So when it comes to President Trump and the coronavirus pandemic, it's been off again, on again.

First, he called it a hoax. As evidence mounted, he finally declared war. But now, eight days into a two-week battle,

he may be ready to stop deploying his principal weapon, social distancing.

I'd love to have it open by Easter. Okay, I would love to have it open by Easter. I will tell

you that right now. I would love to have that. It's such an important day for other reasons,

but I'll make it an important day for this too. I would love to have the country opened up and

just raring to go by Easter.

Now that's despite warnings about sickness and death and the likely collapse of America's medical system.

So how are the American people responding to Trump going back and forth?

According to the most recent polls, it's all about politics.

That's according to Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic and CNN. Now, when you hear what Ron had to say, there will be a faint echo.

He and I were both at our homes, using a new recording system for the first time. The echo's

annoying, but we've cut the interview down to minimize it,

and Ron's comments are so important. We thought you, our listeners, would be willing to put up with

it. So here it is. I began asking him about polls showing that fundamental as the pandemic is,

it has to go through a political filter. Yeah, what we're learning, I think, in this, among other things that we're learning in this pandemic,

is just how durable and pervasive the red-blue divide is in modern American life.

There's still a big gap between the share of Republicans and Democrats who describe it as a serious problem,

who say they have changed their lifestyle in response

to it. And there's a similar gap between rural and urban over, you know, both both the nature

of the threat and the kind of response that is required to contain it. Ron says the divide

between red and blue is evident, not just in public opinion polls,

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