Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Trump's Convention Speech; College Football's Season in Question; Powerful Storm Leaves Path of Destruction; Worry over Rushed Vaccine Trials; Lebanon's Government Resigns. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 11, 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]

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: One of the most divisive, bloody battles in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln's famous speech is hallowed ground by presidential decree. And so the notion of accepting a convention is -- formally accepting a nomination as part of the convention is, you know, headline-grabbing if nothing else.

And I talked yesterday with Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian, and, of course, a CNN contributor. He told me he thought if Trump did that, it would be deeply cheesy and inappropriate. But he understood the -- sort of the political gut instincts about why the president has been trying to embrace national monuments, preserving national monuments and embracing the legacy of past presidents, and then trying to pivot to say that Democrats want to undo all of that. This would be a way to position that. And, of course, Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is a key swing state that the president barely won last time and would very much like to hang onto this time. He can get there closely from Washington.

But is it a bridge too far politically speaking? You know, we'll have to wait and see. At one point a week ago the White House seemed like a shocking place to think about doing the convention in the era of pandemic and, by comparison, Gettysburg, the White House seems like maybe just the president's workplace. So that's where we are at this moment.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Margaret Talev, Arlette Saenz, thank you both very much for being with us this morning.

Arlette, please keep us posted on the Veep stakes watch.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We'll do.

BERMAN: So, overnight, history teachers across America suffered an incredible scare. It came as the president was trying to compare the coronavirus pandemic to the worst flu pandemic of the last century.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The closest thing is in 1917, they say, right, the great -- the great pandemic. And it certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people. Probably ended the Second World War. All the soldiers were sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So 1917, he says, the great pandemic ended World War II. Can you spot what's wrong with this statement? Well, for starters, wrong year, wrong war, and it didn't end it! The great influenza pandemic was 1918, not 1917, despite the president's persistence effort to make it thus. 1918 was the end of World War I, not World War II, which was, you know, a lot later. And neither was ended by the flu.

Now, aside from that, the president's statement is pretty much dead on correct. So, hats off to him.

It is worth noting that both wars had memorable battles in thigh-land.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Shifting production to thigh-land and to Vietnam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, there is that, Erica Hill.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: I think that's the part that most people don't realize is the connection to thigh-land for both World Wars I and II.

BERMAN: You can draw a straight line, I think, between thigh-land and the statement the president made last night, which might get to an overall knowledge and expertise.

HILL: Deficit?

BERMAN: And facility, shall we say, with the facts. Or, look, I -- I imagine he misspoke on World War I/World War II. I'll grant him that. But he continues to call the 1918 flu the 1917 flu. He's persistent about that. And some of his aides say, oh, but there were cases in 1917. The pandemic was 1918. He can't change that by executive order.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: And it's just sort of incredible as you string out some of these statements that he's made. And imagine -- imagine the universe where Joe Biden would have said something like that, the days of press releases that would be coming from the White House and the Trump campaign.

HILL: There would be a lot of that. All I have to say is, buckle up, keep that history book close by.

BERMAN: Yes. And thigh-land history, we're going to have lots of questions on that, coming up. So, fans, players, and coaches want the games to begin, but the big college football conferences could pull the plug on the season in a matter of hours. The "Bleacher Report" has latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:59]

BERMAN: New developments this morning on whether there will be any college football games this season. Another conference canceled overnight.

Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

So the Mountain West Conference, like you said, did decide to postpone all of their fall sports, including football, to the spring. And, you know, yesterday it certainly looked like more conferences were going to do that. All eyes were on the Big Ten to see if they were going to end up postponing their sports to the spring, but then you had players, big-time coaches and administrators having their voices heard, saying we want to play football. President Trump even commented on the subject. He tweeted, the student athletes have been working too hard for their season to be canceled. Now, Clemson superstar quarterback Trevor Lawrence really led the campaign by the players, saying they want universal health and safety protocols across the sport, but adding, they definitely want to play this fall because being together on campus is what will be safest for everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR LAWRENCE, CLEMSON QUARTERBACK: We feel safe here. We feel safer here than anywhere else, honestly, you know. When you go outside of these walls and you go get food, you go do anything, you're at -- you're at just as much, if not more risk.

DABO SWINNEY, CLEMSON HEAD COACH: If we cancel football, the virus isn't going to be over. And it is -- it is fully my belief that these guys are safer here than without us. Not only are they safer here, mentally it's better for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And, meantime, Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State's Ryan Day are among the Big Ten coaches saying they want to play this fall. Nebraska Coach Scott Frost says his Cornhuskers are playing this fall, even if the Big Ten decides not to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT FROST, NEBRASKA HEAD COACH: Our university's committed to playing no matter what, no matter what that looks like and how -- how that looks. We want to play no matter who it is or where it is. So we'll see how those chips fall. We certainly hope it's in the Big Ten. If it isn't, I think we're prepared to look for other options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And the Big Ten and PAC-12, Erica, both holding more meetings today. And, I mean, boy, yesterday it certainly looked like the college football season was going to get -- end up being postponed, but momentum has certainly built from the players and the coaches to play this fall.

[06:40:08]

HILL: Interesting. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in those meetings.

Andy, thank you.

SCHOLES: Yes.

HILL: Developing overnight, a massive, fast-moving windstorm sweeping across the Midwest, leaving major damage in its wake. More than a million without power.

And look at this video here. You thought that was bad. Check out, that's a semi that was knocked over. This from a -- happened on an interstate in Iowa.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers joining us now with the forecast.

Ooh, that was rough. And so many people left without power, too, in addition to that damage.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. And think about this, the highest gusts we had yesterday, Erica, was 112 miles per hour. We didn't get anywhere near that in the Hurricane Isaias. Nowhere near it. This was a storm that began in South Dakota, ran through Omaha and Des Moines. This is 24-hour radar loop. And there it goes, right toward Chicago, with trees and power lines down.

Now, officially, between 300 and 800 reports of damage. There are all the dots where the damage are. But we know that there are thousands of trees down that aren't even counted in this number. So this will continue to go up. And they are midway, Iowa, at 112, Marshall County, Iowa, 106 miles per hour, greater than hurricane strength, greater than the threshold to get to be a category two. Putting boards through buildings out here in Iowa, knocking down grain silos, doing an awful lot of damage in parts of Illinois as well, and then it continued all the way down to the south overnight. Now kind of approaching Atlanta, but maybe winds are going to be 25 or 30. So this thing has really gusted out. It's just about done. We're not going to see any more of that storm today.

There will be some more showers and storms that pop up to the west, also across the front range, but that's about it. Nothing, nothing at all like we had yesterday.

Erica.

HILL: Thankfully. Chad, thank you.

MYERS: Yes.

HILL: Russia now claiming to have developed and approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine. But is it safe? Is it even really there? And will President Trump try to rush a U.S. vaccine to market in time for the November election?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:05]

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, Vladimir Putin claims that Russia has developed and now approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine. It comes as two phase three coronavirus vaccine trials are underway in the United States. Now, some doctors here have expressed concerns that President Trump will prematurely deem the trials a success and rush a vaccine to market before we know if they really work or are safe.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen talked to the director of the National Institutes of Health, who basically says, not on my watch.

Elizabeth, what did the director tell you?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. That's exactly what he said. Well, not exactly, but that is what he said. He really put his foot down. He said, if there is a so-called October surprise, I asked him, what would you do if there were? And he said that his voice would be among the loudest saying, no, this is not OK, this is an unproven vaccine. He also said that Tony Fauci's voice would be among the loudest. And, note, Dr. Fauci works for Dr. Collins.

BERMAN: It's concern. What you have heard people float, that the president could pressure the FDA to release a vaccine before it had been tested.

COHEN: Right. I mean, and there's some reason to think this. I mean just last week President Trump said he is optimistic that a vaccine will be out by Election Day. He appears to be one of the few who are optimistic. So it seems like he's sort of expecting this.

And also, John, look at what he did with Hydroxychloroquine. He pressured the FDA back in March to give an emergency use authorization with no data, with no data at all, and they did! Now, they later rescinded it, but they gave an emergency use authorization with no data. So, there is some reason to think, if they did that with Hydroxychloroquine, might they do it with the vaccine?

BERMAN: So, two prominent doctors did write about what you just talked about the October surprise theory in a "New York Times" op-ed piece back in June. Are they still concerned that the president could do this?

COHEN: John, they're still concerned, but they are feeling better about this. This is Paul Offit and Ezekiel Emanuel, both University of Pennsylvania physicians, very well-respected. And so they wrote this op-ed back in June. Now they're saying, you know what, recently, Dr. Stephen Hahn, who's the commissioner of the FDA, has said, we will put any vaccine applications in front of an advisory committee. This is outside experts, not political people. We will put a vaccine through them. That has made them feel much better, not 100 percent better. They said, look, people -- Trump can still get people to do what he wants them to do, but they definitely feel significantly better about this.

BERMAN: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for this report.

COHEN: Thanks.

BERMAN: Protests on the streets of Beirut as the Lebanon governor resigns after the deadly explosion there. What's next for this country? We have a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:56]

HILL: Breaking overnight, another night of protests in Belarus following Sunday's disputed election. One protester died and thousands were detained. Election results show strongman Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term as president with over 80 percent of the vote. His opposition challenger, however, is disputing that result and has actually fled to Lithuania. She says she left for the sake of her children.

BERMAN: This morning, growing questions about the future of Lebanon. The prime minister and the entire government resigned less than a week after the huge explosion there sparked days of protests.

CNN's senior international correspondent Sam Kiley is live in Beirut there with the very latest.

Look, Beirut has been teetering for some time now, but this really seems to have pushed it over the edge.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it has. It's added a great deal of extra spunk to the whole demonstration process and the whole anger on the streets of Beirut as they have responded with extreme anger to the massive explosion behind me. But the resignation of the government for many Lebanese means that absolutely nothing has changed because the government will remain in position as a caretaker administration under the prevailing constitution here in Lebanon.

And I've been canvassing the opinions of activists and indeed members of the political establishment. They all seem to agree that things need to change rapidly. Here's my report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (voice over): If you're in the Lebanese opposition, this is democracy in action.

KILEY (on camera): Thirty or 40 yards down the street, this barricade there is the outer cordon for the Lebanese parliament. The demonstrators are absolutely dead set, they've told me, on getting into more and more government buildings to try and demonstrate that the government itself is really a chimera, it is hopeless, it is a sort of joke.

KILEY (voice over): As the cleanup continues after thousands of tons of fertilizer is believed to have blown up and destroyed parts of Beirut, activists are adamant that Lebanon's sectarian system, its dynastic politics, corruption and negligence led to the blast.

[06:55:14]

SAMIRA EL AZAR, PROTESTER: So we will go to the parliament, we will go to their houses, we will go to each place to get them down. They will go to a place they will be -- they will not be able to go back to the streets ever. They killed people. It's a big thing to us.

KILEY: Lebanon's government has been dissolved, but the parliament, with 128 seats, which is shared among Christians, Sunnis, Druze and Shia, remains, and there are no prospects yet of elections.

But Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, who inherited his role from his father and has arguably benefited from the existing system, is pessimistic that even early elections would bring change.

WALID JUMBLATT, LEBANESE DRUZE LEADER: When I see the protesters, the revolutionary, when I saw them and I see them yesterday, and they want to change Lebanon. They want the new Lebanon. But the obstacles for change in new Lebanon is in the specific point, alliance of minorities and the electoral load (ph), because you cannot change Lebanon through let's say military (INAUDIBLE). It's impossible.

KILEY: Close to the epicenter of Tuesday's blast, the Katad (ph) Party's headquarters is in ruins. It's a largely Christian Marinite (ph) party. Its secretary-general was killed in the explosion. His bloody handprint still visible.

KILEY (on camera): I'm so sorry.

KILEY (voice over): The grandson of the party's founder and son of the former president, nephew of another president who was murdered, Samy Gemayel supports the street protests.

SAMY GEMAYEL, LEBANESE MP: We are all from families that were part of the old Lebanon. This is how -- we -- the new -- the new generation didn't come from nowhere. And it's our duty to do our revolution, our own revolution, each one in his society and -- and the place where he is.

KILEY: But in Martyrs Square, protesters now include former Lebanese Commando Leader Colonel Georges Nader. He wants to see the old guard swept away entirely. COLONEL GEORGES NADER, FORMER LEBANESE COMMANDO LEADER (through

translator): Change is coming, and I recommend they leave peacefully or we will go to their homes and do it by force.

KILEY: That night it was the protesters who were eventually swept away, but not for long. They have plans to harness public anger over the Beirut blast to a more powerful, revolutionary rage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY: Now, John, there is going to be a vigil here to mark the timing, one week ago, where that massive detonation went off, and then a march to Martyrs Square. And I think it will probably move from a very somber mood into one of great anger with activists now openly promising, effectively, to try to occupy government buildings, to physically drive this administration from power.

John.

BERMAN: Sam Kiley, terrific report. Thanks so much for being there for us. Appreciate it.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The numbers paint a stark picture for the back- to-school season. Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for Covid in the last two weeks of July.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They don't get very sick. They don't catch it easily. I think schools have to open.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least 16 schools in Cherokee County, Georgia, have reported Covid cases amongst students or staff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The students are afraid to speak out for fear that they'll be bullied by other students, and, quite frankly, the teachers as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was shocked. I thought that they would have had a plan in place. It was anything but.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we just act like the virus isn't there and we kind of go for it and try to tough it out, it won't work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me this morning for a second straight hour.

HILL: Yes!

BERMAN: Thank you.

HILL: I might even stick around for a third, but it depends on your behavior, John Berman.

BERMAN: Thank you so much for sticking it out with me. I appreciate it.

Coronavirus cases in children have increased by 90 percent in the United States in just the last four weeks, 90 percent, just as schools are beginning to reopen, just as parents are making crucial decisions about what to do with their kids. Nearly 100,000 kids tested positive in the last two weeks of July alone, but the president says he's not concerned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't get very sick. They don't catch it easily. They don't get very sick. And, according to the people that I've spoken to, they don't transport it or transfer it to other people, or certainly not very easily. So, yes, I think schools have to open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Not catching it easily, not transferring it, that's wrong. That's a lie. And that is very important to talk about coming up.

[07:00:02]

In Georgia's Cherokee County School District, more than 800 children and 42 employees are quarantined this morning.

END