Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont joins Influencers with Andy Serwer

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont joins Influencers with Andy Serwer to discuss the role of government amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Video Transcript

ANDY SERWER: In this time of crisis, America turns to its elected officials to lead us through the darkness and at some point, back on the path to recovery. Connecticut governor Ned Lamont, a former businessman turned politician, is on the front lines in the nation's battle against our new, invisible enemy, the deadly COVID-19 virus. As the disease sweeps through the Northeast, Lamont has been working in tandem with the governors of neighboring states, fighting to slow the spread of the coronavirus as our hospitals struggle to keep up with demand. In what could be the calm before the storm, I joined governor Lamont to hear about the measures he's taking to protect our communities from this frightening pandemic.

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- "Influencers" with Andy Serwer is brought to you by Verizon.

ANDY SERWER: Hello, everyone. I'm Andy Serwer, and welcome to "Influencers." And welcome to our very special guest, Connecticut governor Ned Lamont. Governor, great to see you. Thanks for joining us.

NED LAMONT: Andy, great-- thanks for having me.

ANDY SERWER: So obviously, governor, we'd like to talk to you about coronavirus and your response and the state of Connecticut's response. You guys were early with New York and New Jersey to bar gatherings of more than 50 people and to close down gyms and movie theaters. What made you move so quickly?

NED LAMONT: I looked at China. I looked at Italy. I looked at Seattle and realized early movers have a big advantage in this case. And you look at-- it worked better in places like Singapore and Hong Kong, and look what a disaster it is in Italy. There, they did their social distancing in a very serious way. So we got together with Governor Cuomo, Governor Murphy, New York, New Jersey, talking to Charlie Baker this afternoon-- the more we work together as a region, the more sense it makes. How could I close down bars and restaurants in Fairfield County if you drive across the border to Westchester County? So we did everything together.

ANDY SERWER: So you are introducing a stimulus package now. Can you talk a little bit about that?

NED LAMONT: Yeah. Up until today, I was worried that the feds were going to be doing a tax cut or a tax credit, none of which is very helpful for our small businesses. We had 2,000 on the phone yesterday. Their revenues have just disappeared, and they still have their fixed costs. So we wanted to do everything we could either to mitigate their fixed costs or give them enough powder, give them enough cash so they could power through for at least the next four to six months.

So we were going to do a very low or zero interest bridge loan until the Fed's got their act together-- although I was just informed that Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, put forward a bill that makes an awful lot of sense where they'll put in $300 billion for their own bridge loan for any company that does not lay off any individuals.

ANDY SERWER: Very fluid situation, obviously. One other measure you've taken, I believe, is to cancel the state's primary. Why did you do that?

NED LAMONT: There's too much confusion right now. There's too much contagion. The idea, you know, we vote-- we go to nursing homes, we go to schools to vote in a primary or general election. And I spent 20 years urging people to vote. I didn't want to have to spend this election urging people not to vote. So we put it off another six weeks. And we'll see whether the world changes by then. And if it doesn't, maybe we can get early voting or voting by mail or other ways to mitigate.

ANDY SERWER: I read that 56,000 individuals in your state filed for unemployment this week. What is that situation, governor?

NED LAMONT: It's extraordinary. During the last recession, which was a bad recession-- '08-'09-- let's say 5,000 people a week applied for unemployment compensation. Yesterday, 12,000 people in one day applied for unemployment compensation. So the economy is dropping off a cliff, especially when it comes to those small businesses, those Main Street merchants.

We had 100,000 folks in the restaurant business, in the bar business, the hospitality industry-- those, we're trying to pick up the slack. And secondly, the paid sick leave is really important. Because, Andy, you want to make sure that if anybody's not feeling quite right, stay home. That hourly employee living paycheck to paycheck-- paid sick leave, we're going to take care of you. Stay home.

ANDY SERWER: You mentioned Senator Rubio. I want to go back to Washington, governor, and ask you to assess the federal government's response, including the trillion dollar stimulus package. What is your take on where things stand there?

NED LAMONT: Well, obviously, the feds were very slow off the draw. They didn't take it seriously early on. They sent mixed messages-- hoax, business as usual. I will say we were on the phone yesterday with the president and vice president. I think they're taking it very seriously now. And that means in terms of haltingly getting us some of the supplies we need, PPE, swabs, ventilators. And as you point out, there are a couple of bills circling their way through Congress.

You know, the first bill-- the second one is $200 billion. That's very helpful. That's unemployment compensation. That's Medicaid relief so we can expand health care to more people. And now you've got the trillion dollar bill that's going to wind its way through. It sounds a little bit more like a Christmas tree to me with a lot of ornaments on it. The governors feel very strongly-- give us a block grant. Give us the flexibility to put the money where it will have the most impact.

ANDY SERWER: You mentioned governors there, and some governors have followed your lead or gone with you. You mentioned New York and New Jersey. Others have been slower to respond. What do you think goes into the thinking there? And how come some governors are not on the dime?

NED LAMONT: I think some didn't take it seriously early enough. Some are different circumstances. Obviously, in the Northeast, we have a real contagion here-- New York City coming up through Fairfield County, now the rest of the state. West coast has their contagion, other states are less so. But don't be misled-- maybe it's three states that have 50% of the people who are infected-- Washington state, California, and New York, but then John Bell Edwards, the governor of Louisiana, said, don't forget about us. New Orleans is a contagion right now, and that's a warm weather state. We thought maybe the warm weather states might be a little less affected-- not so.

ANDY SERWER: From a health care perspective, how prepared is Connecticut? Do you have the masks and the ventilators? And what are you doing if you need more?

NED LAMONT: Well, nobody's prepared for this. I think people are prepared for, you know, a flattened curve, maybe twice as many people going through ICUs over a period of time. And we could have handled that. But this could be extraordinary. And we're already running out of swabs, already running out of protective gear, searching the globe for ventilators, building additional facilities so we can take care of people-- you know, next to hospitals, for example.

We're trying to commandeer some empty nursing homes so folks that maybe are contracted, they can go in there for intermediate care. We're asking, you know, all the intermediate care facilities anything that's non-urgent, anything that's elective, don't do it. We need those gowns. We need those nurses. We need those beds.

ANDY SERWER: How bad do you think it's going to get in the state of Connecticut? And what does the curve look like? And what do you anticipate, governor?

NED LAMONT: I anticipate-- you might as well be real with people-- that it will get worse before it gets better, that it is accelerating. We're going to do everything we can to tell people to take this seriously. Avoid Italy in any way that you can. Stay home, don't visit your grandfather, teach him the FaceTime remotely. And if everybody stays home, we can slow down and mitigate the effects.

ANDY SERWER: Have you considered even more, I guess the word would be draconian measures-- must stay at home? And what would it take to actually impose something of that magnitude?

NED LAMONT: We're thinking about that, absolutely. I'll just tell you that most people know how serious this is. Metro North, the train population, is way down-- 85% down. I didn't have to shut the schools-- 95% shut already. We had to urge the final 5% to do so. But even 10% or 15% of the people, if they're not taking it as seriously as they should, we're going to step up.

ANDY SERWER: Do you think that President Trump should impose a federal sort of mandate in terms of a shelter in place or quarantining?

NED LAMONT: You know, I think the president should. I think we need federal direction on this. And if your community, your state is less infected now, most experiences are this contagion is spreading fast. And it comes across borders very quickly. Don't think in terms of states, think in terms of regions. So yes, I'd like the federal government to set a clear direction on the rules of the road there and having everybody stay at home for the next few weeks when this thing is raging, when it's most contagious, makes very good sense.

ANDY SERWER: What about workers-- be they government workers or hourly workers in businesses where they have to go to work-- let's say people in supermarkets, people driving trucks to deliver food? How do we keep them safe, governor?

NED LAMONT: Well, first of all, even in California where they've got the shelter in place-- and what you're going to see happening in the Northeast-- those folks are all exempted. They are deemed essential. We need grocery stores. We need gas stations. That all will continue as is. We keep them safe by better testing, making sure that they're tested, making sure-- this is what they did in Singapore. Everybody had a heat temperature.

So before you were allowed to go into that grocery store, you were at least seen whether you had a fever or not. We've been very slow to do that. We've got to accelerate that, because this could go on for a few months.

ANDY SERWER: I'm curious when-- let's talk about state employees and what's essential and what isn't, and I'm curious how you make that decision. For instance, is the DMV essential? I mean, local police are essential, but what about state agencies like that?

NED LAMONT: Well, obviously, we've left that up to our local commissioners. The same way we're allowing, you know, electric boat or Pratt Whitney decide who's essential and who's not. But in our state government, let's face it-- a lot of our folks are working overtime on the frontlines right now. You know, that's nurses, that's public health, that's public safety. These folks are absolutely going flat out. To your point-- DMV, we've closed down all the branch offices, and I think we're going to make sure that we continue to skinny that down.

ANDY SERWER: Are you having to hire more people to work manning those unemployment claims lines, though?

NED LAMONT: Well right now within the Department of Labor, to your point, a lot of folks doing other things are now manning those claims, absolutely. And you know, the claims are going through the roof. The computer system has, you know, reached its threshold a couple of times right now. Like a lot of things, the state government is an old system that was scheduled for an upgrade in a year. We need it right now.

So yeah, we're redeploying people within the different departments as well-- but basically, more people working at home. That's going to be a very clear on Monday.

ANDY SERWER: President Trump has repeatedly called the coronavirus the Chinese virus. And the CDC director Robert Redfield said that's wrong to do so. What is your take on that, governor?

NED LAMONT: I don't think it helps things. By the way, China had no new infections yesterday-- compare that to the United States, compare that to Italy. Italy has had more deaths than China. This is a virus that knows no borders.

ANDY SERWER: And where do you stand-- just to follow up on the question about supplies-- where do you stand specifically with testing right now in the state of Connecticut? And if I want a test if I'm in Connecticut, can I get one?

NED LAMONT: If you are showing symptoms and you get permission from your doctor, you will get a test. We've amplified our testing probably 100-fold in the last week-- comma, that's not nearly good enough. Look at that compared to South Korea and other places where they are virtually testing everybody on a regular basis. We're not there yet. I hope we get there as a country before it's too late.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, I mean, you've had deaths in the state of Connecticut from COVID-19. And my understanding is that one of those deaths was Bill Pike, a family friend of yours. What did you learn from experiencing that? It must have been very difficult.

NED LAMONT: No, it brings an invisible germ right to your heart. It brings it home. Look, we spent months as a country-- and even a lot of people in this state, this is something that's going on over in Wuhan, China, this is something going on in Italy-- OK, it's in Seattle. It's getting closer. I hear some people are infected, but everybody's going about their life.

And then all of a sudden, the fatalities really rang the bell for a lot of people, and people began to understand why we took those very restrictive measures early that we did. Let's face it, Andy, there was some pushback early on. You know, we said no to high school basketball sports championships. And we had thousands of people signing a petition. We had students protesting outside of the center. I think people understand why we did what we did.

ANDY SERWER: Have you ever seen anything like this in your life or in politics before, governor?

NED LAMONT: I really haven't. I mean, obviously, you and I, you know, you remember 9/11, Kennedy assassination, maybe Pearl Harbor going back in time. They're big, riveting issues that have galvanized the American people and occasionally our incredibly dysfunctional democracy gets together on a unified basis. I think this is one of those times. But it's even more tragic, because we had an opportunity to see it coming, and now it's going to change things forever. And we don't know when it's going to end in its current form.

ANDY SERWER: You think any good could come out of this in terms of people pulling together?

NED LAMONT: You always hope so. We thought 9/11 might be transformative, and it lasted for months. Right now, I've got to tell you-- labor and business, Republicans and Democrats-- I was just on with the faith community-- this is a state that's really rallying together, rowing in the same direction. The hospitals, everybody stepping in. We have hundreds of retired nurses who have come back and said, what can we do to help? We're getting some of those young nurses coming out of nursing school, getting them trained and up. So people are stepping up. And that, I'm really proud of.

ANDY SERWER: Let me switch away from coronavirus for just a little bit here, governor, and I want to ask you about politics. You endorsed Joe Biden last July. You were early to that particular party. Why was that the case?

NED LAMONT: I thought at the time-- and I think today-- that he's the best man to, at that point, maybe unify the party, but more importantly, unify the country. And I still believe that. And I hope he's our next president.

ANDY SERWER: What do you think his chances are at this point, governor?

NED LAMONT: Tell you the truth, I haven't spent a lot of time on that issue. Everybody has taken a pause on the race. But I think he's the right man for the moment. He has the relationships around the world at a time where a lot of those relationships have been fractured, at a time where you really need the world working together. He has good relationships on both sides of the aisle in Congress. I know some people knock him for that, but I think that's an enormous right now. I think he's got the temperament, the personality, and the experience to help us through this tough time.

ANDY SERWER: Let me ask you about two big companies in your state before I forget-- Aetna and Cigna, two major health insurers. How are they faring? And are you in touch with executives from those companies?

NED LAMONT: Yeah, no, we absolutely do. We talk all the time. You know, right now, they're watching this. Their claims could go through the roof. So they have to monitor this very carefully. But I've given a little push from another direction. I said the banks are not necessarily forgiving loans, but deferring payments on loans. We as the state of Connecticut are saying you don't have to make the tax payments for the near term.

The utilities have come forward and said, we're not going to cut anybody off-- water, power, whatever those utility bills might be. And I'm really urging our health insurers as well to give people a little bit of room to traverse these tough times. I hope they do so.

ANDY SERWER: Governor, you come from a family that has played leadership roles in government and the private sector for generations. And I'm wondering if you've tapped into any of that during these times.

NED LAMONT: I've tapped into the fact that you're on this earth to make a difference. And if you get in the public service, you're here to make people's lives better. And tragically, this is a big opportunity to make people's lives better, or at least a lot less worse, for the near term. And this is a time where people sort of are dismissive, especially a state government, it's a bunch of tax-happy bureaucrats who love to over-regulate you to death-- except now.

Now, people realize-- and I got public health and public safety working together with the hospitals, working together with nursing homes, reaching out, working with the clergy, working with mental health and homeless-- this is a time government can make a difference, and I'm proud of the opportunity I have to help make a difference in this state.

ANDY SERWER: And last question, governor-- how can ordinary citizens lean in and try to make this situation better? What do they need to do?

NED LAMONT: Look, on the simplest front, Andy, is stay home and tell their friends, tell those young millennials, tell those 20-year-olds who maybe you're a little dismissive, you're not just endangering yourself, you're endangering the community and more broadly. You know, beyond that, we have incredible philanthropy. People-- somebody just stepped up and said, we're going to fund dozens of daycare facilities in and around our hospitals. That'll be announced very soon.

These are the type of things that can make an extraordinary difference in a small way or big way. If you have a senior citizen who lives nearby, knock on the door and say you're going to go pick up a meal for them. Or even better, call that restaurant that's struggling to stay alive and say, look, we're going to order some takeout. And we're going to bring that in-- and maybe I'll buy a gift certificate, so when we get on the backside of corona, we'll be able to come and enjoy your restaurant. There are a lot of ways that people can reach out and help each other out.

ANDY SERWER: Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut, thank you so much for your time.

NED LAMONT: Thanks for getting the message out. We need good information in this day and age, and you're doing that. We'll catch up soon, Andy, thanks.

ANDY SERWER: I'm Andy Serwer. You've been watching "Influencers." We'll see you next time.