When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And thats the way its got to be. And the governors know that. He declared himself king trump. The governors are in charge because the president put them in charge. The governors on both coasts this morning are pushing back and say they will take a regional coordinated approach in restarting their economies. Were going to talk to one of those governors straight ahead on the program. Our team is here as we provide our continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Peter alexander is at the white house for us, ron allen here in brooklyn, and Erin Mclaughlin in seattle, washington. Peter, im going to go straight to you and begin with President Trump, he mets with the coronavirus a handful of coronavirus survivors next hour. What are you hearing from the white house after what was perhaps the most combative and certainly the longest Coronavirus Briefing yet . Nearly 2 1 2 hours we saw that briefing go on yesterday. The president at times combative, angry, defending his handling of this pandemic spending much more of the briefing focusing on himself then the deadly pandemic itself. We should give you a look ahead, first of all. Today white house officials here tells me that the president is expected to announce what hes describing as an advisory board. That is the team of doctors and business people, many of them from both inside and outside the white house, who advise him on his plans Going Forward to reopen the country. Of course, as for those plans, the president raised a lot of eyebrows with his statements in the Briefing Room yesterday saying that it was up to him that he was the sole power who had the authority to make that decision. You remember for weeks the president has been saying its the governors responsibility to shut things down. Now hes insisting its up to him when they reopen. Heres President Trump at the Briefing Room. The president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to 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 somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. You said when someone is president of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that . Were going to write up papers on this. Its not going to be necessary because the governors need us unw one way or another. Reporter those actions may not follow. He said i dont think it will be necessary, i think the governors will still do it for themselves. But the constitution clearly says that the powers reside in the hands of the states and that the president himself cannot force governors to lift their own emergency powers. Obviously, governors, weve heard over the course of the last 24 hours, have been pushing back on this and many of those governors have been teaming up, three of them on the west coast from california, oregon and washington, seven of them in the northeast. I know youre going to continue this conversation in a moment, ayman. But the president , again, sort of trying to flex his muscles here suggesting that this is his sole power when in fact really his job is what he has described it in the past, as a cheerleader. The best he can do is encourage them to reopen and to get the economy going again. Peter alexander at the white house. We have with us the governor from connecticut live from hartford, connecticut, this morning. Governor ed lamont. You are one of six northeast states that are coordinating their responses up and down that northeast corridor. I want to get your reaction to what we just heard there from my colleague Peter Alexander on that reporting, on that combative News Conference last night. Did you watch the press conference or do you not watch those at all . I did not see that portion of it. What i can tell you is the president says what he says, but there is an administration that were working with collaboratively and thats the pence task force, dr. Fauci, dr. Birx. Theyre getting more constructive and more helpful to the governors every day. Let me the rest of it is a little bit of background noise for me. I want to clarify something, you heard the president talk about his having that sole authority. You obviously cannot agree with the president being the sole power in deciding when states and localities and municipalities open up . As you pointed out, all of our Regional Governors here in the northeast, we got together by phone, zoom, the other day, yesterday, were going to work on this in a collaborative basis. Every state is different. But it makes more sense for us to work look, were waiting for the feds to come up with what their thoughts are in terms of testing protocols, getting the agents and what is an opening up strategy. Lets let the states take the lead. Were probably going to take the lead in terms of how we get out of this pandemic as well. Let me pick up on that point about easing the restrictions, opening up. You said this morning that connecticut wont be easing restrictions at least before may 20th. Is that the general consensus of the new east coast task force, if you want to call it, or is that subject to change . Look, this is what ive said. All the superintendents, the schools and parents said, can i expect the schools to open up sometime in, you know, late april, early may . And i said that may 20th is the date were going to make a determination about whether or not we complete the school year or get something going sooner than that. School years impact Small Business as well. Thats a Decision Point were aiming towards. I got a new task force, business, as well as the scientific community, theyre going to give us guidance as well as the other governors, what is the metrics as we get our state opened again. Let me pick up on a few things, certainly from Johns Hopkins putting out a National Plan for the next steps in the fight against the coronavirus. Experts there say the u. S. Must implement a robust and comprehensive system to, a, identify all covid19 cases, b, trace all close contacts of each case and quarantine those exposed. Do you have the tools to do that yet for your state . No, we do not. Were still waiting for the feds to give approval on the Antibody Testing and what companies are certified. Antibodies will be helpful in our states. In other parts of the state that are more rural and less dense, we want to do Molecular Testing to see who is infected and who is not. So those infected folks can be isolated for that twoweek period so they dont infect others and we can slow the rate of increase there. Let me talk about the state of connecticut. It has more than 13,000 cases of coronavirus, more than 600 deaths. Im sure yesterday you heard the governor of new york say that the worst is behind us if we keep our hands on the valve. Im curious to get your thoughts about your state. What are the experts telling you. Is the worst behind us . I think andrew cuomo is right about that. Southern connecticut, which, again, is part of that new york pandemic hot zone, i think the worst is behind us. The hospitalization rate is not going up nearly as fast as it was before. We planned, we got capacity. But, remember, the rest of the state is still accelerating. Every state has different hot zones, different regions and different schedules. Let me ask you finally, sir, we go back to that bizarre News Conference yesterday f you had a message to tell the president , i know youre speaking to the Vice President. If you could tell the Vice President through this program right now or privately, what would you tell him about the way hes conducting himself . I just think that everybody should work through the pence task force. I think they have the mix of business and scientific people. They have a constructive approach for the governors. We meet a fair amount electronically and let us operate at that operational level. That makes the most sense. We dont need any distractions and we need the president , the governors and mayors all speaking with one voice. Lets face it. We have a covid fever now. Im worried about spring fever as things heat up outside and everybody wants to play. That would be dangerous if we got back too soon. Thank you very much for joining us as always this morning. Lets bring in ron allen at a testing site in brooklyn, new york. Good to talk to you again as we have been through your reporting getting an eye on the ground sense of what is actually happening there. Talk about stepping up testing in communities that have been hit harder than others. Reporter there are new Testing Centers opening up in several communities targeting minority communities where the death toll has been disproportionately high. We heard from the mayor in his Daily Briefing and he made news thats interesting. He opened up by talking about the problems that the city is happening, getting enough productive equipment and getting enough testing. So many leaders have been saying that the testing is the root out to get back to some level of normalcy. He announced today that a company in indiana has formed a signed a contract, made a deal with new york to supply 50,000 test kits every week Going Forward. And he described it as a major breakthrough because he says that the federal government has fallen down in its ability to do that, to get tests that new york has been asking for for weeks now. Heres what the mayor had to say about this deal with the lab, a biotech lab in indiana of supplying test kits to the city Going Forward. This is going to be a big piece of the solution Going Forward. Were going to need a whole lot more. To really get to that point where theres no more transmission, were going to need a huge number of test kits. Being able to know we can rely on 50,000 a week from a supplier that we believe in, thats going to be a major, major step forward for this city. Reporter the mayor also said that a number of companies in new york city have also figured out a way to make some of the components for these test kits, at least some of the components, and that posserocess could prod as many as 50,000 a week in the weeks ahead. The big emphasis on testing, testing, testing. One other thing, because theres a problem getting surgical gowns, the city is going to ask sports teams, local organizations for ponchos to be used by Health Care Workers. Its a striking development. Because theres such a shortage and unreliable supply of protective gowns Going Forward, the city is going to ask sports teams to donate that kind of equipment to be used on the front lines. So some amazing news by the mayor that speaks to the fact that at least in the city on the ground here, this crisis is far from over. Ayman . Ron allen live for us on the ground there in brooklyn, new york. Lets go over to the west coast to Erin Mclaughlin in seattle. Washington joining oregon and california in a coordinated approach to reopening their economy. Similar to what we heard from the Connecticut Governor out here on the east coast yesterday. Youve been talking with the mayor of seattle. How does she want to see this play out for her city . Reporter ayman, the mayor says she wants to see a slow phased approach based on science. She also said that seattle is not ready to reopen. Washington, yes, has flattened the curve, maybe even be on the downside of the curve, but theyre still seeing Community Spread. Just this week, the university of washington announcing 14 medical workers diagnosed with covid19, some of them asymptomatic. She said reopening the economy now risks devastation. Take a listen. Weve got to continue this activity and this behavior. If we dont, then well see a spike and everybody knows, weve really depleted our Health Care Workers and our equipment and all those safeguards that we had, we didnt have enough to begin with. If we had a peak now, it would be even more devastating than the first round. Reporter she said she wants to see the number of cases approach zero and when that happens, shell then look at a more phased approach, sector by sector. She said that some sectors might be able to open sooner than others, listing construction as an example. Restaurants, tourism, she said, thats going to be very difficult. Either way, its going to be a hole new reality for these businesses until they get to that vaccine. Ayman . Thank you. Still ahead, were heading to the front lines of this crisis, hearing from an er doctor with a sober warning to everyone. Americans are still very much in danger. Plus, now comes the hard part for democrats, how progressives and moderates will or wont rally around joe biden. Bernie sanders former Campaign Manager here for his first interview since the senator endorsed the former Vice President. The behind the scenes negotiations and what party unity really looks like. And new reporting on former president barack obama coming off the sidelines and expected to endorse his former Vice President joe biden later today. Were just Getting Started on a very busy Tuesday Morning. So yy for what you need . 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For doctors and health care professionals, they still face the grim reality of treating severe covid19 cases every day and while shortages of ppe and ventilators is an ongoing concern there are those on the front lines, another potential shortage has doctors concerned, one of them joins me now. An Emergency Room Physician in boston. Doctor, its good to have you with us this hour. I know that in the same way that there was a mass shortage of protective gear, youre speaking up about running out of something else. Tell us what youre concerned about. Yes, what im very worried about and what a lot of doctors around the country are worried about are drug shortages and the complacency around the idea that even if things slow down, from a hospital perspective, were okay. Were not. Even if the number of cases were to start to level off and go down, and we dont know that yet really, these cases last a long time. We have actually more and more active cases, more people entering the hospital than leaving. If were going to be having patients on ventilators, we need enough sedative medications to do that safely. If we run out and there are places where were running low, i cant do the job that i want to do which is to save a life. This is something that the president can act on. He has authority to get the Drug Companies to make more and identify their supply lines. Is it relatively easy to make that type of medicine or would it be hard to source, hard to supply, all throughout the supply chain and getting it to those hospitals . Where do we sit on that . It depends on the situation, but a lot of times the fda in the past has gotten involved in this and we know the reasons for drug shortages and we kind of know how to plug those holes. One of the big issues is supply lines and with our reliance on china, that could be a real problem. The fda could require companies to say where they get their supplies from and the president could say, if theres a shortage of an ingredient, we could find that ahead of time and make the drug. So i think that theres still time to do this and it uses the same authority that is being invoked for the masks but we have to do it for the medications because there can be a lag and we cant afford that kind of a lag. Let me get your thoughts on the numbers that were beginning to see a flattening of the curve. What are you seeing in the er . Are there fewer patients coming in. What i can say in my experience treating this disease, during the whole experience, weve had fewer patients overall in the er because people are scared to come, but the patients we see have coronavirus, its unbelievable the numbers keep rising, keep rising and here in massachusetts, where weve had a little bit of a delay compared to new york and other places, we are now starting to see more serious cases because it has take a while for the virus to wreak full havoc on the lungs. Im not worried about the curve flattening or not flattening, this is not a weather system that we can look at in terms of radar. We create our own weather with this depending on what we do. If we go back to normal too soon, we make the storm worse. Thats what worries me is that were not going to get to a point where it gets better before it gets worse and we see where im working and around the country and the region the cases are more severe. Let me follow up on that and say, if you could advise the governor particularly in your state or others in the northeast, wh