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New Day

Daughter of Coronavirus Victim Speaks Out; Hunger Amid Unemployment Crisis; Trump Downplays Coronavirus. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 06, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

FIANA TULIP, LOST HER MOTHER TO CORONAVIRUS IN JULY: Like I just -- I never thought I would be, you know, as surprised as -- as I was yesterday. But I continue to be surprised. He is just disregarding the 210,000 Americans we have lost their lives and the millions of people who are suffering. And Covid is not only dominating some people's lives, but it is ending them. And we need a leader who's there, who's going to protect us. We need a leader who is going to send the right message to keep us safe. And we just don't have that right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why do you use the word "cruel"? What do you find to be "cruel" about it?

TULIP: It's insensitive. I mean his -- it's beyond irresponsible for the president of the United States to use his one experience with Covid-19 and generalize that to the millions of people who are suffering. You know, many are in peril and they have every reason to take precaution. Only he has access to this great medicine he's talking about because he's the president. He's not thinking about everyone else, especially the people who are relying on the affordable health care act that he's trying to take away. He had a number of chances to lead by example and he's choosing not to. So I just think it's cruel. I think he is sending the wrong message and he is going to kill people as a result.

BERMAN: He says don't be afraid. I have to say, your mother doesn't strike me as the type of person who lived in fear.

TULIP: She didn't live in fear at all. She was very strong. She was resilient. She had been through a hard, long life. And the thing about this, not living in fear, is that of course health care workers, of course we're living in fear. We don't want to die. My mom did not want to leave this earth. She had a grandchild for the first time in 64 years and she was so excited to spend her first birthday with her grandchild on August 25th and she didn't get to because she died on July 4th.

She didn't want to die. She didn't deserve to die. Don't live in fear? That's just not the kind of message that we want to hear. Of course we don't want to live in fear, but we have to because the policies are not put in place to protect us.

BERMAN: Fiana, if you could call your mother today, what would you say to her?

TULIP: So many things. I would tell her I'm very busy being her spokeswoman, but I'm proud. It's the proudest job I've ever had. And I would tell her that I am proud of her. You know, she knowingly walked through those hospital doors with a bravery that is unimaginable. And I would tell her that I am so proud of her for doing that, for risking her life to save others. And I would tell her that I'm so proud of the love she extended to all of us, her family and friends, because it meant more to us than ever. And I would tell her that I loved her so much because I didn't get the chance to tell her that before she died.

BERMAN: She knew. And I know she would be proud of you.

TULIP: Thank you.

BERMAN: And we are thinking about your mother, Isabelle, this morning right along with you.

TULIP: Thank you.

BERMAN: Fiana, thank you so much for being with us. We're so sorry for your loss. Please stay in touch with us.

TULIP: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:30]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The coronavirus pandemic has robbed millions of Americans of their jobs. Many now fear their temporary layoffs will become permanent.

CNN's Kyung Lah joins us with one family's struggle to put food on the table.

Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.

We started out with this number, 14 million American children now regularly go hungry. That is five times greater than it was then before Covid came to America. But why? How is this happening? Well, one family shows us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSE RODRIGUEZ, FURLOUGHED WORKER: Mami (ph). Wake up, Mami, you've got to go to school.

LAH: The morning routine for Rose Rodriguez and her three girls.

RODRIGUEZ: You've got to go play in school. They're going to feed you too.

LAH: Three-year-old Alejandre --

RODRIGUEZ: Come on, get up.

LAH: And 12-year-old Terry (ph) sleep in one bed. Thirteen-year-old Yulitza (ph) sleeps on the couch.

Breakfast --

RODRIGUEZ: All right, you want this one?

LAH: Is what she scrounged from the day before.

RODRIGUEZ: It's good? Yes.

I'll eat whatever it left over.

LAH: Everything has changed since coronavirus.

RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Mo (ph).

My pantry, we don't have.

LAH (on camera): Before coronavirus was this full?

RODRIGUEZ: Everything was full.

LAH (voice over): This was Rodriguez at her full-time job at LAX Airport. She works for Qantas Airlines cargo making more than $20 an hour.

RODRIGUEZ: I thought everything would be good. I thought, you know what, I have money for my rent, I have money for the food, I don't have to worry about the girls' health. So I never thought that on Wednesday I will show up to work and, no, it wasn't that way. You could lose your job at any time.

LAH (on camera): How about the food? I mean how much --

RODRIGUEZ: The food, that's what we struggle more.

LAH: Tell me about that struggle.

RODRIGUEZ: The struggle is sometimes we eat, sometimes we don't.

LAH (voice over): What she manages is cheap, unhealthy food. Rodriguez says she's applied for 50 jobs. Thirty interviews later, still nothing. Her unemployment application, stalled, part of the more than 1 million stuck in a log jam in California's system. Her car and most of her furniture, repossessed. She's months behind on rent.

RODRIGUEZ: And when we go to the laundromat, we see homeless washing themselves. And one day, if I don't go back to work, I'm going to be -- I'm going to be one of them.

[08:40:05]

Y'all (ph) live check by check, but now it's not check, it's a box. A box that I have to stretch out for seven days.

LAH: That weekly box is donated food from the L.A. Food Bank and Salvation Army, while her older daughters learn virtually on public school laptops --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's ready for lunch?

LAH: Alejandra (ph) gets free child care and lunch at the Salvation Army, too young to understand a virus's impact on her family.

RODRIGUEZ : My youngest, she wants what she sees, but I tell her, Mami, I can't. I have to tell her tomorrow so she can forget.

LAH (on camera): And every day it's tomorrow.

RODRIGUEZ: Yes, everything is tomorrow.

LAH (voice over): Food banks across the country have seen hours' long lines as record unemployment devastates working families.

MORTIMER JONES, THE SALVATION ARMY, SIEMON CENTER: So we do have our peas.

LAH: At the Salvation Army Food Bank in Los Angeles, they fed ten times the number of people as last year.

JONES: It is not like it happened for a week or two weeks, it's been happening for months. And even though we're trying our best to help, we know that we're barely scratching the surface because we can only do so much with the limited resources that we have.

LAH: Today, fresh food bank supplies mean their shelves are more full.

RODRIGUEZ: Mac and cheese.

LAH: But the joy is short-lived. Counting down the days to the next food box has begun.

RODRIGUEZ: They shouldn't go through this. They don't have to worry like how we can eat the next day. Like, my mom has to go look for food or has my mom eaten? And they shouldn't worry about that. Like I should be working and they should be just worried about school and their futures. It just hurts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: Now, the problem is worse among Latino and black families, especially the rates of poor nutrition. That has spiked to some 25 percent to 30 percent during the pandemic.

And one last thing, Alisyn, the Salvation Army says on those days they can give out fresh produce, the line wraps around their building and down the block. Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Kyung, this is horrible. And how can her unemployment checks be tied up in bureaucratic red tape?

LAH: It's a million people in California and it is that fraud investigation that the state is buried in and also the unemployment system across the country is backlogged. And that is a systemic problem that's happening to a lot of the working class, depending on those unemployment checks.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, Kyung, thank you so much for your reporting. That is -- every single one of these stories is so heartbreaking. And when you realize how many people are in this situation, it's just almost overwhelming.

BERMAN: There's so much need. There is so much need out there and just look at the face of that child. Look at the face of that child.

CAMEROTA: For more information about how you can help those impacted by this hunger crisis, you can go to cnn.com/impact. They need your help.

This morning -- well, actually, last night, you witnessed something that may have looked to you like reality TV. It was President Trump making a grand gesture of taking off his mask on a balcony, but long- time investigative reporter Carl Bernstein saw something else. He saw a cover up. Carl Bernstein is next with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:41]

CAMEROTA: President trump is back in the White House this morning after four days in the hospital. And for anyone who is expecting a changed President Trump or an epiphany after his brush with grave illness, that's not what they got last night.

Here with "The Bottom Line" CNN political analyst Carl Bernstein.

Carl, great to have you.

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Help us understand what's happening this morning and what we saw last night.

BERNSTEIN: We are in the midst of an unprecedented physical and mental presidential health crisis, such as we've never seen, certainly in our lifetimes and probably never before in this country, at such a dire moment. That scene on the balcony last night for all who witnessed it was not watching a president of the United States in command of his faculties, and today, and last night on Capitol Hill, among Republicans talking to each other on the phone, from what I've been told, they are really concerned about the president's mental health, as much as they are concerned about his physical health. And that's where we are.

There is a real question of whether or not, if real existing, responsible leadership prevailed, whether or not the 25th Amendment would be invoked to turn over the powers of the presidency to Vice President Mike Pence until such time as Donald Trump demonstrates that he is physically and mentally capable of exercising the powers of the presidency. And make no mistake, that's the undercurrent of the realization on Capitol Hill of where we are. We're talking about politics on this show this morning a lot. We've got a real crisis of physical and mental health with the president.

BERMAN: Carl, have you picked up any sign -- the clearest path to the 25th Amendment would be a vote by the cabinet. I don't see any sign that the cabinet is going to do that.

BERNSTEIN: No.

BERMAN: So the other side of it is, the 25th Amendment aside, a Republican intervention, obviously, you know --

BERNSTEIN: Yes.

BERMAN: You were -- you were Watergate. You remember well the drive to the White House from some Republican senators then to tell the president, this thing a going down.

Is there any reason to believe there is even the beginning of any talk like that?

BERNSTEIN: We haven't seen it yet and, at the same time, it's well- known among those reporters who cover The Hill, there are 15 or more Republican senators who despise Donald Trump.

[08:50:07]

And not only do they despise him, but now they're really scared. They see the same thing America is seeing. So is it possible that one or two or three of those senators will get up and say we have got a national emergency on our hand or call Vice President Pence's office and say to the vice president, what do we do, Mr. Vice President, until such time as we get a signal that the president is in his right mind. That's what's really going on.

Think of the national security implications. A, quote, wag the dog scenario that might be happening in a president who's down 16 points in the polls as we see this morning. Donald Trump wants more than anything else, steroids or not, but especially with steroids it looks like, to hold on to his office at any cost.

There is abundant evidence that he will do damn near anything to make that happen. Just look at the debate. Look at what he has been saying. Look at his actions. We're not talking about a level-headed person here to begin with. And now we're talking about a level -- about a president who was jacked up on steroids, as we know from his doctors, an ongoing cover-up about his health. We do not even know if Vice President Pence has been informed responsibly, as somebody pointed out to me on Capitol Hill, we don't even know for a fact that Pence has been responsibly informed by cover-up calling the doctor -- the president's doctors of the real condition of the president. He, obviously, has, according to Sanjay and other doctors, Covid pneumonia of some kind. But, also, look at that performance. Those in the press pool last night who watched him go up those stairs, he was -- he was panning for breath when he got to the top of the stairs.

So a cover-up, mental instability such as we've never seen publicly in a president, as well as Covid and we don't know where Covid is in terms of his body and what he can withstand, nor do we know how deep into the White House staff and the executive branch this continuing super spreader price that the White House is paying for the president's recklessness and the cover-up of where indeed he became exposed, what does it go back to? All of this happening at once.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERNSTEIN: Months before an election. This is a real existential national security crisis.

CAMEROTA: Carl, they have not been forthcoming about when the president has last tested. We don't know how long he was walking around shedding the virus.

But in terms of your idea of a GOP intervention of some kind. Isn't it -- isn't the far more likely scenario that Republicans will say, we're four weeks away from an election, let the voters have their say in four weeks?

BERNSTEIN: It is more likely and at the same time there is an awareness among Republican candidates who are running for re-election, and especially among the Senate candidates, that they could lose because of the president's actions. That the control of the Senate, which Mitch McConnell wants more than winning a presidency, he wants to be the majority party in the Senate. He doesn't give a damn either about Donald Trump personally. And his real concern is holding that majority in the Senate.

So is there a possibility that these Republicans, some of them, will start to speak out because of their discomfort in losing? There is that possibility.

But what must be addressed is the president's mental state because that is really the real and present danger right now.

Dave Gergen, who's worked for four presidents, on our air last night said he thought we are in the grips of a madman. I've known David for 48 years. I have never heard him talk in those kind -- that kind of terms about any president of the United States. It would have been unimaginable until what we have seen in this last week.

BERMAN: So we learned this morning that the White House has refused an offer from the CDC to help contact trace the outbreak that has taken place in the White House. "The New York Times" is reporting they're not even trying to contact trace the Amy Coney Barrett event where there were people who were inside, not to mention packed into the Rose Garden there.

Carl, one of the things I've heard you say before is follow the lies.

BERNSTEIN: Follow the money -- follow the money, follow the lies and follow the science. That's where we are in terms of this president right now.

The other thing is about what's going on in terms -- we have a government in quarantine right now. And, increasingly, we're going to have a government in quarantine because of the recklessness of this president.

[08:55:00]

But, really, his whole reaction to Covid, going back to when -- and when he talked to Bob Woodward has been homicidal negligence. We have 210,000 dead Americans while he is standing on the balcony and issuing tweets saying don't be afraid of Covid. Tell that to the survivors of these people who are living with what this terrible scourge did to their parents, to their brothers, to their sisters. And this president, in his mental state, demonstrably in denial or just lying, as he -- as he often does. But this is -- this is what we're witnessing right now.

And in terms of a cover-up, this is a cover-up that began with not really, you know, acknowledging the existence of a deadly scourge. And now it is -- the cover-up has continued into the president trying to hide the fact that he, himself, has become homicidally negligent in his contacts with the people who work for him. Who would have dreamed up anything like this?

CAMEROTA: Carl Bernstein, thank you very much for sharing everything that you have been seeing over these past surreal days.

BERNSTEIN: Good to be with you. Thank you.

BERMAN: I will say, the president has new comments this morning that in some ways go full circle on the coronavirus pandemic and raise even new concerns beyond some of the things that Carl was observing just there.

Our coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00;00]