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Experts Fear Labor Day Gatherings Could Fuel Rise in Infections; Atlantic Editor Says, Report on Trump Calling Soldiers Losers Just the Beginning. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 07, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

ERICA HILL, CNN NEW DAY: Is reporting at least three of the companies who are working to develop a vaccine are joining together in an unusual pledge.

[07:00:06]

They're not promising not to seek approval until the vaccines have been proven safe and effective.

Also this morning, ex-Trump Attorney Michael Cohen hitting his former boss hard in his new book, and the latest on the reporting, detailing the president's alleged comments, disparaging American service members, including those killed in battle.

Let's begin with CNN's Rosa Flores, who's in Miami Beach, Florida, on concerns of a potential new holiday spike in the weeks to come. Rosa, good morning.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, good morning. Labor Day celebrations have been in full swing all weekend long and they're expected to continue today. And experts are concerned that this could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases, just like the one that we saw after Memorial Day weekend, and also the 4th of July. But now, there's an added complication. Students are also returning to schools and universities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Large crowds from coast-to-coast this Labor Day weekend, reinforcing health expert's 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, U.S. PRESIDENT: We remain on track to deliver a vaccine before the end of the year and maybe even before November 1st.

FLORES: The CDC asking states to be ready to deliberate 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), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I would not trust Donald Trump. And it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy 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 assure it is safe and effective.

DR. ESTHER CHOO, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: If we push out something that's 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, the last thing we need is a resurgence of those things because people lose their trust.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, back to the concern about the spread of the virus over Labor Day weekend, John, what we see on beaches and public spaces is only part of the problem. Let's not forget, here in Miami-Dade County where I am during Memorial Day, the beaches were closed, so there was nobody inside beaches.

But officials will tell you that the problem was happening inside homes and also inside rental properties where people were having large parties that were resembled nightclubs and were also having large family gatherings. So that is part of the problem. So what we're seeing outside is just a partial preview of the possible spread. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: That's right. It's where they go next after they're at the beach. Rosa Flores, thanks so much for being with us. Joining us now is Andy Slavitt. He was the former Acting Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama. Andy, great to see you. Happy Labor Day.

I am struck by the response from the major pharmaceutical companies, responding to the market, because that's what they do, right? I mean, drug companies, any company respond to the market. What the market is telling them is that public trust has been squandered. Public trust and public health have now been separated. So they have to come out and say, look, we're not going to put a vaccine forward unless we're convinced it's completely safe. What's happened here?

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTER FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: Well, John, they, like the federal government, have spent a lot of money to bring these vaccines to market. They want them to bring them to market and have people take them. These scientists didn't work on them to have them sit on the shelves.

[07:05:02]

And right now they're concerned that somebody outside of the FDA scientific process -- they don't mind having to convince FDA scientists, that's what they're used to. But they're worried that somebody outside the FDA scientific process, namely, either the secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, or the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is going to intervene and force the vaccine to get approved before it's time, like has been done in Russia, when there was no phase three trial. And that is very risky for them because that means people may not be using their vaccine now or ever.

HILL: But how much does this message, right, that we're seeing and the fact that they are joining together, how much do you think that message is actually getting through to the White House and the administration?

SLAVITT: I don't know. I think it helps. I think putting the pressure on the president to do what he should do, which is basically saying this, the scientific career civil service staff at the FDA have a standard for approving a vaccine, that's a standard they've articulated, which is 50 percent improvement. And let them stick to out.

And if they get there before November 3rd, terrific. The earlier, the better. If they don't, then whenever they get there, that's great. And they're accelerating, they're working as fast as possible. But any political pressure from him will damage our ability to get to any kind of real immunity, because people will not be taking the vaccine as much as we need them to.

BERMAN: So, Andy Slavitt, I know you just saw our report on Northeastern University, because I read your Twitter feed, and you were commenting in real-time. The report is that Northeastern has dismissed 11 students and kept their tuition, because those 11 students were basically gathered in a room against school policy. You think that that's unfair. You think it's unfair to punish the students. Why?

SLAVITT: Well, I really hope we don't become this sort of incredibly intolerant society over this, where we set up all of these rules and we don't help people who are -- I mean, let's face it, 18, 19 years old. They've been locked up, probably, all summer or longer. And when you find out what they did, which is they gathered together, then let's hope we can deal with this with a little bit more humanity. Yes, we have to protect each other, but there are ways to send that message.

And keeping their tuition suggests to me, at least, that is the one thing they won't compromise on. So let's not get -- let's not create another culture war, where we draw the line so brightly. Let's try to understand each other, try to understand that this is hard. It's hard for the students, it's hard for everybody. I think we'll have a better chance of getting more people to go along that way.

HILL: So what do you think the fallout is at this point? I mean, we know the students can actually appeal. I'm fascinated by this whole discussion, so I'm keeping you on it. We know that they can appeal. And there was one article I read that said likely that process will be sped up a little bit given the situation. But every school is learning from one another. And we're all watching so closely what happens.

And I think you bring up an interesting point of what is that balance there of the responsibility -- they're kids, but they're adults, right? They're old enough to know what they're supposed to do. They're old enough to read the rules when they go back to school. They're old enough to know the consequences.

But you're not the first experts that we have heard from in the last couple of weeks who has said, look, the adults bear some responsibility here too, because we were all college-aged kids once and we know what kids are going to do. I'm just not sure how that plays out.

SLAVITT: Yes. We have a 22-year-old who just graduated college and an 18-year-old who's about to enter college. And we have a little bit of an understanding. And my sense is that a lot of these schools, I would say, the vast majority of them are putting students -- they're asking them to enter a situation that's not good for them. Come to our school, stay in our dorm, do not go out, do not go to classes, do not gather with people, quarantine for 14 days, you know. I'm not sure my mental health could handle that.

And then to be told that you're doing something wrong for doing something that has just been wrong recently. Yes, people have to be told this and, yes, we have to get people to agree, but they should be -- if they're going to have them there, which I think is a mistake in most cases, they should be arranging activities. Arrange safe social activities for them. Did Northeastern do that?

Northeastern is not arranging alternative activities for the kids, where they can play frisbee six feet apart, et cetera, et cetera, and then just saying, hey, we expect you not to gather near one another, and I don't know if that's the case. That's wrong. They do bear responsibility.

BERMAN: All right. Andy Slavitt -- I mean, I could take the under here and say, they're old enough to vote.

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They're old enough to serve in the military, the kids are old enough -- we call them kids. They're adults. 18-year-old is an adult. The only thing you can't do in America is drink. That's a whole another thing.

SLAVITT: But we know, John -- and I'm sorry to interrupt. We know, John, for example, dormitories are, by themselves, a place of spread. We've known this in Japan, we've seen it in Singapore, we've seen it in South Korea. So we're putting a bunch of people in dormitories and we're saying, but stay in your room, and if you go out of your room, it's your fault, not ours. I think that's not quite right.

BERMAN: You're persuading me. All right, Andy Slavitt, thanks you very much for being with us. I appreciate it.

SLAVITT: Have a good holiday.

BERMAN: All right. Joining us now, CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, She's a White House Correspondent for The New York Times who's got two by lines over the past 24 hours very much in the news.

First on the campaign, Maggie. The push for the coronavirus vaccine, CNN knows, have reported since last week that the president is eager, if not, desperate to be able to make some kind of an announcement before Election Day. How much does the Trump campaign think that victory depends on this?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think it entirely depends on it, John, but they certainly think that it's that's important and it's something that we've heard, the president talked about repeatedly and the White House talks about and the campaign talks about.

There is a belief, and to be clear, I'm not saying it's true, but there is a belief on their part that if the president was able to be part of some announcement of a vaccine, whether it was widely distributed or not, and it likely wouldn't be, for the election, that that good news would flow over him and be to his benefit.

You know, the concern, as we discussed previously, is that you have pressure being put on the FDA, and pressure being put on the vaccine makers, to do things speedily in ways that might not be safe.

HILL: And I think the American public gets that, right? Just based on some of the new polling that we're seeing, the CBS/YouGov polling, looking at not only whether people would take that vaccine if it was available, but if a vaccine was available by the end of the year, they were asked, would it be seen as a scientific breakthrough or something that was rushed? The majority of people said, it would be seen as something that was rushed. Interestingly enough though, as much as the president and the campaign want to steer the conversation that way and look at what the president can do, there is so much more happening. And there are so many more people we are hearing from that have worked with the president in the past that is overshadowing all of this.

And now we have this new Michael Cohen book coming out and you've been going through it. You have an advanced copy. And just the little tidbits that we're learning, specifically when it comes to race, this is continuing to paint a picture for President Trump that is far from flattering.

HABERMAN: That's exactly right. Look, I mean, this is something that the president has been criticized for for a while, and certainly with more intensity in recent months, which is that he says things that are racist, that he has had policies that are racist. He recoils from that word, but it's one that has been used repeatedly and Michael Cohen and his book.

And, look, he has said this before. He said a version of this when he testified before Congress a year-and-a-half ago or more than that. But he is very clear that the president has no comfort with people of color, that he was repeatedly critical of black leaders of nations, singled out Nelson Mandela, and had a particular fixation, which we know and we've seen with our own eyes, with President Barack Obama.

BERMAN: Let me give you the trifecta of examples that you just listed there. Let's start with the Obama impersonator that Donald Trump brought into his office for some kind of role play firing. Michael Cohen -- go ahead.

HABERMAN: Yes, this was -- sorry, John. This was -- I know you follow this convention closely. This appears to be a reference to a video that Trump shot for the first night of the Republican National Convention in 2012. The video has been public before. I think Breitbart got its hands on it. The Romney people were incredibly uncomfortable, both with having --

HILL: Did we lose Maggie?

BERMAN: We'll try to get Maggie back.

In the meantime, let me read the other two examples, at least, two examples that Michael Cohen includes in his book about the president's racial attitudes. The president says, quote, I will never get the Hispanic vote. Like the blacks, they're too stupid to vote for Trump. They're not my people.

And then another excerpt, apparently, President Trump has issues with Nelson Mandela and just doesn't think Nelson Mandela was a good leader. He said, quote, tell me one country run by a black person that isn't an s-hole, they're all complete effing toilets, said the president, according to Michael Cohen.

I think we lost Maggie for good here, which is too bad. She was talking about the role of race in this. What I was also going to ask her is, as damaging or as specific as three charges for Michael Cohen are, I don't get the sense that the White House takes these as seriously as The Atlantic story and Jeffrey Goldberg and the comments that the president has made about the military, that CNN has confirmed, by the way, many of them.

[07:15:03]

They clearly think that's very damaging, which is why the president has spoken out against it and they've had White House officials come out and claim that certain things never happened, despite the fact that CNN has confirmed parts of it.

HILL: I think 100 percent right. And their pushback on Michael Cohen is, Michael Cohen does not have a great track record with the truth. And so we're pushing back on that. In fact, in their statement, they says, it's unsurprising to see his latest attempt to profit off lies, which there is a separate issue there when it comes to telling the truth.

BERMAN: Easy to say about Michael Cohen, less easy to say about four- star generals and the likes --

HILL: Far less.

BERMAN: -- could very well come forward over the next few weeks.

HILL: I would not be surprised if they did.

BERMAN: All right. Floridians heading to the beaches in South Florida this holiday weekend. How concerned is Miami's mayor about a possible resurgence in cases? We'll ask him next.

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BERMAN: All right. Moments ago, we lost Maggie Haberman. But through the magic of technology, and, frankly, a miracle, a Labor Day miracle, we have Maggie back.

[07:20:04]

Thank you for this Labor Day gift, Maggie.

HABERMAN: Sorry. Sorry about that.

BERMAN: Because we don't know how long we have you for, because, really, anything can happen here. I want to ask you what I do think is a hugely important story, even three or four days into it, which is The Atlantic story by Jeffrey Goldberg about comments that the president made that Jeffrey reported, CNN, New York Times. Others have matched different parts of these comments. And some of them have been said out loud by the president said for a long time here in terms of John McCain and others.

I get the sense that as much as anything has rattled the Trump campaign or the White House, this article does. You can tell it by the president's immediate reaction to it. You can tell it by how he's put other people forward. What's the lasting impact here? Is it that they're concerned about the possibility that there might be more to come with Bob Woodward's book or John Kelly or Jim Mattis, people coming forward? What do they see, Maggie?

HABERMAN: So, there're two things, John. Number one, they are concerned that this is the beginning of a -- I don't know if it's even a drip, drip, but large pots of water coming out each day of people speaking against him. And the other that they're concerned about is the specific nature of this one, which is the military, which is something -- families of whom members in the military who support the president needs and have been important for him in his administration, if he is to win again.

And there is a concern that the general public understands this story. So much of what has been said about the president has not really punched through. What's punched through over the last few years, Michael Cohen's payment to Stephanie Clifford, the former adult film actress, with whom the president has said to have an affair and this particular issue.

Now, they have indeed rebutted pieces of it. The reporting at the time when he was in France for this ceremony was that it was all the fault of John Kelly's number two. If what we hear is true, John Kelly let that aide take the fall for two years, which is a little confusing. But at the end of the day, much of this has been confirmed by other outlets, including us.

HILL: Maggie, we say too about how this resonates. I think it was the depth of it too. I mean, actually, say, in reading it, the reporting about not wanting wounded warriors in a parade because people don't want to see that, right? Calling people losers and suckers for choosing to serve their country. A lack of what understanding of what it is in a person that would cause them to say, yes, there is something greater than myself. And disparaging people who have gave their lives. That has been, in conversations I've had both and on off the air, so hard for people to wrap their head around and it's not going away.

HABERMAN: I think that's right. Look, Erica, it shouldn't be surprising to anyone, right? I mean, this is a president who is famously transactional, who dodged military service himself. Part of his comments that are, you know, derisive of people who served have been specifically about the Vietnam War, which he doesn't think was a good war or a smart war and that he thinks that people who serve were too dumb to have gotten themselves out of it the way he did with a medical diagnosis of bone spurs, so some of this isn't surprising.

But I think your point is, when you see it all in the aggregate, when you see it all laid out there, I think it punches through for people in a different way. And this is one of the rare times we've seen the Biden campaign really jump on something quickly and try to keep it going.

BERMAN: Yes, I think that's exactly right. Look who jumped on this immediately? The Biden campaign and the Trump campaign. Everyone saw that this is a big issue, and as Erica said, not going away anytime soon. So stay tuned on this.

Maggie Haberman, thank you for being patient with us and coming back. I really appreciate it.

Other major news this morning. This morning, experts are expressing concern over a potential resurgence in cases as people across the country celebrate Labor Day. I'm talking about coronavirus cases. One area of particular concern is always beaches, but not so much the beaches themselves but where people go after they got to the beach. Do they go to bars? Do they go to house parties?

Joining me now is someone who has lived through this and seen the effects of this and come out the other side, they mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez. Mr. Mayor, it's great to have you back on the show. We haven't seen you for a while largely because Miami, to an extent, has stabilized. What is the situation this morning with the pandemic in your city?

MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R-MIAMI, FL): Well, this morning, the situation is good. Yesterday, we reported a little over 400 cases. We haven't been at that level probably in five months since late March. We had a high of 35,500 cases. 2,300 patients that were COVID patients in our hospitals, we're now down to about 600. So things have stabilized, things are much better.

But we have seen, as you mentioned, spikes after long weekends, after spring break. And so that's certainly a concern, something we've been messaging for the last few days coming into the weekend.

BERMAN: And we show pictures of the beaches. And you can sometimes see crowds on the beaches, but the beaches are outside. It's not so much the problem at the beaches that's an issue. What has been the biggest issue in Miami in terms of where the virus has spread?

[07:25:02]

SUAREZ: The biggest issue was when we opened up in April was we saw restaurants acting as if they were bars. We have -- the bars are not open. The bars are closed by order of the governor and also by local order, so the bars are closed. But we saw people congregating in restaurants, having underground parties, obviously, bringing the virus back home. So we instituted a mask in public rule that we were vigorously enforcing. And that also has helped tremendously get the numbers down.

BERMAN: What do you think the biggest single change you made was? What has had the single greatest effect in terms of fighting this in Miami?

SUAREZ: To me, there's no doubt that it's the mask in public rule. We had a curfew. We did have indoor dining closed for a few months. But, for me, the mask in public rule is the biggest weapon that we could use to try to get the numbers down. And it's something that, frankly, we're going to need probably through flu season, because there's obviously a major concern that the combination of flu season with the coronavirus could potentially create another wave. BERMAN: The masking thing is so interesting, because there's the direct medical impact, right? There's the amount of germs that are not spreading from you through the mask. But it's also a sign. It's a sign that you're taking it seriously. It's a sign to your friends. It's a sign to other people on the streets that you're taking this seriously. And the more people who do it, the more everyone, I think, takes collective action. How do you see it?

SUAREZ: I totally agree. I think it's no different from being responsible, wearing a seat belt, stopping at a stop sign. I mean, these are things that we do to protect ourselves and others. And it's something that every society that has rules that are made up to make sure that we can protect each other.

So, for me, I agree completely. I think not only is it good to do from a scientific perspective, but it also sends the right message.

BERMAN: So, given how far you've come at this point, what's your fear as to what could turn this to the negative again? What's the one thing you don't want to see happening that people have to know?

SUAREZ: I think, for me, the biggest thing is that people relax. They get to a point where they feel that the virus is not a threat and it certainly is. It has shown, it is incredibly efficient at reproducing. When we opened up after our stay-at-home order, we were at about 130 cases a day, and we got to 3,500 rather quickly. So that, to me, is a big concern.

And then flu season is another big concern. Understanding that having the flu in addition to having COVID could increase the mortality rate significantly and could also overburden our hospital systems when you put both of them together.

BERMAN: Mayor Francis Suarez, we're really glad to have you on this morning. It's nice to see you under different circumstances than we were talking a month or two ago, because I know how frightening that was. I know that every day, there was just major concern that this was exploding beyond control. Now it is under greater control. So congratulations on that. Thank you for being with us.

SUAREZ: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: Erica?

HILL: We want to remember some of the nearly 189,000 lives in this country lost to coronavirus. Detective Irving Callender served on protective duty for the mayor of Newark, New Jersey. A lifelong resident of the city, the 43-year-old joined the police department in 2006. The Star-Ledger reports he was a star high school football linebacker. He leaves behind a wife and two sons.

71-year-old Betty McBride served 41 years in Columbus Georgia School. She was a teacher and a counselor. She retired in 2012 as director of guidance services. Former Superintendent Guy Simms tells the Ledger- Enquirer she never let the paperwork get in the way of helping students. She leaves behind a son, a daughter-in-law and a husband who remains in the ICU with the virus.

42-year-old Jorge Cabrera was a 12-year veteran of the Mission, Texas Police Department. His wife, Amy, tells CNN affiliate KRGV she always feared he might die in the line of duty, but she never dreamed it would be a virus that would end his life.

We'll be right back.

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