Senate committee remotely. That will take place tomorrow. Lets get right to Geoff Bennett at the white house for us. Garrett haake is on capitol hill following all of these developments. Geoff, im going to start with you. What is the level of anxiety inside the white house this morning . Reporter good to see you, as always. I think kevin hassett, the economic adviser captures it best, he has a reputation among all of the publicfacing white house officials as being among the most candid and yesterday on one of the sunday shows, he said its scary to go to work. He realizes that he would be safer sitting at home than he is going to the west wing, given that as you point out, there are now two white house aides who have tested positive for coronavirus. Youve got the military valet to President Trump and also katy millers, Vice President mike pences press secretary. Theyre boosting temperature checks and testing. Senior staff who interact with the president are being tested daily, im told. And the entire west wing is being sanitized on an even more frequent basis. Youve got the countrys top three Health Officials all now selfquarantining in some form, that includes dr. Anthony fauci and the heads of the cdc and the fda who you see there on your screen. All of this raises the question, if people close to President Trump working here at the white house, which is among the most or the most secure workplaces in the world, if they cant be kept safe from this pandemic, how can anyone return to work, feel safe returning to work, resuming life as normal . Given that most restaurants, offices, retail shops dont have the same capacity to test people as frequently. They dont have the same capacity to do the Contact Tracing that the white house does. Remarkable development over the weekend. Let me switch gears and get your thoughts on president obama stepping into the political fray a little bit over the weekend. In a call with former staffers, he actually slammed the Trump Administrations pandemic response. Take a listen. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster. I can only imagine how that triggered President Trump, what is the white house saying about it this morning . Reporter around this phone call that the former president was having with members of the obama alumni, folks who had worked for him in his administration. He didnt mention President Trump by name. He was talking about the administrations response to this pandemic and as you heard him say there, an absolutely chaotic disaster. The white house put out a statement, it says this, there has been a bipartisan recognition of President Trumps leadership and the American People have taken notice. We should say though that based on polling data, the American People are unimpress bid the president s handling giving his disapproval rating hovers in the 51 rage. Geoff bennett live for us at the white house. Lets go over to Garrett Haake on capitol hill. The administrations top Health Officials testifying before a senate committee. But actually all remotely. What can we expect on what is going to be discussed and more importantly how this will play out . Reporter this is going to be interesting. You can take that same graphic geoff used of the nations top Health Officials all of who are selfisolating and change the title card. Thats supposed to be the witness list for this Senate HealthCommittee Hearing thats supposed to happen on tuesday. All four of the witnesses selfisolating. Theyll be appearing remotely. But theyll be appearing from front of a senate that is questioning them remotely. Lamar alexander announced on sunday that a staffer of his tested positive for coronavirus. Hell be Video Conferencing in. Patty murray had said she would be conferencing in. All of this turns this hearing tomorrow into the nations most anticipated zoom meeting. It is highly anticipated because for senators in both parties this, is their first real opportunity to ask questions of dr. Fauci and of these other top public Health Officials away from the white house, away from the podium, away from a president who occasionally likes to cut them off in their answers and try to get answers on issues like testing, on reopening, on tracking and tracing, all the same things that the rest of the country is obsessed with, so too are lawmakers on capitol hill. They are being deeply affected in their work and personal lives in how theyre trying to manage their own response to this crisis. Garrett haake on capitol hill. Geoff bennett at the white house. Joining me now is a democrat who will participate in tomorrows hearing, senator tina smith. She sits on the Senate Health committee. Thank you so much for joining us. Lets talk a little bit about what we can anticipate for tomorrow. You will be able to question dr. Fauci. This is his first appearance before Congress Since march. What do you plan to ask him and other top Health Officials testifying . Sure. Well, the first thing i want to ask dr. Fauci is, how is he doing . Here he is working in the white house day in and day out and it turns out that thats not a safe workplace. The white house has been actively not following the guidance that it has up on its website about Wearing Masks and good social distancing. We need dr. Fauci and i want to make sure that hes okay. But beyond that, i really want his best advice for minnesota and for congress as we head into these next few weeks. Minnesotans are trying to figure out what is the right thing to do here . When can i safely open my business . When can i see my kids . What should i be doing to make sure that my family is staying safe, and those are the kinds of questions im going to be asking dr. Fauci, away from the president who often seems like hes cutting him off. Lets talk about the cdc for a moment. The hearing is coming after we learned that the white house sent back cdc recommendations for reopening the economy out of concern that they were overly restrictive. And you were alluding to some of these questions about when folks can get back to work but what is it you would want to know from the cdc director about that specifically . Well, what i want to understand is how can we safely reopen . What is the role of testing, what is the role of social distancing and what is the plan in our country for getting out the personal protective equipment and the Testing Capacity that we so desperately need. Beyond that, what is the plan and how do we make sure that as vaccines are developed, that those are going to be available to everybody. I dont think weve gotten to the gist of that at all. As we move into what is our next step in congress for covid for the next big package, these are the kinds of things were going to need to deal with as well. I was thinking about the Small Business that i talked to outside of st. Cloud, minnesota, late last week. They are trying to figure out what steps they ought to take when theyre able to reopen. Theyre getting no clear guidance from the white house that. Is the big problem. I want to ask you about tomorrow. Its a pretty significant day from the logistics of how the senate will operate. Obviously, hearings are a cornerstone of our democracy and transparency for americans to be able to see and hear this for themselves. The hearing is expected to take place via teleconference. Senator Lamar Alexander will chair it remotely after one of his staffers tested positive. Given that the senate just reconvened last week, is this a step back . Are you concerned how this will play out . Think about what happened last week in the senate. I participated in two remote hearings. I went onto the senate floor four times to vote and we have senator alexander who is selfquarantining, we have members of the White House Task force who are selfquarantining, and this is only our first week back. And i could be im not going to be participating actually in this hearing. I will be participating remotely because i think thats the safest thing for us to do. And, you know, meanwhile, its just so concerning that we are back here in ways that could actually be contributing to the illnesses of people that were around every day. Let me get your thoughts about the economy for a moment, if i can, larry kudlow saying the Trump Administration is in talks with congress on the next relief package and that he has a Conference Call with Senate Democrats and republicans later today. Can you give us a quick check on where negotiation stand from your perspective if they are going to happen . Steve mnuchin has said lets see how the 3 trillion we spent so far works. Theres a fair amount of posturing going on right now, i think, on the side of the republicans in the white house. I know democrats are ready to negotiate because we feel a real sense of urgency about where we go from here. I am especially concerned about the eminent layoffs of police and fire workers and Emergency Responders if we arent able to move quickly to figure out how to support state and local governments. In my state of minnesota, we had a Budget Surplus before this coronavirus epidemic happened and theres a real need to address that challenge. And then who knows how long the supports are going to last that we have in place for Small Businesses, what more do we need to do there . How do we need to fix that program so it works for Small Businesses . Weve got important work to do to help the economic recovery at the same time were trying to make sure that people are safe and healthy. And speaking of economic recovery and being safe and healthy, the number of new cases per day in minnesota continues to go up. Yet local media in that state is reporting that some Business Owners are reopening stores without the permission of the state. Whats your message to your constituents, to those Business Owners who are eager to get back to work and in some cases defying the orders of state officials . My message is that we need to follow the guidance from the very best Public Health professionals that we have. And what i expect about how the governor is pursuing this, hes taking a turn the dial approach. This isnt a flip on the light switch of the economy or flip them off again. This is about taking cautious, careful steps in the right direction. What we dont want to have happen is we move too quickly and we see the kind of surge that our Health Care System cant handle and we have to shut everything back down again. That would be devastating. Senator, final question, do you share former president obamas assessment that this has been a disaster in terms of how the Trump Administration has handled this. This has been a chaotic disaster. Theres been a lack of National Leadership from the white house. I think president obama was saying what most people in this country who look at the response of this administration are seeing. What we dont need is chaos, we need clarity. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I appreciate your time. Thanks so much. The amazon in brazil in danger while the worlds attention is diverted by the coronavirus. We have learned deforestation in that country is soaring. The story coming up. Several areas of the United States are reopening today despite the rising number of coronavirus cases. We are live from one of the nations latest hot spots next. And finding new ways to take of ourselves. But you can still screen for colon cancer. Because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. So, dont wait. Cologuard is colon Cancer Screening done at home. You can request it from home too. Ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Or learn more about online prescribers at requestcologuard. Com. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask about cologuard today. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair®. Weve got the retinol that gives you results in one week. Not just any retinol. Accelerated retinol sa. One week is all it takes. Neutrogena®. Tide cleaners is offeringe Free Laundry Services you. To the family of frontline responders. Visit hope. Tidecleaners. Com to learn more. This morning, nashville, tennessee, is taking steps to reopen. Phase one will allow restaurants and retail shops open to half capacity. In georgia where social distancing orders were eased there has been a set back with a new coronavirus hot spot that is emerging in rural hall county. Catie beck, let me begin with you. Youve been speaking with Business Owners. Talk to us about phase one about what youre hearing and what their sentiments are. Reporter theres some Business Owners that are excited to open their doors. Theyve been waiting for weeks. There are other Business Owners who have anxieties about opening and saying for the cost it will cost me to reopen my business, i want to make sure that everyone is going to be safe and go through this process a second time. So there are some Business Owners that are weighing whether or not they can make money at 50 capacity, whether its worth it for them to open. Even so, with the opening, there are going to be restraints. This is not going to look as it did as before. Theres going to be 50 capacity in restaurants as you said. Theres going to be face cloths required for servers and patrons. Theyre going to take the temperature of servers and patrons and require that you not have more than ten people in a gathering and remain socially distant as well. Those are things theyre going to keep in place during phase one. Hopefully the numbers in nashville will start to decline and theyll move onto maze two. Business owners here have been hemorrhaging money in the bar and entertainment entry that is the engine of nashvilles economy. Theyre feeling that now as restaurants and retails open, live music, bars, those are still closed. Thats what so many people moved to nashville to become a part of. So Business Owners here that are opening today are opening cautiously. Heres what one had to say to us. Youre concerned for your employees and youre korconcern for your customers. I dont know that theres any right answer. Some restaurants are choosing not to so, expected in the lunchtime hour, a lot of the restaurants here in nashville will be seeing for the first time customers sitting down at tables. But we will, as i said, be seeing servers Wearing Masks and customers Wearing Masks. It will be a different look in nashville. The next big question for folks here is when will the music industry, when will live music, Entertainment Venues be able to have that same opening. Back to you. Thanks for that. Lets go over to ellison barber in georgia. Youve been speaking with Frontline Health workers. Theres been concerned as this moves to rural areas that are understaffed and less equipped, it could create a devastating scene. Reporter this county has already been designated as a hot spot. Officials ive spoken to at the hospital, they tell me theyre expecting a surge in the coming weeks based on what theyre predicting in terms of numbers. They will hit their staffing capacity by may 22nd to deal with what they are expecting to be an influx, they are creating mobile units outside of their hospitals. This area is an empty gravel pit. This tarp is a construction footprint. Theyre going to get cargo shipping containers into this area tonight. They will line them up in one of the sections marked off by the red tape here and they will spend the next week putting ventilators, the right air pressure, all of the right equipment, technology they need into this unit to they can have a medical unit outside with 20 extra beds that if they need to, they can turn it into an icu unit to treat covid19 patients. The nurse overseeing this told us they expect to have this unit up and running in just a week. Initially the Emergency Department, i would say, was overrun with a mix of both covid positive and other emergency patients. And so this is were able to control the triage better and separate the patients outside the Emergency Department before they enter. Reporter they have two tent mobile units that have been set up on this campus in gainesville. One of them is in use to treat patients with mild covid19 symptoms. Im told the idea is to create a buffer so they can keep people with covid19 outside of the hospital, to hopefully, slow the spread in terms of protecting and preventing their doctors as well as other patients from contracting the virus. In terms of the numbers in this state, Governor Kemp said over the weekend that the state had hit their lowest number of hospitalized positive covid19 patients since hospitals started reporting that data. But the cumulative number of covid19 positive cases statewide continue