Death relatively speaking were at the lowest level along with germany. When reminded that per capita figures differ he said this, and we quote. When you see a per capita, theres many per capitas. Its like per capita relative to what . But you can look about just about any category and were really at the top. The president does have a point there. We lead the world in both total cases and death toll. This was the day donald trump has been laser focused on, and that is because its the day all 50 states now have reopened to some degree or another, even if that means only certain areas or businesses can begin to get back to normal after a twomonth lockdown that brought the nation and its economy to a standstill. Keep in mind a lot of states still have not met the government benchmark for reopening. And keep in mind that at least 23 states have now reported increases in this disease just this week. Thats almost half the nation. For his part the Vice President , the head of the now silent Coronavirus Task force, was in orlando for lunch today, no masks, no problem, as he joined the governor and other customers and traveling staff. The president was back at the white house meeting with the governors of arkansas and kansas. As we quoted a moment ago, taking up the administrations success in this success. What would you have done differently facing this crisis . Well, nothing. If you take new york and new jersey, which were very hard hit, we were very, very low. And in terms of morbidity and in terms of you look at the death relatively speaking, were at the lowest level along with germany. And i think thats a great thats a great honor. And thats including new york and new jersey, which have had a very they had a very high number. According to johns hopkins, germanys death toll is 8,144 people. Total population in germany of just over 80 million. Tonight the death toll in the United States stands at 93,740. As we continue to try to illustrate that number, assuming capacity of 155 souls on board, our death toll is the equivalent of killing all the passengers on board 605 boeing 737s. Put another way, a plane crash a day for the last 605 days. At its current rate the National Death toll would exceed 100,000 within the next several days. Tonight the new york times, quoting a new Columbia UniversityResearch Study that says if the u. S. Had imposed social distancing measures just a week earlier in march, roughly 36,000 fewer americans would have died in this pandemic. And the outbreak we remind you is far from over. World Health Organization says just today over 100,000 new cases were reported in these last 24 hours, making it the most yet in a single day since the discovery of the virus. Parts of the u. S. , as you know, have been open for weeks but it wasnt until today that the centers for Disease Control quietly rolled out its longawaited, longpromised more detailed guidelines for schools, restaurants, and mass transit systems. There were reports the cdcs original guidelines were shelved by the Trump White House and reports of tension between the cdc and the administration. No, i wasnt complaining i dont know who gave you that. Thats fake news. Do you think Robert Redfield is doing a good job . Yeah, i do. Its fake news. At the beginning and i didnt put cdc. Cdc was there long before the Trump Administration came in. But they had a test that was something happened to it. It was soiled. It was soiled and or foiled. But it was a problem. A shortterm problem. Im not blaming cdc for it. The president went on to again claim the United States is way ahead of everybody else when it comes to testing. But the covid tracking project reports just over 12 Million People have been tested in the u. S. Thats roughly 3. 8 of our national population. That has medical experts still worried about the pace of reopening and the likelihood of a second wave. Americans themselves are worried as well. A new a. P. Poll finds that 83 of respondents say they fear lifting restrictions will lead to a rise in infections. One scientist shared his concerns earlier on this network. Weve seen this virus enough to know that its not like youre going to see kind of a linear gradual increase in the number of cases so you have a headsup. What happens is theres a lag, theres nothing, theres nothing, theres nothing, theres nothing, all of a sudden six weeks after opening up the economy youre going to see a dramatic increase. We have the potential increase right now by the fall of having six or seven or eight cities that look like new york or look like queens, new york. And tonight we got one more sign of pandemic precautions beginning to ease. Ncaa division 1 council has voted to allow athletes in football, mens basketball, Womens Basketball to resume voluntary oncampus workouts starting june 1 subpoena meanwhile, the president also spent today engaged in a sort of political competition. He was busy lashing out at officials in swing states of michigan and nevada over efforts to expand voting by mail. Today trump wrote, michigan sends absentee ballots to 7. 7 Million People ahead of primaries and the general election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue secretary of state. I will ask to hold up funding to michigan if they want to go down this voter fraud path. Trump had to correct that post. It was applications for ballots. Not ballots. He was wrong as well about anything illegal about it. And his attack came on the eve of his trip to michigan to tour a ford factory where they make ventilators. It also came during a time of record flooding in portions of michigan, which we will report on later in this broadcast. Late today he seemed to back down off his threats to withhold federal funds while still making those unproven allegations about voting by mail. Mailin ballots theres a lot of illegality. They send in ballots that they harvest ballots. You know all about harvesting. And they do lots of bad things. Ideally people go out and they vote. Now, if you need a mailin ballot, if you need a specific, like as an example im in the white house and i have to send a ballot to florida. That makes sense. So if you need it tore some reason or if somebodys not well thats one thing. But when you send out 7. 7 million mailin ballots theres forgeries well let you know if its necessary. Youll be finding out. Theyll be finding out very soon if its necessary. I dont think its going to be necessary. Were going to help michigan. Michigan is a great state. I think were going to do very well in michigan. I guess we just got a poll thats very good right here. One more thing we learned from the president today was about the drug he has been claiming incorrectly can help prevent the coronavirus. I think the regimen finishes in a day or do. I think its two days. On that note here for our leadoff discussion on a wednesday night tamara keith, White House Correspondent for npr. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post. Also moderator of Washington Week on pbs. And eugene robinson, pulitzer prizewinning columnist also with the wshtd wsht. Tamara, not just because we are overindexed on the Washington Post tonight, i would like to begin with you with i note what is an npr pbs marist poll out tonight. And in plain english it says 65 of us think this is going to be our life for the next sixplus months. I dont know how to ask this. How about lawmakers not named donald trump . Is this sinking in more widely than would be believed . Certainly if you look at our poll or any number of other polls, people are concerned. And people are concerned about a second wave. About 75 of people in our poll are concerned there will be a second wave. And if you dig in deeper into the numbers in our poll, you find there are partisan differences, that democrats and independents are more concerned than republicans. Democrats and independents think that this new normal is going to last longer than republicans think. And also that africanamericans, gen xers and collegeeducated women are more concerned than some other demographics. And robert costa, in the midst of a pandemic we had something familiar today that you and i have talked about on this broadcast so many times, the airing of grievances. The president straight up saying voting by mail is corrupt. The president s trying somehow to equate our death rate with that of germany. It certainly shows a disconnect with the public conversation, does it not . It also shows, brian, it reveals his campaign strategy. Talking to white house officials and allies of the president tonight, its evident that this airing of grievances on one level is just that, an airing of the president s own thoughts, his frustrations. But you also see in the way hes talking about democrats, Vice President biden and in particular the ongoing congressional talks. This is a president whos now picking his political targets even though there was a bipartisan consensus on the previous rounds of congressional deals, now you see the president drawing a line, saying he wont give money to blue states if its not done in the way he wants. You see him continuing to look at democratic governors as his foil. This is a president in Campaign Mode, meeting behind the scenes this week with advisers planning to move ahead with his convention, asking about when can i do rallies . Thats his mindset at this moment, even as it just seems like grievances at the time. Eugene, im looking at my notes from the president s remarks in the cabinet room today. Talking about michigan, he was asked about the flooding. He said, im going to michigan in the not so distant future. Then he was reminded thats tomorrow. He said, ill be there tomorrow. I guess its tomorrow. Eugene, weve confirmed hes going there tomorrow. After threatening the state with the withholding of federal funds, do you think anyone has become perhaps desensitized, eugene . I think everybodys becoming desensitized. I mean, look at what the president s been throwing against the wall the last few days. You know, its the imaginary voter fraud and this scandal, obamagate that nobody can quite define. We know something bad was done, we just cant quite tell you what it was, but we know it was bad. The joys and wonders of hydroxychloroquine. Which is not a thing. None of these things is actually a real thing. What hes serving up is what the brits would call a dogs breakfast, a very messy melange of dubious odds and ends. And i think it reflects a kind of panic. Hes in Campaign Mode, as bob costa said. But hes in fullout Campaign Mode knowing that hes in trouble in this reelection effort. The new quinnipiac poll that just came out has him trailing joe biden nationally by 11 points. And of course we all know we should look at the state polls and the National Polls at this stage dont necessarily mean a lot, dont put a lot of faith in them. But if the gap is actually 11 points thats a done deal. You just cant win if you lose nationally by 11 points. So this is this is an exercise in just throwing a lot of stuff against the wall and hoping that something sticks. Well, eugene, let me go one deeper with you on the poll numbers you just referenced. If you brought in a campaign pro, a pro from dover could come in and say, you know, these numbers have a little empathy adjustability to them, if we soften and warm up the message and or control the messenger, we can probably work on these numbers. That would be said, i guess, in normal times and in a normal white house environment, gene . Thats absolutely right. And there are a lot of things that a normal president seeking reelection would be doing at this time to try to make up that ground. And one thing he would be doing is reaching out, trying to expands his coalition, trying to expand beyond his base and attract the votes of independents, of the sort of obamatrump voters. Hed be trying to make sure he keeps them. The president is doing none of that. Hes doing no sort of outreach that would bring more voters to his side. Hes just solidifying his relationship with his base. And his base is big, but its not big enough. Its just not big enough to win the election. And if thats all he does, i dont see how he wins. So tamara, eugene has nicely raised the hood on the reelection campaign. Lets work on the engine. Tell us about your new reporting on what this midpandemic Virtual Campaign season is going to look like for each campaign as far as youve gathered. Right. So my colleague asma holland and i have been reporting we spent a week fully immersed in these Virtual Campaigns and they are very different. And they have a very different theory of the case about how to win. And as eugene said, the Trump Campaign is really all about the base. Theyve built this ecosystem for Trump Supporters that, you know, doesnt replicate completely the rally experience but it certainly gives supporters a place to go. They have this new app that sucks you in and is gamified and really, as one consultant described it, if you keep them outraged you keep them engaged. And a lot of what the trump messaging is about is keeping his base riled up so that theyll go vote for him. And also trying to find people who look like his base, act like his base, but maybe didnt vote last time, to get them to vote again. The Biden Campaign is sort of casting a wider net, trying to find new voters, trying to find those people in the suburbs who vote ford trump last time but are maybe trusted or scared about the coronavirus now and might be willing to flip back to the democratic side. And you know, the Trump Campaign, as theyve said, they have a death star. The Biden Campaign is saying, well, were the Rebel Alliance and yes, were smaller, we dont have the sophisticated digital presence that the Trump Campaign has but theyre trying to find the flaw in the death star. Ed. All right, robert costa, from star wars to the state department. The secretary of state today was asked about the ousting of the inspector general. Ill play for you and our audience his answer. I recommended to the president that steve linick be terminated. I frankly should have done it some time ago. Lets be clear. There are claims that this was for retaliation for some investigation that the Inspector Generals Office here was engaged in. Thats patently false. I have no sense of what investigations were taking place inside the Inspector Generals Office. Couldnt possibly have retaliated for all the things. Ive seen the various stories that someone was walking my dog to sell arms to my dry cleaner. I mean, its all just crazy. Its all crazy stuff. Robert costa, Nicolle Wallace after hearing that comment said flat out today hes not telling the truth because he was shared some of the questions they were looking into at the state department as part of the i. G. s investigation. My question to you, does secretary of state pompeo survive this knowing the trump crowd and their m. O. As you do . Well, hes trying to survive right now at the state Department Without the i. G. Who was investigating him over his shoulder. But you still have a country that has a congressional branch, a legislative branch that has oversight powers. But across the Trump Administration this state Department Case is not an isolated one. They are removing i. G. After i. G. And theyre defying congress at every turn. And just to be clear, when the secretary of state says that this is all crazy, its been well documented by my newspaper and others that hes been having many dinners paid for in part if not in full by the state department that include many people who his critics have said could be his donors in the future if he mounts a president ial run, his allies. This is someone who is under intense scrutiny for defying congress in this investigation in terms of selling arms to the Saudi Arabian government, the kingdom over there. All this deserves to be aired. But the question now is without an i. G. Whos holding him accountable . That comes down to the press and to congress at this point because you dont have a fully functioning i. G. Inside of the state department. Our thanks tonight to tamara keith, to robert costa, and the pride of the university of michigan, eugene robinson. Greatly appreciated, gang. Thanks. Coming up for us, the wisconsin mayor who called lifting stayathome orders outrageous and irresponsible. How her college town is now fighting a pandemic. And later, out of the frying pan into the battle to save americas beloved restaurants. Chef and tv host Andrew Zimmern will join us. The 11th hour is just getting under way for a wednesday night. Every Financial Plan needs a cfp® professional confident Financial Plans, calming Financial Plans, complete Financial Plans. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Find yours at letsmakeaplan. Org. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Ill start. Oh, do you want to go first . No, no i dont. You go. I was just going to say on slide 7, talking about bundling and saving. Umm. Jamie, youre cutting out. Sorry im late hey, whoevers doing that, can you go on mute . Oh, my bad i was just saying theres a typo on slide 7. Bundle home auto for big discosnouts. I think thats supposed to say discounts. You sure about that . Hey, can you guys se