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New Day
Trump Again Refuses to Condemn White Supremacists; Wisconsin Reports Record Deaths, Hospitalizations as Cases Surge; Trump Attacks Somali-American Congresswoman, Insults Minnesota Voters. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 01, 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: After refusing to explicitly condemn white supremacy and right-wing extremists, President Trump declined to denounce them once again.
[05:59:20]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know who the Proud Boys are. I can only say they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wisconsin just reported its highest daily number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time in 16 years, where we've had to put patients in hallway beds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got to put the brakes on this pandemic.
(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's Thursday, October what?
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: First.
BERMAN: It's October.
CAMEROTA: How did that happen?
BERMAN: Yes. It's October 1. It's 6 a.m. here in New York. And this morning, white supremacy is bad. White supremacists are dangerous. I condemn white supremacy. How hard is that to say? The president can't make his mouth form those words, white supremacists.
We're in a new place this morning on the story after the president refused to speak out against white supremacy at the debate. Now the president says he has always denounced that, conveniently forgetting he didn't Tuesday and refusing to say exactly what that is.
Moreover, overnight, the president used language that would delight white supremacists, warning that Minnesota could turn into a refugee camp and hurling a racist attack against a U.S. members of Congress from Minnesota.
More new debate fall-out this morning. We're learning that the bipartisan debate commission is planning changes to bring order, or try to, to the final two debate. This could include cutting a candidate's microphone or perhaps time penalties.
CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, coronavirus continues to surge across the country, 27 states seeing an increase in cases this morning. And nearly 1,000 more Americans died just yesterday.
One of the worst states is Wisconsin. It's seeing a sharp rise in new cases, as you can see on your screen. The state posted a single-day -- single-day records plural for hospitalizations and deaths yesterday.
Despite these numbers, President Trump is planning to hold two campaign rallies in Wisconsin this weekend. Local leaders are pleading for masks to be required.
So let's begin our coverage with CNN's Jessica Dean. She's live in Washington on the president's comments overnight -- Jessica.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn.
Last night President Trump once again not condemning white supremacy. This is the second time in two weeks that Republicans up on the Hill have been forced to distance themselves from comments that he's made.
Last week it was his refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. And now this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN (voice-over): Less than 24 hours after President Trump helped push the first debate into a chaotic disaster and refused to condemn white supremacists --
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: White supremacists --
BIDEN: Proud Boys.
WALLACE: White supremacists and right-wing militia.
TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. Somebody has got to do something about Antifa and the left.
DEAN: He insisted he did not know who the Proud Boys were. When asked why he declined to reject the far-right wing hate group --
TRUMP: You have to give me a definition. Because I really don't know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work.
DEAN: And while the president struggled to give a clear statement, Joe Biden sent this message from his train tour of the Rust Belt.
BIDEN: My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist.
DEAN: On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers asked Trump to help clean up the fallout from his remarks.
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): I think he misspoke. I think he should correct it. If he doesn't correct it, I guess he didn't misspeak.
DEAN: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying he agrees with Senator Tim Scott's comments.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists. And so I do so in the strongest possible way.
DEAN: While White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says the president believes he did well in this debate, Biden called Trump's performance a, quote, "national embarrassment."
BIDEN: He thinks that, if he just yells louder and louder, throws out lie after lie after lie, he'll get his way. He thinks we'll forget. Well, he picked the wrong guy.
DEAN: And after Tuesday's event unraveled into an ugly spectacle, the Committee on Presidential Debates says it will be making changes, writing in a statement it, quote, "made clear that additional structure should be added to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues."
Trump's campaign complaining about the move.
TIM MURTAUGH, TRUMP CAMPAIGN COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The bipartisan commission is riding to the rescue of their guy. I think that changing the rules midstream is a bad idea.
DEAN: At a rally in Minnesota, the president also falsely claimed the Democratic nominee will cancel the remaining debates. But Biden's campaign says the Democratic nominee will show up to the remaining two, and on the rule change, he's open to, quote, "whatever set of rules the commission develops to try to contain Donald Trump's behavior."
BIDEN: I just hope there's a way in which the debate commission can control the ability of us to answer the question without interruption.
(END VIDEOTAPE) DEAN: So to that end, two people with knowledge of the discussions amongst the committee on presidential debates tell "The New York Times" there's a number of options that they're discussing.
That includes further limits on candidates' speaking time; perhaps giving the moderators the ability to cut off candidates' microphones if they need to; and also perhaps installing penalties that would make the candidate yield back time if they continue to interrupt the other candidate.
[06:05:07]
Alisyn, it's unclear at this point exactly which of these specific changes could be put in place, but we'll find out in a couple weeks.
CAMEROTA: OK, Jessica, thank you very much.
Meanwhile, new cases of coronavirus are surging in 27 states in the last week, including Wisconsin. And that's where President Trump is planning to hold two rallies this weekend, even though the White House task force itself is warning of, quote, "intense viral surge" in that state.
CNN's Brynn Gingras joins us now with more.
Hi, Brynn.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. Good morning.
The White House task force has warned Wisconsin mitigation efforts are essential at this point, wearing masks, social distancing, because the number of cases in that state is surging.
Now, I want to tick through some of the statistics we're seeing out of Wisconsin. Of course, no state wants to be good at these numbers. And Wisconsin is one of them.
The state has the highest daily death toll yesterday. It's among the highest in the country for positivity rate, at 21 percent. And of course, officials -- health officials really look at the hospitalization rate to help them determine their, you know, criteria and numbers and where they need to focus.
And it's not good in Wisconsin. Nearly the number of people going into the hospitals over the last couple weeks has nearly doubled. And we're seeing a third, about a third of those people going in, going into ICU units.
And of course, 18 percent we're hearing -- 18 percent of those hospital beds are not available. People are getting treated in the hallways.
Of course, we have seen that before. And you say, you know, just as you mentioned, the president is going to hold two rallies there this weekend. One in La Crosse and one in Green Bay, where his own White House task force has determined both of those cities hot zones at this point.
Now, switching gears this morning, talking about the FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, and the vaccine, he has said in trying to, you know, tell the public that it's going to be data and it's going to be science that's going to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine when it is rolled out.
Of course, this is the opposite of what we're hearing from the president. But Stephen Hahn saying they have strict guidelines that they're going to stick to and that he believes in science -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK, Brynn, thank you very much for that update.
So President Trump has a very hard time condemning white supremacy. Senate Republicans tried, and did, but many of them will not rebuke the president's words. So we discuss this key moment in the 2020 race next.
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[06:11:36]
BERMAN: So, watch President Trump's difficulty saying the words. His reluctance to say the words, "I condemn white supremacists." Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White supremacists, they clearly love you and support you. You welcome that?
TRUMP: I want law and order to be a very important part. It's a very important part of my campaign. And when I say that, what I'm talking about is law enforcement has to, police have to take care. And they should stop defunding the police like they've done in New York.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about white supremacists, sir?
TRUMP: I just told you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you denounce them? Do you denounce --
TRUMP: I've always denounced any form, any form --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of white supremacy?
TRUMP: -- any form of any of that. You have to denounce.
But I also -- and Joe Biden has to say something about Antifa. It's not a philosophy. These are people that hit people over the head with baseball bats. He's got to come out, and he's got to be strong. And he's got to condemn Antifa. And it's very important that he does that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: "Any form of any of that." Not "I condemn white supremacy." It's like the Fonz in "Happy Days," who couldn't say, "I'm sorry." He would go, "I'm s-s-s-s-" President Trump couldn't get the "W" in white supremacy. That's what that sounds like.
Joining us now, Anna Palmer. She is Politico's senior Washington correspondent. And CNN political commentator Errol Louis. He's a political anchor at Spectrum News and host of the podcast "You Decide."
Errol, on top of that, the president says he's always condemned "that," but he didn't condemn "that" Tuesday night when given the opportunity in front of 70 million people, and here we are again this morning. So what does it mean?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, what it means is that the president is saying the quiet part out loud. He's sending a clear signal to violent extremists, militia-type organizations which are publicly rejoicing, that -- that clearly get the message.
He's letting them know that he's not going to step away from them. That he does want them, in fact, to go out and help disrupt the elections, apparently, is what he -- he's aiming at.
And we've gone through this charade with the president of the United States over and over and over again. We went through it at Charlottesville a couple of years ago. We're going through it again.
It's tragic that a president of the United States can't simply open his mouth and insist on upholding the Constitution, the law, the values that an overwhelming number of Americans support, just in order to disrupt the elections. Not to win the elections. But just to make a mess of it, because he's losing.
CAMEROTA: Anna, the president claimed yesterday he doesn't know who the Proud Boys are, which is possible. We know that he doesn't read, and intellectual curiosity is not his middle name.
But that would mean, if that were true, that his national security team is not briefing him on that, not telling him that; choosing not to, which sometimes, as you know, they do spare him information that they think will upset him. Do we know why he wouldn't know that?
ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": I think it's unclear why he might not know it. It's also -- this has clearly been scandal now for 24-plus hours. He could certainly Google it. He uses Twitter.
So I think oftentimes when he steps in hot water and doesn't denounce groups like this, or whether it's QAnon and others, he often says he doesn't know or the president isn't -- hasn't been briefed on it. And so I think it's a little bit hard to say that.
I do think it's really putting Republicans on Capitol Hill up for re- election in a bad spot. They have, you know, condemned lightly, but they don't really want to attack the president; because they don't want to face the ire of him or his supporters.
[06:15:07] But I do think this is going to be an issue for Republicans. He just needs to say that -- it's a very simple sentence -- "I denounce white supremacy." And he's refused to do that so far, and it's hard to see him do that in the next 30-some days before the election.
BERMAN: Let's play that. Since you're talking about the discomfort from Republicans on Capitol Hill and Republicans running for office now, we saw some of it on display. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT: I think he misspoke. I think he should correct it. If he doesn't correct it, I guess he didn't misspeak.
MCCONNELL: I want to associate myself with the remarks of Senator Tim Scott. He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists. And so I do so in the strongest possible way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should, actually, the president condemn white supremacy?
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it a mistake for him -- for him to leave that hanging out there?
COLLINS: Yes.
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): He should unequivocally condemn white supremacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. There you have it. That's how you do say it out loud. It's hardly a profile in courage to say I condemn white supremacy, but you can see the situation now that Republicans are in around the country.
Errol, I want to make one more point on this, which is while the president says, you know, Oh, I've always condemned that, without saying what it is; while he refuses to say the words "white supremacists," he's using language, again, that will delight white supremacists. He went to Minnesota and held a rally there and attacked Ilhan Omar, the first woman Muslim ever elected to Congress, and warned of refugee camps in Minnesota. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What -- what is going on with Omar? I've been reading these reports for two years about how corrupt and crooked she is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up! TRUMP: Let's get with it (ph). Let's get with it (ph).
How the hell? Then she tells us how to run our country. Can you believe it? How the hell did Minnesota elect her? What the hell is wrong with you people?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So the part there that is honestly -- it's part of the lexicon of white supremacist groups and the way that the Proud Boys talk, "our country." Our country. As if this U.S. member of Congress, who happens to have a skin color different than most of the Proud Boys, isn't part of our country, Errol.
LOUIS: Yes. That's -- that's what -- it is exactly as you described. The president is reaching into the bottom of his bag of tricks, brings out the profanity, brings out the racism, trots it out there for the delight of the worst of his followers, appealing to the worst instincts in American politics.
Again, all to just kind of stir the pot. This is what has worked for him in the past.
It's not only disgusting and discouraging but something we should keep in mind as there are credible reports, according to "The New York Times," that overseas foreign powers are taking this up.
In other words, the Russians are sort of keying into this. And some of the same phrases, the same disruption, the same divisiveness that's coming out of the mouth of the president of the United States is now finding its way and being fed into our political bloodstream through bots, through messaging, through the kind of information warfare that was waged against this country four years ago.
And so, you know, it's a big problem. It's not just one loutish president, one crude politician shouting invective and shouting racism from the podium. We've had that for a long time in this country. But it gets worse and worse and worse.
And everyone in this country should be not only alarmed but start working on resiliency measures. Be prepared for more of this as we get closer to election day, and do everything you can to tell everyone in your circle there are some things that -- that are simply beyond the pale, that are outside the reach of normal politics. And a lot of it happens to be coming out of the president's mouth.
CAMEROTA: I mean, you don't even have to go overseas to see it in the bloodstream, Anna. You know, it's in the bloodstream, obviously, here.
You know, Elizabeth Neumann, who has left the White House, but she was, you know, the team of the assistant secretary of counterterrorism, she said -- she has a Twitter thread yesterday in which she talked about how they saw that these extremists, some of whom became mass shooters in our countries, for instance, Texas, used the same language that President Trump uses. You can match it. I mean, their language mirrors what the president is saying. And she saw a direct, you know, one-to-one relationship there.
PALMER: Yes. I think it's really disturbing. And to Errol's point, the fact that the president continues to double down on this language, it's clearly a base play; but it also opens up, you know, kind of activity and almost an endorsement by some of these groups. We've seen that in terms of what they've been trying to do online, using this as a rallying cry, that We've heard you, Mr. President. That could be very dangerous as we get to an election that is, you know, potentially very tight.
The president is already casting aspersions around whether or not voting is going to be safe. He made a very big plea about how he doesn't think it is during the first debate, which could be, you know, potentially upend -- and really, the sanctity of American ballot and elections are on the ballot right now.
[06:20:19]
I think that's going to be the real thing to watch in the coming weeks, is does the president continue to double down? There's no reason to believe that he's going to stop using these kinds of statements and this sentiment as the election gets closer.
BERMAN: So Errol, I like to point out that you are one of the great debate moderators in America; and I like to point it out because it happens to be true.
LOUIS: Thank you.
BERMAN: You run debates, local debates here in New York City, which are chaos and madness. So you know how to keep these things in order.
The debate commission is now proposing some changes to fix what's obviously a system that the president trotted upon Tuesday night. They're going to maybe institute time limits. They're going to maybe institute penalties on your time for if you go over, and then the idea of maybe cutting off the microphone.
Will this work, as an expert?
LOUIS: It could work. I mean, the cutting off the microphone and threatening to basically halt the debate in midstream, that is probably the most effective tool that a moderator would have. And it's important that they -- any moderator have that. That's really what Chris Wallace needed the other day.
But the other change that they might consider implementing, though, John, is the idea of what, when I do local debates, we call it cross- examination. We specifically give the candidates a chance to ask their opponent a question. So that there's not a lot of this crosstalk.
You know, you know that they want to do it. You know they want to zing at each other. And frankly, you know, the answers might not be that illuminating. But it's a good sort of release valve, because you can tell a lot about a candidate by the question he or she chooses to ask; and you learn just as much by the answer that they get. So you know, you kind of do that, let that get over with.
But you really do have to enforce the rules. And you have to do it early on. You can't wait an hour into the debate and then start pleading with the candidates to obey the rules, which is what Chris Wallace ended up doing. You have to really jump on that very first interruption and say, Listen, the debate will stop right here and right now if you can't follow the rules that you agreed to play by.
BERMAN: And then we'll give you a time-out and no dessert.
CAMEROTA: In your playpen.
BERMAN: All right. Errol, Anna, thank you both for being with us this morning.
LOUIS: Thank you.
BERMAN: So this could be the biggest story of the day here. President Trump is planning to go to Wisconsin to hold rallies, campaign rallies this weekend. Wisconsin might be in the worst situation in the country right now in terms of coronavirus. The president's own coronavirus task force is pleading with the people going to these rallies to be careful. We'll explain next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:27:02]
CAMEROTA: The White House coronavirus task force sounding the alarm for people in Wisconsin this morning. Warnings about an exponential growth in infections and urging maximal social distancing.
The state saw record daily deaths and hospitalizations yesterday. It's experiencing a big surge in new cases. But despite all of that, President Trump is planning to hold two campaign rallies there this weekend.
Joining us now, Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's College of Public Health.
Dr. Khan, it's almost like he's choosing the place in the country that is having its worst experience with coronavirus to hold a rally -- two rallies.
DR. ALI KHAN, DEAN, COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: Good morning, Alisyn.
And you're spot-on on this one. So Wisconsin, if you look at the data, has had -- is having the most number of cases it's ever had, the most number of people in the hospital, the most people in the ICU, and the most number of deaths. It's also up around 400 -- 400 cases per million per day, so essentially, very close to the peak we saw in New York early in the spring. So, without a doubt, you know, this is the hottest area, one of the hottest areas in the country.
BERMAN: It's like the task force is begging with Wisconsin to be careful. And maybe even begging the president not to do this.
The language out of a report from the task force on Wisconsin says, "During the intense period of viral surge, large numbers of acutely infected individuals caused exponential growth in infections. Although young adults are the most infected groups, currently spread to other age groups is inevitable. To the maximal degree possible, increase social distancing mitigation measures until cases decline."
I don't think campaign rallies falls into that last sentence there, Dr. Khan.
KHAN: So, I would agree with you on the exponential rise. It's very clear, you know, when you look at Wisconsin, to see that exponential rise.
Also Wisconsin has now proved the point about, you know, if you open colleges in a community where you do not have -- have not decreased community transmission, you see infections amongst these college students, but it doesn't stay on the campuses.
And so, six of the eight hottest counties in Wisconsin had University of Wisconsin campuses. And then if you look at the data by age, you see the -- you see it going up in these 18 to 25-year-olds. It starts to come down. And then all of a sudden, the rest of the population in the community is going up.
So, without a doubt, these college campuses are now spilling disease out into the rest of the community, including to vulnerable populations, which is why your deaths are going up now.
CAMEROTA: All right. Well, we're going to have to obviously watch what happens there and if there's a mask mandate, and if -- it's outdoors. Right?
BERMAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Is it -- They're outdoors. OK.
But meanwhile, I want to ask you, Doctor, about this new study, the biggest of -- the largest of its kind in the world about contact tracing. It was done in India. Here's what some of the topline findings are.
The study based on a giant contact.
