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NCAA Cancels All Fall Championships Except Football; Arizona Officers Help Gas Clerk Whose Whole Paycheck was Stolen; Protesters Decry "Rigged Election" in Belarus. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ERIN BROMAGE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH: We still do capture a lot of people that are infectious, and if we could deploy those into work places, into schools, we could possibly capture half of all the people that are infected at a given time and get them out of circulation and control this pandemic.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This next one is a uniquely American problem which is the lack of a unified national approach. What do you mean?

BROMAGE: Right. So, the countries that did a great job had a unified approach right across their territories, their states, across their counties. Everywhere that this virus was, they sort of got into lockstep with each other and worked together to hit this problem head on.

We decided that we were going to go from a fragmented approach, we put it in the hands of counties, in the states. And so, rather than a national leadership plan, we put in place 50 plans that were all different, we have open borders, so people just kept moving around, and that just gave the virus the fuel it needed to keep going forward.

BERMAN: Yes, 50 separate plans in some cases working at odds with each other there. This one may be obvious that the CDC and scientists should have played a bigger role. Why?

BROMAGE: Well, in 2001, we had an absolutely disastrous communication response to the Anthrax attacks. And in response to that, the CDC put together a 450-page playbook on how to deal and how to message during health crisis.

That book is beautiful and was thrown out when it came to this pandemic. The CDC has just been put on the benches, they have not led this response in the messaging, which has allowed other people, sort of false prophets, to step in there and give their own messages. And we've just been battling misinformation from the start because of that lack of the CDC's leadership that should be there.

BERMAN: Yes, so many states and local leaders have told us, we just want to know from the CDC what we should do. Finally, bars, opening bars. This was a real problem.

BROMAGE: Yes, so the states that decided to reopen just their economy too fast, and a big part of that was reopening bars. We know, and we've known for a long time, that having lots of people indoors and in enclosed spaces, especially with lots of noise, throwing alcohol just leads to problems. And we just saw the amplification of these infections in young people inside bars that they've spread out into the wider community and hit out older, more vulnerable population.

So, it was just a terrible mistake that was repeated over and over again, even though we knew that, that was a bad idea to do.

BERMAN: Well, let's hope that what we did wrong and identifying what we did wrong helps guide us to do what's right going forward. Professor Erin Bromage, we really appreciate your help this morning. Thanks so much for being with us.

BROMAGE: You're welcome, thank you for having me.

BERMAN: Erica?

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The NCAA cancels all Fall championships with one exception, college football. Andy Scholes has more this morning in the "BLEACHER REPORT". Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: OK, so for now, the college football playoff system for the SEC, Big 12 and ACC remains in place. But for the other Fall sports which are a soccer, women's volley ball and field hockey, they're not going to have a championship at the end of their season.

Yesterday, the NCAA President Mark Emmert, he came out and said that all championships are off, saying if you don't have half the schools playing, it's not a legitimate championship. But Emmert did not rule out holding those seasons and championships at a later time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK EMMERT, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: That doesn't mean that we shouldn't end camp, turn towards winner in Spring and say, OK, how can we create a legitimate championship for all those students. There are ways to do this. I'm completely confident that we can figure this out if schools and conferences want to move forward and try and have -- more than half of them want to do it, and that's surely the indication right now, then let's do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, the NCAA has no authority over college football or its championships, Erica. The -- sorry, those in my ears always saying something. It's up to those individual conferences and the playoff committee. And the playoff committee came out again yesterday, Erica, and said that they're still planning on announcing those playoff teams and who is committed to playing in those New York six bowls on December 20th. It's going to be without the PAC-12 and Big 10. We'll wait and see how that looks. HILL: Yes, December 20th feels a long way away. I have to say, Andy,

I appreciate it, thank you. President Trump helping to revive another birther lie, this time about Kamala Harris. Will the president say and do anything to win in November? David Axelrod is with us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:35:00]

HILL: Eighty one days to go now until the November election. President Trump once again showing he will apparently stop at nothing to win re-election, admitting, he is blocking Postal Service funding so that he can stop mail-in votes. And he's also amplifying racist birther lies about Kamala Harris' eligibility to be vice president. Joining us now, CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod; former adviser to President Obama and a senior strategist on both of his presidential campaigns. Good morning, first of all --

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Erica, how are you?

HILL: I'm doing well, thanks. When we look at what is happening in terms of what we're hearing from the president and what he's throwing out about mail-in voting, what's remarkable to me is how well our Kaitlan Collins once again pressed him yesterday in the briefing room.

[07:40:00]

And one of those moments really stood out because he said people are just going to have to find a way to feel safe and go to the polls. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not saying anything wrong with voting, I want them to vote. But that would mean that they'd have to go to a voting booth like they used to and vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even if they don't feel safe voting in person? People want to vote by mail.

TRUMP: Well, they're going to have to feel safe and they will be safe, and we will make sure that they're safe. And we're not going to have to spend $3.5 billion to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, he says they have to feel safe, they will feel safe. The reason people don't feel safe, David, as we know, is because there is a pandemic that is raging out --

AXELROD: Yes --

HILL: Of control in this country, and because there have not been measures put in place to make people feel safe, so therefore, more people are expected to turn to mail-in voting. That, too, was a moment where I just thought there are a lot of things that are just not connecting.

AXELROD: Well, one thing that does connect is this issue of voting in COVID. And you know, the president is trying to stop mail-in voting because as he has said in the past, you know, no Republican will win if everybody votes by mail. But the fact is we are in the middle of a pandemic. As he stood on that podium, he stood there the day after 1,500 Americans had lost their lives to COVID. People all over this country are worried about their safety, and mail-in voting is a safer way to vote for them.

And instead of facilitating it, he is actively trying to thwart it as he acknowledged yesterday, slowing down the mail by starving the Post Office of the aid they need to handle this. It really is incredible, but it does all hook up to the same thing, which is he's not taking this virus seriously, and that is the biggest concern of all. All of these issues are really important. This is fundamental to our democracy, but yesterday was a day full of sort of Roman candles that seemed meant to distract from the fundamental issue, which is we have a pandemic, and the government isn't doing the job it should be doing.

BERMAN: John Bolton, the former National Security adviser, David, wrote in his book that every action the president takes, he believes, is to get re-elected. Every time the president made a decision, every statement he makes, every decision he makes, it was to get re-elected. So, that is how John Bolton, if you use his logic, we should look at everything happening with mail-in voting --

AXELROD: Yes --

BERMAN: And the Postal Service. You know, and there is this battle, there's a real battle, unprecedented, according to all those I've spoken to going on behind the scenes about ballot access and mail-in voting right now that goes beyond just who can vote and where they can vote.

But now, it's seeped into the Post Office itself and funding for the Post Office, and worried that the Post Office is beginning to remove these machines that sorts large quantities of ballots, which may slow it down even more. So what does that tell you? And if you're a Democrat, which you are, how do you -- how do you fight this?

AXELROD: Yes, well, I mean, this I think -- I suspect that this is consuming a lot of time over at the Biden headquarters. We know from polling -- there was a poll the other day, John, from Wisconsin that showed that people who said they were going to take mail-in ballots, 81 percent were going to vote for Biden, 19 percent for Trump, because Trump has so tarnished, without evidence, mail-in voting that Republicans now think that it is not the thing to do, to vote by mail.

So what that means is that if mail is mishandled, if the ballots arrive late and can't be counted, that is disproportionately going to affect Democrats. his is a huge problem. I think what the Biden campaign is going to probably have to do is push people to send their ballots in as early as they possibly can, and push -- and encourage as many people who are willing to go to early voting places, polling places that open weeks before the election, won't be as crowded, will be safer.

But you know, one of the problems, and the president obviously doesn't address it, is we learned last week that a lot of election authorities are saying they're having a hard time even recruiting poll workers to work at a polling place because they, too, are worried about COVID-19.

So, it puts even more pressure on these mail-in ballots. This is -- this may turn out to be the issue of this election, because we may have chaos at the polls and at the counting sites, and a long period after the election because of the dilatory tactics that the president is employing here.

BERMAN: Yes, I was just going to say that some of the money, some of that $4 billion that is being asked for by Democrats as part of the stimulus package is actually to help recruit more poll workers and make them feel safe. It's actually you would think, you know, once counted the idea of mail voting is to make in-person voting safer. It's just one of the ironies here. Sorry, Erica, I didn't mean to cut you off --

AXELROD: Yes --

[07:45:00]

HILL: No, not at all, I saw you wanted to jump in and I was right there behind you, don't worry, John. As we look at this, though, and we're talking about this safety issue and the pandemic and your vote- counting, it also stands out, right, that to your point, David, this messaging is getting through, and like we're not in the way that the president wants. But to John's point, too, in terms of countering that, as we're hearing from more Americans, and not just in polling, they're having more opportunities early on. And so once again, this really could backfire.

AXELROD: Yes, it could. It could. You know, one of the -- one of the ironies of this is the Republican Party has always been very good at employing absentee balloting --

BERMAN: Yes --

AXELROD: As you know, they have been better than Democrats at this. And what you hear from Republicans around the country is, they're actually quite nervous. The president had to back-track and make an amendment to all of his unwarranted warnings about the sanctity of mail-in voting because Florida is a state that has a lot of absentee ballots. Obviously, he takes advantage of that. The Republican authorities there said, hey, you're killing us here, we want our people to do this. And so, he said well, Florida is OK. Florida knows how to do it, so that's all right.

You know, what the president of the United States should be doing is making sure that every state has the resources they need, and the Post Office has the resources they need to ensure that this goes smoothly, and obviously, he's not doing this. This goes to Bolton's point. You have to view everything he does through that prism, how he's dealing with the virus, his suggestion yesterday that the Attorney General should bring indictments in the Russia probe -- in the probe of the Russia probe before the election.

This, his birtherism charges against, you know, ridiculous and outrageous and racist against Kamala Harris, but everything is passed through that prism of his own self-interest. And -- but in this case, the fundamental institution of democracy, which is the vote is going to -- may well be impacted by it, and that should be a concern to every American.

BERMAN: David Axelrod, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thanks, friend.

AXELROD: Great to see you, guys.

BERMAN: So, what goes around comes around. Taking on a whole new meaning for an Arizona gas station clerk who admits she wasn't always an angel. Her paycheck was stolen last June, a theft she reported to a police officer who went beyond the call of duty. Miguel Marquez has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you take your whole wallet --

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a call that could have ended much differently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She shared her story with me, talked about how she has pulled herself up.

MARQUEZ: Christina Reynolds had just started her shift as a 76 gas station clerk in Glendale, Arizona.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it -- you got a personal check or is it money from the store?

CHRISTINA REYNOLDS, GAS STATION CLERK: No, it's my personal book money.

MARQUEZ: While cleaning up outside, Reynolds says someone snuck in and took her money. All of it.

(on camera): What was in your bag?

REYNOLDS: My entire check. I had just cashed it the night before --

MARQUEZ: How much?

REYNOLDS: A little -- almost -- a little over a $1,000.

MARQUEZ: A 1,000 bucks just about everything to Reynolds, now sober 16 months, then working two jobs, even helping others get clean.

REYNOLDS: It hurt. It was very devastating. But like I said, I've been a homeless drug addict for almost a decade, I've done a lot of bad things, so I just figured karma -- it was karma. MARQUEZ: But karma works two ways. Officer's Mabe's(ph) police report

basic, it ended, this concludes my involvement at this time. Not quite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When she said that she felt like this was karma for things that happened to her in the past, just didn't really seem right.

MARQUEZ: When Mabe(ph) got back to the station, he enlisted his colleagues in a Metro Phoenix Police Organization called Angels on Patrol. They started raising money. Detective Ashley Thompson helped.

(on camera): And everybody chipped in.

ASHLEY THOMPSON, DETECTIVE, GLENDALE, ARIZONA POLICE: There was quite a few that chipped in for us to reach our goal, yes.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The goal was a 1,000 bucks.

THOMPSON: A $1,000, and we ended up actually surpassing that.

MARQUEZ: Before Reynolds' shift ended that same day, officer Mabe(ph), Thompson and others from Glendale Police returned to the gas station where Christina Reynolds was having one of her worst days in a long time.

REYNOLDS: They handed me the money that I had lost, and I'm eternally grateful for how much they lifted my spirits and really reaffirmed to me the decency of humanity.

MARQUEZ: This during a Summer when the nation has taken to the streets questioning how police do their jobs.

REYNOLDS: It reaffirms and solidifies that what I'm doing in my life and in my sobriety is the right thing.

MARQUEZ: Doing the right thing was important for all the officers who helped Christina Reynolds that day.

[07:50:00]

THOMPSON: Seeing someone who had been arrested numerous times, who had been involved in drugs come to us and say, we've changed her life, gives us hope that we can do that for someone else.

MARQUEZ: Karma. Miguel Marquez, CNN, Glendale, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Oh, thanks to Miguel for bringing us that story. Look, a little bit can go such a long way. Thousands of protesters detained in Belarus. Now, we're hearing claims of torture at the hands of government forces. A live report from the scene of the unrest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: Developing this morning, disturbing new allegations from protesters today detained in Belarus after participating in the mass protests this week over the country's rigged election. Several detainees say they were beaten, tortured, humiliated while in government custody.

[07:55:00]

CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen joins us now live from Minsk with the latest. Fred, we're so lucky to have you there. Tell us what's happening.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John, yes, still people are coming out by the tens of thousands here on the streets of Minsk because they say that after decades of what they call severe election rigging, they are not willing to take it anymore. And these protests, like the ones that you're seeing behind me are a serious threat to the folks who are coming out. This is an extremely repressive state, thousands of people have already been detained.

And we have indeed gotten reports from people who say that they were severely tortured while they were in detention. People having been beaten while they were in detention, put into stress positions. Women made to strip and kneel on the floor.

Now, there were some people who were released from detention overnight, and they actually showed some of the bruises and some of the wounds that they had. And still under these circumstances, people are coming out in force and protesting, saying they are not willing to take this anymore. Despite the fact that it's a high risk for them. Here's what's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: Belarusians are rising up, protesting against what they say was a rigged election. A really rigged election.

We want honest elections, this woman says. We want an honest count of votes. Nothing else. I don't want to even say that I'm against something. I just want it all to be honest.

President Trump has repeatedly claimed without any sort of evidence that mail-in ballots will lead to the November election being rigged.

TRUMP: I don't want to see a crooked election. This election will be the most rigged election in history if that happens.

PLEITGEN: But here's what an election looks like, which parts of the international community say was seriously flawed. Dictator Alexander Lukashenko has been in power in Belarus for around 26 years, he claims to have won more than 80 percent of the vote in the recent presidential election here against opposition icon Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who had since had to flee the country. The problem, despite heavy oppression, many Belarusians are saying, they voted against Lukashenko. Opposition supporters folded their ballots in a special way, so even from the outside, it was clear they voted against the president. And there's images like these, appearing to show an election worker climbing out of a polling station window with sacks full of ballots. The government did not allow international observers and the few people who tried to monitor the election are so afraid we had to meet them in a secret location.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have candidates, we don't have commissions, free commissions. We don't have observers. And on the final day, they actually limited the number of people who can enter the polling station. So we don't have voters anymore. Is it an election? No, it's not.

PLEITGEN: This has been the situation in Belarus for the past 26 years, but now despite a government crackdown, many people in this country are saying no more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: Then after decades of that, a lot of people indeed are saying no more. A lot of the folks that we speak to here, by the way, are saying of course, they're extremely afraid for their safety, even holding up flowers is obviously something that can get you into trouble here in this country, but a lot of folks simply believe that for them, change has to happen now or it may never happen at all, guys.

BERMAN: Frederik Pleitgen, it is so important for you to be there and shine a light on what is happening. It is important for the world to see this. Thank you so much for your work. Appreciate it. NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the greatest public health crisis that has hit this nation in centuries. We owe it to our children and grandchildren that this nation will never under prepare again.

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

TRUMP: 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, DEMOCRATIC PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: True to Trump, he doesn't want an election. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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. We do have some breaking medical news on coronavirus, and we're going to get some clarification on this from Sanjay Gupta in just one second.

This is the news, "Reuters" was first to report and CNN has confirmed that the U.S. government is now beginning the process of producing a strain of coronavirus that they can use in what's called Challenge Trials.

So they could use if they decided to in what's called a Challenge Trial. What does that mean? That means intentionally infecting someone with the coronavirus to test the vaccines to see if they're effective.