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New Day

Majority of States in U.S. See Increasing Coronavirus Cases; California Governor May Reimpose Stay-at-Home Orders Due to Coronavirus Spread; President Trump Claims to Have Not Been Briefed on Intelligence Suggesting Russia Offered Bounties on American Soldiers in Afghanistan; Congressional Leaders to be Briefed on Russian Bounty Intel; Senate Agrees to Extend Payroll Protection Program to August. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 01, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: New Day continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not satisfied with what's going on. We're going in the wrong direction. Clearly, we are not in total control right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Fauci and others from the Coronavirus Task Force advising the American public to do what the president won't -- wear a mask.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Embrace the universal use of face coverings. Those that are listening, spread the word.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will have a large event July 3rd. We'll be giving out free facemasks if they choose to wear one, but we won't be social distancing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must have no stigma, none, about wearing a mask.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That mask is not to protect me. It's to protect other people. It's called patriotism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me again this morning. And we do have breaking news -- 127,000 Americans have now died from coronavirus. Cases jumping around the country. So what's the plan to stop it? What's the plan to protect actual living, breathing Americans? Well, moments ago, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new task force focused on protecting American monuments, memorials, and statues. See the connection? Me neither.

The U.S. is hovering near an all-time high of coronavirus cases, more than 44,000 new cases yesterday. Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that number could reach 100,000 if we don't action. Infections are up in 37 states, all the states in red. Look at what happened in June. All the states in deep red saw jumps of more than 50 percent in just one month. The president hasn't even acknowledged that huge jump in cases, but those statues, they're developing herd immunity.

HILL: Yes, those statues will be just fine. The governor of California, though, is actually acknowledging the jump in his state, teasing an announcement today that could include bringing back stay- at-home orders. And as the situation grows increasingly dire across the country, more Republicans and even members of the conservative media are encouraging all Americans to wear masks. One senator directly calling on the president to do so, although Mr. Trump continues to ignore those calls and the science. He is headed to South Dakota on Friday for the Independence Day fireworks at Mount Rushmore where we learned from the governor social distancing will not be enforced and masks will be offered, however, will not be required.

BERMAN: Joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And Sanjay, to me the issue now is, what is the plan? What do we do going forward? And we know that California today, the California governor is going to come out, we're told, and make some announcements about maybe new restrictions. We're just not sure. You have been on the phone talking to officials out there for days now trying to figure out what's happening and what will happen. What do you know?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a few things, and we should pay attention to California. We remember California was one of the earlier states to go into stay-at-home mode, and I think at the time that it happened a lot of people were surprised, thinking why would -- that seems like an aggressive action. And now you're hearing beginning of July that they may go back into that mode again.

A couple things. One is that the numbers are clearly going up. And despite the fact that they went into that stay-at-home mode I think one of the things we're learning from places like California is that even if a lot of establishments have been closed for a period of time, large, private gatherings in people's homes, with communities, with neighbors, with extended family, whatever, those could be significant sources. No surprise. It doesn't matter where you are, if you're in some indoor setting like that with lots of people, the virus can spread. And that seems to have been one of the drivers here.

But also, there have been places around the world where you kind of get these stutter starts, right, where you go into shutdown mode, you start to open up, and then you have to close down again. We saw that in Israel. We saw that in South Korea, where schools opened, then they had to be shut down again. You see that in Beijing, where after 79 people became infected at contact with a particular market, they started an intensive shutdown, an intensive testing program again. We would do well to look at some of these places around the country. But I think the biggest takeaway, and again, we should pay attention

to California as everyone keeps asking what is the plan? Well, the issue is that the plan now may have to be different than the plan was two weeks ago because the infection is more widespread. It may need to be a more aggressive treatment, which I think is what Governor Newsom is telegraphing. We may need to go back into stay-at-home mode in some places, maybe more widespread than we realize, in order to really curb the transmission of the virus.

I don't like the idea. I don't like to have to say that, but now the treatment may need to be more aggressive.

HILL: To your point, as we look at infection, this really stood out to me that earlier this week, L.A. County, public health officials in L.A. County were saying that the infection yesterday, the infection rate was one in 140 yesterday.

[08:05:07]

A week ago it was one in 400, and Sanjay, they're expecting by next week it could be as high as one in 70. That seems like it's growing so quickly and really illustrates just how quickly the virus itself is spreading.

GUPTA: Yes. No question. When you start to get these types of doubling rates, it's of huge concern. That's when you're starting to get exponential growth. It's like the same exercise we teach our kids. You get a penny today, two pennies tomorrow, four pennies the next day, by the end of the week you're going to have 64 cents. The end of a couple of weeks you'll have 81 bucks. By the end of the month you'll have $5 million. It can grow really rapidly as you start to double.

And that's exactly what I think is concerning to the governor, and frankly should be concerning governors and other people in other states because we're seeing evidence of that exponential growth. If you can't get ahead of that curve, it becomes really hard to control. So you've got to react quickly now, and it may need to be an aggressive action in order to prevent that from happening.

BERMAN: Sanjay, I can't get enough of the science because I think that's the only thing we can hang or hats on right now. Masks, there are new studies about which types of masks work best. I know you have already told us about them, but I think it bears hearing again.

GUPTA: Yes, it's interesting because we are learning so much about masks, and I will preface by saying that any type of facial covering really is going to better than nothing at all, but it's clear that some are going to provide a lot more protection. You can take a look, and these are some of the models that came out. They do these models, they look at how far the virus spreads with typical talking, with coughing, with sneezing. And typically, unmasked a cough could go some eight, nine feet. With the mask on you could see the difference here. It makes a big difference in terms of actually containing that virus closer to the wearer. There you go. So no mask eight feet. All the way down to two-and-a-half inches. These are the types of two-ply masks that, frankly, my daughter has made for our entire family, and they work really well.

But as we were saying last hour, and I think it's such an important point as we've tried to tell the story of this virus, is that this is really this unseen enemy. We can't see it. It is invisible to the naked eye. If we could see it like that model that we were just showing, I think it makes such a huge difference. The droplets of virus coming out of your nose and your mouth tethered by these six- foot long strings, if we saw that around everybody, we'd probably behave a lot differently. And since we have said since the end of February, we all have to behave like we have the virus, which is why the masking is so important.

HILL: As we look at the mask and the spread, and to your point, I do think that those graphics are so helpful to illustrate what it really means, there's so much talk about the fact, though, that it's summer, right. And while we may be seeing where lot of people are gathering outside and gathering in larger groups, and we talk a lot about how when you're outside you don't have to worry as much about the spread. But put that in context for us. How close can you really get if you're outside with people, especially if you don't have a face covering on?

GUPTA: Right. So one thing I'll preface to that is that when you have a lot of virus in the community, I think it does raise the risk. You're much more likely to come in contact with people who have virus if you are in a cluster of people, even if you're outside, and everyone is putting virus into the air, that's going to increase the risk. That's just simple dynamics.

But I think being outside is exponentially safer than being inside. If you had to put a number on it, you could say about 18 times less likely to get the virus transmitted if you're outside versus inside. I still think the virus can spread within six feet, and it's not just distance but also duration. So when you look at these beach scenes, I think for the most part being on the beach is OK. You want to maintain distance from people outside of your family members, and you don't want to be in close proximity for a long period of time -- 10, 15 minutes would be considered a close contact. So when you have people that you're sitting close to for long periods of time out on the beach, that's probably an issue even if it's outside.

So you have got to add in the various factors, but I think the big one is that the virus sat a higher load in the country than it was two weeks ago. And that's going to increase the overall risk.

BERMAN: Sanjay, very quickly, also the hottest states in the country the ones seeing the biggest growth right now. Any signs or research of what's happening as people probably move inside to air conditioned buildings?

GUPTA: Yes, so John, it's interesting, I still think that the hotter, warmer, more humid weather probably did play a beneficial role here. And you may say, how is that? Because, like you say, these states look like they're worse.

[08:10:03] Well, I think they would have been even worse than this were it not for the weather, and that gets to what happens in the fall. I think as we go inside again, that's going to negatively impact this overall trajectory, which is another reason we have to act now. And I don't have to tell you because we have been talking about it for a couple of months, but you superimpose that on top of flu season which accelerates in the fall, that's going to be a huge problem. So as bad as it looks, it could have been even worse if we were superimposed in colder, drier weather right now.

HILL: All right, Sanjay, we appreciate you being with us this morning, thanks so much for all of this.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

HILL: The White House insists President Trump does read and that he's had his intelligence briefings. So why does the president claim that he was never briefed on intelligence suggesting Russia was paying bounties to kill U.S. troops? The former deputy director of the FBI joins us next.

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HILL: The top leaders in Congress will be briefed today on the intelligence that suggests Russia was paying bounties to kill U.S. service members in Afghanistan. This comes as a source tells CNN the White House was warned of the threat last year.

Joining us now is CNN White House correspondent John Harwood and CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI. As we look at all of what we've learned in the last 48, 72 hours, I've lost count at this point, about this intelligence, how it was put out there, how it was received or not received, the lack of action.

[08:15:00]

You know, Andy, as you look at this, you know, having been involved in intelligence and how this all plays out, the fact that this involved in intelligence and how this all involved in intelligence and how this all plays out, the fact that this was in the daily brief, the fact that it was deemed even if there was some discrepancy as we heard from the White House, but it was still deemed important enough because it specifically involved U.S. troops. Just put that into context for us and what that would normally trigger in terms of a response.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure. So you should think of the president's daily brief as essentially the crown jewel of U.S. intelligence reporting. All intelligence is information for decision makers and the president's daily brief is only the most important, the most highly classified, the most sensitive information that the community believes is essential for the president to know as he makes decisions about how to run the country, how to protect Americans, how to conduct diplomacy, all those sorts of things.

There's all kinds of information that ends up in the PDB, economic intelligence, diplomatic intelligence, but by far the most important information in that -- in that product is threat intelligence. Intelligence that tells us about threats directed at U.S. persons or in this case in military personnel overseas.

A little bit about the PDB, the president's daily brief. It is actually a product that's produced every night. The staff works 24 hours a day. It is loaded then on to top secret, highly classified tablet computer devices and those tablets are delivered to the president and to the other principals of the intelligence agencies who are entitled to see that material every morning.

The briefers from the president's -- from the PDB staff will typically sit down with the president or with the other principals and orally go over some of the material in the tablet, but the tablet typically contains anywhere from -- let's say five to six or seven intelligence products. Those are usually articles that are a page or two long so it's not hard to get through. It's specifically chosen to be matters of importance to the president and also things that the community knows that the president will be interested in reading.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The White House was in the extraordinary position, Andy, of saying, the president does read when asked if he reads his daily briefs. You were there. What was your experience on this front?

MCCABE: Well, I'm really happy to hear that. It's always good to know that your president reads. It's not entirely consistent with my own experience with preparing our directors to go to sit with the president, either in national security sessions or homeland security sessions. In those cases where the FBI is responsible for briefing or presenting a particular issue, the question we always had was what are we going to show him on video?

It was widely known that if you wanted the president's attention, you had to bring a video with you to the briefs. Something animated, something with pictures. If you did not have that, you probably would not get much engagement from the president on your issue.

HILL: John, in terms of engagement we are learning now from the national security adviser, that Robert O'Brien, that the president wasn't brief at the time because they weren't corroborated. Apparently now, he has been briefed, but it still raises the question of, you know, in the White House, what are you hearing, John? What's your reporting in terms of the president's reaction to this intelligence and if he has been briefed, is there some impetus to take action?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we can see what the president's reaction is because he's been tweeting it this morning. He said it's a hoax and fake news.

Look, Erica, pretty much everything the White House has said about this incident is nonsense and I think that we've got to -- you know, we're accustomed as journalists to analyzing this through the frame of what would a normal president do, what's this president doing, what's his strategy? Who's advising him, what is he going to do? It's impossible to ignore the conclusion that what we see with our own

eyes leads us to what the testimony of his top former aides, Kelly, Mattis, Bolton, leads us to and that is this president is broken, his White House is broken. He's not fit for the job. He's not doing the job. He's sitting there on his phone ignoring the pandemic, stoking racism.

And the best you can say about this particular situation where he is simply trying to absolve himself from responsibility is he's indifferent to the welfare of American soldiers. And that's where we find ourselves, that's why you're seeing the reaction from the American people on all these fronts because the crises that are convulsing the United States, health crisis, racial crisis, he is actually making worse.

[08:20:08]

BERMAN: John, just to put a point on that, though, on the issue involving this intelligence, that Russia was paying bounties to kill U.S. service members in Afghanistan. Has the White House, the president, the Pentagon, anyone in the administration addressed the substance of the allegations? Has anyone done as much as to say, well, if they are true, then dot, dot, dot?

HARWOOD: No. And, again, the president is saying that they're not true. We saw yesterday, Liz Cheney who's a member of the Republican leadership in the house say that if these things are true, we need a swift and deadly response from the United States.

You haven't heard anything close to that from the administration. The president through his entire term of office has been deferential to Vladimir Putin. He's taken actions which advance the interests of the Russian state, weakening NATO, dividing the Western Alliance.

It's quite obvious that he is not on the same page as the national security interests of the United States.

HILL: And as we -- as we look at all of that, the fact that there hasn't even been, you know, as John just said, there hasn't been -- well, if it were true here's what we would need to do moment, that also sends a big message to Vladimir Putin.

Sorry, that was for you. I'm not sure --

MCCABE: Oh, no, I heard you, Erica.

So it absolutely does and the idea that this president didn't see, didn't read, didn't focus on, didn't call a meeting about, didn't ask for more information about a direct threat to U.S. soldiers and then conducted several interactions with the president of Russia, without having taken those steps is absolutely unthinkable. To walk into those sorts of interactions without the basic information that you need to confront that -- to confront President Putin about this threat is -- I just can't -- I can't imagine what he was possibly thinking.

BERMAN: Andy McCabe, John Harwood, thank you both very much for being with us. Appreciate your time on this subject.

Overnight, lawmakers made a surprise move that could help struggling small businesses. Details on how the Senate extended the paycheck protection program overnight. That's next.

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[08:26:32]

HILL: New this morning, the Senate passed an extension for the paycheck protection program just hours before it was set to expire with billions in unused funds.

CNN anchor and correspondent Julia Chatterley joins us now.

So, what happens now? What's next, Julia?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's a good question. The point is why take the money away when the emergency isn't over. Next stop it just needs a rubber stamping by the House. That will then extend the program until August until Congress can decide what more support they're going to provide.

The key question here is why was $134 billion of this fund unused? And I would argue it's not about need. I think despite 18 different fixes to the program for some of the hardest hit industries like hospitality, it still wasn't fit for purpose.

Let me just give you a quick example. If you think of hotels and the food industry in America, they shed nearly half of the industry's jobs in the first five months of this year. Yet, they took less than 10 percent of the loans.

That makes no sense unless they're struggling to decide when to spend the money, how to spend the money on what does reopening look like. So, that's the first thing. Next, support needs to be more targeted.

But beyond that, my biggest issue, according to some surveys two- thirds of the businesses that took the PPP money have already spent it. So it's okay if your business is up and running and back and things are back to normal, but many businesses aren't and we know the challenges on the health crisis and the cases are still rising and they're going to need more money.

HILL: Yes, this problem is far from over, really just at the beginning.

Everyone is following very closely, the markets as well. Even Goldman Sachs is actually weighing in on masks and how that could impact the markets and frankly how it can impact GDP.

CHATTERLEY: This is such an important point, because we have been talking about this idea of what the markets are seeing as focusing on the positives, but it's going to be a balance now between the health risks, rising cases versus the support that can be provided and the economic recovery. Well, Goldman Sachs is saying, hey, we can help the health crisis and

we can help the economy, and it's really simple -- wear a mask. They're saying that if we had a national mandate that everybody to wear masks, it could ultimately save 5 percentage points of growth. In terms of the recession that we're in, Erica, that could mean millions of jobs.

The difference between losing more jobs, not losing those jobs, is simply our government saying to everybody, wear a mask. And the numbers show it according to Goldman Sachs.

HILL: Something that is so easy to do.

CHATTERLEY: Yes.

HILL: Put that mask on, as we know. Julia, thank you.

CHATTERLEY: Thank you.

HILL: New York's City Council just voted to slash the NYPD's budget by a billion dollars. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joins us next.

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