The NPR Politics Podcast - White House: This Week Could Be Toughest Yet

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Deaths from the coronavirus outbreak are expected to spike this week in some of the country's hardest hit communities. President Trump breaks from his medical advisers and recommends a coronavirus treatment that is still being tested. And lawmakers adjust to legislating in the era of social distancing. This episode: White House correspondents Tamara Keith and Franco Ordoñez, and congressional reporter Claudia Grisales.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hello, this is Katie McAndrew from Richmond, Virginia. Two weeks ago, I returned from Zambia, where I had been serving in the Peace Corps, which means that today my quarantine ends. This show was recorded at 2.11pm on Monday, the 6th of April. Things may have changed by the time you hear this, like I will have hugged my family for the first time in two years before returning to social distancing, of course. So wash your hands, stay safe, and enjoy the show. Yeah, that's sweet. That is very sweet. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Franco Ordonez. I also cover the White House. I'm Claudia Grisales, and I cover Congress. And there are now more than a million confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide. In the United States, there are some 350,000 people diagnosed with the disease and more than 10,000 deaths.

That's a threshold that was crossed today. President Trump warned over the weekend that this week will be the toughest yet. As it really gets, this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there'll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn't done, but there will be death. Franco, why is this week expected to be so bad? Well, based on the models they've been looking at and the reports they're receiving from other countries, Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinator of the task force, said based on the models they are using, the upside of the mortality curve is going to be in the next six to seven days, not only New York, but also Detroit and Louisiana. And it's those models and that reality, which is making Dr. Birx really urge people to really dig into these guidelines, including not

even suggesting that people not go to the grocery stores, not go to pharmacy, to really stay home. I think Surgeon General Jerome Adams put it the most blunt when he said this week, in the coming two weeks, could be the saddest week of most Americans' lives and compared the tragedy to the scope of Pearl Harbor and 9-11. And the thing is that they're saying that in a lot of these places, you could see the peak, like the peak in the number of deaths day after day. But it's not like you just slide down the hill after that. It can plateau. It can take a while for this to tail off, even as people are staying home and doing the social distancing.

Do we know what it's like in hospitals and other facilities there in these areas that are hardest hit? Well, we definitely know in New York that they are really struggling with this, with the number of cases that they're seeing on a day-to-day basis. Even President Trump has commented about in the community that he grew up in how hospital beds and patients are just filling up the halls and they're having to bring in trucks literally to kind of take care of some of the bodies of the deaths. You know, and it's not just New York. The Louisiana governor said this week on CNN that his state could run out of ventilators by the end of the week if the number of virus cases continue to surge. And our colleagues at NPR, some have reported how funeral directors in New York and other places are struggling to meet the increased demand.

You know, this reminds me, guys, can we talk for a minute about the different approaches being taken by the president and the scientific advisors he's working with? And even the vice president, they're all talking about this need to buckle down, stay home, keep up the social distancing measures to slow the spread. And President Trump is talking about a light at the end of the tunnel to get America reopened. We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening. Things are happening. We're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. You know, it is interesting, you know, hearing the president talk about this. You know, he is certainly, you know, noting the number of deaths that are happening and the reality of this, but he is also trying to give Americans some hope. And he's talking about this light at the

end of the tunnel. And he has said it repeatedly. Also, the vice president brought up this. But it is a different message that he is delivering sometimes than some of his public health officials. I think that's such a good point about the impatience. I think we see that on display. It can change day to day, this pendulum for Trump, where he swings from the gut and he says, you know, we need to reopen by Easter. And he swings back to these health officials and says, you know what? Actually, maybe that's not such a great idea. We need to wait a few more days, weeks and see what happens. So it's kind of something that I think we see that can change day to day or week by week.

Hey, Franco, President Trump is all in on this anti-malaria drug that's currently in clinical trials. And that's another tension point, it seems like, with some of the scientific advisors. Yeah, absolutely. He really doubled down yesterday on encouraging the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is also used to treat lupus. But it has not been proven conclusively to help on the coronavirus. Dr. Fauci, who's on the task force, even, you know, spoke earlier in the day on Sunday and said there's not proven evidence of this. The data are really just at best suggestive. There have been cases that show

there may be an effect and there are others to show there's no effect. So I think in terms of science, I don't think we could definitively say it works. But President Trump is really digging in on this and has even acquired 29 million doses of the drug for coronavirus patients. He's also encouraging health care workers to try this drug. And it was interesting yesterday during the briefing, he was really pressed on whether he should be giving medical advice. I want people to live and I'm seeing people dying and I've seen people that are going to die without it. And, you know the expression, when that's happening, they should do it. What really do we have to lose?

Frankly, he says that we just do not have enough time to go through months, a year of clinical trials to test this out. All right. We are going to take a quick break now. And when we get back, we're going to talk about how lawmakers, members of Congress are adapting to teleworking. Right now, every household in the country is being asked to fill out the U.S. Census. It's the form that helps us determine how voting districts are redrawn, where to build public schools and hospitals, how to spend federal money. So why are some people afraid to fill it out?

We're getting into all that this week on NPR's Code Switch podcast. And we're back. And Claudia, you cover Congress, and they have been adapting. They have been working from home just like the rest of us. What's it like? Is this a typical recess? This is not a typical recess at all. It's like none other before. They've had to do a lot of extra planning in terms of how they're going to connect with their members in their districts. They're holding video chats and tele-town halls. They're using social media, Zoom, to hold meetings with colleagues. So it's a whole range of events and they need to be very

creative of how they do it. For example, I spoke to Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon. She's a Democrat for Pennsylvania and she held a kids teletown hall and heard a whole range of questions from these kids and some of them were really compelling questions such as what do I do if I'm remote learning and what happens to another kid who doesn't have a computer and can't remote learn? Why do we switch to remote learning when kids in Philadelphia aren't as fortunate as we are and they can't get to learn? That is a really, really good question, Curtis. And it's something that our office has been working on too. And there were even lighter questions.

For example, one child asked about gum chewing, if there could be some sort of new restriction about depositing gum on the sidewalk because her dog was eating gum and she was worried about her dog getting sick. And so it was fairly interesting just kind of peeking into the minds of these kids and what they're wondering when they have that opportunity to talk to their congressional representative, what's top of mind

and what more they want to know about. Yeah, and also these members of Congress are doing things like trying to source masks and other supplies for their state, advocating for their local communities. You know, constituent services is something that members of Congress do. That's part of their job. But this is at a whole new level.

Exactly. They have to be really creative in terms of how they're helping local officials garner up equipment or connect with members. In another circumstance, I talked to another Pennsylvania Congress member, and this is Scott Perry. He's a Republican, and he set up a call with his constituents and a therapist. She was a trauma expert, and they had some amazing questions to ask there, such as how do you support a friend who's lost someone in this time? And this trauma expert said that communities just need to learn to come together and provide closure in new ways.

For example, send a letter in the mail. We still have that ability. So I learned a lot listening to these folks. It was very fascinating, but it also showed how creative everyone's trying to be to stay connected in their districts. I mean, I'm curious about, you know, we've heard we've seen how even in the sense that, hey, we're all in this together. Is there kind of opportunities where where they are coming together in kind of a mutual fight in this area? Yes. And I did see that. That kind of surprised me because going into it, I expected members just to be setting up their own events. But I also saw a lot of bipartisan work. For example, Senator Lindsey Graham and Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina joined forces with AARP to hold a call where they took questions from seniors, a whole range on this coronavirus response bill, the $2.2 trillion bill they passed just before they left.

And so seniors have a lot of questions. For example, I'm a retiree. Can I get any of these cash payments the government's issuing? Are retirees going to get any of this money? Being a retiree will not keep you from collecting the check. Yeah, let me just add to that. If you're breathing and you have under $75,000, you're going to get a check. Yeah, let me just add to that. If you're breathing and you have $175,000, you're going to get a check. So and that drew some laughs on the call. But yes, I'm seeing that bipartisanship

when it comes to these calls. So that was surprising. So Claudia, there is already talk about the need for phase four, another package of financial support. It's possible that this program for small businesses, which has been extremely popular, that could run out at some point and would need more cash. President Trump's already talked about that. But they can't vote remotely at this point. So what next? So what next is wait and see. Basically, they're due back April 20th. That's the date the Senate and the House set. But whether they actually return on that date remains to be seen.

It depends on where we are in this crisis. There's concerns if they do come back that they could escalate the risks among themselves and others as they travel back to Capitol Hill. So it's a wait and see game right now. They're going to see if they can return then to start working on this fourth coronavirus package. If not, they're just going to continue to negotiate until they strike a deal and they will tie a floor vote to that event. And if possible, come in and set up a floor vote that has social distancing or a quick vote that would require folks to be

separated and try to bring down the risk. But it's mostly a wait and see game right now. All right. Well, we are going to wait and see and we will leave it there for today. We will be back tomorrow. Until then, head to npr.org slash politics newsletter to subscribe to a weekly roundup of our best online analysis. It'll show up in your inbox every Saturday to let you know what happened that week and what it all means. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Franco Ordonez. I also cover the White House. And I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.