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California Surpasses 600,000 Cases; Struggling to Collect Unemployment. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:36]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing in this hour, California just crossed the 600,000 case mark for coronavirus. The state leads the nation in total cases by a long shot, despite a recent drop in the positivity rate there. Daily deaths have been averaging about 100 for weeks.

Joining me now is California Democratic Congressman and Doctor Raul Ruiz and we're going to talk about the work you're doing personally in just a second.

First, that 600,000 mark in California, I know per capita it isn't leading the country, but in overall cases, 600,000 is a lot.

What are you seeing?

REP. RAUL RUIZ, MD (D-CA): Well, we're seeing the same things here on the ground, John. We're seeing that because of our density, because of our population, because of -- we still need to really encourage people to wear a mask and keep their distance, that the numbers are very high.

And they're actually much higher in underserved and disproportionately affecting people of color and Latinos here in California.

BERMAN: Let's talk about that because you have been out literally the last few nights administering tests to farm workers. You are the son of a farm worker.

How is this pandemic affecting them?

RUIZ: Well, the farm worker community is one of the most vulnerable communities that have been most devastated by the coronavirus. You're seeing alarming rates of transmission. You're seeing alarming rates of people with underlying illnesses that are becoming severely sick from the coronavirus. And so if we're going to get a hold on this pandemic, we have to make sure that we send the resources where they're needed the most. And they're needed the most in farm worker, agricultural, essential industry workers, whether it's packing houses or picking the crops out in the field, in order to curb this pandemic. BERMAN: Talk about that, because the farm workers are essential

workers. They've been essential workers from the very beginning of this because they help deliver the food to our tables.

So what help do they need? What assistance?

RUIZ: Well, absolutely. First, they need protections and oversight in their sight of employment so that way they have the ample space, whether it's at a packing house, whether it's out in the fields, to be able to work, keeping social distance. They need the time to wash their hands. They also should be provided face masks and hand sanitizers and all the precautions that other businesses will provide their employees.

Farm workers are one of the most at risk for even injuries at the workplace. So we really need to hone in on OSHA and make sure that employers are providing the precautions.

They also need resource like testing that goes into the communities, not in locations and in times during the days that requires them to take the time off of work, which they cannot do. They also need help once they're tested to do the contact tracing and the language that is appropriate for them, in Spanish and English. And so -- and also to provide space.

You know, I grew up in a farm worker trailer park. I know that sometimes you have three generations of families living in a two bedroom trailer, a two bedroom apartment or a two bedroom low income housing. And so they don't have the luxury of self-isolating away from their families. So it's not just about the testing, it's about the contact tracing and providing the resources for them to take time off of work and self-isolating away from the family, like hotel rooms or shelters or places where we can keep an eye on for them for 10, 14 days until they get over it with the support of going back to work.

You know, they're living off of pennies right now in their -- in -- with their income and they're struggling like most Americans are.

BERMAN: You are a congressman from California. California has had mail-in balloting as an option for some time. And one of the things that's interesting about California in congressional races, and we saw it in 2018 is, there were many races that we didn't know the results on election night.

So what do Americans need to know about that phenomena?

RUIZ: You know, first of all, in any district, even before we had vote by mail, they -- the results often times are delayed. Depending on the early results, you might not get the final tally or you cannot declare victory until five, seven, ten days.

My first election, my opponent didn't concede until about ten days afterwards.

So -- so the information will be there on day one, especially because the vast majority of people would have mailed in their ballots. [08:35:08]

It is the last two or three days that they would still be counting two or three days before the election day is over. So depending on how close the race is, you -- you may be able to get the results immediately and you will see victories or you may have to wait a few days. But, essentially, it's really not that big of a deal other than waiting a couple of days.

BERMAN: Be patient.

I've got to let you go. In 30 second or less, what concerns do you have about the Postal Service right now and whether or not it's getting the resources it needs to deliver ballots?

RUIZ: I'm concerned that President Trump is choking our Postal Service for his own partisan reasons in order to benefit him in avoiding a vote by mail. I think it's sinister that he would not allow people, including his own supporters, to safely vote from home. And -- and that only hurts our veterans and our seniors because there's delays in them getting their medications and their benefits.

BERMAN: And he and Melania Trump, the first lady, apparently just applied for mail-in ballots for the Florida primary.

RUIZ: Yes.

BERMAN: Congressman Raul Ruiz, thank you for being with us. Again, aside from politics, thank you for the work you're doing in the farm community in California to get those tests out to people. Appreciate it.

RUIZ: Thank you. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, weekly unemployment claims dropped below 1 million for the first time since the pandemic began. Millions, though, still out of work. See how everyday Americans are dealing with a new problem, next.

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[08:40:31]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The struggles of being out of work during this pandemic are really coming into sharper focus this morning. We know the stimulus talks have stalled but collecting benefits is proving to be its own struggle.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is live now with that part of the story.

And this, I think -- I'm so glad you're telling this story, Vanessa, because I don't think we know enough about it.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erica.

You know, it has been four-plus months since this pandemic started and we're still hearing the headaches from Americans who are trying to get benefits. We spoke to one man who says he waited over four months to get his unemployment benefits, but it was too late, he already had to make drastic life decisions in order to not end up homeless on the street.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL VOUGHT, WAITED FOUR MONTHS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT: I had negative money. I had negative 170 something dollars in my bank account.

YURKEVICH (voice over): For more than four months, Daniel Vought waited for unemployment after losing his bartending job in Washington, D.C. Last week, a debit card finally arrived, loaded with thousands of dollars in unemployment back pay.

YURKEVICH (on camera): When you look at that card, what -- what -- I mean what do you think?

VOUGHT: I'm just really apathetic about this country. I've seen it have a lot of opportunities to do the right thing and take the other option every time.

YURKEVICH (voice over): The damage is already done. He maxed out his credit card and says he got evicted by his roommates after he couldn't make rent. Now he's living with his dad in the Bronx.

VOUGHT: If they had given me the money earlier, I wouldn't have -- it wouldn't have been this big of a problem and the amount of money they gave me would have been fine. But now I have all these compounded problems.

YURKEVICH: The safety net failed vote and he's not alone. The pandemic has cost the U.S. nearly 13 million jobs, leaving Americans to face a system ill equipped to handle the surge. The consequences are real. Without more government aid, up to 40 million Americans face eviction by the end of the year.

MICHELE EVERMORE, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAW PROJECT: Nobody pays attention to unemployment insurance when the unemployment rate is 3 percent or 4 percent. So some states just sort of ignore the system since the last recession to make it harder for people to get benefit.

YURKEVICH: Like Liaya Arrington. She applied for unemployment and pandemic unemployment assistance, but after months of waiting, she says the Georgia Department of Labor denied her both because she was terminated from her job last September due to attendance. She was the medical proxy for her terminally ill sister and had to make the decision to end her life. Her grief made it hard to get out of bed.

LIAYA ARRINGTON, DENIED UNEMPLOYMENT: Each person's particular circumstances needs to be individually heard. Ultimately, I was not at fault for my sister dying. And it caused me total financial chaos.

YURKEVICH: She says she's $15,000 in debt and hasn't been able to make rent in months. She sends her 15-year-old daughter to friend's homes to get three full meals a day. Arrington says she applies for jobs every day, but with millions of other Americans looking, it's been an uphill battle.

ARRINGTON: I haven't had any offers. So pretty much just still continuing to search and to look and put my best foot forward.

YURKEVICH: Out of options, Arrington says she's appealing her unemployment decision. This appeal is her last hope.

ARRINGTON: I still have no relief on any of my financial situations. It seemed to be getting worse. But I'm -- I'm remaining hopeful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: The unemployment system in this country is a dated and antiquated system trying to deal with a modern-day pandemic. And that is why people like Daniel and Liaya have fallen through the cracks.

And, John, there's been so much discussion about whether being on unemployment keeps people from going out and applying for jobs. Both Daniel and Liaya and others I've spoken to who are unemployed say they are consistently looking for jobs. But with 13 million jobs off line, there's simply too much competition.

And, John, without a vaccine to get them back to work, unemployment really is their only option in order to stay afloat.

John.

BERMAN: Which is why so many people were depending on the extended benefit and sometimes it just does feel like the system is stacked against you.

Vanessa Yurkevich, terrific report, thanks so much.

So it's happened twice. It's happened twice in the last 20 years. [08:45:02]

The winner of the popular vote goes on to lose the presidential election. A closer look at the controversy that is the Electoral College and what it might mean for this election, next.

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BERMAN: In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote by more than 3 million votes. It's possible that in 2020 the president could lose by more votes and still get re-elected. That's something I'm investigating in a new CNN special report. Here's a peek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The present system is dangerous. It's outdated. It's archaic. It's one that needs to be revised.

BERMAN (voice over): Born hundreds of years ago. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really was a Frankenstein's monster of sorts.

BERMAN: Challenged and criticized, but fiercely resilient until now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are some issues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For better or worse, I tried a Hail Mary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, I think we can do something about this.

[08:50:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I decided maybe someone should take a stand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were the bad news bears of the political world.

BERMAN: Going rogue meant taking risks.

BERMAN (on camera): Did you think you were committing a crime?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were fined $1,000.

BERMAN (voice over): And the backlash was brutal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plenty of death threats and hate.

BERMAN: A desperate, political play to try to keep one man from becoming president.

CROWD: Stop Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it scared people because no one has used the Electoral College this way.

BERMAN (on camera): That you thought you had the power to change history?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought that we had the power to prevent a demagogue from taking office.

BERMAN (voice over): Election 2020.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On the path to defeating Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Could it happen again?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America should not take lectures on racial justice from Joe Biden.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to be in unchartered territory. This is a Pandora's Box.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: A Pandora's Box.

All right, so, Berman, what did you -- I mean what was your goal, because the Electoral Colleges, people have very, very clear opinions on it.

BERMAN: My goal was to learn, right? Once people started doing the math, and we heard Harry Enten do it a little bit earlier, that Donald Trump could lose the popular vote by even more but still win in the Electoral College, it just occurred to me that there's something going on here and people need to know much more about it. So I just wanted to learn as much as I could about the history of the college, the justification for it.

And also, in that process, there was this Supreme Court case. Honestly, we had already started looking into this documentary when the Supreme Court case came to light about faithless (ph) electors, and those are the people you heard from in just here, those electors who go in and don't vote the way that their states did.

So I just wanted to try to educate people. And I have to tell you, I learned so much. I was shocked by how much I didn't know about the Electoral College and how our system works.

HILL: Listen, we're going to tune in to learn all of the things that you learned, but -- but out of curiosity, just give us a nugget. I mean what really -- these are always the things that I'm fascinated by, right, when I talk to somebody who's done all this work on something, what surprised you? Because you know a lot. You're a smart guy.

BERMAN: So this -- this is going to blows your mind. It still blows my mind. And people are going to be like, what, you're kidding me? There's nothing in the Constitution that says that you or I, or citizens in America, need to vote for president. There is no constitutional guarantee of a presidential election among voters. There just isn't. At all. Like, from a starting point, all it says is that electors -- the electors get to choose the president and the states choose the electors in the manner that they deem appropriate, which means -- and at the beginning, there weren't presidential elections. There were state legislators that appointed the electors of many of the states and then the electors picked the president. There's nothing in the Constitution that says that you or I needs to vote for president. And a lot of the things that have sprouted from the Electoral College and the controversy begins with that fundamental notion.

HILL: I'm sort of dumbfounded right now.

BERMAN: Right. Right.

HILL: You're right. So here I am with my mouth agape.

While I try to pick my jaw up off the floor, I know that you -- you know, you were hanging out last night with Seth Meyers promoting the special, of course, and you guys talked about how to really get people interested in it. So I wanted to play one of those moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We knew that the idea of the Electoral College may not be the sexiest concept for TV. So we were trying to figure out how to jazz it up a little bit. So first, you know, we thought spirit fingers and then we thought (INAUDIBLE).

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": Yes.

BERMAN: So then we thought, I guess, you know, they might be (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): You (INAUDIBLE) your choice, you give them your trust, but it's up to them and not up to us. We're only the voters, they are the electors.

MEYERS: It's incredibly catchy. I also say this as a huge They Might Be Giants' fan, I don't think anyone has ever come to the conclusion that we need to sexy this up, let's get, They Might Be Giants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: You know, not to put too fine of a point on it, John Berman, but probably wouldn't be my first choice to sexy up. But then again, I mean, who really said that the Electoral College wasn't sexy to begin with?

BERMAN: That's right. That's a great point. That's a great point.

Look, we have this great sequence and it -- actually it's online. People can go look at it. They Might Be Giants wrote an incredible song in 30 seconds basically it took them to write it explaining who the electors are. We made a "Schoolhouse Rock"-like video. Because "Schoolhouse Rock" did such a good job explaining things. And I only know about adverbs because of "Schoolhouse Rock." And this cartoon really helps understand what's going on.

HILL: So question for you, because we know, you know, Istanbul was once Constantinople, do you think things could ever change with the Electoral College?

BERMAN: You want to know the dark answer? No, I really don't.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: I think -- we came close. In 1970, there was a measure that passed the House. It had the support of Richard Nixon that would have essentially shifted to the popular vote and it probably had a majority in the Senate, but it didn't have enough to get past the Senate filibuster, and too many of the smaller states would have voted against it. So it died in 1970 but it wasn't far away.

[08:55:00]

Now I almost think there's no way it would get beyond some of the smaller states or past that level in the Senate to reach a constitutional amendment.

There is a movement called the National Popular Vote Intrastate Compact, which would essentially require all 50 states individually to pass a law in those 50 states that they would agree to assign all their electors to whoever won the popular vote. And there's a movement behind that. I just have a hard time believing that you'd get all 50 states to sign on.

HILL: Are you saying it's hard to find consensus in the country at the moment?

BERMAN: Yes, that's sort of what I'm saying.

HILL: Yes. Yes.

Well, listen, it is appointment viewing. I'm ready this Saturday night, right after my son's baseball game. I will be watching.

BERMAN: Yes, don't make plans for Saturday night at 10:00. And if you have to make plans, set your DVR now because this will change your life, I guarantee it.

Be sure to watch our CNN's special report, "Count on Controversy: Inside the Electoral College," set to music, tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

All right, Erica Hill, you're awesome for being with me here all week.

HILL: Always a pleasure.

BERMAN: CNN's coverage continues after this.

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END