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CDC Tells States To Prepare To Distribute Vaccine By November; Millions Of Americans Face Eviction As Housing Protection Ends; Trump Silent As World Leaders Condemn Russian Nerve Agent Attack. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 03, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTER FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES FOR OBAMA, PODCAST HOST, "IN THE BUBBLE" (via Cisco Webex): Completed phase three trial. Now they've come off of that, likely at the pressure of the president, and that's not a good move. Because if people don't take the vaccine, we might as well not even have it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So first of all, Andy, despite what Alisyn says, I do think you're perfect. So thank you for being with us this morning.

You just suggested that left to its own devices, the FDA would not be doing this. You think they're doing it under political pressure.

You wrote a lengthy thread about the right ways to approve a vaccine, and also the wrong ways to get one approved. What is the administration doing wrong, then, to get this to market?

SLAVITT: Well look, there's two things that count in a vaccine. And look, vaccines can end pandemics -- but done wrong, pandemics can also end vaccines.

We have to do -- we have to maintain public trust in the process and public trust is just as important as the efficacy of the vaccine.

If you have a vaccine that Dr. del Rio and others demonstrate has 80 percent effectiveness but only half the people trust it, it's just as good as if you had a vaccine that has 80 percent -- that has 50 percent effectiveness but you can get 80 percent of the people to trust it.

So the FDA is -- the process they run is critical. Because with a vaccine that only, say, adds immunity to 10, 20, or 30 percent of the population, we are going to be at this for much, much longer. So there's a lot of responsibility in the hands of the FDA not to buckle to political pressure.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That's such a great point.

And, Dr. del Rio, in some ways, it reminds me of President Trump pressuring states to reopen, and restaurants to reopen for dining, and schools to reopen.

At the end of the day, it comes down to people's comfort level. And you need -- in order for the economy to work, you need people to be comfortable going into stores, and going into restaurants, and getting on airplanes. And in order for a vaccine to work, you need people to be comfortable getting the vaccine.

And so, the timeline that the White House is pushing, in some ways, is irrelevant if people know -- if before phase three is done.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM, CONTRIBUTING TO NIH MODERNA VACCINE TRIAL: Absolutely -- and as Dr. Slavitt said, it's about trust. Trust -- public trust in our public health agencies, whether it's CDC, whether it's the FDA, whether it's the NIH, is critically important.

And the only way to keep public trust in these agencies is to -- is to take the political out of the technical We need to let those technical agencies do their job because their job is to protect the health of the Americans. And if we start meddling with them politically, I think the trust in those agencies is diminished, and the last thing we want is to have those agencies lose the trust of the population.

BERMAN: Dr. del Rio, Andy Slavitt, thanks so much for being with us this morning. We really appreciate it.

SLAVITT: Thank you.

DEL RIO: Thank you.

BERMAN: And, Alisyn, I think you're perfect, too. I don't -- I don't want to -- I don't want to in any way suggest --

CAMEROTA: Finally, finally.

BERMAN: And I think you handled that perfectly.

CAMEROTA: I've been waiting for this. All right, thank you.

BERMAN: All right, we have a heartbreaking story for you right now.

Millions of Americans are falling further behind on rent as Congress fails to reach a deal to get them much-needed help. And in Houston, where eviction moratoriums have lifted, some are so far behind in payments that they are being forced from their homes.

Our CNN's Kyung Lah has done some remarkable reporting, I think in just one day, to see the pain being felt by so many people. Kyung joins us now.

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's just a snapshot of one day and that's something we want to stress -- that this is happening all over the country and has been happening.

We keep talking about the economy, the jobless numbers. At the end of the day, this is just data, but there are real people being impacted behind this data.

So, the Houston -- the Harris County Constables Precinct 1 invited us to see what they see on a daily basis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEPUTY BENNY GANT, HARRIS COUNTY CONSTABLES, PRECINCT 1: Hello, constable. I need you to come to the door.

LAH (voice-over): From one Houston home to the next --

GANT: Hello, constable.

LAH (voice-over): -- Deputy Benny Gant, with the Harris County Constable's Office, executes judges' orders to evict.

GANT: Hello, constable.

ISRAEL RODRIGUEZ, FAMILY EVICTED FROM APARTMENT: We ain't got nowhere to go.

LAH (voice-over): Israel Rodriguez is a tenant at this apartment but he's not alone. Twenty-month-old Israel, his brother, 4-year-old Fabian, and their mother are some of the estimated 40 million Americans facing eviction in the downward spiral of the COVID economy.

RODRIGUEZ: They didn't rush us but they were like get everything you need.

LAH (voice-over): Rodriguez admits he hasn't been paying rent -- behind thousands of dollars.

RODRIGUEZ: It's my fault on the eviction. It was like going out there in the coronavirus -- when it hit, I lost my job, so it took me like a month to get another job.

This is my check, but I ain't making it with $300. It's literally $300.

LAH (voice-over): Their stroller now carries their possessions.

RODRIGUEZ: It's mainly the kids' clothes because me and her just wear the same clothes almost every day. We make sure we've got, you know, toilet paper and a little bit of snacks for the kids.

LAH (on camera): What are you going to do with all of your stuff?

RODRIGUEZ: That's trash. They can throw it in the trash because we don't have a car, we don't have help. We don't have nobody that can come and help us out right now -- nobody. We've got ourselves -- me and the kids and her. We -- that's it.

[07:35:10]

LAH (on camera): How does you, as law enforcement, feel about seeing that family have to go? GANT: Oh, it's a tough situation. I've got six kids -- six children. And, you know, when the kids see the mom and dad in a desperate situation, it's tough.

LAH (voice-over): Deputy Gant, an officer for 35 years, is just starting his day. Eight evictions are on his list.

GANT: A co-defendant is here -- two of them.

LAH (voice-over): At each stop, people behind on rent are ordered to leave, possessions pulled out.

LAH (on camera): Where are you guys going to go now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to a hotel.

LAH (on camera): You can go to a hotel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GANT: Constable.

LAH (voice-over): As Deputy Gant works through his list, we get word that 200 eviction orders have come through the Harris County courts for this week. That's double what they normally saw for an entire month before COVID.

LAH (on camera): Two hundred on Monday. What does that --

GANT: Well, that's a lot, yes.

LAH (on camera): What does that say to you?

GANT: Well, what that means is is that they're ready to start having people removed from properties.

LAH (voice-over): It is a backlog but it's also just one precinct in one of America's hardest-hit cities in evictions. The job takes its toll.

GANT: I don't really want to put her out here but I have to under this judge's order.

LAH (voice-over): At this apartment, the tenant is an elderly woman who can no longer afford the rent.

The landlord's mover, Francisco Munoz, works, though he doesn't want to.

FRANCISCO MUNOZ, HELPING MOVE EVICTED TENANT: I have a sister, I have my mom, and we never know. Maybe today it's her, tomorrow it's me, you know.

LAH (voice-over): Midway through the eviction, Deputy Gant decides it's too dangerous to evict her in the Houston summer heat --

GANT: I'm not going to put her out here in this heat.

LAH (voice-over): -- and will call Social Services instead.

GANT: You are safe today but tomorrow you're leaving.

LAH (voice-over): A one-day reprieve with an uncertain tomorrow.

GANT: You have a situation where people aren't working, they don't have the money, and they're desperate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: A few hours after we spent our day with Deputy Gant, the CDC announced a federal national eviction moratorium. That goes into effect tomorrow.

So the interpretation here from the Harris County Precinct 1 Constables is that they're going to put a hold on everything. Local agencies, local governments are trying to figure out what this means. John, some evictions will continue. There are specific definitions of who and who can't be evicted.

And something important to note, there is no rent forgiveness, so this money will someday have to be paid -- John.

BERMAN: Kyung, this was a remarkable story -- such an important look. I'm so glad that you're showing people the pain being felt by people, not just in Houston but all around the country. Thanks so much for being with us.

So, other world leaders have condemned the poison attack on Russia's opposition leader. Other world leaders have done it, but not President Trump. So what's going on here, next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:42:25]

BERMAN: All right.

This morning, we're waiting to see if President Trump has anything to say about an international outrage. So far, he is silent as most world leaders are condemning Russia for what Germany says was a nerve agent attack on an opposition leader in Russia.

CNN's Matthew Chance live in Moscow with the latest. Matthew, this is remarkable.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. And, you know, in some ways, it's the mystery, isn't it, at the heart of the Trump presidency. Is President Trump reluctant to directly criticize Vladimir Putin of Russia -- and if so, why? The fact is that he hasn't yet.

There has been a statement from the United States, though, coming from the National Security Council, saying that the U.S. will work to hold those in Russia accountable for the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and to restrict the funds for their maligned activities. There are hints that action could be taken in the -- in the future. But you're right, that lack of condemnation from President Trump, himself, is notable.

It has been confirmed by the German authorities that they say they've got unequivocal proof that Novichok was used to poison Alexei Navalny, who is lying in a Berlin clinic as we speak, still in a coma.

Novichok, a very powerful chemical nerve agent. The Kremlin has been accused in the past of using that exact substance to poison and to attack its enemies.

Back in 2018, Sergei Skripal, who was a Russian military officer who defected to Britain, was attacked with it in the British city of Salisbury, along with his daughter. He got very sick. He didn't die, fortunately, but one British citizen did. It caused international outrage.

The fact that Novichok has been linked with Navalny's poisoning as well, according to Alexei Navalny's aides -- well, that's just compelling evidence of Kremlin involvement. One Kremlin aide -- one Navalny Aide saying that it's like Vladimir Putin signing his autograph at the scene -- at the scene of the crime.

CAMEROTA: It does seem brazen. I mean, they're not even, it appears, trying to cover their tracks.

Matthew, thank you very much for the update for us.

So, back here, as many students struggle with remote learning, parents grapple with whether another semester at home is a bigger risk than sending their kids back to school in a pandemic.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga has been looking into this. She joins us now with more. Hi, Bianna.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST (via Cisco Webex): Hey, Alisyn, good morning.

So we've really wanted to take a big picture look. It's been six months since COVID changed our lives and arguably, aside from the medical effects of COVID-19, the biggest impact has been on education. Some 50 million students have been at home studying online.

[07:45:02]

The majority of school districts in this country are starting this semester online -- but some, including the largest here in New York City -- are starting in-person. And this is an experiment the entire country -- the entire world, really, will be paying close attention to.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABELLA AYBAR, STUDENT: I feel so happy that I want to explode. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): For 5-year-old Isabella and her 13-year-old brother Kelvin, going back to school is a long-awaited return to some form of normalcy.

KELVIN ESPINAL, STUDENT: It's like the schoolhouse from 8:00 to 2:20, I think I'm going to learn more.

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Like millions of other students across the country, remote learning has been a struggle for the Brooklyn, New York siblings.

KARLA MONCADA, MOTHER: I had so much stress getting my daughter to learn in the remote learning, and she cried most of the time. My son, he distracted himself by talking to his peers and playing on the computer.

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): But returning to in-person instruction is not without risks. Their mother, Karla, suffered a probable case of COVID- 19 in the spring when tests were scarce. She says her asthma made her recovery much more difficult.

MONCADA: It was very scary. I thought I was going to die, so I don't wish that to anybody.

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): She worries about sending her children back to school -- especially Isabella, who also has asthma -- but says the alternative, another semester online, would be even worse.

MONCADA: I don't have a choice. But it's either, you know, try to get her into this education phase that she is going through that is so essential or, you know, just stay at home and do the same thing that we did last time.

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): Two-thirds of the 100 largest school districts in the country are starting the school year entirely online.

EMILY OSTER, AUTHOR, "EXPECTING BETTER": School reopening is really important for our society. It's not that I think that we should reopen at all costs, but I think that trying to do this safely in places where we can do it safely seems just really important for kids, for getting people back to work, for the mental health of parents, for learning.

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): As doctors continue to study how susceptible children are to the coronavirus and whether they transmit the disease as easily as adults, dozens of schools that have reopened have already experienced outbreaks. And thousands of students and teachers have been forced to quarantine just weeks into the school year.

Some teachers' unions have fought against returning to in-person learning, threatening not to return to the classroom unless additional safety measures are taken.

BECKY PRINGLE, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: We cannot open our school buildings unless it is safe. GOLODRYGA (voice-over): For parents like Karla, still haunted by

scenes like this one in a Georgia high school where packed hallways full of maskless students ultimately led to positive cases and a school shutdown, the decision to send her kids back to school wasn't an easy one -- proof that there are no easy choices in a pandemic.

MONCADA: I will try this. Let's see how this works.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And, Alisyn, just this week, New York announced that it will delay the start to in-person learning by 10 days. So, September 21st is going to be the first day that students return, either one to three days a week. Among those students, of course, will be Isabella and Kelvin. But that delay is because there was a lot of pushback from the teachers union still concerned about safety measures in these schools.

So a lot of people will be focusing on this. But for parents out there that are worried about their children learning online, this is their opportunity to get them back into the classroom.

CAMEROTA: And parents are still waiting to see if that's a date certain or if that, too, changes.

GOLODRYGA: Gets pushed back, right.

CAMEROTA: There's so much uncertainty.

But, Bianna, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

So, President Trump is suggesting that people should vote twice. Why is the president so concerned about voter fraud when the facts don't back it up? What's he really trying to say here?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:10]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, President Trump is encouraging people in North Carolina to vote twice -- once by mail and once in person. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And they're going to have to go and check their vote by going to the poll and voting that way because if it -- 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)

BERMAN: All right, leave aside the syntax problems there. Voting twice is illegal.

Joining me now is CNN analyst Jessica Huseman. She's a reporter a ProPublica.

And, Jessica, I'm so glad that you are now with CNN as an analyst. I think it should be a national holiday. Because we are -- we have a national deficit in facts when it comes to the voting system and mail- in ballots, specifically.

And I want to dispense of the nonsense -- the top-line nonsense of what the president said. Voting twice is illegal.

But very quickly, there are systems in place in North Carolina and other states if people put in an absentee ballot and then try to go vote in person, correct?

JESSICA HUSEMAN, CNN ANALYST, REPORTER, PROPUBLICA: Yes.

The voter roll logs whether or not you've been mailed an absentee ballot. And so, if you were to present at the polls and say that you wanted to vote, what the poll worker would say is well, you've already been mailed an absentee ballot so I can invalidate that ballot and you can vote now, or we can wait for your ballot to be counted in that way -- and then they wouldn't be able to vote in person. They cannot do both things.

And, in fact, intentionally attempting to vote twice in North Carolina, regardless of whether or not you're successful, is a crime -- and so is trying to get someone to do that. So I'm not sure if the legal experts would determine that Trump has committed some kind of crime here. This is -- it might be a light version of that. But certainly, what he's describing is not legal.

[07:55:09]

BERMAN: And so, again, that's the top-line nonsense of it. Underneath it, I think, is something far more serious here, which he continues to do something which I think is intentionally meant to undermine the system and sow doubts about a system of voting that has been shown to be very reliable over the years.

HUSEMAN: I think that's exactly what he's doing and I think that it's interesting that he's drawn these very strange distinctions.

So we heard him just now draw a distinction between absentee voting and mail voting. There is functionally no difference between the two. His own campaign has admitted that in a lawsuit in Pennsylvania.

And also, his campaign is putting out door hangers and putting out flyers that encourage people to request their absentee ballots and vote by mail.

He has also made the strange distinction that vote-by-mail is bad but Florida is great. Well, Florida and North Carolina have, essentially, the exact same requirements about vote-by-mail. So I'm not clear why he is challenging the system in North Carolina, which works almost identically to the system in Florida that he praised not weeks ago.

BERMAN: It's an insurance policy, it seems, to sow doubt on Election Day.

And before we get to Election Day, because I think that's such an important discussion, I know you have issues with the way that the attorney general of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer, is talking about all this. So let's just play a little bit of sound of William Barr yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is playing with fire. This is playing with fire. We're a very closely divided country here.

And if people have to have confidence in the results of the election and the legitimacy of the government, and people trying to change the rules to this -- to this methodology -- which as a matter of logic is very open to fraud and coercion, is reckless and dangerous, and the people are playing with fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So he says matter of logic. It is not a matter of fact or evidence -- I'll stipulate that.

But you have other issues with things that the attorney general appears to be flat-out making up.

HUSEMAN: Sure.

You know, in that same interview, he claimed that a person in Texas was indicted for casting 1,700 fraudulent ballots. I live in Texas. I am reporting to you now from that state. I am completely unaware of any such indictment.

I asked the Department of Justice last night, after he made that claim, to substantiate it for me. I have not heard back from him. But so far as I know, nothing like that has happened in this state.

BERMAN: All of this gets to what I think now is a fairly concerted effort to create these doubts about Election Day, itself. And I think there's been some reporting on this, which has been borderline irresponsible as well, suggesting as -- you know, we may have one result on election night that gets changed after. No, there's one result when all the votes are counted.

What are the laws in some or many states -- and each state has a different rule -- about when absentee ballots or mail-in ballots need to be received and counted? And when we will know the results when they're all counted?

HUSEMAN: Right. So, many states require the ballot to be postmarked on Election Day,

but it has several days and that can range from more than a week and a half to just a couple of days. In a few states, it has to be received by Election Day. So we're kind of on a rolling deadline for Election Day and we may not know the results for quite some time.

That said, though, if the results are spread -- if they're -- if Biden or Trump wins by a large margin, then we'll know the results much more quickly.

I think that there have been suggestions that on Election Day, Trump might be way ahead on initial returns. And then as mail-in ballots are counted, then Biden will edge him out. I think that those are based on assumptions that are not necessarily accurate if you take a look at the states that are being considered.

So, many of the swing states are states that have been doing vote-by- mail for a really long time. They know how to count these ballots and they know how to do it quickly.

I just think that there are a lot of assumptions made with the timing and the ability to count ballots that are not necessarily valid.

BERMAN: We've got 20 seconds left because they're going to yell at me. But what about the notion, at all, that there is one winner on Election Day and a winner after?

HUSEMAN: Right. I think that that's a huge point of confusion.

The results that you hear announced on election night are not the official certified results. That has not happened for several days, forever. So it is not normal -- it is not abnormal to wait for several days for final election results, and that's simply what we'll be doing again this year.

BERMAN: That's right. The election is over when the votes are counted.

Jessica Huseman, welcome to CNN. Say hi to your mom for me. Appreciate you being with us.

HUSEMAN: I will, thank you.

BERMAN: All right, NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.