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New Day

Trump Returns to Oval Office; Trump Eager to Get back on Trail; Protests in Jewish Community over Restrictions; Hurricane Warnings for Gulf Coast. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 08, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Positive less than a week ago. He met with his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his social media director Dan Scavino in the Oval Office.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Obviously with the president, he continues to work. We've got a number of safety protocols with full PPE masks, goggles, and the like for any direct interaction with the president.

JOHNS: An isolation cart stocked with yellow medical gowns, respirator masks and plastic goggles was placed outside the president's offices for anyone who needs to be in contact with Trump. A source telling CNN, Meadows and Scavino were in full protective gear when they met with the president, who entered the Oval Office from the outside exit.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTIN DIRECTOR, CDC: If you're infected, you need to stay away from other people. For someone who has the ability to stay away from other people, they need to do that.

JOHNS: Trump posting a bizarre video, produced by the White House, framing his coronavirus diagnosis as a net positive.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it. This was a blessing in disguise.

JOHNS: It's unclear when the video was made, but in it Trump called the antibody treatment he received a cure, though there is no cure for the virus, and he said coronavirus patients should receive it for free.

TRUMP: I view these -- I know they call them therapeutic, but to me it wasn't therapeutic, it just made me better, OK? I call that a cure.

JOHNS: The treatment the president received has not been approved yet by the FDA and is not widely available to coronavirus patients.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not even a therapy that has Emergency Use Authorization yesterday, but there's not a lot of data around this. Two hundred and seventy-five people in this first trial and we didn't even really see that data.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Now, a little bit more about the president's condition. Two sources who have had contact with the president say he's had difficulty breathing since he got back here to the White House. The president's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said he's been symptom free 24 hours after he got out of the hospital. No oxygen, apparently, needed, since he entered the hospital on Friday. The big question is, when was the last time the president tested negative?

Back to you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So we have not been able to get that answer yet, though journalists ask every single day.

Joe, thank you very much.

Joining us now, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She's the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Walensky, so given that there are so many questions about what's happening at the White House with this outbreak and what's happening with President Trump's health, though he wants to get back on the campaign trail. And, by the way, he's back in the Oval Office, not in isolation, though the CDC guidelines clearly state that Covid patients should be in isolation for ten days after symptoms. And so if you want to talk about, if it came up enough at the debate, go ahead, or what you're seeing at the White House.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You don't know I can't hear?

CAMEROTA: Oh, you can't hear anything, Doctor?

WALENSKY: Hello?

Hmm -- OK, John, can you answer any of those questions?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Walensky, can you hear me?

All right.

CAMEROTA: OK.

Well, that will not be a satisfying segment in that case, I would say.

BERMAN: We'll get -- we'll get her audio -- we'll get her audio back.

We'll be right back.

Or we'll just stay on me and we'll talk.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's do that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:22] CAMEROTA: And we're back with CNN medical analyst Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Dr. Walensky, given what's happening, it is now a hot spot, it is having its own outbreak. Every day we learn of somebody else whose tested positive. Was there enough coronavirus discussion in the debate last night for your taste?

WALENSKY: Good morning, Alisyn.

You know, I wish we had drilled down on some of the details. We heard quite a bit about the numbers. We heard quite a bit about the challenges. We heard quite a bit about the number of people, the number of souls who have lost their lives. We didn't hear -- we didn't get real details as to why it's gone so badly, as to why the testing has been rolling out so badly, as to why the administration is not following its own pillars of infection control. And so I wish we had had a little bit more in the details as to why we are where we are right now. Why other countries have kids in school and we do not.

BERMAN: Mike Pence dodged that direct question. Mike Pence was asked, why it is worse here in the United States than it is elsewhere and he refused to answer. We have an embodiment, in a way, of why things aren't getting better, and that's the president, who is almost definitely still contagious this morning, back at work in the Oval Office, at a time when the cases are rising in the country, not to mention rising inside the White House, but 50,000 new cases reported yesterday, hospitalizations now beginning to go up around the country.

So, what's your take on the decision not to isolate, not to follow public health guidelines?

WALENSKY: You know, I -- we have been working tirelessly in -- in the hospitals, in public health to follow the science, create the guidelines, and then truly to don and doff all of this PPE when we care for patients so that we can protect them, protect ourselves, and protect our colleagues. And when we watch a flagrant disregard from the highest levels of leadership in this country, for all of those policies that we have been working so hard to institute and protect, it's -- it's -- I find it shameful.

CAMEROTA: "The New England Journal of Medicine" did something very unusual, unprecedented, yesterday, where they made a strong, political statement. I'll read to you what their editorial says. When it comes to the response of the largest public health crisis of our time, our current, political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.

What's the significance, Doctor?

[06:40:02]

WALENSKY: It's extraordinary. This is a 200-year-old preeminent medical journal. Never have they come down on these sorts of lines. Never -- they are not partisan. The editor in chief of this journal, Dr. Eric Ruben (ph), is an infectious disease specialist and all of the editors signed this piece entitled "dying in a leadership vacuum." In it, they describe, just as you said, they describe the death rates of this country compared to China. China, three in a million. United States, 500 in a million. They noted that their CDC has been eviscerated. That the NIH has been exclude from decision making and that the FDA has been shamelessly politicized. This was an extraordinary event and I commend them for it.

BERMAN: Dr. Walensky, we appreciate you being with us, appreciate you bearing through the technical glitches. Hope to see you again very soon.

WALENSKY: Super. Thanks so much.

BERMAN: Developing overnight, New York City is shutting down nonessential businesses and dozens of schools in some hot spot neighborhoods where coronavirus cases are surging. And this sparked a second straight day of protests among Brooklyn's orthodox Jewish community who feel they are being unfairly targeted.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us with the latest on that.

Shimon.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they do feel that they're being unfairly targeted. And so we've now seen two nights of protests from the people there in the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. And one of the things that they're really upset with and who they're really upset at is the governor and also actually the mayor here because they feel that these limits on religious institutions, the amount of people that can be inside, which takes effect today, is unfairly targeting them. Many of the members in this one community who are Trump supporters, were waving Trump flags, were not wearing masks, in some cases burning masks.

Of course, many of them taking their cues on the issues concerning coronavirus from the president himself, many of them supporters of the president and so they feel that the governor here, Governor Andrew Cuomo, is targeting them. Specifically he says he's targeting them because they have not followed the rules. And, as a result, they need to put these new measures back in place, limiting the number of people who are going to attend religious institutions.

They are unhappy about it. And so as we have seen now for two nights, they have taken to the streets, in some cases burning trash. They say they're going to continue these protests, trying to put pressure on the governor to ease some of the limits that he's now placing on them, John.

BERMAN: All right, Shimon.

Shimon Prokupecz for us.

Obviously, you saw the pictures of those demonstrations and that in and of itself could be something dangerous for so many people. Appreciate it. Powerful hurricane taking aim at the Gulf states this morning. Hurricane warnings now in effect. We have the latest timing on when and where it will hit. And it might be headed somewhere that really doesn't need this right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:11]

CAMEROTA: Hurricane warnings issued overnight for parts of the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Delta grows stronger. The storm slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday morning, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now with the latest.

What are you seeing, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, it hit Cancun or very close to it with 110-mile-per-hour winds. Then it died off a little bit when it was over the Yucatan, but now it's back in the Gulf of Mexico and getting stronger, back up to 100 miles per hour, and it's going up from here. Hurricane warnings are posted in the red areas. In the blue areas, those are tropical storm warnings, which we do expect to have tropical storm or hurricane conditions in the next 48 hours. That's exactly what it means.

But it is forecast to get back to a category three hurricane and move very close to the coast by about 1:00 or so tomorrow afternoon. You don't have any more time after today to prepare for this storm. Tomorrow will be too late.

And look at the yellow line here, Alisyn, that was Laura and that's Delta, literally less than 25 miles apart for landfall and 110-mile- per-hour winds in many of these areas that many don't even have roofs, still. They're still looking -- I saw some yesterday, all of the blue tarps that are still in Lake Charles. And the surge here, 7 to 11 feet of surge in the same places that had the surge before.

Just a devastating storm here. Even if it's only 110 or 115, on top of the damage you already have, that just exacerbates the damage because things are already loose, things are still going to be flying around and then we have the rainfall to come. Some spots, 6 to 10 inches of rain in places that still have flood warnings on their rivers from the storms before.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That area just can't get a break. Chad, thank you very much for keeping an eye on all of it for us.

MYERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So coronavirus cases are surging in the U.S. and around the world. What will the world look like when this is all over? Fareed Zakaria will tell us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:15]

CAMEROTA: During last night's vice presidential debate, Senator Kamala Harris took aim at the Trump administration's approach to foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Leaders of all of our formally allied countries have now decided that they hold in greater esteem and respect Xi Jinping, the head of the Chinese Communist Party, than they do Donald Trump.

He has betrayed our friends and embraced dictators around the world.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've stood strong with our allies, but we've been demanding.

We've strengthened our alliances across the Asia Pacific and we've stood strong against those who would do us harm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS." He's also the author of the new book, "Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World."

And, Fareed, I look very forward to getting into all of the meat of your book.

But first, who was right in that? Have they strengthened alliances in the past four years or have they alienated allies?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": I think, on balance, you would have to say, Senator Harris was right in that the distinctive feature of Donald Trump's world view is that he's really not that interested in the world. He's not that comfortable with an engaged America. But his particular wrath and irritation does seem to be toward our closest allies. So if you think of all the times you've heard Donald Trump say something nasty about a European leader, or about the Canadian prime minister, right, and then you think about all the things he's said about Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Erdogan of Turkey.

[06:55:02]

So he likes these tough, strong guys. He doesn't -- he finds dealing with our democratic allies very difficult. And it has caused a crisis in our historic relationships. So, I mean, I think both did well in terms of defending their -- their point of view. But I think Kamala Harris shows a good area to push the Trump administration on and she did it well.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the coronavirus and its effect on the world. Fifty thousand new cases yesterday in the U.S. We're seeing many countries, as we head into the fall and winter, beginning to see surges again and struggling. And so what will the world look like after coronavirus?

ZAKARIA: Well, we're already seeing it in a sense. What I argue in my book is that, you know, there's a -- there's a saying, Leonard is supposed to have said, there are decades when nothing happens, and then there are weeks when decades happen. And we are going through one of those weeks, metaphorically. That is to say, everything has accelerated. And you see it in the smallest senses and in the larger senses.

So if you look at doctor's visits, there used to be very few people who were comfortable going to their doctor on the Internet. You know, you want to go and have a physical meeting with your doctor. By the end of 2020, we will have had 1 billion visits via Zoom or some such platform. So there was, you know, the technology always existed. What was the obstacle was the human being, was human attitudes. Covid-19 broke that because we were forced to accelerate our life into this digital world.

At the grandest scale, the U.S. and China have been warily moving from a kind of cooperative relationship to a competitive one. It's now on steroids. One of the things you saw at the debate was that both sides viewed China essentially as a competitor. Both sides thought it was important to come across as tough on China. So we've -- you know, we're racing into a new world, technologically, politically, economically. And I don't think we still have our bearings around it.

CAMEROTA: One of the things you say in your book, "Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World" is, people should listen to the experts and experts should listen to the people.

What does that mean?

ZAKARIA: Well, I was trying to figure out this puzzle as to why so many people are so reluctant to listen to scientific experts, but it's even more than that. If you remember during the Brexit debate, one of the ministers in Boris Johnson's government said, we've had enough of experts in -- in Great Britain. And there is this general sense that experts are, you know, telling us how to live our lives and there's a resentment. And what I realize is there's a great class resentment that has developed in western societies, particularly in the United States. You know, there is a -- there's the greatest divide in the 2016 election, other than whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, was whether you were college educated or not college educated. College educated people disproportionately voted for Hillary Clinton, non- college educated people voted for Donald Trump.

And what I -- the more I examined it, the more I realized, this is a growing divide and resentment. And part of it is that college educated people are doing better and better in this digital, globalized information-based economy. Part of it is they live in cities, they live in metro areas, they have access to capital. And my point is that we all, those of us who are on one side of that divide, have to understand and empathize with the other side so that you can -- you know, you can have an attitude that looks at these other people as deplorables or whatever it is and that that class resentment is really at the heart of American polarization. And we've got to do something about it.

CAMEROTA: Fareed, your points are so compelling and people can read more about them in "Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World." Thank you so much for sharing some of it with us.

ZAKARIA: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people have demonstrated over the last eight months that when given the facts, they're willing to put the health of their families and their neighbors and people they don't even know first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did everything that conservatives wanted and made people feel comfortable (ph).

HARRIS: You respect the American people when you tell them the truth.

PENCE: You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pence was masterful in normalizing conservative ideas. What Kamala Harris had to go out there and do was to hang on to her base, which she did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd be very surprised to see much movement in the polls here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: 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.

[07:00:01]

Nine hundred and fifteen new deaths reported from coronavirus. Fifty thousand new cases. Fifty thousand reported yesterday.