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New Day Sunday

U.S. Surpasses 4.6 Million Cases And 154,000-Plus Deaths; Florida Braces For Tropical Storm Amid Pandemic; People Facing Food Insecurity And Housing Fears Amid Pandemic; Talks Continue Today On Unemployment Relief Deal. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired August 02, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:01]

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: You see the ominous clouds there and the surf. It's pictured in their in Ft. Lauderdale right now as we look at Florida dealing with coronavirus as well as this new threat this morning, tropical storm Isaias. It is expected to bring power outages, heavy rain and some damaging wind today.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Now, parts of Florida's East Coast, they're feeling the impacts now. The storm will make its way along the rest of the Atlantic coast there, at least along Florida before it heads up to the Carolinas and into the Northeast of the next couple of days.

PAUL: Isaias is an added source of stress during this pandemic obviously. The U.S. added more than 58,000 new COVID-19 cases just yesterday and reported more than 1,100 new deaths. So that brings the total to more than 154,000 people who have died.

And when you add the economic strain to that, I want to stop talking about numbers here for a second and just look at this line of people, because that's what these numbers are, they're people. And they waited for seven hours, we're told, seven hours just to get groceries at a Los Angeles food bank.

BLACKWELL: So, where is the help? Well, no sign of a deal yet from D.C. But Republican and Democratic staffers will be continuing talks today.

So we're going to get back to this conversation, but I want to check in on what's happening with Isaias and go to CNN's Randi Kaye. She's live in Palm Beach in Florida.

The wind has been consistent, the rain sporadic. What's happening there now, Randi?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a short time ago, we did have another band of rain come through. But the winds, as you said, they are pretty steady. Still, that ocean behind me is rocking. Those waves have been going all morning. Yesterday, there were people were surfing and swimming and sunning themselves on this beach.

So, certainly, what a difference a day makes. But we are dealing here in Florida, as you both know, with an emergency on top of an emergency, another 9,000-plus cases of coronavirus here in the state yesterday.

Here in Palm Beach County, more than 500 new cases. Plus the positivity rate about 13 percent. So, there was a lot of concern about shelters.

They did open the shelters here in Palm Beach County. There are five of them open. They're in high schools. They're hoping that people can social distance. The state was looking to reserve hotel rooms for people who might have been symptomatic because they want them going to shelters. So, we'll see who is in the shelter today.

Last word, we got word there was more than 100 people in the shelters here in Palm Beach County. But the power is certainly the issue of the day because of these high winds. Florida Power and Light has been out and about. We know there's about 1,000 people without power in the area.

They have been staging yesterday in Daytona, north of here. They had people coming in from about 20 states, from New York and Texas. Twenty different teams coming from about 10,000 personnel staging there, trying to get out and about, because of the coronavirus, they need as many people as they can because they were worried about delays because they have to do temperature checks on the crews and sanitize the equipment.

And they also have to use smaller crews in case they have to track who was with who and do the contact-tracing in case there is an outbreak. So, it's a lot to deal with here in the state. Luckily, though, we seem to be faring well, just a lot of heavy wind.

The governor says we're prepared, still recommending people have 3 to 7 days worth of water and food and medication just in case. And, of course, the key thing is those generators at the nursing homes and the assisted living facilities here, especially after what happened back in 2017 after Hurricane Irma knocked out the air conditioning here at a nursing home in South Florida and 14 residents perished. So, that is certainly a concern, but the good news is no word of that so far this year.

Back to you.

PAUL: Keeping our fingers crossed it stays that way.

Randi Kaye, you and the crew stay safe there. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Randi.

Let's take a broader look at the storm now with CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar.

Allison, what are you seeing? ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So, let's look at the statistics for this. So, tropical storm Isaias, sustained winds of 65 miles per hour. That's why it got dropped down to a tropical storm, because of those sustained winds.

But the gusts are still 75 miles per hour, which is at that hurricane level. So keep in mind that even though your sustained winds are still in tropical storm, you're going to have much stronger gusts, which is why power outages will still be a concern up and down the east coast of Florida.

The forward movement is to the northwest. It's just about 9 miles per hour. When we look at the track, again, it is going to be such a close call with a potential landfall around the space coast region of Florida likely sometime later today. Then it continues to track up the east coast, likely making a landfall, whether it does in Florida or not.

Making another landfall potentially across the Carolinas. At this point, looking better for South Carolina than North Carolina. But, again, those are semantics at this point.

[07:05:00]

But that would likely be sometime late Monday into early Tuesday. Then it continues to slide up the East Coast into areas of the Northeast. And all of those locations have the potential to have the impact, such as gusty winds, very heavy rain and storm surge as well.

We have tropical storm warnings up and down the East Coast of Florida. And then we also have tropical storm watches which were just issued this morning for now areas of the Carolinas. So keep that in mind, too, that this is not just a Florida problem. We're also going to see those impacts from Georgia as well as portions of the Carolinas.

Storm surge, we've talked about this. This is going to be likely one of the biggest impacts from this particular storm. Two to four feet of storm surge basically from Jupiter all the way up towards Jacksonville and again similarly across many portions of the South Carolina beaches as well.

Now we want to go ahead and bring in Ken Graham. He is the director of the National Hurricane Center to get some little bit of different insight here.

So, Ken, I have a question for you, because I think it's on a lot of people's minds. What are the limiting factors with this storm that would prevent it from getting back to hurricane strength?

KEN GRAHAM, DIRECTOR, NOAA NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yeah. There's been a -- around the -- looking at the radar it's been a lopsided storm. It's been a battle. The warmer water helps things out, but then there's been shear. This is 25 knot shear the entire time, which tilts the storm.

So, the convection is having trouble filling in around the center. It's lopsided. It's going to wiggle or wobble, as it goes northward. But the Bahamas continue to get battered with the wind and the rainfall.

But with time, we're still going to see that storm surge. Whether it doesn't look as the typical hurricane, we've got to concentrate on those impacts. We're still going to have all the rainfall, dangerous rainfall and some flash flooding in some areas. Plus that storm surge.

CHINCHAR: Yes, and you kind of mentioned there, too, getting that message across, because truly, what are the differences in terms of impacts between a high-end thunderstorm and a low-end category 1? I mean, is that something residents should fixate on is the name change there?

GRAHAM: Yes, I just ask everybody, the difference between a tropical storm and a hurricane is one mile an hour. So, it's all about the impact, it's all about that rainfall.

And look at some of these values. I mean, just look at the storm surge that you were mentioning before we came on the air here. Two to four- foot in areas in Florida. And then with the water gets trapped, one to three feet Georgia, South Carolina, near Cape Fear, two to four feet.

So, all that onshore flow, you're still going to get that storm surge. And the rainfall, just an incredible amount of rainfall. And we also have to remember, it's not just on the coast. You start looking at the time, a moderate risk of flash flooding even inland through South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. So, even inland, you can get some of that dangerous rainfall.

CHINCHAR: All right. Ken Graham from the National Hurricane Center. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Victor, Christi, back to you guys.

BLACKWELL: Ken, Allison, thank you both.

PAUL: So, switching it up here, there is still no deal on a new stimulus package. Lawmakers seem to be at a stalemate even after what they described was a very productive meeting yesterday.

BLACKWELL: Yes, those extra unemployment benefits, those have run out and people are really suffering depending upon those.

CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes is at the White House this morning.

They say that they're making progress, but still far apart.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor.

And keep in mind, progress for them, as millions of Americans are suffering 9and watching this very closely, progress is not a deal. So, today, there are going to be meetings. This is not those primaries, we're not going to see Speaker Pelosi, Senator Schumer, Mark Meadows, Mnuchin, like we've seen in the past couple of days. This is going to be their staffs. They're hammering out the nitty- gritty. They're going through some of these issues ahead of another meeting of those four primaries on Monday. So what exactly are the issues? What are the hang-ups here?

Well, there are two big ones. One of them involving that $600 of unemployment benefits that come from the federal government. Democrats, they have proposed to extend that through January. Their reasoning being, it's still very hard to find work and those who do have jobs are having a hard time with child care. So, that's one category.

On the other side, you have Republicans saying let's cut it down to $200 until states can implement a system in which they are essentially replacing 70 percent of previous wages. The reason for this solution being that Republicans say that the $600 is actually turning into a deterrent for people to go back to work.

They are relying on this money and not actually going back to their jobs because this is more substantial. And they're saying that their constituents who are business owners are telling them this, that it's actually harder to find employees.

The other part of this is what exactly this bill will look like. We have heard Republicans, the White House offer up an idea of a short solution, an emergency passage that includes unemployment benefits. Nancy Pelosi, Democrats, they say no, no dice.

[07:10:02]

They want a broader deal that includes money for state and local governments. Of course, we've heard governors say that as well. More money for testing and more money for small business programs in any single deal that gets pushed through. Yesterday, three-hour meeting. They said it was the most productive meeting they've had yet.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: There are many issues that are still very much outstanding where we're apart. But we had a serious discussion and we went down piece by piece and saw where each side is at.

STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: There's clearly a subset of issues where we both agree on very much, we're very interested in extending an enhanced unemployment insurance, we're very interested in schools, we're very interested in jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And one thing to note here is that even if they were to come up with a deal tomorrow, it would still be days, if not weeks, until it was implemented, meaning that these families, these people, millions of Americans who rely on this money will still not be getting it.

And, Christi, as you noted, long times at food banks, rent was due at the first of the month. People are struggling right now. And it just -- it seems as though they're at an impasse.

PAUL: Yes, I think they're watching all of this happening and thinking, we don't have time for a stalemate.

Kristen Holmes, thank you so much.

HOLMES: Thank you, Kristen.

PAUL: So, later this morning on "STATE OF THE UNION", Dana Bash is with you. She's filling in for Jake Tapper, and she's speaking with the White House coronavirus task force response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, Congressman and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and former governor candidate, Stacey Abrams. "STATE OF THE UNION" airs today at 9:00 Eastern.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, the president is tweeting more false claims about the coronavirus pandemic and we're seeing record daily deaths in California. More information, more details about the pandemic and the surge and where it's happening.

PAUL: And new questions about who Joe Biden will pick to be his running mate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:15]

BLACKWELL: For a sixth straight day now, more than 1,000 people have been reported killed by COVID-19 in the U.S.

PAUL: There are obviously new worries, particularly in California.

Here's CNN's Polo Sandoval with that story.

Hi, Polo.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, guys. Good morning to you.

Yes, hard to believe, it's been five months since the first COVID positive case in New York state. We continue to see cases every day. The situation is improving here.

Yes, on Friday alone, there were close to 83,000 tests who are performed, according to the governor's office, less than 1 percent coming back positive. That translates to positive news for people here. Certainly, much of the country is still struggling. You mentioned California shattering its death record recently. And now, Mississippi has the highest percentage of COVID positive cases in the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SANDOVAL (voice-over): California, once the role model for flattening the curve has become a coronavirus hotspot. Much of the state showing dark red as California's department of public health announces highest number yet of COVID-related deaths. That number, 219 in a single day.

Since the pandemic started, more than 9,000 people in California have died from COVID-related complications.

ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, UCLA: It's very frustrating as an epidemiologist to see the case numbers continuing to rise without a national strategy, without adequate testing, without contact tracing as we need it, all of the things that we've been talking about for months and months. These numbers are going to continue to go up until we do have these things in place.

SANDOVAL: People struggling financially in Los Angeles waited in line for seven hours on Saturday at a food bank.

TRINITY TRAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, URBAN PARTNERS, LA: It's surreal to see that many people standing in this line for food. It's really a larger indictment of a failed system, the inability of the federal government to take care of the people, because at the end of the day, it's unconscionable to live in a world where people have to wait seven hours for a box of groceries.

SANDOVAL: Florida reported 9,000 plus cases for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday. And in Texas, the city of McAllen's convention center is being converted into a health care facility to help meet hospital capacity needs in the hard hit part of the southern part of the state.

New cities here report on how quickly the children transmitted the virus at a summer camp in Georgia came out as schools starting to reopen across the country. A Mississippi high school student tested positive for coronavirus during the first week of classes according to Corinth School District's social media post.

In Indiana last week, the Hancock County health department notified Greenfield Central Junior High School that one of their students who attended part of the school day tested positive for COVID-19, the superintendent told parents in a letter. A staff member at Avon High School in Indiana posted positive for COVID-19 had not been at school this past week.

DR. WAYNE J. RILEY, PRESIDENT, DOWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER: The safest way to open schools is to decrease community transmission. The Achilles heel of our national effort has been the lack of testing capacity. We are not doing nearly the amount of tests we need to do on a daily basis, probably about anywhere from one to three million tests a day. We're under a million.

SANDOVAL: The coronavirus spreads again on Capitol Hill. Arizona Democratic Representative Raul Grijalva tested positive for the coronavirus. His office confirmed it on Saturday. In a statement, Saturday, Grijalva slammed Republicans who don't wear masks in the building, citing the events of the week. Most of the U.S. is now in the red zone and in July, the U.S. saw ten

days where deaths surpassed 1,000. The CDC now projecting more than 173,000 U.S. deaths by August 22nd.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[07:20:01]

SANDOVAL: Back here in New York, the city submitted its full reopening plan to the state just last week. Ultimately, though, the governor is going to have to make that final decision whether New York schools reopen. It looks like that will be happening.

But, really, Victor and Christi, what we're seeing right now are parents here in the Empire State having to make decisions, do they send their kids to school with the appropriate measures being taken or keep them at home for remote learning?

We should mention that here in New York City, parents will be given that option.

PAUL: All right. Polo Sandoval, appreciate it so much. Thank you.

I want to bring in Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. He's a contributor, epidemiologist, and public health expert.

Doctor, thank you for being with us. It's good to see you.

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you.

PAUL: We know that when we talk about what's happening in the Midwest and spike that we're seeing again in Mississippi and Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri. Is there any indication what is causing that for states that thought at one point they might have had a handle on this?

EL-SAYED: Well, we knew that we needed to go into mass social distancing, the lockdowns we saw in March, April and May to be able to bring down the transmission rate. But after that, it was critical that we were going to be able to keep it down because of contact tracing, testing and masking. Unfortunately, we've seen that all of those things have just failed to transpire the way we needed them.

We are still struggling to get as many tests as we need on board to able to limit the spread. We're still struggling to build out the contact tracing capacity across states in the country and we know that masks have been politicized by likes of Donald Trump and other politicians telling us that they're a badge on our freedom rather than a very effective means to reduce the transmission of an extremely dangerous and deadly disease. So, here we are.

BLACKWELL: So, the president tweeted a video of Dr. Fauci comparing Europe to the United States, and comparing the relative shutdown. He tweeted after Dr. Fauci said they shut down 95 percent, we were effectively 50. Wrong. We have more cases because we've tested far more than any other

country, 60 million. If we tested less, there would be less cases. How did Italy, France, and Spain do? Now, Europe has sadly has flare-ups.

We've talked about tests don't create cases, but he seems to compare the U.S. to Italy, France and Spain.

Compare, if you would, the conditions of the countries.

EL-SAYED: Well, I'll just say this. They're not having a huge debate about how and if their kids are going back to school. We still are. The point that the president is making is kind of like saying, if you shine a flashlight at a wall, you see more wall.

Yes, the wall is there whether or not the flashlight shines on it. The fact is, if you're trying to take down a wall, you want to see where the wall is. This is the situation we have with COVID-19.

We want more testing, because we want to know how many cases exist. We don't want to miss them. His argument implies that somehow that fact that you tested created a case. The test shows you the case and allows you to do what you need to do to make sure that case isn't spreading into more cases.

The last thing I'll say on this, is that when you look at cases, we're looking at a fraction, a numerator and a denominator. We also want to know the overall fraction, how high it is. How many tests were positive that we're seeing test positivity that is extremely high and increasing, and herein lies the problem.

PAUL: So, how confident are you that perhaps states could really take a bigger role here in terms of trying to combat this without federal assistance?

EL-SAYED: Well, that is the key question, without federal assistance. Unfortunately, there aren't that many things that a state can do that they're not already doing. Of course, I encourage a lot of the states that are headed towards runaway transmission to face back around lockdowns and mask ordinances.

But the other question here is around things like testing. The fact is, we know that creating and producing a test requires an international flow of all the reagents and pieces of that test. And the fact is that states can't coordinate their own supply chain. In fact, when we're seeing a nationwide absence of testing in the degree that we need, what that tells us, a few states are probably competing against each other.

And so, when you need federal action, we've needed federal action. It probably starts with the president taking it seriously rather than trying to obfuscate numbers. That's everybody who's watching are obviously.

And so, we need federal action to empower the states to do the things that they can to protect us, protect our loved ones, send our kids back to school and do safely. I mean, these are the debates we shouldn't be happening five months into this, six months into this.

BLACKWELL: One question on schools. I had the president of Rice University on yesterday, talking about the protocol to get students back on back on campus -- social distancing and classes, wearing of masks, in buildings and libraries. There will be 1,600-plus students moving into the dormitories.

So, here's part of the conversation. Then I have a question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:25:01]

DAVID LEEBRON, PRESIDENT, RICE UNIVERSITY: Some students may have roommates. We're still finalizing that. Probably most students who don't want to have a roommate will not have a roommate.

Some students even prefer, under these circumstances to have one roommate and go through school having somebody really close to them and become like a little family to them. So, there won't be more than two in a room and probably most students won't have roommates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, I appreciate the familial element of having a roommate. But with wearing masks in class and in library, but the rules are lax and I'm living with another person back in the dormitory. Can that work?

EL-SAYED: So, I'll say a couple things about this. Number one, it's clear that in a college scenario where everyone is physical and social distancing, it's going to be lonely if you're alone. So, I understand that aspect of it.

At the same time, though, this should call in to picture the bigger question of bringing students back to campus. Of course, we all know that the reasons why students are going to get sick aren't necessarily because they have a roommate or because they're going to class. But because they're coming on to a campus and a large group of younger folks tend to do what large groups of younger folks, tend to do at large groups of younger folks do.

And when you think about how that relates to physical dancing and the need to stay away from each other, that then creates a big question about whether or not it is, in fact, even safe to reopen your campus and create that atmosphere again.

So, you know, the question in his mind about whether or not students might want a roommate or not want one, just implies how hard it is for administrators to make safe decisions because, of course, in some ways, we don't know what transmission is going to look like. That's a real fear here.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We understand and sympathize. None of this is easy. These are all tough questions.

But how do we get it done is the most important one to keep people safe.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thanks so much for your time.

PAUL: Thank you, sir.

EL-SAYED: Thank you for having me.

PAUL: So, after seeing a run on supplies in the spring, people in south Florida didn't want to wait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see a lot of people and aisles that don't seem to have much toilet paper and paper towels and sort of pre- pandemic-like situation in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: They look familiar.

Isaias now expected to knock out power, damage homes, plus major flooding up and down the East Coast. We got the latest for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:36]

BLACKWELL: The Apple Fire in California is now 15,000 acres, zero percent contained. Evacuation orders are in place around the area, which it's east of Los Angeles, almost 8,000 people were evacuated from that area overnight. Emergency workers also have to work around challenges presented by, of course, the coronavirus.

PAUL: We're also tracking this morning, Tropical Storm Isaias.

I want to go to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar who has been looking at the models.

What are you learning this hour, Allison?

CHINCHAR: Right, the storm is getting awfully close to Florida now. You're starting to see those rainbands coming in. You're taking a look right now at Sebastian inlet. That's just south of Melbourne.

One thing to note, you can see those long period lines, the distance between the waves. Fun fact, before satellite and radar, that is what sailors used to use as the warning of an impending tropical system. You can see the darker skies out there on the right-hand side of your screen, and it's because of this -- tropical storm Isaias, sustained winds gusting up to 65. So, the gusts would be hurricane strength, the sustained winds only at tropical storm.

So, again, keep in mind, still very gusty winds with this. Power outages still likely. You've got the heavy rain that pushes in later on today and stretching up the East Coast eventually for places like Daytona Beach, and even Jacksonville. From there, some of the heaviest rain from the storm will then push into places like the Carolinas, Virginia and up through New York.

That stretch there is likely where we are going to get the highest rainfall amounts. Widespread, about four to six inches. But there will be some spots that will pick up even more than that. And we did mention the winds.

Even though the winds have come down a little bit in the last 24 hours, they are still strong enough, Victor and Christie, to bring some power outages. Not just in Florida. Some may stretch from the Carolinas up to New York.

PAUL: Thanks for the heads up, Allison Chinchar.

BLACKWELL: All right. It's time. It's time to choose.

Joe Biden, former vice president, said that he would pick his running mate this week. The announcement will likely come next week. But the convention is two weeks away. So, it's got to happen soon.

Joining me now to discuss is Laura Barron-Lopez. She is a national political reporter at "Politico" covering the 2020 election.

Laura, good morning to you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here. What do those inside and around the campaign believe that the pick has to accomplish primarily?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, what I hear from a lot of Democrats in Congress is that they really know that Biden needs to pick someone who works well with them, potentially, someone who has a relationship with him, a preexisting relationship beyond just being vetted during -- during this process.

Someone that they also think will just work well with him, whether that's accomplishing what he did for Obama. But what they do for him in terms of keeping up relationships in Congress.

And so, a lot of people have praised Congressman Karen Bass. A number of others think Harris could work well with him. So, it remains to be seen exactly who the vice president, the former vice president is going to pick.

BLACKWELL: I want to come back to Karen Bass in a moment. But scores of black clergy sent an open letter, I should say, to the campaign urging, the vice president to pick a black woman.

[07:35:04]

Pulled a line from the letter: choosing a nonblack VP candidate would be more than politically shortsighted and a grave mistake.

How broad is that perspective broadly held by those close to the campaign? BARRON-LOPEZ: So, it's difficult to tell. But we are seeing a lot of

pressure exerted on the campaign, whether it's from black clergy like the letter you cited or BLM activists or just progressives who really think that in this moment, Biden should pick an African American woman.

And we do know that Biden said a few weeks ago that he's considering four. Who those four are, he didn't name them because there are more than four that originally were being considered. And so the argument behind a black female, of course, it would be historic. But also a number of progressives think that it could help with turning out younger voters, particularly young voters of color.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's turn to Karen Bass, California congresswoman, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

She's being criticized, first about how she talked about Fidel Castro, late leader in Cuba. But also now some comments about scientology back in 2010. She tweeted this out this weekend. A longer explanation: Just so you all know, I proudly worship at First New Christian Fellowship Baptist Church in South L.A.

Do these criticisms appear to be weakening the possibility that she'd be the pick?

BARRON-LOPEZ: There's potential for that, certainly. Right near the end, we've seen a lot of different, you could call it potentially opposition research being thrown out, whether it's about Karen Bass or Kamala Harris, though both of them are being highly considered for the vice presidential pick.

Bass in that statement didn't directly address what her views are about scientology. As you say, she said she's not a part of that church. She goes to a Baptist Church. And she also sought to clarify that she was just trying to find some area of agreement between her religion and the church that she was speaking at when she was speaker of the house in California.

BLACKWELL: You know, we don't talk often, as much as we used to talk about Senator Elizabeth Warren and the potential she would be the pick. Is there an active lobby on her behalf? We know that there are lawmakers pushing for Harris and some pushing for Rice and Bass. What about Senator Warren?

BARRON-LOPEZ: In terms of members of the Hill, I haven't heard very many pushed for Warren. We know that Congressman Ro Khanna is a big supporter of hers for the V.P. pick.

But there is a lobby on behalf of Warren outside of Congress from progressive groups, from those who think Warren would make a good governing partner for Biden. We have seen him take a few policy positions from Warren, whether in his economy proposal or whether it's in his climate change proposal.

And so, they hope that that could be something that Biden looks to when he's choosing. BLACKWELL: All right. This week or next week, the announcement comes

soon.

Laura Barron Lopez, thanks so much. Enjoy the week.

LOPEZ: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: So, stay with us, because we're introducing you to a 10-year-old girl who kept a video diary as she was fighting coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENDALL HANSON, 10-YEAR-OLD: I want you guys to know, you are not in this alone if you have corona.

Today, I went on a bike ride. After, I was so tired. I could barely breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That's Kendall Hanson and she's with us next to talk about the journey.

Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENDALL HANSON, STARTED VIDEO DIARY AFTER COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS: And today is my third day with coronavirus. I started to get a stomachache. I kind of just watched some TV and talked to my friends again, because that's all I can do.

Some tips that I have is you want to stay hydrated. Take a shower, bath.

I want you guys to know, you are not in this alone if you have the corona.

Today I went on a bike ride. After I was so tired. I could barely breathe.

It's been more than ten days since I've had my symptoms. Sadly, my granddaddy is still in the hospital. I'm just really happy that quarantine is over, for me at least.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That's 10-year-old Kendall Hanson from Orange County, Florida. And she started that YouTube video diary detailing her journey with coronavirus wanting to show other people how it impacts her daily life. Well, she and her mom Lacey are with us now.

Good morning. How are you both this morning?

LACEY HANSON, MOTHER OF KENDALL HANSON: Good morning.

KENDALL HANSON: Good morning.

PAUL: Good morning.

So, Kendall, I know that you're out of quarantine. How do you feel?

KENDALL HANSON: I feel perfectly fine and glad to be out of quarantine.

PAUL: I bet you are. I understand. Because we came out of quarantine ourselves at our house.

You said something in that video that I thought was so sweet. You said I want you to know that you're not alone. Who were you talking to in that moment?

[07:45:00]

KENDALL HANSON: Everybody that has the corona or just everybody in general.

PAUL: Have you heard from a lot of people who watched your video?

KENDALL HANSON: I don't know. Yes.

LACEY HANSON: She's received a lot of support. Kind gestures from friends and family, neighbors.

PAUL: Uh-huh.

Mom, what did you think about her putting it all out there?

LACEY HANSON: I thought it was a good experience for her. Somebody had suggested. One of my friends suggested she do a journal so she can remember this time. It's so unique in our lives.

You know, for Kendall, she prefers video to writing. We thought also, she could look back and see herself. Girls love looking back on memories.

So I thought it was a good way for her to express herself.

PAUL: So, talk to me about the symptoms that you had, Kendall. How bad was it?

KENDALL HANSON: It wasn't too bad. I just had some stomachaches, headaches and I was feeling really tired. Sometimes my throat hurt. But I wouldn't say it was too bad.

PAUL: Mom, did anybody else in the family have it?

LACEY HANSON: Thankfully, none of us in our house did. Both of her grandparents did who she visited over Fourth of July weekend. And then, other family members subsequently got it.

So, we're very thankful that no one else in our house ended up testing positive.

PAUL: Kendall, I know you said in a video too that you were sad that your grandfather was in the hospital. How is he -- is he OK now?

KENDALL HANSON: He's fine. Yes. He went home. --

PAUL: OK. What do you want to say to kids who watch this? Because it's -- you know, we hear so much about this virus. We hear adults talking about it. We don't hear a lot of children talking about it.

What do you want them to hear from you most?

KENDALL HANSON: Kids can get the coronavirus. We can get through it together.

PAUL: Uh-huh. What do you think you needed to hear from people when you were sick?

KENDALL HANSON: That they just are supporting me and they love me.

PAUL: Uh-huh. So it's sweet that you shared this with everybody.

Mom, did you have any trepidations about letting her be so public about it? And in addition to that, because she's been so public about it, is she going back to school?

LACEY HANSON: Well, most of our YouTube channel is really been a repository for our family videos. We didn't anticipate it to be that public. But we've left everything entirely up to her. It's something she wanted to do.

She was happy to do the interview with you and we wanted to totally support her in all of that. In terms of school, we've opted to go with the virtual option for the first semester at least. We'll see how everything is looking then. But this really served as a wakeup call for us.

And, you know, we don't want to put them in jeopardy any more than --

PAUL: Well, Kendall, we know that you've got the virtual stuff down for sure. You know you do in that regard. I'm so glad you're okay and I'm glad your grandparents are all right as well.

Kendall and Lacey Hanson there, thank you for taking time to talking to us today. And here's to good health to you and continued health. Take good care.

LACEY HANSON: Thank you.

PAUL: Take good care.

BLACKWELL: That was a great conversation.

Hey. So, here's one way to teach students about the coronavirus guidelines. Help from Principal Lee coming up. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. QUENTIN LEE, PRINCIPAL (singing): My, my coronavirus hits me so hard, all the teachers say, oh, my lord! COVID is stressing me, all the updates from the CDC. Lysol --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, some gyms are reopening now. And in today's "Staying Well", we give you a few extra steps on things you can do to make your return a little bit safer.

[07:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: This is a gym you have known for a long time that's reopening. You still want to call them and find out, are they doing temperature checks, how many people are allowed in the gym, can you social distance?

So you've got to think about the group of fungal infections, planter warts, athletes foot. You've got to think about MRSA infections, or just staph infections. And, of course, you can't forget about how ubiquitous viruses are.

So really important that any areas where you have got the skin contact, you want to definitely make sure you wipe it down nicely. Those wipes should have alcohol in them because alcohol is going to kill the fungus, alcohol will kill the virus, and alcohol will kill the bacteria. Those are organisms you worry about a lot in a gym setting where there are tons of people sharing the same contact surfaces.

Anytime you're in the gym, you also want to make sure you adequately protect your feet. Sweaty surfaces, those are environments where fungus, bacteria and viruses love to grow. You really need to have your flop flops available if you're going to walk from the swimming pool to the wet area.

Take your sanitizers, take your own towels. If you're sick, don't go to the gym, and for all the infections we talked about, remember they will be minimized if you take care of yourself and wipe down surfaces.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (singing): Every time you see me, Dr. Lee is sanitized. I'm going to keep my hands clean because cases of corona are on the rise. Now, why would I ever stop doing this while others getting ill, I don't want to be sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That is Dr. Quentin Lee, principal with Childersburg Brook High School in Alabama.

[07:55:04]

I love this guy, best way to tell his students about new safety measures this year. Look at him.

BLACKWELL: I was hoping he would do the typewriter. I'm waiting to see it. This inspired by MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This". He posted this on YouTube, getting ready to, there it is, back to school, take a break and enjoy this parody. We sure did.

PAUL: We sure did. Y'all take good care of yourselves there and go make some good memories today.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)