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Cuomo Prime Time

White House Held CDC Guideline; Ousted Vaccine Expert Testifies on Capitol Hill; Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) Was Interviewed About the Steps They're Taking in Reopening the Economy in New Jersey; Coronavirus Pandemic; Interview With Gov. Toney Evers (D-WI) About The Law On His State Of Wisconsin Calling The Situation The Wild West; New Developments In Ahmaud Arbery Shooting Case; CDC Issues Warning About Mystery Illness In Kids. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired May 14, 2020 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Hey, everybody. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to Prime Time.

Some CDC guidelines for reopening are now out. The White House for some reason held them back. And as a result of the delay, almost 50 states have listed restrictions in some way without that guidance.

Now, know this, to reopen or not is not the question. We have to reopen. The only question has always been how. And when you don't focus on that through the lens of science and smarts, you get Wisconsin, packed bars after a court overturned the governor's stay- home order.

I want you to look at the case graph for the state, OK? This is Wisconsin's total confirmed cases graph. And you allow people to go into packed bars? What do you think is going to happen now?

We have the governor of Wisconsin tonight. Governor Evers did not want what you were seeing in those pictures. He'll make the case to his state and this country.

Now, the day after Trump says that kids are in great shape, there's a new nationwide warning for children. We'll give you the real deal here tonight. We're also finally hearing from the attorneys for the accused in the Georgia killing. Let's get to the facts. Let's unravel them and understand what happened there. What do you say? Let's get after it.

Well, ready or not, the reality is the country is out and about again. It's always been our fate to reopen, but how you do it matters. The president's ousted vaccine chief was on the Hill today. He says the way we're reopening is wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BRIGHT, FORMER FEDERAL VACCINE CHIEF: Our window of opportunity is closing. There will be likely a resurgence of COVID-19 this fall. Twenty-twenty could be the darkest winter in modern history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That's Rick Bright. He testified after filing a whistleblower report claiming retaliation for sounding alarms. He says not only are we reopening the wrong way, but we are in a worse position right now than we needed to be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGHT: I'll never forget the e-mail I received from Mike Bowen indicating that we are -- we are -- our mask supplier, N95 respirator supply was completely decimated. And he said we're in deep shit, the world is, and we need to act. And I pushed that forward to the highest levels I could in HHS and got no response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: A lot of media tonight spending a lot of time on the fact that when Trump heard about this, he trashed Bright and he called it, you know what, I don't care, and neither should you. That's noise and politics and changes no minds.

Here's what you should focus on. The president also said something again today that should go down in history as his biggest mistake. No matter how long he's president, once again this president made clear to you on the record that he dismisses the importance of testing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[22:05:07]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It could be the testing's frankly overrated. Maybe it is overrated. We have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing, we would have very few cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: You don't find something is wrong. You find out the truth. It's not right or wrong. It's called accurate. And this isn't semantics, OK? America doesn't test the most.

Trump is literally blaming the quantity of cases that we have in this country on the ability to count accurately. Think about that. This is a big number. You know what I blame? Math. Listen. He doesn't want you to know the truth. Think about that. The only way to know how many cases we have, he doesn't like. He doesn't want to use it.

But this is different than all his delusions of the past. He is finally dealing with something, this pandemic, viruses, cases, illnesses, deaths, that is all too real to make fake simply by saying so. The result is also too real. We are a country in crisis. Kaitlan Collins is at the White House tonight. Kaitlan, in terms of

the White House response to what Bright was saying, they are avoiding the substance and going to who he is and trashing him. But what is the net of effect on what their planning will be like because of what he's saying?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the question. We really had not seen HHS, the department of course that Rick Bright came from bush back on him in any substantive way until he started testifying today. And then they put out a lengthy statement saying here's his claims, here's our rebuttal.

And we also heard the HHS secretary do the same. When he was with the president today leaving the White House. And this is how the president describe how he saw Rick Bright after watching part of his testimony this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This guy is fighting it. No reason to fight it. There's no reason. But more importantly than that, we've had tremendous response to the hydroxy. But I've watched him. And he looks like an angry, disgruntled employee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: So, Chris, he says there are tremendous response to hydroxychloroquine. The FDA has even pushed back on that. Rick Bright also said today that he disagrees with the president's claim that he just made a few days ago that anyone who wants a test can get a test. He said that's not true and there aren't enough tests in the United States.

And he also disagreed with what the president and other people have been saying about this hopeful time line for a vaccine. The president said today he still thinks it can be done by the end of the year.

Rick Bright said even 12 to 18 months is really ambitious, and that's if everything goes right. And he said rarely does everything go right when you're developing a vaccine.

CUOMO: Kaitlan Collins, you are gold. Thank you very much for staying late and giving us the latest. I appreciate it.

COLLINS: Of course.

CUOMO: Be well.

All right. So, the CDC was finally allowed to put out some guidance on safely reopening. Now that all but two states have already started to do just that before they're able to get any guidance. Now, as for the guidance, look, it's better than nothing. You're seeing it now.

Why am I -- why am I underplaying it? Well, if you get to see what they are, they're basically decision trees. Is the property inside? Well then, you should clean. Is it outside? Then you don't have to clean as much. I mean, it's not the most detailed stuff in the world, and it almost reads and plays like something that was intentionally watered down.

It doesn't really give any direct and in-depth guidance about anything that states have to deal with. They instead target certain employers like restaurant camps and daycares. That means once again governors are on their own. And it just wreaks of the stench of being able to do better, whatever that would smell like.

Now, what the governors have to deal with is a mixed bag, right, because not every state is in the same situation. Some still have rising cases. Most are steady, seeing some small declines. You have a lot of states like that.

Look, all the data is on the map in front of you. It's not about how I feel about it or how you feel about it. It's about facts.

Now, New Jersey is one of the states where -- look at the color coding -- kind of steady to dropping.

So, let's bring in that state's governor, Phil Murphy. Good to see you, governor. I know you're working very hard. I'm sure your state appreciates it. We see it in the polls. I know you see it in peoples' faces when you're moving all over your constituency.

[22:10:08]

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Good to be back. Chris, good seeing you in the studio, by the way. You look great. Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: It is good to be here. Do you have news for people tonight? Is there something they should know?

MURPHY: Listen, we are taking this one step at a time. You're absolutely right, the curves -- that map shows that the curves that matter, hospitalizations, ICU beds, ventilators, sadly not as many fatalities, it is still spiking, but lesser than it was. They are going in the right direction. But we're not out of the woods yet.

So, we've started to take baby steps or incremental steps. And today, we announced a big one, that effective a week from tomorrow from Memorial Day weekend under certain constraints we're going to have beaches open on the Jersey shore.

That's a big step. We take it very seriously. We did it in coordination with the shore communities and counties. We're letting them -- they've been great partners by the way. We're letting them execute the details in each of their communities, but this is a big step for us.

CUOMO: Scary. I know we've talked about this before, beaches especially. The culture of beach going is to be around each other. You're around each other in the water. You're around each other on the sand. What are the parameters and what are your concerns?

MURPHY: Yes, the big -- the big parameters are twofold, and not surprisingly. Number one, capacity. So, we open -- you'll recall last time I was with you we were going to open a state and county parks. And that's gone quite well.

New Jersians by the way from the get-go have been extraordinary and compliant with all this and that includes parks. So, the two big mantras there were social distancing and limiting capacities, in that case it was limiting the parking lot capacities.

We're also begging people to wear face coverings. Similar approach to beaches. Social distancing enforced locally and capacity executed locally. And you know, the Jersey shore, that might be selling half the tags, the daily tags that they would normally sell in one community or in island beach state park limiting parking spaces.

But those are two big -- those are the two big themes of the constraints. And we've got, as I said, great cooperation from the communities and the mayors, and God willing we'll be able to pull this off.

CUOMO: Now, when you say face coverings, at the beach you've got to wear a mask?

MURPHY: Recommended strongly. Frankly, we don't want to put something down that we don't feel that we can enforce to the max. And we think at the beach that's going to be hard with the same imploring at the county and state parks.

Frankly, that's the one area where the compliance has been lower than we'd like. So, we're going to amp up our communications at the beaches, in the parks, on the highways. We think face coverings -- they don't trump social distancing, but they're a close second.

CUOMO: The idea of what happens if it goes wrong, in three weeks if you start to see case pops, what are you willing to do?

MURPHY: We'll have to -- we'll have to pull back, Chris. We'll have no choice. Again, we also have to remember the tragedy within the tragedy right now is that our long-term care facilities which have been ravaged in the United States but certainly in New Jersey. It's at least half of our fatalities. And we're doing everything we can to get our arms around that.

So, you've got sort of different elements of where we're getting hit hard right now. But if we have to, whether it's parks, beaches, we're opening up I hope elective surgery, we just did construction, curb side pick-up of non-essential retail. We'll do pools, charter fishing. We're doing these in steps, and we are trying to monitor each incrementally. And if we have to pull the brakes, we will do that.

CUOMO: That will be a tough call, but it is good you're giving people warning ahead of time that that is your option, governor. As long as you're straight with people and you give them the numbers to the extent that you can -- I know you don't have to the money --

MURPHY: Yes. CUOMO: -- and the manpower capabilities to do the testing and tracing that you want to. But I know you're trying. As long as you're straight, you'll always have an opportunity here to give the case to the people of your state and the country. Good luck with what you're doing, governor.

MURPHY: Thank you, Chris. Great to be with you. Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. Why do I say good luck? But the way, just so you know -- the governor can go, he's very busy. I don't believe in luck. OK? Sometimes you have preparation leading opportunity, but I don't believe in luck. You get what the likeliest outcome is. Nobody wants to see people get sick. OK?

I don't want to see people go to the beach and get sick. I want to see them have a good time, not get to sun burned, you sun tan, have a good time, make good memories.

[22:15:01]

But we have to be prudent. And when you do things that fly in the face of science and common sense, you've got to be ready for negative outcomes. It's good to hear the governor say if it goes the wrong way, I'll pull back. That won't be popular but it may be the right thing to do.

Listen to the scientists. That's what the ousted vaccine chief said on the Hill today.

What happens if they're not listened to? They're certainly not by the White House, right? My next guest says everybody should be resigning. If you don't like how it's going, resign. And he knows Bright and he's a top scientist himself. Let's talk about why he says that's the right course, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: So, Rick Bright, the scientist turned whistleblower who until recently was a big shot in the effort to find a vaccine, he said some damning things about how Trump is poisoning efforts to deal with the pandemic.

Let's get the take of a man I respect very greatly, CNN medical analyst Professor Arthur Caplan. Professor, good to see you.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Chris. How are you?

CUOMO: So, I'm doing well. Thank God. Rick Bright said some damning things today. Azar pushed back on some of them, the head of HHS. Even if Bright is right about everything, what's going to change?

[22:20:04]

CAPLAN: Well, nothing is going to change. And I know Bright a bit, and he's honest. He's dedicated. He's fact driven. He's one of the most experienced scientists that's been around the White House in the past decade, expert on flu, expert on infectious disease, worked in private industry, worked at the CDC. This is a guy you want to listen to very carefully.

What we're seeing the president do and his allies is try to suggest that this guy is some kind of disgruntled employee. Of course, he's disgruntled.

CUOMO: Right.

CAPLAN: The administration is not paying any attention to science, and what they're doing is attacking this guy, Fauci, others, it's clear that the new strategy is go to war on science. And I think it's nonsense.

And I think it's time for us to say to scientists at the White House, federal scientists, indeed the whole scientific community but mainly people at the White House, it's time to think seriously about resignation.

The reason I say that is if Trump is going to distort things, if Trump is going to basically put his science under attack than just being window dressing for a fact-free no-data policy is not something that scientists should do.

CUOMO: So, Professor, just for the audience's edification in judging what was about to happen, if I were going to believe one of the two of us, it would be you 10 times out of 10.

That said, I don't agree with you for the first time ever, professor. And I've been talking to you for well over a decade. If they resign, then we lose the only competency that we have in the place. God forbid Tony Fauci says, you know what, I'm tired of the media playing got you with me and try to put me in a box where I have to correct Trump and then Trump talking trash about, I'm out of here.

Can you imagine how desperate a day that would be for the American people? And if we lose the competent minds, then all you have is Trump and the minions.

CAPLAN: Well, you know, we've got Trump drinking bleach and about wearing the mask --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: God forbid. But he did kind of suggest it.

CAPLAN: No social distancing. And I/m saying this. I hear what you're saying, Chris. You know, you're really going to have the last competent members of the crew jump off the ship. But if he's got under attack, he's already decided he's not paying attention to it, then we're at the spot that you don't want to be at. He's taking them out of the box.

So, the reason I'm talking about resignation, and I'd like to see some noise made by our scientific professional societies, our medical societies. It's like let's knock off the war on science, Mr. President. Let's get him and his allies to say we're not going to try and disparage those who try to give us data and the facts.

Chris, you know, if he's just going to bring these people out there when he feels like it and then do what he wants or make the facts up -- and that seems to be where we're at right now -- we need a tough response. I'm with you. I get it. I don't want, you know, the only competent people around Washington to run away and leave us just to the hands of ideologs.

Look, I know the history of epidemics. Do you know how many epidemics were cured by politicians?

CUOMO: Zero?

CAPLAN: Were cured by right wing militia? Zero. Polio, smallpox, scientists did it. Doctors did it.

CUOMO: Right.

CAPLAN: That's who you have to turn to if we're going to beat this thing. But if he's just going to basically say I don't care, then his White House is going to say, you know, you're just under attack. Then we need a counter response that says we're not going to put up with this.

You can ignore the data if you want, but you can't disparage it. You can't lock up the science guys in a hallway. We're half of the people that are supposed to be speaking about the science. They seem to be disappeared like it was chilly.

CUOMO: As long as they're able to do their jobs and get the policies in place and get the money where it needs to be, then I think that the war of words -- leave it to the president, leave it to the polls. And the emphasis that I think you're asking for I frankly think we need to see r move it in the media.

Chase Trump about what he say, but don't chase the scientists about what Trump says. And when they speak about science, keep it at that. Don't ask Trump about science. He doesn't know science. And he only muddies the waters in a way that the scientists can't fix. But I get what you're saying, Art. The professor is asking for accountability.

CAPLAN: Accountability.

CUOMO: And at the end of the day that is the media's job to do through exposure of the truth and it's the peoples' job to deal with the truth at the polls.

CAPLAN: And this sort of, if you will, public shame of Dr. Bright who is supposed to be the guy who's going to lead us to a vaccine, told us that they have no plan, basically said the vaccine status coming out of the White House are a dream which I happen to agree with.

[22:25:05]

This six-month, 12-month business, it doesn't make any sense. And no one knows better than he does. Although I think if you really ask most experts, they would agree we've got to get the science back. So, you and I aren't fighting so much --

CUOMO: No.

CAPLAN: -- to say look, if there's this war on our science, if we don't care about data, if we're going to disparage it, make it up --

CUOMO: Right.

CAPLAN: -- basically denigrate those, that's got to stop. And I'll go all the way to threaten the resignation, but let's have a day of protest and let's get the media on board saying, you know, we're tired of just taking the best scientists we've got and putting them on these show trials. This isn't North Korea.

CUOMO: I'm with you. You listen to the scientists about the science. You don't ask the president about the science when you know he doesn't understand anything about it. And you hold the science - you hold the science sacrosanct by not muddying it with the president's mouth. Go after the president for what he says, keep the science separate,

we'll be OK.

But, professor, I get your frustration, and I get your desire for keeping science above the fray. i appreciate it. Be well. God bless.

CAPLAN: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So, the president is thrilled about Wisconsin because it's bustling again. He wants to reopen. He doesn't give a damn how you do it. And that is not just offensive to science, it should be offensive to you. What you're seeing now -- God bless them. I hope they're all well and healthy. It's stupid. Maskless customers flooding bars. What do we know? Distance and duration equals spreading of this disease. Why are we doing this? We have the governor next.

[22:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Crazy situation in Wisconsin. It really is. Now Governor Tony Evers is joining us now. He calls the situation in his state the Wild West. Now, here's the scary thing. As he well know, geographically Wisconsin is really like the middle of the country and metaphorically it is literally the middle of the cross roads that we're at.

Reopen or not reopen is not a proposition. You have to reopen. Staying closed is death overtime. It's pain. It's distress before that. But overtime, it will be death. Peoples' dreams and livelihoods will die. But look at their case curve there. This is what I want to be the context for our conversation. It is going up and up and up OK? How do you look at this case curve and not think that how to reopen has to have conditions?

So, here's what happens in Wisconsin. They have a state law that makes them different than New York and a lot of other states and places that have high cases. We'll bring the governor in now so he can tell me if I'm getting any of this wrong. Welcome to Prime Time, sir, it's good to have you.

So, you're state has a law that says this kind of order has to be done through the appropriate state agency which in this case is HHS. Then they sue you, essentially the Republicans in the state legislature and they win because the court says yes, you cannot have unelected lawmakers -- unelected people doing the equivalent of making law, that that has to be through an elected body.

So, that law is in conflict with this ruling. And really it leaves you in nowhere land because you can't fix it by just doing it yourself. I thought that would be an end around. The governor is elected. He'll do it. No, the state law says you can't. So, there's no way unless your legislature wants to, for you to have a rule in Wisconsin that people need to stay home or some degree of that?

GOV. TONY EVERS (D-WI): No, that's absolutely right. And not only -- it's different -- it's more than just state law. The Republicans convinced four Supreme Court justices that a, facts don't matter, b, the law doesn't matter, and c, the precedents don't matter.

So, it, you know, they talk about unelected persons. She is not unelected. She's appointed by me. She's an outstanding health policy person. But the bottom line is, it was the -- it was a horrible decision, not unexpected, not unexpected because clearly there were four justices that were looking for any way they could to conquer with Republican majority in the legislature. So, it happened, and now we have the Wild West.

CUOMO: So, when you say Wild West, everybody is going to reopen. You have to. It's about life.

EVERS: Sure.

CUOMO: And let's be honest, the American people. I know the polls say 60, 70, even sometimes touching about 80. Now, we don't want to reopen too soon, we don't want to do it the wrong way. I don't buy the polls. People want to reopen. It's always been about how. Will the Republicans in your legislature work with you so that how does not look like what I'm seeing right now which is basically the most dangerous way to have people in proximity over time?

EVERS: Absolutely. The first that it was within hours of this decision, the Wisconsin Tavern League sent out a notice to all their members saying you're open, get open. And that's how it plays out. You know, anybody that -- you know, you don't have to be a science person. You don't have to be a politician to figure out you've got a lot of people in a place and you're going to spread a disease.

And so no, there are no solutions to this problem, Chris. And on top of it, we just came off a (Inaudible) poll that's at 69 percent of the state supported my administration's position. Our metrics, frankly, on Donald Trump's metrics which were pretty hypha looting, we're doing well on that. And we have the lowest per capita of covid-19 in the Midwest on a percentage base, per capita basis.

[22:35:24] So, we are in a good place. We just did do some opening up. We brought

14,000 small businesses online with 90,000 people. The day after that -- there's some irony about that. The day after that, we were doing things slow, deliberately, thoughtfully. The day after that, the Supreme Court says, well, we don't care about facts. We don't care about the law. We don't care about precedent. We're going with the Republican legislature.

Now we have -- it is Katie bar the door. There are some counties that said we're sticking with a safer at home, we're going to stay tough on this. We have others saying doesn't matter, bring it on. And it's confusing to people.

CUOMO: So, it's county by county? Who decides what can happen and where?

EVERS: Well, if the counties don't take any position, then whatever they want to do they can do? It is -- our state is open from top to bottom. And there are a handful of counties that said they have the ability under state law to say no we're not going to be open. We have to take care of the people.

Now, Chris, what drives me nuts is that all along I've been told by business folks in the state of Wisconsin that -- if people have to feel comfortable and confident in their health and safety or they're not going to be good consumers, they're not going to be good customers, and they're not going to be good workers. And this confusion takes us back. It is a step in the wrong direction. We were headed in the right direction.

CUOMO: Well, look, here's the thing. For better or worse, you guys are a laboratory now. And we'll see in about three, four weeks or so where the cases are. And -- because you guys did this at a bad time. Your cases are not plateauing and they're not on the way down. So, we'll see what happens.

God willing it's not a tragedy there, because nobody wants to see that. But hopefully we'll see what happens and it somehow opens our eyes to what prudence should look like. Governor Evers, anything we can do to help the cause of informing the public and giving the reality, we're a call away.

EVERS: Thanks a lot Chris. I appreciate the time.

CUOMO: Absolutely.

All right the case in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery. Can't let up on the investigating because we're still not hearing anything. And I know they're supposed to be able to investigate in peace, but not when two months and nothing happened. We have not heard from the inside of the case for the accused until now. They say the public is rushing to judgment. So, what should slow down a rush to judgment? What do they have to offer? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:40:00]

CUOMO: All right. For the first time we're hearing from the lawyers representing the accused in the Georgia shooting case, Gregory and Travis McMichael. The father and son are facing murder charges in the shooting death of the 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.

Now we have Martin Savidge on the story in Glynn County Georgia. It's good to see you, my friend. Counsel for the accused held a news conference today. Did they offer anything that changes what is known in the public record?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Chris. Good to see you. There are two defense teams as you know now because of course you've got two people who had been charged in this particular case. Greg McMichael is the father. He's represented by a husband and wife defense team. They are out of (inaudible) Georgia.

They issued a (inaudible) statement that goes something like this, while the death of Ahmaud Arbery is a tragedy causing deep grief to his family, a tragedy that first appears to many to fit into a terrible pattern in American life, this case does not fit that pattern.

And then there was Travis McMichael. He was the one holding the shotgun that eventually went off and killed Ahmaud Arbery. His defense team, they are from Decatur, they spoke out and they basically said look, everyone has seen the video, they've heard the narrative, but they shouldn't jump to conclusions. Here's what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT RUBIN, TRAVIS MCMICHAEL ATTORNEY: Don't rush to judgment. We will be presenting our evidence in a court of law whether it's in Glynn County or someplace else. The government will have an opportunity to present its evidence in a court of law. And then and only then, then you can judge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Then you've got this rebuttal that came from the attorneys that are representing the family of Ahmaud Arbery. And they went along and said that, yes, the attorneys with Travis McMichael are right, the justice system should afford all citizens the presumption of innocence and there shouldn't be a rush to judgment or stereotyping.

But then they went with this line. We only wish that their client Travis McMichael have provided the same presumption of innocence to Ahmaud Arbery before chasing him and killing him. So, Chris, the legal lines are being drawn.

CUOMO: Yes, you know, it's interesting. There's a contextual play here that really doesn't fit the pattern that we're used to in this country. These two were not police officers. They had no color of authority. And it's interesting to hear the counsel, Ruben, saying we will present evidence at trial. Will they? They're going to put on a case in chief? You know, the defense has no

such requirement on it. The prosecution does. They have the burden. It's very interesting to hear from counsel that it seems they assume to put on a case in their defense. That is actually noteworthy. Many don't do that.

[22:45:07]

SAVIDGE: One of the things that's also noteworthy is that, in that news conference that was held for the team that is representing Travis is that they said, just because someone has died, it doesn't mean that there was a crime. So, clearly self-defense is going to be played very highly in this.

CUOMO: Self-defense is going to be played high. I think it will be a better avenue legally for them than the citizen's arrest statute. Again, these were not police officers. They do not get the presumption of the use of force in the line of their legal rights and responsibilities here. It's a narrowly defined statute.

And we know more and more now in part, large part thanks to you Martin, that these two men very well may have taken off after Arbery on the 23rd because they thought they knew him from an event on the 11th. And whether they were right or wrong, it's going to put them in a tough spot to justify their actions with the prosecution. What else are you hearing?

SAVIDGE: Well, one of the interesting things that came out yesterday was this note. There is a memorial that is set up in Satilla Shores and it's got a small cross in the area where Ahmaud Arbery have fell. And then people have left things as they do in these cases. And there was a note that was left behind.

I'll just read you a hit of the text. It said Ahmaud, I am so sorry. I should have stopped them. I am so sorry. That sounded to many, like a confession and it triggered an immediate buzz of people thinking, what, wait a minute, is there somebody in the community here that may have seen something or participated in some way that now has had a change of heart or a change of mind?

The GBI investigated and they put out a note today. They said, the GBI has identified the individual that wrote this note. The individual is not connected to the Ahmaud Arbery murder investigation in any way. This person was expressing their condolences for Arbery's death. So, it just shows you that emotions continue to run very high in this case and in that neighborhood.

CUOMO: Boy, I got to tell you, it's an impressive change of play also. In a case where they did nothing for months, the idea that the GBI could trace down somebody who left a random note at a memorial, very interesting. Martin Savidge, thank you for your continued depth on this story. I appreciate it.

All right. Now, another story that we've got to kind of get you straight on. This new coronavirus warning for kids. I know this is very scary. We are getting the volume of response. I feel it. I've got a kid who had covid. Now, he's sleeping like 12, 13 hours a day. I heard about these warnings issued by the CDC. It got me just as where the rest of you.

So, I promise you, we're taking it very seriously. We'll look at these mysterious symptoms that are arising in some children. Yes, doctors nationwide are being put on alert to look out for certain things. We will tell you what it is, how broad a problem this is, and how deep a concern it is. We have Sanjay Gupta next.

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CUOMO: New York State Health Department tonight is looking into over 100 cases of a rare covid-19 related illness in children. OK? It is believed to be covid-19 related. What are the symptoms? Persistent fever, inflammation, poor function in the organs. Kidneys, heart, can come with abdominal pain.

So, does this shatter the notion that children are immune to anything to do with covid-19? That's the question that our chief doctor Sanjay Gupta took a closer look at this unusual pediatric covid-19 disease.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My stomach started to hurt. It feel bad and it felt like my legs were kind of really weak and I was pretty tired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She started having blue lips in her extremities were cold. So, that is when it was like, this is not, you know, a normal flu.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sean Daily is Juliette's dad. Did you think that this might be a covid-19 or coronavirus?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife thought it was a possibility. She called to try to see if she could get tested. She didn't meet the criteria. You know, she was more like a healthy 12 year-old.

GUPTA: By that evening, Juliette was nearly dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had me leave the room to intubate her. So, they put her under anesthesia and then she went into cardiac arrest for a little less than two minutes and they have to perform CPR.

GUPTA: What was her condition when you first saw Juliette?

DR. JAKE KLEINMAHON, PEDIATRIC CARDIOLOGIST, OCHSNER HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN: She was about as close to death as you can get.

GUPTA: Dr. Jake Kleinmahon is a pediatric cardiologist at Ochsner Hospital for Children in New Orleans.

KLEINMAHON: Her heart was barely squeezing. She was going into kidney failure. Liver failure. Intubated emergently and put on a ventilator. GUPTA: It's hard to believe we are talking about this same beautiful

little girl. But it's also hard to believe that all of this was possibly related to covid-19. A disease that wasn't really supposed to severely effect kids. Now it even has a name. It's called multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children.

KLEINMAHON: There's a lot of cells and cell signaling in the body that is just going crazy. And what's that doing is it's creating a lot of inflammation that's affecting the heart, the liver, the kidney, and really all the cells of the body.

GUPTA: It's been described as a Kawasaki like disease. That's another inflammatory disease most commonly diagnose in children. Awful rashes, a strawberry appearing tongue and destructive inflammation. But this is also different.

[22:55:15]

There are so many questions. Like why now? Why months into this pandemic are we first seeing this? And why is it so devastating to children in the United States and Europe, but not so much in Asia, where some of the first children were infected?

DR. JANE BURNS, DIRECTOR, KAWASAKI DISEASE CLINIC AT RADY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: We have interesting information coming in from Japan. As well as Korea and Taiwan. That no one there that we have been in contact with has seen this severe form of cardiovascular collapse in children.

GUPTA: Dr. Jane Burns is director of the Kawasaki Disease Clinic at Rady Children's hospital, San Diego.

BURNS: No one can tell you for sure that these SARS covid-2 virus is a trigger for Kawasaki disease. But there's certainly is circumstantial evidence.

KLEINMAHON: We're seeing this in kids who don't have an active covid infection. Some of them do. But a lot of them are testing positive for antibodies.

GUPTA: A study published on The Lancet on Wednesday found that the number of children diagnosed with the Kawasaki like disease in Bergamo, Italy jumped 30 fold after the pandemic over took the region. Still in the United States as frightening as it is, for now it still appears rare. Juliette was discharged after 10 days in the hospital.

How are you feeling now? You look great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm feeling good. And there doesn't seem to be a long term effects.

GUPTA: Are you back 100 percent, would you say? Back to normal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still feel a bit out of place. Kind of like 99 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take 99 percent.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right, thanks to Sanjay for that. Look. Let's be honest. There's a lot that is unknown about covid-19. We really do have a lot going against us when it comes to finding a way through this. But now, we have added the biggest threat of all to our ability to beat a virus. Politics.

When we come back, we have the head Republican who is in that room today when Rick Bright was testifying. What did he think was going on? Where does it leave us? Next.

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