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Cuomo Prime Time

Trump, Who Floats Rigged Election Theories, Now Encouraging Americans To Try To Vote Twice; Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson & Family Test Positive For COVID-19; Former Melania Trump Confidante Releases Tell-All Book. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired September 02, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: So, yes, it is fair to criticize the House Speaker, who should have known better. But it's fair to criticize anyone who breaks the restrictions, guidelines and just plain common sense we all should live by.

The news continues. So, I hand it over to Chris for CUOMO PRIME TIME.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, CUOMO PRIME TIME: Maybe she was listening to the President who said masks are weakness, who's always encouraging people to take off masks, who held his big speech about how to control the pandemic, in front of a crowd that was largely without masks. Maybe Pelosi is falling under the influence.

J.B., good to see you, you handsome man!

I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to PRIME TIME.

We can all agree on this, every one of us. Nothing that we are dealing with in America today is normal.

A pandemic that some refuse to accept is real, fed by fraud, courtesy of the President. Abnormal!

A racial crisis that this President won't even say out loud. Abnormal! His saying the real problem is the desperate and sometimes violent reaction to his ignoring the real problem, it's called systemic inequality.

You can have systemic inequality, which we do, and not have all Americans be racist. The only reason to say "They want you to think all Americans are racist" is because he doesn't want you to focus on the real problem. So, he gives you something absurd. Abnormal!

So why? The reason Trump takes these abnormal positions is because he is selling you abnormality.

Trump is an incumbent who says, "Look around, everything has gone to hell in a hand basket since I became President, and only I can fix it." Think about it. He literally is selling you the proposition that you need to re-elect him to fix what went wrong on his watch. He talks about the economy as if the pandemic never happened. The

numbers after the pandemic don't matter? That's not the state of our economy right now?

And if you don't re-elect him, the things that have gotten bad on his watch will get worse. Doesn't simple logic, 62 days out from an election, dictate that the guy who helped make things bad would probably make it worse if given a second chance?

Now, remember, here is the key. How do you sell abnormal? You need to be abnormal. Forget about presidential. Instead of presidential, Trump is pathological. He lies and uses power and pawns to divide. He is the picture that should be next to a demagogue in the dictionary. He literally wants to make you hate.

"Prove it." OK.

How are you supposed to feel about media that doesn't praise him, like me, for example? "Hate them! Hate them!"

What about protesters who show up at the rallies? "Beat them up! Hate them!"

Well Black and Brown folks? "Prone to violence, look what they're doing on the streets, sneaking into the country with their drugs, got to put them in cages. Highly suspicious!"

We have never heard an American president paint their own tenure as a series of ominous occasions.

And now, this President who's been carping constantly, literally months, about voter fraud, without basis, floating Doomsday scenarios without basis, "The election's going to be rigged if you vote by mail," what's his answer?

Literally, he says the answer to secure a safe election is for Americans to try to vote twice. I kid you not. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They're going to have to go and check their vote by going to the poll and voting that way, because if it tabulates then they won't be able to do that. So, let them send it in, and let them go vote. And if their system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won't be able to vote.

The absentees are fine. We have to work to get them, you know, it means something. And you send them in, but you go to vote. And if they haven't counted it, you can vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What is this, SNL? Is that Mel Brooks? Is this a movie? What system is he talking about?

[21:05:00] So vote absentee, then go to the polls to try to vote again. What do you think? All the absentee ballots are there, and they look, "Hold on a second, before you, what's your name? Chris Cuomo? OK. Address? Everything. Well let me see if there's an absentee ballot."

There is no such system! There is no such system!

This man is President of the United States. How can you be this obtuse? He says vote twice. You know what that's also known as? Fraud, something he's been accused of many times and had to settle in court.

So the "I'm the only one who can fix what I broke" President wants to now put a fix on the election? And what do those around him do? You can't be a demagogue all alone. You got to have your pawns.

His Attorney General happened to be on CNN, not long after that, and refused to verbally connect the dots. Look at this struggle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: It seems to me what he's saying is, he's trying to make the point that the ability to monitor this system is not good, and if it was so good, if you tried to vote a second time, you would be caught, if you voted in person.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER: That would be illegal.

BARR: I don't know what the law in the particular State says.

BLITZER: You can't vote twice.

BARR: Well I don't know what the law in the particular State says.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: It's a federal law. Would you like me to read it to you? La-la- la! I happen to have it. You can look it up. You're not allowed to vote twice. Like you need me to tell you that!

Can you believe the Attorney General of the United States is playing dumb about something like that and why? Just to help his boy. Because he's a Trump-et, he's a pawn. But I'll tell you something. He's even better than Trump.

That guy, sat in his confirmation hearing, I covered it, and said "I'm perfect for this, you know why? I don't need this job. I'm at a point in my life where I don't have to play favorites around. I just want to do the job, man."

And it worked. Even though he has never done anything other than what he just did there, cover the ass of a President, no matter how flagrant, no matter how abusive of law he had to be to do it.

He doesn't know it's illegal to vote twice! Bill Barr knows exactly what Trump is saying, and what he's trying to do. And the President said it in a State that's going to mail ballots to voters in just two days. Coincidence?

Barr argues, "Voting by mail is reckless and dangerous." Proof? None!

What about the dangers of voting in person in a pandemic? The definition of reckless in the law is perception of risk and then going on and doing that thing anyway.

In places, it will be risky to vote in person. So, your State should have an option for you to do it another way. What's wrong with that?

Our mail can't handle it? Well maybe if they stop sabotaging the mail service. That would help. But have you ever gotten a bill late? Post Office deals with millions and billions and billions of pieces of mail. We should trust them.

But you start messing with how they do it, boy wasn't that weird that Trump and Trump's guy, who's got no business, it's like the DeVos of the Post Service, all the sudden things start getting screwed with? Machinery left outside? Inefficiencies? Veterans and others complaining?

So, what's the new play of abnormal? Here is the new play, OK? "The vaccine, going to have a miracle cure for you, baby, right before the election. Vaccine's going to be ready. We're done."

First of all, I wish that were true. We're going to talk about the politics of it and the medicine of it.

But a vaccine is not a cure, OK? There are a lot of boxes we got to check. We definitely need one. It definitely will be so much more helpful than the situation we're in right now.

But just remember, COVID is real, and it's not going away. And we're not a magic stroke away from making it going.

Hey, the latest, go back to what you just wanted me to talk about. Did you hear about who just contracted COVID? The whole family? You know who it is?

One of my favorites, just a guy that's been so good to me, and just so good to all of us, Actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, says he and his family have just tested positive for COVID-19.

Here's from him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[21:10:00]

DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON, ACTOR: My wife Lauren, as well as my two baby girls, and myself, we have all tested positive for COVID-19. And I could tell you that this has been one of the most challenging and difficult things we have ever had to endure as a family.

But testing positive for COVID-19 is much different than overcoming nasty injuries or being evicted or even being broke, which I have been more than a few times. And the reason why I feel like this is different is because my number one priority is to always protect my family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I totally get where he's coming from, and I feel for him. And just think about it. Somebody who lives in the rarefied air, as "The Rock," right, I mean his success, he's worked his ass off, he certainly deserves all of it, and all that is to come.

He's got those little babies at home. I know he has an older kid too, wife. Terrible! Too many American families are going through exactly what our Stars do. We're all in this together.

And now, the latest sell is, "Hey, I know the pandemic may have not been perfect in our response. But now, we're going to have a vaccine before the election."

What are the science issues with that? And what are the political issues with that? Sanjay Gupta, Dana Bash join us now.

Dana, Sanjay, thank you. Great to see you.

The first question, Dana, is the obvious one. The timing is not a coincidence.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. The President has been talking a lot about miracle cures, about a vaccine, which technically is a miracle cure, and about the whole notion of getting it done quickly.

And Sanjay has been talking, obviously extensively, as have you, all of us, about the big question, whether or not the President's desire to get it done quickly, to get it done before the election, is flying in the face of the science that may or may not allow that to happen in a safe way.

And then, there's the open question of whether or not because of all of this doubt being sewn by the President, by the Administration, in the science, previous to this, whether or not it means that once there is a safe vaccine, people are actually going to take it. And that could prolong the effects of this pandemic beyond anyway we could all imagine.

So, this is something that the President is hoping for. As you said, all of us are hoping for it. But the big concern is that that hope turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy that doesn't comport with science, or it does comport with science, and people don't believe it.

CUOMO: Now, I actually think that the concern here, while Dana you're right, is a combination of the political and the medical. I actually think it's more political because of how the medical plays in.

And Sanjay, what I mean by that is, you and I both have - I'm sure your sources are always better on these things, but we've got a good insight into Operation Warp Speed. And they say it is the all-star team of the people they have working

on this vaccine, and that's good. And putting the money early, the way the Administration did, they say that was smart because they feel good about the Moderna vaccine.

However, I am hearing, they're not so spooked about it coming out a little sooner. They feel good about the testing. They feel it is a false promise of a prophylaxis because they won't have anywhere near enough doses that they would need for the vaccine to make a difference, if it's released early.

What is your take?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that's absolutely true.

I mean, in fact, they can sort of predict how many doses might be available. And there's a couple of - couple of manufacturers that are sort of coming to the top of the list. Moderna, as you mentioned, Pfizer is another one.

But even with the both of them, let's say they both somehow get approved, and that's a big "If," I would say it's almost impossible that either one of them that, frankly, gets approved by that time frame, but just leaving that aside for a second, even then you're probably talking about a couple million, maybe 3 million total doses, and they say that would be for healthcare workers, people who are considered high-risk individuals.

People keep thinking of this, I think this is your point that it's going to be like a switch goes off. "Vaccine approved! Life goes back to normal." It's not. It's going to take a long time to get people vaccinated. And even then, for that period of time, people are going to have to still be careful--

CUOMO: Right.

GUPTA: --and exhibit good public health practices.

Chris, with the vaccine, the bar's got to be higher. You can give an Emergency Use Authorization for a medication for someone who's really sick in a hospital. That bar is lower. This is for healthy people, right? You've got to get this right, absolutely, or as Dana said, you're going to - you're going to really erode that trust.

CUOMO: One more question, quick, for each of you.

[21:15:00]

Dana, the sell on "Everything has gone to hell in a hand basket since I became President, so you need me to fix it," why are they confident that for the first time, I think, certainly in my lifetime, you've been here much less time, we've never heard an incumbent--

BASH: Little bit.

CUOMO: --we've never heard an incumbent president say, "Things suck. Elect me again."

BASH: Because he is absolutely convinced that he is still perceived as an outsider, and as a disrupter, and not as the President of the United States, except for the fact that he is the President of the United States. And so, those two things are colliding in a very, very big way.

Look, there are still a lot of people who really support him, who still see him as an outsider, even though he is inside the White House.

But it's really unclear how much that is going to sell to people, who are desperate for leadership, who are like the three of us probably, parents, who have children, who are not going back to school, who are home, and other people who are in different circumstances, who have to decide whether or not they're going to stay home with their kid--

CUOMO: Yes.

BASH: --or go back to work and all the financial repercussions from that.

CUOMO: It must--

BASH: That is very real. And that is going to be the deciding factor whether or not they perceive this President as the outsider, just - the disrupter or the guy who is culpable.

CUOMO: All right, I got to go.

GUPTA: Rise and shine (ph).

CUOMO: But Sanjay, I got to come back to you soon about piecing together what doesn't make sense about what the President and his doctors are saying. I'm not saying anything's wrong with the guy.

I'm just saying patients don't ask for acuity tests. They're offered by clinicians. And the timing they have here about what they say and when doesn't make sense. But we'll take it up another night. I got to jump.

Sanjay, I love you.

GUPTA: OK.

CUOMO: Dana, thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it.

CUOMO: For making the audience smarter, better.

GUPTA: Love you.

CUOMO: Appreciate it.

All right, another Trump tell-all is out. But this one isn't about "The Donald." It's about "The Melania." Melania Trump, an ex-friend, why an ex? We'll tell you. A former aide is doing the talking. We'll tell you why.

But more importantly, here's what I want to know, because I'm not big on these kinds of things, in general. Melania is often seen as being there despite how Donald Trump behaves and his policies.

Do people who believe that have it wrong? That's the interesting part of the conversation we're about to have. Get some interesting answers, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[21:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Former White House Adviser is out with a new tell-all book. But it's not about the President. It's much more interesting in that regard. It's about the first lady, Melania Trump.

The ex-aide and friend is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. She served as a Senior Adviser to the first lady, in the early months of the Administration. They also had a friendship, went south. Why? It's complicated, but after reports revealed $26 million went to her firm for producing Inaugural events.

Her new book is "Melania and Me" details the crumbling relationship but also offers an interesting window into where the first lady is coming from, OK? So, like this moment, do you remember the infamous "I don't care do you?" jacket? I spent way too much time on television, trying to figure this out. What was this about?

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff joins me now. Stephanie, thank you for joining me, appreciate it.

STEPHANIE WINSTON WOLKOFF, AUTHOR, "MELANIA AND ME": Thank you for having me.

CUOMO: We are in adjoining cells here. But I appreciate you taking the risk and coming on into the studio. Thank you.

WOLKOFF: Thank you for having me.

CUOMO: So, let's just start off with different points of perspective.

WOLKOFF: Absolutely.

CUOMO: The macro point, many believe that Melania is basically defiant when it comes to what Donald Trump says and does. But you say that many have it wrong that there's actually a much higher degree of compliance than defiance. Do I have that right?

WOLKOFF: Absolutely, you do. And it took me a very long time to figure that out.

And I put myself in a position without understanding policy, and got caught up in trying to make a difference for children. I was just focused on one issue. And the chaos around me was just insane, and she went along with all of it.

CUOMO: So, but like the "BE BEST" thing, everybody was like, "Oh, man, this poor lady! BE BEST is such a great thing, online cyber bullying, such a big deal for all us parents, and she can't be effective with him out there being a cyber-bully."

You're saying, "No, that's not what made it go away."

WOLKOFF: No. I have to tell you, the BE BEST initiative, that wasn't supposed to be what the name was. But we worked on that initiative for over a year and a half, and we put together an incredible group of therapists, experts, leaders in the field of social-emotional learning.

And it was destroyed the moment that I was severed from the White House. And it's unfortunate, because we really were about to make a platform and a difference without any budgets, without any help from - internally from the West Wing.

She was about to launch, and it would have been incredible. But unfortunately, BE BEST is BE BEST and it's really its own - its own little platform that isn't unfortunately doing more than it should be.

CUOMO: Why though? Why doesn't she force it through? They say she's got all this juice--

WOLKOFF: You know what?

CUOMO: --in House.

WOLKOFF: Melania does not have the juice in the House.

She has the juice in the home, and she actually is very powerful in speaking to Donald in a way that nobody else can. She tells him how she feels. She's able to communicate what her thoughts are.

[21:25:00]

But when it comes to working, I think the biggest thing that people need to realize, is that when Donald married Melania, she didn't go into this marriage, not understanding what he wanted and what she wanted, right? So, it was definitely a transactional marriage. He got arm candy. She got to be first lady two decades later. So, we have to be really honest about what they're both getting out of

this. And Vogue cover really legitimized her and legitimized him for having a Vogue cover model walking on his arm.

CUOMO: Well she wouldn't be the first person to trade-up in lifestyle through marriage. But you think she had political aspirations also?

WOLKOFF: I don't think she had any political aspirations, no, I'm not saying that.

CUOMO: OK.

WOLKOFF: At all.

CUOMO: It was just a come up?

WOLKOFF: Oh, no, she was just going along for the ride, maybe like the escalator ride down from in Trump Tower. It was the same thing. She's on his arm.

She knew what she signed up for, and she was happy not to be the person in the spotlight, even though the spotlight does shine on her, not as bright as it shined on me, because I was her friend. But she was there.

CUOMO: So, the idea of, well, she doesn't believe what he believes. That takes us back to the jacket, which a lot of people in the media consumed as, "Ooh! She's saying kind of, "Bug off, Donald!" I just I don't care about what this guy is doing," that it was a separation device for her.

What was the reality?

WOLKOFF: The reality was she just wanted the media to focus on the fact that she was going to the border. And it's plain and simple. Unfortunately, her communications office wasn't communicating with the West Wing, and their messaging was it's just a jacket. It was clearly not just a jacket.

It really, when I spoke with her about it, I said, "Simply, did you really mean maybe that you were going to the border and you didn't care what the conservatives thought, you didn't care what the liberals thought? You just thought it was a right thing to do in this humanitarian crisis? Are you doing the right thing for these children?"

I was hoping the answer would be "Yes." Unfortunately, I think the jacket speaks for itself, BE BEST speaks for itself, and it's really unfortunate.

CUOMO: And how about the policies at the border?

Again, there was this perception that she didn't like what was happening with the kids. She didn't like the harsh attitude of the President towards immigrants because she is one, and he is trying to cancel the policy that allowed her to bring her family into the country, so she was probably against it.

WOLKOFF: She really thought that the children, they were being treated, in her own words, with better facilities and being taken care of. I mean, it says it in the book, how - what she said.

And I really, it's very difficult to actually even repeat, Chris, because it is so divisive and so hypocritical to everything that she's supposed to stand for. And that is why I had to - partly had to write the book.

CUOMO: Well what did she say? Don't contextualize it. Let me hear it.

WOLKOFF: Oh, OK, sorry.

CUOMO: What did she say?

WOLKOFF: No. She basically said that the children, they have a chest of drawers, they have a bed to sleep on. She believes that children were told to say that they have been brought in by coyotes and it's - it's sad. It is. It's very unfortunate.

CUOMO: So, she was in line with how Trump was selling that it was good to put them in cages and that these people had to be treated harshly?

WOLKOFF: Well she didn't say harshly. And her - and, from her point of view, she truly believed - she walked around with the Patrol, and she heard from them, and this is what she repeated to me. It was shocking.

CUOMO: And what about the idea of taking away the mechanism that she used to bring her family in here?

WOLKOFF: The Trumps do what the Trumps want to do. They don't follow the rules. They never have. And I think that it's really important for our country to realize who these people are. And what they do and what they think is not in your best interest, our best interest.

And so, when I listen to his speeches, his - the last RNC, it's so Trump. And it's unfortunate that his base, he speaks to his base, his base doesn't care really what anybody else thinks. And I think people need to start educating themselves, because we're in trouble.

CUOMO: And what about some of the more volatile topics that he takes on, whether it's protecting Confederate monuments or blaming the people who are desperate in the streets about underlying systemic racism? I mean, does she invest any thought in any of that stuff? Or does she - is she lockstep with him on that?

WOLKOFF: Well, I have to say, when Charlottesville happened, I remember being up in the country, and I called Melania, and I thought this would be a perfect moment for her to actually address the situation.

CUOMO: Good.

WOLKOFF: And Melania will not step out of line. Honestly, she - again, I couldn't believe that - again, in that moment

of crisis, to just come out, be the first lady that everyone needs in this moment, like she was actually the other night, but you can't believe anything that's being said because you know what's going on behind the velvet rope.

[21:30:00]

But she wouldn't say anything. And it - and it actually that was a moment in time where I took a go.

CUOMO: Well why wouldn't she say anything? Was it because they said to her "You can't," but she actually felt that it was wrong for him to say, "Good people on both sides," or did she not have the conviction?

WOLKOFF: I think it's both, truthfully. And I never got an answer.

And one thing about Melania is that she will tell you when she wants to tell you something. There are times where she just does not answer. And it's blackout. And she never returns back to that subject. And this was one of those times.

CUOMO: How about the birtherism? Because, look, I've always been very shy on this stuff, two reasons.

One, she is not a political old hand, right? She's very new to this. And I don't really go after the family, really, unless the first lady, or someday, first gentleman, I guess, inserts themselves into our policy discussions, I believe in a little bit of a hands-off attitude.

And so, on the birtherism thing, I've always kind of not believed what I heard. But is that the kind of thing that she could actually embrace?

WOLKOFF: It is. I mean Melania believes that people should show their birth certificates, just like she believes that through immigration you should be showing the, you know the, as she says, the proper paperwork, and same thing with sexual allegations.

Melania feels that show the evidence. And those are her beliefs. She strongly believes that. And she is right - stepping right with him at the same time.

CUOMO: So, if she didn't believe anything without proof, what was the whole hand-slapping thing about during the payoff scandal?

WOLKOFF: So, the story there, whether it's true or not, is when she did that the first time, she told me that when they went to the back of the - when they met in the back with the rest of the team, they were looking at Twitter, and they realized what had happened, and she and Donald pretended as if - or felt as if they didn't do anything. "What did we do?"

Listen, she is very hands-off. She's always said that. She's always had a very European flair. But - and she doesn't like to get cozy and comfortable. CUOMO: What do you mean, like with her husband?

WOLKOFF: With her husband.

CUOMO: Like holding hands and stuff like that?

WOLKOFF: No, they're not the holding-hand type at all. But they do - but again, they do have their type of marriage, their type of - their type of love, and they do get along.

CUOMO: All right. I mean, look, again, I don't really care about the marriage, to be honest.

To me, it's more about the policy agreement, because she gets a lot of latitude, where people believe that she must be defiant, in House, about these policies. "Don't involve me in this. I don't agree with any of this stuff. This is about you."

But in the book, you paint her as much more compliant. And is that how you feel, that when it comes to most of the things that comes out of his - that come out of his mouth, she believes it too?

WOLKOFF: She does believe it. I mean, how could you say - stay with someone and feel the conviction that you do, and not stand up for what is right? And that's what I had to do. As difficult as this is, Chris, I had to stand up for the truth. And the truth sometimes is not what everyone wants to hear.

CUOMO: The other thing that grabbed me - and I'll tell you one thing about this book, when - I don't read a lot of this. But you get started, reading this book, and then you keep reading this book, you laid it out in a very interesting way, where it's kind of like crumbs along the way. It's a good design the way--

WOLKOFF: Thank you.

CUOMO: --the way you structured the narrative, let's say.

The Melania/Ivanka feud, I mean, come on, I mean that's as old as time. The daughter has a problem with the new wife, fine. But is it true that they have a plan about after Trump, there will be another Trump-president?

WOLKOFF: You heard him himself the other evening. He literally--

CUOMO: Yes, but when he says it--

WOLKOFF: Oh, no, yes, no, who knows?

CUOMO: --who knows, you know?

WOLKOFF: No, no, no. They are grooming Ivanka. That's the truth. She definitely sees herself in that position, and feels very comfortable there, just like she did when she first stepped into the White House.

CUOMO: And that's not just like what we tell our kids, "Hey, some day you could be this too?"

WOLKOFF: Oh, I grew up hearing that. And it was the greatest thing. It's a little difficult because you know you're never going to actually - well some - most people don't.

But she - they are trained with such precision, and they never show. They have a game face on at all times. You never know what they're thinking, ever. And that's the scariest part.

CUOMO: So, one of the things that you always have to deal with in a book like this, "Yes, but you were friends and you were close. And maybe it's sour grapes." What is your biggest regret?

WOLKOFF: My biggest regret, I say now that I think my loyalty is my Achilles' heel. I saw a friend in who had nobody else to help her in a position that was going to represent the United States of America.

I actually was honored to produce the Inauguration. I thought it would be in everyone's best interest for the United States to be represented well.

[21:35:00]

And then to go into the East Wing, well there was nobody else to do that. So, I didn't go in with my eyes wide open, Chris, and I also didn't know enough about policy, and I didn't know enough about the type of people that they are.

I had my relationship with Melania. Had I had more of a view into - glimpse into who Donald was, I didn't spend time with him, I would have definitely done what my friends had told me to do, which was run.

CUOMO: Well I'll tell you, the combination of not knowing as much about policy, not knowing what you were getting into, and not really understanding what they're about made you a perfect fit for this Administration, based on what we've been seeing on a regular basis.

But now, here you are. You got the bravery to write about it. There's going to be a lot of heat that comes, so I hope you're ready.

WOLKOFF: Thank you.

CUOMO: "Melania and Me" is on sale now, Author Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

WOLKOFF: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you for joining me tonight.

WOLKOFF: Thank you so much.

CUOMO: Good luck going forward.

WOLKOFF: Thank you.

CUOMO: Appreciate it. WOLKOFF: Appreciate it.

CUOMO: All right, so Melania's husband keeps pushing this two-pronged pitch to Black voters. Now, to me, this is the most important part of the show tonight, OK, because our biggest value to you is taking you inside what you're being told, all right?

Why should Black voters not look at Biden as closely as they would Democrats-past? Because one, Trump has done more for them than anybody else ever, look at the economy, and two, unprecedented criminal justice reform, the First Step Act.

Are those accurate statements? We have them completely vetted, next.

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CUOMO: All right, so we got 62 days, we really have to start looking forensically at what is being promised to you. And whether or not you should feel confident in that promise, all right?

Now, starting premise, Black vote, critical to Democrats, always, period, especially to Joe Biden, and recent polling shows that he's not doing as well with Blacks as Hillary Clinton did four years ago.

Trump is hoping to capitalize on this. That's why you hear two things over and over from this President. I know - I don't know if there's so much design to have Blacks vote for him as to not vote at all or for Biden.

So, first one, "I've been the best to the Blacks. Look at the unemployment, look at the economy I gave you." OK, that's only if you pretend the last six months didn't happen.

An incumbent doesn't get a pass for what happens on their watch. If good things happen, they get benefit, whether or not it happened because of them or despite of them, the same with the negative.

Now, in February, Black unemployment was at 5.8 percent. It's good. But, by May, those numbers tripled, and once again, you saw a yawning disparity with Whites. So instead, this President leans into one of his few actual legislative "Accomplishments." Why am I putting it in quotes, to be unfair? No, because it's a qualified thing. Criminal justice reform, the First Step Act, OK? His supporters love to point out that Trump did this for the Blacks and Obama never got it done. Listen.

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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): People are going to get out of jail and they're far less likely to go back.

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CUOMO: He even got Cory Booker nodding his head there. Is that true? Maybe it was on paper. But the reality is turning out to be the opposite of what Lindsey Graham told you and sold to Booker.

The Trump Administration is trying to keep more people in jail, and put more back behind bars. "But wait a minute. It's called the First Step. It's supposed to," I know.

But the First Step Act was just what its name implies, one step forward. But since then, in the courts, and administratively, the Trump Administration has taken three steps backwards.

The DoJ is once again doing his dirty work in the courts in the quiet. They're trying to look back, and they're trying to lock up people again, who were released under the First Step law.

They are in court, trying to make it harder, to let people out, who meet the law's credentials. Remember, the whole point of the law was to deal with the inequalities that were built into the system, when it comes to non-violent drug sentences.

Of course, Trump and Bill "No holds" Barr love to say stuff like this.

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BARR: To me, the word systemic means that it's built into the institution, and I don't think that's true.

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CUOMO: Really? His own lawyers are trying to rewrite the system, so people get judged.

Ready now? Follow this, and tell me if you don't - I'll deal with it online. He wants people judged by the amount of drugs they were sentenced for. But rather - let me say it again.

When you go to court, let's say they find you with a pound of drugs, OK, and then you negotiate, and they sentence you on a lesser amount, all right? That's like one of the only kind of forgiving concepts that there is in our criminal justice system.

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Now, what are they trying to do now? They want them sentenced for the maximum amount ever mentioned in court documents. So, when it comes to the bipartisan bill, they say, "Oh yes, this guy was sentenced on this amount."

The lawyers find out, "Yes, but there was more, so sentence them on that." That's going to put them back in jail and maybe for more time. It called for a, quote, non-partisan and non-profit organization to oversee how this Act is implemented.

So, the Trump Administration brought in a group, run by Bush-era drug czar, a group which has actually spent years fighting against the very criminal justice reform that Trump now wants credit for. And you're surprised they're trying to undo it?

Look, it's not what it was sold to be. Do the research, if you don't want to believe. I always encourage that anyway. It's not a first step alone. It's one step up and two steps back at a minimum.

If Trump wants to win over Black voters, he may want to stop denying systemic racism exists in America, because let me tell you, the First Step Act was designed to deal with one part of what is assuredly systemic inequality. They get sentenced in a way that Whites with drugs don't.

Now, tomorrow, Biden is heading to Kenosha. He's going to be meeting with the family of Jacob Blake. This is a very important moment for us to contrast.

What does he do that Trump did not do? Does he do things not as well or better than Trump? Very important, because that situation is by definition what being President is all about.

Let's hear directly from Blake's father and, of course, family attorney, Benjamin Crump, on what the visit means, and what needs to happen, and what didn't happen with the President, next.

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CUOMO: When it comes to the Jacob Blake case in Kenosha, the U.S. Attorney General today stated two things as fact that simply have not been proven.

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CUOMO: The facts. Jacob Blake has not been charged with anything related to the day he was shot, much less convicted. And Wisconsin's own state investigators only said there was a knife in his SUV, not that he was holding it at any point.

Jacob Blake Sr. and the family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, join me now.

Welcome to PRIME TIME.

JACOB BLAKE SR., FATHER OF JACOB BLAKE: Thank you, Chris. Thank you for inviting us.

CUOMO: Well thank you for taking the opportunity. Counselor, as always, it's a pleasure.

May I ask how is your son doing? What is the latest that you want people to know?

BLAKE SR.: He's holding on, and still heavily sedated, just holding on.

CUOMO: And sedated because that's helping in his recovery, or is this about pain?

BLAKE SR.: It's the pain. After taking seven shots to his back, damage, well obliteration of a couple of his vertebras, he's in quite a bit of pain.

CUOMO: I'm always very reluctant to keep people in your situation on TV too long, so let me just get to the point. What did you not see with the President that you want to see with former VP Biden?

BLAKE SR.: Not to politically answer either one of those questions, but we're above reform and de-escalation. And I'll let my lawyer - I'll let Ben answer the rest of that.

CUOMO: Counselor?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR BLAKE FAMILY, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: (OFF-MIKE).

CUOMO: I can't hear Ben. I'll ask you none - Ben, I can't hear you.

CRUMP: OK. What we will do, Chris, and what we hope as Vice President Biden--

CUOMO: Oh good, now I hear you. Go ahead, Ben.

CRUMP: OK. What we will do, Chris, is hopefully have Vice President Biden demonstrate leadership. Because as America deals with COVID-19 pandemic, we in Black America

are dealing with the COVID-16-19 pandemic of racism and discrimination that has literally, Chris Cuomo, every other week a new hashtag, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake. Now, in Los Angeles, we have Dijon Kizzee.

We need to have the George Floyd Justice in Policing Accountability Act passed. We need leadership to stop these hashtags.

CUOMO: Mr. Blake, just so you know, this has been happening in such intense ways, for so many years that Counselor Crump and I have developed quite the relationship. And there is a tragedy in that. He's a great man and a powerful advocate. But so many different families, we've had similar discussions.

And now, it's your family and your son. You're not a politician. I don't want to make you one. But what do you say to people, who say, "This situation is pretty easy, Mr. Blake. If your son had done what the cops said, he would have been fine. But he didn't."

BLAKE SR.: Well--

CUOMO: "And that one decision makes all the difference." What do you say to them?

BLAKE SR.: Well I say that's an unfair system.

You have Tamir Rice, a little boy playing with a fake pistol in a park. He was shot before the police car stopped moving. Killed!

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Then you have a White gentleman, 17-years-old, killed two people, and blew another man's arm off, they gave him water and a high-five. And then he made it all the way back to Illinois, not around the block, he made it all the way back to Illinois untouched. He's still alive.

So, the two systems of justice and the one system that we're in doesn't work too well. But the justice in the other - in the other lane works for them.

CUOMO: Quick question. The family did not meet with the President. Is Mr. Biden invited to any kind of meeting with the family?

BLAKE SR.: If the President--

CRUMP: Yes.

BLAKE SR.: --the President didn't want to contact because my lawyer couldn't be there so.

CUOMO: Understood.

Mr. Blake, all I care about is that your son gets better, and that your family--

BLAKE SR.: That's all I care about, Chris.

CUOMO: --and that your family is whole, and that this experience brings you closer together, and that lives are not taken in bad directions because of it. I wish you well. I'm here for the story to be reported, and told, and I respect very much what you're going through, as a father, and I wish your family well.

BLAKE SR.: And I respect you and your brother. And had some people paid attention to how your brother handled it, maybe this situation would be different with the pandemic.

CUOMO: Well, thank you for the kind word. I appreciate it.

Counselor Crump, I'm always a phone call away. Thank you for taking the opportunity tonight.

CRUMP: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, God bless you both. We'll be right back.

BLAKE SR.: Thank you.

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