JUDY WOODRUFF: An evening briefing by the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House
wrapped up moments ago.
And our Yamiche Alcindor joins us now for the very latest.
So, Yamiche, we know, among other things, the president was talking about the compromise
legislation that the Senate passed late last night, now headed to the House of Representatives.
What is the president saying about how much this is going to help?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, the president is saying that this bill is going to help people who
badly need the help.
And he also says that he's eager to sign it. So, he's urging again the House to pass it
and for it to end up on his desk. He could sign it as early as this week.
I do want to walk through one big thing that this shows that Republicans and Democrats
were compromising. And that's how passenger airlines were dealt with in this bill.
To put up for people, the thing that's going on here is that you're getting $25 billion
for worker salaries and benefits. This money would not need to be repaid directly, but
airlines may offer the government some stock to compensate taxpayers.
There's another $25 billion in loans and loan guarantees. Now, airlines had been lobbying
aggressively for direct grants, and not just loans. But that was a compromise.
And there's also $3 billion for contract workers. Those are people who help with baggage, who
help with ticketing. So it's not just only airline employees, but contractors that are
getting the help.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, separately, Yamiche, at this briefing, we understand the president
was asked about and talked about those huge new numbers of unemployment claims, 3.3 million
people filing for claims just in the last week.
What is he -- what is he, what are White House official saying about it?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, these unemployment claim numbers are stunning, 3.3 million people
in the last week filing unemployment claims.
The president said it's no one's fault, but he also talked about the fact that this means
that Americans need to get back to work.
Here's what he said just moments ago from the White House:
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I heard the number. I mean, I heard it could
be six million could be seven million. It's 3.3 or 3.2.
But it's a lot of jobs. But I think we will come back very strong. The sooner we get back
to work -- every day that we stay out, it gets harder to bring it back very quickly.
And our people don't want to stay out.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: So, the president there stressing again that he really wants to try
to get people back to work.
He has said that he wants to get people back as early as Easter Sunday, which would be
only in about 17 days. That said, there are health officials who are saying we have not
reached the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. So they're not sure whether or not we're even
going to know how bad this outbreak might get at the time when the president wants to
bring people back to work.
Another thing, Secretary -- Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, he talked about these unemployment
claims, and he said these are irrelevant numbers, that people shouldn't focus too much on them.
He said that because he thinks things might get worse and likely will get worse.
As you heard, the president said he was thinking there might be six million, even seven million
unemployment claims. So, Judy, we might see even more staggering numbers as the weeks
go on.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Sounds like they're expecting it to get worse.
And, finally, Yamiche, what are they saying at this point about efforts to address this
coronavirus pandemic head on and what's needed in this country?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, there continues to be this tension between the federal government
and the White House and state governments and governors.
The president today held a call with governors. There was some back and forth. The president
said it wasn't a too contentious call. But the president also had a back-and-forth with
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee.
Jay Inslee said, after the president said the federal government should be a backup,
the governor said, "We don't need a backup, we need a Tom Brady," referring to the Super
Bowl champion Tom Brady, talking about the fact that the federal government needs to
be doing more.
So you hear a lot of governments -- governors saying, we want more.
And the president also wrote a letter to governors today saying that he's thinking about maintaining,
reducing or increasing social distancing mitigation measures. He said that's going to be based
on data.
A part of that letter, we will put up for people. It says the government is thinking
about categorizing counties as high risk, medium risk or low risk.
So you have there President Trump again pushing forward, trying to get people back to work
sooner. But you even have some Republican governors, including Larry Hogan in Maryland,
saying, well, we need help with testing facilities on that call.
So, even as President Trump is writing to governors saying, we need to get this ball
rolling and get the government back up, you have both Democrats and Republicans telling
the president, wait, we still need more resources, and we still need to figure out how bad this
is going to get.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Striking that there's still this kind of disagreement at such a high level.
Yamiche Alcindor, reporting for us from the White House, thank you, Yamiche.