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Elementary Schools In New York City Reopen Today, Despite Spike; Republicans Challenge Court Decision On Pennsylvania Ballots; Pelosi And Mnuchin Pushing For Stimulus Deal Ahead Of Election. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired September 29, 2020 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: I don't need to explain them. Just look at them 7.1 million cases, 205,000 dead Americans.
Brian Stelter, excellent reporting, thank you for sharing it with us.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Thanks.
KING: Up next for us, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, New York City Schools are reopening for elementary students today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:35:01]
KING: Elementary schools in the nation's largest school district joined the back to school experiment today public schools in New York City, offering the option for in person classes or remote learning. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro, live outside of New York City School with the very latest, a big day in the city.
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. I'm outside P.S. 89 in Queens. This is the first time the schools been open for most of its students since March. And the first day of school is very different than the one that was happening when the school is closed down. Let me tell you how it works.
Parents showed up this morning and lined up in socially distant lines at different entrances for individual grades. When they showed up here they had to scan a Q.R. code like this one, enter their student's health information, and then their temperature was taken. And then the students were led into the building by staff.
It's all designed to make everybody here feel safe about going back to school. And parents I spoke to this morning, they do feel comfortable. But a lot of people still feel very wary more and more parents in recent weeks have chosen in person -- I mean, online education, certainly in person education and ever that's been rising.
And at a press conference just moments ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo, said you're going to keep a close eye on things. And if it doesn't look good, he'll shut the schools down again. So this experiment could be pretty short.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The schools must report to the state the data. They're doing testing. The numbers will tell you the facts. And once you have the facts you can operate logically. If the schools are not safe, I'm not going to allow them to operate, period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So look, it's obviously very early in this. We're literally hours into this attempt. But with comments like the governors and some of the parents that we're seeing opting not to do this, the school system still has to convince people this is the safe thing to do, John.
KING: Appreciate the reporting, Evan, that's fascinating time. We will see how this experiment plays out in nation's largest school district, a good place to be reporting on it. Evan, thank you so much.
Up next for us, yes, unprecedented interest in mail-in voting and guess what some problems popping up including New York.
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[12:41:41]
KING: Former Trump National Security Adviser Retired General H.R. McMaster says America's competitors look at the United States right now and see America as weak because of the heated election rhetoric. General McMaster blaming both sides, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
H.R. MCMASTER, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER UNDER TRUMP: I've been concerned obviously with the President's statements, which I think are completely inappropriate, you know. But sometimes I want the reaction on the left or the opposition is just as bad. Well, you add, I think at one point Vice President Biden saying that the Joint Chiefs of Staff are going to march, you know, the prison all the way, that's crazy talk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Those comments come of course, in the middle of the early stages of an unprecedented voting season, voting season with a lot of mail-in two states reporting some mail-in voting issues. Let's bring in our national correspondent Kristen Holmes falling this, hiccup, small problems. Kristen, are we seeing anything that people should be worried about?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know yet, still trying to figure that out. I mean, right now everything is a big question mark, as you said, there's these two states, of course, that are dealing with mail-in voting issue as well, the rest of the entire country is scrambling to prepare for this unprecedented election. So let's started in Pennsylvania talking about what's going on there. The Republicans in that state are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to block a lower court decision to extend counting of absentee ballots by three days.
And, John, just to make one thing very clear, those ballots would have to have been postmarked on Election Day or before but this was something that was brought forward by Democrats as they've tried to kind of ease the restrictions on absentee ballots because of one, the pandemic. They are expecting all of these mail-in ballots and two, because of widespread concern about the Postal Service about the counting system already in Pennsylvania, which doesn't start processing until the day of the election.
Now, Republicans they say this, they say this is an open invitation for people to cast their ballot after the election, which would lead to widespread chaos. But whatever the results are here, they are extremely sweeping consequences, we know that thousands of votes could either be rejected or counted in a state that still is a critical swing state. So, one of these is wrapped up in the courts. The other is a fairly unfortunate mailing error.
In New York and several boroughs, we know that voters received the wrong return ballot envelope. So when you get those envelopes, it's supposed to have your personal information, voter I.D. number, address, name. Instead, people got some other entirely different strangers, ballot return envelopes. And the New York Board of Election says this was an error with a contractor who is supposed to print and send these out.
But, John, this is a very unfortunate error. Because we're at a point right now where President Trump is casting doubt on the election system as a whole. And you have a lot of people, Democrats and Republicans, who are very concerned about the integrity of the election.
So something just as small as that can really set people off. Now we do know the New York Board of Elections is meeting out in about 30 minutes to talk this through. So we'll keep you posted on that.
KING: Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for that. And you make a good point. In this environment where everything is being so closely scrutinized and attacked by the President in some cases, double check, triple check, quadruple check before you put those things in the mail. Kristen, thank you so much.
[12:44:53]
Up next for us, the global coronavirus headlines including a troubling milestone in the United Kingdom.
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KING: The United Kingdom registering a new record today for coronavirus cases with more than 7,100 reported new infections. That's its highest mark since the pandemic began. Britain also logged the most single day deaths since July 1st more of the global headlines now from our correspondents around the world.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers in Mexico City. For the first time since this pandemic began, the overall global coronavirus death toll has now topped 1 million lives lost for the first time. That is, of course a staggering number.
[12:50:12]
But I want to show you a graph. This is the latest figures when it comes to the seven day moving average worldwide of newly confirmed deaths. You can see that that number remains quite high. I actually went back and looked at the data.
The last time that an average of less than 5,000 deaths was recorded on two straight days, you have to go all the way back to July 15th and 16th to find data like that. It shows you how serious this situation remains worldwide. And of course the countries with the highest individual death tolls at this point begins with the United States followed by Brazil then India then here in Mexico.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Fred Pleitgen in Berlin where German Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting with state governors to try and hash out new measures to put the brakes on a recent spike of novel coronavirus infections. Now German media talking about a flurry of possible new measures including putting restrictions on the number of people who are allowed to meet at gatherings to 25 in private gatherings and up to 50 in public gatherings.
There's also talk about possible restrictions or even bans on alcohol sales in places where there are a lot of coronavirus infections. So far, Germany has gotten through the pandemic quite well but the German government does say it is alarmed by the new dynamic.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Moscow. And Russia has announced another big deal to supply its ads yet unproven vaccines Sputnik V. This time 25 million doses to the kingdom of Nepal. The agreement means that 90 percent of Nepal's population will have access to the Russian vaccine, which is of course not yet completed crucial phase three human trials.
Similar deals involving tens of millions of doses of Sputnik V have also been agreed recently with Brazil, with India, with Saudi Arabia, and with a host of other countries as well. All this comes amid a global surge in coronavirus infections.
In Russia itself which remains one of the world's worst affected countries, infections have also started to climb with more than 1.1 million confirmed cases across the country. The authorities here in Moscow have now extended upcoming school breaks in a bid to slow that rate of infection down.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KING: Up next, there is a last ditch effort underway to get a pre- election coronavirus stimulus deal. We'll take a peek to see if it's going to work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:57:15]
KING: Possible movement today on Capitol Hill with the goal of breaking a bitter stalemate on a new stimulus deal. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House lead negotiator Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have spoken several times in the last few days including a conversation just this morning.
In an effort to reach an agreement Democrats releasing their latest plan last night, a $2.2 trillion bill which includes a new round of stimulus payments, but is smaller than they had previously wanted less money for state and local governments.
CNN's Manu Raju tracking this for us live on Capitol Hill. They are talking, Manu, the question is are they making progress?
MANU RAJU, CNN ENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the big question. They are very far apart in trying to reach a deal. They're going to try to reach a deal this week. But there's a lot of skepticism that they will be able to get there. One reason is the price tag.
While, Pelosi and the Democrats came forward with a $2.2 trillion plan is down from the $3.4 trillion measure that passed the House in May that did not go anywhere in the Senate. Republicans ignored in the Senate.
While it is down roughly $1.2 trillion, it's still higher than what Republicans want. The Senate Republicans as you recall passed a bill with $500 billion earlier this month, they're willing to go nowhere near that $2.2 trillion level. And about an hour ago, I asked Pelosi if she's willing to go below $2.2 trillion. And she said it's what meets the needs of the American people.
So she's signaling an unwillingness to go much further, but they are putting forward this plan that does make some changes, one of which is for state and local funding. That had been a big sticking point in the last plan, Democrats pushed forward $1 trillion for state and local governments. And this plan has $436 billion over one year for state and local governments would also extend jobless benefits to the tune of $600 a week, those expired in July.
And also those $1,200 direct payments to certain individuals under an income level, threshold level. But the big question is, again, can the two sides reach a deal between Mnuchin and Pelosi? Will that be enough for Senate Republicans to go along?
Could they bring moderate -- Democrats as well as some of the liberal members who are pushing for something much more aggressive? It is very difficult to see that coming together but at the moment, John, Pelosi and Mnuchin talking at least after not having any discussion for weeks, John.
KING: Talking but missing from those talks, the White House Chief of Staff who has been the voice. Mnuchin and Pelosi tend to do business Mark Meadows has been one who's gummed up the works of it.
RAJU: Yes. And Mark Meadows, according to Steny Hoyer told the two of us -- a couple of us last week, he didn't want Mark Meadows in the room having those discussions. But Meadows of course, John, will have to sign off on any deal along with the President, so a long way to go into getting to that.
KING: Appreciate you're watching it for us. Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill. Thanks for spending your time with us today. Hope to see us back here this time tomorrow. We'll have a debate to talk about.
[13:00:00]
Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good afternoon.
