CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER starts right now.
Good evening.
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Chuck. Thank you very much.
We join you tonight as we report on a health crisis that is changing everything. And, tonight, we have the facts and experts to get you through it.
As the week draws to a close, consider what`s changed. When this very week began, coronavirus hadn`t been declared a pandemic or a national emergency in the U.S. And while it was straining life around the world, to be sure, it had not fundamentally upended American life yet.
Now, tonight, we can report, as you know, all those things are changing, the president declaring the U.S. officially under an emergency declaration for the first time today. President Trump also saying he takes no responsibility for the failures in testing thus far, as this world reels from the ongoing pandemic, stocks also rebounding.
Now, here are the latest facts, right now in the United States, more than 2,100 cases, the markets coming back exactly 9.3 percent today. That`s after the historic crash yesterday. And 23 states are now operating under various forms of emergencies, emergency declarations from their governors.
As for this new national one? Well, it directs $50 billion in new federal funding freed up to address the crisis. It will also help waive certain types of rules for doctors and hospitals dealing with all this.
Now, this kind of crisis is always, for any country, a test of leadership. In the United States, everyone knows the question, the phrase, where does the buck stop?
Well, now, walking out to address the nation to declare a national emergency Donald Trump made one thing very clear when questioned on that. Donald Trump says that buck doesn`t stop with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was, in fact, a failing. Do you take responsibility for that?
And when can you guarantee that every single American who needs a test will be able to have a test? What`s the date of that?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.
No, I don`t take responsibility at all, because we were given a set of circumstances, and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Donald Trump also criticizing the coronavirus relief package bill that House Democrats have introduced.
We should note there was reportedly from both sides ongoing negotiations between Speaker Pelosi and Donald Trump`s treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The three most important parts of this bill are testing, testing, testing.
This legislation facilitates free coronavirus testing for everyone who needs a test, including the uninsured.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Testing is way to find out some information for yourself about yourself, if you`re in that situation.
It goes from the unknown in a medical sense to the known. But around the country, of course, there is much that we don`t know, and precautions are being taken, American life continuing to change as different communities try to figure out how to manage the risk of the unknown, public schools now in seven states just straight-up closed, Louisiana postponing Tuesday night`s Democratic primary.
That`s a big deal. The legendary Boston Marathon, of course, a symbol of our strength and resilience, something that many people flocked to after it was attacked brutally by terrorists in 2013, well, it`s been postponed for the first time in 124 years.
The changes are all aimed at slowing the spread of this virus, health officials stressing what people can do, what you can do to manage the risk and contain potential damage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: When you look at the historical perspective of these types of outbreaks, they go along like this, then they start to come up, and then they take a big spike, they peak, and they come down, if you don`t do anything.
What you hope to do is to get that peak become a little bit of a hump. Now, that hump is going to be still a lot of people are going to get infected, and a lot of people are going to get sick, but, hopefully, it will be much, much less than the major peaks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: I`m joined now by Dr. Saralyn Mark, a former medical adviser to HHS, NASA and the Obama White House, and Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt and a CDC adviser.
Dr. Mark, what did you think of what we saw in the press conference, and what do Americans need to know tonight?
DR. SARALYN MARK, FORMER WHITE HOUSE MEDICAL ADVISER: Well, I think it was reassuring the finally have the declaration of emergency.
I think many of us have been waiting for it. It frees up resources and assets. And it provides the assistance that the states so desperately need.
We`re in uncharted waters. We`re dealing with a novel coronavirus. We don`t have a test that can actually be used in a practice setting at the moment by many, many physicians and nurses around the country.
So we need really all hands on deck. So I think that was a good sign that we`re moving forward in this, and I think we have been waiting for it for a little while.
MELBER: Dr. Schaffner, I want to play something from Minneapolis. We have been tracking all kinds of different parts of information, reporting, much of it written, when you look at the types of problems that are being managed and tracked.
But this is something that we were hearing from people with experience in an E.R. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOHN HICK, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: There`s not a lot of room to accommodate a pandemic. We will do the best we can.
Honestly, in Italy and in China, in a lot of cases, because of how overwhelmed those hospitals were, they were getting the same treatments they would have gotten in the 1950s. We don`t want to get there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Your view of that and everything else from today?
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, DEPARTMENT OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE CHAIRMAN, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, actually, you know, it`s true. We don`t have a lot of built-in surge capacity to our hospitals.
But virtually every institution in this country, every hospital, has a pandemic preparedness plan. And we have one which we have rehearsed at Vanderbilt.
And if the load in our emergency room becomes too much, we have plans to actually discharge patients absolutely as quickly as we can. We might stop elective admissions and open up other wards. So we have ways to accommodate many patients with respiratory illnesses that we wouldn`t under normal circumstances.
So we have response mechanisms. Are they perfect? No, but they are responsive. And we can do a good job with that.
MELBER: Dr. Mark, take a listen to Dr. Fauci again, who we have all come to rely on over this week, as he speaks in more detail about this timeline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: It will likely be anywhere from a few weeks to up to eight weeks or more. I hope it`s going to be in the earlier part, let`s say two, three, four weeks. But it`s really impossible to make an accurate prediction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Certainly fair to caveat how difficult this is. But what is your view of the timeline, as Americans try to understand, when they look at closures and precautions, the kind of viable timeline we`re discussing?
And, as well, I wanted to ask both of you, when we see the reported cases in the United States from yesterday to today -- and, again, everyone understands reporting is only part of it -- when we see them go up a third or more from yesterday to today, what does that mean? Does that give any insight into where we are in this timeline?
MARK: Well, I think the challenge that we have had is that we just haven`t had a test available.
There are probably many, many cases, thousands and thousands of cases that we just haven`t detected by a test. So we have to operate with the best practices that we can. I know patients have gone to facilities, they are symptomatic, they haven`t been able to get tested. Some hospitals have stated that unless you are so symptomatic that you require a hospitalization, we`re not going to give the test.
So what we have to do is do our best practice in regard to medicine. I think, in regard to timelines, we look overseas to see how other countries have done. That gives us an indication, a window.
But I really can`t stress enough that it is time now to prepare, our patients, our communities and certainly, as we have heard, our health care systems. The window is narrowing.
MELBER: Dr. Schaffner?
SCHAFFNER: Well, actually, Ari, it`s paradoxical. We`re finding more cases because we`re looking harder. The harder you look, the more you find.
This means that testing is actually getting out there. And we`re beginning to define how widely distributed this virus is across the country. Are there hot spots, or is it rather uniformly distributed across the country?
I hope we keep finding more cases, because that will get us closer to what the reality is.
MELBER: Dr. Schaffner, my thanks to you too.
Dr. Mark, please stay with me.
We have some other experts joining us. I want to dig a little deeper into what`s happening with the Congress. They`re planning to vote tonight on this aid package, multibillion-dollar price tag, which could continue to evolve. A series of potential aid packages over a month is one thing under discussion.
Politico reporting all of this could actually cost -- get this -- more than those huge and controversial bank bailouts of 2008. Now, are their positives? Look at the Dow already gaining 2,000 points. This is actually the largest one-day gain since October 2008. What goes down sometimes comes back up, all of this after a week of wild fluctuations.
We wanted to show you here the worst single-day drop sense, of course, the Black Monday of 1987. That was yesterday.
And now we have an update we have been waiting for. This is brand-new.
Moments ago, Speaker Pelosi announcing they have reached a formal agreement on this first bill to respond to the coronavirus crisis.
Having gotten our medical information, we want to go to the road ahead.
I`m joined by "The Financial Times"` Gillian Tett and E.J. Dionne of "The Washington Post."
Nice to see you both.
E.J. DIONNE, COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Good to be with you.
GILLIAN TETT, "THE FINANCIAL TIMES": Good to be with you.
MELBER: Both of you are here for very specific reasons.
On the politics, E.J., what does it mean to discover that, under these terrible conditions, Congress can act swiftly, the Trump administration can bargain, and we have the outlines of, initially, some sort of bipartisan deal?
DIONNE: Well, I don`t know what`s in the deal, but that is one of the first truly reassuring things of the week.
I think the other reassuring thing is whenever a medical professional talks, rather than President Trump. I think it was so striking that the market just collapsed after that speech he gave.
Today`s news conference, a lot of it was Dr. Fauci giving information. I think that it would have been awful if Congress couldn`t have reached agreement on some very basic things. What do they want to do? As Nancy Pelosi said -- you had the clip earlier -- free testing.
It`s absurd that, when you need to stop a virus, you have to have everybody getting tested who`s needing. That`s a big deal. Paid sick leave. We`re asking people to stay home from work. And if they don`t get paid, they have no incentive to stay home. And what kind of situation are they in?
And then unemployment insurance, because people pulling out of a lot of the activities that they would normally engage in is going to cause a lot of people to lose work.
So I would hope that this minimal package and hopefully some food aid to kids who aren`t going to school could get through at a time like this. I hope those are all components of the deal.
MELBER: You mentioned that the president`s national address did not calm the markets. And according to many, it didn`t calm parts of the public.
Well, he was back at it today. Take a look at this back and forth about policy and vacancies in the federal government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YAMICHE ALCINDOR, "PBS NEWSHOUR": My first question is, you said that you don`t take responsibility, but you did disband the White House pandemic office, and the officials that were working in that office left this administration abruptly.
So what responsibility do you take to that? And the officials that worked in that office said that you -- that the White House lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. What do you make of that?
TRUMP: Well, I just think it`s a nasty question because what we`ve done is -- and Tony has said numerous times that we`ve saved thousands of lives.
And when you say me, I didn`t do it. We have a group of people. I could...
ALCINDOR: It`s your administration.
TRUMP: I could ask perhaps - my administration. But I could perhaps ask Tony about that, because I don`t know anything about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: E.J., do anything about it?
DIONNE: That was really shocking, but not surprising. That`s what the president often is.
His administration did shut down an office in the National Security Council and a center at DHS whose jobs involved monitoring viruses, getting ready - - getting us ready for situations like this, and he did shut them down.
And I thought -- and you played it earlier -- the quote that will be the epitaph for this administration, if it doesn`t get out of this mess, is, "I don`t take responsibility at all."
MELBER: At all.
DIONNE: I heard that. And I wondered, how many ads are the Democrats going to run?
One of the pictures in their ads, they are going to run with the words, "I don`t take responsibility at all." And that answer was an example of that.
MELBER: Yes, E.J., stay with us.
I have got Gillian Tett here in our newsroom.
We don`t, frankly, follow the markets day to day. There`s a whole other set of financial...
(LAUGHTER)
TETT: Yes, it`s kind of hard not to this week.
MELBER: Right.
There`s a whole set of other financial media that does just that.
TETT: Yes.
MELBER: But I think our viewers understand we look at it when it gets this big.
We turn to you as an expert on that.
Just walk us through big picture, not even just today, but this week. What happened?
TETT: This week was nuts.
If you go back to 1924 and look at the table of the top 20 days with the biggest movements in share prices, three out of the five days this week were in that table. You have had incredible swings down 10 percent, swings back up 10 percent.
And, frankly, I don`t think that volatility is going to go away anytime soon, because the timing of what happened today with the president was very important. Stocks went down dramatically yesterday, and then came back a bit in the morning.
When the president stood up and started to speak, they initially started falling again. And the moment when they started rallying dramatically, just before the markets closed, was actually when the CEOs and his health officials started speaking.
And people said, yes, at least they have a plan. They`re working with businesses to try and get these testing kits out. And that was certainly very good news.
But it`s quite striking that, after the markets closed -- and the press conference took place just before the market closed -- then came the news that in fact Pelosi has not got a deal with the White House yet to get this all-important bill out for how people are going to get covered, financially, if they need to get the test.
MELBER: You`re saying that`s what the markets were looking at before this evening, where now she says she has it.
TETT: Exactly.
And now she says she hasn`t got it.
MELBER: Has got it.
(CROSSTALK)
TETT: Well, there`s a lot of confusion about what`s actually happening.
MELBER: Well, I can help with that.
I have got a letter from Speaker Pelosi. That was the news we`re reporting tonight, where she says: "The coronavirus crisis presents this grave threat. We have done this today. The House has taken the next steps."
And she outlines, she says, an agreement on economic security, food security, and health security. And that`s just -- just now.
TETT: If that deal has come through, that will certainly help support sentiment.
But the thing that the markets are really reacting to right now is a realization that, if we`re looking at four weeks, several months of closures, of measures, that`s going to really seriously damage the economy.
It`s going to tip it into recession. You`re already seeing big companies like Delta and United essentially saying, we`re going to use some kind of government support. A host of companies are tapping out their banks desperately.
MELBER: So to two things on that while I have you as our expert on this.
TETT: Yes.
MELBER: Number one, how much of that is about the real economy now? I mean, everyone can see in their own communities people going out less, all the real stuff.
And how much of that is the market pricing in the uncertainty and the risk of, as we just heard the doctors say, could be weeks, could be longer, we don`t know what we`re up against?
TETT: It`s a combination of markets hating uncertainty in general, and having had a very nasty psychological shock, because they didn`t see this one coming.
And so they`re reeling from this.
MELBER: OK.
And the other question I have for you, because you mentioned what the experts are saying -- and we never shoot the messenger around here. So you`re not saying it, but I will ask you the question.
Why is it that these industries -- you mentioned airline, travel -- that are hit, they get hit for a week or two, and they immediately want a government bailout, they want government funds
What about all the people across the country who have student debt crisis, people who have health care-related bankruptcies? What about them right now?
TETT: I think that`s a very good question, indeed. And you`re going to see a lot of pain. It`s almost always the most vulnerable who get hit in crises like that.
You`re going to hear some heartrending stories. And you`re also going to hear about other parts of the world which are extending aid pretty rapidly to the vulnerable population. I mean, in Germany right now, they`re spending a lot of government money to try and help vulnerable people and vulnerable small companies are getting hit.
So there`s going to be a lot more arguing in Congress about what could or should be done to help protect the vulnerable. But the key thing people need to understand is that, at the start of the year, there was huge optimism in the stock markets and among CEOs that America was going to have a another strong year of growth.
People were saying, would it be 1 percent, 2 percent? But it was going to be strong. Now a majority people in the markets are expecting a recession. And that changes things.
And although Donald Trump keeps tweeting that the Federal Reserve has to cut rates again, and although the Fed is having a crucial meeting next week, when it probably will cut rates again, maybe even to almost zero, which, by the way, is extraordinary, there`s a growing number of people in the markets who don`t think that`s going to help much.
MELBER: We`re over on time.
E.J. Dionne, 20 seconds.
If you listen to Gillian here, it sounds like everything just changed for President Trump.
DIONNE: I think that`s absolutely right.
I think two big things changed. It looks like Joe Biden is going to be the nominee. He makes Trump very nervous. And President Trump has been below 50 percent approval with a good economy. It`s very hard to see what his numbers are going to look like, except that they`re going to go down, given what is likely to happen to this economy this year.
I hope it won`t, for the sake of the economy, but I think it`s going to change the election.
MELBER: A lot of interesting and important insights here, both from our two doctors who joined us, as well as Gillian Tett and E.J. Dionne.
E.J.`s book, by the way, "Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country."
We have a lot more in this broadcast tonight, including the testing crisis, states having drive-throughs, others with all kinds of shortages. We have a reporter who says this is downright Kafkaesque, also how our nation`s institutions can respond.
And leading by example? Donald Trump, well, he was out with these officials, but shaking hands. Given all the precautions we have heard, that was an odd one. Speaker Pelosi taking it a different way, you see right there, with the elbow bump.
And, tonight, a newsworthy interview. Maxine Waters, chair of the Financial Services Committee, is here.
I`m Ari Melber. And you`re watching a special edition of THE BEAT on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely, quickly, and conveniently, but we don`t want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn`t be doing it, and we don`t want everyone running out and taking it, only if you have certain symptoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: President Trump discussing the major failing that everyone has heard about in the U.S. Trump administration coronavirus response thus far, the testing.
The U.S. has been lagging far behind many other nations, including South Korea. Donald Trump very clearly not taking responsibility and going further to say it`s not his fault.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was, in fact, a failing. Do you take responsibility for that?
And when can you guarantee that every single American who needs a test will be able to have a test? What`s the date of that?
TRUMP: Yes.
No, I don`t take responsibility at all, because we were given a set of circumstances, and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Now, a few states have opened drive-through testing centers. Demand, though, far outstrips supply, "The New York Times" has reported.
Meanwhile, many people across the country who are sick or symptomatic are being denied the test -- quote -- "even though they have been in proximity to someone who tested positive and even though they had fevers and hacking coughs and lived in cities with growing outbreaks."
We`re joined now by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and "New York Times" reporter Farah Stockman, who wrote that very article.
You are busy. Thanks for making some time.
What should viewers know about what you were finding in your reporting?
FARAH STOCKMAN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, the biggest takeaway was that we`re only testing a very small number of people.
So you have to be very sick to get a test in most places. And so, if you consider that 80 percent of people who have the new coronavirus have only mild symptoms, there`s a little lot of people walking around out there who have it and don`t know they have it and may never know they have it. And they`re spreading it, which is why we`re seeing school closings and all of that.
MELBER: Let me play something.
Again, we have been mixing our data and our public health reporting with the qualitative reporting. This is a woman in Seattle. We had the mayor from there yesterday, obviously, one of the most hard-hit areas, discussing basically contracting it from a small gathering.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH SCHNEIDER, RECOVERING FROM CORONAVIRUS: Several of us friends went to the doctor, and they were refused coronavirus tests because they also didn`t have a cough.
So we enrolled in a research study, the Seattle flu study. Then, the last couple of weeks, due to the public health emergency, especially emerging here in the Seattle area, they started testing for COVID-19.
So I submitted a nasal swab sample. And then, this past Saturday, I got a call from the research coordinator saying my sample had tested positive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: How does one story like that relate to what you have been finding in your reporting?
STOCKMAN: Well, when I started reporting this maybe two weeks ago, most of the people that I talked to, I thought, all these people are probably the worried well. These people are probably OK. They have a cold and they`re hypochondriacs, or they`re a little bit nervous about this virus.
But, man, in the last two weeks, we have seen community transmission. We have seen cases like this, where they weren`t actually so sick that they should be hospitalized. Some of them would not meet the criteria for a test here in Boston.
And yet they were positive, and they only found out they were positive because of the Seattle flu study. That -- it`s a scandal. It`s crazy.
We actually -- the truth is, we just don`t know how many people have this, because we`re not testing enough. And the more that -- the more people I talk to, the more I realized that this is out there, and people are -- even in the best of times, it`s very hard to know navigate the U.S. health care system.
But right now, it`s just almost impossible for somebody who hasn`t been to Wuhan, China ,and isn`t just on death`s doorstep to get a test in a lot of cities.
MELBER: As you say, people are navigating a complete health care maze, often with dead ends, even when they get through parts of it. I appreciate your context on the numbers.
We have been trying to be very clear with people on what we know and don`t know. And this is a scary time, but does not need to be a panic time.
STOCKMAN: Sure.
MELBER: On the screen, we have the case count, which, as you emphasize, for the reasons you stated, is a floor, not a ceiling.
STOCKMAN: Yes.
MELBER: With that in mind, a final question to you would be, how should people understand that case count? It`s gone up over 30 percent since yesterday, to what people see here, over 2,100 U.S. reported.
STOCKMAN: We are just catching up to this.
And so that is the -- that is a tiny percentage of the people in the United States who have the virus. It just is, because most of the people who have it will not have symptoms that will -- that will meet the criteria for getting tested.
And so that`s why things like social distancing, washing your hands, is really important. And if you look at a country like South Korea, they have tested, I think, 240,000 people. One out of every 250 people in South Korea have been tested. It`s free. It`s easy. They go through a drive-through and they get a text message in the morning.
We`re so far away from that. But we -- epidemiologists will say, we need to be testing a lot of people so that we know how prevalent this is in the community, and we know whether things that we`re doing are working.
So, when we close the school, is it working? We don`t -- we have no data, so we don`t even know that. We`re kind of flying blind here.
MELBER: Well, your report helps us fly a slightly little bit less blind. So, shout-out to investigative reporting and storytelling, as we go forward.
Farah Stockman, thank you so much.
STOCKMAN: Thank you.
MELBER: Appreciate it.
We`re going to turn to the emergency coronavirus aid deal, breaking news tonight.
We have the chair of the Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, when we`re back in 30 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: Breaking news on this busy Friday night.
Late today, Speaker Pelosi has now for the first time announced the reaching of a formal deal with the Trump White House on the first emergency coronavirus bill.
This includes, according to these initial summaries, a type of free testing, including the uninsured, paid sick leave measures and other things that add up to a price tag of -- get this -- over $8 billion.
Let`s get right into it with really one of the most perfect guests you could ask for, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
I know it`s a busy working Friday night. Thank you for joining me on THE BEAT.
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): You`re so welcome. I`m delighted to be with you and to try and share information and help people to understand what we`re trying to do, and help to keep some calm, but have people know that this is serious. We have an emergency.
MELBER: So, in that vein, what are the broad outlines, as you understand it, of the deal coming out? What will it do?
WATERS: Well, this is going to be focused a lot on testing.
We have a real serious problem with testing. First of all, we have so many people who need testing who can`t get testing. I have a friend that I happened to call today. And she had gone to UCLA after having symptoms, real symptoms.
They gave her a test for influenza, and then told her she didn`t have influenza. And she said, what about the coronavirus test? And they said they were not giving that test.
And she called a friend who has great influence. And they told her to stay there, don`t leave. And this friend with great influence at UCLA forced them to give her the test. So they gave her the test, but they couldn`t give her the results in any short period of time.
So they sent her home. So when I talked to her at home, she was in great pain, had terrific headaches, coughing, and a fever. And she was waiting on the results from the test that they had been forced to give her at UCLA.
And I don`t know what`s happening. I got to check back to see if she ever got the results of that test. But I do know this. She and her daughter are basically alone. And I had to inquire about, did she have food in the house? What was going on?
She said someone was going to bring some food and leave it on the doorsteps. But this is a situation, I think, that is typical of what is happening in this country. Unfortunately, we were not prepared.
The greatest country in the world was not prepared for this pandemic. And it`s unfortunate.
MELBER: Well, on that, let me ask you...
WATERS: Yes.
MELBER: ... as a member of Congress, when you see the president come out and declare a national emergency, and then say he takes "no responsibility at all" -- end quote -- your response?
WATERS: Well, one of the problems that we have is that there`s not a lot of trust from the average American in the president of the United States.
Unfortunately, he has been documented to have lied so many times, to distort, to change the story. And so one of the things we look for in a leader, and particularly the president of the United States, is the kind of leadership where people can trust you because of the way you have conducted yourself as you have led this presidency, as you have been in the presidency.
And so that starts out being a problem.
So, he started out being a problem and giving misinformation, and talking about it was going to disappear and all of that. And now he`s doing cleanup.
And that`s OK. And I don`t want to blame him for that. I want him to roll out with some real facts and some real information. But then he steps on his own attempt to get credibility by saying he takes no responsibility for the lack of testing that we have had going on in this country.
So, we have just got to do everything that we can, elected officials. Nancy Pelosi has been negotiating with Mnuchin all day. And we`re trying to come to an agreement. I think we`re there at this point. But we have to keep pushing and pushing very hard.
We have got to make sure that private companies who can develop the test are not held up from doing it. They can`t get caught up in bureaucracy. If they`re capable of developing the test, then we should be capable of expediting their ability to do it.
So, those are the kind of problems. But I want to tell you, also, I am worried about people with low income, with minimum wages that are going to be stopped from work, they`re not going to have jobs, they`re going to be fired, they`re going -- the business is going to close down, and they don`t have anywhere to go.
So we have got to make sure that, for those who do have unemployment insurance, that we expand that. And that is what is being looked at. And that is being -- I hope, still in the deal that is being negotiated.
MELBER: Right.
WATERS: We have got to make sure that we give additional support to Medicaid.
MELBER: Right.
WATERS: And that was being proposed. I want to make sure that that is still in the bill. And so we have got a lot of work to do.
(CROSSTALK)
MELBER: It`s useful for us to hear where you are at, especially as such an influential leader of the Financial Services Committee.
You are telling us about your friends and constituents, which I know you care about and all the humanity of this, as well as the policy of making sure that there are long-term options for people, the people hit hardest.
I appreciate you making time. I hope we can speak to you again, Congresswoman Waters.
WATERS: It`s not just about my constituents. It`s about all Americans, all of the people in this country.
We have got to take care of them. And we have got to make sure that the greatest country in the world meets this emergency the best that we possibly can, because, so far, we`re not looking too good.
MELBER: I hear you on that, yes, ma`am. And thank you.
We`re going to fit in a break on our special coverage.
When we come back: How do you use information and facts to counter the risks without going into a panic?
We have a very special discussion and experts on that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: This is the weak America learned it was in a true public health crisis. And we`re seeing some intense reactions to the news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From uncertainty to panic. Investors react to Wall Street`s worst day since Black Monday more than 30 years ago.
JIM CRAMER, HOST, "MAD MONEY": I do not even feel like pressing the buttons. Oh, Jesus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went to a supermarket yesterday. And for some reason, they had a pallet of toilet paper in the back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You took it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did. And I held it dearly, and I`m not really sure why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: There`s a suburb of New York, New Rochelle, that has a major outbreak. And they now have a one-mile-radius containment zone. You can see the workers in hazmat suits setting up a drive-through testing facility in what was a normal parking lot.
And those images, obviously, ricochet. New Rochelle residents say they have a weariness hitting them and a deep sense of anxiety throughout the community.
Or take a look at a half-mile line to get into one California Costco, a familiar scene around the nation.
Now, taking these precautions, getting food and supplies is a perfectly good thing. But, as these challenges multiply, how do you balance urgency with the stress and maintaining vigilance, instead of panic?
We turn now to Tony Schwartz, co-author of "The Art of the Deal" and founder of The Energy Project, as organization that advises major companies. This week, he`s actually presented to 15 chief medical officers in the U.S. about how to help people manage their stress and energy.
Good to see you.
TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-AUTHOR, "TRUMP: THE ART OF THE DEAL": Good to see you, sir.
MELBER: The difference between the feeling, the fear that can turn to panic and the actions that you should be focused on?
SCHWARTZ: Well, as soon as you feel panic, as soon as you start to catastrophize, your capacity gets diminished dramatically.
We know that when people feel those kinds of emotions, they -- their vision narrows, their ability to think clearly goes away. Either their anger or their frustration or their impatience grows.
So, really, the big issue is, how do you take care of yourself? How do you take care of the part of yourself that is most frightened?
MELBER: And doesn`t that also go to who`s making the decision? If we do it right, we have to listen to experts, but in so doing, we have less control.
I want to play for you just some other sound we have of people finding out they have to move or go or deal with this and the reactions. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was kind of panic, because the airline had no idea what to do, what to say. They didn`t even -- they didn`t even know to tell us to get on the plane, not get on the plane. So most of us made the decision to stay back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you guys are moving out. What are you taking with you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whole dorm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you hear about it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the first load.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You heard about it. Was this a surprise?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a lot of fear around, and no one is really sure what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHWARTZ: Well, there`s nothing more traumatizing for human beings than to feel out of control, than to feel helpless. That`s why children are so vulnerable.
But we have a child within us as well. And that`s what`s getting triggered. The adult part of ourselves, the most mature, the calmest part of ourselves is the one we need to be in charge.
And it needs to be providing comfort to that part of ourselves that feels so vulnerable. But, instead, we end up reacting. We go into anger or we disappear, we go numb. We either overstate the problem, or we understate the problem.
There is a part of us -- and you need to make a distinction between these three aspects of ourselves, these three parts of ourselves, the part that is overwhelmed. That`s a very young part of us. The part that is the survival self that tries to take care -- poorly -- tries to take care of that overwhelmed child, and then the adult, which gets lost in the mix when the survival self starts taking over.
MELBER: Forty seconds left, which is the perfect amount of time for the question.
What happens to those...
SCHWARTZ: I was told it was going to be an hour.
(LAUGHTER)
MELBER: That`s the whole show.
What happens to those mechanisms when people don`t trust authority?
SCHWARTZ: They need to -- I`m going to put it positively.
MELBER: OK.
SCHWARTZ: They need to turn to themselves.
Trump ultimately is irrelevant in this. The guy knows nothing about what`s going on. And he`s never going to say anything true. We need to turn to our own resources. We can`t be in victim mode, because, when you`re in victim mode, though it feels good to push away that responsibility, you lose all capacity to take action.
MELBER: That`s so important. And that`s where the precautions also meet the politics. We have a cycle of blame, and many politicians deserve some of the blame.
And yet the solutions here are not in that cycle.
I`m going to fit in a break. You`re staying on the show for something special.
I`m also going to do, if you would, one of those.
SCHWARTZ: Elbow bump.
MELBER: OK? That`s how we do it.
SCHWARTZ: Elbow bump.
MELBER: When we come back, Tony stays.
We add another very special guest. We are going to talk about at the end of this tough week our culture and, where do we go from here?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: Quite a week.
You can probably feel life changing before your eyes. This public health crisis is reshaping our daily lives, we don`t know for how long. And that means reshaping culture, which is something we want to get into right now, the way people live, whether you get to go to the theater, sports concerts and more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH": All everybody`s talking about is the coronavirus pandemic.
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": As you may have noticed, none of you are here right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The NBA made the stunning decision to suspend the season indefinitely because of the coronavirus.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN: The NCAA is indeed now canceling its men`s and women`s basketball tournaments over coronavirus fears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Broadway shows will now close. So will The Met opera and The Met museums of art.
RACHEL MADDOW, HOST, "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW": Disney World announced that they`re closing on Sunday. Disneyland is doing so as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are frantically buying up supplies. And prices are also skyrocketing online.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: When it comes to going out right now, you could say you got`s to chill.
And we are joined, appropriately, by hip-hop pioneer rapper and producer Erick Sermon. He is, of course, from the legendary rap group EPMD, performing with Parrish Smith. He`s also been a fixture in East Coast hip- hop, basically for three decades.
And back with me, another member in that East-West Coast divide, hailing from the East, Tony Schwartz, former "New York Times" journalist, of course, the author of five books, including the one people know in politics, "The Art of the Deal."
Great to have you both here.
SCHWARTZ: Thank you.
MELBER: Erick, I`m a longtime fan.
And this is a conversation we often do at the end of the week, but here we are thinking about the culture being affected.
With regard to our usual question, what needs to fall back, and you look at public health crisis, what needs to fall back in your mind?
ERICK SERMON, HIP-HOP ARTIST: I think that it`s a hoax need to fall back.
I think that once that the NBA stepped up, and then, of course, Tom Hanks and his wife getting the virus, it made it really real.
Me and Tony were talking about that just recently, that it`s a real deal. So, enough with the hoax. It`s real. Take it seriously.
MELBER: And so people basically not being serious. We saw at least an athlete, NBA player, for example, was saying...
SERMON: Yes.
MELBER: ... oh, joking around about it, and ended up getting it.
SERMON: Right, and then giving it to his teammate.
MELBER: Tony?
SCHWARTZ: What to fall back on.
I think taking anything for granted. You see, as soon as we are -- can`t -- there`s no food on the shelves, and people aren`t -- can`t go to the theater and can`t go to concerts and all of this stuff, how much we take for granted in our lives.
This is a chance to actually step back and appreciate that you`re not automatically entitled to all these things. And your gratitude for what you do have ought to be bigger than it is.
MELBER: And that is interesting, because so much of this has been, wow, people are scared. We talked about that.
You`re speaking to the idea, Tony, that, as we reflect on this, it`s a time to think about sacrifice and perspective as well.
SCHWARTZ: Hundred percent, from -- I have said it in various forms on the show, but that movement from me to we, we`re -- we can`t do this alone.
And this is this rare experience where you can`t get away from being influenced by this. You can`t get away from being affected. And the best way to manage your energy through this is through our version of the energy to serenity prayer. Invest your energy in what you have the power to influence.
Don`t squander your energy on what you can`t influence, and have the wisdom to know the difference. That changes everything, because it means you don`t waste all that time on things you`re not going to be able to change.
MELBER: I have another thing I wanted to flag when we were looking at that press conference today, and it`s not the most important thing, but we have footage here of -- you could see people who are literally presenting to the nation, setting the example.
And then, when it`s time to greet each other -- I think we have this -- you will see at today`s press conference the handshakes, the handshake again.
SERMON: Yes.
MELBER: There was also -- I want to give credit. There was some elbow dapping.
SERMON: Yes.
MELBER: But, right there, you saw several handshakes in a row.
I mean, Erick, the people that are supposed to set the example.
SERMON: Well, he shouldn`t be doing that. He`s over 70. It`s dangerous.
(CROSSTALK)
MELBER: Right.
SCHWARTZ: Danger to himself?
SERMON: To himself, yes. He shouldn`t be doing that at all.
SCHWARTZ: Yes.
SERMON: But, again, at the end of the day, people, you have to really take this seriously. You have to.
You see that it`s really affecting people all over the world. So don`t just look at it as being something small. It`s something big.
MELBER: Right.
SERMON: And it`s going to get worse before it get better.
MELBER: And I also want to ask you. We were pointing this out in the big picture, canceled gatherings, limited sports.
You had a tour, and that`s over.
SERMON: Yes.
I was supposed to be leaving April 1 to go to Germany and then parts of London. But it got canceled because of the fact that you can`t have the venues over 500 people now. Ours was 5,000 people. You know what I`m saying?
So, at the end of the day, they was canceling -- they were shutting down the cities, shutting down the countries, from flying, coming in and leaving out. So that didn`t happen.
So I`m glad it didn`t happen, because...
(CROSSTALK)
MELBER: Yes. That`s the question. How do you feel about it?
SERMON: My little tour, against the NBA or baseball or whatever, I had to cancel, because, if the rest of the world is doing it, the NCAA, this is big.
MELBER: But you feel good about it? You basically -- I mean, part of you wants to perform, but you understand that, wait, this has got to happen?
SERMON: Oh, no, because I know, in this game, the fans don`t care if I got hit by truck.
If I can get up in grab the microphone, then I`m good enough to perform.
MELBER: Yes.
SERMON: That`s how fans are, especially in Europe. They don`t care about that. So for them to understand that, oh, the virus is stopping you from coming, they believe it now, because they see that as really serious.
MELBER: Interesting.
What about you, Tony? Are you still going on tour?
SCHWARTZ: I have canceled my tour. I have canceled my tour. I was supposed to...
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
SERMON: Don`t do a talk and try to shake hands.
You got to shake hands and kiss babies.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHWARTZ: I have got -- yes, I`m not doing any big rallies.
MELBER: OK. Yes.
SCHWARTZ: I like the energy of the big rallies.
But I have decided, no, in the interest of the greater good, I won`t.
MELBER: The last thing I wanted to flag, what do you think about the price gouging? We`re seeing the sanitizer goes up 10 times.
SCHWARTZ: I think it`s utterly and completely predictable.
But I also think this is an opportunity to recognize that, actually, these differences that we think we have aren`t such big differences when all this stuff goes away.
And so I am hopeful that what will come out of this is something positive. For all the pain that it might cause in the short term, I think it could shake things up for people in a way that serves us well.
MELBER: I got to turn it over.
I appreciate the legend from EPMD, Erick Sermon.
SERMON: Yes, of course.
MELBER: And, of course, Tony Schwartz, as always. Thanks to both of you.
Thanks for everyone watching THE BEAT. I am Ari Melber. Appreciate you always tuning in. Stay safe, and stay informed.
I will see you back here 6:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday.
And keep it right here, right now on MSNBC.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END