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Former First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks at Democratic National Convention; President Trump Responds to Michelle Obama's Speech on Twitter; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Experiencing Coronavirus Outbreak after Starting In-Person Classes; Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is Interviewed About His Speech at Dem Convention Tonight and More. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: Do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So that line, "it is what it is," is what President Trump said about the 1,000 plus Americans dying every day from coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A thousand Americans are dying a day.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are dying, that's true. And it is what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is what it is.

Also this morning, a huge turn of events in the debate over whether, how, when to reopen the schools. The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill which had begun to hold in-person classes has now reversed course and is going entirely remote just one week after reopening. More than 130 students there have now tested positive. The student newspaper, and we just talked to a reporter from that newspaper, summed it up, calling it a cluster-blank.

Bigger picture, what does this all say about the ability of schools around the country to open at all? We're going to have much more on that ahead.

But first, the Democrats opening night and what to expect tonight. Joining us now CNN White House correspondent John Harwood and CNN political commentator Angela Rye. John, I want to start with you. The president has already responded to Michelle Obama on Twitter, which tells you that it stung, that what she had to say stung. The president responded. Why do you think it stung, what she had to say, "it is what it is"?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, she was so effective and personal in detailing the personal qualities that are absent in Donald Trump that have manifested themselves in the coronavirus crisis. And as a matter of fact, in the response that the president has done on Twitter this morning, most of which is a series of tweets that are nonsensical, he underscored that critique. He talked about how he had built the greatest economy in history. That's not true. Then we turned it off. That is true. Then he talked about how the economy is now recovering, and he closed that tweet by saying sit back and watch.

That is precisely the indictment of President Trump's approach to the coronavirus right now. He has stepped away from the crisis. He is essentially allowing it to play out, hoping that he gets a vaccine. And that was at the heart of what the Democrats were detailing last night in the moment of silence for people who had lost their lives in coronavirus, the tributes to those 170,000 people, the young woman from Arizona who talked about her father's only preexisting condition having been trusting Donald Trump that this wasn't that big of a deal. So Donald Trump, he did respond, but he didn't particularly help himself with that set of responses this morning.

CAMEROTA: Angela, I know you heard so many notable points in Michelle Obama's speech, and quotable ones. I too, like you, one of the ones that jumped out at me was being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are. And so what do you think she did so effectively last night?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What she always does, Alisyn, she was a closer. And I just think that the most important thing for this speech as we reflect on it today, of course, there are those of us who are like, yes, she's going directly at Trump. But there was also this moment, you talked about this reveal line, she says, well, the presidential election can reveal who we are, too. So the other thing that she does so well is she doesn't just challenge Donald Trump. She challenges all of us, especially reflecting on the 2016 election, how little she said two votes per precinct, right, were lost -- this is how we lost the election in some states, up to two votes per precinct.

And she wore this vote necklace, as she is the founder of When We All Vote. And so she doubles down on how important it is for us to get involved. So as we continue to reveal to ourselves who we are, what we stand for, what we represent the character of this country that we would, too, rise to the occasion. It's not just about Donald Trump and his voters. It's also about the people who didn't take the threat of Donald Trump seriously enough in 2016 and now have the data, right, to say in 2020 we cannot allow the same thing to happen. And she was very clear and poignant about that.

BERMAN: And it's interesting where last night leaves the Democratic Convention. They talked about empathy last night and they accused the president of having a lack of empathy. Well, tonight, I suspect you will see them present Joe Biden as the embodiment of empathy. We know that Dr. Jill Biden is going to speak at the high school where she taught for a couple years in the early 90s. They released this picture of her. You can see Jill Biden wearing a mask inside the classroom where she taught. They also put out some yearbook photos from when she was there from, I guess it was 1991 to 1993. It was Brandywine High School.

[08:05:00]

But I expect, John, that this is going to be a lot of biography, who Joe Biden is. I know that he was presented to the country in 2008 when he was the vice presidential pick. I know there's been an entire campaign. That still doesn't necessarily mean that everyone knows the story, and I expect we're going to hear a lot of that story from her.

HARWOOD: Exactly. And we saw little hint of that last night. Joe Biden appeared -- doesn't always happen for a nominee that early in the convention, but he appeared in a conversation listening to people about problems within the country. He is in fact the flipside of those qualities that we've talked about. What defines Joe Biden in the public mind is the losses that he suffered, his reaction to the losses, and the way he reaches out to other people.

Jill Biden will provide that positive case just as Michelle Obama provided a little bit of it while indicting President Trump. It's no surprise that for two straight nights you're going to have powerful and prominent Democratic women closing. Women are the key to the Democratic coalition, both women of color and also white women who are college graduates. That is a key source of defection from Donald Trump and the Republican side towards the Democrats that powered them in 2018 when they took over the House of Representatives. They're counting on that to power them this fall as well.

CAMEROTA: There were Republicans last night, Angela, who decided to join the chorus of support for Joe Biden with Democrats. So here is John Kasich explaining his thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KASICH, (R) FORMER OHIO GOVERNOR: I'm sure there are Republicans and independents who couldn't imagine crossing over to support a Democrat. They fear Joe may turn sharp left and leave them behind. I don't believe that, because I know the measure of the man. He's reasonable, faithful, respectable. And you know no one pushes Joe around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: You know, Angela, for the past three years, some of those Republicans have been maligned as never-Trumpers, or they have been dismissed as not having been pure enough for the party. Do you think that was effective, having Republicans as part of the group last night?

RYE: I have got to be honest with you. I think the jury is still out on that for me. I think that there are far more effective ways for Republicans to engage with folks in their electorate, right, who traditionally vote Republican who sometimes don't know, also with independents who are confused and are not sure, as he mentioned also in his remarks, if going to the far left or too far left will mean that they are left behind.

I think it's so important that they are engaged and they're clear. When John was asked by Dana last night if he was planning to campaign for Joe Biden, he's not willing to take that step. And so I think that, again, we're at this point in the country where your actions have to match your rhetoric to ensure success and victory on either side.

In my devotional this morning, I was trying to pull this up because I was listening to him, and it says for only by being truthful about how we got here can we begin to imagine another way. And so we can talk about that truth, but we also have to live out that truth again, the very thing that Michelle Obama called out -- called out for all of us to do. And I think it's incumbent upon Kasich and others to do that same thing. It's not enough to be in the video talking about what you're doing at the polls. It's about ensuring that people do something different as well.

BERMAN: Angela Rye, John Harwood, thanks to both of you.

HARWOOD: Hey, guys.

BERMAN: We've got to run, John, I'm so sorry. I promise we'll have you back.

HARWOOD: OK.

BERMAN: Growing questions this morning about how universities can hold in-person classes safely. A big outbreak at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is forcing the school to go to remote learning just one week after beginning in-person classes. Joining us now, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, we had a reporter from the student newspaper down there who talked about just the conflicting messages they have been getting for weeks and weeks there and how frustrated the students are. It's understandable.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question. This idea that you adopt these public health practices, in practice only, but there's these dorm parties and fraternity parties and things like that where people are behaving exactly as you'd expect college students to behave is very true. And I think that was the point she was making. That's what I took away from reading the school editorial newspaper as well.

I want to show you something interesting that I think kind of makes the point that you guys were asking about last hour. If you looked at North Carolina, we can show some of these graphs, and looked at the objective data that people look at. So there's the overall new confirmed cases, and they were going down. We want to see a 14-day downward trend. And you could look at that and say for the most part there were some blips here and there, but overall, the trend was downward. Hospitalizations, you sort of saw the same thing, hospitalizations going down.

[08:10:03]

And then this positivity rate, and, again, positivity rate means how many tests out of 100 test positive. And you want to see that certainly below 10 percent, some say closer to five percent, and there you go. All of those trends looked good, and yet they still found themselves in this position.

Why do I show the graphs? Because, look, unless everyone is diligent about this, everyone is wearing their masks, and not just, again, for show, but actually doing this with the belief that you could actually control the spread of this virus, then it's not going to work. People have to be diligent in all aspects of their life. They have to be honest, they have to be transparent. It's a lot to ask of college students who want to congregate and get together. So I think this is a message that university schools all across the country have to pay attention to.

CAMEROTA: OK, from North Carolina to Wuhan, China. So there was this huge rave, huge outdoor concert. Look at this. Look at what's happening in Wuhan, which obviously, as you know, Sanjay, was the epicenter, ground zero for coronavirus. And number one, when can I go to one of these things, because it looks great. But is the thinking there that there's not a single case in Wuhan, so now it's safe? Or what happens next?

GUPTA: Well, let me give you the caveats first, which is that we've got to be a little bit careful when interpreting the data of Wuhan because we haven't always gotten the most accurate or up to date information. Having said that, they have not had a locally transmitted case, they say, since the middle of May, OK. So quite some time.

Now, as you point out, they went into very strict lockdown, 76 days of very strict lockdown. We're doing a lot of reporting out of there. You remember this province they call it a small province in China. It's 11 million people, so it's actually quite huge, bigger than any city in the United States population-wise. So they were able to do a strict lockdown. They had remarkable amounts of testing that were done. And they basically have been able, they say, stop local transmission of this virus and be able to have parties like this.

We'll have to see, do these types of events, do they turn into some sort of super spreader event? They shouldn't if they truly have no locally transmitted cases, but I think part of the reason they're showing this, we're seeing similar things, not quite to that extent, but similar things in other parts of the world is to show what is possible. It is possible if you bring the viral load way down and people are diligent during their lockdown that you could return to some sense of normalcy, which I think is what is starting to happen in Wuhan.

GUPTA: Sanjay, new research about the durability of immunity that might be promising. What's been learned?

GUPTA: Yes. For some time we have said, hey, look, so you get infected. Are you then protected? That's the question. And I think what we have been saying for some time is, yes, you probably are, but we don't know how long that protection lasts. We don't know how strong that protection is. You could look at other coronaviruses like SARS and say, yes, you got pretty good protection after you were infected.

What some of these new studies show are two things. It seems that even people with mild infections do seem to be generating a fair amount of antibody response. These are the cells in your body that can help fight a future infection. So we thought maybe it was correlated to just the most significant infections having the protection, but even people with mild infections do seem to have protection. It seems to be lasting a while. Keep in mind, we don't see a lot of reinfection so far in this country. And the second thing is, people who have never been exposed do seem to have protection as well, perhaps because they have been exposed to other coronaviruses. So there's some good news, at least to end this on.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much, Sanjay, great to talk to you.

GUPTA: You go it. You, too, thanks.

CAMEROTA: The Democratic National Convention resumes tonight, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is among the key speakers, so he is going to join us live to talk about that and so much more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:41]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: If you take one thing from my words tonight -- it is this. If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can and they will if we don't make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Former First Lady Michelle Obama on the first night of the Democratic National Convention.

So what's in store for night two?

Joining me now is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He is one of tonight's speakers.

Senators, thanks so much for being with us.

Before we get to tonight, I'm sure you were an avid viewer last night. What do you think the most important single message that former first lady sent was?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: That we have to -- we cannot be complacent in any way and we have to remove Donald Trump from office and get put Joe Biden in and get America moving on so many issues, including fighting the racism that is still so endemic in our society. It was a beautiful speech. I think she was talking directly to people

sitting on their living room couches. It was almost more effective in a convention speech with the big crowds cheering because she was talking right at them. It was personal. It was strong. It was heartfelt and the message was so powerful.

I think she did a great job and I have to give a lot of credit to Bernie right before that, talking about unity, but not unity for its own sake, unity to get things done. I'm going to touch on that in my speech tonight if we take back the Senate which I hope we will, getting that done.

And then, of course, the beginning. You know, I'm from New York but I love to cross the river and hear Bruce Springsteen and I thought that movie "The Rising" and talking about people getting out there and trying to change America set the right tone. So, I thought it was a great job.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: So, no pressure?

SCHUMER: I was very -- I was dubious, it was an unconventional convention, but it worked.

BERMAN: So, no pressure, but how are you going to top that tonight?

SCHUMER: Well, I don't know if I can top it, and I'm not trying to top it. Here's the -- I'm going to speak from a place called the Liberty Warehouse. It's in Red Hook, right on the Harbor, Brooklyn Harbor. Brooklyn, of course, is my hometown, and over my shoulder will be the Statue of Liberty.

One of the things I'm going to touch on is immigration. I feel it passionately. I feel what we've done to immigrants under this administration is horrible, an inhumane way for them, but also for the economy of the country, and all the businesses and everyone else agrees with that.

[08:20:08]

And it's nice to do it at this warehouse because just on a personal note, it was an old warehouse for pillows and sheets, but they converted it to a wedding space. And my daughter got married there four years ago and now, she -- she's the mother of my first grandson. So I have special, special feeling for the place I'm doing it at because of the Statue of Liberty. Actually, my middle name is Ellis, Ellis Island, and because of my daughter and the happiness we once had there.

BERMAN: So, that's tonight. Your day job is the minority leader in the U.S. Senate.

On the House side, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the House back to address the issue surrounding the Postal Service. What do you want to see happen in the Senate? SCHUMER: Well, look, the Senate should -- if the House passes a bill

and I expect they will, the Senate should just pass it right away, hopefully by unanimous consent. Get everyone on board.

We have to -- the post office is one huge mess. I met this man, Mr. DeJoy, he wouldn't meet with me. I called him three times, he wouldn't meet with me. So, at our negotiations, Nancy and I with Mnuchin and Meadows said, we don't want to go forward on this. Postal is one of the big issues, have him come in here.

And it was clear to me that his goal was to dismantle the post office, brick by brick. That the concerns of especially during COVID when you need the post office more than ever, elderly people can't go to the pharmacy. They depend on the mail for their medicines.

Today, I'll be on Long Island talking about veterans. Our veterans get 80, 90 percent of their stuff, their drugs, through the mail. And to have these things delayed, all these special things delayed, and at the same time, to sort of try to make the Post Office dysfunction so the elections will be dysfunctional that's despicable.

So, we're going to do everything we can in a variety of ways. One is legislation, but there are others as well. The postal board, Elizabeth Warren and I wrote to the postal board and they can undo what DeJoy has done.

And, you know, there's a lot of pressure even on President Trump when the veterans say they need help, because he'll get them to change it, I doubt it, but you got to try every angle, because this is so important --

BERMAN: I get -- I get your concerns.

SCHUMER: -- to people's -- to people's help during COVID --

BERMAN: Yeah.

SCHUMER: -- and to fair elections.

BERMAN: I get the concerns over cutting back on overtime, reducing the routes that delivery people can run, and we are hearing from around the country that has caused some delays. But there are other aspects of what the Postal Service has done, which I'm not sure why they're as controversial, right?

The Postal Service sent this letter out to states, telling them, you've got to get your mail-in votes early.

I want to read to you what they said versus what Michelle Obama said last night about this.

The U.S. Postal Service said: Voters should submit their ballot requests early enough so that it is received by their election officials at least 15 days before Election Day at a minimum. Michelle Obama says, we've got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back in immediately and follow to make they're received.

That seems to be the same message, roughly speaking.

SCHUMER: Yeah, but, John --

BERMAN: Isn't that a message you want your voters to get?

SCHUMER: Yeah. Well, of course, we want people to mail as early as possible. First of all, some state laws don't allow it. In many states, there's a date by which you have to apply for an absentee ballot and they have to mail it to you and then you have to mail the ballot in. This is all in the context of the mail being much slower.

If the post office has said, we're going to treat it all as first class mail, what they said would not be objectionable. The big objection is they have now said -- they have not said and we would require them in the legislation that's introduced in the House and the Senate to actually say this should be treated as first class mail.

I was with (ph) -- yesterday with postal workers in Upstate New York. They told me what's happening. They told me how much more slow the mail is. They told me their machines -- their actual machines that sort the mail are being dismantled at this moment, at the height of COVID.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Some are already happening --

SCHUMER: Yeah.

BERMAN: Our information is those have been dismantled at this point, and we have received reports from around the country of a slowdown in mail delivery. There's no question.

SCHUMER: Well, that's the issue.

BERMAN: There's no question.

SCHUMER: The issue is the slowdown.

BERMAN: Let me ask you, Mitch McConnell, do you know what he wants to do with this? It's not totally clear, because on the one hand, he says he doesn't see a problem with the Postal Service, and on the other hand, he says he doesn't agree with what the president's concerns about I think mail-in voting.

What do you know about Mitch McConnell -- his position?

SCHUMER: We just don't -- we just don't -- we know in the skinny bill that the Republicans, Mnuchin and Meadows put forward, there was no postal reform. They had no money to give the post office money.

And again, these are two crises. It's the elections down the road, but it's right now, people needing medicines and other things. And when you have COVID, and people can't go outside -- look, my dad's 97, World War II vet. He gets -- he's a veteran. He gets all his stuff in the mail.

Now, when I get -- I get some pills, but they're not life-threatening type of stuff. It's statins for cholesterol. But when I'm down to two pills and sometimes the mail is late, I get worried.

Well, can you imagine if it's much more vital to you?

So, the issue here is COVID and the need not to slow down the mail at this point in time, not undo the post office.

I spoke to the postal workers in Cayuga County, in Chenango County, in Rensselaer County, in Upstate New York. And they say it's much slower.

And the post -- and the people in the Post Office don't want to see this, even the post masters, you know, they've been part of this service proudly for years. It's coming from this, Mr. DeJoy -- let's admit it -- a political appointee, a large contributor to President Trump. Now, when we met him, it was clear that he was hell-bent on destroying the post office.

Some people think there shouldn't be a post office. Ninety-one percent of Americans think there should be a post office, even during normal times.

BERMAN: We will hear --

SCHUMER: Let alone COVID and elections.

BERMAN: We will hear from Postmaster DeJoy next week before the House.

SCHUMER: Yes.

BERMAN: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, thanks very much for being with us. I know tonight is a special night for you. Thanks for joining us the morning of. Appreciate it.

SCHUMER: Thanks. Bye-bye.

BERMAN: So as we speak, several states say they're ready to sue the Trump administration over changes at the U.S. Postal Service. The attorney general of one of the states joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END