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New Day
Anti-Science Bias Could Fuel Spike in Cases; Trump Suffers Legal Defeats by Supreme Court; FaceBook Removes Trump Ad; Floyd's Death Sparks Movement Against Trump; Beijing Tightens Lockdown. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired June 19, 2020 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Governments, they will not receive federal coronavirus relief funds if they require people to wear masks while going inside state courthouses and other local government offices.
So if they wear a mask, which is what all of the doctors recommend, they don't get relief funds. How does that make sense?
DR. ALI KHAN, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: So the data for masks is absolutely unequivocal. We know that masks can interrupt transmission within our communities. And I say masks actually are the physical conservative option for this disease, if government has failed to interrupt cases. They're cheap, they're inexpensive, and you don't need the government to put on a mask.
CAMEROTA: So --
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: It's so easy to do.
KHAN: Can I follow up one more, Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes, please.
KHAN: I -- this is -- I've been talking for years about this anti- science movement in America. So now I've coined a new term last night. It's called anti-maskers to go with the anti-vaxers, the climate change deniers and the flat earthers.
CAMEROTA: Hash tag anti-maskers. I see that taking off, actually, Dr. Khan, because, I mean, this -- do you understand where your governor is coming from? Why he would make a mandate like that?
KHAN: Unknown. Again, as I said, we have unchecked transmission, not just in Nebraska, but across the United States. And this is a disease we know we can prevent, go back to zero. So, unclear. We need to have people wearing masks. Everybody wearing masks.
SCIUTTO: And at that rally tomorrow, of course, those people packed into that interior venue are not required to. Simple step. Dr. Ali Khan, great to have your straight talking on it.
KHAN: Thank you very much, again.
Oh, last word, mask on!
SCIUTTO: There you go!
CAMEROTA: There -- you're modeling it for us. Thank you very much.
KHAN: Cheers! Thank you again.
SCIUTTO: Other news -- other news we've been following, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt two major blows to the Trump administration just this week. The president fighting back, sending some attacks the way of even justices he appointed himself. We're going to discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:36:02]
CAMEROTA: For the second time in a week, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the Trump administration. The high court ruling against the effort to end the so-called dreamers program that protects 700,000 immigrants from deportation. And on Monday, the court ruled in favor of protecting LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination.
Joining us now is CNN's chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.
So, Jeffrey, great to see you.
These two cases, at the end of this week, what are we to make of the court's ruling here?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Supreme Court justices are not robots. Their views are usually consistent. I mean there are five conservatives on the court and four liberals, but they sometimes go out of pattern and they relate to the specific legal issues that arise in each case. And here, also, I think you have the fact that the Trump administration just simply pushed too hard to go too quickly to the right for Chief Justice Roberts, who was the person in the conservative wing who voted with the liberals in both of those cases. And I think Chief Justice Roberts is not going to be pushed around by this administration. Life tenure means life tenure and he'll be here long after Donald Trump, regardless of whether he wins in November or not.
SCIUTTO: So you have two big cases still for this court to decide, one on congressional but also New York prosecutors' access to the president's financial documents, including his taxes, and the other an abortion case in Louisiana. I wonder if we could put on your prognosticator cap, first of all, the significance of those cases, but, second of all, do you see signs as to how the courts are going to go in those cases based on what you've seen this week?
TOOBIN: Well, you know, I don't know that this week tells you much, but I think you can look at the history of the justices and say that, you know, one thing that this -- where the justices have been very predictable has been on abortion. You know, Chief Justice Roberts has voted against abortion rights in every single opportunity that he's had in 15 years as chief justice. You know, Donald Trump ran for president saying, I'm going to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will vote to overturn Roe versus Wade. That's not the precise issue in this case, but it is an important limitation on abortion rights. And I think the prospects are very grim for the abortion rights position in that case.
On the other one, however, I do think that there is a good chance that the justices will side with the prosecutors. They tend to side with prosecutors in criminal cases. Every lower court has voted against Donald Trump in these access to documents cases. So I think you could be looking at a mixed verdict in those two.
CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, it was interesting, President Trump may be responding to some of he has lagging poll numbers, put out a tweet that could be, I think, the golden ticket for his re-election. And that is that he is once again promising that on September 1st he will unveil his list of Supreme Court nominees from which he would choose. They will only be conservative justices.
And when you hear some of his supporters who may object to some of the things -- other things that he does, they come back to, but I really like his judicial picks and I really like what he's doing with the Supreme Court. And so what do you expect to see on September 1st?
TOOBIN: Oh, I expect to see a very -- a list of very conservative lower court judges. You know, I think you're right, Alisyn, you know, when I talk to Republican groups, when I go -- am out in the field reporting, the one thing you hear over and over again is, you know, I don't really like the tweets, I wish he were -- he wouldn't say some of the thing he says, but thank you for Neil Gorsuch, thank you for Brett Kavanaugh.
[06:40:14]
And if you look at how Mitch McConnell has conducted the United States Senate, he has pushed through judges to the exclusion of accomplishing almost anything else.
But, you know, the president realizes that for his base, this is the issue that will keep them going to the polls despite dissatisfaction with coronavirus or anything else. The question is, are there enough of them to get him re-elected? I certainly can't answer that at this point. But it is political gold for him with his base.
Jeffrey Toobin, thank you very much.
TOOBIN: See ya, team.
CAMEROTA: See ya.
FaceBook and Twitter clamp down on social media posts from President Trump and his campaign. We give you the details, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Developing overnight, Twitter has now flagged a video tweeted by the president of the United States as manipulated media.
[06:45:02]
What does that mean? It means it was not accurate. It was manipulated. It was faked.
It comes after FaceBook took down a Trump campaign ad featuring an upside down triangle, which was nearly identical to a symbol used by the Nazis.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan here with the details.
Two remarkable moves, notable, against the sitting president. Tell us first about FaceBook.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Jim.
Yes, that FaceBook ad was attacking the far-left group ANTIFA, a group that President Trump has threatened to designate a terrorist organization. Now, when the ad started circulating yesterday, the Anti-Defamation League, the ADL, which tracks hate groups here in the U.S., pointed out that that red triangle is basically identical to those used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in concentration camps. And FaceBook, for its part, essentially agreed with that assessment and in a statement they told us that they had removed the ads and -- for violating their policy against organized hate and the policy prohibits banned hate group symbols to identify political prisoners about the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.
Now, for the Trump campaign's part, they defended themselves, saying that they had done nothing wrong. They said they were not gas- lighting, and they pointed out that ANTIFA does sometimes use that red triangle, but the ADL shot back at that and said that while some ANTIFA activists do use it, it's not at all common.
Jim.
SCIUTTO: All right, so tell us about Twitter here, because the president took a video, claimed, in effect, it was some sort of CNN story, which was false. What has Twitter done and what's the story behind it?
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, it was a busy day for the president and his campaign on social media yesterday. So, a lot of us will remember this heart- warming video from last year of two toddlers excitedly running to give each other a hug. Now, CNN, at the time, actually covered that video for what it was, a heart-warming moment. The parents of the -- of the kids at the time said, you know, they shared the video of, you know, two boys, one black, one white, as perhaps a good example, a lesson to us adults amid, you know, all the racism in the world. Trump, last night, took that video, posted a version of it, along with
some fake CNN graphics suggesting that CNN would spin a video like this to make it look like the kids were actually running away from each other, running -- rather than running towards each other.
Now, Twitter did label the video as manipulated media. This is a new policy they have for misleading images and videos, particularly in the context of deep fakes and things like that.
I should note also that the video is on FaceBook, where it is not labeled and has millions of views overnight. Trump supporters, after the video was labeled, immediately defended the edited version that Trump had posted saying, you know, it was a parity, satire, no gas- lighting and, you know, that we all needed to get a better sense of humor.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: Obviously, you know, I think it's worth noting that the video was shared on the eve of Juneteenth.
And I want to show you, finally, Jim, what one of the dads of the boys in the video wrote on FaceBook last night when he saw that his son was being used in this way by the president. He said, he cannot get away with this. He will not turn this loving, beautiful video to further a hate agenda.
Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Remarkable.
Donie O'Sullivan, thanks very much.
O'SULLIVAN: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Well, the death of George Floyd has ignited a political movement. Will the nationwide protests translate into voter turnout in November?
CNN's Jeff Zeleny traveled to Wisconsin to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD: No peace!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No (INAUDIBLE)!
CROWD: (INAUDIBLE).
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Mariah Smith has been marching and come November she will be voting.
MARIAH SMITH, TEACHER'S AIDE: If you don't go out and vote, you're voting for Trump, period. That's it. There is no other -- there's no other way around it. ZELENY: With tributes to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor painted
across Milwaukee, along with murals and signs calling for peace and justice, the soundtrack of American politics is now animated by protests, with anger towards President Trump resonating far louder than adoration for Joe Biden.
PRENTICE MCKENNEY, MILWAUKEE ACTIVIST: There's a time when you go to the polls to vote for something. And then there's a time when you go and you take a stand against something.
ZELENY: Prentice McKenney has been watching these demonstrations closely, stirring memories from 1967, when he helped lead a fight for fair housing in 200 straight days of marching. These images seared into his mind like coming face to face with two policemen outside the mayor's office.
MCKENNEY: (INAUDIBLE).
ZELENY: In today's protest, he sees broader diversity with a unifying purpose.
MCKENNEY: Part of the universal will appeal of this movement is because of Donald Trump, because people realize who and what he is.
ZELENY: Here in one of the nation's most segregated cities, a summer of unrest is now part of the presidential race that will test whether protesters have awakened a political movement.
[06:50:00]
ANGELA LANG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BLACK LEADERS ORGANIZING FOR COMMUNITIES: There are people that are like, I didn't know Trump was racist. What do you mean he's racist? Point to -- to something very clear and specific. We can point to this moment, just a few months ahead of the presidential election, about how he's treating our community.
ZELENY: Angela Lang founded a group to mobilize African-Americans after Trump narrowly carried Wisconsin in 2016, when turnout among black voters and others substantially fell. Since then, there are some signs of change. In April, David Crowley was elected as the first African-American Milwaukee county executive, a seat once held by Republican former governor, Scott Walker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This election matters because people know that we need absolute change.
ZELENY: The Trump campaign isn't ceding black voters, opening a Republican field office here on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, with a quote from the slain civil rights leader in the window.
David Bowen, a Democratic state representative, said voters should not be fooled.
DAVID BOWEN (D), WISCONSIN STATE ASSEMBLY: It's very offensive to the standpoint that nothing in his administration or that he's done really lines up with those words.
ZELENY: Protests in Milwaukee are approaching a third straight week, organized by Frank Sensabaugh, who said he intentionally didn't vote four years ago.
ZELENY (on camera): Do you plan to vote this November?
FRANK NITTY SENSABAUGH, MILWAUKEE PROTEST ORGANIZER: This November, yes, I actually do plan to vote. This November I think that it's going to be more serious of a vote.
ZELENY (voice over): And that gives hope to McKenney, that these young demonstrators will keep their eye on November.
MCKENNEY: I think they'll be there. I think that's what Trump is afraid of.
ZELENY: Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Milwaukee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Our thanks to Jeff for that look.
Also, a new coronavirus outbreak plunges Beijing into a lockdown. We have a live report from the Chinese capital for you, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:55:33]
SCIUTTO: A lockdown in Beijing is tightening now as officials try to contain a new coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese capital.
CNN's David Culver, he's live in Beijing with the latest.
And, David, China seemed to have gotten a handle on this, put a lid on this, and now cases coming up again. Do we know why and what are they doing in response?
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, they certainly were touting their success over the past several weeks, in Beijing of all places. I mean this is the last spot you would have expected any sort of new cluster to pop up. But that's what they're dealing with right now. They say this is the narrative being pushed by state media, that this is an imported case, that it came in from Europe, possibly, they say maybe Russia, maybe the U.S., and they're looking at the strand in particular and they compare that to the strand that came out of Wuhan and they say it's separate. So it had to have come from the outside. They consider it an external theat.
Now, they do say, as of today that things are under control. Despite that, they have not let their guard down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER (voice over): At the height of China's Covid-19 outbreak, Beijing became a fortress, the central government, determined to defend the capital city against any surge in cases, and even as the rest of China began easing restrictions and reopening a few months ago, Beijing maintained many strict measures, at least until earlier this month. We briefly noticed a resemblance of life pre-Covid-19 here. Then, another cluster of cases, this time in the capital. The focus, another market.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The outbreak in Beijing is under control.
CULVER: Six days after officials announced the first case in this latest cluster, they now claim it is under control. Drivers passing by the newly labeled high-risk areas, including the Shinhabi (ph) market, catch a glimpse of that containment effort.
We drove by as well, keeping inside the van so as to not risk exposure and another quarantine.
CULVER (on camera): This is the outskirts of the market. You can see there are some folks back there with hazmat suits on. All of this is shut off. The reason we're not stepping out of the car -- actually, let's keep driving, because I don't want to draw too much attention -- is because if we were to cross into this restricted zone, we would then be potentially flagged and be put into government quarantine.
How do they know that? A few ways. One is, they could physically stop us and get our information. Another is they would see the tags of the car and they would mark that down and track us down. And another big data that we've been living by here, they would trace you through your cell phone. We've heard several reports of people being flagged because of where their cell phones were located geographically within those high-risk areas and then being contacted and told that they essentially need to be sealed off from the rest of the world.
CULVER (voice over): Contact tracing is also done through smartphones, using QR codes. As we have traveled around China in recent weeks, we've collected a variety of different QR versions of our own. A bit tedious and redundant to register for, as each jurisdiction has one. A green QR is your key to living and traveling within the country quarantine free.
CULVER (on camera): Just arriving back in Beijing.
CULVER (voice over): The contact tracing is coupled with constant temperature screening, especially now flying back into Beijing with its partial lockdowns and rising number of cases. Beijing's already tested more than 350,000 people connected to this outbreak. But despite the government's self-proclaimed successes in getting it under control, China's health experts have warned against complacency here.
ZHONG NANSHAN, CHINA'S LEADING MEDICAL EXPERT: We are facing a big challenge. It's not the -- not better than the foreign countries.
CULVER: Dr. Zhong Nanshan, China's leading medical expert, often called the Dr. Fauci of China, telling us exclusively last month that China was not in the clear. NANSHAN: The majority of China at the moment is still susceptible of
the Covid-19 infection. It's because a lack of immunity.
CULVER: Until that immunity, or a vaccine, experts warn to expect this journey back to normalcy to be interrupted by new clusters, followed by a rapid return of heavy-handed containment efforts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER: It does seem like that's how life is going to be for the foreseeable future here, Jim. You go back and forth between having things open back up, to then shut back down rather quickly. It is interesting to note the social attitude is one of acceptance. People seem to go along with that thinking it's for the best.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And here in this country, a lot of resistance to that.
David Culver in Beijing, thanks very much.
CULVER: Yes.
[07:00:00]
SCIUTTO: And NEW DAY continues right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
END
