Mnuchin Says They are In Very Close To A Deal Today On Small Business Package; Governors Dispute White House Claim Of Adequate Coronavirus Testing
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin in Washington where a new deal to save businesses is close to getting done, according to top leaders from the White House to Congress. The new proposal calls for an extra $310 billion in the Paycheck Protection Plan for small businesses. Funds from the initial $350 billion Emergency Coronavirus Relief Package ran dry in just a few weeks. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are confident a deal is nearing the finish line.</s>STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: I'm hopeful. I think we're very close to a deal today and I'm hopeful we can get that done.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I think we're very close to agreement.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, we start our coverage at the White House. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is there. Jeremy, why so much optimism?</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, usually, Fred, when you hear both sides of a negotiation saying that we are close to a deal, it really means that you're close, and that is the sense that we are getting, is that this is a deal that is imminent. There are a few fine points that are still being worked out, it seems, but if you listen to Secretary Mnuchin in particular, who has been the lead negotiator on this for the Trump administration, he says that this deal could pass Congress in a matter of days and be on the President's desk by middle of the week. Listen.</s>MNUCHIN: I'm hopeful that we can reach an agreement that the Senate can pass this tomorrow, and that the House can take it up on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, we'd be back up and running.</s>DIAMOND: And as you mentioned, Fred, this would provide $310 billion of additional money for that Payroll Protection Program. The small business loans that are so needed at this time of economic distress. There's going to be $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion in additional money for testing. Those were some of the key sticking points for Democrats as these negotiations have stretched over the past week. That was the additional money that they were looking for, the reason why they initially would not go along with passing a bill that just included the money for the Payroll Protection Program. But it does appear now they are close to a deal. We also are just learning from our congressional correspondent, Manu Raju that the President was on a call with Senate Republicans just a few moments ago, and Senator McConnell, the Majority Leader, indicated that Democrats will not be getting the funding for state and local governments that they had been seeking. Those other concessions, though have been made, and we heard Mnuchin earlier today saying that funding for state and local governments could come during a future economic stimulus package.</s>WHITFIELD: You know and prior to that, yesterday the President was selectively critical about certain state governors. Listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They don't want to use all of the capacity that we've created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The Democratic governors know that. They're the ones that are complaining.</s>WHITFIELD: And many of those governors did respond to that criticism from the President.</s>DIAMOND: They certainly are pushing back, and of course that criticism from the President is just the latest attack that he has lobbed against Democratic governors, but of course, as you will see in this video that I am about to toss to you, both Democratic and Republican governors are raising the same alarm bells as it relates to testing shortages that they are facing. Listen.</s>GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): I think this is probably the number one problem in America, and has been from the beginning of this crisis, the lack of testing. The administration, I think, is trying to ramp up testing. They are doing some things with respect to private labs, but to try to push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren't doing our job is just absolutely false.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The President and Vice President are saying over the past few days that the U.S. has enough testing capacity for states to begin opening back up if you feel you're ready to go into phase one. Is that the case in Virginia? Do you have enough tests to do the tests you need to do?</s>GOV. RALPH NORTHAM (D-VA): Jake, that's just delusional to be making statements like that. We have been fighting every day for PPE and we've got some supplies now coming in. We've been fighting for testing. Now, it's not a straightforward test. We don't even have enough swabs, believe it or not and we're ramping that up before the national level to say we have what we need, and really to have no guidance to the state levels is just irresponsible, because we're not there yet.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): It would be nice if we had a national strategy that was working with the states so every state knew precisely what was coming in, but end of the day, you know, we, governors are doing the best we can with what we've got. We could use some assistance, though to make sure that the supply chain issues are addressed, and we can do the robust testing that every epidemiologist in our country tells you is absolutely essential as we prepare to think about reengaging sectors of our economy.</s>DIAMOND: And as you can see there, the uniform and coherent message from Democratic and Republican governors that they are facing shortages of some of the critical supplies needed to scale up testing. The President meanwhile has been willing to claim credit in the past for advances that they've made on the testing front, but now amid these shortages, the President is passing the buck on to these governors -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Jeremy Diamond at the White House. Thank you. So, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Mnuchin also addressed that issue today on "State of the Union."</s>TAPPER: So it sounds as though there is going to be not money for testing, money for hospitals, money for small businesses, but it doesn't sound like state and local government funding will be in this bill at the very least?</s>MNUCHIN: The President has heard from the governors and he is prepared to discuss that in the next bill. Right now, we have a lot of money that we're distributing to the states. We have $150 billion. We've distributed half. We'll distribute the other half and the President is willing to consider that in the next bill, but wants to get this over the finish line.</s>WHITFIELD: CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is in New York. So, Evan, the governor, you know, made a plea saying without Federal funding, they won't be able to do everything that they need to do.</s>EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. The Governor of New York had been saying for weeks now that the economic impact of this pandemic is going to have a dramatic effect on state finances and local finances. It's not just him saying it. Mayors like Bill de Blasio here in New York City have been saying the same thing, and if you want the state and the city to reopen with some semblance of the way they were before Cuomo and de Blasio say, you're going to need Federal help to pay the bills. Cuomo said again today in his press conference --</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): If you don't help the state government and local government, then how are we supposed to have the finances to reopen? And if you don't give state and local government support, you know, we're the one who support the schools. We support the police. We support the fire. We support the hospital workers. We support the transit workers. So if you starve state and local government, all that means is, we have to turn around and reduce funding to the people who we are funding.</s>SANTORO: So Cuomo outlined in that press conference today just how dire the situation may be. He said that future budgets here in the state may include cuts to things like hospitals, which he suggested is kind of a strange thing to be doing, in the middle of the current crisis we're having. But this is exactly why he needs or says he needs that Federal money, and as Jeremy just reported from the Senate phone call, it sounds like it won't be happening in this bill, and the Governor and the Mayor here in the city might be waiting a little longer to get some of that Federal help -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Evan McMorris-Santoro, thank you so much. All right, Dr. Elizabeth Clayborne is an emergency physician and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland's Prince George's Hospital Center. Good to see you, Doctor.</s>DR. ELIZABETH CLAYBORNE, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN AND ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND-PRINCE GEORGE'S HOSPITAL CENTER: Thank you for having me.</s>WHITFIELD: So what's the status of cases in the State of Maryland and the surrounding D.C. area?</s>CLAYBORNE: So Maryland is definitely seeing an increased number of COVID positive patients. Some models are saying that we're in the middle of our peak, but there is discrepancy on that. I know that specifically for me and my hospital, we have seen an increase number of acutely ill people and we are seeing a lot of people arriving in respiratory distress so we are bracing to continue to see an increased number in the coming days.</s>WHITFIELD: And you wrote a piece for "USA Today" and you talked about how you never worked in such a heartbreaking and traumatic environment as the coronavirus pandemic. Tell us about what you and your colleagues are experiencing, and we certainly have been doing as much reporting as we can, particularly on the disparities of healthcare. Prince George's County is predominantly black. So a good number of the people you're treating are black Americans, disproportionately affected by coronavirus. So, what are you experiencing firsthand?</s>CLAYBORNE: Yes, absolutely. Even before this pandemic hit, we already served a population that had a lot of comorbidities or underlying diseases and you know, had a lot of issues, and we were already a very busy ED, so the pandemic certainly has compounded the factors of those underlying health disparities and our population is very hard-hit. I do see now that the stress not just among the providers, the people trying to provide care that the patients and the families is at an all-time high and people are very scared and anxious. And with that, I think a lot of people don't know what to do, and so I always get asked as an emergency provider what can I do, Dr. Clayborne to help you? How can I make a difference? And I think besides listening to your health officials, making sure that you're following instructions to stay home, stay safe, and those types of things. Another thing I always emphasize that people can do is to plan ahead, and what I mean by that is have an advanced care plan. Too often, when I am in the ER, I see people arrive in acute illness, can maybe not speak for themselves and hadn't taken the time to talk to their family about what their wishes would be, and that puts the family members or the patient in just a terrible situation, and then as a provider, I have to make a decision in minutes that might dictate whether this person lives or dies or what happens to them. It's easier to do that if that had been thought about ahead of time and documented, and so, you can go to cdc.gov to get state-specific forms for advanced directives or use an online platform, like mydirectives.com, which I find to be very helpful to keep everybody on the same page.</s>WHITFIELD: So, that's your advice now. People are very much aware, but so many were just caught by surprise, caught off guard by this and you know, how -- I mean, there have been so many stories I've read about many of them in the Washington, D.C. area. You know, Maryland is my home state, so I've read a lot about you know, personal stories of people who were just within a week, you know, losing their loved ones to this disease and not knowing really what hit them. But now that people are a little more acutely aware, you're saying, it should be a discussion that every family is having right now. You know, what is our plan? What happens if someone gets sick? You know, where are the responsibilities within our family? Who's going to make the decisions? Boy, that's a tough conversation for families to have, but you say, you know, you've got to do it right now.</s>CLAYBORNE: Absolutely. And it is no matter what age. It's actually for younger people that this ends up being more difficult. You might have seen in the pieces -- I actually am -- I am seven months pregnant. I am practicing as a pregnant provider, it puts me at increased risk, and so I had to have a conversation with my husband about if I get sick, this is what I think is important in my life. This is what I would want done, this is what I would want done to protect my baby. Those are difficult conversations to have, but especially as an emergency provider, I feel like it's important to lead by example, and so I've had those conversations, I've documented them. I've shared them with my family and my medical providers and you know, it's better to be prepared. Because you just don't want to be caught off guard because as you said, Fred, you can get sick very quickly and then you may not have the capacity to make a decision for yourself.</s>WHITFIELD: That you're seven months pregnant, you have great reason to just step back and say I'm going to approach Medicine differently, but you are still choosing to be right out there. What is keeping you from saying, right now I want to be on the sidelines?</s>CLAYBORNE: It's definitely a decision I weigh every day. What I do is not without risk. Every time I cross the threshold of the hospital, I'm putting myself at risk and my family as risk as all frontline providers do. I'm in a bit of a unique situation because there are two other pregnant ER doctors are in my group, and so the three of us got together and decided we were going to stay as we felt we could adequately protect ourselves. And so that decision gets weighed every day, and as we get more busy and we see an influx of critically ill patients, I might have to stop. I might have to decide that I want to serve in a capacity not doesn't mean clinically working because I don't want to become ill, I don't want to put by baby at risk. I don't want to go from being someone who helps the healthcare system to becoming a strain. And so, it is a difficult decision and I just take it a day at a time right now.</s>WHITFIELD: We are wishing you well, Dr. Elizabeth Clayborne. Thank you for being with us. Be well. Be safe. You, baby, husband, whole family.</s>CLAYBORNE: I appreciate it, Fred. Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up -- protecting the frontline workers when social distancing is not about option. A California Nurses Union is speaking out. Also, later, millions are under another severe weather warning just a week after deadly tornadoes hit the south.