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College Football Postponing Season; Death Toll Rises in Beirut; Trump's Executive Actions on Virus Relief; Food Banks See Record Numbers. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 10, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're learning about discussions that are underway among college sport's top conferences to possibly postpone the 2020 football season.

Joining me now is Dr. Preeti Malani. She's the chief health officer at the University of Michigan and the university's representative on the Big Ten Emergency Infections Task Force.

Dr. Malani, we appreciate you being with us this morning.

The news that there are discussions underway and that possibly the season could be suspended, postponed, canceled at least for a while hit all of us, I think, last night as we were going to sleep.

What can you tell us? What do you know about what's happening?

DR. PREETI MALANI, CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Yes.

So -- so, thanks, John.

I actually don't know the latest of what's happening, and this is -- the entire pandemic has really been about difficult choices. And if we think back to March, it was NCAA basketball season and how all that got canceled. And I think everyone has been hopeful to see the return of sports.

Like you, like other fans, I'm waiting to hear what the final decisions are. But if you look at what has happened so far, it's been discussions around keeping play to conference play, delaying the schedule, trying to limit travel.

The other piece, and we talk about football, but really it's all sports, that -- that are complicated to get back. It's -- you know, it's this idea of a virus that is transmitted from person to person, that you prevent through social distancing and wearing masks, and all those things get a little bit difficult when you come -- when it comes to competition especially.

BERMAN: It sure does. And, look, you brought up the March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. I remember how upset people were when that was canceled. But now, in retrospect, I think almost everyone would agree, can you

imagine if it had gone on? Can you imagine the transmission that would have happened?

Which does bring us to today. So, what would your concerns be about holding a season this fall?

MALANI: Yes, so I will say, again, the pandemic has been about difficult choices. And this is a difficult choice. And there are pros and cons to playing and to not playing. And the easier thing to argue, at least from an infectious disease standpoint, is the not playing piece, where issues like travel, issues like social distancing, crowds, the number of people involved, not just players but their families, coaches, people who might be vulnerable. So that piece is easy.

But there's also a flipside, and something that we don't always talk about are the reasons to play. And I think that this is -- I'm sure this is part of a discussion for the leadership of the Big Ten and other power five conferences is that this is a big deal for the student athletes, it's a big deal for the community, it's important economically, but it's also important for overall well-being. And right now we're -- we're in a state where the pandemic is really different in different parts of the country, which makes it difficult to travel. We are, at the University of Michigan, looking forward to welcoming new students and returning students in a few weeks.

BERMAN: Part-time.

MALANI: Which is also complicated because --

BERMAN: Yes.

MALANI: Yes. So -- so they're coming from all over the world.

BERMAN: Right.

MALANI: And then when you -- I'm sorry?

BERMAN: I'm sorry. I was just going to say, you were talking about, you know, finding reasons to play and how this is unfortunate or would be for athletes.

MALANI: Yes.

BERMAN: Trevor Lawrence, who's the quarterback for Clemson.

MALANI: Yes.

BERMAN: You know, maybe the biggest college football star, my apologies to the Wolverines, at least for now. I'm sure they'll -- they'll have someone whose that good soon. But he said overnight, the quarterback from Clemson, he said people are just as much if not more at risk if we don't play. Players will be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract Covid-19.

What do you make of that argument?

MALANI: Yes, I think that that is a valid argument. And, again, it gets back at the overall issue of wellbeing and -- and really not just for our student athletes, but all of our students. And the feeling that, for some of them, first of all they might not be able to really continue their education in an easy way if they're home. The other issue is that Covid is not the only risk to playing sports. And one of the questions that I have raised, and I don't know the answer to this, is, if we change how we practice and we change how we play, does that increase the risk of other injuries? Does that increase the risk of concussions? Does it change the dynamic between teammates?

So I think it's -- it's ironic in the sense that we don't have a good playbook for this. There continue to be issues around testing and turnaround time. And although testing is important, it is not the only thing that's important in terms of prevention. It comes back to those issues.

BERMAN: I got about a minute left --

MALANI: Yes.

BERMAN: But what threshold do you think would need to be met in order for these conference heads to decide to go ahead and play?

MALANI: My sense is, and not knowing exactly what their discussions are about, but my sense is it has to do with where the communities are in terms of their spread.

[08:35:03]

And, I know, unfortunately, that varies a lot from place to place. We're in a pretty good place in Michigan, but that could change as schools come back into session and colleges come back into session.

But I really do think it's a -- it's an idea of what's happening regionally and what can be done in terms of prevention and logistics, whether it's testing or otherwise.

BERMAN: Yes, the MAC conference, which is a smaller conference with different schools, they canceled all together because I think there is fear of the communities where some of these colleges are located. And as you said, it varies from case to case, but there are certainly schools and locations that have a positivity rate say higher than 5 percent, which I know is the threshold that a lot of people set.

Dr. Malani, thank you very -- Malani, I should say, thanks very much for being with us. We appreciate you talking to us this morning.

MALANI: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, we have incredible, troubling video of the huge, deadly explosion in Beirut, as family members continue the search for survivors. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: A new night of violent protests on the streets of Beirut. This comes as CNN obtains astonishing new video which shows the moment of that massive explosion that has killed at least 160 people.

[08:40:05]

The search continues for survivors today.

CNN's Arwa Damon has been speaking with families who are desperate for answers about their loved ones, and she joins us now live from Beirut with the latest.

Arwa, good morning.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

And it's almost impossible, if not fully impossible, to put into words exactly what this city has gone through, especially when it comes to those families who have been trying to piece together the clues as to where their missing loved ones may have been.

Here is one family's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON (voice over): Michelle hasn't slept in three days, neither has her sister-in-law, with whom she shares the same name, and a love for Joe, husband and brother. Michelle struggles to form words and sentences in Arabic, never mind in English. Joe is an electrician at the port.

And this is the last video she got from him on Tuesday night. Minutes later, the entire building he was filming would explode.

Jennifer, Joe and Michelle's oldest child, was in Beirut.

MICHELE ANDOUN, JOE'S SISTER: So she heard the explosion and she start crying and shouting, this is my dad's (INAUDIBLE).

DAMON: Oh, she knew that's where her dad work.

ANDOUN: Yes. She's (INAUDIBLE).

MICHELLE TANIOS, JOE'S WIFE: She said, oh, poor daddy. Oh, poor mommy. Oh, poor Joe.

DAMON: The entire family was frantic, calling Joe nonstop.

ANDOUN: At midnight, Joe opened his phone for 21 second. Her father heard voices, deep voices. That's what he said. And then nothing.

DAMON: Another call also seemed to have gone through on Wednesday, for 43 seconds, but there was silence on the other end. He must be alive, they thought. They had to get to him.

Joe is strong, clever. He would have figured out a way to save himself. They combed through videos shot by others from other angles, looking for any clues to give teams locations to search.

DAMON (on camera): You think that's Joe?

TANIOS: Yes, this is.

DAMON: You think one of those people is Joe?

TANIOS: Of course.

ANDOUN: Yes, we are sure. And he was filming from here.

DAMON (voice over): It's the building right in front of the grain silo (ph), a building that is now buried. But they still had hope. There's an operations room deep underground. They heard there are bunkers. Three bodies were pulled out, but no Joe. Maybe he's deeper in, deeper under, somehow still alive.

ANDOUN: Yes, I mean we have to keep searching.

DAMON: Michelle was born in the U.S. The children also have American passports. Joe was just about to get his visa. All that now seems like a different reality.

ANDOUN: He loved life, in every detail (ph). He wanted to go to America because it's better for his, for Jennifer and Joy, for -- for Beirut's future, but not for -- for him.

DAMON: The women are trying to shield the children from their grief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My shoes smelled bad so they washed me.

DAMON: Jennifer doesn't know daddy is missing. Joy is thankfully too young to fully understand. Maybe they will never have to tell the girls their daddy is dead.

That night, the fourth after the explosion, crews were searching around the clock, searching the area where the family believed Joe would be found, clinging to the hope that he would still somehow be alive.

At 4:00 a.m., they sent us a heart-broken message. Joe's body had been found.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: And, Erica, you know, over the decades, with the civil war, and then bombings and running street battles, the Lebanese did perfect the art of soldiering on. They pride themselves on that.

But this, this is different. It comes on the heels of an economic collapse that has meant that people's money, it's worth 75 percent less than it used to be. And then came coronavirus. And to have a blast like this be so devastating, and have the reason behind it basically be government corruption and ineffectiveness, that they left such a large amount of ammonium nitrate unsecured in an unsafe conditions, they've just had enough. And that's why you're seeing these renewed demonstrations against the government. And that's why now we've seen at least three government ministers resign. The population has reached such a point, Erica, that they will no longer tolerate the status quo.

[08:45:00]

HILL: I mean, listen, and everything you lay out, Arwa, how could they not have reached that point. And your heart also just breaks for the many families, not just Michelle's, but so many more who have been faced with this unimaginable tragedy.

Arwa, thank you. A really heartbreaking and important report.

President Trump's executive orders on coronavirus relief sparking lots of confusion. So, bottom line, what's in here, what's not? We're going to break it all down, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So new questions this morning about the executive action signed by the president over the weekend. Yes, are they legal? That's one set of very important questions. But another set of questions is, what do they actually do?

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with that.

Let's assume for a second they are legal. Put the discussion aside for a second. But there are questions about how effective they'll be.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, right. And they're meant to really tell Trump's voters and Trump's base that I've got your back. Congress is broken. Congress couldn't get you more money and I will.

[08:50:03]

The -- the devil's in the details, though. The "how" and the "when" are what we just don't know here. So let's start with those unemployment benefits. You know the president's saying he wants $400 extra a week for people who are out of work. That's less than the $600 that people were getting and less than Congress -- or the House wanted, the Senate -- or House Democrats wanted.

But how is he going to pay for it? He'd have to have a whole new system. Employment law experts tell us it could take weeks and weeks to figure out how to actually get that money into people's pockets. So they're not going to see any money really probably any time soon.

And this payroll tax deferral, this is something Trump really wanted. But to actually make that permanent, as he's promising if he's re- elected, Congress has to do this. So, John, you know, Congress has the power of the purse, but President

Trump has the power of the photo-op. And that's what Saturday really was, it was a photo-op meant to project power, even though there might not be money getting into anybody's pockets any time soon.

BERMAN: And we don't know if states are even going to go along with this, do we?

ROMANS: Well, no. And they're cash strapped. They say they don't have any money. The -- the White House says, no, they have money, they have money that's just sitting there that they could use to pay $100 a week for people. The states are saying, we don't have the money. In fact, that's one of the things that they'd like in a congressional stimulus package, they would like state and local relief.

Bottom line here, Erica, I think what's really important is that Congress needs to start talking again. They need to fix this. You know that if Congress can actually make legislation to stimulate the economy, we know it will get done for sure.

HILL: Yes, that is exactly what we need to see.

Christine, thank you.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HILL: Food banks, as we know, are dealing with their own challenges as they try to respond to the pandemic and the growing need. My next guest says she is really beginning to see signs of widespread desperation, people waiting in long lines, starting at midnight for hours to get a box of groceries.

Trinity Tran is a board member at Urban Partners Los Angeles Food Bank.

Trinity, really appreciate you joining us.

Feeding America recently estimated the number of food insecure Americans could increase by nearly 50 percent over the next 12 months. You are seeing some of that firsthand. Give us a sense what has changed in the last several weeks or even the last couple of months in terms of the need you're seeing.

TRINITY TRAN, BOARD MEMBER, URBAN PARTNERS LOS ANGELES FOOD BANK: (INAUDIBLE). Hi, Erica.

So, since the pandemic began about four and a half months ago, we have now more than tripled in size with our line. We've had to scale up our operation to be able to bring in additional volunteers, greater amounts of food. We are now serving roughly 100,000 pounds of food each week. We're seeing people wait -- wait in line before midnight for our doors to open at 7:00 a.m. And just the other week we served a record 1,700 people, that's 1,700 people who are in line waiting for groceries to be able to feed thousands more family members waiting at home for food.

HILL: Are --

TRAN: Nearly half of the people on our line are seniors, and it's -- it's really heartbreaking.

HILL: And it's -- it's so important to put that into perspective to remember that these are families, but these are families, obviously, that are multigenerational, like most families.

Are you able to handle this increase in demand?

TRAN: So we get conations from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, but we also rent a truck to do additional food pickups because your aim is to be able to sort of provide food to feed a family of four for a week, so that is a combination of dry goods, fresh produce, meat, dairy. So we've been -- you know, we struggle every week to -- to be able to meet the growing demand, but, you know, we -- we have an incredible team of volunteers to help us see us through.

HILL: I mean you really do. You know, it's amazing the work that you're doing, that you were doing long before the pandemic, right, and we know how important it is in this country.

We also know that this pandemic and, frankly, food insecurity disproportionately impacts communities of color. What are some of the stories that you're hearing from people and what do you think has changed in terms of why they have this need right now?

TRAN: You know, many of our grocery recipients are not homeless. They -- but low income families from communities of color who are fearful about rent and evictions, fearful about not being able to pay bills, trying to struggle to stay afloat.

And, you know, as we hear about crisis relief efforts, we tend to forget that millions of people have already been living in a state of crisis for a very long time. And people should not have to choose between paying for food or housing. And the pandemic is only intensifying this desperation. And what we're seeing though -- with the federal government is the failure to provide social safety nets is now resulting in millions across the country struggling with food insecurity and then it's up to grassroots organizations like ours to then have to step in to fill this void.

And that's what makes this operation so incredible. And, yes, so tragic because -- at the same time because it's the tireless work of an army of volunteers who come in every Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. to make sure that over 1,500 people do not go hungry.

HILL: You mentioned the lack of action from the federal government. Do you feel that lawmakers in Washington truly grasp the enormity, the gravity of the situation in your neighborhood and in so many others across the country?

[08:55:06]

TRAN: You know, in -- in the wealthiest nation in the world, it should not be left to volunteers to provide the basic human right to food. Many of the volunteers are working class themselves and should not have to be left to volunteers to have to care for thousands of people living either on the edge or looking below the poverty line. And, you know, we -- we want our lawmakers to step up and address this crucial and urgent need because ultimately food banks are a symbol of a broken system.

I mean there are now -- they're a necessity now in the corona economy with 40 million Americans living below the poverty line, but at the end of the day, food banks provide temporary relief. And they're not the answer. And as a nation we have to have a deeper conversation on how to reduce the -- the need for emergency food assistance that food banks provide because, you know, ultimately solving hunger requires us to take a deeper look at the factors that contribute to the poverty (INAUDIBLE).

HILL: Yes. And it requires people to admit, took that there is a problem.

Trinity Tran, thank you for all that you are doing, for you and everyone there at Urban Partners.

TRAN: Thank you very much (ph).

HILL: CNN continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END