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S.E. Cupp Unfiltered
The President On Friday Declared A National Emergency To Fight Coronavirus; Coronavirus Looms Over Presidential Election; Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden Face Off In Debate Sunday; Illinois Gov: Meals For Students In Need Will Still Be Provided. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired March 14, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
S.E. CUPP, CNN HOST: Welcome to UNFILTERED. I'm S.E. Cupp. Here's tonight's headline: State of Emergency. The President on Friday declared a national emergency to fight coronavirus and laid out a public-private partnership to control a viral pandemic that's already had a six-week head start.
In addition to freeing up $50 billion in funds, Trump says the declaration will loosen regulations to allow for more testing, pave the way for drive-thru testing stations in Walmart's, Walgreens and Target parking lots, waived interest on Federal student loans. All of that in addition to resources provided in a Bipartisan Relief Bill passed by the House early this morning and supported by the President, which includes free testing.
This afternoon, the President highlighted cooperation between local and Federal government, as well as between the parties.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's been a tremendous amount of coordination with states, with cities and they are a little smaller form of government and they have things going well, they're coordinating with us.
We also reached an agreement yesterday on a new legislative package that will provide strong support for American families and communities in dealing with the coronavirus. So it was done very, very bipartisan. It was very nice to see it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: And let me underscore these were all very good things to do, especially after a series of disastrous public addresses, clarifications, walk backs, and stock market freefall.
But we are still looking at an uphill battle. As Dr. Anthony Fauci reminded us earlier today, we have not reached our peak. We are still lagging behind other countries in testing and it will take some time to scale up.
You can see that here in a "Financial Times" graph from Tuesday. Making this alarming facts infinitely worse, the President has misled the public about it and other important data points.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When you compare what we've done to other areas of the world, it's pretty incredible. A lot of that had to do with the early designation and the closing of the borders.
No nation is more prepared or more equipped to face down this crisis, as you know, we are rated number one in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: In China, the epicenter of the pandemic, new hospitals were being built in a matter of days. South Korea and Germany quickly set up drive-thru testing stations and launched massive coordinated public information campaigns to educate citizens on preventative measures.
We're also still dealing with a trust deficit. The President yesterday misled the public about a national scale website for coronavirus testing being developed by Google. Listen to his words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Google is helping to develop a Web site, it's going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: But Google quickly contradicted that saying that ain't happening anytime soon. The pilot program it's developing for California-based patients will only be available to the broader population over time. That's a really important clarification for people who are awaiting these kinds of services.
The President who for weeks downplayed the severity of the outbreak also contradicted his own experts' advice to us about best practices and when to get tested, refusing to do so himself even after being exposed to someone diagnosed with COVID-19.
Finally today, he said he has been tested and is awaiting the results.
Also today, the White House tacked the U.K. and Ireland on to the Europe travel ban days after everyone wondered why those countries were initially not a part of it, giving still more of a sense that they're figuring this out as they go.
But worst of all, politicking during the time of global health crisis when Americans are scared, sick, and in some cases dying is needless to say the opposite of leadership.
And yet to deflect from their failures, Trump and his campaign are blaming everybody else, from Democrats to Obama to the Fed, even calling his political opponents a rotting corpse. Shame on them.
(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?
TRUMP: No, I don't take responsibility at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: Here's the deal. We are the greatest nation on Earth and we can do better than this.
[18:05:04]
CUPP: Over the course of my week, I found myself reflecting back often on 9/11. That horrific day is indelibly stamped on my body like a tattoo -- I never want it.
I was here in Manhattan. I saw it with my own eyes. And in the moments, days, weeks and months following, I saw the best of people and I saw the worst of people.
The fears then were very much the same. Fears over markets crashing, the economy stopping, businesses closing, more attacks.
Were our subways and public transportation safe? Were our schools, our airports, our borders? Would these attacks as it were go airborne in the form of biochemical weapons?
I saw xenophobia. I'll never forget personally witnessing angry Americans running up to cab drivers and yelling, you did this. Never mind that the cab driver was usually a turban wearing Sikh who had nothing to do with anything on 9/11.
This week, a friend of mine saw this poster in a New York subway station. To be clear, this is not an official MTA sign. It's meant to look like one by a campaign to discourage hate, and stereotyping, of which we have seen far too much.
The similarities between those days and weeks after 9/11 and now are really striking for me. So I hope that we can learn some important lessons from that awful time.
For starters, fear and division only begets more fear and division. Strong leadership means putting politics and personal ego aside, coming together as Americans and doing what's right, not covering your own ass.
Congress too should be cautious. Remember, in the months after 9/11 we got some very good legislation, but we also got some very bad legislation.
Let's be careful not to overreact in ways that we will pay for years from now.
Information is also crucial. Keeping the public informed with accurate and useful information was key to calming fears then. Conversely, when we acted as a nation on bad information, well, we got
nothing short of a war.
Federal government can make things better by giving us solid facts or it can make things much, much worse by allowing lies and falsehoods to spread.
As citizens and business owners, we too, can play apart. Companies that are refunding payments for canceled services or media outlets that are taking down paywalls for corona coverage, small businesses that are offering discounts to much needed services. They're all doing the right thing.
We can donate to food banks, clothing and toiletries to shelters. Even just calling an isolated friend or senior citizen to check in can go a long way.
We can get through this, but the decisions we are making right now will determine what kind of country we are on the other side.
Okay, I want to start the show with some real talk. What everyone needs to know right now about this moment that we're in. Joining me to help deliver some news you can use Dr. Seema Yasmin who investigated disease outbreaks at the C.D.C. and Dr. James Phillips, Chief of Disaster and Operational Medicine at the George Washington University Hospital. Both are CNN medical analysts.
Dr. Yasmin, yesterday's emergency declaration is a welcome move. What immediate effect do you hope it has?
DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER CDC EPIDEMIC INVESTIGATOR: So with an emergency declaration like that, under the Stafford Act, it does free up to $50 billion for states and territories to do things like bring in medical supplies and allow states and territories to ask the Federal government for a 75 percent kosher with those things.
The thing that I am so concerned about is the speed at which this will be disseminated because fighting epidemics is a race against the virus, you have to be fast.
The viruses are really fast and they outwit us. We've already seen so many delays and what I'm hearing now, I am getting frantic quite disturbing text messages from doctors and nurses all the way from Boston to LA saying their healthcare systems are not ready.
Flu actually is still spiking across the states, and especially in some communities, they're already feeling burdened and overwhelmed.
Now they're being asked to reuse masks. They're not being given proper protocols about how business will operate within the healthcare system.
They feel like in some instances, business is kind of going on as usual when it shouldn't be. While are still general annuals happening when we need to be ramping up to treat those people who ultimately wants to test get out will be diagnosed. CUPP: Dr. Phillips, can we expect access to large scale testing to be
more available soon and to Dr. Yasmin's point, will we be ready when we get it?
DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER AND OPERATIONAL MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Well, I've tried to educate my residents and fellows on a couple of important facts about testing.
[18:10:03]
PHILLIPS: And first of all, all I can say is I hope we have access to point of care testing where we have the machines and the test closer to our patients, as opposed to sending them off in the mail for a few days.
Now, what's important about the test is, it is not a matter of just the kits, which are the swabs and the test tubes, but about the machinery and the reagents necessary to run those tests.
I'm hopeful we have them soon, but we have to prepare as though we're not going to have those tests.
CUPP: Dr. Yasmin, our hospitals are, as you alluded, caring for patients with all kinds of medical needs from the flu to you know, pregnant women, kids with broken legs, I mean, all kinds of stuff.
It seems a risky place to send a corona probable patient, possible patient to a hospital. Why can't we and maybe I'm being naive, but why can't we turn sort -- you know our urgent care facilities into corona only triage centers for now so that we can spare our hospitals and everyone in there from, you know, from exposure to this virus unnecessarily?
YASMIN: So we are starting to see that happen in some places. We're seeing drive-thru testing happen. We're seeing triage units being set up in parking lots, for example.
The thing that still really perplexes and frustrates me is this whole concept of drive-thru testing and triage, which is a pretty clever idea emerged from the Bay Area 10 years ago. So we've been here before. We had pandemic flu in 2009 and some brilliant scientists and doctors right here in California said, what could we do better the next time? Let's use this idea of drive-thru testing.
What have we seen here? We haven't seen it really rolled out in the states in a meaningful way. We've seen brilliant videos from South Korea, though, of the healthcare system, they're using that exact method.
And now what we've seen is a quarter of a million tests done in South Korea, and a tiny fraction of that here in the U.S., probably fewer than 20,000 if we're really getting accurate numbers.
CUPP: Dr. Phillips, I was having this conversation with my husband this week, and I'm sure many other people were having the same exact conversation. What do we do if one person in our household is sick? Do we all self-quarantine together? Maybe then passing whatever we have to the rest of our family? Do we isolate the sick person to like a sick room in the house? How would you handle that? How would you tell us to handle that?
PHILLIPS: It's a difficult question, because not everybody has the luxury of having a separate room where you can live for two weeks or however long we're still waiting to be told we're going to be contagious.
Ideally, yes, you would isolate that person specifically and leave the others healthy. If you don't have that luxury, everybody has to assume they have it.
In fact, you know what I'm preaching today, and the message I'm trying to get out now is that we're so far behind on testing. There's only one way that we can be certain not to transmit the virus and be certain not to get it ourselves and that is that we need to start treating every person as though they have this and everyone needs to treat us like we have it and socially distance ourselves in that manner.
Because until we have testing, we don't know who has this, and we're not sure when they start spreading it.
CUPP: It's such a good point and you know, you can start to feel paranoid doing that, but I know, you know, just coming into my office and working with a few people that I really have to, to do this show tonight.
You know, you really start to think about how much contact you come into with other people just on a day-to-day basis and you have to take -- you have to take these precautions.
Dr. Yasmin, Dr. Phillips, thank you so much for your time. And that really important information tonight. I appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: Thanks for having us.
CUPP: The President has at times seem to put keeping his job ahead of doing his job during this crisis. Will that make keeping his job even harder? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:17:48]
CUPP: During his Rose Garden Press Conference yesterday, the President was asked point blank if he is responsible for the country's coronavirus testing failures. The man who famously said, I alone can fix it in 2016 denied all responsibility. Things only got worse from there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YAMICHE ALCINDOR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS: 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 responsibilities do you take to 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 because of the quick closing.
And when you say me, I didn't do it. We have a group of people, I could -- 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)
CUPP: This crisis is without a doubt, the biggest test of Trump's presidency, and at least according to most Americans, he isn't meeting the challenge. Not yet anyway.
In a new ABC News/IPSOS poll, 54 percent of Americans say they disapprove of Trump's corona response and 43 percent approve. This has opened the president up for attacks from his challengers on the Democratic side, giving them a prime opportunity to offer an alternative vision of leadership. Here was Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This administration has left us woefully unprepared for the exact crisis we now face.
When I'm President, we will be better prepared, respond better and recover better.
We'll lead with science. We'll listen to the experts. We will heed their advice, and we'll build American leadership and rebuild it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: And on the same day, here was Bernie Sanders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As people stay or work from home, and are directed to quarantine, it will be easy for us to feel like we are all alone. If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together, this is that moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:20:06]
CUPP: Here to discuss is Assistant Editor at "The Washington Post" David Swerdlick. David, you know, you can say now is not a time for politics. But here's politics to come knocking at the door, saying we're in the middle of an election, not to mention politics is on display, you know, on the floor of Congress when they're passing legislation to combat coronavirus. So, politics matters right now, fortunately or otherwise. And look,
healthcare and the economy were already the top two issues for voters going into these elections. So how in your mind, does coronavirus impact these campaigns?
DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, good afternoon, S.E. I think it focuses the public's and the government's mind on what really matters.
Look, President Trump is in some senses just on a political scale reaping what he has sown in terms of criticizing his predecessors, criticizing the idea that government can be competent and work for people.
And now that he's not just sort of playing President on TV, but has to command in a crisis, and he is not doing that well, so far, at least in the estimation of the public.
He is facing some backlash from an atmosphere that he helped create. That exchange you played with our colleague, Yamiche Alcindor, from PBS showed that he does not like to take that criticism, and in some ways, still hasn't embraced the idea that the buck stops with him ultimately.
In terms of those issues, healthcare and the economy. Now, we're in a situation where one is sort of following the other. If there can be some consensus among Congress with the White House in terms of the bill they passed last night, in terms of the issues that go forward in this campaign about what to do about healthcare and the health crisis, it might help the economy level out.
If there's still the public's lack of confidence in what the government is doing about healthcare, there will probably be some lack of confidence in those markets as well.
CUPP: Well, and Trump is trying to mitigate some of the bad news by boasting about anything he can. He boasted about our unprecedented response being the best in the world. That's not true. I wish it were.
He also sent supporters of his signed graph showing like an autographed graph showing the stock market rebounding during his Friday press conference. That is gross.
But how is this posturing likely to go over with voters, especially his who, you know, respond pretty well to his posturing?
SWERDLICK: Well, I don't think he's going to lose the hardcore Republican voters yet, but he risks that in a way that he hasn't before in this presidency, S.E.
You're right, sending out that signed chart is gross. It is good news that the markets had a small rebound on Friday.
CUPP: Yes, of course.
SWERDLICK: But he has coughed up most of the gains since he was inaugurated. As of Friday's close, he is up 17 percent since Inauguration Day, on this same day in Obama's administration, he was up 66 percent in the Dow.
Trump is aware of that. He's nervous about that. And I think that is driving some of his response to this crisis. When instead, if he just focused on the crisis, the markets would probably respond in his favor.
CUPP: Right. Biden and Sanders are preparing to debate on Sunday night, as you know, do you expect Trump to be the main target now? Or are they likely to stick to you know, the original game plan which was to attack each other?
SWERDLICK: I think the President has made it easy for Senator Sanders and Vice President Biden to attack him. I think the debate will start out with them commenting on his slow leadership.
I mean, if we were where we were now, a month ago, things might look different. But there will become a point in this debate, S.E., where it will start to look like a pile on and I do think Sanders and Biden will have to go back to talking about their proactive agenda for after we get past this crisis.
It's a fine line between taking some shots and really looking like you're kicking the President when he's down in a situation where everybody in the country is relying on the President.
CUPP: Just quickly before we go, if we come out of this crisis fairly strong, and I hope that we do.
SWERDLICK: I hope so, too.
CUPP: Doesn't that boosts Trump's reelection efforts in ways that Biden and Sanders can't compete with -- shouldn't compete with?
SWERDLICK: I think it's hard to predict just because we don't know what will happen six weeks or six months from now. But I think if you're the President, you have to go forward thinking, look, now, I'm not bulletproof anymore.
And if you're either Vice President Biden or Senator Sanders and you wind up as the nominee, you've got to think look, I've got to have my a game on every single day until Election Day. There's no other sort of filler candidates to hide behind.
When they debate on CNN tomorrow night, it's just going to be sort of man-to-man and people are really going to see what the two remaining viable candidates are made of.
CUPP: David Swerdlick, thanks so much, my friend. I appreciate that.
SWERDLICK: Thanks, S.E.
[18:25:10]
CUPP: So what can we expect in the coming weeks and months when it comes to the 2020 election? Will you even be able to vote? Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUPP: The coronavirus pandemic is significantly altering plans all across the world and the 2020 Presidential Election will be no exception.
[18:30:00]
On Tuesday, four states; Ohio, Arizona, Florida and Illinois are scheduled to hold their primaries, at least for now. Louisiana just postpone their primary scheduled for April 4 to June. It isn't a case of if coronavirus concerns will impact the elections, it's when. In fact, Foreign Policy magazine floated this idea, "It's time to cancel the U.S. presidential campaign as we know it."
The candidates are behaving cautiously, former Vice President Joe Biden held a virtual town hall yesterday. Senator Bernie Sanders and President Trump have also cancelled rallies and public events in all three presidential campaigns, have instructed some staff to work from home.
But what about the conventions? There are some talk of virtual DNCs and RNCs this year. But this is what DNC Chair Tom Perez told Axios' Jonathan Swan on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM PEREZ, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR: I'm confident that we can work a plan that will enable us to have our convention. We're monitoring every single day. I'm pretty confident.
JONATHAN SWAN, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: If you have to, though, can you pull off an online convention?
PEREZ: We'd have to change the rules. So we're not contemplating rules changes.
SWAN: Right.
PEREZ: And I'm very confident that we're going to be able to carry it off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: Joining me now former New York Democratic Congressman, former Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Joe Crowley. Joe, you know Tom Perez, what's he confronting right now as the party tries to plan its debates, its convention, its primaries amidst a time of cancel everything and social distancing?
FORMER REP. JOE CROWLEY (D-NY): Well, S.E., we're in totally uncharted waters at this point and pardon the pun that campaigns of themselves are not immune from this virus itself.
CUPP: Yes. CROWLEY: And so I do think moving forward, it's going to be
interesting to see. And I think Tom has his work cut out for him, but let's keep in mind that the conventions are still off into the summer months in July and August. So there's going to be time here, I think, for planning to make adjustments.
But we do see the impact already on other campaigns, not only the presidential but going down the ticket. I can speak for New York itself, Governor Cuomo, once again has shown, I think, tremendous leadership in reducing the number of signatures that are needed to get on the ballot for every office from assembly, Senate, all the way to Congress and really limiting the amount of time to retrieve those signatures to be eligible to be on the ballot.
So even though the New York primary for office holders is not until June. The campaigns are already in full swing and adjustments are being made as we speak.
CUPP: So Joe Biden tried a virtual town hall this week and it was marked by technical glitches, including garbled audio, blank screens, confusion, what should the campaigns be doing to shift campaign strategies in ways that are not detrimental?
CROWLEY: Right. Well, I think even just the attention to do that is laudable.
CUPP: Yes.
CROWLEY: I think we're really dealing with this in all facets. I'm a fellow at Georgetown and we're preparing now for classes via the internet as well and seminars and things like that and such. So this disruption, as I said before, is affecting every corner of life and certainly campaigns as well.
I do think we're, again, uncharted territory. They're going to try to, I think in baby steps in some respects, try to figure out a way to communicate, because it's critical. We can't suspend our elections. We have to hold these elections. They're critical. We all know that. I think people are trying to work their way through it.
CUPP: Well, we have to hold these elections and yet Louisiana just postponed its primary. I mean, what are the real consequences of that for voters and the campaigns?
CROWLEY: Well, what they did do is move it, I think, from April, as you mentioned, to June.
CUPP: Yes.
CROWLEY: And so that's pushing it back just a bit. It will make a difference. I mean, people were anticipating that day. They have their budgets in place in terms of how their mailings and when things are going to hit, et cetera, et cetera.
But I do think, again, given the circumstance under that, people have to make those adjustments and have to follow through as such. CUPP: So what about voter turnout? Older people, as you know, vote.
They also volunteer to work the polls.
CROWLEY: Right.
CUPP: Should Democrats be worried about the impact that coronavirus will have on a population that is considered vulnerable?
CROWLEY: Well, I think the Democrats are highly motivated in many respects. This is certainly a challenge. But Democrats are incredibly motivated this year. And again, just going back to what Governor Cuomo has done in New York, he's extended the period by which people can make application for absentee ballots, for instance.
We now have early voting in many states, including New York. I think that's going to help at least alleviate the stress at the polling sites themselves and give people the opportunity to vote onto their terms as opposed to having to go actually on election day itself.
CUPP: In-person. Yes, I think that's really important.
CROWLEY: Yes.
CUPP: I remember, I'm sure you do too, back in 2008.
[18:35:03]
I was covering that campaign when the economy was hit and John McCain suspended his campaign against Barack Obama, history will judge that in its own way. But do you expect anything like that from any of the candidates should any of them consider that?
CROWLEY: It's possible. They actually suspended also to come back to Washington to vote --
CUPP: That's right.
CROWLEY: -- on TARP and on legislation. So I thought that was very laudable for them to do that, both Barack Obama and John McCain.
CUPP: Yes.
CROWLEY: But, S.E., just to bring a point, I think, dramatic point, the primary in New York was suspended on 9/11, in 2001, that was primary day in New York. And many looking back would say that it had an incredible impact on the future of New York.
Many would argue that Mike Bloomberg may never have become mayor have that not happened and that it's quite possible to Freddy Ferrer would have defeated Mark Green during that battle. I know that's maybe - not all of your viewers know what I'm talking about.
CUPP: I do.
CROWLEY: I know you do. But it had a real impact on the future of New York City's leadership and the same can be said here. We just don't know. It's too early to say just what that impact will be. But we all know it's impacting our daily lives in so many ways. It certainly is going to affect elections as well.
CUPP: Wow. Thanks for putting all of that in perspective former Congressman Joe Crowley.
CROWLEY: Sure, S.E.
CUPP: Appreciate it.
OK, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders square off in their first one on one debate tomorrow. For Sanders, the stakes could not be higher or could they be lower? I don't know. It depends on how you look at it.
And a little later, 21 million kids have experienced a coronavirus related school closure so far. For too many of them that means they won't get a nutritious meal. I'll tell you how to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:41:17]
CUPP: In The Red File tonight, the Sanders' strategy after another Super Tuesday route by Joe Biden who won every county in Michigan. Sanders announced this week, he ain't going anywhere. The math as Andrew Yang told us is not on his side. He'd have to sweep every single remaining primary state by an average of 12 points.
Sanders himself seems to acknowledge the unlikelihood of this and yet he's still in it to win it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, my long-term goal is to win. The short-term goal is to figure out how we deal with the issues that you guys are appropriately raising.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: Joining me now is Monica Klein, progressive strategist and Bernie Sanders supporter. Monica be straight with me, does Sanders think he can win or is there another reason you think he's staying in the race?
MONICA KLEIN, PROGRESSIVE STRATEGIST: I think he can absolutely win. Look, we've in this race seen four frontrunners in for weeks. Things happen to change overnight.
CUPP: Yes.
KLEIN: But I think he has a real message that will work with the American people, especially right now we're in a massive healthcare crisis. This is the only candidate who has been putting forward solutions to a massive healthcare crisis not just for a year on the campaign trail, not just in the past week since we've seen coronavirus, but actually for decades. He's been talking about health care for all. He's been talking about
paid sick leave and these are the issues that voters are demanding right now. And I think that's what you'll see on the debate stage tomorrow night.
CUPP: Yes. And, I mean, it makes total sense to me that he wants to keep his priorities. Those priorities that you just talked about, those policies that he's been talking about forever in the spotlight that maybe he's trying to force Joe Biden's hand a bit to move closer to his position. But Biden's ahead right now because he's been running on his positions on those issues. Why would Biden suddenly adopt Sanders when it's been working for him?
KLEIN: I don't know that Biden is going to suddenly adopt Bernie Sanders' positions, but I think that Bernie feels like the path forward is to continue focusing on the issues that he's talked about and I think they're even more relevant today than before. I think voters really will respond to someone who's talking about how do you afford health care when there's a virus going on and can't actually go to the doctor's office. What will I do if I lose my job and I don't have unemployment insurance?
And this is a leader who has been consistent on these issues. Now is the moment where we really need a leader who will put forward solutions that are as big as the scale of the crises that we're facing and so far only Bernie Sanders has been doing that.
CUPP: I get that and he's been putting those solutions forward. It has not amounted to a national campaign with a pathway to the President should he maybe take those pieces positions off the campaign trail, do something to consolidate the votes, but behind them a candidate who does have that pathway?
KLEIN: Again, as I said I think that whoever is leading it seems to switch overnight and there are a lot of delegates left on the table. I think he's still in, because he still sees a path for himself. And he believes that we need to have a real primary to be. Primaries make the Democratic Party stronger. We need to have an argument over the ideas. Are we a party of moderation or are we a party of big government solutions and ideas.
And right now in the midst of a coronavirus, we really, I think, need to see who is going to put forth the leadership, the solutions and kind of the temperament that we need, especially when we have Trump in the White House who refuses to lead.
CUPP: Monica. Thank you. I'm hoping that after the debate and maybe another primary, you'll come back and we can talk --
KLEIN: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
CUPP: -- about how it all went down, OK.
When we come back, 21 million kids impacted by coronavirus school closures.
[18:45:01]
That disruption has parents on edge especially when food insecurity is already an issue. I'll explain next
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:49:47]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you see all these school closures, when you see - the school closures are very important but it causes a lot of problems. The bill that we signed yesterday takes care of a lot of those problems with children staying at home and their parents are working.
[18:50:00]
Now we take care of that issue with what we passed last night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: That was President Trump earlier today touting the bipartisan bill passed by the House that will, among other things, address the impact of school closures on families living in food insecurity. According to a press release from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the bill provides $1 billion in food assistance funding, including to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP that benefits needy families.
Schools across the nation are shutting down in response to the coronavirus pandemic and it's already affecting at least 21 million students. The disruption this causes cannot be understated. For one, those are kids who aren't getting a formal education right now. Daily routines are up ended for kids and parents who work and can't afford to stay home.
But for many families, it's worse. One in seven children lives with food insecurity. For them school is often their only opportunity to get a nutritious meal. When schools are closed, that very real problem goes from bad to worse. So how can we help?
Joining me now is Lisa Davis, Vice President of the No Kid Hungry Campaign. Lisa, I know that No Kid Hungry was calling on Congress to help fill these gaps during school closures. Does the House bill, which the Senate and Trump are expected to support doesn't go far enough?
LISA DAVIS, SENIOR VP, NO KID HUNGRY CAMPAIGN: I think it is a very, very significant step towards making sure that all of those low income kids that are going to be out of school for the next several weeks can get enough to eat. There are really important flexibilities and funding for schools and communities that will enable them to better respond and reach those kids while they're out of school and resources to help families replace the value of those school meals so that they can feed their kids at home. CUPP: Well, a number of communities are handling this at the state
level. The Illinois Governor announced that school meals for students in need will still be provided through delivery and parent pickup. That feels like a very efficient way to bridge the gaps.
DAVIS: I think in this unprecedented crisis, we need to make sure that every community has the tools that they need to reach their kids wherever they are. And there's no one answer to that.
CUPP: Yes.
DAVIS: There are many pieces that need to come into place. A home delivered meals, pick up meals, extra funding for families to get more groceries when they go shopping, all of those are critical pieces. Funding for food banks and more funding for programs like WIC and SNAP.
CUPP: Yes. So the other day I tweeted a list of food banks in states and cities where schools had closed. But if you live in a remote or rural area without access to food banks or food pantries, are there other resources for you? What would you tell those Americans right now?
DAVIS: Well, I think rural areas really do face unique challenges. One of the best ways to reach them and why this was such an important component of the legislation is to make sure that they're getting resources on an EBT card so that when they're shopping for groceries, they can buy additional food, recognizing that there's not an easy place to go to pick up food or a pantry that they can turn to.
CUPP: And if you live in or near a school closure area, I do, how can you safely donate food to families in need without compromising anyone's health? No one wants to do that, but a lot of people I hear from want to help. They want to help fill in those gaps even if it's one can have super box of cereal at a time.
DAVIS: Well, I would say your local food bank is always your best place to donate. If you can donate funds, that's usually preferable to food because they're monitoring the different foods that they have to distribute and can use those funds to purchase food to fill in the gaps to make sure that they have a well rounded selection of nutritious food to go to kids.
If you are donating, of course, stick with non-perishables and usually your local food bank on their website will have information about how to make those donations.
CUPP: Well, and that's such a good point because donating funds is something we can do most of us without leaving our houses. We can go, I know, I donated online to a food pantry down the street from me, but it just felt like a better way to do that. That's a really good message for people who either can't bring food to a pantry or don't want to for all the understandable reasons.
DAVIS: Right. And that way we can make sure that the pantry isn't being overrun with a lot of macaroni and cheese but not any proteins to give to the kids.
CUPP: So important. Lisa Davis from No Kid Hungry. Thanks, as always, for all the work you do and thanks for coming on tonight.
DAVIS: Thanks for having me and for highlighting this really important issue.
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CUPP: All right. Thank you.
DAVIS: Thank you.
CUPP: At home, you guys have coronavirus questions. I get it. CNN's new podcast has has answers. Listen to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Coronavirus: Fact or Fiction wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
That's it for me. CNN NEWSROOM is next.
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