JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: COVID at a crossroads.
As states look to reopen, one new government
model forecasts a dramatic increase in U.S.
deaths by June 1.
Then: how contact tracing can mitigate the
spread of the coronavirus and limit the pandemic.
Plus: The Supreme Court goes live for the
first time, streaming oral arguments in real
time, as the court meets via telephone to
comply with the social distancing rules.
And the U.S. Senate returns to Washington,
the House stays home, as protests around the
country challenge governors on opening up.
Our Politics Monday team previews the week.
All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: The 
world begins a new week in the era of COVID-19,
and the global death count has reached a quarter-million.
That includes 68,000 in the United States.
Meanwhile, state by state, the country is
taking more steps toward reopening.
Stephanie Sy begins our coverage tonight.
STEPHANIE SY: Barbers in Omaha, Nebraska,
were back at work today.
CEARCY SMITH, Barber: Financially, it's been
real bad, but I think I have pretty much missed
the atmosphere of being to cut hair and being
around people.
STEPHANIE SY: The state is further easing
restrictions on some of the businesses shuttered
by the pandemic. Owners say it's a positive
step toward a new normal.
KYLE BLAND, Barber: We will be doing appointments,
appointments only, because we can only have
10 people in the shop at once.
STEPHANIE SY: The new wave of reopenings has
come amid a push and pull across the country
on when and how to resume public life.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said some
retailers in his state could resume doing
business this week. In South Dakota, a Smithfield
pork processing plant formerly closed due
to hundreds of COVID-19 infections began partially
reopening today.
And Boston was the scene of the latest protest
demanding that officials drop restrictions,
as hundreds gathered outside the state capitol
building.
In the nation's Capitol, the Senate gaveled
in for the first time in more than five weeks.
That wasn't the case across the Capitol, where
the House of Representatives opted to stay
away, while Washington, D.C., remains a virus
hot spot.
Over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined
the Trump administration's offer to provide
the rapid testing being used to screen visitors
at the White House.
In a rare joint statement, they said those
resources should go to front-line workers,
where they can do the most good the most quickly.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, in a FOX News town hall,
President Trump urged a broader return to
work, even as he upped his estimate on how
many Americans could die.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States:
We're going to lose anywhere from 75,000,
80,000 to 100,000 people. That's a horrible
thing. We shouldn't lose one person over this.
STEPHANIE SY: And The New York Times reported
today that internal administration documents
now project the toll could nearly double by
June, with about 3,000 deaths a day.
The White House downplayed the report, saying
it had gone through interagency vetting. But
new modeling from the University of Washington
showed similar results, a projected death
toll of 135,000 due to relaxed social distancing.
At the town hall, Mr. Trump also claimed,
early briefings from his own intelligence
community failed to depict the severity of
the virus.
DONALD TRUMP: On January 23, I was told that
there could be a virus coming in, but it was
of no real import.
STEPHANIE SY: Meanwhile, Europe's hardest-hit
countries are moving to loosen restrictions.
Small businesses in Spain opened their doors
to customers today, but owners like Susana
Puebla at this nail salon in Madrid said it
is far from business as usual.
SUSANA PUEBLA, Owner, Nail Salon (through
translator): It is not the same. It's not
the way it was before. It's complicated now,
because we have to disinfect a lot more than
before. But we are happy to be back.
STEPHANIE SY: And, in Italy, nearly 4.5 million
people returned to work in certain industries,
as the country logged its lowest new death
count since the lockdown began in March.
It's a different story in Russia, where infections
spiked by more than 10,000 in the past 24
hours, bringing the total tally to double
what it was last week.
The world remains on guard, and, amid a global
hunt for a vaccine, leaders, from Saudi Arabia
to the European Union, joined a virtual summit
to pledge billions for research. The Trump
administration decided not to take part.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's talk about some of these
new reports about the projected death tolls
and how it may be worse than what the president
and some others had said recently, and what
can be done to slow the spread of COVID.
Laurie Garrett is a Pulitzer Prize-winning
science journalist and writer whose career
has been devoted to tracking and reporting
on infectious diseases.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Laurie Garrett, thank you so
much for joining us.
We do have these apparently two new grim forecasts
today. I want to ask about the CDC report
yet. We haven't seen all the numbers. The
White House is saying it's not their numbers,
but they are talking about, by June 1, 3,000
deaths a day. They're talking about up to
200,000 new cases a day.
This is -- this is the wrong direction.
LAURIE GARRETT, Science Journalist: Absolutely,
Judy. And it's a huge, explosive growth they're
predicting.
And it's basically -- if you look at the distribution
that they are imagining, it's really the Prairie
states, the sort of Mississippi Valley, and
the Deep South states.
And it seems, I think -- though we don't have
access to the raw data that they are working
with, but it does seem to coincide with these
outbreaks that have been occurring inside
of meatpacking plants, nursing homes, Veterans
Administration hospitals, that have claimed
large numbers of workers in those facilities,
but haven't yet generalized into the larger
community.
And I think they're projecting that there
will be generalization, that a typical -- an
infected meatpacker, for example, might then
infect their family members, some of those
family members may infect local storekeepers,
and so on.
So I think they're imagining a pretty explosive
set of growths, all in fairly small remote
areas, and, in many cases, rural counties.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.
And do you think it's the same explanation
for this new model that we are told is coming
today from the University of Washington, where
they are projecting the total number of deaths
in the U.S. at 135,000, way beyond what it
was before?
Do you -- is your reading of it same factors
at work here?
LAURIE GARRETT: Again, we haven't been given
a lot of the details that are used for the
analyses yet.
But, yes, I think they're also looking at
higher-than-expected new infections and deaths
in this swathe of states, that is, the Mississippi
Valley region, all the way up to the Canadian
border.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I want to ask you to listen
to some things that we have heard from President
Trump in recent weeks, and then -- and ask
you a question coming out of that. Let's listen.
DONALD TRUMP: The data suggests that, nationwide,
we have passed the peak on new cases.
A minimum, if we did nothing, would have been
1.6. If you cut that in half, you are talking
about 800,000, 900,000, a million people dying.
But we did a lot of work. And I think, right
now, we're hitting at probably around 60,000,
maybe 65,000.
I think we have done a great job. As you know,
minimal numbers were -- minimal numbers were
going to be 100,000 people. Minimal numbers
were going to be 100,000 people. And we're
going to be hopefully far below that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Laurie, I think a lot
of people want to know, how is it that these
projections could have been so off, if it
turns out to be these new numbers are right?
LAURIE GARRETT: Well, first of all, this is
not a stagnant situation. We have been trying
to respond to the virus.
So, measures have been taken in various key
states, New York, Washington state, California,
Massachusetts, taking very strong steps to
try and mitigate the spread by having people
go into lockdown.
Conversely, we have a number of states that
have decided to actually back off. The state
of Ohio today just said that the governor
wants companies to be required to report the
names of workers who don't go to the jobs
as they open up.
So, that's, you know, the government is demanding
that you must risk your life. You must go
into a meatpacking plant. You must go on to
a job site. So, we have a lot of actions being
taken that make the situation quite fluid.
And whatever the snapshot of a moment is that
you make your projections off of is, by definition,
going to be a different snapshot tomorrow,
and a different one the next day.
JUDY WOODRUFF: They're working, and yet the
picture is more complicated than that.
What is the message, then, Laurie Garrett,
to the American people from all this? That,
clearly, that they need to continue to practice
the social distancing, handwashing, just the
basic element that we have been practicing,
but what more can Americans be doing?
LAURIE GARRETT: Well, I think, at this point,
if I were the governor of any of these states
that is projected to see significant increases,
I would be ordering a lot of testing that
is targeted to give me some of policy guidance.
I would test in meatpacking plants. I would
test in school settings, if there are schools
still open, every nursing home, every assisted
living center, any place where I still have
people co-housed, Veterans Administration
centers.
And I would want to know, do I have a trend
day by day that shows increased transmission?
And, if I do, then that is a targeted community.
That is where I direct my resources. I have
to solve this problem immediately.
If we don't take smart steps, guide our testing
in wise ways, then we're just going to be
flailing around, racing behind the virus,
which will be consistently, Judy, way ahead
of us.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And one other thing, Laurie
Garrett.
You have said for a long time that Americans
have never sufficiently invested in public
health, and that that is what is underlying
so much of this.
LAURIE GARRETT: Absolutely.
I mean, just look at -- one of the key markers
that indicates whether or not you as an individual
are likely to have a severe outcome if infected
and potentially succumb to COVID disease is
hypertension.
Well, hypertension is the cheapest, easiest
intervention imaginable. You know, just slap
the cuff on, check your blood pressure. And
we have a raft of medications that will help
you. We know how to bring down high blood
pressure.
That is a perfect marker for lack of access
to consistent public health interventions
and medical care. And when you look at the
racial distribution and the class distribution
on who is dying right now across America of
COVID, you can see it is exactly the same
as who is not getting treated for their hypertension,
who is not getting appropriate basic health
interventions on an ongoing basis.
But a huge percentage of America has no consistent
health care, doesn't have a doctor by name.
A situation, a crisis of this scale hits,
they have nowhere to turn, that we have a
patchwork mosaic of public health systems,
a patchwork mosaic of guidances and government
responses.
You cross a county line, and it is a whole
different ball game. This is not the way to
stop a national epidemic. This is chaos.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, no question a lot of
us are so much more fortunate than many, many
other Americans.
Laurie Garrett, thank you so much for putting
it in perspective, science journalist and
writer Laurie Garrett.
Thank you.
LAURIE GARRETT: Thank you, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: The
U.S. Treasury said that it will borrow a record
amount of money in this quarter to cover pandemic
relief, nearly $3 trillion. That's well over
twice the total for all of last year.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
warned that it's hard to tell if international
travel can restart this year on anything more
than a limited basis. He said Americans should
focus on resuming domestic travel.
For the first time ever, the U.S. Supreme
Court justices heard oral arguments by phone
today from their homes or offices due to the
pandemic. And in another first, the audio
was heard live. The case involved whether
the travel Web site Booking.com has the legal
right to trademark its name.
We will take a closer look later in the program.
The Supreme Court of Israel heard legal challenges
today to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
governing coalition. He struck a deal last
month with former rival Benny Gantz. Among
other -- and among things, it lets Netanyahu
remain in office, despite facing trial on
corruption charges.
His defense team argued today to a panel of
11 judges, all in face masks, that the governing
bloc is legitimate.
MICHAEL RABELLO, Attorney for Benjamin Netanyahu
(through translator): We are in a situation
where, in fact, inside this government are
the two poles of the Israeli public. It's
not that the government is not formed. The
coalition and opposition were brought into
the government and were given the possibility
to serve together.
JUDY WOODRUFF: If the court rejects the coalition
deal, it could trigger a forth election in
a little more than a year. Separately, the
justices are considering whether Netanyahu
can remain in office.
Back in this country, the secretary of the
U.S. Senate declined Joe Biden's request to
release any potential records on file involving
a sexual assault allegation. The secretary
cited confidentiality rules. Former staffer
Tara Reade says that then Senator Biden assaulted
her in 1993, and that she filed a report.
The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism are out.
ProPublica and The Anchorage Daily News were
honored today for exposing a lack of policing
in Alaskan villages.
The New York Times won for international reporting
on the Russian government, plus two other
prizes. And The Washington Post won for its
reporting on the environment.
In the arts, the musical "A strange Loop"
by Michael R. Jackson took the drama prize.
And Colson Whitehead received his second fiction
prize, this one for "The Nickel Boys" about
a reform school in Florida.
On Wall Street today, managed modest gains
today. The Dow Jones industrial average added
26 points to close at 23749. The Nasdaq rose
105 points to close at 8711. And the S&P 500
was up 12.
And the winningest coach in pro football history,
Don Shula, has died at his home in South Florida.
He had 347 victories with the Baltimore Colts
and the Miami Dolphins. In 1972, he led Miami
to the NFL's only undefeated season, winning
a Super Bowl that year and the next.
Don Shula was 90 years old.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the Trump
administration continues to criticize China
over the spread of the coronavirus; and capturing
images of the pandemic -- perspective
from a photojournalist.
With, as we heard earlier, the number of cases
expected to climb in coming weeks, many experts
say the next phase in the response to the
COVID-19 pandemic will require aggressive
contact tracing.
Amna Nawaz reports on how tracing works, why
it could help, and the concerns over privacy.
AMNA NAWAZ: Krysta Cass' path to medicine
was not the norm. A West Point grad, she served
three tours of duty for the U.S. Army, then
went on to become a physician's assistant
in Boston.
In March, like many places during the pandemic,
all elective surgeries here were paused.
KRYSTA CASS, Contact Tracer: We can't operate
and replace hips and knees right now. I just
kept thinking, what can I do? How can I help?
How can I be involved in this public health
crisis?
AMNA NAWAZ: Massachusetts has nearly 70,000
confirmed cases of COVID-19. And, last month,
Governor Charlie Baker gave Krysta her answer,
announcing a new phase in the state's fight
against the virus: aggressive contact tracing.
KRYSTA CASS: I was one of the first applicants.
I could not wait to get my hands on this.
AMNA NAWAZ: Krysta was hired by Partners In
Health, a Boston-based global health nonprofit
working with the state to hire, train and
deploy 1,000 new contact tracers, at a cost
of $44 million.
The process is straightforward, but time-intensive.
First, contact all new confirmed cases of
COVID-19. Find out everyone they came into
contact with while sick. Then reach out to
those people to tell them they may have been
exposed, and will need to quarantine.
What are the first lines you deliver to people?
KRYSTA CASS: I would say, hi, I'm Krysta.
I'm calling from the community tracing collaborative
for the Department of Health.
I'm calling to let you know that you have
been exposed in the past week to someone who
was diagnosed recently with COVID-19. And
then I take a break, because that's a -- that's
a lot to handle and a lot to hear.
AMNA NAWAZ: The work, she says, is about more
than just informing people they might have
been exposed. Contact tracers explain how
to quarantine the right way, how people can
protect their families, get groceries and
medicine, pay their bills, even find help
for domestic abuse.
KRYSTA CASS: We are not just collecting data.
We're doing more than that. We are becoming
extensions of our client, of our contact's
social support system, and we're connecting
them with the resources they need.
AMNA NAWAZ: Used around the globe in response
to diseases like cholera, HIV and Ebola, contact
tracing has long been a critical public health
tool to map and control outbreaks.
JEREMY KONYNDYK, Former USAID Official: This
is how you stop running away from the virus
and start chasing it down.
AMNA NAWAZ: Now with the Center for Global
Development, Jeremy Konyndyk helped manage
the Obama administration's Ebola response
in West Africa, relying heavily on contact
tracing.
Ramping up a national program here, he says,
could not only help stop the spread. It could
help avoid large-scale shutdowns.
JEREMY KONYNDYK: Because of inadequate testing
and because we don't have a national contact
tracing infrastructure in place in the United
States, we, in effect, have to presumptively
quarantine the whole population.
But with contact tracing at scale and testing
at scale, then you have the ability to quarantine
only those people who have actually been exposed
to the virus.
AMNA NAWAZ: Digital tools to track people's
movements, he says, like those used in Singapore,
Israel, South Korea, and many other countries
could also help.
But tackling the scale of infection here in
the U.S., on top of years of slashing state
health budgets, means more federal leadership
is needed.
JEREMY KONYNDYK: The estimates now from Johns
Hopkins are that we may need somewhere around
100,000 contact tracers across the United
States. And I think that that's the sort of
order of magnitude we need to be thinking
on here.
That's a lot of people, but, also, that's
an achievable thing.
AMNA NAWAZ: Some estimate the U.S. will need
nearly double that number of contact tracers,
but, so far, states are largely rolling out
their own individual plans.
North and South Dakota are two of a handful
of states which have not issued stay-at-home
orders during COVID-19. Together, they have
so far seen around 3,500 confirmed cases,
with fewer than 50 deaths.
Officials now hope a new location-based app
can aid their efforts to keep the virus at
bay.
TIM BROOKINS, App Developer: It turns out
that most people, including myself, can't
remember on a good day where I was five days
ago, let alone if you're sick.
AMNA NAWAZ: Tim Brookins is an app developer
in Fargo, North Dakota. In 2014, he developed
Bison Tracker, an app that let North Dakota
state football fans track each other as they
traveled together to away games.
In April, he repurposed that app into this
one, the Care19 app, which tracks and compiles
users' locations, so, if they do test positive,
they can easily share that data with a contact
tracer.
Brookins says it will protect users' identities,
while making the process more efficient and
accurate. But he acknowledges these efforts
require buy in.
TIM BROOKINS: It's hard. People need to really
take time to digest, you know, what is the
new normal after this, and, you know, come
to terms with the idea of location tracking.
AMNA NAWAZ: Google and Apple recently announced
they're working on contact tracing technology,
too, to roll out in mid-may. But the rushed
tech response has some privacy experts worried.
JON CALLAS, American Civil Liberties Union:
We're essentially building the airplane while
it's flying.
AMNA NAWAZ: Jon Callas is a former security
expert at Apple, now with the American Civil
Liberties Union. They recently published a
report outlining principles to protect privacy
and civil rights in contact tracing technologies.
Among those principles, that the technology
used should be voluntary, tracking information
should be stored on a user's phone, rather
than a government or company server, the data
should be routinely cleared out, and these
programs should end when the pandemic does.
Callas says these are necessary steps, not
only to protect the public from increased
surveillance, as seen in China, but for public
health efforts to fight the pandemic to be
effective.
JON CALLAS: We have to get the trust of the
people who are using this. If people don't
trust that this is a system that will benefit
them and their community, they won't use it.
They will balk. They will push back.
I mean, we already see people in the United
States who are pushing back on things.
AMNA NAWAZ: Ultimately, though, experts agree
the digital tools should complement human
contact tracers, not replace them.
KRYSTA CASS: While the app may be efficient,
it's not familiar, nor does it have a human
voice on the other end of it saying, by the
way, I know I'm telling you that you have
been exposed, and the second thing I want
you to know is, I'm here for you through this
process.
AMNA NAWAZ: A process to slow the spread,
save lives, and maybe even prevent future
waves of the virus.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz in
Washington.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It was a Supreme Court argument
unlike any other it had held before, not for
the legal issues at stake, but for the logistics
of holding proceedings during a pandemic over
the telephone and broadcasting live as it
happened.
Yamiche Alcindor begins there.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Today, the Supreme Court
was in session, but you could hardly tell
by the relative quiet outside the courthouse.
JOHN ROBERTS, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court: We'll hear argument this morning.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Instead, it was the voice
of Chief Justice John Roberts that kicked
off today's oral arguments over the phone.
JOHN ROBERTS: Case 19-46, United States Patent
and Trademark Office versus Booking.com.
Ms. Ross?
WOMAN: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please
the court:.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: It's a first for the Supreme
Court. Justices normally hear arguments and
in person.
The socially distanced justices, four of them
in their 70s and 80s, took turns questioning
attorneys over the phone. The arguments they
heard today had been rescheduled because of
the pandemic.
And there were the occasional glitches. For
a few seconds, bad audio rendered Justice
Stephen Breyer hard to hear:
JOHN ROBERTS: Thank you, counsel.
Justice Breyer?
STEPHEN BREYER, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme
Court: Thank you.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: But any issues were minor
in an argument that also included questions
from Justice Clarence Thomas.
JOHN ROBERTS: Thank you, counsel.
Justice Thomas?
CLARENCE THOMAS, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme
Court: Yes, Ms. Ross, a couple of questions.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: It was just his third time
posing questions at argument over at least
a decade.
Today's arguments were in a trademark case
involving the travel Web site Booking.com.
Also this month, cases about religious exemptions
to the Affordable Care Act's birth control
coverage mandate, disputes over subpoenas
for President Trump's financial records, and
the issue of faithless electors in presidential
elections.
Until now, for the public, following an argument
live has meant having to get a seat inside
the courtroom, where electronics are banned.
For closely watched cases, long lines for
seats are the norm. But in another first,
the broader public could listen to today's
arguments live.
Marcia Coyle of "The National Law Journal":
MARCIA COYLE, "The National Law Journal":
The normal window into the operation of the
court, especially during oral arguments, is
really through the reporters who cover the
court, the stories they write.
There are several courtroom artists who draw
pictures of the action. The audio of the argument
is posted on the court's Web site, but not
until the Friday of the week in which a particular
case was argued.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: In the few times the court
has done same-day audio releases, they were
for arguments in the most extraordinary of
cases.
Some lower federal courts allow news cameras
in for some proceedings or provide audio or
video streams themselves. But the Supreme
Court's operations have a history of being
slow to keep up with technology.
For example, its opinions were printed using
hot metal typesetting, until the 1980s, when
it moved to electronic printing. Over the
years, some justices have let it be known
they have doubts about broader media access
to arguments.
Almost a quarter-century ago, a House panel
questioned now retired Justices Anthony Kennedy
and David Souter about letting news cameras
in.
DAVID SOUTER, Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice:
I can tell you that the day you see a camera
coming to our courtroom, it's going to roll
over my dead body.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: As recently as last year,
Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan expressed
their own concerns, also before a House panel.
SAMUEL ALITO, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme
Court: Allowing the arguments to be televised
would undermine their value to us as a step
in decision-making process. I think lawyers
would find it irresistible to try to put in
a little sound bite, in the hope of being
that evening on CNN or FOX or MSNBC or one
of the broadcast networks.
ELENA KAGAN, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme
Court: I think we would filter ourselves in
ways that would be unfortunate, in other words,
the first time you see something on the evening
news, which, taken out of context, suggest
something that you never meant to suggest,
suggests that you have an opinion on some
issue that you, if fact, don't have.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: But now that the court has
adjusted to the times, at least for these
first two weeks in May, will audio livestreaming
stick around, even after the pandemic has
passed?
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Yamiche Alcindor.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can listen to the Supreme
Court oral arguments yourself on our Web site
at PBS.org/NewsHour.
The war of words between Beijing and Washington
is getting more aggressive by the day.
Now the Trump White House is boosting a theory
that says the coronavirus was accidentally
released from a research lab in Wuhan, where
the outbreak began.
Here's Nick Schifrin on the tense international
politics of the pandemic.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Judy, that war of words accelerated
yesterday, with both President Trump and Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo laying the blame on China,
and specifically on that lab in Wuhan.
Let's take a listen to President Trump last
night on a FOX News town hall, suggesting
that coronavirus was accidentally released
from that lab.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States:
And my opinion is, they made a mistake, they
tried to cover it, they tried to put it out.
It's like a fire. It's really like trying
to put out a fire.
They couldn't put out the fire. What they
really treated the world badly on, they stopped
people going into China, but they didn't stop
people going into the USA And all over the
world.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, is President Trump and
the Trump administration right to point the
finger at China for the coronavirus and the
spread to the United States and the rest of
the world?
For that, we get two views.
Tony Blinken is senior foreign policy adviser
to presidential candidate Joe Biden. He served
as deputy secretary of state in the Obama
administration. And Rebeccah Heinrichs is
a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a
think tank in Washington, D.C. She's worked
as a foreign policy adviser to Republicans
on Capitol Hill.
Thank you very much. Welcome, both, back to
the "NewsHour."
Tony Blinken, let me start with you.
So, has President Trump been correct in pointing
out that China, at least locally, covered
up the virus in the early days and that led
to the spread of COVID-19?
TONY BLINKEN, Former U.S. Deputy National
Security Adviser: So, that's only half the
story.
Clearly, China, the government of China, has
to be held accountable for failing to provide
information in a timely fashion, failing to
give access to international inspectors to
get to the bottom of what happened.
But the other half of the story is this. Unfortunately,
tragically, the Trump administration took
down or undermined a lot of defenses that
previous administrations had put in place
to be able to warn of a pandemic, including
a pandemic emerging from China.
And then, when the pandemic emerged in China,
and the system was flashing red, the president
did virtually nothing about it and, unfortunately,
misled the American people for the better
part of two months about this danger that
was heading our way.
NICK SCHIFRIN: OK, Rebeccah Heinrichs, you
just heard a blaming of China, but.
Do you believe there's a but there? Has President
Trump failed in his response over the last
few months?
REBECCAH HEINRICHS, The Hudson Institute:
No, I think it is much too early to give such
a harsh grade to the Trump administration,
when we are just adapting to the data that
comes in.
The critical piece of why the Trump administration
is so right to make sure that they counter
the narrative that the Chinese government
maybe made a mistake, but isn't ultimately
to blame, to counter that argument, you have
to go out there and say what is true.
And the truth of the matter is, it's not just
that the Chinese government covered up, they
obfuscated, they lied, they didn't give the
information they needed, but they continue
to this day to silence doctors, to censor
academic research within China related to
the origins of the virus.
The onus is on the Chinese government, because
it originated in their country, to show the
world where this thing comes from, provide
all of the data that individuals need.
And even to this day, they're still imprisoning
people, disappearing people and censoring
them, which that is what -- that is why there
is such suspicion surrounding all of this.
If China wants to be a world player, they
are going to have to act like a responsible
actor and demonstrate that, they can be trusted
on something so serious as this.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Tony Blinken, in late December,
there were doctors in Wuhan who were trying
to sound the alarm. Those people were silenced.
And it took China weeks, at least publicly,
to admit that there was human-to-human transmission.
Is the Trump administration right to point
all those things out?
TONY BLINKEN: You know, I agree with Rebeccah
that, as a great nation, China has great responsibilities.
And in this case, the responsibilities are
even more acute because the virus originated
in China.
But we have great responsibilities too. And
our administration in particular does. And
so, when you take down virtually all of the
programs and personnel that were put in place
by previous administrations to predict, prevent
and mitigate a pandemic, including one originating
in China, that is a problem.
And then, when the pandemic starts to emerge
in China, and you ignore your own intelligence
community, not once, not twice, but a dozen
times -- remember, before 9/11, there was
a famous item in the president's daily brief
saying, bin Laden determined to attack United
States.
That is based on post-reporting, the equivalent
of what President Trump received, not once,
not twice, but a dozen times, in January and
February. And not only did he not insist that
China live up to its responsibilities by giving
access to our inspectors, by making sure that
information was forthcoming.
Instead, at that very moment, when China was
not being forthcoming, what did he do? He
praised the government in Beijing for being
transparent. He praised it for its cooperation.
And I might point out, at the very -- that
very moment, Joe Biden was calling on the
president not to take the government's word
for it in China, to hold them to account,
to insist on the information, to get our inspectors
into labs in Wuhan.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Rebeccah Heinrichs, I have
talked to intelligence community officials
who confirm that, yes, they were trying to
sound the alarm in January.
I have talked to National Security Council
officials who also were trying to sound the
alarm within the administration. And they
do fear that their response wasn't quick enough.
What about that? Was the administration's
response quick enough? Should the president
have been more critical of China in January
than he really was?
REBECCAH HEINRICHS: But I think if you look
at -- there was a -- there is a disconnect
between the president's rhetoric through the
early part of March and his policies that
he implemented, including the travel restrictions
from China into the United States.
And I think part of that was because he was
trying to calibrate a response, to instill
some trust in the market, not knowing exactly
the effect that this virus is going to have
in the United States.
I do think that that was a mistake. That paled
in comparison to, I think, a lot of the good
the administration is doing with the information
they have.
And, again, it is not a side issue to keep
going back to China. It is the central issue,
because the -- some of the -- when President
Trump sent out that tweet in mid-January,
my understanding is, the administration was
desperately trying to get Americans in country
to get ahold of the sequence for COVID-19
in order to get information.
And so the president believe that he could
flatter Xi Jinping, at least enough to smooth
out that relationship to get Americans in
country, and that was his primary concern.
We can argue over whether or not that was
wise, but we can understand the motivation
for him doing that. He's not confused about
the nature of the CCP.
To this day, there was a doctor in Shanghai
that was trying to sound the alarm and give
the genome sequence to other individuals outside
the country. And then that lab was promptly
shut down by the CCP.
The wet market was sanitized. The animals
were destroyed, rather than having lab work
from the -- from the animals, when the WHO
went in country.
All of these things are -- lead many people
to be suspicious about why the Chinese government
isn't being open and honest.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And I want to quickly turn
to world leadership in the time have that
I have left.
Tony Blinken, the World Health Organization
repeated Chinese claims, which we now know
to be incorrect, that the virus had no human-to-human
transmission through January. And the Trump
administration, of course, has been very critical
of the WHO, and has frozen funds to the WHO
because of some of those mistakes early on.
Do you believe that that freezing could help
create the reforms in the WHO that many believe
are necessary?
TONY BLINKEN: As to the WHO, it clearly fell
short of the mark.
But it's ironic, because the president says
the WHO was not quick enough in pointing the
finger at what was going on in China and then
wasn't critical enough of the Chinese government,
which, of course, are accusations much more
accurately directed at President Trump himself.
Going forward, we need to make sure that the
WHO can act effectively. My concern is this.
As we pull out, who goes in? China. They will
expand their influence in the WHO. They will
expand their influence in all the places that
we're retreating from as a consistent matter
in this administration.
That's not a way to exhibit American strength,
to show American influence. It is a way, actually,
to help the government in Beijing expand its
own influence.
REBECCAH HEINRICHS: Well, first of all, the
United States government money, combined with
non-government money, has given more than
$6.5 billion to our allies and partners abroad
to fight coronavirus.
That's 12 times the amount that the Chinese
government has provided. And then, of course,
the United States continues to be -- I think,
give 40 percent to the world food organization,
the World Food Bank to make sure that the
secondary effects that coronavirus is causing,
the economic devastation to other vulnerable
countries, to continue -- that there is still
food there.
So the United States is still the world leader
in generosity and benevolence. And you can
see that in the midst of this global pandemic.
As for the WHO, the United States has still
contributed far more to the WHO, even though
the WHO was essentially acting like a mouthpiece
propaganda outlet for the Chinese government.
And so it's not all about money. Sometimes,
money isn't the thing that's going to influence
organizations like the WHO. So I don't understand
why people continue to say that we should
be giving more money.
And so I think that the Trump administration
is absolutely right on to withhold funding
until we see reforms in the WHO.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Rebeccah Heinrichs, Tony Blinken,
thank you very much to you both.
TONY BLINKEN: Thanks.
REBECCAH HEINRICHS: Thanks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As the Senate returned to Washington
and House members stayed home, last night,
on FOX News, President Trump declared the
economy is on its way to a speedy recovery.
Here to analyze the politics of his response
and more, Amy Walter of The Cook Political
Report and the host of public radio's "Politics
With Amy Walter," and Tamara Keith of NPR.
She also co-hosts the "NPR Politics Podcast."
Hello to both of you.
And before I turn to you, I want to let you
listen to some of what President Trump had
to say at this FOX town hall last night, and
also some of what Joe Biden had to say today
at a different town hall that had to do with
helping essential workers, particularly in
the Latino community.
Let's listen to both of those, and I will
come back.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States:
You get a job where you make more money, frankly.
And I think that's going to happen.
I think we're going to have an incredible
following year. We're going to go into a transition
in the third quarter, and we're going to see
things happening that look good. I really
believe that. I have a good feel for this
stuff. I have done it for a long time.
JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate:
You know, I have put out a detailed plan about
what I think we should be doing right now
to support our front-line workers and address
the disparities we're seeing with COVID-19
impacts all across the country.
And I truly think that, if we do this right,
we have an incredible opportunity to not just
dig out of this crisis, but to fundamentally
transform the country.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Amy, I'm going to come
to you first.
You have the president pivoting to talk about
the economy at a time when, frankly, the numbers
of cases and deaths on COVID are not looking
very good. The president acknowledged that
in part last night. But he's talking about
the economy, saying it's going to get better.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, talking about
how we need to protect these front-line workers.
What do you make of these two approaches?
Here we are in May of this election year.
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: That's
right.
You can hear it with President Trump last
night in that town hall. He was so nostalgic
for that time before COVID, when the economy
was strong, his numbers on handling the economy
so strong, and his focus was winning the election
on the strength of a good economy.
And now here we are with this pandemic that
is not just devastating our health, but obviously
devastating the economy. And he wants to,
and he said over and over again, bring America
back, we need to get Americans working, we
need to get this economy back.
With Joe Biden, what I find really interesting,
Judy, is that -- especially that clip that
put in there, was Joe Biden was attacked by
many in the progressive community for not
wanting to be progressive -- for not being
progressive enough, for being really a status-quo
stand-in.
And what he's doing is not just talking about
bringing the economy back, but putting a focus
on the people who are looking to make more
structural -- what he is looking to do is
make more structural change by focusing on
the people who right now are not just on the
front lines -- he talked a lot about meatpacking
workers -- but who also are -- were doing
poorly in the economy before the COVID-19
outbreak and continue to struggle even now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam, as you listen to
this and you look at what these two candidates
are saying, what does it tell you about where
they see themselves in this contest?
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: President
Trump wanted his campaign slogan, had been
sort of rolling out to be, keep America great.
And now it's more like, make America great
again, again.
But, you know, you have a situation where
you have the president of the United States
with all the advantages of incumbency that
a president of the United States has. And
you have Joe Biden sort of stuck in his basement
doing these Webcasts, trying his best to campaign.
But it's very different.
Now, obviously, President Trump can't go to
rallies. He is yearning for a day when he
can get back out in an arena with 25,000 people.
Unclear when or if that will happen.
But, certainly, he still has the ability to,
you know, get on Air Force One, like he's
going to do tomorrow, and sort of flaunt the
power of the presidency.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That's right, Amy.
The president tomorrow is going to fly from
Washington to Arizona to visit a company where
they manufacture protective gear, masks that
people are wearing right now. How much of
an advantage does the president have at a
time like this? Joe Biden is at home.
AMY WALTER: Right.
And you could hear if that audio, he wasn't
just in the basement. He was sitting, I think,
on some sort of porch or something. You could
hear crickets or frogs or something in the
background, while the president gets to not
only fly in Air Force One, but sits at the
Lincoln Memorial. The contrast couldn't be
stronger.
At the same time even with those advantages,
Judy, the president is still looking at approval
ratings that are in some cases 20 to 30 points
lower than governors in many of these states,
red states, blue states.
All these governors have used this opportunity
in the spotlight, under this crisis moment,
to meet that moment.
This president has met it in the same way
he meets every moment, which is in this very
polarizing, sort of predictable way. And so
what should be a big advantage of a bully
pulpit has not worked out that way.
(CROSSTALK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam -- go ahead, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH: This trip to Arizona is an official
event. It is not a campaign event.
But it is not a coincidence that the president
is going to Arizona. It's a state that he
won in 2016. But the reality is that it's
fully in play in 2020.
His campaign has talked to -- I talked to
someone from his campaign today. They have
had people on the ground there since 2015.
But there's a real sense that this is a state
that they're going to have to fight for, that
Arizona used to be red Arizona, isn't a guarantee.
And, certainly, under the current circumstances,
it's not a guarantee.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Amy, you brought up the
governors. We are seeing right now a number
of states, I guess, what is it, they're saying
29, 30 states, go ahead and planning to open
up again, even with these forecasts of rising
cases and deaths.
And the states that seem to be moving ahead,
more of them have Republican governors. The
states that are saying, no, let's wait, more
of them have Democratic governors.
How partisan is this right now?
AMY WALTER: Yes, it's really interesting,
Judy.
The Kaiser Foundation had an interesting pullout
this morning that looked at -- or some data
out this morning that looked at the rate of
growth, especially over the last two weeks,
in states that had Democratic governors and
states that had Republican governors.
Now, while it is true that states that have
Democratic governors overall have more deaths,
even per capita, than those who have red governors,
when you look over the last two weeks at the
rate of growth in both cases and deaths, it
is the red states that are seeing an incredible
uptick.
So, the question -- and you are right to ask
this, Judy -- is, what if this is true that
we're not only going to see more cases, but
more deaths in red states? Is that going to
change the perception by people who live in
those states and governors on this issue?
And what I found really interesting, I was
digging through some polls taken in Michigan
and in Florida. These are two battleground
states. One has a Democratic governor. One
has a Republican governor.
When you asked voters in those states, how
worried are you about actually contracting
coronavirus, and then asked specifically,
very worried or somewhat worried, the people
who said they were very worried also happened
to line up pretty closely with whether you
were a Clinton voter or not.
So, in Michigan, it was something like 52
percent of Clinton voters said they were very
worried about that, of getting coronavirus,
57 percent in Florida. But among voters who
voted for Trump in 2016, a quarter or a third
said they were very worried about this issue.
So, you can see at that moment, whether you
have a red governor -- you're in a red state
or a blue state, governor who is Democrat,
governor who's Republican, the voter themselves
and the ideological lens through which they're
looking also is impacting how serious they
believe the threat of COVID infection is.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tam, you have got 30 seconds.
TAMARA KEITH: Yes.
So, I was talking to a researcher at Hamilton
College about this. And he was pointing out
that, up until this point, there's been sort
of a disproportionate weight of the coronavirus
being borne by counties that were Clinton
counties, that went for Hillary Clinton.
And there are also a lot of racial disparities
that are underlying that and might explain
why the politics are the way they are. But
that could certainly change as the virus changes
the way it affects the country.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So interesting, these numbers
state by state. We're seeing things we didn't
see just a month or so ago.
Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, we thank you both.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: For weeks, photographer John
Moore has been bringing his camera to the
front lines of the pandemic to document the
new realities of life in America.
He has accompanied emergency medical workers,
and he's gone inside intensive care units.
Here's a look at some of what he has seen.
It's part of our ongoing arts and culture
series, Canvas.
JOHN MOORE, Getty Images: I'm John Moore,
and I'm a staff photographer and special correspondent
for Getty Images.
Getty images sent me to Seattle. It was early
March. The disease had already spread to a
nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, which
is just outside of Seattle. And so I was photographing
the empty city of Seattle and what was happening
outside of nursing homes.
And I was in Seattle for about a week. And
then I flew back once the crisis really began
to be obvious here on the East Coast of the
U.S. And my flight back from Seattle to New
York City was virtually empty.
And so I photographed really the emptiness,
which would become our society in general
in public places. And I began covering the
epidemic really from the outskirts of the
epicenter.
But what affects New York City affects the
areas all around it. So, whether it's New
Jersey, whether it's Long Island in New York,
Westchester County or Southern/Southwestern
Connecticut, everyone is affected in some
way or another.
I have photographed testing sites. I photographed
schools that are empty. I have photographed
families at home to show what that looks like,
also for immigrant families, because I think
the immigrant community, especially the undocumented
community, is -- is really highly affected.
They don't have -- many of them don't have
health insurance, and very few of them have
any protections when they're unemployed.
Of course, when I'm photographing in intimate
environments, it's important for me to maintain
my own health, so I can keep covering the
story in a way that's meaningful to our viewers.
On the other hand, it's so important for me
to protect the people I'm photographing. For
instance, I will give you an example. There
was one case where EMS workers in Yonkers
went to a house and had to intubate a man
who was barely breathing when they arrived.
And that situation was just incredible to
see. You hear about intubations, but you almost
never see it. And so I tried to photograph
it in a way that gave respect to the gentleman
that they were trying to save -- and they
did -- and still show the drama of the moment.
And those are very, very delicate moment,
very sensitive moments.
When you talk to first responders, to paramedics,
it's interesting. Yes, people are seeing them
as heroes. They're doing heroic work. And
it's amazing.
But, at the same time, it's incredible. People
are just being heroes doing the jobs they
normally do. But that's what we have here.
And I think we're all very thankful for them.
For me, it's important that this story be
told, not only in terms of statistics. We
hear about this all the time, thousands of
people infected, thousands of people died.
But it's about human beings.
And I want to show what that looks like, where
people can really see what's happening to
other human beings that shows the heroism
of the EMS workers who are doing this important
work, and the hospital workers who are taking
care of people on the other side.
And if I can show that and bring it to a human
level, then I have done my job.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And they truly are heroes.
And we thank you, John Moore.
And on the "NewsHour" online right now: Libraries
across the country have closed their doors
during the pandemic, but it doesn't mean their
work stops. As summer reading season approaches,
librarians share their book recommendations
for kids of all ages.
You can find that list on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
And before we go, May the 4th -- did I say
that right? -- has become an unofficial holiday
for Star Wars fans.
So, we leave you tonight with an excerpt from
composer and conductor John Williams and the
Vienna Philharmonic playing "The Imperial
March," as we all look forward to the day
when we go to concerts and movies again.
(MUSIC)
JUDY WOODRUFF: On this May the 4th, John Williams
and the Vienna Philharmonic.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," stay
safe, thank you, and we'll see you soon.
