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Cuomo Prime Time

Californians Ordered to Stay at Home; New York Hospitals Running Out of Supplies; President Trump Giving False Hopes; Four Members Lost in One Family from Coronavirus; Global Supply Shortage Threatens Lives; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is Interviewed About the Coronavirus Response; Trump Notes Show "Coronavirus" Changed to "Chinese". Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired March 19, 2020 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Hey, everybody. I'm Chris Cuomo. This is special double hour of Prime Time.

There is a ton of news. The big headline is the biggest story in coronavirus since it started in term of moves to fight it.

The governor of California tonight is now making his state the first state in the union to issue a stay at home order for everyone in the state. That's 40 plus million people.

The governor of course, is Gavin Newsom, and says, look, this isn't about us losing. This is how we win the war by buying time to slow the spread and build capacity to treat the worst cases.

Remember, four out of every five cases so far someone got this from someone else who didn't know they it. We're going to get into that.

But first, Erica Hill is tracking some of the other fast-moving developments tonight.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: An alarming prediction from California Governor Gavin Newsom. More than half of his state, 25.5 million people will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period. He's calling on the president in a letter to station the navy Mercy Hospital Ship in L.A. to alleviate the stress in the area's healthcare system.

Meantime, the nation's largest city offering its own stark warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY): We are two weeks or three weeks away from running out. The only way those supplies can be provided in time is through the full mobilization of the United States military. At this point, there's never been a greater no brainer in the history of the republic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Just weeks away from running out of crucial medical supplies. Urgently needed three million N85 masks, 50 million surgery masks, 15,000 ventilators and much more. In Florida, as people continue to flock to the beach the governor says spring break is over. His predecessor going a step further.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): Take some personal responsibility here. Don't infect other people. Don't take a chance that you're going to be the one that's going to cause your grandparents or your parents or another friend from school to get sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: In Miami Dade County all beaches and parks now closed. In Clearwater, they are scheduled to close for two weeks starting Friday. But Governor DeSantis says he does not plan to order a statewide closure.

Three new confirmed cases in the NBA tonight. The Celtics Marcus Smart tweeting he has tested positive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCUS SMART, BASKETBALL PLAYER, BOSTON CELTICS: I can't stress enough practice social distancing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And two L.A. Lakers who are now in quarantine.

As we continue to learn about more positive cases, we can't stress enough this is going to happen as we do more testing.

But another thing that stood out from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio today, he said each one of the cases, speaking specifically about New Yorkers, is a person and it's important to look at them as more than just a number but as members of someone's family, maybe your own members of the community and reminder that we are all in this together and we all need to take care of one another even if that means staying inside as we are seeing across the country. Chris?

CUOMO: You know, we can stay to ourselves and it doesn't mean we're going to be alone. Thank you very much, Erica Hill.

Back now to the brand-new story. The stay at home order for the entire state of California. One in every eight Americans lives in California. Will it work? How long does it go? I want to bring in CNN medical analyst, Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the NYU School of Medicine. It's good to have you, professor.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hey, Chris.

CUOMO: So, what do you make of it? CAPLAN: Well, you know, I think basically everyone should be on this

order. The disease has spread widely. I think, you know, while we are seeing people getting monitored for testing it's pretty fair to assume that a pretty good chunk of Americans have, or carrying the virus and that they could, many of them, infect others.

[23:04:59]

So, I support what the mayor did. But I think it's what the rest of us are going to have to do either voluntarily or as other state officials begin to order it.

CUOMO: I want to take a jump ahead. Because as a bioethicist, I think people don't appreciate the fear factor here. If you don't flatten the curve, if -- because we all know the cases the numbers we're getting now, we know they are fugazi, right, because they're not really testing.

So, whatever they are telling us the number is it's probably something much more than that. At best we have a sense it's going up a lot which should come as no surprise.

If we don't do these types of things, won't there comes a day as a bioethicist that we have the leaders in this country having to decide how many people they'll let die? Because they have to get the economy restarted? Isn't that inevitable?

CAPLAN: I hate to scare people into staying inside getting off the beach and don't go camping and don't have parties where your kids bring their friends over.

CUOMO: But.

CAPLAN: We've got to really do the right thing here or we're going to have a surge of people going into the hospital and overwhelm it. All that flatten the curve means is, Chris, spread out the demand for medical care from the sick.

So, more spread out it is over weeks and months as opposed to all hitting say in three days, in New York City, for example. We don't have the resources, we don't have the beds, we don't have the surplus.

I was looking at the bed numbers in Connecticut here. There's roughly 9,000 in the state of Connecticut, hospital beds. If we had 100,000 people who were infected and I don't know, 15,000 got sick, that's short on beds. But guess what. Sixty percent of the beds are occupied right now.

CUOMO: That's right.

CAPLAN: So, you're going to overwhelm the system and you're going to overwhelm something else. You are going to overwhelm the manpower. Something the doctors and nurses and techs are going to get sick as these things unrolls. We're going to be scrambling to cover as best we can. You know, alternate healthcare providers. And you can't -- you can have a bed if you don't have anybody to staff it, it doesn't do anybody much good.

CUOMO: Absolutely.

CAPLAN: So, again, the point is, cut the demand. Beat back that demand.

CUOMO: But also, look, you know, the job for me is to give people information and to give them some perspective. And one of the concerns, one of the things I'm policing. I don't want to get into politics. I don't want to play that game right now because there's something that's arguably existential.

But I want your take on something. I want to play back to back sound from the president and then Dr. Anthony Fauci who could make a good case he's the most trusted man in America right now. And I want you to take a look at the different messages and assess the impact. Here's the sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A drug called Chloroquine -- and some people would add to it hydroxy, hydroxychloroquine, so chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. Now this is a common malaria drug. We're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.

And that's where the FDA has been great. They have gone through the approval process. It's been approved. And they did it. They took it down from many, many months to immediate. So, we're going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or state.

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Let's make sure people understand what it is. Today, there are no proven safe and effective therapies for the coronavirus. That doesn't mean that we're not going to do everything we can to make things that have even a hint -- there's no magic drug out there right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now look, we all know that I can defend what the president said 10 different ways. People do it all the time. This is what he meant. This is what he said. He's trying to be -- that's not my point.

As a bioethicist people are desperate to figure a way out of a situation they have never seen in their lives. Certainly not firsthand. And I am paralyzed with fear when it comes to mixed messaging. And the idea that it's been approved, it sounds like we're about to have something to help us.

Then you have Anthony Fauci who has to spend time and currency saying there is no such thing. What does that kind of dynamic do?

CAPLAN: Well, Chris, you know, ideology never defeated a virus. And the president, I think is, you know, moving from an ideological position he wants to hold that hope, he wants people to calm down, he wants the markets to stabilize, he wants you and me not to be afraid.

You can't hold out hope of a cure when there is one. By the way, the FDA did nothing for the drug he was talking about. It already is approved. it's been around since 1934.

[23:10:01]

CUOMO: Right.

CAPLAN: Little indication that it might be useful against certain viruses. We don't know if it works against this particularly nasty virus or not.

If you offer false hope here's what happens. The guy who is in the bed his family is coming around saying he's been on the ventilator two is going to get better. I heard the president say there's a treatment, it's going to be here right away.

I heard I was infected says an NBA player, can I take this and protect my family?

You can't have false hope circulating at the same time as this virus is circulating. It's not fair, it's not right to the American people. And pretty soon, you know, what they do they stop listening --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: That's the concern.

CAPLAN: -- to the leadership.

CUOMO: That's the concern. Professor Arthur Caplan, thank you for being reasonable and being righteous in terms of people needing to lock in now to give us the best chance of making it to the other side of this together. Thank you very much.

CAPLAN: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: I'll speak to you soon. Stay healthy. God bless.

It's not about playing got you. It's about making sure that we get you the right information and we don't play with emotions in politics right now. This matters too much.

You want to know how much? This almost took me to my knees. This next family that you're going to meet. I have never heard anything like this. One family, four of their relatives including their matriarch killed by this virus.

And it's not over. Their loved ones are coming on the program tonight because there are so many other of them who are in dire need and they can't get information on their status. You have to hear it. It is hard. But it's so important. Next.

[23:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Grace Fusco, 73, pictured here, matriarch of a large New Jersey Italian family. She died Wednesday. Horrible. But before her death, two of her older children passed away. And now another has followed. Four gone from coronavirus. Several more in the hospital. Nearly 20 other relatives in quarantine. Can you imagine?

I spoke to two of those family members. Roseann Paradiso Fodera and Elizabeth Fusco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right, look, first things first here. I have to tell you, Elizabeth and Roseann, this is an interview I really wish I never had to do. Your family, everything I hear about it reminds me so much of my own.

And to see one family hit this way by something like this is really truly heartbreaking. Please accept my condolences. I'm so sorry for your loss, and Roseann, your loss as well and the entire family. Please relay that.

Now, Roseann, you've been trying to hold it together for the family and talking to people. First, what is it like for you? I know you're an attorney. And sometimes people say that like you're an attorney like that means you have some kind of cape you can put on and not feel everything that's going on. How are you doing? How is the family doing?

ROSEANN PARADISO FODERA, LOST FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS TO CORONAVIRUS: Our family is very sad and for all of the Fusco's. No one ever expected a family of 11 children to be decimated like this. So, it's a surreal environment. On an emotional level I'm trying to just be the family attorney, I've always tried to be for all of them.

CUOMO: In terms of what the family is dealing with, you've lost four such important members of the family already and the matriarch. You still have a lot of people in harm's way, as I understand it. What's the current situation?

FODERA: They certainly do. They have two people, two siblings, the Fuscos has two siblings in grave condition on life support at the same hospital that her mother and her brother and with that. She had an additional sister that is in stable condition. So, we're thankful for that.

We have a long way to go, our biggest concern for the family right now is there are 19 family members that were tested last Saturday that do not have results.

ELIZABETH FUSCO, LOST FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS TO CORONAVIRUS: I mean, the bigger concern as Roseann said with these tests it's not that we just want results to ease our mind. We have a sister on life support who doesn't know -- the doctors don't know if she's positive. And how do they treat someone if they're not have test results? CUOMO: Elizabeth, I don't care about whether or not the shot, you

know, your face is clear or not clear. It's your heart that I want people to know and your voice about what this means to have this much loss during this time.

FUSCO: It is absolutely surreal. I woke up Tuesday morning the baby of 11. My mom called me and said, Lizzie, I don't feel good. Rita don't feel good. Tony don't feel good. Can you come, can you come help us? I said absolutely, ma.

I got there, and my sister Maria said, Elizabeth, you got to go walk the horses. Maria would literally lay on the ground for those horses. So, for her to tell me to walk a horse I knew something was wrong.

To know that two of those women I sat with on Tuesday and nourished and promised everything is going to be OK to is gone? They were the root of our life. That was my mother and my oldest sister. They were everything. Like, it's surreal to think like, who is going to -- it's insane.

[22:20:03]

Now my two oldest brothers. Like, they were the core of the family since my dad has been gone. They have held us together like no other. And it's like the second we start to grieve about one, the phone rings and there's another person gone. Taken from us forever.

It's not like it was one. By the time we got over my first sister, not over, it settled in our brains. We got the next call. I listened to those doctors and those machines code my mother on the phone when she passed last night. I'll never get over that. But I never want to hear that again.

That's why we're just begging for help. We never want to get that call any time soon ever again because of this. We're lost. We lost. It's impossible and I can't -- I want to go get my two sisters and my brother that's left there and be like we're going to be OK, but I don't know that that's true because we have no answers.

CUOMO: Elizabeth, I can't imagine the strength that it takes for you and for Roseann to come forward and talk about this at this time with this kind of loss on your heart. I don't know how you do it. I don't think I'd be able to do it. But God bless you for wanting to express the urgency.

I promise you as soon as we finish this, I'm going to make phone calls to the state. I know it's late. We'll just keep making them and try to find out what's going on so your family can get answers and just know that, you know, family is family. But family is going to take on a new feel in this country. Because everybody is afraid of the same thing and everybody is suffering the same things. And you can't replace what was lost. But I promise you, you will not be alone in this.

And I thank you so much for taking the opportunity especially at this time to talk to me about it. And Roseann, I'll stay in touch with you as counsel for the family and I'll let you know what's happening. And I can't appreciate it enough that you're doing it. I just -- I wish there was more I could say.

FODERA: We really need corporation with the request (Ph) My last phone call tonight was at 7.30. My last e-mail we have had Senator Chris (Inaudible) has been wonderful and his office.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Well, I'll check in. I'll check in with him so that we don't duplicate work. But I promise you --

FODERA: Thank you.

CUOMO: -- the family deserves the information. It's a special situation but it's a special situation in a way that actually is going to benefit that community.

Elizabeth, God bless and please send my best to the family. As we say in Italian, I wish you good luck going forward. We have an expression in bocca al lupo, in the mouth of the wolf. It sounds scary to other people but to Italians it's a source of comfort. And please let me know if there's anything I can do.

FODERA: Thank you.

FUSCO: Absolutely, thank you.

FODERA: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: I know you feel the same way I do. You know, maybe seeing that makes you remember why we have to do everything we can. God forbid some other family has to suffer something like that.

And I promise you we're making calls to the New Jersey officials about the tests. So, we will stay on it. The question is, the need is great in a lot of different ways. What do we do about that? We have a top White House official, next.

[23:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The president's message to desperate healthcare workers not exactly we've got your back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: First of all, governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work and they are doing a lot of this work. The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we're not a shipping clerk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Yes, they are. That's what the power that he invoked today is about. Speeding up manufacturing and getting more things. There are people in the administration who are working like crazy to get supply chain movements going especially when they've been getting a late start. One of the people on the front line is the House trade adviser, White House, Peter Navarro.

Peter Navarro, thank you very much. I really appreciate you taking the time especially with all the urgency. The governors, the governors are coming to you guys. They need help. Obviously, I'm acutely aware of this because my brother is the governor of New York. He's been working hand in hand with the White House.

The idea that the governors have to do for themselves that you guys aren't supply clerks. What does that supposed to mean when the federal government controls the resources and the army core of engineer and the heavy assets that states don't have control of?

PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: So, this is a partnership, Chris. It's the full force of the federal government working closely with private enterprise with the corporation and American people doing their mitigation measures. And with this federal government going out to the grassroots at local level and state level and getting what we need to get done.

[23:29:59]

If I may, I just like to tell you few of things I've been doing since Friday, which may give some comfort to the American people and may explain how we are tackling this problem.

So if I go back to Friday, I got a call from HHS, we needed swabs for testing, and because of some travel restrictions in Italy where these things were being made, in real time, I had to help get the Pentagon sent an airplane over to Italy to pick 800,000 swabs up and get them on to the aircraft.

CUOMO: All right. So, you made kind of like the case of my concern for me, Peter. First of all, God bless you in the efforts on the part of the American people. That's why you're there. They should appreciate you doing the job. You've been put in a bad position though because most of that stuff should have been done months ago and we wouldn't be in the situation that we're in right now.

So what was the lesson learned that is creating this urgency? You're able to get all this stuff done now, a phone call there, a phone call there, Trump time. But it took months to get here when we had warning about this. Where was Trump time then?

NAVARRO: There are a couple of things going on here. I think once this is over, we will get through this, I think it is going to make this nation stronger than it's ever been. But one of my charges here at the White House has been to bring our production back on shore, whether it's machine tools, electronics, steel, aluminum.

We're learning a very harsh lesson in this crisis because you not only lose jobs if you don't have the production here, you can lose rise. And so 10 -- there's 20 countries that provide us $120 billion a year worth of pharmaceutical imports into this country. Ten of them have already imposed some forms of export restriction.

So the bigger lesson I'm learning here, Chris, is that we need to have our supply chains, our essential medicines, our medical equipment basically on shore to produce --

CUOMO: I don't disagree with that --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: The one assumption --

CUOMO: Go ahead.

NAVARRO: -- that you're making is that we haven't been doing anything until last week. It's simply false. I have been working on these problems for six weeks now, trying to get things in line in case there were --

CUOMO: Yeah, but --

NAVARRO: -- and there are a lot of other people in the government who have been doing that as well.

CUOMO: Peter --

NAVARRO: So --

CUOMO: I hear you. I hear you, Peter. But both things can't be true at the same time. You don't get all this stuff done in a week that shows, you know, you can move mountains, and you haven't been able to do anything weeks preceding -- I'm not -- I'm not --

NAVARRO: I like to go back and talk about the weeks --

CUOMO: I know. I'm saying we have been in a situation with testing and swabs and masks --

NAVARRO: Yeah.

CUOMO: -- for weeks. And look, again, I respect what you're doing right now and I appreciate it. I'm sure the American people will as well when they hear it. But there was definitely a delay problem and now you want to put into the code you can only buy in source from America. You just told me you have to fly to Italy to get the swabs.

NAVARRO: I understood --

CUOMO: You can't leave it to just American manufacturing right now. It's going to kill us on timing.

NAVARRO: And of course we're not doing that. We're going to get whatever we need, whenever we need it from whatever source.

CUOMO: But then why require that they buy from the USA, Pete?

NAVARRO: We haven't required that yet, OK? That's the point. If you're talking about an executive order they were working on --

CUOMO: Right.

NAVARRO: -- nothing, Chris. Hear this clearly. Nothing in that order applies to this crisis during COVID-19.

CUOMO: OK, good.

NAVARRO: What we're trying to do is put into place a set of incentives so that we will invest here. There's a couple of things -- another part of that, Chris, which is interesting to me, the whole thing with President Trump has been buy American, deregulate and innovate. This innovation piece is so important.

We have this thing called advanced manufacturing, like 3-D printing continuous manufacturing. It offers us a chance actually to leapfrog the competition to be able to produce our pharmaceuticals cheaper than the rest of the world. Actually, we have them here and make them profitably.

CUOMO: Good.

NAVARRO: And so part of what we're doing now, I'm trying to flip a switch on advanced manufacturing facility within the next 45 days as we work through this. So, I would appreciate it as you cover this, sure, criticize it as you will, but I think a lot of the energy needs to focus now on what we need to do day-to-day for the American people --

CUOMO: No question.

NAVARRO: -- and criticize this at the end. That will be fair game because there is an election --

CUOMO: No question.

NAVARRO: -- but now --

CUOMO: But Peter, it's all fair game.

NAVARRO: -- it's --

CUOMO: It is all fair game.

NAVARRO: Yeah, sure.

CUOMO: I tell you what. I just got off the phone with a family that's lost four of the family members. They are literally decimated by the virus. They can't get test results. And one of the reasons they can't get test results is because we were so woefully behind on testing when we had time to prepare and to get it.

[23:35:03]

CUOMO: If you don't learn the lesson of the past, you're doomed to repeat them. I am very happy to have the audience tonight understand what you're doing --

NAVARRO: Sure.

CUOMO: -- in real time to get it done. But to forget the past --

NAVARRO: I appreciate the time.

CUOMO: -- that created the exigencies of the present would be reckless. I just want to make sure --

NAVARRO: We're moving --

CUOMO: -- we are all in the same page.

NAVARRO: We're on the same page now, Chris, full force of the government, private enterprise, and it's really important that the American people are rising to this occasion simply by staying home and doing their social distancing to the extent that we can flatten that curve, we won't face the kind of vulnerabilities in terms of treatment.

So, my message tonight, Chris, really is that we are doing everything we can now and we will continue to do that. It really makes me proud of this country to see government, business and the American people join together in this. I would prefer an uplifting message here. Just stay on mission on task. I'm a soldier out there, Chris. All I'm concerned about tomorrow is to make sure we get what we can get tomorrow for the next day --

CUOMO: I totally get it.

NAVARRO: -- and pushing, pushing, and pushing about that.

CUOMO: I get what you're doing, but you're not a one-man army, and that's why I asked you about the governors.

NAVARRO: I got the whole agency of government and businesses here.

CUOMO: Right, but I am just saying when the governors are told you're on your own, we're not a supply clerk, they can't build these hospitals and built out this capacity without you, guys, and you know t. I don't know why they're not doing it already.

NAVARRO: Let me just say, Chris, that those are the big issues that are above my pay grade for the task force and other folks. What I can do when I come on the show is I can tell you, look at the other end of the telescope, and tell you what actually happening boots on the ground to help the American people get through the crisis.

CUOMO: I appreciate it. Peter Navarro, I don't want to keep you from the work. Thank you for doing everything that you can.

NAVARRO: I appreciate it.

CUOMO: The need couldn't be greater.

NAVARRO: Keep your family safe.

CUOMO: We will. You do the same. We need you at your best. Thanks.

NAVARRO: Yes, sir.

CUOMO: All right. Here's the good news. They're on it now. And we see Congress on it now. A $1 trillion coronavirus relief plan is taking shape on Capitol Hill. Of course, it is politics. Of course, it is protest. CNN powerhouse, Dana Bash just wrapped up an exclusive interview with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. When would that money get to you? That's the question. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Big problem requires a big solution. Senate Republicans unveiled a $1 trillion stimulus package to deliver desperately needed aide to you. Our own Dana Bash sat down with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for an exclusive interview, which happened before Pelosi and Schumer warned the bill could be a no go.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Leader McConnell, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. The latest coronavirus bill that you unveiled today would, among other things, provide direct payments of up to $1,200 to those earning up to $75,000 a year. Why did you decide on direct payments as opposed to sending that to businesses to use for their employees so they could stay open and maintain payroll?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We're doing both. We're going to provide direct assistance to individuals and small businesses so they can stay open. I mean, this is a government-imposed shut down, if you will, to deal with this pandemic. And so the idea is to act quickly, to send cash directly to both individuals and to small businesses.

BASH: Our understanding is that there a healthy debate inside your conference about whether or not to actually go forward with those direct payments. Where do you stand? Do you think this is a good idea or it this mostly because it's a White House proposal?

MCCONNELL: I don't know what you heard but the goal among all of us, both the White House and Senate Republicans, is to get cash directly into the hands of the American people and small businesses as rapidly as possible.

Dana, let me switch to the rapid part. I talked to Senator Schumer this afternoon. We're going to be meeting tomorrow, not Schumer and myself, but a broader group, both Democrats and Republicans, who have been involved on our side in crafting our proposal, and on his side crafting what they're likely to ask. And the goal is to stay in session. No one has been given permission to leave. We're all here. We're going to stay at this until we can get a bill out of the Senate in the next few days on a broad bipartisan basis and send it over to the House of Representatives.

BASH: The obvious question is why did you insist on only starting the negotiation that you have been having over the past couple of days with Republicans and the White House, obviously all Republicans, instead of making it bipartisan?

I ask you that not as a processed question. It's not a processed question. It is because of the times we're in right now. The question is whether or not that is slowing down the process at a time when Americans need action right now.

MCCONNELL: I'm actually speeding it up. We just passed yesterday a bill that was written in the democratic House of Representatives.

[23:45:02]

MCCONNELL: The Republicans are the majority in the Senate. We want to put forward our proposal. We feel we have an obligation to do that as a majority. And the Democrats, of course, need to be given an opportunity to react. That all begins tomorrow. So, don't create controversy where there isn't controversy.

BASH: No, it's not about controversy. This is about Americans saying we need help and we need help now. I mean --

MCCONNELL: I know. This is the quickest way to get it done. Trust me this is the quickest way to get it done, exactly the way we're doing it.

BASH: Let us talk about now hospitals and medical professionals. I know you're seeing -- you're hearing -- you're probably getting calls from people back home in Kentucky begging for the government to help for personal protective equipment. The CDC even recommended today bandannas or scarves as a last resort. How could this happen in a country like this?

(LAUGHTER)

MCCONNELL: We're moving rapidly on all fronts to try to deal with the shortages where they exist and the private sector across the board has been cooperating as well. This is isn't a pandemic that we have never had before. This is a totally new experience. There isn't a precedent you can look to.

But we are moving as rapidly as we can to try to deal with all the shortcomings and to get help to the American people. That's why we're here. We're trying to operate on a bipartisan basis to do that, and I think we'll succeed.

BASH: I want you to put this in context. You were there on 9/11. I was there, too. I watched you. You were there during the financial meltdown in 2008. How does this compare to those events in terms of danger to Americans and also the congressional response required of you?

MCCONNELL: It's different in a sense that the shutdown, if you will, is being done by the government itself at both the federal state and local level, and we're doing that in order to protect the health of the American people. In effect, as a result of government directives, which emanate from the CDC and others who understand these kinds of pandemics, we are in effect shutting the economy down. We have to because of the public health crisis.

So that is very different from the 2008 financial crisis or the 9/11 when we were hit by terrorists. It's a very different thing. The key to this clearly is to get passed this, to bend the curve as Dr. Fauci continues to tell us, and that requires this kind of isolation that shuts down the economy. It's our job to step in and help people through what we hope will be a short-term shut down of economy.

BASH: I know you know that senators Dick Durbin on the democratic side and Rob Portman on the republican side both spoke on the Senate floor today about bipartisan legislation that they have for senators to vote remotely. What's wrong with that?

MCCONNELL: Well, I agree with Speaker Pelosi. We don't think going to remote voting is a good idea for the House or the Senate. We're dealing with it. We're having longer roll call votes. We are establishing social distancing just like everyone else. We can work around this without dramatically changing the way the Senate operated for over 200 years.

BASH: That was going to be my question. Why? I mean, what is the main reason why you're so opposed to it?

MCCONNELL: I just told you.

BASH: The institution? You don't want to change the institution right now?

MCCONNELL: Not over something that can be dealt with. We're not changing the rules. We're dealing with it successfully without changing the rules.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right, thanks to Dana Bash for that interview with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. We are going to be right back with what we learned tonight, a picture that is certainly worth a thousand words.

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[23:50:00]

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CUOMO: We learned a lot tonight. But only one lesson really matters. You have to stay away from other people as much as you can. It doesn't mean you have to be alone. Families will be together. You can Face Time and video chat. Technology makes it easy, and you know it.

And if you don't do that, you are telling people like the Fuscos that you met tonight that you don't care that they lost four of their family already, including their mother. This isn't a guilt trip, it's the truth, and you know it.

Why do you think the governor in a state like California of 40 plus million would tell everyone to stay home? One in every eight Americans lives here. Why would he do that? It is because it's all we've got against the virus: shelter in place, curfew, self-isolation, whatever you want to call it.

It's not proof that we're losing. It is the best way to win. You know what gets me is you get it here: less contact, less spreading, less strain on the system, better chance to treat the worst cases. We told you again and again, four out of five cases are transmitted by people who didn't know they had the virus.

And by the way, my young and strong brothers and sisters, 40 percent of the cases are youth. Stay home. And to leaders, we learned you got to stay true. Don't promise us false hope. Don't tell us there are solutions when there aren't. We are the solution, but we can also be the cause of more pain.

[23:55:03]

CUOMO: That goes for the president, too. Take a look at his briefing notes, OK? Look what he did. They didn't touch anything on the page that I'm sure somebody else wrote except to change "corona" in virus to "Chinese." His job is to reassure us, OK? To let us know that we will get through this.

The word "coronavirus" crossed out and changed to "Chinese." Who does that help? We don't need an enemy. We have one, the virus. Trump doesn't need to slide blame. We know how we got here. This is not about China. It's about us. We are the solution. We must be together.

Thank you for watching. Stay tuned. The news continues on CNN.

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