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President Trump's Comments on Who is Affected by Coronavirus Draw Controversy; U.S. to Reach Milestone of 200,000 Deaths Due to Coronavirus; Senator Lindsey Graham States Senate Republicans have Votes Necessary to Confirm President Trump's Supreme Court Nominee to Replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) is Interviewed About Senator Graham Saying the Republicans Have the Votes to Confirm Trump Nominee. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 22, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

LORD KIM DARROCH, AUTHOR, "COLLATERAL DAMAGE, BRITAIN, AMERICA, AND EUROPE IN THE AGE OF TRUMP: Americans say to me sometimes, how could you be so wild about it. So I don't think it was anything actually very exceptional in terms of what a lot of people were saying at the time. the at the time.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Here in the U.S., President Trump says much more damning and insulting things on almost a daily basis on his Twitter feed. But everyone can read about that, as well as your impressions from being ambassador in "Collateral Damage, Britain, America, and Europe in the Age of Trump." Former Ambassador Kim Darroch, great to see you again, and thanks so much for tuning in to John and me when you were here and in the future.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's the headline. There's the big takeaway.

DARROCH: Thank you. Thanks, Alisyn. Thanks, John.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. NEW DAY continues right now.

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

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. And it is a tragic day in American history. This is the day we will pass 200,000 deaths from coronavirus, 200,000 deaths in just 227 days. It's a black mark in U.S. history. The United States has handled it worse, empirically worse, than the rest of the world. The country has suffered more death from the pandemic than the European Union, the entire continents of Asia and Africa -- 200,000 lost, or as the president referred to them overnight, nobody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now we know it, it affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, that's what it really affects. That's it. In some states, thousands of people -- nobody young, below the age of 18, like nobody. It affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What he says is wrong. It's just wrong. Wrong on the evidence about who is dying, and wrong, frankly, on the morality. One person is not nobody, let alone 200,000 people. Overnight, Dr. Anthony Fauci made clear that this is all something to mourn, not celebrate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We have in this country now close to 200,000 deaths. We have 6 million plus infections. You can't look at that and say that's terrific.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: His comments there in direct contrast to what the president has been saying, for whom 200,000 death is some kind of success story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right, we also have some breaking news at this hour. "Washington Post" columnist Josh Rogin reporting on a stunning assessment from the CIA regarding Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election. It says that quote, "President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating Joe Biden." More on that coming up.

Also, new developments in the Supreme Court vacancy. Senator Lindsey Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, now says the Republicans have the votes to confirm President Trump's nominee to fill Justice Ginsburg's seat before the election, before they even know who the nominee is.

But we begin our coverage with CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Also with us is Andy Slavitt. He's the former acting administrator for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He's also the author of the forthcoming book "Preventable." So Andy, on that word, "preventable," it's such a heartbreaking word given this morning where in a short time we're going to hit that milestone of 200,000 Americans dead. And so what are your thoughts on this morning?

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA: I listened to the same recording you did, Alisyn, of the president, and it feels like a day for some humility. And humility that we didn't at the very least know how bad this was going to be.

But what explains it to me, I think, is that the president actually did know what was going to happen. In fact, it turns out he had estimates as early as early February telling him that there would be hundreds of thousands of people dead, that there would be a high percentage of people, it's simply worse than the flue, it would spread through the respiratory system. And he didn't act. In fact, he denied things.

So he was clearly OK in his mind going to bed every night and waking up in the morning and saying this was not going to happen. And when you have a bug that grows at an exponential basis, that sometimes is enough for an incredibly tragic loss, and that's where we are today.

BERMAN: Listening to his words, comparing 200,000 people somehow to nobody -- he didn't say 200,000 people, he refused to acknowledge the number, but he said nobody, nobody is dying. It's fair to ask how much he genuinely cares.

[08:05:08]

That's why is said he is wrong on then morality here. He also happens to be wrong on the facts, because if you give him the most charitable interpretation of what he's saying, he's saying, oh, it's just elderly people who are dying, nobody young. Well, Anthony Fauci overnight made clear that that too is wrong on its face and wrong in also potentially misleading as we look at the future. So let's listen to what Dr. Fauci said there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: More and more young people, you see, when you look at it, are getting into some significant trouble. Not a lot, not a high percentage, that's true.

The other thing is that when people get infected, we're seeing more and more of lingering signs and symptoms. You could see things like inflammation of the heart. Now, they may not be symptomatic, but we want to make sure that six months or a year from now they don't wind up with unexplained arrhythmias or premature heart attacks, or cardiomyopathies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Sanjay, so why is that important? We're marking 200,000 deaths today, but we're also nearing 7 million cases. So why is that so important what Dr. Fauci is saying?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You don't want this virus, period. That's the thing, as Andy was just saying, we need a certain amount of humility. We have learned a lot about this virus, and we can no longer even just think of it as a respiratory virus. It seems to affect just about every organ system in the body.

And one of the things that I think Dr. Fauci is talking about and I have also heard from doctors who have now really started focusing on long haulers, patients who maybe even had minimal symptoms to start can still have persistent lingering symptoms, people who used to have no trouble running several miles now have trouble walking several blocks.

So we're learning a lot about this virus. We know it can affect younger people, albeit at much lower percentages than older people. But look, thousands of people have still been infected. There's a lot of concern when young people get infected. Hundreds have been hospitalized. Many have died. So it can affect younger people. And as they become more mobile, we have talked about this so many times, they become more mobile this fall as they have to -- if they're going back to the universities and things like that. I think there's a real concern here.

The idea of cardiomyopathy in college athletes, again, we don't know. Is that going to last for a long time for them? Is it going to be something they live with their for lives? We don't know. But I think the bottom line is you don't want this disease. It can be a terrible disease no matter the age.

CAMEROTA: And it's devastating to think how many people will still get this virus. We're just gearing up to the fall and the winter. The idea that we're already at 200,000, do you have a sense of, without any national guidelines since they keep changing, of what you think October is going to look like?

SLAVITT: Well, look, it's all based upon our behavior. And unfortunately when the president makes comments like this and minimizes the virus and tells people that unless you're old you're not going to get it, that encourages more spread, it encourages more reckless behavior. And I think that will influence the numbers.

By the way, I'm not -- I don't know when we become willing to write off people who were, quote/unquote, old, or compromised immune systems. So a more compassionate message would be in order. Nobody believes that President Trump started this virus. So for him to describe it more accurately would only be encouraging people to be safer. We have the opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of lives. I think that's all I would say on the topic of numbers, because there are hundreds of more thousands of people that can die if we don't get this under control. We can get this under control, and we ought to.

BERMAN: If we are going to save hundreds of thousands of lives, Sanjay, we need a CDC we can rely on, and there have been issues over the last several days, frankly, now over the last several months. The most recent issue is the CDC published on its website, which CNN reported on, new guidance that coronavirus is aerosolized, and the guidance said can be transmitted over distances of six feet, and the implications there have to do with ventilation and how we live their lives.

But then they removed it. They removed that guidance because they said they posted it incorrectly as a clerical error. Maybe. I know what you're reporting is that's what you've been told. But the reason there are doubt out there about this is because so much has happened with the CDC over the last few months. They posted guidance on schools and had to withdraw it. And they posted multiple guidance on testing asymptomatic people under political pressure and reversed it repeated times. So what are you hearing about what's going on? And is this going to get better?

GUPTA: It's a mess. There's no question, it's a mess over there, and people are understandably very suspicious of what was one of the most trusted medical organizations in the world, because of the situations that you point out, John.

[08:10:06]

There have been things that have been just put on the CDC's website not having gone through scientific review that they're famous for, and that's a problem. I can tell you just, again, my own reporting, is that in the past when that happened, people were calling me immediately sounding the alarm on this. With this particular, this most recent back and forth that the CDC had up there, and I want to show you what they said, but this most recent back and forth, it does seem to be a genuine error.

But it's a mess, to your point. When they put this guidance up on Friday saying this virus could spread through aerosols, I can tell you, many in the public health community said basically, finally, we have known this for a while. There was good literature that came out in June basically showing this particular virus can suspend itself in air. Not just through respiratory droplets, which is also moving through the air, but suspend itself in air and then travel further than six feet. Think of it more like smoke rather than a respiratory droplet.

When they put it up on their website on Friday, people thought this makes sense, really makes the case masks, which is really what this discussion is about, but also avoiding indoor spaces, really focused on ventilation, thinking about all these things especially as we go into the colder season the next several months.

Then they took it down. And they said, again, it was an error. They are still reviewing that data. Hopefully they will put it back up, but it should make no difference in terms of the way that we think about this virus going forward. The idea that masks in indoor spaces, even if you're six feet away, are a concern. If the viral particulars can be suspended in air, you have think of it that way. Think of it more like smoke and you're much more likely to keep yourself safe.

If I can punctuate, for just a second, punctuate something that Andy said, because my parents watch this program every day, and my dad lives in Florida, he has heart disease and he's been really worried about this. And it just really does strike me, people watch this and he says it's the elderly people with heart disease, them, and just sort of dismissive of them. My dad who is watching, people do care about you. And there are things that can be done short of a vaccine or a therapeutic to keep you safe. It shouldn't be so dismissive of that population of people.

BERMAN: He's not nobody. He's not nobody. CAMEROTA: He's your dad. That's just a personal -- that just drives

it home, obviously, for everybody. So Sanjay, thank you for all of those reminders, Andy Slavitt, thank you for your sober assessment as always.

All right, Senate Republicans meet soon to talk about their strategy to fill the vacancy left by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Senator Lindsey Graham says that they already have the votes, even though they do not know yet who Trump's nominee is. CNN's John Harwood is live at the White House with more. What have you learned, John?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this thing is barreling down the tracks right now. We know that the president met yesterday with Amy Coney Barrett at the White House. She is the leading contender for the post. She was a runner-up to Brett Kavanaugh a couple of years, has been largely vetted for this position. And we have seen that the president wants to make the pick this week, and Republicans say they can move it before the November 3rd election. Lindsey Graham said he's already got the votes lined up.

Some people say, how can they commit to having the votes before they know who the nominee is? You have got to understand, guys, the psychology of the modern Republican Party, which is that they think they are outnumbered in the country. Their part of the country that they represent, especially older, white Christians, rural areas, is shrinking. The Democratic, more diverse, secular base is grown. They have lost six out of the last seven popular votes for president. They can read they polls. They see that the president is significantly behind. They may even lose the Senate.

So that fuels a psychology of get what you can while you can, and this is a very big thing to get. And for -- from the standpoint of Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican caucus in the Senate, it looks almost certain that they're going to get it and get it quickly.

CAMEROTA: OK, John Harwood, thank you very much.

So what will Senate Democrats do now? We ask one of them, next.

BERMAN: And coming up in just minutes, a favorite son of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Captain America on a new mission. Chris Evans joins us live to talk about his push to get Americans to vote.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg's replacement before the election. We're going to move forward in the committee. We're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Before the election.

That is Senator Lindsey Graham who will run the confirmation hearings for President Trump's nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono. She is on the Judiciary Committee.

So, you heard from the chairman of that committee who says --

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): Yes.

BERMAN: -- he's got the votes to confirm in committee and Republicans have the votes to confirm in the Senate before the election.

Of course, we don't know who the nominee is but your reaction, nonetheless?

HIRONO: The Republicans don't care who the nominee is because they know that the nominee will vote to strike down their Affordable Care Act, which is one of the first major cases that the Supreme Court will take up right after the election. Hmm.

There's a connection here, of course. And the Republicans have been trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which protects health care for millions in the middle of a pandemic. This is what they're doing.

And so, that's why it doesn't matter.

You know, and the person is also going to be against a woman's right to choose, so there was Roe v. Wade.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: What does it matter to you? I mean, the Republicans have said that they're going to vote to confirm before they know who the nominee is. Does it matter to you? Or how much does it matter to you who the nominee is?

HIRONO: It should matter just to me but to the American public that their health care is about to be wiped out.

So, just as so many of them came forward when the Senate was talking about poised to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they all should know that in a middle of a pandemic, when we have had over 200,000 Americans die, that the Supreme Court is poised and especially with the Trump nominee to strike down the Affordable Care Act.

That is what everybody should be concerned about right now.

BERMAN: What you're talking about is there is a Supreme Court case on the calendar. It will be heard on November 10th.

[08:20:00] HIRONO: Yes.

BERMAN: And this has to do with the appellate court decision which did strike down in its entirety Obamacare.

HIRONO: Yes.

BERMAN: And the court will hear that unless they delay it. But on November 10, so that will be Affordable Care Act and that will happen.

HIRONO: Yes.

BERMAN: So, again, what is your plan now as a Democrat? What do you feel like you can do?

HIRONO: Well, we can do, what we will do and this is why I'm on your show, John, is to tell the American public what's at stake with this nomination. And that is their very health care.

So, all the people with the pre-existing conditions, once the Affordable Care Act is struck down, "aloha 'oe" for that one, you know, there will be no protections. So, this is what we Democrats need to do. Sure, we'll use whatever procedural tools we can, but one of the biggest things we can all do is to know what is at stake. It is our health care for millions and millions of Americans.

BERMAN: What about after the election and going forward? Joe Biden was asked last night repeatedly if he wins the election, would he favor adding more justices in the Supreme Court. He would not answer that question.

Where do you stand on that?

HIRONO: This is long overdue court reform as far as I'm concerned and I have been thinking about court reform and what we can do regarding the Supreme Court to make it so much more objective. And so, this is not something that a lot of us have not thought about.

But on the other hand, this, after the election, we only have a serious discussion about any of the things if the Democrats take back the Senate. But the first danger is what's going to happen in November when the Supreme Court takes up the Affordable Care Act? That is what everybody should be worried about and concerned.

BERMAN: Joe Biden would not take a position on adding justices to the court last night. What do you feel like you need to here from him on that subject?

HIRONO: What I get from Joe Biden is, first and foremost, he has to get elected. Let's keep our eye on the ball. The people of America have a very clear choice in Joe Biden who will address the pandemic, not lie to the American people, who will bring integrity and honesty, something we haven't seen in four years of this administration. All we have is lies, chaos.

So, first and foremost, Joe Biden has to get elected. Kamala Harris has to get elected. Democrats need to get elected to the Senate. We need to take back the Senate so we can address some of the hypothetical things you're taking about which I have been thinking about for years now.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about a matter of breaking news. You are on the Senate Armed Services Committee. There's new reporting from Josh Rogin, a "Washington Post" columnist. And let me read to you what writes this morning.

This comes from the CIA intelligence assessment that they wrote on August 31st but as not been released. Not been made public.

And Josh Rogin reports that CIA writes, quote: We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. former vice president, that's Joe Biden, supporting the U.S. president, that's Donald Trump, and fuelling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November.

The news there, a CIA assessment that Putin himself is probably directing attacks against Joe Biden.

First of all, your reaction to that news?

HIRONO: That is appalling, of course, but it goes to show that President Trump has politicized every institution. So that would be our intelligence services, who will not give us any briefings anymore. We're supposed to read about it.

And the F -- federal -- the FDA, you know? The CDC -- yu just did a piece on the CDC taking down critical information to the American public about how this virus is spread.

So he's politicized every institution. Thank goodness that he hasn't gotten to the FBI director yet who said Russia is interfering with our elections even as we speak.

BERMAN: He did. He did.

That -- this new assessment though that I did not know about comes from August 31st. The assessment is that Vladimir Putin is probably directing these attacks on Joe Biden.

HIRONO: Yes.

BERMAN: You're a member of the Senate. Had you heard that before that this morning from an official CIA assessment?

HIRONO: Well, I'm glad that we have this confirmation, but we have been told that quite a while ago that Russia is continuing to interfere with our elections. This was long before August.

Now, you know, thank goodness that the CIA, somebody in the CIA is confirming this, but we knew this.

BERMAN: But my point is, my point is, if the CIA is assessing that Putin is probably directing, shouldn't the Senate know, shouldn't you have to know?

HIRONO: Of course, we should know.

BERMAN: Shouldn't the American people be aware of this at this point?

HIRONO: Of course, we should know. But this is what the president wants to hide from us.

He's got as something going with Vladimir Putin. We know that. He's got a bromance with all of the dictators across the world. It's not just Putin, but there seems to be something special regarding Putin. But you talk about Erdogan, you talk about Duterte, you talk about Kim Jong-un.

[08:25:01]

He has -- he loves these guys.

Now this is a president who wants to be authoritarian just like them. This is why the people of America have a choice in this election. Are we going to have the continuation of the Trump chaos and interference with institutions that should be -- should be telling us American people the truth or are we going to have a Joe Biden who will tell us the truth?

You know, lying is not something that Joe Biden does, but it comes out of the president's mouth since the very first time he stepped foot -- even before then in the White House.

BERMAN: Senator Mazie Hirono from Hawaii -- thanks for being with us this morning.

HIRONO: You're welcome. Thank you.

BERMAN: One of Kentucky's front line heroes lost her fight with coronavirus. Two of her colleagues help us remember her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A Kentucky doctor who led the fight against coronavirus has died after a four month battle herself with the virus. Dr. Rebecca was a top infectious disease specialist for more than three decades. She got coronavirus in May but lost her battle nearly two weeks ago. She was 62 years old.

Anderson Cooper talked to her husband who's also a doctor.