Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Sunday

Frustration Boils As States Reopen, Deaths Rise, Economy Suffers; Churches Feel Financial Strain Of Shutdown; Trump On Dictator Kim Jong-un: Glad To See He Is Back, and Well; U.S. Journalists Expelled From China While Covering COVID-19; Attorney Who Led Biden VP Vetting Says Team Found No Evidence Of Sexual Harassment; President George W. Bush Shares Uplifting Message Amid COVID-19. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired May 03, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And what a principal. Oh, nice job, nice job.

So if worrying about the coronavirus isn't enough, murder hornets have been spotted, yes, they're a thing, Victor. Murder hornets are in the U.S. for the very first time.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I feel like now, we're just getting names out of nowhere. Murder hornets?

PAUL: I know.

BLACKWELL: Listen, we've got that story and much more ahead in the next hour of NEW DAY. It starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We are not out of the woods. And we're not going to rush it. We're issuing a huge testing program, testing people and then tracing their contacts and then those people get tested, too, and quarantining people who test positive to help reduce the spread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does that mean we're going to stay out work because the doctors say that we're not ready to go out? We might not be ready. But that does not mean that you can't take precautions.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: We are human beings, equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together. And we are determined to rise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: Ah, she is beautiful in the morning. The city of Atlanta. Good morning.

And good morning to you. Thanks you so much for being with us on NEW DAY SUNDAY.

Listen, the warmer spring weather is coming now. Stay-at-home fatigue has long set in. It's luring people back outside. But remember, we got this health crisis and it is taking a heavy toll.

PAUL: Yes. Here in the United States more than 66,000 people have died now because of coronavirus and more than 1,400 of them died yesterday. And more states on a steady march to reopen.

By next Sunday, more than 40 states will partially reopen. Each state is coming at this with their own strategy, in some cases, clashing with local leaders though to its process.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to Orange County, California. You see the beach here closed. The governor shut it down, trying to keep the crowds away. City leaders in that county are now joining together two a legal challenge to that border amid you see here new protests.

Other states are holding off on reopening, and they're seeing some pockets of protests, too. This is in Kentucky.

PAUL: And let's go to New York because crowds went back to Central Park. Restrictions are still in place there as Governor Andrew Cuomo pushes a cautious approach in an unprecedented time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: So uncharted waters doesn't mean proceed blindly, right? It means, get information, get data, the best you can. And use that data to decide where you're going.

Let's stick to the facts, let's stick to the data. Let's make sure we're making decisions with the best information that we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: In other words, he wants us all to be mindful. The concern is people may let their guard down on social distancing, maybe they're starting to get back into some sort of routine.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to CNN's Alison Kosik. She's in New York.

Alison, good morning.

A lot of video of people out this weekend enjoying the weather, but we have to be diligent and stay safe.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Good morning, Christi and Victor. The improving weather is giving people with cabin fever a reason to get out of their homes and get some fresh air but that's posing challenges for social distancing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KOSIK (voice-over): Sunny spring weather along the East Coast brought out spectators in droves Saturday to watch the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds conduct formation flights in Washington, Baltimore and Atlanta, saluting medical workers and first responders on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis.

Crowds gathered at the National Mall defying requests from officials to stay at home to watch the flyover. Sidewalks were packed. Many wearing no masks and taking no distancing precautions. Others appeared to be following recommended safety guidelines.

At Prince George's Hospital in Cheverly, Maryland, medical staff gathered outside to enjoy the moment of honor.

BRANDON COLE, CLINICAL DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT, PRINCE GEORGE'S HOSPITAL: Our staff had been working tirelessly to -- to treat the community and to see the level of response and appreciation and let them have a chance to kind of let their hair down for a second and really take it all in.

KOSIK: While Georgia, one in the first in the country to begin lifting had stay-at-home orders allowing barber shops, malls and other businesses to reopen, scores of people flock to local parks to view the flyover. Many had no masks and were close proximity.

The Georgia Department of public health says cases are climbing fast with almost 29,000 being reported, the highest number yet.

[07:05:04]

New Yorkers went to Central Park to enjoy the beautiful day. Parks have remained open during the state's pause order and city and state officials say they were bracing for crowds.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN.

BLASIO: We expected this and prepared for this. NYPD is out in force. I saw the enforcement numbers from an hour or so ago and they looked actually quite good. The vast majority of people gotten the message.

KOSIK: The New York City Parks Department told CNN in a statement Saturday that while there were a volume of visitors in Central Park and in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, most were in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

CUOMO: You guys need a hand.

KOSIK: Governor Andrew Cuomo reported New York is still averaging at least 900 new cases a day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: And with more than half of the country's state loosening their coronavirus restrictions by the end of the week, a reminder that the nation's top doctor Anthony Fauci saying states rushing to reopen are taking a significant risk. Victor, back to you.

BLACKWELL: Alison Kosik for us in New York -- thank you, Alison

PAUL: For a lot of frontline health care workers, states easing restrictions raises the possibility that their already difficult jobs could become harder.

We want to talk to Angela Felton-Coleman. She's a nurse practitioner at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Angela, thanks so much, first of all, for what you do and, secondly, for being with us. We appreciate it.

Before we do anything, I do want to get your reaction to some of the pictures that you may have seen regarding the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flights. They were doing it to honor all of you who are there on front line. There were concerns from a lot of people though that the social distancing didn't seem to play out on the ground with people who were watching.

What was your reaction to that?

ANGELA FELTON-COLEMAN, NURSE PRACTITIONER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER: Good morning, Christi. I am in a complete agreement. I think it was a wonderful gesture by the Blue Angels, but when you draw crowds like that, it kind of defeats the purpose of social distancing.

PAUL: Were you surprised that people were not practice is social distancing better?

FELTON-COLEMAN: Unfortunately, no, I'm not surprised. I've seen that from the beginning since we've received the social distancing instructions. A lot of people don't follow that. They don't wear masks. They are not washing their hands. People are still getting sick.

PAUL: So when we talk about people who are still getting sick, you have a unique perspective here because you have been working with children who have COVID or you've seen children who have had COVID which is very different because from the beginning of this there was a thought or belief based on the track or trajectory of this disease or virus that kids were in some way immune. Help us understand what you have seen in children who have COVID and how to treat it.

FELTON-COLEMAN: Yes, children are really no different than it the adults. Fortunately for them, they are not getting hit as hard if that makes sense. They still have the same symptoms -- fever, cough, congestion, runny nose. They can still have respiratory symptoms that you see with adults so there's really not much difference. We just don't see it as much as we do in children as well as adults.

PAUL: Does it hit them as hard as in adults?

FELTON-COLEMAN: It can. If they have -- if children are asthmatics or if they have other comorbid conditions, things that make them sicker, then it absolutely can.

PAUL: OK. Do you hospitalize them for the most part, or do you ever send them home?

FELTON-COLEMAN: Well, it just kind of depends. I currently work in children's hospital medical center in the emergency department, and what we've had to do because of COVID-19 is we've split our time between the emergency department and the our respiratory assessment center. So any children who present with any fever, cough, congestion, runny nose, we actually divert them from the emergency department to the respiratory assessment center unless they are in respiratory distress if we feel they need to be hospitalized right away.

And so, we actually assess them, take a look at them and see how they're doing and if they are well enough to go home, we will actually test on children and send them home with instructions with the parents to social distance and quarantine them until we get those results.

PAUL: OK. And things are going to change a lot in your state as of tomorrow. Governor Pete Ricketts opening businesses, restaurants, salons, barber shops, that kind of thing. One restaurant owner when I looked at some local media there said that this is life-saving for him. While there was another restaurant owner who said he didn't know if he would reopen because a good part of his staff, they aren't comfortable with it.

How comfortable are you with the reopenings right now?

[07:10:03]

FELTON-COLEMAN: I think it's too soon. I don't think Nebraska has seen the numbers that we see in other hot spots -- or I won't say other hot spots. We're not quite a hot spot yet here in Douglas County, but some of the images and things that we've seen from New York and other places, we haven't seen that yet and I feel like some of our residents aren't -- they're not following the social distancing guidelines and I think it's going to get worse before it gets better and I think it's too soon.

PAUL: Yes, there's -- the number of confirmed cases, more than 5,300 there in Nebraska, 73 deaths. We'll obviously keep our eye on you and wishing you all just Godspeed as you go through all of these and good luck with the reopenings because like it or not, they are coming tomorrow.

Angela Felton-Coleman, we appreciate taking time for us. We appreciate what you do. Thank you, ma'am.

FELTON-COLEMAN: Thank you, Christi.

BLACKWELL: You know how hard this period is hitting a lot of small businesses, what you may not realize is how tough a time this is for places of worship. Some of them fear that they will have to close for good because donations have dried up.

Here's Kyung Lah with some of their stories. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Where the spiritual look to God, it is the mortality of the pandemic that threatens their faith.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we ask that you help us in one of the most difficult periods of our church's history.

LAH: Coronavirus moved the congregation out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God, be with us and bless us, God, and speak to our spirit.

LAH: The service now virtual. Fewer than ten people allowed inside this chapel

CROWD: Hallelujah.

LAH: Severely impacting the donation basket.

JAMES ARTHUR RUMPH, GRANT AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Takes finances, you know, to cover those expenses that are necessary, all of the utilities, the mortgages.

LAH (on camera): Your church is truly in some ways a business.

RUMPH: Yes, a church is a business. It's a tremendous strain.

LAH (voice-over): The Grand AME Church in South L.A. is just one of the many houses of worship impacted around the world.

In Vatican City, the pope has delivered his message to a vacant square.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for everything that every up of you are doing.

LAH: In Tennessee, the pews are parking lots for the socially distance faithful, created in the era of COVID, but not enough to cover the bills. The latest available data shows 40 percent of congregations had no savings.

REV. ROBERT LEE, THE UNIFOUR CHURCH: I've been having to juggle not only guiding the congregation with this pandemic, but my own crisis of faith in this, where is God, what is God doing?

This is what pain feels like.

LAH: Reverend Robert Lee leads the Unifour Church in Newton, North Carolina. Like other pastors and priests, Lee has delivered last rites to coronavirus patients. He's now taken a pay cut and turned to Twitter. If you have some extra funds lying around and find my work meaningful, please help.

LEE: This is the make or break moment for communities of faith. And not only churches, but synagogues, mosques, temples everywhere. We're all struggling in this, the many churches that I know of didn't have online giving platforms until just recently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. This is Father Modesto.

LAH: Most churches rely on those who give this person.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open the latch.

LAH: This priest walked his congregants through how to give with little contact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the envelopes in the mail slot.

LAH (on camera): You're concerned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

LAH (voice-over): It's hard not to be says member Wayne Bolan (ph). He is giving as much as he can but knows it's not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's nothing of what I make per month. It's nothing of what I've been giving. That's the truth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: I want to thank Kyung Lah for that report.

There's a pastor in Connecticut we want to tell you about because he's honoring people who died of the coronavirus pandemic in a really special way. Every morning, Pastor Collins, he's the pastor of the First Congressional Church of Greenwich, places flags, you see him there on front lawn of his church. Each represents someone in his state who died from COVID-19, and as of this morning more than 2,400 people in Connecticut have died from the virus.

Pastor Collins hopes this sends a message for those who can't gather for funerals to remember are the person they love. And I think that's one of the hardest things right now to deal with, when somebody dies and you can't have that sense of closure and celebration for them with other people who loved them, it's a really hard thing to let go of.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that's a difficult to heal. I don't know if there's ever fully closure, but that moment of tribute with your family and friends, to not have it is certainly a deficit.

So, listen, we've got these weeks of speculation over the health of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un.

[07:15:04]

Well, now, we're seeing him, this video from North Korean state media. Hear what President Trump had to say about his reappearance.

PAUL: And, listen, this is not a plot out of a movie.

BLACKWELL: Sounds like it.

PAUL: I know, but look at it. Giant killer hornets from Asia, that's what you're looking at there. They have been spotted in the U.S. They are not just a danger to bees which are already having a hard time with the bee population in the U.S., but they are a danger to humans, too. We'll talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: North and South Korean soldiers fired shots in one another's direction. This was in the demilitarized zone dividing the two countries. South Korea's military says that soldiers from the north shot first and they hit a guard post in the zone. The South Korea says that their troops then responded and shot two rounds and they played a warning broadcast over their loudspeakers.

[07:20:06]

We're told that there was no damage. No casualties in this exchange.

PAUL: You know, but this happened just a day after North Korean state media showed these images of Leader Kim Jong-un appearing in public for the first time after a 20-day absence and, remember, there was intense speculation about his health at that time that we hadn't seen him.

BLACKWELL: President Trump is happy to see that North Korean dictator is well. The president has been tweeting about this over the weekend.

PAUL: Yes, I want to go live to the White House right now. CNN's Kristen Holmes is with us.

So, President Trump, he often praises Kim Jong-un. He even says once that they fell in love and had some not so nice things to say to him. There's been a big spectrum. But what is he saying this morning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi and Victor.

Well, President Trump is highlighting that strange relationship that he has with Kim Jong-un. He re-tweeted those state media photos and he wrote this: I for one am glad to see he is back and well.

So two things to note here. One, as you said, Christi, this comes after weeks of speculation on the murderous dictator's health that he hadn't been seen in public. The other thing I wanted to note about these photos, because we never know when it comes from North Korea is that U.S. intelligence officials are now telling CNN that based on current analysis, they believe these are legitimate photos. So, I just want to put that out there, since there's always a black hole surrounding North Korea.

But on the other side this tweet receiving almost immediate backlash because President Trump seemed to be celebrating or at least supporting this brutal leader. Shortly after he tweeted this, Otto Warmbier's name started trending on Twitter. Warmbier, of course, was the American student who is detained back in 2015 and held in North Korea for two years. He suffered severe brain damage and was eventually returned back to the U.S. in 2017 while President Trump was in office. He died shortly afterwards.

And I want to point out one thing here. It wasn't just North Korea that President Trump tweeted about. He attacked news writers -- news anchors. He attacked Democrats.

He really lashed out on Twitter all day yesterday and this comes after on Friday I did what I do every single Friday before I go on with you guys on Saturday, I asked White House aides was on the agenda this weekend. They said it's going to be a working weekend. He's going to have his nose to the grindstone talking about the economy, looking for ways to help employers and employees get back to work, open up the states.

But, again, yesterday, now, we're talking about this Kim Jong-un supportive tweet because yesterday it appeared that that's what he did the whole day was spent on Twitter ranting and lashing out.

BLACKWELL: Working weekend at Camp David. Kristen Holmes for us at the White House, thanks so much.

Ahead this morning on "STATE OF THE UNION," Jake Tapper is joined by National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Congressman Justin Amash who has taken a step toward a run for the presidency. "STATE OF THE UNION" airs at 9:00 Eastern, here on CNN.

PAUL: All right. Listen, this is a real thing, an invasion and potentially deadly species of hornets has just been found in the U.S. for the first time.

BLACKWELL: So, this is the Asian giant hornet. Researchers call it murder hornet, and has a venomous sting that can kill a human if the person is stung several times. They are also strong enough to puncture a beekeeper's suit. So, consider that.

But hornets are more than two inches long and have reportedly been attacking bee hives in Washington state. Scientists do not yet know how they made it to the U.S.

PAUL: That bee situation is dangerous as well because I know a lot of beekeepers are struggling right now because the bee population is taking a hit and they are having a really hard time taking care of those hives.

BLACKWELL: It's like we needed one more thing, one more thing.

PAUL: Just right now, exactly.

BLACKWELL: How about a murder hornet?

PAUL: Oh, why not.

All righty. The coronavirus, of course, it first began to rage in China. Well, journalists trying to document its spread were being harassed by the government there. We're talking to a reporter next with "The New York Times" who was kicked out of the country for his attempts to cover the story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:28:29]

PAUL: Did you know today is World Press Freedom Day and to quote here, it is to commemorate the freedom of expression, which is the very foundation of our democracy.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement emphasizing the importance saying, quote, that both professional and citizen journalists be free to report what they see and hear and to express their opinions openly.

Now, it's been noted earlier this year that he called an NPR reporter a liar over her questions on the Ukraine scandal. Appreciate the acknowledgement though of World Press Day.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, and on this day, we're going to take a closer look at China's relationship with the press during this coronavirus pandemic. Now, there have been the instances where government officials have openly stifled coverage, even kicked out several reporters for American outlets, U.S. outlets, journalists who were trying to document the health crisis.

Paul Mozur is one of them. He's the Asian technology reporter for "The New York Times". He spent 15 years covering China before he and his colleagues were expelled from China.

Paul, thanks so much for being with us.

PAUL MOZUR, ASIA TECHNOLOGY REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here with the stories. The middle of the night your phone buzzes and you do what a lot will have us try not to do and you pick it up and you look at it. What do you see?

MOZUR: Right, and, you know, for the first time ever it was actually -- there was a point in picking up the phone as I was going to bed because basically there was a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry saying it had been expelled and most of my reporter colleagues who were covering China along with, you know, reporters from "The Washington Post" and "The Wall Street Journal" all were basically given two weeks to pack up and get out.

[07:30:10]

BLACKWELL: There was always a possibility, but when you saw the words and you knew it was a reality, what -- what did you think? What did you feel?

MOZUR: Yes, I mean, you kind of become a nostalgic mess, right? You sort of spend so much of your life learning Chinese, running around the place. For some of my colleagues, they have family there, covering China is really more than a beat. It becomes a life in a way because it takes so much time to build up the sourcing and develop the skills necessary.

So, to have it all cut off like that. It's so surreal and abrupt. You know, I mean, I'm weeks on and I'm now in quarantine in Taiwan. I'm still sort of trying to process the whole thing and get used to it.

BLACKWELL: And the reporting is so crucial now considering the global pandemic. Early on, President Trump was very confident in the transparency that China would offer, highlighting his relationship with President Xi.

I wonder while you were there, what was the line? What was the narrative from these Chinese state media outlets to the people of China of what was going on?

MOZUR: Well, I mean, you know, off the bat, have you this new cover- up, because there are doctors who are trying to warn their colleagues about this whole thing as the epidemic is starting to spread. They're pulled in by police and told they cannot write about this stuff online and they should stop talking about it.

And one of those doctors ultimately gets sick and dies from the coronavirus. So, this sort of outrages Chinese social media and what happens is sort of propaganda and censorship apparatus goes into high gear, and over the coming months basically says that the Chinese system uniquely is sort of predisposed to deal with this perfectly. As the death toll rises and rises, our country shuts down, it's all kind of positive hero stories.

And finally, once it comes out of it, the rest of the world starts to get hit by it, it becomes this comparative point, look where China did and highlights places like Italy, like the United States and says they cannot handle it the way we can. They point to the privacy of the Chinese system. You know, in that way kind of build up the population and stoke nationalism. That has been very effective.

The problem is, there just isn't a lot of transparency for us to get in and see what was happening as the whole thing sort of is taking place in the first place. So it's hard for us to counter that narrative. When we can and do get good stuff, we are censored in China. So nobody actually see what is we are saying.

BLACKWELL: Reporters from "The Washington Post," "Wall Street Journal", "New York Times," expelled.

The big picture beyond the immediacy of the coronavirus, what do we lose by covering China from outside of China? What do we lose by not being there?

MOZUR: Yes. You lose a lot. I mean, you know, in China, there is just a massive amount of propaganda and censorship. It's very, very hard to puncture through that and see what is happening.

And really one of the only methods we have to do that is to be on the ground and go to places where things are happening and talk to regular people. For all the ways they are intimated by the government, people oftentimes want to talk in China and are happy to talk. That was the way we would learn about things.

So, you'd hear about something going on in China and I'd say 98 percent of the time when you'd go and look at it, the situation is quite different, what you heard is from Chinese state media. So, that's just absolutely critical to get a precise picture and understanding of what's happening on the ground at a time when their relationship with the United States is souring so badly, we've lost those kind of eyes and ears on the ground.

BLACKWELL: Yes, we'll see how long we are in this footing where the U.S. caps Chinese journalists and China will then expel U.S. journalists. It's interesting you point that out because I wrote down something that your colleague Raymond John (ph) wrote. He wrote in his piece about being expelled: I'm leaving China more experienced than ever how much they can teach us a place which is one reason the government was eager for us to leave.

On this World Freedom Press Day, Paul Mozur, thanks so much for what you do and thanks for being with us.

MOZUR: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So the man who led the vetting of Joe Biden when he was considered for Barack Obama's running mate says his team found no evidence of sexual harassment. The former vice president and now presidential hopeful, of course, denies the former aide's claim that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.

Here's CNN's Arlette Saenz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden has now repeatedly denied the allegations of sexual assault made against him by a former Senate staffer as his campaign continues to grapple with how to address this issue. One thing Biden's allies have pointed to in recent days is the 2008 vetting process Biden underwent as he became Barack Obama's running mate.

[07:35:06]

And I spoke with the attorney who led that operation into Joe Biden. William Jeffress told me that he had a team of ten lawyers spending two months looking into Biden's background and record and speaking with dozens of people and in that search, they did not find evidence of sexual misconduct. The name of the staffer Tara Reade never came up during the vetting process, and this is something that Biden's allies have pointed to as he has continued to deny the allegations.

Now, in Biden's denial, he has also called for the Senate to identify and locate and release any possible complaint that the staffer might have filed against him back in the 1990s. For some, they want to see more information. Biden has said he will not open up his Senate papers, which are currently held at the University of Delaware. He said that personnel files related to people's employment would not be in those records.

But the "New York Times" editorial board released an editorial calling for an independent apolitical panel to look through and find and conduct an investigation specifically looking to see if there is any mention or connection to Tara Reade.

Now, the DNC pushed back on that saying it was an absurd idea and pointing to that 2008 vetting process as having research and gone through Joe Biden's background. But this is certainly an issue that Biden and his campaign will continue to have to deal with and grapple with as they are headed into that general election against President Trump.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: All right. Thank you very much.

She just mentioned the election there. Well, former Vice President Biden says his campaign is looking at more than a dozen women in the search for a running mate. And he also said there is, quote, significantly more than one black woman being considered.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, the message from former President George W. Bush during this pandemic.

Also, you get to look at all the celebrities who participated in this call to unite live stream. We'll have a look for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:53]

BLACKWELL: I wonder if you had an opportunity to check out this live stream event. Twenty-four hours, celebrities from around the world, it's called the Call to Unite. We had 98 Degrees, Oprah Winfrey there with former President Bill Clinton.

PAUL: Julia Roberts was there. There was this lineup that included the former presidents. Obviously Clinton, Jimmy Carter was there, George W. Bush.

President Bush, in fact, shared a message for the challenging and solemn time that the world is facing right now. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: Let's remember that the suffering we experience as a nation does not fall evenly. In the days to come, it will be especially important to care in practical ways for the elderly, the ill and the unemployed. Finally, let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together and we are determined to rise.

God bless you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Certainly a message that the country needs and also that respite. Sometimes you need just a good song. You need to see the faces, hear the music and get those messages from leaders.

PAUL: Yes, you just need that moment to hear from somebody who says it so well that at the end of the day, we're all in this together.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: And to recognize that, because sometimes you say it and the words seem a little hollow.

BLACKWELL: Yes, certainly, it's easy to feel alone, especially when you are told to physically distance yourself. We sometimes need that.

All right, let's talk about what's happening tonight, "The President and the Pandemic". There is this new CNN report, it airs at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

PAUL: Yes, it looks at the global spread of COVID-19. It examines how President Trump reacted to the unfolding crisis.

The show's host is with us now, CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent, Jake Tapper.

Jake, thank you so much. Good to see you this morning.

I know the president likes to say --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, guys.

PAUL: Thank you.

I know the president likes to say he got ahead of this pandemic, right, by stopping travel from China. Talk about the focus of your investigation, particularly on the initial response from this president.

TAPPER: Well, the president is not wrong in the sense that his partial travel ban of foreign nationals from coming to the U.S. bought the U.S. sometime. But then the big question, what did he do? What did the United States government do with that time?

And that's a part of this deep investigation that we're doing tonight. It takes a look at the response from governors, the World Health Organization, the Chinese government and President Trump to this horrific pandemic. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[07:45:00]

TAPPER (voice-over): February began with a ban.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Not one person has died and I issued a travel restriction from China.

TAPPER: The restriction stopped most Chinese residents and foreign nationals who had recently been in China from traveling to the U.S.

The restrictions also started a clock.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: When you talk to public health experts, they look at despair at those couple of weeks. They say whatever your feelings were on the travel ban at the time, it was a perfectly fine and reasonable step to take. He bought himself a little built of time and he just squandered it.

TAPPER: There were only nine known cases of the novel coronavirus inside the U.S. The first step to keeping that number low according to experts was a working test for the virus.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Testing was, is, and always will be the cornerstone of trying to stem a pandemic. You've got to identify the people who are infected. You've got to be able to isolate those folks and you've got to be able to treat them. It all begins with testing.

MURRAY: February 6th is when the CDC starts sending these test kits out to public health departments.

TAPPER: But the tests, the only tests approved for use in the United States were not working.

MURRAY: Their hearts just sink when they're trying to use this test and it's malfunctioning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: So this mistake by the CDC to get functioning tests up and running, that was a big problem. Then, of course, President Trump for all of February and some of March was downplaying the threat of the virus despite the fact that people in his administration were urging him to push the American people to take steps to try to isolate each other and practice social distancing. That didn't happen until March, either -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: The number on our screen 1,133,069. And the president famously said 15-to-zero. Soon this would wash away, disappear.

TAPPER: Yes. It shows a real disconnect between what the health experts were saying and the falsehoods the president was saying, perhaps in hopes that he can will this away. But all that time that he bought by doing that partial travel ban from China, a hospital of it was squandered, and, of course, now the U.S. has this staggeringly high rate of both infection and the tragic rate of deaths, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Jake Tapper, thanks, so much, Jake.

PAUL: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: A CNN special report, "The Pandemic and the President" airs tonight at 10:00.

PAUL: Do stay with us. It was a heck of a show in the sky. The Navy's Blue Angels, the Air Force Thunderbirds. The flyover for a few lucky cities yesterday. We'll tell you more, stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:15]

PAUL: So the Kentucky derby has been postponed until September. And Churchill Downs isn't scheduled to reopen for two weeks. There was still a race for the roses yesterday.

I'm still stuck on the Kentucky Derby in September.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: What is that going to look like?

BLACKWELL: Well, we're going to find out.

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Hopefully, we'll find out if we can get back to that type of gathering.

Race organizers held a virtual derby with all 13 Triple Crown winners from throughout history going head to head. Watch.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

PAUL: That was the real Kentucky derby bugler there on his doorstep calling digital horses to the track. 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat pulled out the win. People could pick the winner for a chance to go to the derby this fall. Again, fingers crossed it happens.

But people are also talking this weekend, Victor, about this spectacular fly over. The view -- this view I want to share with you from the National Mall in Washington.

Navy's Blue Angels, Air Force's Thunderbirds performing formation flights and this is all to honor first responders, the doctors, nurses, the EMTs, technicians for all the work they're doing during the pandemic.

BLACKWELL: Yes, they flew over Atlanta, my hometown of Baltimore. These images -- this is over Atlanta. One of our writers, Chloe Jones, shot this video. It was beautiful. And you know what, perfect sky for it too.

PAUL: Oh, my goodness, yes. With all the funky weather we've had --

BLACKWELL: That's a good description.

PAUL: -- I think a lot of people -- we saw so, so many people. My daughter and I were driving when we saw it. But the people that lined the roads, they were standing on the very top level of parking garages and they had pulled over to the side of the freeway to stop and watch these fly-overs, because -- and I'm wondering, I mean, they flew right over one of the largest hospitals here in Atlanta. They flew over children's health care of Atlanta, and Northside and that area. And so, you're hoping that they got a chance to -- the folks there got a chance to come out and watch it as well because it was for them.

BLACKWELL: Yes, this is Bethesda, Maryland. You see this is flying over a medical center there as well. For all the first responders, to everyone working on the front line, thank you from the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds.

And you know it was a moment to kind of look up and it is a moment in which you feel like one of many, really, because you're standing out there with so many people who are taking this in.

PAUL: And hopefully that moment, when we recognize, this is something that we're all going through.

[07:55:04]

This isn't just -- this is very collective on our part, and hopefully they understand these doctors and nurses and technicians understand how important they are to all of us and that we recognize that.

So, thank you for all the work you do. Thank you for all of you who spent some time with us today. We hope you make good memories.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)