Doing better, then he increased the number on the fly to 29. That of course is well over half the states in our country. He said, were a country thats getting better, and he is going to clear some states to open, as he continues to call it, before may 1st. Where the states are concerned, he said, we have the right to do whatever we want. In other news, and well have more on this in a moment, he says he doesnt know anything about his name needing to appear on those irs checks that are going out, and he slipped a bit of news into todays briefing. The u. S. Is about to send ventilators to russia. As we let all of that settle in, lets check back in with the real world, shall we . This was the deadliest day thus far for this epidemic in the u. S. , with 2,492 new deaths. Tonight more than 32,000 americans have lost their lives. And despite the selfcongratulations at the white house, we have crossed an important milestone. Weve now tested 1 of our u. S. Population. Another way of putting this is if we Start Testing a million americans a day for the next year we would then know with something closer to certainty how Many Americans have this virus. Worldwide cases now closing in on 2 million. Tonight we have breaking news of the grisly and sad variety as well. Its from the new york area. The New York Times reporting that police in the small town of andover, new jersey discovered 17 bodies piled inside a nursing home in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people. This is a nursing home where several previous deaths had been linked to coronavirus. Today the president spent a lot of his briefing blaming Senate Democrats for the vacancies in his administration. Positions he says are critical to combating the spread of the virus. He urged the senate to adjourn so he can use recess appointments to install nominees, a move that would no doubt provoke a confrontation with congress, which is out of town until may 4th. Many, many positions that are unstaffed because we cant get the approvals. The democrats are holding us up. We cannot get approval. Weve gotten judges because we go through the process. The senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees or it should formally adjourn so that i can make recess appointments. We have a tremendous number of people that have to come into government and now more so than ever before because of the virus and the problem. We have to do it. Aside from the obvious constitutional issues, the senate is controlled by the Republican Party. Tonight Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell also issued a statement reiterating nominees will need consent from democrats. Trump also previewed his effort to issue guidelines for governors to reopen their economies, and he seemed to imply that the u. S. Was so flush with medical supplies we can now start sending them abroad. Well also be speaking to americas governors tomorrow, and then well be announcing exactly whats happening. You already know well be opening up states, some states much sooner than others. We think some of the states can actually open up before the deadline of may 1st. Governors are looking forward, theyre chomping at the bit to get going. Were going to be helping other nations. Were going to be helping italy, spain, france, other nations. And were going to be helping them strongly. I think russia is going to need ventilators. Having a hard time in moscow. So there that was. While trump announced that the u. S. Had passed the peak on new cases, dr. Deborah birx was more cautious in her assessment. Weve seen declines in cases across the country. We are remaining concerned and weve been having discussions with rhode island. Rhode island and providence are in a unique situation. First they had increasing cases from the new york city area. And now they have new increasing cases from the boston area. We see as a country were improving. We see as metro areas were improving. We see as communities, as counties and as states were improving. But that also still requires everyone to continue to social distance. Today michigans governor was the target of demonstrators who rallied at the State Capitol protesting governor whitmers stayathome orders. Well have more on that later in the broadcast. Protesters in kentucky also gathered at that State Capitol to object to their governors emergency measures. Meanwhile, the virus has spread into more of rural america. There are concerns that few communities will be able to handle a possible onslaught of cases on the local level. One of the other consequences of this, the rising cases at Meat Processing plants. Smithfield, leading u. S. Pork processor, says employees at their facilities in wisconsin, missouri, and south dakota have tested positive. That has raised concerns about the meat supply. Today the secretary of agriculture, sonny perdue, tried to reassure the public. Theres been a lot happening this week. Covid19 is impacting Food Processing facilities, as you know. For americans who may be worried about access to good food because of this, i want to assure you that the American Food supply is strong, resilient, and safe. Meanwhile, millions of out of work americans are in desperate need of help and that number is expected to grow by about another 5 million when the new unemployment numbers come out tomorrow. That would bring our total now to a number north of 22 million. That would be more people than live in the state of florida. Relief checks will soon be in the mail for those without direct deposit capability. And they will all have the president s name written on the checks. He was asked about that unprecedented move today. Why did you have your name added to these Coronavirus Relief checks . Well, i dont know too much about it, but i understand my name is there. I dont know where theyre going, how theyre going. I do understand its not delaying anything. And im satisfied with that. I dont imagine its a big deal. Im sure people will be very happy to get a big fat beautiful check and my name is on it. Help for Small Businesses also in peril. The Washington Post reporting the Small Business administration was expected to run out of funds by days end. Then theres this graph from the New York Times. A stark visualization of whats happening to the nations retail and food sales. Its worse than any previous recession levels. Even as some republicans are pressing the president to get the economy reopened now, it seems Business Leaders disagree. The president spoke with ceos this afternoon. People familiar with the call telling the wall street journal, banking and Financial Services executives said the administration need to dramatically increase the availability of coronavirus testing before the public would be confident enough to return to work, eat at restaurants or shop in retail establishments. Heres how the president responded today. Thats what i want. We have great tests and we want state to the administer these tests for the most part. We will be working very much with the governors of the states. Were not going to be running a parking lot in arkansas. The states are much better equipped to do it. Lets get off to our leadoff discussion for tonight. Sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast. Anita kumar, White House Correspondent and associate editor at politico. And we welcome to the broadcast dr. Steven sample. He is an er doc at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center in jasper, indiana. Anita, id like to begin with you. Which President Trump showed up today, the defensive and angry president , the president eager to reopen American Business . Was he at all apologetic about these last two days appearances from the rose garden . Any letup in his insistence is this. Well, like with any appearance of President Trump you get a little bit of everything, right . But he did sort of pull back from the threats he put on governors earlier this week. He was telling them that he has the authority to do whatever he wants and hes going to force them to open. You had a lot of legal scholars wondering what he was talking about and a lot of states pushing back. A lot of governors who were saying they were going to go their own way, theyre not going to do what he says. So you saw him these last couple days really push back pull back and just say, well, im authorizing them to do this and im hoping theyll do this and were going to work on them work on a plan with them but not sort of pushing them. So hes going to have this conversation with governors tomorrow. I think hes going to hear from a lot of democrats who are going to say were going our own way, were not ready to open up. Hes going to hear that from some republicans as well. And hes got to deal with that. I think some of his aides and advisers were telling him that he doesnt have authority here to push them to do something. Doctor, youre in a mostly rural area. May you never see what the nations urban area hospitals have seen in this. But based on what youve seen so far, based on what youre perhaps expecting, how would you counsel this president and the people around him . Thanks, brian, for having me on. So thats a big question for a smalltown er doctor in southern indiana. My counsel always comes back to the same sort of principles. Listen to the scientists. They have our best interests at heart. Theres no politics involved in pure science. And i would ask him to surround himself with people who have not only our best interests as a people but his best interests at heart. Theres a lot of bad stuff going on right now and theres a lot of hurting people right here in my town. And i am full of opinions but my opinions really dont mean a lot when it comes down to the politics of this. I just want him to listen to the scientists. Theres so much noise. Theres so much noise going on around this right now. And we just need to save as many lives as we can. And i think the scientists are going to tell us how to do that. The politicians are going to tell us how to come out of hiding. But he just has to listen. And sam stein, on that exact point and somewhat in keeping with the president s attacks on science and institutions, you have new reporting on this new kind of bubbling up protest movement on the political right that is antiscience and scientist, antiphysician, in some cases were hearing publicly attacks on dr. Fauci and people questioning his wisdom. Oh, yeah. Theres a whole movement on the right thats emerging right now, that youre seeing in State Capitols thats basically questioning the use efficacy and constitutionality of some of these Public Health provisions. Theyre demonstrating in public, which itself is a risky proposition, and theyre trying to gin up Political Support to go after predominantly though not exclusively democratic governors in red states for clamping down on people going out of their homes, businesses, social gatherings. Its been fed by trump loyalists. Rick grenell, who is now the dni, sort of gave a wink and a nod to it. But youre also now seeing it among republican lawmakers too. Just this evening senator john kennedy of louisiana was on fox saying that he felt it was time to simply reopen the economy, even knowing in his words that more people would get infected with covid19. He thought it was a price worth paying at this juncture. So what youre starting to see from my reporting at least is a shift in the political foundations here where conservatives and trumpites basically have said enoughs enough and we are ready to get on with this, consequences be damned. Well, as long as everyones willing to live with the consequences of their words and actions. Hey, anita, assuming the answer is not the witness protection program, where is the secretary of health and Human Services . Thats a good question. We see him sometimes. But we dont see him some other times. The president has not been pleased with his performance. But you know, it goes back and forth. There are a lot of people that have different opinions on that. And sometimes theyre happy with him, sometimes they arent. Remember back up six weeks ago when the president put the Vice President in charge of the Coronavirus Task force people thought that was sort of pushing him aside, and now politico is reporting tonight that an old campaign of President Trumps, michael caputo, is coming to be a spokesperson at the health and Human ServicesDepartment Even though the secretary doesnt really want him there. So the president really feels like there needs to be some other publicity over there. At hhs. Hey, doctor, im about to drag you into politics again, but at least its the intersection of politics and medicine. Is it really a good time during a pandemic to sow doubt, diminish and defund the World Health Organization . No. Its awful. Ive been screaming at this for the last two days. The World Health Organization is so vitally important to the worlds response to these pandemics. We dont have a corollary that expands worldwide. We have our cdc in the states. But i was talking earlier to a friend and we decided that defunding the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic is about like me refusing emergency trauma care to a teenager in a car crash because the Police Officer told me that he was texting and driving. So weve still got to take care of whats going on now. Did they screw up . Hell, man, i dont know. Im a redneck er doctor from southern indiana. But i will tell you this. We need them. Right . Theyre going to keep us safe. These viruses are coming from tropical areas, from east asia. And weve got to see them coming. And if we dont have them on board, i dont know what were doing. Let me ask you an indianacentric question. Roger penske says there are 230,000 seats at the indianapolis motor speedway. Obviously this years 500 is not going to be held and is going to be floated. When do you think that day will come when 230,000 race fans can sit alongside each other . It may be sooner than we want it to be. But i think realistically, brian, i think were looking at a vaccine. I think that certainly the economy is going to start opening up. Stages over the next couple, few months. But until we are fully vaccinated or we reach herd immunity, packing 230,000 people into an area seems pretty dangerous to me. Because we have to remember, and i dont think were talking about it enough from a medical standpoint, right . We talk about the spike in the curve and flattening the curve. And in indiana we may be flattening the curve right now. But the area underneath the curve, which represents the number of infected, that is going to stay the same. So all of the stuff that were doing right this second is to free up medical capacity so that we dont lose patients that we dont have to lose. Unfortunately, some people are going to get this disease and theyre going to die despite everything that we do for them. But the people who are going to die because we cant care for them is the big deal. And thats what were trying to prevent. So if we flow open widely too soon, were going to have a secondary rural rush thats going to be really challenging. Right now weve been very protected by our geography. There are only 50,000 people in my entire county. But when everybody goes back to work and goes back to the cities, weve got a lot of industry here. Theyre going to bring it back home. So when new york is cooling down, jasper, indiana may be ramping up. Hey, sam stein, as we look at the president going after the w. H. O. , the president telling the American People this is going to be all about your governor, is it dishonest to sum it up in any way but this is the assigning of blame past and future tense . No. Throughout this whole ordeal trump has demanded full credit and rated himself a 10 out of 10 and then basically passed all the responsibility to other people when it comes to casting blame. So, no, thats not a dishonest way of looking at it. I will just say one thing that i picked up in some of my reporting, is that trump is becoming more and more confronted with the fact, the very real fact that his arsenal here is quite limited. He cant in fact legally order governors to reopen their states. He does in fact have to rely on Congressional Democrats to pass the type of stimulative policies that he wants. He does in fact need to lean on the fed chairman who he has mocked and ridiculed publicly for years to help him maintain a Monetary Policy that can keep this economy afloat. So what hes basically done in order to sustain this is hes relied a lot on pomp and ceremony. I mean, the news conferences for one thing, but all these boasts or quite another. And at some point it begins to catch up. Let me just add one thing on what the doctor said. Which is this is the problem within having a National Standard here. If one state opens up and people from a different state pour in for their social events or their businesses that are reopen and go back to their home state, you have a real Public Health emergency on your hands that requires states to actually collaborate and work together. And i think without National Guidance from trump were going to have a really bad Public Health situation linger much further than it needs to. Like 230,000 paying seats at the indy 500. With thanks to sam stein, anita kumar, dr. Stephen sample, i greatly appreciate the three of you sta