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Trump Returns to Oval Office | TAPPER: Just minutes ago, President Trump returned to the Oval Office, despite still being infected with coronavirus. And a source tells CNN that both Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and social media adviser Dan Scavino were in the Oval Office with the president. They were wearing protective gear, we're told. Joining us now, "The New York Times"' Peter Baker and "The New Yorker"'s Susan Glasser. They have covered the White House for decades. They're out with a brand-new book called "The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III." It's getting incredible reviews. Peter, I want to get to your book in a sec. But I have to ask. You have been covering the White House for decades now. For the second day in a row, President Trump's doctor issued a written statement, hasn't taken questions, is not providing the information that we're used to getting when a president has a health issue. Based on your reporting, how much can the American people trust what the White House is saying about President Trump's current condition?</s>PETER BAKER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, I think the White House has made very clear that it's not giving the full picture of the president's health and doesn't intend to. We have asked questions repeatedly about when his last negative test was, what these scans show of his lungs, all sorts of questions that they have either decided not to answer or given partial information for. Even the president's doctor, who is a doctor and not a political aide, the other day admitted that he basically gave a rosy presentation because he knew the person was watching on television and wanted to make him feel good. So, you can't really assume that we're getting the full picture at this point.</s>TAPPER: And just -- I just want to make sure our viewers understand that the reason you two aren't social distancing is that you're married, just -- people might not know. People might not know that.</s>TAPPER: OK, anyway, Susan, it's not just affecting the White House, of course. It's spreading throughout. Nearly the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff in quarantine after possible exposure. But the president seems to want to act as though nothing's wrong. There's a photo of a bunch of White House aides not wearing masks today. Are they in denial? Are they just lying about how bad things are, so as to president a false picture? What's going on here exactly?</s>SUSAN GLASSER, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, Jake, I mean, I think it's all of the above, right? I mean, you have a situation where, so close to the election, President Trump has spent months in a form -- one form or another of coronavirus denialism. And I think actually even contracting the disease, he's unwilling to change that position now. And it seems to me that what's interesting about this is that he's forced so many other people to go along with violating basic common sense and public health things. The question is really, is there any point at which this White House staff is going to say, enough is enough, you're putting our lives at risk, you're putting us in danger? Lots of off-the-record or on-background crumbling, but, so far, essentially, they have been given no choice by the president but to publicly go along with this.</s>TAPPER: So, Peter, you two wrote this new book about the ultimate Washington insider, James Baker. He worked for three presidents. He's a former White House chief of staff, Treasury secretary, secretary of state. You write about how, his being an old-school Republican, he struggled to vote for President Trump. But he did vote for President Trump. You write -- quote -- "What he had learned in a lifetime of wielding power was that, on the outside, you had none. Becoming a never-Trumper would have meant giving up whatever modest influence he had left. Whether he actually needed it anymore was not the point." Now, I know you two did an event just today with Secretary Baker. And he didn't say who he was going to vote for. But he did say he believes in conservative principles and the Democratic platform terrifies him. So what does that mean?</s>BAKER: Yes, he was pretty tough, I think, in his assessment of where things are today. He talked about how our alliances overseas are so frayed, they're broken, how the next president has to do something to repair them. He talked about the fiscal debt bomb that is about to go off. He said last week's debate was a disaster. And yet he has not yet broken with President Trump. He says: Look, I'm a conservative, and I believe in these principles. And I'm -- he's stuck with his party so far. I think it's been a striking answer on his part, because I think it talks about the modern Republican Party, sort of a parable for where they are. They may not like what President Trump is doing. They may not like the kind of person he is, but they have more or less stuck with him. And I think that that tells you why he's done as well as he has done with Republicans in the polls, and about a month out from the election.</s>TAPPER: I guess that's true. But, Susan, he was best friends with George H.W. Bush, right? He wasn't even involved in politics before. And the Bushes are no fans of the Trumps. And the feeling is the same on President Trump's end.</s>GLASSER: Well, that's exactly right. It's really -- it's very interesting, Jake, because he had -- of everyone, you would think Jim Baker would have an easy pass, essentially, not to</s>TAPPER: Susan Glasser, Peter Baker, thanks so much for joining us. And congratulations. The reviews are incredible. The new book, again, "The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III." Thanks to both of you. How one airport is doing what a lot of schools and offices across the country have not been able to do yet to slow the spread of coronavirus. Stay with us. |
Trump in Oval Office Right Now Despite Infection, Being Briefed on Stimulus Bill; Trump Reverses Course on Stimulus Talks 8 Hours After Stopping Negotiations | JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And Kaitlan, this is something aides were preparing for?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they knew that the President wanted to go to the Oval Office yesterday, so they started getting it ready and of course, now he is there, now being briefed on stimulus talks, and the hurricane, hurricane Delta, of course, we are told by a deputy press secretary. But Jake, what's not clear is who is briefing the President on both of those matters and whether or not it's in person? And if it's a hurricane, you'd have to think that the FEMA administrator is involved, and whether or not it's virtual, we still don't know answers to simple questions like that. Though earlier the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was talking about the protective gear they had prepared in case the President did come into the West Wing. But Jake, you got to look at how strange things have been in the West Wing this week, more so than they ever have been in the Donald Trump presidency, because so many people are either not in the West Wing because they've tested positive for coronavirus, or they're at home quarantining because they came into contact with someone who did and they want to wait out this infectious period to see what's going to happen. And so, the President was anxious to get back there. We know he's in there now, though he is still very much into this coronavirus diagnosis, and his doctor did not tell reporters today, has not said anything about this in recent days, whether or not they still believe the President is contagious for coronavirus? So there are so many questions raised by this, but, of course, whether or not it is wise for the President to be there working in the West Wing instead of quarantining like most people who are diagnosed with coronavirus would obviously do.</s>TAPPER: Presumably if he had tested negative, they would have told us given that they tend to share information that's good news and not any of the information that might be bad news. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much, keep us to speed on what's going on there. Let's turn now to the MONEY LEAD because President Trump is being briefed on the stimulus talks. In the last 24 hours, President Trump's message about that stimulus bill, so many people have a dire need for, and that the Fed chair has called for. The President's messages have been nothing short of dizzying and confusing. He tweeted that he wanted his team to cancel negotiations with the Democrats on the stimulus bill. Today Wall Street is thankfully rebounding after that tweet. Then the President said last night he would sign a smaller bill to help airlines and small businesses, more focused on those two groups. Then 24 minutes after that, he tweeted that he would be open to a stand-alone deal for new stimulus checks for citizens who need them. Democrats have, of course, previously made similar suggestions for stand alone airline relief and other matters. Republicans have blocked those measures. It's almost as if the President has had no idea what's been going on with negotiations for weeks. I want to bring in CNN business anchor Julia Chatterley. And Julia, given how little the President cares about deficits and the national debt, I have to say I'm kind of stunned that a compromise has not been hammered out weeks ago. What's going on right now?</s>JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It's 50 shades of chaos, or 50 tweets of chaos quite frankly, except there's near 100 tweets I believe today at last check. It's like his Twitter handle's on steroids. And perhaps that's the bigger point here, Jake, but let's just take a step back. Because we have seen this blow-up negotiating strategy before from the President during the trade talks. It's like he believes the Democrats are simply not willing to compromise further. The bottom line is we need transparency now. Just if you look in terms of the numbers here of the deals, the Democrats need to explain why they're not willing to sign a $1.6 trillion deal from the Republicans, go win the election and then come back and do the rest of it. Likewise, for the Republicans. They need to explain what's so wrong with the Democrats' $2.2 trillion deal that they're simply not willing to sign it. I think that's where we are at this stage, and we can debate this further, but for the 26 million people that are collecting some form of jobless benefit, and the one in seven American families that can't put food on the table, they're owed an explanation and they're owed a compromised deal. And that's it.</s>TAPPER: And Julia, today, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said that she and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are still negotiating. Here is her take, take a listen.</s>NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: All he has ever wanted in the negotiation was to send out a check with his name printed on it. He's just again rebounding from a terrible mistake that he made yesterday, and the Republicans in Congress were going down the drain with him on that.</s>TAPPER: So, Julia, President Trump has said that he wants, quote, $25 billion for airline payroll support and $135 billion for paycheck protection programs for small business, unquote. If he's spelling out dollar for dollar what he would approve, couldn't a deal be done today, theoretically?</s>CHATTERLEY: It should be that easy. If only -- if you remember on Friday Nancy Pelosi put out that statement directly targeting airline aid. And she said something is imminent. It will be done either as a stand-alone amount of money or it will be done as part of a bigger package here. So, when that tweet came out, apparently the Treasury Secretary called Nancy Pelosi this morning to discuss. Nancy Pelosi's deputy chief of staff tweeted this today -- The secretary inquired about a stand-alone airlines bill. The Speaker reminded him that Republicans blocked that bill on Friday. And this is the heartbreaking thing, they're close to an agreement or agree on many things, stimulus checks, small business aid, even the support for airlines. It seems to be politics before people. And that's the deal here.</s>TAPPER: And Julia, we can't lose sight of the people affected by all this. The pandemic has been a disaster, a shock to the economy, a lot of millions, tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs, they're still losing their jobs every single day.</s>CHATTERLEY: And this is the key point. And it's not just the jobs that they lose. I spoke to the International President of the Association for Flight Attendants today. Just listen to what she had to say.</s>SARA NELSON, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS-CWA: These are people who have been on the front lines since the beginning of this virus. Hiding, every day going to work risking their lives, and they have not only been put out of work, they have been put out of their medical insurance as well.</s>CHATTERLEY: She was crying, Jake. She said, we have people going into hospitals to have babies and now they have no medical insurance. Real lives, real tragedy. They all need a compromised deal.</s>TAPPER: And the airline industry is having problems because people are afraid to fly, and people don't have money to fly because President Trump and the administration --</s>CHATTERLEY: Right.</s>TAPPER: -- have not been able to get a hold on the pandemic.</s>CHATTERLEY: You have to buy the recovery. In the absence of a broader plan to fix this, you have to buy the recovery and that means spending money. There's no other way.</s>TAPPER: Thank you so much, Julia Chatterley, appreciate it. President Trump's latest attempt to try to poison the election now as Trump's own officials try to protect the election from him. Stay with us. |
Trump Continues to Sow Doubt on Election Security; Post Office Says Number One Priority Is Ensuring Secure, Timely Election Mail | TAPPER: We're following breaking news. The Oval Office is now a coronavirus hot zone. President Trump is inside the Oval Office despite being actively infected with the virus. The White House says the President is being briefed on stimulus talks and the hurricane hitting the U.S. Now to our 2020 LEAD, President Trump spent the morning on a Twitter spree, swinging wildly between urging people to vote and perpetuating baseless claims about security of mail-in voting and voter fraud. More than 3 million ballots have already been cast across the United States. And polls in another early voting state, Arizona, opened just today. But as CNN's Pamela Brown reports efforts to guard against voter intimidation are already underway.</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is back at it on Twitter, attempting to undermine the election. This time he's seizing on small printing errors in North Carolina and California, saying it will be the most corrupt in American history, a completely baseless claim.</s>INAJO CHAPPELL, MEMBER, CUYAHOGA COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS: In the 13 years I have served on the Cuyahoga County, Ohio board of elections, including the last three presidential elections, I've never witnessed the kind of falsehoods being disseminated about the integrity of our elections process that I've been seeing in this presidential cycle.</s>BROWN: In a new series of videos from the Army for Trump website, the President's campaign is training supporters to become poll watchers, something both campaigns do. This video gives some specific instructions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the time you're looking at body language. If you see a confused look on a voter's face or a confused look on the poll worker's face or any kind of delay in the process, there's your clue.</s>BROWN: The videos say to be respectful and not disrupt the process. But Philadelphia's district attorney announcing a plan to protect voters from those who may show up at polling stations and try to intimidate them.</s>LARRY KRASNER, PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We are here to tell you that the District Attorney's office intends to make sure that there is no threatening presence at these polls. We are well prepared and ready to act immediately along with our criminal justice partners if anything like that should happen. Your voice is important.</s>BROWN: And now security experts, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, are going directly to voters in a new nine-minute video. KRIS KREBS, DIRECTOR of</s>HOMELAND SECURITY'S CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: Because of the changes due to COVID, on November 3rd, we might not know the outcome of our election. And that's OK. But we're going to need your patience until official results are announced.</s>BROWN: Today early voting is now underway in the crucial swing state of Arizona, with voters lining up early to get their votes tallied. Meantime, the U.S. Postal Service says it's doing all it can to try and implement election mail rulings in light of recent data from the agency itself, showing on-time first class mail delivery plunged in September</s>KRISTIN SEAVER, CHIEF RETAIL AND DELIVERY OFFICER, USPS: Our number one priority between now and the November election is the secure and timely delivery of the nation's election mail. It's our duty and we take it very seriously.</s>BROWN: And Jake, if an election matter this year goes before the Supreme Court, the President's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett remains noncommittal of whether she would recuse herself. Christopher Coons, the Senator on -- a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, telling reporters today that he specifically asked Barrett on the phone to recuse herself over an election matter, and he said that she would not commit to that -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: It's quite the opposite, Republican Senators are saying that's why they need her on the court, to rule just in case there's an election issue that goes before them. Pamela Brown, thank you so much. In just a few hours, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris are going to face off in only vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Utah. Perhaps the most important vice presidential debate in history, I have to say. And you can see it right here live on CNN, our special coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Teleworking to protect the country. The President's top generals are quarantining with the world watching. The biggest national security concerns about that quarantine. That's next. |
Today Marks 19 Years Since Start of America's Longest War. | TAPPER: Back now with our POLITICS LEAD. Almost all of the nation's top military leaders are under quarantine for a second day after a senior Coast Guard official tested positive for coronavirus on Monday of this week having participated at an event for Gold Star families at the White House the week before. Nine other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are working from home today and likely through next week. CNN chief Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me now. And Barbara, this is clearly raising some national security concerns.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is making everybody make sure that everything that can be done is being done. General Mark Mille, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he is working at home. He is the President's chief military adviser and he maintains a classified suite of communications in his house so he can talk to anybody, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. And you are right, Jake. The rest of the Joint Chiefs including Mille, now expected to work from home through early next week and be in compliance with CDC guidelines about staying quarantined.</s>TAPPER: And Barbara, today, also marks the 19th anniversary of the beginning of America's longest war, the war in Afghanistan almost two decades ago. Service members deployed to fight against terrorist following the 9/11 attacks. Today there are sons deployed today to the same region where their fathers were years ago -- Barbara Starr.</s>STARR: It is amazing, Jake. You know --</s>STARR (voice-over): President Trump hopes to end America's longest war at the negotiating table with the Taliban.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Very shortly, we'll be down to less than 4,000 soldiers. Certain things have to be fulfilled but 19 years is a long time.</s>STARR: But for months, the top U.S. commander has warned the war is not over.</s>GEN. AUSTIN SCOTT MILLER, U.S. FORCES AFGHANISTAN COMMANDER: We all know that as long as the violence levels go high, the people that are going to pay are the civilians and so the violence needs to come down. And it needs to come down so that we have an opportunity for a sustainable peace pathway.</s>STARR: The current plan calls for 4,500 troops in Afghanistan by next month. Down from 8,600 earlier in the year. They will still be involved in supporting Afghan forces in the fight against the Taliban remnants of Al Qaeda and ISIS all still numbering in perhaps hundreds of fighters. But there are still deadly Taliban attacks against the Afghan government, despite the insurgent group signing an agreement in February. The top U.S. negotiator says the Taliban are still serious about negotiating and Afghan casualties are down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the rural areas and there is violence. There are accusations by each side that the other is responsible for it. We believe that violence needs to be brought down by both sides.</s>STARR: The cost in lives and treasure is staggering. 2,442 Americans dead, 1,909 in combat. More than 20,000 Americans wounded, and the price tag of $793 billion.</s>STARR: But if conditions improve, if violence is reduced, the U.S. is still pledged to get all troops out of Afghanistan by April of next year -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much. Breaking news. A live look at the West Wing where a Marine is standing guard as a very contagious President Trump returns to the Oval Office infected with coronavirus. |
Daily Coronavirus Cases in U.S. Average Above 44,000 For First Time Since August; Trump Returns to Oval Office. | JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: But that doesn't change the fact that he's likely still contagious and further putting everyone at the complex at risk.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, I spoke to several White House officials who did not think it was a good idea for the president to go back to the Oval Office this early. Remember, for viewers, the president only isolated one day at the White House after he returned on Monday night. He stayed in the residence side of the White House yesterday, but now he is back in the West Wing. You saw that with the Marine stationed outside the West Wing. That means the president is in the Oval Office. And the White House did confirm he was getting a hurricane briefing and talking about those stimulus negotiations that he supposedly canceled yesterday. But, of course, it's raising questions about how wise it is for the president to go into the West Wing, even though they say precautions are being taken, given that there is still an outbreak happening among the president's own staff.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): In a new statement, President Trump's doctor says he's shown no symptoms in the last 24 hours and now has detectable levels of antibodies. But Dr. Sean Conley didn't say if Trump has those levels of antibodies because he was given an antibody cocktail, and he also didn't say which medications he's currently taking, when he last tested negative, what his lung scans showed, or whether he's still contagious. Dr. Conley did quote the president saying he was feeling great, with an exclamation point. The president's physician hasn't taken questions from reporters since Monday, and officials haven't said if he plans to brief again. President Donald Trump back in the Oval Office today for the first time since last Thursday. Sources told CNN officials prepared for Trump's arrival by stationing a so-called isolation cart with yellow medical gowns, respirators and plastic goggles outside the Oval Office.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We have got a number of safety protocols with full</s>PPE. COLLINS: The president was not surrounded by as many familiar faces as usual in the West Wing today. His top adviser Stephen Miller tested positive yesterday, meaning 11 White House officials, including the president, now have coronavirus, as many others are waiting out the infectious period from home. President Trump fired off dozens of tweets this morning, attacking everyone from Democrats to his own attorney general. But his most noteworthy tweets threw coronavirus stimulus talks into complete chaos. Hours after he publicly canceled talks with Democrats, the president called on Congress to approve federal economic relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed the president's mixed messages on his COVID-19 treatment.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I said yesterday to my colleagues, I said there are those who say that steroids have an impact on people's thinking. I don't know. But there are those health care providers who say that.</s>COLLINS: Pelosi hasn't been invited to the White House, but, even if she was, says she wouldn't go.</s>PELOSI: I wouldn't go anywhere near the White House. It's one of the most dangerous places in the country.</s>COLLINS: Now, Jake, as we see the president going back to the oval today, it's important to remember the CDC says you can still be contagious even 10 days after your coronavirus symptoms go away, yet that doesn't seem to have stopped the president. And this is just the same pattern that we saw play out over the weekend, where aides and advisers thought the president should stay at Walter Reed for a few more days, as he was being monitored for the combination of medicine that he was on. He wanted to leave. So he left Walter Reed. Now he's back at the White House and he wanted to go into the West Wing, and now he is back in the Oval Office today, Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins with White House, thank you so much. Joining us now, CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, the president in the Oval Office this afternoon. They had been able to keep him at the at the residence for a while, but, no, they couldn't keep him out of the West Wing. He's being briefed on stimulus talks and preparations for the hurricane. We don't know much about the condition that he's in or the -- what precautions have been taken by people in the room with him, but he's still infected with coronavirus. Should he be in the Oval Office?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. I mean, he should be an isolation. And that's pretty clear. I mean, regardless of whether you're the president or anybody, if you have coronavirus, there's all sorts of timelines in this sort of thing. And it's not an exact science, but at least 10 days after people start having symptoms is typically the infectious sort of period. So, he's -- they have got to assume that he has the virus, he's shedding the virus. So he's putting -- there's people who are going to be at risk. Is he is he wearing a mask? Is there additional ventilation inside there? Are there people within close proximity? Are they wearing personal protective equipment? And do they know how to wear it properly? Even in the hospital, we have to train people to put on personal protective equipment properly if they're going to be going into COVID units in the hospital. So, he obviously shouldn't be in the office. We have been telling people for months that, if you come back with a positive diagnosis of this, you need to be in isolation. And that's the same advice for the president as well.</s>TAPPER: What's the risk for somebody who might have been in the room with him, even if they were wearing PPE?</s>GUPTA: Well, if they're wearing PPE properly, that obviously does mitigate the risk. And that means a fit-tested N95 mask, fit-tested. So, I mean, you really have to make sure it's fitting properly. And, again, in the hospital, we do that in conjunction with people who train people to do that. Goggles, the gowns, the things like that, it reduces the risk. Doesn't make it zero. It's still an indoor space. I'm not sure what the ventilation is like in there. There are small spaces to get between the residence and the West Wing. Those areas may have to be treated as contaminated and need to be disinfected. So it's hard to put a number on it, Jake. I would say, if anybody is so cavalier -- first of all, is the president wearing a mask? I think that's an important point, because that would help mitigate the spread. If someone is so cavalier is to not wear all their personal protective equipment around him, then I think there is significant risk. It's not 100 percent, by any means, but it's -- it's absolutely something you wouldn't want to do.</s>TAPPER: One of the things people don't understand about the West Wing is that it's pretty cramped. Take a look at this layout.</s>GUPTA: Yes.</s>TAPPER: Staffers are generally packed in there. There isn't a lot of great ventilation. There are Secret Service, there are Marines, there are advisers, there are young staffers. Our reporting is that the West Wing has mainly been cleared out because of the fact that the White House is now a hot zone. But considering we have already seen at least 19 people in the president's orbit testing positive for COVID, Governor Chris Christie's in the hospital in New Jersey, how many more people theoretically could get sick if President Trump is now bringing the virus back into the West Wing?</s>GUPTA: Well, there's been a clear sort of super-spreader type event at the White House. And most of that may have been linked to the Rose Garden event, although there were probably events around that Rose Garden event inside the -- the inside the White House, inside some of those smaller settings. So, I know a lot of people aren't there, so that's good. But if you start to look at what makes this most likely to disperse, the dispersion factor of the virus, it is indoors. It is poor ventilation. And that's -- all the data that we look at is based on people who have not yet necessarily been diagnosed. We don't have testing. For people who have been tested and have coronavirus, they're in isolation. So, the idea of saying, based on someone that we know is actively shedding virus, currently has COVID, is in a small setting, potentially lots of people around in a cramped setting, the concern is high. I don't know how many people are actually working there right now, Jake, but we have had a super-spreader type event already happen at the White House. And now you have somebody with active disease who's shedding virus who is apparently going through that area.</s>TAPPER: I want to read part of the statement from President Trump's doctor released today -- quote -- "His physical and vital signs, including oxygen and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range. He's now been fever-free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours, and has not needed, nor received any supplemental oxygen since initial hospitalization." So, what do you make of the president's condition from the statement? And what are we not -- what are we still not being told?</s>GUPTA: Yes, I mean, it's almost as much of what we're not hearing vs. what we are hearing. Does he have pneumonia? We have asked this question every single day now. He's had lung scans. We know that. They said those lung scans had findings. Is he continuing to get chest X-rays? Is that improving, whatever the findings were Dr. Conley was referring to? Does he have pneumonia? I think also the medications that he's on. We knew that he got a dose of these antibodies. He was on remdesivir. Is he still getting the steroid, the dexamethasone? That's typically a 10-day course, six milligrams. That's what the trial sort of dose was in the trials. Is that what he's getting? If so, I mean, that could be the reason he doesn't have a fever. That could be the reason why he's feeling as good as he is. That knocks down the inflammation, which is a good thing. The problem is, it doesn't treat the underlying infection, Jake. So, once the steroids stop, might the viral replication begin in earnest again? That's the concern. And that's why he should be in a hospital and being monitored for that.</s>TAPPER: Sanjay, the White House again today refusing to tell the American people when President Trump last tested negative. We now have no idea. If he did contract the virus on Saturday, September 26, at that event for the new Supreme Court justice nominee, which was indoor and outdoor, if he did contract the virus that day, we have no idea when he last tested negative. And he traveled all over the country. And he held an event for Gold Star families. He went to Minnesota. He went to New Jersey. He went to Ohio. I mean, isn't there a public health reason for them to disclose this, so people in those other areas who attended events can figure out if they need to get tested?</s>GUPTA: Yes, I mean, I think, if it were anybody else in the country, that information would be disclosed, I mean, because that is the basic bread-and-butter contact tracing. It's really, really disturbing still, at this point, that we still don't know. Well, clearly, someone knows. The question that is being asked, when was the president's last negative test, there is an answer to this question. And it's -- somebody knows it right now who may even be watching. And it's important, not just because of the president and figuring out his timeline of illness, because, remember, from the time of exposure to the time of symptoms is usually five days or so, on average. OK? So if you develop symptoms on Thursday, just in terms of how other patients have sort of responded, that would make sense that he had the infection some time over the weekend before. That would be some five days before. That was when the exposure would occur. Either that, or he had such a significant exposure all of a sudden, that he tested positive and developed symptoms almost simultaneously. That makes a lot less sense. But, Jake, it's important for him. Everyone keeps asking, how long is he going to be contagious? How long is he before he gets out of the woods? But it also makes a difference for all these other people that he came in contact with. Five states, we calculated, multiple trips, and dozens, if not hundreds of people that he came in contact with.</s>TAPPER: The only reason I can think of, politically, not health-wise, but politically, why they wouldn't share this information is that the answer is more damaging than not answering it, which is tough to imagine what that might be. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.</s>GUPTA: Yes.</s>TAPPER: Appreciate it. The debate before the real vice presidential debate -- one of the changes to tonight's stage that has sparked controversy. That's coming up. Then: Should the CDC director try to get fired? The unusual advice from one of his predecessors. Stay with us. |
Vice Presidential Debate Set For Tonight; Plexiglass Barriers & 12 Feet Separate Pence, Harris on Debate Stage | TAPPER: It could be the most important vice presidential debate in the history of the United States. Mike Pence and Kamala Harris set to face off in their debate in just a couple hours. CNN's Kyung Lah joins us from the debate site in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kyung, you asked the Harris campaign how concerned they are about Harris' potential exposure to coronavirus in tonight's event. What did the Harris have to say?</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was during an on the call, on the record call with reporters ahead of the debate, and the Harris campaign just decided they didn't want to answer this question. It is an issue because you have heard our own Sanjay Gupta talking about the plexiglass dividers and how they're effective against droplets, not necessarily aerosols. That's not the intent. And so, the Harris campaign says simply, it is their job to debate. It is the job of the Cleveland Clinic to keep people safe. Here's a snippet from that call.</s>LIZ ALLEN, BIDEN CAMPAIGN ADVISER: I would say, look, Senator Harris is taking her job seriously for tonight, and our expectation is they're doing the same when laying out those guidelines.</s>LAH: Harris will continue to debate -- to continue to campaign after this, Jake. The campaign has said that she has taken this virus seriously from the very beginning. As has Joe Biden and that they will continue those best practices of social distancing and wearing masks -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Kyung Lah. The Cleveland Clinic didn't exactly bathe itself in glory last debate. Joining us to discuss tonight's debate, CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers, also author of the book, "My Vanishing Country". And joining us as well, CNN political commentator, Scott Jennings, former special assistant to President George W. Bush. Good to see both of you, gentlemen. Scott, let me start with you. President Trump, 74 years old, battling COVID. Vice President Biden, 77 years old, has also had health issues throughout his life. Has there ever been a more important vice presidential debate, theoretically, both of these candidates could find themselves having to lead the nation.</s>SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I mean, you're right. Trump is sick, and Biden is no spring chicken. So I'll certainly be watching closely tonight. And look, you know, even if Trump or Biden were to go through a whole next term, you know, there's -- there will be an open seat if it were a Republican second term, and there could be an open seat if Biden chooses not to run again, and Harris, a lot of people think, is his chosen heir apparent. So, both candidates tonight, I think, have big plans for themselves. And yeah, I agree with your assessment. It's an important debate.</s>TAPPER: And, Bakari, there's also this other guest at the debate, coronavirus. We hope not actually physically present, but at least theoretically. Given the outbreak at the White House, given the plexiglass that's going to be on stage, it's going to be hard for the virus to not be the number one issue. Do you think that Kamala Harris has to walk a line here? In terms of expressing concern but also criticizing the administration? Because I mean, the president is physically in harm's way right now.</s>BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it's on Kamala Harris to walk a line. In fact, she's debating the chair of the coronavirus task force. And on his watch, we have had this devastation. Look, I'm someone who probably wouldn't win out on a debate with a campaign. I understand it's the job of the Cleveland Clinic. I appreciated your remark beforehand, but I think Mike Pence, due to the fact he was in a COVID hot spot when we have seen so many people in and around the president should be quarantining right now. You know, that's my personal opinion. I pray for the safety of everyone involved. Not just the moderator and not just Mike Pence, but, of course, my good friend Kamala Harris as well. I mean, you are debating in the same room, in an enclosed room with someone who has been exposed to coronavirus from multiple sources and who hasn't taken it seriously and who hasn't quarantined. I mean, that's a very real thing. I think that is something that people will see on the stage, if Mike Pence coughs, I think not only will Twitter but the rest of the world will probably explode. Just trying to figure out if there is something, what is there? But at the end of the day, even more importantly, this administration has the albatross of not just Donald Trump but their mishandling of coronavirus, which he's going to have to expose tonight. I mean, you know, I lean on your expertise, Jake, but you have moderated debates before. I would assume that's going to be the number one issue of the evening.</s>TAPPER: Well, with more than 210,000 dead Americans and 7.4 million infected, yeah, I think it's the number one issue, even if there hadn't been this outbreak at the White House. Scott, let's talk about what the candidates bring to the debate stage. I think that if -- forget the political positions he holds one way or another, just in terms of debate skills, Mike Pence might be the best of the four on the ticket. I mean, he has all those years doing talk radio that has really lent him some skill when it comes to communication. Again, I'm not talking about the content of it, but he's a pretty able debater, I think.</s>JENNINGS: Yeah, he's a smooth operator. And he has a lot of experience being a governor and then obviously running last time around. So I agree with you. I think he does have a lot of skill. And, look, it's on him to try to give the Trump campaign a winning day. I mean, I can't think of the last day when the Trump campaign would say they won a news cycle. And so, just like in 2012 when Joe Biden showed up and whomped Paul Ryan, and just like in 2004 when Dick Cheney showed up and whomped John Edwards, tonight, this presidential campaign is looking to the vice president to right the ship and to drop a little water on a thirsty tongue, which is -- of the Republican Party right now. So, there's a lot of pressure on Mike Pence to deliver some relief tonight for nervous Republicans.</s>TAPPER: No question, although I do have to say y think the biggest whomping in vice presidential history was Senator Lloyd Bentsen against Dan Quayle. I mean, that was just a destruction. And you know, for that Lloyd Bentsen was rewarded with a trip back to the Senate, and Dan Quayle became vice president. Bakari, you are a supporter of Kamala Harris. She's had good moments in debates and not so great moments. What do you think is important for her to do tonight?</s>SELLERS: I just think she has to be magnanimous. I think that she has to show the American public that she can be president of the United States, is where we started this question. I do think that Mike Pence is a great debater, not just his time. You don't become governor and go to the United States Congress and be vice president of the United States without this skill set. We have to recognize that. But her</s>TAPPER: Interesting. Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, thanks so much to both of you. Also great to have you on. Be sure to tune in for the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. CNN special live coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Three, yes, right now, only three states in the United States that are actually |
Trump Returns To Oval Office Despite Infection, WH Outbreak; WH Officials Concede That Trump Is Not Tested Daily But "Regularly"; Soon: Pence, Harris Face Off For First Vice Presidential Debate | WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're following breaking news. President Trump leaving the White House residence for the Oval Office despite his COVID infection, and the growing outbreak among White House staff in what is truly a stunning display of disregard for the health of those around him. CNN has learned that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Social Media Advisor Dan Scavino have been with the President in the Oval Office and that they wore personal protective equipment. We can expect all of this to be front and center just hours from now. At the Vice Presidential debate when Mike Pence and Kamala Harris face off for the first time in a historic contest. Senator Harris would be the first female vice president, the first person of color to be vice president. The debate comes on a night when the U.S. coronavirus death toll here in the United States has now topped 211,000 people with more than seven and a half million confirmed coronavirus cases. Let's get straight to the White House right now. Our Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is on the scene for us. Jim, the President is putting the health of those around him over at the White House, potentially at risk by simply walking around from the residence to the Oval Office. He certainly doesn't have to do that.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. President Trump returned to the Oval Office even as he is still infected with the coronavirus and capable of spreading COVID-19 to other people. He's been in the Oval Office with a couple of aides as you said including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The White House continue to cloak the President's health in secrecy today. The President's doctor released a statement saying Mr. Trump feels great and as symptom free. But top White House officials are giving conflicting answers on whether the President entered the Oval Office yesterday and CNN has learned the President was not being tested daily for the virus prior to his positive results last week. White House officials will only say he is tested regularly.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): With the Marines stationed outside the West Wing meaning the President was back in the Oval Office White House officials are dodging key questions about Mr. Trump's recovery from the coronavirus. Presidents Dr. Sean Conley released another brief statement that first quotes Mr. Trump, "The President this morning says "I feel great." And goes on to say his "vital signs including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate all remain stable and in normal range. He's now been fever free for more than four days, symptom free for over 24 hours." Top White House officials are giving conflicting answers on whether the President stopped by the Oval Office on Tuesday, with economic advisor Larry Kudlow saying, yes he did.</s>LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: The government is functioning, the President actually showed up in the Oval Office yesterday with extra precautions with respect to -- his COVID-19 and he's getting a lot better.</s>ACOSTA: But Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters Mr. Trump only wanted to go.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We're looking at his prognosis from a health standpoint. He wanted to go to the Oval yesterday. If he decides to go to the Oval, we've got safety protocols there.</s>ACOSTA: Meadows would not say when the President last tested negative for the virus before his positive results on Thursday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark, was the President tested daily before Thursday?</s>MEADOWS: You already had that asked --</s>ACOSTA: White House officials tell CNN the President is tested regularly while people around Mr. Trump are tested daily. That's a critical distinction considering all of the people in Mr. Trump's orbit who've come up positive with COVID-19. Administration officials are looking at both the Rose Garden event for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Mr. Trump's debate prep sessions that included Kellyanne Conway and Chris Christie, as likely spreaders of the virus late last month. If Mr. Trump caught the virus that weekend, he could have passed it on at a Goldstar event for military families where many people were not wearing masks.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- I was very proud to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court.</s>ACOSTA: As well as his news conference the same day.</s>JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, you shut up, man.</s>TRUMP: Who is your -- listen, who is --</s>ACOSTA: Add to that his debate in Ohio two days later and then his rally in Minnesota. Dr. Anthony Fauci says, that's why he's been urging Americans to be more careful.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Take a look at what happened this week at the White House. That is a reality right there. And every day that goes by more people are popping up that are infected. It's not a hoax.</s>ACOSTA: Behind closed doors, the President is back to tweeting conspiracy theories with one including a notable typo that combine the words caught and cough. The President also thanked a supporter who tweeted "I would wait through a sea of COVID infested water to vote for President Trump on November 3." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who slammed the President for abruptly ending coronavirus stimulus talks question whether his medications are affecting his actions.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: There are those who say that steroids had an impact on people's thinking. I don't know. But there are those health care providers who say that.</s>ACOSTA: Now White House officials who says they're prepared for the President working out of the Oval Office claiming staffers will be shielded by personal protective equipment when they're around Mr. Trump, that's quite a remarkable departure from how White House officials have been behaving for months when they scoffed at the idea of just wearing masks and talk about reversals, Wolf. Yesterday, the President claimed he was ending stimulus talks. Remember he tweeted about that. Today, officials say he was briefed on the status of those talks in the Oval Office. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Jim Acosta at the White House for us. We'll get back to you. Thank you. We're coming down to tonight's vice presidential debate as Mike Pence and Kamala Harris prepare to face off for the first time. CNN's Ryan Nobles is joining us from Salt Lake City. Ryan, the President's COVID diagnosis is likely to be a big part of tonight's debate, right?</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Wolf. Not only will Vice President Pence be pressed on how the President responded to that positive coronavirus test, but also how the Vice President himself acted. In the days after that announcement, of course, Vice President Pence among those not wearing a mask at that event with Amy Coney Barrett last Saturday. Also expect the coronavirus to extend beyond just the President's diagnosis to the broader administration response. Democrats and Kamala Harris will be on stage for the Democratic ticket, expected to press Pence on the way that this administration has handled it and including Pence's role as the leader of the Coronavirus Task Force. But Republicans say, to be prepared for Mike Pence to return fire, he is someone who is very skilled at debates like these. Very good at staying on message. And he's expected to turn the tables on Kamala Harris and bring up her prior support for Medicare for All. So, Wolf, this will be a much different debate than we saw last week of both Kamala Harris and Mike Pence skilled debate performers and it will be a much different conversation than we saw when it was President Trump and Vice President Biden.</s>BLITZER: Yes. I'm sure it will be Ryan, both Pence and Harris they have tested negative for coronavirus, just ahead of tonight's debate. But in the wake of an outbreak in the White House, a very significant outbreak, I must say as well. What are the precautions that are being taken where you are on the debate stage in the debate hall?</s>NOBLES: Well, the debate commission is trying to tighten things up from what happened in Cleveland more than a week ago. Inside the debate Hall today every single person who was going into the debate hall, including journalists like myself, will be asked to put on a mask and wear it the entire time. The only people not wearing a mask in the hall will be the Vice President, Senator Harris in the debate moderator Susan Page. They've also moved apart the distance between Harris and Pence. They'll now be 12 feet apart. They were originally only seven feet apart. And there will be a plexiglass shield between the two candidates on either side. Now, we should point out, Wolf, that medical professionals say that the shield, many the other steps that the Commission are taking is not going to eliminate the risk of those inside the debate Hall could contract the coronavirus. This is all about mitigating the risk, but they make it clear, including our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta that the only way to make sure that the coronavirus is not spread through an event like this is to do it in a virtual setting something that neither of the candidates have agreed to or the Commission itself. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Interesting indeed. All right, Ryan Nobles on the scene for us in Salt Lake City. Thank you. Let's get some more in all of this. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us all along with CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip and our Senior Political Analyst Ryan Lizza, he's the chief Washington Correspondent for Politico. Sanjay, is the President breaking his own CDC guidelines by working from the Oval Office today, walking from the residence over to the Oval Office?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, the CDC guidelines are pretty clear on this. I mean, he has known COVID disease, he should be in isolation. Isolation is for people who have disease, quarantine is for people who have had exposure to the disease. So it's very clear and the CDC guidance is even gives you some indication of how long he needs to be in isolation. We can show this. But basically, you know, and admittedly, you know, people might clear virus at different levels, but as a general rule of 10 days, since people develop symptoms, you want to make sure that they're likely to be contagious at least 24 hours since the last fever without using medications. And you know, it's important to point out that the President has been on dexamethasone, probably still on dexamethasone, although the doctors haven't told us one way or the other, that will suppress the fever. So, it's really hard to read into his symptoms right now. So, he absolutely should be in isolation. It's not good for him. To not be an isolation is not good for the people around him. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes. Let me read from the CDC guideline on this specific point, Sanjay, I think is very important. "People who are in isolation should stay home until it's safe for them to be around others. In the home anyone sick or infected should separate themselves from others by staying in a specific sick room or area and using a separate bathroom, if available." So those are the CDC guidelines, which it appears to be the case right now for those of us who have been at the White House. And you've been there are many times, Sanjay, you walk from the residence, you walk down, you got to go across a long corridor over there to get to the West Wing, then walk into the Oval Office. These clearly are seem to be a significant violation of these guidelines from the</s>CDC. GUPTA: Yes, I mean, without a doubt, Wolf. I mean, he is thought to be shedding virus at this point. So even those areas that he's walked through, given that we now know and the CDC has this on their website as well that the virus can aerosolize. So it's so small that it can become suspended in the air, and it can stay there for a few hours and travel some distance. So, what is the ventilation like? Who is going to be in that area even some time after the President has gone through? Is he wearing a mask? Presumably what kind of mask is he wearing? You know, all these things make a difference. And that's part of the reason the guidance is pretty clear. When it comes to this. He should be in isolation. This is a contagious deadly disease. I know that we've been talking about this for months, and people generally know that. But I think it's worth repeating. He has a contagious disease, he should be in isolation. So at least he can protect other people.</s>BLITZER: It's not just a contagious disease. It's a deadly disease as we all know. You know, Abby, we just learned that the President wasn't getting tested for the virus every day. And now we see that he's still contagious going into the Oval Office, walking around the White House complex. The White House seems to think the basic rules of Health and Science and the CDC own guidelines don't apply to the President, is that right?</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's how they are behaving. And not only do they seem to think that it doesn't apply to the President, but they're saying effectively, that it doesn't apply just to the West Wing. Because based on what the White House has said about what's going on in the residence, in the East Wing, which is governed by apparently different rules, the staff that work in the East Wing, they are wearing masks every day that is required in the East Wing. They're being tested, according to the White House every day. And these things are not happening in the West Wing. And we can only say that that is because of political reasons. The White House refuses to say when the President last got a negative test for the coronavirus. And it's likely that they won't say because he -- because of the very reason Jim reported he wasn't being tested every day. But now the critical question becomes did he receive a coronavirus test before he attended that debate with Joe Biden last Tuesday? And if he did not, why not? What kind of -- what -- on what planet would they actually send the President to a debate having not tested him when they certified to the debate commission that he was tested? I think this is a really critically important question. The fact that they won't answer it is really unacceptable. And all of this just really seems to have no rhyme or reason toward -- for it. There's no reason for the President to work from the Oval Office. He can work from anywhere and doing so just exposes potentially more people to this virus.</s>BLITZER: What's so disturbing Abby is the President's doctor yesterday and today issued a very short statement, but he's refusing to answer reporters' questions, legitimate questions, indeed. Ryan, we know the President didn't want to be seen hospitalized. He was over there at Walter Reed for about four days. He wanted to get back to the White House. Wanted to get back to the Oval Office. But from your perspective, how reckless is this?</s>RYAN LIZZA, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, look, he's not the first world leader to get coronavirus. So we have some other models. Look at Boris Johnson did in the U.K., when he had to isolate. He went to his country home away from the Capitol until he, you know, took a turn for the worse and had to go into the hospital. But Trump has other homes, there are other possibilities for him to isolate in a way that does not have all of the infrastructure and Secret Service and staff and reporters around the White House. They could come up with a plan. This does have the hint of just being about optics and about trying to quote across a sense that everything is normal. When Sanjay points out he's, you know, walking around spreading this virus around in an area where there are other human beings. So, it's baffling. It's the whole course here has been baffling from the way that they have hidden what his last test was to the way that they have been not giving us enough information about his condition to just being reckless about the CDC guidance.</s>BLITZER: Yes. So many of the President's associates, so many of his aides, supporters, I think more than 20 right now are already been confirmed with coronavirus yet the President is behaving this way. All right, guys, standby, we're going to get back to you Sanjay Gupta, Abby Phillip, Ryan Lizza. We're gone have much more coming up on all of this. Also stay with us tonight our special vice presidential debate coverage starts at 7 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. Up next, we'll talk about the debate and the breaking news with Senator Elizabeth Warren. Plus a sobering warning from Dr. Anthony Fauci now saying us coronavirus deaths could climb dramatically this winter. We'll be right back. |
Interview With Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) | BLITZER: The breaking news this hour President Trump taking briefings inside the Oval Office leaving the White House residence, walking around the White House complex despite his COVID infection. CNN has learned that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Social Media Advisor Dan Scavino were with the President in the Oval Office and that they wore personal protective equipment. Joining us now to discuss that and more Democratic senator, former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Senator Warren, thank you so much for joining us. So you see, the President of the United States is battling the same virus that has now killed more than 211,000 Americans. But instead of following the CDC guidelines and isolating, he's back in the Oval Office with staff tonight. So what kind of example is the President setting?</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Well, he's setting the same kind of example he has set from the beginning. He demonstrates both his self- absorption that all he cares about is Donald Trump. And he also demonstrates his incompetence, that they really can't seem to understand the importance of getting this virus under control. And the only way that's going to happen is if we listen to the scientists, if we follow their guidelines, and if we do our best to keep each other safe, and Donald Trump just doesn't get that. He just cannot seem to think outside the shell of Donald Trump.</s>BLITZER: The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has noted in her words that medical doctors say that steroids, in addition to the coronavirus, could have an impact on someone's judgment. She added that she'd leave it up to the doctors to say for certain. What do you make of the President's behavior in the wake of his diagnosis?</s>WARREN: Look, I don't know. And I leave that up to the doctors. But what I do know is that COVID has killed 211,000 Americans. People are dying by the hundreds every single day. And we need leadership from the White House. Donald Trump has proven time and again, that he is not only incapable of leading, he is actually putting more Americans at risk. He does it in a very personal way right now, by going into the Oval Office, by exposing people, by walking through hallways. And he does it by example. In effect, saying to millions of people across this country, what was it? Don't let COVID dominate you? Are you kidding me? This is a potentially fatal virus, you know? And that's why it is that November 3 is so important. Why it is so important to have Joe Biden in the White House, to have a leader who cares and a leader who is confident.</s>BLITZER: More than 700 Americans, by the way, died just yesterday, in one day. The President tweeted yesterday he was ending the stimulus negotiations with the Democrats up on Capitol Hill. But before walking that back a few hours later in signaling, maybe he is open to some talks. If you're one of the millions of Americans right now, who were in desperate, desperate need of federal assistance, where does that leave you?</s>WARREN: And it leaves you out in the cold. That's where Donald Trump and the Republicans have put him put them. People need help. People are dying, people are out of work. People are not going to be able to make their rent payments or their mortgage payments. People are facing losing their jobs and losing their health insurance. And all Donald Trump can focus on at this point is stealing another Supreme Court seat so that they will be able to take away health care from 10s of millions of people in the middle of a pandemic. This is wrong. So many different ways. And this is why it November 3 is so important and getting Donald Trump out and getting Joe Biden in is so important.</s>BLITZER: Let's turn senator to tonight's highly anticipated vice presidential debate. The former Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin who has been helping a Vice President Pence prepare for the debate. He told Fox that Pence plans to paint Senator Kamala Harris as part of the radical left. If Senator Harris defends against those attacks by let's say, distancing yourself from two signature progressive policies, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, what message will that send to progressives in your party who Biden and Harris clearly will lead big time in order to win this election?</s>WARREN: Oh, please. Kamala is going to talk about how Republicans are trying to take away health care coverage from millions of Americans in the middle of a pandemic. And if she talks about that over and over and over during the debate tonight, the 10s of millions, hundreds of millions of people in this country who say that they want people to be able to keep their healthcare coverage, that they want to expand health care coverage for Americans, they know who they need to vote for in November. You know, if you had to pick a single issue that divides the Republicans from the Democrats more clearly it's healthcare, because on the one hand what the Republicans are trying to do right now is they are in court. They're going to be in the United States Supreme Court in November, trying to get the Affordable Care Act overturned, trying to take away health care from people, trying to let insurance companies discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. What the Democrats are for is expanded health care coverage. That's what we get out there and fight for. We believe that health care is a basic human right. And we want Americans to have health care coverage, and we are willing to work toward that end. And to me that's what this 2020 election is about just in a nutshell.</s>BLITZER: You're you make an important point, because the Supreme Court will hear those arguments for and against the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare on November 10. Exactly one week after the election. This is going to be a huge, huge issue. Senator Warren, thank you so much for joining us.</s>WARREN: Thank you. Good to see you.</s>BLITZER: Thank you. Coming up, as many as 400,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States, this winter details of what Dr. Anthony Fauci is now warning. Plus, the disturbing new number of cases, they're on the rise right now in half the country. We'll be right back. |
Fauci: U.S. Could See As Many As 400,000 Pandemic Deaths This Winter. | BLITZER: We're following breaking pandemic news. The U.S. coronavirus death toll has now topped 211,000 people with more than 7.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases. CNN's Brian Todd is joining us right now. Brian, those numbers don't bode well at all, especially as winter approaches.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They don't, Wolf, and there are other very disturbing numbers we have to report tonight. Almost every indicator regarding how this pandemic is going in the United States is going in the wrong direction.</s>TODD (voice-over): A dire warning from America's leading voice on the pandemic of a potentially devastating winter ahead.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We could have from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths. That would be just so tragic if that happens.</s>TODD (voice-over): Dr. Anthony Fauci's warning comes as almost all the trends in America are heading in the wrong direction. 24 states are trending worse in new weekly cases, while only three states are improving. And eight states are seeing their highest ever new case weekly averages.</s>WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: People have come back to work. Some are going back to school, and they're not taking the proper precautions. We see that not just in the United States, we see that around the world.</s>TODD (voice-over): For the first time since August, the U.S. is seeing an average of more than 44,000 new cases per day. In the state of Wisconsin, the situation is spiraling. Hospitalizations have skyrocketed in recent days.</s>HASELTINE: And there's always a delay between the rise in the cases that we've seen, the rise in hospitalizations, and sadly a number of deaths.</s>TODD (voice-over): Wisconsin's governor has issued an emergency order limiting public gatherings to no more than 25 percent of a room or buildings total occupancy. And the Green Bay Packers are now barring fans from going to home games at storied Lambeau Field. Former Packers coach Mike Holmgren now supporting Joe Biden's candidacy, blames President Trump for Wisconsin spike.</s>MIKE HOLMGREN, FORMER GREEN BAY PACKERS COACH: It doesn't have to be this bad. And had the President acted earlier and done some things earlier, but he didn't and now here we are.</s>TODD (voice-over): In New York meantime, officials are desperately trying to head off several new clusters of coronavirus. In those clusters combined, many of them in New York City, officials say the positivity rate is five times that of the rest of the state. So, in so-called red zones, non-essential businesses will be closed, mass gatherings prohibited and in places of worship, only 10 people will be allowed inside at a time. People in an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn protested that restriction, accusing the Mayor and Governor of deceiving them. Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the crackdown.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We need to stop this outbreak dead in its tracks for the good of all New York City.</s>TODD: Meanwhile, President Trump is lashing out at his own governments Food and Drug Administration after the FDA issued new guidance saying that no company that is developing a coronavirus vaccine can seek Emergency Use Authorization to distribute their vaccine until at least two months have passed after their volunteers get their second dose of the vaccine. That means that Emergency Authorization for any vaccine is unlikely until after Election Day. The President calls that a, quote, political hit job by the FDA. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: His own FDA indeed. All right, Brian Todd reporting for us. Thank you very much. Let's get some more on this. The Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health is joining us Dr. Ashish Jha. Dr. Jha, thank you so much for joining us. So, right now, the United States is averaging more than 44,000 new coronavirus cases every single day. We haven't seen numbers of that high as you just heard in Brian's reports since August. Does that put us on track now for this projection from Dr. Fauci, God forbid, that the death toll could actually reach 300,000 or 400,000 deaths by this winter?</s>DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, Wolf, thank you for having me on. Those are dire predictions by Dr. Fauci consistent with what the -- you see (ph) of Washington model is suggesting. I'm still optimistic we can do better than that. But it's not going to be easy and it's not going to happen if we take our eye off the ball. So we know what to do around mask wearing and avoiding indoor gatherings and all of that. If our country can do those things, if states can focus on those things, yes, I think we can avoid the 300,000 to 400,000 deaths, but it's going to take work.</s>BLITZER: It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of leadership, which unfortunately, is missing right now. About 44,000 Americans are getting the virus having to isolate themselves. So what sort of example is the President setting for them by working from the Oval Office, walking around the large White House complex? He's doing that today while he's still contagious.</s>JHA: Yes, the entire way that the White House has dealt with their super spreading event that they experienced last week and what has happened since then, is really shocking. It's shocking for two reasons. One, is that it means that the virus will continue to spread in that community. And what the President is doing is going to put other people at risk. What the Vice President has done by not quarantining, I think puts others at risk. And then, as you said, it suggests, you know, sort of sets all the wrong examples, asking people who are working on kind of, you know, with hourly wage workers, people who are -- have childcare challenges, asking them to quarantine when our leaders won't do it, really unacceptable.</s>BLITZER: As you know, the President did get an experimental antibody treatment, this Regeneron drug from the firm Regeneron. But now Eli Lilly says it plans to have a million doses of its antibody therapy ready for when it gets Emergency Use Authorization. How significant are these developments?</s>JHA: Yes, I think this is good news. I mean, again, you know, one of the things that I think that the administration has done actually pretty well, is both on the vaccine front and on the therapeutics front, has really done a lot to kind of push those forward. It'd be great -- first of all, we don't know if Eli Lilly drug is going to work. But let's assume it does, let's hope for a second that the science shows it does. It'd be great to have a million doses because there will be a lot of Americans who will need it. Again, I'd rather have fewer people getting infected but if we have people getting infected, it'll be helpful to have therapeutics available.</s>BLITZER: It certainly will be. All right, Dr. Ashish Jha, as usual, thank you very much. Coming up, the pandemic expected to be front and center in tonight's vice presidential debate. I'll talk to former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who's actually helping Vice President Pence prepare for the debate. There you see him, he's got a mask on. We'll discuss with the Governor when we come back. |
Vice Presidential Debate Set For Tonight; Trump Returns To Oval Office; Many Americans Facing Financial Ruin As Stimulus Hopes Fade; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 211,000 With 7.5 Million Cases; Trump Continues Spreading Baseless Claims About Election After Ballot Printing Errors In Two States. | ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're following breaking news this hour, President Trump's reckless return to the Oval Office. Take a look at this, live pictures coming in from the West Wing. You see the Marine guard there at the door. That means the president is just beyond that door inside the West Wing in the Oval Office, despite, despite his coronavirus infection and the growing outbreak inside the White House. The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and social media adviser Dan Scavino have been working alongside the president while wearing personal protective equipment. We're certain to hear a lot more about the White House coronavirus outbreak at tonight's historic debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris, now just a few hours away. Senator Harris would be the first woman to hold the office and the first person of color. And with all the focus that the president's illness has developed, we can't forget the pandemic's enormous death toll here in the United States, which now stands at more than 211,000, with more than 7.5 million confirmed cases. Let's begin our coverage this hour with our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, the president once again showing complete disregard for the basic coronavirus guidelines put forward by the CDC, as this outbreak inside the White House has continued.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And we should point out the president just tweeted out a Web video, a White House-produced video, in just the last several minutes. We're going through it right now. But one quick headline from that video, the president refers to his being infected with the coronavirus as a blessing from God and a blessing in disguise. So, we're going through that video right now, and we will have more on that as we go through it. But, in the meantime, as you said, President Trump returned to the Oval Office, even as he's still infected with the coronavirus and capable of spreading COVID-19 to other people. He's been in the office, Oval Office, with a couple of top aides, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The White House continued to cloak the president's health in secrecy today. The president's doctor released a statement saying Mr. Trump feels great and is symptom-free. But top White House officials are giving conflicting answers on whether the president entered the Oval Office yesterday. And CNN has learned the president was not being tested daily for the virus prior to his positive results last week. White House officials will only say he is tested regularly.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): With a Marine stationed outside the West Wing, meaning the president was back in the Oval Office, White House officials are dodging key questions about Mr. Trump's recovery from the coronavirus. The president's doctor, Sean Conley, released another brief statement that first quotes Mr. Trump: "The president this morning says, 'I feel great!'" and goes on to say: "His vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range. He's now been fever-free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours." Top White House officials are giving conflicting answers on whether the president stopped by the Oval Office on Tuesday, with economic adviser Larry Kudlow saying, yes, he did.</s>LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: The government is functioning. The president actually showed up in the Oval Office yesterday with extra precautions with respect to his COVID-19. And he's getting a lot better.</s>ACOSTA: But Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters Mr. Trump only wanted to go.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We're looking at his prognosis from a health standpoint. He wanted to go to the Oval yesterday. If he decides to go to the Oval, we have got safety protocols did there.</s>ACOSTA: Meadows would not say when the president last tested negative for the virus, before his positive results on Thursday.</s>QUESTION: Mark, was the president tested daily before Thursday?</s>MEADOWS: You have already had that asked and answered.</s>ACOSTA: White House officials tell CNN the president is tested regularly, while people around Mr. Trump are tested daily. That's a critical distinction, considering all of the people in Mr. Trump's orbit who've come up positive with COVID-19. Administration officials are looking at both the Rose Garden event for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Mr. Trump's debate prep session that's included Kellyanne Conway and Chris Christie as likely spreaders of the virus late last month. If Mr. Trump caught the virus that weekend, he could have passed it on at a Gold Star event for military families, where many people were not wearing masks.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yesterday, I was very proud to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court.</s>ACOSTA: As well as his news conference the same day.</s>JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Will you shut up, man?</s>ACOSTA: Add to that his debate in Ohio two days later, and then his rally in Minnesota. Dr. Anthony Fauci says that's why he's been urging Americans to be more careful.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Take a look at what happened this week at the White House. That is a reality right there. And every day that goes by, more people are popping up that are infected. It's not a hoax.</s>ACOSTA: Behind closed doors, the president is back to tweeting conspiracy theories, with one including a notable typo that combined the words caught and cough. The president also thanked a supporter who tweeted, "I would wade flu a sea of COVID-infested water to vote for President Trump on November 3." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who slammed the president for abruptly ending coronavirus stimulus talks, questioning whether his medications are affecting his actions.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): There are those who say that steroids have an impact on people's thinking. I don't know. But there are those health care providers who say that.</s>ACOSTA: Now, as for that Web video from the White House of the president, it is the first time we are seeing the president on camera since he returned from Walter Reed. Let's play a chunk of that now.</s>TRUMP: I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise. I caught it. I heard about this drug. I said, Let me take it. It was my suggestion. I said, let me take it, and it was incredible, the way it worked. Incredible. And I think, if I didn't catch it, we'd be looking at that like a number of other drugs.</s>ACOSTA: And so you see there, Wolf, the president referring to his being stricken with the coronavirus as a blessing from God. The president throughout that video describes some of the medicines that he's been on as being part of the reason why he sees all of this as a blessing. But, of course, Wolf, we have to underline not every American who is stricken with the coronavirus has access to the kind of medical care that the president has had access to over the last several days. And so, obviously, that is going to be held up as a reason to wonder whether or not the president fully understands the plight of Americans who catch COVID-19 and are falling ill from COVID-19. Obviously, the president sounding very upbeat in that video, but, obviously, the medical care he receives is very different from the medical care that lots of other Americans receive around the country -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: It certainly is. That video, Jim, it was produced by the White House. It wasn't produced -- it wasn't made available through news media coverage, the White House pool or anything. It was produced by the White House. Do we know when they did this?</s>ACOSTA: It appears from that video that this may have been recorded yesterday. We did hear that the president was recording a video yesterday. And then the White House did not release that video last night. And so you're absolutely right, Wolf. That is something that you have to underline here, that this is a video produced -- shot, produced and released by the White House. There was no press pool or anything like that, that went out onto the Rose Garden to record this. This was the president, along with his social media and video teams, out there putting this video together. You can see the president talking into the camera there and looking like he's OK, looking like he's healthy. But, of course, we should underline, Wolf, we have been talking to our sources ever since the president has been stricken with the coronavirus, and we have been hearing conflicting things. Obviously, we're hearing that the president is having some trouble breathing, that it hasn't always been a smooth ride when it comes to how he's been dealing with the coronavirus. Obviously, the White House wants to present a very different picture and show him that he's doing -- show that he's doing all right, but no question about it, this is a White House video produced by the White House. There were no journalists, there were no reporters, no videographers, photographers who were around the president to independently observe as to whether or not the president is doing as well as he seems in that video, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, the president not wearing a mask. And there were individuals working the cameras, the audio, there at the scene. A little worried about them, obviously, as well. Jim Acosta. I know you're working your sources. We will get back to you. Amidst all of this, we're getting more details right now on tonight's vice presidential debate. I want to go to CNN's Kyung Lah. She's on the scene for us in Salt Lake City. Both sides must be preparing for the president's COVID diagnosis to be a major topic, Kyung, at the debate tonight.</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Without question, Wolf. As far as the Harris campaign, we have heard this from her aides in a call in advance of the debate this evening, that while Senator Harris may be on stage with the vice president, it will be President Trump that she wants to return to as a topic. Certainly, his coronavirus status, his diagnosis hangs over this entire debate, down to those dividers, those Plexiglas dividers that separate the two candidates, two of them on both sides. The moderator will be sitting on one end. But those dividers will be separating the two candidates, so, the visual cue, all of it hanging over all of this. The Harris campaign also said that what they're going to be reminding Americans about is that Mike Pence, the vice president, is the one who is at the top, the head of the Coronavirus Task Force, so, again, trying to tie him back to what we are seeing in the United States as far as infections. The vice president, though, is known for his diligent practice, practicing 90 minutes straight, drilling. It is something he is known for. The campaign, the Harris campaign, says they expect him to be smooth and practiced -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, I expect it to be a little bit more civil than the debate last week. You know, Kyung, we saw the Plexiglas on the debate stage. What other safety measures are in place in light of the coronavirus outbreak at the White House?</s>LAH: Well, you can see that I'm wearing a mask inside the debate hall. Everyone inside the debate hall needs to wear a mask. And they're asking reporters, people who are attending to wear this type of mask. It's a specific mask that they're handing out to people here on the campus of the university. They are also spacing people apart on stage. The candidates are separated by 12 feet and three inches, a very specific distance between these two chairs. And that, in addition to the Plexiglas, the hope is to try to protect these candidates as best as they can. Also, whenever you walk around here on the campus, Wolf, what you see is hand sanitizers everywhere. You see wipes. And you also see people asking people to separate. If you're standing too close to somebody, you're not wearing a mask outdoors, they do ask you to separate. It's really a unique situation, where they are going specifically up to people and saying, hey, you guys are a little too close -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I'm glad they're doing that. It's better to err on the side of caution, of course, with a deadly virus like this out there. Kyung Lah in Salt Lake City, thank you. Let's get some more analysis from our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, and former Ohio Governor John Kasich. He's now a CNN senior political commentator. Sanjay, in this new video that was just released by the White House, President Trump said he thinks it's a blessing. It's a blessing from God, he said, he caught the coronavirus. He said that the experimental drug that he got, he called it a cure. And he told Americans they will get better fast, just like he did. Is he actually using his own illness to downplay this coronavirus, which is so deadly, even further?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I hope he recovers well from this. But it certainly does sound like it. Right? I don't think anybody would consider this a blessing. So many people have died. Wolf, you talk about it all the time. I keep in touch with so many of these families who've lost loved ones. This is not a blessing by any means. And, Wolf, he's not out of the acute phase of this illness yet. We know that he was receiving this cocktail of medications. He received the antibodies, which may have been helpful to him. Antibodies are these proteins that can help fight the virus. He received the remdesivir, which is an antiviral. And I think he's still on steroids, because, if you look at the trials, that usually is 10 days' worth of steroids, six milligrams a day. So, he's probably still on steroids, which could be making him feel well, but that's not treating the underlying illness. Wolf, it's also important to point out something we have talked about, and that is these long-hauler symptoms. And, again, I'm not -- I hope he doesn't develop any of this. But about close to 90 percent of people who are hospitalized for COVID do have lingering symptoms, shortness of breath, fatigue, sometimes neurological symptoms, such as headache or confusion, difficulty thinking. So, it's not a blessing. Nobody wants this. You don't want this. Herd immunity is not -- is it back to him advocating for herd immunity? That's a terrible idea. So, I don't know what he intended to convey in that video, but you don't want this disease, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: No. And you don't know. Even if you get through the coronavirus, you don't know about the long-term ramifications on your health, because we know there are a lot of what they call long-haulers out there who have problems months and months down the road. The president, Sanjay, said it was his suggestion to be treated with that Regeneron antibody therapy. What's your reaction to that?</s>GUPTA: Well, I don't know. What I can tell you -- I don't know how it came about. You and I both know, because we talked to the -- one of the founders of the company last week, this is not even a therapy that has emergency use authorization yet. There's been a lot of enthusiasm around using antibodies. Antibodies, again, are these proteins that can help fight the virus. And you would produce them if you got a vaccine or you could give them to somebody, as was given to the president. But there's not a lot of data around this, 275 people in this first trial, and we didn't even really see that data. But whether he ordered it, I'm sure his doctors talked about this as a possibility and probably talked to Regeneron, the company that makes these antibodies. And then he would have needed to get a compassionate use authorization for this, because, again, it's not even authorized under emergency use.</s>BLITZER: Yes. He made a point of saying it was a cure and he was grateful to Regeneron for that drug. What did you gather from the president's appearance in this new video that the White House released? Remember, this is an official White House video. What does it say that, even when he has this virus himself -- and I assume, Sanjay, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, he's still contagious -- he wants to put out this image of him walking around. He's over there in the Rose Garden. He's not wearing a mask. There's a government camera crew there. I'm worried about them, obviously. He's heading from the residence over to the Oval Office. You know this area well. What do you make of that?</s>GUPTA: It's really worrisome, Wolf. And it makes no sense. I mean, he should be in isolation. He has this disease. It's been diagnosed in him. He's still contagious. People are typically contagious up to 10 days after they develop symptoms. So, he's still in that contagious period. We've -- CDC, all these doctors have been telling people for months now, if you have the disease you need to isolate even within your own home. You can't even see some -- your family members. Use your own bathroom. Use your own kitchen utensils, all that sort of stuff. And here he is out and about without a mask on? It's a terrible message to send. Like you, I'm worried about the people that are around him. This is a contagious, deadly disease. I feel like I'm living in some sort of surreal movie here. How is it that the president of the United States, who has this disease, it is contagious and it is deadly, is out there making a video and possibly infecting other people? It's just -- it's wrong on every level, medical, moral, you name it.</s>BLITZER: Yes, and he's ignoring the CDC's own guidelines for those who are infected with the disease and potentially contagious as well. Kaitlan, we don't know, unless you know, when the president actually filmed this video. We don't know if this was edited by the White House. What do we know?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this doesn't appear to be the video that the president had taped yesterday, which we thought it was a little questionable why they had not aired that video yet. This seems to be a new video that the president taped outside today. And this is notable, because it's the first time we have actually seen the president, though this is a taped appearance, coordinated by the White House, with no independent media there, we should stress. But this is the first time we have actually seen the president since Monday. And so people have been questioning why we hadn't seen the president, why his doctor hadn't briefed reporters. He was instead only putting statements out. And so this is the first time we have seen him. And if you watch this video, it's about five minutes long, Wolf, you do see a period in there, I think about almost the two-minute mark, where there is an edit, it appears, because it goes from being kind of close zoomed in on the president to zoomed out. So, of course, that's going to raise questions. It doesn't appear to just be a completely taped live address, where you're seeing the president as he is, and you can evaluate, how's his breathing, how does this look, seeing him in person and judging how he's looking, dealing with this several days into his diagnosis. But, Wolf, during that video, what I noticed also is the president talked about two things. He talked about the fact that a vaccine likely now won't come until after the election. That's because of those new FDA rules to make sure a vaccine is safe, that they want to monitor people who do get it in these trials for two months after they get the second dose of it in those clinical trials. The president had been incredibly upset about that with the FDA administrator, because he was tweeting about it just recently. Of course, now we know those rules have been approved and that is going to be the situation. It's not going to be able to be rushed through because they want to make sure and see if there's any side effects. And the president is conceding there, there will not be a vaccine until after the election, though he says it will be soon. But also talking about this Regeneron-produced treatment that the president got, he talks about making it free, Wolf. And, of course, as Sanjay noted, it's not even close to being approved yet. It doesn't have that emergency use authorization. But that is something we have talked about, is the president is saying this is a blessing in disguise, it's not a big deal. He's talking about getting access to this treatment. This is a treatment that fewer than 10 people in the United States outside of clinical trials have gotten access to. It is not widely available. The president is having a very different coronavirus experience than you or I would have. And so that's important to stress, as people are watching the president projecting this rosy image, that what he's getting is not what everyone else is necessarily going to get.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that's absolutely true. Governor Kasich, more than 211,000 Americans have now lost their lives to this virus. The president won't stay at the hospital. He won't wear a mask. You saw him now without a mask. You would think he'd want to send a message, wear a mask. It's so critically important. It can save lives. He won't even follow the guidelines that the CDC has put out to isolate, safety, stay in what the CDC calls a safe room. Does that look like someone who's really learned more about the virus since getting it himself?</s>JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Wolf, the -- what -- the people who are really acting his actions carefully are our senior citizens. He had them pretty well locked down. But we have now begun to see either these folks moving away from him into a position of neutrality, just kind of looking at Joe Biden, and some of them are actually going over and saying they support Biden. So we know that our seniors are the most vulnerable to this virus. And when they watch the president, whether with this motorcade, which has been widely condemned, in terms of what he did there, the way in which he has not been wearing masks, the way he scaled the steps to do that video, there's a lot of senior citizens shaking their heads, saying, you know, I don't know about this guy. And you think about it. Just take a second and think about our seniors all over this country who are saying, wait a minute, I'm trying to lock down, my wife and I are trying to be careful. We're trying to do the responsible thing. We're not even seeing our grandchildren, because we don't want them to carry the virus here. And there are parents that won't take their grandchildren because they're worried that the grandchildren may infect mom and dad. And so here they're watching this, and the guy's walking around doing videos and filming, not wearing a mask. Couple that with the motorcade activity. And they're not willing to answer the question about when had he had it. And I think it's having a significant and profound effect on his standing now vis-a-vis Joe Biden.</s>BLITZER: And what's very disturbing is that the president's White House physician has refused to answer reporters' questions now for two days, yesterday and today, issuing just a very, very short little statement. Everybody, stand by. We're going to have much more coming up on all the breaking news. Also just ahead, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, she's standing by to join me in THE SITUATION ROOM. We have a lot to discuss, including the president's reckless trip to the Oval Office. We will be right back. |
Trump Says He will No-Show Next Debate after Switch to Virtual Format | MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And because it's a special election, if Mark Kelly wins, he could play a role in the nomination process for Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Of course, that assumes she's not confirmed by Election Day, Erin.</s>ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Miguel, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you. Anderson starts now.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening. The President of the United States is certainly living up to the title of Bob Woodward's book about him. The book, of course, is "Rage" and the President is clearly in one. Fading in the polls, he is lashing out at perceived enemies, demanding the Attorney General bring charges against his opponent, his 2016 opponent, and the last President, describing Senator Kamala Harris as, quote "this monster." In addition, he continues to mislead the public about a pandemic that itself is raging, once again has now taken more than 212,000 lives in this country. But the President being the President isn't focusing on them or on their loved ones or any COVID experience, but his own. As a result, he is floating dangerous ideas about how survivable it is because it was survivable for him. He is hinting that he contracted the virus from the families of fallen U.S. service members because of how much they love him. On top of that, according to "The New York Times" Maggie Haberman, the President wants to start campaigning again as early as Monday, because how good he feels perhaps because he has been taking potentially mood altering steroids. And late this evening, the White House physician put out a statement clearing him for return to public engagements as early as Saturday. Is he infectious right now? Unclear from the White House physician. He is as the Marine Guard outside indicates, back in the Oval Office, putting people around him potentially and their families at risk by not following C.D.C. guidelines and isolating himself. Is he perhaps kidding himself about his status at the moment? Listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I don't think I'm contagious.</s>MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: ... going to feel that way if you're saying you're ready to go to a rally.</s>TRUMP: But we still have to wait -- I don't think I'm contagious at all.</s>COOPER: In fact, unless he is Superman or became COVID positive far earlier than he is letting on, which is almost -- well, which is actually entirely possible. It's almost certainly not true that he is not contagious. The C.D.C. recommends at least 10 days of isolation for anyone who has had COVID and says it could be as long as 20 days if like the President, they've been hospitalized and needed oxygen. The President is still treating his own experience as representative, and the lesson he is taking from it when he is not cracking jokes is that COVID is nothing to worry about.</s>TRUMP: I'm back because I'm a perfect physical specimen, and I'm extremely young. And so I'm lucky in that way. Look, what happens is, if you're anywhere around this thing, you can catch it. People caught it. And I'm not just talking about this location, I'm talking about many other locations. Now, what happens is you get better. That's what happens, you get better.</s>COOPER: Unless you don't -- 212,000 Americans never got better. They are dead. And of the 7.6 million people who have been infected, many of them still haven't gotten better. Thousands are hospitalized around the country. Some continue to suffer debilitating and painful symptoms for months after they have supposedly recovered from COVID. Hundreds are still dying every day right now, and the latest estimate is that deaths may reach 400,000, past the end of the year. But look, the President right now is saying, "You get better." He had less to say about his own super spreader event at the Rose Garden two weekends ago or that so many of his senior advisers are infected, as are his campaign manager, his body man, four White House reporters, members of the household staff, three senators, one university President and two military commanders. And again today, neither he, his doctor nor his spokespeople had anything to say about when he actually last tested negative. They're covering that up for some reason. Instead, the President today suggested he might have contracted COVID from Gold Star families at a reception the day after the Rose Garden ceremony.</s>TRUMP: And they come up and they tell me a story about my son, sir, was in Iraq, or he was in Afghanistan. And sir, he did this and he did that. And then he charged in order to save his friends. And yes, sir, he was killed but he saved his friends. He is so brave, sir. And I can't back up, Maria and say, give me room. I want room. Give me 12 feet. Stay 12 feet away when you talk. They come -- they come within an inch of my face sometimes. They want to hug me and they want to kiss me, then they do. And frankly, I'm not telling them to back up. I'm not doing it. But I did say it's like, you know, like, it's obviously dangerous. It's a dangerous thing, I guess if you go by the COVID thing.</s>COOPER: Now, ditching the narcissism and the callousness of that, there's also the fact that if you'd worn a mask in those moments, and the people around him had been asked to wear masks, the risk would be reduced as his own C.D.C. guidelines point out. But when the President suggests he may have been infected by Gold Star families, think about what else the President is suggesting there. He is suggesting he was infected on Sunday evening. That's 48 hours before last Tuesday's debate with Joe Biden, and if he were tested every day as the White House had previously claimed, he might have actually known it when he went to that debate. It would also mean if he is right that he had COVID when he went to that rally on Wednesday in Minnesota, the same rally when Hope Hicks fell ill and had to isolate inside Air Force One on the trip back.</s>COOPER: It would mean he had it the next day, Thursday, when he went to his Country Club in New Jersey to meet some high dollar donors. Think of all the people who came in contact with him in that duration, hundreds of people and only now according to late reporting with "The Washington Post" has the C.D.C. been called in to help in contact tracing for the White House. "New York Times" journalist, Michael Shear who told us he thinks he contracted the virus on the Saturday of that Rose Garden event either while at the White House early in the day or while traveling on Air Force One with the President, he says no contact tracers from the White House have reached out to him. But don't take our word for it that the White House has been unsafe and cavalier about the spread of the virus. Take Mitch McConnell's. That's right. That Mitch McConnell.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I haven't actually been to the White House since August 6th. Because my impression was their approach to how they handle this is different from mine, and what I insist that we do, which is to wear a mask and properly social distance.</s>COOPER: Hard to hear, but he is saying he didn't go to the White House since August 6th, because he was worried about how they were handling COVID and it was different than the way he was making sure it was handled on the Senate side. And just think about that for a moment, a close ally of the President, not even willing to come anywhere near the White House because of how unserious he thought the White House was being even about keeping themselves safe, and how unserious, he still believes they are. It might have been nice for Mitch McConnell to warn others not to go to the White House, but he seems to have kept that one pretty close to the vest. Now, the President also lashed out today about the Russia investigation on Hillary Clinton's e-mails. He is back to that. He asked why she hadn't been indicted yet and called on Attorney General Barr to indict Joe Biden and former President Obama.</s>TRUMP: Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we're going to get a little satisfaction unless I win, and we will just have to go because I won't forget it. But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama, and it includes Biden. These are people that spied in my campaign and we have everything.</s>COOPER: The President also pulled out of the next debate and again falsely compared himself to Winston Churchill after the Debate Commission made the event virtual.</s>TRUMP: No, I don't want to do a virtual debate because a virtual debate is a -- it is a joke. There is no reason. I'm in great shape. I just -- you know, unlike Joe, I don't have the luxury of staying in a basement all day long. I'm running a country. You know, when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, he would stand in the top of buildings as Hitler was dropping bombs on London. You know that. You've heard that. And he makes speeches and put his fist up in the air and say, how dare you, you know, the Mad Dog, he called him. And, you know, I can't stay in a basement. I can't stay in a basement and he can.</s>COOPER: He said this before. Churchill didn't -- he wasn't the one standing on building tops as German bombs fell. The CBS News correspondent, Edward R. Murrow was famous for doing radio broadcasts during the Blitz. Churchill, because he was so vital to his country, and he actually was a leader who was leading and making important decisions that actually had ramifications in real time on the battlefield, and was overseeing the defense of the free world. He actually spent much of the Blitz in the basement in a massive bunker complex for his own safety. CNN's Jim Acosta is at the White House for us tonight. So, I understand the Trump campaign has just issued another statement on the campaign. What are they saying?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Anderson, they're saying that because of this letter from Dr. Sean Conley, they came out earlier this evening, saying that the President is essentially clear to get back to what they're saying -- what they are calling public engagement on Saturday, i.e. get back on the campaign trail, that the President could essentially be at the debate next Thursday in Miami, and they're calling on the Debate Commission to reverse course, do away with this idea of a virtual debate and have a face-to-face in-person debate next Thursday in Miami. Obviously, the Debate Commission is in charge of all of this, not Donald Trump and not the Trump campaign. But that's what they're saying tonight.</s>COOPER: I mean, I guess, given the fact that this administration is covering up when the President actually last tested negative, why would anybody believe or have any confidence in what the White House is saying about the course of his illness and when he is able to be out in public?</s>ACOSTA: Well, we can't trust what they've been saying, Anderson, and obviously Dr. Sean Conley even though he has a good reputation inside the White House, people inside the White House have told me they like Dr. Sean Conley. He has essentially been putting out information that the President wants put out to the public. We've said this time and again. He seemed to do that earlier this evening when he gave the President a greenlight to get back out on the campaign trail.</s>ACOSTA: I will say, Anderson, we're now into day three of not independently observing with our own eyes how the President is doing, the White House has put out these propaganda videos. You know, they're starting to rival you know, the propaganda videos that come out of Russia and North Korea, where they put the President out on the South Lawn of the White House and try to show him doing just fine, but we have no way of observing that. The only thing that we've been able to observe over the last few days is the Marine standing outside of the West Wing and officials telling us, yes, he is in the Oval Office, and he is meeting with officials. And oh, by the way, they're wearing personal protective equipment, but we have no way of independently verifying that because we haven't been able to get close to the situation, thank goodness, because none of us want to get sick. But Anderson, no, there's no reason to trust what they're saying about any of this at this point.</s>COOPER: Vice President Pence postponed a preplanned trip to Indianapolis, where he was said to vote early. I think that was supposed to take place tomorrow, do we know why he did that?</s>ACOSTA: Yes, what the campaign is saying, what Pence advisers are saying is that Mike Pence wanted to get back to Washington and get some rest after his debate being out on the campaign trail that he will be back out on the campaign trail on Saturday. But you know, make no mistake, they made a last minute decision to return to Washington this evening and instead of going to Indianapolis and the Vice President voting, it also raises questions as to what is going on here. We have no way of independently verifying any of these events and whether or not any of it is related to the President's current condition. Obviously, you saw what the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was saying earlier today. She suspects that the President is in some sort of altered state because of the medications that he is on right now, but one of the top White House officials over here, who is still working at the White House right now, Alyssa Farah, the Communications Director said no, no, no, that's absolutely not the case that the President is strong. But Anderson, no question about it. We are flying blind right here -- right now, right here. And you know, we're on the dark side of the moon in terms of what we know about how the President is doing and how the rest of the team is doing at this point.</s>COOPER: Yes. Jim Acosta, appreciate him. Thanks. Perspective now from CNN senior political commentator and former senior adviser to a man the President wants indicted, David Axelrod; also CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger; and CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- I meant, President Obama he wants to indict, not David Axelrod, although time will tell. We will see. David, you tweeted today that the President has basically turned his own political demise into a, quote, surreal reality show. Do you think this -- I mean, does this get him anywhere? I mean, you know, bringing up the Hillary Clinton e-mail? I mean, it's all the greatest hits from rants of the past, and only -- you know, with sort of infomercials for, you know, remdesivir and other things thrown in and free offers to seniors.</s>DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. The short answer is no. The President -- I have to say at this moment, it feels like the President is not well. The kinds of things that he said on that -- sure, they are not unlike things he said in the past, but as you say, it was like a kind of spasmodic burst of resentments, and the resentment, you know, he often appeals to other people's sense of resentment. That's part of his political formula. But he is really disgorging his own resentments now, and maybe it's because at some level, he recognizes that he is not on course to win this race. But that was a really appalling -- and I think alarming performance today because we don't know what drugs he is on. We don't know what his condition truly is, and we don't really know whether he is of sound judgment right now.</s>COOPER: Gloria, calling Senator Kamala Harris a monster today; calling her, you know, other things as well, a communist. You know, again, not surprising, not shocking. It's what he does, I guess, it seems, I guess, desperate, given just so kind of ridiculous things. She's a communist.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.</s>COOPER: But is this -- is any of this working for him? I mean, I'm not sure. You know, I know, Democrats think they are ahead in the polls. I don't -- you know, I think a lot of people thought Hillary Clinton was ahead in the polls, and she didn't win, so I'm not sure. I mean, should Democrats be confident?</s>BORGER: Look, Democrats are looking at the polls, too, and so they're confident, but they understand what happened in 2016 and the last thing they want to do is get overconfident. Because what that tells your voters is, oh, you can stay home, you don't have to vote. You don't have to return that ballot. So they are not doing that. But what we are hearing and seeing from the President, as David is saying, is this kind of desperation, this flailing and the name calling of Kamala Harris as a monster and a communist and everything else is a President who needs enemies. He needs people. There is real oxygen, Anderson, these enemies and so she is a convenient enemy for him because he says, oh, you know she's the stalking horse for the radical left and oh by the way, he said today, and this was stunning, joe Biden won't last two months. Did you hear that? He said that. And what was that about? Kamala Harris is a woman of color. Was he telling people, oh, okay, well, you know, she could be President in two months. I mean, it was kind of stunning to me.</s>COOPER: Sanjay, when the President said today, he said, quote, "I don't think I'm contagious at all," and that he feels perfect. That's not how this virus works. And we have no idea what's going on with him. We don't know how long he's had it. We don't know how much he spread it. But you know, they're trying to -- they are covering that up successfully. Is there any way to really know how he -- way to know how he is doing?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, I mean, you know, we're sort of at the mercy of the doctors who say that they want to brief people and disclose how the President is doing, but then they speak in these very vague sort of ways. I mean, there is a convention that the medical professions communicates messages back and forth, and these letters, and these statements, and even the briefings have all been, you know, we've had to sort of translate these things. So we don't know. We do know that he wouldn't be out of his contagious period yet, by, you know, lots of data and looking at the C.D.C. guidelines. But I want you to listen to how Dr. Conley just was talking about this just on Monday, just three days ago.</s>DR. SEAN CONLEY, WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: We're in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient that received the therapies he has so early in the course. So we're looking to this weekend, if we can get through to Monday, with him remaining the same or improving, better yet, then we will all take that final deep sigh of relief.</s>GUPTA: So that was on Monday, Anderson, and so here we are on Thursday and he is saying we've got to wait at least until the following Monday, so you know, several days from now, four or five days from now. And here we are, on Thursday, basically saying that, you know, things are basically back to normal. You know, they released this letter today and I don't know if we have a shot of this letter. But you know, again, there is a convention with the way medical professionals sort of communicate. One thing about this letter right away, you'll notice is that there's not even the temperature on here. It's hard to read, obviously. But I can tell you, there's no temperature on here for somebody who has an infection. And that's key, because that's the -- not having a temperature is one of the criteria for starting to come out of isolation. They don't even mention the temperature here. Instead they say that he has a trajectory of -- he has advanced diagnostics in the right trajectory. I don't even know what that means.</s>BORGER: What's that?</s>GUPTA: I mean, what tests -- are those tests -- so it's purposely vague and it's disappointing, because again, if you want to present information, then do it. Otherwise, you're presenting this stuff that sort of gibberish and hard to translate.</s>COOPER: It is interesting, though, in that letter, he talked about, it will be 10 -- Saturday will be 10 days from Thursday's diagnosis. He didn't say from the President's first positive diagnosis or the first positive test. He just said Thursday's diagnosis, which is the only diagnosis we've been told about. But the timeline doesn't really seem to match up. It seems like there may have been -- you know, he may have known before this, we simply don't know.</s>GUPTA: Yes. No, we don't know. And I still don't -- I'm not clear, obviously, as I pointed out with this letter, are they trying to get serial negative tests for COVID? Is that what they're relying on? And if so, that's not a good strategy, because he has obviously been on all these different medications. We know when at least we were told he first developed symptoms, but we also know that he was obviously hospitalized. So his duration of his contagious period, maybe longer as a result of that, as you pointed out, Anderson, up to 20 days. There are there are clear ways to communicate what's going on with the President. We still don't know if he has pneumonia. We don't know when his last negative test is. We don't know what the deal is with these medications or how they are basically monitoring those. If he is still on the steroids that could be masking all these symptoms. I know we've talked about this before, and I probably sound like a broken record, but they are purposely being vague. I know this, we read lots of these types of letters from doctors. This is not normal what is happening here, and by the way, it sort of fits the pattern of other doctor's letters that we've had regarding President Trump, we just -- we can't really make sense of it. It's like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.</s>COOPER: David, there's a certain statement from the Trump campaign tonight about the debate. I've gotten a little just confused on what they're actually now saying based on the President could be there in person. The debate is virtual. He said he won't do a virtual debate. What do you think is going to happen?</s>AXELROD: Well, I think they're going to try and debate somehow because he is 10 points behind and he desperately needs to do something to try and change the dynamic. But you know, this is the problem. He said this morning, he won't do it. They're changing their tune a little bit tonight. It says the same way that he has dealt with, you know, the issue of the stimulus. You know, one day he is out. The stock market tanks. By nighttime, he is changing his position and everybody is standing there scratching their heads. And that's the position we're in on this debate. And, you know, maybe they're in a force -- they are in a test of wills with the Debate Commission and the Biden campaign. But I've got to tell you the truth, Joe Biden is under no pressure to debate at this point. He's got this -- he has got this race well in hand. He said, I'll show up for a virtual debate and the President can take it or leave it.</s>COOPER: Yes. David Axelrod, Gloria Borger, and Sanjay Gupta. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Coming up next, details of the alleged plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan and the frightening agenda behind it. Michigan's Attorney General joins us. And later, Bill Gates joins us to talk vaccines and therapies including the experimental treatment that the President got. |
Thirteen People Charged for Plot to Kidnap Gov. Whitmer; 13 Charged In Plot To Kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer; Fed: Groups Planned To Try Her For "Treason" Before Election | COOPER: Breaking news out of Michigan tonight, the F.B.I. announced they've foiled an alleged domestic terrorism plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, overthrow several state governments, and according to the federal criminal complaint, quote, "Instigate a Civil War." Today, Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer made a statement and brought up President Trump's comments at his last debate on the far right group, Proud Boys to stand back and standby.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Hate groups heard the President's words, not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight.</s>COOPER: In a moment, we'll be joined by Michigan's Attorney General, but first, our Randi Kaye with details of the alleged plot.</s>JOSH HAUXHURST, F.B.I. ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT-IN-CHARGE: The alleged conspirators are extremists who undertook a plot to kidnap a sitting Governor.</s>RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): That Governor, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Investigators say the men planned to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in Michigan before the November election and put her on trial for treason after she shut down the state to stop the spread of the coronavirus. According to the criminal complaint, the F.B.I. began investigating earlier this year after learning of the scheme through social media. They infiltrated the group using confidential informants. In June, the complaint says, one of the six main suspects, Adam Fox live streamed a video on a private Facebook group complaining about the State of Michigan controlling the opening of gyms. The suspect allegedly referred to Governor Whitmer as a "tyrant bitch."</s>KAYE (voice over): The F.B.I. says it has an audio recording of Fox in July describing the plot as a "snatch and grab," saying on the tape, "Grab the effing Governor. Just grab the bitch." In August, the complaint says another suspect stated during an encrypted group chat that one person should knock on the door and when she answers, "just cap her."</s>ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: The complaint further alleges that Fox purchased a Taser for use in the kidnapping, and that the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to test its anti-personnel capabilities.</s>KAYE (voice over): Of the six men at the center of this plot, five are from Michigan; the others from Delaware, according to the complaint, but they enlisted others, members of a Michigan-based militant group called Wolverine Watchmen. The F.B.I. says this group was planning to assault the Michigan State Capitol using Molotov cocktails to destroy police cars. In all, 13 people have been implicated in the plot against Michigan State officials and law enforcement. One says, the complaint, the group met in the basement of a business owned by suspect Adam Fox, a basement accessed through a trap door hidden under a rug. This isn't the first time Whitmer's life has been in danger. She faced multiple death threats after issuing state home orders to help control coronavirus in her state. In April, protesters gathered at the Capitol causing gridlock and demanding the stay-at-home order be lifted. Later that month, this was the scene inside the Capitol. Protesters demanding an end to the state of emergency, many openly carrying firearms which is legal in the state. That same month, President Trump tweeted, "Liberate Michigan." Today after the plot against her was made public, Governor Whitmer called out the President who just last week refused to condemn far right groups.</s>WHITMER: Hate groups heard the President's words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight.</s>KAYE (voice over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach, Florida.</s>COOPER: And joining us now is Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Madam, Attorney General, appreciate you being with us. What more can you tell us about the size and the scope of this alleged plot against Governor Whitmer? And any concerns you still have about exactly what was in the works?</s>DANA NESSEL, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, yes, we're concerned, Anderson. There remains a number of individuals, number of groups that are out there that continue to plan acts of domestic terrorism, not just Michigan, but in a multijurisdictional fashion across many states. This is not just a Michigan problem. This is now an American problem. So yes, we have concerns. And unfortunately, it seems as though those who would engage in this kind of behavior, they've been able to use the COVID epidemic, and the civil unrest from the Black Lives Matter Movement to recruit more members. So we've had an exponential rise in terms of the number of groups in our state and around the country, as well as the membership.</s>COOPER: In some of the documents, there is some connection, or at least some interest in I think, by one of the people in QAnon as well, which we've seen obviously grow a lot online. How direct of a line, if any, do you believe you can draw from the suspects back to the unrest in Michigan's Capitol earlier in the pandemic? People obviously remember seeing and hearing, you know, very ugly rhetoric, armed people, you know, at the statehouse yelling at law enforcement and yelling at legislators?</s>NESSEL: Well, I can tell you that many of the defendants that were charged today, both in the Federal and in the state indictments were there and present at that event, and that that event was also utilized to recruit more members. So I think it was a pivotal point, like some, frankly, many of the protests that have gone on here in our state, had been used for recruitment, and to further the cause.</s>COOPER: The President, if I'm memory serves me, the President actually praised those people when the unrest in Michigan, the armed people the statehouse, if -- I don't have it in front of me, but as I recall, he praised them that that was around the time the "Liberate Michigan" tweet.</s>NESSEL: He sure did. He indicated they were very good people and that the governor ought to actually sit down and negotiate with these armed gunmen, which of course is outrageous, and I am so tired of seeing his perpetual tweets where he tweets, law and order, and the fact is those who believe law and order and who support law and order don't support domestic terrorists. Those of us who really believe in the premise of law and order, hold domestic terrorists accountable.</s>COOPER: Because just -- I mean, in the charges against these people, they plan to attack law enforcement personnel. So I mean, that's the whole idea that these are lawn order enthusiasts. They're talking about, you know, having an ID, Molotov cocktails to hit police vehicles.</s>NESSEL: They do. They're very anti-law enforcement, many of these groups. So, it is so stunning to me, that you will see some of our state politicians actually that will be out at their events, speaking at their events, hobnobbing with these individuals at their events, and then go back and expect to be supported and often are supported by police unions. And yet here they are a fraternizing with literally the enemy of police departments and police officers, and those who wish to execute law enforcement officers. So, it really doesn't make any sense to me. But unfortunately, it's the state of affairs right now, in our state and really, across our nation.</s>COOPER: There is been so much talk of, you know, fears of civil conflict, fears of society disintegrating. And I mean, I think that's one of the reasons. This is so concerning to people. I'm wondering what your message tonight is not just to citizens of Michigan, but Americans around the country who are hearing this reading about this. And, you know, are afraid of that, are afraid that there may be other folks out there just like, you know, these, you know, want to be weekend warriors, and who knows what they're up to?</s>NESSEL: Yes, well, I guess my message is this. First of all, I sit on a stage today, and not just myself and the colonel of the Michigan State Police. But we were joined by the FBI, and by the U.S. Attorney's of both the eastern and western districts of Michigan. So this was truly a case of both state and I'm a Democrat, standing on the stage with Trump appointees, who were also, you know, highly engaged in this and pivotal in terms of ensuring that justice is brought against these individuals. So, there are those of us in law enforcement that are still willing to hold bad actors accountable. And we are watching these bad actors, and we are aware of what they are doing. And we're doing everything we possibly can to protect the public from some of the egregious acts that they have planned. But my other message is this. We can no longer afford in this nation to have our elected leaders like the President of the United States, sending notches winks and nods and I get frequently, you know, hear called a dog whistle. It's not a dog whistle to these folks. It's literally a command to action for domestic terrorists. And it needs to stop we cannot have people in positions of authority like that, who are encouraging the work of people who wish to destroy this country.</s>COOPER: Yes. Attorney General Nessel. I appreciate your work. Thank you very much. Up next --</s>NESSEL: Thanks for having me.</s>COOPER: -- as the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. I'll speak with Bill Gates. He joins me live co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about what's ahead and how we're going to cope with it. |
Bill Gates On State Of Pandemic | COOPER: The coronavirus death toll The United States has now more than 212,000 people in this country, total number of cases more than 7.5 million. Staggering numbers of course, there's precious little sign of things slowing down. Add to that President Trump's diagnosis, the high infection numbers, the White House the overall lag and widespread testing, contact tracing, it's certainly recipe for concern as the fall begins, the winter. Bill Gates is joining us, he's co chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So long put his fortune and talent behind searching for cures for this global health crisis and for other global health crisis. He joins me now. Bill, thanks for being with us. Looking at where the U.S. is right now in this pandemic, and during the fall and the winter cases on the rise not just in small clusters but across most of the nation. How concerned are you about the month ahead?</s>BILL GATES, CO-CHAIR, BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: Well, I'm very concerned. The forecast showed that the deaths are going to go back up almost to the level they were in the spring. And, you know, it's people are going to be indoors more the compliance with the distancing and the mask use is going down in many areas that never got super good in some areas. And so, except for the innovative tools that I'm sure we'll talk about, this is going to be a very difficult fall because people, you know, the economic effects, the tiredness, the kids not being able to go to school. This continuation is a very difficult thing.</s>COOPER: You've talked about the -- some of the sophisticated tools, the therapeutics that that are coming and that some are here. Can you just talk a little bit -- I mean that let's talk about Regeneron you've been optimistic about it. It got obviously a big endorsement from President Trump because he was able to receive it. He's calling it a cure. He's calling on regulators to give an emergency use authorization. Do you support the idea of the emergency use authorization? And I assume it's not a cure?</s>GATES: No. Well, the word cure is a bit of an over promise. You know, that makes it sound it looks like works for everyone. And the whole concern about this disease should go away. And that's the last thing we want people think about. The monoclonal antibodies, which is what Regeneron is, that's always been the most promising therapeutic category. The other therapeutic categories, the antivirals, like Remdesivir is only had modest benefit. There may be one more of those, you know, plasma or hyperimmune globulin is still unproven. And that looks like it'll be a fairly slow track. And so the most exciting thing, that for many months, our foundation others have been working on and talking about, are these monoclonal antibodies. There are several companies, Eli Lilly Regeneron, are going to be two of the first later after AstraZeneca and Veer. And so the supply will go up, that early data looks quite good. You know, we saw in the Lilly data that over 60 percent of the people who got it early, there was a 60 percent reduction in the number that needed to be hospitalized. Now as we get to larger numbers our confidence in that will go up. But --</s>COOPER: So that's something that would be given to people early on after they test positive?</s>GATES: Yes. So, the Dexamethasone, which is really the only significant intervention drug we have is a late stage. In fact, it's a little confusing why, in the case of President Trump that was given when it when it was. You know, it modulates the immune system, which has a net benefit in late stage. The monoclonal antibodies, if you test positive like he did, and then your oxygen is going down, and you're above 60, that is a perfect target for the monoclonal antibodies. Eli Lilly feels they can help patients with quite a bit less, more like 0.7 grams than the 8 grams that President Trump got. And the lower the dose, of course, that means not just a few people, but lots of people, not just in the United States, but elsewhere could get it. And so, our foundation reserved factory capacity to make monoclonal antibodies about six months ago. And now with Eli Lilly, we're putting those into the factory. And if everything goes well, the cost of this intervention could be only a few hundred dollars or even under $100 if things went really well. We need to prove that a quite a small dose as low as 0.3 grams is effective.</s>COOPER: The -- I know the Trump administration had put limits on stem cell research by the federal government and Regeneron, I believe uses embryonic stem cells or the -- it was developed with that, with that use has that been? Is would that be an issue moving forward for widespread use and disparate distribution of it?</s>GATES: Well, not outside the United States certainly. I don't know the facts on that.</s>COOPER: OK.</s>GATES: You know, when there are -- when there's that type, you see chooser cell lines that are usually decades old. So it's not something that's connected to any current controversy activity. You know, and it's very helpful for testing quite a few things, and both in the vaccine area and in the antibody area. But I don't know, in this case, exactly what happened there. It is ironic that Trump, you know, when I met with him the whole idea of vaccines, he was a vaccine skeptic, and got me talking with people who just didn't believe in vaccines. Now, you know, we need leadership to show that we're really not going to approve something until it's safe. And, you know, the country really depends on getting back to normal on vaccine progress.</s>COOPER: Yes, I mean, that it's a huge concern about even what if there isn't when there is a vaccine, if there is a vaccine that works and it's able to be distributed, will people actually take it? You know, Kamala Harris was asked about this at the debate. She said, if, you know, Dr. Fauci at the CDC said, take it, she would take it, the scientist said, take it, she would have if President Trump said take it, and the scientists didn't, she wouldn't. What do you look for when deciding to take something or not? I assume you followed science?</s>GATES: Sure, it was bizarre that the White House was trying to block the FDA from requiring a two-month safety database and very, you know, they claim the companies were pushing that there's no way that's true. And so, it's really novel, that you get political interference with a regulatory agency that has its integrity and independence. You know, we saw that with the plasma announcement where they embarrassed themselves out of the vaccine announcement, I don't think they'll make that mistake again. In fact, they stood up to the White House, and the guidelines were updated, which is a very positive thing. So, you know, the FDA, including its outside experts, the company's, you know, I think the data will come out, not everyone will be willing to take it right away. But if they see the first 20 or 30 percent, taking it, and they see that they're getting a benefit and you're not reading about a lot of adverse side effects, then I think more people will be willing. And we need to really drive this thing down to get well over 70 percent. So eventually, it's got to be quite properly accepted.</s>COOPER: Dr. Rick Bright, who is the former pandemic preparedness chief who quit after being moved to NIH and ostracized. He spoke to CNN today about the administration's honesty about the pandemic and what's happening with scientists and I just want to play some of that for our viewers and ask you about it.</s>RICK BRIGHT, FMR NIH DIRECTOR: He has never told us the truth about the risk of the seriousness of this outbreak. He has not told us the truth about his status and when he was infected, you're right. When you hide the truth, and you're not transparent, you're hiding something much worse. And by hiding that, by lying to the American public and not telling us his full truth, you're actually prolonging the duration and the impact of this pandemic. You're actually allowing more people to die.</s>COOPER: It's just the reputation of the CDC and other agencies, there's obviously extraordinary people, thousands of them who work at CDC and the FDA, and are experts in their field. And it's the, you know, the gold standard for information on epidemics and the like. How does the reputation of these agencies, I mean, can it bounce back, given all that's been going on to the political pressure that's been put on them?</s>GATES: We need it to bounce back. And we'll have to do a post mortem. No one expected the politician to grab the microphone in this way. The CDC is trained to talk to the public. Tell them the truth, phrase it in a way that, you know, even though it's somewhat bad news, people get ready for this. And they, you know, they made some testing mistakes early on, but then their voice really how -- where is it? You don't see it hardly at all. And so, when you listen to a politician who doesn't have the background in these things, of course, you know, that there's a tendency to think, well, what to the people who are expert, what do they think, what are they saying, somebody who's willing to say, hey, we've got a big challenge that we're going to have to work on together, including changing our behavior, wearing masks being at that top of the list. So, it's been amazing that Dr. Fauci has been willing to speak out, and, you know, well admired for the role he's played. You know, thank goodness, that there's at least some expertise getting through the, the bureaucracy.</s>COOPER: You know, I just talked to Chris Murray, and on some of the projections, and I think the latest one they're looking at is like, 400,000 deaths in this country. I can't remember which, by the end of January, or beginning of February or the beginning of January. But I mean, that's an extraordinary number. Do you think this is worse than the than the so-called Spanish flu pandemic back in, you know, 1918?</s>GATES: Well, the Spanish flu, we had no ability to make therapeutics or to make a vaccine. And so eventually, that had to develop herd immunity. And it went through two very tough years, even a little bit of a third year before it burnt out. And so, the deaths are of that by the time it was done, are much higher than we've had so far.</s>COOPER: Yes, it was like 675,000.</s>GATES: If the vaccine works, we won't suffer the millions of deaths in the U.S. that that the Spanish Flu cause.</s>COOPER: Earlier today, I spoke with a former director of the CDC, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, for a town hall we're doing airing this weekend, I asked him what life might look like once a vaccine is available. And I just want to play what he said.</s>JEFFREY KOPLAN, FMR CDC DIRECTOR: The idea that we can just throw everything away and don't need those masks, or the other actions we've been taking and go back to an earlier era of how we live is highly unlikely. Their performance of the vaccines, some of them may be helpful, but not utterly, a preventive or curative, and in which case masks just in saying that everything that we repeat over and over again, will go -- will be part of our life for some time to come.</s>COOPER: He also made the analogy that when HIV was first identified him 40 years ago, the Secretary of HHS at the announcement said that they would have a vaccine within a year and obviously 40 years later, we still don't have one. Do you think he is right that it's unlikely we go back to a maskless era?</s>GATES: Well, HIV is a very difficult target that mutates more, and Dr. Fauci actually did tell people who are giving over optimistic projections that he didn't think that was likely. So, this is a very different target. But the statement that was made is quite valid in that for three reasons. First of all, the early vaccines, although they'll meet a threshold of effectiveness, that effectiveness won't be super high, so we might have to wait to a second generation vaccine. Second, you've got to get very big coverage of that vaccine, probably over 70 percent. And third whenever the virus is outside the U.S., we cannot block things so that won't come in. So you see, countries that actually have done quite well whether Germany or South Korea, Australia, they are having these reinfections. And so the things that are great risks like crowded public events, restaurants, bars, those, we have a lot to do in terms of quality of the vaccine coverage and global before you really are back to normal. Some things as the vaccine starts to roll out. We should be able to use that to let young people go back to school, because that's such a priority.</s>COOPER: The Gates Foundation put out its annual goalkeepers report last month, and it's always fascinating to read. It showed the effects of the coronavirus that they really stopped 20 years of progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. And the by nearly every indicator, the world has actually regressed. It's not just directly coronavirus related. It's all the things that aren't being done because of coronavirus, the distribution of other vaccines and other treatments and HIV drugs. I mean, it's an incredibly sobering assessment.</s>GATES: Yes, sadly, the disruption of the health system broadly in Africa because they're direct coronavirus deaths are still luckily not gigantic outside of South Africa. These disruptions to the health system are accounting for a lot of the deaths. So they number of deficits we've created with this are very large. Our goalkeeper support is mostly well-known for being optimistic because all the years up till now, we document the slow but positive progress to reducing malnutrition and child to death. And so, most of the time you once a year you can say wow, humanity, it's better off today by these key measures, but the pandemic has been a gigantic setback. And even in areas that are very indirect on people might not be fully aware of.</s>COOPER: Just bottom line, someone watching this tonight, a year from now. Do you think they'll have to still wear masks when they go outside? Or should you still wear masks when they go outside?</s>GATES: I think if you're -- if theatres are opening, you're going into a theater. If there's some spacing in sports events, I don't think we will have done the elimination that is I think somewhere in the world for the next two years there will be this virus. And so, a lot of the things that can cause super spreading events will be very restricted even a year from now. But I do think that we're likely to have a vaccine, we'll have some coverage and so certain activities like a K through 12 high school, a lot of colleges that we'll be able to get back starting in the summer and even more as we move into the fall.</s>COOPER: Bill Gates, it's always so great to have you. I've always learned a lot I really appreciate it. Thank you.</s>GATES: Thank you.</s>COOPER: A quick programming note there's going to be a special edition of our CNN Global Townhall Coronavirus Facts And Fears, Saturday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Sanjay Gupta and I joined five former directors at the Centers for Disease Control. There'll be on hand to answer your questions about the coronavirus. There's breaking news now on Hurricane Delta. The National Hurricane Center says the storms continued to strengthen it's now a Category 3 where it's headed and the latest forecast, when we continue. |
Hurricane Delta Strengthens To Category 3. | COOPER: It's breaking news as we end this busy Thursday. Forecasters say Hurricane Delta strength into a Category 3 with sustained winds of 115 miles per hour as it heads toward the Louisiana coast. It's aiming for the same general area hit hard by Hurricane Laura just six weeks ago. Tom Sater in the weather center for us tonight. What is the latest? When and where is this going to hit?</s>TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGST: Well, currently Anderson it's about 300 miles south of Cameron, Louisiana, it is growing at only intensity and Category 3, as you mentioned, that's a major hurricane, but it's getting larger. And that's a big concern. It wasn't one time a category for the strongest Greek letter name hurricane just before Cancun where it made landfall, it dropped an intensity to a strong Category 2. Structural damage, power outages throughout the region. The good news is they were able to evacuate everyone, the tourists were given one hour to pack up the things and they flew them out of there, no fatalities there. But now it's growing in its size. The wind field is expanding, which means it's going to affect a larger area. But the models have been in a crazy agreement, all really pretty much confined to the same region. So, we're going to lean into that. And these warnings you see here in red and tropical storm warnings are blue look very familiar to this day. Six weeks ago, it was hurricane Lara. Tropical storm force winds on the coast by morning, they'll move up and notice Houston, you're going to be buffeted by some of these and as well as New Orleans. So that is a big concern. Strong winds at landfall, we believe about seven, maybe give or take an hour. It could drop to a Category 2 Anderson but it also could stay as a major Category 3.</s>COOPER: Just -- how historic has this hurricane season been?</s>SATER: Oh, this -- well, I mean, take a look at this first, the state of Louisiana has had three named storms make landfall, tomorrow will be the fourth that is unprecedented never happened before. Hurricane Laura's path in yellow and Delta could be at landfall within 10 or 15 miles.</s>COOPER: Wow.</s>SATER: A very vulnerable area. I mean, there are thousands of buildings that have blue tarps. They had 30,000 homes destroyed six weeks ago, another 35,000 that have damage, they're still building the power grid, 20,000 people Anderson. Right now are still living in hotels. So it's extremely vulnerable. And if you look at our season, we have had nine storms that's the record so far, nine storms to make landfall in the U.S. that record goes back to 1960. We're going to break it tomorrow. Right now, Delta is the 25th name storm of the year, the record is 28.</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>SATER: From 2005 and we have seven and a half more weeks to go.</s>COOPER: Tom Seder. Appreciate it. Thank you. We'll be tracking it. The news continues. Let's hand it over to Chris for "CUOMO PRIMETIME." Chris. |
Debate Goals of Vice-Presidential Nominees; Monetary Struggles of the U.S. Postal Service; Use of Video Surveillance in the NFL | CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: My name is Carl Azuz and you landed on CNN 10, your objective source for news in 10 minutes. We`re so happy to have you watching this Thursday. Last night was another debate night related to the upcoming U.S. Presidential election but it wasn`t the presidential nominees who were facing off. It was the Vice-Presidential nominees. Incumbent Vice-President Mike Pence, representing the Republican party, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, representing the Democratic party. Like the presidential debates, last night`s event was sponsored by the Non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates. It was scheduled to take place at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The moderator was Susan Page of USA Today and the plan was that the 90 minute debate would be broken up into nine segments of about 10 minutes each. The corona virus pandemic was an expected topic and social distancing measures were on the stage. The candidates were seated at least 12 feet apart. Plexiglass panels were set-up between them. And as far as debate strategy goes, one political analyst put it like this. Candidates in a vice-presidential debate have a straight forward series of goals. Portray their running mates as the best choice for voters, defend their own records and attack the records of the opposing candidates. We got a glimpse of the candidates different approaches during their party conventions over the summer when they were officially nominated for the job of vice-president.</s>SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS: Make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. We may fall short but I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths and we will act with the same faith in you. That we ask you to place in us.</s>VICE-PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: In there challenging times our country needs a president who believes in America, who believes in the boundless capacity of the American people, to meet any challenge, defeat any foe and defend the freedoms we hold dear. And with President Donald Trump in the White House for four more years and with God`s help, we will make America great again, again.</s>AZUZ: Next up on the campaign calendar, a second presidential debate on October 15th. But that may depend on President Donald Trump`s corona virus recovery. He`s now back at the White House after being treated last weekend at Walter Reed National Medical Center. The president says he`s feeling great and looking forward to the debate. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says if the president still has COVID, the two candidates shouldn`t have a debate. We`ll keep you posted. 10 Second Trivia. Which of these U.S. founding fathers never served as president? James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams or Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin was an ambassador, a governor, the first postmaster general but never a president. Quote, "for years, the U.S. Postal Service has been losing billions of dollars" and that`s true now but the quote came from a line I wrote in 2013. At that time, the reasons included email, fewer letters were being sent, a series of bad business decisions and the controversial retirement fund it has which you`ll hear more about in a minute. But today, increased package deliveries and a steady of stream of First Class mail are bringing in large amounts of revenue to the Postal Service. But the agency is still losing money and some observers are concerned about whether it will be able to handle a larger number of mail-in ballots for the upcoming election, as more people avoid polling places out of corona virus concerns. Here`s a closer look at some more factors in the Postal Service`s struggles.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. Postal Service can trace its history back to 1775 when the 2nd Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as Postmaster General. To help ensure that free ideas and information could be shared throughout the colonies. It was not intended to be a profitable business.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s about service. Correct? Not about profit.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, there`s no other government agency or business that operates like the postal service. First of all the U.S. Postal Service receives zero tax dollars for operating expenses. The postal service has to use its own revenue from things like stamps and package deliveries to operate although it does receive indirect government subsidies such as having a protected monopoly on delivering First Class mail. Secondly, the postal service doesn`t set its own prices like FedEx and UPS do. Congress sets them. But by law, USPS has to deliver to every home in the country. No matter how remote or unprofitable that delivery may be. Case in point to this day, the postal service delivers mail to a small group of people living in the Grand Canyon by mule. This leads to the third problem. The U.S. Postal Service has been losing money for over a decade.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without change, our losses will only increase in years to come.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2019, the postal service reported $71 billion in revenue but its expenses totaled almost $80 billion. If you dig into those numbers though, the picture becomes a bit complicated. In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. It requires the U.S. Postal Service to pre-fund 75 years worth of retirees healthcare benefits in the span of about 10 years. Before this law went into effect, the postal service was reporting profits. So, the U.S. Postal Service is subject to the Congressional oversight of other Federal agencies without any of the taxpayer funding. It has the profit driven business model of private company, without the freedom to make financial decisions for itself.</s>AZUZ: Next up, efforts to keep COVID-19 out of professional sports. The games in America came back before the fans were allowed to. And in addition to empty arenas, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are playing their playoff games in a bubble. Meaning selective stadiums, away from where the teams home courts and fields are. Measures designed to decrease the teams exposure to corona virus. So far this season, the National Football League has postponed two games because of COVID-19 and the NFL just announced that 11 players and 15 staff members tested positive last week. And it`s chief medical officer says all options are still on the table as far as more postponements or a possible pause in games are concerned. CNN 10 Contributor Chris James reports on how the league has tightened its rules on measures like masks. Chris.</s>CHRIS JAMES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey Carl. If there`s one thing that without a doubt connects you to me and each and every viewer watching right now, it`s the fact that we`ve all had to adjust to a new normal during this confusing and sometimes scary era of corona virus. The National Football League is no exception and this week they`ve made some significant changes in the hopes of preventing further outbreaks. On Monday, all 32 NFL teams were notified of new, much stricter COVID-19 protocols. The changes were announced in a memo from Commissioner Roger Goodell obtained by CNN. If its discovered that club personnel or players aren`t following the rules, the discipline could include heavy fines, the adjustment of loss of draft choices and even the forfeit of a game which could create a major competitive imbalance. And get this, they`re even implementing a new video monitoring system. They`ll be using this technology to make sure that everyone is complying with the leagues mandate. That team personnel wear personal protective equipment, PPE at all times while in a team facility or traveling. This comes as New England`s Patriots QB Cam Newton tested positive for the virus and at least 20 separate COVID cases were reported by the Tennessee Titans. And the NFL is already putting its money where its mouth is, they`ve issued fines against 10 members of the Las Vegas Raiders a league source told CNN. The fines come one week after the 10 Raiders players failed to wear face coverings while attending a fundraiser hosted by Tight End Darren Waller. Waller was fined $30,000 while his nine teammates had to pay $15,000 each. Back to you Carl.</s>AZUZ: In a neighborhood of Boulder, Colorado, a female bear and her two cubs were recently caught and relocated. And in their mad dash back to freedom, the camera was the casualty. Boom. Wildlife officials say bears get pretty bold this time of year looking for food anywhere they can get it as they prepare to hibernate. These were safely and successfully relocated and the video is a reminder to stay out of their way. It`s not really "polarizing" advice and you don`t have to be "spectacle" to "bearlieve" there`s a real danger if you "kodiakctually" find "claws" to get face to muzzle with such a "beary" real threat. The outcome could be "grizzly". Wakefield High School gets today`s shout out. The students watching in Arlington, Virginia. I don`t personally choose the schools we mention on the shout out but I would love to take credit. But for a chance to get your school, city and state mentioned on CNN 10, start at our website, CNN10.com. Click on this here link, that will take you to our official You Tube channel and if you subscribe and comment on our most recent show, the most recent addition of CNN 10. We might be announcing you tomorrow. I`m Carl Azuz. END |
V.P. Candidates Dodge Questions, Shift Focus to Trump; Despite Debate Rules, Karen Pence Didn't Wear Mask Onstage; Undecided Voters Respond to Vice-Presidential Debate; V.P. Candidates Shift Focus to Trump. | WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST (voice-over): The vice presidential debate is now history. Our coverage continues. Lots of excellent questions. Unfortunately, many of those excellent questions were not answered by the two vice presidential candidates. The vice presidential debate, once again, now history. Let's check in with our correspondents covering the candidates, the debate performances, what happens next. First, let's go to Kyung Lah. She is on the scene for us in Salt Lake City. So how do Senator Harris and the Biden team feel about tonight's debate?</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Well, they just wrapped up a call with reporters and in this virtual, sort of, post spin room, what they say is goal accomplished. The aides on the call say that they were singularly focused and the campaign was singularly focused on trying to talk to American voters. They believe she was able to successfully do that. And we could see it in the debate hall and you really saw it on television as well, that she would talk to the moderator. She would talk to the vice president. And then, she would look at the camera and deliver lines. And the one line they specifically thought was very effective was where she was talking about pre-existing conditions. She said, quote, "If you have a pre-existing condition, the Trump administration is coming for you." So they believe she had a very successful evening. Also, drawing contrast between what the Trump administration has done and its handling of the coronavirus and how a future Biden-Harris administration would handle crises in the future. They, also, spent a bit of time talking about the historic nature of Harris simply being on the stage and also, talked about gender specifically, that Mike Pence, yes, had that moment, where he acknowledged that it was important that she was breaking a barrier by being there. But they believe, through his words, he simply didn't get it. Symone Sanders, one of the aides, said Pence didn't just mansplain; he mandodged. She said that he simply did not answer a lot of question. She didn't go into the fact that Harris herself also dodged several questions. But they called him rude and ineffective. And, Wolf, we should mention, a key voting bloc this time around, as usual, are women -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, indeed, good point. Thanks very much, Kyung Lah, in Salt Lake City. Let's check in with Jeff Zeleny right now. So Jeff, what are you hearing about the next presidential debate? It's supposed to be next week. That would be the second presidential debate.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the next presidential debate is supposed to be a week from tomorrow evening in Miami. And as of now, it's technically on. But questions abound about how it will be conducted, where it will be conducted, when it will be conducted, exactly. So at this hour, I am told that advisers to both sides will begin a new round of negotiations tomorrow. They will be talking with the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is moving forward with an expected debate in Miami next Thursday evening. But, Wolf, central to all of this is the president's health. Joe Biden has said that he plans to debate. But he said, if the president still has COVID, he likely would not debate. So talking to his advisers this evening, they say he is not going to pull away from this, that Joe Biden does plan to debate, if it is safe to do so. Of course, we do know the president does want to have a second debate. Of course, it's critical for his campaign to try and reset this race once again. But Wolf, so many questions abound in this because we simply do not know when the president tested negative for the last time for coronavirus. Did he actually have the virus when he was on that debate stage in Cleveland last week? The White House has not answered that question. We don't know if they will. So many questions surrounding the health of the president, which, of course, lead to the future of the next presidential debate. But as of now, both sides say they are willing to go forward, having these negotiations tomorrow. But Wolf, many, many questions surrounding this. And, of course, a week ago, we could not have predicted what happened with the president's health. So we're still in a very uncertain situation.</s>BLITZER: Very uncertain and it's clearly unacceptable that the president's doctor is refusing to answer questions about the president's health, two days in a row now. No news conference with the president's doctor. Jeff, thank you very much. Let's check in with Ryan Nobles right now. So Ryan, how is the Trump campaign reacting to tonight's debate?</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Trump campaign and vice president Pence had a very specific goal here, tonight, in Utah. They wanted to get on the record, a few wedge issues that they believe the Trump campaign is on the right side of and that the Biden-Harris ticket is on the wrong side of. They tried to get them on the record when it comes to fracking. Senator Harris pushed back on that, stating emphatically that vice president Biden is not in favor of banning fracking.</s>NOBLES: But the one issue where they feel that vice president Pence scored a big victory was when he pressed Senator Harris on the issue of what a Biden administration would do as it relates to the Supreme Court. Of course, the Trump campaign firmly believes that the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett is a strong way for them to reach out to conservatives across the country but it could be a little dicey with moderate and liberal voters. So they're trying to shift that conversation away as to what could happen in the future. And there is a fear among Republicans that if Amy Coney Barrett's nomination goes through, perhaps, the next Democratic president, if that's Joe Biden, could just add new members to the court, liberal members to the court, that would change the balance and the scope of the court. In a postgame press conference call with the vice president's chief of staff Mark Short and Jason Miller, who is a senior adviser, they repeatedly brought this up, saying the fact that Senator Harris would not answer that question, even though she was repeatedly pressed on it, is a sign that Joe Biden is at least open to that idea. So Wolf, expect this to come up over and over again. Even the vice president, himself, said they hope this issue comes up in the next debate, if there is to be a debate. The one thing, Wolf, they didn't point out, is that, even though the American people might have a mixed opinion as to whether or not adding more Supreme Court justices is a good idea, most polls show that many Americans would like to see the outcome of this election before the eventual replacement to Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seated -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: At the same time, though, the Trump campaign clearly wants to talk about the Supreme Court. They don't want to talk about coronavirus. Ryan, thank you very much. Anderson, back to you.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Wolf, thanks very much. Want to go to Andrew Yang. Andrew, this is the first time we're all talking so let's just, quickly, hear your -- your headlines from the debate.</s>ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It was a tremendous night for Joe, Kamala and the Democrats, Anderson, because if where we are in this race. Even since last week, the polls have gone sharply for Joe. According to Quinnipiac, he's up by 11 in Florida, by 5 in Iowa, which is a state that Trump won by almost 9 points in 2016. So anything that did not fundamentally change the dynamic of this race is an enormous win for the Democrats. And nothing happened, tonight, to change the fact that Joe and Kamala have a significant lead heading into the final days.</s>COOPER: S.E., how do you see it?</s>S.E. CUPP, CNN HOST: Well, let me -- let me just start by saying I -- I know Mike Pence. I've met Mike Pence. I've interviewed Mike Pence. And at one time, I found him very impressive. Tonight, he made my skin crawl and I think showed that you can be insulting without using insults. You know, the constant interruptions, the mansplaining, the condescending to both of the women on that stage tonight. And the not answering questions, the gaslighting, I found infuriating. And if you are looking for the reasons why white, suburban women have been leaving the Republican Party in droves, yes, it's the chaos, the confusion, the incompetence, the corruption. It's also the tone. And Mike Pence and Donald Trump have very different styles. But I found his dismissiveness and disrespect tonight very much cut from the same cloth. And I think suburban white women voters who are watching probably heard it the same.</s>COOPER: Scott?</s>SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: First, I'd like to compliment the moderator, Susan Page. I thought she did a nice job tonight. That's number one. Number two. Republicans have been waiting for a good day for quite some time. I mean, I don't know if you guys have been watching the news or not. But it hasn't exactly been a banner period for Republicans who are trying to hope that the Trump-Pence campaign to get it together.</s>COOPER: I hadn't noticed.</s>JENNINGS: -- with a lot of weight on his shoulders and -- yes -- he came out with a lot of weight on his shoulders and he delivered. Republicans think he did a fine job tonight, delivering on virtually every substantive exchange. He really, I think, won the exchanges on taxes, the economy, on fracking, on the Green New Deal. I do think Harris scored some points on coronavirus and on health care. So that was good for their side. I sort of look at this through the lens of audiences. I think the audience, where the Trump-Pence ticket has been bleeding a bit, is senior citizens. And a lot of the latest polls that Andrew was mentioning shows seniors going towards Biden. I do think seniors would have liked Mike Pence's performance tonight. I think that's the kind of Republican performance they've been looking for and that they would -- could see themselves voting for because that's what they voted for in the past. So overall, Republicans are very happy, breathing a sigh of relief that Mike Pence got it done tonight.</s>COOPER: You know, S.E., so much of the focus on tonight's debate from the news and from viewers was looking to see, you know, given the fact that both the presidential candidates are so old, whether these two could fill the role as president, if that became necessary.</s>COOPER: Do you think that question was answered in the affirmative for both of them tonight? I mean, do you think viewers came away, whether they liked one or the other, believing both would be capable?</s>CUPP: I do. I -- I think they both came off as -- as competent. Say what you will. What I just did about Mike Pence. He had facts at his fingertips. He was very quick on his feet. He had sort of a -- a catalog, at the ready, of policies and stats and talking points. And I think, yes, by anyone's estimation, he seemed very clear-eyed. And -- and same for Kamala Harris. I don't think their competence was the issue. I think you might have a different idea of who came off as more trustworthy. I'm sure that's partisan. But I think in terms of shiftiness and answering questions and trying to sort of, you know, be forthright, I think you might come down differently. But certainly, they both seemed competent.</s>COOPER: I'm not sure clear eyed was the best descriptive of Pence tonight, given that --</s>CUPP: Oh, shoot.</s>COOPER: -- blood in one of his eyes. But I don't know what that was about but I hope that he's doing OK.</s>CUPP: Me, too.</s>COOPER: Andrew, do you think that question was answered for people?</s>YANG: Yes. That was one of the key things I was looking for, tonight. And I think it was an enormous goal for Kamala and the Dems for her to seem like she could fit right into that second seat. And she passed that threshold and then some in my book. She was smart, thoughtful, empathetic, confident, competent. I think that millions of Americans became very comfortable with the idea of her as vice president tonight.</s>COOPER: Scott, does the race change at all because of this?</s>JENNINGS: You know, I -- I don't typically think vice presidential picks matter all that much or the debate matters all that much. I do think, in this case, as you pointed out, I mean, look, Trump's kind of a wounded duck and Biden's no spring chicken. So both of these vice presidents -- possibilities should matter to people because of their age and the health of their running mates. But politically, historically, these things haven't mattered all that much. Also, look, this cake, I think, after last week and with everything else and the polarization in this race, is largely baked. I don't know how many persuadable voters are left. And if you are left, I'm not sure if watching the vice presidential debate tonight was what was going to make up your mind. I will say this. For wobbly Republicans, for -- for conservative seniors, for some audiences that have been very, very troubled with Trump's performance, Pence, I think, would have shored those up. So it wouldn't surprise me, Anderson, if you do see a little bit of a bounceback in some of this polling from wobbly Republicans or wobbly conservatives who have been nervous about Trump lately.</s>COOPER: S.E. just the way things are going, by tomorrow, who knows what the president will have tweeted, in all caps, you know. Just before this debate, he put out a video, unclear when it was actually shot. The White House claims it was shot today. Some indication maybe it was shot yesterday because he said he had gotten back to the White House the day before. In which he said that for him getting COVID is like a blessing from God. He said that he's discovered, essentially, a cure in remdesivir. So there's no telling where -- what will happen tomorrow. This may seem like a distant memory by then.</s>CUPP: Right. And if we believe Scott, and I'm inclined to, that Republicans think this was a good night, we can count on the president to step all over it in the next day or two or three because he can't seem to get out of his own way, when it comes to, you know, wins that are right -- right in front of his face. And so, I -- I tend to think, actually, this debate was very important. I think it was important for all the reasons we said but also, because I do believe there are undecideds, for whom the vice presidential pick matters. I was -- I was there, not long ago, wondering what these two people would do if they became president. But if you thought tonight was important, just wait a few hours. It will not be, by tomorrow.</s>COOPER: Yes. Scott, I mean, if you were advising the president, the fact that he released a video, just a few hours before this debate took place, it does change the topic away from this debate.</s>JENNINGS: Sure. I mean, look. I mean, Trump's made it clear, from day one, he's the most important person in this administration and in his own campaign. And, of course, most voters would -- would agree with that. I do think that it would be smart for them to let this Pence moment breathe a little bit. I did see the president tweeting tonight that he thought Mike Pence did a great job. If I were Donald Trump, by the way, I would be meeting with Mike Pence about how you not just plan but execute a winning debate strategy.</s>COOPER: If you were Mike Pence?</s>JENNINGS: Well, as S.E. said, Mike Pence clearly knows how to -- you know, one of the things that you -- that a lot of people do in debates is try to cram 10 pounds of crap into a 5-pound sack.</s>JENNINGS: Trump did that last week. It was too much. Pence brought the right amount to this debate. It wasn't too much and it wasn't too little.</s>COOPER: Just the right amount of crap?</s>JENNINGS: And I do think it would be a good strategy to follow.</s>COOPER: He brought just the right amount of crap. I'm not sure Pence wants to meet with President Trump. Maybe, a call would do, at this point.</s>JENNINGS: They have -- they have secure video conferencing.</s>COOPER: So I've heard. OK. All right. All right. I'm not sure there's anyone left in the White House to actually operate, you know, put the call through. But, Andrew Yang, I mean, we've -- I know we've got results from debate watchers. But do you think this -- I mean, tomorrow, does this -- you know, I just feel -- I feel like last week's debate seems like a year ago, given all that's happened since then. By tomorrow afternoon, will anybody be talking about tonight's debate?</s>YANG: Well, we've had a very big week, Anderson. But I agree with Scott, that I thought Mike Pence did a great job reassuring parts of the base. And at this point, our attention should be on the Senate, on these House races around the country because, if you're looking at something like a 10- to 12-point swing, you could see Democrats win in places like Texas and Alaska that they have not won in a long time. So tonight's going to matter a lot in terms of setting the stage, not just for the top of the ticket and the vice presidential nominations but also what's going to happen around the country in terms of turnout for a lot of these congressional races.</s>COOPER: We have more results from our instant poll and debate watchers. David Chalian is back. David, what else are you learning from this poll?</s>DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We'll just start again with the overall, who won the debate, among debate watchers. That's what this poll is all about. Who watched the debate? Fifty-nine percent said Kamala Harris won this debate; 38 percent said Mike Pence. That's not just a small win. That's a big, significant 21- point win there for Kamala Harris. But just like Jake and Dana and Abby were talking about the gender gap before, calling it a chasm. Look at this. Among women who watched the debate tonight, in this poll, 69 percent said Harris won the debate, 30 percent said Pence won. Compare that to how men saw who won the debate. It was basically tied. Harris got 48 percent, Pence got 46 percent. This is kind of mirroring what we are seeing in national polling and why Joe Biden is so far ahead, this huge gap with women, an advantage there. And then, competitive with men. We also asked two key questions. Who did that key job that a V.P. has to do, which is defending your running mate? Sixty-four percent said Kamala Harris did the better job of defending this -- her running mate; 34 percent said that of Mike Pence. And which candidate spent more time attacking their opponent? Fifty-six percent, a majority, said Mike Pence did that. Only 36 percent of debate watchers said Kamala Harris did that. That gender chasm is a defining characteristic of this race, Jake.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's right, David. And it's time, right now, for another fact check of what we heard in tonight's debate. Daniel Dale is back. Daniel, I don't think I told you but you're one of my mom's favorites.</s>DANIEL DALE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, thank you, Jake's mom. So nice.</s>TAPPER: She was born in Canada, just like yourself.</s>DALE: She's biased.</s>TAPPER: That's right. She's very biased. So on health care, Vice President Pence claimed that the Trump administration has a plan to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions. Here's how he said it.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I hope we have a chance to talk about health care because ObamaCare was a disaster. The American people remember it well. And President Trump and I have a plan to improve health care and protect pre-existing conditions for every American.</s>TAPPER: I think I know the answer to this, Daniel, but is that true?</s>DALE: Jake, it is, indeed, false. Now when they first said this, they have a plan, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. You know, maybe, it was coming in a few days, in a few weeks. But this plan has perpetually been two weeks away and it has never arrived. Let's just do a brief review of the Trump administration's history on pre-existing conditions. Early in the administration, they made repeated efforts to get bills passed through Congress that would significantly weaken these protections in ObamaCare. At present, right now, the administration is in court, supporting a lawsuit that seeks to get the courts to overturn, to kill the entirety of ObamaCare, including those protections. Now the president did sign an executive order that he hailed as some big deal but all it says, it's like a line or two, that it just says that it is the policy of the United States to basically protect people with pre-existing conditions. Frankly, that executive order is not worth anything. That is not a law. That is not a replacement for ObamaCare if the courts rule in their favor. So no, bottom line, this claim is false. There is no plan to protect people, certainly not to the extent they are protected under ObamaCare -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: That's right. Under ObamaCare, not only do insurance companies have to offer plans to people with preexisting conditions, they can't charge them more, which is very significant. Vice president Pence was also asked about this now-infamous Rose Garden ceremony 11 days ago.</s>TAPPER: It appears to have been a coronavirus superspreader event. Listen to how Pence recalled that event.</s>PENCE: If I may say, that Rose Garden event, been a great deal of speculation about it. My wife, Karen, and I were there and honored to be there. Many of the people who were at that event, Susan, actually were tested for coronavirus. And it was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists regularly and routinely advise.</s>TAPPER: Was this strictly an outdoor event, Daniel?</s>DALE: It was not, Jake. This claim, I'll say, is misleading because those festivities for nominee judge Amy Coney Barrett involved more than that Rose Garden ceremony. Both before and after that ceremony, there were indoor festivities. Before heading to the Rose Garden, some of the attendees gathered inside White House reception rooms. There were hugs. There were handshakes. And afterwards, dozens of them gathered inside the Diplomatic Reception room, in an adjoining hallway for 30-45 minutes, a source told CNN. And we have photos from that gathering from "The New York Times" that show President Trump and others chatting inside, without masks and people gathered quite closely together, no distancing. Now this is the second straight debate where Trump or Pence has inaccurately used this kind of "it was just outdoors" excuse. Last time, Trump, himself, insisted his rallies were outside, even though, some of them, we know, have been inside, again with no distancing, again with very few masks -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Daniel, thanks so much. Let's talk about this for a second because one of the things that's so appalling about the administration's handling or mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, where we lead the world in cases and deaths, is that not only has their mishandling resulted in how it's being -- how it's affecting all of our lives but also their recklessness.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.</s>TAPPER: Holding these events indoors and outdoors. No distancing. No masks required has now led to a superspreader event that might be one of the biggest ones in Washington, D.C., this year.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And -- and surprisingly, it felt like this barely came up in this -- in this debate --</s>DANA BASH, CNN SR. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.</s>PHILLIP: -- considering how enormous of an issue this is. What -- what is really incredible about Pence's response was that he suggested that, because the event -- even -- even if you just took the outdoor event, just because it was outdoors, that it was in accordance with CDC guidelines. That is not true.</s>TAPPER: No.</s>PHILLIP: It is not true that you can have an event with 150-plus people, even if it is outdoors, where virtually no one is wearing masks and everybody is walking around, hugging and kissing each other --</s>TAPPER: Look at this photo. One second, Abby. I'm sorry. But just look at -- these are people at the event. This is, I think, nine people at the event who, after the event, have tested positive. Some of them have, then, gone on to infect other people. And we know of a 10th person, as well, at least who's not in this photo. Yes.</s>PHILLIP: And this is when they're just sitting there. But really, you have to watch the footage. You know, they get up from this event. People are hugging. They're kissing. They're shaking hands. They're fist bumping. They are touching each other. They are not distanced from each other. And what did not come up tonight was this idea that the laxness around the virus and the reliance on testing, as opposed to on all of the things that you are supposed to do, of which testing is a part, is what has led to this massive outbreak that is, probably, the largest outbreak in the entire District of Columbia right now.</s>BASH: Yes, absolutely. I was waiting to see if the numbers, here, in D.C., actually, you know, if the percentages go up, not just because of the Rose Garden but because of the ripple effect from that. I mean, a lot of people there were D.C. residents. Look. This is really one of the core problems with the -- the president and the whole administration's approach to this. Number one is what they do or what they don't do; it's basically not much. But number two, it is the whole idea of being an example for the rest of the country. And we have seen the president be the opposite of an example, since day one of this -- of this pandemic. And this was the ultimate example -- non-example, I should say, in the Rose Garden.</s>TAPPER: And we don't know when President Trump contracted coronavirus.</s>TAPPER: But people in the White House think that it might have been at that event, which was, both, outdoors and indoors. Let's put up a picture of President Trump, indoors, that day. There he is with the family of judge Amy Coney Barrett and her -- her big, beautiful family, with first lady Melania Trump. We do not know if he contracted the virus there. But if he did, as the administration believes, the next day, he spoke to reporters in the Briefing Room. And then, he met with Gold Star families.</s>TAPPER: On Tuesday of that week, he went to Ohio and participated in a debate. The day after that, he went to Minnesota and he held an indoor event and then an outdoor rally, where, again, no social distancing. No masks required. The day after that, even after finding out that Hope Hicks, one of his top aides, had contracted the virus and was showing symptoms, was actually sick, he flew to New Jersey. So there he is, as a vector. He is spreading the virus, theoretically. And we still do not know when he last tested negative, meaning, has he been tested anytime in the last few months? We don't even know that.</s>BASH: We don't know and what's even worse, it's the public's right to know, I believe. But it's the people around him's right to know and the people who are working for him, are helping him. I mean, my understanding is that everybody who went to the White House for that event and then for subsequent events around that weekend, namely debate prep, they all got tested. And the presumption was that, of course, the president is also tested every day. And they believe, now, that that was absolutely wrong and that many people got it from the president of the United States. It's very hard to prove, for a million reasons, not the least of which is that we don't know when his last negative test was. But he clearly was not held to the same standard as the people around him. And because of that, he --</s>PHILLIP: And if you're Joe Biden, you've got to debate him next week. And if you're anybody who is attending that debate, you might need to sit in an audience with many, many people who you can't necessarily trust that they have been taking the appropriate precautions. It's a real problem.</s>TAPPER: The citizens of Ohio, New Jersey, Minnesota deserve answers from the administration; the Gold Star families. The people who travel with the president deserve that. And frankly, the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Cleveland Clinic and the Biden campaign need to insist, Anderson, they need to insist that they get testing information about the president.</s>COOPER: Yes. I don't understand why there would be any debate taking place, until, certainly, the Biden campaign and anybody in that hall and the country is informed when the president last tested negative. Because we have no way of telling, nor would the Biden campaign have any way of telling, Andrew, the course of the president's illness and the trajectory of it, other than knowing when he actually last tested positive.</s>WANG: I think Joe's stance would be common sense to the vast majority of Americans, that you don't want to debate someone who may actively have the coronavirus and be -- be struggling with it and can still be contagious. I'd, also, question why these debates are being held in environments that require you to travel for both candidates. You know, it would have made sense, in a time when there might've been rallies or a political reason to be in Miami. But why would you force both people to travel unnecessarily? Because there are a lot of variables that get introduced when you travel during a pandemic. So there are, to me, a lot of things that the campaigns need to hammer out for us to be confident there is even going to be a debate next week.</s>COOPER: S.E., they could very well have a debate online. It could be, you know, a Zoom or whatever debate. That would avoid the whole interruption and crosstalking. Each person gets two minutes to say their piece and then they answer the next question.</s>CUPP: That's just too commonsensical, Anderson. Trump doesn't want to confine his ability to gesticulate and get in the head space of Joe Biden and play off an audience. I mean, he wants all of the trappings of a traditional debate because he thinks it works in his favor. I think, from my vantage point last week, did not. I think it had unintended effects and Joe Biden not only survived that but thrived in that environment. So if Trump wants to do that again, I say do that at your own peril.</s>COOPER: Scott, just in terms of the recklessness, obviously, of the president and the coverup of the -- the continued coverup by him of not letting his doctor tell people when his last negative test was, which would help contact tracers know whether those Gold Star families, who they held an event for on Monday, whether they all need to be tested, if the president was positive by then or potentially positive by then. Even tonight, just in terms of recklessness, you know, everybody had agreed, other than the moderators -- the moderator and the two candidates -- to wear masks, that everybody in that hall had to wear a mask. Karen Pence, as soon as the debate ends, jumps up on stage, not wearing a mask. You know, Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris's husband, wears a mask. I don't understand the -- just the recklessness of people in this White House associated -- regarding COVID-19.</s>SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Look. I agree with you. I mean, I think, regarding President Trump next week, if he is still testing positive for COVID, it would not be a good idea for him to travel or be around other people. That would go for anybody that is COVID positive. I'm not sure about the Zoom idea. I mean -- I mean, I can't imagine two 70-something-year-old men screaming at each other that their mute is on for 90 minutes. But I do think there are ways -- there are ways that you could handle this that would not put people -- I'll be honest. When they -- by the way, when they panned in from behind Susan Page tonight, I was surprised at how many people were in the crowd. I was surprised there were people inside that building, frankly. I mean, what good is an audience when they've been instructed not to clap or cheer or boo, anyway? So I -- I am for being careful here, and that's not just because, you know, Donald Trump has it. It's because a great many people could have it and not know it. And you've got the president, a potential president, potential vice president, the current vice president. I mean, I'm for being -- I'm for being careful and -- and I -- and I think there are ways that this could be handled, via technology, that would respect that.</s>COOPER: Yes. I mean, frankly, S.E., why should anybody trust, you know, of -- if next week -- or later next week, the White House says, Oh, no, the president's fine. The president's cured of this. I mean, he already, today, said he feels he's been cured and that this is a blessing from God. Why should anyone trust the White House on this?</s>S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, they shouldn't. I believe not one word coming from this administration, especially on this issue. And I just want -- can I just point out how insane and absurd the conversation we are currently having is? I know we've, like, normalized COVID and this insane disruption in our lives. But this is actually crazy that we're talking about having --</s>COOPER: I agree.</s>CUPP: -- to -- to put up -- put up, you know, shields between candidates. And we're here because of this administration's failures. And I will say, one thing I thought was missing from Kamala Harris tonight was that human expression of exasperation. When Mike Pence would gaslight and say something pathologically nuts, like, We'll continue to follow the science, or Let's not, you know, politicize American deaths, I -- I wanted her to be emotional, and say, Did I just hear you correctly, sir? Did you just say that? We're here because of your failures. How can you say that with a straight face? And believe me, as a woman in politics, I understand why she felt like she couldn't come off as too angry or emotional. But my God, is this not the time to be emotional and angry? I think she would have been forgiven --</s>COOPER: Although --</s>CUPP: -- had she been a bit more, you know, expressive in those moments.</s>ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: S.E., I -- COOPER: Go ahead, Andrew. Go ahead.</s>YANG: I think -- I think she had task, and she stuck to it. And I think that was very, very smart, given that -- where we are in this race and the context. And we all know why Trump and the Republicans want the next two debates, is because they're their only last two opportunities to possibly change the direction that we're all heading in. But at this point, over five and a half million Americans have already voted. That number's going to go up every day.</s>CUPP: Yes.</s>YANG: The Republicans are running out of field, but that's why they're going to try and make sure these debates happen. Though, we can all see that it's inadvisable for you to have a president with coronavirus traveling and trying to debate in person.</s>COOPER: Yes. I mean, S.E., just quickly to your point, you know, you look at the poll David Chalian was giving. The different results, based on men watching and women watching. Women's response to Kamala Harris, 69 percent say she -- she won.</s>CUPP: Yes.</s>COOPER: Men said -- 48 percent of men said she won. Whereas, with Pence, it was 30 percent women said he won, 46 percent of men. So, that's clearly in the calculation in terms of how she felt she had to hold herself and respond, which is, obviously, a double standard. Still ahead, we're going to find out if tonight's vice-presidential debate was a tippling point that helped any undecided voters in our focus group to make up their minds. |
Candidates Clash over COVID-19 Separated by Plexiglas. | ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Too forceful in trying to push it back or delay. It doesn't reflect -- it reflects poorly on their campaign. I think the debate commission will make sure it is done safely, and accurately, and any test done outside of the campaign, so we make sure we have the right answers. But I think it is important, given the -- how crucial this election is. We do have two more debates and plenty of time for people to see the contrast between the candidates before they go vote. But it needs to be done safely. If we have to push it back, let's do so. But we do need to hear from these two candidates at least twice before they go to the election.</s>DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, both. I appreciate it.</s>STEWART: Thanks, Don.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take care, guys.</s>LEMON: So look. We are all sitting here in boxes. Why can't they do it that way? And we are able to talk.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Because you don't get the same satisfaction of seeing the people in the presence of one another. Look. I think the problem with the argument that was just made is that people didn't feel that the last debate changed their minds. You have an uncharacteristically low undecided vote right here.</s>LEMON: Let's talk about this.</s>CUOMO: I haven't seen a poll that puts it above 10 percent, undecided.</s>LEMON: Whose mind is not made up? I heard some people saying --</s>CUOMO: I'm trying to answer your question.</s>LEMON: I need to hear what both candidates are saying and blah, blah, blah. After four years, do you really need to know?</s>CUOMO: Well, yes, people need to know. But I think they do know. I think that's your point. And, look, here's the problem. I don't care about the debate as much as I care about the pandemic. And I just don't understand how this president can say that he cares about prophylaxis and cares about putting out the right message, if he wants to have a debate when he is sick. I mean, it's just crazy. If you put it into the context of your own life, hey, you know, the kid's going to come to school and he or she is sick. But they'll put up the Plexiglas and they'll have the case outside -- they'll have class outside, it'll be OK. Nobody's going to accept that.</s>LEMON: He's got a lot of motivators to --</s>CUOMO: Well, he needs the debate.</s>LEMON: He needs the debate because he is -- in the polls, at least, he is losing. He needs to win, for a number of reasons, to help his business, the statute of limitations on some things. He has -- he -- he has, really, everything and nothing to lose, if you know what I mean. So he's going to go for it. And that means facts, truths, infecting people, it doesn't really matter. Let's open the show, though. And then, we'll continue. I'm Don Lemon. That's Chris Cuomo. This is our live special coverage. CNN's vice presidential debate, late night or early morning, in the wee hours.</s>CUOMO: Don after dark.</s>LEMON: Yes. That was a couple weeks ago, though, when I had my tan. This is Don after dark because I'm lighter now.</s>CUOMO: You look good. You look good. So look. This was a real debate, tonight. You actually got to see Pence, Harris, questions, answers, points of contrast, basic decency observed, certainly, compared to the week before.</s>LEMON: Behind Plexiglas.</s>CUOMO: Behind Plexiglas because we're in the middle of a pandemic. That was Harris', you know, biggest straight punch, all night long, was early on in the debate, her saying this is the biggest failure of presidential leadership we've ever seen. We're in the middle of a pandemic. You turn crisis into tragedy. Comes out, the same day, that the "New England Journal of Medicine" says that the president has to be voted out because of this real malfeasance of leadership.</s>LEMON: And they talked race, as well.</s>CUOMO: They did. Little bit. Little bit.</s>LEMON: And they say, you know, I think the vice president said -- he -- he -- he criticized Kamala Harris for saying that there was -- or at least insinuating that there was systemic racism in our society.</s>CUOMO: Yes and, look, a gut shot for -- that's a terrible analogy -- a -- a strong point for the president and the vice president is, you think cops -- he made -- he makes a point in a very interesting way, implicit bias in policing. For them, that play is, you don't like police. And the difference between police and policing is lost on a lot of people. And that was a state of play I wanted to see dug into. And they didn't.</s>LEMON: Yes, but, for her, that's, you know, that's -- that's a hot spot because people -- people in the African American community, some, see her as a cop. Right?</s>CUOMO: Because she was AG in California.</s>LEMON: And putting a lot of --</s>CUOMO: And a prosecutor.</s>LEMON: -- a lot of people of color, especially men of color, in jail, right?</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: So it was a tough thing for -- it's interesting how Mike Pence would try to criticize her on being tough on crime and then saying she doesn't like police officers.</s>CUOMO: That's debating.</s>LEMON: Right. And I think he was able to land that blow, actually.</s>CUOMO: Yes. Look. He's a good debater. There is -- confidence is huge, in debating. And he says things that you can't believe that he's saying.</s>LEMON: Because he sounds like this.</s>CUOMO: But he's stoic and he owns it and that is a very effective --</s>LEMON: He sounds like this, like he used to --</s>CUOMO: -- it's a very effective mechanism and he's thoughtful and control matters. What hurt Trump so much last week, you're out of control, man. You're desperate. There's nothing desperate about Mike Pence.</s>LEMON: But the thing that got me the most, though, is that he claimed to be standing up for the truth. And that is preposterous because he's not standing up for the truth. There was a lot of lying in what he said.</s>CUOMO: Well, he's fundamentally standing up for a liar. As a man of alleged integrity, that's a tough spot.</s>LEMON: And a man of faith. He is standing up for a liar.</s>CUOMO: That -- this really wasn't touched.</s>LEMON: And he is repeating the liar's lies. And the nerve -- I kept saying I can't believe that Senator Harris is not pushing back, to say you're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. And clearly, the facts were on her side and she didn't even say, like --</s>CUOMO: That's debating.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: That's debating. I don't know that it's going to matter because you can have an up-and- down vote on Amy Coney Barrett, the judge, if one comes up, which seems very likely. So the rationale won't matter that much. But if it does come up before the end of the election, the way they are weaponizing faith by saying that the Left is attacking faith is really interesting, to me, because it's not about -- Judge Barrett is a Catholic. OK? I was raised in Catholicism, just as she. It's not that she's a Catholic that they're attacking. It's that she holds her religion as a step-for-step guide in her behavior. Now I know she'll say I don't let my faith come in -- she belongs to an organization that makes you sign a covenant that has a whole set of standards for your existence, that is way beyond being a Catholic. But it's an interesting dynamic at play. And once again, I see the Left always caught flatfooted by what's coming at them. Like, they don't see what's coming until it hits them. And then, they try to react. And that's going to be an interesting state of play. For me, it was a metaphor of the debate tonight. Pence had the harder job. He did the harder job well. Harris had a ton of stuff to work with and she's a very adept debater. But when you have so much to work with, it's easier for people to be unsatisfied because they were -- there's so much that they wanted to hear.</s>LEMON: Yes, but I think the -- for me, it was -- I thought it was easy. I mean, when you have 210,000 people dead, I think your job is easy. I think what you said about judge Amy Coney Barrett, I think, is exactly right, when you talk about the group that she belongs to, not that you are attacking someone's faith. But what the Republicans would say, if -- if the tables were turned is that, we're not doing that. We're just vetting her. And that's part of the process. This is a lifetime appointment. And so, you have to vet her, in every single way.</s>CUOMO: Also the irony --</s>LEMON: And that includes religion. That's not attacking someone.</s>CUOMO: And the irony is who is Mike Pence? Mike Pence is a Christian, who sees Christian as a -- Christianity as a tool, to me, presumptively, punitively, as a tool for exclusion because he thinks you can pray gay away.</s>LEMON: Yes. Yes. And he, also, leans into the whole idea of being pro-life but then not saying they want to rush this through because they want another pro-life judge, not owning that.</s>CUOMO: And when asked, what would you want Indiana to do, where he was governor --</s>LEMON: Didn't answer.</s>CUOMO: -- if Roe v. Wade went away? Because then, it becomes a state-by-state issue, right? It's just about funding. And I know funding means everything and that if people don't have access and they can't pay, then they don't have the control over their own body the same way. They can't exercise their right. I understand the argument, very well. I'm saying that he wouldn't even answer.</s>LEMON: No, he won't because he knows where the -- the public opinion is on that. Most of the public believe that women should have a choice.</s>CUOMO: Smart guy.</s>LEMON: But here's the thing. They make you think that it is -- that it's a binary choice, right?</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: One can -- one can not be in favor of abortion but still think that someone has the right to choose.</s>CUOMO: That's the genius in saying pro-abortion or anti-abortion. That's why it really should be reproductive rights. You are pro- or con- reproductive rights for women.</s>LEMON: I know a lot of Christians who say I don't think it would be my choice to do it. But I'm not -- that's not my body. I can't tell you what to do. As a man, I would think --</s>CUOMO: You don't know a lot of evangelical Christians who say that.</s>LEMON: No, not a lot. But -- no, I don't. But still, that's the way it should be.</s>CUOMO: I'd like to see how many people would say yes to the following question. Are you pro-abortion? Do you like abortions?</s>LEMON: I don't think anyone is pro-abortion.</s>CUOMO: Do you wish you can have an abortion?</s>LEMON: That's not the point.</s>CUOMO: But that's how it's framed.</s>CUOMO: That's how it's framed and that's why it's such an effective tool, that you could argue, doesn't have a big place in our politics.</s>LEMON: I think that another interesting part of this debate was when she -- when she talked about them being obsessed with overturning the record of Obama and Biden. Let's listen to that.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Trump administration's perspective and approach to China has resulted in a loss of American lives, American jobs and America's standing. There is a weird obsession that President Trump has had with getting rid of whatever accomplishment was achieved by President Obama and Vice President Biden. For example, they created, within the White House, an office that basically was responsible for monitoring pandemics. They got away -- they got rid of it.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's not true.</s>HARRIS: There was a team of disease experts, that President Obama and Vice President Biden dispatched to China to monitor what is now predictable and what might happen. They pulled them out. We, now, are looking at 210,000 Americans who have lost their lives. Let's look at the job situation. We mentioned, before, the trade deal, the trade war, they wanted to call it, with China. It resulted in the loss of over 300 (sic) manufacturing jobs in a manufacturing recession and the American consumer paying thousands of dollars more for goods because of that failed war that they called it. And let's talk about standing. Pew, a reputable research firm, has done an analysis that shows that leaders of all of our formally allied countries have now decided that they hold in greater esteem and respect Xi Jinping, the head of the Chinese Communist Party, than they do Donald Trump, the president of the United States, the commander in chief of the United States. This is where we are, today, because of a failure of leadership by this administration.</s>LEMON: That was good. I think -- I think that was good, on her part. She -- she made the point. There was some foreign policy there. And I kept thinking as she was doing this -- and sometimes when the vice president was speaking, that more policy, in two minutes in this debate than we got in the entire 90 minutes last time.</s>CUOMO: A much better debate with two much better debaters. You know, this is unusual. You know, Trump is not a good debater. I know people say he is. No. He's a good arguer. That doesn't make you a good debater. Biden is not a particularly strong debater. Why? Well, it's about facility with language and quick recall and understanding how to break something down that is incisive and how to cherry-pick something that exposes a point you want to make. Easy to say. Not easy to do. Harris, very good at it. Pence, very good at it. When's the last time the two vice presidential candidates were clearly better at the stagecraft that people value most, for whatever reason, in a presidential election? What does that tell you about where we're at?</s>LEMON: Was it Tomato, what's his name?</s>CUOMO: Quayle?</s>LEMON: Dan Quayle.</s>CUOMO: Potato.</s>LEMON: Potato.</s>CUOMO: And we thought that was bad.</s>LEMON: Now look where we are.</s>CUOMO(?): Yo-semite, where the Jews run free.</s>LEMON: Thigh-land.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are we laughing?</s>LEMON: The fly in the room. Let's not talk about the fly. We'll talk about that later. What was up with Mike Pence's eyes? It's like he had pink eye.</s>CUOMO: I don't know. But I will tell you this. I will tell you this. Conjunctivitis is not really a huge cross index for coronavirus.</s>LEMON: Well, I'm not saying it was coronavirus. I was just noticing that he had -- I didn't know if he had pink eye.</s>CUOMO: He could have it for a million reasons. He could have rubbed his eye; he could have allergies.</s>LEMON: They were both eyes.</s>CUOMO: Was it both eyes?</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: I thought it was really just his left eye. But look. Again, the reason you can justify bringing it up is because we are swimming in a swamp of the unknown.</s>LEMON: You don't know.</s>CUOMO: With these guys when it comes to coronavirus. We don't even know if they were testing the president and they know we don't know and they won't tell us.</s>LEMON: And he admitted -- he said, at a press conference, that he was -- or he said, somewhere, that he was -- had been in the room with the -- with the president, earlier in the week, before the president tested positive for -- for coronavirus. I would be concerned. I don't know if I'd want to sit that close to him.</s>CUOMO: I hope he's getting tested every day.</s>LEMON: I do, too.</s>CUOMO: There are people in this country who are getting sick and dying because they don't have access to the right kinds of testing.</s>CUOMO: Our kids are being screwed because we will not come up with a plan for enough and proper testing. You have the access. You have the magic cure. I hope you avail yourselves of it and it'd be nice if you give it to your friends.</s>LEMON: They could have talked more about that. Possibly, you know, since there are two more debates or whatever, these debates could -- they could be theme-oriented debates, where you have one theme. It could be just COVID because we're dealing with it so much.</s>CUOMO: We're in the middle of a pandemic.</s>LEMON: But we have a lot to talk about. The vice president toeing the line, the president's line; same lies, different tone. But what do voters think of what they heard tonight? We'll talk about that.</s>CUOMO: Tone matters. If you are going to lie to me, be nice. |
CNN Poll on Vice Presidential Debate: 59 Percent Harris, 38 Percent Pence | HARRIS: Joe Biden has been very clear he will not raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $400,000 a year.</s>PENCE: He said he'll repeal the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: If you don't mind letting me finish, we can have a conversation.</s>PENCE: They are.</s>PENCE: There are no more hurricanes today than there were 100 years ago.</s>SUSAN PAGE, "USA TODAY," DEBATE MODERATOR: Thank you --</s>PENCE: But many of the climate alarmists --</s>PENCE: -- to use hurricanes and wild flyers (sic) to try and sell --</s>PENCE: -- of a Green New Deal. And President Trump and I are always going to put American jobs and American workers first.</s>PAGE: Thank you.</s>PENCE: Joe Biden wants us to retrofit 4 million --</s>PAGE: Thank you, vice president.</s>PENCE: -- business buildings. It makes no sense, it will cost jobs. President Trump --</s>PAGE: Thank you, vice president. Thank you, vice president Pence.</s>PENCE: President Trump has stood up and will continue to stand strong --</s>PAGE: Thank you, vice president Pence.</s>PENCE: We want to improve the relationship but we're going to level the playing field and we're going to hold --</s>PAGE: vice president Pence --</s>PENCE: -- for what they did to America with the coronavirus.</s>PAGE: Thank you. Thank you, vice president Pence.</s>PENCE: And when Qasem Soleimani was traveling to Baghdad --</s>PAGE: Thank you, vice president Pence.</s>PENCE: -- to harm Americans, President Donald Trump took him out --</s>PAGE: Thank you, vice president Pence.</s>PENCE: -- and America is safer. Our allies are safer. And the American people know president Donald Trump will never --</s>PAGE: Thank you, vice president Pence. Thank you, vice president Pence. Vice president Pence. You know, vice president Pence. I didn't -- vice president Pence, I did not -- excuse me.</s>PENCE: Susan, the American people deserve to know Joe Biden --</s>PAGE: Your campaigns agreed to the rules for tonight's debate with the Commission on Presidential Debates.</s>HARRIS: I'm so glad we went through a little history lesson. Let's do that a little more. In 1864 --</s>PENCE: Well, I'd like you to answer the question.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice president, I'm speaking. OK?</s>LEMON: So vice president Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris facing off, tonight, in the only V.P. debate of the 2020 race. A CNN poll of debate watchers finding 59 percent say Harris was the winner, while 38 percent say it was Pence. Let's bring in, now, CNN political analysts Mark Preston, Toluse Olorunnipa. Good evening, gentlemen. Or good morning. Mark, that was not a good look for the vice president. But the thank you -- the moderator had to -- she tried to stop him from talking but he just steamrolled her.</s>MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. You know, I felt bad for -- for Susan Page and, you know, Don, we talk about this after every debate now. You and I have worked on so many debates together, town halls and what have you. And there's specific tools that you give your moderator to try to keep the train on the track. And I feel bad for Susan Page because I don't think she was actually given those tools, given the authority to try to shut things down. There's so much controversy, of course, what we saw how Donald Trump acted last week that the commission tried to at least put guardrails on it. But they were -- there were really no guardrails on that. And quite frankly, we didn't see a debate tonight, right? We can all acknowledge that. We just saw a list of statements, given by both Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.</s>LEMON: Yes. Yes. I think you're right about that. And you're right about those tools for getting people and if you -- if you practice them and you have them in front of you, you can easily get people to stop talking. Well, one good way is to cut their mikes, though, so maybe they should consider that. But Toluse, listen, Pence has the same statements as Trump. He pushes the same lies about the coronavirus, he repeats the same lies of the president. He just does it, in a different tone. Do voters -- do they -- do they -- what do they get out of it? And do they see through it?</s>TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you're right. Pence definitely had message discipline. I mean, he was going to get his points out, even if it meant interrupting the moderator, even if it meant, you know, ignoring various cues to stop. And he pushed those points out and he did it with a demeanor that's much more calm and less chaotic than President Trump. He was less of a whirlwind. But they are the same points and the points are, it's hard to spin your way out of a pandemic; 210,000 people are dead. Millions of people have caught this disease. The economy, you know, has continued to only slowly recover from millions of jobs that have been lost. And people can't send their kids to school. So they're watching television, they are seeing the vice president try to sort of calmly talk about all the great things that President Trump has done. And the people who are watching it know that their own lives have been impacted. They know the president just got out of the hospital for not following the right public health guidelines and catching this disease. So it's hard to really try to spin your way through talking points out of this issue that the country is facing. It's a -- it's a global pandemic but America has been hit particularly hard. And it's a scar on their record. And as much as they try to put out positive statistics and spin things with positive language, it just doesn't strike home for the people who are suffering through this and who are seeing their own lives impacted. So it's a hard message that he tries to push. He probably did the best that you probably can, given the failures of this administration and the difficulty of defending it. But at the end of the day, the American people see what's going on with their own lives. And it's going to be hard for them to --</s>LEMON: I'm glad you bring that up because I want to -- And if you guys in the control room, if I can get the sound bite about health care that Kamala Harris made about coming for you.</s>LEMON: Because I want to ask Mark if that stuff -- Because, Mark, you know, Kamala Harris kept going back to health care. She kept pivoting, throughout many of her responses, even if the -- obviously, the debate moderator didn't ask her about it. But she kept asking, you know, she kept saying they're coming for you. They're coming for you. They're coming for you. If you have a preexisting condition and so on. Did that stick?</s>PRESTON: Well, we don't know if it stuck right now. But I will tell you, I do think it was an effective, going back to the tool -- using the world tool, it was an effective political tool for Kamala Harris to use. And the reason being is right now we have more than 210,000 people in the United States who have died of COVID. We have so many people unemployed now. When you lose your job, you often lose your health insurance. So think about all the people out there who not only cannot pay their mortgage or their car payment or are trying to educate their children and juggle all of this. And look where we are now. So I do think that she was effective in selling the idea that Republicans don't have a plan for health care. And all they are going to do is try to come and get it from you. We will see what happens over the next couple of days. But it's really a message they have been hammering home since the beginning of the campaign. Now it'll be interesting to see what happens the next couple of weeks, if health care continues to dominate or do we just go right back to COVID and the response to the administration? That's what this election hangs on in the end.</s>LEMON: We hear that for the Biden campaign is really happy about her getting that point across, looking right into the camera. Here is that moment, Toluse, and I'll get you to respond.</s>HARRIS: On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who has reigned over a recession that is being compared to the Great Depression. On the one hand, you have Joe Biden, who was responsible, with President Barack Obama, for the Affordable Care Act. If you have a pre-existing condition -- heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer -- they are coming for you. If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they are coming for you. If you are under the age of 26 on your parents' coverage, they are coming for you.</s>LEMON: Toluse, as they say, how did that play in Peoria?</s>OLORUNNIPA: It's clear they are trying to run the 2018 playbook that was so successful for Democrats a couple of years ago. They want this election to be about health care, about the coronavirus, about President Trump's very unpopular approach to the presidency. And you can see Senator Harris punching at that issue over and over again. Vice president Pence did not have much of an answer, you heard him respond, saying, me and president Trump have a strong and comprehensive health care plan. And then he quickly pivoted right in the next sentence to talking about fracking or something that was completely different. He did not explain his health care plan that the public has been waiting for, for the better part of 3 years. And they know in their Republican circles that this is a tough issue for them, this is an issue where they don't have much answers. And that's part of the reason Vice President Biden and Senator Harris have been punching very hard on health care, they know this is an issue that Democrats are stronger on and there's not much of an answer from the Republican side yet.</s>LEMON: Mark, the election less than 4 weeks away and the latest Electoral College outlook shows Biden crossing the 270 threshold. But everyone else, we all remember 2016. This is my conversation with Chris every single day, who is going to win, what do you think? And we all have 2016</s>PTSD. PRESTON: OK, Wednesday after the election of 2016, I remember being on air at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Don, and I looked straight into the camera and I said, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa, I was wrong. We were all wrong. We didn't read the American public right. I don't know if that is the case this time but I will say this. One thing we have learned from 2016 is that you can't expect what's going to happen today will happen tomorrow. So Donald Trump, even though he is down by a significant amount in some very key states, the fact is there still is four weeks left. He could make up that ground.</s>LEMON: All right, thank you gentlemen. I will see you soon, get some sleep. We are right behind you. Dirty 30.</s>LEMON: We are down to the dirty 30.</s>CUOMO: I'm loving it. This is the hope for the journalist, is to be relevant during important times. And this is a big deal. I know people say it every election cycle; I don't feel that every election cycle.</s>LEMON: No, no, no; this is a big deal. The reelection of the first Black president, OK, most people --</s>CUOMO: Big deal.</s>LEMON: -- well, the election was a big deal. Reelecting was not as big a deal but I think most people -- well, he served 2 terms. But I think you are right. We always say this is the election of a lifetime.</s>LEMON: But, no, this one is the election.</s>CUOMO: This is a big election because it's not about the two guys. It's really about the choice for the country. It's more of a selection than an election because they have two very different -- they represent two very different ideas about what this country is and can be. So it's a big deal.</s>LEMON: If we're going to believe in science.</s>CUOMO: You heard Pence tonight. There are no more hurricanes now than there were 100 years ago. Intensity, my brother. Intensity is what you are concerned about with climate change.</s>LEMON: But that's debating.</s>CUOMO: Huh?</s>LEMON: That's debating.</s>CUOMO: That is true.</s>LEMON: As you would say.</s>CUOMO: Don't use my line.</s>LEMON: Much more to come; 26 days, can you believe, until Election Day? And the attorney general Bill Barr allowing federal prosecutors to announce voter fraud investigations close to Election Day. I'm going to tell you why he is changing the longstanding policy and what it means for you and your vote. That's next. |
Pence and Harris Debates in Utah. | DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Sing a song.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right.</s>LEMON: Come to a time we have to say --</s>CUOMO: So long.</s>LEMON: -- so long.</s>CUOMO: Thank you for watching, our friends. We will be back. Our coverage of tonight's vice-presidential debate will continue.</s>SUSAN PAGE, DEBATE MODERATOR: Good evening. From the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, welcome to the first and only vice presidential debate of 2020, sponsored by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.</s>PAGE: I'm Susan Page of USA Today. It is my honor to moderate this debate, an important part of our democracy. In Kingsbury Hall tonight, we have a socially distanced audience, and we've taken extra precautions during this pandemic. Among other things, everyone in the audience is required to wear a face mask, and the candidates will be seated 12 feet apart. The audience is enthusiastic about their candidates, but they've agreed to express enthusiasm only twice, at the end of debate and now, when I introduce the candidates. Please welcome California Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence.</s>PENCE: Thank you.</s>PAGE: Senator Harris and Vice President Pence, thank you for being here.</s>PAGE: We're meeting as President Trump and the First Lady continue to undergo treatment in Washington after testing positive for COVID-19. We send our thoughts and prayers to them for their rapid and complete recovery, and for the recovery of everyone afflicted by the coronavirus. The two campaigns, and the Commission of Presidential Debates have agreed to the ground rules for tonight. I am here to enforce them on behalf of the millions of Americans who are watching. One note, no one in either campaign, or at the Commission, or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics I'll raise or what questions I'll ask. This 90 minute debate will be divided in to nine segments of about 10 minutes each. I'll begin a segment by posing a question to each of you - sometimes the same question, sometimes a different question on the same topic. You will then have two minutes to answer without interruption by me or the other candidate. Then we'll take six minutes or so to discuss the issue. At that point, although there will always be more to say, we'll move on to the next topic. We want a debate that is lively, but Americans also deserve a discussion that is civil. These are tumultuous times, but we can and will have a respectful exchange about the big issues facing our nation. Let's begin with the ongoing pandemic that has cost our country so much. Senator Harris, the coronavirus is not under control. Over the past week Johns Hopkins reports that 39 states have had more COVID cases over the past seven days than in the week before. Nine states have set new records. Even if a vaccine is released soon, the next administration will face hard choices. What would a Biden administration do in January and February that a Trump administration wouldn't do? Would you impose new lockdowns for businesses and schools in hotspots? A federal mandate to wear masks? You have two minutes to respond without interruption.</s>HARRIS: Thank you, Susan. Well, the American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. And here are the facts, 210,000 dead people in our country in just the last several months. Over 7 million people who have contracted this disease - one in five businesses closed. We're looking at frontline workers who have been treated like sacrificial workers. We are looking at over 30 million people who in the last several months had to file for unemployment. And here's the thing, on January 28, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it's lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people and that it would be contracted because it is airborne. And they knew what was happening, and they didn't tell you. Can you imagine if you knew on January 28, as opposed to March 13 - what they knew, what you might have done to prepare? They knew and they covered it up. The president said it was a hoax. They minimized the seriousness of it. The president said you're on one side of his ledger if you wear a mask, you're on the other side of his ledger if you don't. And in spite of all of that, today they still don't have a plan. They still don't have a plan. Well, Joe Biden does. And our plan is about what we need to do around a national strategy for contact tracing, for testing, for administration of the vaccine and making sure that it will be free for all. That is the plan that Joe Biden has, and that I have - knowing that we have to get a hold of what has been going on. And we need to save our country, and Joe Biden is the best leader to do that, and frankly, this administration has forfeited ...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris.</s>HARRIS: ... their right to reelection based on this.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris. Vice President Pence, more than 210,000 Americans have died of COVID- 19 since February. The U.S. death toll as a percentage of our population is higher than that of almost every other wealthy nation on Earth. For instance, our death rate is 2.5 times that of Canada, next door. You head the administration's Coronavirus Task Force, why is the U.S. death toll, as a percentage of our population higher than that of almost every other wealthy country? And you have two minutes to respond without interruption.</s>PENCE: Susan, thank you. And I want to thank the Commission and the University of Utah for hosting this event. And Senator Harris, it's a privilege to be on the stage with you.</s>PENCE: And our nation has gone through a very challenging time this year. But I want the American people to know that, from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first. Before there were more than five cases in the United States, all people who had returned from China, President Donald Trump did what no other American president had ever done. And that was he suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. Now, Senator, Joe Biden opposed that decision. He said it was xenophobic and hysterical. But I can tell you, having led the White House coronavirus task force, that that decision alone by President Trump bought us invaluable time to stand up the greatest national mobilization since World War II. And I believe it saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. Because, with that time, we were able to reinvent testing. More than 115 million tests have been done to date. We were able to see to the delivery of billions of supplies so our doctors and nurses had the resources and support they needed. And we began, really before the month of February was over, to develop a vaccine and to develop medicines and therapeutics that had been saving lives all along the way. And under President Trump's leadership, Operation Warp Speed, we believe, we'll have literally tens of millions of doses of a vaccine before the end of this year. The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way. And quite frankly, when I look at their plan that talks about advancing testing, creating new PPE, developing a vaccine, it looks a little bit like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden knows a little bit about. And I think the American people know that this is a president who has put the...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... health of America first. And the American people, I believe with my heart, can be proud of the sacrifices...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... they have made. It's saved countless American lives.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence. Senator Harris? Would you like to respond?</s>HARRIS: Absolutely. Whatever the vice president is claiming the administration has done, clearly it hasn't worked, when you're looking at over 210,000 dead bodies in our country, American lives that have been lost, families that are grieving that loss. And, you know, the vice president is the head of the task force, and knew on January 28th how serious this was. And then, thanks to Bob Woodward, we learned that they knew about it, and then when that was exposed, the vice president said, when asked, "Well, why didn't y'all tell anybody," he said, "Because the president wanted people to remain calm."</s>PAGE: Well, let's get the...</s>HARRIS: No, but, Susan, this is important...</s>PENCE: Susan, I have to weigh in here.</s>HARRIS: I want to add, but if -- Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: I have to weigh in.</s>HARRIS: I'm speaking.</s>PAGE: You have 15 more seconds, and then we'll give the vice president a chance to respond.</s>HARRIS: Thank you. So I want to ask the American people, how calm were you when you were panicked about where you were going to get your next roll of toilet paper? How calm were you when your kids were sent home from school and you didn't know when they could go back? How calm were you...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris.</s>HARRIS: ... when your children couldn't see your parents because you were afraid they could kill them?</s>PAGE: Let's give Vice President Pence a chance to respond. Vice President Pence, you have one minute to respond.</s>PENCE: You know, there's not a day gone by that I haven't thought of every American family that's lost a loved one. And I want all of you to know that you'll always be in our hearts and in our prayers. But when you say what the American people have done over these last eight months hasn't worked, that's a great disservice to the sacrifices the American people have made.</s>HARRIS: I'm referring to you and the president.</s>PENCE: The reality -- if I may finish, Senator -- the reality is, Dr. Fauci said, everything that he told the president in the Oval Office, the president told the American people. Now, President Trump, I will tell you, has boundless confidence in the American people, and he always spoke with confidence that we'd get through this together. But when you say it hasn't worked, when Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx and our medical experts came to us in the second week of March, they said, if the president didn't take the unprecedented step of shutting down roughly half of the American economy, that we could lose 2.2 million Americans. Now, that's the reality.</s>PAGE: Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: They also said to us, if we did everything right, Susan, we could still lose more than 200,000 Americans.</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence...</s>PENCE: Now, one life lost is too many...</s>PAGE: Thank you.</s>PENCE: ... Susan. But the American people, I believe, deserve credit for the sacrifices that they have made, putting the health of their family and their neighbors first, our doctors, our nurses, our first responders.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: And I'm going to speak up on behalf of what the American people have done.</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, you were in the front row in a Rose Garden event 11 days ago, what seems to have been a super-spreader event for senior administration and congressional officials -- no social distancing, few masks, and now a cluster of coronavirus cases among those who were there. How can you expect Americans to follow the administration's safety guidelines to protect themselves from COVID when you at the White House have not been doing so?</s>PENCE: Well, the American people have demonstrated over the last eight months, they've been given the facts, they're willing to put the health of their families and their neighbors and people they don't even know first. President Trump and I have great confidence in the American people and their ability to take that information and put it into practice. In the height of the epidemic when we were losing a heart breaking number of 2,500 Americans a day, we surged resources to New Jersey and New York and New Orleans and Detroit. We told the American people what needed to be done and the American people made the sacrifices. When the outbreak in the Sunbelt happened this summer, again, Americans stepped forward. But the reality is the work of the president of the United States goes on. The vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States has come upon us and the president introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett.</s>PAGE: Yes, thank you -- thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: But at that -- if I may say, that Rose Garden event, there's been a great deal of speculation about it. My wife, Karen, and I were there and honored to be there. Many of the people who were at that event, Susan, actually were tested for coronavirus and it was an outdoor event, which all of our scientist regularly and routinely advise. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health. And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris consistently talk about mandates. And not -- not just mandates with the coronavirus but of government takeover of healthcare ...</s>PAGE: Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... the Green New Deal, all government controlled. We're about freedom and respecting the freedom of the American people.</s>HARRIS: Let's talk about respecting the American people. You respect the American people when you tell them the truth. You respect the American people when you have the courage ....</s>PENCE: Which we've always done.</s>HARRIS: ... to be a leader speaking of those things that you may not want people to hear but they need to hear so they can protect themselves. But this administration stood on information that if you had as a parent, if you had as a worker knowing you didn't have enough money saved up and now you're standing in a food line because of the ineptitude of an administration that was unwilling to speak the truth to the American people. So let's talk about caring about the American people. The American people have had to sacrifice far too much because of the incompetence of this administration. It is asking too much of the people.</s>PENCE: Susan, we talked ...</s>HARRIS: It is asking too much of the people that they would not be equipped with the information they need to help themselves to protect their parents and their children.</s>PENCE: Susan, the president ...</s>PAGE: No, I'm sorry. Kamala Harris -- Senator Harris, I mean, I'm sorry.</s>HARRIS: That's fine, I'm Kamala.</s>PAGE: No, no, you're Senator Harris to me. For life to get back to normal, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts say that most of the people who can be vaccinated need to be vaccinated. But half of Americans now say they wouldn't take a vaccine if it was released now. If the Trump administration approves a vaccine before or after the election, should Americans take it and would you take it?</s>HARRIS: If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it. Absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us I should -- that we should take it, I'm not taking it.</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, there have been a lot of repercussions from this pandemic. In recent days, the president's diagnosis of COVID-19 has underscored the importance of the job that you hold and that you are seeking. That's our second topic tonight, it's the role of the vice president. One of you will make history on January 20th. You will be the vice president to the oldest president the United States has ever had. Donald Trump will be 74 years old on inauguration day, Joe Biden will be 78 years old. That already has raised concerns among some voters, concerns that have been sharpened by President Trump's hospitalization in recent days. Vice President Pence, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with President Trump about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, do you think you should? You have two minutes without interruption.</s>PENCE: Well, Susan, thank you. Although, I would like to go back to ...</s>PAGE: I think we need to move on to the issue ...</s>PENCE: Well, thank you but I would like to go back because the reality is that we're going to have a vaccine, Senator, in record time -- in unheard of time in less than a year. We have five companies in phase three clinical trials and we're right now producing tens of millions of doses. So the fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine -- if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration is think is unconscionable. And Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's live. The reality is that we will have a vaccine, we believe, before the end of this year. And it will have the capacity to save countless American lives. And your continuous undermining of confidence in a vaccine is just -- it's just unacceptable. And let me also say, you know, the reality is, when you talk about failure in this administration, we actually do know what failure looks like in a pandemic. It was 2009. The swine flu arrived in the United States. Thankfully, it was -- ended up not being as lethal as the coronavirus. But before the end of the year, when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, not 7-1/2 million people contracted the swine flu, 60 million Americans contracted the swine flu. If the swine flu had been as lethal as the coronavirus, in 2009, when Joe Biden was vice president, we would have lost 2 million American lives. His own chief of staff, Ron Klain, would say last year that it was pure luck that they did, quote, everything possible wrong. And we learned from that. They left the strategic national stockpile empty. They left an empty and hollow plan, but we still learned from it.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: And I think the American people --</s>PAGE: Mr. Vice President, you're time is up.</s>PENCE: -- I'm going to say again, can be proud --</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, I'm sorry, your time is up.</s>PENCE: -- of what we had done, and, Senator, please --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: -- stop undermining confidence in a vaccine.</s>PAGE: Senator Harris, let me ask you the same question that I asked --</s>HARRIS: Sure.</s>PAGE: -- Vice President Pence, which is, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with Vice President Biden about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, and if you win the election next month, do you think you should? You have two minutes uninterrupted.</s>HARRIS: So let me tell you, first of all, the day I got the call from Joe Biden, it was actually a Zoom call, asking me to serve with him on this ticket was probably one of the most memorable days of my life. I -- you know, I thought about my mother, who came to the United States at the age of 19, gave birth to me at the age of 25 at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California. And the thought that I'd be sitting here right now, I know would make her proud, and she must be looking down on this. You know, Joe and I were raised in a very similar way. We were raised with values that are about hard work, about the value and the dignity of public service, and about the importance of fighting for the dignity of all people. And I think Joe asked me to serve with him because, you know, I have a career that included being elected the first woman district attorney of San Francisco, where I created models of innovation for law enforcement in terms of reform of the criminal justice system. I was elected the first woman of color and black woman to be elected attorney general of the state of California, where I ran the second largest Department of Justice in the United States, second only to the United States Department of Justice. And there, I took on everything from transnational criminal organizations, to the big banks that were taking advantage of homeowners, to for-profit colleges that were taking advantage of veterans. And then, of course, now, I serve in the United States Senate as only the second black woman ever elected to the United States Senate. I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee where I've been in regular receipt of classified information about threats to our nation and hot spots around the world. I've traveled the world. I've met with our soldiers in our -- in war zones. And I think Joe has asked me to serve with him because he knows that we share, we share a purpose, which is about lifting up the American people, and after the four years that we have seen of Donald Trump, unifying our country around our common values and principles.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris. You know, neither President Trump nor Vice President Biden has released a sort of detailed health information that had become the modern norm until the 2016 election. And in recent days, President Trump's doctors have given misleading answers or refused to answer basic questions about his health. And my question to each of you in turn is, is this information voters deserve to know? Vice President Pence, would you like to go first?</s>PENCE: Well, Susan, thank you. And let me -- let me say on behalf of the president and the first lady how moved we've all been by the outpouring of prayers and concern for the president, and I do believe it's emblematic of the prayers and the concern that have ushered forth for every American impacted by the coronavirus. But the care the president received at Walter Reed Hospital, the White House doctors, was exceptional. And the transparency that they practiced all along the way will continue. The American people have a right to know about the health and well-being of their president, and we'll continue to do that. But I'm just extremely grateful, and was more than -- more than a little moved by the broad and bipartisan support, and Senator, I want to thank you and Joe Biden for your expressions of genuine concern. And I also want to congratulate you, as I did on that phone call, on the historic nature of your nomination.</s>HARRIS: Thank you.</s>PENCE: I never expected to be on this stage 4 years ago, so I know the feeling, but the reality is we've got an election before the American people in the midst of this challenging year and the stakes have never been higher, but I...</s>PAGE: Thank you -- thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ...think the choice has never been clearer.</s>PAGE: I want to give Senator Harris a chance to respond to the same question I asked, which is do voters have a right to know more detailed health information about presidential candidates, and especially about presidents, especially when they're facing some kind of challenge?</s>HARRIS: Absolutely, and that's why Joe Biden has been so incredibly transparent, and certainly by contrast the president has not, both in terms of health records, but also let's look at taxes. We now know, because of great investigative journalism, that Donald Trump paid $750 in taxes. When I first heard about it, I literally said, you mean $750,000? And it was like, no, $750. We now know Donald Trump owes and is in debt for $400 million, and just so everyone is clear, when we say in debt, it means you owe money to somebody. And it'd be really good to know who the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, owes money to, because the American people have a right to know what is influencing the president's decisions, and is he making those decisions on the best interest of the American people, of you, or self interest? So Susan, I'm glad you asked about transparency, because it has to be across the board. Joe has been incredibly transparent over many, many years. The one thing we all know about Joe, he puts it all there. He is honest, he is forthright, but Donald Trump on the other hand...</s>PENCE: Susan...</s>PAGE: Thank (ph)...</s>HARRIS: ...has been about covering up everything.</s>PAGE: Thanks -- thank you, Senator Harris. I want to give you a chance to respond, Vice President.</s>PENCE: Well look, I respect the fact that Joe Biden spent 47 years in public life. I respect your public service as well.</s>HARRIS: Thank you.</s>PENCE: The American people have a president who's a business man, he's a job creator, who's paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes. Payroll taxes, property taxes, he's created tens of thousands of American jobs. The president said those public reports are not accurate and the president's also released literally stacks of financial disclosures the American people can review, just as the law allows, but the distinction here is that Joe Biden, 47 years in public service compared to President Donald Trump, who brought all of that experience 4 years ago...</s>PAGE: Thank you -- thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ...and turned this economy around by cutting taxes, rolling back regulations, unleashing (ph) American energy...</s>PAGE: Thank you -- thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ...fighting for free and fair trade, and all of that's on the line...</s>PAGE: Thank you -- thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ...if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are in the White House.</s>PAGE: You know that's a good segue into our third topic...</s>HARRIS: That's a great segue.</s>PAGE: ...which is about the economy. This has been another aspect of life for Americans, it's been so affected by this coronavirus. We have a jobs crisis brewing. On Friday we learned that the unemployment rate had declined to 7.9 percent in September, but the job growth has stalled, and that was before the latest round of layoffs and furloughs in the airline industry, at Disney, and elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of discouraged workers have stopped looking for work. Nearly 11 million jobs that existed at the beginning of the year haven't been replaced. Those hardest hit include Latinos, Blacks, and women. Senator Harris, the Biden-Harris campaign has proposed new programs to boost the economy, and you would pay for that new spending by raising $4 trillion in taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. Some economists warn that could curb entrepreneurial ventures that fuel growth and create jobs. Would raising taxes put the recovery at risk? And you have two minutes to answer, uninterrupted.</s>HARRIS: Thank you. On the issue of the economy, I think there couldn't be a more fundamental difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Joe Biden believes you measure the health and the strength of America's economy based on the health and the strength of the American worker and the American family. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who measures the strength of the economy based on rich people are doing. Which is why he passed a tax bill benefiting the top 1 percent and the biggest corporations of America, leading to a $2 trillion deficit that the American people are going to have to pay for.</s>HARRIS: On day one, Joe Biden will repeal that tax bill. He'll get rid of it, and what he'll do with the money is invest it in the American people. And through a plan that is about investing in infrastructure, something that Donald Trump said he would do - I remember hearing about some Infrastructure Week. I don't think it ever happened. But Joe Biden will do that. He'll invest in infrastructure. It's about upgrading our roads and bridges, but also investing in clean energy and renewable energy. Joe was going to invest that money in what we need around innovation. There was a time when our country believed in science and invested in research and development, so that we were an innovation leader on the globe. Joe Biden will use that money to invest in education. So, for example, for folks who want to go to a two-year community college, it will be free. If you come from a family that makes less than $125,000, you'll go to public university for free. And across the board, we'll make sure that if you have student loan debt, it's cut by $10,000. That's how Joe Biden thinks about the economy, which is (ph) about investing in the people of our country, as opposed to passing a tax bill which had the benefit of letting American corporations go off shore to do their business.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris. Vice President Pence, your administration has been predicting a rapid and robust recovery, but the latest economic report suggests that's not happening. Should Americans be braced for an economic comeback that is going to take not months but a year or more? You have two minutes to answer, uninterrupted.</s>PENCE: When President Trump and I took office, America had gone through the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression. It's when Joe Biden was vice president, they tried to tax and spend and regulate and bail our way back to a growing economy. President Trump cut taxes across the board. Despite what Senator Harris says, the average American family of four had $2,000 in savings in taxes. And with the rise in wages that occurred, most predominately for blue-collar, hard-working Americans, the average household income for a family of four increased by $4,000 following President Trump's tax cuts. But America, you just heard Senator Harris tell you. On day one, Joe Biden's going to raise your taxes. It's really remarkable to think, Susan --</s>HARRIS: That's not what I said (ph).</s>PENCE: -- I mean, right after a time where we're going through a pandemic that lost 22 million jobs at the height. We've already added back 11.6 million jobs because had a President who cut taxes, rolled back regulation, unleashed American energy, fought for free and fair trade and secured $4 trillion from the Congress of the United States to give direct payments to families, save 15 million jobs through the Paycheck Protection Program. We literally have spared no expense to help the American people and the American worker through this. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to raise taxes. They want to bury our economy under a $2 trillion Green New Deal, which you were one of the original co-sponsors of in the United States Senate. They want to abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking, which would cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs all across the heartland. And Joe Biden wants to go back to the economic surrender to China that, when we took office, half of our international trade deficit was with China alone. And Joe Biden wants to repeal all of the tariffs that President Trump put into effect to fight for American jobs and American workers. Joe Biden says democracy's on the ballot. Make no mistake about it, Susan. The American economy, the American comeback is on the ballot with four more years of growth --</s>PAGE: Thank you --</s>PENCE: -- and opportunity --</s>PAGE: Thank you --</s>PENCE: -- and four more years of President Donald Trump. 2021 --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President --</s>PENCE: -- is going to be the biggest year in the history of this country.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence. Senator Harris?</s>HARRIS: Well, I mean, I thought we saw enough of it in last week's debate, but I think this is supposed to be a debate based on fact and truth. And the truth and the fact is, Joe Biden has been very clear, he will not raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $400,000 a year --</s>PENCE: He said he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: (Inaudible) said the truth (ph). Joe said twice in the debate last week that he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts. That was tax cuts that gave the average working family $2,000 in a tax break every single year.</s>HARRIS: That is --</s>PENCE: Senator --</s>HARRIS: That is --</s>PENCE: -- that's the math.</s>HARRIS: -- absolutely not true. That tax bill --</s>PENCE: Is he only cutting -- is he only going to repeal part of the Trump tax cuts?</s>HARRIS: If you don't mind letting me finish, we --</s>PENCE: Please.</s>HARRIS: -- can then have a conversation, OK?</s>PENCE: Please.</s>HARRIS: OK. Joe Biden will not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year. He has been very clear about that. Joe Biden will not end fracking. He has been very clear about that. Joe Biden is the one who, during the Great Recession, was responsible for the Recovery Act that brought America back. And now the Trump/Pence administration wants to take credit when they - when they rode the coattails of Joe Biden's success for the economy that they had at the beginning of their term. Of course, now the economy is a completely disaster, but Joe Biden on the other hand did that. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who has reigned over a recession that is being compared to the great depression. On the one hand, you have Joe Biden who was responsible with President Barack Obama for the Affordable Care Act, which brought health care to over 20 million Americans and protected people with pre-existing conditions. And what it also did, was it saved those families who otherwise were going bankrupt because of hospital bills they could not afford. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump who's in court trying to get rid of...</s>PAGE: Thank you, senator.</s>HARRIS: ...trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which means that you will lose protections if you have pre-existing conditions. And I just -- this is very important, Susan.</s>PAGE: Yes, but we need to give Vice President Pence...</s>HARRIS: I'd just like -- he interrupted me, and I'd like to just finish, please. If you have a pre-existing condition, heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they're coming for you. If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they're coming for you. If you're under the age of 26 on your parents' coverage, they're coming for you.</s>PAGE: Senator Harris, thank you. Let me give you a chance to respond.</s>PENCE: Well I hope we have a chance to talk about healthcare because Obamacare was a disaster. The American people remember it well. President Trump and I have a plan to improve health care and to protect pre-existing conditions for every American. But look Senator Harris, you're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts. You yourself said on multiple occasions when you were running for president that you would ban fracking. Joe Biden looked his support in the eye and pointed and said, I guarantee -- I guarantee that we will abolish fossil fuels. They have a $2 trillion version of the green new deal Susan that your newspaper, USA Today, said really, it wasn't that very different from the original green new deal. More taxes, more regulation, banning fracking, abolishing fossil fuel, crushing American energy and economic surrender to China is a prescription for American decline. President Trump and I will keep America growing. The V-shaped recovery that's underway right now will continue with four more years with President Donald Trump in the white house.</s>PAGE: Thank you very much, Vice President Pence. Hence once again, you've provided the perfect segue to a new topic, which is climate change. And Vice President Pence, I'd like to pose the first question to you. This year we've seen record-setting hurricanes in the south. Another one, hurricane Delta, is now threatening the gulf. And we have seen record-setting wildfires in the west. Do you believe, as the scientific community as concluded, that man-made climate change has made wildfires bigger, hotter, and more deadly, and have made hurricanes wetter, slower, and more damaging? You have two minutes, uninterrupted.</s>PENCE: Thank you, Susan. Well first, I'm very proud of our record on the environment and on conservation. According to all of the best estimates, our air and land are cleaner than any time ever recorded. Our water is among the cleanest in the world. And just a little while ago, the president signed the Outdoors Act, the largest investment in public land and public parks in 100 years. So President Trump has made a commitment to conservation and to the environment. Now with regard to climate change, the climate is changing. The issue is, what's the cause, and what do we do about it? President Trump has made it clear that we're going to continue to listen to the science. Now, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would put us back in the Paris Climate Accord. They'd impose the green new deal, which would crush American energy, would increase the energy costs of American families in their homes and literally would crush American jobs. President Trump and I believe that the progress that we have made in a cleaner environment has been happening precisely because we have a strong free market economy. You know what is remarkable is, the united states has reduced CO2 more than the countries that are still in the Paris Climate Accord, but we've done it through innovation, and we've done it through natural gas and fracking. Which, senator, the American people, can go look at the record, I know Joe Biden says otherwise now, as you do, but the both of you repeatedly committed to abolishing fossil fuel and banning fracking. And so by creating a kind of American innovation, we're actually steering toward a stronger and better environment. With regard to wildfires, President Trump and I believe that forest management has to be front and center, and even Governor Gavin Newsome from your state has agreed we've got to work on forest management. And with regard to hurricanes, the National Oceanic Administration tells us that actually as difficult as they are ...</s>PAGE: Thank you -- thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... there are no more hurricanes today than there were 100 years ago.</s>PAGE: Thank you.</s>PENCE: But many of the climate alarmists use hurricanes ...</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, I'm sorry, your time is up.</s>PENCE: ... and wildfire to try and sell the bill of goods of a Green New Deal. And President Trump and I are going to always put American jobs and American workers first.</s>PAGE: Senator Harris, as the vice president mentioned, you cosponsored the Green New Deal in Congress. But Vice President Biden said in last week's debate that he does not support the Green New Deal. But if you look at the Biden-Harris campaign website it describes the Green New Deal as a crucial framework. What exactly would be the stance of Biden-Harris administration toward the Green New Deal? You have two minutes, uninterrupted.</s>HARRIS: All right, so first of all I will repeat, and the American people know that Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact. I will repeat that Joe Biden has been very clear that he thinks about growing jobs, which is why he will not increase taxes for anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year. Joe Biden's economic plan -- Moody's, which is a reputable Wall Street firm has said we'll create 7 million more jobs than Donald Trump's. And part of those jobs that will be created by Joe Biden are going to be about clean energy and renewable energy. Because you see, Joe understands that the west coast of our country is burning -- including my home state of California. Joe sees what is happening in the Gulf states which are being battered by storms. Joe has seen and talked with the farmers in Iowa whose entire crops have been destroyed because of floods. And so, Joe believes, again, in science. I'll tell you something, Susan. I served -- when I first got to the Senate, on the Committee that's responsible for the environment. Do you know, this administration took the word science off the website? And then took the phrase climate change off the website? This -- we have seen a pattern with this administration which is they don't believe in science. And Joe's plan is about saying we're going to deal with it, but we're also going to create jobs. Donald Trump, when asked about the wildfires in California and the question was the science is telling us this -- you know what Donald Trump said? Science doesn't know. So let's talk about who is prepared to lead our country over the course of the next four years on what is an existential threat to us as human beings. Joe is about saying we're going to invest that in renewable energy, it's going to be about the creation of millions of jobs. We will achieve net zero emissions by 2050, carbon neutral by 2035. Joe has a plan. This has been a lot of talk from the Trump administration and really it has been to go backward instead of forward. We will also reenter the climate agreement with pride.</s>PAGE: Senator Harris just said that climate change is an existential threat. Vice President Pence, do you believe that climate change poses an existential threat?</s>PENCE: As I said, Susan, the climate is changing. We'll follow the science. But once again, Senator Harris is denying the fact that they're going to raise taxes on every American. Joe Biden said twice in the debate last week that on day one he was going to repeal the Trump tax cuts. Those tax cuts delivered $2,000 in tax relief to the average family of four across America. And with regard to banning fracking, I just recommend that people look at the record. You yourself said repeatedly that you would ban fracking -- you were the first Senate cosponsor of the Green New Deal. And while Joe Biden denied the Green New Deal, Susan, thank you for pointing out the Green New Deal is on their campaign website. And as "USA Today," said it's essentially the same plan as you cosponsored with AOC when she submitted it in the Senate. And you just heard the Senator say that she's going to resubmit America to the Paris Climate Accord -- look, the American people have always cherished our environment, and will continue to cherish it. We've made great progress reducing CO2 emissions through American innovation and the development of natural gas through fracking. We don't need a massive $2 trillion Green New Deal that would impose all new mandates on American businesses, and American families ...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President ...</s>PENCE: ... Joe Biden wants us to retrofit 4 million American ...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence ...</s>PENCE: ... business buildings. It makes no sense, it will cost jobs. President Trump ...</s>PAGE: Thank you Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... is going to put America first, he's going to put jobs first and we're going to take care of our environment and follow the science.</s>HARRIS: You know, on the issue of jobs ...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence. Senator Harris?</s>HARRIS: Let's talk about that. You -- the vice president earlier referred to -- it as part of what he thinks is an accomplishment, the president's trade war with China. You lost that trade war. You lost it. What ended up happening is, because of a so-called trade war with China, America lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs. Farmers have experienced bankruptcy because of it. We are in a manufacturing recession because of it. And when we look at where this administration has been, there are estimates that, by the end of the term of this administration, they will have lost more jobs than almost any other presidential administration.</s>HARRIS: And the American people know what I'm talking about. You know. I -- I think about 20-year-olds -- you know, we have a 20-year-old...</s>HARRIS: ... twenty-something-year-old -- who are coming out of high school and college right now. And you're wondering, is there going to be a job there for me? We're looking at people who are trying to figure out how they're going to pay rent by the end of the month. Almost half of American renters are worried about whether they're going to be able to pay rent by the end of the month. This is where the economy is in America right now. And it is because of the catastrophe and the failure of leadership of this administration.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris. Vice President Pence, let me give you just 15 seconds to respond, because then I want to move on to the next...</s>PENCE: Well, I'd love to respond. Look, lost the trade war with China? Joe Biden never fought it. Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for Communist China through -- over the last several decades. And -- and, again, Senator Harris, you're entitled to your opinion; you're not entitled to your own facts. When Joe Biden was vice president, we lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs, and President Obama said they were never coming back. He said we needed a magic wand to bring them back. In our first three years, after we cut taxes, rolled back regulations...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... unleashed American energy, this administration saw 500,000...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: ... manufacturing jobs created. And that's exactly the kind of growth we're going to continue to see as we bring our nation through this pandemic.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: You have the green new deal...</s>PENCE: You have massive new mandates, your Paris Climate Accord. It's going to kill jobs this time, just like it killed jobs...</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I just need to respond very briefly, please.</s>PAGE: Fifteen seconds, and then we'll move on.</s>HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you. Joe Biden is responsible for saving America's auto industry, and you voted against it. So let's set the record straight. Thank you.</s>PAGE: I'd like to talk about China. We have -- as our next topic -- we have no more complicated or consequential foreign relationship than the one with China. It is a huge market for American agricultural goods. It's a potential partner in dealing with climate change in North Korea. And in a video tonight, President Trump again blamed it for the coronavirus, saying "China will pay." Vice President Pence, how would you describe our -- our fundamental relationship with China, competitors, adversaries, enemies? You have two minutes.</s>PENCE: Thank you, Susan. But let me -- before I leave that, let me speak to voting records, if I can. You know, everybody knows that NAFTA cost literally thousands of American factories to close. We saw automotive jobs go south of the border. President Trump fought to renegotiate NAFTA. And the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement is now the law of the land. The American people deserve to know that Senator Kamala Harris was one of only 10 members of the Senate to vote against the USMCA. It was a huge win for American auto workers. It was a huge win for American farmers, especially dairy in the Upper Midwest. But, Senator, you -- you said it didn't go far enough on climate change, that you put your -- your radical environmental agenda ahead of American auto workers and ahead of American jobs. And I think the American people deserve to know that. It's probably why Newsweek Magazine said that -- that Kamala Harris was the most liberal member of the United States Senate in 2019, more liberal than Bernie Sanders, more liberal than any of the others in the United States Senate. So, now, with regard to China, look, Susan, first and foremost, China is to blame for the coronavirus. And President Trump is not happy about it. He's made that very clear, made it clear again today. And China and the World Health Organization did not play straight with the American people. They did not let our personnel into China to get information on the coronavirus until the middle of February. Fortunately, President Trump -- in dealing with China from the outset of this administration, standing up to China, that had been taking advantage of America for decades, in the wake of Joe Biden's cheerleading for China -- President Trump made that decision before the end of January to suspend all travel from China. And again, the American people deserve to know, Joe Biden opposed President Trump's decision to suspend all travel from China. He said it was hysterical, he said it was xenophobic.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: But President Trump stood up to China.</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, you time is up.</s>PENCE: We're going to continue to stand strong.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: We want to improve the relationship and we're going to level the playing field and we're going to hold China accountable for what they did to America with the coronavirus.</s>PAGE: Thank you. Senator Harris, let me ask you the same question that I asked the vice president. How would you describe our fundamental relationship with China? Are we competitors, adversaries, enemies? You'll have two minutes, uninterrupted.</s>HARRIS: Susan, the Trump administrations perspective and approach to China has resulted in the loss of American lives, American jobs, and America's standing. There's a weird obsession that President Trump has had with getting rid of whatever accomplishment was achieved by President Obama and Vice President Biden. For example, they created within the White House an office that basically was responsible for monitoring pandemics. They got away -- they -- they got rid of it.</s>PENCE: Not true.</s>HARRIS: There was a team of disease experts that President Obama and Vice President Biden dispatched to China to monitor what is now predictable and what might happen. They pulled them out. We now are looking at 210,000 Americans who have lost their lives. Let's look at the job situation. We mentioned before the trade deal, the trade war they wanted to call it with China. It resulted in the lost of over 300 manufacturing jobs and a manufacturing recession. And the American consumer paying thousands of dollars more for goods because of that failed war that they called it. And let's talk about standing. Pew, a reputable research firm has done an analysis that shows that leaders of all of our formally allied countries have now decided that they holder in greater esteem and respect Xi Jinping, the head of the China's Communist Party than they do Donald Trump, the president of the United States -- the command and chief of the United States. This is where we are today because of a failure of leadership by this administration.</s>PAGE: Senator Harris, we've seen changes in the -- in the role of the United States in terms of global leadership over the past four years. And of course times do change. What's your definition? We've seen strains (ph) with China, of course, as the vice president mentioned. We've seen strains with our traditional allies in NATO and elsewhere. What is your definition of the role of American leadership in 2020?</s>HARRIS: So you know Joe is -- I love talking with Joe about a lot of these issues and you know, Joe, he -- I think he said it quite well. He says you know foreign policy might sound complicated but really its relationships. So just think about it as relationships. And so we know this in our personal and professional relationships. You've got to keep your word to your friends. You've got to be loyal to your friends. People who have stood with you, got to stand with them. You got to know who your adversaries are and keep them in check. But what we have seen with Donald Trump is that he has betrayed our friends and -- and -- and embraced dictators around the world. Let's take, for example, Russia. So -- I serve on the Intelligence Committee of the United States Senate. America's intelligence community told us Russia interfered in the election of the president of the United States in 2016 and as plain in 2020. Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI said the same. But Donald Trump, the commander and chief of the United States of the America, prefers to take the word of Vladimir Putin over the word of the American intelligence community. You look at our friends at NATO. He's walked away from agreements. You can talk -- look at the Iran Nuclear Deal, which now has put us in a position where we are less safe because they are building up what might end up being a significant nuclear arsenal. We were in that deal, guys -- we were in the Iran Nuclear Deal with friends, with allies around the country and because of Donald Trump's unilateral approach to foreign policy coupled with his isolationism, he pulled us out and has American less safe. So, Susan, it's about relationships. And the thing that has always been a part of the strength of our nation, in addition to our great military, has been that we keep our word. But Donald Trump doesn't understand that, because he doesn't understand what it means to be honest.</s>PENCE: Susan --</s>PAGE: Thank you. Thank you -- thank you, Senator Harris. Vice President Pence, let me give you a chance to respond.</s>PENCE: Well, thank you. Well, President Trump kept his word when we moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Israel. When Joe Biden was vice president, they promised to do that. They never did. We stood strong with our allies, but we've been demanding. NATO is now contributing more to our common defense than ever before, thanks to President Trump's leadership. We've strengthened our alliances across the Asia-Pacific. And we've stood strong against those who would do us harm. You know, when President Trump came into office, ISIS had captured an area of the Middle East the size of Pennsylvania. But President Trump unleashed the American military and our armed forces destroyed the ISIS caliphate and took down their leader al-Baghdadi without one American casualty. Al-Baghdadi was responsible for the death of thousands. But, notably, America's hearts today are with the family of Kayla Mueller. Her parents, which are here with us tonight in Salt Lake City. Today, two of the ISIS killers responsible for Kayla Mueller's murder were brought to justice in the United States. Jihadi John was killed in the battlefield, along with the other Beatle. The reality is that when Joe Biden was vice president, we had an opportunity to save Kayla Mueller. It breaks my heart to reflect on it, but the military came into the Oval Office, presented a plan. They said they knew where Kayla was. Baghdadi had held her for 18 months, abused her mercilessly before they killed her. But when Joe Biden was vice president, they hesitated for a month. And when armed forces finally went in, it was clear she'd been moved two days earlier. And her family says, with a heart that broke the heart of every American, that if President Donald Trump had been president, they believe Kayla would be alive today.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President.</s>PENCE: But we destroyed the ISIS caliphate. And you talk about reentering the Iran nuclear deal. I mean, the last administration transferred $1.8 billion to the leading state sponsor --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: -- of terrorism. President Donald Trump got us out of the deal and --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: -- and when Qassem Soleimani was traveling to Baghdad, to do harm --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: -- to Americans, President Donald Trump took him out.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: And America is safer. Our allies are safer, and the American people know President Donald Trump will never hesitate to take action.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President. I would like to give Senator Harris a chance to respond but not at such great length --</s>HARRIS: Thank you.</s>PAGE: -- because, of course, there are topics we want to talk about.</s>HARRIS: But I would like equal time.</s>PAGE: Yes. Please go ahead.</s>HARRIS: Thank you. First of all, to the Mueller family, I know about your daughter's case, and I am so sorry. I'm so sorry. What happened to her is awful and it should never have happened. And I know Joe feels the same way. And I know that President Obama feels the same way. But you mentioned Soleimani, let's start there. So, after the strike on Soleimani, there was a counterstrike on our troops in Iraq. And they suffered serious brain injuries. And do you know what Donald Trump dismissed them as? Headaches. And this is about a pattern of Donald Trump's, where he has referred to our men who are serving in our military as suckers and losers. Donald Trump who went to Arlington Cemetery and stood above the graves of our fallen heroes and said, what's in it for them? Because, of course, you know, he only thinks about what's in it for him. Let's take what he said about John McCain, a great American hero. And Donald Trump says he doesn't deserve to be called a hero because he was a prisoner of war.</s>HARRIS: Take -- and this is very important when you want to talk about who is the current commander-in-chief and what they care about and what they don't care about. Public reporting that Russia had bounties on the heads of American soldiers. And you know what a bounty is? It's somebody puts a price on your head and they will pay it if you are killed. And Donald Trump had talked at least six times to Vladimir Putin and never brought up the subject, Joe Biden would never do that.</s>PAGE: Thank you.</s>HARRIS: Joe Biden would -- but Joe Biden...</s>PENCE: Yes.</s>HARRIS: ...would hold Russia to account for any threat to our nation's security or to our troops who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of our democracy and our safety.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris. This is such an important issue, but we have other important issues as well, and...</s>PENCE: Susan, I want to respond to that (ph).</s>PAGE: ...I want to -- I want to make sure we have a chance to talk about...</s>PENCE: I really have to respond to that. Look, she has...</s>PAGE: Fifteen seconds, because we're trying to keep...</s>PENCE: Well I've got to have more than that.</s>PAGE: Well you -- I'm sorry, Vice President, but you've had more time than she's had so far.</s>PENCE: But the slanders against President Donald Trump regarding men and women of our armed forces are absurd.</s>PAGE: I'm sorry, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: My son is a captain...</s>PAGE: Yes.</s>PENCE: ...in the United States Marine Corps, my son-in-law is deployed in the United States Navy. I can assure all of you with sons and daughters serving in our military, President Donald Trump not only respects but reveres all of those who serve in our armed forces, and any suggestion otherwise is ridiculous.</s>PAGE: But -- thank you, Vice President.</s>PENCE: Let me also say...</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence...</s>HARRIS: (inaudible)</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, I didn't...</s>PENCE: ...the American people deserve -- Susan, the American people deserve to know that...</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, I did not -- excuse me...</s>HARRIS: (inaudible) can't deny...</s>PAGE: I did not create the rules for tonight. You -- your campaigns...</s>PENCE: ...Joe Biden and...</s>PAGE: ....agreed to the rules for tonight's debate...</s>PENCE: I...</s>PAGE: ...with the Commission on Presidential Debates. I'm here to enforce them, which involves moving from one topic to another, giving roughly equal time to both of you...</s>PENCE: (inaudible)</s>PAGE: ...which is what I'm trying very hard to do.</s>PENCE: Go right ahead.</s>PAGE: So I want to go ahead and move to the next topic, which is an important one, as the last topic was, and that is the Supreme Court. On Monday the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to open hearings on Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court. Senator Harris, you'll be there as a member of the committee.</s>HARRIS: Yes (ph).</s>PAGE: Her confirmation would cement the court's conservative majority and make it likely open to more abortion restrictions, even to overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Access to abortion would then be up to the states. Vice President Pence, you're the former Governor of Indiana. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, what would you want Indiana to do? Would you want your home state to ban all abortions? You have two minutes uninterrupted.</s>PENCE: Well thank you for the question, but I'll use a little bit of my time to respond to that very important issue before. The American people deserve to know Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general, was responsible for the death of hundreds of American service members. When the opportunity came, we saw him headed to Baghdad to kill more Americans, President Trump didn't hesitate and Qasem Soleimani is gone. But you deserve to know that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris actually criticized the decision to take out Qasem Soleimani. It's really inexplicable. But with regard to Joe Biden, it's explainable. His history records that Joe Biden actually opposed the raid against Osama bin Laden. It's absolutely essential that we have a commander in chief who will not hesitate to act to protect American lives and to protect American service members, and that's what you have in President Donald Trump. Now with regard to the Supreme Court of the United States, let me say President Trump and I could not be more enthusiastic about the opportunity to see Judge Amy Coney Barrett become Justice Amy Coney Barrett. |
CNN Vice Presidential Debate Analysis: Cuomo & Lemon; Pence Claims White House Always Truthful; Opinion: Harris's Missed Opportunity; Vice Presidential Debate; Pence and Harris Clash Over COVID in Debate Separated by Plexiglass; CNN Poll on VP Debate Winner. | CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, Now we're talking. I'm Chris Cuomo along with Don Lemon. This is CNN's --</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Wait. You said my name wrong.</s>CUOMO: What'd I say?</s>LEMON: You always say D. Lemon. Why? Because it says Don Lemon (inaudible).</s>CUOMO: Well, I say it right the first time.</s>LEMON: All right.</s>CUOMO: Because there's a formality to it.</s>LEMON: OK.</s>CUOMO: Now that they are aware of what your official name is, Donald, we can get to what we're really talking about and get familiar. Because that's what this is about. It's going to be about an intimacy of 27 days.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: It's about feel now. How do you feel about which set of candidates would best represent the selection of what kind of country you want to see over the next four years?</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: This is our special live coverage of the vice presidential debate. Twenty-six days to go, of course. We started when it was 27 days, now it's after midnight, 26 days until election day.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Pence and Harris facing off, very different debate. It actually was a debate. The president is in the White House, he was doing his tweeting. Nothing really there --</s>LEMON: The president was tweeting?</s>CUOMO: -- of any impact. He was saying what you would think he should say. As was Pence's role today.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Pence very much on message. Obviously, in a tough spot.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Because as the head of the task force and Kamala Harris coming after him about it being the biggest failure in presidential history, he had his hands full. How do you think they handled it?</s>LEMON: So this is going to surprise a lot of people. I liked it. I actually really liked it. There was substance, we got substance in the debate. They talked policy. I actually thought senator Kamala Harris talked more policy than the vice president. The vice president was doing a lot of attacking and what have you. But I thought it was a substantive debate. That's what the American people wanted, that's what they got this time. They didn't get the bombastic crazy rah-rah-rah-rah (ph), you know who I'm talking about. Right?</s>CUOMO: No, who? Me?</s>LEMON: Yes, you.</s>CUOMO: Oh.</s>LEMON: No, I'm talking about the president.</s>CUOMO: I'll tone it down.</s>LEMON: The president was, as we said last time, we don need have to rehash. But so bombastic last time, came in hot. I thought it was very good. I thought -- and it gives us something to analyze now that is normal. Right? Did they make their points? Did they push back enough? I thought the vice president talked a little bit too much. He steamrolled the moderator and I thought Senator Kamala Harris missed a lot of opportunities to push back on the vice president just lying on certain things. Especially the part where he said that she was attacking the American people or not respecting what the American people had done during the COVID and during quarantine. That wasn't what she said. She said that the administration had failed the American people and he did a jedi mind trick on her. And I would have called him out right away.</s>CUOMO: Yes. That's called debating.</s>LEMON: That's called debating. And I would have called -- she didn't call him out. But people were saying she had to walk this tightrope because she's a woman.</s>CUOMO: Did you think that's what was going on, black woman syndrome? That she had to be more reserved? Now, by the way, we haven't seen that from Kamala Harris --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- in past debates. She almost took Joe Biden out at the knees --</s>LEMON: Two things.</s>CUOMO: -- and had the T-shirt ready to prove it.</s>LEMON: I'll put it this way. I am aware that that does happen, right? That we do live in that -- and I'm aware, as you know, from being friends with me and your other friends of color -- is that the standards are different and -- they're different standards. Let's put it that way.</s>CUOMO: Toughest thing to be in American society --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Woman of color.</s>LEMON: Yes. But being a man of color and, as you call me the unicorn in prime time -- I've gotten so used to just saying how I feel that I guess I'm in a position of privilege where I just don't care. I would've cut him right off and I don't care what people think of me. Because people are already going to think you're uppity and you're this and you're that. I don't really care anymore.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: But I'm not --</s>CUOMO: Hence the bracelets.</s>LEMON: Yes, yes. But I'm not -- but this is because I need protection from all -- you and all this craziness going on. But I'm not running for president and neither is she, and that's the point. She was there to do no harm. She was there to handle herself in a professional manner and to promote Biden-Harris ticket, not the Harris-Biden ticket. And so she referred to the person at the top of the ticket a lot, as she should have. And I think she -- do no harm. And I think she accomplished that. But I would have pushed back a lot more. And she missed the opportunity to say the biggest hot spot in this country right now or one of, is what? The White House.</s>CUOMO: Yes. It's a cluster.</s>LEMON: And I would have pointed out that here we are -- what, eight months into this, nine months into this, by the time election day comes it'll be almost a year into a pandemic -- and you are the head --</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: -- of the coronavirus task force, and here we are divided by two pieces of plexiglass. That is physical evidence that what you have done, how you have handled is, as we would say is a pure D failure (ph). That's what it is. That's what I would have pointed out.</s>CUOMO: So the early polling, to the extent that you need any guide for how you feel about what happened tonight, has Harris as the winner. But you have to put it in quotes. Why? Because people don't vote for vice president.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: And when you look at the numbers, the cross references that I'm sure we'll put up at some point tonight, people didn't really change their vote based on tonight. Now that's not that different than debates in general. Certainly, last week's debate you had people saying that Biden had won. But the general feeling was, at the end of the night, you didn't learn anything new about who these men are.</s>LEMON: It wasn't so much last time that Biden won, it was that Trump lost.</s>CUOMO: And that it was something that seemed of no value.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: Which is a kind of, though, a little bit of a commentary on what's going with our political culture in general. Look, Pence had a much harder job tonight.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: He's defending a record. It is a problematic record, especially with the pandemic. He did something that the president does not do well. He sees their successes and he is blind to their failures.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: So he just doesn't mention them. The president makes the mistake of trying to explain and change the failures and gets caught out looking absurd very often. Pence didn't do that. He shows message discipline, he's very good at that. So Harris had more opportunity, more to work with, therefore more of a burden to show that she exposed what she could.</s>LEMON: That's --</s>CUOMO: So she had a harder job tonight.</s>LEMON: That's why I thought she should have defended herself a little bit more. Especially when -- and listen, we sit here every single night and listen to Daniel Dale's fact checks, we do our own fact checks. And when someone says the president -- if he said the president shut down travel from China, we go no, no, it wasn't a travel ban. There were restrictions and there were a lot of people who got through those restrictions. And the virus -- the evidence shows the virus did not come from China, the one that came into this country, it came from Europe. So it was basically ineffective. But I don't know why she didn't do that, I certainly would have done it. I would have defended my record and also hit him where it hurts.</s>CUOMO: You've got to pick your spots. The format, also, remember -- not you, but you could easily make as an assumption based on format -- she should have cut him off more. They were following the rules. Trump wasn't following the rules.</s>LEMON: She was following the rules more than him. (Inaudible) see --</s>CUOMO: He was talking more -- but look, again, it's what do you compare it to?</s>LEMON: Well --</s>CUOMO: Compare it to last week, they were very orderly in their discussion tonight.</s>LEMON: Yes. They talked about the same number of minutes but she had a different -- he had a different tactic, right? He started --</s>CUOMO: Yes. He was more of a bully in terms of time.</s>LEMON: -- to cut her off and then I think she was like, "Mr. Vice President --</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: -- I'm still talking." When she did that, I said that's the part where I said she's got to be careful. Not because she shouldn't have done that but because of the different standards for women.</s>CUOMO: I used to feel that way until I had -- ready for this? This is why you watch us at night, by the way. Until I had daughters and watched my daughters in school.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Here's why I changed. You go into a classroom -- and I know many of you are already nodding your heads if you're parents or women or both. And you see the boys raising their hand first --</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: -- with nothing to say 80 percent of the time.</s>LEMON: Nothing. And the girls know all the answers.</s>CUOMO: And the girls know the answer and they're quiet because that's the dynamic --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- that is allowed. So I changed. I used to feel like that, like well, this is the stereotype but I was actually falling into it myself. Now I respect the assertiveness, no matter who it is; male or female.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: And Kamala Harris is one of the best one-two throwers I've seen in political debate in a long time.</s>LEMON: She was reserved.</s>CUOMO: She can really throw punches in bunches. She didn't do that tonight as much.</s>LEMON: Do no harm.</s>CUOMO: But again, I believe -- a little bit of it is do no harm, I think she was trying to score some points. But she had so much to work with that there was such high expectation for what she would say. To Don's point. We are suffering through a crisis --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- that bad leadership has made a tragedy.</s>LEMON: Terrible.</s>CUOMO: Those aren't my words. That's the New England Journal of Medicine. They never put out political editorial signed by the entire staff about who's in power. They don't do that, it's a medical journal. They said this president has to be voted out because of a failure of leadership during a pandemic --</s>LEMON: There it is.</s>CUOMO: They turned a crisis into a tragedy. Pence is there --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- had no big defense. In fact, I think we have some sound -- do you have sound you want to play in the control room about how they did on the coronavirus?</s>LEMON: We have sound where they pressed him on -- about the spread, I think, at the White House.</s>CUOMO: All right. Same thing I said.</s>LEMON: All right. .</s>CUOMO: Don said it in more words. Here it is.</s>SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY" & VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE MODERATOR: Vice President Pence, you were in the front row in a rose garden event eleven days, what seems to be a super spreader event for senior administration and congressional officials. No social distancing, few masks and now a cluster of coronavirus cases among those who were there. How can you expect Americans to follow the administration's safety guidelines to protect themselves from COVID when you at the White House have not been doing so?</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE USA: That rose garden event, there's been a great deal of speculation about it. My wife, Karen, and I were there and honored to be there. Many of the people who at that event, Susan --</s>PAGE: Yes.</s>PENCE: -- and it was an outdoor event which all of our scientists regularly and routinely advice. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health. And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris consistently talk about mandates. And not just mandates with the coronavirus but a government takeover of health care --</s>PAGE: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President.</s>PENCE: -- the Green New Deal.</s>CUOMO: She did him a favor cutting him off and I'll tell you why. This was the only moment of the debate were I felt like the vice president earned the same judgment that people make about the president which is shame on you. Shame on you for being full of it about the answer you gave. It's not just that things outdoor are OK, you know that. You know there wasn't social distancing, you know you don't encourage masks. And you know you do it as an act of defiance like you know better. And --</s>LEMON: Like his wife came up on the stage afterwards --</s>CUOMO: That's right.</s>LEMON: -- no mask.</s>CUOMO: And every clinician has told you that it's the wrong thing to do, except Dr. Scott Atlas. And I will just tell people that the shift to Atlas as this guy who has no particular pedigree when it comes to epidemiology, disease science, but they all believe in him because they say whatever he wants. And now we have the White House as a case cluster and the vice president is going to say there's much speculation about that event --</s>LEMON: (Inaudible).</s>CUOMO: Oh, is there? No, there's a lot of sick people. You've got Chris Christie sitting in a hospital.</s>LEMON: Kellyanne Conway.</s>CUOMO: You've got Kellyanne Conway sitting at home.</s>LEMON: Hope Hicks.</s>CUOMO: Why didn't you give them the medicine that you gave the president?</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: I think for him to have his stoic face, which is often an asset, there was contempt for the reality.</s>LEMON: And you know he lied right there, right? And we have the proof because it wasn't just outdoors. There were --</s>CUOMO: Oh, yes. They had different -- they did (inaudible) of --</s>LEMON: This is an indoor reception. And for him to say oh, it was outdoors, it was socially distanced. Look at that.</s>CUOMO: But it was a baby lie compared to his boy.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Because his boy said I don't need a mask tonight because we've all been tested at this debate. That's what the president said to you --</s>LEMON: At the last debate.</s>CUOMO: -- last week.</s>LEMON: And what did Chris Wallace say?</s>CUOMO: He didn't take the test. He showed up late.</s>LEMON: He didn't take the test because he showed up late.</s>LEMON: And now there is reporting that the president over the past couple of months -- he's not been getting tested every day, as he said.</s>CUOMO: Well, here's the thing. They say that's not true.</s>LEMON: On a regular basis.</s>CUOMO: I have people from the White House doing something that they always say is trying to be helpful to me but I never buy it. Which is be careful, be careful with him not having been tested. Show me the negative test results from last week.</s>LEMON: Then make us wrong.</s>CUOMO: Just show them.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: I'll put them on, it'll be the top of my show.</s>LEMON: When was the last time he tested negative and let's see the actual test where he was positive too.</s>CUOMO: Because, look, they actually have access to good testing; most of this country does not.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: For them to have a case cluster in the White House can only be recklessness. They have every reason to be safe.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: You have the best doctors, the best tests, and you have access to miracle cures. Which also I thought Harris was going to bring up tonight.</s>LEMON: Well, I can't believe she didn't bring up the White House being a hot spot. And I think it's -- is it the number one place in Washington D.C. right now or close to that --</s>CUOMO: No. Unless you do by percentage of people who were there.</s>LEMON: Well --</s>CUOMO: But I'm just saying the idea that command central in a fight against a pandemic is breaking out because of bad guidance. Bad doctoring by Dr. Scott Atlas -- look, he's invited on all the time. They keep him on state news because they want him protected from any kind of scrutiny. But look, the patient is dying, you have everybody getting sick in the White House. So look --</s>LEMON: But then they also try to bring up too H1N1.</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: Which is -- it's like c'mon. If H1 -- there are all these hypotheticals. Well, H1N1, it didn't happen.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: And --</s>CUOMO: But a good debate tactic.</s>LEMON: But --</s>CUOMO: Because it confuses people with a false equivalence.</s>LEMON: Yes. But there's no there there. And I'm surprised that Kamala Harris did not point that out.</s>CUOMO: But that's on her.</s>LEMON: Again, that is on her. She actually missed opportunity --</s>CUOMO: That's on her. It's like you say to me, hey you just walked in a couple of minutes -- yes, but Don, you were late yesterday.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Yesterday, we didn't have a show yesterday. That's on you.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: That's on you to say that.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Now -- or it's on Daniel Dale. So let's bring in CNN's fact- checker extraordinaire, Daniel Dale. Let me start off with the whopper of the night for you, Daniel. What did you think people need to know?</s>DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: I think the whopper of the night was Vice President Pence's claim that they always tell the truth. It's vague. But this it was on the subject of the pandemic where I can -- you can check my work, others' work. We have dozens -- I think it's hundreds of false claims from the president alone let alone Vice President Pence writing an infamous op ed saying we have no coronavirus second wave, playing it down like Trump does. And Trump himself acknowledged that he wasn't always truthful because he admitted to Bob Woodward on tape that he was playing it down. So to me, it's not a specific policy claim or something but that to me was egregious.</s>CUOMO: He lied about being tested. Last week. The president. He's shameless about it. Now look, people have to judge the vice president, I don't know. If you can tell somebody's being histrionic and saying things that are wild, how does that play to you compared to a vice president who has such a stone face and seems to ooze such integrity who is jazzing you the same way? Now another one for you to look at it is President Trump's -- the assertion about what they did on China. And they had a back and forth. Let me play it for the people at home.</s>PENCE: There were more than five cases in the United States, all people who had returned from China. President Donald Trump did what no other American president had ever done. And that was he suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world.</s>CUOMO: Now I personally prefer my mendacity with madness. I like for people to go all in, to be absurd and overreach. I find the vice president's kind of prevarication which is a more sophisticated type of parsing for deception more unnerving. Because it seems like he actually believes what he's saying sometimes. What's the reality?</s>DALE: Sometimes. Well, Don did this fact check for me minutes ago, I think possibly because I've done it like ten times on Don's own show. It was not a complete suspension of travel from China. It was a restriction with many exemptions for citizens, permanent residents, many of their family members, many others. All those people could still come over from China. Tens of thousands of them did after these restrictions were put in place in February. And as Don said, research suggests that the virus was coming in from travelers from Europe at the time. Not from China. So as the president was shutting the back door -- or the front door, the other door was left open until March and that's where New York City and the area got its early outbreak.</s>LEMON: If ever you need a day off, Daniel, I got you.</s>DALE: Thank you. Thank you.</s>CUOMO: They say it is about -- who's they? The numbers of what we saw on entry into the country after the ban with the exemptions comes out certainly in the tens of thousands. The estimates go up to about 40,000 people from China came back in. The more important part, though, is the distraction which you're referring to. We know in New York from the contact tracing that it was from Europe. Because -- it's not a different virus, the virus moved. People got sick and they moved from Asia into Europe --</s>DALE: Correct.</s>CUOMO: -- and then were coming here to the big international travel hubs. And obviously, as we did last week, New York City is the biggest travel hub in the country. All right number three. The candidates sparred on manufacturing jobs -- the economy, it's going to matter to people even in the midst of a pandemic. Here was a big moment.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The vice president earlier referred to as part of -- what he thinks is an accomplishment, the president's trade war with China. You lost that trade war, you lost it. What ended up happening is because of a so-called trade war with China, America lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs.</s>PENCE: I'd love to respond. Lost the trade war with China? Joe Biden never fought it. Joe Biden's been a cheerleader for Communist China through -- over the last several decades. And again, Senator Harris, you're entitled to your opinion, you're not entitled to your own facts. When Joe Biden was vice president, we lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs and President Obama said they were never coming back, he said we needed a magic wand to bring them back. In our first three years after we cut taxes, rolled back regulation --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: -- unleashed American energy, this administration saw 500,000 manufacturing jobs created.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: And that's exactly the kind of growth we're going to continue to see as we bring our nation through --</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President Pence.</s>PENCE: -- this pandemic.</s>CUOMO: The growth we are going to continue to see, Daniel, except for the pandemic. Right now the unemployment rate is the highest it's been since the Forties. But it's an interesting -- it's an interesting strategy by the president and vice president. They are the first tandem in modern American history to deny any responsibility for a crisis on their watch. Let me ask you this, a little bit of a curveball. Your take on who refused to answer more questions and, more meaningfully, avoided what they needed to answer?</s>LEMON: Pence.</s>DALE: I have to avoid your question.</s>LEMON: Pence.</s>DALE: Because I listen for fact checks, for dishonesty. So I don't feel confident in my own watching of the debate generally. And I don't like to be wrong on TV, so I'm going to dodge.</s>LEMON: I found two instances where she did not answer the question.</s>DALE: OK.</s>LEMON: Which was about packing the courts. And the other one was about had they had a discussion about if the vice president, the former vice president, became incapacitated, how she would -- who would take over the job and that sort of thing. So that's -- those two questions.</s>CUOMO: Well, one was a question from Susan Page.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>CUOMO: The other was a question for Mike Pence.</s>LEMON: Yes. And the simple -- look, I think she should have had a better answer for that. But my answer would be like the moderator asks the questions, not you.</s>CUOMO: What's your answer to the court packing question?</s>LEMON: What, if we're going to do that?</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: If we're going to pack the courts?</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: Well, I don't know. Listen, I'm not a Democrat and I'm not -- I would --</s>CUOMO: I'm saying what do you think would've been a better answer for her?</s>LEMON: A better answer would have been --</s>CUOMO: And please don't distract from the question. We all know you're not --</s>LEMON: A better answer would have been that's not really the point.</s>CUOMO: That's the good answer?</s>LEMON: That's not the point right now.</s>CUOMO: That's the good answer?</s>LEMON: No, no. That's not the point right now.</s>CUOMO: Put up the poll numbers of how I'm winning this debate (inaudible) saying anything yet.</s>LEMON: No, listen to me. That's not really the point right now about whether we're going to pack the court. And then I would've gone to what she said, let's talk about packing the courts. And who's actually --</s>CUOMO: Bring Daniel Dale back up here.</s>LEMON: -- who's actually packing the courts.</s>CUOMO: I want him to judge what's about to happen.</s>LEMON: And then why do you want to talk about these hypotheticals when right now the reality is we have 210,000 people who are dead in this country? We have an administration and a party who's trying to -- how would I have said it -- who's trying to rush a justice in when the last time you said that you wouldn't do it. So you're lying to the American people. You lied to them in 2016 now you're lying to them again. And now you're trying to bring in a hypothetical about something that may or may not happen. I refuse to answer that question because that's not what's important right now. What's important right now is the dead people and you trying to rush through a supreme court justice.</s>CUOMO: All right. That's his answer. He got going, he got into a little bit of a flow there once his head kind of collected. Here is what I expected, OK. Was you want to ask about what my reaction is going to be and you are ignoring your action that may have forced it. You have perverted the system. You did something that you said was wrong and then you did it anyway. And it's because you perverted power, just for your own personal advantage. You want to ignore that. Having a straight face doesn't mean you're playing straight with the American people. And you did it. And now, you're upset about how we may respond to your perversion of what is right and wrong.</s>LEMON: So you --</s>CUOMO: Actions have consequences. And I know perversion is a tricky word for you, Mr. Vice President, because you find a lot of things perverse, like being gay. Now answer the question about what you would want Indiana to do when it comes to Roe V. Wade --</s>LEMON: That's a good one.</s>CUOMO: -- and how you feel about whether gay people should have rights in this country? That's the kind of thing --</s>LEMON: That's a good one.</s>CUOMO: -- Kamala Harris can do. And look --</s>LEMON: No, I was just going to say --</s>CUOMO: -- the fact that I slap you around like a naughty child is not the point.</s>LEMON: No, you said it. I said the same thing that you said but I said it --</s>CUOMO: Fact check, fact check, Daniel Dale.</s>LEMON: -- like a blue collar guy.</s>CUOMO: I'm drinking a cup of victory. Please tell us what you heard.</s>LEMON: A blue collar guy who went to LSU. You said it like some Ivy League guy.</s>CUOMO: Listen -- no. No, no, no.</s>LEMON: We said the same thing. Except for the gay thing.</s>CUOMO: Go ahead.</s>LEMON: I don't want to bring up the gay thing. Because you know I live it.</s>CUOMO: I live it too. Yes. Go ahead. Which is the better answer? Fact check, please. I'm drinking my cup of victory.</s>DALE: No, I recuse myself. You guys made me sit in the middle.</s>CUOMO: You are something. You're going to make it a long time in this business.</s>LEMON: Oh, my gosh. Recused himself.</s>CUOMO: You're going to make it a long time in this business.</s>DALE: How could</s>I -- CUOMO: Buddy, let me tell you. I hope that fence doesn't get uncomfortable that you're sitting on.</s>DALE: I love the fence.</s>LEMON: And who are you, the former attorney general --</s>CUOMO: He loves the fence.</s>LEMON: -- who's going to recuse himself.</s>CUOMO: I take offense to your defense.</s>LEMON: All right, Daniel.</s>CUOMO: Thank you, brother. Appreciate the fact check.</s>DALE: Thank you.</s>LEMON: Here's the fact. We're going to let you go. That's a fact check.</s>CUOMO: Terrible judge.</s>LEMON: We'll see you.</s>CUOMO: Good man, good reporter.</s>LEMON: Let's talk about this. Maybe they can help us out and see who had the winning argument. I have to say that was pretty good. Our senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson is here, the former Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm, and Mike Shields who was chief of staff to Reince Priebus at the RNC. How you guys doing?</s>NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SNR. POLITICAL REPORTER: Great.</s>LEMON: What did you --</s>JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SNR. POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: All right.</s>LEMON: All right. What did you think -- Nia, what did you think about the debate? Quite different, different atmosphere --</s>HENDERSON: Yes.</s>LEMON: Oh, wait a minute, you want to ask. Who won this past --</s>CUOMO: It's a rhetorical question. We know what happened --</s>LEMON: Who won the past --</s>CUOMO: -- everybody heard it.</s>LEMON: What do you guys think?</s>CUOMO: Everybody heard it. Mike doesn't even like me, and he knows I just whooped you.</s>HENDERSON: Oh. Who won the debate -- I'm going to go with Don.</s>LEMON: No. Who won the debate, between us?</s>HENDERSON: I think Don -- yes, I'm going to go with Don.</s>CUOMO: Awf (ph).</s>HENDERSON: I like this answer because I think people don't necessarily care about court packing. I think white Evangelicals care and that's why you see Pence talking about it. But I think shifting to COVID, shifting to the 200,000 dead is a much better answer --</s>LEMON: Boom.</s>HENDERSON: -- and it's where the American people are.</s>LEMON: I told you.</s>HENDERSON: So point to Don.</s>CUOMO: First of all never trust people with three names. Second of all, if you had to shift you've got a problem with your answer. That's all I'm saying.</s>LEMON: All right. So I'll ask you, Governor. This was very different than last -- I didn't not think this one was chaotic, I thought there was policy. They clashed on coronavirus, they talked taxes, the environment. What did you think?</s>GRANHOLM: Yes. I have a processed response, and a substantive one. I felt -- I felt because it is about how you feel -- I felt so happy because I felt like Kamala Harris made women proud. She was strong, she was on it, she was in command, she had a sense of -- there was a little joie de vivre about her. Pence just looked like he was -- I honestly truly thought that he might have been a bit ill. Because he looked so -- he just didn't look well.</s>LEMON: Excuse me as I sniffle here.</s>GRANHOLM: But he didn't look happy, he didn't - yes. He didn't look like a happy warrior.</s>LEMON: That was me sniffling, sorry. That's a little allergy.</s>GRANHOLM: I hear you. I hear you. OK.</s>LEMON: You have them too, don't you?</s>CUOMO: Uh-huh. Killing me.</s>LEMON: So. I agree with you --</s>GRANHOLM: Yes.</s>LEMON: I didn't really think about it because I'm sitting there watching this guy, I don't want to mansplain anything -- but this did mean a lot to women, didn't it?</s>GRANHOLM: Oh. It meant a huge amount.</s>LEMON: Especially women -- obviously I knew it meant a lot to women of color.</s>GRANHOLM: And women of color, of course. But women overall. I've taught classes on this issue. About how women need to present themselves in the debates and all that. Women -- you know all this, you can't come across as too aggressive, we still have all these stereotypes and all that. But what she did -- she did have to go in doing no harm, we know that. But she was able to, I think, weave between the danger zones in such a great way. I was so happy for her, and for women overall. And for what it means, hopefully, for the next women who follows her. So that's number one. Number two --</s>HENDERSON: Yes. I think women politicians --</s>GRANHOLM: Yes. Go ahead.</s>HENDERSON: -- will study what she did tonight for decades.</s>GRANHOLM: Yes.</s>HENDERSON: Because she came across as so appealing, she was very winsome even as she was very aggressive. With Mike Pence talking -- as he was trying to interrupt her, she said Mr. Vice President, I'm talking, please stop talking. So I thought she did quite well tonight in introducing herself to a lot of Americans who might not be familiar with her. And I thought Mike Pence has this sort of like phony Ronald Reagan effect to him, it's almost prayerful at times --</s>GRANHOLM: Cold (ph).</s>HENDERSON: And I think over the course of that 90 minutes, it didn't really wear very well for him.</s>CUOMO: Mike.</s>HENDERSON: And there she was smiling the entire time.</s>CUOMO: Let's bring Mike in.</s>LEMON: Mike, you get to talk now.</s>CUOMO: I feel like you should be feeling like you had a good night.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>MIKE SHIELDS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, yes. Look, couple of things.</s>CUOMO: VP had a lot of things to be worried about. He never seemed flustered, he seemed to be very confident with every answer that he gave. And yes, he was --</s>LEMON: There were a couple of times where I thought he was flustered. Especially in the beginning. He was a bit fidgety and she just -- but go on, Mike. You're right, I think, Mike, you should be happy about tonight.</s>SHIELDS: I am. I think he did a great job. First I want to comment on what was just talked about which is I just love when Democratic women talk about women at large as if they speak for all of them. There are a lot of conservative women who just flat out disagree with Kamala Harris and they watched them tonight, including my wife who's a very successful Republican woman, and there's going to be a conservative woman who has a supreme court nomination hearing coming up. And it's going to be amazing how all of a sudden the agency of that one is going to be completely removed because she's conservative. So what we're really celebrating about Kamala is that she's a liberal woman. But on to Mike Pence. I thought Mike Pence did exactly what he needed to do. When you look at policy positions between Pence and Trump, and Harris and Biden, there are some that have been lost. As a Republican, we've been a little frustrated especially with the first debate that we haven't talked about our strengths. The conversation that Pence had on taxes and on the economy and getting Kamala Harris to say we're going to repeal the Trump tax cuts including, apparently, the middle class tax cuts that got $2,000 per family, the doubling of the child tax credit. That is an ad. He created an ad out of the debate tonight. And just for that alone, he was incredibly successful. Not to mention Kamala --</s>LEMON: But Mike, you're speaking about that as if that's a negative that they want to repeal the Trump tax cuts. But as you said, about --</s>SHIELDS: It is if you look at polls, Don. If you look at polling, that is an issue that, over and over again, the president as well on with swing voters. And if we're going -- and voters that the president is losing, the way to get them back is when you talk about his economic positions and his tax policies. That's a winning issue for the Trump Campaign.</s>LEMON: I think you have to --</s>SHIELDS: (Inaudible) put it on the table.</s>LEMON: I think you have to separate the economic policies from the tax policy. I don't think people are happy with this tax policy. We'll have to look at some polling. I don't know which polling you're looking at but --</s>CUOMO: Well, what about the women number?</s>LEMON: The economic -- yes. You talked about women, if you look at women overwhelmingly thought that Harris did better. 69 percent of women said Harris won, 30 percent said Pence won. Men 48 percent -- it's basically split. 46 percent for Pence. So I'm not sure about the women. I think people are -- I think what people are reacting to, they're not saying that, you know, Harris did great or anything. That there was a woman for the first -- well, not for first time -- a woman sitting up there, a woman of color really for the first time being in that position. I think all women should be proud of that regardless of if she's a Democrat or a Republican.</s>MIKE SHIELDS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, I agree with, and I think they should be proud. But --</s>LEMON: Sarah Palin got to sit there.</s>SHIELDS: The next Supreme Court Justice is going to be a woman.</s>LEMON: Yes. Well, I mean --</s>CUOMO: What did the women think? What's the response to -- let's start with Nia. What's your response to what Mike said that you guys are only happy because it's a leftie woman?</s>NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, listen I'm not a Democrat. I'm just a objective observer of politics and particularly women in politics. And I was talking more about her presentation. She seemed very comfortable. She seemed very loose. If you compare her presentation to women we've seen in that position before, particularly Hillary Clinton, you always got the feeling with Hillary Clinton that she was sort of not really settled into who she. Not really comfortable being the full Hillary Clinton. She was criticized obviously for everything from her policy to her laugh to what she wore. And it feels like to me Kamala Harris obviously standing on the shoulders of people like Hillary Clinton. But she was just a woman in full tonight, and I thought that was incredible for women to see across the country that kind of presentation that you can give. You can be warm, you can be funny, you can also be aggressive and push back. A lot of people were saying that, you know, maybe shouldn't she get enough time because Pence was actually interrupting her so much. But if you look at the time she got, it was essentially equal to Mike Pence, because she kept pushing her way in there in a way that women like that -- and she also broke even with men.</s>LEMON: All right. Mike, let me ask you this. How do you think that the vice president did as it relates to his handling of the pandemic? Him being the head of the task force, the president and the administration. How do you think he answered the questions on that?</s>SHIELDS: Look, I though he gave the best argument you can give. And I thought he did a great job of laying out a lot of things that are lost that this administration has done successfully that you just don't hear very often in the coverage. And look, I think it's a tough -- it's a tough assignment because we're living through a terrible pandemic and the government in charge has to answer for it. But I thought that there are things that they have done in terms of getting the resources necessary to New York, to New Jersey to the states where the governors and the convention were complimenting them for that. And that gets lost a lot. And I thought he did a really good job of laying that out in a way, you know, unfiltered where people could hear from the administration. We don't hear that -- as Republicans, we don't see that from our surrogates enough explaining what they've done. I though he did a great job of that.</s>CUOMO: That's because Mike, when somebody is hanging on by a hand and they say help me, help me and you grab them and pull him up a little bit and then let go and they fall back down, they say help me, help me again and you don't do anything. People don't remember the first time because they're still hanging on by a thread. Governor Granholm, in terms of prosecuting the case of the pandemic to the American people about why we are here, why we're the worst when we're supposed to be first. How big a deal do you think that is in this election vis-a-vis for what Mike refers to which is it's usually the economy?</s>JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, obviously, the pandemic is the precursor to the economy coming back. The reason why we have the worst economy since Herbert Hoover is because this administration has been so utterly inept with respect to the pandemic. I thought that Kamala Harris in that first answer did a great job of prosecuting the case. And then when Mike Pence was asked why doesn't the U.S. at least has as good a record as Canada much less all these other countries, he did not answer because he doesn't have a good answer because it has been an abomination. I think you were right to talk about why wasn't the fact that the White House itself a cluster? There was a release this evening or this afternoon of a FEMA document that now says that there's 34 people that are connected with the White House, that have come down with the virus. It is a mess. And so I thought that Kamala Harris did a great job of going after it but honestly I might have gone after it several times during the debate, as much as I possibly could, because it's the issue in this election.</s>CUOMO: It's a mess (ph) -- also a metaphor.</s>LEMON: There will be more -- there will be more people coming out of this. And there's more show ahead. Thank you very much.</s>CUOMO: Granholm mentioned Herbert Hoover. The line, Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.</s>LEMON: Didn't need no welfare state.</s>CUOMO: Everybody pulled his weight.</s>LEMON: Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.</s>CUOMO: Those were the days. That's how old we are. All in the family. Jeanne Stapleton --</s>LEMON: So that means you're the bigot?</s>CUOMO: Yes. Bigot, I am no damn bigot. Herbert used to say that.</s>LEMON: You would call me meathead now.</s>CUOMO: I am no damn bigot. You know, we mocked him as a caricature.</s>LEMON: And now he is -- he could have been president. I think he would have --</s>CUOMO: Maybe he is president.</s>LEMON: Come on.</s>CUOMO: He is from Queens. That was Queens, too.</s>CUOMO: That was Queens.</s>LEMON: So yes. The White House and the hot spot thing. I cannot believe that she didn't hit him harder on that. The fact that there were two physical barriers there. That would have been the first thing that came out of my mouth. There are two barriers, two plexiglass barriers.</s>CUOMO: And look. We'll talk about it. We've got a lot of time tonight.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: But you know, there are many people in America who are saying even if you think that people have been too panicky about this and the left has been too much about shutting it down, what was your alternative? What did you offer in terms of keeping things open other than rash open-ended suggestions that got states in trouble? I think this is a hard issue for them.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Pence was good in terms of being stoic. But when you're responsible stoicism may not be enough.</s>LEMON: Yes. So tonight's debate happening in the shadow of the coronavirus with the president infected and holed up in the White House. And Mike Pence, who heads up the coronavirus task force, trying to convince you that the administration did a great job. So tell that to the families of more than 211,000 Americans who've died. We will be right back. |
Trump Says He Won't Waste Time on Virtual Debate, Wants to Hold Rallies; Trump Unleashes, Attacks Kamala Harris, Says He Doesn't Think He's Contagious and Repeats False Claims on Voting; 25 States Reporting Rise in COVID Cases, Only Two Seeing a Decline. | JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good Thursday morning to you. It's a busy one. I'm Jim Sciutto.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Poppy Harlow. So much breaking news this morning, we'll sort through it all here. Notably, the president says he will not now debate Vice President Joe Biden next week after an announcement by the Debate Commission this morning that it will be a virtual debate. Listen to this.</s>DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style, and that's not acceptable to us. I beat him easily in the first debate, according to the polls that I've seen, but I beat him easily. I felt I beat him easily, I think he felt it too. No, I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about, you sit behind a computer and do a debate is ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, in fact, the polls did not show that the president won the debate. The president says he will not debate but he does want to start holding rallies again. He also self-diagnosed himself as no longer being contagious. What do the doctors actually say? They're different. It was all part of the a stunning hour-long interview on Fox where he unleashed a string of false offensive claims. He targeted Senator Kamala Harris with sexist comments and attacks, calling her a monster more than once, claiming she is a communist. We will re-up again. We've reached out to the Senate GOP leadership for their comment on his personal attacks on a fellow sitting senator in Kamala Harris. We have not yet heard back. We will let you know if we do. CNN's John Harwood is at the White House. John, the president's comments this morning, remarkable.</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very remarkable, Jim. The president made clear he is not just unwell physically, unwell politically, he's also unwell emotionally. He delivered that rant, as you mentioned, on Fox calling Kamala Harris a monster, berating his attorney general, Bill Barr, for not having prosecuted his political opponents, reversing himself on whether or not he was still going to negotiate with Democrats on economic stimulus as we got more bad economic news this morning. And also saying that even though he has the coronavirus, he intends to resume having his political rallies perhaps even as early as today.</s>TRUMP: I think I'm better to a point where I'd love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night, but I think I'm better. No, I don't think I'm contagious, but we still have to wait --</s>TRUMP: I don't think I'm contagious at all. Well, first of all, if I'm at rally, I'd stand by myself very far away from everybody, so whether I was or not. But I still wouldn't go to a rally if I was contagious.</s>HARWOOD: Of course, you heard that raspy voice from the president. He cannot know whether he is contagious or not. He said he had not been tested in the last few days, so he doesn't have a negative test yet. And he also hasn't told us the last time he has a negative test, which would tell us how far in the course of the illness he is. The further along he is in the course of illness, the greater the possibility that he's not infectious. But according to the White House he discovered that he had symptoms middle of last week, which would suggest he is still contagious, and, in fact, still faces significant risk of the coronavirus taking a turn for the worst with his health, guys.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. We'll continue to listen to doctors on this one. John Harwood, thanks very much. So, how is the Biden camp responding to all this? M.J. Lee joins us now. And, M.J., the Biden camp said they'll participate in a virtual debate. It's interesting, Brian Stelter made the point that the Commission on Debates has the option at least to going forward even if President Trump doesn't show up. We don't know, of course, how that might play out. But tell us what the Biden camp is saying this morning.</s>M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, guys, keep in mind that the Biden campaign has always said that Biden will participate in a debate so long as doctors and experts say that it is safe to do so. The question, of course, has been how do you safely debate someone who has COVID-19. And the commission obviously now is saying the way to do that is for Trump and Biden to participate from remote separate locations. Earlier today, the Biden campaign said they're good with that. Here is what Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. She said, Vice President Biden looks forward to speaking directly to the American people and comparing his plan for bringing the country together and building back better with Donald Trump's failed leadership on the coronavirus that has thrown the strong economy he inherited into the worst downturn since the great depression. Now, Biden himself is now on his way to Arizona for campaign events with Kamala Harris. And he just told reporters that he's only now finding out about this and it is premature to comment on what he will do if Trump really does, in fact, insist on not participating. Here he is.</s>BIDEN: We don't know what the president is going to do. He changes his mind every second. So, for me to comment on that now would be irresponsible. I think I'm going to follow the commission recommendations. If he goes off and he's going to have a rally, I don't know what I'll do.</s>LEE: I also just want to point out that the suggestion from President Trump that the Debate Commission is somehow in cahoots with the Biden campaign, I mean, that is just nonsense. The head of the commission has said they did not consult with either campaign before making this announcement. They only really just got a heads-up that the announcement was coming. They worked with the Cleveland Clinic to make sure this future debate could be healthy and safe. So this idea that either campaign might have gotten a heads up or an advantage, that's just not true.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>HARLOW: Thank you. M.J. I cannot believe you have to fact-check things like that, but we appreciate you doing it. With us now, our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Good morning, Sanjay. It's hard to pick where to begin, but I guess let's begin with any potential endangerment to the American people with COVID. If we could play the comments from the president on claiming immunity and that he's not contagious.</s>TRUMP: Remember this, when you catch it, you get better, and then you're immune, you know? As soon as everything goes away for me, you're immune.</s>HARLOW: What? I mean, is any of that based in science?</s>GUPTA: Well, I think what the president is sort of alluding to, although he doesn't have it quite right, is that after you get infected, after a period of time, a few weeks later, you start to develop these antibodies. And a lot of people have heard this term, antibodies. Now, antibodies are these proteins that can help fight the infection if the body sees that virus again. He does have antibodies, but that's because he received a massive dose of antibodies, these monoclonal antibodies. So the thing that we don't -- there're two points. One is we don't know if he's immune or not. I mean, the idea -- he probably still has the virus in his body. They're not revealing the results of any new tests. So not only is he maybe not immune right now, he's likely still contagious. They say that people are contagious for ten days after they first develop symptoms. But also, you know, it doesn't change the guidelines. If you look at what public health experts say, including the CDC, regardless of what the antibody tests show, people still need to abide by the basic public health guidelines. There's a graphic just so you have it. It's the IGG. It's kind of a busy graphic, but it's that last graph, the IGG antibodies that we're talking about, typically, and you see it takes about 14 days, typically, when people start to develop those. So he would not have started developing his own yet. His antibody levels may be high because of what he's received. But even before this, before the president's diagnosis, the idea of having a bunch of people come together for a rally, aggregating together like this in the middle of a pandemic made no sense then and it still makes no sense now.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, the fact is they did get together under circumstances that, Dr. Gupta, appeared to have turned into a super-spread event. This, of course, the Amy Coney Barrett ceremony, now a number of infections traced to that event. The vice president last night defended it, saying, well, it was outdoors, people wearing masks. In fact, we saw the video, many people took those masks off. And there is concern in D.C. now that that event might contribute to a larger resurgence in D.C. of infections. Tell us what the facts and the data show us so far about that event and whether it helped seed an outbreak of this virus.</s>GUPTA: This is a valid concern. You know, we've talked to a lot of people who are experts in viral dynamics, and you are seeing -- we don't get to see this clearly what a super-spreader event looks like. But the idea that so many people who were together at that event or maybe in the time right before the event or after the event, people clustered together very closely, maybe even indoors in some of these situations, whatever it is. Around that event, there definitely does appear to be evidence of a super-spreader type event now. And we know how quickly this can happen. You know, if you have one person spreading it to two or three and then they spread it to two or three and then so forth, you can start to get into the hundreds, if not, thousands of people affected by this pretty quickly. So, outdoors is better than indoors. The vice president is right about that. The issue is that, you know, what we know about the way that this virus spreads, if you are closely clustered as they were, and I think we have pictures of the event sitting close together, closer than six feet, and for longer than 15 minutes, that's considered a close contact. That is how they define close contact. People who have been diagnosed with COVID at that event now have to find everyone who was in close contact with them either at that event or in the time immediately before or after. And also just to visualize this for a second, because people keep thinking of the respiratory droplets which is a way COVID can spread, but the idea that it can also be aerosolized, it can look more like smoke. Or think of it like a campfire. You're sitting at a campfire. You may be far away, but you can still be affected by that smoke from some distance and for some time. So that's, I think, what we really need to pay attention to. And that's why you don't want to aggregate people together in the middle of a pandemic.</s>HARLOW: Sanjay, the president this morning touted Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail that you just referenced, which gave him a lot of these antibodies, and then news overnight that they are going to the FDA for emergency-use authorization. Can you explain what that would mean for the average American who, again, has not had access to most of the COVID treatments that the president has?</s>GUPTA: Yes. It's not clear to me what this would necessarily mean for the average American. This is a very expensive sort of medication and we don't even -- I mean, frankly, I've been following the story antibodies for some time. And we even did a piece on it a few months ago saying this could be the bridge to the vaccine. Think about it. The vaccine helps you create antibodies. If you could give antibodies, that could actually be really, really useful. The problem is that there's still not good data about this. Hopefully, they're going to provide more of the data. Once you apply for emergency-use authorization, there is a concern that it's harder to do trials. Why? Because people are like, I want that. I don't want to get a placebo, I want that, so it makes it harder for the trials, and, again, just the cost of this. So there's not enough of it. It's very expensive and we don't have the data yet. There is enthusiasm, and I don't want to diminish that, but we need all those other things in order to start making widely available to people.</s>SCIUTTO: Quickly before we go, the public has the right to know the truth about the president's health and recovery. Have the White House doctors done so provided that fact, those truths?</s>GUPTA: We don't even know if the president has pneumonia. We still don't know what medications the president is on now. We don't know when he actually was diagnosed with this disease or at least when he tested negative. Look, I mean, the right to know thing is a long discussion, but what I would say, having done this work for a long time, if you're going to go out and brief reporters because you want to have the public know about the president's health, then you should do it. I mean, it was such a situation of, you know, bending yourself into pretzels, he's not on oxygen right this minute. It was clearly just so evasive, what was the purpose of that, to say that we did a briefing but not really do a briefing? We still don't have enough data on the president's health. And I will say if the president is still on steroid medication, which is typically a ten-day course, that could be masking his symptoms. That's not treating the infection, that could just be masking the symptoms of that infection. That's a concern.</s>SCIUTTO: Sanjay, always good to have you give us the facts. Thanks very much.</s>GUPTA: You got it.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, the president unleashed offensive, sexist attacks on a sitting senator, Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris. He called her unlikable, he called her a monster more than once. He accused her of being a communist. We're going to discuss. And a reminder, we've reached out to Republican leadership in the Senate for reaction on this. We have not yet heard any. Plus, new coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbing back above 50,000 for the first time in five days. Only two states now seeing a drop in new infections.</s>HARLOW: Also, thousands of Americans are out of work and not only struggling financially, they are wrestling with their mental and their physical health. Veterans among the hardest hit. You will hear from them and their stories this hour.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of politicians out there, a lot of agencies and a lot of folks saying, we're here to help, but I'm in a hotel. |
25 States See Increase in New Cases, 23 Steady, Two Trend Down | JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: Here is a sad statement as we assess the current coronavirus situation in the United States, only two, only two of 50 states right now heading in the right direction. That is a sad statement. And let's look at the 50-state trend map. Half of the 50 united states, half, 25 of them, now heading in the wrong direction. Meaning more new infections now compared to a week ago. You see them in orange and red across the map, a lot of them our here in the west but really pretty much everywhere. 25 states now reporting more new coronavirus infections now compared to the data a week ago. And 23 states holding steady, that's not heading up, but it's not progress either, 23 states holding steady. Only two, only two states trending down, they are Alabama and Hawaii, the two states that right now can say, we have fewer COVID infections now than we did a week ago. If you look at the case timeline, one of the candidates on that stage last night, the vice president, Mike Pence, said back in April that this would mostly be behind us by Memorial Day. Well, that's about right here. He was wrong. He was wrong. 78 percent of the cases in the United States since Memorial Day, more than 50 percent of the deaths since Memorial Day. And you see the case track, the summer surge down some. A month ago, we reported 24,000 new infections, just maybe pushing the baseline down. Forget about it. Wednesday, back above 50,000 and you see the red line trending back up. It is not going straight up or almost straight up, like it was here, but it is going back up, above 40,000 new infections a day. That is the new American reality as we head from fall into the colder months, and as we get closer to an election in which the pandemic is issue number one. This is another line we wish we could shove down. It is persistent, right here, a flat line below a thousand, but Wednesday, 915 deaths. Most of projections say, as that case count trickles up, this will follow. Let's hope not, but we have been through this before as well. 915 deaths yesterday, now averaging between 500 and a thousand. Most projections, again, say this is going to go back up above a thousand. Let's hope they're wrong. But way to fewer cases and fewer deaths is lower positivity, and this map, the deeper blues tell you higher positivity. 24 percent of the coronavirus tests in Idaho coming back in the past week positive, 20 percent in South Dakota, 20 percent in Wisconsin, 15 percent in Kansas. You see the double digits across the plains here, 15 percent out in Nevada, 14 percent in Utah. High positivity like that means more cases and it means it's harder to break this cycle. You watch the positivity rat here. Because of the high positivity, some states are now taking a step back. Wisconsin putting some new restrictions in place, the Kentucky governor going back to a mask mandate, Boston delaying the opening of in-person schooling in the Boston public schools and in New York as well, some new restrictions in New York City that have members of city's orthodox Jewish community mad, taking to the streets. They don't like these new restrictions put in place by the mayor. Shimon Prokupecz is live for us in New York with this. Shimon, the mayor says this is absolutely necessary in certain neighborhoods, but, as always, some people object.</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, look, the issue with the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn dates back to the beginning of the pandemic when the governor ordered all of the Jewish religious places shut down because of the pandemic. They took issue with the governor and the mayor doing that back at the start of the pandemic, and now to have to go back to limiting the number of people who can gather at these locations, and they're not happy about it. The governor and the mayor both saying, this is because people in these communities, people in Brooklyn, it's not just the Hasidic Jewish community, but there are other communities as well across Brooklyn and Queens that have seen an uptick in the number of cases. One of the issues is that at religious institutions, the governor has said that they're not listening to the advice of doctors, of scientists, who say you need to socially distance, you need to wear masks. That is not happening in a lot of these locations. We saw some of that last night. The last two nights during these protests in Brooklyn by this community, most of the people were not wearing masks. They were carrying Trump flags. And, of course, when you talk to the people in this community, and I have talked to some of them, and from the beginning of the pandemic John, they take their cues from the president. They're not socially distancing, they're not wearing masks. At the beginning of the pandemic, when schools were shut down, they were having underground schools that the city had to shut down. So this all stems from the beginning. They are now not happy with the governor, with the mayor and the fact that he's limiting, they're trying to limit the number of people who gather at religious institutions in these neighborhoods. Of course, we are in the middle of some of the highest, holiest Jewish holidays. They're not happy about that. They feel like they are being targeted by the governor and the mayor, so they are taking to the streets like we saw the last two nights, John.</s>KING: If they take their cues from the president, maybe they can learn a lesson from his positive diagnosis, but perhaps not. Safety is what matters. Shimon Prokupecz, grateful for the live reporting there, I know you'll stay on top of that. Coming up for us, key moments from last night's one and only vice presidential debate. |
Pence and Harris Clash over Coronavirus as Pandemic Worsens | KING: The coronavirus was flash point number one in last night's vice presidential debate.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On January 28th, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They knew and they covered it up.</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The reality is Dr. Fauci said everything that he told the president in the Oval Office, the president told the American people. Now, President Trump, I will tell you, has boundless confidence in the American people and he always spoke with confidence that we would get through this together.</s>KING: Laura Barron-Lopez is a National Political Reporter for Politico. Laura, thanks for your time today. The vice president's answers were non-responsive, they were evasive, at times, they were laughable when it came to the administration's response on the coronavirus. He kept saying, we trust the American people. It would be nice if the American people could trust them on this issue. But Senator Kamala Harris also had some punting, if you will, on my word. The vice president tried to ask, and this has come up for Joe Biden too, if the Democrats win this election, will they try to expand membership of the Supreme Court.</s>HARRIS: Do you know that if the 50 people who President Trump to the court of appeals for lifetime appointments, not one is black, this is what they've been doing. You want to talk about packing a court, let's have that discussion.</s>PENCE: I just want the record to reflect she never answered the question.</s>KING: In that case she didn't, in other cases is he didn't. I guess, in some ways, that made it more of a normal debate, if you will. Now, what was your biggest takeaway?</s>LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, certainly, that was one of the moments that a lot of us took away from it which was Harris not answering, the same way Biden hasn't answered so far when he's been asked on the campaign trail whether or not he wants to add seats to the Supreme Court. That being said, on the issue of the Supreme Court, a majority of voters, a little more than half, say that they would like the Senate to wait until after the election to fill the vacant Ginsburg seat. In addition to that, one of my biggest takeaways, John, was the fact that immigration was not discussed at all. So, across the first presidential debate, which may be the only one as of this morning and Trump's reaction, but the first presidential debate, the debate last night, there was no discussion of immigration, which is stunning given the fact that immigration and building the wall was what Trump ran on in 2016 and in 2018 when Republicans lost control of the House.</s>KING: It is stunning, and perhaps, we'll see if the second debate, a week from today, that is supposed to be in Miami, and it's supposed to be a town hall with voters, one would assume, it would come up in that community where the issue is so important. But you're right, we don't know if that debate is going to happen now. The president has backed out because he objects to it being shifted to virtual. One issue that did come up last night was the issue of racism in America, in part, questions about Breonna Taylor case, questions about George Floyd, and the vice president trying to turn this issue into law and order. Listen.</s>PENCE: This presumption that you hear consistently from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that America is systemically racist, and that as Joe Biden said, that he believes that law enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities is a great insult to the men and women who serve in law enforcement. And I want everyone to know who puts on the uniform of law enforcement day, President Trump and I stand with you.</s>KING: As you can see, that was one of the fly moments in the debate. We'll leave that for a little later. We'll leave the fly aside. But this is one of these issues that's interesting, actually, because the Democrats think they make their case when they talk about the murder of George Floyd, what they see as the injustice in the Breonna Taylor case. And the vice president is equally firm. This is where the two campaigns just see this issue completely differently.</s>BARRON-LOPEZ: That's right. When Harris was asked the same question as Pence, which was whether or not in the case of Breonna Taylor's killing by police that justice was served, she said that, no, justice was not. Pence, as well as the president and the administration, have repeatedly said that they don't believe that systemic racism is an issue, whether it's in law enforcement, the criminal justice system or in other institutions. And what we do know, the facts that we know is that after studying police shootings, that African-Americans are killed at 2.5 times the rate of white Americans despite them only making up 13 percent of the population. So it was an interesting answer from the vice president, especially given that after a summer of protests and racial reckoning and cries about injustice from black Americans across the country that, again, he and the administration have pivoted towards embracing law enforcement.</s>KING: It is their answer. We shall see. And maybe they should get out of Washington a little bit more and see what's happening out in the country. Laura Barron-Lopez, grateful for the reporting and insights. And coming up for us at this key moment in the campaign, CNN changing its Electoral College outlook in a way Joe Biden should be happy. |
CNN Reports, Biden Crosses 270 Threshold in New Electoral Outlook Map. | KING: Some breaking political news just into CNN. It's related to the president's decision this morning to back out of the presidential debate scheduled one week from today. Joe Biden earlier this morning had said he was prepared to show up and waiting to see if the president would change his mind. But a new statement just released from the Biden campaign, Kate Bedingfield, the deputy campaign manager, says Joe Biden will look for an opportunity a week from today to have some other forum to talk to voters, so some other town hall opportunity as a Biden event. And she's suggesting the Presidential Commission not let the president evade, that's the word she used, having a meeting with voters on October 22nd, which was to be the third presidential debate. The Biden campaign suggesting that format be changed to be the town hall event. So Biden campaign proposal essentially says, let's have two debates, make the one that was planned on October 22nd a town hall, and Biden will have his own event a week from now. Let's discuss with our Political Director, David Chalian. There's a little chess going on here, David, but the Biden campaign says, well, if the president is going to back out, number one, we'll have our own big event. But, number two, trying to put pressure on the commission to force the president into a room with voters.</s>DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. I wouldn't even call this competitive chess. The Biden campaign is just winning this completely. This is playing directly into their hands and their strategy around debates, John, they are not the ones walking away from the debate, that was Donald Trump's decision. They're not the ones saying, hey, we need new rules after that chaotic, noisy debate where he interrupted last week. Remember, that was a whole conversation. The CPD was going to put in new structure. No, it is because of coronavirus, exactly the issue the Biden folks want to keep front and center. So they're saying we are ready, willing, able. The president is backing out and it is because of coronavirus. And, by the way, he's afraid of voters too, so let's do the town hall which is a better format for Joe Biden than a regular debate anyway. They are just able to take this moment now and dictate the terms, quite frankly, because the president let them do so.</s>KING: And, quite frankly, because they're in the driver's seat of the race right now, in part, because of the math you do as our political director. Our Elector College outlook, we changed it last night and we've changed it for the first time. You can see right here Biden is at 290. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Joe Biden is now at 290. He was 269 when we woke up yesterday. Here is what we changed based on David Chalian's the math. We have moved Pennsylvania. We had that as a toss-up. Several recent polls show an open Biden lead there. We have made that now lean blue. Iowa, we had that leaning red. But, again, at least one new poll, several showed Joe Biden competitive. One chose him ahead. We've made that a toss-up. And Nebraska, lots of electoral votes by congressional district, the second district had been a toss-up. We have seen recent polling and other evidence to suggest that now leans blue. So that is what we have done. David, what this does is with 26 days to go, puts Joe Biden in a remarkable driver's seat in the race, dark blue, solid Biden, light blue, leaning Biden, it's Pennsylvania, it's Arizona, it's across the America, this race tilting lopsided at the moment.</s>CHALIAN: It is, John. And I think it's key that it's not just horse race poll numbers that caused us to move this, it is what is underneath those numbers, what's driving Joe Biden's strength in these states and it is the Biden coalition. I mean, you have and I have talked about this. But if Joe Biden ends up winning this race, it is not going to be because of a recreation of the Obama coalition, he's going to win with a coalition that's likely to be whiter and older than the Obama coalition. So when you look at places like Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, that had some older voters, white voters, this is why it is a position of strength for Joe Biden. He is digging into some of Donald Trump's turf. And, remember, Trump won the blue wall states very narrowly. With Biden showing the strength with whites and seniors and male voters, he really poses a threat now to Donald Trump in a significant way.</s>KING: Right. And if you look at the map, as we now have, at Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa as tossups, plus the second congressional district up in Maine, but you look at the remaining big states in the toss-ups out there, David, I just want to pull up this, because we have seen recent polling in these states. Let me unlock this a little bit and come down and get it, move this up for you. But -- well, that's not going to work at the moment. Okay, we'll make that go away. But we see polling in these states that tells us in Ohio, it is competitive. In North Carolina, it is competitive. In Iowa, Joe Biden is ahead. In Pennsylvania, we shifted it because he's way ahead. In Florida, he is ahead. Donald Trump is running out of time to change these state dynamics. And now, we might not have a second debate at all.</s>CHALIAN: Yes, which is a huge problem for Donald Trump, because, you know, John, Joe Biden doesn't need another debate. I mean, it is all risk, very little reward for him even though he got a nice, big boost out of that last debate. It is the guy who is the incumbent in the Oval Office who is sick with coronavirus now who is trailing by double digits nationally, trailing in these key battleground states. He is the one in need of a debate as an opportunity to turn things around, and yet he's the one walking away from it.</s>KING: He is walking away from it, Joe Biden trying to change the dynamics of the campaign. David Chalian, grateful for the reporting and insights there. When we come back, we'll continue the conversation. The president wakes up this morning, he says he is fine, he says he can be back out doing rallies. He wants that next debate in person. He says, no, to the Presidential Debate Commission, saying it wants to change the rules, Joe Biden now trying to take advantage of that. |
FBI Says, Militia Plotted to Kidnap Michigan Governor, Overthrow Government. | DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Other European countries on that list include France, Spain, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands. Italy is also extending its state of emergency until January 31st.</s>JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: I hope to see you tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: Hello, I am Brianna Keilar and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world. We are beginning with breaking news. Any moment, the FBI is expected to announce it has overthrown a militia plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. Were told six men are accused of also trying to overthrow the government. But let's bring in Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz to talk about the details here. Shimon, this is what we are just learning. Tell us what you know.</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So in the criminal complaint that was released by the U.S. attorney, as you said, it's six individuals. And what the FBI details here is quite an extensive plot involving several individuals, groups who talked about kidnapping the governor, who talked about overthrowing the government and using other people in their plot to try and conduct this activity. What's really notable in all of this is that the FBI caught onto this group in early 2020, they say, through social media. And they were able to infiltrate the group. They used several human sources, paid confidential human sources, but then they also used undercovers to infiltrate this group. And they were really able to get ahead of this plot. So that really -- they were able to control it, it certainly lessened any kind of danger that the governor faced, which is important, and probably, in some ways, the governor may have been aware of this plot. But what they detail is training, how this group talked about their own unhappiness with the governor. At one point, they talk about a Facebook posting, a video where one of the leaders of this group talked about being unhappy about the governor closing gyms in Michigan, obviously tied to the pandemic and some of the measures put in place in Michigan. They talked about bringing other people in, recruiting people. They say that they were training. There was firearms training, they even talked about improvised explosive devices that were potentially going to be used. But most important, all of this coming as the FBI director has recently warned about this kind of a threat, the fear that the country here faces in light of this threat, in light of the rhetoric, in light of the division across the country. The FBI director talking about some of these extremist groups, these domestic violent groups here that have these kind of ideas to do these kinds of crimes, to try and overthrow government, but, certainly, how extensive this was. They even, Brianna, talked about trying to kidnap the governor from a summer residence, a vacation home, and using a boat to try and escape. As I said, we're going to have more details here shortly from the FBI. We're expected to hear from the governor in just a few hours as well, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: And, Shimon, had they taken any steps to try to make any of this a reality to prepare for any of this?</s>PROKUPECZ: Certainly there was some steps, the training, but the FBI was along the entire process. They have their confidential informants that were working with them, they had undercovers that were working with them. So they were able to have eyes on this entire operation, infiltrate it to prevent any kind of serious danger. But, certainly, there were certain steps taken, the recruitment, the firearms training, other methods that they used to try and further this plot. But, of course, very important to note that the FBI was along this plot from what ultimately is the beginning up until they made these arrests, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: And this is all happening, Shimon, as domestic terrorism has been a concern just kind of writ large with law enforcement in the U.S. They have concerns certainly. We know white supremacy has been one of the big concerns but it all speaks to domestic terrorism being a threat that federal officials have been taking very seriously and trying to communicate the seriousness of.</s>PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's exactly right. And this is what the FBI director recently warned about. This is what even DHS, Homeland Security, has warned about. There are these groups, people -- several people all this across the country, no doubt, that the FBI is following. There could be other operations like this, and we just don't know about yet. But this is a major focus of the FBI right now. And I think the FBI director has certainly made it clear, FBI agents all across this country are trying to get inside these groups, trying to infiltrate, trying to gain information about what people could be up to.</s>KEILAR: Shimon, I'm going to you paused. Let's listen into officials briefing on this.</s>DANA NESSEL, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- without a unified front, including all levels of law enforcement focused on protecting the safety and well-being of our citizens. So today, I am joined by U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Andrew Birge, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider. Any moment now, we will have the FBI assistant special agent in charge, Josh Hauxhurst, and we have Michigan State Police Colonel Joe Gasper. The interagency effort represented here in tandem with my office culminated in the execution of several search warrants and arrests across the state, including in the communities of Grand Rapids, Hartland, Luther, Canton, Orion Township, Waterford, Belleville, Milford, Cadillac, Shelbyville, Plainwell, Zeeland, Munith, Ovid, Kalamazoo, Charlotte, Clarkston, Sterling Heights and Shelby Township. Our efforts uncovered elaborate plans to endanger the lives of law enforcement officers, government officials and the broader public, multi-front operation to apprehend the suspects in question was carefully coordinated and skillfully executed resulting, very fortunately, in no casualties. Now, before we announce the preliminary charges, I want to thank the hundreds of law enforcement officers who worked across agencies and across state lines and we are very grateful for their safety. And with that, I'll ask the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mr. Andrew Birge, to tell you a little bit more about the effort.</s>ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY, WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: Good afternoon. Thank you, Attorney General Nessel. Last night, the FBI and Michigan State Police arrested six individuals charged in a federal complaint with conspiring to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. According to the complaint unsealed this morning, Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta conspired to kidnap the governor from her vacation home in the Western District of Michigan before the November election. Under federal law, each of these individuals faces a term of any number of years up to life in prison if convicted. Fox, Garbin, Franks, Harris, Caserta are residents of Michigan. Croft is a resident of Delaware. All of us standing here today want the public to know that federal and state law enforcement are committed to working together to make sure violent extremists never succeed with their plans, particularly when they target our duly elected leaders. The federal complaint in this case alleges that the FBI began an investigation earlier this year after becoming aware that, through social media, that a group of individuals was discussing the violent overthrow of certain government and law enforcement components. Through confidential sources, undercover agents and clandestine recordings, law enforcement learned particular individuals were planning to kidnap the governor and acting in furtherance of that plan. The alleged conspirators used operational security measures, including communicating by encrypted messaging platforms, and used code words and phrases in an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement. Among others activities, members of this conspiracy on two occasions conducted coordinated surveillance on the governor's vacation home. Fox and Croft, in particular, according to the complaint, discussed detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the home. And Fox even inspected the underside of a Michigan highway bridge for places to seat an explosive. The complaint further alleges that Fox purchased a taser for use in the kidnapping and that the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to test its anti-personnel capabilities. The FBI and state police executed arrests of several conspirators when they were meeting on the east side of the state to pool funds for explosives and exchange tactical gear. This investigation is ongoing. Agents of Detroit Field Office of the FBI and other members of their Joint Terrorism Task Force, including Michigan State Police, are conducting this investigation. Agents in the Baltimore Field Office of the FBI, which covers Delaware, have also assisted. My office, the U.S. Attorney's Office of Western District of Michigan, is prosecuting the federal case. U.S. attorneys offices in the Eastern District of Michigan and Delaware are and have been assisting. And the state of Michigan has brought related charges against other individuals. Of course, those charged with a crime still have rights that we respect. The allegations in the complaint are accusations and if any is presumed innocent until unless proven guilty in a court of law. These defendants have begun to make their initial appearances in federal court and the court will be scheduling their arraignments as well as bond in preliminary hearings. Now, it is my privilege to introduce to you the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider, for some additional remarks. Thank you.</s>MATTHEW SCHNEIDER, U.S. ATTORNEY, EATERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: Thank you, Andrew. Good afternoon. All of us in Michigan can disagree about politics but those disagreements should never, ever amount to violence. Because of the hard work of the men and women of law enforcement, police officers and federal agents, violence has been prevented today. This case is being brought in the Western District of Michigan. Some of the defendants reside in the Eastern District where some of the search warrants took place. But at the end of the day, what matters most is that the people of Michigan should be reassured that our state and federal governments are working together to keep us all safe. I wanted to thank the Attorney General Nessel and her office for her outstanding work and her committed partnership. I also thank the Colonel Gasper, the FBI and, of course, U.S. Attorney Birge. Every day, police officers and federal agents put their lives on the line and they do that for us. In this case, the agents made swift and safe arrests. And those were done by those officers and agents. We are most thankful to them. Thank you. It is my pleasure now to introduce the director of the Michigan State Police, Colonel Joe Gasper.</s>COL. JOSEPH GASPER, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE: Thank you, Attorney General Nessel, U.S. Attorneys Birge and Schneider, and thank you to the FBI also. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to everyone today and I would first like to start out by saying thank you to the men and women of the Michigan State Police, the FBI and any additional agencies that assisted in this investigation. They not only worked tirelessly over the course of the last 24 to 48 hours but also since the beginning of the investigation. So, thank you, job well done. To the partners here today, I want to express our gratitude for the support and cooperation, the partnership that all of us here are demonstrating. This case is one of the largest cases in recent history that the MSP has been involved in. And I think that the nature of this case is rather unprecedented but it does send a very vivid reminder that while we may be in a time period of discourse, possibly even divisiveness and fighting across the nation, law enforcement stands united. And for those who think that law enforcement is distracted, let me assure you that we are very much engaged with taking our responsibility to protect the public very seriously. We took an oath to protect and defend and to serve, and together, we will take swift action against anyone who is planning or seeking to commit violence or harm to anyone in the state of Michigan. Thank you again for the cooperation and I will now turn it back to Attorney General Nessel.</s>NESSEL: Okay. Well, unfortunately, it appears as though FBI Assistant Special Agent Hauxhurst has not made it with us in time. But -- is he here? He is on his way? Okay. Well, if he gets here when I am done speaking, I will try to speak slowly so that we can make time for his appearance. But, anyway, thanks again to the colonel and to, of course, U.S. Attorneys Birge and Schneider, and, you know, the FBI, state police, everyone's effort here so important. But I would like to announce that my office has filed additional charges in addition to the charges already announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District, account of the state. We have additional charges. So I would like to announce the following preliminary charges pursuant to the Michigan Anti-Terrorism Act against seven individuals, all of whom are now in custody, linked to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen and associates of Wolverine Watchmen. The individuals in custody are suspected to have attempted to identify the home addresses of law enforcement officers in order to target them, made threats of violence intended to instigate a civil war and engaged in planning and training for an operation to attack the capitol building of Michigan and to kidnap government officials, including the governor of Michigan. Now, it's important to note that these charges are subject to change after a complete review of the evidence obtained last night and may differ from those charged at the federal level. So we've issued the following charges against the following individuals. Paul Beller, age 21 of Milford, who is charged with three felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts, 20-year felony and/or $20,000 fine, gang membership, 20-year felony, which may be served as consecutive sentence, carrying or possessing a firearm during commission of a felony, otherwise known as felony firearm, two- year mandatory prison sentence to be served consecutive to other charges. Shawn Fix, age 38 of Belleville, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts, a 20-year felony, carrying or possessing firearm during the commission of a felony, felony firearm. Eric Molitor, age 36 of Cadillac, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying or possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony, felony firearm. Michael Null, age 38 of Plainwell, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying or possessing a firearm during commission of a felony, felony firearm. William Null of Shelbyville, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts, and carrying or possessing a firearm during a commission of a felony, felony firearm. And, finally, Pete Musico, age 42, and Joseph Morrison, age 42, who live together in Munith, and these men are both charged with four felony counts, one count of threat of terrorism, 20-year felony, and/or $20,000 fine, one count of gang membership, again, a 20-year felony. That may be served as a consecutive sentence, one count each, providing material support for terrorist acts, and one count each for carrying or possessing a firearm during a commission of a felony, felony firearm. And before I continue with my remarks, I see that FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Josh Hauxhurst is here. And i would like to bring him up for a few remarks.</s>JOSH HAUXHURST, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Good morning, thank you. On behalf of the FBI in Michigan, I would to thank you and our partners of the U.S. Attorney Offices of both the Western and Eastern Districts of Michigan and the Michigan Attorney General's Office and Michigan State Police. The primary mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. This investigation is an example of our continued commitment to that mission to both protect the people of the state and to adhere to the rights reserved by the Constitution. The alleged conspirators are extremists who undertook a plot to kidnap a sitting governor. Whatever extremist move into the realm of actually plotting or planning violent acts, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force stands ready to identify, disrupt and dismantle their operations, preventing them from following through on those plans. An operation of this scope cannot occur without assistance of law enforcement agencies large and small. We're incredibly proud of the work of our agents, task force officers and law enforcement partners during last night's operation and throughout the course of this investigation. We rely on the public's assistance to help keep us safe. If you see suspected criminal activity and want to report it to the FBI, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit tips online at tips.fbi.gov. Thank you.</s>NESSEL: Thank you, Special Agent. Well, with that, I just want to do a few things. First of all, I think it is important to give a shout-out at least to my staff since I have the ability to do that since we're in our home offices here. And I just want to, with deep gratitude, thank Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, Chief Deputy Christina Grossi, Chief of our Criminal Division, Danielle Hagaman-Clark, John Pallas, our First Assistant in our Criminal Division, the head of our Hate Crimes Division, Sunita Doddamani, and Tom Fabus, who is chief of our Investigative Unit. So I wanted to say thanks to all of you. And in addition, of course, it is always important again to reiterate that a criminal charge is merely an allegation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. But with that, I want to thank everyone up here in law enforcement and everyone who participated in this matter, who will continue, of course, to participate in this matter for their incredible efforts, their very brave efforts over the course of the past many months and to say to them that your efforts have left the people of the state safer and the instruments of our government stronger. And I know that I speak on behalf of Michiganders all across the state when I say that we are grateful and we are indebted to you for your actions. So, thank you very much.</s>KEILAR: If they take questions, we will certainly come back to that. But in the meantime, let's just talk about and understand what we're just hearing now out of Lansing, Michigan. The FBI and state law enforcement there broke up a militia plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. And according to state officials there, there were also a number of state charges related to terrorism about trying to kidnap government officials, in addition to the governor, and looking up home addresses to target law enforcement. And it appeared to attack the state capitol building and to incite a civil war. So that's what we just learned from law enforcement officials at the federal and the state level. I want to bring Shimon Prokupecz back, he is covering this, as well as Andrew McCabe, who is a CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, he's the former deputy director at the FBI. Andrew, to you first. Just take us through what is the most important thing or things that you heard during this press conference out of Michigan.</s>ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure, and thanks very much for having me, Brianna. This is really an incredible example of what the FBI does best with its JTTF partners, these partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Forces. I can tell you from my own experience of having dealt with literally dozens and dozens of similar plots during my own time in the FBI that this plot has all of the hallmarks of a very, very serious, dangerous situation that we are all fortunate that the FBI and their partners have gotten in the middle of. So a couple of things really, really reached out to me as I listen to the conference, and I'm just referring to my notes here. First, I would point out that this is yet another violent group plotting a violent act that the FBI was able to uncover because of their presence on social media. So going onto social media and interacting with these folks where they talk in their groups continues to be a very, very important way for the FBI and our law enforcement folks to keep us safe and to prevent these acts from happening. It was also interesting to me that they indicated use of undercover agents. So that is a time-tested and very reliable way for the FBI to figure out very early if what they're seeing on social media is just false puffery and bravado or if, in fact, it is a legitimate plot that is in action. Ultimately, you make that determination by finding out, putting someone into that group and developing an understanding of exactly what they're doing. And in this case, they were conducting surveillance on the governor's vacation home, they constructed and detonated a practice explosive device. I mean, this is not a group of, you know, poor, hapless nobodies who couldn't pull off a violent act on their own. This is clearly a group of people that were very focused on accomplishing this violent objective. So it's got really all of the earmarks of a very serious plot and I think we're lucky that the FBI was in the place they were to be able to do the work they did today.</s>KEILAR: And we also take note that the reason they were able to arrest, at least when it comes to the federal charges, the six men they arrested were meeting on the eastern side of the state to pool their funds, to pool their money so that they could purchase, Shimon, tactical gear and explosives. So they obviously had already done some operational things like the detonation of what was supposed to be, I guess, a decoy explosive, but this is operational stuff they were doing.</s>PROKUPECZ: So by what the law enforcement officials there said, it is clear that this was at the end stage or getting close to the end stage of the operation. They wanted to do this, according to the criminal complaint, by Election Day, right? So that's less than a month away. And so they met just yesterday, October 7th -- I believe that's yesterday -- where they talked about making a payment for explosives and to exchange tactical gear. The other thing I think that's very significant to note what the law enforcement officials there said, we are certainly living in unprecedented times, and to hear the head of the state police there say that this is an unprecedented case, that this is the largest case that they have certainly been a part of, I think that's significant. And it tells you the magnitude of this. It tells you what law enforcement which we don't get to see because of this kind of work, we don't get to see exactly what the FBI is doing, what other law enforcement partners are doing to try and thwart these threats that we have recently heard the FBI director, Christopher Wray, talk about. We don't get to see this work until it comes to this, until it comes to a day like today. The other thing that I think it's important to note is when we heard the prosecutors there speak and how they talked about that this is a time period of discourse, of fighting across the nation, while it is okay to disagree with politics, it should not turn violent. So, clearly, from listening to them, you can tell there's a lot of concern across the country about the discourse, the political discourse, what's going on, the fighting across the country, law enforcement is really on high alert for this. And I think this plot, what is alleged in the complaint, certainly shows that. I mean, they were talking about, according to the complaint, snatch and grab, just grabbing the governor, storming the capitol, ways in which they could kidnap her. They talked about getting a taser. They talked about finding a location to take her to. I mean, this was far along in the process and the months that they spent. And the work that the FBI did to get inside this group, I think that's very important to note. They didn't just use one informant, they had at least two informants, they had undercovers inside this operation because of the level of concern surrounding this. I think all of this is so notable, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: Yes. I mean, you mention just the actions they had already taken, that one of the suspects, Adam Fox, had already bought a taser, that they had talked about a highway bridge where they could plant an explosive, that they had discussed this plan to divert police with an explosion and they had already practiced carrying out that explosion, that, two times, they had done coordinated surveillance. |
Trump Declares he won't Appear for Virtual Debate; Pence and Harris Trade Jabs at V.P. Debate | JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody, I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing this very busy news day with us. The presidential debate's plan now in jeopardy because President Trump is mad. A second debate scheduled one week from tonight and the debate commission this morning announcing it plans to switch to a virtual format because the president is being treated for coronavirus and it is too risky to put him in close proximity to Joe Biden and to the voters invited to the Miami town hall.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style, and that's not acceptable to us. I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about, you sit behind a computer and do a debate. It's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want. They called up two minutes ago and it was announced, and they're trying to protect Biden.</s>KING: We all know the president's first debate performance was a disaster, but there is already grumbling among Republicans that backing out of the second debate is a bad idea, because the president needs every opportunity he can find to change the trend lines of a race he is at this moment losing and losing badly. Joe Biden says he's happy to play by the new rules, and like the rest of us, now waits to see if the president blinks.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We don't know what the president is going to do. He changes his mind every second. So, for me to comment on that now would be irresponsible. I think that -- I'm going to follow the commission recommendation. If he goes off and he's going to have a rally, I don't know what I'll do.</s>KING: There was a debate last night, of course, the one and only showdown of the candidates for vice president. It will go in the history books as a first for a black woman and it will be remembered as much as for how it looked than what was said. Plexiglass barriers separating Mike Pence and Kamala Harris as they sparred over the administration's coronavirus response, the best ways to reduce the economy and how the Supreme Court confirmation fight could bring it in to Obamacare and maybe a rollback of abortion rights.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want the American people to know that from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.</s>HARRIS: He passed a tax bill benefiting the top 1 percent and the biggest corporations of America, leading to a $2 trillion deficit.</s>PENCE: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to raise taxes. They want to bury our economy under a $2 trillion Green New Deal.</s>KING: We count your votes in 26 days. There is another count we do every day, and today it is again quite troublesome. Look here. Half of the 50 states now trending in the wrong direction, wrong direction. More new infections now than a week ago. Only two states right now reporting fewer COVID infections this week compared to last. Let's get more now on the president's big decision this morning and its impact on the campaign. CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Phoenix following the Democratic ticket. White House correspondent John Harwood here in Washington. John, I want to start with you. The president simply mad. The debate commission, he says, they're trying to protect Biden. They're trying to protect Biden and those voters from him. It seemed a pretty logical decision, but the president says no.</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It did seem to be a logical decision. But look, the president made clear this morning, he is not just unwell physically and politically. He's also in a bad place psychologically as well. Phoned in to Fox, berated Kamala Harris as a monster, said that Hillary Clinton should be indicted, suggested that the debate commission and also his own cabinet members. Mike Pompeo, Bill Barr, Christopher Wray, the FBI director have turned against him, reversed himself on negotiating stimulus with Congress and even suggested he wants to go out and hold debates as soon as tonight even though he has coronavirus.</s>TRUMP: I'd love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night, but I think I'm better to a point that I feel better than I did -- you know, I jokingly said 20 years ago. I feel perfect. There's nothing wrong. I don't think I'm contagious at all. Well, first of all, if I'm at a rally, I just stand by myself very far away from everybody. So, whether I was or not. But I still wouldn't go to a rally if I was contagious.</s>HARWOOD: I feel perfect. There's nothing wrong. I'm not contagious. John, he doesn't know any of that. He said he had not been tested in the last few days, and his White House still will not tell us when he last tested negative which would tell us when he contracted this coronavirus. And depending on when he contracted it, if he contracted it further back in time, he might be getting out of the woods, he might be on the verge of not being contagious, but if it's when the White House told us, that is middle of last week when he started showing symptoms and tested positive. He's still got ways to go with this and his health could take a turn for the worst. Not a good situation for the president right now.</s>KING: You're right, he certainly sounded paranoid on that call this morning with Fox Business. John Harwood, stand by. Let's get to Phoenix with Arlette Saenz. Arlette, the former vice president - look, the race is his at the moment. He has the lead in the national polls, a pretty healthy lead. He has the lead in battleground states. You're in a state today that the Democrats hope to turn blue for the first time since Bill Clinton back in 1996, and Joe Biden now doesn't know. Will he be in a debate next week or what?</s>ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. You know, Joe Biden's campaign says this is pretty straightforward for them, that they have long committed to participating in these debates. And that that isn't changing as this debate next week is expected to go virtual. Now, Biden has said that he would listen to whatever the recommendations of the health experts are relating to this debate. Just a few days ago, he did say that if the president still has coronavirus, that this debate shouldn't go forward. But today, Kate Bedingfield, his deputy communications director saying that Biden looks forward to talking directly to the American people and offering this contrast with the president's leadership. Now, you heard Biden speaking to reporters, saying that the president is unpredictable. So, he's not entirely sure what to make of the fact right now. But for the time being, the president says he's not going to participate in this debate next week. But Biden and his campaign making it clear that he is willing to do anything in a virtual format if it gives him that opportunity to speak to the American people. Now, while the president is back in Washington still at the White House, you know his coronavirus diagnosis, the Democratic ticket will be here in Arizona in just a few hours. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris making a rare joint appearance together as they campaign here in this critical battleground state. They'll be launching a soul of the nation bus tour through Phoenix and Tempe to talk, to its small business owners in this area. You also have Vice President Mike Pence on the West Coast today campaigning in Nevada and then here in Arizona. The state is going to be critically important as we head into November. As you mentioned, it has long been a Republican leaning state when it comes to those presidential contests. But latest polls have shown that Biden is up here in Arizona at this moment in time. So, the Biden campaign making - Joe Biden making his first west coast swing as a general election nominee, as he's trying to put these - these states in play and also committing to participating in that virtual debate where the president for now says he's sitting out.</s>KING: That's one of the most fascinating states in American politics right now. We will see the changes this year. We'll see if they playout as the Democrats believe. Arlette Saenz on the ground in Arizona, John Harwood at the White House. Thank you both so much for the reporting there. Now, backing out of that second debate is a giant risk for a president to is losing. Dan Balz is chief correspondent for "The Washington Post." Dan, thanks for your time today. I want to read a little bit from your article this morning, because yes, the two candidates for vice president went at it, last night. Both campaigns can say we made our point on this. We made our point on that. We could break that down. But you make the most important point in your article saying, there is a debate next week, "if there is a debate next week or the week after, it will be left to Trump and Biden to advance the battle. For the president, running from behind and with time running out, the stakes will be even higher than they were a week ago or on the stage at the University of Utah on Wednesday night. He has put himself in a bad position and it will be his, not Pence's, problem to correct." That is spot on. And the if rather present in your writing last night because now we don't know if there will be a debate a week from now. A lot of people think the president is going to have to blink here. This is a gamble, right?</s>DAN BALZ, CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It is a gamble. I think a lot of people do think that he will blink in the end. But he is unpredictable. And we don't know at this point kind of what his mood and posture will be as he looks to the debate. If it continues to be a virtual debate, perhaps he will resist it. If he doesn't think that that's advantageous to him. But another point, John, is that he's got himself now, today, trapped in another conversation about process as opposed to pressing the case against Joe Biden. And every day, as we've said many times, every day that he is doing something other than that, he is not turning the campaign in his direction. So, this is, for him, a distraction that he did not need and should not have kind of fallen into. And we'll have to see in a day or two or three what the situation is. But until - until everybody knows more about his actual health, some of these questions are unanswerable.</s>KING: Right. Some of them are unanswerable. Let's stay on the campaign for a minute because a lot of Trump supporters will say, OK, but remember 2016. He was losing and he came roaring back and won the presidency. He is the incumbent now, number one. Joe Biden is not Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden does well not only with the base Hillary Clinton had with white working-class voters which is a straight for Joe Biden. But if you go through the battleground state polls and you mentioned a day or two or three. Every day that passes and the president doesn't make up ground, he's in trouble because it's not just the national polls. Look at here. Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Wisconsin, Ohio. That Iowa and Ohio are competitive at this point that Joe Biden has healthy leads at Pennsylvania, Florida. That tells you we have a very different map right now. And the momentum after the first debate has been Joe Biden's, and the problem for President Trump as you know, every day that passes is a missed opportunity, because he needs -- if he doesn't turn that around soon, trouble.</s>BALZ: Yes, John. I mean the -- since the first debate and since the president's diagnosis, the national polls have moved away from him. Now, we can say that those are transitory, and they may well be. But if they settle back, they're going to settle back closer to where they were prior to that, which, again, is not a particularly good place for the president. He needs to -- he needs to find a way to change the dynamic, and he's not been able to do it. It may be that it's impossible to do. I know everybody is a little spooked about what happened in 2016 and for good reason. Campaigns do change in the final week or the final 10 days or the final 72 hours. We know that from history. But this one - this one appears to be different or has been up to now. In 2016, the national polls were certainly more volatile. I mean the Clintons' lead would go up and then it would come back down. And there were times including around this time four years ago when she looked at me in very good shape. But prior to that, the polls have been in a different spot. So, what we've seen in this campaign so far is that the Biden lead has been pretty steady and the movement away from Trump in the last five or six days should be very worrisome to him. If he thinks he is a strong debater, he could be a strong debater on a Zoom conference or in a studio, whichever he wants to do. Millions of Americans have had to adjust at doing things remotely, and it's now maybe the president who is going to have to make that adjustment.</s>KING: And millions of Americans, Dan, are watching whether you support Trump or whether you don't, whether you're still undecided in this race, that's a small slice. But no matter you politics, you're watching the president of the United States right now and you're asking the question, what is his health? Is he up to this? Listen to the president this morning on the question of his health.</s>TRUMP: For me, I walked in, I didn't feel good. A short 24 hours later, I was feeling great. I wanted to get out of the hospital. And that's what I want for everybody. I want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president. Because I feel great. I feel, like, perfect. So, I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.</s>KING: That was the video released by the president last night, not this morning where he called into Fox Business and also talked about his health. But Dan, 210,000 Americans are dead, and the count is going up. More than 7 million Americans, more than 7.5 million Americans you know have been infected with the coronavirus. To have the president to his access to this treatment, then most Americans can't get. The type of care most Americans can't get. A blessing in disguise, a blessing from God, that's an odd message.</s>BALZ: It is an odd message - excuse me, John. And I would think that the families of people who have passed away from this disease will look at this and wonder, what in the world is he thinking? Their loved ones did not have access to the kind of health care that the president of the United States gets, and understandably should get. The president is the president. But for him to say, I want everybody to have it is a nice thought, but there is no practical way for that to come about, and I think people who hear him say that know that it is impossible. So, I don't know why he continues to kind of make that case. The other notion is that he felt badly and 24 hours later he felt better than he has felt in 24 hours seems disingenuous at the least. I mean that is not the normal course of events of somebody who contracts COVID-19. And while he was, you know, he was given multiple drugs that aren't available to most people, perhaps that did help bring him back, and more rapidly than others. But he is a unique case in the way people are being treated, and he should recognize that.</s>KING: He should recognize that, but he has his own way, as we all know. Dan Balz, grateful for the reporting and insights this morning. Up next, we continue this very conversation. President Trump claiming the experimental drugs he gets from Regeneron, it's the name of the company. Well, the president says they've cured him. |
Trump Touts Regeneron Antibody Cocktail as COVID-19 "Cure". | KING: President Trump today gives himself a clean bill of health, this less than one week after telling us he had tested positive for coronavirus.</s>TRUMP: I don't think I'm contagious at all. Well, first of all, if I'm at a rally, I stand by myself very far away from everybody so whether I was or not. But I still wouldn't go to a rally if I was contagious.</s>KING: Joining us now, CNN medical analyst Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips. Dr. Compton-Phillips, good to see you today. We can't answer that question. The president says I don't think I'm contagious now. We can't answer that question because the White House doctor keeps putting out vague statements every day, and we have no idea, number one, what the president's -- the treatment right now. And number two, the last time he tested negative. Does what you just head make any sense to you, or do you trust it?</s>DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, unfortunately, it's not what CDC guidance says is actually safe. So, what the CDC says is that anybody with mild or moderate symptoms should isolate for 10 days because they're at risk of infecting others for 10 days. Anybody with serious illness should isolate for up to 20 days. And because the president got dexamethasone, the concern is did he have serious illness? Should he be looking at 20 days of isolation, not just 10 days. So, no. We can't just go based on symptoms.</s>KING: Well, it would be nice if we would hear more details from his medical team about that. About the course of treatment, whether in the case of the steroid you just mentioned. Were they just being extra aggressive because he's the president and his conditions actually more modest, more moderate or did he have a serious illness? It would be nice if we knew that information. Instead, we have to listen to at times. The president playing doctor on TV. This is the president talking about his experimental treatment.</s>TRUMP: We have drugs now that we didn't even know about four months ago, like Regeneron, like -- and I'm not even talking about remdesivir. Remdesivir, you know, it's fine. But the Regeneron was -- I view it as a cure, not just a therapeutic, I view it as a cure because I took it.</s>KING: Regeneron is a company. It is not the treatment. The treatment is a monoclonal antibody treatment the president received. He calls it Regeneron. That's not what it's called. That is the company that makes it. But again, is it a cure? It's an experimental drug. The company says they believe it is helpful. What do we know about it?</s>COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Well, we do know that what the antibody cocktail does -- first of all, there's two different doses that are in clinical trials right now. They're not proven as a cure. They are definitely being investigated and they're promising. But there's two doses, one is 2.4 milligrams, one is 8 milligrams. The president got the high dose. What those antibodies do, think about the spikes on the coronavirus. Those antibodies buy into the spikes, the proteins on the ends and keep the virus from joining up with cells. And so, they lower the infection rate. Which is - which is not the same thing as a cure, right? And, by the way, again, matter of semantics about cure versus therapeutic. If you had</s>KING: In this year of everyday, things we never experience before. There's a new one this morning and it's "The New England Journal of Medicine" for the first time in its 208-year history deciding to get involved in politics. This is the editorial they write. "When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs." How significant do you view it? That's "The New England Journal of Medicine" which is where we look for studies on cancer and studies on COVID and studies on everything else has decided it wanted to step forward for the first time in more than 200 years and say we need a new president.</s>COMPTON-PHILLIPS: I would say that "The New England Journal" is channeling what many of us in the scientific and medical community have been saying for several months. That we have to depend on science. We have to depend on the evidence. We have to depend on what has historically been a political organization to look at what is it we should be doing to keep our country safe and move us forward. And unfortunately, between misinformation and conspiracy theories, that belief in science and progress has gotten politicized. And so, what "The New England Journal" is doing is actually putting into words what those of us on the ground trying to fight an epidemic of misinformation along with an epidemic of a viral pathogen have been doing now for many months.</s>KING: Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, as always, grateful for your expertise and insights. Thank you for your time.</s>COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you.</s>KING: And still ahead for us, as just discussed with the doctor there, coronavirus is making a very troublesome comeback. More than half of the 50 states trending up right now. |
Unemployment Numbers for Last Week; New York's New COVID Plan | SCIUTTO: Well, this morning, in a reversal, President Trump claims that coronavirus aid talks between his administration and Democrats are now, quote, starting to work out. This is just days after he summarily shut those talks down.</s>HARLOW: It's totally irresponsible and totally unfair to the millions of Americans whose lives are hanging in the balance in all of this who can't pay their rent, who can't feed their families and this morning we learned 840,000 more Americans just filed last week for first-time unemployment benefits. Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is with me now. What is he talking about, the big shebang, the big deal is back on?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I have no -- I have no idea. There have been so many missed -- mixed messages about where we are in stimulus. We know that the Treasury secretary and the House speaker spoke for maybe half an hour on the very narrow subject of an airline relief package. We also know the president himself called off talks before now saying that they're starting to work out. Time is running out. There are so many people who need a lifeline here. These numbers this morning just show how chronic the situation is in terms of joblessness. If you add in pandemic unemployment claims as well, you had 1.3 million people for the first time last week filing for unemployment benefits, 10.9 million continuing to receive benefits for two weeks or longer. All together some 25.5 million people receiving some sort of jobless check. And, you guys, California has stopped processing these first-time claims for a couple of weeks here as it tries to get its head around the backlog that they have in California and fraud prevention there. So really a story of a chronic layoff situation in this country and a job recovery that has really stalled out here. And there's no stimulus. There's no -- there's no shock absorber for these families who are -- who are suffering and trying to pay their bills.</s>HARLOW: That's what we heard in Kyung Lah's piece yesterday, that woman in California who said, sometimes you eat, sometimes you don't, because her claims are held up in that -- in that backlog you just mentioned, Christine. Thank you for the reporting.</s>ROMANS: You're welcome.</s>HARLOW: So, now, just two states are reporting, just two, a decline in new COVID cases and hospitalizations around the country as we see a spike. The rising number is forcing state leaders to impose new restrictions geared towards curbing the spread of the virus. Alexandra Field is with us from New York. Good morning. So things change here today, right?</s>ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Poppy, because, look, while New York does still have one of the lowest positivity rates nationwide, these clusters, largely in Brooklyn and Queens, with some just outside of New York City, are really worrisome. Officials are concerned about the possibility of COVID spreading through the city yet again. So they have implemented a new plan. It kicks off today. The hot spots are designated as red zones and there are firm restrictions in place. Schools have been shut down. Non-essential businesses are closed. Restaurants are only open for takeout. And there is strict, new guidance for religious congregations. They can only meet at a maximum of ten people at a time. Just beyond these so-called red zones, you've got orange zones and yellow zones where there are new restrictions in place but they are to a lesser degree than what you are seeing in the red zones. Officials are describing this as a very targeted approach. They're trying to meet the virus exactly where it is. But these areas are also home to a large orthodox Jewish community, as we've been talking about for the last couple of weeks, and some members of that community feel that they, in fact, are being targeted. For the last two nights, in one neighborhood in Brooklyn, we have seen protests against these firm new restrictions now no place. Poppy.</s>SCIUTTO: Alexandra Field, thanks very much. A new report from "The New York Times" details how politics have played a role in the administration's response to the pandemic. How exactly? What it means to you. We're going to speak with one of the reporters who broke that story. That's coming up. |
Watches and Warnings on the Gulf Coast. | SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Right now, more than 10 million Americans are under tropical storm or hurricane watches and warnings as the U.S. Gulf Coast braces for yet another devastating trek so early in the season too.</s>HARLOW: Hurricane Delta is getting stronger right now. It is likely becoming a major category three storm. Let's go to our meteorologist Chad Myers. He joins us now. What are we talking about in terms of timing here, where it could hit?</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It will be tomorrow and it will be likely Louisiana. And that just seems unfair. I mean that will be the fourth storm to affect Louisiana. Marco, Cristobal, Laura and now Delta. And Laura came on shore with 150-mile-per-hour winds. Here, with Delta, we're at 100 miles an hour, but it's still in that warm water. Not as warm as we've seen earlier in the season, but certainly there is some warm water out there. And it is on its way, on up toward the northern Gulf of Mexico. This is the area that we're going to see landfall, somewhere about 15 to 20 miles from where Laura actually made landfall as well. And the rub, guys, is that the area is already damaged. The homes, many of them, don't have roofs. You look at some of the pictures that we see out there, and all we're really seeing are blue tarps. And so all of this debris is all over. This is just like deja vu. When Anderson and I were in Florida in 2004 with Jeanne and Frances side by side, back to back. People hadn't got done picking up the pieces when another storm came through and moved those pieces around and just blew everything -- all of the things that they tried to get done, that's what really hurt many other people because there was so much more flying debris from the original debris. We are still seeing the hurricane warnings here. A large area across parts of Louisiana. And there's Lake Charles. There's the storm. For a while in the Gulf of Mexico, 115 miles per hour. That's where you said, category three. That is the major hurricane. And the line here, the yellow squiggly line, that's Laura and there was Delta right there, right next to it, almost right on top of it. And we still have another update at 11:00, another at 5:00. But this likely comes on shore tomorrow morning, into the afternoon, with tropical storm force winds and then we start to see the hurricane force winds later at night. Also the surge. We talked about the surge with Laura, about 15 feet. The surge here is 11. But all the things there have already been knocked down, Jim and Poppy. So surge is irrelevant here because it's going to be the wind that will really devastate the area again when people we just getting -- this is six weeks ago today that Laura hit.</s>HARLOW: I know. Yes. My goodness. Chad, thank you for being here. I know you'll be with us around the clock as we wait for this storm to make landfall.</s>MYERS: Yes.</s>HARLOW: We appreciate it. |
Wisconsin to Construct Pop-Up Hospital | POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Those rising numbers are forcing state leaders to impose new restrictions geared towards curbing the spread.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's a shame because you wonder if simple steps like mask-wearing more broadly could have prevented this. CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now from New York. Alexandra, take us what's happening nationwide especially in Wisconsin now, where they're seeing a real surge in both cases and hospitalizations.</s>ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the state is sending a very clear signal that this is real and that they need to prepare to handle what could be a continued surge in hospitalizations. We've seen Wisconsin, over the last few days, continually breaking records for the number of cases, for the number of deaths, for the number of hospitalizations -- just yesterday. Now, the state has announced that they will open up a pop-up hospital on the state fairgrounds as early as next week. That is in order to bring some relief to the state hospital system that will feel (ph) the effects of this surge. And this is not just limited to Wisconsin. You've got public health officials who are concerned about increases in hospitalizations in seven other states across the Midwest and out toward the western part of the country. At the same time right here in New York, where you have one of the lowest positivity rates across the nation, officials are concerned about a cluster of cases. This is a cluster that has affected parts of Brooklyn and Queens. You've seen city and state officials ramping up restrictions over the past week. But today, a new plan goes into effect. The hardest hit areas have been designated as red zones. People living in those red zones will face very strict restrictions, the closing of nonessential businesses, the closing of schools, limits on religious gatherings of just 10 people and restaurants will only be open for take-out. As you get a little bit farther away from those red zones, the restrictions ease up. Officials are saying this is a way of directly targeting the most affected areas without rolling back reopening for the entire city. The hope, of course, is that this will work -- Jim, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Let's really hope so because --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>HARLOW: -- New York had gotten on such a good track. Alex, thanks for that reporting. Ahead for us, another 840,000 first-time unemployment claims just last week, but there is one group of Americans who are facing an unemployment rate almost double the national average. We're talking about veterans. Our reporting on that, next. |
Interview with Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL); Veteran Unemployment Quadrupled During Pandemic. | HARLOW: A current sitting senator, a black woman who is just the second black woman to become a U.S. senator, was on the vice presidential debate stage last night, and no amount of name-calling this morning can take away from the history that Senator Harris made. But still, here was the president this morning.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): I thought that wasn't even a contest last night. She was terrible, she was -- I don't think you could get worse, and totally unlikeable. And she is. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence -- who destroyed her last night, by the way, but -- this monster --</s>HARLOW: With me now is the first black woman to become a U.S. senator, Carol Moseley Braun. She is the former U.S. senator of the state of Illinois, former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand. And in 2003, she campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination. She's endorsed Joe Biden. She joins us by phone. Good morning, Ambassador.</s>FMR. SEN. CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (D-IL) (via telephone): Good morning, Poppy, I'm delighted to be with you.</s>HARLOW: I am delighted to have you as well. Your reaction to the president calling Senator Harris a monster, and the significance of last night for women and black women across this country?</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): At the outset, I want to say I thought she did a wonderful, wonderful job. I was delighted that she was able to stay -- she kept focus, her answers were succinct, she didn't talk over the moderator, you know, she was just straightforward and she told the truth. I don't -- the president's reaction, I don't know what to say. I mean, this man lies about everything, every, every, everything. I mean, it's a wonder -- I mean, I have to thank her, thank Kamala for her restraint in not saying, liar, liar, pants on fire last night, you know?</s>HARLOW: Did she have to thread that needle that so many talk about women having to do, but particularly black women?</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): She really did. She did a great job. She was able to thread the needle and not come across as angry, not come across as sharp-tongued. I mean, she did everything right last night and I was very, very proud of her and I'm delighted that she was able to make -- I mean, the first question out of the box had to do with COVID and 200,000 dead Americans. And she just knocked it out of the park. So she was able to go -- respond to every question succinctly and to the point and with facts and with truth, and that they kept resorting -- that Mike Pence kept resorting to these tropes, these tired old tropes was just -- and dog whistles. I mean, I thought it was just shocking that he wouldn't respond honestly about the whole issue, what are you going to do about, you know, the ruffians that are out here trying to undo the election? Or the -- in terms of transfer of power. it's like, what?</s>HARLOW: Ambassador, there is one very important question that Senator Harris did not answer. She did not answer last night -- nor has she in the past, nor has Vice President Biden -- to the direct question of if elected, would you pack the Supreme Court.</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): Right.</s>HARLOW: And she had ample opportunity to do that last night, so here is the vice president, Mike Pence's response.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just want the record to reflect she never answered the question.</s>HARLOW: I ask because it's a monumental issue. Shouldn't voters know where they stand before they vote?</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): No. Here's the short -- it's a hypothetical. So what you're doing is condemning somebody for not responding to a hypothetical straw man. I mean, how does this get to be an issue? You know, we -- Joe -- the election hasn't happened yet, and in fact they're trying to railroad a Supreme Court nominee in the time, the 27 days that are left, without giving the American people a chance to be heard in the election. You know, if it turns out that Joe Biden wins the election, then all the norms and the history says that it should be his choice. So --</s>HARLOW: So -- sorry.</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): -- whether or not he's going to pack the court does -- you know, voids even answering that question because they haven't responded yet.</s>HARLOW: OK, Ambassador -- Ambassador, just one note, I don't -- the reason I think it is important and not just a hypothetical is because there are progressive leaders in the party -- a number of them, including, you know, Mayor Pete Buttigieg who just this morning reiterated his position supporting this -- there a number of leaders in the party who are supporting it. And as you know, Vice President Biden said in June that he would release a list of African-American women that he would consider appointing to the court and we still don't have that list. So there is an issue, is there not, of transparency for the American people --</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): -- we may not have --</s>HARLOW: -- on their position on the highest court in the land, I guess that's my point.</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): And Poppy, let me say this. No, and I get your point, and it's well taken. Because you're right, he will -- he has committed to offer a list of potential nominees, but he's going to get the chance because they're trying to railroad this nomination. Nobody expected Justice Ginsburg to die when she did. But at the same time, for them now to just, with raw political muscle, to force a nominee when the election is 27 -- less than a month away and people have already started voting, is just wrong. That's not fair. And so now to go to the next step and say, well, OK, if you don't get your way, are you going to pack the court? Is really to beg the question. I mean, the first question is, why are you trying to pack the court now?</s>HARLOW: I think that she and Biden will continue to get those questions. We'll see if a list is released and we'll see what happens with these confirmation hearings starting on Monday. I do appreciate your time very much this morning. Ambassador.</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): It's my pleasure, Poppy. I'm so sorry there's no video.</s>HARLOW: Me too! We're going to make it work next time, I promise.</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): Yes, absolutely.</s>HARLOW: Technology in the age of COVID, thanks so much, Ambassador -- Jim.</s>MOSELEY BRAUN (via telephone): All right, thank you.</s>SCIUTTO: Poppy, kudos to you for pushing.</s>HARLOW: Oh, thank you.</s>SCIUTTO: It's an important question, hypothetical or not. We'll keep asking it. Also this morning, the Labor Department is reporting another 840,000 Americans filed for first-time -- that's first-time unemployment benefits last week. All those figures there, more than any single week during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Congress and the White House still have no deal to get millions of Americans the financial help they are asking for, but the president claimed this morning the two sides are now talking. You may remember he pulled the plug on those negotiations just days ago.</s>HARLOW: It is just not clear this morning exactly what the president is talking about because, again, he totally ended the negotiations two days ago. We're getting mixed messages and one group is really especially feeling the economic impact, and that is veterans. Our Vanessa Yurkevich joins us with more. Vanessa, good morning. So glad you're doing this reporting. Explain the disproportionate impact of this economic fallout on veterans.</s>VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim and Poppy. Well, much of the veteran community is a vulnerable community already, many suffering from homelessness and mental health issues. And this pandemic has only exacerbated that. Those unemployment numbers are trending in the wrong direction and that is leaving more than half a million veterans still looking for work.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Tyrone Roark found himself homeless in the middle of a pandemic.</s>TYRONE ROARK, HOMELESS VETERAN: I was very terrified.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): He went shelter to shelter, afraid he could get the coronavirus with his compromised immune system.</s>ROARK: I just try to survive everybody, staying in my bed, sleeping most of the time and figuring out how I was going to get out of there.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Roark, an Air Force veteran who served the country for 10 years, then another 10 with the Department of Veteran Affairs, was out of a job and in poor health. In June, he says the stress put him in the hospital with heart failure. That put him in a walker.</s>ROARK: The emotional stress is causing a great deal of serious concerns here for my heart.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Last year, 37,000 veterans were homeless in the U.S. Advocacy groups say the pandemic could make it worse.</s>JAMES FITZGERALD, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NYC VETERANS ALLIANCE: You had a lot of those homeless individuals that were still dealing with ongoing mental health issues, which leads to higher rates of homelessness as well; disproportionate amounts of unemployment.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): The unemployment rate for veterans was 2.8 percent at the end of last year. But when the pandemic hit, that number more than quadrupled. Even today, more than half a million veterans are still searching for work. Timothy McDonough spent 21 and a half years in the military. He walked away with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD and 14 surgeries. Now, he's facing financial uncertainty.</s>TIMOTHY MCDONOUGH, VETERAN FACING FINANCIAL UNCERTAINTY: One major tire blowout or, you know, losing a car away from looking to borrow money from somewhere else. So it's really kind of tight.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Made worse by the fact that his girlfriend lost her job in March, right when they bought their new home. They say the extra $600 in unemployment helped keep them afloat. But without it, they rely on his disability checks.</s>EVA DUNNE, UNEMPLOYED: We're getting back into, OK, we have to really start focusing, budgeting, planning because we don't exactly know what the future looks like just yet.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Their hope is they will both have new jobs as food truck owners feeding homeless vets: him at the stove, her taking orders. They say the need now is more than ever.</s>YURKEVICH: You want to start this food truck. Are you concerned about the economic recovery as well?</s>MCDONOUGH: Absolutely because again, as -- thinking of doing it as a nonprofit, we would rely on the goodness of other people to give money to help us get it going.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): The V.A. says it paid out $600 million in stimulus to veteran families and placed 15,000 homeless vets in hotels. A local veteran group finally got Roark into a hotel. Now that he says he has his V.A. pension, he's searching for a permanent home but it's not easy.</s>ROARK: I don't understand the system in terms of how it's supposed to work. There's a lot of politicians out there, a lot of agencies, a lot of folks saying we're here to help. But I'm in a hotel. How do you explain that?</s>YURKEVICH: One of the things that we've heard from the veteran community and so many millions of Americans around the country is that they feel like they've fallen through the cracks. Some are still unable to access unemployment, they can't access grants, can't find housing. And that is why so many private and not-for-profit organizations have stepped in to fill those gaps. But as we know, Jim and Poppy, there is a solution. The federal government could come up with stimulus in order to support millions of Americans who are suffering around the country right now. But as we know, that deal is still elusive -- Jim and Poppy.</s>SCIUTTO: Vanessa, thank you for doing that.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>SCIUTTO: These are real people who made real sacrifices. There are names and families behind those numbers, we appreciate you bringing us those stories. Well this morning, there are questions over whether the president will commit to a peaceful transfer of power -- amazing we're saying that in this country -- after Vice President Pence, like the president, dodged that question last night. "Your Election, Your Vote," next. |
Trump Refuses Virtual Debate, May Hold Rallies Instead; Trump Doesn't Believe He's Contagious; Trump Describes Kamala Harris As No Competition for VP Pence in VP Debate in Salt Lake City. | POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you are all waking up to a whole lot of news this morning, especially in the last hour. We're glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto. We're 26 days to an election and you have to listen to the comments on the record from candidates for that election. One note, one headline this morning, President Trump says he refused to take part in next week's presidential debate. This after the Commission on Presidential Debates announced this morning that the debate will be held virtually, Biden says he is in. And, Poppy, I just think we have to take a moment here to note the sitting president's comments about the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Kamala Harris. He called her more than once in the last several minutes on FOX News a monster. Called a sitting U.S. senator a monster who also happens to be the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, a woman. He without foundation and echoing the words and rhetoric of Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s called her without foundation a communist. This is the sitting president making these allegations without basis, by the way, and without challenge, and using language that, goodness, listen, my children sometimes watch this broadcast. I don't want them to hear that kind of language from the sitting president about a woman who is running for vice president and is a sitting and elected member of the Senate. That's what we're hearing now 26 days to the election.</s>HARLOW: That's right. Let's get right to John Harwood. He joins us at the White House with more this morning. Good morning, John.</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. You know, the president is making clear with his rant this morning that he is not just unwell physically, he is not just unwell politically, he is unwell emotionally as well, as you indicated. He called Kamala Harris a monster, he ranted against Hillary Clinton, his opponent from four years ago. He criticized his own attorney general for not having launched prosecutions of his political opponents, and most significant in terms of the immediate news, he said he was not going to participate in the new format announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates which was initiated because the president is sick with coronavirus. Take a listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style and that's not acceptable to us. I beat him easily in the first debate, according to the polls that I've seen, but I beat him easily. I felt I beat him easily, I think he felt it, too. No, I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.</s>HARWOOD: Of course, the president did not beat Joe Biden in the first debate. All the polls show that he was hammered in that debate and he's paid a price in the polling since then. But the president also minimized the significance of the fact that he is ill with coronavirus. He said he's done taking most medications except for the steroid he is on and he talked about going out and holding rallies as soon as today.</s>TRUMP: I think I'm better. When -- to a point where I'd love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night, but I think I'm better. No, I don't think I'm contagious but we still have to --</s>MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: OK. Feel that way if you're saying you're ready to go to a rally.</s>TRUMP: No, I don't think I'm contagious at all. Well, first of all, if I'm at a rally I stand by myself very far away from everybody so whether I was or not, but I still wouldn't go to a rally if I was contagious.</s>HARWOOD: Of course, the president has no idea if he's contagious or not. He said he has not been tested so he's not received a negative test. And we don't know because the White House still has not told us when his last negative test was. We don't know how far he is in the course of his disease. He may still be at risk of a bad outcome depending on when he actually acquired the coronavirus. So the president is in a bad way right now in pretty much every way, guys, and he's showing it, making it very plain.</s>HARLOW: John, you're so right and, by the way, the job of an American president, regardless of party, is to be in service to the American people. And key, don't get them sick. Don't put them in harm's way. And answer their questions even if it is virtually. There is a lot to get to, John. We appreciate you as always. Jim?</s>SCIUTTO: And to speak respectfully.</s>HARLOW: Sure.</s>SCIUTTO: We are reaching out to the leadership, Republican leadership of the Senate for their reaction to the sitting president calling a fellow member of the Senate, Kamala Harris, vice presidential candidate, a monster and a communist without evidence. If one of the members of the leadership of the Senate wants to call into this program to give their thoughts on that, they're very welcome. We will give you the time. Meanwhile, we're reaching out for reaction. Joining us now, CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter. Brian, so Joe Biden, his campaign says he will take part in next week's virtual debate. You and I and Poppy have covered many times where the president has reversed himself on things, earlier this week on stimulus talks being over and then at least partial stimulus talks back on.</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right.</s>SCIUTTO: Given the size of the audience, as you have noted in this debate, many tens of millions of people, should we expect the president to stick with his decision and what happens if he does?</s>STELTER: Yes, I think we should all -- I think we should all be very skeptical of the president's claims right now. There is one time where the president skipped a debate. It was during the GOP primary. He boycotted a FOX News debate but he was already the front runner in the polls. He didn't really need the debate back then. Now he does need to debate. He is behind in all the polls. He is losing and he needs help. So Joe Biden campaign is already saying they will be there, they will be there virtually next week, And the debate commission, the co-chair, Frank Fahrenkopf, has just told our CNN's Dan Merica that the president can do whatever he wants. It doesn't matter to the commission. Quote, "There is no law requiring presidential candidates to debate." In 1980 Jimmy Carter didn't show up to the first debate but did show up to a second. So, quote, "It is up to every candidate to decide whether they want to debate or not," but the message from the commission is this debate will go on no matter what. The president's campaign says he'll hold a rally instead. But if he holds a rally it's only going to be broadcast by a couple of pro-Trump channels. It might reach a few million viewers. These debates reach 60 million to 70 million viewers. I would be very surprised if the president turns down a chance to speak to 60 million to 70 million viewers. And, Jim, to your point about the senator, we know this president is going to try to burn the house down. The question is, who's going to try to put out the fire? And I'm glad you're reaching out to those Republican leaders to say who is going to help put this fire out?</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. Brian, just for clarification, is Mr. Fahrenkopf saying that if Trump doesn't show up there will still be a town hall with Joe Biden speaking to voters?</s>STELTER: That's the message from his comments to CNN's Dan Merica. He's saying we did not consult with the campaigns on this decision to go virtually but he's saying it's up to every candidate if they want to attend or not, and he is citing history as if to say in the past this has happened and the show has gone on.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>HARLOW: Thank you, Brian. Glad to have you on all this breaking news. Let's talk about all of the medical implications here. What's actually going on with the president versus his claims of being, you know, a perfect specimen of health. Our medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen is with us. Good morning, Doctor.</s>DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good morning.</s>HARLOW: Aside from the president's physical health, every single person in this country and around the world hopes he makes a full and quick recovery. But other people, right, if you want to go to rallies, if you want to be around other people, if you meet with Gold Star families on Sunday night at the White House, the question is, are you immune? This morning he said to Maria Bartiromo, quote, "When you catch it, you get better, then you're immune. As soon as everything goes away from me, you are immune." He thinks he's immune. Is he?</s>WEN: Right now he almost certainly is not. He currently still is symptomatic as far as we can tell. I mean, from the video that was released last night, he looks like he was still having some increased work of breathing. We know that according to the White House's own timeline he was only diagnosed a week ago today and, in fact, he was in the hospital. He was just released from the hospital after having what appears to be pneumonia because he was on multiple medications, including one that's reserved for individuals with severe to critical illness. It's actually unbelievable to me, Poppy, that the president is thinking of doing something like traveling. Not only is he potentially harming his own health and impeding his own recovery, as you said, it's potentially exposing many people. Not only the rally-goers, too, but also the staff, the Secret Service agents, the individuals who will have to travel with him. I mean, this is totally irresponsible. I cannot believe that we're even talking about this.</s>SCIUTTO: Dr. Wen, the president self-diagnosed himself as not being contagious anymore. Based on what we know and actual medicine, assuming the White House is being honest here that his first positive test was last Thursday, I believe, which was, what, six days ago. Based on what we normally know about the course of this disease and your contagiousness, is it likely he's still contagious today or would be next week? What do we know?</s>WEN: Yes, it is. He is almost certainly contagious right now and actively shedding virus. Anyone who is still having symptoms and certainly in this 10 to 11-day window after they were first diagnosed or after they first started showing symptoms would probably still be contagious. Next week it's a bit hard to tell at the time of the debate. The CDC guidelines do say that you could in theory leave isolation 10 days after the onset of your symptoms. However, we also know that patients who are severely ill or who are immunocompromised may end up taking longer. The CDC actually recommends up to 20 days for those individuals. So the key is that we don't know and I just have to say, Jim, the whole idea that the president is now working out of the West Wing and potentially exposing all his staff, that to me is also really reckless. I mean, there are essential workers who don't have PPE across the country. Why are we wasting PPE for those individuals who don't need to use it up?</s>SCIUTTO: And those staff have families. They got children they go home to, grandparents, right?</s>HARLOW: Remember --</s>WEN: That's right. They live in a community somewhere, too.</s>HARLOW: Dr. Wen, no one from the Trump administration has told the American public when the president's last negative test for COVID was before he tested positive. Literally no one will answer that question. Not the deputy press secretary, not Marc Short, who is the chief of staff for the head of the Coronavirus Task Force when Alisyn asked him this morning. Explain to the American people not only why that's so important, why they deserve an answer to that.</s>WEN: We deserve an answer for two reasons. First, we need to know what is the president's actual clinical condition. If in fact he tested negative Tuesday and Wednesday that means that he didn't have much of a viral load during those days. So for him to have gotten sick on Thursday to the point that he was hospitalized and severely ill by Friday, something happened. We need to know what's going on with the president's condition. As opposed to if he had actually been sick for longer. We also need to know because that actually puts him out of the time course of severe illness if in fact he got ill five or six days before we knew that he did. The second and very critical reason, too, is it's important for contact tracing purposes. The time that you are the most infectious is 48 hours before the onset of your symptoms and so we need to know to trace all those people that the president got exposed to and are infected now and also their contacts. By now we are not talking about second-generation spread, we are talking about third-generation spread and there could be many others around the country who are infected because of the president.</s>SCIUTTO: The president moments ago, again, questioned the effectiveness of masks. We know the answer to the question but just for folks listening at home since you're a doctor, to hear it directly from them, what does the science tell us about masks?</s>WEN: Masks will reduce the risk of transmission by 80 percent, or think of it in another way. There was a study that showed that masks can reduce your rate of catching and transmitting COVID-19 by five to six times. Imagine if there is a pill that we can take today that has that much efficacy. We would all want that pill right now. So let's think of masks the same way. Not as a punitive measure, as something that you have to do or else, but rather this is what we need to do in order to get our businesses back, in order to go to school. Public health cannot be framed as the enemy but rather as something that we need to do in order to get the rest of our country and the world back on track.</s>SCIUTTO: Dr. Leana Wen, thanks so much for cutting through all this for us.</s>HARLOW: Thank you, Doctor.</s>WEN: Thank you.</s>HARLOW: Well, still come for us, the president calls Senator Kamala Harris a, quote, "monster." He criticized his own attorney general with vague threats and did not stop there. This is all in a new interview just this morning. We will discuss it ahead.</s>SCIUTTO: Mitch McConnell, John Thune, Senator Barrasso, what's your reaction to the president calling a fellow member of the Senate a monster? We're reaching out for comment, you're welcome to call into this broadcast to give your reaction at any time. A new report from "The New York Times" details how politics dictated decisions among the White House Coronavirus Task Force under Vice President Pence's leadership. All this as only two states in the entire country are seeing a decline in virus cases right now. Where are the latest spikes? Why is that happening? What can you be done about it? We're going to be live next. |
Trump Calls Senator Kamala Harris a Monster and Communist | HARLOW: Well, President Trump this morning unleashed in his first television interview since contracting coronavirus.</s>SCIUTTO: In a lengthy interview, I suppose you could call it with Fox Business, the president launched an onslaught of personal attacks against vice presidential nominee and sitting U.S. Senator Kamala Harris.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): I thought that wasn't even a contest last night. She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you could get worse, and totally unlikable. And she is. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence who destroyed her last night, by the way. But this monster --</s>SCIUTTO: This monster, Mike Pence destroyed her last night. That's the president speaking about the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Senator Kamala Harris. Joining us now, Sabrina Siddiqui; national politics reporter at the "Wall Street Journal" and David Swerdlick; assistant editor at "The Washington Post". Sabrina, I want to begin with you because I know, sadly, that we've heard as Americans language like this from the president and others repeatedly over the last four years. This one stood out to me about a sitting U.S. senator, about a woman, a woman of color, vice presidential candidate. Monster. Monster more than once. Communist, sounding almost like McCarthy there. Can you tell me your reaction here, and will we hear any criticism from the president's party on this?</s>SABRINA SIDDIQUI, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, I think that, as you point out, Senator Kamala Harris, she is a sitting U.S. senator, she is the vice presidential nominee, she is both the first black woman and the first person of south Asian descent to be on a major party's presidential ticket. And while we've grown accustomed to President Trump attacking his opponents, he's also had a history of making derogatory comments about women. And so, look, are Republicans going to criticize him? Sometimes they come out with a tweet and you know, kind of criticize his rhetoric or his tone. We've seen less and less of that in an election year where they seem to be lining up behind the president and trying to pretend that a lot of this simply isn't happening. But I think ultimately, you have to ask, what exactly the president's strategy is, what his state of mind is when he's down in both national and battleground states polls, he is quickly losing support among not just suburban women, but also working-class white women in key constituency who helped propel him to the White House four years ago. And he's spending his time less than a month before the election, not just attacking Senator Kamala Harris, but doing so in a way that I think many of the voters who have soured on him will say that it's the precise kind of behavior that they've grown frustrated with over the past four years.</s>HARLOW: David Swerdlick, obviously it's horrendous that the president called Senator Harris a monster, right?</s>DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes.</s>HARLOW: Also very notable and very important is that he called her a communist. It's a lie. I don't think -- I don't know if he understands what communism is, right? You look at Miriam Webster, the elimination of all private property. Desperate move here and the implications if there are any for the president? Because as Jim said, it's just reeks of McCarthyism.</s>SWERDLICK: Yes, good morning, Poppy. Let me first echo Sabrina. The president doesn't like to be challenged by anybody. He really doesn't like --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes --</s>SWERDLICK: To be challenged by women and he really doesn't like to be challenged by women of color, and I think that's what you see there in that attack on Senator Harris. He usually uses the word nasty, this time he switched it up to something arguably worse, calling her monster. To your question, Poppy, it is ludicrous that the Trump-Pence ticket has tried to paint Vice President Biden and Senator Harris as communists or even socialists. There were progressives and at least one Democratic socialist in the Democratic field in the primaries. They lost. The centrist, moderate, establishment, down the middle candidates won the primary. They won primarily because -- not primarily, but for -- in good part because Democrats decided that, that was their best approach to trying to unseat Trump. Senator Harris is a mainstream candidate, she did lean left early in the primary on a couple of issues, but anyone who tries to paint her as someone who is on the fringe or radical is simply making up a narrative that they want to project onto this ticket, instead of evaluating her as a candidate and the race and state of our politics which is right now being played on the Democratic side between the 45 yard lines. It's a narrative that Trump wanted desperately --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes --</s>SWERDLICK: To get because he didn't get the match up he wanted in this race.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, you have the words, sometimes disgusting words coming from the president, but you also have the actions or push to action. And Sabrina, the president was, again, pushing his attorney general to go after his political opponents. Here, I want to play that sound and get your reaction.</s>TRUMP: To be honest, Bill Barr is going to go down either as the greatest attorney general in the history of the country or he's going to go down as, you know, a very sad situation. I mean, I'll be honest with you. He's got all the information he needs. They want to get more and more, they keep getting more. I said you don't need any more. You got more stuff than anybody has ever had.</s>SCIUTTO: This is the president, Sabrina, talking about going after a whole host of folks that he sees as his enemies including the roots of the Russia investigation. Where does that stand, and is the attorney general listening? Is he bending to this presidential pressure?</s>SIDDIQUI: Well, I think that we have seen several instances in which Attorney General William Barr has appeared to be at least willing to engage the president, even if there is no evidence whatsoever that there has been any kind of coup on the part of the president's opponents, something that he was claiming once again in that interview. And it just goes back to this broader theme we've seen from President Trump, where he at times sees the attorney general as his own personal attorney. He has on other -- at other instances seen the Justice Department not as the nation's top law enforcement agency, but as his own personal law enforcement agency. And I think that, you know, you really have to ask -- when, again, you have less than a month remaining until the election. What the president's strategy is here. This is an election that has been defined by the coronavirus pandemic, we have those numbers up every day, more than 7.5 million cases across the country and more than 211,000 deaths here in the United States. And the president once again is talking about conspiracy theories, he's talking about going after his political opponents, and what it really suggests is, he just doesn't really have much else to do, right? He doesn't really have much else of a case to make before the American public, and so we see him resorting to some of the tactics we've seen in the past to try and distract and deflect from his record. Again, how is that going to resonate and what does that really mean --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes --</s>SIDDIQUI: With less than four weeks --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes --</s>SIDDIQUI: To go until the election? I think that really remains to be seen. But certainly not any -- certainly, not what will help turn around his campaign at a time when he needs it the most.</s>HARLOW: We're glad you're both here this morning. And we thought we were going to be talking about the debate last night.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes --</s>HARLOW: My -- how things change. Thank you very much. Jim?</s>SWERDLICK: Thanks.</s>SCIUTTO: Senators McConnell, Thune, Barrasso, you're the leaders of Republicans in the U.Ss. Senate. The president just attacked a fellow member of the Senate, Kamala Harris, as monster more than once. Do you have a reaction? Please let us know, we're reaching out. The other story this hour, the two vice presidential candidates doing a lot of dodging, instead of debating. There was more substance than last week's debate, but what questions didn't they answer? More on that, next. |
Biden Campaign Rejects Trump Demand to Delay 2nd Debate; Trump Calls Harris "Unlikeable" and "Communist" in Sexist Attacks; 50+ Million American Watch V.P. Debate, Up Big from 2016. | KEILAR: Now to the 2020 campaign and the debate over debates, and how to hold them when one of the candidates, President Trump, is battling coronavirus. This morning, President Trump bailed on a proposed virtual debate with former Vice President Joe Biden set for one week from today, telling FOX this.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style and that's not acceptable to us. I beat him easily in the first debate, according to the polls that I've seen. But I beat him easily. I felt I beat him easily. I think he felt it, too. No, I am not wasting time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.</s>KEILAR: Team Biden then suggested the second that maybe the second face-to-face clash with Trump could happen the following week. The Trump campaign agreed but added that the third and final debate should be a few days before the election. That's when the Biden campaign pushed back, saying the president's erratic behavior doesn't allow him to rewrite the calendar. CNN White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, is with me. We had a lot of developments. Take us through what the debate schedule is looking like, Kaitlan.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It still seems to be determined, Brianna, because they're saying -- they're saying they agree with the suggestion by the Biden campaign to push it back a week. That would mean the second debate would not happen in a week from today but would happen two weeks from today on October 22nd. But what the Trump campaign wants to do is a third debate, which would be just days before the election. I don't think we've seen a debate that close to voters going to the polls. The Biden campaign is pushing back on that, saying, no, if we delay the debate by a week, that should be the final debate before voters go to the polls. It still seems unclear what they're going to do. I should remind viewers this is a decision that organizers of the debates made this morning before letting the campaigns know. Typically, they have been going back on forth on things like with the Plexiglas at the V.P. debate, both sides came to an agreement on what it will look like. But this appears to be executive decision by the Commission on Debates. I think there are a few reasons the president pushed back on the idea of virtual debate. One, he made clear he doesn't want to be muted by the moderator. He admitted that would be a potential if they appeared virtually, he and Joe Biden. Secondly, Brianna, if it is virtual, it will only remind viewers constantly that we are still very much in the middle of a pandemic. That's something the Trump campaign has tried to turn viewers and voters away from, to focus them on other issues like the Supreme Court and taxes and what not. Because they don't want to just focus on the pandemic. They know voters rejected their handling of it. It is still unclear if this is going to happen. But the president seems to be saying that his diagnosis has nothing to do with this, even though that's primarily the reason they moved that first debate. And instead, we've heard very little from the president's doctor. He has not taken questions from reporters since Monday. That's allowing the president to go and do interviews and put his own spin on his health, claiming things like he is not contagious anymore, even though it has only been a week since he was diagnosed -- Brianna?</s>KEILAR: We have not heard officially that he is not contagious or that he tested negative for coronavirus. Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much. I want to talk now with veteran journalist, Carole Simpson. She's the first woman and African-American to moderate a presidential debate, We're joined by David Chalian, our CNN political director. Carole, what do you think about where we are now, the president's decision not to accept a virtual format for next week's town hall debate and then this rejection of pushing debates closer to the election?</s>CAROLE SIMPSON, VETERAN JOURNALIST & FIRST WOMAN AND FIRST AFRICAN- AMERICAN TO MODERATE A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: Brianna, the man is sick. He needs to be in the bed, in the family quarters, resting himself and getting well. He's contagious. The doctors have not told us otherwise. So I don't know. I think he is speaking from his drug and steroid- induced state of mind and he's not making any sense. I don't think there are going to be any more debates because I think he still is not well.</s>KEILAR: You think there are not going to be any more debates at all?</s>SIMPSON: I don't.</s>KEILAR: David, what do you think? That's true. They're very much not in agreement now. They clearly don't trust each other. David, what do you think about all of this?</s>DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. As Kaitlan reported, I think that the exact future of these debates is still to be determined. What is crystal clear to me, in all of the back and forth today, Brianna, Joe Biden's campaign is in the driver's seat on that topic. The president sort of gave that to them as soon as he said he wouldn't participate in next week's debate in Miami, the town hall debate after the commission announced they would do it with candidates in remote locations. And once Donald Trump stepped away from the debate, he was precisely where the Biden campaign wanted him. They're not eager to do more debates, the Biden campaign. They have a double-digit lead nationally. They're leading in a lot of battleground state polls. They don't want to take on unnecessary risk when they're doing so well in the race now. Donald Trump is the one that needs the debate. He needs tens of millions of Americans tuning into a moment he can possibly try to use to turnaround his fortunes. Yet, it was Donald Trump that walked away. So Biden got to be not the wimp factor, saying I am ready and willing and able to debate. Let's to do it from remote locations. And it is not about the rules after last week's debate and will timekeepers be in place, will rules be enforced. No. It is about coronavirus and the president being sick, which is the issue the Biden campaign wants front and center. Right now, the Biden campaign has the Trump campaign where it wants it over the debate issue.</s>KEILAR: This all started, David, with the commission talking about a virtual debate. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but seems like a virtual debate could have presented incredible challenges.</s>CHALIAN: Well, yes and no. I think the word "virtual" we should be a little wary of. Right now, we are having a virtual conversation. Carole and I are in remote locations. You're an anchor. Through television, we're having the conversation. It would look more like that than a Zoom meeting with the president and Joe Biden.</s>CHALIAN: So I do think the idea of being remote, you're right, it does present challenges. There could be delays. There's could be the opportunity, the fear that the president said that his mic would be cut off and he would be muted somehow in the middle of the debate. There's no doubt it would not look like the debates we're used to seeing. Although, history shows us that one of the Kennedy-Nixon debates back in 1960 was done with candidates in remote locations as well.</s>KEILAR: I do not think it would turn out exactly like the way we're discussing now. I will say that. Carole, I wanted to ask you about something else as well. We have seen the president unleash -- we heard him unleash this personal attack on Senator Kamala Harris. And I want to play some of what he said.</s>TRUMP (voice-over): She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you could get worse, and totally unlikable, and she is. She's a Communist. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence.</s>KEILAR: Carole, what is your reaction?</s>SIMPSON: Oh. It makes me crazy. She's incompetent. She's a Communist. She's a monster? A monster is a creature, a horrifying creature. It is not even human. He is dehumanizing her. It is, again, his misogyny and racism. I don't think he would have said that about a white woman. I think a black woman is a monster. I think it is just horrible. And again, he's sick. And maybe the drugs and steroids talking. But this is really bad. This is one of the worst I've ever heard him use against a woman.</s>KEILAR: It is very bad. Carole --</s>KEILAR: Thank you so much, Carole Simpson. David Chalian, thank you as well. The White House chief of staff under fire for reportedly hosting a lavish wedding in Atlanta that went against the state and city's coronavirus rules for the number of people who can gather. Plus, we're going to roll tape on the one question the president's doctors and staff refuse to answer about his condition. And the president appears to blame Gold Star families for his getting infected, basically suggesting he sacrificed himself for them. |
White House Refuses to Say When Trump Last Tested Negative | KEILAR: At the center of the mystery surrounding the president's coronavirus diagnosis is the question of when he last tested negative. The White House refuses to say. And they have racked up quite the list of excuses why. Let's roll the tape.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: I'm asking, do you know the answer when the president's last negative test was? Do you actually know that information, Brian?</s>BRIAN MORGENSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I personally do not.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you remember when he had his last negative test?</s>DR. SEAN CONLEY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PHYSICIAN: I don't want to go backwards.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When was the last negative test? What was his viral load?</s>CONLEY: Everyone wants that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why is there hesitancy to when the last negative test was?</s>CONLEY: Again, HIPAA kind of precludes me from going into too much depth on things that I am not at liberty -- don't wish to be discussed.</s>BRETT BAER, FOX NEWS HOST: We don't know when his last negative test was. Will we?</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, we don't normally get into the testing protocol for the president.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was he tested before the debate? And was he tested on Thursday before the events in -</s>KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not giving a detailed readout with time stamps every time the president is tested. He is tested regularly.</s>KEILAR: So why is knowing this so crucially important? Because it could save someone's life. First, it would narrow the window to know who the president may have exposed. It would narrow the window to how and when the president was infected. It would let the public know where the president actually is in his health fight. It would show how long he should be isolated instead of shedding the virus like Pig Pen from "Peanuts" all over the White House. The doctor says he doesn't want to look backwards. That's entire point of contact tracing, which is essential, and which the White House refuses to do, or let the CDC do. It's October. And nationally, they have no contact tracing strategy. They don't want to know the scope of the problem. They don't want you to know the scope of the problem across the country or inside the White House. If it wasn't a damning account of their failures, they'd try to survey the problem. So why won't the White House say when the president's last negative COVID test was? Is it because he didn't get a test before the debate with Joe Biden, even though it was required by rules in an attempt to keep people safe? Is it because he will prove testing doesn't actually prevent the spread of coronavirus, it just reveals it? The president and many around him still don't seem to understand this basic fact. Like Republican Senator Mike Lee, who was in the second row at that Supreme Court event and then tested positive in the past week. He defended the lack of distancing, the lack of masks, by tweeting this, quote, "We had all just tested negative, every person there. The mainstream media seems to never want to mention that fact." Well, the Senator apparently never wants to mention the fact that you can test negative and still be infected and, thus, contagious. Those are actually a patient's most contagious days. That you can test negative for days, and then later test positive, like White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany did, like top trump aide, Stephen Miller, did. And you can't be saved from infection or prevent someone else from infection by simply getting a test. But, sure, blame the mainstream media for your hugs and your close talking, your naked face, at what is shaping up to be the D.C.'s biggest super-spreader event. The real culprit is the inadequate protections against coronavirus at the White House. That includes the lack of transparency on when the president last tested negative. Which is enabled by excuses like this one by the president's physician.</s>CONLEY: Again, HIPAA kind of precludes me from going into too much depth on things that I am not at liberty -- don't wish to be discussed.</s>KEILAR: The doctor likes to say it's a HIPAA thing. It's a patient privacy thing. But that didn't get in his way back in March when the president tested negative and Dr. Conley was just fine announcing it. Or in May, when the president tested negative and the good doctor revealed it then. No word why HIPAA applies in October at the White House, but not in the spring or why reality doesn't apply at all. Really ever. Next, the debate ratings from last night are in and they're big. |
FBI: Militia Plotted to Kidnap Michigan Governor, Overthrow Government; AJC: White House Chief of Staff Hosted Lavish Wedding in Atlanta Despite Restrictions | KEILAR: A blatant flouting of the rules by White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. In May, while gatherings in Atlanta were limited to 10 people due to coronavirus, Meadows hosted a lavish 70-person wedding in the city for his daughter. This is a story broken by "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," which reports that Republican Congressman Jim Jordan was also among those in attendance. Just to be clear, in May, Georgia was averaging about 600 new cases per day. By the end of May, cases top 45,000, deaths were nearing 2,000. I'm joined by one of the reporters who broke this story. Greg Bluestein is a political reporter for "The Atlanta Journal- Constitution." Greg, thank you so much for being with us. Good to see you. You and your colleague, what you did was you reviewed pictures of the event. You say it was, looking it, like there was no pandemic happening at all. Tell us about what you saw.</s>GREG BLUESTEIN, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION": Yes. At the time, there were strict order from the governor's office saying no gatherings of more than 10 people were allowed in Georgia. He had relaxed other businesses restrictions but you still couldn't have large gatherings in the state of Georgia. And at the same time, Mark Meadows threw a wedding, a lavish wedding, at a midtown Atlanta hotel with 70 to 80 people, caterers, a live band playing. And the pictures show large groups of people gathered on the same dance floor, or in seats watching the wedding without masks, without social distancing, and without following what looks like any safety precautions.</s>KEILAR: The wedding took place on May 31st. And then you saw, on June 1st, the restrictions were relaxed a little bit. Even so, this event was breaking what would have been those more relaxed rules, right?</s>BLUESTEIN: Exactly. The very next day, a new statewide order took effect that, for the first time, specified rules for event facilities to have things like weddings. But they still banned gatherings of more than 25 people. Even to this day, in Georgia, gatherings of more than 50 people are still banned. What we're hearing from readers and viewers is just outrage that they had to have their funerals remote or had to cancel weddings or other family events for loved ones that they couldn't have in person. And yet, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, came to Atlanta and had his daughter's wedding here in person.</s>KEILAR: Has there been much enforcement when it comes to these gathering guidelines across the state?</s>BLUESTEIN: Really none at all, I mean, or not very visible. As I mentioned, there's still bans on gatherings of more than 50 people. But just in the last few weeks, we've had President Trump arrive in Georgia. Georgia's polls show a very close race here, so he was here about two weeks ago. Vice President Mike Pence was here last week. We've had a number of Republican surrogates visiting the state at campaign rallies. And even Governor Kemp has appeared at some of these rallies with hundreds of people, few masks, indoor and outdoor, in defiance of his own public safety order.</s>KEILAR: Greg Bluestein, with the "AJC," thank you so much for coming on and sharing your reporting with us.</s>BLUESTEIN: Thanks for having me.</s>KEILAR: Just in, the ratings are in from last night's vice- presidential debate. Let's go now to CNN's Brian Stelter. What are you seeing? Are these big?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": They are a lot higher than I expected, to be honest, Brianna. About 50 million people tuned in for the vice-presidential debate. Compare that to the same debate in 2016, about 35 million. These numbers will decrease late in the day when the final figures are released. But at least 50 million people watched the vice-presidential debate. Normally, this is more like the junior varsity ticket or the just-in- case sort of debate. It gets a lot less attention than the presidential debates. But, no, not this year. This year, I think many Americans see how important the vice-presidential candidates are. They recognize the age of the candidates at the top of the ticket. They were very interested in this debate. So more than 50 million. Probably closer to 60 million when the final numbers come in late today. It just goes to show people are wide awake and paying attention -- Brianna?</s>KEILAR: They're wide awake and paying attention. You also have -- I mean, we're in a pandemic, right? So I think people are watching more in general. Is there any way to tell how much of this is enthusiasm about the, I guess, process --</s>STELTER: I lost you, unfortunately.</s>KEILAR: Oh, no. OK. Unfortunately -- Brian, here I am talking to myself. Brian Stelter, thank you so much. We appreciate it.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>KEILAR: I'm Brianna Keilar. And we do begin now with breaking news. The FBI announcing it has charged six men who were allegedly plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home in Michigan. These men are also accused of planning to overthrow the government. Dramatic details of the investigation just announced a short time ago.</s>ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY, WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: After becoming aware that, through social media, that a group of individuals was discussing the violent overthrow of certain government and law enforcement components. Through confidential sources, undercover agents and clandestine reportings, law enforcement learned particular individuals were planning to kidnap the governor and acting in furtherance of that plan.</s>KEILAR: And all of this is happening against the backdrop of new warnings about extremist groups in America. Let's go to Jessica Schneider with more on this. Juliette Kayyem joining me now. Jessica -- there's Jessica Schneider. All right, Jessica, tell us more. I mean this -- we learned some stunning details really from law enforcement officials both from the state and the federal level. Explain this all to us.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we heard from these law enforcement officials about an hour ago. |
Feds Charge Six Men Accused In Plot To Kidnap Michigan Governor | LISA LERER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So this is of course about debates. But it's also about the really the major issue in this race, which is the coronavirus and how the administration has handled the spread of this pandemic.</s>JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Right. And now both campaigns, MJ, trying to game this out, if you will, in the sense that Joe Biden is in the driver's seat right now, our electoral college projection has an above 270 electoral votes, the battle state polls in recent days have all been moving Biden's way. And a lot of Republicans are worried that the President is giving up an opportunity to have 60, 70 million people, if he's going to mount to come back, he needs an audience.</s>MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, if things go as they currently look like they are going to go, this is not a bad situation for Joe Biden and his campaign, right? Because where things stand right now is that the President has declined this opportunity to debate though, from remote settings. So what they're proposing is Biden and Trump being in separate rooms in separate locations because there is a serious health concern. Trump is saying no to that. So he is sort of the one that is backing out of this opportunity to face off against Biden. And if Biden does what his campaign says, but he will do, which is just to hold another town hall style event, and make sure that that conversation with the American voters takes place, well, then he's having an event, and he's getting his message out there. And meanwhile, who knows what the President is going to do that night, right? He has already said that he is now eager to hold those campaign rallies again. So if we're talking about a potential split screen of Joe Biden holding a responsibly held, Town Hall event that will adhere to the health, public health guidelines that everyone says you need to stick to when you hold an event like that. And then on the other side of the split screen, you potentially have the President, maybe holding a large indoor or outdoor rally where people are not math. And he says, you know, I think I'm immune from this, I don't think that I can spread this anymore. I mean, that split screen could not be in more sort of a contrast. And I think all of that sort of ends up being an advantage to Biden at a moment when, as you said, President Trump really can't afford to miss an opportunity to get his numbers up this close to Election Day.</s>KING: And so these pandemic safety concerns now and the President's response to them, putting the debates in jeopardy. The pandemic, of course, flashpoint, number one, when the two candidates for Vice President went out last night, listen.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On January 28th, the Vice President and the President more informed about the nature of this pandemic. They knew and they covered it up.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reality is Dr. Fauci said, everything that he told the President in the Oval Office, the President told the American people. Now President Trump, I will tell you, has boundless confidence in the American people and he always spoke with confidence that we'd get through this together.</s>KING: And Lisa, there was a lot of Dr. Fauci and a lot of way of confidence in the American people. There was not a lot of detailed answers to how and why things went so wrong early on in this administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.</s>LERER: Yes, essentially, the case that Mike Pence was trying to make was that well, things could have been worse that the administration took steps and that mitigated how, you know, how out of control is pandemic spread. And it's just a really hard case to make. I mean, I think there's very few Americans, if any, whose lives have been untouched by this pandemic, people feel this national crisis, acutely, they feel it in their pocketbooks. They feel it in their kid's education. They feel it when they think about caring for elderly people that may be in their lives. So I -- and we know from the polling that they give the President and the administration pretty poor marks for their handling of the virus. So I think part of what we saw in this debate is just how much easier the case it is for Democrats to make their case. They basically just have to argue, what voters already believe, at least according to the polling, which is that the administration didn't do their job and controlling the spread of this virus. Whereas Pence and Republicans have to argue that it could have been worse, which is, you know, it's just -- thing's already pretty bad. I mean, we know from polling that at least half of Americans believe that things are only going to worsen in the winter. So he had a tough set of cards to play for sure.</s>KING: I need to sadly end the conversation there because of some very disturbing breaking news. We're following now out of the state of Michigan. The FBI Listen to this, the FBI says it has foiled a plot to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer. Our crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is following this breaking news for us and joins us. Shimon, what do we know?</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. So it's six individuals that have been charged in a criminal complaint and as you said, according to this criminal complaint was a conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan and what the FBI describes is quite an extensive operation that they had undertaken. They had undercovers. They had a cooperating witness, a human source who was inside this operation that was providing information to them. And what these six individuals were trying to do, according to this complaint, was overthrow the government there in Michigan, possibly talked about kidnapping the governor, they talked about trying to find her home, her vacation home, and then using a boat perhaps to escape, all sorts of really wild details about this plot. Now, of course, the FBI was aimed on this plot throughout. They were -- they had information. They had other sources providing them information. They had undercovers that were also being used as part of this operation. And really, they got inside this operation. And as I said, it's six individuals that the FBI has charged. And they also were trying to recruit other people to join this operation. The criminal complaint talks about a meeting in Ohio between several individuals who gathered there and how they talked about creating a society where it would follow, the complaints has followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self- sufficient. They discuss of various different ways of achieving the goal from peaceful endeavors to violent actions. Now, of course, you know, John, I think it's important to know that this is something that the FBI Director, Christopher Wray has talked about openly the concerns for these kinds of domestic violent groups, these extremist groups here in the U.S. that he has talked about, that are a growing threat. And you can see this extensive operation here, by the FBI, by this group, by these individuals, that they were able to get inside, thankfully, and thwart any kind of plot to try and kidnap the governor. But this is exactly the concern, as we've heard from the FBI of folks who have these extremist views who could potentially do harm here in the United States, John. Now, there's supposed to be a press conference in the short time where we'll probably learn more information. And then the governor is supposed to address her, supposed to have a statement around 3 o'clock or so as well.</s>KING: Disturbing allegations and you mentioned the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking these groups that essentially are mad at both -- been mad at state governors for some time. And we saw early on throughout the coronavirus response in the state of Michigan demonstrations outside of the state capitol, in Atlanta, some of those demonstrations carrying guns. This governor has become a flashpoint in this national debate over states imposing restrictions to try to protect their citizens from the coronavirus. Do we know, and I know this is a breaking news story, I don't put you to bed, do we know how much of that directly factors into this? Have they traced it directly to that? Or is it just the motives of this group in a larger context?</s>PROKUPECZ: It's not clear to me because as you said, John, it's still breaking. I'm still reading through the documents. When, you know, this goes back to June and even earlier than that, if there's dates that are mentioned in criminal complaints in June and July of meetings that these individuals were having, discussing tactical training, weapons training, all sorts of kinds of things we've seen in other outside terrorism groups, right, international terrorism, people who come here from the outside, wanting to do harm. But this was all happening here domestically and in different parts of the country where they were doing these meetings to discuss this plot and train for a possible attack here. So but there is no mention so far from what I can see here relating to any of the earlier incidents that you mentioned, John.</s>KING: Shimon Prokupecz, our crime and justice reporter. Shimon will come back to us when we get more information on this disturbing case. Again, the headlines, six men charged by the feds in an alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor part of her plan to disrupt the government in the state of Michigan. We will stay on top of that story and bring you more as soon as we get it. Also, we're following this, up next, the Trump campaign releasing training tapes. The President says he wants his supporters to show up on Election Day as poll watchers. |
Biden: Will Take Voter Questions If Trump Won't Do Virtual Debate | KING: We know the President wants his supporters to turn out on Election Day as poll watchers. And now new training videos posted by the Trump campaign in 17 states are instructing this army of poll watchers the campaign plans to deploy. The message, be vigilant, behave, be courteous, even to Democrats. CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes is part of our CNN team that reviewed these tapes. Kristen take us inside what we're learning that tone, behave, be nice, sounds a lot different from what we hear from the President.</s>KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's absolutely right, John. I mean, these are two very different strategies, which I guess seems right, since that's what we've seen throughout this entire presidency. You have President Trump, who has incendiary language. He says that Democrats are going to try and steal the election. And as you said, he's encouraging his supporters to just show up at the polls and watch which is not how poll watching actually works. And then you have the strategic side here, which is the RNC and the campaign, putting together this messaging that looks very different. And I want to note poll watchers are a critical part of the legal strategy of the RNC and the Trump campaign as we head into the election. So they need them to actually behave. I mean, take a look at this. We have these Colorado dues here. And of course, I'm just going to summarize it for you. But it says, be courteous to all, even Democrats, it says politely ask questions, dress professionally. Take a look at the Colorado don'ts. It says don't show up late. Don't take audio or video recording, something that we have heard a Trump associates saying to do to take video in those polls. Don't be confrontational. Don't interfere with other poll watchers or with the voters. And I think it really sums it up. This is from a training in Maine. And I know it shows you the text on the screen. But I wanted to actually tell you what the speaker says when this slide comes up. He says essentially, the key is to behave yourself and not act like a fool, so very different messaging. But I have to tell you, you know, we have been talking to these state and local election officials, they're not as concerned about the people who actually are going to go through the training. What they're concerned about is the people who listen to President Trump's rhetoric and show up on Election Day. They are concerned about voter intimidation, John.</s>KING: Yet another of the many uncertainties as we get closer to Election Day and then counting the votes. Kristen Holmes grateful you're staying on top of this for us. We're going to have a long few weeks ahead without a doubt. Still ahead for us, the Gulf Coast preparing another hurricane, takes aim. |
10 Million Plus Under Watches, Warnings As Delta Strengthens In Gulf. | KING: More than 10 million people now under hurricane watches and warnings as the Gulf Coast braces for another possibly devastating storm, sandbagging, other preparations. See it right there already underway in Gulf communities expected to take the brunt of Hurricane Delta. Many of those communities of course still recovering from the devastation brought by Hurricane Laura back in August. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray keeping tabs on Delta. What do we know?</s>JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, it's remarkable to see how close this landfall is going to be from Hurricane Laura less than two months ago same communities impacted as you said, right now a category two. It is strengthening though. It is getting its act together. You can see that I starting to pop out in those latest frames. It has gusts of 125 miles per hour most likely will become a category three within the next 12 to 18 hours. This is moving to the northwest at 14 miles per hour. Here are all the tropical storm watches and warnings, the hurricane warnings you can see from High Island, Texas all the way over to South Central Louisiana and they extend well inland as well, the blue, the tropical storm warnings as well. So here's the latest forecast track you can see becoming a category three and then weakening just a little bit before making landfall by Friday evening. Now the impacts will be felt much sooner beginning early tomorrow morning. We'll start to see the rain bands come on, conditions deteriorating, the winds as well picking up. This storm is twice as big now as it was when it made its first landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula. Once it makes landfall, though, it will continue to weakening -- weekend and we will have major flooding all across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Important to note we have already had three named storms make landfall in Louisiana. This would make it a fourth. And so it really is unheard of to have this many landfalls for one state, 110 mile per hour winds, the area shaded in purple and then you can see the winds extend northward, hurricane force winds all the way up into Central Louisiana. We could see significant storm surge with this as well, John. We could see 4 to 7 feet, 7 to 11 across that central vulnerable coastline in South Louisiana.</s>KING: Jennifer Gray, grateful you're tracking that for us and everybody in those areas. Please keep your eye on our weather center and then listen to your local officials. Coming up for us, some global coronavirus headlines including Italy tightening its mask policy as coronavirus cases rebound. |
FBI Intervenes in Michigan Governor Kidnapping Plot; Biden Campaign Rejects Trump's Rescheduling Proposal; Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- CA) Questions Trump's Judgment. | BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Explain this all to us.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we heard from these law enforcement officials just about an hour ago, really laying out what they say was this multi-month plot that ended in these charges of kidnap and conspiracy. They say that at least these six men -- if not more -- were conspiring to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. The officials who did this briefing and in this criminal complaint, it lays out this plot. It all started when the FBI began monitoring these social media sites months ago, early in 2020. It also involved undercover agents, confidential human sources who infiltrated these groups as these men began to plot and actually take action to further this conspiracy. This criminal complaint details how these men actually purchased tasers, they detonated improvised explosive devices, they plotted out how exactly they were going to capture and kidnap Gretchen Whitmer including surveillance on Gretchen Whitmer's home, her vacation home in the western part of Michigan. These men also -- they surveilled bridges where they could presumably get away with the governor. This was a plot that had been ongoing for several months, Brianna. And law enforcement was tracking this every step of the way, they even detailed some communication and meetings just within the past few days, in the past few weeks. And in addition to this conspiracy plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, these officials say that it didn't stop there. These men also had plotted and talked about perhaps storming the Michigan state capitol in the city of Lansing, taking hostages. In fact at one point, they talked about this. In the complaint, they said several members talked about murdering, quote, "tyrants" or taking a sitting governor. The group then decided that they needed to increase their numbers to get more people behind their plot. And, Brianna, it really shows the intricate work that the FBI did in this case. They tracked this group, they tracked these men for months, first on social media and then infiltrating these groups with these confidential human sources as well as undercover agents here. So this had been going on for quite some time. But these men definitely took steps to further their conspiracy, to further their plot. And again, the officials in this complaint, alleging that it didn't stop there, it didn't stop with this plot to kidnap the Michigan governor. They say that they wanted to take other officials who are unnamed here and also plotting against law enforcement. And we do expect to hear from the governor. You know, we heard from the U.S. attorneys in Michigan as well as the attorney general, we understand that the governor herself who was the target of this plot, she's expected to speak in just about an hour and address this issue -- Brianna.</s>KEILAR: YEs, they had found home addresses of law enforcement officers. So, Juliette, there were a number of targets here, both individuals and the capitol building, which they were making plans to attack. They had done coordinated surveillance on the Michigan governor's vacation home. And in addition to these six men that are facing federal charges, you also have seven more men who are facing state terrorism charges. This is pretty big, put this into context for us about just how alarming this is.</s>JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So it's alarming. I mean, we -- like, you know, in the madness known as 2020, take a step back, there was a pretty sophisticated plan to kidnap -- and do whatever, right? I mean in other words, we don't know their violent intent on the other side of that -- the governor of a state. And so that doesn't happen very often in American history, and it doesn't get as far as we've seen it. So to put it in perspective, in a scale from zero to 10, zero being someone's crazy idea and 10 being the execution of the plan, this conspiracy was at about seven. It was pretty sophisticated, they had planned things, they had surveyed things, they had clearly talked and communicated. But the governor nor anyone else appears to have been in imminent danger because of the surveillance that was going on because it appears that they had someone in the group or they were talking to people around the group. So that's the good news in terms of law enforcement. It doesn't come by itself. In other words, you can't just look at a case like this and think, oh, that's just craziness in Michigan. As we know from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, white supremacy, this white radicalization, this sort of, you know, anti- government sentiment is the greatest terror threat in the United States today. And I just juxtapose that against sort of a lot of talk about ISIS in the last 24 hours? That -- ISIS is not the terror threat in the homeland today, and we know that from the FBI and DHS. So this was probably in what I remember and what I know, probably the most sophisticated plan against a public official in a long while from a group like this. I'll just say one more thing, we don't know much about this group -- a name was identified -- nor about the individuals. They're a little bit older, I think they're in their later 30s and 40s. We don't know how they were radicalized, if they have political sentiments, so I'm going to be really, really careful about, you know, a lot of things that you see online. What I do know about radicalization and can say safely, is that it doesn't really matter what an individual says or what a leader may say. it has to do with what the followers -- people who will conspire to kill a governor -- actually hear. What are they hearing from public discourse today that makes them radicalize or plan an event like this? Others can put the pieces together and we may get more pieces from the FBI, but from a radicalization homeland security perspective, that's what I'm looking at. What were they hearing? What were they reading? Who were they following? Because it's that that becomes a radicalization source.</s>KEILAR: And it does appear, Juliette, that there was a goal to carry this out before Election Day, right?</s>KAYYEM: Right.</s>KEILAR: So that would be sometime here in the next three weeks or so. They clearly had, you know, tied whatever impact they wanted to have to Election Day or before it. I wonder what you think -- and we have all these questions, so exactly who were they listening to, who do they support? But when you look at this and you've heard federal officials say that domestic terrorism is a threat right now, what is -- is this an indicator of a bigger concern more broadly across the country?</s>KAYYEM: Yes, it is. It's a big concern because it's breeding -- three things are happening simultaneously. One is just the ideology itself, a sense from white supremacists today that what we call the replacement theory -- in other words, they feel like they're being replaced by a more diverse America. Most of us love that about America, they do not, obviously. It's being buttressed by the social media communications, which was the huge part of this investigation a really good part in terms of just looking at these websites, seeing how these guys are connecting and then seeing when they're physically meeting. In other words, don't view social media as merely the internet. I mean, they are actually planning, physically meeting. There's no lone wolves any more, these guys are finding each other. And then the third is, you know, what we -- you know, just basically the -- what I call the lack of shaming of this sentiment in American discourse today. You can blame various people, I'm going to be super- careful again because we don't know what's going to come out. But we will find out their ideology, we will find out what motivated them. But to the extent that our politics and our president amplify a supremacy attitude a white supremacy attitude -- I was on last week on your show about this, about the debate. That's not insignificant and we shouldn't be afraid to say it. That is just part of the atmospherics today, is that white supremacy is not shamed. These men may have been motivated by someone else or something else, but we do know that the president doesn't shame it and it's too late for him to do so. I mean, we don't need to hear him about this case. What I do think is interesting, finally, is -- and odd, given the subject of female governor</s>KEILAR: Yes, that's a very good point, where is the administration on this. Juliette, Jessica, thank you so much for the reporting, for the analysis. Appreciate it. Now to the other breaking news that we have, the Biden campaign is now rejecting the Trump campaign's demand to delay the second debate. This was scheduled for one week from today, but then President Trump this morning refused to participate in it after the Debate Commission announced that it would be virtual, right? Not in person. Of course the whole reason for that is because President Trump is still battling the coronavirus. The Trump campaign now says it wants October 22nd and then the 29th for debates. Biden's camp, responding to that, saying, quote, "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar." I want to bring in CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley to be with us. I mean, Doug, when you look at this, the idea of -- first off, we'll talk about virtual debates here in a second, but now we've had this development of this proposal of pushing things later. I mean, a final debate on October 29th? That would be pretty unusual, awfully close to the election.</s>DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes. And you just can't start unscrambling the schedule just because Donald Trump's going to be impetuous and make demands. There's no reason they can't do a virtual debate. Back in 1960, John F. Kennedy was in New York City while Richard Nixon was in California, and they did one of the four in a virtual fashion. It's perfectly fine, it's not that much difference between last night's V.P. debate with plexiglass between you. But Donald Trump's sinking in the polls, he's desperate. Today, he came and tried to belittle Kamala Harris, calling her a communist and a monster. We now have this Wolverine militia story coming, which is pointing to this sort of white supremacy that Donald Trump's been supporting since Charlottesville. And he's stuck with COVID-19 in the White House and is frustrated and is on cortisone (ph) drugs and the like, so why would the Biden campaign start rearranging the furniture on these debates? Donald Trump needs to show up on the date he said he was going to show up, or else he's going to look like a coward in the annals of U.S. political history.</s>KEILAR: Well, so to that point, as you said, he needs to show up. There is a political reason -- advantage to be gained or at least some opportunity to be had for showing up. Is it really a good move for him to forego an opportunity to speak to the American people in a potentially serious way when he needs a leg up if he's looking at the polls? It certainly didn't help him in Iowa in 2016 int he primaries there, to skip a debate.</s>BRINKLEY: It does not help, and we've learned that through history. I mean, the big mistake that we had with Jimmy Carter in 1980 when he was seeking re-election is he blew off a debate and Reagan just said, well, I'll debate John Anderson, a third party candidate. Carter got hammered for doing it, the public didn't like it and suddenly Carter was back in the debates but it was too late. If I were advising Donald Trump -- which I'm not, but -- I would tell him to say, I'll debate Joe Biden any place, you name it. If it's virtual, it's virtual. I'll clean his clock on any debate any way, shape or style. That would be more of the macho image he's seeming to want to present himself as. Instead now, he's going, no, I can't do it virtual, somebody will control my mike, it looks really weak. I think he needs to step up and debate Joe Biden and stick to the schedule.</s>KEILAR: Douglas, thank you so much. It's great to see you.</s>BRINKLEY: Thank you, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: We have some more breaking news, some medical professionals at Walter Reed were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements when the president made a last-minute visit there in November. I want to go live now to Kaitlan Collins at the White House on this. What do we know, Kaitlan?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is that surprise trip that the president made to Walter Reed last November, a trip that is still shrouded in secrecy and we don't genuinely know the real reason the president went to Walter Reed, though they claimed at the time that it was to get a head start on his physical, which he actually completed about six months later, something that baffled medical experts who said you would not break up an annual physical in the way that they claimed that they had. So -- and we still don't really know why the president was there. But what my colleague Kevin Liptak has confirmed, something that was first reported by NBC News, is that when the president went there, some of the doctors and medical professionals who were on the team, Brianna, were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements about the president's visit. We're told that this caused some issues among the staff, some consternation. A few of them refused, though it's not clear exactly how many. And they were not involved in the president's care. Now, it's not clear how many actually signed the NDAs either, and it's not even clear why they would need them because of course there is doctor-patient confidentiality, we've seen that play out this week with the president's physician refusing to reveal some information, citing HIPAA and basically saying that the patient, the president in this case, did not give him permission to release that information. It's not exactly surprising the president has tried to use and wield NDAs in the past, he did it in his private life before he ran for office, he has done it since he worked in the White House. They actually had White House staffers sign a version of an NDA at the beginning of the administration, though people we talked to that actually signed them who were attorneys said they didn't actually believe they were enforceable. But it is remarkable that the president and his team would ask doctors at Water Reed Military Hospital to sign nondisclosure agreements in order to treat the president. And of course, it's raised questions about whether there were doctors on this team that now took care of the president since he was diagnosed with coronavirus, to sign these agreements. We asked the White House for comment, they did not deny it but instead only cited doctor-patient confidentiality.</s>KEILAR: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thank you for these new developments. I want to bring in Dr. Megan Ranney, she is an emergency physician and an associate professor at Brown University. I mean, first, just to ask you about this story that the president had doctors sign NDAs at Walter Reed last year when he made an unscheduled trip there, I mean, would that be necessary? Have you ever heard of that? What's your reaction?</s>MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: It seems completely bizarre and paranoid to me. As physicians, we're of course bound by moral and ethical obligations to our patients as well as by HIPAA, which we get trained in from the very first day of medical school. The idea behind HIPAA is that we can't release information about a patient without that patient's consent, unless of course there's an immediate threat to themselves or to others. So if someone's homicidal or suicidal. To sign an NDA? I've heard of maybe a couple of celebrities doing it, but it really seems paranoid because any good physician is never going to talk about their patient, NDA or no</s>NDA. KEILAR: You said, doctors are bound by moral and ethical considerations. The president has made it clear he does not -- he is not bound by such considerations, that is long established. We don't know what happened during this visit that he made, the president claimed that it was the first part of his physical and they were breaking up his physical. Are Americans entitled to know what happened, especially considering the current situation and current questions about his health?</s>RANNEY: I would argue that we do deserve to know. You know, we have a long history of not knowing what was going on with our presidents, whether it was FDR or JFK. But starting around the time of Ronald Reagan and his Alzheimer's diagnosis, it became accepted by the public that we had a right to know what was going on with our president's health. And from Reagan onwards, presidents have been transparent. It seems to me that if the current president is not being transparent, either he doesn't trust us or he has some reason to hide something. And either way, that's a problem. The American public deserves to know what they're voting on on November 3rd.</s>KEILAR: Dr. Ranney, thank you so much for being with us. Moments ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the president is in a, quote, "altered state right now," and she's calling for more transparency about his health. Plus, the president's attacks on Kamala Harris' debate performance steered far away from the substance, called her a monster, he called her a communist and unlikeable. We're going to discuss why that might be, just ahead. |
Trump Wants To Resume Rallies, Says "I Don't Think I'm Contagious"; Trump's Doctor Offer Little Info On His Condition; Second Presidential Debate Will Be Held Virtually, Biden Says He Will Participate, Trump Says He Won't. | JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Tonight, the commission saying because the president was diagnosed with coronavirus deciding next Thursday's town hall would be conducted virtually, meaning Joe Biden and the president in separate locations. Voters gathered with the moderator in Miami. The president objected to that saying he's fine. He wants to campaign. He wants to be out doing rallies, he could attend the debate. The president didn't like that. Joe Biden initially saying he would participate and saying perhaps the president would change his mind. Now though the Biden campaign says, forget it. If the president won't participate next week, Joe Biden says he will have an event of his own and the campaign now urging the Debate Commission to reschedule the town hall for October 22nd. Again, the president saying this morning he won't show up next Thursday because he is not getting his way.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the Commission a little while ago changed the debate style and that's not acceptable to us. I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about, you sit behind a computer and do a debate, it is ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want. They called up two minutes ago and it was announced and they're trying to protect Biden.</s>KING: Trying to protect Biden from the President of the United States who best we know is still infected with the coronavirus. We're going to watch how this one plays out? We do know this; we count your votes in 26 days. And there is another count we do every day. And today it is again more than troublesome. Half of the 50 states right now are trending in the wrong direction when it comes to the coronavirus. Only two states, Alabama and Hawaii, right now are reporting fewer new COVID infections this week compared to last week. Let's get straight to the White House now for these big developments in the campaign. Our White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins is standing by. Kaitlan the president essentially a little bit of a tantrum this morning, insisting he is fine even though we have no proof of that, insisting he can do rallies again, and he could have shown up in Miami next Thursday and because of that, the president saying no to the Debate Commission's changes. Now the whole debate schedule is in Jeopardy.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. And the Biden Campaign wants it pushed back a week. But what was interesting is the campaign statement from the Trump Campaign today had the Campaign Manager saying the president would oppose to multiple negative tests before the debate that was initially scheduled for next Thursday, though there's no reason for why we believe that Bill Stepien would know that. That is not something that we've heard from the president's doctor yet. And of course we know that it can take some time and if that was by next Thursday, that's only two weeks from when the president was diagnosed with coronavirus. And of course we should note that statement came from a Campaign Manager who is also positive for coronavirus, as part of this outbreak that we've seen happening in the president's inner circle. But John, I think there are two main reasons the president doesn't want to do this. One, he doesn't want to be able to be muted by the moderators, something that would be of course much easier if that was done virtually. And that is something the president referenced this morning in that interview. But also, John, by doing this virtually, it would be impossible for any viewer to ignore the pandemic that's going on. And they tried to distract from it in the last debate. It's not something the Trump Campaign wants to talk about because they know how poorly their reviews and their handling of it have been. But it would be front and center if Joe Biden and Donald Trump are appearing virtually and it would just remind people of the fact that the president did have coronavirus. So the question is whether or not the president changes his mind? Of course, we have seen him do that within a manner of hours and matte of minutes before. This is an argument that some campaign aides may try to make to the president, because they want him to have a big audience. They want him to have a second showing from that first debate, which they did not think went well. But whether or not they're successful in that, or whether they do agree to push it back is something that still remains to be seen. Because we should remind viewers, that the commission on presidential debates did not consult either campaign before making this decision, it was basically an executive decision by the organizers. And then they informed them a few moments before they announced it. And clearly, obviously the president is not pleased with them.</s>KING: The president is not pleased; the president is also losing this race at the moment and losing badly a lot of republicans not happy, because he has now done something that puts one of his opportunities to try to change the dynamic right now fall off the table. Kaitlan Collins grateful for the live reporting at the White House and to the point Kaitlan was just making, the president today says he feels great. Says, he is ready to get back on the campaign trail, but sadly we know the president lies constantly, lies constantly. And we know very little about the details of his coronavirus case or his treatment. The White House doctor does release vague, upbeat statements most days, but that doctor hasn't answered questions since Monday, that's because the president prefers to do the talking.</s>TRUMP: I'd love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night, but I think I am better to a point that I feel better than I did, I jokingly said 20 years ago, I feel perfect. There's nothing wrong. I don't think I am contagious at all. First of all, if I'm at a matter rally, I stand by myself very far from everybody, so whether I was or not. But I still wouldn't go to a rally if I was contagious.</s>KING: Let's bring in our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, you listened to the president. I hope he is not contagious, I hope he is doing better, but we have no way to know that because we don't get detailed information from the White House, especially the medical team.</s>KING: And I hate to say it but I am going to keep saying it, the president has a history of not telling the truth.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, we are dealing with a situation where a lot of incomplete information here, and some of it just a little bit ridiculous in terms of what the doctors have provided, especially with was he on oxygen in the beginning. They really went out of their way to be evasive about certain things which does call into question many of the other things. I mean, there's so much that we still don't know about what's going on with his health? It is interesting, because the president would be considered a vulnerable patient because of his age; he has some of these pre- existing conditions. But then what's been more important is that he had trouble with this disease, right. The odds are very much in his favor in terms of recovery, but he did have some trouble. He needed oxygen, supplemental oxygen. That's a significant concern, shows that his lungs are having a hard time keeping up. He's obviously been on all these various medications. At one point or another, we don't know if he is still on the medications or not? And we have an idea that there are a lot of things that we still aren't getting clear answers on. He says no fever for the last four days, but he is on steroids, and steroids can suppress a fever. So that would not be a very valuable sort of indicator there. And again, this cocktail of medications together is something that maybe nobody else has received the way that he has that particular cocktail and one of the medications not even available under Emergency Use Authorization. So it's a very cloudy sort of picture of what's going on with him. And by the way, it doesn't have to be. The doctors could be very forthright if they decided to brief the press, they could just tell us. But instead, they sort of want to say they briefed the press but not provide all of these details.</s>KING: Right. And to that point, we get these written statements from Dr. Conley. Dr. Conley last spoke to reporters and took questions, he only took a few back on Monday before the president was released from The Walter Reed Medical Center. The president has been at the White House Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night now. We're having this conversation. And here's one. This is from October 6th earlier in the week. This morning the president's team of physicians met with him in the residence. He had a restful night at home; today he reports no symptoms, right? Vital signs, physical exam remain stable, ambulatory oxygen saturation levels continue to do extremely well. OK, doesn't tell you anything though. And so, that's one day, and then the next day we get pretty similar. This one says he is fever free for more than four days. Bit what it doesn't say, Sanjay, and please help me as someone who's the expert here, it doesn't say he is fever free because he's taking medication, it doesn't say he is better because of the medication. It does not layout for us what the president still needs or if he is - if they believe he is almost completely recovered, he doesn't need any medication anymore, why isn't it laid out in these reports?</s>GUPTA: Right, and never absolutely. I mean, clearly, they want to paint a rosier picture. And yet there are all of these little clues that they leave behind. There are some basic unanswered questions, John. If they wanted to be completely forthright, and as you and I've talked about, there's no obligation for them to have to do this. But why we keep coming back to this first question, when was this last negative test? In part, it's for the contact tracing, so they can figure out who else may have been infected because of the president, but also in terms of his own clinical course, how likely is he to be contagious? If you look at the people who have this disease, they do have a period of time around day seven or so where it's a window of concern because of the body's inflammatory response. Where is he? Is he at that day yet? Did he already pass it? Does he have pneumonia? It is a respiratory virus. We don't know the answer to that. We know he had lung scans and we know that they weren't normal to your point, they would have said they were normal otherwise, they weren't normal, so what did they show? Again, are you trying to give us a picture of the president's health or are you trying to basically paint this very opaque thing that is just designed to give this rosy scenario? It sounds like he says he's doing well, which is great, as you point out. But is it because of the meds? Are the steroids sort of artificially creating masking the illness or is he really recovering from the disease? Seems like a significant question to answer.</s>KING: And so, I get it. Number one, he is losing in this race, and he wants to get out campaigning to improve his chances of a comeback. Number two, he enjoys traveling the country and be in the presence of his supporters. And if you don't like the president, you can role your eyes at that. But that's something he likes. He is a politician; he likes to be out with the crowd. You completely understand that. But listen to him this morning Sanjay, again, he is playing his own doctor on television, trying to make the case it's OK, let me out of the White House.</s>TRUMP: I don't have heart problems. I don't have diabetes and I don't have any of the problems that you read about. Perhaps a couple of pounds we could lose here or there, but you know, because a lot of people are in that category. But no, I'm in good health and, you know, look, what happens is if you really were around the thing, you can catch it. People call--</s>KING: If you're reckless anywhere around this thing, you can catch it. There are a lot of people - COVID is everywhere in America. A lot of people haven't caught it, because they wear their mask and they keep their distance. The president's personal behavior and those around him have been reckless. But to that point - that's my political statement. To the medical stuff you heard, I don't have heart problems, I don't have diabetes, anything in that jump out as you, the president again, because his own doctor won't answer questions, especially from professionals like yourself, the president is left to play doctor on</s>TV. GUPTA: Yes. Well, first of all, we know he is a vulnerable patient. And he himself realizes that this is as you get elderly, of your above age 70, you're going to be more vulnerable. And he falls into that age range. He does have a common form of heart disease as revealed by his own studies that he had on his heart. But I think most importantly, he has already shown now through the course of this disease that this disease had some impact on his lungs. He required oxygen. The doctors threw some pretty aggressive medications at him. Dexamethasone, a steroid in the context of COVID is typically used if someone has more serious disease, because they're worried about the inflammatory response becoming too robust and causing a problem. So, there are all these indicators, that regardless of the fact that he is vulnerable, which he is, he is already now falls into different risk stratification. He's got to be careful. And John, I think to your point, he is probably still contagious. Again, we don't know where he is on the timeline of the disease, because we're still not getting that information. But as a general rule, at least ten days or so after you first became symptomatic you would be thought that as contagious, you should be in isolation, all the things that we've been talking about for six or seven months now. So, for all those reasons, his own health, the health of the people around him, he should be isolating right now. Preferably at the hospital, obviously he is not doing that. But at least isolate, so he is not going to potentially infect other people.</s>KING: And as a general rule in a democracy, we should all get more information about the condition of the president when he is in peril like this. Sanjay Gupta, I appreciate your insights doctor very much. Thank you for joining us. Up next for us, there is coronavirus in the White House, yes. And guess what? Across America right now, coronavirus on the rise. |
Trump Launches Sexist Attack, Calls Harris "A Monster" & "Unlikeable" | BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A monster? Unlikable? A liar? That is what the president of the United States is calling Democratic vice- presidential nominee, Senator Kamala Harris today, following her historic appearance as the first black and South Asian woman to take the stage at last night's V.P. debate.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you can't get worse. Totally unlikable. And she is. She's a Communist. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence --</s>KEILAR: Nina Turner is a CNN political commentator. She was the co- chair of Senator Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign and she's with us now. Nina, what is your reaction to these attacks?</s>NINA TURNER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He can't debate the issues, so he leans to name-calling. For him to refer to Senator Harris in that way is despicable. It's totally unacceptable. It's no different than when he called Omarosa a dog. It was wrong to call Omarosa a dog. It's wrong to call Senator Harris a monster. And he stereotypes. And connotations take on an extra meaning when they are leveled at black women, the stereotypes of the Mammie, the Aunt Jemima, the Jezebel, the Aunt Jemima. It's a deeper meaning when leveled at African-American women. It's his own lacking that he's talking about. It's one thing to debate somebody about an issue. It's another thing to resort to name-calling. It really shows his limitations, not theirs.</s>KEILAR: We were watching -- you watched this debate last night. I watched last night. There were a lot of questions we did not get answers to, I think, on both sides. But one of the things that is very unclear -- and we're talking about certainly on the side of Democrats here. Senator Harris and Joe Biden do not have an answer to this question of whether they would pack the Supreme Court. Shouldn't they have an answer to that, Nina?</s>TURNER: They should. Hopefully, the vice president -- former vice president will have an answer. Just tell them, yes, we're going to fight pack. The Republicans did not a -- played hardball with President Obama. That's politics. Democrats need to, too, and get a clue. I would tell them straight up, yes, we're going to pack the courts if that's what they intend to do. I don't know if they do or not, but they should definitely have an answer for the question and don't be ashamed of it.</s>TURNER: Lean into it.</s>KEILAR: That illustrates a problem, politically, it could create for Vice President Biden. Right? He may be trying to attract -- he is trying to attract moderates and moderate Republicans who may not want to see it. They might be fine with the makeup of the Supreme Court, but they're not OK with President Trump. I mean, we've seen a number of voters who may lean that way. He's clearly afraid of losing them. Is that the issue here, why he cannot or will not say? Maybe he's worried about not being clear. And if he says it, he loses folks like, folks you represent, like from the other wing of the party.</s>TURNER: I can't speak from that campaign. What I'm saying is there's no time for moderation. People are suffering in this country, So the Republicans will do what they have already done. And 95 percent of voters have already made up their minds, So these debates, we're playing games right now with the American people. Just say what it is. The Republicans need to be handled in a serious and strong way. They denied President Obama the opportunity -- well, he made the nomination, but they didn't confirm it. They have one set of rules for him, and now a different set of rules. I was taught, if your hair is on fire, you have to act like your hair is on fire. If they're going to lose folks for standing up for the American people, so be it. But I don't think they will. They have to be firm and strong. And I'll say, I don't know. Maybe they don't believe they should pack the court, and that's fine, too. Say that. But be clear about what you believe and what you're going to say. Either some people will like it or not like it. But at least you're clear on your position. And the American people deserve just -- at least that.</s>KEILAR: Nina Turner, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it.</s>TURNER: Thank you.</s>KEILAR: We are learning that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will speak at the top of the hour about the breaking news that six people were arrested in an alleged plot to kidnap her and overthrow the government there. We'll bring that to you live. First, Sean Penn will join us live. He has been providing meals and COVID tests around the country. And he has a scathing message for President Trump in a new CNN op-ed. |
Interview with Sean Penn on Scathing Message to Trump; Update on Coronavirus Responses Across the Country. | KEILAR: Actor Sean Penn, along with celebrity chef, Jose Andres just added their names to a growing list of folks who are calling out the president's failed response to the coronavirus pandemic. Together in a CNN op-ed, imploring Trump to, quote, "free the American people from the misery of this disease." They write, quote, "President Trump, embrace your duty as a wartime president. Lead the country you vowed to keep safe out of this disaster. The American people need you to put their tax dollars where your mouth is. Stop this American carnage right here, right now." Penn's nonprofit, CORE, the Community Organized Relief Effort, has set up free COVID testing for millions of people. Jose Andres' group, World Central Kitchen, has prepared and donated millions of meals for those in need. Sean Penn is joining me now. Thanks so much for coming on.</s>SEAN PENN, ACTOR & FOUNDER, CORE: Good to be here. Thank you.</s>KEILAR: You guys have been on the front lines of this pandemic, providing these essential services, testing and food for those who need it. What is the most urgent need on the ground right now?</s>PENN: Well, to begin, it should be said that all the of these activities have been financed by the private sector, by donors. And we have been unable to get any federal funds whatsoever. FEMA, for example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, we applied for a grant to continue our testing, and they denied the grant on the basis that we were testing both symptomatic and asymptomatic. They were refusing to finance anything that tested the asymptomatic. We know there's a lot of spreading going on. We are facing a period where I believe this is going to come back to haunt us in terms of the --</s>KEILAR: One of the things you really need, it sounds like, money. You've raised it privately. You write in this $150 million, which is a lot. But you also point out that FEMA has $44 billion in unspent funds that Congress allocated to help with COVID relief. The model that you are using is the one that Jose Andres and World Central Kitchen used in Puerto Rico, which was to cut through red tape using personal connections. And also, I mean, honestly just outright gumption, cutting through the red tape and providing what oftentimes the government can't do, and can't do in a cheap and quick way. Tell us about that and how it can be so much more helpful to take those funds and use it in the way that you guys are using it.</s>PENN: Well, the reality, of course, is that the government can use it in a cheap and effective way by granting the funds to organizations, like World Center Kitchen, like CORE and others. So it shouldn't be something left entirely to the private sector. This is the federal government of the United States of America completely failing in its obligation. Instead of using this $44 billion, they're being used as political pawns where the president is trying to withholding -- he's made it very clear that even perhaps, you know, had they not been testing in the White House, he wouldn't be positive with COVID. And this is the insane logic that too many of the American people have let go by. They're going to fail their children. They're going to fail their children's generation doing this. This is not any longer about the Republican and Democrat. This is about basic decency and obligation of American patriotism for the future of all of our children, be they the children of Republican, Democrats or Independents. This is really -- your last guest was talking about when one's hair is on hair to act like it. Even if our hair doesn't feel on fire today, we are sending a wildfire of a pandemic of economic collapse straight to our children's generation. And it's on that basis that all of us need to do the work.</s>KEILAR: I see you being at the center of this relief effort, I know you have talked with a lot of people who are struggling. I'm sure you've had heard the president downplaying this virus and saying don't let it dominate your life. What is your reaction to that?</s>PENN: You know, I suppose I would like to say that I'm no longer bewildered by it, but it's dizzying. Just as dizzying is the way in which this country, this great aspirational country, is allowing one individual to foment not only the pandemic but violence, hatred, genuine hatred towards each other. Good people hating each other. And a lot of those people, who he describes as being good people, being empowered, the racists and the extremists and the white nationalist party. I've written about the Proud Boys two years ago, and organizations -- pathetic organizations like these. And this is a president of the United States is truly a national disgrace. I hope somehow we'll be able to bond together and get through this. In the meantime, we still have to put one foot in front of the other. We still have to -- I've got to get whatever funds are necessary to support all these extraordinary volunteers throughout this country working with Jose and his fantastic organization.</s>KEILAR: We know, Sean, a lot of people will be curious about CORE and World Central Kitchen. So thank you, Sean. I want to let our viewers know that they can check out your organization, CORE, at coreresponse.org,/COVID-19. Sean Penn, thank you so much. We're going to be staying on our breaking news. Did President Trump asked some of the staff at Walter Reed Medical Center to sign nondisclosure agreements when he made a mystery visit there last November? Plus, "Saturday Night Live" cancels its musical guest after finding out that he broke COVID safety guidelines. |
Ex-Trump & GOP Fundraiser Charged with Conspiracy by Feds | KEILAR: We have breaking news. Former top Republican fundraiser has been charged with conspiracy for not registering as a foreign agent. CNN's Kara Scannell is following this for us. Tell us about who this fundraiser is. And give us some context on who he is and what he's accused of doing.</s>KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Brianna. The Justice Department is charging Elliott Broidy. He was a top GOP fundraiser. He worked on President Trump's Inaugural Committee as well as being the deputy finance chair of Republican National Committee. So big GOP fundraiser. Prosecutors are charging him today with conspiracy for failing to register as a foreign agent. These are the charges we heard a lot about in the most recent past few years. What Broidy is charged with doing is failing to register as an agent when he was lobbying U.S. government to drop a wide-ranging extensive investigation into corruption at a Malaysian development fund. Also according to prosecutors, he was lobbying without identifying he was acting on behalf of the Chinese government when he was lobbying U.S. officials to try to get them to return a Chinese self-proclaimed dissident, a billionaire living in the United States. So prosecutors charging Broidy with that. According to a source familiar with the investigation, Broidy is expected to plead guilty to this charge of conspiracy later this month. He will enter the plea then. He has not entered any plea at this time. These charges were just filed this week. Broidy, you might remember, was involved heavily in the president's inaugural fundraising effort. He's also involved with the committee. And he stepped down from that committee in April of 2018 after it became known that Michael Cohen, the president's personal attorney, helped facilitate $1.6 million payment to a former Playboy model who alleged she was impregnated by Broidy. Broidy has admitted he had an affair with the model but did not every admit to any connection to her pregnancy -- Brianna?</s>KEILAR: Kara Scannell, thank you for that report. We appreciate it. Industries like tourism, sports and entertainment have been impacted by the pandemic. Let's get the latest developments from the reporters across the country.</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alison Kosik in New York. The release of the film "Jurassic World: Dominion" will be pushed back to 2022. The next movie in the blockbuster franchise was supposed to come out in June of next year. There's trouble on the set, too. Filming has been suspended for two weeks due to positive coronavirus tests.</s>COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Coy Wire in Atlanta. The NFL is investigating the Tennessee Titans for allegedly breaking the league's coronavirus protocols amid an outbreak on the team. Titans players spotted practicing at a Nashville high school last Wednesday, one day after the team facilities were shut down due to the outbreak. This according to multiple reports and confirmed by a school official to CNN. The NFL has not replied to repeated requests for comment on the investigation. Two more Titans players tested positive yesterday. And at least 22 members of the organization have tested positive over the past week.</s>CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: I'm Chloe Melas in New York. Country singer, Morgan Wallen, says he's been dropped as "Saturday Night Live's" musical guest this weekend because he broke the show's COVID-19 protocols. Wallen made the announcement from his New York City hotel room where he was preparing for the show. He said in an Instagram video that he was sorry to his fans and team for, quote, "letting them down." Wallen says "SNL" producer, Lorne Michaels, told him that he could be on the show in the future. This all started after Wallen was seen partying in TikTok videos last weekend. In was in various bars without a mask and was far from social distancing.</s>KEILAR: All right, everyone, thank you so much for those reports. Minutes from now, Michigan's governor will speak live about the alleged plot to kidnap her. We will bring that to you. |
President Trump Itching To Have a Rally; White House Gives Trump a Green Light; Sen. Kamala Harris Being Called a Monster; Thirteen People Arrested Over a Plot to Kidnap Gov. Whitmer; Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D-MI) Was Interviewed About Who's Behind the Plot Against Gov. Whitmer | CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: It's time for the best part of the night. CNN Tonight with its big star, D. Lemon right now.</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Best part show you're right. Show you are right. Listen, no laughing matter, though. I saw you with the governor. Man, that is some scary, scary, scary stuff. But I don't hear anybody in 1600 -- I'm sorry, not 1600, Black Lives Matter Avenue saying anything about it.</s>CUOMO: I mean, look, first of all, Whitmer is a cool cat. I don't know how she's so composed. This isn't what you and I deal with. You know, this isn't a couple of jerks on Twitter who are saying stupid things that are going to get them a call from the local authorities. This was weeks of planning from guys, over a dozen at least, maybe more, who wanted weapons and training and coordinated action with other groups to go after her and take her or hurt her. And it is the number one terror threat in this country.</s>LEMON: No way. Do you remember when I said that -- and I mean, you would have thought -- do you remember when I said that a while ago?</s>CUOMO: Yes, I don't remember that as the origination of the truth of it, but yes, I do remember you saying.</s>LEMON: And what happened?</s>CUOMO: Well, you know, can't have black guys saying that white people are the problem, Don. I keep telling you that.</s>LEMON: That's the truth though.</s>CUOMO: Yes, I know.</s>LEMON: But, you know, you've got the other scary people that we demonize because of their religion --</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: -- but not these guys.</s>CUOMO: Look, Islam hates us, right?</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: That's what the president says. They just apparently don't hate us as much as these homegrown angry white guys that are constantly finding ways to threaten American democracy because that's what the people who are in the business of stopping terror say.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Why would they waste their time with guys that they're not worried about?</s>LEMON: But yet over on the favorite channel, the president is saying --</s>CUOMO: He's talking about how hard it is for fish to live without water?</s>LEMON: No, he did say that.</s>CUOMO: I mean --</s>LEMON: But he's also saying, yes, well, you know, it was my Justice Department who sent -- who arrested --</s>CUOMO: Yes, he said it in the tweet.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: My, capitalize it.</s>LEMON: My. The Justice Department. It's the people's department, not his Justice Department.</s>CUOMO: My, only capital.</s>LEMON: But everything he throws out is scary because he didn't say anything like it. But the next words when asked about those kinds of things, it's antifa.</s>CUOMO: Three tweets or whatever three blocks of tweets.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: No mention of these groups except as contained in the word any.</s>LEMON: How much does he talk about or tweet about antifa? He threw every --</s>CUOMO: He --</s>LEMON: Chris, I got to tell you this. He threw every scary thing against it. Antifa, Joe Biden is going to -- the suburbs are going to go crazy. They're not going to be --</s>LEMON: His response to Whitmer getting targeted is Whitmer sucks. She sucks for locking down her state.</s>LEMON: Wow.</s>CUOMO: My people helped her out. She didn't even say thank you and calls me a white supremacist, which she didn't. Biden and the Democrats refuse to condemn antifa by name, anarchists, looters.</s>LEMON: There you go.</s>CUOMO: And mobs that burn down Democrat-run cities. I don't tolerate any extreme violence. Never mentions the number one terror threat in this country. I have someone on who worked in homeland security. She says they were not allowed to mention the threat because he didn't want to hear it.</s>LEMON: No, no, that's not true. Do you know what it reminds me of though as I sit here and watch? This is when we were back at the old place, right? I would sit and watch the favorite channel and it would be the New Black Panthers or it would be acorn and now it's antifa. It's everything is scary. He do everything. He said those words, the antifa. He said Joe Biden is going to raise your taxes and it's going to be worse than 1929 Depression that the suburbs were going to -- Joe Biden was going to change the suburbs and they were going to be more violent than the cities. I mean, every scary thing that he could throw out, it is -- he sounds desperate. It is unbelievable how desperate he sounds. This man holdup in the White House hopped up on steroids and rage tweeting and calling into his favorite channel rage interviewing.</s>CUOMO: He's embarrassing to the people who support him because there are people with legitimate senses of humiliation and frustration and disinfection and they want a change agent, somebody who fights back against the system that they see is unequal. That's the irony is that, the fight for systemic inequality involves white and black people. And now they've got to defend this. They've got to own this. I've just never seen anything like it. Somebody who is so disrespectful to the people he's supposed to be all about.</s>LEMON: Well, I thank you for pointing out that it's time for us to -- that people need to come together instead of pitting us against each other. He should be -- he should be denouncing these groups and tweeting about them as much as he does the other guys. I've got to run though. I'll see you soon.</s>CUOMO: I love you, D. Lemon.</s>LEMON: I love you too, brother. Thank you very much. So, let's get this show underway. This is CNN Tonight. I'm don Lemon. And I have a couple of questions for you and then I'm going to show you some of the evidence, right. We're going to help figure out what's happening. We heard about it tonight, a little bit from an interview. And we're going to play some of it for you. But what is going on inside of that building that you see on the screen right there, the people's house. Remember it? The Obama's called it the people's house. What is going on inside of this house? Well, we know this house had to be fumigated, sterilized, disinfected because it's a coronavirus hot spot. There was a super spreader event there. So, we know that much at least. But what's really happening behind those walls? Behind closed doors? You know, the old folks used to say, look, you don't know what's going on behind closed doors. We can -- there's a lot of evidence what's happening in there though. The president just called in to Sean Hannity, threw a kitchen sink full of conspiracy theories and lies at his base. As I said, he is desperate, desperate to hit the trail even though he may still be infected with a deadly contagious virus. Listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think I'm going to try doing a rally on Saturday night if we can -- if we have enough time to put it together. But we want to do a rally in Florida -- probably in Florida on Saturday night. Might come back and do one in Pennsylvania in the following night. And it's incredible what's going on. I feel so good.</s>SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Have you had a test since your diagnosis a week ago?</s>TRUMP: Well, what we're doing is probably the test will be tomorrow.</s>LEMON: We haven't -- think about this. We haven't seen the president with our own eyes since Monday except for a weird proof of life propaganda video or videos where he wears a ton of makeup and waves his hands around and says that he's cured and promises all kinds of miracle treatments. Sounds like a snake oil salesman, right? Remember the miracle treatment guy would come to -- just put some -- rub some of this on and it'll take care of what ails you, disinfectant. Bleach. We get letters from his doctor that says things like, the president says, I feel great. And based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics -- what is that? Have you ever heard that from your doctor? What? Because of that trajectory of diagnostics, he'll be cleared to hit the trail this weekend. This is what's happening, OK? Speak to anyone. Look up the kind of steroids he's taking and talk to someone who is either administered them or someone who is taking them. Pumped up on a powerful, on powerful steroids and infected with a potentially deadly virus, changing his mind like New York City taxi drivers change lanes. His staff has been contaminated with the coronavirus, possibly by him. He could be patient zero. The West Wing virtually empty because of their own recklessness. And now they want to take their super spreader tour on the road, super spreader 2020, while they are still covering up the first series of events by refusing to release when he last tested negative, if he was being tested at all. What? Why should we -- why would anyone believe him? His words matter. Those words, they put the lives of Americans at risk. Remember the American carnage the president talked about in his inauguration speech? He has stoked it for the last four years with his unhinged rhetoric and his actions. So, just as an example, why don't we use -- let's use the coronavirus as an example. More than 212,000 Americans are dead. And guess what he's doing. He is trying to blame gold star families, the families of fallen troops for his own infection, ignoring his Rose Garden super spreader event just the day before.</s>TRUMP: They want to hug me and they want to kiss me. And they do. And frankly, I'm not telling them to back up. I'm not doing it. But I did say it's like, you know, it's obviously dangerous. It's a dangerous thing, I guess, if you go by the COVID thing.</s>LEMON: He is inciting Americans to disregard our own safety, the president. He's mocking Joe Biden for wearing a mask, making false promises of cures. His own former vaccine director telling Jake Tapper at the president's promotion of unproven drugs is shameful.</s>RICHARD BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, HHS BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: It's shameful what is happening from the White House from this president and his senior administration officials in pushing unproven drugs forward as a panacea, as a miracle cure, as a cure-all, as a gift from God, all the ways that they describe these treatments without any evidence behind them. And pushing them forward, encouraging free wide access to Americans, in some cases where Americans didn't even need to be diagnosed with COVID-19. Knowing that these drugs could cause significant harm, these drugs could cause death even. It's reckless for the president and his administration to promote these.</s>LEMON: Remember hydroxychloroquine that he shorthanded? Hydroxy and then the folks at state TV started saying hydroxy. They say hydroxy. Guess what drug he did not take when he went to the hospital last week. No mention of hydroxy. Yet this president continues to downplay the virus.</s>TRUMP: So, I'm sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute desk, the great Resolute desk. I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know, I don't see it for myself. I said supposing you brought the light inside the body in which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too? It sounds interesting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll get the right folks who could.</s>TRUMP: Right. And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs. We have done an incredible job. We're going to continue. It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle.</s>LEMON: But he -- if you ask him or his followers, he never said that, even if you show them the evidence. He didn't say that. OK, he said it, but that's not what he meant. He said it but it's OK because, he said it but, he said it, he said it, but, but, but, but, he said it. How many excuses? Come on. If your child did that, you would correct them. Stop making excuses for this man. And this is not about ideology or Democrat versus Republican. This is about the behavior of a person who is supposed to be the leader of this country. Not leading at all, holding back information and evidence from you, lying to you. What this president says matters, all presidents. But his words matter. So, let's talk about the vigilante plot to kidnap Michigan's governor, overthrow several state governments. OK? Governor Whitmer who has been a vocal opponent and a target of this president, escaping what the FBI and the state attorney general say was a domestic terror plot. Thirteen people charged because they were angry about the lockdowns in the state in the middle of a pandemic. They were angry about lockdowns. Really? I know it's hard out -- it's hard for people out there. But how many people are plotting to overthrow their government? According to the criminal complaint, one suspect specifically claimed, or complained, I should say, about Michigan controlling the openings of gyms. Referring to the governor as, quote, "this tyrant b-word," except they didn't say b-word, they said the actual word. And adding, I don't know boys, we've got to do something. Who do you think you are? You have to do something? What? Does that mean overthrowing the government, going after a sitting governor? How is it your responsibility? Why do you feel so entitled that you have to do something about it? What you have to do is take a seat. Sit. Sit down. And a long time in jail it seems for now. The governor specifically blaming the president and his failure to condemn far right groups, saying his words are a rallying cry and a call to action.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Just last week, the President of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. Stand back and stand by, he told them. Stand back and stand by. Hate groups heard the president's words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.</s>LEMON: Now you'll remember the president stoked that anger for political purposes in all caps. The tweet was back in April, liberate Michigan. Protesters and vigilantes, some armed, they stormed the grounds of the Michigan Capitol. And then just last month at a rally, he kept up his attacks.</s>TRUMP: You would be doing even better if you had a governor that knew what the hell she was doing. You've got to open up the state.</s>LEMON: Asked today if he thought the president's liberate Michigan tweet encouraged vigilante groups, Joe Biden said yes.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Yes, I do. There is no place for hate in America. And both of us have been talking about this for some time, about how white supremacists and these militias are a genuine threat. I've got to compliment the FBI and police agencies for what they did and how they've stepped up. But look, the words of a president matter. You've heard me say this before. They can cause a nation to have the market rise or fall, go to war, bring peace. But they can also breathe oxygen into those that are filled with hate and danger. And I just think it's got to stop.</s>LEMON: Can you ever -- can you imagine this president ever saying anything like that? Never. Never unity. Always division. What the president says matters. His words matter. Let's talk about this president's dehumanizing attacks on Kamala Harris. You saw her in the video there with the former vice president. She's a sitting United States senator and vice-presidential candidate, calling her a monster and a communist.</s>TRUMP: And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence who destroyed her last night by the way, she's a communist. She's not a socialist. She's well beyond a socialist.</s>LEMON: As we would say, as we say, who raised you? Who raised you? Are you that desperate to win an election that you have to call a sitting U.S. senator a communist and a monster? Show some respect. She is someone's mother. She's someone's wife. And she was elected to office to serve the people just like you were. Show some respect. And guess what. Senator Harris is the first black and South Asian woman to run for vice president. We see you. I see what you're doing. It's not even a dog whistle. But we expect nothing less because you have showed us who you are, a bigot and a racist. You call her a monster. It's not politics as usual when you do that. It is vile and it is dangerous and it is disgusting. And someone should call it out and I am here to do it. I'm here for you people. People listen to this president. They take what he says seriously. Words do matter. This president's words matter. And never more than right now with millions of Americans already going to the polls, millions more set to vote in 26 days. Mask up and vote. Or do it early. But get to the polls and do it. Kaitlan Collins, Sara Sidner, both join me now. Good evening to both of you. Kaitlan, I should have said when I started at the top about what's going on behind the wall, I should have said, to be a fly on the wall at the White House. I got that right in the middle and I said I missed an opportunity. So, we haven't seen the president. We don't know his test results now or his past ones because there's the ongoing cover up. He is acting erratically. And tonight, he is refusing to answer if he has been tested again.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And Don, he was even asked three times in a friendly interview with Sean Hannity has he been tested since he was tested last Thursday and tested positive. And the president purposefully was not answering any of those questions and then he later said that he would get tested tomorrow and said he doesn't believe there's a reason to test all the time. And even tried to imply he was potentially never infected with coronavirus, though of course we know his doctors have said otherwise. But, Don, during his interview with Sean Hannity, you heard the president several times having to clear his throat and cough a little bit. And it's important to reminds viewers, we have not independently seen the president since he got back to the White House on Monday. Instead, we've just seen these videos produced by the White House, edited by the White House. And we haven't actually seen him ourselves and we also have not asked his doctor questions either since Monday. He is only putting out these statements and not putting out questions -- or not taking questions from reporters. But now the president says he's potentially going to hold a rally this Saturday night, he says in Florida, maybe or in Pennsylvania, though we still don't even know if the president has actually gotten a negative result yet, Don. And you have to think that if he did, he would probably have told us by now.</s>LEMON: Sara, I want to turn to Michigan. There's a serious story going on right there, serious investigation. Thirteen people charged in a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Who are they and why do they want to do this? What is going on with this group?</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's interesting and really scary actually when you consider what had sparked this. Some of what had sparked this and their anger, and their anger that has pushed them to want to kidnap the governor according to the FBI and state authorities has partly to do with the coronavirus. And why is the coronavirus involved? Because the governor had mandated masks. Because of some of the precautions to try to save lives that the governor had put in place and the state had in place. They felt like that was tyrannical and they wanted to overthrow the government according to the complaint. The plan according to the complaint was that they were going to instigate some of them a civil war to cause the government to unravel, to target member of law enforcement in order to do that, to storm the capitol building in Lancing, and kidnap government officials. Their main target according to the court documents was Governor Gretchen Whitmer who talked about this. She was -- her house apparently was surveilled. Her vacation home surveilled not once but twice. And you're also hearing these really disturbing details about the leader of this group being recording saying she should just grab the b-word because at that point, you know, that it's over, dude. And then they talk about what they were doing. It wasn't just talking about it. It wasn't just conversing on social media. It was also actually doing training for this and buying things like explosives. They purchased a laser according to the government and the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to try to use it as an antipersonnel capability. And they wanted to blow up the bridge to stop police from being able to get to her quickly if they were to be able to kidnap her from her home. These are really disturbing details and certainly it has turned political as well. Don?</s>LEMON: Sara, Kaitlan, thank you. Sara, please be safe. Thank you very much you guys. I'll see you soon. The plot against the governor of Michigan was deadly serious, conducting surveillance testing and testing and explosives, I should say. I'm going to ask Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist what he knows about the vigilante group behind all of this. But first, I want you to listen to what Governor Gretchen Whitmer says today.</s>WHITMER: When I put my hand on the bible and took the oath of office 22 months ago, I knew this job would be hard. But I'll be honest. I never could have imagined anything like this. |
Trump Not OK With Virtual Debate | LEMON: My head is spinning. This president keeps going back and forth on what he wants to do about the debate. As I said earlier, he keeps changing his mind like a New York City taxi driver changes lanes. Here's what he just said on Fox News.</s>TRUMP: I'm not going to do a virtual debate, sit behind a computer screen. And that gives them the answers because they'll be handing him the answers. Just so we want to have debate I'd rather just do it our self. Pick some good anchor.</s>LEMON: Wow, OK, that's a good excuse. Now he's suggesting that he'll do a debate without the debate commission? And he's making baseless claims about providing answers to Biden. Man, I would love to moderate that debate. That would be a really great debate. Talk about law and order. We still don't know if Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus, which means his presence could put everyone at the debate at risk. Our senior political analyst, John Avlon, is up late for us. He's usually on New Day where I catch him doing his thing, a lot in the mornings. Not every day but I catch him there a lot. It's good to see you, John.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You too.</s>LEMON: Let's talk about these polls. Majority of polls show Joe Biden with a significant lead in this race so far. So, Trump needs the debate more than Joe Biden. Is that -- am I correct or no?</s>AVLON: A hundred percent.</s>LEMON: OK. Go on.</s>AVLON: Look, I mean, this is not rocket science. You know, Trump, despite his sort of totally craft out of whole cloth assertion that he won the debate easily, every poll shows people did not believe he won the debate. And he is down in every poll, and by large numbers. This is much bigger than what we saw in 2016. So, the person behind wants more debates. Joe Biden doesn't need them. The first was a dumpster fire because Donald Trump lit himself on fire. And now you've got a situation where the President of the United States has COVID, has not been transparent about his medical history, and the debate, the debate committee this morning came out with a very reasonable proposal or, you know, suggestion based on the circumstances, said look, let's go ahead with it. But do it remotely because you might get other people sick. Trump freaked out mostly because it sounded like he wanted the ability to not get cut off remotely.</s>LEMON: Well, so, but --</s>AVLON: He wants to be able to run rough shot over the rules.</s>LEMON: So that's what I was going to ask you.</s>AVLON: And if he wants to -- yes.</s>LEMON: So why is he pushing for an in-person event? I mean, could he be baiting Biden you think to drop out? After all, Biden did make other plans for next Thursday.</s>AVLON: Yes, I mean that train has sailed. Biden has set up for a town hall debate which was the format that the second debate was supposed to be on Thursday, and there has been a lot of back and forth today. But I think that says as much about the erratic state of the president's head as anything else right now. Keep in mind, the president today has simultaneously demanded that Joe Biden be arrested and demanded Joe Biden debate him. These are not two typically typical things you see in a presidential campaign even down the stretch when things get crazy.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>AVLON: The president seems increasingly erratic. And so now we're left in a limbo --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>AVLON: -- because, you know, now that they went it briefly seemed like they had an agreement about pushing the debate back a week. But then, but the Trump team said, well let's add a third debate. It's not actually their call.</s>LEMON: Right.</s>AVLON: It's the presidential commission's call.</s>LEMON: But you, you also mentioned erratic behavior being in. I know you want to talk about the president calling Kamala Harris a communist. Why is that? Tell me.</s>AVLON: Because calling her a monster and a communist are two different kinds of ugly that we should not get numb to simply because this president has a steady stream of attacks particularly on women. You know, the communist attack yet goes back to Joe McCarthy, and that's very serious. But it's also about this blurring of lines that has increasingly been occurring on the margins of saying that Democrats are radical socialists. No wait, they're communists. You know, last time I checked communists killed millions of people during the 20th century. And it's not only a play to the base thing. It's a demonize your opponent beyond all reason thing. And so, there is a deep strain of ugliness that is resonant. It is racial in his case. It is sexist, but it also is associating your political opponents with mass murders. And let's not get numb to that, people.</s>LEMON: Yes. John Avlon. Always good to see you. I love it when you come on. I also love it when you come on with your wife. So please do that.</s>AVLON: She's better than me. You know that.</s>LEMON: No, I want you. I like you when you two argue. It's really great.</s>AVLON: Any time.</s>LEMON: Thank you, sir. I'll see you soon.</s>AVLON: All right, man.</s>LEMON: Sources say the president's aides are trying to stop him from making baseless claims about voting as intelligence shows foreign adversaries are looking to exploit the false information he is spreading. But so far, no luck. Because just this morning the president spread more lies. |
Trump Says he'll Hold Campaign Rallies this Weekend and Claims he'll be Tested Tomorrow; Trump Goes Back and Forth on Stimulus Talks and Debate Plans; An Exclusive Interview with President Trump by Fox News; Pence Postpones Trip to Indianapolis where he Planned to Vote Early; Vice President Mike Pence Denies Systemic Racism in America in Vice Presidential Debate | DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. 26 days, can you believe it until Election Day? President Trump's doctor greenlighting him for public events as of Saturday, but refusing to say if he is still contagious with COVID-19 or is he testing negative? Trump saying he will hold campaign rallies this weekend. Also demanding a return to an in person debate next Thursday. Saying he won't do the virtual format. Joe Biden saying he will hold a town hall on Thursday if Trump refuses to take part in a virtual debate. Lot's to talk about. Joining me now CNN's White House correspondent, John Harwood, also Amanda Carpenter, the former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz. And former Democratic mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. Good evening to one and all. John, let's begin with you. So, this president keeps going back and forth, back and forth on the debate plans. He gave us whiplash on the stimulus all while the White House's continues to hides his medical information. What is happening at this White House?</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don, President Trump's behavior has always been abnormal, but it feels more so now and I think it's a reflection of the difficulty he's having in managing all of the pressures that he is under. Think about what he's facing right now. He is losing the election to Joe Biden by a pretty significant margin for somebody who is so powerfully controlled by his ego that has got to be very painful to him. He is facing increased pressure from prosecutors. Prosecutors in New York are going to get his tax returns. And if he loses the election, he loses the shield from federal prosecutors that he has as president. Don't know whether those cases would go forward, but that's got to be on his mind. His son was deposed in a case the other day. And third, he has got coronavirus. We don't know how badly a, how bad a case he has got. He says he is getting better. The doctors say he is getting better. But the doctors have not made themselves available for questioning. He has not appeared live in front of those of us who cover the White House all this week. We do know that he is taking a powerful steroid that can affect mood and judgment. You put that all together and you have a president who is unwell physically, unwell politically, and unwell emotionally and psychologically right now.</s>LEMON: Amanda. I want you to take a listen to the conspiracy theories and the lies we heard from this president on Fox News tonight. Here it is.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He doesn't want to talk about it. But he endorsed a governor of Virginia who not only executed a baby late term abortion, but executed a baby because the baby can be born and then you can kill the baby. And he is totally in favor of that. We caught him spying on our campaign. This is treason. We caught them trying to take down a duly elected administration/president and we have all the evidence down there. The suburbs are over, as you know. The suburbs will be more unsafe than the cities, run by the Democrats. And so I think I should do very well with suburban women, because I'm the one that's protecting them. Both in terms of law and order and in terms of zoning. They want to build low income housing right next to your house as the American dream is destroyed. Destroyed. Look at where California's going to have to ration water, you know why? Because they send millions of gallons of water out to sea, out to the pacific, because they want to take care of certain little tiny fish that aren't doing very well without water. They have the biggest forest fires. Because they don't manage their land. They don't have separators. They have trees that have been laying on the ground that are stone cold dead dry like a match stick. And you throw a cigarette butt on between the leaves and the trees everything catches on fire. I want them to vote, but I will say this, absentee is OK. Because absentee ballots</s>LEMON: Yes, he is right about that, Amanda. Right? I mean, it is nuts. I mean execute a baby. Interesting that he talks about low income housing a man who is living in public housing right now, because it's the people's house. I mean, about tiny fish who without water -- these are national forests by the way, Amanda run by the federal government that he is talking about. Letters in a river, all of this stuff has been debunked. What is happening?</s>AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, let's think about what happened today. He decided that maybe he would boycott the next debate because he would have to do it over the phone. Why does he feel free to do that? Well, because he can call up Fox News whenever he wants and just spew whatever he wants for minutes and minutes and even hours on end. That was his second call in to Fox today for the America interview.</s>LEMON: Wasn't it more erratic than usual, no?</s>CARPENTER: Yes. We know he is crazy, we know he does this. What I struggle with is knowing that there's an entire network that gives him a free pass to do this, right. And I think it's important to remind people that, although Donald Trump is in a very important position of power and Fox News is a powerhouse in its own right. They are the outliers in this respect, most people will look at that dynamic and say, that's not normal. That's not right. That's not what I think. That's not what I believe. Even though they do have a market share within their own audience so to speak. And so, you know is this odd collaboration? Yes, it's Donald Trump, but yes it's this entire other system that feeds off of it and just kind of like doom loop that keeps repeating.</s>LEMON: That was, I mean, mayor, you were like, my god. That was crazy, right?</s>MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, its whack-a-nut. I mean, a 5-year-old kid can see that the president is not as we like to say down here in his right mind. In a very short period of time, the American people are going to have the power to take back their country and I think it's clear and it has been clear for a long time, but if it wasn't, today really ought to put the icing on the cake. The president is not going to keep us safe. The president is not going the lead us to a better day. The president is not going to do anything but burn everything down. Those forest fires that he's talking about in California, by the way, almost 80 percent of the land that he's talking about is actually owned by the federal government. Which he oversees through the Department of Interior. So, I just think that the people has seen enough, they are exhausted, the president is going to continue to be eradicate and he will continue to do what he is going to do. We know who he is, we know what he's going to do. The question is what are we going to do? We have the power to do something very different and I think the American people are going to make that choice very clear to him.</s>LEMON: Yes. There was more I mean, after that, Antifa and the whole -- and I was like geez, scary. So, John, listen, we have got information on had this earlier and I've been wondering what is going on. I want to know if you know about the vice president postponing this preplanned trip to Indianapolis where he was set to vote early. Are you hearing any reasons why he changed his plans?</s>HARWOOD: They are keeping it secret. They are telling us that it's not related to a positive covid test by the Vice President or anyone around him. They say he intends to travel again to Florida on Saturday. But they are not telling us why and it's pretty peculiar and you know, don't know whether that reflects some urgency to get him back in to Washington because of the president's behavior today. But until they answer the question, it's sort of like, why won't the administration tell us when the president's last negative COVID test was, what's the reason for that? Is it because that would show that he lied to the debate commission, the Cleveland clinic about when he was tested. Was it because he was infected for a much longer period of time and subjected a lot of other people to potential infection. We don't know the answer to that, and we don't know why the vice president is coming back. But we do know the president is acting strangely and the vice president returning to Washington.</s>LEMON: Amanda, they say the president -- he says he' going to be tested tomorrow, but how can we even believe the result or believe what he is saying?</s>CARPENTER: You can't believe anything that comes out of this White House. And that's what is so irresponsible. About the way that they act, I mean, they have had a credibility crisis for a long time and now it matters. We need answers about Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Because this is not just about them. It's about our government, he is second in line to the presidency. They came out and said, we are just trying to prevent burn out, he was supposed to go to Indiana and go vote. That is not a high action activity to fly to Indiana, go vote and fly back. It makes no sense, we saw him at the debate, he had blood shot eyes and neither of them look good. And so, I'm worried. I pray for our leaders to do well. But they have a responsibility to everyone to tell us what's going on so we can plan and keep this country running.</s>LANDRIEU: That's right.</s>LEMON: Yeah, mayor, that's the response we are going to get from you because I'm out of time. I'm sorry, we will get you back. But thank you very much, we appreciate you joining us, all of you, have a good evening.</s>LANDRIEU: Sure.</s>LEMON: The suspects in the plot against Governor Gretchen Whitmer were caught on social media and we are learning more tonight about what they were planning to do. Plus, Reverend Al Sharpton is here. I'm going to ask him, if the president is attacking Kamala Harris because she is a woman of color. |
FBI, Vigilantes Plotted to Kidnap Michigan Governor, Overthrow Government | LEMON: Tonight, 13 people accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer and put her on trial for treason, allegedly because she shut down the state due to coronavirus. Also, allegedly planning to overthrow several state government. Whitmer calling out President Trump for refusing to condemn far-right groups during last week's debate, saying the words of our leaders matter, that they carry weight. Let's bring in now CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and Chris Swecker, the former FBI assistant director for the criminal investigative division. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate you joining us. So, Donnie, authorities became aware of this scheme by monitoring social media. What do we know about their online social media presence?</s>DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: That's right, Don. The suspects here were all over social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, they were posting videos, they were streaming live. Facebook telling us tonight that they have been working with law enforcement on this investigation for more than six months. And to give you a taste of what the suspects were posting on social media, I want to show you a piece of the complaint here about Adam Fox, a 37-year-old person who has been charged in this case. They said he streamed live on Facebook, in which he complained about the judicial system and the state Michigan controlling the opening of gyms. Fox referred to Governor -- the Governor of Michigan as this tyrant b, and stated, I don't know boys we got to do something. Don, what we are seeing here really is people feeling emboldened to post openly these threats on social media and the polarized rhetoric we are seeing online just extending beyond the internet and going into the real world.</s>LEMON: Chris, you have experience with this. FBI, DHS, they have been sounding the alarm big time about the danger of groups like this. Talk to me about how these vigilante groups are growing and why is that?</s>CHRIS SWECKER, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION: Well, Don, they have been around since the 80s and the 90s. In fact, they were the number one terrorism priority for the FBI in the 80s and 90s, and they kind a, went away after 9/11, now they are back. And these are groups that revolve around all kinds of different antis, antigovernment, they have racist underpinnings. Anti-taxes, anti-abortion and all kinds of different things. You know, Terry McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, people like that they join up or they cast around and find like-minded people and they start talking about plots and what they want to do. In most cases, and this follows a pattern. The FBI learns of it, they weren't very subtle on the internet and they infiltrated the group, which is common with undercover agents and informants and you know, by the end of the plot, half of the group was probably informants and undercover agents.</s>LEMON: Wow. So, Donie, are we seeing a lot of talk of violence on social media particularly ahead of the election?</s>O'SULLIVAN: Yes, I mean, a lot of this sort of violent rhetoric and you know, conspiracy theories used to sort of being you know, just on the small -- the darker corners of the internet, like sort of hate filled blogs, like 4chan and 8chan, that's where the QAnon conspiracy theory which has been labeled by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorism threat grew in popularity. But now we are seeing these posts and these conspiracy theories spreading to do major social media platforms like Facebook. And tonight, I spoke to Fredrick Brennan, who is the founder of 8chan. He actually left this message board where QAnon grew popular a few years ago and he now thinks that it should be shut down because it's been involved in so much violence. I asked him what he was most worried about ahead of the election. Here's what he had to say.</s>FREDRICK BRENNAN, FOUNDER OF 8CHAN: What concerns me the most about what I'm seeing online is that people are still believing in QAnon at this late day. and they are still believing in all these fake news and they are getting more and more riled up and more and more just focused on this fake news narrative that is spun so much out of proportion at this point and it seems like a lot of them just cannot be pulled out of it until they go commit an attack and then finally people in their life realize how deep they were in. but by that time, it's too late.</s>O'SULLIVAN: And you know, Don, you know, Don, he is absolutely right. I mean, just last year, we saw the atrocities in El Paso and in Christ's Church, New England, those suspects, the perpetrators of those atrocities had posted openly online about what they were going to do.</s>LEMON: Chris, how are people like these guys we are seeing in Michigan, how do they become radicalized?</s>SWECKER: I think many of them come from a background of sort of hate- filled rhetoric. They are railing against the world. That is terrorism in general. You know, whether it's international terrorism or domestic terrorism, your operating as there is something wrong in your life and somebody else's to blame and in this case it's the government. The government is all over them trying to take their guns, etcetera. So, they get pretty stirred up. The find like-minded people. They are not mensa (ph) candidates by any stretch of the imagination. And they weren't real good at what they were doing, but they can be lethal.</s>LEMON: Chris, this is a really important and frightening story, and we thank you both for helping us to understand what is going on out there. I appreciate it, we will see you soon. The president calling sooner Kamala Harris some really nasty names today. So bad that this is how Joe Biden is responding.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's despicable. This is so beneath the office of the presidency and the American people are sick and tired of it.</s>LEMON: Well, I'm sure the Reverend Al Sharpton has a lot to say too and he will, next. |
Trump Calls Harris a Monster and Communist in Ugly, Sexist Attacks; Ex-Pandemic Preparedness Chief Says Trump is Allowing More People to Die. | LEMON: 26 days, only 26 days until the election and President Trump is launching an ugly name calling attack on Senator Kamala Harris following last night's V.P. debate. Part of this pattern of denigrating strong women. We have a lot to talk about with Reverend Al Sharpton, the host of Politics Nation on MSNBC and the author of Rise up, confronting a country at the crossroads. Reverend, good to see you. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.</s>REV. AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: Good to see you.</s>LEMON: So, you know we are going to talk about your book. So, we are going to get to that. But you know, I cannot have you on without asking you about the events that's happening in this country right now. In an interview this morning, the president called Senator Kamala Harris, a monster and a communist. And last night she was constantly interrupted by Vice President Pence. How much of that has to do with her being a woman of color?</s>SHARPTON: A lot of it has to be. Clearly the president attacked many women but he goes way out of his way to be extreme and provocative when it's a woman of color. It goes along within it. It's almost like a racial cocktail for him to be able to be racist and misogamist at the same time. And he's particularly ugly if a person like Kamala Harris all the way to people like Congresswoman Omar, he does not even call white women the kind of mischaracterized name that clearly dehumanizes them as well as have a sexist under pinning.</s>LEMON: Let's talk more about last night's debate. Kamala Harris and Mike Pence sparred over race relations. I want you to listen to this moment, again, and we are going to get your take on the other side, here it is.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This presumption that you hear consistently from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that America's systematically racist and as Joe Biden said, that he believes that law enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities is a great insult to the men and women who serve in law enforcement.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We are talking about an election in 27 days where last week the president of the United States took a debate stage in front of 70 million Americans and refused to condemn white supremacists.</s>LEMON: What were you thinking when you heard Pence dismissing police bias against people of color and how do you grade Harris' response?</s>SHARPTON: Well, clearly, you either have to deal with a data that says that blacks are disproportionately incarcerated while minority in the population, majority in many of the states around the country's jail population. So we are either inherently criminal. We are inherently less qualified because we are unemployed and in some states doubles nationally clearly almost double. And we are inherently less educated because we just can't learn or there is systemic problems across the board. I mean, you explain the data, if it's not systematic, then we are inferior. That's the only conclusion you could have. And when Senator Harris brings up the (inaudible), it's clear that she is absolutely on point, because it supports the fact. I think the way you find out if someone is at the pre-judgement, is you go to the facts and then come back. And say, how do we get to these facts? Either systemic or you are dealing with people that are inherently inferior.</s>LEMON: Let's talk about voting rights, because I know that you're a big proponent of that. It's one of your issues. A big topic of conversation in this race. Are you concerned the president is trying to throw the election in his favor with this false narrative about voter fraud? That he has been pushing?</s>SHARPTON: Absolutely. He is trying to throw out, what I would say is a climate (ph) to usher in one, why he is defeated if in fact he is. And second it undermine the rights of blacks so that as his fellow Republican right-wingers can purge voter rolls. Can change voting sites. All of that is done under the cloud of him raising suspicion to the whole voting system. There is a method to his madness.</s>LEMON: Let's get to your new book right now, and it is called, Rise up, confronting a country at a crossroads. And you write in part, "Trump's lack of political correctness is appealing to a certain group of people and this country -- everyone from Roger Stone and Steve Bannon to the disenfranchised blue-collar worker -- because they themselves feel shunned by the politically correct, a group I call the latte liberals, who hold tight to the academic principles of right and wrong, and act as if the conflicts we face in this country are nothing more than material for a stump speech. This kind of thinking -- purity politics -- is just as dangerous as Trump's obvious disdain for democratic norms." Listen. Joe Biden is no latte liberal. Can he win back the blue-collar voters from Trump?</s>AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: I think he can win the blue-collar workers from Trump because the blue-collar workers from Trump have not received any of the things that Trump has committed. And Biden understands the everyday life. He comes from them. He relates to them. Trump has never been a blue-collar worker. He has never been socially or culturally relational with them. He has been rejected by many of the power elite. Those of us that come out of New York, he was about nine years older than me but grew up in the same kind of environment, know that the powerbrokers downtown rejected some of us because of race, rejected him because they did not consider him and his dad legitimate. So, he has the same kind of chip on his shoulder that a blue-collar worker have. But they didn't understand that chip was there for very personal reasons, not because of any real class system or especially not racism.</s>LEMON: Biden has been walking the line of a moderate Democrat who can embrace some progressive ideas, but he still doesn't agree, for example, with defunding the police. Has he alienated a lot of progressives out there, you think?</s>SHARPTON: I think it's according to how you define progressive. There are many progressives that have said different things. Issues like defunding police, how you interpret that? Are you saying fund various things other than just keep recycling money in to the same areas that don't work? Are you talking about no police at all? I think that there is not a monolith in terms of who you call progressive, and many progressives are feeling not progressive when it comes to race. They are progressive in many areas, but when it comes to race. They almost become like, let us do the talking and set the standards. That's not progressive at all in my book.</s>LEMON: You have been very open about your progression when it comes to race and other issues: the reckoning over race across the country and the acknowledgment of the very real white supremacist threat. It's forcing people to take a hard look at their own words and actions, and I saw that you did an interview earlier this year, I think you talked about that, about how you were accused of anti-Semitism in the past and you had to reflect on your own words and actions. How are you dealing with this reckoning? Have you done enough, you think?</s>SHARPTON: I think it's all a process. I think that many of us -- I have never been anti-Semitic and anything else, but you can give words that can be twisted, misconstrued, and even the victims be frightened by. So if you're really a not something, rather than just denying it and being correct and denying it, you must be sensitive that you don't even indirectly, inadvertently give people any feeling of discomfort, and that is why language becomes important. I write about it in the book. I've learned that. I was admonished by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to don't even give air to anything that can be misconstrued to be representing anything other than what you solidly and fundamentally believe. Even in slang, you can hurt people, and it is not justified by saying it is just slang. If it is harmful, it is something that you should resist.</s>LEMON: We have with seen groups, the neo-Nazis screaming "Jews will not replace us," and blood and soil." We know that these white supremacists and these neo-Nazis have work to do when it comes to anti-Semitism. Do you think African-Americans do, as well?</s>SHARPTON: I think that that there are some in every community, including African-Americans, has to deal with anti-Semitism, homophobia, and gender inequality or misogyny. I write about it in the book, because the idea in the book is to say, unless we have an anti-sectional movement that represents fighting against bigotry on everyone, not comparing who is the most suppressed, I got more oppression than you, I got more history and more pain than you, that may be true. The question is can we all stop the oppression that we all face in whatever degree and fight against those that are against all of us.</s>SHARPTON: And until we can do that, they will keep winning by picking us one against the other.</s>LEMON: Listen. I appreciate your candor on this and how you are dealing with this. But there are those in our society who just -- who can't -- who are not dealing with this in a way that is constructive. And one of those people in the White House right now is stoking division. People -- I know you write about all of this in your book. But what happens to our country right -- what happens to our country, our country who is led by someone who says there are very fine people on both sides and then tries to qualify it by saying there are some good people in the crowd because they are fighting for heritage and they don't want statues taken down? I am not sure what good people march with neo-Nazis and white supremacist, but what happens to our country from here? What do we do?</s>SHARPTON: I think that we do what we did in the past before my time and certainly before yours. We have to unite those forces and take them out of power. We may not be able to change their heart, but we can certainly change their position. Here's a man in the White House that rolls, saying that a black man who was running and then became president of the United States is not one of us. Birtherism was at its core racism. The last in-person meeting that he and I had when he was running was around me arguing with him it was racist. He is saying it wasn't racist and he wanted to try and explain it to me. The basis of Donald Trump's politics was racism. Before that, he was just a guy doing "The Apprentice" and a supposed to be businessman that we found he was not a good businessman. His politics is based on racial divisiveness, us against them. Obama is not one of us. That was his calling card, and he is using that same song all the way through. The way you deal with that is you take away their political power. You hope to change their heart one take, but you can change their position come Election Day.</s>LEMON: All of these sayings and much, much more, the reverend, Al Sharpton, writes about in his book. The book again is called "Rise Up: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads." Thank you, reverend. I appreciate it. Be safe.</s>SHARPTON: Thank you, Don. Thank you.</s>LEMON: He is a long-term public servant, he has served under three different administrations, and he is voting for Joe Biden. The former CIA director, General Michael Hayden, tells us why next. Plus, a key government scientist working on a vaccine quit -- he quit, I should say, because of Trump's administration's response to coronavirus. He is speaking exclusively with CNN. |
Former CIA Director Hayden Backs Biden, Warns Against Trump Reelection | LEMON: President Trump appearing to blame Gold Star families, the families of fallen troops, for infecting him with COVID. You heard that right. Here's what he said on Fox Business.</s>TRUMP: I met with Gold Star families. I didn't want to cancel that. But they all came in and they all talked about their son and daughter and father. They come within an inch of my face sometimes. They want to hug me and they want to kiss me.</s>LEMON: The president is referring to the White House event for Gold Star families. Of course, no one knows exactly where President Trump contracted the virus and the White House still won't provide definitive timeline of the president's coronavirus tests leading up to his diagnosis. But the day before the Gold Star event, he was at a packed, mostly mask-less ceremony for his new Supreme Court nominee where multiple attendees have now tested positive for the virus. CNN's national security analyst and retired general, Michael Hayden, joins me now. He continues to recover from a stroke, by the way, he had in 2018, and we are so happy to have him. General, thank you so much for doing this. We really appreciate it.</s>MICHAEL HAYDEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR, FORMER NSA DIRECTOR: Thank you.</s>LEMON: So general, why do you think President Trump is blaming Gold Star families for giving him the coronavirus?</s>HAYDEN: Well, you know, many things, he will blame on somebody else and there's a great -- I can't believe that that would be happening. But he does. It's unbelievable.</s>LEMON: Yeah, you are right. You are calling out the president, general, and you are backing Joe Biden in a new video. Here's some of it. Let's listen to it.</s>HAYDEN: If there was another term for President Trump, I don't know what happens to America. Truth is really important but especially in intelligence. President Trump doesn't care about facts. President Trump doesn't care about the truth. He doesn't listen to his experts. The FBI says white nationalism is a real problem. And the FBI wants to do something about it. But the president doesn't want to talk about that. He doesn't keep the country safe.</s>LEMON: General, you worked for three different administrations. What do you think will happen to the country if Trump is re-elected?</s>HAYDEN: I don't know. But it's not good, OK? Even if he leaves in a few months, that will be very good. But things are happening already.</s>HAYDEN: If he says he is now -- a second term, I don't know what happens to America, institutions, our way of life. I'm not -- I'm really, really worried about that.</s>LEMON: Yeah. A lot of people are, general. You know, this plot -- let's talk about this plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer. It was broken up by the FBI. Is this kind of right wing domestic terror threat worse now than it has been?</s>HAYDEN: Oh, absolutely. Even so, I can see that now, OK? And the FBI talks about that. But the president doesn't want to talk about that at all. It's really, really sad for America. And then, you know, we said something today, that's very good. But, you know, it's going to happen again and again if the president does another term.</s>LEMON: Mm-hmm. I think what you meant was we can did something, we managed to foil it today, but it is going to happen again.</s>HAYDEN: Exactly.</s>LEMON: Yes, absolutely.</s>HAYDEN: That's what I was saying.</s>LEMON: Yeah.</s>HAYDEN: Exactly right.</s>LEMON: General, the top counter Intel official in the U.S. said that foreign powers are taking advantage of President Trump's lies. Listen to this, please.</s>HAYDEN: Yup.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they see a reference made by the president of the United States, a prominent U.S. senator, a business person, someone who America looks at as a voice of reason and they believe it suits their interests, they will amplify that by a thousand to make sure that the most amount of people see it.</s>LEMON: Is this president enabling foreign election interference?</s>HAYDEN: Oh, absolutely. That's exactly right. A lot of times in CIA, NSA, FBI, they are doing the right thing. But the president isn't talking about that at all.</s>LEMON: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. These intelligence officials and the institutions that you say he attacks all the time.</s>HAYDEN: That's right. They are trying. But, you know, if the president doesn't want it, that's a problem.</s>LEMON: Yeah. So, the president today is attacking two of his most loyal cabinet members, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and also Attorney General William Barr, publically pressuring them to charge Biden and President Obama with crimes. Is this something that can really happen, general?</s>HAYDEN: I don't think so, OK? I think America will be OK. Again, if not -- you know, not now. But if the president does another term, I don't know what happens to America. I really mean that. This is the most important time since the Civil War. That's the problem.</s>LEMON: You encourage people to get out and vote.</s>HAYDEN: Oh, absolutely. And if we do that, I think it will be OK.</s>LEMON: General Hayden, it is always a pleasure. It is good to see you so much. Say hello to your wife. We appreciate you joining us.</s>HAYDEN: Thank you.</s>LEMON: I love having him on this show. Reckless, dangerous, that's what a former key government scientist is calling the president, and he is exclusively calling CNN that the president's actions are allowing more people to die. That interview is next. |
Trump Rejects Virtual Presidential Debates; Military Aide Nuclear Football Carrier Infected with COVID; Trump Calling for His Polite Poll Watchers to Monitor Voting on November 3rd; FBI Foiled a Plot to Kidnap Michigan Democratic Governor; Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent, Co-Author, "The Man Who Ran Washington," and Susan Glasser, Staff Writer, The New Yorker, Co-Author, "The Man Who Ran Washington," are Interviewed About Trump and the White House; Interview With Pastor Samuel Rodriguez; Interview With Fashion Designer Stella McCartney. | CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, everyone, and welcome to "Amanpour." Here's what's coming up.</s>DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is about.</s>AMANPOUR: So, no more presidential debates then? The White House COVID outbreak reportedly is wider than first known. I asked veteran Washington correspondents, Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, whether things are spiraling out of control. Authors of the new book, "Profiling Leadership and the Republican Party." Plus --</s>STELLA MCCARTNEY, FASHION DESIGNER: We're very aware. And I think that's the important thing out of all of this is a level or awareness.</s>AMANPOUR: Designer and environmental activist, Stella McCartney, talks about her new COVID manifesto. Then, our Michel Martin speaks to Reverend Samuel Rodriguez about the evangelical vote in this high stakes' election. Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. And fasted your seatbelts because it's going to be a bumpy ride all these last few weeks to the election. Today, President Trump said that he would not take part in any virtual debates, then he said he would do it in person but later. The Biden campaign has rejected that. Meantime, the White House COVID hot spot gets hotter. At least one military aide who carries around the nuclear football, that's the briefcase with the nuclear codes, has been infected with the disease. In addition, President Trump is calling for his army of "polite poll watchers" to monitor the vote on November 3rd. And it doesn't stop there. The latest is that the FBI has foiled a plot to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan, who is a frequent target of President Trump. And last but not least, some are raising serious concerns about the president's erratic mood and behavior since he contracted COVID and since he's been taking a cocktail of drugs. How are we meant to process all of this? My first guests tonight are amongst the most experienced Washington watchers. They are the new yorker journalist, Susan Glasser and "The New York Times" chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker. And their new book, "The Man Who Ran Washington," about the former Republican secretary of state, James Baker, may help us figure some of this out. So, welcome both of you to this program. I mean, seriously, how are we meant to process all of this? That list that I just read, I mean, you cannot make it up and it all happened within the space of a few hours. Peter, let me ask you, what is going on inside the White House? You're a White House correspondent.</s>PETER BAKER, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CO-AUTHOR, "THE MAN WHO RAN WASHINGTON": Yes, it's a place of shell shock right now. It's a place that doesn't understand what to do. The aides are either sick themselves, trying to get tested, staying home or trying to figure out what to do to get information. They're very frustrated. They haven't, in fact, been given information about their own safety. They're very frustrated about the political situation. They don't know what to do with a president who won't stay isolated in the residence as he has been advised to do. And I think it's a place that feels very unhinged at the moment. It's very, very -- it's become the number one coronavirus hotspot in all of Washington, D.C. And so, you've got a president who is lashing out like a caged lion because he's frustrated and looking at polls that are very, very bad for him right now.</s>AMANPOUR: And as you mentioned, a lot of the senior tier is infected, including his campaign manager. Hence, this hullabaloo about whether he will actually agree to a debate or not by his own conditions. Biden says he won't agree to what President Trump is putting forward. Susan, how does this look if there's no more debating, is that a problem?</s>SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER, CO-AUTHOR, "THE MAN WHO RAN WASHINGTON": Well, look, Trump is the one who needs to somehow change the dynamic in the campaign. So, you know, you would think that normally someone who is behind who want to debate and, in fact, would seek every effort to try to get himself in front of the people and change the dynamic. Except, of course, that Trump's performance in the first debate was such a debacle and, you know, I think it will probably go down in history as the worst presidential debate in U.S. history. And so, in a way, it might have seemed like a face-saving way out, especially, Christiane, because the debate that was supposed to take place next week was a debate -- a town hall style debate in which regular Americans were going to ask questions. And that is not, to say the least, a format that favors President Trump. He did one recently on ABC, that was really a disaster for him. He's not used to facing skeptical audiences outside of his sort of Fox News bubble and, you know, rallies of adoring fans. So, you know, interestingly, you know, he may have reckoned that it benefitted him not to have that second debate. But, you know, he's behind in the polls and it does appear that Biden's lead, which was already substantial, is widening a bit since that disastrous debate performance last week.</s>AMANPOUR: OK. So, you talked about Fox News. He also told Fox News that Kamala Harris, Senator Harris, who is vice president Biden's vice- presidential running mate, had her debate with Mike Pence, the vice president last night. We understand it is one of the biggest audiences ever for a vice-presidential debate. The numbers are coming in and they way outnumber those who watched the vice-presidential debate in 2016. I mean, never has it been more important, this notion of being a heartbeat away from the presidency, whether we're talking about a COVID-infected President Trump or, you know, an elderly but not COVID-infected, we don't think, Joe Biden. Tell me a little bit, you know, Peter, how important you think this debate was.</s>BAKER: Well, I think as a matter of substance it was very important because for the reasons you just said. One of these two people has a much better than average chance of becoming president someday. And in the not too distant future</s>AMANPOUR: So, she's the first African-American woman to -- a vice presidential candidate woman to be on that stage, in that kind of, you know, position. And Mike Pence himself paid tribute last night to the historic nature of her candidacy. Only for the president today to revert to his, you know, somewhat, some would say misogynistic terms that he uses against women. He used to be nasty. Now, he calls her a communist and a monster. Susan, as a woman, you don't have to be a woman to comment on this, of course, but how do you think that would go down at this moment, those kinds of words about somebody like Senator Harris?</s>GLASSER: You know, Christiane, that's one thing that never ceases to amaze me about the Trump campaign this year, is that facing an enormous deficit in the polls with women, in particular college educated suburban women, you know, if we're looking at the biggest gender gap potentially in American history. Even more so than when Hillary Clinton ran against Donald Trump. And yet, you know, Trump seems to go out of his way to alienate these women voters that Republicans need in order to stave off a debacle. And by the way, I actually thought Mike Pence was also, you know, very patronizing to Kamala Harris last night. He interrupted her repeatedly. And in fact, there was a female moderator, Susan Page. He wouldn't listen to either one of them in a way that, I don't know about you, but I've been in that situation a million times before and I don't think there's a lot of women watching that who didn't feel the painful recognition of, you know, here's a patronizing man who just won't shut up, even if it's not his turn. And then you have Donald Trump who, of course, calls name of everyone, men and women, but he seems to have a special animus toward women and public life. Look at how he's demeaned Nancy Pelosi from the beginning of her speakership and, you know, to call Kamala Harris a monster, I mean, really? Really?</s>AMANPOUR: It was extraordinary. Can I just ask you, Peter, I mean, you said people are very nervous inside the White House? Look, we raised this idea that potentially there may be some, I don't know, mood-altering or euphoria one moment and something else the next. These are the side effects of some of these drugs we're told that he's been taking. We don't get a straight answer from his doctor as to exactly how he is, when he last tested negative. How worried or is this just media chatter? Is anybody really worried about his state of mind?</s>BAKER: Well, I think they're wondering. I think they are. Because, look, the particular mix of different medications that they have given him for the COVID-19 hasn't been done so many times that they have a lot of experience with it. We don't know how a lot of these drugs interact with each other. And then the steroids themselves are known to create a feeling of euphoria and mask any pain or discomfort and, in some cases, even have, you know, even bigger effects on a person's state of mind. We don't know that that's what's happening here, but of course people in the White House are wondering themselves about it. Now, the president said this morning that he's no longer taking the other medication. He's only still on the steroid. But the steroids by themselves would be enough to raise questions. And we don't have the answers. You're right, we haven't seen the doctor now in several days. And he hasn't been particularly forthcoming even when we did see him.</s>AMANPOUR: Let's just talk a little bit about your book, which has been out for a bit now, getting very good reviews. It's called "The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James Baker III." Well, of course, many people remember he served presidents from Reagan on down. He was secretary of state. He was secretary of the treasury. He was the chief of staff. What do you think -- how would he handle the multiple crises that are going on right now? And remember, of course, he was also the lawyer for the Bush, W. Bush, who essentially won the Supreme Court vote for W. Bush after the 2000 election, and Bush then became president. What would -- what kind of leadership do you think there might be of -- if there was so-called an adult in the room right now?</s>GLASSER: Well, look, clearly, it's now seems that no one can be the adult in the room with Donald Trump. So many have cycled in and out. So, perhaps even Jim Baker could not run that White House. I suspect that is the case. But I will say this, you know, he was famous for making deals at a time when it was so possible to do so in American politics. And that required working with Democrats across the aisle, it required working with Soviets to help manage the end of the Cold War. And, you know, one thing that Baker was a master at was sitting down with those who might potentially be adversaries and finding a way towards a solution that everyone could agree upon. I mean, you know, he famously was even able to negotiate Hafez al-Assad, you know, in Syria to entice him to participate in the Madrid Peace Conference. And, you know, that's not easy. If you can negotiate with, you know, Hafez al-Assad, you can negotiate with Democrats on Capitol Hill. And right now, look at how Democrats and Republicans and Trump have failed to produce any COVID relief package for the American people since April, despite millions of being out of work, companies going bust, you know, state and local governments suffering. And, you know, I do believe that where Jim Baker in a position of power right now, that just absolutely would not have happened. It's like Washington has lost the habit and the ability and the incentive to actually do something once in power. It's not power for its own sake right now, it often seems to be. And you know, he taught us, I think, that, you know, you can really -- you should be in government to get something done.</s>AMANPOUR: Yes, power, you do mention the word power a lot. And I think he is somebody who recognized power and how he would quite like to have it, particularly for his own party. Hence, the importance of his role during the 2000 election debacle afterwards. What about Pence refusing to answer the moderator last night about whether they would respect the integrity of the election. Peter, how do you -- well, I mean, obviously it's a big gap not to answer that question, but what do you think is going to happen on November 3rd?</s>BAKER: Well --</s>GLASSER: Tell me.</s>AMANPOUR: I don't mean who's going to win. I mean, if it's contested as it was in 2000.</s>BAKER: Look, it's very possible, obviously, that we could have not only just Florida all over again, we could have Florida on steroids. And not just because we might have challenges in one state or two or three or more, but because we have a president who's made it very clear that he doesn't even believe in the system. That he's tearing down the credibility of the very fabric of the system itself. He says the whole thing is rigged. The whole thing is corrupt. And basically, has made clear that any result other than a victory for him is going to be something he's going to question. And you wonder whether or not, if it went all the way up the Supreme Court the way it did in 2000, whether he would accept a ruling that went against him because it's not clear he would. Whatever you say about Florida, as tough as it was and disappointing as it was to some people, in that moment you had Jim Baker, Al Gore, George W. Bush, people that have fundamental respect for the system. And when the fight was over, they all basically said, OK. It's now over. We accept the outcome and we're going to move on.</s>AMANPOUR: And, of course, if this new Scotus (ph) appointee, if it actually does go through and everything happens as the Trump administration wants it to happen, there will be a heavy balance in favor of the conservative viewpoint. Let me ask you this as well. You see how many Republicans, whether they're former military, former diplomatic, national security, even the Republican chairman of the RNC, the former, Michael Steele, who came out and endorsed the Democrat, Joe Biden, have said, you know, we can't do Trump this year. We might like a tax cut. We might like what he does about the Supreme Court, but we can't. What did James Baker say to you about that? Is he going to vote for Trump?</s>GLASSER: You know, Christiane, you think he would be almost a natural never-Trumper, you know, but we've talked with him over the last five years, we've been working on this book as Trump has risen and, you know, asked him that question over and over again. And, you know, he's been tortured about Trump, I think, in a way that helps you to understand why it is that even after everything, you may well see 41 -- 45 percent of the American people still voting for Donald Trump. You know, Baker is very clear he thought Trump was nuts. That's a word he used. Crazy, that's a word he used. Just yesterday, we were at an appearance with him and he went on about how Americas alliances in the world are in a disastrous state because of Trump. And yet, he voted very reluctantly for Trump in 2016, he told us. And he, at one point, told us he might vote for joe Biden this year, but I think he's made it pretty clear at this point that he sees his Republican identity and the conservative priorities of, you know, more judgeships and the like as outweighing his personal qualms about Trump. It's a little hard to square with the man and his record, but I think it's very telling, actually, about the state of the modern</s>GOP. AMANPOUR: Let's get back to the state of the current election and the issues. Last night, the whole idea of health care, obviously, in this COVID pandemic was brought up, and next week the Supreme Court could make another ruling on the Affordable Care Act. This is a couple of, you know, interventions by both Pence and Garris. Let's just listen.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you have a pre- existing condition, heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they're coming for you. If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they're coming for you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Senator Harris.</s>HARRIS: If you are under the age much 26 on your parents' coverage, they're coming for you.</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The Obamacare was a disaster and the American people remember it well. And President Trump and I have a plan to improve health care and protect the pre-existing conditions for every American.</s>AMANPOUR: What should, Peter, American voters listening to that take away from that? Because certainly, in 2018, the worry about taking away Obamacare was one of the things that propelled the blue wave in Congress?</s>BAKER: That's true. It was a very useful issue for the Democrats two years ago and it maybe again this fall. I mean, Democrats are trying to make a lot out of the Supreme Court case to say, look, this is on the ballot as well, that basically this is a stake and they can take away your health care. Some legal experts we have talk to say that maybe overstating the impact of that case might be or overstating the possibility that they would take such drastic action. But even if not the case, you know, Vice President Pence says, we've got a plan, and they don't. They haven't produced a plan. They've been asked and they've never actually produced. But they have had a promise, a promise of not eliminating pre-existing conditions but they haven't produced a plan for how that would work. And that's a pretty important distinction, four years into the administration, not to actually tell us how they plan to do it.</s>AMANPOUR: And finally, let me ask you, maybe everybody can see that you're sitting really closely together. There's no social distancing. There's no masks. Well, you're married. You're in your own bubble. And you've written this book together. How was it? How was writing this book together?</s>GLASSER: Well, the good news, Christiane, is that we're still on speaking terms. So, you know, that is good. You know, luckily, we have done this before. We wrote our book about Russia and Vladimir Putin's Rise, and actually, that was the very same day our son arrived early. So, that was actually much harder. This has been a long time in the making. But, you know, a great project to do together.</s>AMANPOUR: Peter baker, Susan Glasser, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us. And now the U.K. and much of Europe are in the grip of the second COVID wave and the U.S. has never even got out of the first. As governments struggle with testing and tracing, a vaccine is still the holy grail. Here in Britain, the government is the first in the world to consider allowing a unique vaccine trial where volunteers are deliberately exposed to coronavirus, and thousands of them say they are ready to take part. Many of these would be volunteers are young people who, of course, are often blamed for the resurgence of the virus right now. Correspondent Phil Black speaks to some of those who are eager to participate.</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN CORESPONDENT: Like so many, Estefania Hidalgo has quietly endured the challenge, the inconvenience of living through a pandemic. But she wanted to do more.</s>ESTEFANIA HIDALGO, 1DAY SOONER VOLUNTEER: This was a way for me to take control of the situation, to be like, OK, I can do this to make it better. I chose not to be in fear.</s>BLACK: So, she volunteered to be deliberately infected with the coronavirus.</s>HIDALGO: I was shaken but then I just -- without knowing, I just typed my name in and it's like, let's go for it.</s>BLACK: Shaken?</s>HIDALGO: Yes. Because it can be scary, right? Like you're going to be potentially exposed to the virus.</s>BLACK: Alastair Fraser-Urquhart is also very keen to be infected.</s>ALASTAIR FRASER-URQUHART, 1DAY SOONER VOLUNTEER AND COORDINATOR: I've just got the e-mail.</s>BLACK: He helps with running the recruitment campaign Estefania has signed up to. 1Day Sooner finds volunteers, so far tens of thousands around the world and has been lobbying the U.K. government to make use of them through potentially risky research.</s>FRASER-URQUHART: I wake up thinking about challenge trials and I go to bed thinking about challenge trials.</s>BLACK: Challenge trials involve giving young, healthy people a potential vaccine, like this one developed by London's Imperial College. Then later, testing it by deliberately dosing them with the virus. Proponents say it's faster than waiting for test subjects to be exposed to a specific virus in the real world. With numerous COVID-19 vaccines being developed, some scientists think challenge trials could help identify the best of them sooner.</s>FRASER-URQUHART: By taking that small risk on myself, I can, you know, potentially protect thousands of other people from, you know, having to be infected without consenting to it.</s>BLACK: Critics say challenge trials have limited use because the young, healthy people who take part don't represent the broader population. They have been used against other viruses.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome FluCamp.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free to quarantine?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes.</s>BLACK: This is corporate video from a London facility that recruits, exposes and strictly quarantines people to test influenza vaccines.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a wonderful safety record that we're all proud of.</s>BLACK: But there are always risks, especially with a new virus that's already killed more than 1 million people. And epidemiologists say it's likely some volunteers would be needed for a control group to make sure the virus does can cause disease. It means they would be exposed to the coronavirus without receiving a vaccine. The real potential for doing harm to volunteers would be closely scrutinized by regulators.</s>PROFESSOR SIR TERENCE STEPHENSON, CHAIR, ENGLAND'S HEALTH RESEARCH AUTHORITY: A challenge trial would have to make the cogent argument that the benefits to society greatly outweighed the risk and that that evidence of those data could not be achieved in a simpler, safer way.</s>BLACK: Phil Black, CNN, London.</s>AMANPOUR: We'll be watching that. And the pandemic and the global uprising for racial justice are pushing many businesses around the world to rethink sustainability and social responsibility. But my next guest has made this part of her brand's DNA from the start. Fashion designer, Stella McCartney, is out today with a new spring/summer collection and a new manifesto called "A to Z." She tells me that she came up with this road map for her future while forced to hit the pause button during lockdown. I went to see her in her studio here in London to find out what's changed. Stella McCartney, welcome back to the program. So, the last time we spoke was obviously before COVID. You have had a moment of pause, right? What have you been doing through the lockdown? How has it affected your work?</s>STELLA MCCARTNEY, FASHION DESIGNER: Well, I mean, I think like everyone, I found myself asking sort of bigger questions really of what I do and why I do it. Why do you come to Stella McCartney if you can buy anything from any brand in the world and why would you come and work here? And I found what I was really proud of is that I believe so deeply in what we do here and how we have a completely new approach to the business of fashion. And I think coming back to fashion as a consumer, if you can come back with a more conscious level of consumption, lots of Cs, and that's what kind of hit me, really. You know, we focused a lot on the collection on how we could reduce what we produced, how we could do more with less. And just, you know, really challenge ourselves to be the best sustainable fashion house on earth.</s>AMANPOUR: So, sustainability is your thing. And this is where you have pioneered, I think, the fashion industry. Just want to ask you just out of interest, have you noticed people buying different things during lockdown? I mean, are people buying more loungewear other than more than going out wear?</s>MCCARTNEY: Well, I mean, the ball gowns aren't exactly rushing out of the stores. Yes, there's been a big difference in the way people buy. You know, one of the biggest things that we do that people maybe don't even understand or we assume people understand is wear a vegan brand. And, you know, that probably has the most positive footprint for us as a house, that we're sort of buying into animal agriculture. And what is a vegan? You know, I don't think a lot of people know. So, I think that sort of --</s>AMANPOUR: So, your definition of a vegan as it applies to fashion?</s>MCCARTNEY: Yes. Is no animal products. All of our accessories, for example, are using vegan glues as opposed to animal glues, which are boiled down bones, which is not that sexy. So -- and obviously, faux leathers, faux furs and just sort of talking about what we do and trying to also keep it sexy and fun and like not telling people off and just giving it an alternative. You know, creating a solution that doesn't in any way sacrifice what you want from fashion.</s>AMANPOUR: Do you find that you're not pushing on such an uphill boulder?</s>MCCARTNEY: I think so. I think for a few years now I've noticed that the fashion industry, which has normally been very fickle and weirdly takes longer sometimes to see the fashion in food, the fashion in lifestyle, people's choices have slowly been coming to this sort of way of thinking. And, you know, I think it's because the next generation of people are afraid for their future and they're having to buy things and live their lives in a different way and be more conscious. So, it's finally come to the door of fashion. And, yes, I think I'm less of a sort of eco-weirdo in the room now. I think I can have these conversations with my fellow designers and people in the industry, and it's something that is welcomed.</s>AMANPOUR: And we've spoken before. I mean, your mother was considered even more of an eco-weirdo than you were because just about the first in public life to talk about vegetarianism and the kind of things that you're pursuing now. But that, of course, brings me to one thing that you have been working on, an alphabet. The new Stella McCartney alphabet. What is that all about? It's the a to zed of?</s>MCCARTNEY: It's the A to Z really of the house. You know, I did kind of -- I had a couple of weeks in the COVID lockdown period where I -- like I said before, I was reflecting on what we do here at Stella and why people come to us. And I kind of woke up, you know, in a spelly sleepless night. So, I sort of read a manifesto. So, it's an A to Z or A to Zed, however you want to pronounce it, of words that put into place the belief system here at Stella.</s>AMANPOUR: So, I want to take A first. A for accountability.</s>MCCARTNEY: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: Tell me about that, because you've picked a fairly new young artist. He's a black American artist. So, the accountability is what?</s>MCCARTNEY: You know, you can translate it however you want to translate it. You know, for me to be accountable is to be present in and the impact that I have, both in my interactions with people, in my actions, with myself. You know, how I am as a human being inhabiting this planet with fellow creatures. So, I think the great thing about the alphabet is that you can make it what it is to you. And you can personalize it. It's not me telling you how to be. It's, I guess, asking yourself questions and wondering if you're fully being accountable and if you want to, you know, be a better citizen.</s>AMANPOUR: So, this artist is Rashid Johnson who did the</s>A. MCCARTNEY: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: And in particularly in the fashion history, I mean, there haven't historically been that many black models, black catwalk models, black, you know, front cover of magazines. Do you agree, do you think fashion has taken its eye off historically the racial justice and the representation ball?</s>MCCARTNEY: Yes. I mean, I think everything has, everyone has, that's why we're having this conversation. It's not just fashion. It's broadcasting, it's film, it's literature, it's the arts, it's, you know, politics, it's everything.</s>AMANPOUR: One of the other artists that you have in your manifesto is Olafur Eliasson. He's famous for his climate related work and his interactive work.</s>MCCARTNEY: Well, he took O because Olafur, which leads for O. I think a lot of the artists we sort of encouraged. Jeff Kuntz took K for kindness. And, you know, we sort of encouraged them to take something that came also with their name. But Olafur is an amazing artist. I'm a huge fan of his work. And it's very sort of -- it makes perfect sense for him because he's a very environmental artist, I would say, very aware of mother earth and nature and the change that we all need to make to protect her. And so, he did a beautiful piece of work, which was laying all of these transparent colors and this beautiful O that came from that. And it's funny because the circle is very strong at Stella McCartney. It's something we use in our Falabella bag as one of the charms. Our brand name is even made up of dots. And for me, it's the circular economy of how we work as well and, you know, really sort of being aware of waste and the level of waste in the fashion industry. The thing is what happens in luxury fashion, which I think is shocking that its' -- I mean, I'm still saying this, is a lot of houses -- we all design our own individual prints. And because of that, houses are reluctant to then sell them on or if there's, you know, some excess after a production run or something, and they don't tend to give them away or sell them, for example. And so, instead, they bury them or they burn them. And I've never been able to get high head around that, that level of waste. I find it just really excessive and vulgar and just wrong. So, we keep all ours, but it means -- and we sort of stockpiling all of these fabrics season after season. So, what we've tended to do for many collections is reuse them. And so, it's a form of sort of recycling and it's the circular economy in the sense that it's less linear. You're not sourcing and then sort of finishing. You're sourcing and continuing. So, we made a dress recently that was zero-waste for our spring collection. And it's just made of strips and strips of all of our prints. And we sort of figured out it was over 20 seasons of different prints in this zero- waste garment. And this idea that in a sense we created limited edition pieces because once they ran out, the fabric ran out, it ran out.</s>AMANPOUR: That was it.</s>MCCARTNEY: You know, and that's not something that people want to do in my industry because they just want to sell more and more and more.</s>AMANPOUR: Do you think fast fashion is getting the message or is it still a big outlier when it comes to waste, when it comes to disposing and when it comes to the fabrics, when it comes to paying people fairly?</s>MCCARTNEY: Every single second a truckload of fashion is burnt or buried, things -- I think it's under 1 percent is recycled. It means there's 99 percent of waste being generated. Things are worn only up to three times if you're lucky before they're just disposed of. And that level of kind of disregard, I think, is something that we all need to be responsible for. But, you know, I -- it's easy for me to say because, you know, I'm not a cheap brand. And so, I do encourage, you know, recycled clothing, vintage clothing, renting clothing. There's so many different ways now --</s>AMANPOUR: Well, I was going to ask you -- yes, because what do you say to people who buy a really expensive Stella McCartney and don't just want to wear it once?</s>MCCARTNEY: I say, wear it as many times as you want it. But I think that's for us, T in the alphabet, for example, is by William Eggleston, and it's timeless. As a designer, one of the things that all of us can do is design in a timeless manner, because trends are part of the kind of problem. And here at Stella, it's critical for me that you're wearing what I'm wearing. I want to wear it over and over and over again, and I want it we will enough made that I can do that. And I want to be able to make money off it when I'm done with it. I want it to go up in value. And look -- we work, for example, with a company called Econyl, and they take waste from fishing nets or from old fabrics and recycle it into a nylon thread. And we have basically contributed to tons and tons of fabric not being made, which is great. You know, that -- I love that.</s>AMANPOUR: I want to go back to the alphabet and L. Obviously, your mother is so much a part of your whole ethos, your ethic, your style.</s>MCCARTNEY: And my dad, too.</s>AMANPOUR: And, of course, your dad. I'm going to ask a question about your dad later.</s>MCCARTNEY: It's OK, dad.</s>AMANPOUR: L, letter L in your alphabet is for your mom.</s>MCCARTNEY: It's for Linda. It's also for Linda and, stroke, love, because I think that, for us at Stella, love is important. We put so much love into everything that we do. And there you go. All you need is love. There you go. I will do it for you.</s>AMANPOUR: And you love your dad, and I'm going to insert a dad question. And this is really off a radio interview I just heard. Your father, Paul McCartney, has been doing a historical review or something about his partner John Lennon. And he spoke to the two sons, Sean and Julian Lennon. And do you know anything about it?</s>MCCARTNEY: No. But that is a really important thing, I would say, for them to do. It's a healing process as well for all of them.</s>AMANPOUR: For all of them.</s>MCCARTNEY: And I encourage that relationship very much. And that's lovely to hear. I mean, I know that Sean was just texting me today, actually, saying that it's the celebration of John's life coming up with his birthday, so maybe it has something to do with that.</s>AMANPOUR: That's what it is, yes.</s>MCCARTNEY: But, yes, I think at the end of the day, all of those -- you know, everyone needs to sort of reach out at a time like this, I think</s>AMANPOUR: Do you remember John Lennon?</s>MCCARTNEY: Yes. Yes, I do. Yes, yes. I was lucky enough to spend time with him as a child. Yes, I do very much. Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: Was he like an uncle?</s>MCCARTNEY: I would say he was like an uncle from -- you know, in a very different way. We are really a weird set, the Beatles kids. It's a family. It's very much an extension of a family. So you know, all of the kids were like, "God, we're the only ones that get it." Or it was like "God, my God, How weird is this?" And we'll have a conversation like -- you know, so yes, we're definitely a big family.</s>AMANPOUR: That's amazing. One of the letters that I want to focus on because, she is such an amazing artist and photographer, Cindy Sherman, does E. Describe that. Because we've got the picture.</s>MCCARTNEY: It's E for effortless, and I think that's really important. You know, one of the reasons I started wanting to be a fashion designer at the age of sort of 9 was because I believe very much in the psychological connection between what you wear and it reflecting who you are and how you feel. And as a woman designer, I want to kind of encourage us, women, to feel great about ourselves. And so Cindy is a dear friend. She was kind enough to do E for effortless. And she's a tree and she is sort of embracing whatever she is embracing, but I think humor again we have H for humor by an artist called Alex Israel in the alphabet, an L.A.-based artist, and he took the H from the Hollywood sign and took it off and it's crashing into a car. And humor is important because at the end of the day, these are heavy subject matters that we're covering at Stella, and I don't want to feel like I'm lecturing people. I don't want people to feel like I'm making them feel bad or that I'm just kind of greenwashing or using this for marketing, like this is what we really do here, and we want to be sort of information driven and solution driven with a smile. It's like let's have some fun. It is fashion after all.</s>AMANPOUR: Stella McCartney, thank you very much.</s>MCCARTNEY: Thank you very much for having me.</s>AMANPOUR: And tomorrow would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday. Now, 26 days to go to the U.S. election, and both candidates are after, of course, every last vote. A Pew Research Center poll found at least 82 percent of white evangelicals are preparing to vote again for President Trump, which is his famous base, of course. But he also has growing support amongst non white evangelicals. Pastor Sam Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. And, here, he talks to our Michel Martin about how he once had the ear of President Obama and why now he advises President Trump.</s>MICHEL MARTIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Christiane. Pastor Sam, thank you so much for joining us once again.</s>REV. SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL HISPANIC CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE: Thank you for having me.</s>MARTIN: For those who may not remember, you have been with us before. You offered prayer at President Trump's inauguration in 2016. And it was a sort of an important and powerful moment for you. But you had been connecting with and consulting with previous presidents. This is not the first sort of president that you have been close to. But this is the first time you were offered the opportunity to offer prayer at a presidential inauguration. Did you vote for President Trump?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know me well enough that I won't share who I voted for. But I worked with George W. Bush, advised President Bush. I worked with President Obama for eight years. And now I'm advising President Trump. So, I never share who I voted for. Actually, it's just part of my covenant with God and my family.</s>MARTIN: It's been reported in the media that you're campaigning for him. So, that -- is that not true?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Yes, no, I'm campaigning for life, religious liberty and biblical justice. That's what I'm campaigning for in 2020. To be very forthright, I was out there in 2008 for President Obama, because I believed in his vision for America. And I do believe that, right now -- I'm an independent, but I do believe the Democratic Party has shifted so, so much to the left on these issues, on life, on religious liberty, that I am compelled, because of my children and my children's children, to advocate policies that line up with our biblical world view.</s>MARTIN: So, to that question, President Trump has ably demonstrated that he is against abortion. But with more than 200,000 people dead because of a COVID-19 crisis, the reporting indicates that he was not forthright about and did not take seriously at the outset, has he demonstrated he's truly pro-life?</s>RODRIGUEZ: No, this COVID-19 has impacted all of us. I was there in the beginning for certain conversations, working on the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, giving advice as it pertains to churches and the response to COVID and even post facto. So, I can tell you from the get go there was a commission from this administration to deal with COVID in a very deliberate, intentional manner, while simultaneously protecting our God-given rights. The tension constantly has been one issue. Do we give up our rights in the midst of a pandemic or any other circumstance, as the government deems as an emergency? And I believe that tension is real. It's legitimate. We should have a viable conversation. But I do not believe that President Trump has given up or forsaken or neglected the sanctity of life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.</s>MARTIN: But why do you think this country has the worst -- one of the worst death rates? It has certainly the worst overall number of deaths in the world. And it's got among the worst death rates for an affluent country. None of our peer economies, countries with comparable economies, level of resources, level of sort of access to technology are suffering the way this country has. And I certainly don't think I need to tell you that black and brown people are among...</s>RODRIGUEZ: Right.</s>MARTIN: ... the people who have been most devastated by this epidemic. Why is that?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Well, with great due deference -- and I have an incredible amount of respect for you -- of course, with great due deference, I would argue on the death rate. I do agree the number of deaths is, of course, egregious, and any one life that is lost, of course, impacts all of us. But there's a difference between proportionality as it pertains to the population and the actual death rate in comparison to similar nations.</s>MARTIN: The death rate -- forgive me. Forgive me, Pastor. Forgive me, Pastor. That is disingenuous. The death rate per thousand is worse in the United States than it is in any peer industrial country. We're not talking about India here. We're not talking about Brazil here. And we're not even talking about Mexico here. We're talking about countries like New Zealand. We're talking about Germany. We're talking about Australia. We're talking about countries with similar economies to ours. And the death rate in the United States is far worse. So, tell me why you think that is, because the critics of this administration say it's because this administration has failed to take the steps that would be necessary.</s>RODRIGUEZ: I would disagree with that. Two of those three nations are two of my favorite nations,. I travel frequently every year, prior to COVID, Australia and New Zealand. These are nations that are, of course, island nations, isolated. So they have the luxury of being able to shut down their borders like this immediately. And they did, both Australia and New Zealand. Yesterday, I spoke to one of the major pastoral leaders in Australia discussing the COVID reality, by coincidence. Now, Germany, of course, we look at China travel as it pertains to those that already had the Wuhan -- the initial virus. And there was great amount of travel going around the world. And the president deliberately stated, we're going to make this, incorporate this travel ban, which I think had a lot of a credible amount of foresight. He was critiqued initially as being xenophobic or racist and so forth. Again, he shut that down. If not for that decision right there, this 200,000-plus may be two million- plus. So, I do believe -- I don't think everything has been pristine, by the way. I don't. I will give you an example. Let me critique not just the administration for a second, but all of us. I remember having conversations with individuals stating from our government, from our government, on both sides of the aisle, telling us that we shouldn't wear masks, that masks were basically a waste of time, that they would do absolutely nothing to deter the spread of the virus. And then we come to find out that it may be the primary deterrent mechanism. So, across the board -- and that came from both sides of the aisle. Across the board, I don't think we have been perfect. At the same time, I think things could be enormously worse if not for the actions taken this administration.</s>MARTIN: Now, if this administration is willing -- forgive me, Pastor Sam. If this administration is willing to tell women they can't have an abortion, why isn't it willing to tell the rest of the country they have to a wear a mask? This administration has steadfastly resisted guidance to the governors and ordering a national mask mandate. How is that pro-life?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Well, there's a couple things here. One, this administration is addressing not just abortion. I think Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, not that I agree with it. I believe every life is precious and has sanctity value that comes from God. With that being said, this administration is basically countering late-term abortion and even post-birth abortion, i.e., the governor of Virginia. So, this is not Barack Obama's 2008 abortion policy. Hence, that's why you see now in a recent survey from last week, more Latino people self-identified as evangelicals. The numbers are up. They seem to be inclined to vote for President Trump because of that abortion sort of unbridled commitment, this obsession on the Democratic Party's part of late-term abortion and even post-birth abortion. Who does that?</s>MARTIN: Pastor Sam, that is not the position of Joe Biden at all. It just isn't.</s>RODRIGUEZ: I'm sorry. It is the position of the Democratic Party, absolutely. Every single time Joe Biden, who I think is a good person, Joe Biden, when he is asked about late-term abortion, at least say late-term abortion, like President Obama...</s>MARTIN: Late-term abortion is not a medical term. So, I don't know why you're insisting he use it. It's not a medical term. That is not a medical term.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Oh, you and I both know that's like straight away ignoring a response that would actually activate Latinos, more Latinos to vote for Joe -- for Vice President Joe Biden. If the Democratic Party would go back to 2008, President Barack Obama's posture and stance and even presentation as it pertains to uniting the nation on so many issues, this election would be completely over, without a doubt.</s>MARTIN: Do you -- you think President Trump's united the nation?</s>RODRIGUEZ: No, I don't think President Trump has united the nation and I don't think President Trump has divided the nation. The question we have to ask ourselves is, why was he elected in the first place? Where did he come out of? Why did President Trump become president in 2016? What took place? And there were issues. I do believe that the Democratic Party swayed in the second term of a president who I absolutely love, President Obama, with one of the best first leads every, Michelle Obama, without a doubt. I do believe that at the end of his term, his second term, the Democratic Party was already swaying so radically to the left and neglected a populist in the electorate. Individuals who actually voted for him in 2008, President Obama, ended up flipping and voting for President Trump in 2016. And now the Democratic Party, in my humble opinion, has been hijacked. Socialism. I'm Latino. I'm Latino.</s>MARTIN: So, you have identified two issues that you say are critical to your vote, or at least your support.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Three.</s>MARTIN: You're not telling us who you're going vote for. You have identified abortion. You have identified socialism.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Life.</s>MARTIN: And what's the third?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Religious liberty. Religious liberty. You can't -- I live in California. I live in California. I applauded Gavin Newsom initially. I mean, again, I'm independent. So, I just want to call balls and strikes and be integral to me and my family and my faith. He was amazing in the beginning. Gavin Newsom was a rock star.</s>MARTIN: Dealing with COVID. You're talking about in dealing with</s>COVID. RODRIGUEZ: Yes, dealing with</s>COVID. MARTIN: OK.</s>RODRIGUEZ: He was trying to preserve the economy while saving lives. And he did it in such a practical, pragmatic way. Even in the back of my mind, I went, this is pretty amazing. He has the potential of running for president and actually maybe winning, because he's very in the center right now. This is a centrist movement. All of a sudden -- this is what happens when you listen to your advisers that have a myopic way of thinking. All of a sudden, casinos, liquor stores, cannabis stores, which is weed stores, here in California, all of these things are open. Churches, you're shut down, not just shut down. Quote -- here's the decree. You can't meet in your home for a prayer/fellowship gathering, bible study. What? Are you kidding me? Even with masks? Even with social distancing in my own home? You're telling me who I can meet with in my home?</s>MARTIN: To people of faith, people of particular faith practices, gathering is fundamental to faith. Gathering and prayer together, visiting together is fundamental to some people's practice.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Yes.</s>MARTIN: So, for some people, it is like eating. I mean, it is as essential as...</s>RODRIGUEZ: Yes.</s>MARTIN: ... a sort of sustenance as food, so granted that. But you're saying you don't see those as measures taken to preserve life?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Sure. Sure. There it is. I'm a practical person. I'm a Trekkie. So, I'm not a fundamentalist. I'm a faith and science guy. Yes, if everything else would line up, if there would be no exception. You can't open up casinos and shut down churches. There are no conversations in casinos? None? People around don't gather in casinos? You can't discriminate. You can't say casinos and liquor stores are fine, churches are not. And not only that. Look at the protests. And my family actually hosted a protest right after George Floyd's murder in my home state of Pennsylvania. We were there. And many of my church members participated in peaceful protests, without a doubt, because I'm committed to righteousness and justice. But I can't deny the fact that, post facto, even in surroundings around my church, there were protesters that were not wearing masks. And don't give me the whole 93 percent were. I would love to know who statistically incorporated that study and how they did it. Show me the data, the methodology. No. A large number -- some were wearing masks. A large number of individuals were not. You can't permit protests where people are gathering, speaking, shouting, and then say, churches, you can't gather. That's religious liberty. I believe in religious liberty. I think religious liberty is the firewall against secular totalitarianism. And we have seen during COVID, not just in California, but in Michigan and other states, coincidentally driven by Democratic governors, who are infringing upon my God-given right to gather, which I do believe is essential, and worship. So I do -- it's life, not this idea of stopping a woman from having an abortion. That phraseology doesn't line up. I have feminist daughters, Christian feminist daughters.</s>MARTIN: OK. So, let's go back to that as a matter of policy. So, presumably, one of the policies that you agree with is appointing judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade, at least with the intention of overturning Roe v. Wade. What is your vision of the way America will be if that occurs?</s>RODRIGUEZ: Yes, my inclination is to see judges appointed to the highest judicial branch or the highest judicial appointment in the land that look at the Constitution not as a fluid document, but look at the Constitution and adhere to and respect the original intent of that document. Some have argued it's a sacred document. I don't think -- I'm not committed to idolatry. But it is an important document, indeed. So, I'm committed to that. I think Amy Coney is amazing in her commitment to preserving, to applying the letter of the law, rather than reading into it.</s>RODRIGUEZ: This idea of legislating from the bench...</s>MARTIN: The president's made it clear, Amy Coney Barrett has -- her entire sort of area of research is focused on overturning precedent. So, I don't -- I don't see how you can say that the goal is to overturn Roe. It clearly is to overturn Roe v. Wade. The president said that's the whole -- his whole framework in selecting judges are people who are reliable conservatives. So, I'm just asking you the question, what is the vision of America after - - if Roe is overturned.</s>RODRIGUEZ: My vision of America would be to see every single life protected in and out of the womb. As it pertains to overturning Roe v. Wade, every single person who has come up to the bench of the Senate has argued that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. So, even though I am staunchly pro-life, from the womb to the tomb, from the moment of conception, I do believe that we can find a practical area where at least we can all come in agreement that late-term abortion is unacceptable, unless it's a medical emergency, and, by medical, the death of the mother, right?</s>MARTIN: So should women be prosecuted for having an abortion?</s>RODRIGUEZ: No, of course not. Of course not. Of course not. And it's not even about women being prosecuted. No, no, no. No, this idea that it's anti-women is a misnomer. Quite the opposite. That's why we're seeing millennials, even millennial young ladies, who are lining up with an ethos that is more pro-life. And that's Pew Research, not me.</s>MARTIN: So, Pastor Sam, obviously, there's kind of a lot to talk about here. The president remarked about contracting COVID. He said, "I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it." How do you respond to that?</s>RODRIGUEZ: That's a Trumpism. Again, that's a Trumpism. That's President Trump being President Trump with his commentary, descriptors, nomenclatures and vocabulary and language that is germane to the reality of Donald J. Trump. I don't see -- I personally don't see COVID as a gift from God. I understand what he's saying, that it enables him to understand the reality, and, if it is a gift, to understand the suffering of your fellow man. I don't know if it's a gift. It may be a -- a blessed burden would be the theological phrase. That may be a better application. But...</s>MARTIN: Do you think he understands the suffering of his fellow human beings?</s>RODRIGUEZ: I actually do. I mean, I know the man on a personal level. I have seen him become emotional. I have seen him express great concern, even angst and consternation regarding some of the social melees taking place in America. So, I do. I think it's hard to understand President Trump unless you met him and know him personally. I wouldn't support anyone -- the depiction of President Trump in the media would be someone I would never support, in the media, in the mass media. But I know this man personally. He is a human being. He is emerging in his faith. He loves his family. He loves America. He wants people -- he really is committed to one thing. Instead of seeing Americans survive, he wants them to thrive. And that's what he's fighting for. I don't think he does it perfectly. No president does it perfectly. But I do think his heart is in the right place.</s>MARTIN: Pastor Sam Rodriguez, thank you so much for speaking with us today.</s>RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.</s>AMANPOUR: And just a reminder that we in the media are committed to looking at the truth and bringing the facts, no matter where the story is. And, finally, the other race of our lives, and that is the one to save our natural habitat. The Earthshot Prize, named after President Kennedy's Moonshot program, is the brainchild of Britain's Prince William. And he announced today that it will award five one million pound prizes each year -- that is about $1 million over the next 10 years -- for anyone coming up to swift solutions to catastrophic climate change. William was inspired by the world's most important naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. His own climate manifesto, "A Life On Our Planet," is airing now. And he will be one of the judges of this new prize.</s>SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, NATURALIST: The thing that strikes me is time is shorter. I am well aware, in my travels, I see problems that are right now. And they are building. I mean, we really have to be getting onto our -- onto it as fast as we can, do we not?</s>PRINCE WILLIAM, UNITED KINGDOM: This next 10 years is the critical decade of change. We have to have made huge strides in repairing the planet before 2030. Otherwise, irreversible change, and that tipping point has happened. And so it really is -- time is of the essence, which is why we believe this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward.</s>AMANPOUR: Now, how many remember that William's father, Prince Charles, was urging climate and environmental care way before it was cool? Back then, people thought he was dotty. Those are his words. Not anymore. And tune into tomorrow's program for our interview with former CIA chief John Brennan. He knows more about threats facing America than almost anybody. And he's deeply worried about this election, and he will tell us exactly why. That's it for now. You can always catch us online, on our podcast and across social media. Thanks for watching, and goodbye from London. END |
Trump Refuses Virtual Debate; V.P. Candidates Dodge Questions, Shift Focus to Trump | SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: American people when you tell them the truth.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts.</s>BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: This hour, as the lights go out on last night's V.P. debate, news that the next Biden versus Trump showdown may not happen. Why is just ahead. And I will speak to Iceland's prime minister to see how she is going to tackle the country's record number of COVID-19 cases. Plus, Lebanon just can't catch a break. How the pandemic is piling misery on top of the country's many other crises.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.</s>ANDERSON: Time to get your head around one thing going on in America these days before the next development comes and slaps you right in the face. Believe me, that's right. Before we are even done getting to understand what happened in last night's vice presidential debate, in just the last hour, Donald Trump throwing the next presidential debate up in the air. The American president for now at least claiming he doesn't want to take part because he thinks the decision to hold it virtually makes it a, quote, "waste of time." But he does interviews remotely all the time; like, say, with FOX Business News in the past hour or so.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style and that's not acceptable to us. I beat him easily in the first debate, according to the polls that I've seen but I beat him easily and I felt I beat him easily, I think he felt it, too. No, I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about, you sit behind a computer and do a debate, it's ridiculous and then they cut you off whenever they want.</s>ANDERSON: There it is, they can "cut you off whenever they want." You will remember Mr. Trump interrupted Joe Biden at least 128 times in that last debate. That was his MO. Let's not forget why it's being made virtual. It's because Mr. Trump's White House, seen here, pretty much emptied out after he and a bunch of his closest aides tested positive for COVID-19. For the record, for his part, Joe Biden's campaign said that he is more than happy to take part in the new format. By the end of the day -- and you can file all this in the nothing new under the sun file -- because way back in 1960, Richard Nixon and John f. Kennedy held their third debate remotely. Yes, that is 60 years ago. Connecting all of this for us is Joe Johns, who is live for you from the White House itself. Future debates will be held remotely. Joe, JFK and Nixon, after all, held their third in 1960 away from each other. What are we in for in the next week or so, sir?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: First thing I think you have to say, before you really go too far on this debate issue, is this is a president who is very erratic, prone to changing his mind, prone to canceling meetings before he decides to go to them, prone to canceling negotiations before he decides to reenter the negotiations. Even with the stimulus up here just this week on Capitol Hill you've seen that. So the question, of course, is will this hold? Now one of the president's top economic advisers, Larry Kudlow, said just a little while ago here in Washington he thought that this could be renegotiated. And so the question is what's going to happen next. Now what we also know is what the president said is, he is not going to participate in a virtual debate. This virtual debate was announced by the debate convention just this morning here in Washington, indicating that debate in Miami was going to be held with the candidates in different remote locations because of concerns over coronavirus, including concerns about the crews, the camera crews and technicians, who would have to participate in this, were the president there. As you know, he tested positive for coronavirus and just spent the weekend over in Walter Reed hospital. The reactions were quick; the head of the president's campaign, his campaign manager, put out a statement blasting the commission and also indicating that, instead of the debate, the president will do a rally. We don't know where that rally will be. And I guess the other thing to say is that Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, has said he would participate in a remote debate but also said that, if the president still has COVID, there should not be a debate. So this is all about the Miami debate, which was supposed to be a town hall.</s>JOHNS: We don't know what would happen to the third and final presidential debate, which was to occur in Nashville, Tennessee. That's still up in the air -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: I guess, you know, the bigger picture here is, what does this all mean for the remainder of the campaigns? We are well into October; this election, of course, is November 3rd.</s>JOHNS: Right. The first question you asked there is which candidate needs a debate more right now. And if you look at the polling in the United States, it indicates that Joe Biden is expanding his lead over the incumbent president. Even the president's favorite news network, FOX, has Joe Biden up by double digits. So that would suggest that it's the president who needs the debate to try to make up some ground. And it also -- this decision also gives Joe Biden the opportunity to blame the president for canceling a debate that he doesn't really need at least at this point. So it's also true that the president has pulled himself out of public appearances and debates and such before. Four years ago, it certainly didn't hurt him at that time. He ended up becoming President of the United States. But it just sets up another example of how volatile this campaign is and what's going to happen is anybody's guess -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Joe, I said at the beginning of this show, just when you think you're getting your head around what's going on in Washington, something else comes along to slap you in the face. It's not the easiest thing to be reporting on this minute by minute stuff that's going on. But of course, as ever you do a terrific job. Last question before I let you go, are you OK after that raccoon attack?</s>JOHNS: Right. OK. I know.</s>JOHNS: The video of that is crazy, right? And it happened right out here early in the morning just yesterday. The truth is -- and some people don't catch it -- that this is not something that actually went out over the air, it happened right while I was off the air and about to go on. And it's the second time it's happened out here. And then the folks on the show decided to put it out on social media. And, you know, I had mixed feelings about putting it out because I felt silly about it. But in these times I did feel people deserved a good laugh and I think that's what people have gotten.</s>ANDERSON: Well, I can tell you, they put it out on the show; it went viral. We picked it up and our international viewers have seen it now. And I have to say it made me laugh oud loud last night. And I have had a lot of reaction from our international viewers, who felt the same way. Listen, we all could do with a laugh at the moment. I don't mean for it to be at your expense but, you know, thank you.</s>JOHNS: Oh, yes, right. Exactly. Thank you.</s>ANDERSON: Thank you, sir. All right. So there we are. Where were we? Oh, yes, debates. Let's zip back to last night. Wednesday night's V.P. debate, where coronavirus, of course, played a big part and rightly so. Not just physically, you can see the Plexiglas dividers, but it loomed large in the back and forth between Senator Kamala Harris and vice president Mike Pence as they battled the issues. Another 50,000 Americans testing positive; Harris was pretty direct about all of that.</s>HARRIS: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. And here is the thing: on January 28th the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it's lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people and that it would be contracted because it is airborne. And they knew what was happening and they didn't tell you.</s>ANDERSON: The key part of that response, vaccines, of course. Pence accused Harris of spreading doubt about vaccines. Have a listen.</s>PENCE: You continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine. If a vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable. And, Senator, I would just ask you to stop playing politics with people's lives. The reality is that we will have a vaccine, we believe, before the end of this year and it will have the capacity to save countless American lives. And your continuous undermining of confidence in a vaccine is just -- it's just unacceptable.</s>ANDERSON: And for all it's worth, in a CNN instant poll, Kamala Harris did come out as the winner in all of this.</s>ANDERSON: Viewers certainly saw a lot less chaos than last week's presidential debate and a bit more decorum and a bit more policy. However, there was nothing new. Both sides stuck to the battle lines that were drawn a long time ago. The real winner of the debate was arguably this little guy here, a fly, which captured the attention of the world in a way neither candidate, quite frankly, did. The uninvited third guest sat atop Mike Pence's head for several minutes, much to the delight of those on social media. The Biden campaign is already having a bit of fun with it. They have introduced this fly swatter, which reads "Truth over flies." Bad news is, if you want one, they are already sold out. My next guest offered this advice to the vice presidential candidates leading into the debate: do no harm; reinforce the top of the ticket and pass the commander in chief test. Anna (sic) Stewart joins me now, she is a Republican strategist and former communications director for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. Did they hit your three points, Alice?</s>ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think each of them did in terms of neither one of them did any harm. They didn't say anything dumb. They were civil and they were respectful to each other for the most part. They did reinforce the top of the ticket. They made sure that everyone understood the contrast between the two opposing campaigns and what they would offer the American people. And I do really think both of them actually did make the case for how they could potentially step into the role and have the skills and qualifications to be commander in chief if necessary. The big difference I think that Mike Pence made is that he showed a real stark contrast between a Trump-Pence ticket and a Biden-Harris ticket. He demonstrated the fact that with the Trump administration, we would certainly have a limited government. He made a stronger case on trade, on energy, certainly on manufacturing. He made a stronger case on a lot of the things that are important to the American people and certainly Supreme Court. He also held Kamala's feet to the fire with regard to fracking, which is an important energy issue for this country. The Biden ticket has not really come clean on whether or not they support this vital energy source. And they refused -- still refuse to answer the question whether or not, if Biden won, he would pack the Supreme Court, which would really change the trajectory of the power of the Supreme Court. And that's an answer that really I think that the American people deserve.</s>ANDERSON: The question is, will either of their performances move the dial? And it has to be said -- let's just go back and have a look at the latest CNN poll, with Joe Biden 16 points ahead in that poll and, in others, including a FOX poll, Joe Biden some 10 points ahead. Pence needed to do some work last night. Do you think that he did enough to change the sort of numbers, to help change the sort of numbers we're seeing on our screens now?</s>STEWART: Well, that's a great question, Becky. Typically these vice presidential debates don't change the overall trajectory of the election, it's not going to really move a lot of numbers. But what we're looking for is likability. The independent voters -- that's between like 4 percent and 7 percent of people out there, independent or undecided likely voters -- are the ones that are the key target. And they typically gear toward persona over policy: who appeared more likeable, who appeared as someone that really connected with them. And I think, look, Kamala Harris did a phenomenal job on making the case on COVID and she did show that she has leadership skills. But I feel as though her snickering and laughing and her demeanor was a little off-putting. I do feel like Mike Pence came off as a little more likeable and calm and in command of the stage up there. So those factors are important for these undecided swing voters that are still out there, trying to make up their minds.</s>ANDERSON: Yes, and there is a significant number of people who may still be making their minds, although we have seen a significant number of people who have already voted of course. The mail-in voting seems to have taken off significantly in this campaign. From COVID to climate, Mike Pence -- yes, Mike Pence -- repeating the need to listen to science and fact. Have a listen.</s>PENCE: Look, Senator Harris, you're entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts. And, Senator, I would just ask you stop playing politics with people's lives. President Trump has made it clear that we're going to continue to listen to the science.</s>ANDERSON: Let us remind our viewers of the president's thoughts on the science.</s>ANDERSON: Have a listen.</s>TRUMP: It will start getting cooler.</s>WADE CROWFOOT, CALIFORNIA SECRETARY FOR NATURAL RESOURCES: I wish --</s>TRUMP: You just watch.</s>CROWFOOT: I wish science agreed with you.</s>TRUMP: Well, I don't think science knows, actually.</s>ANDERSON: Our viewers can make of that what they will. But what are your thoughts?</s>STEWART: I think the vice president made a strong point by making sure and acknowledging that there is something to be said for global warming and climate change. But the president and this administration has been clear all along that they are not as in support of the notion that it is manmade as much as it is just a fact of sheer nature. And that is why they steer clear of strong federal government regulations on industries that are working to create jobs and provide for this economy and that's a big factor. I think the president made a -- vice president made a strong case for that last night and also reinforcing, as he said, that Kamala Harris and the Democrat ticket can have their feelings about things. But it doesn't change the facts. And that's an important point that he made last night.</s>ANDERSON: "Facts not flies" is how the Biden campaign is working the narrative today. Listen, I've run out of time but thank you for your reflections. Important to get some insight and some analysis from all sides on what is going on at the moment because, look, what happens in America is really important. We get it. But what about the rest of us? You know, the other 95 percent or so of human beings on the planet, there are 7 billion of us.</s>STEWART: Right.</s>ANDERSON: And the two candidates did dig into how they will shape the foreign policy of the world's most awesomely powerful country. We want to get to know how all of that could affect your life, your job and your world. We will connect all of that with our crack team up next. And a testing time for Iceland. The small remote island had COVID-19 under control. It was a sort of poster child, as it were, and then seemingly it's lost its grip. I will ask Iceland's prime minister what happened and what she proposes to do next in a live interview a little later this hour. |
Trump Has Jeopardized America by Isolationism | HARRIS: So, Susan, it's about relationships. And the thing that has always been part of the strength of our nation, in addition to our great military, has been that we keep our word. But Donald Trump doesn't understand that because he doesn't understand what it means to be honest.</s>ANDERSON: Senator Kamala Harris there, slamming the Trump administration's foreign policy record at what was the U.S. vice presidential debate last night.</s>ANDERSON: Harris and vice president Mike Pence sparred over Mr. Trump's relationship with world leaders, Harris arguing that his approach has made America less safe. Well, for more on how this affects your world, wherever you are watching in the world, let's bring in the team, international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson, joining us from London, and senior international correspondent Sam Kiley, who is here with me in the UAE, reporting tonight from Dubai. Nic, this was a chance for Kamala Harris and, indeed, Mike Pence -- but let's talk about Kamala Harris -- to not only talk to the American people but to the international audience. What impression did she give?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, that quote you just ran as well was very interesting because she went on to say that President Trump betrays his friends and embraces dictators. And I think this was a shout out to those countries, you know, many in the European Union being among them, who would have thought of the United States as being a more friendly, allied nation before Donald Trump took office. So it was a shout out there. I think also she was able to give a bit of her sort of credentials, you know, talking about her mother coming to the United States when she was 19 years old; talking about how she had been elected the first woman of color to the California state attorney general's office -- so she was on the Intelligence Committee, privy to detailed intelligence information. So this was -- she was able to sort of set out her stand a bit, that she is somebody who has worked her way up, who has solid credentials and wants to work with the United States' allies.</s>ANDERSON: None of that, though, gives us a clear idea about what a Joe Biden administration might look like on the international field. I know, Sam, you've been taking a look, particularly at a sort of Trump versus Biden perspective on the Middle East. Kamala Harris did touch on the Iran nuclear deal last night. Have a listen.</s>HARRIS: He has walked away from agreements. You can -- look at the Iran nuclear deal. Because of Donald Trump's unilateral approach to foreign policy, coupled with his isolationism, he pulled us out and has made America less safe.</s>ANDERSON: Is it clear yet, Sam, what a Biden administration would look like, for example, here in the Middle East?</s>SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's becoming a lot clearer. Now there will be some Middle East governments, particularly the Saudis, the Emirates, Bahrainis, who will be feeling a little bit anxious because they have thoroughly approved of Donald Trump's leaving the JCPOA, that awkwardly titled Iran nuclear deal, alongside, of course, Israel, who are deeply unhappy with it. But the Biden administration has said on its website -- and he has said in public, too -- that he wants to rejoin that agreement, the deal, so long as the Iranians are continuing to comply. We know in some areas of their nuclear program they are publicly saying that they are no longer complying but they are very keen to see a return to that deal, as are the European allies that signed up to it and, of course, Russia and China, too. I think what we might see, therefore, and the concern among supporters of the Trump administration here in the Middle East would be a lessening of engagement; although Donald Trump would appear to have had very little kind of passion for foreign affairs. He has or his administration has been deeply involved in Saudi affairs, deeply involved in the peace deal or rather the normalization deal between the Emirates, Bahrain and Israel. And there has been a step change in the Middle East. The Obama administration, I think, Joe Biden will struggle, at least in the initial stages, to separate himself from that administration's record in the Middle East. We're seeing, by the end of his term, it was pretty dismal. He allowed the Syrian government to cross red lines. He was -- although he trumpeted a great deal of engagement in the early stages of his presidency, by the end of it, there was a scene of drift and more opportunities clearly had been taken, too, by Russia, a rival with nothing like the financial or economic clout, now getting deeply involved at the very least in Syria -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Absolutely. Nic, China, of course, on the agenda last night; Pence echoing Donald Trump's rhetoric about the coronavirus. Have a listen.</s>PENCE: China is to blame for the coronavirus and President Trump is not happy about it. He's made that very clear.</s>PENCE: Made it clear again today.</s>ANDERSON: He calls it the China virus. Well, our colleague, David Culver, took this photo. China censored Pence's remarks during that V.P. debate for this question. They didn't, though, do that for Kamala Harris. Nic, did Harris give any indication that China's relationship with the U.S. could improve under a Biden administration?</s>ROBERTSON: She didn't do what Pence did, which is blame China for COVID- 19. And that's probably the root of why the feed didn't get pulled during her. What we know from the foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing last week, after President Trump spoke, is that he criticized President Trump and said China didn't want to be dragged into the presidential election debate and specifically on what they consider to be a false premise. What Kamala Harris did -- and this goes back to what she was talking about on foreign policy -- she did say that it was important for the United States to stand by its friends, to work with its friends. And if you listen to what -- if you listen to what Joe Biden has said on the campaign trail and over the past year or so, he has said very clearly that he will be tough on China. He has called President Xi a thug. He said that President Xi doesn't have a small D democratic bone in his body, that China is abusive, particularly on human rights issues. So there's going to be no love lost if Biden and Kamala Harris did get into the White House. But the way that they would approach China would be different. And I think that's perhaps what China would look at there.</s>ANDERSON: Nic, thank you. Sam, always a pleasure. Thank you. Ahead on the show, COVID-19 rears its ugly head in Europe in the very countries that have seemed to have had things under control. I will tell you about the new rules people living in some of those countries are having to live with. And Iceland, one of those countries that was ahead of the COVID curve, that's until now, at least. Iceland's prime minister talks to me live here on the show up next. |
New COVID-19 Restrictions in Iceland. | ANDERSON: Welcome back. Right now I want to concentrate on what is going on with regard to COVID-19 in Europe, where people are having the worst kind of deja view, it seems, as the virus surges once again, in some cases worse than in the spring. Countries are scrambling to bring back restrictions. As you can see, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, just a few of the nations reporting significant daily spikes.</s>ANDERSON: Take a closer look at Iceland, seen here in white. It looks like it is holding its own compared to the other countries. Now though, look at this. It's a shocker, especially for a country that had been showing the world how to keep COVID at bay. Now Iceland has got a big problem on its hands.</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iceland was ahead of the curve. A virus testing station for all incoming air passengers set up way back in June when I visited the country. Iceland may be a remote and sparsely populated volcanic island. But it saw an early spike in coronavirus cases. That didn't translate into a high death rate, though. In fact, it had one of the lowest in the world. Just 10 people have died, all in the first wave. The country never went into a full lockdown; the restaurants stayed open, faces uncovered. When someone tested positive, a rigorous contact tracing system kicked in.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got a call and I was told that I had been around a person that tested positive for COVID-19. And it was a waiter at the place where I had lunch with my co-workers. The tracing team told me that I needed to go into self-isolation.</s>FOSTER (voice-over): This is the lab where all test samples are sent. I got my result by text a few hours after landing. Here it is. "You have not been diagnosed with COVID-19." They don't just test for the virus here but also its mutations, that allows them to map which countries the latest infections came from and how they spread through Iceland.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since we sequence the virus from everyone infected in Iceland, we can, first of all, determine where the mutation came from and then we can follow it as it is spreading in society.</s>FOSTER (voice-over): The scientists had a big advantage, though. Politicians, including the prime minister, stood back and allowed them to lead on the pandemic and front the public response.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This crisis is not about me and it was very important not to politicize this crisis. Screening can never be 100 percent safe but what we are trying to do is to lower the risk of a new epidemic here in Iceland.</s>FOSTER (voice-over): Those words would prove prescient. Scientists soon realized that 20 percent of people with coronavirus weren't being caught by the airport testing. On August the 19th, the government said that arrivals now had to get not one but two tests five days apart. But it was too late. Just days earlier, Dr. Stefansson (ph) said two French tourists entered the country. The virus they carried has led to a big spike in cases.</s>FOSTER (voice-over): Icelandic scientists not always in agreement with politicians.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, we did not react to it very swiftly. And this has basically rolled into a full blown wave of infection in Iceland.</s>FOSTER (voice-over): Now the government is clamping down, including shuttering bars as autumn turns to winter. Iceland's science-conscious approach will, no doubt, continue to be tested -- Max Foster, CNN.</s>ANDERSON: Katrin Jakobsdottir is Iceland's prime minister and she joins me now live from Reykjavik. We do thank you and we thank you for your involvement in the report that Max recorded when he was there. Tourism, of course, a cornerstone of your economy, with huge focus put on it in the last several years. You did begin welcoming tourists back several months ago. They, as I understand it, must either quarantine for two weeks or must be tested twice with a five-day quarantine in between. What are you going to do now? Is it right and is it clear that it has been the incoming tourists who has caused this significant spike in cases?</s>KATRIN JAKOBSDOTTIR, ICELANDIC PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know, if we take notice of what Dr. Stefansson (ph) said in this report earlier you can actually see from the data of sequencing that the stem of the virus that's now spreading around Iceland comes probably from people entering the country early August. And you could say, even though we have had this -- had this arrangement to have two tests and five-day quarantines since 19th of August, probably they arrived earlier. And what we did here in Iceland is that we actually have been with less restrictions than many other European countries in the last months.</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: We had a limit of 200 people, for example, until this week. So what we are seeing now is quite a spread of the virus in Iceland and we are reacting now, beginning last Monday.</s>ANDERSON: Yes, as I understand it, new restrictions introduced in the capital of Reykjavik and surrounding areas, what about the rest of the country?</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: Well, there are actually stricter restrictions all over the country but strictest here in Reykjavik. Here we, for example, closed down swimming pools and introduced more obligations to wear masks, for example. So there are more restrictions here in Reykjavik but there are strict restrictions all over the country because the virus travels differently.</s>ANDERSON: With these recent spikes, which are clearly very concerning, are you prepared to close your international borders?</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: No, we have actually decided to maintain the current arrangement until December 1st where we have, as I said, two tests and five-day quarantining in between. Hopefully we will see some progress in making tests work quicker and also having closer cooperation between countries in testing. But this will be at least the arrangement for the next six weeks.</s>ANDERSON: Are you reassured by Donald Trump's claims of a miracle cure? He seems to believe that his four-day stay in hospital has resulted -- and the therapeutics that he was given have resulted in something that all of us should be applauding. Your thoughts?</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: Well, my thoughts, I think we have actually made considerable progress in treating -- treating the virus. At least that's our experience here in Iceland. But still we are getting a lot of people who are very seriously ill. Right now, we have over 20 people in hospital in Iceland which are very seriously ill by the coronavirus. So I think what we are seeing is that virus is still going very strong.</s>ANDERSON: You've appealed to people to not politicize this crisis. And several world leaders called for unity during their recent speeches at the U.N. General Assembly, for example. But we are seeing very little of that, very little unity. Are you disappointed in how world leaders have handled this crisis?</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: Well, I think we have very different approaches between different countries. And if I would say anything about the political scene here, here, back home in Iceland, I think we have managed to be pretty unified. We have had a critical debate, obviously, and that's very important, you know, to have a democratic critical debate, both about what we're doing to contain the virus but also about its consequences. However, I think we have managed to be really -- I think we have been very unified and actually not -- not going down into the political trenches, if I may say so.</s>ANDERSON: All right.</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: I would have wished for more international cooperation. It has been growing, growing cooperation between countries. And I think when you're faced with a pandemic like this, this really shows us the importance of international cooperation.</s>ANDERSON: Let me just follow up on something that you said. You said that you will leave these restrictions for tourists in place, the current sort of quarantining and testing protocols and procedures until December 1st. If you do not bring this spike down, if you are unsuccessful, you said that you didn't want to close your international borders. But is that a possibility? Do you keep that up your sleeve, should things not improve?</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: I think we are actually being as careful as possible now on the borders. And what we're dealing with now is really the spread of the virus within Iceland and that's our top priority now. However, I think the new restrictions -- and they are all very familiar; these are the same methods that we used in March and April -- and I am optimistic that we will see positive results after those two weeks. And I can sense that, even though people are -- obviously people are growing tired by this pandemic -- but I also sense a very strong understanding here with the general public in Iceland. Everybody understands what's happening.</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: And people, you know, they know that we need to use those methods to be able to contain the virus, even though, as I said --</s>ANDERSON: Because there is a real fear across Europe that people are becoming fatigued and complacent. You say that people in Iceland will cope, correct?</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: I think so. Yes. You know, these are pretty resilient people here in Iceland. But we're also human and obviously, obviously we feel -- all feel a sense of fatigue because of this pandemic.</s>ANDERSON: With that we will leave it there. We thank you very much indeed and, of course, we wish you the absolute best.</s>JAKOBSDOTTIR: And same to you. Thank you so much.</s>ANDERSON: Thank you. A golf pro hits an epic hole in one without any shoes. More on that. You have to see this coming up in "WORLD SPORT." |
Coronavirus Looms Over Vice Presidential Debate; Pence & Harris Dodge Key Questions In VP Debate; Fact-Checking U.S. Vice-Presidential Debate | ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi. This is "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson.</s>BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well hello, world. Whoever gets to be the American President after the U.S. election will change our lives in ways untold but we're the international on lookers doesn't get to have a say, do we? We just have to watch the spectacle of it. And this hour Donald Trump want as he is toward quick changes in the dash of chaos, throwing the next presidential debate up in the air, insisting he won't go, he won't do it if it stays in a virtual format. Well, the commission's vote to hold it like that unanimous after the president got infected with Coronavirus. The American President for now, at least, doesn't like that idea one bit. No sorry, he took to the airwaves virtually to voice his displeasure.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I heard that the Commission a little while ago changed the debate style, and it's not acceptable to us. I'm not going to waste my time in a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate, it's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want. They called up two minutes ago and it was announced, and they are trying to protect Biden.</s>ANDERSON: Well, instead of debating, Mr. Trump now planning to hold a rally next Thursday night. So, you could have Joe Biden on a virtual debate stage alone, and Mr. Trump bringing it more people together in yet another potential super spreader event. That's because Biden, for his part, says he's more than happy to take part in what is this new format, throwing some doubt, along with some shade, on the president's debate defiance.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We don't know what the president is going to do? He changes his mind every second. For me to comment on that now would be irresponsible. I'm going to follow the Commission's recommendation. If he goes off and is going to have a rally, I don't know what I'll do.</s>ANDERSON: We are a few weeks and change out from Election Day, but we are 60 years after this.</s>BILL SHADEL, NEWS ANCHOR, CBS RADIO AND ABC TELEVISION: Good evening. I'm Bill Shadel of ABC News. It's my privilege this evening to preside at this, the third and the series of meetings on radio and television on the two major presidential candidates. Unlike the first two programs, however, the two candidates will not be sharing the same platform. In New York the Democratic Presidential Nominee Senator John F. Kennedy, separated by 3,000 miles in a Los Angeles studio, the Republican Presidential Nominee Vice President Richard M. Nixon.</s>ANDERSON: The third presidential debate back in 1960 there between JFK and Nixon held remotely. Let's fast forward back to today in the first and only vice-presidential debate. A relatively civil affair compared to last week's chaotic presidential one. The pandemic that has now killed over 211,000 Americans was by far the main focus last night. The U.S. saw some 50,000 new cases alone on Wednesday. Senator Kamala Harris slammed the Trump Administration, saying it forfeited its right to re-election based on its handling of the Coronavirus.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. And here is the thing. On January 28th, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it's lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people and that it would be contracted because it is airborne. And they knew what was happening, and they didn't tell you.</s>ANDERSON: Well, Vice President Mike Pence, of course, leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force defended their position.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before there were more than five cases in the United States, all people who had returned from China, President Donald Trump did what no other American President had ever done, and that was he suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. Now, Senator, Joe Biden opposed that decision. He said it was xenophobic and hysterical.</s>ANDERSON: Well, there were exemptions to that travel suspension. It is not clear that Joe Biden even knew about the travel ban when he called Trump's record xenophobic. Mike Pence also played down the Rose Garden event last month that seemingly infected President Trump and several others.</s>PENCE: Many of the people who were at that event, Susan, actually were tested for Coronavirus, and it was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists regularly, routinely advised. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health.</s>ANDERSON: Well, Pence and Harris were separated by 12 feet and by plexiglass for social distancing. Both candidates avoided answering questions and interrupted each other.</s>HARRIS: Susan, this is important.</s>PENCE: Susan, I want to--</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: I have to weigh in.</s>HARRIS: I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: --the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking. If you don't mind letting me finish, we can then have a conversation. OK?</s>PENCE: Please.</s>HARRIS: OK.</s>ANDERSON: So who won? Well, Kamala Harris, at least in a CNN instant poll camp came out ahead about six in ten who watched the debate said she had won. 38 percent said Mike Pence had the better night. The Caveat Poll the some poll of debate watches was 38 percent Democratic, 29 percent Republican. But while our invited guest may actually have stolen the show last night, this little fly sat on Pence's head for several minutes. The Biden Campaign was quick to fly with the moment they have introduced this fly swatter which reads truth over flies. The item has created a buzz and has already sold out. Well, our Senior Political Analyst David Gergen has been a White House Adviser to four presidencies joins us now with his take on the debate and the presidential politics. Did you grab a fly swatter before they sold out by any chance, David?</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, but it gave plenty of ammunition to the comedians. They've been stretching to finding things most recently.</s>ANDERSON: Didn't it just? In the past hour Donald Trump was on Fox News repeatedly calling Kamala Harris a monster. He said she was unlikable, claiming she was a communist. What do you make of comments like that?</s>GERGEN: Well, you know, it's been such a mad week. We've been in the grips of the madness now since the president went into the hospital. He has come out and he's even more erratic than when he went in. That's unfortunate. Many people think, I included, that probably the drugs he's taking, perhaps the steroids have had some influence on him and that he will emerge from this back in full health. In the meantime I think it's beneath him and inappropriate to go after a woman that way, especially a woman, and especially to call her a monster. And also something that you know so much better than I do, but women have to prove that they're likable? Men don't have to prove that, but there's sort of a gender contradiction there. I think he played right into that, by calling her - oh, she's likable enough. They did the same thing to Hillary last time out. Overall it doesn't usually work. I think Kamala Harris showed last night she can take a punch. She can also deliver one.</s>ANDERSON: Question is will it move the dial for either of the campaigns? What do you think on the performance?</s>GERGEN: I don't think it moved the dial for the overall election. My most vice presidential debates do not move the dial. But that does not mean that this debate was inconsequential because that Trump people desperately needed to have the dial move. We have now a presidency that's crumbling before our eyes and a president who is basically in freefalling in a lot of the polls. Most elections like this, the gap between the leader and the number two person closes in the final weeks. In this case, the gap is actually widening. And I don't think anybody expected that. What it meant for Trump is that this debate was one of the last moments he had to turn this campaign around and his team was unable to do it. I thought Vice President Pence gave a good account, one of the best accounts, best defenses of Trump that we've heard, but he was playing low cards all night. It would be easy for Kamala Harris to come in and say, but you're on this. You're wrong on this. You're wrong on that. So from the point of view of the Trump people, this was not a good night.</s>ANDERSON: Of course, it's not over till it's over.</s>GERGEN: That's right.</s>ANDERSON: The president is now refusing to participate in a virtual debate. The Debate Commission, of course, has called that today and they say that they've decided that unilaterally. They didn't speak to either of the candidates beforehand. David, you've been around the block. Empty chair debating has been done in the past. Is it possible that they will do this time around?</s>GERGEN: You just showed a clip from 1960, the third debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. That debate went very smoothly. In fact those set of three debates are often regarded as the best debates we've ever had. It proved that you can do this remotely. So for whatever reason the president doesn't want to do it, I think it's a mistake on his part. He needs these debates and he needs two more bites of the apple before voters finally can conclude their choices. He can't leave it to his surrogates. He's not going to be able to hold big rallies, given his health and potential contagious quality. I'm just surprised he wouldn't consider it and at least think I'll turn this to my advantage.</s>ANDERSON: I mean, might change his mind, of course because he want to do that.</s>GERGEN: He might change his mind.</s>ANDERSON: Yes. What about empty chairing him? Is that a possibility, do you think, or not?</s>GERGEN: I don't think the Commission would do that. It would be one thing had they pre-negotiated the remote. As you say, they decided unilaterally to tell the candidates this is what they're doing. If they had negotiated and then he refuses to show up, you could then show the empty chair. But when you've done it over his objections, it seems to me, let's not play cricket.</s>ANDERSON: Right, OK. I just want to show our viewers David something - well I want them certainly to listen to something that you had to say about the president earlier this week. Have a listen.</s>GERGEN: Sure.</s>GERGEN: We're in the grips of a madman. And it's going to take a while to get out; we'll get back to normal.</s>ANDERSON: What did you mean by it's going to take time to get back to normal? Are you saying that even if Joe Biden were to win this election that the atmosphere that Donald Trump has created will take time to sort of fade away?</s>GERGEN: Yes, I believe that. I do not think you can do this with ay light switch, flip a switch and everything goes as rosier or we can all get along together and sing Kumbaya. It's going to take time. There are very bruised people in politics and the base on each side is very angry at the other one. It's no longer just a question of distaste. It's anger. It's really just repugnance at the other side. I think Joe Biden has a potential to be a healer. But we should not think it's going to come easily. He has big plans. What if the Republicans oppose him at every turn? They might smile at him but what if they oppose him? He can't get things done. What if they go ahead and jam through this candidate for the Supreme Court, which I think they're going to try to do? That's going to leave lasting scars. So it's going to take a major effort. I think he is going to have to if Biden wins, he and Kamala Harris - and I think she, by the way, came out as more of - last night. I think she has now convinced a lot of people that should they call her to the presidency, the country would be in reasonably safe hands. That's a big advance for her.</s>ANDERSON: Yes, is--</s>GERGEN: I just don't think we can have a - please.</s>ANDERSON: Go on, sorry. Apologies for jumping in there, there was some actual debate last night, wasn't there?</s>GERGEN: Yes.</s>ANDERSON: Not necessarily answers to the moderator's questions. Have a listen here.</s>SUSAN PAGE, MODERATOR: How would your administration protect Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable insurance if the Affordable Care Act is struck down?</s>PENCE: Well, thank you, Susan, but let me just say, addressing your very first question, I couldn't be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life. If Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States, are you and Joe Biden, if somehow you win this election, going to pack the Supreme Court to get your way?</s>HARRIS: The American people are voting right now, and it should be their decision about who will serve on this most important body for a lifetime.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris.</s>PENCE: And people, Susan, are voting right now. They would like to know if you and Joe Biden are going to pack the Supreme Court if you don't get your way in this nomination.</s>HARRIS: Let's talk about packing. Come on.</s>PENCE: Once again gave a non-answer, Joe Biden gave a non-answer.</s>HARRIS: I'm trying to answer you now.</s>PENCE: The American people deserve a straight answer. If you haven't figured it out yet, the straight answer is they are going to pack the Supreme Court.</s>ANDERSON: And you brought this up, David. It has to be said.</s>ANDERSON: Joe Biden did dodge the same question about court packing in the- -</s>GERGEN: Yes.</s>ANDERSON: --first debate. What do you make of that?</s>GERGEN: Well, listen, if I were advising Joe Biden I would say you don't have to answer that yet. Let's see what happens on the Supreme Court nomination of Ms. Barrett and see if that goes though and let's hear from the voters before you make why would you raise an issue that you don't have to resolve now and create a diversion that the Trump Campaign can spend the next three weeks you always heard about? Don't have to wait until it is appropriate. It's also true you know the Trump Campaign is not answering a lot of questions, too, especially about people who have pre-existing conditions, health conditions, can they maintain their insurance if the bill, the legislation is struck down by the Supreme Court and there's a good chance it will be struck down. Both sides have to - the big question that candidates, both candidates are dodging here is you have got two candidates for the first time in American history who is both in their 70s. It's really important that the American people hadn't and see the health records of both candidates. It is important before people vote that they know as much as possible about what the likely course what the great probabilities are going to be for either candidate. To Biden and Trump and both of them are ducking.</s>ANDERSON: Sure.</s>GERGEN: And I think it's a disservice to the country.</s>ANDERSON: One of our colleagues described this as less an election, more a selection process at this point. We're a couple of weeks and change out from this U.S. election, and it does, at this point, look as if its Joe Biden's to lose.</s>GERGEN: Correct.</s>ANDERSON: If you were advising him at this point, what would your advice be?</s>GERGEN: Keep your foot on the pedal. Do not get complacent. That happened to the Clinton people last time. Serious Democrats are still not convinced he's going to win. I think the betting odds have changed. The odds seem to be a little more than 50 percent likely that Biden would take the whole thing and would win the White House and, indeed, the Senate. Those odds have gone now up to probably 2-1. He's up to about 65 percent likelihood that he'll win. So things have changed and they're continuing - I just can't tell you - I haven't sensed a presidency crumbling like this since Richard Nixon, and in the closing days and final days of Richard Nixon. Everything was coming apart. What has that sense now about the Trump Presidency, and that's going to obviously affect the election returns.</s>ANDERSON: That's fascinating. David, it is an absolute pleasure, having you on your inside analysis is so important to the international viewer, as we sit and watch, as observers to what is, as we described it, this great spectacle.</s>GERGEN: I look forward to talking to you another time.</s>ANDERSON: Thank you very much, indeed. What goes on in America does not stay in America. It has a great bearing on all of us. We're taking a very short break back after this. |
Trump Calls Experimental Drug Cocktail He Received "A Cure" | ANDERSON: U.S. President Donald Trump is praising the experimental antibody cocktail that he got during his COVID-19 treatment calling it, without scientific proof, a cure. Well, now Regeneron the drug company behind it is asking the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization. The antibody treatment is currently in clinical trials. The company says plans are in the works to offer it to hundreds of thousands of Americans in the next few months if it gets the green light. Well, it hasn't even been a week since Mr. Trump announced that he tested positive for COVID-19, yet he says he's not contagious at all and ready to start campaigning again. Joe Johns has more on the president's big push to get back to business.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: As the White House struggles to contain a major outbreak within its walls President Trump returned to the West Wing, despite testing positive less than a week ago. He met with his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his Social Media Director Dan Scavino in the Oval Office.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Obviously with the president, he continues to work. We've got a number of safety protocols with full PPE, masks, goggles and the like for any direct interaction with the president.</s>JOHNS: An isolation cart stocked with yellow medical gowns, respirator masks and plastic goggles was placed outside the President's offices for anyone who needs to be in contact with Trump. A source telling CNN Meadows and Scavino were in full protective gear when they met with the president who entered the Oval Office from the outside exit.</s>DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: If you're infected you need to stay away from other people. For someone who has the ability to stay away from other people, they need to do that.</s>JOHNS: Trump posting a bizarre video produced by the White House, framing his Coronavirus diagnosis as a net positive.</s>TRUMP: I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.</s>JOHNS: It's unclear when the video was made. But in it Trump called the antibody treatment he received a cure. Though there is no cure for the virus. And he said Coronavirus patients should receive it for free.</s>TRUMP: I view these - I know they call them therapeutic, but to me it wasn't therapeutic it just made me better, OK. I call that a cure.</s>JOHNS: The treatment the president received has not been approved yet by the FDA and is not widely available to Coronavirus patients.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not even a therapy that has emergency use authorization yet. But there's not a lot of data around this. 275 people in this first trial and we didn't even see that data.</s>ANDERSON: Let's talk more about all of this with the World Health Organization's COVID-19's Special Envoy. Dr. David Nabarro, we are very pleased to say that you are a regular guest on this show. You make time for us which are so important. You're joining us today via Skype from Geneva in Switzerland. I do want to get your response firstly to the president calling the Regeneron antibody cocktail a miracle drug. Just in the last hour the U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar spoke about that. Have a listen.</s>ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: While we make this world leading progress on vaccines, I want to note that we've applied the same methods to supporting therapeutics, too. That includes for instance support for both development and manufacturing of Regeneron's antibody cocktail, of which we could have tens or hundreds of thousands doses this fall, pending FDA Authorization.</s>ANDERSON: I do want to put you on the spot here, David. Should this drug be authorized for use?</s>DR. DAVID NABARRO, COVID-19 SPECIAL ENVOY, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Thanks, Becky. This is a really important question. Within the World Health Organization, we are supporting trials of therapies all over the world. They're called solidarity trials and we are very clear that any potential therapy ought to go through full clinical trials before it is made available to everybody. However, there are always possibilities for some kind of special licensing of more experimental therapies. And I'm assuming that that's what the Secretary for Health was referring to, and that's a national government decision. That's not within the purview of the World Health Organization.</s>ANDERSON: But you have no problem with the U.S. doing that? I'm not talking about as an employee of the World Health Organization. I'm just saying as somebody who knows what's going on. COVID is your world. Do you have a problem with that?</s>NABARRO: I want to be quite careful at this point. This is an experimental drug with potentially great value, and I think that every one of us who is at risk of COVID, including myself, would very much like to know whether or not it is shown to be effective when used under appropriate conditions. We all, I think, benefit if trials are put through the proper - drugs are put through the proper evaluation process. Before that happens, we have to say this is experimental.</s>ANDERSON: Well, Donald Trump certainly believes that it works. He says it's a miracle cure. Is it safe to be back at the White House at this point for him?</s>NABARRO: I, again, to be clear. I just want to bring it to myself, OK? I'm 71, so I'm younger than the president. If I get COVID, I'm going to be really careful, particularly because I know that I can be infectious to people near me for probably two weeks after I first have my symptoms. I'm worried about that because not everybody gets through this illness and recovers straight away. So I think my advice to everybody, whoever they might be, who has actually been diagnosed with COVID with a positive test is please respect the general principles about being careful about being in contact with other people. And make certain that everybody who is in contact with you realizes that this is a very dangerous virus. So that's my only comment on this, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: And being responsible would be self isolating, as I understand the kind of guidelines, and those guidelines issued by the CDC. Self isolate for a period of up to 14 days. You have to wonder, as we look at the videos being released by Donald Trump on his Twitter feed whether he is, indeed, self isolating, whether or not he's coming into contact with other people around the White House? You must be wondering the same thing, aren't you?</s>NABARRO: Well, we are reading reports of a major spreading episode that's happened in Washington around the White House. And one is always worried when one sees that. And so I think it's incumbent on everybody involved to follow the full protocols. After all, we do not know who we're going to infect, and we don't know who they might infect and perhaps later some unfortunate consequences. This is terribly serious for everybody. Do follow the protocols. They're there for a reason. They're not put there just for you to really disregard. To everybody, please follow the protocols on mask wearing, distancing, self-isolation, hygiene and protecting those most at risk. It's very important.</s>ANDERSON: Well, I think we can safely say that the U.S. President isn't listening to you. But let's move on. Your colleague, Mike Ryan, earlier this week said that about 10 percent of the global population may have been infected by this virus. That is an estimate David that is far higher than the total global confirmed cases reported by governments. If that were to be the case, we are talking about nearly 800 million people, sir. How realistic is that?</s>NABARRO: Well, Becky, I followed the work that Mike has been doing. We don't have very clear surveys of all populations so that we can have absolute results. It's an estimate, but I think it's a pretty good estimate. It's 20 times the number of cases that have currently been notified, but I wouldn't be surprised if it certainly is between 10 and 20 times the current total. So I'm personally sticking with that. But let me say to viewers, there's something very important underneath this. It's not the number who has been infected. It's the number who has not been infected. What we're basically hearing from Mike is that 90 percent of the world's population is still susceptible. That means this virus has got a long, long way to go. And please remember, even if we have a brilliant vaccine coming available in the next few months, it will take a very large number of months for everybody in the world to be vaccinated.</s>NABARRO: That's why, as humanity, we've got to learn to live with this virus as a constant threat. And that means all of us doing everything we can to avoid the virus catching us and making us sick.</s>ANDERSON: David, it's a pleasure having you on, sir. Thank you very much indeed for joining us and your closing narrative there, exactly the narrative you started discussing with me and laying out more than six months ago.</s>NABARRO: Yes.</s>ANDERSON: Let's hope that people are listening. And if they're not, they should be. Thank you, sir.</s>NABARRO: Thank you.</s>ANDERSON: Ahead on the show, Iran and Lebanon on the brink both countries record their highest number of daily COVID cases ever. We're going to take you live to Beirut after this. |
Hospital In Lebanon Teeter On The Edge As Cases Spike | ANDERSON: You're watching "Connect the World." I'm Becky Anderson. We've been watching the pandemic all over the world this hour. So take a look at this you can see Iceland in blue there really spiking. We spoke to the Prime Minister last hour as I asked her about potentially another lockdown to international visitors. Well, here in the Middle East, Iran in green as well, ticking up again after being hit so mercilessly at the beginning of all of this and Lebanon there in white, jumping up in a really big way, and it's a really significant leap in cases. Both are now recording their highest number of cases per day and that's as both are facing huge financial difficulties as well. CNN's Ben Wedeman has seen a lot of - well, have seen Beirut take a lot of hits and, indeed. He's seen a lot hits around the region in his decades of reporting. He is with us to give us some context on all of this. Ben, let's start with Lebanon because the country's health care system, they're already struggling before several hospitals were of course badly damaged by the port explosion back in August. What's the situation on the ground right now?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The situation is getting worse by the day. On the 4th of October, 111 Lebanese towns were put under a complete lockdown until at least the 12th of this month, as the numbers grow. Yesterday we saw the highest daily increase yet. That's 1,428 and the Head of the Lebanese Parliament's Health Committee said that Lebanon is close approaching the Italian scenario. And we've also heard from the head of the main government hospital that treats COVID patients that it's time to ring the alarms.</s>DR. FIRASS ABIAD, DIRECTION GENERAL, RAFIC HARIRI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: At the moment, the COVID-19 in Lebanon is not under control. We are seeing increasing in numbers. We are seeing a high positivity rate. When we look at the capacity of the hospitals, we see that we're working really high occupancy rate. We are worried that with the rising numbers, we reach a stage where those beds will be full and then patients will not have access to hospitals.</s>WEDEMAN: And in fact the situation here, if you look at the per capita number of COVID cases, Lebanon has far exceeded the worst phase in Italy's outbreak. But what's interesting is that the death toll, which is just 430, is surprisingly low. It's not all together clear why. But what is without a doubt is that Lebanon is facing a financial catastrophe in the next few months because the government is going to run out of the money it has to subsidize medicine and, therefore, this very severe outbreak that this country is suffering from could get much, much worse. Becky?</s>ANDERSON: You're making some very, very valuable points. Ben, Iran of course remains the worst hit country in the region recording its highest daily infection since the beginning of the pandemic. The question is how badly is U.S. sanctions impacting the country's fight against this pandemic?</s>WEDEMAN: Yes, Becky. In fact, yesterday they recorded their largest daily death toll. There's no question that the U.S. sanctions, which are by most standards, the most severe the United States has ever imposed on any country. It is having a serious impact on the country's ability to buy medicine and also to buy medical equipment. And this situation, which is already very grave, is about to get much worse, because the United States is going to announce shortly the imposition of blanket sanctions on all Iranian financial institutions regardless of their affiliations with the government. And the European Union has come out strongly in opposition to these proposed sanctions because they will have a devastating impact, not on the regime in Iran, but on the people of Iran who have seen their economy fall to pieces because of these sanctions, which the American officials and Israeli officials, who are very much partners in these sanctions, have made it clear. Their goal is to bring the Iranian economy to its knees. Of course, the collateral damage in that is going to be the 80 million civilians who live in Iran. Becky?</s>ANDERSON: Ben Wedeman on both the story in Iran and, indeed, that of Lebanon reporting for you tonight from Beirut. Ben, thank you. Well, let's get you up to speed on some of the other stories that are our radar right now. And the Czech Republic has seen its highest daily COVID case counts since the pandemic began on Wednesday. More than 5300 new cases reported there. The country has overtaken Spain as the EU country with most cases per 100,000 one way of measuring these things. Next door in Slovakia, they're reporting more than 1,000 daily cases for the first time ever Prime Minister there warning health care workers are barely coping with the onslaught of new infections. 57 people have died there, one of the lowest per capita death rates in Europe. Italy now requiring mandatory face masks in all outdoor spaces. Those who do not comply across the country could face a fine of up to $1100. On Wednesday the country reported its highest daily report of cases in more than five months. And Poland reporting its highest number of positive cases and deaths according to the country's Health Ministry, more than 4,000 COVID cases and 76 new fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours nearly 3,000 poles have died since the pandemic started. These numbers speak for themselves, don't they? The second wave, it seems, is truly upon us. It's not discriminating as far as geography is concerned. Well, spin versus reality. We're going to try to draw the line between one and the other in what was the U.S. vice presidential debate. Stay with us for that. |
Prince William: We Are Now At The Point Of No Return. | HARRIS: Let's talk about who is prepared to lead our country? Over the course of the next four years on what is an existential threat to us as human beings. Joe is about saying we're going to invest that in renewable energy. It was going to be about the creation of millions of jobs. We will achieve net zero emissions by 2050, carbon neutral by 2035. Joe has a plan.</s>PAGE: Vice President Pence, do you believe climate change poses an existential threat?</s>PENCE: As I said Susan the climate is changing, we'll follow the science. Once again, Senator Harris is denying the fact that they're going to raise taxes on every American.</s>ANDERSON: That was last night's vice presidential debate. We've been covering that the past several hours. So while America's VPs dodged questions on climate change or at least the current one did, there are others who are making sure this critical issue is front and center. Case in point, Britain's Prince William. The Duke of Cambridge is seen here chatting with historian and conservationist sir David Attenborough about his plan to reward environmental work around the globe. Now it's called the earth shot prize. Consider it a noble prize for the environment. Five rewards of about $1.3 million each will be given out every year over the next decade. The goal is to have 50 solutions to some of the planet's biggest challenges by 2030. It all comes at such a desperate time. Remember, we just lived through the hottest September ever. Right now a dangerous hurricane is battering the U.S. Gulf Coast. Massive wildfires scorch millions of hectares across the American West. Prince William spoke to my colleague, Max Foster, about his Earth Shot initiative.</s>PRINCE WILLIAM, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: We've got a prize that's really the most prestigious environmental global prize that's ever been on the environment. It's about turning the debate from - or the challenge from being pessimistic and negative to optimistic and hope. Because we always feel that there's a lot of weight on this. And people feel how can I help? It's very difficult. What can I do? We want to change the conversation and show that we can provide solutions, we can tackle this and in ten year's time we can make our planet more sustainable and more prosperous and better for everyone.</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: When people say this is just another campaign, what are you saying back? What's different about it?</s>WILLIAM: So I think, obviously we've learned a lot from other campaigns. We've talked to them. We discussed and used what they've done. But I think what's different about the prize is like I say is about this optimism. It's about this idea that we can find solutions and we can drive change. I think rather than saying it's all doom and gloom and really there's nothing more we can do about it, and endless headlines of sadly extinctions and problems in environment around the world. We want to say to people listen, next ten years if we can set these ambitious targets and these goals and inspire people to rise to the challenge. There are wonderful people doing incredible things around the world all in small communities everywhere. One of them will have an amazing idea. We can scale that up and we can use that to really tackle some issues.</s>FOSTER: A member of your team was talking about a tipping point. I mean, how would you describe it? How bad is it?</s>WILLIAM: I think according to the experts and what they're saying it really is the point of no return. We have ten years to fundamentally fix our planet so that we can live in a better, more prosperous world and it's sustainable.</s>FOSTER: That debate which comes off about you knows whether the science is there on climate change, what's your response to that at this time?</s>WILLIAM: Very much so. The science is definitely there. It's irrefutable. We need to make these changes and we have to make these changes if we want to live our lives like we do, without having to sacrifice all the things that we really, really enjoy. We can change, we can develop, we can use the best of human ingenuity to tackle these challenges and fix them.</s>FOSTER: You talked about how you were inspired in this work initially by the work of your father and your grandfather, undoubted pioneers in this area. How are you going to measure your success and how do you allow Prince George, for example, to inherit this?</s>WILLIAM: Like you said, my grandfather started doing stuff with conservation a long time ago, WWF particularly. My father was ahead of his time talking about climate change. I don't want to be ahead of my time because then we're already too late and now are the time to act. My children look to me and ask me lots of questions. They love the natural world. They want answers and they want to know why there's so much negativity and why everyone is worried and how bad can it get? And I want to turn around to them and say we have solutions. We can find a way through this. You know human ingenuity and human spirits of innovation is huge. We put a man on the moon. We can do this.</s>FOSTER: The genesis of this was before the pandemic. The pandemic hit. How has the pandemic, from what you're seeing, affecting the wider cause? Can you learn something from this process we've been through?</s>WILLIAM: Obviously going through COVID has been pretty horrendous for everybody and we've lost a lot of people very sadly. I think what COVID has taught us is that it's the first kind of difficult time that in my generation and younger generations have faced. Obviously your generations have been through the war and there was nothing like that. It was truly horrendous. But this has been a tricky time for everyone a very difficult time. And I think if there is any kind of tiny ray of lights that can come of this is the people have outside more. They have experienced nature, they've seen it. They've heard the birds because the airplanes have been less, the roads have been calmer. I hope people had that moment to connect and realize how special the green and natural world around them is? And so I think if we can find the money, collaboration and willpower to tackle COVID, as we have done we can do this for the environment as well.</s>FOSTER: OK. Your highness, thank you very much, indeed.</s>WILLIAM: Thanks Foster.</s>ANDERSON: What a jolly good message there is a lot of good in the world remember that seriously. We can all help. So let's do it. Stay safe. Stay well. Good evening. |
Pelosi & Raskin Push Bill To Create Panel That Could Rule On President's Fitness For Office. | TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.</s>CUOMO: You ever get that feeling like every time you come back from break like a bell should ring, it's like another round? It just keeps coming. The Speaker of the House fired this shot at the President today.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Tomorrow, come here tomorrow. We're going to be talking about the 25th Amendment.</s>CUOMO: The 25th Amendment. Look, I think this is very unlikely. Not that they won't talk about it, but just read the 25th Amendment. Even if the president didn't object to being removed from power, it would still take the vice president and a majority of the Executive officers, the cabinet, or the vice president and a body established by Congress, which is bicameral, right, two houses, not just the House, and that body doesn't exist. But what does this mean? Why is this productive? Congressman Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, friend of show, wants to create that group, the aforementioned group, from the 25th Amendment, cosponsored with Pelosi. Congressman, welcome back to the show.</s>REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Chris, thank you very much for having me.</s>CUOMO: You are a superior mind. But I think you have an inferior case tonight. This 25th Amendment, you can talk about the president's perceived incompetence or incapacity, but where is this going to go in all likelihood?</s>RASKIN: Well, for one thing, the legislation which I first brought up several years ago is not about one president. It doesn't mention President Trump. It's about having the body in place that's contemplated by the 25th Amendment. The Authors of the 25th Amendment, Birch Bayh and Robert F. Kennedy felt very strongly that there was real danger in the Nuclear Age if you don't have succession and stability in the presidency. We got 535 Members of Congress. We've got one president. And so, COVID-19 is also an age of real danger and uncertainty. And so, this is something that we should do for the continuity and stability of office. You're right that nothing happens without the Senate and nothing happens without the Vice President. But I hope that we take very seriously, our responsibility as Congress, to make sure that we've got stability and continuity in the presidency.</s>CUOMO: Just as this was first kind of scared into existence by Eisenhower, and how people didn't get real information about him, and they felt it was deceptive, and Congress wanted to act, it look a long time, because partisans get nervous of it looking like a reaction to their own. Wouldn't that look like this now to the Republicans, that if they were to sign on to this kind of group, it would have Trump's name all over it, even if it's not actually there?</s>RASKIN: Well I don't think so. The 25th Amendment has four parts to it. One says that if the presidency is vacant, the vice president becomes president. The second says if the vice presidency is vacant, the president nominates someone who through concurrent majorities becomes VP. The third says the president can temporarily transfer powers to the VP, if he's undergoing surgery, for example, a colonoscopy. This has happened multiple times before.</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>RASKIN: It's the responsible thing to do. In fact, I think there were Republicans calling for it.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>RASKIN: When the President first went to the hospital.</s>CUOMO: But this is about the fourth property, which is?</s>RASKIN: This is about Section 4, yes. And so, Section 4 says that the vice president and a majority of the cabinet, the principal officers in Executive branch or the vice president and a majority of the body set up by Congress can determine that the president is unable to execute the powers and duties of office. In other words, instead of the president voluntarily saying, "I'm going to take a breather for a few weeks"--</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>RASKIN: --or for several hours or whatever it is, it is said that the president has become incapacitated. And so, you set up a body that's there in the event of an emergency.</s>CUOMO: I got you.</s>RASKIN: So, this is all about--</s>CUOMO: But let me ask you this. This isn't about the law.</s>RASKIN: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Do you think the President is incompetent?</s>RASKIN: It is totally not my judgment. That's what the whole legislation is about, is saying we need to have a body there to make these judgments. We don't need politicians running around second- guessing people's doctors and physicians and so on. What we need is a process to do this. And it's called for--</s>CUOMO: Why now?</s>RASKIN: --in the Constitution. Well, because I think it's a haphazard way to go. And everybody thinks it's partisan and so on. We're trying to drain it of the partisanship, and say, "Look, this is a bipartisan, bicameral body set up with medical authorities." Former - no politicians were in office today, but former Executive branch people, former cabinet officials, surgeons general, vice presidents, presidents, and they'll meet and they'll say "We've got a problem, and we need to transfer the powers to the vice president," because what happens if the president becomes medically incapacitated and that hasn't been done.</s>CUOMO: Congressman Raskin?</s>RASKIN: I mean, what happens then?</s>CUOMO: I appreciate you taking the time. I got to take a break. I appreciate you as always. Thank you for being on the show.</s>RASKIN: And thanks for having me, Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right, we'll see what happens with that. We'll be right back.</s>TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME. |
13 Charged in Alleged Domestic Terrorism Plot to Kidnap Michigan's Governor and Overthrow Several State Govts; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) Michigan Discusses About the Alleged Plot to Kidnap Her by an Anti-Government Group; In Total Reversal, Trump is Now Interested in Big Stimulus Deal; Ousted Vaccine Expert: Trump "Has Failed America". | WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: She was a good singer and cook who was into politics and was very close to her three children and five grandchildren. May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing. Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.</s>ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, Michigan's Governor is OUTFRONT after the FBI thwarts an alleged plot by an anti- government group to kidnap her, which she is learning this hour about plot and why she's calling out President Trump. Plus, the President in the Oval Office tonight as he battles coronavirus. Why is the White House still dodging the most basic questions about when he last was tested negative and why were some staffers at Walter Reed asked to sign non-disclosure agreements during Trump's visit last November? Plus, the next Trump-Biden debate derailed after Trump said he's out, won't do it. He says it's because it's a virtual debate. Can you afford to walk away? Let's go OUTFRONT. And good evening to all. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news, an alleged plot to storm the capital, attack and kidnap Michigan's Governor and she is calling out President Trump tonight. The alleged attack thwarted by the FBI. And in a moment, I'm going to talk to Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, for her first national interview since the plot became public today. I want to give you the details as we have them now. They are alarming. According to the FBI, the group plan to storm the state capitol with Molotov cocktails, taking Whitmer hostage and overthrowing the government. That attack was set to take place in the coming weeks before the 2020 presidential election. And we're now learning just how involved the FBI was in uncovering this operation. At least, seven FBI field offices from across the country involved in thwarting the attack. And just a short time ago, Whitmer held a press conference. She did not hold back and putting some of the blame on President Trump.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Just last week, the President of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. "Stand back and stand by," he told them. Stand back and stand by. Hate groups heard the President's words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry as a call to action.</s>BURNETT: And now, Whitmer being criticized by the President, of course, he criticized her for her response to the pandemic, a response which included a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus. At one point, Trump tweeting in all caps, "LIBERATE MICHIGAN." Liberate, the word he chose. And today, Biden was asked if he believes tweets like those encourage groups like the one allegedly behind the plot to kidnap Whitmer.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I do. The words of a president matter.</s>BURNETT: The words of a president do matter. And Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live near the White House tonight. Kaitlan, the White House now responding.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are. And they're firing back at a way that wasn't anticipated after you saw what happened and saw these bizarre details of this plot to kidnap the Michigan Governor. And I think it's because of that direct tie that you heard Gov. Whitmer make to the President and to what he said at that debate, something that caused so much consternation, Erin, because of course it took the President several days to actually condemn those white supremacy groups after he didn't do on the debate stage. And when he finally did it, it was the night he tested positive for coronavirus, so it did not get a lot of attention. And now we have a new statement from the Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany who says that President Trump has continually condemned white supremacists and all forms of hate. Gov. Whitmer is sowing division by making these outlandish allegations, America stands united against hate and in support of our federal law enforcement who stopped this plot. Notice, Erin, missing from that statement is any condemnation of the six men who were arrested today as part of this plot to kidnap the Governor and other details and this anti government attitude that they had, though we should note that given Gov. Whitmer's statement earlier, tying the President's remarks and what she says is a refusal to condemn white supremacy. There's nothing in these court documents from the arrest today saying that these people were inspired by the President's words. But what Gov. Whitmer is saying in this argument that she's making is basically that they did not see the President's words as a rebuke, but she said they saw it as 'a rallying cry' instead.</s>BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much. So it's a pretty stunning thing to think that there's this group of vigilantes plotting in an incredibly intricate way allegedly to the storm of capital, Molotov cocktails, they'd scoped out a home to attack, to kidnap a sitting governor. What else do we know about this alleged plot and the man allegedly behind it? Shimon Prokupecz is OUTFRONT.</s>WHITMER: I never could have imagined anything like this.</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER (voice-over): A plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan foiled by the FBI. Today, the FBI charging six men in the conspiracy.</s>ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: The FBI began investigation earlier this year after becoming aware that through social media that a group of individuals was discussing the violent overthrow of certain government and law enforcement components.</s>PROKUPECZ (voice-over): A month long investigation alleges the men met on June 6 with several others and discuss taking a sitting governor before one of the men, Adam Fox, reached out to a Michigan-based anti- government group. The complaint says on June 14, a confidential informant recorded a conversation between Fox and the group saying he needed 200 men to storm the Capitol building before the November 2020 presidential election. Officials say Fox and others met again on June 20th to discuss plans for assaulting the State Capitol, planning for firearms and tactical training in July. In August, the group allegedly shifted their plan to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home.</s>BIRGE: Members of this conspiracy on two occasions conducted coordinated surveillance on the governor's vacation home.</s>PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The group allegedly use cold language and encrypted messages to communicate. And according to the complaint, successfully detonated and improvised explosive device in October while Fox confirmed he purchased a taser to use in the kidnapping. Official say the group plan to meet again on October 7th.</s>BIRGE: The FBI and State Police executed arrests of several of the conspirators when they were meeting on the east side of the state to pool funds for explosives and exchange tactical gear.</s>PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Several other link to an extremist group are also charged separately in state court for planning to storm the State Capitol building taking hostages, including Whitmer and planning to instigate civil war.</s>JOSEPH GASPER, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE COL.: All of us in Michigan can disagree about politics. But those disagreements should never ever amount to violence.</s>PROKUPECZ: And Erin, the FBI Director just recently warned that these are the kinds of threats that certainly concern the FBI. It is one of the biggest dangers that we face in this country, these extremist groups and them wanting to attack here in the United States. The FBI Director saying this is one of the biggest concerns right now. Also, the Department of Homeland Security saying that this is one of the biggest threats that we face here in the United States.</s>BURNETT: Yes. They're making it very clear from their assessment. Thank you, Shimon. And Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is now OUTFRONT. So Governor, look as this cross today, people were shocked. I mean, when were you first aware, when did officials first inform you that they thought there was this plot to attack, to storm, to kidnap you?</s>WHITMER: So I can't discuss too many details because it's around my security and, of course, that's what's the issue here. We got to make sure that we stay safe. However, in the recent weeks, it was brought to my attention. Of course, we know every time that this White House identifies me or takes a shot at me, we see an increase in rhetoric online, violent rhetoric and so there's always a connection. And certainly, it's something that we've been watching, but this took it to a whole new level.</s>BURNETT: I mean, it did and you say you found out in recent weeks. So we know that they had been planning for quite some time, they then released one of them wanted to do this before election day, so you are coming into the final days, just 26 days away from Election Day. How close do you think they were from trying to do something to you?</s>WHITMER: I can't answer that with any certainty, Erin. I just know that the FBI and the Michigan State Police worked incredibly hard in a coordinated fashion. This is unlike anything we've ever seen before and the brave men and women of these two police organizations really put their lives on the line to keep me and my family safe. And I'm incredibly grateful and humbled by the work that they do.</s>BURNETT: So you say every time the President has said something about you, and he does frequently, you have been one of his biggest targets, that you've seen is increasing the sort of rhetoric from groups like this, OK. And earlier today, you said that the President telling the far-right proud boys group to stand back and stand by was, in your words, a rallying cry for these sorts of groups. So now then after your press conference, you said that and then Jason Miller, Trump's senior campaign advisor, called the plot horrendous, but then came out and said this about you.</s>JASON MILLER, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: These are some pretty shameful comments here from Gov. Whitmer.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How come?</s>MILLER: I mean, because how you can go from a moment of unity to attacking President Trump, I thought was just completely ridiculous. I mean, if we want to talk about hatred, then Gov. Whitmer, go look in the mirror. I mean, the fact that she wakes up every day with such hatred in her heart towards President Trump.</s>BURNETT: He said if you want to know hatred go look in the mirror. What is your response to that, Governor?</s>WHITMER: I mean, I think it tells you everything you need to know about the White House and the people they surround themselves by. The fact that after a plot to kidnap and to kill me, this is what they come out with, they start attacking me as opposed to what good decent people would do is to check in and say are you OK, which is what Joe Biden did and I think that tells you everything that's at stake in this election. We have a choice between a leader who is going to have his minions attack people when they are being targeted by domestic terror groups and we have a leader who calls to see how you're doing to check in and to see what they can do to help and to be supportive. It then tells you everything you need to know about the character of the two people on this ballot that we have to choose from in a few weeks.</s>BURNETT: So you and I have spoken throughout the coronavirus crisis. And in April, we saw those demonstrations in the Capitol against your State home guidelines. There were armed protesters. I remember there was one night you were in the Capitol, they were all outside masked. There were some frightening times. One of them even took place inside the statehouse and there was a whole lot of silence from Washington about this. They were quick to criticize other protests, but this one there was silence. And here's an exchange that Bill Barr, the Attorney General, had over the summer at a congressional hearing about those protests.</s>REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Are you aware that these protesters called for the Governor to be lynched, shot and beheaded?</s>BILL BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: No.</s>JAYAPAL: You're not aware of that.</s>BILL: I was not aware of it.</s>JAYAPAL: Major protests in Michigan, you're the Attorney General and you didn't know that the protesters called for the Governor to be lynched, shot and beheaded? So obviously, you couldn't be concerned about that ...</s>BILL: Well, there are a lot of protests around the United States.</s>BURNETT: So he blew it off and I remember you and I talked after that, Gov. Whitmer. You told me you didn't believe him then, so now we have a plot. That was at a point with seven FBI field offices, multiple law enforcement agencies involved. They scoped your vacation home twice. They planned Molotov cocktails. They were going to attack, storm, kidnap you. Do you believe the Attorney General knew anything about that?</s>WHITMER: If he didn't, he's incompetent. The fact of the matter is I have raised this very issue with this White House and asked them to bring the heat down. I have asked leaders, Republican leaders in the state, let's bring the heat down. I was aware of a lot of the threats that were being made against me and my family and I asked for their help. And they didn't do a darn thing about it and then denied even knowing that it was a problem. And here we are, we came very close to a plot that was to kidnap me and to murder. That was what the affidavits say. Also to hurt law enforcement, to bomb our Capitol, meaning all of the press and the Democrats and Republicans in our Capitol. This cannot stand and we have to call it out for what it is. It is domestic terrorism. And I quoted Ronald Reagan in my comments earlier today, because there are good Republicans who stand up and take this on. And I'd like to acknowledge Charlie Baker, the mayor, the Governor of Massachusetts who called to check in on me. That's what decent people do. That's what good American leaders do.</s>BURNETT: Let me just ask you one other question just as a personal level with children, how is your family?</s>WHITMER: We're doing fine. Our burden is a lot less than many and we keep that in perspective throughout COVID and through these challenging times. But I do have kids and a husband who have seen people with automatic rifles on their front lawn more weekends than I than I care to name how many. But this is a moment where, as Americans, we need leaders who can bring us together. We need leaders who recognize the enemy as the virus, not our fellow Americans and these are hard times, but we're going to get through them.</s>BURNETT: Gov. Whitmer, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.</s>WHITMER: Thank you, Erin.</s>BURNETT: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer there of Michigan. And next the breaking news, Trump's doctor has just released a letter about the President's health. He says Trump can return to the campaign trail this weekend. Plus, the government's top vaccine expert who lost his job because he refused to push hydroxychloroquine is speaking out as 11 states are now setting alarming new coronavirus records as the temperatures turns out. And Trump saying you won't take part in the upcoming virtual debate, why not? Why not? Why? Is he bluffing? Is he really trying to find excuse to walk away? Anthony Scaramucci is OUTFRONT. |
Trump's Doctor: Pres. is Clear to Return to Public Saturday; WH Says Date of Trump's Last Negative Test is "Private Medical History" | BURNETT: Breaking news, the President's doctor just releasing a new letter on President Trump's health, the headline Dr. Conley says the President can return to public on Saturday. I'm going to go back to Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Kaitlan, this is the letter the White House have been saying, oh, it's coming, it's coming. What more are you learning?</s>COLLINS: Yes, it's notable we had to wait until 7 pm, Erin, to get this update. And we should remind viewers we have not seen or heard from Dr. Conley in person since Monday. He has not taken questions from reporters since then either. And instead has only provided us with these brief written updates like the one that we've just got that says that his judgment says that the President will be able to return to public engagement starting on Saturday. Obviously, if you know President Trump, that means the campaign trail and it's notable because, of course, the big question would be is why has this changed. Because just this past Monday, we heard from Dr. Conley and he said he would not breathe that final sigh of relief about the President and his diagnosis until Monday. Meaning this coming Monday, October the 12th and so it's not clear why that has changed. What's the difference in that 48 hour period, where now he's decided Saturday is the day that the President can go back on the campaign trail when before it was Monday when he actually said he would feel the safest. Of course, the biggest thing missing from this statement is whether or not the President has tested negative for COVID-19. They have not told us that yet. They've refused to say, of course, when the President's last negative test was before he actually tested positive on Thursday one week ago today. But this also does not say any updates about that. Instead, it just gives a brief rundown of his vitals. It has some vaguely worded statements about the President's condition, but it doesn't say whether or not he is still infected with COVID-19. And it certainly doesn't say what the President said this morning which is when he maintained he is no longer contagious. Of course, that is not a medical opinion, that's the President's opinion. And if it's based on something his doctor said, he did not cite that this morning. And of course, that's not included in this statement tonight.</s>BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much. Of course, the President also said today that he recovered from COVID because of being a 'perfect physical specimen'. OUTFRONT now Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at George Washington University Hospital who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush, Dr. Jeremy Faust, Emergency Physician who treats COVID patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and Abby Phillip, our Political Correspondent. So Dr. Reiner, let me start with you. The letter says the President can be back in public on Saturday, two days earlier than they had indicated a few days ago, as Kaitlan points out. They say that's 10 days since his diagnosis. What do you say? They say he's back out in public on the campaign trail.</s>JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes. So once again, the brief by the President's physician is notable for what it doesn't describe, which is just about everything. And they resort to using this really obtuse language. The President's physician said, based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics, the President can go back into public on Saturday. What does that mean based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics? Well, tell us what tests you're referring to, what tests are reassuring you that the President is not infectious. The CDC guidelines state that for most patients they can return to the public after about 10 days of isolation, after their symptoms begin. But they reserve 20 days of isolation for people with severe or critical illness, acknowledging that virus can be shed by those patients up to about 20 days. So we need to know, did the President have severe illness which would require 20 days or did he have more of a mild case? If he had a mild case, why did they throw the kitchen sink at him last week and treat him with all this experimental therapy, so that needs to be clarified.</s>BURNETT: Experimental therapy, three days in the hospital, oxygen at least twice, that would not be a mild or moderate case by any layperson's definition of that. And Dr. Faust, when we say what's in the letter, Dr. Reiner refers to some vitals, so we hear heart rate 69 beats a minute, blood pressure, 127 over 81, pulse oxygenation 96 percent to 98 percent, so that tells you something. Obviously, there's no lung scan in here. There's nothing that would answer some crucial questions about his ability to remain president for four more years as the oldest president in American history. What do you see and not see in that information?</s>DR. JEREMY FAUST, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: Well, the letter says that there's no sign of progression, no comment about symptoms. We keep getting hodgepodge on that. We have one slice of time, that's the afternoon. We don't really know how he's doing overall. We see what's kind of process for the viewer. I think we're all waiting to see how he does, but one thing that's for sure is that he's wasted a tremendous opportunity to save many, many lives by not downplaying the severity of this. He said he took a cocktail and was cured. Even the companies that make these treatments say that within three, five, seven days you might see a decrease in the amount of virus you have and eight days later, you might feel some symptom relief. The President is not a very good witness here. He thinks something happened, but really honestly, even the slide decks that were made for investors are not painting the picture that the President is painting and people are going to suffer because they are falsely reassured.</s>BURNETT: Well, I mean, Abby, the President actually came out today and I say it's on these times, sometimes when you say things he says, it's as if you're trying to be funny. I'm not trying to be funny. He said that he's a perfect physical specimen and that that's why he was able to beat COVID. It's difficult for people to trust what's coming out of this White House, because we just have not gotten a lot of really basic information, including crucial information about his lungs.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and about his overall health and what kinds of long-term impacts that this might have on his overall health. We know that the President wants to paint the rosiest possible picture of his own health and that predates COVID. I mean, he's been doing this since the campaign when he had his New York doctor kind of write this ridiculous report and release it to the public. So this is something that he tends to do, but in this case, because voters are already voting and they're heading out into the polls, it's really critically important to understand what is going on with his health here. And I think that he's also trying to use his own case study as evidence for American seniors who he's desperate to try to win back in the electoral process as evidence that this is really not all that bad and that they themselves will be saved by the treatment that he got. And I just think that that's a situation where the President really shouldn't be talking about things like that, because he's not a doctor and he's not a scientist. And it's important that he not give people a false sense of security to Dr. Faust's point about what exactly these treatments really can do for people who are not him and not getting this kind of world class rare one person in the entire planet. He's the only person getting this kind of care.</s>BURNETT: Right, fewer than 10 people in this country have gotten it and it is fully experimental. So Dr. Phelps, what about this issue of the negative test? There's the negative test that he needs to get multiple times before he can prove he's not shedding virus, which any normal person would have to have before going in public. There's also the fact that they still have refused to reveal the date of his last negative test. And at this point, we all know why, right, it wasn't any time recent and it's going to cause some serious problems when it comes to what they said about that debate, so we know that in some capacity. But from a purely medical point of view, there's people who could have been exposed, that they don't care, because they're not sharing the information.</s>FAUST: Yes. There's no contract tracing, there's no effort, as far as I've heard, to reach out to the goldstar families that he met with. And then in terms of kind of accelerating the return to normal schedule, the problem there, again, is that people might actually come down with this infection and think, well, if the President can go back to work, so can I. And that's why we have a pandemic, because we keep spreading this thing and we aren't disciplined enough to take it back and say let's control this thing. The President missed a huge chance. When Eisenhower had a heart attack, they handled that beautifully. They acknowledge and they educated and I think the American public actually was better because of that experience and I think that we could learn a lot from that.</s>BURNETT: So Dr. Reiner, let me ask you, the President, we're also finding out some more information here about something that seems to predate COVID. But the President went to Walter Reed, we all remember that, last minute trip back in November when he went in the car, they said, oh, it was routine. But of course, it wasn't, because we would have known about it, it would have been on the schedule. And the White House said, oh, that's just to get a head start on his physical as if you break that up into a bunch of different trips to Walter Reed. We are now learning tonight that at that time, some medical professors at Walter Reed were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements. Now, this is something the President has always favored, this sort of thing. By the way, that's supposed to be what a doctor has anyway, that he had them sign this. So you've been there, you treated the Vice President while he was in office, what do you take away from this? That when he went in November for that bizarre time, he made them sign a non-disclosure agreement.</s>REINER: Yes, I would have refused to sign it. In eight years in helping to care and caring for the Vice President of the United States, not a single time was I asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. And with the many consultants that we brought to the White House or to George Washington University Hospital to see and treat the Vice President, not once did I ask any of those outside consultants, some of whom were from around the country, not once did I ask them to sign a nondisclosure agreement, because it's built into the DNA of a physician. When you see a patient, you develop a therapeutic relationship which is based on trust. And if my patient asks me to sign a nondisclosure agreement, what my patient is telling me is that he doesn't trust me and that breaks that breaks the relationship, I would never have signed that.</s>BURNETT: Abby, this president, of course, does not trust.</s>PHILLIP: No. He doesn't trust anyone and he makes really virtually everyone, including people working in government sign a nondisclosure agreement. So it doesn't surprise me that he attempted to do this and perhaps it was successful. But again, Erin, more questions about the President's health, about the pre existing conditions he may have had going into this episode and what he has coming out of it.</s>BURNETT: Right. So he haven't released those scans. And by the way, what happened in November to a president who we know has issues not just, obviously, his obvious age, but obesity, heart issues, as Sanjay has pointed out. What happened in November at Walter Reed may be important and I thank all of you for your time. Next, President Trump insulting Sen. Kamala Harris.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence.</s>BURNETT: The third highest ranking Democrat in the House, James Clyburn, responds. And the upcoming presidential debates now in question, Trump backs out of the next one next week. The thing is, can you afford to skip them? Anthony Scaramucci is OUTFRONT. |
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) is Interviewed on Trump's Interest in a Big Stimulus Deal and Pelosi Pushing a Bill to Determine Whether Trump is Capable of Serving as President | BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump reversing course yet again on a stimulus bill, now saying he is open to a large-scale deal. Remember two days ago, he came out on Twitter and canceled it all together, said he had no interest in it, talks were all off on a big deal. A few hours later, he said, OK, I'll do some standalone bills, and we'll give individual checks to people. But now, back to where he was days ago, it's whiplash. And OUTFRONT now is the third highest ranking Democrat in the House, James Clyburn. Let me just ask you, Congressman, this is a really important topic, whatever people may think about government debt and the role of government. Right now, there are a lot of people in this country in an incredible amount of pain, and economic relief is needed if we are to have a much more serious economic depression. So, the president now says he wants a large-scale bill -- I'm sorry -- is interested one, after two days ago he said, no way, I'm done with it. So, do you think this is negotiable at this point, that you can actually negotiate with him?</s>REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, I would certainly hope so. Well, thank you very much for having me. You know, the president seems to judge everything in this country economically based upon what happens on Wall Street. Now, the reason he jumped back into the fray is because after he made his statement, cutting off all negotiations, Wall Street started to tank. And then he came back into the discussion. And I think somebody in the White House must be informing him that there are a few other streets in America where people live, where people play, where people work, outside of Wall Street. And so, I would hope that he would take into account there are so many things on Main Street and side street, whatever, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, if you please, people's lives are at stake. Their livelihoods are under threat. Their health is deteriorating. We have got to do something and do it quickly. And I would hope this president would stop jerking people around and get serious about being president of this country. He seems to feel that he's involved in some kind of a game or a talk radio or TV program.</s>BURNETT: So there's the stimulus that obviously you're talking about the urgency of that. On top of that, the speaker, who obviously is involved in those discussions, is introducing a bill that would establish a commission to determine if the president is able to do his job. So this is about the 25th Amendment, right, in which the vice president and the cabinet would transfer power to the vice president, because if the president is unfit basically. So, we're just 26 days away from Election Day. Do you think this is good to be doing this right now?</s>CLYBURN: Well, you know, this is not a new bill. Jamie Raskin has had this bill around for a while, and I'm assuming it's the same bill.</s>BURNETT: Yes, it is.</s>CLYBURN: -- that they're going to be reintroducing. At any rate, I think the president is displaying some very erratic behavior. And I think that the American people are beginning to become very concerned about this. And so, I think that it is good for the president or at least the people in the White House, most especially the chief of staff, to realize that he is not going to be allowed to jerk the country around and to do what seemed to be whatever willy- nilly may come to this president's head. So this may be the kind of attention getter that we need.</s>BURNETT: So in an interview today, the president came out and said some things about the vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which were not really about her performance at all in the sense of they were, you know, just sort of deeply personal. Here is what he said.</s>TRUMP: She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you could get worse, and totally unlikable. And she is. She's a communist. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence.</s>BURNETT: What's your reaction to that, a monster that was on stage?</s>CLYBURN: We'll deal first with the communist thing. You know, I was born and raised in an old town of Sumter. Mary McLeod Bethune was in -- was born in that county, just ten miles from where I grew up. My mother made me learn everything in the world about Mary McLeod Bethune. She's</s>BURNETT: Congressman Clyburn, thank you very much for your time tonight, sir.</s>CLYBURN: Thank you.</s>BURNETT: And tonight, the top government vaccine expert who says he lost his job because he refused to push hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus is speaking out, claiming President Trump could have prevented many of the 212,000 American deaths thus far. Here is Dr. Rick Bright in an interview with Jake.</s>DR. RICK BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, HHS BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: I believe President Trump and this administration has failed America, failed to respond to this pandemic, and many people have died needlessly. There were many lives that were lost that we could have prevented. And there are many more lives that we're going to lose this winter that are preventable.</s>BURNETT: That amid major warning signs for the United States, where only two states right now are seeing a decline in the number of new cases, Hawaii and Alabama. Twenty-five states are increasing, including spikes in some of the states hardest hit at the beginning, like New York and New Jersey. Nick Watt is OUTFRONT.</s>NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protests in New York City's COVID-19 hot spots. Some schools and indoor dining closed again today. Religious services limited.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We can stop this challenge from turning into a full-blown second wave and we must.</s>WATT: A field hospital is about to open in Wisconsin. The Tennessee Titans now under NFL investigation after 23 positive tests, and an unsanctioned practice. Kentucky's mask mandate just extended another 30 days.</s>GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: We're on pace unfortunately to have another record week.</s>WATT: In fact, these 11 states setting records right now. Highest average daily case counts ever, in just two states, home to less than 2 percent of Americans, average new case counts are actually falling, Alabama and Hawaii. Latest national numbers, more than 50,000 new cases Wednesday, and more than 900 dead. Meanwhile, on the much hoped for vaccine --</s>ALEX AZAR, HHS SECRETARY: Pending FDA authorizations, we believe we may have up to 100 million doses by the end of the year, enough for every American who wants a vaccine by March to April 2021.</s>WATT: The morning after the vice president said this to Kamala Harris --</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stop playing politics with people's lives.</s>WATT: His boss, the president, is doing exactly that, claims there's now a COVID cure. There is not.</s>TRUMP: The Regeneron was, I view it as a cure, not just a therapeutic.</s>WATT: He took an experimental antibody therapy made by Regeneron. Ely lily is developing something similar. Both just applied to the FDA for emergency use authorization.</s>MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Are they going to get it?</s>TRUMP: They're going to get it. Yeah, they're going get it.</s>WATT: That decision must be apolitical. The president still playing politics with people's lives, again and again.</s>WATT: And meanwhile, we have the governor of New Mexico saying the state is now at an extreme risk of uncontrollable spread. The governor of New Jersey calling today's case tally sobering. And Miami-Dade down in Florida opened schools earlier this week. Today, Erin, the first confirmed case, an elementary school student -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Nick, thank you. And next, the president saying this in his latest interview.</s>TRUMP: Joe's not lasting two months as president. They're going to have thousands of people that are murderers, rapists, just pour into our country.</s>BURNETT: He doesn't even say some of them are good people. What does Anthony Scaramucci make of the president's behavior? He's next. Plus, potential new trouble for Trump as a Republican senator in a crucial swing state is distancing herself from him. |
Pence & Harris Exchange Jabs Over COVID, Health Care & Jobs. | SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people have demonstrated over the last eight months, that when given the facts they're willing to put the health of their families and neighbors and people they don't know first.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did everything that conservatives wanted and made people feel comfortable.</s>HARRIS: You respect the American people when you tell them the truth.</s>PENCE: You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pence was masterful in normalizing conservative ideas. What Kamala Harris had to go out there and do was to hang on to her base, which she did.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd be very surprised to see much movement in the polls here.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. This is a special edition of NEW DAY, 915 new deaths from coronavirus overnight. More than 50,000 new cases, 50,000. So, no wonder the pandemic was the first and most important issue discussed in the vice presidential debate, the first ever vice presidential debate separated by plexiglass. Senator Kamala Harris called the pandemic the greatest failure of any presidential administration in history. Mike Pence fought back and fought past debate time limits, but what mattered most, and what did voters think about it all? We have the results of a snap poll, and we'll discuss with the smartest expert on Earth available at 5:00 a.m.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That happen to be awake. Also this morning, President Trump has returned to the Oval Office, and CNN has new details about Mr. Trump's desire to return to the campaign trail with rallies, even as he is being treated for coronavirus. But let's start with the debate. CNN's Jason Carroll joins us live from Salt Lake City to break it all down. Good early morning, Jason.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you. You know, that fly landing on the vice president's head was indeed an unexpected moment during the debate but what was expected is that the coronavirus would dominate much of it, and it did. But there were also other topics of discussion, including the Supreme Court as well as systemic racism. One thing both candidates had in common, their ability to dodge answering questions.</s>CARROLL (voice-over): In Wednesday's debate, Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris were not only separated by 12 feet and plexiglass for social distancing, but also on the issues. Harris saying the Trump administration forfeited its right to reelection based on their handling of the coronavirus crisis.</s>HARRIS: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. They knew and they covered it up.</s>CARROLL: Meanwhile, Pence who leads the White House coronavirus task force defending their response despite the massive death toll.</s>PENCE: I want the American people to know from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.</s>HARRIS: Whatever the vice president is claiming the administration has done, clearly it hasn't worked. When you're looking at over 210,000 dead bodies in our country, American lives, that have been lost, families that are grieving that loss.</s>CARROLL: And when it came to a question on the progress of a viable vaccine, Harris said this.</s>HARRIS: If the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I'm not taking it.</s>CARROLL: The vice president also downplaying the Rose Garden event last month that may have started the coronavirus outbreak that infected President Donald Trump and a growing number of White House staffers.</s>PENCE: It was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists, regularly and routinely advise. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health.</s>CARROLL: And while it didn't reach the same level of chaos as the recent presidential debate --</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Can I be honest? It's a very important --</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Try to be honest.</s>CARROLL: -- there were still some moments of tension on the stage.</s>HARRIS: Make less than $400,000 a year.</s>PENCE: He says he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice president, I'm speaking. I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: The importance is you say the truth.</s>CARROLL: Harris looking straight to cameras to tell voters a Trump- Pence ticket is a threat to the Affordable Care Act.</s>HARRIS: If you have a preexisting condition, heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they're coming for you.</s>CARROLL: The vice president dodging questions on the same subject.</s>SUSAN PAGE, DEBATE MODERATOR: How would your administration protect Americans with preexisting conditions have access to affordable insurance if the Affordable Care Act is struck down?</s>PENCE: Well, thank you, Susan, but let me just say, addressing your very first question. I couldn't be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.</s>CARROLL: Harris also avoiding answering a question from her opponent about whether a Biden administration would pack the Supreme Court.</s>HARRIS: The American people are voting right now. And it should be their decision about who will serve on this most important body for a lifetime.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris.</s>PENCE: And people, Susan, are voting right now, they'd like to know if you and Joe Biden are going to pack the Supreme Court if you don't get your way in this nomination.</s>HARRIS: Let's talk about packing.</s>PENCE: You gave a non-answer.</s>CARROLL: Like Trump, Pence warned he may not accept the election results while also falsely claiming that mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud. There's no proof of widespread voter fraud in the United States.</s>PENCE: We have a free and fair election. We know we're going to have confidence in it. And I believe in all my heart that President Donald Trump is going to be reelected for four more years.</s>CARROLL: And it should be noted that one of the rules of the debate was that everyone inside the debate hall with the exception of the candidates and the moderator were supposed to be wearing a mask. It should be noted that as soon as the debate was over, as second lady Karen Pence took the stage, she did not have her mask on, whereas Senator Harris's husband when he took the stage, his mask was on -- John.</s>BERMAN: All right. Jason Carroll for us in Salt Lake City -- Jason, thank you very much. Joining us now, CNN political commentators Karen Finney and Scott Jennings. Karen was a senior spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Scott, a special assistant to President George W. Bush. Also with us, CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa, he is a White House reporter for "The Washington Post". Friends, thank you all for being with us this morning so early. And I will say this, because it is so early, I can make arbitrary rules because my bosses aren't awake to stop me.</s>CAMEROTA: Uh-oh.</s>BERMAN: And the arbitrary rule I'm going to set is, the one thing we can't say is, oh, if it didn't matter, or it won't matter, because if it doesn't matter by definition --</s>CAMEROTA: Give us this hour back.</s>BERMAN: -- it does matter. Well, that too. But it does matter. But if it didn't matter, it does matter. Let that sink in for a moment. So, Toluse, I'm going to go to you first because you're probably the one who got the least sleep because you had to report on this. What's your major takeaway?</s>TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, in a way, it doesn't matter because it didn't change the trajectory of the race.</s>BERMAN: Those aren't the rules.</s>OLORUNNIPA: He's down double digits and he needed to change the trajectory of the race. And with, you know, 27, 28 days left before the election, every day, he needs to change the trajectory of the race, and that doesn't seem to be happening. I think Kamala Harris was able to sort of do no harm to the position of the Biden campaign. They were able to, you know, put forward their points and really attack president Trump's administration over their handling of the coronavirus. That's the top issue. That's an issue where the president is struggling. He just got out of the hospital. He was not able to keep himself safe, and that's part of the reason that Pence was on the ropes on that issue. I think Pence did some -- made some good points when it came to the economy. He was able to land some punches on President Trump's economic record and vision versus Biden's. It didn't seem like either candidate came away with, you know, a major, massive, overwhelming win that will stick with the voters and the people will remember 27 days from now when they're voting. It seems like this is going to be just something that gets blown off the headlines when President Trump wakes up this morning and starts tweeting about God knows what.</s>CAMEROTA: Well, Scott, I mean, look, obviously, we are in a news cycle on steroids, no pun intended. But I think it did matter. I think it mattered on many different levels. My own 15-year-old daughters were super excited to watch it. That matters that people are engaged, and I know you think it did matter for Republicans. I mean, I heard you say they have felt they needed a win for a while, and that last night felt good for them.</s>SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No question. In case you haven't noticed, it hasn't been the rosiest of pictures over the last several days for the Republican ticket and the news surrounding it. And so, Republicans, and I would say a lot of down ballot Republican candidates were out there hoping for some kind of a good news cycle. Mike Pence delivered on that. He did what Donald Trump didn't do last week which was to prosecute the case on a number of policy areas where if Trump had slowed down a little last week, and not been so overly aggressive, he might have been able to do that. Well, Pence delivered on that when he came to taxes, the economy, green new deal, trade deals, the court packing exchange was particularly good. So, Pence came in and delivered solid exchanges and solid wins on all of these issues about which the Republicans want the race to be about. Now, whether this moves massive amounts of voters, I don't know. I tend to view it through the lens of audience. I would think that some of the conservative seniors who have been moving away from the Republican ticket would very much have appreciated Pence's performance last night. So, I'll be watching that cohort of voters very closely. I don't know that undecideds are going to look to a vice presidential debate to make their final decision. But, certainly, Pence gave you a nice, calm, sort of mainstream conservative view about what this ticket is about.</s>BERMAN: On the other hand, Karen Finney.</s>KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, sir.</s>BERMAN: Continue.</s>FINNEY: Yes, and I will stick to the rules and say I think it did matter, and I think it mattered because not as much on the substance, although I think one of the most important things about this debate was there was plexiglass on the stage. The COVID pandemic was front and center and that is the last thing this administration wants to be talking about right now. But it's inescapable because it is -- it's literally impacting our lives, all of our lives in big ways and small ways, from our economy, to our health care, to our loved ones. So,</s>CAMEROTA: We have an example of that. I mean, this is, you know, a stylistic point I would say more than a substance point, but somehow because of who was on stage, the style does become in some ways the story. Let's watch this moment of what Karen just alluded to.</s>HARRIS: Susan, I -- this is important and I want to add --</s>PENCE: Susan, I have to weigh in here.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: I have to weigh in.</s>HARRIS: I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: Repeal the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking. If you don't mind letting me finish, we can then have a conversation.</s>PENCE: Please?</s>HARRIS: OK?</s>PENCE: Please.</s>HARRIS: OK. Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking, I'm speaking. OK.</s>CAMEROTA: I don't know. Karen, I just want to stick with you for a second. I don't know what to make, if that's her style or if, you know, on the larger issue, which we've heard some commentators say, women of color always have to deliver that with a smile. They always have to deliver that message gently and with a smile because that's where we are.</s>FINNEY: Yes, we do. And I can tell you personally, I have to do it all day every day. I mean, that's how women and women of color have to navigate all kinds of spaces, right? I mean, stylistically, I mean, she went in there understanding there were different dynamics in the way people would view her experience versus the vice president and how they responded to each other, and how they reacted to each other. Again, I thought the vice president was really rude and interrupted a few times, and the way she came back I think, you know, actually amplified that by the fact that she firmly and with grace said I'm talking, and in a couple of times -- that instance that you just played, she -- it was literally her time to talk that he just busted right in. So, I think she -- yes, I think she -- and I think a lot of women watching understood that. As a black woman, let's just put it on the table. If there is this stereotype and the trope of the angry black woman, and already at the end of the debate, I saw on conservative news sites, comments that she wasn't likable. Well, that is a very old trope about women and how we are judged in terms of our likability, not just in the substance. So, that did matter greatly, and I think she did an excellent job and was very aware of those multiple dynamics that were playing in terms of how people would perceive what she was saying.</s>BERMAN: Toluse, do you have thoughts on this?</s>OLORUNNIPA: Yeah, I think any commentator or any site that talks about Senator Harris's likability, that did not talk about President Trump's likability last week when he was interrupting Joe Biden and bullying him and really attacking him in ways that, you know, are way out of proportion when you consider what happened last night, any site like that needs to really look in the mirror, and really wonder why they are taking this double standard. But I do think that Harris was very aware of how she was coming across. She knew that a lot of Americans are yet to understand her and know about her. She tried to introduce some biographical information, talking about her mother, and how her mother would have been proud to see her on the stage. She talked about her children, saying that, you know, they're in their 20s, and they're suffering in this economy, like a lot of people who are about to enter the labor market. So, she really wanted to introduce herself to the country. She did not want to come across as angry in some ways. So, I do think she pulled punches if you compare, you know, her debate last night to some of the interrogations she does on the Senate Judiciary Committee or in the Senate where she's really grilling some of the nominees and some of the witnesses that come before her. So, we know that she has that, and in her as a former prosecutor, but she did some pull punches and dial it back a bit. But she made her points, especially on health care. She really wanted to talk about health care, Mike Pence did not want to talk about health care. He pivoted very quickly several times, and that's clear -- it's a clear contrast between what the two campaigns want to be talking about. COVID and health care for the Democrats, the economy and, you know, sort of contrasting a leftist view with the Trump view for the Republicans.</s>BERMAN: All right. Friends, stand by because there was something else that happened on that stage last night, a clear violation of the social distancing policies -- a fly. A fly spent several minutes --</s>CAMEROTA: Oh my god.</s>BERMAN: -- well within six feet of Mike Pence.</s>CAMEROTA: You know what? Tell me when it's a raccoon, you know?</s>BERMAN: Mark on his head, maybe stuck on his head. I guess we'll discuss this, I'm not sure there's that much to discuss about it, other than that to note it. But we do have some more serious in-depth analysis on the debate, plus the results of the CNN snap poll on who voters thought won.</s>CAMEROTA: Why didn't you say the latest buzz?</s>BERMAN: Because too on the nose.</s>CAMEROTA: Too on the hair.</s>BERMAN: So I want to do a dramatic reenactment of some of the moments of the debate last night.</s>CAMEROTA: I love when you do this.</s>BERMAN: Alisyn, ask me what time it is.</s>CAMEROTA: John, what time is it?</s>BERMAN: Purple.</s>BERMAN: OK. So the point is there were many questions asked where the answers had just nothing to do with the issue at hand. Like different universe than the question asked. Back with us, Karen Finney, Scott Jennings, and Toluse Olorunnipa. Scott, I want to start with you and get your take on the non-answers to questions and in the spirit of the debate last night, if you feel like you have to go back and address something in the last segment, feel free to not answer my question.</s>JENNINGS: Well, Karen and I were on TV about four months ago, and it's -- I've been stewing on something all this time and I just want to go back there and aggressive on Karen.</s>FINNEY: Bring it on.</s>JENNINGS: And to be honest, I don't remember what it was, but it made me mad.</s>JENNINGS: Look, it is an old -- it's an old debating tactic to try to avoid answering the questions that don't set up the correct frame, you know, for what you're strategically trying to accomplish. So, sometimes you answer the questions at hand. Sometimes, as both Pence and Harris did, they had to go back and tried to keep going on a topic that they really felt they needed to win on, and sometimes, you know, the framing wasn't right so they wanted to avoid it all together. And I think a lot of candidates who don't have a lot of debating experience, they get trapped in this -- I've got to answer every question down to the -- and that's just not the way you would practice on a debate. So I think Pence and Harris skillfully navigated that tactical practice that you would do before you go into a big debate like this.</s>CAMEROTA: Let me just let viewers know what you're talking about, just give an illustration if you missed it, this is a moment where vice president Pence was asked about abortion, and asked about what would happen in his home state of Indiana if Roe v. Wade were struck down. So listen to this moment.</s>PAGE: If Roe v. Wade was overturned, what would you want Indiana to do? Would you want your home state to ban all abortions? You have two minutes, uninterrupted.</s>PENCE: Well, thank you for the question, but I'll use a little bit of my time to respond to that very important issue before. The American people deserve to know, Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American service members.</s>CAMEROTA: Scott, what was that? I mean.</s>FINNEY: It's totally connected.</s>JENNINGS: Yeah, I mean, he was -- he clearly, I think when you're going into a debate like this, and Karen and, you can chime if you think I'm off base, but there are certain point that you go in definitely that you want to make, and if the topic moves on before you actually get to make your point, part of the practice would be to go back and try to get in the point if you can. And so I saw both Pence and Harris really putting a lot of effort into that. I thought Mike Pence ably defended the conservative pro-life position, and he did it authentically, because --</s>CAMEROTA: But not there, you mean.</s>JENNINGS: -- he, clearly, authentically, believes in it. But I thought the rest of the time he did a good job on the pro-life issue.</s>CAMEROTA: I see.</s>BERMAN: The other way to look at it, Karen -- go ahead, sorry.</s>FINNEY: Well, no, well, I have to say I agree with Scott on this. I mean, this is part of how when you prep candidates for debates, you know, remember, the thinking -- part of the calculation is you're going to have so much talking time, and how you're constantly reassessing how you're going to use that time throughout the debate. And so yes, we always, you know, when you prep people, you say, look, if you feel like you've got to use part of your answer on one, to go back and finish, clean up something you wanted to say on the other, do it. That -- I think they both did that and they both did it quite well.</s>CAMEROTA: Well --</s>FINNEY: Look, I thought they did.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean, I guess, all I'll say is it doesn't serve the American public who actually wanted an answer. Like it might be great to debate jiu-jitsu, but if you were waiting for an answer about Indiana, you didn't get that.</s>FINNEY: No, you certainly didn't. But the second part is I don't think he wanted to give an answer, while, you know, the conservative position is a pro-life position, the reality is 7 in 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade, that most -- a majority of Americans believe that a woman should be able to make these reproductive decisions for herself. They don't believe in all these measures that have been passed at the state level, Indiana being one of the places where there have been attempts to do so, where you would criminalize women and criminalize doctors. That's not the conversation that Mike Pence wanted to get into. He used his time and was able to get in the talking points about pro-life without having to answer the substance of the question and take on an issue that frankly would not be good for them with those suburban women they're trying to win back.</s>BERMAN: And we noted, Scott noted earlier and we noted in the piece we ran before, Toluse, that Kamala Harris didn't answer the questions about adding the number of justices to the Supreme Court. So, she evaded questions. Also, Mike Pence didn't answer questions about whether or not he believes in the peaceful transfer of power. Mike Pence didn't answer questions about how the Trump administration will protect people with preexisting conditions. Mike Pence also didn't really answer about why the United States has so many more deaths than countries like South Korea and others here. And it might be in both cases that the reason you have a non-answer is because you feel like the answer isn't a good one.</s>OLORUNNIPA: Yeah, this is a talking point debate where both candidates did not want to come away from the night with any sound bites, they just wanted to get through the night, making their points without having a massive headline or a massive sound byte coming out that would reflect negatively on them. Kamala Harris did not want her position on, you know, packing the court to be the sound bite of the night. Mike Pence it not want his position on a number of different issues from health care to COVID to be the sound byte of the night. They wanted to make their points. They wanted to press their policy decisions without necessarily having a situation that reflects what happened last week where you get the sound byte of President Trump saying, you know, Proud Boys, stand back, stand by, and that becomes one of the big major headlines of the day, and overshadows any of the policy debate. So, it did seem like they came with their briefing books very well- rehearsed, and they did not want to sort of go outside of the bounds of what they had written down and studied, and did not want to come out of the night with a major sound bite that would show that maybe they had made a gaffe or they had gone cross-wise with the principal on the ticket. It was clear they were playing it relatively safe, and they went through their list of talking points and when the questions strayed from those talking points, they steered the conversation right back to where their talking points were. So, that was really the consistent mood of the night in which both candidates did not want to do anything that would lead to this big, massive, negative headlines for them.</s>CAMEROTA: Guys --</s>FINNEY: I think there was a sound byte, I'm talking -- I'm still talking, Mr. Vice President. I think you're going to see that on t- shirts and hashtags coming near you soon.</s>CAMEROTA: Hmm.</s>BERMAN: I want to know one thing, thank you all so much for being with us and getting up early. This was terrific and wonderful and civil discussion, and we didn't even talk about the fly. I kept on promising to tell people what voters said and thought about the debate. CNN did do a snap poll last night among registered voters who watched. About 59 percent, 6 in 10 said they thought Kamala Harris won, 38 percent thought Vice President Mike Pence did better.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, friends. Thank you very much for being up early with us and helping us get through all of this. OK, meanwhile, the president is back in the Oval Office despite being still infected with coronavirus. Now, his advisers say he wants to get back on the campaign trail. We discuss that next. |
Trump Returns To Oval Office Despite Coronavirus Infection | JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing overnight, a White House source tells CNN President Trump is eager to get back on the campaign trail. Remember, he is almost definitely still contagious, still shedding the coronavirus. And the president went back to the Oval Office yesterday. And in a new video, he calls his infection a blessing from God. CNN's Joe Johns live with the latest. Good morning, Joe.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. The president is making it clear he wants to get back out on the campaign trail but he's stuck in the White House recovering from COVID-19. He's trying to put the best gloss on it. He says he's feeling great but great is not the word you would use to describe the level of public trust in the administration's pandemic response to far.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): As the White House struggles to contain a major outbreak within its walls, President Trump returned to the West Wing despite testing positive less than a week ago. He met with his chief of staff Mark Meadows and his social media director Dan Scavino in the Oval Office.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Obviously, with the president, he continues to work. We've got a number of safety protocols with full PPE -- masks, goggles, and the like -- for any direct interaction with the president.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): An isolation cart stocked with yellow medical gowns, respirator masks, and plastic goggles was placed outside the president's offices for anyone who needs to be in contact with Trump. A source telling CNN Meadows and Scavino were in full protective gear when they met with the president, who entered the Oval Office from the outside exit.</s>DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: If you're infected you need to stay away from other people. For someone who has the ability to stay away from other people, they need to do that.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): Trump posting a bizarre video produced by the White House, framing his coronavirus diagnosis as a net positive.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): It's unclear when the video was made but in it, Trump called the antibody treatment he received a cure, though there is no cure for the virus. And he said coronavirus patients should receive it for free.</s>TRUMP: I view these -- I know they call them therapeutic but to me, it wasn't therapeutic, it just made me better, OK? I call that a cure.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): The treatment the president received has not been approved yet by the FDA and is not widely available to coronavirus patients.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not even a therapy that has emergency use authorization yet. But there's not a lot of data around this. Two hundred seventy-five people in this first trial and we didn't even really see that data.</s>JOHNS: Now, about the president's condition -- a little more on that. Two sources in contact with the president say he's had difficulty breathing since he returned to the White House. But the president's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, says he's been symptom-free for 24 hours and has not needed supplemental oxygen since he was initially hospitalized. One big question is when the president tested positive -- or tested negative last for the virus. Back to you.</s>BERMAN: They won't answer that question. They won't answer -- they know the answer but they won't tell us because it might indicate that the president was knowingly or at least recklessly communicating with dozens if not hundreds of people around the White House while he was still contagious. Joe Johns --</s>JOHNS: You bet.</s>BERMAN: -- at the White House. Stay safe there, not just from the outbreak, from also --</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: From the outbreak.</s>BERMAN: -- other stuff. I mean --</s>JOHNS: Yes.</s>BERMAN: -- Joe Johns at the White House.</s>JOHNS: Wildlife, yes.</s>CAMEROTA: America was very concerned about Joe Johns and applauding him yesterday.</s>JOHNS: That was a strange morning, but the second strange morning in a couple of weeks. So what do you do?</s>BERMAN: Stay strong, stay strong. Stay vigilant. Thank you. All right, joining us now, CNN political commentator and epidemiologist, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Dr. El-Sayed, thank you for being with us this morning. The number of new cases of coronavirus in the United States rose by 50,000 in the last 24 hours. We have a graph to show. The number of cases is now rising again, in some cases, steeply -- and the number of hospitalizations. The average daily rate of hospitalizations is also going up. That's the situation the country is in right now. So, overlay the situation in the country with the president, who is almost certainly still contagious and shedding the virus, deciding to go back to work near -- next to people inside the Oval Office.</s>DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, EPIDEMIOLOGIST AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT (via Cisco Webex): Yes. Number one, it is deeply concerning that we're seeing this kind of rise in cases across the country, particularly focused in places like Wisconsin, with even outbreaks in New York City, which got hit hardest way back in the spring. This is really concerning. This is what doctors and scientists have been worried about might happen in the fall. But then, for all of these people, there are clear signs and guidance about what you ought to do in the circumstance that you have symptoms, that you test positive, that you're convalescing even after you've had symptoms and treatment, and the COVID patient-in-chief is not following them. And what it does is it just undercuts all of that public health advice that we are going to need people to follow, whether or not they're President of the United States, in order to be able to lasso this latest outbreak down. And so, it really is concerning because the person that people are looking to for leadership in this time is busy lauding the coronavirus as some blessing from God and failing to pass the very basic test of following the guidelines about what to do when you get sick.</s>CAMEROTA: Doctor, what about President Trump's proclamation yesterday that he would attempt to get the therapy -- the monoclonal antibody therapy that he used, which appears to have -- I mean, maybe saved his life -- Dr. Fauci was speculating on that -- to get that on an emergency use for all Americans? Is that realistic and would that be incredibly helpful?</s>EL-SAYED: Well, I'll say this. I will never argue that people shouldn't have more medications accessible to them for free, right? The challenge here is that you've got Donald Trump, who has got the best government health care you can have anywhere, who is actively trying to take away health care for nearly 30 million people in the context of this pandemic by stripping away the ACA. And then, at the same time, talking about how people should have medications for free. Yes, we've done that before. That was the entire point of expanding access to health care through the ACA. That's the point of more expansion through either what Vice President Joe Biden is running on -- the public option -- or what Bernie Sanders ran on in Medicare for All. That's the point. So it's really frustrating to then hear him say well, these things should be for free. Well, there are people who are suffering all kinds of diseases all the time -- and, yes, all of their medication should be affordable, if not free. It's very frustrating to then see him say well, this one helped me so this one should be available for everyone else. It is just -- it's as if this individual does not have the imagination to ask what are other people facing in this moment and do the thing that the President of the United States should do to empower them.</s>BERMAN: Look, just as a point of fact, Regeneron has applied now, yesterday, for emergency use authorization for its monoclonal antibody cocktail and hopefully, the decision whether to grant emergency use will be based on the science. And we don't know if that's what helped the president or not. It could have been the steroids, which we think he's still one. We just don't know. But if the science says it helps, it would be good if all Americans can get it. Something very unusual happened overnight, Dr. El-Sayed, and that's the New England Journal of Medicine -- which is not a political journal -- this is a scientific journal -- one of the most revered scientific journals in the world -- basically said to vote out the president. This was as part of an editorial in the Journal that came out overnight. "When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs." Just how unusual is this for the Journal?</s>EL-SAYED: It is wholly and entirely unprecedented. The New England Journal of Medicine is not in the business of making political statements. They're in the business of the science, right? Exactly what you just talked about when it comes to making sure that medications like Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail is, in fact, safe and effective per trials, right? They're the main vessel by which physicians and scientists all over the country get access to the medical literature and have a public debate. But for them to step up and say this president is, in fact, a harm to the public's health and the goals of which we have pushed for our entire existence -- which is, in effect, what they're saying, right -- that one of the most important medical interventions against COVID-19 would be vote -- to vote Trump and Pence out -- I mean, it really is unprecedented and it does speak to the alarm and the urgency of this moment among doctors and scientists all over the country.</s>BERMAN: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thank you very much for being up with us this morning. Always appreciate your insight.</s>EL-SAYED: Thank you so much for having me.</s>BERMAN: All right, Alisyn, I know what you want to know this morning.</s>CAMEROTA: Is there royal news?</s>BERMAN: What is Prince William doing to help the United Kingdom amid the coronavirus pandemic? Well, we have an exclusive interview, next.</s>CAMEROTA: Can't wait to hear it. |
Prince William Launches Nobel-Like Prize For The Environment | CAMEROTA: Coronavirus cases surpassing 36 million globally. Italy and Germany are both showing major increases. CNN has reporters around the world bringing you the latest developments.</s>DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN ROME CORRESPONDENT: I'm Delia Gallagher in Rome. Starting today, Italy has made it mandatory to wear face masks outdoors throughout the country. There will be a fine of up to 1,000 euros for those who fail to comply. On Wednesday, Italy registered its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in more than five months. It's still relatively low compared to other European countries. Italy has also added the United Kingdom to its list of high-risk countries. Those traveling from the United Kingdom to Italy must now undergo swab tests at airports and other points of entry.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Fred Pleitgen in Berlin, as Germany has seen a massive increase in novel coronavirus infections. The German Center for Disease Control says it recorded more than 4,000 new infections in the span of 24 hours. That's more than 1,200 more than the increase the day before. What's even more troubling for the Germans is that the amount of people requiring treatment in ICUs has doubled in the past four weeks. Now, the German government is saying they believe all this is very troubling. They've put in place some measures to try and curb the increase in novel coronavirus infections. But the German health minister, on this morning, came out and warned about a possible uncontrolled spread of the virus.</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm Max Foster in London, where Prince William has been telling me about one of the positives that might have come out of the pandemic, and that's that people have become more environmentally aware.</s>PRINCE WILLIAM, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: If there's any kind of tiny ray of light that could come out of this is that people have been outside more. They've experienced nature -- they've seen it. They've heard the birds because the airplanes have been less and the roads have been calmer. And I hope people had that moment to connect and realize how special the green and natural world around them is. And so I think if we can find the money and the -- and the collaboration -- the willpower to tackle COVID, as we have done, we can do this for the environment as well.</s>FOSTER: He made those comments as he launched a $65 million fund for what he claims will be the most prestigious environmental global prize ever. The Earthshot award will be handed out annually to people or organizations who provide solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges.</s>CAMEROTA: Thanks to all of our reporters around the globe. Meanwhile, thousands of Americans are out of work and now struggling with their mental and physical health. One of the hardest-hit groups, veterans. CNN investigates, next. |
Coronavirus Takes Enormous Toll On U.S. Veterans. | BERMAN: This morning, the Trump administration and Congress appear to be no closer to an agreement to get millions of Americans the financial aid they desperately need. One group that has been hit hard, veterans who are facing an unemployment rate almost double the national average. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.</s>VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Tyrone Roark found himself homeless in the middle of a pandemic.</s>TYRONE ROARK, HOMELESS VETERAN: I was very terrified.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): He went shelter-to-shelter, afraid he could get the coronavirus with his compromised immune system.</s>ROARK: I just tried to survive by staying in my bed, sleeping most of the time, and figuring out how I was going to get out of there.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Roark, an Air Force veteran who served the country for 10 years and another 10 with the Department of Veteran Affairs, was out of a job and in poor health. In June, he says the stress put him in the hospital with heart failure. That put him on a walker.</s>ROARK: The emotional stress is causing a great deal of serious concerns here for my heart.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Last year, 37,000 veterans were homeless in the U.S. Advocacy groups says the pandemic could make it worse.</s>JAMES FITZGERALD, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NYC VETERANS ALLIANCE: You had a lot of those homeless individuals that were still dealing with ongoing mental health issues, which leads to high rates of homelessness as well and disproportionate amounts of unemployment.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): The unemployment rate for veterans was 2.8 percent at the end of last year. But when the pandemic hit, that number more than quadrupled. Even today, more than half a million veterans are still searching for work. Timothy McDonough spent 21 1/2 years in the military. He walked away with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and 14 surgeries. Now, he's facing financial uncertainty.</s>TIMOTHY MCDONOUGH, VETERAN FACING FINANCIAL UNCERTAINTY: I'm one major tire blowout or losing a car away from looking to borrow money from somewhere else. So it's really kind of tight.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Made worse by the fact that his girlfriend lost her job in March, right when they bought their new home. They say the extra $600 in unemployment helped keep them afloat but without it, they rely on his disability checks.</s>EVA DUNNE, UNEMPLOYED: We're getting back into OK, we have to really start focusing, budgeting, planning because we don't exactly know what the future looks like just yet.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Their hope is that they will both have new jobs as food truck owners feeding homeless vets -- him at the stove, her taking orders. They say the need now is more than ever.</s>YURKEVICH (on camera): You want to start this food truck. Are you concerned about the economic recovery as well?</s>MCDONOUGH: Absolutely, because again, try thinking of doing it as a non-profit. We would rely on the goodness of other people to give money to help us get it going.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): The V.A. said it paid out $600 million in stimulus to veteran families and placed 15,000 homeless vets in hotels. The local veteran group finally got Roark into a hotel. Now that he says he has his V.A. pension, he's searching for a permanent home, but it's not easy.</s>ROARK: I don't understand the system in terms of how it's supposed to work. There's a lot of politicians out there, there's a lot of agencies, there's a lot of folks saying we're here to help -- but I'm in a hotel.</s>YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.</s>BERMAN: It's so clear this pandemic is hitting the most vulnerable and so many people need help. And look, it's why coronavirus really dominated the vice presidential debate overnight. Fifty thousand new cases reported just yesterday. We'll bring the very latest, next. |
Pence, Harris Clash Over COVID-19 as Pandemic Worsens; CNN Poll: 59% Harris Won Debate, 38% Say Pence Won. | SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people have demonstrated over the last eight months that, when given the facts, they're willing to put the health of their families and their neighbors and people they don't even know first.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did everything that conservatives wanted and made people feel really comfortable.</s>HARRIS: You respect the American people when you tell them the truth.</s>PENCE: You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts.</s>VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Pence was masterful in normalizing conservative ideas. I think what Kamala Harris had to go out there and do was to hang onto her base, which she did.</s>DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I'd be very surprised to see much movement in the polls here.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Thursday, October 8, 6 a.m. here in New York. And the coronavirus pandemic was one of the focal points of one of the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. The U.S. saw 50,000 new cases on Wednesday and 915 deaths. And the debate stage itself captured the visuals of the virus. Plexiglas had to separate the candidates. Senator Harris called the handling of the pandemic, quote, "the greatest failure of any presidential administration in history." Vice President Pence defended the administration's response by highlighting the push for a vaccine.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, the president back in the Oval Office, refusing to isolate in the White House residence, despite the fact that he is almost certainly still contagious, shedding the virus wherefore he goes. Now CNN has new details about the president's desire to return to the campaign trail. Campaign rallies even being discussed. We'll start with the debate. Let's go right to Salt Lake City, the site of where it all went down. CNN's Jason Carroll is there. This was a different debate than we saw a week ago, Jason.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was much different, much calmer, but as expected, the coronavirus dominated certain parts of the debate. But there were also other subjects discussed, as well, including the Supreme Court and systemic racism. The two candidates do not have much in common. One thing they do have in common, their ability to dodge answering questions.</s>CARROLL: In Wednesday's debate, Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris were not only separated by 12 feet and Plexiglas for social distancing, but also on the issues. Harris saying the Trump administration forfeited its right to re-election based on their handling of the coronavirus crisis.</s>HARRIS: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. They knew, and they covered it up.</s>CARROLL: Meanwhile, Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, defending their response, despite the massive death toll.</s>PENCE: I want the American people to know that, from the very first day, President Trump has put the health of America first.</s>HARRIS: Whatever the vice president is claiming the administration has done, clearly, it hasn't worked. When you're looking at over 210,000 dead bodies in our country, American lives that have been lost. Families that are grieving that loss.</s>CARROLL: And when it came to a question on the progress of a viable vaccine, Harris said this.</s>HARRIS: If the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us I -- that we should take it, I'm not taking it.</s>CARROLL: The vice president also downplaying the Rose Garden event last month that may have started the coronavirus outbreak that infected President Trump and a growing number of White House staffers.</s>PENCE: It was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists regularly and routinely advise. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health.</s>HARRIS: And while it didn't reach the same level of chaos as the recent presidential debate --</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Can I be honest? It's a very important --</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Try to be honest.</s>CARROLL: -- there were still some moments of tension on stage.</s>HARRIS: -- makes less than $400,000 --</s>PENCE: He said he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: The important is you say the truth.</s>CARROLL: Harris looking straight to camera to tell voters a Trump/Pence ticket is a threat to the Affordable Care Act.</s>HARRIS: If you have a pre-existing condition -- heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer -- they're coming for you.</s>CARROLL: The vice president dodging questions on the same subject.</s>SUSAN PAGE, DEBATE MODERATOR: How would your administration protect Americans with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable insurance if the Affordable Care Act is struck down?</s>PENCE: Well, thank you, Susan, but let me just say, addressing your very first question, I couldn't be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.</s>CARROLL: Harris also avoiding answering a question from her opponent about whether a Biden administration would pack the Supreme Court.</s>HARRIS: The American people are voting right now, and it should be their decision about who will serve on this most important body for a lifetime.</s>PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris --</s>PENCE: The people, Susan, are voting right now. They'd like to know if you and Joe Biden are going to pack the Supreme Court if you don't get your way in this nomination.</s>HARRIS: Let's talk about packing. Come on.</s>PENCE: You gave a non-answer.</s>CARROLL: Like Trump, Pence warned he may not accept the election results, while also falsely claiming that mail-in voting would lead to massive fraud. There is no proof of widespread voter fraud in the United States.</s>PENCE: We have a free and fair election. We know we're going to have confidence in it, and I believe in all my heart the president, Donald Trump, is going to be re-elected for four more years.</s>CARROLL: And given the pandemic, one of the rules of the debate was everyone inside the debate hall was required to wear a mask with the exception of the candidates and the moderator, but as the debate ended, second lady Karen Pence took the stage without wearing her mask. It should be noted that Senator Harris' husband took the stage, and he was wearing a mask -- Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, Jason, thank you very much. Joining us now to talk about our takeaways, we have Angela Rye, former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus and CEO of Impact Strategies; Scott Jennings, former special assistant to President George W. Bush; and Errol Louis, political anchor at Spectrum News. They are all CNN political commentators, and we are grateful to have all of them at this hour. So Errol, give us your top-level takeaways from what you saw last night.</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The top-level takeaway for me was that the coronavirus, which is the center of what's dominating all of the news and really all of our lives at this point, was not really given the level of attention I was expecting it to get. I thought they were going to get into the weeds about the administration's response, about what was done as far as the interplay between the White House and the various states. About Mike Pence's personal role as head of the coronavirus task force. And just -- we just kind of skipped over it in some ways. The -- the moderator gave them a couple of minutes to talk about it. There were a couple of exchanges of talking points. I was a little surprised by that, because so many other issues flow from that, like the economy, like the hunger problems that are plaguing so many states and so many families. They touched on it, they got into it, they exchanged talking points, including some long-ago, not quite relevant information about, you know, who shut down the airports and at what point and so forth, but I thought that we'd have had a more fleshed-out conversation. Beyond that, though, look, I believe that the Pence/Trump [SIC] is -- the Trump/Pence ticket is actually behind and needs to make something change if they don't want to coast into a defeat. And I don't know if last night changed that at all, Alisyn.</s>BERMAN: Yes. That's why I say to though who say, Oh, it didn't matter, vice presidential debates don't matter, if it doesn't matter, it does matter, because there is a campaign that some -- needs something to change right now. And that does appear to be the Trump/Pence campaign. Angela Rye, to you. Your major takeaways?</s>ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, so my main takeaway was Kamala Harris came across as super poised, ready to not only debate, but also to serve the people. We recall that during the primary season, Kamala Harris' campaign slogan was "Kamala Harris for the people," as she said, she said so often every time she went into the court. To me, it was super effective when she talked about the -- were you calm -- she turned to the camera and she said, Were you calm when you had to go look for your last roll of toilet paper or when you had to think about your children not being able to see your parents because they could kill them? Very effective moment. I wish, again, to Errol's point, that the moderator really would have challenged Mike Pence when he turned to the swine flu response and talked about the ineffectiveness of the Obama administration's response, where under 13,000 people died versus the 211,000, now this morning, almost 212,000 people who have died under the Trump administration's response to COVID. I also think it was important that they would have been challenged -- Mike Pence shook his head a lot and said, Not true. I wish the moderator would have turned to him and said, Oh, well, what is true, Mr. Vice President? I think overall --</s>CAMEROTA: Was that the moderator's responsibility, or was that Kamala Harris' responsibility? I mean, do you feel that she missed --</s>RYE: I think --</s>I -- CAMEROTA: -- some opportunities to do that?</s>RYE: I think that she could have, Alisyn, but I think the moderator also has a responsibility, much to the chagrin of the presidential debate commission, to actually fact check. So if he's shaking his head and saying, Not true, Oh, what is true, Mr. President [SIC] -- Mr. Vice President. As we know, he had the most talk time anyway. It certainly wouldn't have hurt her. Also, he missed a really important opportunity to condemn white supremacy. He went into the times where the president has condemned it, but then he didn't go into the times where -- the many times where he did not condemn it, especially last week. I thought Kamala Harris had an effective line there. To me, all in all, on a lighter note, there were two winners last night. The first winner was Kamala Harris' facial expressions, where we were clear about that. If you have a black mama or a black friend, you know what those facial expressions meant. And secondly, it was Mike Pence's fly. The fly was there to send one of two messages. It was either from Exodus, where it says, "For if you do not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you." Or it was Tupac saying, If you're going to invite me to the debate, I deserve a VIP suite, because it's just me against the world. So there's that.</s>BERMAN: When you're talking about Mike Pence's fly, just to be completely clear --</s>RYE: We're clear.</s>BERMAN: -- at 6:10 in the morning --</s>CAMEROTA: Oh, no.</s>BERMAN: -- it's the fly on his head. OK?</s>CAMEROTA: Oh, no.</s>RYE: For two minutes and 30 seconds, mind you.</s>BERMAN: It was a long time. It was a long time. Now, we didn't last long in this show before getting to the fly, but Scott, I want to give you a chance for your top-level take on the debate.</s>SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I thought Mike Pence had a nice night. The Trump/Pence ticket has not had a lot of good news lately, and so Mike Pence delivered what felt like some relief, I think, to Republicans last night. You know, I was watching the debate and I was wondering, is this going to be the first of a few debates we see between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence? This was the first time they've debated, but obviously, both have aspirations beyond this particular cycle, and maybe we'll see them on the stage together in the future. I thought Mike Pence had a nice moment when he was talking about civility, and he was talking about RBG and Scalia and how that, as Americans, we can have arguments and disagreements, and we can come together when those are over. I thought that was a really nice moment. And then when he was doing coronavirus, I agree with Errol. I was actually expecting a lot more detail on it, because of Pence's hands- on role with the coronavirus. But one thing he did during the coronavirus section that I liked -- and this is something the president has not done very well -- is directly acknowledging the sacrifice of the American people, where he has said, I see you, I hear you, I see what you're doing every day to get through this. I thought that was a nice thing for him to do. And it's -- it was an example among a couple where Pence was able to, I think, rhetorically do something on an issue that Trump just didn't get to in the last debate, or frankly, very much at all.</s>CAMEROTA: Errol, let's talk about the style of the candidates for a second. I think that many people expected Kamala Harris to be more prosecutorial. We have seen her do that. But there were moments where -- and she certainly addressed every time that Vice President Pence interrupted her, but she did so with a smile and a gentle voice. I think we have an example of it, and then I want to get your take on what their styles were.</s>HARRIS: Susan, this is important.</s>PENCE: Susan,</s>I -- HARRIS: And I want to -- Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: I have to weigh in.</s>HARRIS: I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: Repeal the Trump tax cuts.</s>HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>PENCE: Well --</s>HARRIS: I'm speaking. If you don't mind letting me finish, we can then have a conversation, OK?</s>PENCE: Please.</s>HARRIS: OK.</s>CAMEROTA: What did you think of that, Errol?</s>LOUIS: Well, that -- yes, that is the veteran of many, many courtroom battles and of many Senate hearings. This is somebody who knows how to slow down everything, capture the attention, and then, with just perfect timing, sort of make sure everybody is focused on her before she resumes. So she's very good at those kind of forensics. I will say, I thought she a little bit weaker when it came to talking about the economy. You can tell under the glare of the spotlight when people are talking about something that they're very, very comfortable with and when they're really kind of mentally searching through their talking points and trying to make sure that they've got the mechanics right, and I think she was doing that with the economy. I don't know if she is as -- as prepared to talk about that at great length as she is to do some of the forensics that you just described. When it comes to sort of pushing back against somebody, which is what she did in that clip and did throughout the night last night, she's extremely good at that and making sure everybody's looking at her, looking at her gestures, making sure even subtle kind of communication of emotion or of facts are going to come through. And then she proceeds. That's how you talk to a jury, and that's how she talked to the audience last night.</s>BERMAN: They're wrapping us, but I do want both of your takes on this Angela and Scott. First to you, Angela. Because it is something that has been widely discussed over the last few hours, since the end of the debate, how Senator Harris chose to handle that.</s>CAMEROTA: I guess when they wrap us, they kill the audio.</s>BERMAN: Yes. This is something maybe the debate commission can take a page out of when they --</s>CAMEROTA: I'm sorry.</s>RYE: No, that was my problem! My mic was on mute. I'm back. So it was -- it was a troll moment, I guess, to Errol. I'm speaking. And I was saying that this is one of those things that a woman everywhere, whether they're sitting in a board room, they're sitting across from their boss, a colleague, they're sitting in a classroom making a point, it is a woman's point everywhere. I'm speaking, and you're going to hear me. I think that not only did she speak with that gesture, with that smile, but also, with substance. I think she actually did have command of the facts. And this is actually after having to navigate, right, during a primary when she ran against Joe Biden, having to say, Now I'm going to embrace your policy positions and be your No. 2. So it's not only having to navigate the facts of a situation, but also having to navigate the differences between policy positions that are her own versus the now head of the ticket.</s>CAMEROTA: Scott, what did you think of their different styles, and did Vice President Pence interrupt too much? Did Kamala Harris fend that off well?</s>JENNINGS: Yes, I thought, obviously, Harris planned to do that several times throughout the debate and she did, of course. The one time that stood out to me was when they were having their exchange over court packing, and she said -- she used the device, I'm speaking, and then he said, Well, let's hear it, and she said, Well, I'm about to explain it to you. And then she never did. She never came up with a -- so I thought, at some points, the device was used to almost just to sort of move the conversation along or eat the time, because she knew she wasn't going to get to the substance of the matter. The court packing one was the one that stood out to me. Frankly, I was stunned that they still don't have an answer on that, that Biden doesn't have one, the campaign doesn't have one, and she didn't have one last night. I guess they'll try again next week. But that one -- that one jumped out at me as a place where she could -- you know, as a member of the Judiciary Committee -- by the way, that's her day job in the Senate -- I thought she might have brought something to that tonight. Last night.</s>CAMEROTA: Guys, it is so helpful to your perspectives on all of this. Thank you very much. OK. So who do debate watchers think won? The results of CNN's snap poll, next. |
Pence and Harris Clash over Coronavirus as Pandemic Worsens | JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: This is New Day. 915 new deaths reported from coronavirus, 50,000 new cases, 50,000 reported yesterday. That's why the pandemic was the first and absolute with the most important issue discussed at the vice presidential debate, the first such debate ever separated by a Plexiglass. Senator Kamala Harris called the pandemic the greatest failure of any presidential administration in history. Mike Pence fought back and fought past the debate time limits. What mattered most in this debate and what did voters think about it all?</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Also this morning, President Trump has returned to the Oval Office and CNN has new details about his desire to return to the campaign trail with rallies, even as he is being treated for coronavirus.</s>BERMAN: Let's bring in CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins and CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, she's a White House correspondent for The New York Times. And the pandemic, as it should have been, was the first question at this debate last night. And Mike Pence, obviously, is the leader of the coronavirus task force, so it took on even added importance. And this is where, I think, perhaps, Senator Harris got in some of her cleanest hits. Let's listen.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. And here is the thing, on January 28th, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it is lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people and that it would be contracted because it is airborne. And they knew what was happening and they didn't tell you.</s>BERMAN: All right. Maggie Haberman, it was interesting to hear that. That was a choice of a way to go after the pandemic and the leader of the coronavirus task force. She didn't talk about the outbreak inside the White House. She talked about the administration not leveling with the American people. How do you think it landed?</s>MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So I think Kamala Harris' goal for the night was to not rock the boat, John. All polls show that she and Biden are well ahead. So, once you're winning, you don't want to do anything that's going to change that. I think she was trying to deliver lines and lines of attack without appearing overly aggressive, or appearing as if she was taking advantage of a situation in the White House that involves the president of the United States' health. So I think that she probably had her most effective moments in the debate at that point. There were a couple of times, John, where she didn't go after Pence on the coronavirus, as the evening wore on. And I was somewhat surprised by it. She did not mention the president's video yesterday, where he talked about how he had discovered a clinical cure in an experimental antibody cocktail, how he described getting the virus as a blessing in disguise because he had learned of this cocktail and what he believes it could do. So there were moments where she clearly took it up to the line of what she has been saying, but she did not choose to go further than that.</s>CAMEROTA: We will get to that video in a second, but, Kaitlan, first, let's watch a moment where Mike Pence turned the tables.</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: You continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable. And, Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives. The reality is that we will have a vaccine, we believe, before the end of this year. And it will have the capacity to save countless American lives and your continuous undermining of confidence in a vaccine is just -- it's just unacceptable.</s>CAMEROTA: Okay. Well, what Kamala Harris then went on to say, Kaitlan, was, I trust the scientists. I'll take the vaccine if the scientists say so. I don't trust President Trump. Your thoughts?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I thought it was interesting that she didn't bring up what the president has said about the FDA in recent days, where he has said that it's a political hit job that they've instituted this mandate where, basically, that any vaccine going through a trial has to wait two months until they give their last dose to participants to make sure there aren't any harmful side effects. And that's something the president has been complaining about, the White House was initially holding up before approving it finally and that's not something the senator brought up during that moment with the vice president, as he was talking about how she's talked about, she didn't bring up that the president himself has claimed that the FDA is doing a political hit job on him by delaying a vaccine, in his opinion, which they say is out of safety standards. The president believes it's retribution against himself. And so she didn't take that opportunity. Though I do think her other hits on coronavirus against the vice president had him on defense at the beginning of this debate. But she did not continuously hit him over it, like her aides were expecting her to do. So I think, actually, he had been preparing for much worse and much more sustained attacks on their coronavirus response, and we did not see that play out much longer than at the beginning of the debate.</s>CAMEROTA: So, Maggie, let's talk about the video. Let's talk about what's happening at the White House today. You mentioned the president spoke to this video. He called getting coronavirus a blessing from God. He credited his recovery, insofar as we know, about it, to this Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail. We don't know if that's the one thing that has helped him get better. It could be the steroids. But why this video, and if we can show people pictures of it? I do also want to note, and some people will take this as superficial, as a dude who wears makeup, this guy is wearing a lot of makeup right now. So it has a strange look to it, to be sure. So what should we take away from this?</s>HABERMAN: So, look, the president wants people to see him, you know, up and about. He wants people see him in a presidential setting. It was interesting to me that they chose to shoot this video in the Rose Garden as opposed to in the Oval Office, which he had been itching to get to Monday and Tuesday. So I think what we're supposed to take from this video is that he feels okay, but also we're supposed to take from this that he is still pushing for some kind of miracle cure for this virus, as he has been since March. I mean, hydroxychloroquine is what he had settled on for a while now. Now, he's settling on something that's more medically-based, but it's an unproven drug, it is still in clinical trials. He was given an experimental drug and that doesn't get talked about very much and, obviously, everyone hopes the president is feeling better and gets better. But the course of medicine that he was taking was heavy duty and it's impossible to tell what was what. This video was interesting to me for another reason, John. There had been talk about this video coming really 24 hours earlier. Initially, there was discussion about him doing some kind of live address to the nation. That was scrapped in favor of a videotape. That videotape was supposed to come out around 6:00 on Monday. It came and when, and never came out. Yesterday it came out just in time to potentially be disruptive to Mike Pence at his debate. But I expect we will see more of this kind of thing in the coming days. In terms of how his advisers viewed it, many of them thought he went too far with what he said about a cure.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean, we should also just point out, Kaitlan, I feel, President Trump's treatment was paid for by U.S. taxpayers. It costs to be in the hospital for four days, and to get that monoclonal antibody treatment, upwards of $100,000. And it was all paid for by taxpayers. At the same time, President Trump is trying to, you know, take away the Affordable Care Act. And so the idea that everybody should follow my lead, I go outside maskless, you shouldn't be afraid of it, and then just take the Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment, it's just -- it's in a different world. He's treated in a different stratosphere than other human beings.</s>COLLINS: Yes. I don't think that irony was lost on some people inside the White House either. But, specifically, what the president is saying, even about this antibody cocktail that he took, which John is right, we don't know if that's what had such an effect on the president, it's not accessible to people. Fewer than ten people outside of these clinical trials that Maggie is talking about have actually had this drug that the president was administered, this treatment. So it's notable that this isn't something that people can get. But in this video, the president is talking about making it free to people. They're not even close to that yet. They haven't gotten an emergency use authorization for this. So it's just not realistic. And that's the problem, because if the president goes out and portrays this idea that if you get COVID-19, you too will be okay, it's just not going to be the same case. And no one expects the president of the United States to get anything less than stellar treatment when it comes to his health, but to give off this idea that it's accessible to everyone and you can get the exact same treat with your own suite at Walter Reed and a fleet of doctors, it just isn't realistic. And so when he is talking about it being a cure, not just a treatment, talking about what he's received, that's just not on the level that everyone else is talking about. And another thing I've noticed since the president has been back, he has been downplaying coronavirus and minimizing it and not talking about the people who have gotten it, who have died from it. And that's something you saw the vice president do last night and expressed sympathy for the people affected by it in a way that the president has just refused to do time and time again.</s>CAMEROTA: Kaitlan, Maggie, thank you both very much for all of your reporting. President Trump is apparently back at work in the Oval Office despite the fact that he's supposed to be isolating from coronavirus. Here to discuss the latest on the president's condition, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, great to see you, there you are, this morning. So, I mean, the president, we've all heard the CDC guidelines. They're strict. All Americans are supposed to be following them. If you have a coronavirus diagnosis, you're supposed to isolate, not be around anybody else for ten days. It was only less than a week ago that President Trump went to the hospital with coronavirus and now he's back in the Oval Office.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, these guidelines exist for a reason. I mean, we understand that when someone is sick with this disease, they can be essentially shedding virus for a while. And we can't see this virus. I wish we could sometimes, as I've said before, because I think we would pay a lot more attention to it. But even if someone is feeling better, and we hope that he is, you can -- as you see on the screen, you can be shedding virus for some time. And these guidelines are always written to be sort of as encompassing as possible, to be as safe as possible. So they say at least ten days since people first develop symptoms, at least 24 hours off of fever- reducing medicines. And one thing about the president still, we don't know what medicines he's on, because the doctors haven't been that forthright on it. But if he's still on the steroids, those can reduce the fever. So that may be artificially masking some of the symptoms that he has. So it's very concerning. I mean, we tell people even within their own homes, isolate to one room, use your own bathroom, use your own utensils, stay away from all family members. So the idea that you're walking around the residence of the White House going into the office, people are coming in to brief you, that's concerning. And also I'll say one more thing. Just -- when we go to the hospital, if we're going to see a COVID patient, we do put on the personal protective equipment, as was described and was shown earlier today. but it does go through some training to properly fit-test N95 masks, I know that that's something people become more familiar with, and to do it properly, to put the gear on properly and to take it off properly. Because after you've now been around someone with COVID, you have to assume that your personal protective equipment is contaminated. You have to take it off a specific way, otherwise it defeats the purpose to some extent. So that's why you basically say, stay in isolation otherwise you're putting too many other people at risk.</s>BERMAN: Sanjay, as we sit here this morning, there is no cure for coronavirus, pure and simple. The president in that video called the Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail a cure. What do we know about it and what do we know about how much it has affected the president's recovery, insofar as we think he's recovered?</s>GUPTA: I've been following the story of the monoclonal antibodies almost since the start. And there's been a lot of enthusiasm around monoclonal antibodies, because the idea is simple. Someone who's gotten the infection, the types of proteins in their body that could help fight that infection are called antibodies. You can get them through a vaccine that teaches your body to make the antibodies or become infected, or you could actually receive an injection of the antibodies. It makes a lot of sense, right? People sort of fundamentally get that and I think there was a lot of enthusiasm. These monoclonal antibodies, it is actually a combination of two different antibodies. The expectation was that it would work well, but there just isn't a lot of data right now. In fact, there's only been some 275 patients that have really been part of any sort of trial, as Kaitlan was talking about. And we haven't even seen that data yet. It's probably going to be encouraging, but it's very, very early. So what we'll see -- it's a very expensive therapy. It takes a while to develop. It could be something that people get earlier on in their infection to try and prevent them from developing the most serious symptoms. But we don't know. What exactly are the side effects going to be? How does it work in conjunction with other medications? Does it work better for some people versus other people? For example, in the trial, the average age of people was 45 years old. So, is that who's going to be the most likely to benefit? That's why you do these trials. And you know, even figuring out the right dosing, he got a massive dose of these antibodies, which certainly led to the fact that his blood test reveals he has antibodies now. It's not because his body is producing antibodies, it's because he got this massive dose of these synthetic antibodies. So there's a lot to learn about it. Enthusiasm, yes, but that's why you study it and do trials.</s>CAMEROTA: That's really interesting, Sanjay. And it would also be very important to hear how President Trump plans to make it free for everyone. It's great pie in the sky to say, I want it to be free for everyone, like it was for him, since taxpayers paid for it, but it would be great to hear how that could ever work, since, as I understand, it's liked is $100,000 a treatment.</s>GUPTA: Yes. I mean, So there're so many things about this. First of all, the company, Regeneron, we understand, has either already applied or is now applying for emergency use authorization, I believe, just over the last day or so, again, with very limited data. So this is surprising. It's an emergency use authorization, not an approval. But still -- and then, yes, the cost, these are very expensive treatments. When you make antibodies in response to a vaccine, the expectation is that those antibodies are going to last a while. We still don't know. We're still learning about this. But with the monoclonal antibody injection, how long does it actually offer protection? Do people have to get several of these, monthly, every two months, three months? I don't think that they know the answer yet. So, not only, Alisyn, is it expensive, but it may be a recurring expense for people if they keep doing this sort of thing.</s>CAMEROTA: So helpful, Sanjay, as always. Thank you very much.</s>GUPTA: You got it.</s>CAMEROTA: The one and only V.P, debate had its own fireworks despite strict new rules. So what was it like for the moderator? Well, Susan Page of USA Today is going to be here live and she's going to tell us, next. |
Pence and Harris Dodge Key Questions in V.P. Debate. | SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: We want a debate that is lively, but Americans also deserve a discussion that is civil.</s>PENCE: The American people deserve to know --</s>PAGE: I did not --</s>PENCE: Susan, the American deserve to know Joe Biden --</s>PAGE: I did not create the rules for tonight. Your campaigns agreed to the rules for tonight's debate with the Commission on Presidential Debates. I'm here to enforce them, which involves moving from one topic to another, giving roughly equal time to both of you, which is what I'm trying very hard to do.</s>PENCE: Go right ahead.</s>BERMAN: So, that was Susan Page, the moderator at last night's debate, trying to enforce the rules agreed upon by both campaigns. And Susan Page joins me now, USA Today's Washington Bureau Chief. Susan, thanks so much for being with us. So how was your night?</s>PAGE: Well, John, you are accustomed to speaking to millions of people on T.V. I'm just a print reporter. This is a new experience for me. It was quite the night and quite the honor to participate in that debate.</s>BERMAN: The reviews this morning, you asked terrific questions, questions that were often, maybe perhaps more often than not, completely avoided and evaded. Let me play just one example here.</s>PAGE: If Roe v. Wade is overturned, what would you want Indiana to do? Would you want your home state to ban all abortions? You have two minutes, uninterrupted.</s>PENCE: Well, thank you for the question, but I'll use a little bit of my time to respond to that very important issue before. The American people deserve to know Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general, was responsible for the death of hundreds of American service members.</s>BERMAN: So, to be clear, Qasem Soleimani has nothing to do with Indiana abortion laws at all. And that was just one example when your questions weren't answered. So what did that feel like in the moment?</s>PAGE: Well, you know, this was -- what I usually do are interviews or news conferences. This was a different kind of form. In those cases, I think would have been pretty aggressive at trying to follow up to press him on the question I asked. In this case, I was really there just to help voters get some illumination about these candidates. And when they answered the questions I asked, I thought that was illuminating. And when they refused to answer the questions I asked, that was also illuminating.</s>BERMAN: How is it illuminating when they refuse to answer? Because that question, it's an important one. Voters deserve to know what will happen in the states if Roe is overturned or modified by the Supreme Court.</s>PAGE: You're absolutely right. And I think is an even better example is when I asked if they had ever discussed with Joe Biden and Donald Trump the issue of presidential disability, since one of these candidates will be the vice president to the oldest president in American history. And neither of them would address that question, which says to me that this is an issue that ought to be discussed, particularly since the president has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and one that neither campaign was willing to talk about. I think that is illuminating.</s>BERMAN: So because it was a debate, it's on the candidates, you think, to follow up if they choose to?</s>PAGE: I think it's hard -- I think the goal of the moderator is to try -- in my view -- ask a narrow question in the hope of getting an answer. That was often less successful than I hoped and then let the candidates take it over and debate among themselves. It is a debate among them that I was trying to facilitate. I know some people have criticized me for that, and, clear enough, different approaches, I guess. But that was the approach I took.</s>BERMAN: How surprised were you by the level of non-answers at some point?</s>PAGE: I was surprised. I thought if I asked a question about abortion, the response would be something about abortion, but that was not the case.</s>BERMAN: Now, the Chris Wallace experience, which is either the name of a bad band or what happened in the first presidential debate, what lessons did you take away from watching that?</s>PAGE: It made me a little more aggressive at the beginning. You know, I actually spoke longer than I ordinarily would have at the introduction, laying out exactly what the rules were that the two campaigns had agreed to. And it made me -- there was one point. Actually, I showed it at the beginning, where I ended up raising my hands saying, I didn't make these rules, I'm just trying to enforce them. I was more prepared to do that than I might have been if I hadn't seen Chris' debate.</s>BERMAN: Now, it turns out that they spoke roughly at equal time depending on how you measure it, but it's also true, everyone who watched just notices, that the vice president ran over his allotted time for individual questions almost every time. Again, was there any way to stop him there?</s>PAGE: Well, you know, it was interesting, just before there were two clocks that show the accumulated time for each candidate so I could keep an eye on that. And in the first 15 minutes or so, Mike Pence spoke much more. He was really racking up more minutes than Kamala Harris. And, again, in that case, I tried to adjust things to make sure that she had equal time. And that required a little more activity on my part than I had anticipated taking.</s>BERMAN: Next time you do this, anything you wish you had done differently, anything you learned from this experience, which is unique? And there's almost, by the way, no way to win being a moderator of a debate, and you're not there to win, but what lessons do you take away?</s>PAGE: I disagree. I feel like it was a huge, valuable experience. Criticism, grace, whatever comes, I've learned a lot in doing it. And -- but I'll tell you what I tried to do. My number one goal, it's about the voters, it's not about me. It wasn't even really about the campaigns. It was, what do voters need to see or hear to help them make their big decision in this coming week.</s>BERMAN: Susan Page, thank you for your work, thanks for getting up this morning. Please, be well, be safe going forward. Look, which isn't a small thing, either, given what we've learned about perhaps the health conditions in some of the past debates. So we appreciate everything you've done. Thank you.</s>PAGE: Thank you, John.</s>BERMAN: With the country's top military leaders under quarantine following a White House event, were gold star families put at risk? |
Commission on Presidential Debates Announces Next Debate Will be Virtual; President Trump States He Will Not Agree to Virtual Debate; Claims in Vice Presidential Debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Kamala Harris Examined; Second Presidential Debate Will Be Held Virtually; Biden Announces He Will Participate in Virtual Debate. | UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think what Kamala Harris had to go out there and do was to hang on to her base, which she did.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd be very surprised to see much movement in the polls here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. How did it get to be 8:00 a.m. already?</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I know.</s>CAMEROTA: It's flying.</s>BERMAN: This show didn't feel like it was seven hours long.</s>CAMEROTA: We do have breaking news for you because the Commission on Presidential Debates just announced that the second presidential debate scheduled for next Thursday will be held virtually. President Trump and Joe Biden will be in separate remote locations. Now, last night Vice President Pence and Senator Kamala Harris were separated by plexiglass. The vice president was forced to defend the Trump administration's handling of coronavirus after Harris called it, quote, the greatest failure of any presidential administration in history.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How would your administration protect Americans with preexisting conditions to have access to affordable insurance if the Affordable Care Act is struck down?</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Susan, but let me just say addressing your very first question, I couldn't be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. We're going to hear from both campaigns in just minutes.</s>BERMAN: Also this morning, the president we know has returned to the Oval Office from isolation in the White House residence despite the fact that he's almost certainly still contagious, shedding the virus wherever he goes. Now CNN has new details about the president's desire to return to the campaign trail with actual rallies being discussed. Where would it be safe to hold a rally right now? Really almost nowhere. Look at that map right there. You can see the orange is all the states where there are cases on the rise, the beige the states where cases are stable. So joining us now, Scott Jennings, who was special assistant to President George W. Bush and a CNN political commentator, Paul Begala, Democratic strategist, and CNN political commentator and CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. And I want to start with the breaking news which comes from the Commission on Presidential Debates which says that the next presidential debate which is scheduled for Thursday, if it happens, will be a virtual affair, which is to say that the candidates will be in separate locations with voters in a town hall format asking them questions remotely. This is because the president is, as of now, contagious. Kaitlan Collins, to you. What do you expect the White House response will be to this? And just mark the moment. I mean, this in and of itself is a statement of where we are, which is it is unsafe to be near the president of the United States.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the medical experts, I believe, will say this is a wise decision. We had heard a lot of back and forth over whether or not that should be held in person in just a week from today. But notably, John, what the statement does not say is that the Trump campaign or the Biden campaign has agreed to it. It's hard to see that the president's advisers are going to be enthusiastic about this because there had been some talk about this beforehand or after -- in the aftermath of that first debate, and it was not something that the president's advisers wanted to see. And they noticeably have not said a word about this since the statement came out from the organizers of the debate, that it is going to be held virtually because, of course, the Trump campaign's argument has been that the president is stronger when he is in person and can respond that way. So it will be noticeable, because, of course, this not only gives the opportunity for less interruptions on the president's behalf, something that the campaign was publicly enthusiastic about but were concerned about how they were going to navigate that in the second debate with voters present. But also it is going to be in and of itself sending this message that the reason this is going conducted virtually is because the president got COVID-19. It's going to be hard for anyone watching this not to be thinking about that constantly because, of course, that's the reason Joe Biden and Donald Trump will not be in the same room together.</s>CAMEROTA: It changes the entire face of the debate, obviously. President Trump has just responded to this for the first time. We've not heard it yet, let's hear what he has to say.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style, and that's not acceptable to us. I beat him easily in the first debate according to the polls that I've seen, but I beat him easily, I felt I beat him easily. I think he felt it, too. He wouldn't answer any questions, and he had the protection of Chris Wallace all night long. I thought Chris Wallace was a disaster. But I beat him in the first debate. In the second debate we have a never-Trumper as a host, but that's OK because I'd beat him in the second debate also. But I'm not going to do a virtual debate.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Well, there was the news. Paul Begala, does he have a choice?</s>PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. First, let's cut the president a break here. That's just the steroids talking, OK? They have to do this. He is diseased. He is sick. He's infectious. Also, he has COVID. No sense that a person could put a person in a room with Donald Trump. Think about this, Ro Khanna, the Congressman from California, brilliant guy, pointed this out yesterday. The White House, which Scott and I worked at. It's only 1,100 people on 16 acres. More COVID cases at the White House than in the whole country of New Zealand plus Taiwan plus Vietnam, 124 million people. This guy is a super spreader. He is a menace. He's typhoid Donny. Of course he can't be out among people. It's too dangerous. He is a menace to public health.</s>BERMAN: I have to say, just to remind people of the breaking news, because this is now a thing, the Commission on Presidential Debates has said that if there is going to be a presidential debate next week as scheduled Thursday night, it would have to be virtual with the candidates appearing in remote locations. We just heard the president, Scott Jennings, say no, no, that's not acceptable to me. It is interesting, because as Kaitlan points out, the imagery of it would be you are in remote locations because the president is a threat to people's health. But to say no, to refuse to debate in this way, which is deemed safe, how risky is that for the president to be seen as dodging this opportunity to engage with Joe Biden?</s>SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, a couple things. Number one, if you consider that he didn't win the first debate or that it didn't turn out well for him in the polls, it's not risky at all. Number two, if you also consider that there are very few persuadable voters left out there, it may not matter all that much. Number three, I suspect the optics are secondary and the concern really is, like we're having a conversation right now, if you guys decide you don't like what I'm saying, you can mute my microphone. You could turn me off.</s>BERMAN: If only.</s>JENNINGS: And so if you have a virtual conversation, I suspect -- please don't. Don't Thanos me. I suspect what Trump is worried about is just the concept of he wants to try to engage in a -- I will use an industry term -- pod his mic down, and then he won't be able to control it. And so I don't know if they are going to have this debate or not, but I suspect that conversation about who is going to be in control of the microphones is going to be front and center.</s>INGRAHAM: Gosh, Kaitlan, what a strange moment. What a strange moment where the virtual reality meets surreality. It was already going to be a different kind of debate than what we saw. It was a town hall, so they were going to be able to address voters' concerns. I don't think that President Trump was going to be able to interrupt or steamroll voters in the way that he had done in the first debate, but now, just the -- imagine it. We have all been on these Zoom calls where the audio doesn't work, the signal goes out, it freezes. This is what might be happening a week from now.</s>COLLINS: And I honestly don't think it would be that bad of a backdrop for the president to be somewhere in the White House doing this debate with a more presidential backdrop for voters to look at. I think it could actually work well, but the president is clearly opposed to this. he says he is not going to be doing a virtual debate, so that is huge. We may not see these candidates do a debate next week as they are scheduled. But if you want to see how the president is viewing this, he also just said in these comments that he felt like he could do a rally tonight. He says he wanted to do a rally last night, which of course, was during the vice presidential debate. But that is how the president is viewing his diagnosis with COVID. It's not even been one week since the president announced he had COVID-19 and had tested positive. Of course, this was the fateful day last week when Hope Hicks learned she was positive. The president still went to that fundraiser. Anyway, and now he is saying that he feels like he could do a rally tonight. That gives you an indication of how we were talking about the Trump campaign wants to see the president back on the road around that debate next week, that was something they were already talking about. And the president is making clear he not only wanted to get back in the Oval Office, get back to the White House, he also wants to get back on the campaign trail and return to holding these rallies despite the condemnation that he's faced since he got COVID. And of course, we've seen the trail of events since then. But it is big news, the president is saying he is backing out of doing a debate if it's going to be held virtually, which I don't think the Commission on Presidential Debates is going to back off of.</s>BERMAN: Yes, I would be surprised if they backed off after making this statement. And, again, the news this morning isn't just that the commission says they want to do it virtually. It's that the president says, no, it's not going to happen, he is not going to show up. He won't do it. And the politics of that are fascinating, Paul. Scott Jennings does raise an interesting point, which is maybe the president is better off not debating. However, if you are down, you have to do something to change it up. Didn't you guys send a guy in a chicken suit around hounding people in 1992? When you avoid or choose not to debate, usually it ends up being a thing that comes back to haunt you.</s>BEGALA: And a lot of Trump's appeal to his base is that he poses as a strongman, and a strongman shouldn't run away from a fight. I think Scott and Kaitlan make great points, better than my points, that is every politician has their strengths and weaknesses. Trump's strength is his rallies. He shouldn't do one because it's a menace to public health. Joe's strength is those personal, intimate connections one-on-one with voters. That's what a town hall does. When you lose that -- it's actually Joe Biden who loses more in this format because he is the empathetic guy. He's the one who actually feels your pain and can engage with you. Trump is terrible at that. He's not empathetic at all. So actually this shift is a big win for Trump, he can clothe himself in the grandeur of the White House, as Kaitlan points out, and he doesn't have to look at what he called disgusting people. That's what he called his own supporters according to Olivia Troye who worked for the vice president on the task force for coronavirus. So actually if he could take a breath, chill, he would see this is actually a big win for him, and it takes away Biden's greatest strength, which is his ability to relate to people in a personal setting.</s>CAMEROTA: I wouldn't say just because President Trump said something at 8:00 a.m. eastern time on a Thursday that we should take that to the bank for what's going to happen a week from now.</s>BERMAN: Do you think he will cave? Do you think he will show up after saying that he won't do it?</s>CAMEROTA: I think the president often says two things that are contradictory so he can never be wrong. I think we know that from his style. So he might say something completely different in his next interview. We just don't know. But that was his -- we do have his first response, his first blush response was, no, I'm not going to do that. But we will see after he talks to his advisers and it marinates. I can see it's marinating with you, John Berman.</s>BERMAN: We'll see. We'll see. I just don't think it will happen. Scott Jennings, Kaitlan Collins, Paul Begala, thank you very much.</s>CAMEROTA: Thank you all. OK, it is time to fact check the candidates. Last hour we discussed Vice President Mike Pence. Now we take a closer look at Senator Kamala Harris's claims, and John Avlon has our reality check. Hi again, John.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, guys. OK, so last night's V.P. debate was kind of a game of dodge ball, a lot of quick pivots, hits and misses. The economy is still issue number one in the election, and here was Kamala Harris's attack.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because of a so-called trade war with China America lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs. We are in a manufacturing recession.</s>AVLON: The relationship status on this one is complicated. Under President Trump we saw an initial gain of 483,000 manufacturing jobs. But manufacturing was in a recession back in January after trade war losses and before COVID. Since then we've seen the bottom fall out, giving Trump a net loss of 164,000 manufacturing jobs today. Now, Pence pressed Harris on whether a Biden administration would try to pack the Supreme Court, and she, like Biden in the last debate, wouldn't answer. That's probably because they want to leave the option open. Regardless, it's a question for Congress rather than the president, but it's an open question. And then there's this hit.</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: They would impose the green new deal. They want to abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking.</s>AVLON: Biden does have a $1.7 trillion climate change proposal that calls for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but it's not the same as the Green New Deal which he opposes. His plan has no federal jobs guarantees or single-payer health care, for example. And likewise Biden does not support a ban on fracking. But Kamala Harris did back a fracking ban on public lands when she was running for Senate. Pence tried to deflect from his administration's record on COVID with a bit of what-aboutism.</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: We actually do know what failure looks like in a pandemic. It was 2009, the swine flu arrived in the United States.</s>AVLON: OK, if that's got you scratching your head, it's because there were about 60 million swine flu cases in Obama's first year, but there were just under 12,500 deaths. I compared that to more than 211,000 in the current COVID crisis. It's just not the same thing. But perhaps the biggest whopper of the night occurred in this exchange.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's talk about respecting the American people. You respect the American people when you tell them the truth. You respect the American people when you have the courage --</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Which we've always done.</s>HARRIS: -- to be a leader.</s>AVLON: We've always done. All right, there are about 20,000 reasons to call B.S. on that claim. If only there was a quote to sum up the problem with this spin.</s>MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: You're entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.</s>AVLON: And that's your reality check.</s>CAMEROTA: John, thank you very much for bringing us all of that. I know you had a late night. OK, Pete Buttigieg played the part of Mike Pence during Senator Harris's debate prep. Did he get it right? Mayor Pete joins us live next. |
Trump Returns to Oval Office; Trump Eager to Get back on Trail | JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Positive less than a week ago. He met with his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his social media director Dan Scavino in the Oval Office.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Obviously with the president, he continues to work. We've got a number of safety protocols with full PPE masks, goggles, and the like for any direct interaction with the president.</s>JOHNS: An isolation cart stocked with yellow medical gowns, respirator masks and plastic goggles was placed outside the president's offices for anyone who needs to be in contact with Trump. A source telling CNN, Meadows and Scavino were in full protective gear when they met with the president, who entered the Oval Office from the outside exit.</s>DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTIN DIRECTOR, CDC: If you're infected, you need to stay away from other people. For someone who has the ability to stay away from other people, they need to do that.</s>JOHNS: Trump posting a bizarre video, produced by the White House, framing his coronavirus diagnosis as a net positive.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.</s>JOHNS: It's unclear when the video was made, but in it Trump called the antibody treatment he received a cure, though there is no cure for the virus, and he said coronavirus patients should receive it for free.</s>TRUMP: I view these -- I know they call them therapeutic, but to me it wasn't therapeutic, it just made me better, OK? I call that a cure.</s>JOHNS: The treatment the president received has not been approved yet by the FDA and is not widely available to coronavirus patients.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not even a therapy that has Emergency Use Authorization yesterday, but there's not a lot of data around this. Two hundred and seventy-five people in this first trial and we didn't even really see that data.</s>JOHNS: Now, a little bit more about the president's condition. Two sources who have had contact with the president say he's had difficulty breathing since he got back here to the White House. The president's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said he's been symptom free 24 hours after he got out of the hospital. No oxygen, apparently, needed, since he entered the hospital on Friday. The big question is, when was the last time the president tested negative? Back to you.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So we have not been able to get that answer yet, though journalists ask every single day. Joe, thank you very much. Joining us now, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She's the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Walensky, so given that there are so many questions about what's happening at the White House with this outbreak and what's happening with President Trump's health, though he wants to get back on the campaign trail. And, by the way, he's back in the Oval Office, not in isolation, though the CDC guidelines clearly state that Covid patients should be in isolation for ten days after symptoms. And so if you want to talk about, if it came up enough at the debate, go ahead, or what you're seeing at the White House.</s>DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You don't know I can't hear?</s>CAMEROTA: Oh, you can't hear anything, Doctor?</s>WALENSKY: Hello? Hmm -- OK, John, can you answer any of those questions?</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Walensky, can you hear me? All right.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Well, that will not be a satisfying segment in that case, I would say.</s>BERMAN: We'll get -- we'll get her audio -- we'll get her audio back. We'll be right back. Or we'll just stay on me and we'll talk.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, let's do that. |
Protests in Jewish Community over Restrictions | CAMEROTA: And we're back with CNN medical analyst Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Dr. Walensky, given what's happening, it is now a hot spot, it is having its own outbreak. Every day we learn of somebody else whose tested positive. Was there enough coronavirus discussion in the debate last night for your taste?</s>WALENSKY: Good morning, Alisyn. You know, I wish we had drilled down on some of the details. We heard quite a bit about the numbers. We heard quite a bit about the challenges. We heard quite a bit about the number of people, the number of souls who have lost their lives. We didn't hear -- we didn't get real details as to why it's gone so badly, as to why the testing has been rolling out so badly, as to why the administration is not following its own pillars of infection control. And so I wish we had had a little bit more in the details as to why we are where we are right now. Why other countries have kids in school and we do not.</s>BERMAN: Mike Pence dodged that direct question. Mike Pence was asked, why it is worse here in the United States than it is elsewhere and he refused to answer. We have an embodiment, in a way, of why things aren't getting better, and that's the president, who is almost definitely still contagious this morning, back at work in the Oval Office, at a time when the cases are rising in the country, not to mention rising inside the White House, but 50,000 new cases reported yesterday, hospitalizations now beginning to go up around the country. So, what's your take on the decision not to isolate, not to follow public health guidelines?</s>WALENSKY: You know, I -- we have been working tirelessly in -- in the hospitals, in public health to follow the science, create the guidelines, and then truly to don and doff all of this PPE when we care for patients so that we can protect them, protect ourselves, and protect our colleagues. And when we watch a flagrant disregard from the highest levels of leadership in this country, for all of those policies that we have been working so hard to institute and protect, it's -- it's -- I find it shameful.</s>CAMEROTA: "The New England Journal of Medicine" did something very unusual, unprecedented, yesterday, where they made a strong, political statement. I'll read to you what their editorial says. When it comes to the response of the largest public health crisis of our time, our current, political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs. What's the significance, Doctor?</s>WALENSKY: It's extraordinary. This is a 200-year-old preeminent medical journal. Never have they come down on these sorts of lines. Never -- they are not partisan. The editor in chief of this journal, Dr. Eric Ruben (ph), is an infectious disease specialist and all of the editors signed this piece entitled "dying in a leadership vacuum." In it, they describe, just as you said, they describe the death rates of this country compared to China. China, three in a million. United States, 500 in a million. They noted that their CDC has been eviscerated. That the NIH has been exclude from decision making and that the FDA has been shamelessly politicized. This was an extraordinary event and I commend them for it.</s>BERMAN: Dr. Walensky, we appreciate you being with us, appreciate you bearing through the technical glitches. Hope to see you again very soon.</s>WALENSKY: Super. Thanks so much.</s>BERMAN: Developing overnight, New York City is shutting down nonessential businesses and dozens of schools in some hot spot neighborhoods where coronavirus cases are surging. And this sparked a second straight day of protests among Brooklyn's orthodox Jewish community who feel they are being unfairly targeted. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us with the latest on that. Shimon.</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they do feel that they're being unfairly targeted. And so we've now seen two nights of protests from the people there in the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. And one of the things that they're really upset with and who they're really upset at is the governor and also actually the mayor here because they feel that these limits on religious institutions, the amount of people that can be inside, which takes effect today, is unfairly targeting them. Many of the members in this one community who are Trump supporters, were waving Trump flags, were not wearing masks, in some cases burning masks. Of course, many of them taking their cues on the issues concerning coronavirus from the president himself, many of them supporters of the president and so they feel that the governor here, Governor Andrew Cuomo, is targeting them. Specifically he says he's targeting them because they have not followed the rules. And, as a result, they need to put these new measures back in place, limiting the number of people who are going to attend religious institutions. They are unhappy about it. And so as we have seen now for two nights, they have taken to the streets, in some cases burning trash. They say they're going to continue these protests, trying to put pressure on the governor to ease some of the limits that he's now placing on them, John.</s>BERMAN: All right, Shimon. Shimon Prokupecz for us. Obviously, you saw the pictures of those demonstrations and that in and of itself could be something dangerous for so many people. Appreciate it. Powerful hurricane taking aim at the Gulf states this morning. Hurricane warnings now in effect. We have the latest timing on when and where it will hit. And it might be headed somewhere that really doesn't need this right now. |
Hurricane Warnings for Gulf Coast. | CAMEROTA: Hurricane warnings issued overnight for parts of the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Delta grows stronger. The storm slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday morning, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now with the latest. What are you seeing, Chad?</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, it hit Cancun or very close to it with 110-mile-per-hour winds. Then it died off a little bit when it was over the Yucatan, but now it's back in the Gulf of Mexico and getting stronger, back up to 100 miles per hour, and it's going up from here. Hurricane warnings are posted in the red areas. In the blue areas, those are tropical storm warnings, which we do expect to have tropical storm or hurricane conditions in the next 48 hours. That's exactly what it means. But it is forecast to get back to a category three hurricane and move very close to the coast by about 1:00 or so tomorrow afternoon. You don't have any more time after today to prepare for this storm. Tomorrow will be too late. And look at the yellow line here, Alisyn, that was Laura and that's Delta, literally less than 25 miles apart for landfall and 110-mile- per-hour winds in many of these areas that many don't even have roofs, still. They're still looking -- I saw some yesterday, all of the blue tarps that are still in Lake Charles. And the surge here, 7 to 11 feet of surge in the same places that had the surge before. Just a devastating storm here. Even if it's only 110 or 115, on top of the damage you already have, that just exacerbates the damage because things are already loose, things are still going to be flying around and then we have the rainfall to come. Some spots, 6 to 10 inches of rain in places that still have flood warnings on their rivers from the storms before. Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: That area just can't get a break. Chad, thank you very much for keeping an eye on all of it for us.</s>MYERS: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: So coronavirus cases are surging in the U.S. and around the world. What will the world look like when this is all over? Fareed Zakaria will tell us. |
Marc Short is Interviewed about the Debate and Coronavirus | ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, we have three breaking headlines for you right now in the 2020 race. The debate commission just announced that the next debate between President Trump and Joe Biden will be held virtually with the candidates in separate locations. Then, moments ago, former Vice President Biden agreed to those conditions. And moments before that, President Trump refused. Joining us now is Mark Short. He's chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence. Mark, great to have you here with all of this breaking news. Thanks for being up early for us. Why won't President Trump agree to a remote debate?</s>MARC SHORT, CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Well, good morning, Alisyn. Thanks for having me on. Obviously, at this hour, we've not yet had a chance to talk to the president, but you've heard him speak and explain his concerns about a virtual debate. I think our concern consistently has been the debate commission is supposed to negotiate with both sides if they're going to suggest a change in rules and that has not been the case. In fact, there was some minor rule changes they implemented in the vice president's debate at the last minute without consultation and I think this continues to have a pattern of them announcing it without discussing it with both sides. And so we're hopeful that they'll actually enter into negotiations so we can hear what their concerns are and there can be a negotiation to hopefully reach a positive settlement because we think it's important that the American people hear from both candidates.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Well, they can still hear from both candidates, even if they're remote, obviously. And, I mean, if I can speak for the debate commission, I think what their big issue is, is that a week ago President Trump tested positive for coronavirus. He's supposed to be isolating. He's still contagious, doctors say. That's their concern.</s>SHORT: I appreciate you speaking for the debate commission, Alisyn, but I think the reality is that that debate is still ten days out, it's not tomorrow, and so there's -- there's, I think, all likelihood that the president would be negative at this point.</s>CAMEROTA: It's a week out.</s>SHORT: But, again, I think that the way the commission is supposed to work is they're supposed to negotiate with both sides. I think that would be what's most appropriate here.</s>CAMEROTA: But, Marc, I think that they get to make the decision. As the debate -- as the presidential debate commission, they get to make decisions. And doesn't it just stand to reason that if one of the candidates was sick, they would do what was safest for the public health?</s>SHORT: Again -- again, Alisyn, I appreciate you taking on the side of the debate commission and representing them. But, in our case, for instance --</s>CAMEROTA: I'm just telling you what the logic is.</s>SHORT: It --</s>CAMEROTA: The logic is that President Trump is sick with coronavirus.</s>SHORT: Yes, no -- no, and I -- but I think the rules -- the rules are very specific -- the rules are very specific. The sides are supposed to negotiate, Alisyn. It's just like, you know, it was a very small issue here. But we asked repeatedly for any sort of medical justification for Plexiglas, a request they never provided it. Obviously the vice president conceded and said if that's what makes Senator Harris more comfortable, we'll go along with that, but they never provided that, and that's not the way it's supposed to work.</s>CAMEROTA: What do you think the medical justification is for Plexiglas, Marc?</s>SHORT: Well, let's talk through that, Alisyn. Both candidates tested negative. The moderators tested negative. CDC rules say you should have six feet of distance. We extended it to 12 feet of distance. Medical experts across have come out time and again and said the Plexiglas is meaningless. In fact, the University of Utah epidemiologist told us the Plexiglas is meaningless. If it makes you feel better aesthetically, fine, but it does nothing medically. So that's exactly the point, is that there are rules that make</s>CAMEROTA: OK, but isn't the point also -- hold on. Hold on. That's your side. Isn't the point also that Vice President Pence --</s>SHORT: It's not my side. Those are the facts, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Those are your cherry-picked facts. Here's another --</s>SHORT: That's where we live. That's exactly what --</s>CAMEROTA: Marc, here's another fact. Here's --</s>SHORT: No, Alisyn, how could you say they're my cherry-picked facts?</s>CAMEROTA: Marc, because you're -- what you didn't mention is that Vice President Pence has been with people in the past ten days who have tested positive at what might have been super spreader events.</s>SHORT: Alisyn, it's exactly why we did the contact tracing, we did that through both the White House medical unit, we did an extra consultation with the director of CDC who all felt comfortable with the vice president moving forward. It's why he's tested every day. He's continued to test negative. The vice president is not -- is not spreading coronavirus.</s>CAMEROTA: So is he tested every day, Marc? Is he tested every day?</s>SHORT: Yes, he is.</s>CAMEROTA: OK.</s>SHORT: Yes, he is, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: When was President Trump last tested before his positive result?</s>SHORT: Alisyn, you'll have to -- you'll have to ask the president's team that. The vice president's tested each and every day.</s>CAMEROTA: But why don't you know that, Marc? You are the chief of staff for the head of the Coronavirus Task Force.</s>SHORT: I don't know -- I am the chief of staff for the vice president of the United States. I'm not privy to access to the president's medical records. That's for the White House medical unit to provide you.</s>CAMEROTA: You don't know when the president was tested negative before his positive result? You do not know that?</s>SHORT: I don't know -- I don't know when there's a lot of people who are tested negative. I know when the vice president's tested. He's tested each and every day. And --</s>CAMEROTA: I'm talking about the president of the United States, Marc.</s>SHORT: And I work for the vice president of the United States. He's tested each and every day, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Marc, you also just mentioned that you're doing contact tracing. For what? For what event are you doing contact tracing?</s>SHORT: We did for the vice president to make sure, again, as we walked back through and said, here's where the vice president has been, here's who he's been exposed to, and we had clear guidance from both, again, the White House medical unit and the director of CDC who said they're confident with that. And, again, Alisyn, what's most important is the vice president continues to test negative each and every day. He -- he was not --</s>CAMEROTA: I'm -- I'm happy to hear that. That's -- that's wonderful.</s>SHORT: He's not at risk but I appreciate --</s>CAMEROTA: But we -- you -- you can -- can't blame us for wondering if that's going to be a constant given how many people in the White House have now tested positive. Every day, Marc, there is a new positive test coming out of the White House.</s>SHORT: And it's -- and it's a fair question and I -- and I appreciate --</s>CAMEROTA: Yesterday it was Stephen Miller. It -- let me ask you this --</s>SHORT: And I appreciate you allowing me the chance to answer it.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Let me ask -- let me pose the question first, Marc.</s>SHORT: I -- I appreciate you asking. It's a fair question. I appreciate having the chance to answer it.</s>CAMEROTA: Has there been anybody since Stephen Miller? Go.</s>SHORT: I'm not aware. I'm not aware of anybody. We've been here in Salt Lake. It was a great debate last night. I think that's why you asked me to come on. We're really pleased with how the vice president did. I think he drew a clear contrast in the divisions of the future of our country as what it would look like for the Trump/Pence administration versus the radical left policies of the Biden/Harris administration. So we really -- really thought it was a great night.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, I have a sound bite to play for you. That's -- good. I'm -- I'm -- I did want to get your take on what you thought of the debate, obviously.</s>SHORT: Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: And here is a moment. Let me play this for you and get your response.</s>MODERATOR: You head the administration's Coronavirus Task Force. Why is the U.S. death toll, as a percentage of our population, higher than that of almost every other wealthy country. And you have two minutes to respond without interruption.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Susan, thank you. And I want to thank the commission and the University of Utah for hosting this event. And our nation has gone through a very challenging time this year. But I want the American people to know that from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.</s>CAMEROTA: And, Marc, he didn't answer it. He never answered it. A lot of people want to know, why is the death toll in the U.S. so much greater than other countries.</s>SHORT: Well, you didn't play the full clip. But the reality is that, that requires you --</s>CAMEROTA: He never got to it. He never explained that.</s>SHORT: Alisyn, are you going to let me answer your question or not?</s>CAMEROTA: Marc, you just said we didn't play the full clip. It was two minutes of him not answering.</s>SHORT: The vice president did -- Alisyn, one more time, the vice president answered the question if you played the full clip. But the reality is, that requires you to trust the information that's being provided by Russia, China, Iran, other nations that have had the coronavirus and believe their numbers relative to what the United States has put forward. We use --</s>CAMEROTA: So you don't think that we have the highest death toll, is that what you're saying?</s>SHORT: I -- I believe, if you're going to be consistent and trust the numbers, then you also have to go back and say that when the swine flu broke out during the Obama/Biden administration and there were 14,000 domestic deaths --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>SHORT: They said there were 18,000 international deaths total. So, therefore, the United States was 70 percent of the fatalities, not 20 percent. So we mourn each and every one of the losses, but --</s>CAMEROTA: Marc, I'm so confused about this analogy that you guys keep using. So there were 13,000 deaths, by our numbers, from the swine flu. There are now, on your screen, 211,000 deaths of Americans from coronavirus.</s>SHORT: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: Why do you keep going back to the swine flu? Coronavirus is so much more deadly --</s>SHORT: Sure.</s>CAMEROTA: And it's on the Trump administration's watch.</s>SHORT: Sure. Sure, the coronavirus is more deadly, Alisyn, but it's why the reality is that what the Biden administration was -- the Obama/Biden administration provided opportunities as well to close down borders to Mexico that they did not do when swine flu was coming across. And the swine flu ended up infecting 60 million Americans. So, God forbid if the swine flu had been as fatal, you'd have ten times as many fatalities in the United States.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>SHORT: And it's why Ron Klain, the chief of staff to the vice president, said we did everything possible wrong in managing that situation.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, I heard that last night. I just wish that you guys would -- would build (ph) around more on the coronavirus and --</s>SHORT: We think that's an important contrast. That's good. I'm glad you did. I think it's an important contrast to show between the two -- the two administrations and the way that they would have handled it.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. OK. OK. Marc Short, thank you very much. We didn't expect all of this breaking news, but we really appreciate you being here and giving us the White House perspective. Thank you.</s>SHORT: Thanks for letting me talk about the debate.</s>CAMEROTA: We are getting a brand-new snapshot of America's unemployment crisis. We will give you the breaking details, next. |
Trump Backs out of Virtual Debate; Weekly Jobless Numbers Released; Virtual Presidential Debate. | JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, major breaking news. Moments ago, President Trump backed out of the second presidential debate scheduled for next Thursday night. The debate commission announced shortly before that, that the debate would be virtual because the president, of course, has coronavirus and there are medical concerns. For what it's worth, Joe Biden agreed to the new terms of the debate. We're joined by CNN White House correspondent John Harwood. John, great to have you here. Look, it's a big headline when a president backs out of a debate. It's a big headline when the debate commission feels the need to make it virtual because they worry the president could be a health threat. There's a lot going on here.</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, it dramatizes every way in which the Trump administration and President Trump as a candidate are behind the eight ball right now. The president is physically sick. His campaign is in terrible shape, trailing Joe Biden by a large margin that has been getting wider in the last week or two, and in battleground state polls he was terrible in the first debate, all the polls show it. He -- because he is sick, it's not safe for Joe Biden to be in the same room for him and to have a virtual debate that advertises that fact simply dramatizes the failure of the administration in handling the coronavirus pandemic. And so the president's now seizing the opportunity not to participate in another debate. Now, I do think Alisyn is right to say don't necessarily take to the bank what the president says in the flush of the moment because he is rapidly running out of options to change the dynamic in the campaign. A rally instead of participating in a debate is not going to do it. On the other hand, it's a town hall debate that puts a premium on showing empathy with your audience and President Trump doesn't do that very well. So the truth is all of the good options for President Trump are gone and he's just got to figure out which is the least bad one. And in the moment he thinks the least bad one is not to participate in the debate and to, you know, attack the -- Chris Wallace, attack the commission on presidential debates, attack the media, attack the Biden campaign. He just put out a rambling video from the south -- from the lawn of the White House in which he was claiming to have, you know, restored the military. It's just -- it's not a pretty picture for President Trump right now.</s>CAMEROTA: And also, John, one more thing, you know, we were sort of joking about, oh, in this age of Zoom, what would this look like? Oh, my gosh, technology is crashing into the debate. It would not actually be that. It would be a real camera, a real TV camera, like the ones we're using right now, real satellites. It would be the same as an Oval Office address. When President Trump is alone in his room or whatever with a small crew and he speaks to the camera, that's actually what it would be. And he does -- he likes to do those addresses and those speeches all the time. And so why not do the debate this way? I mean he's acting as though that it's a deal breaker, but he generally likes getting out his message that way.</s>HARWOOD: He's losing. He knows he's losing. He likes attacking other people. And so he's seizing on this change to attack the commission. Again, it is possible, Alisyn, that you are right. And when they reflect and realize how -- what a difficult situation their campaign is in, they could shift gears tomorrow. They could -- he could shift gears later -- later today. Like I said, the good options are all gone for President Trump and he's just got to try to scramble and figure out some way to make the best of it. You know, we don't know -- we still don't know what his physical condition actually is. He -- if, in fact, he acquired the coronavirus when the White House says he tested positive, that is in the middle of last week, he still has a significant period of unpredictability about the course of his illness. So, you know, it's entirely possible he might not be well enough to debate on the 15th. We just don't know because they won't tell us when that last negative test was.</s>BERMAN: John Harwood, great to have you with us. In the future, you don't have to take Alisyn's side.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, you do.</s>BERMAN: You don't have to, but we appreciate you being with us always nonetheless. Thanks, John.</s>CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, John. All right, breaking news right now, new jobless claim numbers have just been released. CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with more. What do you see, Christine?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I see a job market under stress and I see a recovery at a crossroads here, 840,000 new first-time unemployment claims in the week. That is a number that has been alarmingly high here, stuck in this 800,000 range for weeks now. There were also 464,000 pandemic unemployment insurance. So you add that together, that's 1.3 million for the week. These are continuing claims I'm showing you here. It's almost 11 million people, down a million. These are people who are continuing to get benefits. Overall, in all the different kinds of programs, this is including special programs for the unemployed because of the pandemic, there are 25.5 million people received aid, jobless aid, from the government. I want to point out, California has put a two-week pause on processing new unemployment claims. They're trying to work through some fraud issues. Also a big, big backlog there. So these numbers could change a little bit going forward. But, again, heading into an election here with clearly the American worker, the American jobless worker under a lot of stress and no aid yet from Congress in terms of stimulus.</s>CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. OK, Christine, thank you very much for all of that breaking news. All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us with his reaction to our other breaking news, the next presidential debate is set to be --</s>BERMAN: No, no, the president backed out of the presidential debate. There is no next debate.</s>CAMEROTA: That's the big -- well, OK.</s>BERMAN: It doesn't matter if the debate commission says it's virtual, the president just backed out.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean, again, that's at 8:48. At 8:48. And the -- their campaign did just put out a press release saying they're -- that President Trump is not going to do it. So I'm taking your side and I'm taking my side.</s>BERMAN: Right.</s>CAMEROTA: Anything's possible is what I'm trying to say. And Sanjay Gupta's next. |
New U.S. COVID Cases Top 50,000 Wednesday As Infections Rise Nationwide | JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The number of new coronavirus cases in the country climbed back above 50,000 for the first time in five days. Only two states at this moment are seeing a decline in new cases. Wisconsin is seeing an explosion of new cases, and it is now preparing a field hospital in case its hospitals are overrun with patients. CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now live with the very latest. Alexandra?</s>ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, John. Yes, for days, we've been watching Wisconsin set all the wrong kinds of records, first in death tolls and then in number of new cases. Now hospitalizations have hit yet another high just on Wednesday, that has triggered more action from the state government. They plan next week to open up that field hospital in the state fair grounds. It is real evidence that they are really concerned about the possibility of the state's hospital system being overwhelmed. Further evidence of the fact that COVID is not easily beat, is the fact that we are also seeing these upticks in hospitalizations in Wyoming and in South Dakota. Public health experts continue to be concerned about surges that they are closely monitoring in Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Oklahoma. And then right here in New York City, a city where the positivity rate remains relatively low compared to other states and even other countries. We are seeing this highly concerning cluster of cases that has triggered a rash of new restrictions. Today, we are seeing even more restrictions being implemented. These clusters are now being broken down into a tiered system. You've got red zones, which will be the most restricted areas of the city. Schools are shut down in those areas. Non-essential businesses are closed and restaurants are only open for take-out. Then you've got the orange zones, where restrictions are slightly lifted, and then the yellow zones which will face the least restrictions. This is a highly targeted, very specific response. It is meant to stamp out the clusters that the city is seeing without rolling back the reopening for the entire city. We'll be watching it closely. Alisyn?</s>BERMAN: All right, I'll take it, Alex. Alex Field, thank you very much for being with us. We also have breaking news regarding the presidential debates. And this too has very much to do with the pandemic. The Commission on Presidential Debates just announced that the second scheduled debate between President Trump and Joe Biden will be virtual. It will be a virtual debate in the form of a town meeting in which the candidates will participate from separate remote locations. This, of course, comes as the president is recovering from coronavirus and at this moment, we believe still contagious. So this is a big deal. We don't know if the campaigns have agreed to this, by the way, but the Presidential Debate Commission has said that the next debate will be virtual if it happens. Much more on this in just a moment.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Really interesting development. OK, also new concerns this morning for gold star families who may have been exposed to coronavirus at a White House event last week. This was an indoor reception. As you can see on your screen, with no social distancing, no masks that we can see, and it was held the day after the Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett, it might have been a super spreader event. The vice admiral of the Coast Guard who has -- who was there has now tested positive and most of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are quarantined. Joining us now is army veteran and senior adviser for Veterans Affairs at the Lincoln Project, Fred Wellman. Fred, great to have you here. This is worrisome! Even what we now know, to see those pictures, you know, makes you take a step back. Why did the White House hold this event like this?</s>FRED WELLMAN, SENIOR ADVISER FOR VETERANS AFFAIRS AT THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Well, that's the eternal question, isn't it? It's shocking in a lot of ways. I mean, I think we've got a double shock right now. We've got the Joint Chiefs quarantining, we've got COVID running rampant in the essentially National Security, you know, a very nerve -- central nervous system right in our national security system. And then we found out that gold star families were invited to the White House, all they did that we know of is they had rapid tests at the door, which we do know may not be even effective in the first three or seven days of the virus when you catch it. So, and then it went in maskless. I think it's just an example of how the White House continues to ignore their own organizational guidelines and their own CDC guidelines and don't protect anyone that come to that building.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean, if you were to stage a super spreader event now, it would be -- look, it would look like that! You're not --</s>WELLMAN: Right --</s>CAMEROTA: You're not supposed to be meeting with that many people indoors, you're not supposed to be sitting right next to each other. You're supposed to be masked. And the idea that this was --</s>WELLMAN: Right --</s>CAMEROTA: Last week and they were flouting -- I mean, it was -- it was the day after the Amy Coney Barrett event that now doctors believe was a super spreader event. Do we know how --</s>WELLMAN: OK -- CAMEROTA: These gold star families feel now in light of all that's happened?</s>WELLMAN: Well, it's been really difficult. A lot of the organizations that brought their gold star families in there have not been real forthcoming. Many of the families have not spoken publicly. The information I gained was through potentially friends who are in that network. I've been working as a veterans advocate for the last decade, so we have connections to a lot of these families. What we do know is that they were not contact-traced. As of yesterday, most of them had never heard from anyone. There was a report yesterday that one of the organizations that helped bring the families in was contacted on October 2nd, that of course is Friday, the day after President Trump said publicly that he had contracted the virus. And if you remember correctly, what got me going on this whole topic, and what got me going down the rabbit hole of how all this happened was if you remember when President Trump spoke at the first time, I believe to Sean Hannity, he said that it was -- well, they said they were talking about Hope Hicks, well, we now know that the president by that point knew he had tested positive. He said, it's very hard because the law enforcement and the military, when they -- when you're doing a good job for them, they come up and hug you and kiss you. And a lot of us veterans are like, I don't think I've ever seen a soldier ever run up to the president and hug and kiss him. And what we now know is he was talking about the gold star family event. That the president and all the pantheon of people that he may have caught COVID from in that week, he picked the gold star families as the most likely suspect. And that's kind of disturbing too, if you think about it.</s>CAMEROTA: That, I mean, I have the quote right here. He says, "it's very hard when you're with people from the military and they come over to --</s>WELLMAN: Right --</s>CAMEROTA: You and they want to hug you and kiss you, because we have really done a good job for them. And you get close and things happen." And so --</s>WELLMAN: And things happen, yes --</s>CAMEROTA: And things happen. And so what -- and so, instead of blaming his own masklessness or his rallies, you hear him blaming gold star families there?</s>WELLMAN: That's what I heard. And that's what a lot of us heard for the first time, and now we figured out, it was funny -- you know, there's blinding flashes of the obvious moments when we figured it out that, what the president was talking about was the gold star families. And the nugget came when the announcement came out in the news that the Joint Chiefs were going into quarantine. And buried in one of the articles in "The New York Times", there's a paragraph that simply said the Joint Chiefs have been getting regularly tested since attending a gold star family event at the White House. So, what that also tells you is that, DOD knew that there had been an exposure or a possible exposure from the very beginning, and before the president announced that he was positive on Thursday. So, the questions that I ask are staggering.</s>CAMEROTA: And the Joint Chiefs are quarantining, obviously, national security --</s>WELLMAN: Correct --</s>CAMEROTA: Issues abound. And also, just the fact --</s>WELLMAN: Terrifying.</s>CAMEROTA: That you -- as you point out, we have not seen these pictures. These pictures have not made the rounds in the way that the Amy Coney Barrett pictures have, most of which were outside, though there were -- was it indoor element to that. But these pictures look like pre-COVID times. These pictures -- these photographs --</s>WELLMAN: Yes --</s>CAMEROTA: Look as if it was taken a year ago, not a week ago.</s>WELLMAN: Yes --</s>CAMEROTA: And this -- I mean, I just -- I feel for these gold star families and I'm glad that you're trying to be in touch with them to see if any of them are getting sick. We hope not, obviously, and that they will be contact-traced somehow so that they can breathe a sigh of relief. Fred Wellman, thank you for bringing all of this to our attention. Obviously, we'll stay on it.</s>WELLMAN: Thanks for having me.</s>CAMEROTA: The vice presidential debate covered a lot of ground from healthcare to the economy to abortion rights to coronavirus. But who told the truth? John Avlon with an important fact-check, next. |
Presidential Debate Commission Cites Next Presidential Debate is Going to Be Virtual; Pence-Harris Clash for VP Debate in Salt Lake City. | CAMEROTA: John Avlon has been burning the midnight oil, fact-checking last night's VP debate. This hour, he delves into Vice President Mike Pence's responses. Next hour will be Kamala Harris'. John Avlon is here now with a reality check. Hi, John.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, guys. Look Pence v. Harris was civil and substantive compared to the dumpster fire of the presidential debate. But there was a persistent failure for the candidates to answer direct questions. And Mike Pence defined the art of deflection. For example, after a question on abortion, he talked about the killing of Iranian General Soleimani, after getting a question about pre-existing conditions, he talked about abortion. And when Pence circled back to those topics, you got a sense of why he ducked them in the first place.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Trump and I have a plan to improve health care and to protect pre-existing conditions for every American.</s>AVLON: No, they do not! The Trump administration has never presented a comprehensive healthcare plan to replace the ACA that they're asking the Supreme Court to kill next month. And there's a lot to unpack in this next one.</s>SUSAN PAGE, VP DEBATE MODERATOR: Vice President Pence, do you believe that climate change poses an existential threat?</s>PENCE: As I said, Susan, the climate is changing. We'll follow the science, but once again, Senator Harris is denying the fact that they're going to raise taxes on every American.</s>AVLON: OK, so, first, Pence says they'll follow the science on climate change, but they're not doing that. Because 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is real and man-made. But notice Pence's quick pivot to taxes. Biden's plan is not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year, the median family income is just under$66,000 a year. So, no, taxes would not be raised on every American, not even close. But the biggest issue in this election is the pandemic, and that's a tough thing for the head of the COVID taskforce to spin his way out of, not the Pence didn't try. He repeated the party line that Trump shutting down travel from China was pivotal in containing the disease. But it wasn't a ban, it was a restriction. And more than 40,000 folks flew from China after, and in any case, the East Coast spread seems to have come from Europe. But the fact remains that America has 20 percent of the world's COVID-19 deaths with just 4 percent of the population with an outbreak right now in the White House. And for a man who stays resolutely on message, there was one notable slip.</s>PENCE: The American people have a right to know about the health and well-being of their president.</s>AVLON: We do, but we haven't been told the truth about President Trump's health and the White House COVID outbreak. And we're going to be back with a look at Senator Harris in the next hour. But for now, that's your reality check.</s>BERMAN: All right, and again, we will be back with the fact-check on Senator Harris later. But our breaking news, the Commission on Presidential Debates just announced that the second presidential debate scheduled for next Thursday will be virtual. Let's discuss with CNN political commentators Rick Santorum and Bakari Sellers. Let me read to you what they say, the second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting in which the candidates will participate from separate remote locations. This is because, obviously, the president has COVID-19, and as of right now, at least, we believe that he is still contagious. So, Bakari, what do you make of this news and do you anticipate that the campaigns will agree to this?</s>BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know. You know, it just broke a couple of moments ago, and I'm trying to imagine Donald Trump on a Zoom call. I mean, I sit on Zoom calls for work all day and they are just awful. And I can't imagine someone trying to talk through and break through all of these Zoom calls. But I guess, you can mute him. You know, I think that it's going to be very difficult for both of these campaigns to agree to it. I anticipate the Biden campaign will say, we will debate Donald Trump any way, any form, any fashion. But I can only imagine that the Trump campaign is going to say that Joe Biden can't have anything in his ear, they are afraid he's going to have notes, they're afraid somebody is going to be behind him or is just got to be -- it's got to be a cluster. I want to see how they work this through, but I do applaud the commission for actually taking steps for the safety of the candidates, because we know next week that there's still a strong likelihood that Donald Trump is going to be contagious.</s>BERMAN: It is a statement in its own way, a sign of the times. A statement that the president is not safe. It is not safe to be next to the president. That's what the debate commission has ruled, not just for Joe Biden, for the people who would be in that hall for that town meeting. So, Rick, does the Trump campaign agree?</s>RICK SANTORUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know whether they're going to agree or not. I suspect they will not. Look, this is a situation where I think the debate commission is doing what they've -- you know, they've done in the past was try to make news instead of trying to do what their job is, and their job is to work with the campaigns to put debates together that the candidates agree to instead of dictating terms. So, I really don't -- I just don't agree that they should be announcing things before they talk to the campaigns about it and get an agreement. That's sort of asserting itself into the -- into the election. So I think that was wrong. Secondly, I'm not sure. I mean -- I mean, Bakari may be right. I mean, it may be difficult for the candidates, but actually, it may be for the best interests of the president because you have an opportunity to see Joe Biden have to actually answer questions that hopefully will be tougher questions that he's getting from the media in his puff town hall meetings.</s>BERMAN: All right, well, look, we're going to talk much more about this over the next hour or so. The show including with doctors, it may very well be the debate commission talked to scientists who say you can't do this safely in person. So either you do it this way or not at all, which might be --</s>SANTORUM: Not their job.</s>BERMAN: Well --</s>SANTORUM: Not their job.</s>BERMAN: But --</s>SANTORUM: The job is to work with the campaign to do debates, not to sit -- to go out there and free-wheel it as to what they think is the right thing to do --</s>BERMAN: You know, in this case, Rick, and again, we're going to talk about this more in the course of the show because I want to talk about the debate last night. It may be the scientists who get to decide here and the doctors, because either it's safe or it's not. And if it's not safe, it shouldn't be in person, maybe the debate commission had that discussion. We'll find out much more. Again, this is just breaking right now. It may not be for a campaign to decide if people get infected here. So, I want to play now from the vice presidential debate last night, which one of you feels better this morning? So Bakari, you first. Which one of you, Bakari Sellers or Rick Santorum feels better about the vice presidential debate? Kamala Harris against Mike Pence?</s>SELLERS: Oh, I feel awesome. I think that a lot of people in the media have tried to minimize the historic event that we saw last night. Kamala Harris did more than hold her own. Kamala Harris, she put Mike Pence through what many of us who are married to black women already understand. That you don't win debates with them. It was a fascinating night. I was somewhat taken aback by the fact that, you know, we will hear about Kamala Harris not answering the court packing question, but Mike Pence literally didn't answer anything. And I just think that the answer to the question of climate change is going to resonate loudly because the "climate is changing", quote-unquote, Mike Pence. And it was those types of evasive answers that I think the American people saw through in the split-screen last night, didn't do the Republican Party any justice. Mike Pence looked like yesterday, Kamala Harris looked like the future. Will this change anything much? I think me and Rick Santorum probably agree this ain't going to change the polls much, but it was a good night for the Democratic Party.</s>BERMAN: Rick?</s>SANTORUM: Yes, obviously, I disagree. I think it was actually a very good night for Mike Pence, and stopped what I think is the bleeding that's been occurred in the campaign since the last debate. Obviously, I made a lot of comments, I didn't think the president did particularly well in the last debate, and I think Pence did very -- look, he answered climate change, he answered the way that every Republican would answer. You don't do it by government -- you do it by innovation, and he was very clear about spurring innovation that's going to reduce the amount of pollution and CO2. So, you know, yes, he didn't answer the question directly that was asked immediately, but in almost all cases, no all, I agree with that, but almost all cases he was finishing up from the previous question and wanted to get something in, and then moved on to that question.</s>BERMAN: Let's talk about the peaceful transition of power. And just so you both know, I am going to talk extensively in the next hour about the Supreme Court and the non-answer from Biden-Harris campaign on that. But on the issue --</s>SANTORUM: Not a problem --</s>BERMAN: Well, we'll see. But on the peaceful transfer of power, Mike Pence was asked about this, and, again, he didn't answer. This is one he absolutely did not answer. So listen.</s>PAGE: If Vice President Biden is declared the winner and President Trump refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power, what would be your role and responsibility as vice president? What would you personally do?</s>PENCE: I think we're going to win this election. President Trump and I are fighting every day in court houses to prevent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from changing the rules and creating this universal mail-in voting that will create a massive opportunity for voter fraud. And we have a free and fair election, we know we're going to have confidence in it, and I believe in all my heart that President Donald Trump is going to be re-elected for four more years.</s>BERMAN: I'm going to enforce time-limit rules here, unlike a presidential debate, you each have 20 seconds on that answer. Bakari, you first.</s>SELLERS: You know, I'm not going to stick to this talking point script right here. That answer doesn't really offend me. It doesn't frighten me because you have to win an election before you worry about people leaving the White House. I don't know who is going to stand on stage and say, oh, my God, when we lose, dot. So it just doesn't offend me, maybe that's my competitive nature. But you know, you've got to actually win a race before you talk about leaving.</s>BERMAN: Twenty seconds, Rick.</s>SANTORUM: Yes, I mean, the vice president said if we have a fair election, you know, they will accept it. I mean, again, there's no -- I don't know of any Republican anywhere that is going to stand by the president or anybody else if the election is that he lost, I think most Americans have confidence in the election, and I think the president -- the vice president brought up, you know, legitimate points about some of the changes Democrats are making, and they're going to make sure that it is fair, and I think it will be and we'll have a winner.</s>BERMAN: Rick Santorum, Bakari Sellers, thank you both for being with us this morning. Going through the breaking news as it happens. You know, on this discussion point we're talking about here and the peaceful transition of power and the sanctity of the election itself, the president is calling for poll watchers to help police. This is amongst these, you know, by the way, they have a lot of people who voted safely and without fraud already. The president keeps on making false claims about fraud. CNN has obtained the actual training material put together by the Trump campaign, and it's not what you might expect. |
U.S. Vice Presidential Debate Reflects Workplace Challenges For Women; Michigan Governor Comments on Alleged Plot to Kidnap Her; Chaos as Trump Rejects Virtual Debate, Biden Rejects Delay | RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: It is Thursday. It's October 8th. I'm Richard Quest. And yes, I mean business. Good evening, our full business agenda for you this evening, but we will be starting with the extraordinary F.B.I. announcements about a potential kidnapping of the Governor of Michigan. Here's the Governor giving her response and more details.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): ... was joined by officials from the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. to announce state and Federal charges against 13 members of two militia groups who were preparing to kidnap and possibly kill me. When I put my hand on the Bible, and took the Oath of Office 22 months ago, I knew this job would be hard. But I'll be honest, I never could have imagined anything like this. I want to start by saying thank you to our law enforcement. Thank you to the fearless F.B.I. agents. And thank you to the brave Michigan State Police Troopers who participated in this operation, acting under the leadership of Colonel Joe Gasper. I also want to thank Attorney General Nessel and the U.S. Attorneys Berge and Schneider, and their teams for pursuing criminal charges that hopefully, will lead to convictions, bringing these sick and depraved men to justice. As a mom with two teenage daughters, and three step sons, my husband and I are eternally grateful to everyone who put themselves in harm's way to keep our family safe. 2020 has been a hard year for all of us, hard for our doctors and nurses and truck drivers, grocery store workers. It's been hard for the teachers and students and parents. Hard for those who have had to stay isolated to stay safe. And it's not over yet. But here's what I know. We're Michiganders, we have grit, we have heart, and we are tough as hell. We made it through the Great Recession. We made it through auto bankruptcies. We made it through floods and polar vortexes. But none of us has faced a challenge like COVID-19, not in our lifetimes. I've said it many times, we are not one another's enemy. This virus is our enemy. And this enemy is relentless. It doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, young or old, rich or poor. It doesn't care if we're tired of it. It threatens us all -- our lives, our families, our jobs, our businesses, our economy. It preys on our elderly and medically vulnerable residents, and it has exposed deep inequities in our society. This should be a moment for national unity, where we all pull together as Americans to meet this challenge head on with the same might and muscle that put a man on the moon, seeing the humanity in one another, and doing our part to help our country get through this. Instead, our Head of State has spent the past seven months denying science, ignoring his own health experts, stoking distrust, fomenting anger and giving comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division. Just last week, the President of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. "Stand back and standby," he told them. "Stand back and stand by." Hate groups heard the President's words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan spoke to the NAACP's annual convention, and his comments stand in sharp contrast to what we have seen on the national and state level from his own beloved party in 2020. He said, a few isolated groups and the backwater of American life still hold perverted notions of what America is all about. Recently in some places in the nation, there's been a disturbing recurrence of bigotry and violence. Then Reagan sent a direct message to those who still adhere to senseless racism and religious prejudice. "You are the ones who are out of step with our society," he said. "You are the ones who willfully violate the meaning of the dream that is America."</s>WHITMER: "And this country, because of what it stands for, will not stand for your conduct." So let me say this loud and clear: hatred, bigotry and violence have no place in the Great State of Michigan. If you break the law or conspire to commit heinous acts of violence against anyone, we will find you. We will hold you accountable, and we will bring you to justice. For the past seven months, I've made tough choices to keep our state safe. These have been gut wrenching decisions no governor has ever had to make. And I get it, life has been hard for us all. When I get out of bed every morning, I think about the high school seniors like my daughter, who miss graduation ceremonies, those Michiganders who have missed weddings and funerals. I think about all the moms who are working from home, making breakfast every day, logging their kids on to their Zoom class and doing the laundry. I think about the small business owners who spent a lifetime building something great, who are now hanging on by their fingernails just to keep the lights on. The disruption this virus has caused to our daily lives is immeasurable, and it has already taken the lives of more than 210,000 Americans, including over 6,800 right here in Michigan. As painful as these losses are, our hard work and sacrifices have saved thousands of lives. We have one of the strongest economic recoveries in the nation. Make no mistake, there will be more hard days ahead. But I want the people of Michigan to know this: as your Governor, I will never stop doing everything in my power to keep you and your families safe. You don't have to agree with me. But I do ask one thing, never forget that we are all in this together. But show a little kindness and a lot more empathy. Let's give one another a little grace and let's take care of each other. Wear your mask. Stay six feet apart. Wash your hands frequently. And look out for your neighbors. We are Michiganders. I know we can get through this. We will get through this. So let's get through it together. Thank you.</s>QUEST: Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, giving no details really about the plot that the F.B.I. has uncovered, a plot of six men who have been charged with attempting to overthrow the government in Michigan, the state government and elsewhere, but also of trying to kidnap her. It was an undercover plot that's just come to light. Facebook says they have been cooperating with the Federal authorities, and now we had the Governor who chose to speak more about COVID than the plot. Andrew McCabe is with me, the former Deputy Director of the F.B.I., and CNN senior law enforcement analyst. Andrew, you couldn't make this up. I mean, if you did, somebody would say it's unlikely. And you had a vivid imagination. What do we know was going on here?</s>ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first, thanks for having me on. Richard. It is truly an amazing peek into the very private and secure world of extremism right here in our own backyard. I know from my own experience, many years working exactly these sorts of cases in the F.B.I., working dozens and dozens of plots just like this, that when you see the facts, when you see what people are saying and planning. It's so striking. You can't believe that this is actually happening around us. But the criminal complaint, the affidavit, so this is the statement from the F.B.I. agent that's presented to the judge to base the arrest warrants on is remarkable in its detail. It indicates that the F.B.I. had multiple undercover agents, and what they refer to as CHS or Cooperating Human Sources. So the agents are, of course, you know, F.B.I. or law enforcement officers and the others are simply informants. They were in the plot with these guys, and they recorded tons and tons of conversations. That's the best evidence you can possibly get. Some of those conversation mentioned kidnapping the Governor either at work or at her home, using 200 or more like-minded associates to storm the state capitol.</s>MCCABE: They talked about shooting the Governor's house. They talked about shooting the Governor herself if she answered the door, just walking out ringing the doorbell and shooting her when she answered the door. They talked about planned escape routes, escaping via a boat across a lake near to her house. They talked about blowing up a bridge, in order to lay the law enforcement response. Just remarkable conversations that indicate a very serious plot.</s>QUEST: And do you -- could you make a good stab at a guess as to how this came to the attention of the authorities? We heard of course, they are saying that this is through social media. The F.B.I. became aware through social media groups of individuals, but from you're guessing, is it more likely that an informant tipped them off?</s>MCCABE: Well, I mean, Richard, that's always a very good guess. They had to have been directed to these individual social media accounts by someone or some technique and a human source is always a great way to do that. But the Bureau is also very good at watching kind of the watering holes, if you will, those online resources and social media sites that draw in extremists because they're drawn to that content and that sometimes gives them the ability to identify folks that they need to take a closer look at. So there's all different sorts of ways, but the one thing you can say is that communications on social media, and the ability to observe and monitor those communications is one of the most effective ways that the F.B.I. uncovers extremist activity in America.</s>QUEST: I was much taken when you said that you've seen lots of sort of similar plots in your time in your career at the head of law enforcement, and my next question is not meant to, in any way sort of denigrate what these people are trying to do. But I want to get to how realistic are their intentions in doing this? It's still dreadful that they do it. But from your understanding of this particular plot or this particular action, was it a viable plot?</s>MCCABE: So, that's a great question, Richard. And to answer it, I should tell you that the F.B.I. reviews and investigates these plots based on two factors. They try to assess whether or not the plotters have both the intent and the capability to conduct the sort of activity that they are talking about. You know, is this just kind of puffery and you know, braggadocio, people boasting to each other about what they want to do? Or are they actually -- have they set their minds to it? And can they pull it off? From the details we know about this plot, I think it's absolutely clear that these folks had not only the intent, which we know about from their own statements, but certainly the capability. They were purchasing helmets and night vision goggles. They were purchasing -- they made contacts to purchase explosives. They were practicing tactical maneuvers, building practice bombs and detonating them in training exercises. So this is not just a few guys talking to each other on the internet. These folks were moving, meeting in different states training and acquiring materials to pull this off.</s>QUEST: Andrew, it is very good to have you. I think first time we've had you in your new role as our senior analyst on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I assure you, sir, it will not be the last. Thank you very much.</s>MCCABE: Thank you. Thank you, Richard.</s>QUEST: Andrew McCabe, former Deputy F.B.I. Director joining me. Now, the status of the next presidential debate is very much in doubt after Donald Trump said he would not take part in a virtual debate as mandated by the Commission on the Presidential Debates. The organizers basically said it was simply too risky to have them in the same room at the same time, and so they changed the debate to a virtual format because of the President's COVID. Now Donald Trump says he won't participate. Biden says he would do a Town Hall without the President. Donald Trump is now saying he is going to delay. Biden is rejecting a delay. You've really got to ask, what's going on? Well, Donald Trump said a virtual debate is a waste of time.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the Commission a little while ago, change the debate style, and that's not acceptable to us. I beat him easily in the first debate, according to the polls that I've seen, but I beat him easily and I felt I beat him easily. I think he felt it, too. No, I'm not going to waste my time in a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.</s>QUEST: Brian Stelter, our chief media correspondent. Oh, he gave away the last meat, didn't he? Right then, right at the end of that, Brian, "They cut you off whenever they want."</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I think this is a perfectly fine format to debate, Richard. I would debate you any day in these boxes. This works just fine in television, but apparently not for President Trump. He came out there at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time and said he is not going to participate, and there have been developments every hour since then. The very latest is that ABC has just announced a Town Hall, not a debate, a Town Hall with Joe Biden on the night the debate is scheduled next week. So Trump already had one of these Town Halls on ABC, where he takes questions from audience members in Philly. Now, Biden says he will hold a Town Hall on ABC, the same night the debate is scheduled. He is essentially calling Trump's bluff saying, hey, we're going to take questions, even if you won't, and so he'll do it on ABC. But this is still very much up in the air. Richard. ABC isn't even saying what time in the evening the Town Hall will happen. I think that is because there is still a possibility. Maybe it's slim, but a possibility that Trump will come back to the table and say, okay, fine, I'll do a virtual debate. Bottom line, Richard, Trump needs these debates more than Biden. Trump is losing. He needs the debates. He needs the big audience of the debates.</s>QUEST: Right. But, Brian, isn't this exactly the sort of thing that the critics say like that there is no respite. There's no daily relief. There is no letting up of this exhaustion -- exhaustive procedure. So yesterday, we have, you know, one minute it's withdrawing stimulus negotiations; next minute, it's we're going to have stimulus, and we're going to have a standby, and we're going to have standalones. Today it is, I'm not going to, virtually -- I mean, this is exhausting.</s>STELTER: Right. It's like it's fighting just for fighting's sake. It's like trying to punch the air. It is ridiculous. But you're right. It is a daily occurrence. The President this morning also said that Kamala Harris is a monster. What a hateful thing to say. You know, there's all of that kind of daily rhetoric that does exhaust most voters. But you know what, Richard, people in the country are still paying attention. Americans are still wired into this election. Last night's VP debate, which is normally an afterthought in a presidential cycle, more than 50 million people watch the VP debate that's up from about 35 million, four years ago. So there's all these data points that show us no matter how exhausting this is, people are still paying attention.</s>QUEST: Brian Stelter, chief media. Thank you, Brian. I appreciate it.</s>STELTER: Thank you.</s>QUEST: After the break, the question of vaccine, Kamala Harris last night said she would take the vaccine but not if Donald Trump, on the basis of his recommendation. Moderna's Chairman will be with us and we will understand exactly how quickly and how close everybody really is. |
VP Candidates Spar over Trump Economic Record, Biden Tax Plan. | QUEST: Last night, the vice presidential debate took place between Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence, and it wasn't exactly friendly, at least, it was certainly more decorous than the Presidential Debate. There are one or two moments where they got testy with each other, but otherwise, it was a model of how these things perhaps should be done. Mike Pence defended Donald Trump's economic record; Kamala Harris claimed U.S. is s losing the China trade war. They both argued mightily over Joe Biden's tax plan over whether or not he will raise taxes on ordinary people. The Vice President said that next year will be the best year in U.S. economic history.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe Biden says democracy is on the ballot. Make no mistake about it, Susan, the American economy, the American comeback is on the ballot. With four more years of growth and opportunity ...</s>SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "U.S.A. TODAY": Thank you, sir.</s>PENCE: ... four more years of President Donald Trump, 2021 will be the ...</s>PAGE: Thank you, Vice President.</s>PENCE: ... biggest economic year in the history of this country.</s>QUEST: And there you hear the thank you, Senator -- sorry, thank you, Vice President. Thank you. Thank you, as the moderator tried to keep him quiet or at least tell him his time was up. It was a vain attempt on both, frankly, the Vice President and Senator Harris. On the question of the economic situation, the Vice President's optimism is not borne out by the data as we look at it. The recovery is slow and continues to be slow, 840,000 first time unemployment claims, but those as you heard last night on this program from Mohamed El-Erian saying a double dip recession is now more possible without a stimulus plan. Kevin Hassett is with me, the former Chair of President Trump's Council on Economic Advisers. He joins me now. Kevin, you said earlier this week, I want to quote you, you said, "With so many businesses still close around the country, we remain close to the edge of an economic calamity." I don't think anyone would disagree. But if we are close to the economic calamity, why did President Trump withdraw his negotiators on the stimulus -- only to then do a tweet after tweet after tweet on standalones?</s>KEVIN HASSETT, CNN ECONOMIC COMMENTATOR: Well, and then he wound that back a little bit, Richard. And by the way, I want you to moderate one of those debates. I think you'd be great at it. And you know, I think that if we go back to what I -- you know, I went into the White House a second time as senior adviser to the President and I worked on the economic recovery plans and really thought back in June when I when I left the Phase 4 deal was a done deal. But basically what happened was that the House had some objectives that they wanted, including really, really big transfers to blue states, and they wouldn't budge on those things. And basically, Mitch McConnell told the President that he couldn't get, you know, those things through the Senate, and so the whole thing sort of got frozen. But I think the President wants a stimulus, I think Speaker Pelosi wants to stimulus and they can agree on the details. And I think that you're right, that that quote that I gave was correct, that I think we are on the precipice of potentially an economic calamity. But the fact is that because we turned the economy off, you know, second quarter GDP was going to be minus 30, minus 40. I think before I went back to the White House, I was saying that already in February here on CNN, and then the third quarter is going to be plus 25, plus 30, something like that, which is going to leave us, you know, minus five in terms of five percent, about five percent below where we started the year, probably something like that. And so that minus five percent is about as big a negative shock as you're ever going to see. If it just happened, you know, this quarter, then we would be talking about an economic emergency stimulus package.</s>QUEST: Right.</s>HASSETT: But they're not because I think they're in some sense lulled by the recovery that we've seen in the numbers between the spring and now. But to be sure, and by the fourth quarter, I think everyone is going to recognize the need for another stimulus.</s>QUEST: But what worries me is away from the -- I mean, you're right in terms of the -- you go down, you come back up again, and because it was an artificial closing, there's a lot of recovery that is built into the V- shape. What worries me is if you like the deep underbelly of all of this, you know, the block where I live on the next block, there is only one shop still in business. The deli is gone. The dry cleaners have gone. This has gone and that, and that's surely -- it's never really fully reflected in the figures for some time to come.</s>HASSETT: Yes, that's right and what's been going on is that, remember, you know back in March, we had top medical officials telling us that when it got warmer, that the coronavirus would disappear for the summer, and then it would come back during the flu season. And so our businesses were basically holding on until the summer, and I think right now, they are trying to hold on and with the belief of a vaccine or you know, a really big expansion of testing comes, and that'll allow things to open back up. But pretty soon, you know, if you look at the home base data, which I know you follow all the real time stuff closely, the home base data is saying that say here in D.C., 40 percent of businesses are close, probably the most famous bar in D.C., the Capitol Lounge just went out of business, and there's going to be a wave of those things unless really we get the economy open, because we have a vaccine, or we have enough testing to do so more safely than we're doing right now. And even a really, really big stimulus at some point isn't going to be able to save us if we continue to be -- you go to downtown D.C. right now, Richard, that they've got plywood on most of the businesses, you know, and you just can't keep that up for a year.</s>QUEST: But what I can't see, what I can't understand, and I'm guessing we're sort of in agreement on the economic peril that's out there, or at least the way it's looking, what I continually cannot understand and this may not be the question for you, but you'll get it anyway. What I cannot understand, Kevin, is how politicians can abrogate their responsibilities when they are overlooking that cliff, and they get a paycheck, but millions don't.</s>HASSETT: Right. That's right. And, you know, I think that the crucial factor right now is that the House won't budge on, you know, bailouts for states. They give them way more money than the revenue shortfall this year. By one of my estimates, before I left the White House, they were asking for five times as much money as states were going to be short because of the pandemic recession. And they also won't budge on liability protection. So when the businesses on your block reopen, that if somebody gets COVID, when they go to get a meal that they can't sue the business and put them out of business. And I think that since they won't do that, then the Republicans basically, you know, already are wary of taking it, but also Mitch McConnell has some -- you know, managed a big coalition of people, many of whom are budget hawks, and think that the stimulus already was too expensive. And so it's, you know, politics is a very difficult thing to manage by a person like Mitch McConnell, or Nancy Pelosi or the President. And, you know, if Mitch and Nancy and the President got together and agreed to a stimulus bill, there's no guarantee that it would pass either House. And that's really, I think, ultimately, the problem.</s>QUEST: All right. Kevin, it is good to talk to you. Sensible economics. Thank you.</s>HASSETT: It's great to be back, Richard. Good to see you.</s>QUEST: Appreciate again your time. It's always good time. Thank you very much. When we come back after the break, the vaccine, the core question of a vaccine. Moderna says it's going to have one sooner rather than later. And the W.T.O., a woman will lead the W.T.O. That's the World Trade Organization. You'll hear from both of the finalists after the break. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening to you. |
Vaccine Makers To Likely Get Phase Three Day In Coming Months | ANNOUNCER: This is CNN. More people get their news from CNN than any other news source.</s>RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. A lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS coming to just a moment. We'll have both candidates, both finalists I should say, for the head of the World Trade Organization, the number has been whittled down to two. And from that, we will hear from both of them. And also, the head of Cigna. One aspect of the public health crisis. Is it the wearing down of resilience? It may sound obvious but when you think of what resilience means, well, the CEO of Cigna will be with us to talk about that. It'll all come after we've heard from the news headlines because this is CNN and on this network the news always comes first. The FBI says it's arrested six men who are suspected of plotting to kidnap the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. According to court documents, it says the investigators learned about the alleged scheme on social media. It says the men discussed overthrowing several state governments and wanted to put Whitmer on trial for treason. Hurricane Delta is gaining strength there of the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters say it could become a Category 3 storm later on Thursday or early Friday. Delta's changing course slightly, it's now predicted to strike parts of Louisiana and Texas. A huge fire has engulfed multiple floors of a 33 floor apartment building in Ulsan in South Korea. Firefighters are working to get the fire under control. The Ulsan Fire Department says at least 15 people have been taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. COVID was the first topic on last night's vice presidential debate and while the two did not agree in any way on the handling. When it came to the question of whether you would take a vaccine, Kamala Harris was quite clear, she would if the experts said so, but not if Donald Trump was the only one giving the stamp of approval.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable. And Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives. The reality is that we will have a vaccine we believe before the end of this year, and it will have the capacity to save countless American lives and your continuous undermining of confidence in a vaccine is just -- it's just unacceptable.</s>QUEST: Noubar Afeyan, is the CEO of the Flagship Pioneering, incubator underpinning Moderna joins me now. So, let me ask you the question because I'm confused. And I'm not sure it makes a difference whether we have a vaccine in December or January at this particular point. But when do you think realistically, a vaccine is going to be approved for use in the general public?</s>NOUBAR AFEYAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, FLAGSHIP PIONEERING: Richard, thanks for having me on today. You're right in that the timing of these announcements versus when a large quantity of vaccine will be available is getting mixed up a bit in the conversation today, particularly in political season. We have said that our expectation is that in the Q1 into Q2 timeframe of 2021, that we expect larger amounts of vaccines to be available from multiple sources potentially and that that will be the earliest where we expect FDA to grant an approval, a full approval. Before then, as we've all heard, there's a mechanism of emergency use authorization, which might well enough enable millions of doses over time to be available, but the ultimate approval process we see happening in the first to second quarter of next year.</s>QUEST: With that in mind, I mean, are you -- the vaccine, even though they're in late stage three trials, to ensure that there is enough of the stuff, I imagine it's being produced even now in large quantities, so that when the vaccine stage threes are finished, it's ready to go?</s>AFEYAN: Yes, I can speak on our on -- our behalf at Moderna, we have said publicly that we expect some 20, 25 million doses to be available before the end of this year, and upwards of 500 million to perhaps a billion doses produced next year. In addition to us, there are several other large pharmaceutical companies producing similar quantities. And this is all due to the unprecedented investment that was made in particular through the U.S. government and as well other governments in enabling production of vaccines even before we could demonstrate efficacy and safety needed to administer them. Because have we waited, we would have in fact, waited for three years to have adequate supplies.</s>QUEST: In terms of the humanitarian efforts in places like Armenia, you've been extremely heavily involved. And I realized that obviously, you know, the vaccine as an -- as of when reading, for those who are suffering cannot just be a rich countries game, as I say, for your -- for your humanitarian effort.</s>AFEYAN: Indeed, I'm glad to see that across the world, there are efforts of countries collaborating, as well as foundations to put together a coalition that can supply to mid to lower income countries, supplies, abundant supplies at affordable costs. And Moderna as our other companies are participating in that and we definitely don't see this problem being resolved by only a portion of the world having access to vaccines. So indeed, this is part of a -- it's a global pandemic, we need global solutions. I think of it as the entire humanity's immune system has to be able to record and fight back against this virus, whether it's through infection, or through a vaccine, and we need to keep working till we get there.</s>QUEST: One final thought, how -- I do -- and I'm confused and understanding when the vaccines available, and those people who don't take it, either because they're anti-vaccines, or whatever. Does that make a difference? Or should the rest of us just turn around and say, you know, we're vaccinated, we're alright, you had your choice, you didn't do it, if you get sick, it's up to you?</s>AFEYAN: It would be tough to say the latter only because we share a common planet and we share common cities and streets and offices. And at the end of the day, we do need to be caring about everybody's health. The reality is we can't force anybody to do something they don't want to do. But that would be the same as crossing the street without looking either way. And even adjusting in which way the direction of traffic is depending on the country. And if you see people doing that, you probably would speak up and say, look, this isn't -- this is a risk that you're taking over and above what is prudent. And I think over time, Richard, the science, the data, the adoption of the vaccine, in this case, as has been in the past, will cause people to gain the confidence that as between facing a bit of a Russian Roulette of when you can get it and how severely versus protecting yourself. Vaccines have long been the most cost effective public health measure. And I think is this will not be a different scenario here.</s>QUEST: Sir, you and your company and Moderna doing -- I mean, unbelievable work trying to get a vaccine as fast as possible, as safely as possible. And we're grateful that you've taken time to talk to us on the program. Thank you, Sir. Now, as we carry on 2020, well, you've heard it a million times from a thousand people, a year like none other. But what we need to understand is what I said earlier about it all being exhausting exhausting and the worry and the vaccines, the resilience effect. How all this wears us down to the point where we're neither productive nor healthy. The head of Cigna's with me after the break. |
Cigna Study: American Resilience Is At Risk | QUEST: The CDC is now saying or projecting 233,000 deaths in the United States by the end of this month. If you look at the way the major continents are, as the second wave appears to be grabbing hold, you see Europe is that yellow one, very sharp rise in seven-day moving average in recent weeks for new cases. Asia in blue, starting to see a drop from the strict measures that have been put in place. And on a per capita basis, the U.S. is in the red, again, following -- leading folowling by Latin America and Europe. Now, as we are months into this disease, there's clearly public fatigue is setting in. A new study by Cigna for young people and for those who are students, really shows the measures and the toll that it's taking. Not only physical, but social justice, emotional issues and it leads the fact that our resilience at risk. The CEO of Cigna is David Cordani, and he's with me now. David, I guess I'm not surprised that our resilience is at risk if we keep getting hit over the head by bad news for seven months straight or catastrophe, catastrophic news. But why is it significant?</s>DAVID CORDANI, CEO, CIGNA: Good to be with you today. Why it's significant for us, we're a global health service company. And so, we exist to be champions for our customers and our communities. And so, overall health and well being ties to how someone feels the mind body connection. So, we commissioned this study, and the findings were rather startling. Our need to understand that, whether it's for our youth as you articulate who go through a natural decline and resilience, it bottoms out, and then ultimately after the age of 2023 starts to come back up, or those who are working who have dislocation from a work standpoint, the resilience goes down and has an effect on mind and ultimately body from that standpoint. So, it's relevant in terms of helping individuals, A. recognize the challenge, and then B. providing new tools and services to be able to better deal when there's challenges relative to resilience. And as a global health service company, we challenge ourselves to do that, because we're helping our customers and clients every day around the world.</s>QUEST: Right, I get it now. I think possibly and having done cover this since the beginning without working from home series and similar things that haven't had COVID myself. I think also this emotional and mental aspect and what we might call what is being called the long COVID but I don't know what you do about it. These All facts and situations, so how can a healthcare company help?</s>CORDANI: So, I appreciate the way you framed it and I think you framed it wonderfully. The challenging environment, first, we have to recognize what the problem is. Second is then we have to say what's within one's control. So, tied to resilience, we launched a framework in terms of grow forth. So, first off, ground yourself in reality. Secondly, recognize what's within your control. Third, organize the resources that can help you and then ultimately work within the community, both the virtual and physical community relative to other resources, friends, family and others from that standpoint. We have Cigna's resiliency.com has the additional tools and services. That's an example but it starts with recognition, having a different conversation, and then expanding your use of resources around to helping to deal with your own mental well being, which guide your physical well being.</s>QUEST: David, do you think we are looking at -- well, first of all, do you think as Kamala Harris suggested last night, that if you've had COVID in the future, health insurers may well regard it as a pre-existing condition? Bearing in mind, what we are now learning of the neurological, the blood clots, the long COVID, is it likely COVID becomes pre-existing?</s>CORDANI: No, I don't believe so. So, let's put it into a U.S. context. 330 million people in the United States plus or minus, Medicare does not take into consideration pre-existing conditions, Medicaid does not take into consideration pre-existing conditions. Before the ACA, the vast majority of employer programs did not take into consideration relative to pre-existing conditions, we've now evolve to a state where pre-existing conditions is not a fundamental way in which the services are rendered. So, I don't believe that's going to be an issue from that standpoint. A responsible health service companies have expanded their services around that for quite a long period of time. And COVID will not be deemed to be a pre-existing condition. Let's look at it the other way, Richard, we stepped forward and covered all testing. As long as the doctor called for -- we actually stepped forward and covered the cost for treatment as well for individuals to provide that peace of mind. And we're working within our communities to go the other way to expand services and expand access surrounding it. But no, I do not believe COVID would be deemed to be a pre-existing condition.</s>QUEST: David, please, let's agree that you and I can speak before the end of the year again. I know you're a busy man, but hopefully you'll make time to speak to us because I'm -- you know, on this program, we're very interested in this question of the long COVID and what's likely to happen. I'm grateful.</s>CORDANI: I look forward to it Richard.</s>QUEST: -- joined us tonight. Thank you, sir. Thank you.</s>CORDANI: Thank you.</s>QUEST: Two words, I'm speaking. And with that they went into the lexicon of vice presidential and presidential debates. I'm speaking and you're not. |
President Trump's Condition?; Trump Withdraws From Next Presidential Debate; Michigan Governor Speaks Out on Alleged Kidnapping Plot. | JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin with shocking breaking news, a news conference about to begin from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, after six men were charged in a plot to kidnap her and overthrow several state governments. Let's listen in.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): -- and federal charges against 13 members of two militia groups who were preparing to kidnap and possibly kill me. When I put my hand on the Bible, and took the oath of office 22 months ago, I knew this job would be hard. But I will be honest. I never could have imagined anything like this. I want to start by saying thank you to our law enforcement. Thank you to the fearless FBI agents. And thank you to the brave Michigan State Police troopers who participated in this operation, acting under the leadership of Colonel Joe Gasper. I also want to thank Attorney General Nessel and the U.S. attorney's Birge and Schneider and their teams for pursuing criminal charges that hopefully will lead to convictions, bringing these sick and depraved men to justice. As a mom with two teenage daughters and three stepsons, my husband and I are eternally grateful to everyone who put themselves in harm's way to keep our family safe. 2020 has been a hard year for all of us, hard for our doctors and nurses and truck drivers, grocery store workers. It's been hard for the teachers and students and parents, hard for those who have had to stay isolated to stay safe. And it's not over yet. But here's what I know. We're Michiganders. We have grit. We have heart, and we are tough as hell. We made it through the Great Recession. We made it through auto bankruptcies. We made it through floods and polar vortexes. But none of us has faced a challenge like COVID-19, not in our lifetimes. I have said it many times. We are not one another's enemy. This virus is our enemy. And this enemy is relentless. It doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, young or old, rich or poor. It doesn't care if we're tired of it. It threatens us all, our lives, our families, our jobs, our businesses, our economy. It preys on our elderly and medically vulnerable residents. And it has exposed deep inequities in our society. This should be a moment for national unity, where we all pull together as Americans to meet this challenge head on with the same might and muscle that put a man on the moon, seeing the humanity in one another and doing our part to help our country get through this. Instead, our head of state has spent the past seven months denying science, ignoring his own health experts, stoking distrust, fomenting anger, and giving comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division. Just last week, the president of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. "Stand back and stand by," he told them. "Stand back and stand by." Hate groups heard the president's words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan spoke to the NAACP's annual convention. And his comments stand in sharp contrast to what we have seen on the national and state level from his own beloved party in 2020. He said: "A few isolated groups in the backwater of American life still hold perverted notions of what America is all about. Recently, in some places in the nation, there's been a disturbing reoccurrence of bigotry and violence." Then Reagan sent a direct message to those who still adhere to senseless racism and religious prejudice: "You are the ones who are out of step with our society," he said. "You are the ones who willfully violate the meaning of the dream that is America. And this country, because of what it stands for, will not stand for your conduct." So, let me say this loud and clear. Hatred, bigotry and violence have no place in the great state of Michigan. If you break the law or conspire to commit heinous acts of violence against anyone, we will find you. We will hold you accountable. And we will bring you to justice. For the past seven months, I have made tough choices to keep our state safe. These have been gut-wrenching decisions no governor has ever had to make. And I get it. Life has been hard for us all. When I get out of bed every morning, I think about the high school seniors, like my daughter, who missed graduation ceremonies, those Michiganders who have missed weddings and funerals. I think about all the moms who are working from home, making breakfast every day, logging their kids onto their Zoom class and doing the laundry. I think about the small business owners who spent a lifetime building something great who are now hanging on by their fingernails just to keep the lights on. The disruption this virus has caused to our daily lives is immeasurable. And it's already taken the lives of more than 210,000 Americans, including over 6,800 right here in Michigan. As painful as these losses are, our hard work and sacrifices have saved thousands of lives. We have one of the strongest economic recoveries in the nation. Make no mistake, there will be more hard days ahead. But I want the people of Michigan to know this. As your governor, I will never stop doing everything in my power to keep you and your family safe. You don't have to agree with me, but I do ask one thing. Never forget that we are all in this together. Let's show a little kindness and a lot more empathy. Let's give one another a little grace. And let's take care of each other. Wear your mask. Stay six feet apart. Wash your hands frequently. And look out for your neighbors. We are Michiganders. I know we can get through this. We will get through this. So, let's get through it together. Thank you.</s>TAPPER: You have been listening to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, speaking for the first time since the FBI foiled and alleged plot to kidnap her. Let's bring in CNN's Shimon Prokupecz, who's been following all the developments. Shimon, what more can you tell us about these arrests made today?</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so it's six individuals in connection to the plot, the alleged plot, to kidnap the governor. But there are also several other people who were arrested as well by state authorities, which the authorities there were part of a militia. Of course, this was all in hopes, according to authorities there, to overthrow the government, their unhappiness with the governor, and just generally their unhappiness with government overall. One of the pieces of evidence that the FBI says they have is a video from one of the ringleaders of those six individuals, where he talks about being unhappy about some of the closures put in place by the governor there in Michigan, closing a gym because of the coronavirus. Also, they talk about how they used undercover agents, how they also had informants. In fact, one of the informants in this case met one of the suspects at the June 17 rally there at the Michigan Capitol, the Second Amendment rally that, of course, garnered a lot of attention. Working with these undercovers and working with these informants, the FBI was able to break up this plot. They say, the FBI, that they first discovered this plot early this year on social media. And from there, they worked it. They have video. They have wiretaps. They had someone wear -- one of the informants wore a wire in meetings, where they say the members of this group trained. In one case, they tried to use an explosive device as part of their training. It did not work. But, all in all, the FBI was able to get in and try and prevent ultimately from this group and their attempt to kidnap the governor. They also Jake talked about trying to kidnap her from her summer home, from a vacation home. They even did surveillance on some of her properties. So, clearly, the FBI thought this was real. Clearly, authorities there thought this was real. And they say they made the arrest after members of this group made an exchange of money for explosives and then exchanged tactical gear on October 7. And so they moved in at that point, and they made the arrest, Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Shimon, thank you so much. Continue to stay on top of the story and bring us any new information as it develops. Let's bring in now Chairman Mike Rogers, former FBI special agent, former Michigan congressman, and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. I want to get your reaction to this extensive alleged plot to both kidnap Michigan's governor and overthrow the government.</s>MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, this is, obviously, serious. And if you recall, Jake, this isn't the first time the Michigan militia has gone to the extreme of doing something dangerous. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols actually lived in Michigan for a period of time and attended some of the Michigan militia meetings. And so what they have found over the years is that some of these, the folks who were at the Michigan militia portion didn't feel that they were aggressive enough and split off. I'd be--</s>TAPPER: Oh, we lost -- we lost Mike Rogers. We will go back to him as soon as his video comes back. Obviously, we should let you know about this programming note, that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will be on "ERIN BURNETT" this evening at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Let's turn now to the politics lead. Complete and utter chaos today from the Trump campaign, the Trump campaign this afternoon saying that President Trump wants to delay the second Trump-Biden debate. That announcement comes after President Trump this morning suggesting he was pulling out of the second debate altogether, calling the debate commission's move to have the candidates appear remotely -- quote -- "not acceptable." The suggestion that the candidates move -- go to remote town hall participation came after President Trump, of course, tested positive for coronavirus, and, frankly, after it became clear that the president and the White House were not going to fully disclose details about his illness, including when he last tested negative. The White House has not been honest about the president's infection, and that literally could impact the health and even the mortality of others. It's a shameful and shocking development, though perhaps not out of character. The Joe Biden campaign today announced that the Democratic nominee will, instead of the debate town hall, hold his own town hall next Thursday, given Trump's withdrawal from participation. Let's go right now to CNN's White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, this whole nation has had to adjust to this new virtual reality, millions of schoolchildren learning online, but President Trump calling a virtual debate unacceptable, and doing so, by the way, while he was on the phone with his favorite -- one of his favorite channels. Why is it unacceptable?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he made pretty clear in that interview that one of the reasons he doesn't like that idea is that they could mute him easily, which, of course, is something that a lot of people talk about, Jake, after that last debate, where it was constant interruption made basically from the president. And so that's one of the reasons. I think another reason they're hesitant over it is that they were not consulted beforehand. The president said he found out just moments before it was officially announced. But, Jake, if these two candidates appeared virtually, it would be Joe Biden, Donald Trump appearing on these computer screens. And it would basically be impossible for viewers not to view that through the lens of the ongoing pandemic. And that is something that the president and the Trump campaign have tried to shift voters' attention away from, because they know that the president doesn't rate well when it comes to the pandemic. His numbers are incredibly bad with that. And so I think they want to -- they know they're going to have to acknowledge it at a debate. They don't want it to be the whole focus of the debate, which it likely would be if they're appearing virtually, because the president was diagnosed with COVID-19 within two weeks of that original date. So now it sounds like they could potentially move it to be in-person a week later than it was originally scheduled, though there are so questions about whether there's going to be a third debate, because they seem divided over that.</s>TAPPER: Yes, the president said the other day don't let the virus dominate your life. Too late. It's dominating our lives. Kaitlan, President Trump, who is still infected with coronavirus and, as far as we know, still contagious, he's already talking about starting back up rallies?</s>COLLINS: Yes, he is. He said he wanted to do a rally last night during the vice presidential debate. He felt like he could do one tonight. He says he's no longer contagious, Jake. We should note a medical experts speaking on behalf of the president has not confirmed that. They have not confirmed that the president has tested negative. It's only been one week since he tested positive. But because we're not having this opportunity to hear from the president's doctor in- person and be able to ask him questions, the president is allowed to put his own spin on his health, which is what he is doing by saying he's essentially clean and not contagious, the things that he said this morning. And so, instead, we have been relying on these written statements from Dr. Conley, the White House physician, and the White House said just a few moments ago, we're likely going to get another one of those today. So that would be three days without the president's doctor appearing in front of reporters, like he had been doing.</s>TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. Let's bring in CNN's Jessica Dean. Jessica, the Biden campaign is also now reversing course. First, the campaign said that Joe Biden wanted a second debate. Now they're saying, well, Trump withdrew, so we're not even going to go through with it. We're going to do our own town hall. What's the reasoning behind that?</s>JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, they said, look, once President Trump pulled out, they said, we're going to do our own thing on October 15. You noted that that's going to be a town hall in Philadelphia. They want to have that experience with Joe Biden talking to voters. Then, when President Trump and his campaign asked for the debates to be pushed back and delayed, the Biden campaign then released another statement with Kate Bedingfield, saying that's absolutely unacceptable. Let me read you a bit of what they said: "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar and pick new dates of his choosing. We look forward to participating in the final debate scheduled for October 22, which is already tied for the latest debate in 40 years. Donald Trump can show up or he can decline again. That is his choice." Jake, it's interesting to note they have also asked -- the Biden campaign has asked for that final debate to be a town hall format. If you zoom out for a second, the Biden campaign over the last several months has tried as much as it can to make this a referendum about President Trump's COVID response and his leadership. And when you look at this, they have a debate that is now being changed because the president has come down with coronavirus and he is acting erratically in this way, pulling out of debates. So it is a contrast the Biden campaign likes -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right. And we will be talking to a top official of the Biden campaign, Kate Bedingfield, coming up. Thanks so much, Jessica Dean. President Trump is now suggesting he got coronavirus at a very specific White House event. Is there any proof that at all? Stay with us. |
Coronavirus Cases Rising in 25 States; Trump Claims Regeneron's Experimental Antibody Cocktail Cured Him, Promises Emergency Authorization. | TAPPER: In our HEALTH LEAD the coronavirus outbreak is sadly intensifying across the United States with much of the country moving in the wrong direction. And as CNN's Nick Watt reports for us now this troubling situation forcing states to impose new restrictions and new shutdowns.</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protests in New York City's COVID-19 hot spots. Some schools, stores and indoor dining were closed again today, religious services limited.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D) NEW YORK CITY: We can stop this challenge from turning into a full blown second wave and we must.</s>WATT: A field hospital is about to open in Wisconsin, the Tennessee Titans now under NFL investigation after 23 positive tests and an unsanctioned practice. Kentucky's mask mandate just extended another 30 days.</s>GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): We're on pace, unfortunately, to have another record week.</s>WATT: In fact, these 11 states setting records right now. Highest average daily case counts ever. In just two states, home to less than 2 percent of Americans, average new case counts are actually falling, Alabama and Hawaii. Latest national numbers more than 50,000 new cases Wednesday and more than 900 dead. Meanwhile on the much hoped for vaccine, --</s>ALEX AZAR, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Pending FDA authorizations we believe we may have up to 100 million doses by the end of the year. Enough for every American who wants a vaccine by March to April 2021.</s>WATT: And makers of that experimental antibody therapy used on the President just applied to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization.</s>TRUMP: The Regeneron, which I view it as a cure, not just a therapeutic.</s>WATT: No, there is no cure for COVID-19. Controlling this virus is not rocket science, it's just science. Where masks, stay home is you're sick. But the President likely still contagious wants to break his own government's isolation guidelines, be back hosting MAGA rallies literally yesterday.</s>TRUMP: I'd love to do a rally today. I wanted to do one last night.</s>WATT: In an unprecedented move the esteemed "New England Journal of Medicine" just published this editorial, concluding our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.</s>WATT: Now this morning the President also said that Regeneron and Eli Lily will get FDA authorization for their antibody therapies. He doesn't know that. He shouldn't know that. That should be an apolitical decision. The President again and again and again playing politics with this pandemic -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Nick Watt in Los Angeles. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. President Trump continuing to praise Regeneron's experimental antibody cocktail he was given, claiming it basically cured him. It did not. Joining me now is the Director of Global Health and Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Craig Spencer. Dr. Spencer, thanks for joining us. Take a listen to President Trump calling his coronavirus diagnosis -- coronavirus now has killed now more than 212,000 Americans -- calling it a blessing from god.</s>TRUMP: I walked in. I didn't feel good. A short 24 hours later I was feeling great. I wanted to get out of the hospital. And that's what I want for everybody. I want everybody to be given the same treatment as your President because I feel great. I feel like perfect. So, I think this was a blessing from god that I caught it.</s>TAPPER: OK. 212,000 Americans dead. 7.5 million infected. Nothing's a blessing here at all. But more to the point, when he talks about this Regeneron experimental antibody therapy, that's not a cure, right?</s>DR. CRAIG SPENCER, DIRECTOR, GLOBAL HEALTH AND EMERGENCY MEDICINE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Right. I think the only blessing here is that President Trump was one of the only ten people who have received this on a compassionate use basis. That's great. Maybe it helped the President. There is no way that it's going to be scaled up to help the many hundreds of thousands of people who are going to get infected with this virus in the next few weeks. Look, the reality is, the data on Regeneron is coming from a press release not from a publication in an esteemed journal. We know data from 275 people only. The average age was 44, and the makeup of that population was majority from the black and Latino communities, which is great that that representation is there, but in terms of generalizing that to the rest of the American public, that just -- we can't use that as a way to assume that this is going to be this miracle treatment, which again, as we've already said, it likely will not.</s>TAPPER: Yes, and it's a therapeutic, not a cure in any case. But as you know, the antibody cocktail from Regeneron has been given to only to ten people inside the U.S., outside of the clinic trials, it's not been approved by the FDA for coronavirus treatment, not yet anyway. Would you feel comfortable prescribing it on a large scale based on what you know now?</s>SPENCER: Again, all we know is from a press release and an investor pamphlet basically that was sent out with some of the data. We don't have any good scientific backing or a randomized control trial for example that we'd like to see to know if we should be using it more. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. Remember that the bar for that is actually pretty low. We have to show that it may be beneficial, and the bar may be even a little bit lower in a pandemic, because we need everything we can to fight this disease. That being said, we know it's only primarily helpful early on in the disease course. The data we have is from non-hospitalized patients.</s>TAPPER: All right, Doctor Spencer, I'm sorry to interrupt. We're going to listen to Joe Biden.</s>JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- 4 million or so people who have already voted. They're denying the American people the one shot they have under Constitutional law to be able to have their input, and that is picking the person who could name who they --</s>TAPPER: All right. We're experiencing some technical difficulties. Do we have Dr. Spencer back with us, so we can finish his answer? Dr. Spencer, I apologize. Joe Biden was speaking, and we had to take that live. Go back to the point you were making. We'll bring Joe Biden back. Joe Biden's done talking. So, we'll bring that back if he said anything. I apologize. We're all doing this remotely, as you understand, because we're in the middle of a pandemic, so not everything is as smooth.</s>SPENCER: I understand that very well.</s>TAPPER: So please continue with the thought you were making about --</s>SPENCER: We are just a few weeks from election, so it's good to have the Presidential candidates speak, I agree.</s>TAPPER: Yes, so you were talking, just to bring our audience back, I asked if you would be comfortable prescribing right now, based on the information we have right now, prescribing the Regeneron antibody cocktail that the President says he wants everybody to have. Please, go ahead.</s>SPENCER: Sure. I think that it would be good in certain populations early on in the illness, not hospitalized patients, people that have an exposure, people really early in the illness. This is not meant to be for people who are already severely ill, on a ventilator, for example. This is very different than other medications that we already have right now, despite the fact that the President has received all three of them together and maybe one of the only people in the world to have received all of them. I think the point of this is that we need to make sure that if this does get approved, we don't do it in the same way as we did for convalescent plasma. Remember that fiasco from just over a month ago, where we've had over 100,000 people in the country get convalescent plasma and we still don't know whether it works, because we don't have the right data. The way that it was rolled out. If we do the same with Regeneron, if we don't do the clinical trials necessary to know whether or not it's helpful, it may be that we end up having a medication that a bunch of people get that ultimately doesn't really help.</s>TAPPER: Dr. Craig Spencer, thank you so much. And again, apologies on that rude interruption. Coming up, he was one of the Trump administration's key scientists focused on developing coronavirus vaccine and more. But his week, he quit his government post and he's joining me for his first interview. That's next. |
Interview With Former BARDA Director Dr. Rick Bright | DR. RICK BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: It's interesting that Regeneron is the first company that I put an agreement in place with in January at BARDA to rapidly start developing monoclonal antibodies for this coronavirus. It's a proven platform. It's worked for Ebola. They were working on it for influenza and for MERS. It made sense to start it with this coronavirus. However, they're just finishing some clinical studies. They put a press release out about a week ago saying they took a quick look, and it looks good, it looks encouraging. But we can't allow press releases to drive our science or our clinical judgment. We can't allow a company to promote their own drug and, all of the sudden, start taking the drug. So, it's important that the scientists get all of the data from Regeneron, review that carefully for safety and for its effectiveness, and then make the best judgment on whether or not that drug should be considered for emergency use authorization. When you talk about making it available for everyone across America, that's very premature. We don't have much data. I think 275 patients were treated so far in the press release. President Trump is one person. He was on more than one drug. Actually, we have no idea what all he was treated with.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: No, they still -- they still won't tell us everything that he's on.</s>BRIGHT: So, it -- you cannot make a judgment in that way. You cannot rush to judgment prematurely, especially as a world leader and make some announcement that this is a cure-all. He hasn't seen the data. None of us have seen the data. But it's not the first time he's done this. I mean, he thought hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were miracles, a gift from God, a cure-all, miraculous -- miraculously going to address this virus. They weren't. He thought disinfectants were something we should look into. That wasn't a sarcastic comment. I watched it. I was horrified that I would get a call within a day at BARDA to start a clinical study investigating how we could inject disinfectants. That was a real panic moment for us in science. And he prematurely pushed the FDA to give an emergency use authorization to convalescent plasma. We still don't have strong data. The NIH director, Francis Collins, and Dr. Tony Fauci have said, the data is still out. We're not convinced that convalescent plasma is -- is working in the way they say it is or they want to believe it is. So, this president continues to get a small piece of anecdotal information, from either his own personal treatment or from some friends of his...</s>TAPPER: Like that MyPillow guy who was watching the oleandrin extract.</s>BRIGHT: Yes, that's scary. That is absolutely horrifying. And it does a disjustice to Americans and people around the world who hear him do that, because they're looking to him to be a leader, to be honest, and to guide them through safe and effective treatments through the pandemic. And he has done anything but that by promoting these drugs that aren't supported by science, prematurely pressuring the FDA to put an emergency use authorization in place, and then, subsequently, potentially causing great harm by making them available for people without the evidence to know who should get it, when they should get it, how much they should get it.</s>TAPPER: When you hear President Trump say that the vaccine is being delayed because of politics, and that's just politics, my impression is that it's actually the opposite, that it's politics from him pushing the scientists to act quicker than they want to, according to protocols, to keep us all safe. What is the reality here?</s>BRIGHT: The reality is, it's irresponsible and reckless for the president United States to drive the evaluation of something as critical as a vaccine to meet an election timeline. He is doing that. He's mentioned it on numerous occasions that he wants the vaccine before the election. There is no rationale and a scientific judgment to move that vaccine to meet that target date. He is not a scientist. He's not a doctor. I say, let the scientists do their job. I can guarantee you, Jake, that there are thousands of scientists in our government today, thousands or tens of thousands of scientists in the companies around the world working on these vaccines who are doing the right thing. We need to give them time to do their work. Remember, vaccines go into healthy people to try to protect them from disease. We do not want a vaccine to cause harm to those healthy people, potentially more harm than they would prevent by preventing infection. So, it takes time. Vaccines are very complicated to make. There's a lot of components, a lot of ingredients.</s>TAPPER: The president says he's just trying to cut through the red tape, that there's just too much bureaucracy, he's trying to push things around to save lives.</s>BRIGHT: That's not true, not at all. The scientists are working at breakneck speeds. It is unprecedented to see how fast they are moving through a lot of the steps. The one step you cannot rush is the safety evaluation of that vaccine after it's put into people. And that takes time.</s>TAPPER: The phase three trial.</s>BRIGHT: This phase three trial.</s>TAPPER: Yes.</s>BRIGHT: Now, remember, these people are getting two doses of the vaccine about a month apart. And it takes some time after you get that second dose of vaccine to see if anything bad happens. Now, we hope that nothing bad happens, but it doesn't always happen immediately. So, all the scientists are asking for now, all the experts at the FDA are asking for now is to give the vaccine time to enable us to see if there are any bad effects that we should be concerned with.</s>TAPPER: First, do no harm, the Hippocratic Oath.</s>BRIGHT: First, do no harm.</s>TAPPER: Let me ask you a question. When you filed your whistle-blower complaint earlier this year, and then you were reassigned from BARDA to the NIH, there were a lot of critics from the Trump administration of you, alleging that you don't manage your office well, that you mistreat staff, you fail to consult your superiors. I could go on and on. But let me just -- let me just cut to the chase here. Do you have an axe to grind here? Are you a Democrat that hates Donald Trump because of what he stands for? Why are you speaking out like this?</s>BRIGHT: Jake, I'm a scientist. And I have dedicated my entire life to trying to save people's lives. I have dedicated my career to studying pandemic outbreaks, to focus on development of vaccines and drugs and diagnostics, response. Every facet of responding to a pandemic is what I have dedicated my life, career to do. And when this pandemic started, I sprung into action. I found out that I was moving light speed ahead of this administration. Before they were willing to admit we had a problem, I had plans in place to try to make a vaccine. I had plans in place to start drug development. I had plans in place to work on diagnostics and tests. We knew what we had to do. But this administration refused to admit it. So, I was, I think, in their eyes, a fly in the ointment, because I was pushing for the inevitable, this pandemic that was emerging. All the signs were there. I had no doubt in my mind and scientists like me had no doubt in their minds about where this was going, once we saw what was happening in China. This administration didn't want to admit it. When I sounded the alarms to make masks to protect our health care workers, they resisted. When I sounded alarms to start vaccine development, they resisted. When I sounded alarms to buy swabs, the essential component for the tests, they resisted. So, when I spoke up about the dangers of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and the recklessness that our public health, political officials were doing to push this drug out -- to flood the streets is the note I saw from the White House directive, flood the streets. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I could not sit by and be complicit and watch people in danger and watch people die. I had to speak up. When I did, they pushed me out, 25 years of vaccine and drug and diagnostic development kicked to the curb, to the NIH, demoted, ridiculed, as you said, disparaged in every way, called a deserter. My record speaks for itself.</s>TAPPER: Stay right there. I have more questions for you. I will be asking more about the whistle-blower complaint and why Bright says this winter could be the darkest winter in modern American history. Stay with us. |
Whitmer: Hate Groups Heard the President's Words as a "Rallying Cry". | TAPPER: Breaking news in our national lead. The FBI says they have stopped a domestic terrorist group, a militia plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan and overthrow the government. Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer addressed this last hour, blaming hate groups that she said heard the rallying cries of President Trump, as CNN's Jessica Schneider reports.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): I knew this job would be hard, but I'll be honest, I never could have imagined anything like this.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaking out against the alleged plot to kidnap her.</s>WHITMER: You don't have to agree with me, but I do ask one thing, never forget that we are all in this together.</s>SCHNEIDER: Today, the FBI charging six men in the conspiracy, saying the group plotted to kidnap the governor from her vacation home before the election. Authorities became aware of the scheme as they monitored social media and discovered a group of men based in Michigan mapping out how to violently overthrow government officials and target law enforcement.</s>ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: The alleged conspirators used operational security measures, including encrypted messaging platforms and use code words and phrases in an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement.</s>SCHNEIDER: Law enforcement was able to track the group by using informants and undercover agents who recorded the men when they visited the governor's vacation home two times.</s>BIRGE: Fox and Croft in particular, according to the complaint, discussed detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the home and Fox even inspected the underside of a Michigan highway bridge for places to seat an explosive. The complaint further alleges that Fox purchased a Taser for use in the kidnapping and the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to test its anti-personnel capabilities.</s>SCHNEIDER: State officials announcing separate terrorism charges against several other men linked to a militia group, saying they plan to instigate civil war, target police officers and storm the capitol building in Lansing, taking hostages, including Governor Whitmer.</s>BIRGE: All of us in Michigan can disagree about politics but those disagreements should never, ever amount to violence.</s>SCHNEIDER: Whitmer has been a frequent target of President Trump over her coronavirus response. Trump saying this at a rally in her state last month.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You would be doing even better if you had a governor who knew what the hell she was doing. You got to open up the state.</s>SCHNEIDER: And tweeting: Liberate Michigan, in April. Protesters and militia, some armed, have even gathered at the state capital, calling for an end to Whitmer's stay-at-home order. The governor today blaming Trump for escalating the rhetoric.</s>WHITMER: Stand back and stand by. Hate groups heard the pre president's not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry. As a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter.</s>SCHNEIDER: And Republicans around Michigan have rallied in support of Governor Whitmer. She, of course, is a Democrat. In fact, the state GOP chair putting it this way, saying political disputes should be settled at the ballot box not by violence. But, Jake, so far tonight, there's absolutely no word from President Trump on all of this -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right. Jessica Schneider, thanks so much. In our 2020 lead today, sources tell CNN that aides close to President Trump are trying to get him to stop making baseless claims about voting, such as this today.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You pick up any paper in the country practically and they're cheating all over the place on the ballots. So, how is that not a problem? That's a much bigger problem than China or Russia.</s>TAPPER: Not true and not true. Foreign adversaries are looking to exploit Trump's frequent lies, according to America's intelligence chief on election security. CNN's Pamela Brown reports in our voting series, "Making It Count".</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-six days to go until election day, and President Trump is showing no sign he will stop spreading misinformation about mail-in voting and voter fraud.</s>TRUMP: It's a corrupt system because they're sending out millions of ballots.</s>BROWN: CNN has learned some of Trump's aides have been trying to steer him away from these baseless voter fraud arguments and instead have them talk about how mail-in ballots could cause confusion and even chaos. But Trump continues on.</s>TRUMP: When you send out millions of ballots, when you're the sender, you can send them wherever you want. You can send them to Democrat areas, Republican areas. You don't have to send them at all.</s>BROWN: The disconnect between the candidate and campaign also heard in poll watching videos created by the Trump campaign for 17 different states and reviewed by</s>CNN. TRUMP CAMPAIGN WORKER: Essentially, the key is to behave yourself and not act like a fool.</s>BROWN: Now, one of the top U.S. intelligence officials on election security is acknowledging the president's false claims are being used by foreign powers. The director of National Counterintelligence and Security Center, Bill Evanina, telling Hearst Television: If they see a reference made by the president of the United States, a prominent U.S. senator, a business person, someone who America looks at as a voice of reason, and they believe it suits their interests, they will amplify that by a thousand to make sure that the most amount of people see it. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is fighting an extension of voter registration deadlines after a system outage prevented some people to register on the last day to do so.</s>GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You can have the best site in the world. Sometimes there's hiccups on it.</s>BROWN: A court filing from an attorney for DeSantis says extending the deadline might sabotage, perhaps irreparably, Florida's efforts to maintain normalcy during this profoundly abnormal election cycle. Already, more than 4.5 million Americans have cast their votes, this according to CNN and Edison Research Survey of election officials in 31 states reporting voting data. Now a bipartisan group, that includes Trump's former director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, is launching a $20 million campaign in several states, telling the public that the election is quote, safe and secure.</s>AD ANNOUNCER: And help make sure every vote is counted, no matter who you vote for or how.</s>BROWN: And we have learned the Justice Department is letting prosecutors announce voter fraud investigations close to Election Day. This is an exception made to a 40-year-old policy that deterred prosecutors from making such announcements as to not influence the election. One election expert says this essentially gives the green light to impact the election, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Of course. That's the point of it. Pamela Brown, thank you so much. In our national lead, we want to take a moment to honor some of the more than 212,000 American lives lost to this pandemic. Today, we are going to remember Julie Davis (ph), a 49-year-old elementary school teacher in North Carolina, considered an inspiration for her young students. Her daughter described her as selfless and caring. Davis died just days after testing positive for coronavirus. May her memory be a blessing. Our condolences go out to her family. Our coverage continues on CNN right now. I'll see you tomorrow. |
Interview with Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield; Trump Withdraws From Next Presidential Debate | ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And welcome to our second hour of THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin this hour with the politics lead. The next Trump-Biden debate, it's up in the air. The Biden campaign is refusing to go along with the Trump campaign's sudden push to delay the debate schedule. Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield -- quote -- "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar." The Trump campaign is pushing to move the schedule because President Trump is refusing to participate in the virtual debate town hall a week from today. Instead, the president says he wants an in-person debate, despite the fact that he has an active coronavirus infection and could very well be contagious. Plus, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, President Trump today said he's looking to restart rallies, as he makes these dubious claims that he's no longer contagious, based on nothing, and will be immune to the virus now that he's had it.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The timing of the next presidential debate now in doubt after President Trump rejected a move by organizers to make it virtual due to his COVID-19 diagnosis.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It's ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.</s>COLLINS: A virtual debate would make it impossible for the audience not to see the candidates through the lens of the pandemic. The Trump and Biden campaigns have agreed to do the second debate in- person one week later than scheduled, but the two sides are divided over whether a third debate should follow. As his doctors are revealing little information about his health, the president is putting his own spin on things and claims he's ready to resume rallies.</s>TRUMP: I'm back because I'm a perfect physical specimen and I'm extremely young.</s>COLLINS: In his first interview since being hospitalized, Trump wasn't asked when he last tested negative and claimed, without evidence, that he's no longer contagious less than a week after testing positive.</s>TRUMP: I don't think I'm contagious at all. I'm essentially very clean.</s>COLLINS: The president suggested he caught the virus at a White House celebration for the families of fallen soldiers, who insisted on hugging and thanking him.</s>TRUMP: They come within an inch of my face sometimes. They want to hug me and they want to kiss me. And they do. And, frankly, I'm not telling them to back up.</s>COLLINS: The Gold Star families who attended the ceremony 12 days ago were tested beforehand and a spokesman told CNN no one has shown symptoms since. The president also loved accusations against Senator Kamala Harris that echoed the late Joe McCarthy's Red Scare in the 1950s and stood in stark contrast to Vice President Mike Pence last night.</s>TRUMP: This monster, she's a communist. She's not a socialist. She's well beyond a socialist.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I also want to congratulate you, as I did on that phone call, on the historic nature of your nomination.</s>COLLINS: Trump's fresh attacks drowning out what many in Trump world viewed as a successful V.P. debate.</s>LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Mike Pence looked like it president to me.</s>COLLINS: On Capitol Hill today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cast doubt on the president's health and raised questions about his ability to govern.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Tomorrow -- come here tomorrow. We're going to be talking about the 25th Amendment.</s>COLLINS: Now, Jake, we asked the White House once again today when the president's last negative test result was before he tested positive last Thursday. They once again refused to say, this time citing his private medical history and saying his doctors want to keep it private, though, Jake, I doubt that's a standard that's going to apply to his next negative test result.</s>TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Joining me now to discuss is the communications director and deputy campaign manager for Joe Biden, Kate Bedingfield. Kate, thanks for joining us. Just to be clear, so this debate that was scheduled for October 15, the second debate, it's a town hall. Biden and Trump were going to appear remotely. Trump said he wasn't going to do it anymore. Now he wants to push it. Joe Biden will not participate, because Trump isn't.</s>KATE BEDINGFIELD, BIDEN DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, look, here's what people need to understand. Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed in June to three debates laid out by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Now, at the last minute, Donald Trump clearly doesn't want to have to face voters. Remember, this is a town hall format debate that we were supposed to have on the 15th. He clearly doesn't want to have to face voters. He doesn't want to have to answer questions about his handling of COVID or his handling of the economy. And so he's trying to rewrite the rules at the last minute. We're not going to allow that. We have agreed to three debates. Joe Biden is eager to talk to voters. In fact, we have scheduled a town hall for the night of the 15th. Since Donald Trump doesn't want to show up to the debate, we're going to do a national televised town hall on the 15th, so that Joe Biden can take questions from voters and talk about his plans to move this country forward. So, look, we're not going to let Donald Trump rewrite the rules on the one-yard line. We had all agreed to three debates laid out by the commission.</s>TAPPER: Yes.</s>BEDINGFIELD: Joe Biden plans to attend those debates. Donald Trump's choosing not to show up. We're going to go do a town hall and have Joe Biden talk directly to the American people.</s>TAPPER: I get all that. But, in 1980, when Carter refused to participate in a debate, Ronald Reagan still showed up and participated. Why not have Joe Biden do the Commission on Presidential Debates town hall, as opposed to setting up your own?</s>BEDINGFIELD: We are showing up. We're doing a national network town hall. We're doing it -- you guys won't love for me to say this on your air, but we're doing it with ABC.</s>BEDINGFIELD: Sorry.</s>TAPPER: That's them probably calling right now,</s>BEDINGFIELD: Right. Right. Right.</s>BEDINGFIELD: So, we know we're doing it on ABC. Every voter who was going to tune in to the debate on the 15th can have the opportunity to see Joe Biden on ABC on the 15th.</s>TAPPER: Yes, but why not do the commission's one. Why not do the commission's one? Because, obviously, that's -- they'd already set it up, planned for it, prepared for it. Why not just do theirs?</s>BEDINGFIELD: Because Donald Trump isn't -- because Donald Trump isn't going to show. Donald Trump has already said he's not going to be there. So, if Donald Trump isn't going to be there, then we're going to use the opportunity to talk directly to the American people.</s>TAPPER: Do you -- would Joe Biden feel safe being in the same room as President Trump?</s>BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, I'm -- I will say I think that it is troubling that the White House has not been more transparent about the health of President Trump and the health of those around him, as the virus has clearly spread throughout the West Wing. What I can speak to is the steps that we have taken to stay safe. We...</s>TAPPER: Tell Stephanopoulos to stop calling, for God's sake.</s>BEDINGFIELD: I know. I know. I know. I can speak to the steps that we have taken to stay safe. From the outset, when this virus broke out back in March, we committed to campaigning safely. We have been wearing masks. We have been socially distancing. We have been adhering to the gather limits in states across the country, as we have traveled, to ensure that we're not gathering more people than is medically advised in those states. So, we have taken every precaution to stay safe, not just to keep the vice president and Senator Harris safe, but to keep the communities that we're visiting safe as well.</s>TAPPER: Right.</s>BEDINGFIELD: We have taken every precaution, and we will continue to do that through the end of this campaign.</s>TAPPER: So, the next debate, the third debate, I should say, is two weeks from today, I believe. And, as far as I know, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are still both planning on attending. Will Vice President Biden feel safe being in the same room as Donald Trump and the Trump team?</s>BEDINGFIELD: Well, the obligation will certainly be on President Trump and the Trump team to show that...</s>TAPPER: But it was last time too. But it was last time too. And you saw what happened.</s>BEDINGFIELD: And it's troubling that the debate commission did not enforce those rules. And we would expect, we would demand, frankly, that, if we're moving forward with the third debate, which we hope that we will -- our hope is that we can do a town hall format, as agreed to, that will have the opportunity for the candidates to talk to voters, in that third debate. We would hope that that would become the town hall format. And assuming that we move forward in-person, we will demand that President Trump and the Trump team demonstrate that they are not infectious, will demand that the commission enforce those rules, and that everybody who attends that debate is kept safe.</s>TAPPER: What kind of precautions will you require? I mean, will you demand that the Trump team actually not only claims that they have taken a negative test, but will you have to see the actual negative test before agreeing to be in the same room with the president?</s>BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, we -- our expectation is that the Cleveland clinic and the commission are going to enforce those rules. We will let the Cleveland Clinic dictate what is medically safe. But, yes, our expectation is that they will provide information that unequivocally makes clear that nobody attending is infectious. And we're going to take every single precaution that we can, as we have from the outset. I mean, we have really -- we have campaigned responsibly. Joe Biden believes that the words and the actions of a president matter. And when this virus came to our shores, he committed to taking every step that he could to encourage people to wear masks, to encourage people to socially distance, to do the things to look out for each other and try to get us through this crisis more quickly. That's something that he has done from the outset. And that's something that he will continue to do in this campaign in the last 26 days.</s>TAPPER: All right, Kate, I'm going to let you answer your phone. It seems like there must be something going on, getting a lot of calls right now. Kate Bedingfield from the Biden campaign, thank you so much.</s>BEDINGFIELD: Twenty-six days until the election.</s>TAPPER: I get it. I get it. A key government scientist working on a vaccine quits over the Trump administration's response to the virus. He's going to join me, in his first interview since leaving his post Tuesday. Plus: new details emerging about the alleged plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan and overthrow the government. Stay with us. |
Interview With Former BARDA Director Dr. Rick Bright. | TAPPER: In our health lead today: As President Trump continues to ignore his own health experts, break isolation guidelines and prematurely promote coronavirus therapies, one key Trump administration scientist says he's had enough. Rick Bright was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, called BARDA. He was directly involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, when he was abruptly ousted in April, after criticizing hydroxychloroquine, the drug embraced by the president. Bright was then reassigned to a narrower role at the NIH, and days later filed an extensive whistle-blower complaint, accusing the administration of prioritizing cronyism over science. But now Bright is leaving the federal government altogether and filing an amendment to his whistle-blower complaint. This is his first interview since his Tuesday resignation.</s>TAPPER: And joining us now is Rick Bright. Thanks so much for being here. We really appreciate it.</s>DR. RICK BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: Jake, thanks for having me.</s>TAPPER: So, it has been less than a week since President Trump was diagnosed with coronavirus, or at least since we found out that he was diagnosed with coronavirus. He has been ignoring CDC guidelines to isolate. He's been going into the West Wing, going into the Oval Office. He's been talking about how he wants to get back on the campaign trail, resume rallies. What's your reaction?</s>BRIGHT: Well, it's unfortunate, but it's absolutely predictable. I mean, this is a president who has refused to follow public health guidelines. And, unfortunately, he has encouraged others to ignore those same guidelines. I would say it's very predictable that, sooner or later, he was going to get infected, and his entire family, and those close around him are also going to get infected. So, we're seeing what we would predict play out in real life.</s>TAPPER: Speaker Pelosi said today that the president is -- quote -- "in an altered state right now" and suggested -- quote -- "There may be some impairment of judgment," due to the fact that not only does he have the virus, but he is on a medication, including a steroid that is known to have as a possible side effect effects on mood and irritability and judgment. Is she going too far? Do you think that he is in an altered state right now, potentially?</s>BRIGHT: You know, we're missing in this whole situation is transparency about really how sick the president is. We don't really have the truth about when he was infected, what stage of infection he's in. I don't think we know all of the various treatments he was given, in what combination, in what dosage. And so I would say anything's possible at this time. I don't think she's going too far. I think she has every right to be concerned about his behavior, about his response and about his recovery, because we just don't know the truth yet.</s>TAPPER: It's true they have not been transparent. They have been opaque. Why does it matter?</s>BRIGHT: It matters because it's in the message for America, as a message for people around the world. We need to know what is wrong with our president. We need to know how sick he is. And we need to know what type of treatments he's getting, so we can learn from that, so other people will be able to follow the right example. The president is giving a very mixed message right now. He is not well. We would not want any other person on the planet to do the things he's doing this soon after knowing they're infected. We wouldn't want someone up out of the hospital bed with these types of experimental therapies right now. So, he's leading with a very bad example for the entire world, actually.</s>TAPPER: And how dangerous could that be, theoretically? I mean, he is surrounded by, frankly, not a lot of guardrails. The people like General Kelly and General Mattis and others have long gone. And I don't know that he has anyone in his orbit who can tell him no, frankly. What does it mean if he's not thinking rationally because of the medication he's on?</s>BRIGHT: It's very dangerous. He's in charge of a lot of things and makes a lot of important decisions for our country and for the world, actually. And if he's not in the right, sound mind to make those decisions rationally, then he can be very reckless for our country and for the world.</s>TAPPER: There are at least now 20 people in the president's orbit who are infected with COVID. That's as many as we know about. There might be more. We still don't know -- as you alluded to, we still don't know when he last tested negative, meaning we really don't have an idea of when he first contracted the disease. The only explanation I can think of as to why they keep stonewalling on this very basic question, when did he last test negative, which gives us an idea of when he caught the virus, is that the answer is actually worse than the spectacle of the continued stonewalling. What do you think?</s>BRIGHT: Jake, that's the same behavior we have seen from this presence since the start of the outbreak. He has never told us the truth about the risk or the seriousness of this outbreak. He has not told us the truth about his status and when he was infected. You're right. When you hide the truth, and you're not transparent, you're hiding something much worse. And by hiding that, by lying to the American public, and not telling us the full truth, you're actually prolonging the duration and the impact of this pandemic. You're actually allowing more people to die.</s>TAPPER: You say it's time for more scientists and more medical professionals such as yourself to lay your careers on the line and push back against how the president is handling this pandemic, as you did. Explain more what you mean by that and who you're talking about.</s>BRIGHT: Jake, there are so many career scientists in our government health care system. And these are the best scientists in the world. I would put the expertise and the experience and the judgment of the scientists we have, the CDC and the FDA and the NIH and at BARDA, all throughout our government, up next to or against anyone on the planet, and our scientists are going to shine. They are concerned about this White House and this administration overruling the best scientific judgment. They're concerned about the political pressure that has been put on them to change a course of behavior, a course of action, or to rewrite science, or come up with some fake science, and then put it forward as the truth. So, they are very frustrated. I hear from my colleagues across our government, in the health care system especially, who are very frustrated. They're concerned that the truth isn't getting out. They're concerned that the best guidance and practices aren't being heard. And they're concerned about the lack of leadership, leading by example, and encouraging people to follow those guidelines. So, their frustration is because, by blocking this information, by holding back their best evidence and their best guidance, then it's leading to more infections. It's leading to more hospitalizations. We have 30,000 people in our country right now in the hospital from COVID-19. More people are going to die because scientists are being pushed back, scientists are not being heard. And I am trying to speak up and encourage others like me, in our medical field, in our scientific field to speak up, because Americans need to know the truth. The world needs to know the truth. And if we continue to hide the truth, then we're going to see many more deaths that don't need to occur.</s>TAPPER: What is the truth that you're talking about that they're being prevented from saying?</s>BRIGHT: This is a deadly pandemic. This is a deadly virus. The messaging that President Trump gave to America and the world when he left the hospital about, there is no need to be afraid of this virus, is probably the most reckless and deadly piece of information I have ever heard. This virus is deadly. It is airborne. And now, finally, the CDC is being allowed by the White House to tell the world it is airborne. It spreads person to person very easily. Look at the hot spot from that Rose Garden ceremony for the Supreme Court nominee, that one situation? How many people are now infected from that one situation? That's an example for America to see how quickly and easily this virus can spread from person to person. What they're not seeing is the number of people then that they go on to infect, the number of those people that go into the hospital. And then all we're seeing is some tallies, some numbers. And the numbers have a way of hiding the true feelings and life and the emotion, the family, the names of the people that are dying from this virus. The truth is, this is deadly. The truth is, there are things that we can and should be doing to reduce the risk, to slow the spread, to protect our health care workers, to protect each other, and to save lives. And the White House refuses to tell people the truth about those measures and their impact.</s>TAPPER: And you also talk about the politicization of this, the pressure on the scientific agencies to -- for instance, when you filed your whistle-blower report, it was about -- earlier this year -- you were objecting to the fact that you were being pushed to act as if hydroxychloroquine was a cure-all, was a reasonable therapeutic, when, in actuality, at the very least, it is not proven to be that way, and, at the very worst, it could actually hurt people.</s>BRIGHT: It is shameful, what's happening from the White House, from this president and his senior administration officials, in pushing unproven drugs forward as a panacea, as a miracle cure, as a cure-all, as a gift from God, all the ways that they describe these treatments, without any evidence behind them, and pushing them forward, encouraging free, wide access to Americans, in some cases in -- where Americans didn't even need to be diagnosed with COVID-19, knowing that these drugs could cause significant harm, these drugs could cause death, even. It's reckless for the president and his administration to promote these. They're not scientists. They're not medical professionals. They're not health care professionals. The scientists know the truth, and their voice has been silenced. That is shameful from this White House.</s>TAPPER: Stay right there. We're going to come back to you. I want to ask you about the unproven therapeutics that President Trump is now pushing, and the possible impact that that might have. That's next. Stay with us. |
Trump Withdraws From Next Presidential Debate; Fourth Journalist Who Covers Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19 | ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're following breaking news on the second Trump Biden debate now derailed, this after the president rejected the Debate Commission's new plan to hold the event virtually amid deep concerns about his COVID-19 infection. I will speak to the commission co-chair, Frank Fahrenkopf, this hour. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, says the president's behavior since his illness suggests he's in a -- quote -- "altered state." House Democrats are now planning to introduce a bill creating an oversight commission the president's health in a possible move toward invoking the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Also breaking, at least 13 suspects now are implicated in an alleged militia plot to kidnap Michigan's Democratic governor and overthrow several state governments, federal and local authorities announcing charges today. First, let's go to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, the president, he's back in the West Wing tonight, despite his COVID-19 infection.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And we saw Marines stationed outside the West Wing earlier this afternoon, and there's one outside this evening. We can show you that picture right now. That means the president did return to the Oval Office today, White House officials confirming that, even though Mr. Trump is still shedding the coronavirus and potentially spreading it to people around him. The president claims he's no longer contagious, even though health experts say, don't bet on it. And the president, as you said, is also backing out of next week's debate with Democrat Joe Biden, insisting he won't agree to a virtual face-off with the Democratic nominee. And the president has had some choice words for Senator Kamala Harris, calling her a monster. One Trump adviser told me earlier today that likely will not help with the president's problems with women voters.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Still dodging the White House press corps and opting for his own West Wing video crews to send out proof-of-life messages to the world, President Trump is backing out of his next debate with Democrat Joe Biden, refusing to agree to a virtual, virus- free format.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style, and that's not acceptable to us. I'm not going to do a virtual debate.</s>ACOSTA: Claiming the president won't be contagious in a matter of days, the Trump campaign proposed postponing the debate for a week, drawing a tart response from one top Biden official, who said -- quote -- "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar and pick new dates of his choosing."</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We don't know what's the president's going to do. He changes his mind every second.</s>ACOSTA: It was just one week ago when Mr. Trump accused Biden of wanting to skip the remaining debates.</s>TRUMP: Now I understand he's canceling the debates. Let's see what happens. I think that's not going to be a good move.</s>ACOSTA: Candidates have debated remotely before, as John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon did from two different studios in 1960.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>ACOSTA: Democrats are accusing Mr. Trump of sexism after he called Kamala Harris a monster and a communist in response to her performance at the vice presidential debate.</s>TRUMP: And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence, who destroyed our last night, by the way, but this monster.</s>ACOSTA: In a White House video, the president, who's been administered a combination of experimental medications, is claiming he's been cured of the coronavirus. But that's not true, as there is no cure for COVID-19.</s>TRUMP: But we have medicines right now. And I call them a cure. I went into the hospital a week ago, I was very sick. And I took this medicine. And it was incredible. It was incredible. I could have walked out the following day.</s>ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is boasting his natural attributes are an asset too.</s>TRUMP: I'm back because I'm a perfect physical specimen and I'm extremely young.</s>ACOSTA: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't buying that one.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Specimen? Did he say specimen? Maybe I could agree with that. His disassociation from reality would be funny, if it weren't so deadly.</s>ACOSTA: Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned, the president could still suffer a setback.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: One of the issues that we all have to be aware -- and his physicians are aware of this -- that the history of COVID-19 is that you could look and feel like you're doing reasonably well, and, after a couple of days, you could have a downturn.</s>ACOSTA: Aspects of the president's health remain a mystery. CNN has confirmed some medical professionals at Walter Reed Medical Center were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements when the president made a last-minute visit there almost one year ago. Mr. Trump is speculating that he caught the virus at an event for Gold Star families, but one Gold Star group says the families tested negative beforehand.</s>TRUMP: I'm not going to be at a basement saying, hey, I can't see you as you traveled in from California and all the different places. It's OK.</s>ACOSTA: The White House is trying to clean up that one too.</s>ALYSSA FARAH, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: And I appreciate you asking that, so we can clarify. His point was merely that, in the time frame that he was potentially exposed, there were a number of different venues that he'd been at, individuals he'd interacted with.</s>ACOSTA: And the White House communications director, Alyssa Farah, told reporters officials won't be specifying exactly when the president had his last negative test for COVID-19, insisting that Mr. Trump's private medical information. She added, the doctors for the president would like to keep that information private. Of course, Mr. Trump could make all of that information public if he wanted to. But, as we reported yesterday, the president is not being tested or was not being tested daily prior to his positive test results for the virus last week. And, Wolf, we should note, as the Marine is standing outside the West Wing, with the president in the Oval Office, we're told by officials that the president's doctor, Sean Conley, should be releasing some sort of statement, some sort of update on the president's health. We're waiting for that. And we will get that to you as soon as we get it -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, when that Marine guard is there at that door outside the West Wing, we know the president is in the Oval Office. When he's not there, the guard, the president is the residence or someplace else. Jim Acosta, thank you very much for that report. We will stay in close touch with you. Let's get some more now on how Joe Biden's campaign is responding to the new debate drama. CNN's Jessica Dean is covering up part of the story for us. Jessica, Biden now plans to hold his own town hall next week, after the president pulled out of their scheduled town hall debate. So what's the latest you're getting?</s>JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Biden campaign was prepared to do the virtual debate that had been proposed by the commission. It was once, as you mentioned, that President Trump pulled out of that debate that they decided to do their own thing, which means now, on October 15, Joe Biden will be doing a televised town hall from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, instead of doing a virtual town hall with the president. The Biden campaign also requesting that the October 22 debate, which would be the scheduled final debate, be a town hall format, so both President Trump and Vice President Biden would get to interact with voters in some capacity before this was all over during an official debate. The Biden campaign really of the mind that President Trump cannot, in their words, rewrite the rules here at the end. They go back to the fact that everyone had agreed to and committed to these dates back in June, and they want to stick with them as closely as possible. And remember this, too, as well, Wolf. The Biden campaign has made COVID and President Trump's response to COVID, as well as leadership, the two key issues of their campaign. And the more that Joe Biden gets to talk about those things, the better position that they are in. So this is a very strong position for them that, on the 15th, Joe Biden can say that it is because the president has contracted COVID-19 himself that they are not allowed to debate, as they had previously scheduled.</s>BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, because we heard Biden defend his running mate, Kamala Harris, after the president of the United States called her repeatedly a monster and a communist. It's unbelievable.</s>DEAN: Yes, it truly is. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden on the trail together for the first time in a very long time out in Arizona. And they spoke to the press. Here's what Joe Biden had to say about that.</s>BIDEN: It's despicable. It's despicable. It's so beneath the office of the presidency. And the American people are sick and tired of it. They know who this man is. It's got to stop. It's not only -- this is one of the finest persons I have ever dealt with. This is a person who is ready on day one to be the president of the United States of America. This is a person who has more integrity in their little finger than most people have in their whole body. And the idea -- it's obvious he cannot -- he has great difficulty dealing with strong women, great difficulty.</s>DEAN: Biden/Harris launching a bus tour of Arizona together. But, Wolf, interesting to note, the two will be writing in separate vehicles, out of an abundance of caution.</s>BLITZER: Which is smart. All right, Jessica, thank you very much, Jessica Dean reporting. Let's discuss with our experts. And Sanjay Gupta is with us right now. Sanjay, the president claims that an in-person debate would be perfectly safe, even though he does have COVID-19, that he might no longer be contagious. Would it be safe for Joe Biden and the president to share a stage next week at what was supposed to be the second debate?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I think there's two issues here. One is that we don't really know where in the disease course the president is, because we still haven't gotten a clear idea of when his last negative test was. So it's important, not just because of contact tracing, which is critically important, but also his own health and trying to figure out his contagiousness. We can show you -- I mean, it does seem like, typically, people can -- after -- 10 days after they first start having symptoms, they are usually no longer contagious. But it depends a little bit again on when that time period is and what the negative tests are. Also, at least 24 hours since last a fever without using medications. He's likely still on steroids, Wolf, because the course of that is usually 10 days as well. So, that would suppress a fever. Are these medications just suppressing symptoms or not? That's going to be critical. And, obviously, you want him improving in his symptoms overall. But, Wolf, the second thing is, regardless of whether or not the president has COVID, even before the first debate, you and I were talking, and I said, we're in the middle of a pandemic still. And I think any time you aggregate people together indoors like that, there is a concern. I mean, that's just the way it is. I get the need for the discourse and debates and stuff like that, but, virtually, obviously, would be a lot safer. Doing it outside would even be incrementally safer. But doing it inside, when the virus could potentially aerosolize, they can make it as safe as they possibly can, but they can't say that it's safe.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that's absolutely true. The White House, Sanjay, claims that the date of the president's last negative test is a private medical history matter. Is that good enough?</s>GUPTA: Well, I don't think so, Wolf, because this is a contagious disease. That's the issue here. I mean, it's not just about the president's health. I mean, I think people are certainly entitled to their own health privacy, no question about it. But with regard to this particular issue, if you have potentially put other people at risk, exposed other people to the virus, they may not know it yet, but they -- because they haven't been contacted. That's an issue, obviously. So, it's not just about the president in this case, or anybody who has COVID. I don't know what the legality of it is. This has probably come up with things like HIV in the past. But there's some duty to inform, if not legally, at least morally.</s>BLITZER: Laura Coates is with us, our legal analyst. Laura, the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is preparing something truly extraordinary, to unveil a new bill that would actually establish a Commission on Presidential Capacity. It's really amazing, perhaps invoking the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. How would that legislation work?</s>LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we believe it would work in the way that the 25th Amendment already contemplates, Wolf, the idea that there would be a congressional body or a committee that is comprised of medical experts who will be able to assess the condition of the president. And the reason for that is because, right now, the way it operates is that you would have a majority rule, essentially, between the vice president and the majority of the Cabinet. Of course, the Cabinet members serve at the whim of the president and at the pleasure of the president. So you kind of have the idea of the lion guarding the henhouse, and not being -- the fox guarding the henhouse, and not being able to truly assess objectively. So, this would create the body that was already contemplated in the 25th Amendment to say, listen, are there are objective criteria for us to decide, within a limited amount of time, as members of Congress, to determine whether the president of the United States is indeed either incapacitated or unable to discharge his duties faithfully? This would make the congressional members have a much larger role than they do right now, because it's only the vice president and the Cabinet who can ask those same questions.</s>BLITZER: Yes, the speaker suggesting the president's in an altered state right now. Ryan Lizza, what do you make of this latest move by Speaker Pelosi?</s>RYAN LIZZA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, one, she's -- there's no doubt she's raising this because we're on the eve of an election. But that doesn't mean that it's not a legitimate issue. I don't mean -- she's usually -- but -- she's saying the president is acting irrationally. I think it's rather difficult to tell whether the way he's been acting the last few days has anything to do with the steroids or other treatments he has coursing through him, or if this is just the way Trump always acts. The baseline here is fairly erratic to begin with. And then just one thing I wanted to add, Wolf, on what Sanjay was talking about, about the White House, with this absurd argument, citing President Trump's privacy. When I go to the White House -- they actually stopped doing this, but, earlier this year, they would give a temperature check to every journalist that went through those gates. As we know, at the big events, everyone gets tested before the event. We realize that's not foolproof now, but everyone was testing. Nobody was concerned about the privacy rights of those people testing. When I go out and cover the Biden campaign, they have a testing facility set up in Wilmington, Delaware, where the journalists gather. You get tested. It is just ludicrous to argue that the most important piece of information, when did he get tested, so we can know who else he may have exposed, that they are citing that as the privacy issue. You could imagine some medical secrets that a president has that maybe the public doesn't have a right to know about. I would argue there are none. But this is the most basic thing, considering we're dealing with a contagious disease.</s>BLITZER: Yes, a very important point, indeed. Laura, let me get your reaction to something really disgusting that the president said on FOX Business earlier today about Senator Kamala Harris. Listen to this.</s>TRUMP: She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you could get worse and totally unlikable. And she is. She's a communist, and this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence.</s>BLITZER: He repeatedly called her a communist, not once or twice, but several times, called her a monster several times. What's your reaction to that, Laura?</s>COATES: Well, not only is it, as you said, disgusting and wrong, it also is inaccurate, because, last I checked, the terms he used were not synonymous with what I saw on stage yesterday, which is somebody who was eloquently responding to questions that were asked of her, and trying to give the American people some semblance of a substantive platform that would placate people, that would allow people to understand what their bid for the campaign was going to be. I find it very shocking that the president of United States would continue to use these sorts of disparaging comments and remarks, and have this knee-jerk elementary school reaction, where he tries to degrade members of the Senate, not just a candidate on the other side of the ticket. But perhaps the monster he was looking at was the fly that landed for two minutes, and he just got confused for a second of what he's actually speaking about. And the idea of talking about communism, remember, we have heard over the course of several months now, as the Democratic Party tried to determine who their nominee would be, all sorts of hyperbolic terms to try to define what the platform was, whether it's going to be ultra- liberal or other terms they used about socialism. Now we're hearing yet another word that is intended to try to elicit a response and a visceral reaction, when I think what the people want, generally speaking, politics aside, they have a visceral reaction to any time something is told them that's a lie, that's untruthful, and that misconstrues what they want to know about, which is the platform and what somebody who's asking to be the president for four more years actually intends to do.</s>BLITZER: All right, everybody, stand by. Guys, thank you very much. Coming up, I will speak with the co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Frank Fahrenkopf. There you see him. We got a lot of questions for him. He's standing by. |
Interview With Commission on Presidential Debates Co-Chair Frank Fahrenkopf | BLITZER: Next week's second presidential debate is derailed, after President Trump rejected the nonpartisan commission's plan to hold the debate virtually because the president has coronavirus. Let's discuss with Frank Fahrenkopf. He's the co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Frank, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for everything you're doing. Are you still trying at all to salvage that October 15 presidential debate, the town hall-type debate in Miami, or is the event officially now canceled?</s>FRANK FAHRENKOPF, CO-CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE COMMISSION: Well, we haven't officially canceled it yet. But, as you know, today, when the president rejected doing the debate next week, the Biden campaign immediately said that they were going to withdraw from it. And they have arranged on another network a town hall meeting. We haven't heard back yet from the Trump campaign as to exactly what they're going to do, although I did talk to someone from the Biden campaign today. And they said they definitely will be in Nashville on the 22nd, which is the date already set for the final debate. And they are willing to do the normal debate, which would replicate -- be replication of pretty much what happened in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, or could convert it to a town hall meeting. I haven't heard yet from the White House or the campaign as to what the view of that is. But, hopefully, we will hear it in the next few hours or certainly in the next couple of days. Then a decision will have to be made concerning Miami, and also a decision be made as to how we proceed in Nashville.</s>BLITZER: Well, let's talk about Miami for one quick second, because let's say, between now and next week, October 15, when the Miami town hall debate is supposed to take place virtually in different studios, the president and the former vice president, if the president were to change his mind and say, yes, he's now ready to go ahead and participate in this virtual debate, would the commission agreed to move forward with it now? Or is it too late because Biden has already agreed to a separate town hall on ABC?</s>FAHRENKOPF: Well, as you know, the old saying, it takes two to tango. Well, it takes two to debate. And so it would depend. If the president took that position, it would depend on whether or not the Biden campaign would be willing to backtrack and say, all right, we will do it. In that case, we would entertain it and, of course, hopefully put it on. But, again, everything is subject to what we're doing with regard to medical safety. As you know, we have the Cleveland Clinic advising us as to how to proceed. I'm not a doctor and members of our commission are not doctors. So, we're being guided by medical advice. And everyone has to be cleared in order to go forward. And it's not just the safety of the two candidates, but, as you know, in a town hall meeting, we have a bunch of people from the community who are asking the questions. We have a crew of people who build the sets, who work the microphones, and so forth. And they're in danger, if we're not sure that both of them are safe, and that we can hold it in a safe manner.</s>BLITZER: Would the third -- what is supposed to be the third and final debate, the one in Nashville October 22, would that be virtual, or will they be in-person?</s>FAHRENKOPF: Well, right now, the intent is, it would be in-person. But that, again, will depend on the medical advice we receive, as to whether or not it would be safe to do so. And it really wouldn't make much difference whether or not it's a town hall meeting or it's the regular one-on-one with podiums. It's going to depend on the health issue. And that what's going to guide us. If there's a health problem, then we will probably suggest that we go virtual. But we will just have to see. It's too early to tell how that's going to work out.</s>BLITZER: Well, we will see what happens. I know you guys are doing really important work. We're grateful to you and the entire commission. Frank Fahrenkopf, thanks so much for joining us.</s>FAHRENKOPF: Great. Thank you so much, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, good luck. Just ahead, authorities now charge militia members in an alleged anti- government plot involving plans to actually kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. There you see her. We have new information. We will be right back. |
U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Top 212,000 With 7.5 Million Cases, CDC Now Projects Up to 21,000 More Deaths by October 31. | BLITZER: As President Trump keeps trying to minimize the coronavirus that's infected his own body, more Americans are dying tonight. The U.S. death toll now rising above 212,000. And the CDC now projecting up to 21,000 more Americans could die by the end of this month. Let's get some more from CNN's Brian Todd. Brian, the numbers, the trends keep moving in the wrong direction.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They really do, Wolf. And new concerns tonight about previous hot spots that the virus heating up again. New Jersey has just reported its highest daily numbers of cases since May. And officials in New York are desperately trying to head off another outbreak like the one they saw in the spring.</s>TODD (voice-over): On the streets of Brooklyn, violent resistance to new coronavirus crackdowns. Fires set, melees in the street, a journalist severely beaten. Members of orthodox Jewish communities, many not wearing masks, protesting the decision by New York officials to close certain non-essential businesses and limit indoor gatherings at religious institutions to ten people.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: We have state-mandated restrictions in particular areas to stop a resurgence, and that resurgence, if it is stopped, will overtake the city and lead to an across the board set of restrictions on all of New York City.</s>TODD: The tougher measures are only in so-called cluster areas in Brooklyn, Queens and outlying New York City suburbs, where there have been alarming upticks in coronavirus cases. Do officials have a handle on it or is New York City on the verge of another widespread outbreak like the one that crippled the city in the spring?</s>DR. DARA KASS, YAHOO NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: The New York City officials and the governor know what to do. The question is, will the people of New York, specifically in these communities let them do it? The protests that are happening in Brooklyn are really an affront to everybody in New York who is doing the work to keep these cases down.</s>TODD: The news across the country, no less alarming. Half of the states continue to see increased cases. Only two states are trending down. At least half a dozen states have seen record hospitalizations in the past few days. The surge is so bad in Wisconsin, that Governor Evers announced the state has to open a field hospital.</s>GOV. TONY EVERS (D-WI): We obviously hoped this day wouldn't come. But unfortunately, Wisconsin is in a much different and more dire place today and our health care systems are being overwhelmed.</s>TODD: This comes as President Trump is promising FDA authorization of an experimental drug he's praising after taking it to combat his case of coronavirus, an antibody cocktail made by Regeneron which may reduce symptoms and can speed up recovery.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I view it as a cure, not just a therapeutic, I view it as a cure because I took it. It's great. And what I'm doing is I'm going to supply this drug.</s>TODD: But experts say the Regeneron cocktail is a treatment, not a cure. And Trump's praise muddies the waters.</s>DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Regeneron monoclonal antibodies may actually work really well, but it's tough to take that seriously now, and it's certainly not up to the president to decide what gets approved by the</s>FDA. TODD: The FDA isn't commenting, but Regeneron and Eli Lilly are seeking emergency authorization from the FDA for antibody treatments, and the U.S. is already putting up money for the companies to start producing therapeutics.</s>ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We could have tens or hundreds of thousands of doses this fall, pending FDA authorization.</s>TODD: Now, what President Trump and his aides have not mentioned is that the Regeneron antibody treatment was developed using technology that his administration has been trying to ban. The Regeneron therapy indirectly relied on tissue taken from an aborted fetus. Trump, who's bases, of course, staunchly against abortion rights has worked to reverse health policies from the Obama era, including those that scientific research involving human fetal tissue -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. Brian, thank you. Brian Todd reporting. Much more news right after this. |
Second Trump-Biden Debate Derailed after Infected Trump Rejects Virtual Format; Pelosi Suggest Trump in "Altered State" as Dems Seek Oversight Panel on President's Health; Trump Calls Harris "A Monster" & "Communist" in Ugly, Sexist Attacks; Pence Refuses In Debate To Commit To Peaceful Transfer Of Power; Miami-Dade Schools Report First Positive COVID-19 Case After Reopening This Week | JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: May her memory be a blessing. Our condolences go out to her family. Our coverage on CNN continues right now. I'll see you tomorrow.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the Situation Room and we're following breaking news. The second presidential debate now derailed after President Trump rejected a plan by the nonpartisan commission in charge to make the contest virtual due to Mr. Trump's COVID-19 infection. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will do town hall that night instead. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, is raising new and serious questions about the President's condition, saying he's in what she calls an "altered state." And now House Democrats are introducing a bill that would create a bipartisan Oversight Committee on the President's health. We're also following breaking news out of Michigan where the FBI has arrested six militia members. It says wanted to kidnap the governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and overthrow state governments. The suspects believes we're violating the U.S. Constitution. Lots of news going on, but let's get straight to the White House right now. Our Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us. Jim, major, major developments surrounding the debate the President's health and a lot more.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, Democrats in Congress are ratcheting up the pressure on President Trump as he recovers from the coronavirus. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now calling, as you said, for the creation of a bipartisan commission that would carry out a medical examination of the President to determine whether he is, "mentally or physically unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office." Pelosi says the new commission would help enforce the 25th amendment of the constitution that shifts power to the vice president if the president is incapacitated. She continues to suggest the President's behavior has been affected by the medication. He is taking the fight off COVID-19. In the meantime, the President is canceling on next week's debate with vice president -- former Vice President Joe Biden insisting he won't agree to a virtual face off with the Democratic nominee.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Still dodging the White House press corps and opting for his own West Wing video crews to send out proof of life messages to the world, President Trump is backing out of his next debate with Democrat Joe Biden refusing to agree to a virtual virus free format.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard that the commission a little while ago change the debate style, and it's not acceptable to us. I'm not going to do a virtual debate.</s>ACOSTA: Claiming the President won't be contagious in a matter of days, the Trump campaign proposed postponing the debate for a week, drawing a tart response from one top Biden official who said, "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar and pick new dates of his choosing."</s>JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We don't know what the President's going to do. Change his mind every second.</s>ACOSTA: It was just one week ago when Mr. Trump accused Biden of wanting to skip the remaining debates.</s>TRUMP: Now I understand he's canceling the debates. Let's see what happens. I think that's not going to be a good move for him.</s>ACOSTA: Candidates have debated remotely before John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon did from two different studios in 1960.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Mr. Vice President speaking.</s>ACOSTA: Democrats are accusing Mr. Trump of sexism after he called Kamala Harris, a monster and a communist in response to her performance at the vice presidential debate.</s>TRUMP: And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence who destroyed our last night by the way, but this monster --</s>ACOSTA: In a White House video the President who's been administered a combination of experimental medications is claiming he's been cured of the coronavirus. But that's not true, as there is no cure for COVID- 19.</s>TRUMP: But we have medicines right now. And I call them a cure. I went into the hospital a week ago, I was very sick. And I took this medicine. And it was incredible. It was incredible. I could have walked out the following day.</s>ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is boasting his natural attributes are an asset too.</s>TRUMP: I'm back because I made perfect physical specimen and I'm extremely young.</s>ACOSTA: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't buying that one.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Specimen. Did he say specimen? Maybe I could agree with that. Because this association from reality would be funny if it weren't so deadly.</s>ACOSTA: Dr. Anthony Fauci caution, the President could still suffer a setback.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: One of the issues that we all have to be aware and his positions are aware of this, that the history of COVID-19 is that you could look and feel like you're doing reasonably well and after a couple of days, you could have a downturn.</s>ACOSTA: Aspects of the President's health remain a mystery. CNN has confirmed some medical professionals at Walter Reed Medical Center were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements when the President made a last minute visit there almost one year ago. Mr. Trump is speculating that he caught the virus at an event for Gold Star families, but one Gold Star group says the families tested negative beforehand.</s>TRUMP: I'm not going to be in a basement saying hey, I can't see you as you traveled in from California and all the different places. It's OK.</s>ACOSTA: The White House is trying to clean up that one too.</s>ALTSSA FARAH, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And I appreciate you asking that so we can clarify his point was merely that in the timeframe that he was potentially exposed, there were a number of different venues that he'd been at, an individual seat interacted with.</s>ACOSTA: And what else Communications Director Alyssa Farah told reporters officials won't be specifying exactly when the President had his last negative test for COVID-19. Insisting that Mr. Trump's private medical information is his private medical information. She added, "The doctors would like to keep that private." Of course, Mr. Trump could make all of that information public. As we reported yesterday, the President was not being tested daily for COVID-19 prior to his positive results for the virus. And Wolf, just want to point out right now, the Marines stationed outside the West Wing that we saw yesterday, that Marine is back or one of the Marines who is stationed outside of the West Wing is back. That is an indication, of course, that the President is in the Oval Office as we were talking about this yesterday. But we should point out, Wolf, just because the President is in the Oval Office doesn't mean we'll see him out in front of the cameras. The only, you know, visual image of the President that we've seen of Mr. Trump since he returned back to the White House on Monday is, you know, would be these White House videos that they put out. They have not put them out in front of the reporters over here at the White House to see how he's doing, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And the President said doctor at the White House missing an action once again, refusing to answer reporters' questions?</s>ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf. And as you know, typically, you know, when a president is recovering from something as serious as the coronavirus, you would have medical briefings from the White House medical team. And we saw that over the weekend, but that has stopped. We're only getting these daily updates letters from Dr. Sean Conley as things develop. And so far today, we haven't received one of those. There are some indications that perhaps we'll get some kind of update from Dr. Conley. But so far, we haven't gotten that just yet, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. Let us know. Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you. For more on the debate dilemma. Let's bring in our Political Correspondent Arlette Saenz. Arlette, now that the President has said he won't participate in the debate scheduled for Miami next week, the former vice president has planned his own town hall. Update our viewers on the latest.</s>ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, after President Trump said that he will not participate in a virtual debate on October 15, Joe Biden and his campaign went ahead and made other plans, setting up a town hall with ABC News for that very same date. There has been a lot of back and forth today about these debates. Initially, the Biden campaign said that they would participate in a virtual debate. But then once the President voiced his opposition, they decided to go a different route. Now the Biden campaign wants to see the debate scheduled for October 22, which is currently scheduled to be a one-on-one debate between Biden and President Trump. They want to see that debate turned into a town hall. The Trump campaign simply wants the debates each to be pushed back a week. They have one on October 22, one on October 29. But the Biden campaign insists that because the President backed out of that October 15 debate the October 22 one should be the final debate. They're saying that the debate should not be managed by President Trump and his whims. So, right now they are pushing for the second presidential debate to take place on October 22. Biden will be doing a virtual or -- sorry, will be doing a town hall with ABC News in Philadelphia. They believe he has that opportunity to make his case directly to Americans. And so these are just many changes that we are seeing happening in real time to these debates due to the coronavirus and the President's diagnosis</s>BLITZER: You know, Arlette, the President, bitterly, bitterly attacked Kamala Harris's debate performance last night calling her repeatedly, not just once, repeatedly, a monster and a communists. So what was Biden's response?</s>SAENZ: Well, Kamala Harris was asked about those comments and she said that she wasn't going to respond to childish comments from President Trump. But Biden was very quick to defend his running mate. Take a listen to what he told reporters a short time ago here in Phoenix.</s>BIDEN: It's despicable. It's despicable. So beneath the office of the presidency. And the American people are sick and tired of it. They know who this man is. It's got to stop. It's not only -- this is one of the finest persons I've ever dealt with. This is a person who is ready on day one to be president of United States of America. This person has more integrity, the low finger the most people have in their whole body. And the idea, it's obvious he cannot -- he has great difficulty dealing with strong women. Great difficult.</s>SAENZ: Now, Biden and Harris are here in Arizona, a critical battleground state campaigning together. This is the first time we are seeing them out on the trail together since the Democratic National Convention in August. They will be joined shortly by Cindy McCain at an event to honor American Indian veterans. And then they're coming here where they're kicking off a soul of the nation bus tour that's going to take them to meet some small business owners here in the Phoenix and Tempe area. This is also the second day of registration, early voting here in Phoenix. And you're going to see a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris appearing together, but the campaign tells me that they are taking extra safety precautions due to COVID-19. The two candidates will actually be driving in separate vehicles as they embark on this tour. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much Arlette Saenz in Phoenix for us. Let's get some more on all of this. Our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash is with us. Our CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip is with us. And Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez, the White House is claiming it would have been safe for the President to debate in person, because he won't be contagious in just a matter of days. The President says he might not even be contagious right now. Any truth that any of that?</s>DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, you know, it's certainly possible, Wolf, because he's gotten monoclonal antibody, which does neutralize a lot of the virus and lowers the amount of virus. He had an assistant to begin with. And now he's presumably making his own antibodies. And so it is possible that he's no longer shedding a lot of virus but we can -- we know how to check for that, which is to do PCR tests and preferably a couple of them to make certain that they're -- that he's consistently negative. So we can test for that. But you know, the problem with a live debate is not -- even if the President is negative, there's so much virus transmission going on in the White House right now. I'm more worried about the -- his entourage, which could be shedding virus. There's not a culture of masks in the White House. And this is puts a lot of -- puts the Vice President Biden in potential danger having so many individuals who have been infected in the White House is not really shown a big effort to try to contain the virus. There isn't the culture of masks. And so, it's -- even if the President has been shown to be negative by PCR, I worry about the people that he brings with him.</s>BLITZER: Yes, the White House, clearly a hot zone or right now. The White House claims, Dr. Hotez, that the date of the President's last negative test is what they call a private medical history issue. But the President is not a private citizen. Is there any good reason at all for them to withhold that information from the American public?</s>HOTEZ: Look, this is a president that plays by unique set of rules. I mean, the idea that you're going to require physicians to sign a nondisclosure agreement, I've never heard of that before. Physicians are bound by a code of ethics and what we call HIPAA regulations, patient protected information. And to require nondisclosure agreement to me is, I've never seen that before as well. So, you know, what's usual practice in terms of a president who is ill and has been ill and has required hospitalizations and we're used to seeing daily press briefings for something that's serious, this is a totally different type of situation.</s>BLITZER: It's totally different, indeed. You know, Dana, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to unveil new legislation that would establish a commission on presidential capacity. It appears this bill would facilitate the invocation of the 25th amendment to the constitution, which allows for the removal of a sitting president, if the vice president and the majority of the cabinet agree or if the vice president of majority of another body established by Congress agrees. Give us your analysis of this very dramatic and potentially very powerful move by the Speaker?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's definitely a dramatic move. And it's a very clear strategy by the House Speaker to shine an even stronger and brighter light on what she has been saying for the past couple of days, including to our colleague, Manu Raju, which is that she does not think that the President currently has the mental capacity, the physical capacity because of the drugs that he's on to do the job. And there is absolutely no -- they're clear eyed, I should say, inside the House leadership that something like this would ever get through the Republican run Senate never mind be signed by the President that this is aimed at, but what they're trying to do is at least to set up a framework for the future, because we are in such unchartered waters, that that this is something that they want to get out there. You know, obviously, this is a real, real, strong political move. It is a very intense political move is probably the better word to use. And, you know, it's unclear how much this is going to help the Democrats cause. But my sense is that the House Speaker is -- this is -- everything is political when we're so close to the election, but this is also about the fact that she's genuinely disgusted with what she's seeing and that she's an institutionalist.</s>BLITZER: And I don't remember the last time a Speaker of the House has proposed such a commission --</s>BASH: It hasn't happened.</s>BLITZER: I mean, it's unbelievable what's going on. You know, Abby, I want to play a little bit of what the President said on Fox Business earlier today. He went after senator Kamala Harris in a really, really disgusting way. Listen to this.</s>TRUMP: She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you could get worse and totally unlikable than she is. She's a communist. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence --</s>BLITZER: He's calling her a communist, several times he called her communist, a monster, several times he called her a monster. This is Joe McCarthy, what's going on over here?</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, this President has a long history of using this kind of language against women. And in some ways, he has spent so many months seeming to wish that he were running against his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, who he would talk about in language like this, and who he still talks about as someone who he wants to prosecute. But instead of Hillary Clinton, he has Joe Biden, and now he has Joe Biden's running mate who is Kamala Harris, a black and Indian American woman. And so to direct this kind of vitriol toward her, in response to her debate performance, it's obvious that this is a president who thinks of women in this way using dehumanizing language to describe her and it's inappropriate. But again, as -- every time things like this happen, I think we have to go back to the same place. What else are we hearing about this from other people in the President's party? The answer is nothing. And I think that the silence of the President's party speaks just as loudly as this kind of disgusting language directed at a sitting United States senator who, to my knowledge, did nothing on that debate stage other than debate Mike Pence, which, you know, Mike Pence did four years ago, and I don't recall him calling Senator Tim Kaine a monster and saying that he was a communist.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that's it's really, really sick. And the thunderous silence coming from her Republican colleagues in the Senate is also awful. You would think they would say, this is unacceptable, Mr. President. She is not a monster. She is not a communist. She's a senator duly elected by millions of people in the state of California. It's really awful. Dana, you want to make a quick point?</s>BASH: Yes, no, just really quick. You're talking about the principal and the morality of it. But let's just talk about the raw politics of it. We're so close to the election, where this President has not just as Abby and I were talking about last night, not just a gender gap, there is a chasm. Women are fleeing from President Trump and him calling the only woman on the ticket and the only the fourth woman ever to be in a major ticket, a monster. It can't help.</s>BLITZER: And a communists. All right, Dana, thank you very much. Abby, thanks to you. Dr. Peter Hotez always good to have you here in the Situation Room. We're going to have much more on the debate dilemma. Coming up the co- chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Frank Fahrenkopf, he's standing by. We'll discuss with him later here in the Situation Room. The breaking news, though, continues. Next new details of the alleged militia plot to kidnap the Michigan governor and overthrow state governments. We'll talk about that and more. The former CIA, Director John Brennan, there you see him, he's standing by live. We have lots to discuss. We'll be right back. |
FBI: Militia Plotted to Kidnap Michigan Governor, Overthrow Gov't | BLITZER: We're following some very disturbing breaking news out of Michigan. Federal and state authorities today charged more than a dozen men including members of the militia group accusing them of plotting to overthrow the government and kidnap the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Here's how the governor reacted just a little while ago.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Just last week, the President of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. Stand back and standby he told them. Stand back and standby. Hate groups heard the President's words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight.</s>BLITZER: Let's bring in our Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz. Shimon, tell us more about this plot.</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. So you've got two different sets of charges here. You have the six charges -- a federal charges against six people. And then separately the state has brought in their own charges. Now on the sixth who have been federally charged, the criminal complaint really goes through some frightening details concerning what these men were up to. The six of them, the FBI says we're plotting to kidnap the governor, taking issue over some of her lockdown efforts because of the coronavirus. At one point, one of the men posted on Facebook that they were upset that she was closing down gyms because of the pandemic. And what the FBI said -- says is that these men trained. They held meetings, they try to recruit others to join in this plot. They also talked about possibly storming the state Capitol there in Michigan using Molotov cocktails to try and attack police if they were coming in to try and intervene. The other thing the FBI revealed is that these men did surveillance. They did surveillance on the homes of the governor at one point thinking about trying to kidnap her from a summer home, from a vacation home, doing surveillance, trying to find out exactly where she was living and staying. And what the FBI describes as a snatching grab. There was even this idea of perhaps about just snatching her and then taking her somewhere where they would use perhaps a stun gun of some kind, maybe interrogate her. So really some frightening details in this complaint. All of this was able to be stopped because of the FBI, which started monitoring some of these men on social media. They were then able to use informants, human informants, people that were able to infiltrate this group. And then Wolf, they also used FBI agents, undercover FBI agents to infiltrate the group. All of this coming to end just on October 7, because the FBI says that men were trying to exchange money for explosives and tactical gear. Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Very disturbing indeed. All right, Shimon, thank you very much. Quick programming note, the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will be one of the guests later tonight on Erin Burnett "OutFront." That's at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right after the Situation Room. Joining us now the former CIA Director John Brennan. He's got a brand new book just released entitled, "Undaunted by Fight against America's Enemies at Home and Abroad." Director Brennan, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on the new book. You write in your new book about the President's many clashes with the U.S. Intelligence Community. We've seen that President Trump simply doesn't accept the assessment from his own FBI Director that these far right white supremacist groups represent the greatest danger, the greatest domestic terror danger here in the United States. Just how much does that imperil our national security?</s>JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER FBI CIA DIRECTOR: Well, I think it does as the latest event in Michigan indicates that these hate groups and militia groups really provide I think, some real concerns to local law enforcement to the FBI. And unfortunately, Donald Trump has refused to denounce them in very clear fashion. And that's why I think he has helped to fuel this tension within the United States that is bringing out a lot of these very far right wing groups, white supremacists and others. So, this is something that I think the FBI is very much on top of but they need the support from our political leaders because the words matter that are coming out of the White House.</s>BLITZER: Yes. And Christopher Wray, the FBI director says these white supremacist groups represent the biggest domestic terror threat here in the United States. So let's turn to the pandemic, Director Brennan. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has now raised the concern level today. She's not suggesting that the President may be in what she calls an "altered state" due to his coronavirus illness, and the treatment he's been receiving which could impair his judgment. Is it appropriate for her to speculate about that? Is that, from your perspective, and you spent a long time in U.S. Intelligence and Homeland Security are real concern?</s>BRENNAN: Well, I think I've heard Dr. Fauci speak today about the impact of steroids on one's mental abilities. And the fact that it sometimes will create this sort of this hyper energetic attitude on the part of individuals who are undergoing this type of treatment. But you put the steroids together with the other types of medications and I think it's been widely reported that that can affect one's ability, mental abilities. And so when we're at this very critical time in our sort of nation's history, and we have Donald Trump who want a good day, is very impulsive and even reckless and irresponsible. The additional effects of the medications and the steroids, I think are very worrisome. And that's what Speaker Pelosi was addressing.</s>BLITZER: But do you worry about a national security threat resulting from that?</s>BRENNAN: Well, I don't know what Donald Trump is likely to do on any given day. And I do think that our adversaries around the globe have their intelligence systems cranked up on high so that they can collect information about what is the extent of the disruption, dislocation and preoccupation in the White House. Is our national security hierarchy continue to focus on the challenges that we face around the globe? So, I do think that our intelligence and military and law enforcement services have a very robust capability and that has not been relaxed. But the fact that you have somebody in the White House whose behavior, whose actions are, again, you know, suspect even more so because of the medication, I do think that's a national security issue.</s>BLITZER: Just last night, though the Vice President Mike Pence follow the President's lead in refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. In your book, you described that transfer of power, in your words, that's one of the most remarkable features of our American democracy. Did you ever think you'd see an American president waver in that commitment to that tradition?</s>BRENNAN: I never thought I'd seen American press like Donald Trump period, I was there during the transition from President Bush to President Obama and President Bush couldn't have been more magnanimous and gracious in turning over the reins of power. And the fact that Donald Trump continues to refuse to say that he would accept the will of the American people, I think just underscores his refusal to accept the Democratic principles of this country. He looks at the world through a very personal prism, in terms of what's going to benefit him as well as protect him. So I do think that we are in for some tough sledding over the next several months.</s>BLITZER: The top U.S. intelligence official on election security is warning today that foreign adversaries are using President Trump's lies to interfere in the election. You're right in your book, "Undaunted", that when you briefed the President on Russia's 2016 interference, he seemed uninterested, I'm quoting you now, uninterested in finding out what the Russians had done or in holding them to account. Four years later, is he -- as all of the critics are suggesting -- Putin's useful idiot?</s>BRENNAN: Well, I think that what he has done as -- when he's been in the White House has certainly been in Russia's and Vladimir Putin's interest. I mean, Putin wants to see disarray and confusion and chaos in the United States and have us be a polarized society and a dysfunctional government. And I think that's what we have right now. So, I am concerned that Donald Trump was enabled in getting into the White House because of Russian interference in the 2016 election. And I am certain that Vladimir Putin especially would like to see Donald Trump re-elected, and that he and the Russian services will do everything possible to make that a reality.</s>BLITZER: As you know, the President four years after he was elected as accusing you and other Obama administration officials, including former President Obama, former Vice President Biden, Hillary Clinton, all sorts of others of committing treason, he's suggesting this is the biggest domestic crime ever, and he's going after you specifically in various ways. How concerned are you about your legal problems, potentially, if he's re-elected and the Justice Department decides to go after you?</s>BRENNAN: Well, I think, unfortunately, he is enabled by a corrupt attorney general. I am very confident that what I did while I was CIA director was appropriate and consistent with my authorities and responsibilities. And so I have not hesitated to speak out against Donald Trump. That's why I named the book "Undaunted", because he can try to intimidate and bully Americans. I think I and a lot of other Americans are wanting to stand up against him because he is bringing this country down both domestically as well as internationally. And I do look forward to the day when we'll be able to get on a better track as a country, as a society. And that has to happen after Donald Trump leaves office.</s>BLITZER: The former CIA Director, John Brennan, thanks so much for joining us. Once again, let me mention the name of the book. There's the book cover right there, "Undaunted: My Fight against America's Enemies at Home and Abroad". Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it.</s>BRENNAN: Thank you, Wolf. Good to see you.</s>BLITZER: Thank you. Coming up, as coronavirus deaths in the United States top 212,000, the CDC is now projecting another 20,000 deaths here in the United States by the end of this month. |
U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Top 212,000 With 7.5 Million Cases, CDC Now Projects Up To 21,000 More Deaths By Oct. 31 | BLITZER: Breaking news where the U.S. coronavirus death toll now above 212,000. New update from the CDC is now projecting up to 21,000 more American deaths by the end of this month. CNN's Nick Watt is monitoring all of the day's developments.</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protests in New York City's COVID-19 hotspots, some schools, stores, indoor dining were closed again today. Religious services limited.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: We can stop this challenge from turning into a full blown second wave and we must.</s>WATT (voice-over): A field hospital is about to open in Wisconsin, the Tennessee Titans now under NFL investigation after 23 positive tests and an unsanctioned practice. Kentucky's mask mandate just extended another 30 days.</s>GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: We're on pace unfortunately to have another record week.</s>WATT (voice-over): In fact, these 11 states setting records right now. Highest average daily case counts ever in just two states home to less than 2 percent of Americans, average new case counts are actually falling, Alabama and Hawaii. Latest national numbers more than 50,000 new cases Wednesday and more than 900 dead. Meanwhile, on the much hoped for vaccine --</s>ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Pending FDA authorizations, we believe we may have up to 100 million doses by the end of the year, enough for every American who wants a vaccine by March to April 2021.</s>WATT (voice-over): Morning after the Vice President said this to Kamala Harris --</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stop playing politics with people's lives.</s>WATT (voice-over): -- his boss, the President, is doing exactly that. Claims there's now a COVID cure, there is not</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Regeneron which I view it as a cure, not just a therapeutic.</s>WATT (voice-over): He took an experimental antibody therapy made by Regeneron. Eli Lilly is developing something similar, both just applied to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they going to get it.</s>TRUMP: They're going to get it. Yes, they're going to get it.</s>WATT (voice-over): Decision must be a political. The President still playing politics with people's lives again and again.</s>WATT: Now, meanwhile, Miami-Dade Florida open schools earlier this week and we have just heard of their first confirmed case of elementary school student. The whole school, we're told, has been sanitized, all the contacts traced and they are all quarantined in a home for a couple of weeks. Listen, we are going to get cases in schools as they reopen. That's just a fact. The big question is can officials, can schools keep a lid on those cases? Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Nick Watt reporting for us. Nick, thanks very much. Coming up, I'll speak with a former White House Chef who calls President Trump's decision to return from the hospital infuriating and unforgiveable Sam Kass is standing by live. |
Thousands Expected to Attend Trump Balcony Speech at White House Tomorrow Despite Previous Outbreak | ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, well, Mayor Bartie, I appreciate your time. I hope that tonight, everyone is okay. And it's not so destructive for you. Thank you again, sir. And thanks so much to all of you for joining us. We continue to follow this story and others. Let's hand it over to AC 360.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Talk about insatiable appetites for the President it seems, one super spreader event just isn't enough. John Berman here in for Anderson. We're also covering Hurricane Delta as it makes landfall on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. We are looking at Lake Charles and we'll bring you a live report from there very shortly. We begin though with the manmade disaster now unfolding as the President of the United States grapples with rising COVID numbers, falling poll numbers and what could be fading prospects for re- election. For days now the President who, after all has the poker face of a neon sign has been telegraphing his frustration at all of it, along with his craving for the adulation he just can't get from taping infomercials on the South Lawn. So tomorrow, if all goes to plan, hundreds of supporters will be standing on the grass there -- hundreds. The President we're told will be up on the balcony "Evita" style, so he'll be a safe distance from them, which is more than they will be from each other at the White House no less. Hundreds of people, two weeks to the day since the ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett, where all the people you see in the picture highlighted have since contracted COVID. And today, Dr. Anthony Fauci called the affair what it truly was.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We had a super spreader event in the White House, and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks. So the data speak for themselves.</s>BERMAN: A super spreader event says Dr. Fauci to which his fellow Taskforce member Dr. Deborah Birx added and I'm quoting here, "The only thing that will prevent the next wave is us, is us doing the responsible thing in public spaces and private spaces." It sounds like she didn't get the memo from a certain Commander-in-Chief or the note from his doctor clearing him for public appearances, even though the C.D.C. says that patients who have been admitted to a hospital and given oxygen may need to isolate for up to 20 days. As for the rest of the content, well, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta who joins us in just a minute had this to say to Anderson last night.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's no temperature on here for somebody who has an infection. And that's key because that's the -- not having a temperature is one of the criteria for starting to come out of isolation. They don't even mention the temperature here. Instead they say that he has a trajectory -- he has advanced diagnostics in the right trajectory. I don't even know what that means. I mean, what tests -- are those tests -- so it's purposely vague and it's disappointing, because again, if you want to -- if you want to present information, then do it. Otherwise, you're presenting this stuff that sort of gibberish and hard to translate.</s>BERMAN: Bottom line, we don't know the President's medical condition. We don't know if he has tested negative for COVID recently since leaving the hospital. He evaded that question on FOX last night. Oh, and he had to stop twice to cough and clear his throat during the process. We also don't know when the last time was that he tested negative before he got ill. Now, it might be academic for him from a medical standpoint, but not for dozens or hundreds of others who would be helped by contact tracing, and would also clue the public in as to whether he knowingly kept campaigning and holding events while infected. Again today, the White House stonewalled.</s>QUESTION: When was his last negative test, you said you don't have that. You don't know or you don't want to say.</s>BRIAN MORGENSTERN, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So, we don't have that. There's -- well, I don't personally know.</s>HALLIE JACKSON, MSNBC NEWS ANCHOR: Wait. What does that mean?</s>MORGENSTERN: There are --</s>JACKSON: Have you asked, Brian? I think Wednesday, you said you were going to look into that.</s>MORGENSTERN: So Hallie, the president doesn't check all of his HIPAA rights at the door just when he becomes President. The doctors obviously share fulsome information with the President. The President shares a great deal of information with the American public.</s>BERMAN: He said a lot more after that, but never answered the question. And when you think if everything is going well, and all the tests are coming back great. Once you think this President of all people would be eager to have it out there, wouldn't he be shouting it from the nearest balcony? At the nearest super spreader site? Well, lacking a balcony and crowd, today, the President went on Rush Limbaugh, who provided him with a surreal and phony substitute.</s>RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO SHOW HOST: And greetings to you music lovers, thrill seekers, and conversationalists all across the fruited plain. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program. Mr. President, it is a distinct honor and privilege to have you with us and I want you to do something for me sir.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Go ahead.</s>LIMBAUGH: I want you to imagine you have just landed in a gleaming majestic Air Force One to the largest radio rally in history instead of thousands cheering as you walk up to the stage, there are millions and millions of patriots out there right now, anxiously awaiting to hear from you.</s>BERMAN: So the President needed his sugar, and even though it was only Splenda, the dose was enough to get him talking for the next 111 minutes. He ran through the usual insults, aired many of the usual grievances, and made many of the same false allegations about mail-in voting. What stood out, though, was how eager he was to use any tool at a President's disposal -- any -- to win. Here he is reacting to news that the Justice Department's report on the Russia probe would not be out before Election Day?</s>TRUMP: If that's the case, I'm very disappointed. I think it's a terrible thing, and I'll say it to his face. See, this is what I mean with the Republicans. They don't play the tough game. They don't play the tough game. If this were the other side, you would have had 25 people in jail for the rest of their lives with what we found.</s>BERMAN: So there he is, directly framing what is supposed to be the impartial administration of justice in the country as just another tool to be used in hardball politics. Look, if 240 years has taught us anything, it's that politics ain't beanbag. But by the same token, politics ain't that. Not here. But if that kind of thinking and talking concerns you as it should concern us all, there is another way of looking at it, for as much as the President seems to be dreaming of a brave new world, so much of his focus is in the rearview mirror. Not on the election, the polls suggest he is losing; but on the election, he won and the candidate he beat. Listen to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today.</s>MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We've got the e-mails, we're getting them out. We're going to get all this information out so the American people can see it. You'll remember, there was classified information on a private server, it should have never been there. Hillary Clinton should never have done that. It was unacceptable behavior. It's not the kind of thing that leaders do.</s>DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: The President has the authority to declassify anything he wants. All authority is to him. Could he declassify it and order it released if he wanted to? And if he ordered?</s>POMPEO: Absolutely, we're going to get there. We're going to get this information out so the American people can see it.</s>BERMAN: Boy, that's really going to sink Hillary Clinton's chances. But it has nothing to do with 213,000 Americans dead of COVID, nothing to do with millions out of work, kids not in school. The President about to hold another super spreader event. And frankly, nothing to do with the election. This election, less than a month away. More now from CNN's Jim Acosta, at the White House. Jim, this mass event on the lawn, what kind of safety protocols is the White House going to have in place because we're just learning that what -- 2,000 people have been invited.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John, but we're not sure how many of those people will actually show up. You know, there is sort of a buyer beware element to this event on the South Lawn of the White House tomorrow. We're told about, you know, hundreds of people should show up, and in terms of safety precautions, we're told by the White House that they do plan on doing coronavirus tests here. It'll be those rapid tests that are sometimes unreliable. They are they're going to require people they say to wear masks. Of course, they don't have a great track record in that regard. I can tell you, I saw administration officials walking around on the grounds today not wearing their masks, and so on. And so, you know, this is the potential -- I don't think you're overstating it, John -- there is a potential that this will be yet another super spreader event, even on the same day that Dr. Anthony Fauci is talking about the last super spreader event here at the White House.</s>BERMAN: And as I said, he has an insatiable appetite, it seems for such events because he is planning on holding a rally in Florida on Monday as well. What can you tell us about that?</s>ACOSTA: Right, that's going to be in Sanford, Florida in Orlando. As you know, John, Central Florida is going to be hugely important if Donald Trump wants to win the State of Florida that's crucial to his quest for reelection. But we're hearing, you know, from our sources that potentially the President could have an event every day next week or that he is striving to have an event every day next week, even though tonight, John, keep in mind, we have not gotten a letter from Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician. We have no indication from the President's team of doctors as to whether or not he is in any condition to do any of this. It just seems they're going to throw him out on the balcony and try to get the band back together even though he potentially could still be spreading the coronavirus.</s>BERMAN: All right, Jim Acosta at the White House. Please stay safe there. Appreciate you being with us.</s>ACOSTA: Will do.</s>BERMAN: Joining us now, David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst, along with CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip and CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay two weeks to the day after an event that Dr. Fauci has now called a super spreader event at the White House, a mass gathering at the same place. Medically speaking, how reckless is that?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a gathering of people in the middle of a pandemic. It happens to be at a residence where they just had a super spreader event. There may be still people there who have more recently contracted the virus even beside the President, who could be contagious. So you know, it was reckless before the President got hospitalized for COVID and it is still reckless. I mean, you know, it doesn't matter what the group of people are coming together for. The virus doesn't care. It just loves the idea of people getting close together and clustering like that, because it can jump from host to host to host. So it's a terrible idea. And again, even if the President is distanced, what about the other people? The White House staff that may have been exposed to this virus even over the last couple of days now? And we just have no idea what sort of protections they have had.</s>BERMAN: based on what Jim Acosta just reported, Sanjay, what's your take on the protocols in place for keeping the people safe there?</s>GUPTA: Well, you know, I mean, if you think about it, we sort of gone through this a few times, right? Testing is, I mean, testing can be very important overall, but the idea of using it like this, and then telling, you know, making it okay that people don't have to wear masks, they can still not physically distance, not abide by the basic public health stuff doesn't -- it doesn't -- that doesn't work that way. The real value of a test is if it comes back positive, then you know, you need to isolate. If it comes back negative, first of all, it could be a false negative. But if it comes back negative, you still have to abide by those public health guidelines. It's just that you don't have to isolate. You know, you could still come in contact with the virus or you, yourself could be carrying the virus and the test just hasn't picked it up yet.</s>BERMAN: David Gergen, I just saw for the first time that 2,000 people were invited to this event, 2,000 people, and if that's going to be the number, even if it's half that, they're going to be packed in cheek to jowl there. How irresponsible is this?</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not just reckless, John, it's morally reckless. He is asking people to make a choice. I'm going to invite you to the White House, you want to come to the White House? You can see me -- see me talking. But you may put your health at risk. We've had over 30 people who have come to White House events since the President was hospitalized, who have now come down with COVID, over 20 people are in the President's inner circle. How many more people must be struck down by this before the President comes to his senses? It really raises a question, John, as he comes out of the hospital just five days ago, whether his judgment is impaired, certainly being up on a balcony, recalling the scenes from Eva Peron, and Mussolini and how they took to the balcony. This has all the makings of what strongmen do and it's very disturbing.</s>BERMAN: Abby Phillip, is there no one in that building who can tell the President this is a bad idea or steer him in a different direction?</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Clearly not. I mean, the President has done a number of things that don't make any sense for someone who is recovering from a contagious virus. Not the least of which is, you know, coming home from the hospital immediately going up into the top of the balcony to record a promo video and taking his mask off in the presence of other people, and then he insists on working from the Oval Office, when as President, he can literally work from anywhere. Look, this is a President who wants to do what he wants to do and he is surrounded by aides who will let him, and on top of that, I think what we will see tomorrow, and with a lot of the other events next week is just a President who wants adulation. He wants large crowds, as many people as possible. But there are real potential consequences to that. As Sanjay pointed out, we just learned today that, you know, nine people who attended one of his rallies in Minnesota have contracted the coronavirus. I mean, people are in fact getting sick and this is not registering to the President or the people around him. But what's politically reckless about this event tomorrow is that all it does is just remind people that the President wants to flout the rules that other people are living by.</s>BERMAN: And Sanjay as Abby said, it's not just the event of the White House tomorrow. It's a rally in Florida on Monday. Jim Acosta reports the President wants to do one in-person every day this week. We saw a rally with Donald Trump, Jr. in Florida yesterday, people were packed inside a room unmasked there. Even if they're outside, they're not wearing masks, and they're sitting together closely. This just seems to completely flout the C.D.C. guidelines in the middle of a pandemic.</s>GUPTA: Yes, I mean, you know, history is not going to judge these events very kindly at all, John. As you know, the thing about Florida too, is that Florida is a place that has essentially opened up. I mean, you know, the pandemic is over, I think, as far as you know, Governor DeSantis is concerned. And, you know, I mean, that makes it much more likely that if you were going to go to a rally like that, that you're going to come in contact with someone who is carrying the virus. You know, you could start to actually do the math on this, but when you start looking at a certain trajectory of viral spread, it starts to really amplify itself, so it is no longer linear growth. It goes into exponential growth and these rallies, as we've seen at the White House can turn into a super spreader event. Many, many people then infected going back to their homes and going back to their communities. It's a huge problem. I mean, you know, we are understandably making a big deal about the remarkable pace of medical innovation with this vaccine, and it's worth celebrating. But we can't get the basics right. If we can't get the basics right, the hard stuffs going to be really hard to get done.</s>BERMAN: David Gergen, not for nothing. This is a political event at the White House tomorrow, which means the President can't technically violate the Hatch Act. But really, we saw a convention speech there, this just goes to show he'll let nothing get in the way of busting norms.</s>GERGEN: He is obsessed with winning re-election. It's all about self- respect. It is whether he is going to be humiliated or not, and I understand why his strategists think, hey, you've got to go to Florida. You know, Biden has inched ahead there. If you lose Florida, there's just almost no path to the presidency. So you've got to go to Florida. We've got to understand why he has been told that. But he is the guy who has to make the calls and make some final decisions. It's up to him, and that's why I say when his judgment is impaired, I think that's increasingly dangerous for the country. And I do think, John, increasingly, it becomes apparent that before people go to the polls on November 3rd, both Biden and Trump must come forward with their health records. It's imperative that people can turn to and can get those records turned to Sanjay and say, what does this all mean, Sanjay? How dangerous is it we elect this person for the next four years?</s>BERMAN: To Abby's point, it's not just bad public health, but it's just -- it's hard to see it as anything other than bad politics. Also, why keep showing this picture to people as Abby was pointing out? Sanjay, big picture on the pandemic now. We're seeing record high hospitalizations in 10 states. We're seeing case numbers rise. How concerning is this?</s>GUPTA: This is particularly concerning, John. I mean, you know, one thing -- we talk about this in terms of people who have been infected, people who have sadly died, people who have recovered, but you know, the impact in terms of what happens to people in the interim, you know, people get sick, and you start to project what are the hospital bed requirements going to become as we go into the winter months? And what do we really have? So take a look here, we found this sort of buried into the I.H.M.E. models, but what you find is that purple line there sort of shows what the hospital beds sort of demand may be as we go into the end of the year. When you do the math on that, you'll find that it starts to significantly exceed what we actually have in terms of hospital beds. I think we have one more graphic here, if we can just show in the country right now. Where are we right now hospital capacity? There you go. The darker the color, the fuller the hospitals are in those states, some of them well over 70 percent, John, and we haven't even really gotten into the bulk of flu season yet. Add into that COVID, and we're running into trouble and a lot of planners from around the country have been calling me, talking to me about this. They say they're looking at convention halls and buildings. It's going to be cold outside. They've got to find places that could potentially serve as hospital facilities. I know we've gone through this before. We talked about this back in April. We're going to talk about it again here in the next few weeks.</s>BERMAN: Look, it's worse than it was one week ago. I shudder to think where it will be one week from now. David Gergen, Abby Phillip, Sanjay, thank you very much. So someone who has seen the President up close day in and day out, what Tony Schwartz, author of the book that made Donald Trump a household name makes of him now and throughout the hour, live reports from the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Delta, you can see it right there comes ashore. |
Presidential Debate Officially Cancelled after Trump Refuses Virtual Format | BERMAN: So not only are we talking about the President's eagerness to hold what could be another super spreader event, a huge one, there is also a sudden eagerness to make a deal with congressional Democrats on another round of economic relief. That's after walking away from the talks on Tuesday. Sure, it doesn't sound like anything from the pages of the "Art of the Deal," but we've got the book's author Tony Schwartz with us in any case. More recently, he has written "Dealing with the Devil: My Mother, Trump and Me." Tony, it's always great to see you. I've been dying to talk to you about this, because in the last week, we've seen things that I think to the layman are hard to explain. The President backed out of a debate he needs, a losing candidate needs more debates, not fewer. He walked away from a debate. The President walked away from stimulus negotiations that might help them politically, unilaterally walked away and announced it and now has come crawling back. You say, he is in pure fight or flight mode. Can you explain that?</s>TONY SCHWARTZ, AUTHOR: Well, what's happened is that he is feeling a sense of terror. He believes, I believe that he believes he's going to lose this election and that is making him crazy. He is fearful of the loss. He is fearful of being seen as a loser. He is fearful of losing his power and his sense of control, and he lives to be in control. So this is a time when he -- if you think about how you feel when you're really anxious or you're really upset, you lose connection to your brain, specifically to your prefrontal cortex and what happens is you're driven by your emotions, by your amygdala. That's exactly what's happening with him. And all of those things you've mentioned, can be explained by the fact that there isn't anything rational going on. There's simply survival instincts playing out.</s>BERMAN: So he does or doesn't think that these decisions will help him? Because that's what I can't figure out. Right? He was -- this debate, you would think would be one of the few things that might be able to get him back in this race, but he walks away. So why do something that will ultimately hurt you?</s>SCHWARTZ: So he does it out of an impulse as he does almost everything, and the impulse is to prove how powerful he is, so I'll walk away from the debate. And then he gets flooded with evidence, it is not a good idea and so he flips again, and says, well, I'll do the other debate or, you know, some way of trying to -- trying to flip the equation after he has done it, but it's the impulse that arises first and the impulse is always, always to feel better about himself.</s>BERMAN: Incidentally, how capable do you think he would be or will he be maybe in the last debate that would be two weeks from now in behaving differently than he did in the first debate?</s>SCHWARTZ: That's a great question. And I think I think actually, he will be hurt by it. It's sort of a no win situation, because on the one hand, if he doesn't debate, he's losing, perhaps the only opportunity he has to once again make his case to the public. On the other hand, if he does do the debate, and we look at what's happened before, and how upset he is, the odds are he will do further damage to himself. So I think what he is feeling is that this is slipping away from him day by day, and he sees it as a verdict on his life.</s>BERMAN: What about the stimulus negotiations? What did they tell you? The fact that he walked away and is now going back, I mean, it's not the strongest negotiating position.</s>SCHWARTZ: Well forget that. He wasn't thinking about a negotiating position. He walked away once again, because he wanted to demonstrate that he could do whatever he wanted to. Damn it. He came back, because once again, there was a terrible response, first of all, from the stock market, but also from, you know, people he respects or if he doesn't respect, he thinks that they're on his side. And he flipped, because they made the case and he then, a little quieter, internally, he then recognized, oh, my God, giving the stimulus is a positive for me. But when he said, I'm walking away, he wasn't thinking.</s>BERMAN: What's your take on the event tomorrow at the White House inviting 2,000 people to the site, essentially of a super spinner event two weeks ago, where he will address them from a balcony?</s>SCHWARTZ: I felt what I'm about to say for a long time, but I've never actually said it out loud. He is Jim Jones now. He is inviting people to the White House to you know, drink the Kool-Aid and die. I mean, this is where we've gotten. He has a cult following. They are brainwashed. His own -- the people around him are brainwashed. And quite frankly, John, if I were standing across from him right now, I would be frightened. He never frightened me. But I would be frightened, because you watch what he did with Biden where he just rolled on him. He just -- he just kept coming at him. That is -- and I had this experience -- very, very hard to resist. So he is going to bring in those people and he is going to subject them to, you know, a terrible outcome.</s>BERMAN: You wrote on Twitter recently, and I follow you, as many people do. You said, "Trump seems determined to ensure his defeat by a landslide." What do you think the next 25 days are going to look like?</s>SCHWARTZ: I quote William Goldman, the screenwriter that nobody knows anything. It will change 15 times. There will be many, many more unexpected events that will all jump up and start all that. I do believe -- nobody wants to say this and I apologize for being the exception, but I do believe he is going to lose. I do believe he's going to lose by a huge margin. Democrats don't want to say that. But I do believe that's what's going to happen. I think he is right. It has slipped away.</s>BERMAN: Tony Schwartz, we'll see. Twenty five days left. As always, we appreciate your insight. Thanks so much for joining us.</s>SCHWARTZ: Thank you.</s>BERMAN: Breaking news straight ahead. Hurricane Delta slamming into the Louisiana Coast as we speak. Only six weeks after another big storm, Hurricane Laura, drove through the region. We have an update when 360 continues. |
Hurricane Delta Makes Landfall In Louisiana | BERMAN: Breaking news just a short time ago Hurricane Delta made landfall in Louisiana. Two hundred thousand now without power there as well as Texas with powerful winds and storm surge battering the gulf coast line. This is the fourth, the fourth major storm to hit Louisiana in the last year. Martin Savidge joins us now from Lake Charles, Louisiana with the very latest. Martin, man it looks wet there. How are things looking?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty bad. The good news is that of course the storm went to the east of here, which is, you know, John it means that we're not getting the worst of the winds. And in theory now that Delta is coming ashore, things should begin easy, but it's always in increments over time. It's still getting hammered here. Heavy rain that's been continuing, well, almost as noon today. For the wind. The winds have been extreme. Not necessarily high force hurricane winds. But you got to remember, Lake Charles is in a situation like few other places in Louisiana. It was hammered devastated by Hurricane Laura six weeks ago. And now it's being hit again by Category 2 storm. And in many cases the buildings were so weakened because of that hurricane Laura, 95% of the buildings and homes the mayor says have been damaged in some way. Their ability to stand up to a second blue like this is really in question. That's why they began mandatory evacuations Wednesday, telling people it would just simply not be safe to stay in a home that could come apart in the middle of a storm. We can find the first hurricane and. Then there's the debris. There is tons and tons and tons of debris. We were in the neighborhood earlier it would be suicide to be in there now. With all the glass, with all the wire, with all the</s>BERMAN: I got to say, Martin, it sounds just ferocious there right now, if you can still hear me. You mentioned that, that another storm passed just a few weeks ago and there were still tarps out on many of the buildings. What did they do to get ready for this?</s>SAVIDGE: Well, the first thing they did was tell people to leave. And they were absolutely adamant and serious about it. You happen to go and then they did. But there were others who were suffering from evacuation, but they didn't want to leave. I talked to families that stayed behind, I have no idea how they're handling things now. But the debris piles were five and six feet high all along the street in which they live. Imagining all of that material and this kind of width does make it very bright. So, I think for a lot of people here, they got up for those who stayed behind. They've got to be rethinking that decision right now. But there's nothing of course they could do until morning and wet things inside.</s>BERMAN: Martin Savidge, you and your team, please stay safe. Thank you so much for being there for us. For more of the storm now let's go to Tom Sater in the weather center. Tom, what's the latest on where this hurricane is headed? And at this point, how strong is it?</s>TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's dropped now to Category 1 as expected. It's typical when they interact with land and make landfall. That where Martin is in Lake Charles in just the last 30 minutes, the wind gusts went from 75 miles per hour to 95. So I think those of us who are going to be seeing video coming out of this region tomorrow for most of us, we're not going to know the difference between what is new damage and what is old damage, they will know because they've been spending the days and weeks trying to clean up and rebuild. But we're down to Category 1. Hurricane Delta, this only the second time we had to get into the Greek alphabet the last time was 2005. And already at setting records. Not only is Delta the first hurricane with a name from the Greek alphabet to make landfall in the U.S., but it's now known as the fastest pace to ever go from a tropical depression to a Category 4. It only took 30 hours making landfall south of Cancun as a Category 2, tourists had one hour to get in pack up get to the airport, no fatalities. But we knew it was going to grow in size, before it hit Cancun the eye was a pinhole only four miles wide. Earlier today 46 miles. So that wind field is broad. Back edges are now starting to dry up that's some very good news, but we have our Category 1 incredible. We've got now two within six weeks hitting the exact same area. This is just unheard of as far as that time limit. Heavy rainfall is falling, we've got over nine, 10 inches, we'll see more. Storm surges over nine to 10 now east of the center. Here's where Lake Charles and so they're on the back edge of the eyewall but Lafayette with a home of 130,000 are going to get into it. Only 10 to 13 miles between Laura and Delta's landfall. Wide pattern of wind damage over 200,000 without power that will grow through the night. As we watch the wind gusts move up look at 55 in Alexandria, 41</s>BERMAN: 2020. Tom Seder, thank you very much. We're going to have more on the storm later in the program. Up next, the latest on the bizarre, terrifying plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and the virtual silence from the Trump administration on the arrests. |
Six Men Arraigned In Plot To Kidnap Michigan Governor; Attorney General Barr Quick To Condemn Leftist Groups, Mum On Kidnapping Plot. | BERMAN: Six of the seven men arrested on state terrorism charges and other felony counts in the plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. They were rain today. A total of 13 were charged after a joint operation with the FBI and the Michigan State Police. CNN's Sara Sidner in Grand Rapids, Michigan for us tonight, Sara even covering this from the beginning doing a wonderful job. And you met today with someone who knew one of the suspects well, what did he tell you?</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Brian Titus owns a vacuum shop here in Grand Rapids. He said he was surprised as anyone when the FBI ended up raiding his business because the person who was living there, who was a longtime friend of his who had been living there just for a little while after he said he got kicked out of his girlfriend's place. And so, we gave him a place to stay. He had a job there. His dogs were there with him. Turns out he is one of the leaders according to the FBI of this plot.</s>BRIAN TITUS, STORE OWNER: He was staying in the basement.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): How do you get there? Is there --</s>TITUS: Right there. That's the secret passageway. It's not a secret pass, it's the basement.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): Oh, OK.</s>TITUS: They're talking about the wood. The reason why I put the wood on there this case if the dog I had to go somewhere, put them in there so he wouldn't ruin the carpet. Well that's the basement where he stay.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): OK.</s>TITUS: And he was only going to stay there till -- on November.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): Why did you decide it was time for him to go? Did you notice any kind of activity?</s>TITUS: Buying stuff on Amazon? I wasn't stupid. I was in the Marine Corps for 12 years.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): Where there -- was he buying ammo or?</s>TITUS: I don't know if he was buying ammo. He was buying more like attachments for like an AR-15 and he was buying like food. And I'm not stupid. I was in the Marine Corps, so that I told he had to go.</s>SIDNER: But before he actually left, he says they arrested him and 12 others. He talked about the plot and the FBI talked about this plot that really centered around trying to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer here of Michigan. But there were other things that were so disturbing beyond even the kidnapping plot. Also the FBI saying they were planning on storming the Capitol, that they were planning on potentially using explosives, that they had actually fashioned some explosives. And they were talking about potentially burrowing up a bridge to try to keep police from being able to get to the governor when they tried to, to kidnap her according to the complaint. They also, you know, sort of talk about some of the things that these men were saying to each other. But certainly 13 men now charged in this case, some with state terrorism charges, some with federal conspiracy to commit kidnapping charges, very serious charges and a really scary time, obviously, for those in the government here. Some of the Democrats saying they are terrified that the law still allows to bring guns into the state capitol. And we saw those pictures of people, you know, standing outside of the Capitol this year and trying to get into the Capitol arms to the teeth they're saying they want that to change. But so far the last dance.</s>BERMAN: Sara Sidner, as you said, terrific reporting. Thank you so much for being there for us. Really appreciate it. So even though the Trump administration's Justice Department was heavily invested into the arrest through the efforts of the FBI and two separate U.S. attorneys. So for the Attorney General William Barr has not commented on it. And the only thing President Trump has said publicly other than to condemn Governor Whitmer for her remarks criticizing him has been to wonder why he hasn't been thanked. Perspective now from Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Director of the FBI and a CNN contributor and Miles Taylor, former Homeland Security chief of staff and the Trump administration, also a CNN analyst. Andy, I want to start with you, the Attorney General William Barr has traveled up and down the country to appear in public for any event that has to do with condemning or cracking down on leftist violence. He's held briefings, he's appeared, you know, in settings condemning urban violence as well. But not only did he not travel to Michigan to be on camera here, but he hasn't briefed the public at all hasn't said anything in public at all about a plot to kidnap a sitting governor. What does that tell you?</s>ANDREW MCCABE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, John, thanks for having me. It is really, really puzzling. I can tell you from having had the experience of overseeing these sorts of investigations for years, and also from having had to brief many attorneys general on exactly these sorts of operations. I can tell you, there is no way the Attorney General wasn't briefed on this investigation as it went forward. If the FBI worked a case in which the Governor was an intended victim of a kidnapping, and they didn't tell the Attorney General, I mean, that is a heads will roll moment. So, if you assume for the sake of the argument that he knew about it, then it's up. The only possibility is that he was either unwilling or unable to come forward and talk about this case yesterday. And as you mentioned, this is the type of case that in the past an Attorney General would travel to the site of the arrest and travel to the venue where it's being brought to court to appear on stage in the press conference with the U.S. attorneys. So it's very strange that we haven't heard anything from Attorney General Barr in the last day or so.</s>BERMAN: Yes, you say he's either unwilling or unable it may be unwilling. So Myles, why not take the opportunity to condemn domestic terror? Why not take a public stand against this type of extremism for the Attorney General or the President. The President's done all these cable television interviews, and really just complain about not getting credit? And he's criticized Governor Whitmer. So what are we to make of this?</s>MILES TAYLOR, CNN ANALYST: Well, look, I think Andy said it, the operative word is puzzling. This is completely puzzling. And this is the type of case that we expected would ultimately happen if domestic terrorism went unchecked in this country. I mean, Director McCabe was there at the same time as me when we saw a big uptick in this threat and his bureau and our department. We're flagging this for the White House pretty actively at the time period. Now, again, at the time period, the ISIS threat was a bit higher, but we saw the domestic terror threat ticking up and we were worried that the same remote radicalization we saw of ISIS fighters overseas could potentially happen here in the United States with individuals who were motivated by, you know, racial supremacist groups and the like that started to happen. The White House was disinterested, John, because they feared that some of these individuals on the right would potentially also be some of their supporters. So, they didn't want to speak out against this because they were worried that politically, it could be damaging to them. And look, you saw that today rather than as you know, Bill Barr going and appearing publicly to talk about this. Instead, you have the President dunking on the governor of Michigan on Twitter instead of dealing with this problem, that's a really big concern. And the President, his campaign message right now is law and order. But what we've seen right now in Donald Trump's America is lawlessness and disorder. That's not a political talking point. I think that's a direct result of his law enforcement policies and strategy, which we were consistently frustrated by at the Department of Homeland Security, and which now are resulting in things like the case that was just announced yesterday.</s>BERMAN: Miles when you would raise the concern about extremist groups like this domestic terror groups, what would the White House say?</s>TAYLOR: I'll tell you point blank, they told us not to talk about it. In fact, as we were developing, the administration's counterterrorism strategy, which I was intimately involved in developing, we were told the focus needed to be on Islamist terrorist groups overseas. And we shouldn't be talking about, quote, right-wing extremists here in the United States. There was a very clear signal sent from aides that reported directly to the President, that this should not be a focus. Now, that didn't stop either Director McCabe's bureau or our department from focusing on the threat, we focused on the threat and we doubled down on the threat. But the problem is, if the White House itself isn't going to coordinate those departments and agencies to step up with more people, more resources, more attention than the threat isn't going to get the level of response that it deserves. And it didn't.</s>BERMAN: Andy, what do these extremist groups these would be domestic terrorists here in the silence from William Barr, what do they hear in the President's unwillingness to openly denounce this type of extremism?</s>MCCABE: Well, John, you can't overstate the significance of how domestic extremists and extremists of all stripes truly, are very closely watching the media coverage of the threat, the media coverage of the things they and their groups are doing. They are looking exactly for things like the communications they are subtly getting from the President now. I am convinced that people on the far-right, the right leaning extremist groups, the white supremacist groups, the anti government groups, the boogaloo boys, all those sorts of groups, they are watching the President's very careful but clear desire to avoid condemning them at any turn. And they see that as a signal of approval. They see that as a signal of we finally have one on our side. I mean, you saw the reaction from the Proud Boys the day after the President essentially gave him a shout out in the debate. It is a very positive energizing thing that they get. And that is exactly the sort of trigger that could cause some of these groups to act.</s>BERMAN: And I'm sure you've still got friends who are in the service in the FBI. What are they telling you about their concerns for the next 25 days or maybe longer for this election?</s>MCCABE: John, people are buckling in and getting ready for a very bumpy ride. You know, look, we had great concerns about how particularly the white supremacy community would react to the inauguration of President Obama or first black president. And so, we did a lot of work in the months leading up to the inauguration, months leading up to the election and the inauguration to watch those folks that we were concerned about to make sure that we got in front of any terrorist planning. I am quite sure the FBI is doing the exact -- that exact sort of work with these particularly these heavily armed and militia groups, and these right leaning kind of white supremacist organizations. The sad fact is there are very, very many of them. In Michigan alone, we've heard numbers in the two to three dozens of organized militia groups just in the state of Michigan and they are all over the country now. This is a big challenge for the FBI and partners at DHS and other agencies to stay in for.</s>BERMAN: It's the point that Miles was making me just this morning as well as the Attorney General of Michigan was making to me this morning. The scary thing is these groups, these 13 individuals, not alone, not at all. Andrew McCabe, Miles Taylor, thank you both. Great to see you tonight.</s>MCCABE: Thanks, John.</s>TAYLOR: Thanks, John.</s>BERMAN: All right, we have a live update from the Gulf Coast when we come back. |
Louisiana Braces for the Landfall of Another Named Storm; Questions Surround the U.S. Presidential Debate Schedule; Blue Moon Set for Halloween. | CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Once again the U.S. state of Louisiana is under a state of emergency. Hurricane Delta is our first subject this Friday on CNN 10. I`m Carl Azuz. This would be the fourth named storm to strike Louisiana in a single Atlantic Hurricane season and that hasn`t happened since record keeping began in 1851 but let`s back up a moment. When we put this show together, it hadn`t happened yet. Hurricane Delta was whirling in the Gulf after making landfall on Mexico`s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday morning. It was a Category 2 storm when it hit between the resort towns of Cancun and Playa del Carmen. That was significantly weaker than forecasters had predicted it would be and while there was some damage, early news reports indicated that it didn`t appear to be major and thankfully no deaths were reported. After crossing the Yucatan, Hurricane Delta had weakened to Category 1 status with wind speeds of around 90 miles per hour. But it regained strength over the Gulf and meteorologists expected the storm to hit Louisiana on Friday or Saturday with Category 2 force. Winds speeds of between 96 and 110 miles per hour and a storm surge of ocean water as high as 11 feet over normal tide levels. That would be wherever Delta makes landfall. There are no good populated areas for a hurricane to that. But the Louisiana coast is especially vulnerable because that`s where Hurricane Laura made landfall in August. Residents there are still dealing with the damage from that Category 4 hurricane which killed 15 people and damaged or destroyed 45,000 homes. CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers says the lose debris that`s still scattered from Laura could cause more damage when Hurricane Delta hits. We`re going to bring him in now to explain why forecasts differ in terms of where exactly hurricanes will strike.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well you hear us talk a lot about the models. The European versus the American and how are they different? We`re trying to model an atmosphere that has an infinite number of layers from where we live to the top of the atmosphere is not nine, 12, 13 different layers. It`s an infinite number but you can`t put infinity into a computer and expect an answer because it will just hang up and keep running. The difference between the two models is trying to get a model run that is accurate and timely. Timely meaning, we can`t have a perfect forecast for a two day snowstorm but it might take 24 hours` worth of running the computer to get there. So, is a two forecast that`s only good for one day, is that worth it? No. We try to get it to run in four hours or less. Now the European model does take longer to run. There`s more data in the European model and so therefore it can be slightly more accurate. But the American model is pretty close.</s>AZUZ: Originally, three presidential debates were planned between incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, but a lot of question marks popped up yesterday concerning the second debate. It was originally set for October 15th in Miami, Florida but yesterday about a week after President Trump was diagnosed with corona virus. The Commission on Presidential Debates said the October 15th event would be virtual. The Biden campaign agreed to that. The Trump campaign did not. The president said, he wouldn`t hold a debate virtually. If the commission postpones next week`s event, both campaigns have agreed to the debate on October 22nd. But the Biden camp wants that to be the last one while the Trump camp wants that, and a third debate rescheduled for the 29th. So less than a month before the election, the debate schedule is up in the air. 10 Second Trivia. What are the names of the two full moons that occur this month? Harvest and Hunters, Wolf and Harvest, Corn and Buck, or Wolf and Blood. October 2020 sees both a harvest moon and a hunter`s moon. The harvest moon is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. This year`s equinox was on September 22nd. The closest full moon to that was right at the beginning of October. But there`s another full moon coming up later this month, the hunter`s moon named for when people hunted meat to use in the winter. And as CNN 10 Contributor Tyler Mauldin reports, that`s not the only nickname for the second full moon this moon. Tyler.</s>TYLER MAULDIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Carl, a full moon will occur on Halloween this year making the night extra spooky for trick-or-treaters. Can you think of anything more 2020? This will be the second full moon to occur this month. This rare occurrence of having two full moons in one months, only happens about every two to three years on average. The reason, every month features a full moon yet the lunar cycle and our calendars aren`t perfectly synchronized. Every few years, the stars align, and we get two in one month. This is the modern definition of a blue moon. Spoiler alert though, it`s in name only. The moon won`t actually be the color blue. If you`ve seen the images floating around on social media of a moon that is blue, it`s probably been filtered. The last time we had a blue moon was back in March of 2018. The next one will occur in about three years from now in August 2023. Oh, and it`s been quite a while since we last had a full moon on Halloween for all U.S. time zones. You`ll have to go all the way back to 1944 for that. So Carl, go ahead, mark your calendar and get your camera ready. It should make for a really "bootiful" but eerie once in a blue moon Halloween night.</s>AZUZ: We have report on news writing. It`s new. You can find it online. I think it`s effective. That`s not the way to tell a story. Thankfully we`re providing some tips on more effective news writing. It`s part of our partnership with AT&T`s Youth Voice Collective. We`ve been assembling a series of special editions featuring this guy who writes and anchors CNN 10, plus student questions about journalism. The newest video is available right now. You can find it at You Tube.com/CNN10 and at CNN10.com A badger, some snake, bird, guinea pigs and a pony, these are some of the animals that roamed around the White House during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and they weren`t pets. President Roosevelt really liked animals. Now though, some White House residents of the uninvited variety are reeking havoc or at least really distracting some reporters.</s>JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Raccoons. There`s an invasion crawling around the media cables on the White House lawns. Sniffing at bags of gear.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there food in there?</s>MOOS: Making a beeline for CNN`s Joe Johns in the middle of a live shot.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Get. There he is. Roar. Now no events on the president`s schedule today and --</s>MOOS: Maybe you think Joe has seen too many movie raccoons.</s>JOHNS: Someone need a hug?</s>MOOS: You too might lob a footstool just to scare it.</s>JOHNS: No. No raccoons were harmed in this exercise.</s>MOOS: If this was your second run in with a raccoon. Just a week before, as Joe was about to go live.</s>JOHNS: I felt something on my leg and the first thing I thought was it was a camera man from another network. And I looked down and it`s a raccoon that had just grabbed my leg.</s>MOOS: Law enforcement is on the hunt. Spotlighting them with their flashlights. Throwing some sort of sandbag, which the raccoon actually tried to drag away. One ended up in a Secret Service security shack. Dogs have joined the search. Even broomsticks have been deployed but like in the movie "The Nut Job".</s>MOOS: The raccoons keep coming.</s>JOHNS: Is he still there? Can somebody chase him away?</s>MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN.</s>AZUZ: What a ring tale to tell. Of course, they might be looking to "coatease" the reporters and they did "kink chews" kind of a dangerous place. So they can`t "alinger" too long because even with their "masks" on, they`re "basarisking" being identified by the Secret Service. Fridays are awesome. Thank you to the students of University High School in Morgantown, West Virginia for your comment and for subscribing to our You Tube channel. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN. END |
Trump Campaign Flip-Flops on Second Debate; 13 Charged in Alleged Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor; Bill Gates Speaks out on the State of the Pandemic. | JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, one simple question, no direct answers. When was the last time the U.S. president had a negative test result for COVID-19? Trump, his aides, and doctors all refuse to say. The FBI thwarts an alleged plan to start a civil war and kidnap a state governor, possibly targeted by an anti-government group for her tough measures to control the pandemic. Also, an exclusive CNN investigation. What's a connection between forced labor in China and a multibillion-dollar beauty industry in the United States? With his reelection campaign in a death spiral, it seems the U.S. president is eager to hit the road. Despite testing positive for the coronavirus and still possibly contagious, Trump wants to hold a campaign rally in Florida this Saturday. White House physician Sean Conley says Trump can probably safely return to public engagements on Saturday, but the good doctor is still refusing to give a direct answer to one very simple but crucial question. When was the last time the president tested negative for the virus? Before Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, the last known test was in May, and the results have not been made public. Democrats are now raising concerns about Trump's physical and mental health. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the president appears to be in an altered state. On Friday, Democrats will discuss the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, which lays out the role Congress will play when a president is incapacitated. And now there is doubt if a second presidential debate, scheduled for next week in Miami, will actually go ahead. Mr. Trump says he will not take part in a virtual debate, as recommended by the debate commission, and agreed to by Joe Biden. CNN's Jim Acosta begins our coverage.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Still dodging the White House press corps, and opting for his own West Wing video crews to send out proof-of-life messages to the world, President Trump is backing out of his next debate with Democrat Joe Biden, refusing to agree to a virtual, virus-free format.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style. And that's not acceptable to us. I'm not going to do a virtual debate.</s>ACOSTA: Claiming the president won't be contagious in a matter of days, the Trump campaign proposed postponing the debate for a week, drawing a tart response from one top Biden official, who said, quote, "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar and pick new dates of his choosing."</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We don't know what the president's going to do. He changes his mind every second.</s>ACOSTA: It was just one week ago when Mr. Trump accused Biden of wanting to skip the remaining debates.</s>TRUMP: Now I understand he's canceling the debates. Let's see what happens. I think that's not going to be a good move for him.</s>ACOSTA: Candidates have debated remotely before, as John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon did from two different studios in 1960.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.</s>ACOSTA: Democrats are accusing Mr. Trump of sexism after he called Kamala Harris a monster and a communist in response to her performance at the vice-presidential debate.</s>TRUMP (via phone): And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence, who destroyed her last night, by the way. But this monster --</s>ACOSTA: In a White House video, the president, who's been administered a combination of experimental medicines, is claiming he's been cured of the coronavirus. But that's not true, as there is no cure for COVID-19.</s>TRUMP (on camera): But we have medicines right now -- and I call them a cure. I went into the hospital a week ago. I was very sick. And I took this medicine, and it was incredible. It was incredible. I could have walked out the following day.</s>ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is boasting his natural attributes are an asset, too.</s>TRUMP (via phone): I'm back because I'm a perfect physical specimen, and I'm extremely young.</s>ACOSTA: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't buying that one.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Specimen? Did he say specimen? Maybe I could agree with that. His disassociation from reality would be funny if it weren't so deadly.</s>ACOSTA: Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned the president could still suffer a setback.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: One of the issues that we all have to be aware, and his positions are aware of this, that the history of COVID-19 is that you could look and feel like you're doing reasonably well, and after a couple of days, you could have a downturn.</s>ACOSTA: Aspects of the president's health remain a mystery. CNN has confirmed some medical professionals at Walter Reed Medical Center were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements when the president made a last-minute visit there almost one year ago. Mr. Trump is speculating that he caught the virus at an event for Gold Star families, but one Gold Star group says the families tested negative beforehand.</s>TRUMP (via phone): I'm not going to be in a basement saying, Hey, I can't see you as you traveled in from California and all the different places. It's OK.</s>ACOSTA: The White House is trying to clean up that one, too.</s>ALYSSA FARAH, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And I appreciate you asking that so we can clarify. His point was merely that, in the timeframe that he was potentially exposed, there were a number of different venues that he'd been at and individuals he interacted with.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): And White House officials say they won't be specifying exactly when the president had his last negative test for COVID-19, insisting that's Mr. Trump's private medical information, adding that the doctors would like to keep that information for now private. Of course, Mr. Trump could make all of that information public, and as we've reported here at CNN, the president was not being tested daily prior to his positive results for COVID-19. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.</s>VAUSE: And a former senior health official within the Trump administration -- he was charged with developing a vaccine for the coronavirus -- says the president's COVID response is reckless and deadly. Rick Bright blew the whistle. He was raising the alarm very early. He says those early warnings, though, were ignored. Here he is speaking with Jake Tapper.</s>RICK BRIGHT, FORMER U.S. PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS CHIEF: You know what we're missing in this whole situation is transparency about, really, how sick the president is. We don't really have the truth about when he was infected, what stage of infection he's in, I don't think we know all of the various treatments he was given and in what combination and what dosage. We need to know what is wrong with our president. We need to know how sick he is. And we need to know what type of treatments he's getting so we can learn from that so other people will be able to follow the right example. The president is giving a very mixed message right now. He is not well. We would not want any other person on the planet to do the things he's doing this soon after knowing they're infected. We wouldn't want someone up out of the hospital bed with these types of experimental therapies right now. So he's leading with a very bad example for the entire world, actually.</s>VAUSE: And joining me now is Kim Schrier. She's a pediatrician and Democratic congressman from the state of Washington. And it's good to see you again.</s>REP. KIM SCHRIER (D-WA): Great to see you.</s>VAUSE: OK. Right now, no question is shrouded in more mystery than this one. Here we are. Listen to this.</s>ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm asking, do you know the answer to when the president's last negative test was? Do you actually know that information, Brian?</s>BRIAN MORGENSTERN, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: I personally do not.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you remember when he had his last negative test?</s>DR. SEAN CONLEY, WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: I don't want to go backwards.</s>MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We don't normally get into the testing protocol for the president.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he tested on Tuesday before the debate? And then, was he tested on Thursday morning before he went to the New Jersey fundraiser?</s>KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, I'm not going to give you a detailed read-out with time stamps of every time that the president is tested. He's tested regularly.</s>VAUSE: Just purely from a medical point of view, why is this timing so important? We know when the positive test came back, but not the last negative.</s>SCHRIER: Well, the last negative test would at least tell you when he may not have been shedding virus. Right? Like, it would be very useful for the Bidens to know if he had tested negative just before that debate. I think that could offer a good degree of peace of mind, not total peace of mind, but I think it would be helpful. I think that this White House has really just lost credibility on everything. I mean, they won't answer questions, and so we're left to try to piece little bits of evidence together. And I have to tell you, you know, some people pieced together the fact that he was on three different drugs and say, Oh, it must have been a very serious case. But you could just as easily put those three pieces together and say, Oh, those are the three drugs our president has heard of, and he asked for all three. We just -- we have no idea what his health status right now is and even if he is</s>VAUSE: That's -- this is the problem. We just don't know. And now the president is planning to hold more super-spreader events. You know, there's still a reluctance to be transparent about those results. I mean, this is moving forward. Here's the president on FOX News speaking with the White House chief of staff, Sean Hannity, a short time ago.</s>TRUMP (via phone): What we're doing is probably the test will be tomorrow, the actual test, because there's no reason to test all the time. They found very little infection or virus, if any. I don't know that they found any. I didn't go into it greatly with the doctors.</s>VAUSE: What we're seeing here is a pattern from Donald Trump and the administration, deliberately withholding information which people need, in this case, information which will allow his supporters to make an informed decision about safely attending a campaign rally or not. And he's not telling anybody.</s>SCHRIER: Well, let's be clear. Attending a campaign rally is not safe, whether the president has COVID or not. Because you're not supposed to gather in large groups, particularly indoors. And so even regardless of what the president's state of health is right now, these gatherings are ill-advised. They are more super- spreader events. You'd think that he would learn from this experience. But instead, he's doubling down on playing down this virus and continuing to behave in a reckless manner that will ultimately probably result in another 200,000 deaths in this country. And I think it's just -- it's a terrible example to set and, really, it's an abdication of his responsibility.</s>VAUSE: So in the midst of a pandemic which could see, what, 400,000 Americans dead by Christmas, an economic crisis not seen since the Great Depression, dozens of his closest aides testing positive, Trump managed to find an hour to rant on FOX Business News. Here's part of it.</s>TRUMP (via phone): They're in the State Department, but Mike Pompeo has been unable to get them out, which is a very sad. Actually, I'm not happy about him for that, that reason. He was unable to get them out. I don't know why. Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, that this was the greatest political crime in the history of our country, and that includes Obama, and it includes Biden. These are people that spied on my campaign, and we have everything. Now they say they have much more. OK? And I say, Bill, we have plenty.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Address Christopher Wray. Will you replace him in a 2nd term?</s>TRUMP: Well, I don't want to say that yet. He's been disappointing. He talks about, you know, even the voting thing. He doesn't see -- the voting ballots as a -- as a problem.</s>VAUSE: I should mention, that first soundbite was about Hillary Clinton's 33,000 emails, which Pompeo apparently can't find, and that's why he's in the bad books. He's also in hospital. You know, this is not just usual Trump. This is Trump on steroids, literally.</s>SCHRIER: Literally.</s>VAUSE: Even if Biden wins in November, there's still three months left of Trump as president. How concerned are you, just from what you can see and hear, about you know, his physical and mental health?</s>SCHRIER: I'm very concerned. This does seem like just an enhanced version of what we've been seeing all along. You know, outrage, rage, and trying to get people to just look the other way. I'm very concerned about what is to come in the upcoming days and months. And -- and I guess my one plea would be, you know, responsible people who are near the president, please try to keep us all safe. Keep him contained, not with other people, so he doesn't spread this illness. Try not to have these super-spreader events. And, if he is not of right mind right now, please keep him from doing anything devastating in the national security arena.</s>VAUSE: Three months, even if he loses. So that's something to think about. Kim Schrier, thanks for being with us. It's good to see you.</s>SCHRIER: Thank you. Great to see you.</s>VAUSE: Well, 13 people are facing charges for allegedly plotting to kidnap and kill Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. A federal criminal complaint says the larger plan was to overthrow several state governments, starting with an attack on Michigan's state capital. It sounds like the plot of a very bad movie, but federal and state officials say it was a violent, dangerous plan to commit domestic terrorism. Jessica Schneider has details.</s>GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): I knew this job would be hard. But I'll be honest, I never could have imagined anything like this.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaking out against the alleged plot to kidnap her.</s>WHITMER: You don't have to agree with me, but I do ask one thing. Never forget that we are all in this together.</s>J. SCHNEIDER: Today, the FBI charging six men in the conspiracy, saying the group plotted to kidnap the governor from her vacation home before the election. Authorities became aware of the scheme as they monitored social media and discovered a group of men based in Michigan mapping out how to violently overthrow government officials and target law enforcement.</s>ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: The alleged conspirators used operational security measures, including communicating by encrypted messaging platforms; and used code words and phrases in an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement.</s>J. SCHNEIDER: Law enforcement was able to track the group by using informants and undercover agents who recorded the men when they visited the governor's vacation home two times.</s>BIRGE: Fox and Croft in particular, according to the complaint, discussed detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the home, and Fox even inspected the underside of a Michigan highway bridge for places to seat an explosive. The complaint further alleges that Fox purchased a Taser for use in the kidnapping and that the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to test its anti-personnel capabilities.</s>J. SCHNEIDER: State officials announcing separate terrorism charges against seven other men, saying they planned to instigate civil war, target police officers, and storm the capital building in Lansing, taking hostages, including Governor Whitmer.</s>MATTHEW SCHNEIDER, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: All of us in Michigan can disagree about politics, but those disagreements should never, ever amount to violence.</s>J. SCHNEIDER: Whitmer has been a frequent target of President Trump over her coronavirus response. Trump saying this at a rally in her state last month.</s>TRUMP: You'd be doing even better if you had a governor that knew what the hell she was doing. You've got to open up the state.</s>J. SCHNEIDER: And tweeting, "Liberate Michigan" in April. Protesters, some armed, have even gathered at the state capital, calling for an end to Whitmer's stay-at-home order. The governor today blaming Trump for escalating the rhetoric.</s>WHITMER: "Stand back and stand by." Hate groups heard the president's words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter.</s>J. SCHNEIDER (on camera): Republicans around Michigan have rallied in support of Governor Whitmer, a Democrat. But White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is calling Whitmer's comments divisive and outlandish, saying this. Quote, "President Trump has continually condemned white supremacists and all forms of hate," but leaving out the fact that it did take President Trump two days after that last debate to actually condemn white supremacists. Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.</s>VAUSE: And Governor Whitmer wants the White House to take a stronger stand against domestic terrorism and violence. She says the administration has clearly failed to end hate and division.</s>WHITMER: I have raised this very issue with this White House and asked them to bring the heat down. I have asked leaders, Republican leaders in the state, let's bring the heat down. I was aware of a lot of the threats that were being made against me and my family, and I asked for their help. And they didn't do a darn thing about it and then denied even knowing that it was a problem. And here we are. We came very close to a plot that was to kidnap me and to murder. That was what the affidavits say. Also, to hurt law enforcement, to bomb our capital, meaning all the press and the Democrats and Republicans in our capital. This cannot stand. And we have to call it out for what it is. It is domestic terrorism. And I quoted Ronald Reagan in my comments earlier today, because there are good Republicans who stand up and take this on. I do have kids and a husband, who have seen people with automatic rifles on our front lawn more weekends than I -- than I care to name how many. But this is a moment where, as Americans, we need leaders who can bring us together. We need leaders who recognize the enemy is the virus, not our fellow Americans. And these are hard times, but we're going to get through them.</s>VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, the pandemic and mental health. A desperate situation for some, which could be made even worse with more lockdowns on the horizon. |
COVID-19 and the Impact on Mental Health | VAUSE: Welcome back. In the United States, a recent decline in the number of COVID-19 deaths may soon come to an end. The infection rate, trending upwards again, and more cases will most likely, at some point lead, to more deaths. A new forecast from the CDC says the total death toll could rise to 233,000 in just weeks, by the end of the month. Right now, Johns Hopkins University reports more than 212,000 deaths across the United States. That's the highest in the world, by far. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, though, he's focusing on more optimistic news, giving a shorter time frame than the one President Trump has shared, when it comes to a vaccine and its distribution. Listen to this.</s>ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: The good news is that we're doing everything we can to ensure that we have supplies manufactured. Pending FDA authorizations, we believe we may have up to 100 million doses by the end of the year, enough to cover especially vulnerable populations. And, we project having enough for every American who wants a vaccine by March to April of 2021.</s>VAUSE: Well, COVID-19 cases are also rising in France. Parts of the country have been placed on maximum alert. The health ministry on Thursday reported more than 18,000 new cases for the second day in a row, more than twice what it was during the country's lockdown earlier this year. More cities are joining Paris and Marseille and closing their bars. Restaurants will have to apply for -- have to apply, rather, stricter health protocols. Officials say it's because hospital emergency beds are filling up quickly with COVID-19 patients. And Madrid in Spain now in a standoff with the national government over coronavirus restrictions. A court overturned a government order on Thursday that would have put the region under a partial lockdown. Still, regional leaders are urging people to stay at home. Spain is reporting the most COVID-19 cases in western Europe. National officials are blaming Madrid for a recent spike.</s>FERNANDO SIMON, SPANISH HEALTH EMERGENCY CHIEF (through translator): There is an autonomous region that represents 31 percent of the total number of cases in the last 14 days. It's region of Madrid.</s>VAUSE: Well, the Czech Republic is tightening its coronavirus restrictions as it becomes the hardest hit country in the E.U. on a per capita basis. Pools, gyms, fitness centers will shut down, while all restaurants and bars will closed at 8 p.m. for the next two weeks. Weddings limited to 30 people, and all nonessential hospital visits will be banned. The country reported more than 5,300 new infections. That was on Wednesday alone, highest daily count since the pandemic began. A new study suggests the silent transmission of coronavirus may be far greater than transmission from symptomatic people. Researchers at the University College London looked to date on 36,000 tests for those who actually were positive. Eighty-six percent showing no COVID-19-specific symptoms. Just over 76 percent showing no symptoms of any sickness whatsoever. The study offers conclude that COVID-19 symptoms are poor markers of infection and that more widespread testing is required to prevent silent transmission and to prevent future outbreaks. While lockdowns and social isolation have been safeguards against the coronavirus, they can also have a severe impact on mental health. CNN's Isa Soares, has the story of Pip, a young woman whose struggle was much more difficult and dangerous when the U.K. locked down.</s>ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sun may be shining on Pip Rudge, but this 23-year-old knows that a dark cloud could come at any moment.</s>PIP RUDGE, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION PATIENT: Having an ice cream since I was, like, 8.</s>SOARES: For months now, she's been seeking treatment for anxiety, and depression exacerbated by COVID-19.</s>RUDGE: I just felt, like, hopeless. I felt like there was nothing in the future that I was going to be able to accomplish. And I just felt completely lost and alone. So it was really hard, and I was struggling with self-harm at the time, as well. And -- and it was just one of those really, really dark places that I just hope that I never get back to.</s>SOARES: Like so many others, lockdown and isolation pushed her mental health to the brink. As her support network crumbled, and she was unable to seek the help of mental health professionals. She says a suicide attempt forced her to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for three weeks. These images show her inside the ward. According to a June report from mental health charity Mind, the devastating loss of life, the impact of lockdown, and the inevitable recession has made life bleaker for those with mental health problems, with 65 percent of adults and 75 percent of young people reporting their mental health got worse during lockdown.</s>STEPHEN BUCKLEY, HEAD OF INFORMATION, MIND MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY: What we've seen during lockdown, and immediately after, is people contacting us because they're having difficulty accessing their formal support services. Unfortunately, there seem to be more young people self-harming as a coping strategy.</s>SOARES: With the number of COVID-19 infections on the rise in the U.K., and in Europe, and more restrictions being put in place, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control is warning about the impact of new lockdowns on people's mental health. (on camera): When you hear the prime minister talk about further restrictions, do you worry about that? How about lockdown? How does that -- What kind of anxiety does that create in you?</s>RUDGE: It does make me anxious that, ultimately, I would end up back in hospital or I would be really, really, really struggling with my mental health. What I can do is, look after myself, take it day by day.</s>SOARES: For now, Rudge maintains her support network and says she's focusing on the positives. Her small victories.</s>RUDGE: So like, I have an app on my phone, and I'm, like, 133 days self-harm free. And I'm really proud of that.</s>SOARES: Small steps that will give her a better chance to overcome her darkest demons, should lockdown come knocking again. Isa Soares, CNN, Stratford Upon Avon, in England's West Midlands.</s>VAUSE: And if you or someone you know is experiencing mental health difficulties, there is a worldwide directory of resources, and international hotlines provided by the International Association for Suicide Prevention. You can also turn to Befrienders worldwide. Go to the website, IASP.info/resources, A lot more information there. A French aid worker who spent nearly four years in captivity in Mali is now back with her family.</s>VAUSE: That's the moment 75-year-old Sophie Petronin was reunited with her son. In 2016, she was running a children's charity when she was kidnapped by Islamist extremists. Other hostages were released, including two Italians, and a politician who'd been held for nearly seven months. Hundreds of protesters in Indonesia's capital have been arrested after clashing with police over a contentious new job creation law. At least 60 demonstrators and six police officers were injured Thursday during the third day of a nationwide strike. Critics say the law, which passed on Monday, scraps labor rights and environmental protections. The government, though, says it will create new jobs and attract foreign investment. Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, hair is a multi-billion-dollar business in the U.S., but where are some of the products being made? What an exclusive CNN investigation reveals, that's next. |
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