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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Will Trump Rush Coronavirus Vaccine Ahead of Election?; Dow Plunges. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired September 03, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Pamela Brown, in today for Jake Tapper.

And we begin with breaking news in our money lead, stocks plunging, the Dow Jones industrial average falling -- take a look right here -- about 800 points, after a streak of record-setting days over the past several weeks.

I'm going to go straight to CNN's Alison Kosik.

Alison, what's behind this?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, we saw investors make a mad dash for the exits today, because they wanted to take some profits off the table after a record run for stocks over the past several weeks, despite the pandemic.

So, this big U-turn for stocks actually happening as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq yesterday hit fresh record highs. It's like investors woke up this morning and realized stocks were overpriced.

There's also uncertainty coming back into the fold, uncertainty about the economic recovery, specifically about the labor market. There's concern that the bit of recovery that we have seen in the labor market could be stalling out. We're going to get a better picture of it tomorrow, when we get the August jobs report.

There's also concern that Congress may not come to an agreement on a relief bill that so many struggling Americans need right now to help them pay their bills.

So, with the uncertainty buzzing in the background, we saw investors take some profits off the table today. And despite these losses, Pamela, the S&P 500 is still up 6 percent for the year. The Nasdaq is up 25 percent for the year -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, thanks so much, Alison. Appreciate it.

And turning now to our health lead, Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning Americans today there has been a rise in COVID cases among young adults in certain states, and it's more important than ever to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: We don't want to see a repeat of the surges that we have seen following of the holiday weekends. That doesn't mean you have to lock yourself in a room and not enjoy what hopefully will be a nice weekend for people, but there are certain fundamental things that you can do and still enjoy yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And now one company is developing a vaccine, and it's saying that a safe option may be right around the corner, as CNN's Nick Watt reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pfizer now teasing it might know if its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective as early as the end of next month, with the promise, no corners will be cut.

FAUCI: That's unlikely, not impossible. I think most of the people feel it's going to be November, December.

WATT: The CDC now telling state officials to prep to distribute a vaccine also as soon as the end of next month.

DR. ALI KHAN, FORMER CDC OFFICIAL: Just picking these dates before the election sort of stokes those fears that the government isn't being duly diligent.

WATT: A charge the White House denies.

PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: The goal of the administration is to get a vaccine out as quickly as it is safe and efficacious to do.

WATT: And on treating COVID-19, Dr. Fauci says more data is needed on that plasma treatment hyped by the president, and this:

THOMAS CUENI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURERS: There will not be the magic bullet to tackle and contain COVID-19. The industry is still all in. And we have come a long ways.

WATT: Here in the U.S., we have come a little way in controlling the virus. But, again, we're over 1,000 deaths a day the last couple of days. New case counts have fallen since mid-July, but now seem stuck at around 40,000 a day these past two weeks.

FAUCI: That's an unacceptably high baseline. We have got to get it down.

WATT: But it's going up.

In the Midwest, the White House Task Force now recommending Missouri close bars and mandate masks.

FAUCI: We have proven that you can actually control the outbreak. To me, that's good news.

WATT: Proven in California, bars were closed, masks mandated, case counts now falling.

In L.A. this morning, hairdressers allowed to welcome customers indoors once more.

KRISTIN BEST, OWNER, DYLAN KEITH SALON: We are going to work hard tails off and we are going to make it.

WATT: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson now on the public awareness train after he, his wife and two kids caught COVID from friends.

DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON, ACTOR: If you guys are having family and friends over to your house, you know, them, you trust them, they have been quarantining just like you guys, you still never know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: Now, that message for us all to behave over Labor Day weekend is aimed largely at the 18-to-24-year-olds after an explosion of cases on college campuses.

SUNY Oneonta has just canceled in-person learning for the rest of the semester. Hoping to avoid a similar fate, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is now, after 650 cases in a week, they are now basically asking all students to just stay in their rooms for the next couple of weeks -- Pam.

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BROWN: Really interesting to see just the different responses from the different universities. Thanks so much, Nick Watt.

And joining me now is CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

As always, great to see you, Sanjay.

I want to get straight to this news of the Pfizer CEO saying its clinical trial for a vaccine should have enough data to know if it works by the end of October, Dr. Fauci said, that's conceivable, it's not likely.

Help us understand why there's so many differing opinions on whether sufficient data will be ready by the end of October.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're talking about something that's never been done this quickly before.

I mean, the fastest that a vaccine has really gone from manufacture to approval has been four years. So think about that. We didn't even know about this disease at this time last year. So that'd be super, super fast.

I think the issue is, you're going to give a lot of people the vaccine, and you want to compare them to people who aren't receiving the vaccine and seeing if it helps prevent infection.

If you kind of think about it, Pamela, people who just received the vaccine, you're counting on another group of people who didn't receive vaccine to potentially be exposed to the virus, and then become infected.

And you would be able to say, hey, look, they got infected, they didn't, the vaccine works. But if you're part of a trial, are you wearing masks and things like that, you have to have enough people who have exposure, and that may just be hard to get that kind of data in the short time.

I think that's the issue. In an ironic way, you have got to count on people, a certain segment of the population, becoming infected, in order to prove that your vaccine actually works.

BROWN: Wow.

GUPTA: But I think, more to the point people say, hey, look, what does this mean for me, right?

For the average person watching, the idea that a vaccine could be available, even if it's by the end of the year, for the general public, it's -- we're still talking about next spring or summer. This isn't a switch goes off, and suddenly it's available for everybody.

It's going to be a few million doses initially available for health care workers, for high-risk individuals. So, I think that's why people think of this as sort of a Hail Mary. Everything's got to go right.

And in a crazy way, you have got a count on a lot of people becoming infected.

BROWN: I think that's really important in terms of setting expectations.

It's interesting, because, if you were to go back to when this pandemic was first declared back in March, it would be hard to believe that here we are, so many months later with -- averaging around 1,000 deaths a day still, Sanjay.

I mean, why is that? When do you see the death toll start going down? And how concerned are you about the Labor Day holiday weekend and the behavior of people contributing to the death toll?

GUPTA: Well, with regard to this plateau that we have seemed to reach, I have looked at so many different models.

And, as they say, Pamela models are all wrong, but some are useful. And if you look at them, they do sort of all say that, look, for the rest of this year, essentially, this number of -- sad number of 1,000 people dying a day, roughly, is going to -- is going to sustain for the rest of this year.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: But I'm confused by that because -- oh, go ahead.

GUPTA: Yes, you see these -- you obviously see these decreases in certain parts of the country.

But then you start to see increases in other parts of the country. You add on to that schools are reopening. And when you start to model that all out, with increased mobility, that's how they're sort of arriving at these numbers.

I mean, it's -- again, they're just models. But I think that that's what they're sort of seeing, is that one place starts to do really badly, and then they behave themselves for a while. But another place starts to flare up, like Nick Watt was just talking about in the Midwest.

BROWN: Yes, that's really important, because we have been hearing so much from administration officials that deaths are a lagging indicator.

And so we have been hearing that for so long. And so it makes you wonder, OK, you have been saying, when it's around 1,000, it's a lagging indicator. At what point is it going to start going down?

But, as you point out, it's sort of plateaued there, just because of the way that this virus is spreading across the nation.

And let's talk about some of these states and the way that they're behaving vs. other states. As Nick pointed out in his piece, California, once they enacted certain policies, once more people were wearing masks and social distancing, we saw that the number of cases went down, as he pointed out.

But then you have other states, for example, Iowa, where there has been an explosion of COVID, but they're not enacting the same policies. What's your reaction to that?

GUPTA: Well, I mean, these basic policies work.

I mean, in Iowa, in Ames, Iowa, which is considered the hottest spot in the country in terms of per capita COVID cases, they were thinking about having a football game with 25,000 people in the stands. They have subsequently decided not to do that, but that's kind of like saying, hey, look, there's a fire around me. I'm not going to pour gasoline on it. But I'm also not pouring water on it, because they're not closing down bars.

They're not doing mask mandates. Pamela, I was interviewing the head of the Northwell Health system in New York. They took care of more COVID patients over a few-month period than any other system in the country, 70,000 COVID patients.

Here's what really jumped out at me from Michael Dowling, who's the CEO there. He said their health care workers actually had a little lower rates of infection than the general population when it came to COVID.

[16:10:05]

Health care workers working in hospitals primarily treating COVID patients had a lower rate of infection than the general population. Why is that?

BROWN: Wow.

GUPTA: Well, that's because they wear masks.

The idea that masks work -- and we know this. We have been saying it for a long time. But here's another example. Places without mask mandates, they're still going to be doing this topsy-turvy roller- coaster ride.

Places with, they bring their numbers down very low, like in New York.

BROWN: I mean, that is absolutely striking, Sanjay. I feel like that's all you need to know. People, wear a mask if you want this virus -- if you want to get back to the life that we lead before the pandemic.

GUPTA: Right.

BROWN: This is also fascinating to me.

So, the Penn State director of athletic medicine recently revealed that 30 to 35 percent of Big Ten athletes who got COVID appear to have also gotten inflammation of the heart. What's going on there?

GUPTA: This is pretty frightening. And this is something that we have heard sort of glimpses of, seen glimpses of over the past several weeks.

We think -- and we can show an image of what's specifically happening in the heart here. This was sort of a screening test. There was some concern that these athletes were developing myocarditis, which is basically inflammation of the heart muscle.

Now, a lot of these people, at least initially, didn't seem to have much in the way of symptoms. And this was found incidentally. But as part of return to sports, many universities started doing cardiac MRI scans on these players.

And, as you point out, about a third, 35 percent, did have evidence of inflammation of the heart muscle.

Now, what exactly that means that, we think it's because of the inflammation that is widespread in the body due to COVID. But what does it mean for these players? It's -- first of all, it's not just athletes that are developing this. Other people are developing it as well. But an athletes who are working at such a high level of function, some

inflammation like that in the heart can reduce their ability to play or their ability to play at the same level.

So, that's what's causing concern. And that's why people like Kevin Warren, who's the Big Ten Commissioner, basically said, time-out, we're going to slow down the season, postpone the start of the season, until we figure this out, and make sure we can screen these players, determine if they have this inflammation of the heart, and figure out what to do about it.

BROWN: So, just to make sure I understand, is this something that's more prevalent, from what you can tell, among athletes?

GUPTA: I don't think so. No, I think it's just we're seeing this more in athletes because there's now programs where they're screening these college players as they're thinking about returning them to play.

I mean, a lot of these players, my understanding is from talking to some of the physicians who've been overseeing these studies, a lot of them were surprised to get those results. They didn't know it.

But with time, an elite athlete, if you have a 5 to 10 percent drop in overall function, that obviously can make a huge difference in terms of your ability to play at the same level.

BROWN: Right. That's really concerning.

All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, great conversation with important information. Thanks so much.

Breaking news: Joe Biden is in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he says he just got off the phone with Jacob Blake -- details up next.

Plus, the White House speaking out about the apparent poisoning of a key Vladimir Putin critic, but not answering one key question.

We will explain.

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BROWN: And we are back with breaking news in our 2020 lead. Joe Biden just finished a community meeting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where shooting of Jacob Blake sparked protests over racial injustice. Biden today met privately with the Blake family and even spoke with Jacob Blake on the phone.

Now, it's a visit that comes two months before election day in a critically important battleground state, and just two days after President Trump's own visit to Wisconsin, Biden this afternoon drew that contrast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The words of a president matter. No matter good, bad, or indifferent, they matter. No matter how competent or incompetent a president is, they can accepted a nation to war, they can bring peace, they can make markets rise or fall, and they can do things that I -- that I have observed can make a difference just by what they say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Kenosha for us.

And, Arlette, what did Biden say about that conversation he had with Jacob Blake?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, Joe Biden's first order of business when he landed in Wisconsin was to meet with the family of Jacob Blake. And we are learning that Jacob Blake actually participated in that conversation over the phone from his hospital bed. Biden during his community meeting talks about that meeting -- that phone conversation he had with Blake. He said Blake told him, he talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. How whether he walks again or not, he was not going to give up.

Jacob Blake's mother also participated in that conversation over the phone. Biden said she offered a prayer, where she prayed not just for her son and healing in this country but also for policemen.

So this is just something that Biden is trying to show he can empathize with people, connecting and meeting one-on-one with that family to hear their concerns, to hear the struggle that they are currently facing in the wake of that shooting and presents an image and a picture of what he might be like as a president.

After the death of George Floyd, he met one-on-one with the family ahead of his funeral. So this is something we've seen Biden do several times over the course of this campaign as he's tried to reach out and show people he can empathize with them and help offering some healing in some trying times.

BROWN: And just when you look big picture, this visit really draws a direct contrast between the two candidates.

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SAENZ: That's right. President Trump traveled here to Kenosha on Tuesday. He did not meet with the Blake family or say Jacob Blake's name during that meeting. But Biden today said he came here hoping to offer some healing in this community. And he also talked about that moment in Charlottesville, those clashes, and the president's response to it, which is something that prompted Joe Biden entering this presidential race. Take a listen to a bit of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: He said they are very fine people on both sides. No president has ever said anything like that. The generic point I'm making is not all his fault but it legitimizes, it legitimizes the dark size of human nature. But it did, though, it also exposed what had not been paid enough attention to, the underlying racism institutionalized in the United States still exists, has existed for 400 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So, Pamela, that is just the latest attempt by Biden to highlight President Trump as a divisive figure, while Biden is trying to present himself as a unifying figure heading into the November election.

BROWN: All right. Arlette Saenz, live for us in Kenosha, Wisconsin, thanks so much, Arlette.

And joining me now, CNN political analyst Laura Barron-Lopez, and NPR's Ayesha Rascoe.

Thank you both for coming on.

What do you think, Laura, about what did each of these visits reveal about Trump and Biden and their strategies just two months out from election day?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, as you just highlighted, Pam, the contrasts are very stark, which is that during Trump's visit, he toured some of the devastation that was seen in terms of property damage and met with a member of the community who actually wasn't even the owner of the business that they stood in front of but presented him as the owner of the business and did not speak to or meet with the Blake family.

And over the last week, Trump has also defended Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two protesters. And even though Trump has attempted to make the race nationally about unrest in Kenosha, about Portland, we're seeing in a lot of polling this week that still front of mind for voters is coronavirus. And also, when they are asked who they trust more oppose public safety or on race relations, Biden leads Trump in those issues.

BROWN: Yeah, it was interesting. The CNN poll showed crime as the issue that people cared about least in the scheme of things. But the other issues like the economy, like the coronavirus.

Ayesha, I want you to listen to Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien today on Fox News talking about Biden's visit to Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL STEPIEN, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN MANAGER: The president was there earlier in the week as president of the United States. Vice President Biden is there today as a candidate, as a political candidate. This is not the time to be injecting politics into a really serious situation that the president helped solve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What do you think, Ayesha, is this an effective way of framing Biden's visit?

AYESHA RASCOE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, NPR: I think it's the way that they have chosen to frame the visit. I don't know if that's very effective, particularly for Trump, because he injects politics into almost everything. And so, I mean, it could be a visit with Boy Scouts and he'll start talking about his Democratic opponent.

So, I think for Trump in particular, it's not an argument that will resonate as much. But what they are trying to do is present Trump as a man of action, and I think it's interesting that they are trying to say the problems in Kenosha have now been solved. I wonder whether that will hold.

BROWN: Yeah, that's a big question right there.

So, you have Biden in Wisconsin, President Trump is heading to Pennsylvania tonight, and then there's new polls out of those two battleground states. Joe Biden leads Trump 52-44 percent in Pennsylvania, according to this new Quinnipiac poll, and Fox News out of Wisconsin shows Biden leading 50-42.

How crucial is this fight in the Midwest, Laura?

BARRON-LOPEZ: It's very crucial. I mean, both campaigns made clear they consider Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, key to both of their pathways.

Now, a lot of this will be played out at the margins given we also know by polling many voters have made up their minds about who they plan to support. And so, in those margins, in some of the organizations I spoke to in Pennsylvania organizing voters of color, they say if Biden wants to prevent what happened in 2016 where black voters or young voters stayed home as opposed to turning out, then that's where he needs to focus a lot of his energy, which is paying attention to those voters who stayed home but vote in the past in Wisconsin, Michigan, and even other battleground states.

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BROWN: And we're just learning from Jacob Blake's family attorney Ben Crump, he said Biden met with the family for 90 minutes in Kenosha today.

And, Ayesha, since the conventions, you're really seeing Biden kick off his campaign. Just this week he's given multiple speeches on violence, coronavirus, and the economy, a trip to Kenosha today.

What do you make of the strategy so far?

RASCOE: He's trying to push back on what the Trump campaign has been presenting, which is Biden is hiding out in his basement. So, he's trying to show himself and show himself as a potential consoler in chief. That's something that President Trump has had issues with since becoming president. They tried to present this at the RNC, they tried to say Trump is empathetic and that he can talk to families that are mourning. But it is striking when he went to Kenosha, he did not meet with the

Blake family. And so, you see, you know, Biden trying to show his strength and being able to talk to people who are mourning.

BROWN: And if you look at the contrast and what the two said in Kenosha, you had President Trump earlier this week saying he doesn't believe there's systemic racism in police. Biden today says he does believe there's still institutional racism.

And this new Quinnipiac poll shows an overwhelming majority, 75 percent of likely voters believe racism is a big problem in the country. Given the president just denies systemic racism was a problem while visiting in Kenosha, Laura, how big of a problem might this be for him?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, it could potentially be a big problem, Pamela, which is that racism, along with coronavirus, along with the economy, is now in, in some states, especially in some battleground states, it's in the top three in terms of priorities for voters, given the unrest over the summer, given the protests, and this entire reckoning that the country is watching.

So, even in Georgia, and people I've spoken to there, they are saying racism and discrimination is one of the biggest issues for them when they are considering to vote. And it can particularly be a big issue for moderate white voters that Trump is trying to win back after losing in 2018 when Republicans lost the House or keep in his corner.

So, again, it's a top issue that prior to George Floyd's killing in May, many people did not expect to be playing in the presidential election.

BROWN: All right. Thank you both so much. We're going to see you again very soon.

New fallout today from President Trump encouraging Americans to do what one official said is like robbing a bank to see if the security system works. That's next.

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