Well get to the other side. Well be a stronger nation for it. Please give your Health Care Workers that you know a big hug. They say when things happen, some people rise to the occasion, some people shrink down and i feel incredibly lucky that everyone me has risen to the occasion. From the janitors to the cleaners to the techs to the medical residents, the nurses, the trainees, the fellows, the doctors, theyve gone above and beyond to save lives. Every day, i work with some of the most intelligent, tough, compassionate, resilient individuals ive ever met. Its important to remember that there is still good, even in the midst of this crisis. Once again, we start tonights show with perhaps the most important voices in this war against the coronavirus, the medical professionals, the ones on the front lines. Welcome to monday. It is meet the press daily. Im katy tur, in for chuck todd, continuing msnbcs breaking News Coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Were standing by for todays briefing at the white house, on a day where the president is claiming, inaccurately, that he gets to decide when and how to reopen states that are shut down by the virus. The u. S. Constitution, though, gives governors the authority to require businesses to close, which many have exercised. And the president does not have the authority to direct the states, or other local officials to lift those emergency orders. Todays briefing also comes as the president is eager to turn the page on this national nightmare, as the number of confirmed u. S. Cases is now above a half a million, with more than 20,000 confirmed deaths. All 50 states are currently under disaster declarations. That is for the first time in american history. But the number of new cases nationally does appear to be stabilizing, as you can see right there on your screen. And at the epicenter, in new york, while deaths are still high, the hospitalization rate is declining, which is a very hopeful sign. The president s inaccurate claim, though, that he gets to decide which States Reopen comes as this afternoon, a group of governors in the northeast announced a working group of elected leaders and Public Health officials to come up with a plan to safely get their local economies going again. A consortium of states on the west coast have formed their own group, as well. We dont know exactly what these plans will end up looking like, but in just a moment, i will speak with connecticuts governor, who will be a critical part of the northeast working group. Today, he warned, though, against the urge to reopen too quickly, as multiple people familiar with the matter have confirmed to nbc news, the president is determined to reopen the nations economy with a, quote, big bang, by early next month. That, though, may be at odds with experts, like the nations top infectious dez expert, dr. Anthony fauci, who has repeatedly said that the virus sets the timeline for when it is safe to reopen. Not the white house. This weekend, dr. Fauci also acknowledged that the federal government could have acted sooner. That came after this New York Times investigation, deeply reported and exhaustive look at the president s apparent failures to heed warnings from inside his own administration. The times reports that mr. Trumps response was colored by his suspicion for and distan for what he viewed as the deep state, the very people in his government whose expertise might have guided him towards stepped that would slow the virus. We anticipate the president will be asked about this and his trust in experts like dr. Fauci as the country turns its focus on what happened after we hit the peak. Well go to the kwhous for the latest in just a moment. But lets begin tonight with a view from a governor who is near the epicenter of this nations outbreak and partal of that contingent of northeast governors, starting to talk about a plan for what is next. Ned lamont is the governor of connecticut. Mr. Governor, thank you very much for joining us. I want to ask you, first, about a call between the white house and governors today where Vice President pence told states and governors of states that they need to get more testing done, that they need to find machines and hospitals that arent running at full capacity. Is that whats happening . Are there machines that arent running at full capacity right now across the states . What we really need is the green light to figure out what the Antibody Testing is going to be. We heard that were going to find out if that green light is coming, i think later this week. We want to ramp up our Antibody Testing, we want to do that in association with massachusetts, rhode island and new york, because theyre all my adjoining states. That will give us the best indication of the level of infection and how fast we get people back to work. Isn it the Antibody Testing theyre asking states to ramp up or the Antibody Testing . I think its both. They want us to do both. We dont have enough of the antigens right now, were looking for that. We made that very clear. They said some of the equipment has more capacity than what were using right now and we should think about that, but we also need the test kits that allow us to do more of that testing. Well, let me ask you this i know they want you to do more. How can you do more, do you need the federal governments help for that . Look, the federal government, they could have taken the leader earl on all sorts of ppe, wed love them to take more of the lead on testing. I do know that theyre going to put together a committee, including some governors and other health care professionals, so we stop having the felts point the finger at the state and back and forth, so we can get a strategy in place to do broadbased testing, especially in those states that have been most hit by the virus. Do you feel like the administrations trying to pass the buck to states . I think you know, early on, they were saying, hey, states, why arent you doing more . We were saying, why arent you doing more . You are the ones that can get the ppe, youre the ones that can get the gowns, you know, were not in an ideal position to negotiate ventilator contracts with a distributor in beijing, but that said, why look backward . Look forward. I think were working together now, but i do get the idea that were going to get a lot more help from them on testing by the end of this week. So, when you have meetings with other governors in the northeast, the northeastern corridor governors, i know there was that News Conference a little bit earlier, we heard you speak for a moment. What exactly i guess, how exactly are you going to come up with a plan to reopen . What do you need to have put in place to get that ball moving . Were going to come up with a protocol and testing priorities. It will be sort of common, state to state. Obviously, if theres a higher infection rate in new york than there is in connecticut, it will be a different mix of testing. By the way, you can add massachusetts to the map. They just joined, as well. But what we think, we have a lot of similarities, we have a lot of differences. But if we share our notes going forward, we Work Together as we slowly closed down parts of the economy and we are working together as we open it up. You answered my very next question, which was about massachusetts and why didnt they werent apart of this, but i guess that is news here, that massachusetts will be joining this consortium. How do you plan, or, how do you think youll be able to reopen the states . Will it be a rolling reopening where certain sectors can glo back to work or certain employees can go back to work before others . Ill let you know that in a week, when our group comes back, but ive got some real priorities. Ive got our defense manufacturing, major manufacturing, most of which has to stay open by law because theyre critical infrastructure, and i need testing and protective equipment to keep them working. Thats a priority, as well as, obviously, the other front line responders that we have. And once we get more masks and gear and testing, then a lot of our smaller merchants can open, as well, without being at risk to their customers and vice versa. Thats going to take awhile. You said that the testing is going to get ramped up, hopefully this week with the help of the federal government. You also mentioned they are helping with ppe, as well. What are your expectations for how many tests can start getting done at the end of this week . Are we going to be up to millions of tests like theyve often promised and how much ppe will we have and how does that effect the timeline for when the reopening could potentially happen . Weve gotten the ventilators. We got a nice shipment of them today, i think were in pretty good shape on that front. Obviously the n95 masks are very important, but i do worry that theyre rushing back and not willing to be thoughtful about this. I look at singapore, i look at hong kong, you look at japan, they got back a little soon and now you see the rate of infection going up in those countries and they are forced to close down a second time. And i think that would be a body blow to the Economic Confidence of this country and certainly in this region. So, all the governors agreed, we want to get our region open, but we want to do it in a way that is not a false start and we have to go back a second time. Dont let that happen. And all of these economies across these states are all interconnected, a lot of people coming in, commute from new york to connecticut and vice versa. Ned lamont, thank you. Joining me from the white house is my nbc news colleague, hans nichols. Also with us, msnbc contributor jake sherman. Hans, what can we expect from this briefing today . Look for an update on testing. The white house may be providing a little bit more support to the states on testing. From the white houses perspective, they dont deny they may need to provide support or incentives to increase capacity, but there does seem to be frustration somewhere between frustration and concern that there isnt more testing taking place at the state level. So, look for an Incentive Plan coming out of today on what they can do to get the states to get this test up and running, because when you talk to Public Health officials, when you listen to the governors, when you listen to members of the task force, at least on the medical side, theres an acknowledgement that before you can bring the country back to work, either on a regional basis, staggered basis, as the governor just suggested, you need to have better visibility. And that seems to be the priority today, the call that the Vice President had with the governors, increasing testing results, testing capacities. Just get more numbers, more data. I suspect well get an update on that. And then well see what else the president has to say in terms of these regional agreements from both on the west coast and the east coast on this sort of triaged approach on sharing resources and sharing some of the risks, as these states go forward and try to open up their economies just a little bit. Katy . Hans, as weve been talking about, the president does not have the authority to reopen states, that authority lies within the governors, according to our constitution. Are we going to expect the president to stand firm on that may 1st deadline or may 1st reopening date . No, i mean, thats aspirational, right . Some folks in the white house say they want to have a big bang and really have the economy start moving on that. In a lot of ways, and jake knows this from his capitol hill reporting, deadlines can force decisions. And that may 1 deadline is really when this most recent it ration of slow the spread end else. You get a wide range of views inside the white house on whether or not the president will lift the guidelines or whether or not theyll do that beforehand or get something from the states, at the governors level, even before the may 1, but you know, id just be really hesitant that saying may 1 is absolutely when this is going to happen. Its aspirational. Theres some talk about it, but nothing is firm and Everyone Wants to see more data coming in, particularly how the country behaved is the young word, but maybe just how the country did over the easter holiday. So, even though there are signs for hospital mitchell out there, there are some concerns inside the white house that maybe theres a little relaxing of social distancing over the easter and passover holidays and then well see an uptick in a couple weeks, because a lot of the data were looking at, theyre lagging indicators, so, its difficult to see this spread of the virus in realtime. Again, another reason why the testing is so crucial. Lets be clear here. 9 of the population has currently been tested for coronavirus. 9 . Not even 1 of the population. Jake sherman, it would take a logistical miracle to get testing ramped up so heavily between now and may 1st that we would actually have the visibility for who has this virus, that Health Experts and governors and local Officials Say they would want before reopening the country. What are senators and congressmen and women saying to the president about this idea that may 1st could be a date that we start running again . Well, the chief person who was whispering in his ear from capitol hill was mark meadows, who is now his chief of staff. If you look at the committee hes put together to examine reopening the economy, its mark meadows, its two people hes related to, Jared Kushner and ivanka trump who, to my knowledge, i could be missing a critical part of their biography, they have no Public Health or pandemic expertise. So, and then he has three people, larry kudlow, wilbur ross and steven mnuchin, who are in his cabinet, who are friends of his from his new york days and who have worked on wall street. So, if you are looking at a decision point, in which you have to begin to make a decision that affects millions of peoples lives based on Public Health evidence, you would, in my estimation, and i would think a lot of peoples estimations, you want somebody with Public Health expertise on that committee. And thats not what i only think, but if you look at massachusetts, at maryland, across the country, they have enlisted former Trump Administration officials like scott gotlieb, who was in charge of the fda, to and vise t advis these things. And again, this is all noting what you say before, katy, which is, the president s not closed anything. So, he would be unable to open anything. He could offer a suggestion, but that suggestion is just a suggestion. The governors are going to make their own decisions. And whats really interesting, if you look at the politics of this, you see on the east coast and the west coast, states are banding together and making decisions in lieu, or in play of, a strong federal response, because the president could have shut down parts of the country, he could have done these things, he decided against it. So, he doesnt really have the power to open things back up. And if you look at congress, i mean, you asked what congress believes here, congress isnt even here. So, you know that they understand the risk that people have traveling and reengaging with society in the absence of widespread testing or some sort of vaccine or therapeutic. So, again, its just an example of unusual kind of line of decisionmaking here in the white house. Jake, wait to ask you about the stage four stimulus, but hans, very quickly, Anthony Fauci was responding to the the New York Times reporting and admitted that the administration had acted sooner, that more l e lives could have been saved. After that, the president retweeted a tweet that had firefauci contained in it. Can you give us anymore insight on whats happening behind the scenes there at the white house . Well, a couple things. Its unusual the white house to do what they did today, and scoe out, say that he and fauci are on the same page. Theres a rapport between the president and fauci and not to read too much into that tweet. At the same time, the Standard Operating Procedure here is to simply say, were going to let the tweet speak for itself. And the tweet, if it speaks for itself, is endorsing this view that fauci, who is popular among some conservatives, that he should be dismissed. Thats one of the key questions for the president today, will fauci be there . Well see in moments here, the briefing has been delayed in the 5 30. And how robustly the president offers a defense of fauci after this tweet that he caused some uncertainty with. Guys . Jake, very quickly, if you can, just give us an update on where the stage four stimulus stands . Grid lock. Republicans and democrats are at lagger heads over this Small Business lending fund. Nancy pelosi just was on a call with house democrats, that republicans are not negotiating. Democrats want a host of our critical priorities, hospital money, state and local government money. But neither side is budging and neither side is in town. We anticipate big meetings and some congressional leaders heading back to washington, because this is a critical issue. Businesses could go bankrupt if this money doesnt get in the pipeline and the administration is saying it could dry out by friday. Small Business Owners ive been talking to have said that the money is delayed already. Jake sherman, thank you very much and hans nichols, thank you, as well. Again, as hans just mentioned, the briefing has been moved back to 5 30. Up next, were going to talk to our medical experts about how we can possibly start opening the country without millions more tests. That is the theme of the day. And late, a surprise from Bernie Sanders. Hes now formally backing joe biden. But will his supporters join him . More than ever, your home is your sanctuary. Thats why lincoln offers you the ability to purchase a new vehicle remotely with participating dealers. An effortless transaction all without leaving the comfort and safety of your home. Thats the power of sanctuary. And for a little extra help, receive 0 apr financing and defer your first payment up to 120 days on the purchase of a new l