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Trump Tests Positive for Coronavirus; Job Numbers for September; Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 02, 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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[08:30:01]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, the president and first lady have tested positive for coronavirus and are in isolation at the White House.

Joining us now, CNN political director David Chalian, CNN political analyst Astead Herndon, national political reporter for "The New York Times," and Margaret Talev, politics and White House editor at "Axios."

Good to have all of you with us this morning.

You know, David, there is so much -- and we're learning so much as we go along this morning. It's only 8:30. It feels like it should be a lot later based on where we're at, at this point. But as we look at what 8:30 on Friday morning, October 2nd, looks like now, versus what we thought it would look like last night when we all went to bed, David, a lot has changed.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: To say the least.

HILL: To say the least.

One thing that hasn't changed, though, is that there is genuine concern and there are real questions about what we are going to know about the president and the first lady. How much credibility this White House has as we try to get answers on the president's condition and even the timeline of events simply based on history.

CHALIAN: Erica, it's such an important point that you're making there. I mean this has really been a constant conversation for nearly four years now during the Trump presidency, which is, when a president has such a deficit of trust with a big swath of the American people, a majority of the American people in some polls that don't see him as honest and trustworthy, when crisis hits, what does that deficiency of trust mean for that moment?

And let's talk specifically about how non-transparent, how opaque this administration has been about the president's health specifically. And so on this issue alone of just the president's health and, by the way, President Trump not the only president that has been opaque about his health in American history. But in this moment, this president, who repeatedly lies to the American people, who very publicly dismissed the science related to this virus, constantly, and -- and who is known not to be forthcoming about his own health with the American people, it raises so many questions about what Americans tuning into this news right now can actually take for truth in what comes out of the White House. And, right now, obviously, it's precious little. But when information does come out, how the voter -- how the American voter sifts through all that is -- is a tough task.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is. And, look, I've been pointing it out all morning. People are getting angry at me on Twitter for pointing it out. But when you lie about the little things, it's hard to trust you on the big things. And that's where we are this morning and that's why we just have to question what we're being told by the White House. And we're only telling you what we're told because some of it we just don't know at this point.

Astead, we are all in the middle of this campaign at this point. It goes without saying that this does undercut part of the president's main message, which is that most of the pandemic is behind us. It's clearly not behind us. It's clearly not behind for him at this point this morning.

But what do you see as the immediate impact on this campaign? I mean what's going to happen with Joe Biden over the next few hours, besides, CNN has reported, he's going to being tested for coronavirus?

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think that there is the kind of immediate impact, this kind of -- that convergence of storyline that you're talking about. For the president, they have tried to make coronavirus a kind of side issue for their campaign. When you go to their rallies, when you go to their events, not only are there no masks, not only are there sometimes the violation of social distance and folks packed in place -- close, indoor spaces, but speakers rarely mention it. They fail to acknowledge what is obviously the hugest storyline in the past year and also the biggest impact on voters' lives day to day this year.

And this has now brought that issue directly to the White House. So I think on the logistical level, this means he cannot have those in person rallies that he has wanted to try to juice turnout. This means that he is going to be more sidelined in the White House. And this also means that this administration cannot run from the issue any longer.

For Joe Biden, I think, obviously, initially, there's going to be that coronavirus test. But this throws everything into question. Will Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Pence debate next week? I know that he has -- they announced that he has gotten a negative test, so that looks differently now. What about the debate coming up between Biden and Trump? Is that going to happen in person? Is that going to happen in Zoom? I mean there is so much unanswered right now, partly because we do not have the information and the White House has not been clear, leading up to this process with the American people, with media, and that's not something we can translate to voters and residents and say we have this kind of a trusted share of information. We don't know what's going to happen next.

HILL: Yes, I just want to say, too, the idea of a Zoom presidential debate could not be more 2020, even though I feel like we keep saying that over and over again.

BERMAN: I don't mind. This is a joke that won't go over well, but you try to Zoom with 70-year-olds. I've done it. All right, it's not easy.

HILL: We'll save that segment for another day.

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: As -- as we look at what's happening, though, you know, Astead touched on this, Margaret, though, there are serious questions about how the work gets done, and not just the campaign work, but the actual work that happens on a daily basis in the West Wing.

[08:35:10]

We don't know this morning. We're still waiting on those answers. We're not sure who can show up to work. We're not sure who has to be in quarantine. That has a massive impact as well.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, Erica, I mean I think that's right. And when you say who has to be in quarantine, we know what the CDC guidelines are for this. We know that if everybody was going to operate by the book, it would be days before people were congregating together, maybe a couple of weeks.

I just don't expect that scenario to play out in this White House given the timing and given what has happened so far.

Look, a president and a vice president can continue to govern themselves, even if they are ill, as long as they're not gravely ill. So we see the president's updated schedule that he intends to go forward with this call today on Covid-19 and how it affects vulnerable seniors. Yes, that's completely ironic, but true. And that's what is scheduled.

But there are a number of other interactions as well. What about these final weeks with Congress? There's, obviously, a crucial Supreme Court confirmation hearing queued up to take place. Is that going to go forward as scheduled. Will Republicans and Democrats feel the same about that? How will the president and the vice president engage in policy? How will their staffs make decisions? And I could see the president potentially having -- if he has mild symptoms or symptoms that pass, I could see him wanting to get back on the campaign trail in those final weeks, but will the crowds be as confident as they have been or will there be kind of a Tulsa effect?

So I think there are a lot of substantive policy and purely political questions in this final month now that in these immediate hours we don't know the answers to, but they will surely have an impact as they refocus the attention back to this central issue that now all Americans in every state are aware. Anyone can be vulnerable, even the president. BERMAN: Margaret, Astead, David, I have a million more questions for

the three of you, but we're going to have to take it offline. Keep your phones nearby, because I'll text you my questions because we have more breaking news in just a moment.

The jobs report just in. Mixed signals to say the least.

That's next.

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[08:40:54]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, breaking news. Overnight, stock futures were rattled by news that President Trump has tested positive for coronavirus. That, plus, more breaking news, the final jobs report before Election Day is in.

CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with the details of two wildly different stories, Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, here, look, let's look at job creation, 661,000 net new jobs in September. That is a slowdown from the pace we have seen this summer, although it was enough job creation to pull down the unemployment rate to 7.9 percent. The government pointing out, however, that if you counted truly everybody who really was unemployed the way they classify things, it would be more like 8.3 percent for the unemployment rate. That is still the highest we have ever seen going into a presidential election. And, really, a history-making summer. You still have a pandemic job loss of some 10.7 million jobs. We are still in a jobs hole of 10.7 million jobs. This is the final jobs report before the election. So this is really kind of the final verdict on jobs for voters as they head into -- into the voting booth. And for the president, in his tenure to date, down 3.9 million jobs since his first month in -- full month in office in February. So this pandemic has really just created a very big hole in the jobs market.

Where -- where do we see the hiring here? It was leisure and hospitality, bars and restaurants were starting to hire back in September. We also saw hospitals and health care hiring back. Retail, 142,000 net new jobs there. But these numbers would have been better if you didn't have layoffs for local education. So think of janitors and the people who work in the school lunch programs who are not working right now because schools are not fully functioning and also not so much census hiring again. So those are a couple of things holding this back, John.

BERMAN: Stand by one second. We did get some breaking news.

Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, just arrived on Capitol Hill for a hearing scheduled for a short time from now. I had spoken to Jim Clyburn, who's running this hearing. He wasn't aware that Azar was at the White House on Saturday, unmasked, with a lot of people, including now, we know, people who have tested positive for coronavirus. So it does appear this hearing will be going on.

Back to the jobs report.

Also with us, CNN anchor and correspondent Julia Chatterley.

So, Julia, a big miss, honestly, on number of jobs created, 600,000. It's good that they're being created, but it's a lot lower than we thought it would be. The unemployment rate did drop into the 7's. That in and of itself is good news.

Where do you see this?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: We celebrate every job that is recaptured as a result of the pandemic and the work that's being done, quite frankly. But, John, perspective is everything, as Christine said. We're still down 10.5 million jobs since this pandemic began. I see this recovery as a marathon. We sprinted the first half. We're at the halfway point here. And that's great. Now it gets increasingly difficult. And we are looking increasingly fatigued. You can see that with the slowdown in the jobs that we add month by month.

The isotonic drink that we need here, I think, is more financial aid from Congress to push us towards the recovery for the other half of the jobs that we need to recapture. And we're scarred from this, let's be clear. Just you look at what we're seeing in terms of the individual unemployment rates here. We did see a big drop in African- American unemployment. It's now only -- and I say only, 12.1 percent. White unemployment here, 7 percent. We've wiped out five years of gains in tackling inequality in particular. We've got over 7 million people here saying, look, I'd like to back into the workforce. I simply can't find a job. So there are many challenges that are not revealed by just a snapshot number of jobs gained, however pleasing it is to still be adding jobs two months out from the end of -- of that financial aid.

HILL: And, Christine, really quickly too, this is not the only thing that we will see the markets reacting to today because as we saw overnight, there was reaction to the news that the president and the first lady had tested positive for coronavirus.

ROMANS: Yes, that's a big uncertainty injected into the market at a time when they're looking for clarity.

Look, the conversations that I've been having earlier this week are about, you know, real concerns about a contested election and what that would mean to stability for companies and for the economy and for job creation and for the recovery.

[08:45:12]

And so there was already that kind of malaise, I guess, as a backdrop. And then you add in this other big uncertainty, the president testing positive for coronavirus. What does that mean for the recovery? What does that mean for mitigation efforts as -- you know, all along Julia and I have been saying, you can't open the economy fully unless you have a national strategy for mitigation, for wearing masks, for contact tracing and the like. We haven't seen the national leadership on that. Does that change now?

CHATTERLEY: Can I very quickly add, this would be very different. That picture would be very different if Mike Pence had not tested negative.

HILL: That's right.

CHATTERLEY: If Steve Mnuchin had not tested negative.

BERMAN: Right.

CHATTERLEY: We just have to see who else in this circle now tests positive or negative because that will change hour by hour what we're seeing today.

BERMAN: Right. It does, but they need to keep on getting tested too. A negative test this morning doesn't mean that it won't change over the next few days.

CHATTERLEY: Absolutely.

BERMAN: Julia Chatterley, Christine Romans, thank you both very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HILL: All right, stay with us. Much more ahead, including a look at the White House response. What we know, what we don't know, and how that could maybe change.

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[08:50:24]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HILL: We are now hearing from former vice president, Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, who just tweeted, Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family. That a reaction, of course, to the president and the first lady testing positive for coronavirus, as did the president's aide, Hope Hicks.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator Joe Lockhart, former White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton.

Joe, good to have you with us, as always this morning.

I'm just curious initially, just your -- your gut take when you heard the news this morning and -- and how you heard it.

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I heard it when I turned on NEW DAY this morning at, you know, about 6:30 this morning. I had not been, you know, watching anything overnight.

My gut reaction was, this is really gut-check time at the White House, particularly in their communications department. They have roughly six to eight hours to change the way they have done things, really come clean with the American public and put out the straight story in a way that they haven't done before. Acknowledge their mistakes, because, you know, again, you lie about the small things, then it means you're going to lie about the large things. There's a huge credibility gap. And the only way to close that is to up front acknowledge what you've done wrong -- and, clearly, they've known about this longer than the public knew about it -- and, you know, they did not come forward and they -- this only broke because a reporter got it. They've got to change that and they've got a very short window.

BERMAN: Some of the reporting is that it was a very small circle who knew about Hope Hicks yesterday. We don't know what Kayleigh McEnany knew when she briefed the press yesterday without wearing a mask in public. One bit of new information from Maggie Haberman, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for "The New York Times," she says, Trump is said to have minor symptoms. He was lethargic at the Bedminster fundraiser per an attendee. This fundraiser was inside. I mean he was -- he was at a small panel there. And as of last night, officials were discussing treatment options, as well as options for addressing the nation.

Joe, should he address the nation? I mean what goes into that consideration?

LOCKHART: Well, I mean, he -- he should address the nation if he comes forward with an honest answer. He's got to say he got some of this wrong. He was wrong on masks. He was wrong about downplaying the virus. Anything else will just be seen as more political spin.

They do have an opportunity here to say this is what we need to do going forward. We haven't done it well. But, going forward, we will. We understand this now.

And, you know, the other thing I'd say is, this initially can't really come from the press secretary or the president. They don't have credibility on this. They need trusted voices now speaking for them.

Dr. Fauci, for example, is the most trusted voice in America right now on the coronavirus. He needs to be front and center and to tell people, here's what happened, acknowledge whatever mistakes that were made and talk about how they're going to do better going forward.

HILL: I hear you on all of that and I think so many people would agree with you that that's what should happen. But, realistically, Joe, based on what we know about this administration, what are the chances that that's actually what we're going to see today?

LOCKHART: I think they're pretty low based on the last four years. You know, the president has never been honest about his own health issues. The -- you know, the unscheduled shift to Walter Reed, the letter that he dictated in 2016 about his own health, all of those things undermine anything he might say now.

But I think this is a -- this is a very political White House and they look at their options. And the only option -- if they don't change the dynamic here, this is -- you know, this -- this could be fatal for the campaign. They have a chance and a small window to come out and say, we've learned something here, this is what we're going to do. And that's really the only chance they have to recover from this.

Based on the last four years, I doubt they'll do it. But they should. They should because the American people have a right to know.

BERMAN: Yes.

LOCKHART: Our allies need to know. Our adversaries want to know. Those are all reasons why they need to be honest for a change with the American public.

BERMAN: In 20 seconds or less, we just did hear from Joe Biden sending his prayers to the president and first lady.

[08:55:02]

What should he do with this, very quickly?

LOCKHART: Well, listen, I have known Joe Biden for 35 years and I have no doubt that that is a sincere and a thoughtful response.

Listen, his campaign has been mostly done safely and remotely. I think he can continue doing that. He can continue wearing his mask. And, you know, just continue running the campaign the way he had.

BERMAN: Joe Lockhart, thank you very much for being with us.

We're getting some more breaking news right now.

This is Health Secretary Alex Azar -- I think we have some live pictures of him -- about to testify before Congress about the coronavirus. He just tweeted that he has tested negative this morning. Secretary -- Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also tested negative. Vice President Mike Pence testing negative. The entire top level of government right now must be racing to get tests because there are serious questions following the president news that the president and first lady have tested positive.

CNN's breaking news coverage continues next.

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