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Experts Fear Labor Day Gatherings Could Fuel COVID-19 Case Spike; Trump Administration Pushes Back on 'Atlantic' Reporting; California Declares State of Emergency Over Wildfires; WSJ: Vaccine Developers Preparing Joint Safety Pledge; Michael Cohen Tell-All Portrays Trump as Racist & Corrupt. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 07, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Health experts say COVID-19 cases could surge after Labor Day.

[05:59:13]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw a surge after Memorial Day. We saw a surge after the Fourth of July. So if that's any indication, we're going to see something similar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We use Labor Day as way to take the day off, but unfortunately, the virus doesn't.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Record heat and raging wildfires. More than two million acres have burned this year, the most ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The intensity of the heat is just crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three of the four largest fires in California history are burning right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No rainfall, dry conditions, that is just fuel to ignite more fires.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, September 7, 6 a.m. here in New York. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me here this morning.

Happy Labor Day.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Labor Day to you. It's exciting to be in a studio again, by the way.

BERMAN: I know. Like actually be near real people. HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: If you consider me to be a real person.

HILL: Well, that's a topic for the commercial break. We won't get into that now. But yes, it's nice to be with you today, but it's not a quiet holiday.

BERMAN: No. No, not at all. And holiday weekends are a big flashing danger sign for the spread of coronavirus. And this morning, we have some pictures to show you, pictures like this, beaches pretty packed over the holiday weekend. And celebrations like this one in San Francisco raising fears of a new spike in cases and what could ultimately lead to deaths.

We're getting new information about colleges this morning, with some campuses the sites of runaway spread. Thousands of cases in all 50 states now linked to the reopening of colleges and universities.

HILL: Meantime, there is new reporting about President Trump putting pressure on health officials for a coronavirus vaccine before election day.

And now "The Wall Street Journal" reports at least three of the companies working to develop a coronavirus vaccine are joining in an unusual pledge. They're promising not to seek approval until the vaccines have been proven safe and effective.

We also have new details this morning about former Trump fixer Michael Cohen's new book. And there is new fallout over the report detailing the president's alleged comments disparaging American service members, including those killed in battle.

There is a lot happening on this holiday Monday. We begin with CNN's Rosa Flores in Miami Beach, Florida, where there are concerns, Rosa, of a new coronavirus spike.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, good morning.

Labor Day celebrations have been in full swing all weekend long and are expected to continue today. Experts, of course, are very concerned that this could lead to yet another spike of coronavirus cases, just like the one we saw after Memorial Day weekend and the Fourth of July.

That's why experts this time are making a plea: Keep gatherings small, keep them outside, and wear a mask.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): Large crowds from coast to coast this Labor Day weekend reinforcing health experts' fears of another holiday spike in new cases going into the fall.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I am concerned. We go into Labor Day with 40,000 new cases a day, much higher than we were at Memorial Day. And so I'm worried that any new surges will be potentially quite catastrophic.

FLORES: In San Francisco, the city closed the parking lot at Ocean Beach after more than a thousand people gathered for a Burning Man style event. Mayor London breed calling it reckless and selfish.

And people flocking to beaches up and down the East Coast to celebrate the end of the summer. This as colleges across the country are struggling to contain outbreaks on campuses. Northeastern University dismissing 11 students for violating the school's public health protocols by gathering in a hotel room off-campus. The students will not receive a refund for the lost semester.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We remain on track to deliver a vaccine before the end of the year and maybe even before November 1.

FLORES: The CDC asking states to be ready to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine by late October, just before the election, causing concern that the vaccine will be politicized, given the proximity to election day.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No vaccine will be distributed before election day. Even if we identify a vaccine which looks both safe and effective, the distribution plan is going to be really complex.

FLORES: Two former FDA commissioners tell CNN it is possible, but very unlikely, that President Trump could pressure scientists to approve a coronavirus vaccine. Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris remains skeptical.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I would not trust Donald Trump. And it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the -- the efficacy and the -- and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. I will not take his word for it. He wants us to inject bleach.

FLORES: In an attempt to calm any public concerns around getting the vaccine, "The Wall Street Journal" reports Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson plan to pledge not to seek FDA approval for a vaccine until they can ensure it is safe and effective.

DR. ESTHER CHOO, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: If we push out something that is not safe and that harms people, it will ruin not only our ability to disseminate this vaccine but to disseminate all vaccines. I mean, mumps, whooping cough, polio. You know, the last thing we need is a resurgence of those things because people lose their trust.

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FLORES: Now, even if the FDA approved a vaccine and deemed it safe and effective, Americans appear to be skeptical of the agency.

Just like this latest CBS News/YouGov poll shows. They asked Americans, and Americans determined that, even if the vaccine was released this year, at no cost to Americans, only 21 percent of those surveyed say that they would actually take the vaccine as soon as possible -- Erica.

HILL: Rosa Flores with the latest for us. Rosa, thank you.

Well, this morning, the editor in chief of "The Atlantic" magazine says his story about President Trump calling falling service -- fallen service members losers and suckers is just the beginning. This as a parade of administration officials hit the Sunday talk shows to defend the president.

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House this morning with more.

Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

Aggressive push-back from the Trump administration on that explosive reporting in "The Atlantic," asserting that the president did refer to fallen war heroes killed in action as "suckers" and "losers" and that the president decided not to go to a veterans' cemetery in France, because he was afraid the rain would mess up his hair.

The editor of "The Atlantic" magazine saying he believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Listen.

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JEFFREY GOLDBERG, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "THE ATLANTIC": There is a sense of horror about the way he acts and behaves and talks. And so I would fully expect -- let me just say it this way, I would fully expect more reporting to come out about this. And more confirmation. And new pieces of information in the coming days and weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Trump administration officials over the weekend, essentially saying there is nothing to see here. Listen.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Have you ever heard the president disparage U.S. service members or veterans?

ROBERT WILKIE, VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Well, absolutely not. And I would be offended, too, if I thought it was true.

STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: I think this president has enormous respect for the military and for the generals. And I've been at the tank at the Pentagon with him. I've been at 9/11 at the Pentagon with him. This president respects and supports the U.S. military.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JOHNS: CNN has confirmed several aspects of "The Atlantic's" reporting, also using anonymous sources. Some other outlets have confirmed parts of that story, too, including the "New York Times," "The Washington Post," the Associated Press, and FOX News.

John, back to you.

BERMAN: A lot of different organizations have confirmed big chunks of this story. And Jeffrey Goldberg is a terrific reporter, obviously, and has terrific sources, as well.

Joe Johns at the White House, thanks so much for being with us.

Breaking overnight, California's governor has declared a state of emergency amid the world fire -- wildfires on record in that state. The fires are burning as that state deals with record-breaking heat, including the highest temperature ever recorded in Los Angeles County.

CNN's Kyung Lah is live in Yucaipa, California, which is one of the areas hardest hit.

Kyung, what are you seeing this morning?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can see this orange glow behind me, John. This is one of the fires that are burning right now here in California.

This one, 7,000 plus acres. 600 personnel on that fire line, trying to put it out.

And here's how it started. It started at a park when a family lit pyrotechnic as part of a gender reveal party, sparking this wildfire.

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LAH (voice-over): Rare and deadly heat at more than 120 degrees. Bone- dry winds exacerbating flames and almost 2.1 million acres burned. California's wildfires this year have become the worst in state history, and it is only September.

A rapidly-spreading fire tore through the Sierra National Forest, trapping hundreds of people at a recreation area.

TYSON POGUE, MADERA COUNTY SHERIFF (via phone): And the situation only can be described as just hellish conditions out there for those poor people.

LAH: At least 224 were rescued after the Mammoth Pool Reservoir area after the Creek Fire blocked the only road out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of deteriorating weather conditions, they ended up using great and sound judgment by allowing as many people as they could possibly fit on the helicopter on the second turn. And safely evacuated all of those, and then wanted to make an attempt for a third turn to get the remaining personnel out.

LAH: About 20 evacuees had injuries, from broken bones to burns. Two were carried out on stretchers.

Hiking nearby, Julianna Park said the fire moved in so fast, a forest ranger instructed them to drive through it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just keep going.

JULIANNA PARK, ESCAPED WILDFIRE: And it was actually per her instruction that we drove through that fire. She said it was the only way down, and it hadn't yet crossed the road and that we just had to drive through it. I think if we had stayed just ten minutes more, we might not have been so lucky.

LAH: from Friday night until Sunday morning, the Creek Fire alone burned 45,000 acres, even with hundreds of firefighters and air drops, the fire remains at zero percent containment, out of control.

California's governor urged residents to conservative energy to avoid power surges and rolling blackouts. Gavin Newsom's office tweeted steps, asking Californians to conserve energy.

And this is all happening amid a pandemic. The Cal Guard's 95th civil support team set up a mobile laboratory for COVID-19 tests, as rescuers try to work safely.

Through the merciless challenges, California's rescuers remain positive and continue to push ahead.

SKY CORNELL, SPOKESMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE: Wherever you have conditions that are in the three digits and they're across so many different areas within our jurisdiction, within L.A. County Fire, you know, you're always going to be on edge a little bit. But this is something that we prepare for. This is something that we train for. This is something that we're ready for. And we'll handle that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: And we're still weeks away from the peak of wildfire season. That's usually in October or November.

John, if there is any good news out of all of this, it is that the weather, at least here, is expected to be slightly cooler, in the mid- to upper 90s -- John.

BERMAN: Cooler in the mid- to upper 90s? Is that what you just said, Kyung?

LAH: Mm-hmm, yes, absolutely.

BERMAN: Oh, wow.

LAH: A hundred percent. Yes. That's cooler compared to yesterday.

BERMAN: If that's not a sign of the times, I just don't know what is, at this point. Kyung Lah for us in Yucaipa, California. Kyung, thank you very much.

So CNN has new reporting on how the president is pressuring officials to approve a vaccine before election day. And this morning, the extraordinary evasive action being taken by the drug companies themselves. That's next.

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[06:15:26]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, "The Wall Street Journal" reports three vaccine makers will pledge not to seek government approval until the vaccine they produce is considered safe and effective. This as President Trump continues to pressure government officials to approve a vaccine before election day.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator, Joe Lockhart. He's the former press secretary under President Bill Clinton. And Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

And Professor Hotez, I think it's fascinating that these drug companies feel the need to come forward and say, "You know what? We're not going to ask for approval until we think it's safe."

To me, it indicates that they see there is this atmosphere of distrust, based on the president pushing so hard to get a vaccine ready before election day.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, they're actually being smart, John. I mean, they want this vaccine to work. And they want to -- people to trust their pharmaceutical company.

So what they're doing is a smart business practice, to make certain that they're releasing a vaccine that's both safe and effective, because they know that if there's a mistake and if things don't go well, it could bring down the entire company. So they're being smart about it.

And the fact that we're seeing the pharmaceutical companies sort of protecting the U.S. population from -- from the government is something I've never seen before.

BERMAN: And just on the timeline, in terms of the timeline, you've got, you know, firsthand insight into how long it takes to get a vaccine ready. You think that this accelerated timeline is just unrealistic, based on the types of vaccines at play here, correct?

HOTEZ: Yes, that's absolutely right. I don't see a single way by which we could have vaccines released to the public before the election.

Look, we know from the Phase 1, Phase 2 trials that you need at least two doses of these vaccines in order to induce an immune response that is likely to be protective. So just if you look at the logistics, the Phase 3 trials didn't really begin until the end of July, beginning of August. And it's going to take at least two months in order to fully immunize all of the human volunteers.

Then you have to give it time to show that there's a difference between the placebo controls and the vaccinated groups, and you need time to evaluate safety.

That's why I don't see a single way by which you'd have that information collected until the end of the year. And that's what Dr. Fauci is saying.

And probably beginning of next year, I've been saying the middle of next year, we'll have vaccines released to the public. And even then, that's going to be a world record. So I think that's a much more realistic time frame.

And remember, the other additional complexity, which is that this is a -- for the first two or three vaccines in Operation Warp Speed, these are new technologies that have never been licensed to the public. So for those -- for that reason, you want that extra layer of belts and suspenders to make certain that what you're doing is safe and makes sense.

HILL: Speaking of that extra layer of belts and suspenders, which I may steal moving forward, but as we look at this new polling from CBS/YouGov, what's fascinating is not just the people who say they would take the vaccine immediately, which is only 21 percent, if it was available this year, but the fact that, if a vaccine was available this year, whether it would be seen as a scientific achievement or something that was rushed through.

And a significant number of Americans, 65 percent, say that they would see that as something that had been rushed through. Yes, there is a split there politically, as we can see. But you figure in the margin of error, which is 2.4 points, Joe, and when you look at that split even among Republicans, it's almost evenly split, which goes to show that a lot of the messaging they're putting out there seems to be working in terms of Americans not knowing who to trust on this vaccine.

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, listen, the president has made it political from -- from day one. But I think he's fumbled the politics a little bit.

I think Americans mostly want to know that you're working on a problem not that you're going to solve it by a particular date.

And this is actually a good story. I think as Dr. Hotez says, this is a world record. You know, the president should get some credit for harnessing the scientific community to work so quickly.

But what he's done is he's promised it by a certain date. And you can't do that with science and medicine. And he has set himself up, you know, I think for failure, both because it's very likely that he won't meet that promise. And secondly, he's undermined the public's confidence in vaccines, writ large.

So, listen, I just think from the beginning, particularly on the vaccines, he's gotten the politics all wrong.

BERMAN: Joe, what happens? The election is November 3. What happens if November 1 or October 31 he stages a news conference, like he did with convalescent plasma, and says, OK, it's here. Here's the vaccine.

[06:20:08]

Does that immediately shift votes? I'm just not sure. You know, we're 58 days away at this point. When would you have to make that announcement for it to have the impact that you want it to?

LOCKHART: Yes. You know, I think, given the poll that Erica cited that, even if he announced it, it wouldn't shift a lot of votes. Remember, by October 30, around 40 percent of the country will have already voted, which is, I think, one of the reasons why he's making this promise.

But I don't think there's -- again, this goes to the, you know, mismanaging the politics. It's been done in such an overt, blatant way that the public doesn't believe it. And I don't think, at the end of the day, it -- even if they make an announcement, it will be seen as political and so dangerous, that you know, the undecided voters, I doubt it will sway them.

HILL: One of the things want to get your take on this, Dr. Hotez. Moving into Labor Day, we did hear more from the administration, even from the president, reminding people it was Labor Day weekend, not to go too crazy. When will we know the impact of our behaviors from this weekend?

HOTEZ: Well, we want to look at what happened over July Fourth weekend. By the middle of June, we were pretty much at our nadir in terms of new COVID-19 cases. We were around 20,000 new cases.

And then after July Fourth, that's when things really started to rev up and accelerate to the point where we went up to 65, 70,000 new cases a day. Now we're back down to 40,000 cases. So unfortunately, we're already at a much higher level than we were in the weeks before the July Fourth holiday.

So I don't think it will take much to really bring us back up to 70,000 new cases a day.

So I'm worried about the July Fourth [SIC] holiday. I'm also worried about some of these forced k-12 school openings in areas where there's a lot of transmission. That's going to pile onto the problem. And then, of course, you have the college openings in areas where there's a lot of transmission.

So it's not going to take much to bring us back up to that terrible level where we were earlier in the summer, where we have 70,000 new cases a day. And unfortunately, I'm afraid that's where we're probably headed.

BERMAN: Look, 40-plus thousand cases a day ain't a great place to be, either, needless to say. HOTEZ: No. No, it's still a screaming high level of transmission, and

that's why the Institute for Health Metrics has projected that horrible, horrible number of 400,000 deaths by January 1. That is a real possibility. And this is, again, the greatest public health catastrophe that's happened to the United States in the last hundred years.

HILL: There's also a real possibility that we could make changes that would not get us to that level of more than 400,000 deaths by the end of the year.

Dr. Peter Hotez, Joe Lockhart, appreciate it. Thank you.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

HILL: Coming up, Michael Cohen is spilling the secrets behind the scenes of the Trump Organization, and it includes accusations of racism and a bizarre meeting with a fake Barack Obama. Those details, next.

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[06:27:18]

HILL: This morning, new details about a tell-all book from President Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen. In the book, Cohen portrays Trump as racist and corrupt, quoting him as saying, "I will never get the Hispanic vote. Like the blacks, they're too stupid to vote for Trump. They're not my people."

Joe Lockhart is back with us, along with CNN political analyst, Margaret Talev, politics and White House editor for Axios.

As we look at all of this, there are the stories, allegations in the Michael Cohen book. There is the reporting from "The Atlantic," much of which CNN has matched, along with other news outlets over the last couple of days. Different topics, Margaret, but as you point out, there is a common thread here that we're seeing.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Erica, I mean, the common thread is that these are people who the president has chosen to put close to him, who are feeling the need to speak out before the election and have really negative things to say about him.

These are not just different topics, but in some case -- in one case, Michael Cohen is going on the record about these allegations. In the others, these are folks who are not putting their names, at least at this point, to a lot of the criticisms about the president's statements about the military. But these are all people who the president has given very close access to and who have worked behind the scenes with him for years.

And I think what we're seeing is the president seeks to discredit these people, of course. We'll see the White House and the president's aides discredit Michael Cohen. But he chose to give them that access and put them close to him. And these are just not the sort of accusations that we've heard about, certainly, the past couple of presidents in terms of people who were close to them.

BERMAN: Look, if he continues on just trying to discredit everyone who comes out and says something, there's not going to be anyone left in Washington, let America, because it does seems like everyone who has worked for him has a story.

And Joe, I just want to stay on the issue of race for one second, because the Republican National Convention for four nights had people come out to say Donald Trump is not a racist. But it just seems that the more information that comes out, and his own public statements, mind you, undercuts that argument.

The book by Michael Cohen, he's got this remarkable story. This is P- 103 here. statements the president made. He said, quote, "Tell me one country run by a black person that isn't an s-hole. They're all complete f'ing toilets."

How much does this undo whatever efforts he made during the convention?

LOCKHART: Well, I think broadly, the -- the Republicans did a lot of good for the president the first three and a half nights. And I think he undid a lot of that with his speech.

But going back over history, there's no -- there's no doubt that the president has a problem on race. Everything from the Central Park Five to the birther movement.

And this is really important as you look at the election. Most of the people in this country have made up their mind. And the real fight is over, sort of.