And lets stop right there because hes right but maybe not in the way he meant it. Because by tonight, much of the world had caught up with the fact that just yesterday, he said this from the podium in the white house. Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and i think you said that hasnt been checked, but youre going to check it. And then i said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and i think you said youre going to test that too. Sounds interesting. Then i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do Something Like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number. So it will be interesting to check that. So that youre going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds it sounds interesting to me. Those words about inserting uv light into the human body, about injecting disinfectant into the human body established a new benchmark of sorts in the history of public utterances by our president s in that house. And consider for a moment the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic with over 50,000 dead. His words were greeted with revulsion and down right anger on the part of health care professionals. His words caused a spike in calls to poison control and, to a lesser degree, launched a thousand jokes and memes that continue tonight, and its clear this one will stay with him forever. So perhaps because the whole world is watching, when mike pence was done after delivering the days coronavirus pep rally, the president abruptly left the briefing room. Briefing over after a tidy 21 minutes or so. Back on the ground and in the real world we inhabit, this was a terrible day because the death toll passed north of 50,000 in our country. 51,523 to be exact. People who were all alive three months ago. Should things continue as this pace, in just a few days more, more americans will have died from coronavirus over a span of nine weeks than died in the vietnam war over a span of 12 years. This afternoon in the oval office after he dragged a sharpie across a nearly 500 billion relief package, the president was asked about the devastating toll this virus has taken. Do you take any responsibility for these 50,000 deaths that have happened in this country . I think weve done a great job. Minimal numbers. Were going to be 100,000 people, and were going to be hopefully far below that. If we didnt take quick action, you could have lost many millions of people. As we mentioned earlier, todays white house pandemic briefing, the 46th such briefing in this crisis, was the president s shortest to date. And axios tonight is reporting that trump is planning to cut the daily briefings. Quote, a number of trumps most trusted advisers both inside and outside the white house, have urged him to stop doing marathon televised briefings. Theyve told him hes overexposed and these appearances are part of the reason polls arent looking good for him right now against joe biden. Axios adds that conversations about this were under way at the white house before yesterdays briefing. Thats the one where trump seemed to suggest injecting household disinfectants and inserting ultraviolet light into covid patients. Today with the dont try this at home warnings from disinfectant manufacturers, state and federal Health Officials piling up, the president was trying to tell us we saw something different. He tried to say he wasnt being serious. Could you clarify your comments about injections of disinfectant . No. I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen. I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, and that would make things much better. Pandemic Task Force Coordinator dr. Deborah birx, who you saw earlier listening to her boss offer potentially lifethreatening suggestions, was more forgiving today during an interview on fox news. When he gets new information, he likes to talk that through out loud and really have that dialogue. And so thats what dialogue he was having. I think he just saw the information at the time, immediately before the press conference, and he was still digesting that information. Nbc news among those reporting trumps comments about sunlight and disinfectants stunned his close aides, catching them off guard. Our colleague carol lee is part of the team thats been working on this story. Aides in the white house who just started texting each other, saying where did he get this from, where is this coming from, and they were trying to figure it out. What we learned is that before the briefing, there was a meeting in the oval office where some of this was discussed, where the idea of heat and humidity and disinfectants being effective on surfaces and that the virus doesnt live as long in heat or humidity and those types of things. That that had been discussed in the oval office. There was some discussion about how different ailments can be treated with radiation. And what aides said is that the president seemed to just conflate all of this and adlib at the podium. This all comes to the fore as one of trumps other questionable potential cures is taking a big hit publicly. He has touted this antimalaria, antilupus drug hydroxychloroquine as a gamechanger for covid patients. But the fda is now warning against its widespread use without strict medical supervision in a hospital setting. Over the past several weeks, states have built up stockpiles of this drug despite cautions from medical experts that more research is needed. We have purchased and we have stockpiled 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine, 29 million. A lot of drugstores have them by prescription. Our National Stockpile is now equipped with nearly 30 million hydroxychloroquine pills. Were distributing them by the millions. Over the last seven days, my administration has deployed roughly 28 million doses of hydroxychloroquine from our National Stockpile. Meanwhile, after weeks in lockdown and a day after we learned we have 26 million out of work and filing for unemployment, georgia is one of a handful of states that today started allowing some businesses to reopen barbershops, nail salons, gyms, tattoo parlors opened their doors even as georgia reported now nearly 900 deaths from coronavirus. Iowa, which is also seeing increases in its virus caseload, is planning to begin reopening its economy on monday. And finally theres this. Mike pence with geraldo rivera. Do you think ill be on my boat and fishing in early june, mr. Vice president . I think honestly if you look at the trends today, that i think by memorial day weekend, we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us. Lets remember that quote and tuck it away. And here for our leadoff discussion on a friday night after another consequential week in america, robert costa, National Political reporter for the washington post. Moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Annie karni, White House Reporter with the new york times. And Jonathan Lemire, White House Reporter for the associated press. Jonathan, id like to begin with you. Having written about this briefing we witnessed today that sure was abrupt. Suddenly it was eefr. The longest among them we looked it up ran 2 24 minutes at their height. That is well into tarantino territory. And while sub irishman, it would get scorseses attention. Could it turn out that Live Television might have been the disinfectant for this kind of briefing . This was a short film compared to the longest ones hes done, the ones you just cited, brian. This has been in the works for a while. As axios first reported it and we have as well and added some details to it, a number of his advisers both inside and outside the building have been asking him to sort of curtail these, suggesting to him he shouldnt be out there every day. That he should reserve his appearances for big moments when theres major news to announce or perhaps some really good announcements to make as opposed to just being out there day after day. Now, the president of course has been very reluctant to give up this stage. Its the closest thing he has right now to a rally. It is something that he enjoys, the jousting with reporters. He believes it plays well with his base when hes out there fighting with his reporters. He wants to deliver an optimistic view, a rosy take on the situation and the federal governments handling of this pandemic, and hes reluctant to give it up. But theres a real sense growing among his team in the west wing and in the campaign that this is hurting him. They have seen his numbers slip in a number of battleground states. Michigan in particular. He is well down there. Some advisers are conceding it might be out of reach soon. Theyre worried about these briefings impact on nervous Senior Citizens both in the upper midwest, places like wisconsin, but also florida, people who are the most vulnerable population to this pandemic who are concerned at the president S Performance at these briefings. And then in the last 24 hours, the president started to listen. After a days worth of frankly being pummeled after his comments yesterday about the disinfectants. There was also a bit of a kerfuffle in the briefing room. A white house staffer tried to give the reporters involved in this potential switch refused, and lets point out its the White House Correspondents Association thats in charge of that room. They set the seating plan, not the white house. After 21 minutes, the president stalked off. We should note as a final thing, the president s wont to change his mind. He has not officially signed up on a pln to give up doing these daily briefings. Theres going to be meetings over the weekend and it should be noted at least for now there is not a briefing on his schedule for tomorrow. Operative term, annie karni, at least for now. First of all, point of order, kudos to Kaitlan Collins for standing her ground and doing so well this week under withering fire to boot. Annie, your piece late this week painted a portrait of a brooding, televisionobsessed president , up till all hours of the night, for whom these briefings were a rallylike release of energy. What is it going to be like without regular appearances and or how long does this new rule stand . Yeah. Our piece that ran in todays paper kind of portrayed trump as following the same kind of schedule he has been for years now, watching tv for hours in the morning, not getting to the oval till sometimes close to noon, peppering aides like mark meadows with calls at 3 19 in the morning. He kind of likes to test out new aides and see if they can keep up with his nocturnal habits. If he cancels the briefing and follows through with this, they have described midmarch as kind of his lowest point moodwise, and the briefings energized him and brought him back to life, the jousting, everything that people criticize, he loves that part. If these briefings go away and he concedes to let them go, which by the way ive heard that he hasnt necessarily agreed to it yet. So a big caveat about end of briefings. Well see him, and well hear him. Mike pence, the Vice President , has been traveling again already. The president could start traveling again if theyre trying to portray the country as soon ready to reopen after memorial day. We there is, i think, very low chance that the president will simply recede into the background and let other Administration Officials be the face for him. If its not the briefing, hell find another way. He will be talking to us and making statements that aides have to walk back. Thats almost a guarantee. Robert costa, im quite certain annie is right, and we started the broadcast with the president s quote from early on in the briefing. The whole world is watching. This is where it refers to your beat. The whole world also includes republicans with their names on ballots in november. What are they making of all this . They are watching, and theyre seeing different clues. In conversations with Top Republicans over the last 24 hours, they dont see the president retreating at all, and they see the president more emboldened than ever. Though he did not take questions today, they do not see him as a president who is somehow walking away from hydroxychloroquine as a treatment hes advocating. He, in fact, put the fda commissioner, stephen hahn, alongside him at the white house lectern this afternoon. And then you also see the president clashing with medical experts in his ranks all week, and it was from dr. Bright to dr. Redfield at the cdc. You see this administration creating tension step after step of this pandemic with the top experts in the administration. Republicans see it all, and they are fine if he backs away from the briefing. But you look at the confusion in the republican party, particularly with the georgia governor, brian kemp. So many of these republican governors think theyre following the president s lead, but then thats always a tricky path for republicans to follow. They want to be in his good graces politically, but they also see him breaking away almost instantly on a whim if he sees that the georgia governor in this instance was not doing something that was politically popular. Jonathan lemire, a question on the very point robert just made. The white house bangs the drum for the states to start reopening one at a time and their pace, and the first one to stick his neck out, the president makes it clear hes not happy with him. Whats going on there . I thought it was me. Turns out no one in the audience can hear Jonathan Lemire. Apologies for that. Annie karni, lets talk about Something Else that has your byline on it for your newspaper, and that is west point commencement. A thousand cadets give or take. Because its happening on every campus, theyve all scattered back home presumably around the country prior to getting their commissions. The president has made it clear he would very much like to give the commencement at west point. That will mean gathering up 1,000 newly minted Second Lieutenants and having them commingle for the sake of that commencement ceremony. Yes. We can add west point to the list of people and institutions that have been surprised to hear their name spoken from the White House Briefing room by the president in the past few weeks. He announced that he was going to give the commencement speech at west point last friday. That was news to west point. He had long been the planned speaker for the may commencement that had been rescheduled, but west point didnt have an alternative plan finalized yet. And they had been in talks with the president. The white house had made clear to west point that he was still interested in doing this. This is hes spoken at all the military academies except for west point. This is sort of the crowning thing, a great optic for a reelection year. The president really didnt want to give this up. But he kind of kblublurted it on response to a question about the Vice President giving the commencement speech at the air force academy. And never one to be upstaged, the president had to say that he too was giving an important commencement speech this year, and that scrambled west point to have to didnt realize it was final, and that made it final. So like the businesses and chief executives who learned they were on the task force when they heard the president say their names, west point also was taken by surprise. Robert costa, back to the conversation we had about the governor of georgia. Is there a nonbarbershop, none tattoo parlor, actual moving Forward Strategy for returning the country during a moving and changeable pandemic . So many Small Businesses are pressuring elected leaders in both parties to reopen. But heres a key issue that keeps coming up in my reporting. The issue of liability. And you see the top business groups in the country are privately telling the white house tonight, we need to have some kind of liability protection. You want us to go back to work and open our barbershops and open our restaurants. We cant be sued time and again by our customers. So the white house is working on some kind of Protection Plan from lawsuits, but thats going to be difficult to get done through executive order, and its going to be difficult to get through congress. But those are some of the entanglements that businesses are encountering as they look to try to follow the president s direction to reopen. Even conservative groups are saying its not maybe safe for many businesses to come back if theyre only going to get sued. And, Jonathan Lemire, im told we can hear you now. The problem is i can give you only 30 seconds of audio brilliance to add on whatever you were able to add on to the brian kemp kerfuffle in georgia. Its a good thing i work for a wire service, brian. I can be brief and speedy. Yes, its mixed signals from the president here. You know, he and the Vice President have both spoken to the governor earlier in the week and had given their support for the plan to reopen. It was only after dr. Birx and the Health Officials met with him, discussed this, they were able to convey their misgivings to the president that he did a quick aboutface. And suddenly from the white house podium, before calling back the governor Governor Kemp expected the president to speak to him again. He didnt. He went to the podium. He said he was opposed to this plan, and its left not just Governor Kemp but a lot of republican governors across the country confused and concerned about what will happen Going Forward when its their turn for their states to try to reopen. Our great thanks on a friday night to robert costa, annie karni, and Jonathan Lemire with audio, an interesting choice of a w