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Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Picks Kamala Harris as Vice Presidential Running Mate; Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to Make First Appearance Together on Presidential Campaign Trail; Fauci: "I Seriously Doubt" Russia's Vaccine is Safe and Effective. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 12, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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


ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Another tragic milestone in the United States, new single day highs from coronavirus related deaths reported in both Florida and Georgia. This as we're learning about new cases of outbreaks at schools that have just resumed in-person classes.

And we are also following breaking news. These pictures -- this related to the passenger train which has just derailed, we're told, on the east coast of Scotland. Serious injuries being reported. We're going to have more on that in just a moment.

But we begin our coverage this hour with CNN's Arlette Saenz, who is live in Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden and Harris will make their first appearance together today, and, as John pointed out, one that will likely not look like those first images of a ticket that we are used to seeing.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. Erica, certainly everything is different with campaigning right now due to the coronavirus pandemic. But after months of speculation, Joe Biden finally revealed who his running mate will be, selecting California Senator Kamala Harris as the person to join him on that Democratic ticket.

And this caps off a months-long search process. We're told this morning that Biden actually interviewed 11 women who were in contention for the running mate job in the past nine days of that search process, ultimately deciding on Kamala Harris. He actually informed her over a video chat yesterday from his Delaware home.

And Harris is certainly a historic choice for the Democratic ticket. She is the first black woman, the first woman of South Asian descent to appear on a major party presidential, vice presidential ticket. And it's also worth pointing out that Kamala Harris shared a special relationship with Joe Biden's son Beau Biden. They both served alongside each other as attorneys general in their home states and developed a close relationship from that. Biden in making his announcement actually noted the fact that he valued Beau's opinions, and that that was a factor that played into his decision-making process.

Now, later today, we will see Biden and Harris for the first time together as the Democratic ticket. We're going to be paying attention to the different layouts that they have at this campaign event. Biden's events since the coronavirus pandemic have been incredibly small. They have maintained social distancing. You have to wear masks when you go in. So we're going to see what those first images of the two of them look together later in the day. They're holding a grassroots fundraiser as they're looking to energize supporters heading into the fall election.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Look, obviously there's attention because the Biden campaign wants to create an image of excitement, but the Biden campaign has been so careful to be conscious of the medical situation around the country. So I expect that that's the message they will abide to much more than the other. Arlette Saenz, terrific reporting, thanks so much for being with us.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator Angela Rye, she's a former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, CNN political commentator Karen Finney, she's a former senior spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Also with us, CNN political analyst Astead Herndon, he's a national political reporter for "The New York Times."

The question this morning is how is this pick playing, and what impact has it had already? And Angela, I'm struck by the fact that you say there's not a woman you have spoken with that wasn't screaming, crying, or thanking God. Why? Why do you think that is? Tell me about that.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look at Karen right now.

(LAUGHTER)

RYE: I just, I think part of it is about the affirmation of being seen and heard. It's not just over the last several days, it's been the last several weeks. And I want to tip my hat off to Karen who was organizing women and ensuring that we understood the severity of this moment. And I think that this was just an opportunity, right, to show people the power of what black women can do when we make up our minds about something.

And so that is why I said what I said. And I mean it. It's not a talking point. It's not anything I got from the campaign and they asked me to do. If you haven't noticed, I haven't listened to much they've asked me or told me to do.

(LAUGHTER)

RYE: So this was heartfelt, and Karen is laughing because she knows that's true as well.

(LAUGHTER)

HILL: Karen, one of things that you said about all this that struck me is there's been a lot of back and forth. Yes, it's historic. Everyone can agree on that. But there's some back and forth over whether this was a safe pick or this was a bold pick. You say very clearly this was not a safe pick. This is bold in your estimation. Why, Karen?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, if you are a black woman in this country and you have experienced racism and sexism, you know exactly what I mean. There is nothing simple or safe about going -- I was thinking yesterday about the arc of the journey of black people in this country, and particularly in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. That is what we live with on a daily basis -- systemic racism, economic inequalities, that struggle. Angela and I have talked about this.

[08:05:06]

And so for certain pundits to suggest that this was just a safe choice, no, it was bold because it says this is about our future as a country. This is about writing a new chapter in the history of black women in this this country. And when you talk about enthusiasm, as of last night when I went to bed at about 11:30, they've raised about $11 million in something like four hours on Act Blue. So I would say that is a pretty big sign of enthusiasm and excitement for this ticket.

BERMAN: So Astead Herdon, I have a two-part question. I'll give you the first part now and then follow-up in a second. You have been reporting on Kamala Harris from the beginning of the presidential campaign when she was an early presidential candidate, and one of the things that you noted was that she was hard to define as a candidate. I wonder what you mean or meant by that and what might make that an attractive trait this morning for Joe Biden.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. It's actually one of the things that makes someone -- that can be a difficulty in the primary that I think was a real benefit to her in the running mate search. We wrote that story at the outset of her presidential campaign. And it was one of the things that was a through line throughout that primary, what progressive was. She was more on the moderate side, and there were sometimes that the policies oscillated back and forth. There was the embrace for Medicare for all, then the rejection. There was an embrace of breaking up the big tech companies, the rhetoric of that, but not the actual the structural policy that we saw from other candidates. And that made her a kind of an enigma for some of the wings of the party. The progressive groups were frustrated that she didn't necessarily do a full embrace of their policies. But there was not indication that she was a full on moderate also.

That's some of the reason that we see everyone, different sets of the part, feeling pretty good today. It's not as if an Amy Klobuchar or Gretchen Whitmer, someone who would have been a firm choice on one side, it's not like an Elizabeth Warren, who would have been saying this is Joe Biden going against his instincts as a kind of ideological moderate. This is someone who everyone feels a hold on the policy front, and then you add in those representational qualities that the others have mentioned, and I think that is the reason why you see real sorts of energy, but even more than that, just little backlash also.

BERMAN: Look, and this is the second part of the question, I also think it's the reason that the Trump campaign and the president himself has had a little bit of a hard time figuring out how to handle this pick. She is not the easiest pick for Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. I think that is just a fact. And you could see it play out overnight in the Trump campaign and on FOX TV, which is I guess not the Trump campaign but sometimes it's a distinction without a difference. I want you to listen to how Tucker Carlson, the best he could do was to somehow mangle her name. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, "TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT": Just tell Kamala Harris what to say, and she will say it. That is the whole point of Kamala Harris.

RICHARD GOODSTEIN, FORMER CLINTON ADVISER: Tucker, can I just say one quick point, because this is something that will serve you and your fellow hosts on FOX. Her name is pronounced comma, like the punctuation, Kamala. OK, seriously I have ever heard sort bastardization.

CARLSON: OK, so what.

GOODSTEIN: That's how it is, Kamala. Out of respect for somebody who's going to be on the national ticket, not getting her name right is kind of a bare minimum.

CARLSON: So I'm disrespecting her by mispronouncing her name unintentionally. So it begins. You're not allowed to criticize Kamala Harris, or Kamala Harris or whatever.

GOODSTEIN: No, no. It's not whatever.

CARLSON: Because it's Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: All right. Look, I actually think -- you're all laughing. Why are you laughing? Why is it funny, or is it funny?

RYE: It's not -- it's not -- it's kind of just ridiculous at this point. And I think seriously, to defend Tucker Carlson for once, at least on the initial pronunciation, a ton of people do. And yes, we're going to have to get very used to sending people the phonetic spelling of Kamala's name. I don't understand why it's so hard, that's also why I'm laughing.

But then at the end it's laughable, because he's like, or whatever. It's like, no, it's not whatever. It is about you having to finally face what you have done to this country, to black people, to black women. There's nothing "or whatever" about this moment. We fought for this moment. We organized for this moment. And we celebrated when this moment arrived. So there's nothing whatever about this moment. And yes, I'm calling this moment Ka-ma-la, Ka-ma-la, Ka-ma-la.

(LAUGHTER)

HILL: But to your point -- to that point, picking up on that, Karen, when you look at it, yes, there is the absurdity of that moment.

[08:10:02]

But there is also what we see at play, right, which you pointed out, Angela, right, black women have had to deal with forever. And so now there's this reckoning that's taking place in the country as a whole. It's also something we're seeing in this ticket. But to continue to downplay, right, and ignore someone and purposely mispronounce their name as if that is somehow going to diminish what they have done to get to this point, I think that is an important discussion too, right? Because we're going to see a lot more of it.

FINNEY: It's absolutely -- it is part of the racism and sexism that women deal with all the time, people of color deal with all the time. It is like saying sit down, shut up, we don't want to hear from you, you don't actually matter. And that's part of why this pick -- again, I go back to Erica, what you just asked me. You can't say this was a safe choice because this is going to in some ways mean that we're going to keep having this conversation.

Look, people haven't learned how to say Barack Obama. They learned it, and we did fine. So they're going to learn. It's going to be fine. We are going to have to have this conversation. And to suggest as part of that, that a woman, you just tell a woman what to say and she's going to say it. Are you kidding me? This woman who was elected statewide in the state of California three times, she's someone who has been in the legislative branch as well as been an executive as attorney general and then as also district general, this is a very accomplished woman with a very distinguished record.

They're going to do, this is the playbook. They're going to do everything they can to try to diminish and belittle this woman. But that's part of the genius of this pick. It's going to backlash because it's going to remind all those voters who are already fairly disgusted with Trump, that we saw moving away from him in 2018, why they think he's mean and divisive and not right for this country.

BERMAN: I call him Smucker Carlson, but it's ethnic so he may not understand it.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Astead, you also note, and I think this is interesting, about what we might see from running mate Kamala Harris that's different, I think, than we see as a presidential candidate. She's already leaned in a little bit to her own identity in ways that I think are than she did early on as the first black woman on the ticket, as an Asian- American, a South Asian-American woman of Indian heritage, and also on offense as a prosecutor. Talk about that.

HERNDON: Yes. I think that this is something that we might see from her. The presidential campaign is one that tries to fits folks in boxes. There's such a drive to figure out who people are both in the ideological sense but also tell only one story about their personal identity. This is someone who has a rich and diverse background. This is someone who just like the kind of policy questions we were mentioning can find herself in many different homes due to her rich upbringing.

And I think that that is something that she will have space to talk about going forward. She can relate to many different groups. I think one that we should note is her presidential campaign did a significant amount of outreach to white women, to white suburban women. And I think it is a kind of a reduction of this choice to just say that it's about people of color. This is also someone who can go out to those suburban districts and make the case to them. And I think that that kind of multifaceted outreach is something that we can expect from this running mate pick. That's what he gets when he chooses someone who has a national profile already, it's already doing the type of work and has already done the type of work that the Biden campaign wants to round out its November pitch.

Astead Herndon, Karen Finney, Angela Rye, thank you all for getting up and talking to us this morning. We really appreciate the discussion.

FINNEY: Thanks.

RYE: Thank you.

BERMAN: And coming up, we're going to speak with one of Senator Harris' long-time friends, someone who has known her since kindergarten, to get her reaction to the announcement. Oh, my God, if they talked to my kindergarten friends, ouch.

And the entire football season in a state of chaos right now after two of the biggest conferences have postponed their fall seasons. What measures can the schools take to keep student athletes safe?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:48]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Having a vaccine, Deborah, and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things. I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they have done that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Anthony Fauci casting serious doubt on Russia's claim that they have developed and approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine and he's not alone.

Joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and former surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who is a public health adviser as well for the Biden campaign.

Good to have both of you with us this morning.

You know, Sanjay, you actually spoke to one of the investors, right, not one of the developers, not one of the scientists but one of the investors in this -- in this vaccine. I guess there's a whole lot of skepticism across the globe in terms of these proclamations out of Russia.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there really is. I think that's really appropriate skepticism, frankly. You know, I was hoping that maybe as part of the discussion, we could learn more about what data they have collected, that we were just told data would be forthcoming. It's pretty clear that there is not a vaccine, that there's just another candidate for a vaccine, which Mr. Dmitriev was describing. He talked about the type of platform which is the adenovirus platform, basically taking an existing virus, scooping out the genetic machinery of that virus, putting in the coronavirus genetic machinery and using that as a vaccine. That's being done by other companies as well, including Oxford, AstraZeneca.

But again, we had no data, nothing to go on and a couple of sort of strange things like them saying, including Mr. Dmitriev that he's taken the vaccine itself. He's given it to his parents who are in their 70s. Some of the people in the lab have apparently taken this vaccine.

Those -- those are things you simply don't do. I mean, that is not science, that is just audacity, you know? You don't know if it's safe. You certainly don't know if it's effective and you're just doing this.

It kind of makes people understandably very suspicious. Bottom line, there's nothing to look at, nothing to evaluate here because they haven't given us anything.

[08:20:02]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Murthy, you have been involved with sports leagues trying to figure out ways to get on the field if they can. We have learned in the last 24 hours that the Big Ten, the PAC-12 have postponed their seasons. But the Big 12, the ESPN is reporting is going to play.

So why is it that the PAC-12 and Big Ten, major conferences, have decided they can't do it safely? What do you make of the decision of these other leagues to go ahead with the seasons?

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Well, thank you, and it's good to be with you this morning. Let me say as a fan of sports and someone who has been working with many sporting organizations it's really heart breaking to see what is happening, which is that seasons are getting postponed and leaving so many college athletes and families in limbo. I think you're going to see more of this in the weeks ahead as institutions and conferences realize that the circumstances are just not there to safely resume sports.

And here's some of the concerning circumstances that they're looking at. Number one, they're concerned about high levels of infection in the surrounding community. They're also worried about the high expense and uncertain availability of testing. And finally, they're concerned about the effects of COVID-19 on the heart and on other organ systems even in the case of asymptomatic infection. But what's really critical to note here is who we are concerned about,

because it's the student athletes but it's also the coaching and the training staff who tend to be older and at higher risk. It's also the larger population on campus and in the community because outbreaks on teams, they don't stay on teams.

Finally, what's particularly painful about this is that it was avoidable. What was true in the spring is still true today. That the road to reopening sports, schools and the economy lies in dramatically reducing rates of infection in the community and increasing our testing capability. We have to do that.

HILL: And to your point, that's the playbook we have had for some time.

Sanjay, I want to pick up on the concern over this post-COVID heart inflammation that we are learning more about. How concerning is that and how potentially prevalent is it?

GUPTA: Well, it's very concerning, actually. You know, we have known about the impact of certain other viruses on the heart in the past and what we're talking about here, and we can show the images of the area of the heart most affected, leading to something known as cardiomyopathy, which is basically a disease, an inflammation of the heart muscle. So you can see the layers of the heart there, and how well you can read that.

But the big area in the middle with sort of the yellow striations, that's the area of muscle that's functioning part of the heart that does the hard work. It's that area of the -- there's the area of the heart, rather, it can become inflamed and people can develop significant, you know, dysfunction or weakened function of their heart as a result.

So think about the situation, Erica. You have young, healthy person, in fact, college athlete gets this virus. May have minimal or only moderate symptoms but then develops what's -- this post inflammatory heart situation in the heart muscle and the heart becomes weakened or even failed as a result.

My understanding, according to ESPN's reporting, is that there's been five big ten athletes who developed the cardiomyopathy and there have been athletes in other conferences as well. And as Vivek mentioned, I mean, you know, listening to the conversations among the athletic directors and talking to some of the folks myself, that was probably one of the biggest, you know, points that they made over the last few days or few weeks even. Because the other stuff we have known for some time in terms of viral spread and people are trying to navigate those decisions but this cardiomyopathy, myocarditis I think is really concerning.

And I do just want to point out. Again, you know, when we started to make decisions in this country to pull things back, there was some 5,000 people who were infected and several dozen who had died. At this point now, where we're thinking about reopening, you can look at the right side of the screen, there's some 5 million people who have been infected and 165,000 almost who have died.

What is different right now? The virus is the same. Are we structurally different as a country to be able to start doing things that we clearly made a decision to stop doing when the problem was not as bad as it is now?

BERMAN: If I can, if we still have time, I want to ask one question that's not of a medical nature. We have noted talking to the entire show about the fact that Kamala Harris is on the Democratic ticket and she is the first person of South Asian descent. She is an Indian American. Her mother is Indian.

You both are of South Asian descent.

And, Dr. Murthy, if I can just ask you, not from a political standpoint, but as someone of South Asian descent, what does this pick mean to you?

MURTHY: Gosh, you know, it means so much, you know? I'm a child of immigrants from India.

I remember my parents telling me just how hard they worked to come to America because they believed there was a place where their kids, my sister and me, would have opportunities based on our character and our willingness to work hard, not based on our skin color or caste.

[08:20:12]

And to see Kamala Harris on the ticket to serve as vice president of the United States is evidence that despite our imperfections as a nation, the same ideals that brought my parents and so many other immigrants to this country live on in America, and this morning, millions of black and brown children, including mine, are waking one a greater belief that someone who looks like them and shares their heritage can serve in the highest offices of the land. That -- that is a power -- the power and promise of America and what a moment.

BERMAN: All right, Dr. Murthy, Sanjay, thanks very much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

GUPTA: Yeah, thank you.

MURTHY: Thank you so much.

HILL: We are, of course, going to be hearing a lot more about Senator Kamala Harris in the weeks leading up to the election. What do we know about her time long before public life? Well, for that, we can get you some answers today. Her childhood friend of 50 years joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Senator Kamala Harris achieving a lot of firsts as Joe Biden's choice for vice president.

END