Coronavirus Crisis Worsens with Cases in All 50 U.S. States; European Union Closes Borders for 30 Days; Queen Elizabeth Leaves Buckingham Palace Amid Coronavirus Crisis.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CO-ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Here are the latest numbers for you. There are now confirmed coronavirus cases in all 50 states and Washington D.C., 112 Americans have died. And the number of cases has topped 6,000 now in the United States. The White House trying to stabilize the economy, they're requesting a trillion dollar stimulus package from Congress. Also floating the idea of sending $1,000 stimulus checks to some Americans. A source tells CNN Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has warned Republican senators that without any action, the U.S. unemployment rate could skyrocket to 20 percent. That would be the highest rate since the great depression. United States and Canada preparing to suspend non-essential travel between these two countries while the European Union is closing off at least 26 countries to nearly all visitors for 30 days, hoping to stop the spread of coronavirus. And the outbreak in Britain has forced Queen Elizabeth to leave Buckingham Palace. The 93-year-old queen and Prince Philip who is 98 years old are expected to self-isolate at Windsor Castle and remain there until after Easter.</s>BERMAN: So, after weeks of playing down the coronavirus crisis, President Trump has changed his tone this week as the reality of this pandemic grips the country. But he is also presenting an alternate version of history.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've always known this is a -- this is a real -- this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.</s>BERMAN: So, that's a lie, and we're going to talk about why that's important. Joining us now is CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman; she is a White House correspondent for "The New York Times". And Maggie, as you know, what we've been focusing on here really is the medicine and what will save lives. That is most important. But when you're talking about what will save lives, I think it's also important to acknowledge what may have risked lives. And medical officials tell us that the way that the president approached this for the last two months and talked about it in public may have risked lives. And you have written about the way he talked about it, and how he's talking about it now. And the difference is -- so walk us through where we were and where we are.</s>MAGGIE HABERMAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: Sure. John, look, weeks ago as you know, the president was claiming this was something that was going to go away, it was like a flu. He was actually asked on January 22nd if there were concerns that this was a pandemic or could become one. And he said no, not at all. January 22nd, that's not that long ago. Since then in the last few weeks as he's been talking to Mike Pence, the Vice President who he put in charge of the coronavirus task force, some of the information that he has been getting has been more substantial. I've heard from several White House officials that it wasn't quite clear how he gets his briefings were in part because he reacts pretty badly to negative information. But he just wasn't taking this particularly seriously, and he didn't want officials talking about it publicly for fear of rattling the markets. He was angry when people who had been affected on cruise ships ended up brought back to the U.S. for quarantine. Take it now to last week and a half when suddenly people are infected at Mar-a-Lago, his private club which now has to be cleaned. He understands that. There are people around the White House who have faced self-quarantine because they may have been exposed, one of whom was his daughter, Ivanka Trump. This president tends to never experience things unless they come through the lens of himself, that's what changed in the last week and a half more than anything. Possible threats to his re-election, threats to the economy, which has been his calling card and people he knows around him getting sick, himself being questioned about whether he has been sick. But for him to go out and claim that he treated this as if it was a pandemic the whole time, that is a lie, that is not true. This is actually something that does affect how people conducted themselves. There had been a lot of people in this country who are not taking this particularly seriously over the last few weeks. They have started to now, but again, John, that's not because the president suddenly declared a national emergency. It's because governors in a lot of states have been enacting substantial measures.</s>CAMEROTA: Speaking of governors, we just spoke to Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and she was talking about how there was this -- what she felt basically alarming phone call between the president and governors. And I just want to ask you, Maggie, about his leadership style because what she felt, her impression was that he was trying to kind of pass responsibility on to governors, saying you guys are going to have to take care of this. I think it was on the issue of respirators, ventilators, hospital beds. And he -- Her impression was that he was not taking responsibility for a federal response to that. And in terms of his leadership style, is that in keeping with -- does he delegate? Is he somebody who in a crisis does show leadership? What has been his style if we know in the past?</s>HABERMAN: Well, he's never faced something like this, Alisyn, so we haven't had to deal with this, but certainly other issues that have required federal response like mass shootings for instance. He has gathered, he has said that he wants to enact stronger gun laws and then never goes along with it. This is the first crisis like this that most countries have seen. This is a -- this is a once in a life-time event. But certainly, in his call with the governors, a lot of governors ended up feeling as if he was telling them it was on them to get hold of respirators and ventilators and medical equipment. He did say we'll back you. Which was, I think intended to be the Feds will be doing this too. But I think for governors who have been trying to sound the alarm on this for weeks, and who felt like they weren't being taken seriously by this president, I think it was a deeply angering and frustrating statement.</s>BERMAN: So, Maggie, some of your colleagues in the paper today, and one of the very few articles you haven't written get into the fact that the president is calling for a whole of government response. Two things --</s>HABERMAN: Yes --</s>BERMAN: Notable about that. Number one, why on earth today on March 18th or March 17th and you're only calling for a whole of government response to something that is a pandemic and a crisis. That aside, number two though, it gets to an issue which I think you know a lot about which is how the president has viewed or his understanding of different parts of the government until now.</s>HABERMAN: It's funny, John. You know, he doesn't take most of these departments or agencies particularly seriously unless to my point about how they reflect through him all events, unless it deals with immigration or law enforcement. He cares about DOJ. He cares about DHS only through the prism of immigration enforcement. DHS has a number of responsibilities. One of which is that FEMA is integrated into DHS. If you are not initiating a strong response and you are outsourcing this solely to health professionals, you're not going to mobilize major portions of the government in order to be able to respond to this. It is candidly inexcusable that this took this long for any of this to happen, and it just again speaks to the fact that he was not engaged with this until recently.</s>CAMEROTA: Well, on that same front, I mean, let's talk about the Army Corps of Engineers. So the message out of the White House is, OK, we're going to enlist their help now. And the message from the Army Corps of Engineers is we're still waiting for direction from the White House. Let's talk about the FDA. They just a few days ago began lifting important regulation, a restrictive regulation that is going to allow for more university hospital testing. And so how is this message not getting to these different arms of government?</s>HABERMAN: Look, there has been enormous confusion for most of the last two months on this issue as to who in the White House was in charge. What the task force was doing. I think there was a shift when you saw Mike Pence take it over. But I also think that there are certain things that the president needs to be pushed to do. There are a number of officials in the government who are trying to push him to do certain things. I think one was the counselor Kellyanne Conway and the other was the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner who has tried taking on a much larger portion of this which has this issue which has bothered some of his colleagues. But it all points back to the same issue which is that there is not one single person who can move the president. And the idea that -- think about our conversation of the last ten minutes. The idea that it has taken this much of a heath of the will to focus the president and get him to do something that should have been plain to him before his eyes was taking place says a lot.</s>BERMAN: OK, there is no question though, the last two days, and you can count them because it's been two, the president has had a different tone at these news conferences about coronavirus. It is a welcome tone by many I know in the public health community. The question, Maggie, that you point out is will it last?</s>HABERMAN: Right, look, so two things I would say about that, John. Number one is it's amazing how Trump has conditioned so many of his supporters to see everything, every discussion, every public utterance in terms of whether it's up or down about him. Is this praise about Trump or is this criticism about Trump? Sometimes things are just statements of facts that have nothing to do with him, and whether he should be getting credit or support. And he sees everything in terms of whether he should get credit or praise. He has shown in the past he can modulate his behavior with his back against the wall. The final week of the election, he was actually more disciplined in 2016. He didn't fire Mueller, the special counsel, despite the fact that he wanted to over many months. You know, and the last couple of days he has seen his own political standing, face a problem and realized that he could be -- he could be left -- be seen as accountable for what could be many deaths. But he has never shown an ability to sustain it for a very long time. He thinks and he's very short increments of time. We are going to be dealing with this issue for several weeks and possibly months despite the rosiest assessments that he still continues to try to offer. We're going to be dealing with this for a while. And it is not clear that he can do this for eight more weeks.</s>CAMEROTA: Or through November. I mean, which may be his bigger motivation. Maggie Haberman -- yes, thank you very much for all of the reporting. Great to talk to you.</s>HABERMAN: Thanks guys.</s>BERMAN: So millions of students this morning figuring out new ways to learn, not in the classroom. Up next, we're going to bring you tips from parents who are home-schooling in the best way to keep your kids engaged.