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Book Critic talks about Trump Books; In-Person Voting Begins in Four States; Truth over Trump's Health Care Plan. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 18, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Right now more than half of the books on "The New York Times" best seller list are about President Trump and his administration. And these best sellers are just a fraction of the more than 1,200 books about Trump that have been released in the four years since he took office.

Joining us now is someone who has read many of not most of these books, Carlos Lozada. He's the Pulitzer Prize winning book critic for "The Washington Post." His new book is "What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era." And it comes out next month.

Carlos, we've been looking forward to talking to you because you are a fount of knowledge on these books.

And before we get to the best, the worst and the most memorable, Donald Trump, I mean love him or hate him, he has been a boon to the book industry. What do you think it is about him and his administration that makes people want to become such voracious readers?

CARLOS LOZADA, NON-FICTION BOOK CRITIC, "WASHINGTON POST": You know, there have been so many moments when I think, OK, finally, the appetite for these books is going to slow down, whether by readers or publishers, and then it doesn't. Then we get more bestsellers. And part of that, I think, is just that we're in a deeply polarized country and Trump is a deeply polarizing figure.

So you have readers who are all in with Trump and see in some of these books affirmations of their world view, or you have readers who are very worried about Trump and see in some of these critical tell-alls more reasons to be worried. Also, the political media reports on these books, amplifies their impact and, frankly, so does Donald Trump himself. Even when they're very critical of him, he can't stop tweeting about them, which just keeps them in the news cycle.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I think in this bookcase behind you I spy many of these books, along with a copy of "Tropic for Cancer" (ph) that you may not have returned to the library some years ago.

But, Carlos, I want to come right to --

LOZADA: Can't stand him (ph).

BERMAN: I want to cut right to the chase because I do want to know what you think of each one. So let's just start. You know, of all these books you've just read, the most memorable?

LOZADA: I think just because it's such an unusual vantage point that Mary Trump's memoir, this is Donald Trump's niece, has to be up there among -- among the most memorable. It's such a different perspective, you know, a close Trump relative who also has a background in clinical psychology, sort of giving her own assessment of this family and how they -- they treat one another. That was -- that was both surprising and kind of fascinating to me.

She has a clear ax to grind in that her side of the family was sort of cut out of the family fortune, but she's -- she's honest about that and just tells us what she saw throughout the years and decades really.

CAMEROTA: What's been the worst of this Donald Trump genre book that you've read?

LOZADA: Oh, it's a stiff competition there. You know, in a weird way, the worst in terms of disappointing was a book called "A Warning," which was written by that famous anonymous senior official in the Trump administration who wrong a long op-ed for "The New York Times" first. And the book was essentially a 250 page version of that op-ed. And part of the trouble is that in order to keep anonymity, in order to kind of keep the author secret of their -- their identity, the book didn't really reveal a lot of details. And so you don't get a lot of interesting stories about what's going on behind the scenes. Then you get a lot of senior officials, you know, wrestling with their dilemma, do I speak out, do I not, you know, they're all like hand-wringing in private. I joke that you could call it sort of profiles in thinking about courage, because they don't really do anything.

BERMAN: Damning with (INAUDIBLE) phrase. God, nothing worse than a book critic in terms of scathing and biting language there.

What was the most surprising book to you, do you think?

LOZADA: You know, I really enjoyed reading Peter Strzok's book "Compromise," that was out just a couple of weeks ago. Peter Strzok, of course, was the FBI agent who was involved in both the Hillary Clinton emails investigation and the Trump Russia investigation and who was dismissed and left the FBI especially after Donald Trump and others were constantly talking about sort of the extramarital affair he had had within the bureau.

What I liked about that book is that it really gave you a ground level sense of how these investigations work from an active participant in them.

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And actually relating to the conversation you just had with Jeffrey Toobin, it also showed the very complex and distrustful relationship between the senior leaders of the FBI and those at the Justice Department.

What's your all-time favorite?

LOZADA: This is sort of a less kind of full-on Trump book and it's more what I call kind of a Trump adjacent book. It tells you what's going on around him. "The Fifth Risk" by Michael Lewis. Most of us know Michael Lewis from, you know, "Moneyball" or "Liar's Poker," or "The Big Short." But he wrote a book about essentially the civil service. And essentially you have, after each administration, the -- the outgoing administration has to brief the incoming crew on, you know, what all the agencies are doing. And it seems that the Trump team was not really interested in getting the Obama team's briefings.

So Michael Lewis went and got a version of them himself and he found out what was going on in the key agencies and what are the issues that they have to worry about most and how they're managing huge risks in the federal government. So while Trump looks at these folks and thinks of them as an insidious deep state, Michael Lewis really shows how essential they are to the functioning of government. Before the pandemic, the book felt merely prescient. Now it just feels prophetic.

BERMAN: Obviously, I think you like to learn things you didn't know when you were reading these books. That's one takeaway here. So "Rage" by Bob Woodward. I know you can't review it because he's a "Washington Post" colleague --

LOZADA: Right.

BERMAN: But you have read it.

LOZADA: Yes.

BERMAN: And I think you had a bit of a different takeaway in the parts that you feel that you learned where you learned the most.

LOZADA: So much of the conversation around "Rage" has been about Woodward's one-on-one conversations with Trump and what Trump knew about Covid or what he thought he knew or what he was willing to reveal. That's really only about half of the book.

The first half of the book is a look at the major national security challenges pre-Covid in the Trump presidency, through the eyes of people like Defense Secretary James Mattis and Dan Coats, who was director of National Intelligence, and you see how concerned they are about the risks of, for instance, nuclear war with North Korea. You know, you have dramatic scenes of Mattis like going to the National Cathedral to pray over all this.

And I think it's a reminder to me that, you know, crises don't kind of wait patiently in line, you know, like we're dealing with one thing now so we can't deal with others. They can come all at once. And that's how it felt like to these national security officials.

CAMEROTA: Carlos Lozada from "The Washington Post," great to get your take on all of this. Really interesting conversations.

BERMAN: I want you in my book club, man. I have to say --

CAMEROTA: First you have to start a book club.

BERMAN: This was -- yes, I know, that's a good point.

Thanks, Carlos.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Great to talk to you.

LOZADA: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: OK, the wait is over for voters eager to cast their votes. These are live pictures of people lined up in Virginia for early voting, which begins today in four states. Details in a live report, next.

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CAMEROTA: We are still 46 days away from Election Day, but the wait is over for voters in four states. Early in-person voting begins today in South Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota and Virginia.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at a polling location in Fairfax, Virginia.

So how does the turnout look?

KRISTEN HOLMES, : Alisyn, this is absolutely remarkable. I'm going to take a step out here so you can see the line. This is the first day but it is clear that election season is in full swing. You can see hundreds of people here.

And what you can't see is that actually inside the government building it loops around and snakes. So they're trying to keep people socially distant in this line. We had someone just come out and say that the building itself is at capacity. So if people could please be patient.

Now, I spoke to one woman, asked her why it is that she came out so early to vote. She said she knew that there was going to be a lot of interest in this election. She assumed there was going to be something like this, this many people. But this is remarkable.

I spoke to a woman who has been working elections here in Virginia for 20 years and she said she has never seen turnout like this on the first day. They knew there would be a little bit of a crowd, but as you can see, we are now walking yards away from that government building and the line continues on.

So just quickly here, to recap, we are at the beginning of the election. We have four states that have now started in-person voting. You mentioned them. It is Minnesota, Wyoming, here in Virginia and South Dakota. Several other states are sending out their absentee ballots. And this is really going to be a temperature check for Americans to see how they feel comfortable voting in this unprecedented election.

CAMEROTA: Wow. Those are some dedicated voters right there. And really interesting to see the enthusiasm at this date.

Thank you. Kristen.

John.

BERMAN: This morning, an elusive plan that never seems to materialize. And, this morning, the president has issued no new health care plan. In July he said it was just two weeks away. That was, I think, eight weeks ago.

John Avlon with a "Reality Check."

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JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: More than six months into a pandemic, with nearly 200,000 Americans dead, health care anxiety is getting very real for most Americans. Sixty-eight percent of voters say health care will be very important to their vote.

But there's a lot of smoke and mirrors clouding the debate. President Trump keeps touting a phantom health care plan, one that will magically cover way more people for way less money. But it always seems to be just --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Within two weeks.

Two weeks.

Three weeks. Four weeks. Two weeks. What do you think?

AVLON: In July the president made a big slow of a mysterious executive order he said would slash drug prices, but his administration refused to release the actual text.

Then, of course, there's the constant pay no attention to the man behind the curtain promise to protect people with pre-existing conditions.

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While Trump's own DOJ is actively trying to kill the law that actually does that.

When it comes to Americans' health care, this president is all show and no go. Dishonest on a good day, but dangerous during a pandemic.

So let's start at the ground floor. There is no Trump health care plan, period. I don't know how many times folks are going to fall for the same Lucy and the football routine here. It's been four years, people. But, hey, it's been ten years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Ten years of conservative calls to repeal and replace. It's catching and alliterative and total nonsense. Obamacare is more popular now than when Obama left office. And the thing people seem to really like about it is the coverage of pre- existing conditions. Now, maybe that's because 43 percent of Americans have at least one person in their household with a pre-existing condition.

We've seen the president's spin and promise to protect pre-existing conditions, but this one stood out.

TRUMP: We're going to be doing a health care plan very strongly and protect people with pre-existing conditions.

They will not do that.

AVLON: OK, that's the opposite of true. And here's why.

Democrats not only will protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, they already have with Obamacare. It's the only law that does that. And it's a law the Trump administration has been fighting like hell to kill, culminating in a case the Supreme Court will hear one week after Election Day. After all, it wouldn't be a good look to openly try to gut it before the votes are cast.

But what about those drug price executive orders Trump signed to such great fanfare and why did they refuse to release one of them for so long? Well, it turn out that it promises to peg drug prices to European countries, most of which have some form of socialized medicine. So forget free markets, the Trump proposal appears to be more of a step towards socialism than anything Obamacare ever did.

Here's what makes it especially awkward. When Nancy Pelosi proposed a similar provision last year, Republicans denounced it as socialist price controls. Confused? The economists went to my grandparent's hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, and here's what one Trump supporter said. He got health care done, which Democrats could never do. OK, that's just not true. But you know the old saying, if you can't convince them, confuse them. It's just that this time the cost of that confusion could be a real killer for your family.

And that's your "Reality Check."

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CAMEROTA: All this week CNN has highlighted change makers who are redefining what's possible. We call them our "Champions for Change."

This morning, a video game designer who spent most of his life in a refugee camp. He uses the power of gaming to help others run for their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LUAL MAYEN, CEO, JUNUB GAME: I first saw a computer for the first time in 2007 during a refugee registration. It was an amazing moment for me.

I came to my mother, and I was like, I want to buy a computer. She kept quiet and she saved money for like three years looking for three hundred dollars.

After my mother bought for me the computer, I then realized I could walk three hours per day to be able to charge my computer. And I would do it daily, every day.

LEO OLEBE, GLOBAL DIRECTOR AND GAMES PARTNERSHIP, FACEBOOK: It's three hours to charge his laptop, so he can walk three hours back so he can work for two hours.

He's sitting in a refugee camp in northern Uganda, teaching himself how to code and building and creating a game?

MAYEN: My name is Lual Mayen. I'm the CEO of Junub Game. And I am the creator of video game "Salaam."

"Salaam" is an Arabic word that means "peace." "Salaam" is a game that is really personal to me. When you're playing the game, you're actually putting yourself in the shoes of somebody. We realize that games are a very powerful tool that can bring our global communities together.

I was born on the way as my family was fleeing South Sudan. As they settled in Northern Uganda, I spent over 22 years in the refugee camp.

It became like a really permanent home for us. The only thing we could do was wake up in the morning to go and find foods to eat, because like, all you need is, is to survive.

CHRIS BOIAN, GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, UNHCR: We're looking at approximately 80 million forcefully displaced people in the world today. And that number is higher than we have ever seen.

What we're talking about are people who are -- are really running for their lives. They're seeking safe ground.

MAYEN: "Salaam" is a high-tension runner game. Your focus as a player is to take a refugee from a war-torn country to a peaceful environment. We have in-app purchases in the game. When you buy water in the game, you're actually buying water for somebody in the refugee camp.

BOIAN: What Lual's game does is it provides people engaging in that game an opportunity to contribute actual relief and assistance to refugees.

MAYEN: You're better than me.

BOIAN: Lual's game is going to bring people that are not necessarily a traditional audience for messages about refugees, it's going to bring them into the room and they're going to be learning about this at a younger age. It's really a game changer.

OLEBE: I talk to game developers all of the time. They want to create incredible experiences for people. And 99.99999 percent of the time those experiences are, it's swords and sorcery, it's going on this grand adventure. But when you talk to Lual, he says, let me tell you ab out how we can help disadvantaged communities and refugees find food and find water.

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He can use his unique vision to literally change the world.

MAYEN: My hope is I want other refugees to understand that we're not here just to survive. We're also here to thrive.

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CAMEROTA: We will continue to share these inspirational stories today and tomorrow on CNN. And then be sure to join John and me for the "Champions for Change" one hour special. It's tomorrow night, Saturday, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN. That's late for John and me to stay up, OK, so we really want you guys to tune in because we're going to be up late.

BERMAN: It's worth it. it's worth it to be inspired, even at 10:00 on a Saturday night. Maybe especially at 10:00 on a Saturday night.

CAMEROTA: You and I have seen a little preview and there are surprises --

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Even for us in this show.

BERMAN: Yes, it's -- it is so good. You are not going to miss to miss this. It will put a smile on your face for days.

All right, we have new reporting on CDC guidelines being written by people, not scientists. CNN's coverage continues next.

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