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Joe Biden Accepts Democratic Nomination; Biden Draws on Personal Tragedy to Connect to Americans; Florida Becomes Fifth State to Report over 10,000 Deaths. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Nomination for president with a big speech that you could say was three decades in the making.

[07:00:04]

Biden promising to unify the country after the division, he says, President Trump has stoked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long, too much anger, too much fear, too much division. Here and now, I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It's time for us, for we, the people, to come together and make no mistake, united, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Biden promised to take decisive action on the coronavirus pandemic, if he's elected.

Now, he did not mention the president by name, not once, but he did slam the president's response to the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIDEN: The president keeps telling us, the virus is going to disappear. He keeps waiting for America. Well, I have news for him. No miracle is coming. And after all of this time, the president still does not have a plan. Well, I do. If I'm your president, on day one, we'll implement the national strategy I've been laying out since March. We'll develop and deploy rapid tests with results available immediately and have a national mandate to wear masks, not as a burden, but as a patriotic duty to protect one another. In short, we'll do what we should have done from the very beginning.

Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He's failed to protect us. He's failed to protect America. And my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BERMAN: Joining us now, CNN Political Commentators, Mitch Landrieu and Angela Rye. Angela is host of the podcast, One-on-One with Angela Rye. Also with us, CNN Political Commentator, David Gregory.

Mayor Landrieu, I want to start with you. We've heard people, Jen Psaki, who worked with Joe Biden for a long time. We heard people last night immediately after the speech say, they've never seen Joe Biden give a speech like that.

My question is, what has it changed, who did it impact and where does it put the race this morning?

MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I thought the vice president did an excellent job last night and he did what he had to do to show America what it would look like if he were the president. He first basically called out his opponent, who he's running against. And he was correct to say that Donald Trump was a failed president. Half the people that he hired have now quit and said that he's been a terrible president. The other half seem to be under indictment.

And I think Vice President Biden last night put character and good judgment square in the middle and in front of the American people and asked them whether or not they want somebody who wanted to unite them or divide them.

So I think he moved people. I think they did what they had to do and I feel pretty good about where we are.

CAMEROTA: Angel, President Trump has spent so much time diminishing former Vice President Biden, I mean, making -- you know, between the names, between trying to characterize him as not being able to speak coherently. Do you think that those 25 minutes yesterday -- you know, of course there's a teleprompter. I mean, this isn't like the most herculean effort. But do you think that they dispelled some of the criticism that President Trump has been making all of these months?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think what dispels Trump's criticism is the truth, right? We all know that Donald Trump has pattern and practice of insulting some of our greatest leaders, including several black women and women of color in the Democratic Party. So, anybody he insults, we know the truth of the matter is, he's very much so intimidated.

And given his record on the prompter and how herculean that has proven to be for him, I think Joe Biden certainly has him beat there, if only the election was based on how well someone read the teleprompter. We still have a long road to go, especially given this very new reality and whether or not people want to risk any part of themselves to get to the polls, and I think that we have to continue to take leaps of faith there.

To Joe Biden's point, there are no miracles coming for coronavirus, but we're going to need some to get people out to the polls, given the set of circumstances that we're all facing right now, including the fact that the post office has somehow become partisan. And to that end, the post master general has to testify, at least virtually today, before Congress.

BERMAN: David Gregory, I don't want to make too much of the tactical mistake the Trump campaign by setting the bar so low for Joe Biden. But you and I both covered George W. Bush together and the Gore team to this day regrets setting the bar so low for George W. Bush, suggesting that he wasn't up to it, going after his intelligence, because it made it so easy for him to cross that bar.

[07:05:03]

And it's a thing, because Joe Biden wasn't sleepy last night, to use a word that the president used, and I shouldn't even necessarily repeat. Joe Biden did meet the moment there, and it is something now that I imagine the Trump campaign has to deal with.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's right. And I think one of my reactions, as I was watching, in particular, and what's different from back in 2000, talking about President Bush and Governor Bush, is that here, there has been something of a basement strategy. And I don't think it's been a bad one.

I mean, we're living in this world that's dominated by the pandemic, the news coverage dominated by the pandemic, we know there has been a campaign, but there has not been the kind of campaigning that we are used to. So you would be forgiven if you didn't have a coherent sense of, well, all right, where does this former vice president, where is he coming from, what does he stand for, what does he want to do?

I give the Democrats credit. They produced a show of force that was tightly constructed, well laid out, it was unified, and to your point, that was a former vice president who was strong, who was sharp, who was decent, who was empathetic and who made it very clear what this campaign is about. It's the other guy, the current president let us down and didn't keep you safe. We've got to go in a different direction.

Joe Biden is not a voice of the future. He's not the future of the Democratic Party. This has not been a meteoric rise. This is somebody who says, look, I'm a decent guy, you know me, you know you can picture me in this job. I can transition us to a more normal place, which a lot of Americans are looking for. And I thought that comes through more strongly than even some of the divisions that we know are there and some of the criticisms will come about the modern Democratic Party.

CAMEROTA: Joe Biden has said that the catalyst, one catalyst, I guess, for him, for running was Charlottesville. And so he talked about that last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Just a week ago yesterday was the third anniversary of the events in Charlottesville. Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. And remember what the president said when asked? He said there were, quote, very fine people on both sides. That was a wake-up call for us as a country and, for me, a call to action. At that moment, I knew I would have to run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Mayor, do you think that minds were swayed last night?

LANDRIEU: Well, I was very proud of the vice president for putting race right where it needs to be. Race is a stain on America. It's this nation's Achilles heel. Unless we as a country actually go through it and figure out how to get past and undo the systemic designs that we have, we're never, ever going to be the country that we profess to be. So I was very thankful that he did that.

This is very hard work, it's not easy. But if we don't remove the stain of racism from this country, it's always going to hold all of us back. And I think that he moved a lot of hearts on the issue. I do, and I was very proud of him.

BERMAN: Angela?

RYE: Well, I think that we have some growth opportunities here. You know, we have to remember that Joe Biden has been in public service and in public life for well over four decades. That leaves a lot to evolve on. And I think one good step is, you know, him selecting Kamala Harris has his V.P. running mate, right? I think she challenged him tough on racial justice and his own posture on race, during the debates. But I think it also is a new day. And I think that means that we have some issues that have to be unpacked, not just in the party, but in this country.

And I'll tell you one thing. I would much rather have that conversation with allies than with foes. And Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is not an ally on these issues, whether it's on his Twitter account or whether it's on a convention stage, which we'll see him on next week, I'm sure, asking black people and others what in the hell they have to lose?

CAMEROTA: David, you mentioned the basement strategy that Joe Biden has been using and we've learned this morning that he's not going to be campaigning in any kind of traditional way. He's not going to be on the campaign trail. He's not going to be having those kinds of rallies that we've already seen President Trump having. And I'm just wondering if you think, politically, that will hurt him?

GREGORY: I don't think so. I don't think in this environment, you know, I think the president is going to do what he's going to do, whether it endangers people or not. As a political strategy, he's going to have a pretty durable base of support.

The question is, the rest of America, and those who are most persuadable on this question of whether we have a government that's doing what it's tasked to do, which is to protect the country, that only the federal government has the sort of scale and the resources and the bully pulpit to move the country in a way that it needs to be moved.

So I think he's going to be okay. [07:10:00]

I think the focus on what you do going forward. I mean, contrast is clear. And I think to Angela's point, part of the -- what Biden has to do here is be someone who, on some of these other very important issues in the country right now, particularly to younger Americans, and Americans of color and different genders, he's got to be able to facilitate that conversation. He may not be the leader of that conversation.

And that is what's important, is can he facilitate it and be the one who would say, look, we're ready and I can lead us there. Because at the same time, he's going to face the criticism in all of these other rallies that he's a captive of the radical left. I'm sure we're going to hear that phrase so often when Trump speaks and his allies speak over the next few days, that this is all just kind of a cover. You know, Moderate Joe is really a cover for the radical left. That's the criticism that's coming. That's what he's going to have, whether he's in the basement or at rallies or however he does it, he's going to have to deal with that.

BERMAN: I want to play a moment of extraordinary historic courage. This was Brayden Harrington who's 13 years old with a stutter who met Joe Biden in New Hampshire and recounted part of that story last night. This is part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAYDEN HARRINGTON, 13-YEAR-OLD BOY BIDEN MET IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: Without Joe Biden, I wouldn't be talking to you today. About a few months ago, I met him in New Hampshire. He told me that we were members of the same club. We stutter. It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president.

I'm just a regular kid. And in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made moving forward confident about something that has bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You Know, Brayden, you get choked up watching it now. He hit it out of the park, Mayor Landrieu. And that story is compelling and it tells voters something about Joe Biden. What is that?

LANDRIEU: You know, I have five children and I have 38 nieces and nephews. And I watched that young man and it just broke me down and I started to weep. And I thought to myself, you know, what else does somebody else need to say about Joe Biden that he took the time to help that young man, the level of empathy that he had because of what he went through. That's just extraordinary.

So when you juxtapose him to President Trump, who is a failed president, doesn't care about anybody, doesn't keep anybody safe, doesn't think about another person first, and you compare him to a guy, for whatever his faults are, that takes time to be with other people, and to understand them, that says a lot about the character of the man who's then going to use the power of the presidency to help people rather than to hurt them.

And I thought that was the most powerful moment of the entire convention and that young man was just incredible.

CAMEROTA: President Trump has publicly mocked people with disabilities, David, quickly.

GREGORY: Right. I mean, the contrast couldn't be any clearer, could it? I mean, Joe Biden's decency, which any of us who have covered him and known him over the years, is quite clear. I mean, he's just -- he's an old-fashioned politician, whether you like old-fashioned politicians or not, who will spend time with you, no matter what he's doing, whether he's shopping on the street during a vacation, whether he's doing an interview with me, once in the studio at Meet the Press when he made all that news about gay marriage, he stayed in the studio for an hour afterwards, not realizing that he had committed so much news. It's what he does and he cares for people. So that's so important, that contrast with the president.

And, again, I just think people are going to look up -- whether you like him or not or like the Democratic Party or not, I just don't know if a lot of people are going to say, he's not a decent guy.

CAMEROTA: Angela, Mayor Landrieu, David, thank you all very much. Great to talk to you.

All right, beyond the politics of the final night of the Democratic Convention, it was, as we've been talking about, deeply personal. So we're going to speak with Joe Biden's longtime friend, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: Joe Biden reaching out to Americans who have lost loved ones to coronavirus in his speech last night, tying it to the deeply personal losses that have shaped his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: On this summer night, let me take a moment to speak to those of you who have lost the most. I have some idea how it feels to lose someone you love. I know that deep, black hole that opens up in the middle of your chest and you feel like you're being sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes.

But I've learned two things. First, your loved one may have left this earth, but they'll never leave your heart. They'll always be with you. You'll always hear them. And second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is someone who has known Joe Biden as a friend, a mentor, and a colleague for more than 20 years, former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. Madam Secretary, thanks so much for being with us today.

You can hear the emotion when Joe Biden was talking about the loss that he has felt. There was another moment where he was really nearly or in tears talking about his son, Beau. As someone who has known him for a long time, as a friend, how did this moment hit you?

JENNY PRITZKER, FORMER COMMERCE SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, thanks for having me. You know, Joe Biden has been a great friend for decades, as you've said. And I thought, you know, what we saw last night was an authentic, real Joe Biden. He feels deeply for all of us. He knows the pains and joys that each of us have felt and I've seen that personally.

You know, I just thought last night was a homerun. We got to see the real Joe Biden. And we also -- we see that he's committed not only to helping us with, you know, healing, but also to help all Americans, you know, get to a better place.

[07:20:09]

So I thought last night was just a fantastic look into who Joe Biden is.

BERMAN: So, the empathy came through and the focus on character came through. The question now though is, what does that do or how does that help the average American? What does that do to help the economy recover?

PRITZKER: Well, look, Joe Biden has a deep and genuine connection with all of us, as individuals. As you said, he brings empathy to life and he brings it to governing. And when I was secretary of commerce, which was just serving was just an honor of a lifetime, you know, I didn't come from government. I came from business. And Joe Biden, you know, was a mentor and a coach to me. He helped me behind the scenes. And I saw him connect with people.

So, for example, how does this translate? We worked together on trying to reform the workforce training and upscaling system in America. He brought his personal experience. He'd seen how his father had lost his job. He understood what that meant for a family. And, you know, he knows how to connect and he wants to make sure that his experiences, the once that he understands all of us have had, as well, will help guide him as he gets us all back to work, as he implements policies.

And he's proposed a terrific plan, a competitive plan for the United States, an economic plan for all of us, you know, where he'll invest in people, manufacturing, R&D, to keep us, you know, ahead and leading in the most important technologies, whether it's 5G or quantum or A.I. He's going to invest in clean energy. He knows how important the environment is. He knows the responsibility we have to future generations in the environment.

So there's so much that Joe Biden will bring his personal experience to the policies he implements. And I've had the opportunity to see that, whether that was in the situation room or traveling around the world with him. BERMAN: Vice President Mike Pence will be on the show in a little bit. He, this morning, is talking about the economic recovery under the Obama administration and creating new jobs in the Trump administration, and comparing the two records, which I'm sure you could do ad nauseam, and to an extent would love to do.

But, again, the question is, if you were a voter last night watching that 24-minute speech, which was deeply moving at points, what could you point to in the speech and say, this is going to help me get my job back, or this is going to help me make more on my next paycheck?

PRITZKER: But this is my point, Joe Biden that as a plan, a plan to invest in us as individuals, to make sure that we have the skills to deal with the fact that we're becoming a much more digital economy. He has a plan to invest in manufacturing, so that vital goods and services are produced here in the United States. He has a plan to invest in the most critical R&D so that we stay as a leading nation, which is critical to our competitiveness. And he has a plan to invest in clean energy. Clean energy creates extraordinary jobs.

Joe Biden will be a good jobs president. He will bring stability to our system. He will bring certainty. I know as a businessperson that I'm willing to invest and hire if I have clarity, if I have certainty, if I have stability from the government. That's not what we have now.

BERMAN: I will say, one of the things you hear from anybody in all walks of life right now is the incredible lack of certainty that exists in daily life. Secretary Penny Pritzker, thanks for being with us this morning. I appreciate it.

PRITZKER: Thank you so much for having me.

BERMAN: As we said, coming up, next hour, we'll speak with Vice President Mike Pence, about the state of the country in terms of the battle against coronavirus and also what we can expect to see at the Republican National Convention.

Another state has crossed 10,000 deaths with coronavirus and we're just learning the vast number of Americans who may have been infected. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

CAMEROTA: New overnight, Florida just hit 10,000 total deaths from coronavirus. It's become the fifth state to reach that grim milestone. Another 1,000 deaths reported in the United States yesterday. But the CDC director expects those numbers to begin falling next week, he says.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, I like Dr. Redfield's optimism about this. I mean, he really believes that next week, we're going to see the death toll, that daily death toll that has been so stubborn at 1,000 or more, is going to really begin to drop. So how does he know that? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I think there has been this pretty consistent pattern that we've seen, with looking at the number of people who have been infected, sort of following that trend line.

And we have seen the overall number of cases, newly infected people start to drop. We know that it was getting up into the 60,000, 70,000 range, now in the close to 40,000 range. And it's still, you know, incredibly high, right? It's still higher than the peaks in April. But it is dropping.

So the question is, if that's the case, then we should see a corresponding decrease in hospitalizations, which we're seeing. As Dr. McCarty mentioned last hour in Florida and other places around the country and a corresponding drop in the overall number of people who are dying.

The question is, and I think it's a very worthwhile question to sort of ask is, A, can we believe the numbers that we're seeing in terms of overall drops, because we do know that testing has dropped in the country, as well. How much of this is because of less testing?

Also, look, one of the big things happening right now, as you guys well know, schools are opening back up. So we know the numbers will start to go back up as a result of that reopening. How much will they go up and how much will that affect the hospitalization and death rates in the future? So is it a roller coaster or is this going to stay coming down?

BERMAN: Yes, we've seen them go down before. We've seen them go down before.

END