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U.S. Averages 1,000+ Deaths Per Day for Last 3 Weeks; Trump Admits Blocking Post Office Funding to Stop Mail-in Votes. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Anthony Fauci raising concerns about disturbing trends in parts of the country.

[05:59:20]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We're going to continue to have this up and down. Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: This is the greatest public health crisis to hit this nation in a century. We owe it to our children and grandchildren that this nation is never underprepared again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With more people than ever expected to vote by mail, President Trump has spent months making false claims about widespread fraud.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to have an honest election, and if it's not going to be an honest election, I guess people have to sit down and think really long and hard about it.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: True to Trump. He doesn't want an election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Friday, August 14, 6 a.m. in New York. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me.

You got me all the way to Friday, so thank you.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We made it -- we made it until 6 a.m.

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: But we've got three hours to go, my friend.

BERMAN: All right, keep me going.

So this morning the nation's leading infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, says, bottom line, "I am not pleased with how things are going." The numbers don't lie, Fauci says.

This morning, the truth from the numbers is this. More than 1,000 deaths in the United States over the last 24 hours, and that's the average over the last three weeks.

Today California will become the first state to surpass 600,000 cases. Overnight, the CDC director broke from President Trump. I wonder what's going to happen for him now. He insists schools should not be pressured into reopening.

Dr. Anthony Fauci also expressed concern about the rising positivity rates that some states are reporting. Remember, Fauci told us right here on NEW DAY that rising positivity is the sign of potential serious problems on the horizon.

HILL: Speaking of potential serious problems on the horizon, this morning it's clearer than ever that President Trump is trying to suppress your right to vote.

Mr. Trump continues to spread lies about mail-in voting after admitting he's opposed to giving the postal service more money so people can't vote by mail during a pandemic. Now, the USPS has said it can handle the ballots.

By the way, records show the president and first lady requested mail- in ballots for Florida's primary election this week.

Also, the president spreading lies about Sen. Kamala Harris barely 24 hours after she was announced as the Democratic V.P. pick. Trump was promoting false and racist birther conspiracy theories about her, just like as he did with President Obama.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Rosa Flores in Miami with our top stories. We continue to follow the spread of this virus, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, good morning.

Many parts of the country are moving forward with their reopening plans, especially the reopening of schools. Here in the state of Florida, there is a legal showdown over whether or not to reopen for in-person instruction.

This as top health experts from across the country sound the alarm that America is not where it needs to be.

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FLORES (voice-over): The nation's top health officials admitting they're disappointed with the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic.

FAUCI: Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going. REDFIELD: This is the greatest public health crisis to hit this nation

in a century. We were underprepared.

FLORES: This as President Trump repeated his call for schools to reopen.

TRUMP: We don't want the schools shut down. We want the schools to open. But especially very young children handle it very well, so we want schools open.

FLORES: The CDC director says there should not be a rush for children to return to the classroom, especially in communities with high rates of infection.

REDFIELD: We don't want to pressure anybody. The timing of that is going to have to be decided one school at a time.

FLORES: But in Tampa, Florida, the Hillsborough County school superintendent says his district was pressured into switching to in- person learning after announcing the first four weeks of classes would be online. The Florida Department of Education denies rejecting the district's reopening proposals.

Meanwhile, the NCAA canceled all fall Division I championships, except for FBS football.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kerriman (ph), touchdown Mustangs.

FLORES: Just hours before the first high school football game in the country took place in Utah.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, NCAA COVID-19 ADVISORY PANEL MEMBER: If we delayed a little bit, not only can we bring infection rate down, but we can have better testing.

But at the end of the day, it's not really what happens in the field but what happens outside the field.

FLORES: In Texas, testing numbers have been trending downward. And the state's positivity rate spiked to nearly 25 percent on Tuesday.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): This is something that the Department of State Health Services is investigating. We have far more daily testing capacity than there are tests being undertaken.

FLORES: There's also a slowdown in testing across Florida as it announced over 6,331 new cases Thursday.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We're testing a lot. I think part of the reason why some of our sites aren't doing as much is because people aren't going as much as they used to.

FLORES: Dr. Anthony Fauci says these trends are concerning signs for the future.

FAUCI: This is the thing that's disturbing to me, is that we're starting to see the inkling of the upticks in the percent of the tests that are positive, which we know now from sad past experience that that's a predictor that you're going to have more surges.

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FLORES: Now, here in the state of Florida, the positivity rate has been between 12 and 16 percent for the past two weeks.

According to the Florida education commissioner, by August 31, 70 to 80 percent of all students in this state will be in face-to-face instruction. Now, that assumes that the teachers' union here in this state will lose their legal battle against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the reopening of schools.

[06:05:02]

Now, there is a motion to dismiss that hearing scheduled for later today. But, Erica, process this with me for just a moment, because these court proceedings are happening via Zoom. They are virtual court proceedings for the safety of the court and all of the parties involved.

But the decision coming out of this virtual court will determine if school districts in this state have to reopen for in-person instruction instruction -- Erica.

HILL: It is such an important point, and I'm so glad that you brought that up. Rosa, thank you. Excellent reporting, as always.

This morning, growing concerns about the administration's efforts to suppress voting rights. President Trump continuing to push lies about mail-in voting after making this stunning admission.

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TRUMP (via phone): They want $25 billion -- billion -- for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all these millions and millions of ballots.

Now, in the meantime, they aren't getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it.

If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get their money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House. Pretty clear now where the president stands, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And we really have to call this out for what it is. This is voter suppression. It is explicit. The president is on the record admitting it in front of the cameras. He said he's opposed to emergency funding for the postal service,

election funding for the states, because he wants to limit the number of Americans who can get mail-in ballots.

This comes at the very same time the president, as well as the first lady, have both asked for mail-in ballots from Palm Beach County.

Joe Biden says, essentially, the president is trying -- he says he doesn't want an election. Joe Biden, by the way, is continuing to lead the president in the polls.

And this wasn't the only tactic that we see the president dusting off. He's also dusting off the old birther tactic, this time against Kamala Harris. Of course, the businessman Donald Trump basically made a name for himself in politics by claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Now the president is using that very same tactic against Kamala Harris, claiming that she was not necessarily a United States citizen, simply because her parents, her mother and her father, were from Jamaica and her father from India. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you, like -- can you definitively say whether or not Kamala Harris is eligible, meets the legal requirements to run as vice president?

TRUMP: So I just heard that -- I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements, and by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right.

I would have -- I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president. But that's a very serious. You're saying that -- they're saying that she isn't qualified because she wasn't born in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, she was born in this country, but her parents did not -- the claims say that her parents did not receive their permanent residence.

TRUMP: I don't know about it. I just heard about it. I'll take a look.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: That last point, that last question, is the important point. The Constitution says people born in the United States are United States citizens. And legal scholars say by now, through all we've been through, the president should know that.

Back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Joe. Joe Johns at the White House. Really appreciate the reporting. I just want to make one thing clear here. You know, this morning the life-or-death story for Americans is the pandemic. Literally, that is what our lives depend on.

The main political story is how will Americans vote safely during this pandemic, and you just heard Joe report the president admitted efforts to try to restrict this voting. That's what matters, right? That's what matters.

The president, though, focused on this theater, this something else, the racist lies about Kamala Harris. You know, vile but not the big picture story this morning.

The Biden campaign was quick to respond. CNN's Arlette Saenz live in Wilmington, Delaware, with the latest on that.

Good morning, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John.

Well, Kamala Harris, there is no dispute, she was born here in the United States, making her eligible to be vice president and even president. And the Biden campaign fired back.

In a statement yesterday to "USA Today," Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign said, "It's unsurprising but no less abhorrent that as Trump attempts to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response, that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies."

Now, Kamala Harris appeared alongside Joe Biden here in Wilmington, Delaware, yesterday as both of them spoke about and received a briefing about the coronavirus response.

And you heard Joe Biden call for this nationwide mask mandate, saying that the experts have told him it could help save 40,000 lives. Take a listen to what he had to say.

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BIDEN: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at a minimum. Every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. It's not about your rights. It's about your responsibilities as an American.

Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, Harris spoke right after Biden and echoed his calls for that mask mandate, saying this is what real leadership looks like.

And we got some news about some fundraising increases that the Biden campaign has seen since Kamala Harris has joined the ticket. Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, telling staff on an all-staff call that they raised $48 million in 48 hours since Kamala Harris joined Joe Biden as his running mate. That's a million dollars an hour when you do the math.

So Biden's campaign right now is starting to see that increase in fundraising, a little bit of a boost since she joined the ticket.

BERMAN: All right. Arlette Saenz for us in Wilmington, thank you.

Again, just to reiterate, the racist birther attacks are small. They show the smallness of the president. Access to voting, that is big, and then the pandemic, literally life and death.

Our next guest says that deciding playing fall sports is like being on the sinking Titanic and deciding what time the band should play. That's next.

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FAUCI: Unless we all pull together to get that down, and we don't have disparities in some states are doing this and some states are doing that, we're going to continue to have this up and down. So that's the thing that I'm concerned about, because I believe we can, we have it within our power, to be able to get that down. Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "Bottom line, I'm not pleased with how things are going." Dr. Anthony Fauci stressing that he thinks things are headed in a concerning direction, particularly the number of tests coming back positive and a growing case count in some states around the country.

Joining us now is Dr. Carlos del Rio. He's the executive associate dean of Emory University School of Medicine at Grady Health System and a member of the NCAA's coronavirus advisory panel.

And Dr. Del Rio, it just -- it wasn't just what Dr. Fauci said -- bottom line, he wasn't pleased with where things were going -- but you could see the frustration there. What do you think it is that he sees that is so concerning, and what do you see that concerns you?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Thank you, John, good morning.

I totally agree with Dr. Fauci. I'm not pleased, too. I think we are not going the right direction in the country.

And I think part of our problem is that we have 50 different plans. And it's very hard -- if you were thinking about fighting a war, it's very difficult to do it with 50 different armies, right, 50 different plans. We're not having a national strategy. We're having -- each state is doing a different thing at a different time, and that makes it incredibly complicated to really have a very clear strategy, what needs to happen. In my mind, what's also very -- very frustrating is that the White

House coronavirus task force is giving governors weekly reports with their data with clear recommendations, and those recommendations are also not being followed by the governors of the states.

So there's very little power that the federal government and the coronavirus task force is having in really influencing what states are doing, and that has us in a very bad position at this point of time in the country.

HILL: Part of what they're offering in those weekly reports to governors, they're classifying states, right, as red, highly concerning, right; yellow; and green. And Dr. Fauci touched on that.

And those are pretty simple indicators as they put out those reports every week. And he noted that any schools -- any states, rather, that are in that red zone should be very cautious when it comes to reopening schools. And that's something that we're also now hearing, in a break from the president, from CDC director Robert Redfield. Take a listen.

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REDFIELD: We don't want to pressure anybody. Our guidance is there to help them begin to open, as I said, safely and sensibly. The timing of that is going to have to be decided one school at a time.

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HILL: So he's now urging that caution, even as the president says every school should reopen. That's an important break.

DEL RIO: I think it's very important. And again, the emphasis should be on decreasing the number of cases. If you have a state which is in the red zone, over 100 -- over 100 new cases per 100,000 population, it's going to be very hard to do anything, whether we're talking about opening schools, we're talking about, you know, having sports, all sorts of different things that involve bringing a lot of people together.

If you are down in the yellow zone or, even better, in the green zone, which will be less than ten cases per 100,000 population, then you're in a much better position. Simply there's less virus in your community, and therefore, your ability to do things like opening schools, like having sports, is much, much greater.

BERMAN: Look, we should all light a candle for Dr. Redfield. I don't know what his job prospects are in the administration after stating out loud what is clearly obvious, which is if you are in the red zone in some places, if your case level is high, you need to behave differently. And that goes for schools, and as you said, Dr. Del Rio, that goes for sports.

And sports are a microcosm of society, really. You're advising the NCAA, and you've noted, you say, "Deciding to play fall sports is like being on the sinking titanic and deciding what time the band should play." Explain exactly what you mean by that.

[06:20:03]

DEL RIO: John, what I mean is that we're having all this discussions about whether we should have college sports, whether we should do this, do that, and the reality is what we need to be focusing on is controlling the infection. If we control the infection, then opening schools, doing sports will be so much easier.

So we need to focus on what's -- what's the right and important thing to do, which is controlling infection. Once we do that, all these other things will be incredibly simple.

HILL: You know, in terms of controlling the infection, two things that have really stood out to me in the sports discussions that we've been having over the last week or so, No. 1, that we're hearing from a number of experts, we had the tools and the efforts back in April and knew what we could do to get to a point to try to have sports this fall. Not all of that guidance was followed, as we know.

And No. 2 being that college athletes are a lot different than professional athletes, Dr. Del Rio. And as someone pointed out on this program earlier this week, they're supposed to be students first.

So how much is it your sense that that is also being taken into account? We know this is a business. We know these sports are important to the bottom line of these universities. But these are kids who are also supposed to be getting an education, and they're supposed to be safe, along with all their fellow students.

DEL RIO: Yes, I think you hit the nail right on the head. I think we need to put the safety of the students first and not necessarily what -- you know, in my mind, sports are very important, but at the end of the day, they're entertainment, right? And we need to be sure that we don't prioritize entertainment over education, entertainment over safety and over -- over making sure that students and everybody else stay safe.

BERMAN: Yes. And we're averaging a thousand deaths a day, more than a thousand deaths a day. That cannot be satisfactory for a country at this point.

Dr. Del Rio, we appreciate you being with us this morning.

DEL RIO: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right. A key swing state, maybe one of the two or three most key swing states, announced a major potential change to mail-in voting. We'll tell you which state and what it is. And this is coming as the Trump administration actively works to withhold funds from the U.S. Postal Service. We'll discuss, next.

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[0:26:22] HILL: Developing overnight, Florida records show President Trump and the first lady requested mail-in ballots this week. This as the president has continued his attacks on voting by mail. And it comes after the president admitted that withholding more money from the U.S. Postal Service would make it difficult to process mail-in ballots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (via phone): They want $25 billion -- billion -- for the post office. They need that money in order to have the post office work so it could take all OF these millions and millions of ballots.

Now in the meantime, they aren't getting there -- by the way, those are just two items. But if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it.

If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now is CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip.

Now, Abby, we should point out that the Postal Service has said they are confident that they can handle the mail-in ballots this time around.

But what's fascinating is that, in the last 24 hours or so, the president has gone from muddying the waters, trying to sow, you know, discord and doubt, to blatantly saying, We don't want to give the post office the money, because we want to make sure that an American's right to vote isn't counted.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Erica, this is one of those things that people have been trying to figure out. Is -- in the president's mind, is there a connection between the post office and its fate, and this election?

And then he comes out and says it, that in his mind, there is a connection. He does not want to fund the post office so -- so that he can stop mail-in voting from being implemented across the country and hamper the post office's ability to process millions of ballots.

I can't tell you how -- how unusual and alarming that is, frankly. I mean, I think that the post office does not just process ballots. They also process mail for Americans on all kinds of different fronts. We're talking about prescriptions. We're talking about checks, paychecks, tax checks, all kinds of things like that.

But there have been some real questions about the president's influence in the post office. And I think we're seeing now that he's clear that he wants to hold off on anything that could stabilize the post office's finances, whether it has to do with ballots or not, all because he thinks that this is the way to ensure that he has his best chances in November. BERMAN: There is a definitional struggle over democracy right now. A

literal struggle over democracy and the ability to vote that's going on around the country, and some of it's playing out right before our very eyes in explicit terms. That is what, as you so rightly point out, Abby, was so stunning about yesterday. The president just flat- out said it.

But there's also stuff happening that a lot of people aren't seeing. The post office has removed, across the country, several machines that have the ability to sort large quantities of mail, and now postal workers are concerned that could slow down the balloting. That's happening on one side.

On the other side of this definitional struggle over democracy, Pennsylvania overnight -- and this is a big deal -- Pennsylvania is asking the state supreme court there to extend when ballots can be accepted, mail-in ballots can be accepted in that state. They will no longer have a deadline, as they do, of 8 p.m. election night. They'll now be able to receive ballots for up to three days after election day. That's the other side of this, and that's a big deal, especially in a swing state.

PHILLIP: Yes, there is this tug-of-war going on, and you're seeing it.

We are getting reports from all over the country about concerns that postal officers are having about mail delays. And that key Pennsylvania decision -- or not decision, but filing last night that we reported on, basically, it says that the state wants to be able to accept ballots after election day up to three days.

END