Get this over with and then go back to your fake news. During a National Emergency its just essential that the federal decisionmakers cut through the fog of confusion in order to follow the facts and the science. Many hospital administrators that weve been in touch with even in the really hot spots, you know what they are, are communicating directly with us that their level of supplies are meeting essential needs and at the current time theyre really thrilled to be where they are. Whatever local shortages are reported were asking states to immediately meet the demand, and were stockpiling large amounts in different areas, in different areas, and were going to be discussing that in a little while, but we want distributions to be made on a fair basis. We have to take care of a large country, not just certain areas of the country, but no matter where, weve been there and weve been there very strongly. I want to thank fema. I want to thank the army corps of engineers, i want to thank our military for what theyre doing, and were going to be adding a tremendous amount of military to help supplement the states. Thousands of soldiers, thousands of medical workers, professionals, nurses, doctors, and it will be a large number. It will be well be telling them over the next very short period where theyre going. Theyre going into war. Theyre going into a battle that theyve never really trained for. Nobodys really trained for this. Nobodys seen this. I would say since 1917, which was the greatest of them all, the greatest of this type of battle, probably the greatest of them all, right . 1917. Up to 100 Million People were killed. In addition, were working directly with hospitals and existing suppliers and distributors to ensure that those were the greatest need are prioritized, and that need changes. One day its one state or one locale, one city, and then all of a sudden th