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Trump Wants Rally Tomorrow, Won't Say if He's been Tested this Week; Majority of States are Seeing Rising Number of Cases; Trump Struggles with Coughs during TV Interview. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:05]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us.

President Trump said he's ready to leave coronavirus isolation and return to the campaign trail. And he has a reality TV plan to show you. It is safe for him to do so. The White House doctor gives the all-clear for campaigning, but he won't take questions from reporters, because the president won't let him. So, we don't know the last time the president tested negative or how long he will be on powerful steroids that can mask symptoms.

Real medical information is being withheld, but the president will be back in the safe embrace of Fox News tonight, to allow one of its doctors to run him through a televised checkup. Last night on Fox, he was short of breath sometimes and he coughed a bit, but he says a campaign rally return is imminent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think I'm going to try doing a rally on Saturday night if we have enough time to put it together. But we want to do a rally in Florida, Saturday night. Might come back and do one in Pennsylvania the following night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The political imperative there is quite obvious. Joe Biden is winning 25 days out and his battleground state leads include those states the president just mentioned, Florida and Pennsylvania. But the medical judgment here is questionable, especially since the White House refuses to provide key treatment details. Plus, the president is acting odd, even for him. One day he tweets an end to big stimulus talks. The next day he tweets, it's imperative to have big stimulus talks.

The tweets Republicans wish would stop include several attacking Michigan's governor just after it was announced yesterday that law enforcement had foiled an alleged plot to kidnap and perhaps harm her. The president chose that moment to condemn the governor's response to the coronavirus and suggest she doesn't thank him enough. Governor Gretchen Whitmer says the president's refusal to denounce militia groups and white supremacists fuels a climate of hateful unrest. The Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, clearly agrees, saying, quote, "There's a through line from President Trump's dog whistles and tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one."

That debate unfolding. The president planning to go on television tonight to tell you that he's OK as we face a very sad reality in the coronavirus numbers across the country. Let's take a look at them. And the state trendline map getting worse.

26 states, more than half, more half of the states in orange and red. And look, it's everywhere again. It is everywhere again. 28 states, excuse me, 28 states right now heading in the wrong direction. 28 states. 22 of them in orange, six of them in red, 20 states holding steady, only two states, only two states trending down right now.

If you look at these five states, a record number of cases. Highest cases in the past week. Wisconsin, North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and Oregon. Some states now setting records again in the coronavirus as we head into the colder season.

Here's the case timeline. And look, 56,000 plus new infections yesterday. 56,000 plus back on August 12th, 57,000. The highest day since back in the summer surge here. And we know the history, right? Down to 17,000 right here. This was the moment in the country to stop it, to push it, to hold it. Instead, up the summer surge, down a bit. Now we are trending back up just as it gets colder across America. Public health experts say that's a dangerous trendline.

So is this. The hospital trendline. You don't want a roller coaster. You go down, you want to stay down, we went back up, we started to come down. Now the hospitalizations in the United States starting to trend back up again as the coronavirus spreads especially in the Midwest and the prairie states.

And as you look right here, 10 states with record hospitalizations reported on Thursday. 10 states reporting record hospitalizations in the case count in those states is up. Sad, it's we've just been doing this for months. It gets sad.

18 states, we have more cases. Wait a couple of weeks, you have more deaths. 18 states now reporting more deaths. And again, you see it across the country, 19 holding steady. 14 deaths fewer deaths now than a week ago, but 17, trending up there. And in three states, the highest death total came right now, Thursday.

New deaths in the past week, three states setting records. This is a time we're supposed to have the virus under control, and instead, we are setting records. And this is sad. Right now, 212 plus thousand deaths.

The president's own Centers for Disease Control says we will pass 20,000, 21,000 more Americans, it projects, will die by the end of the month. You will not hear today a big White House plan to deal with this surge. You will see the president on Fox TV again this time to get a medical checkup that he says allows him to go back to the campaign trail. A lot of medical experts would like to see more details of the president's treatments. They asked that question even more after listening to the president on Fox last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think the first debate they -- excuse me, on the first debate, they oscillated the mic, but I will say this. Absentee is OK. Because absentee ballots, excuse me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:05:03]

KING: Joining us now to discuss. Catherine Lucy, the White House reporter for "Wall Street Journal," Molly Ball, national political correspondent for "TIME" and Astead Herndon, national political reporter for "The New York Times."

Molly Ball, it's just this remarkable moment. The case count in the country is going up. You could hear the president there. Let's hope he is recovering, but he clearly is still trying to get through the respiratory issues we know come with the coronavirus. And yet, we're going to see him for the first time on live TV today, he says, on Fox News tonight, not to have a plan to deal with this surge we're seeing across America, but for him to get a reality TV checkup so that he can get back on the campaign trail.

MOLLY BALL, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "TIME": Yes. I mean this is scary stuff, right? I mean would you be around a friend of yours who was in this condition, who was audibly coughing, who wouldn't tell you whether they'd tested negative after being hospitalized for a disease that we know is deadly and has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans?

So, I think, you know, this really strikes a lot of people as dangerous. And while we all hope that the president is correct that he has recovered from this fully and now has immunity and is safe to go out there, you know, I think there's a lot of questions about what's really going on that we don't have answers to. And that's quite obvious. And if the president does want to go out there and return to the campaign trail, you know, is anybody going to show up when it's so clear that it may not be safe to do so.

KING: And the president gets extraordinarily friendly treatment on Fox News, but even, Catherine Lucy, even last night, Sean Hannity tried to ask a question many of us would like to get the answer to. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you test negative?

TRUMP: And I'll tell you I took this Regeneron, it's phenomenal. HANNITY: Have you had a test since your diagnosis a week ago?

TRUMP: Well, what we're doing is probably the test will be tomorrow, the actual test because there's no reason to test all the time, but they found very little infection or virus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There seems to be absolutely no remorse, I don't know what the right word is, at this White House for the fact that the president's doctor puts out statements like this, that really don't tell us much. All the medical experts say, OK, that's some information, but here are the five or six important questions not answered here. And yet the president again will let a Fox medical analysis tonight say, you're great, sir, go back on the trail.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": That's right, John. We still have more questions than answers. You heard Sean Hannity trying to pin the president down about has he tested negative?

And it's not exactly clear when he will be taking another test. We don't know when he had his last negative test before testing positive, which would help count down in terms of you know what the period in which he would be contagious is. There are questions about the condition of his lungs, about the course of treatment he was on.

And we have a doctor who at one-point last week acknowledged that he had been trying to offer some rosy you know assessment of how the president was doing. So, we are dealing with an incomplete information from the White House and a very strong message from the president and his campaign that he wants to be back on the campaign trail. And exactly how that is going to work is unclear.

KING: But Astead, you can get, as I said at the top, the political imperative for that. The president should be more transparent, the president should answer more questions about his treatment course and his medications and if he's completely off medications or still taking things like those powerful steroids that can mask your symptoms, the doctors tell us.

But out on the trail right now, the clock is running. 25 days until Election Day, millions of Americans have already voted. And you heard the president mentioned Florida and Pennsylvania. In those states in recent days, fresh polling that shows Joe Biden is leading in states the president must win.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. You see why the president wants to get out there, because his situation, politically, is looking rather dire. I mean, the best thing the president could have done for his reelection hopes this year would be to respond to the pandemic that voters had consistently said is their number one concern.

Instead, this White House has tried to make this election about everything other than Joe Biden and the pandemic. They have tried to make it about the Supreme Court, about race relations and about protest and law and order. And now about his kind of masculinity, rejuvenating after the virus, but never the virus itself, never the administration's response.

And so, what we're going to see today is not a plan on that front, is not something to speak to voters' concerns, which they consistently say is the top issue for them. It is going to be another one of the kind of shows we've seen from the White House that kind of dips its toe in the issue, but does not kind of own the fact that he is the president now and folks are looking for this administration for a clear response.

The political impact is clear. Voters are saying in polling we see that's the what has happened at the White House in the last week is just indicative of what folks think the administration has done across the country, which is not take the virus seriously enough and has led to its spread.

[11:10:02]

KING: And yet, Catherine Lucey, Astead is dead right. If you look at the polling, the president is tanking in the polls, going the polls at the time when people are looking at his own reckless behavior, the Supreme Court rollout event, months and months of mocking Joe Biden's mask use, then he gets coronavirus himself. There is a cluster across West Wing aides and White House officials and other people who are at those events.

So, you would think the president would get the message and his team would get the message. But look at his son Don, Jr. at a rally, indoor rally yesterday, an indoor rally yesterday in the state of Florida which went through a horrible summer coronavirus surge. And you look at these events, they have just decided, I'm sorry, this is flipping the bird at commonsense and public health guidance.

LUCEY: There is not a lot of evidence that they're going to change that either. You see Don Jr., I know Mike Pence is back out, the vice president, doing rallies. The president has been very clear, he wants to do them as well. And the rhetoric the president has been you know that he's beaten this thing, that he's you know, come out the other side. That people shouldn't be worried, don't let the virus dominate you.

But Astead is right, the fact that he got a positive test, that he got infected, that he was hospitalized, maybe has refocused attention again back on the virus at the very moment when he was hoping to be making a closing argument about different issues. He wanted to close this out talking about the economy, about recovering, about bringing businesses back, bringing schools back. He wanted to talk about the Supreme Court. He did not want the focus of this in the final days to be the virus, particularly his own infection.

KING: And so that if you're Joe Biden, this environment, the idea is do no wrong in the sense that you have the lead or you're in the driver seat of this race. The coronavirus is back front and center. But a question, Kamala Harris didn't want to answer in the debate the other night.

The two of them, Joe Biden, the nominee, Kamala Harris, the running mate, together yesterday. The question is, if especially if Amy Coney Barrett gets confirmed to the Supreme Court, would the Democrats then try, if they take back the Senate and Joe Biden wins the White House, to expand the number of members on the Supreme Court. Joe Biden answering this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You'll know my opinion on court packing when the election is over. Now look, I know it's a great question, and I don't blame you for asking. But you know the moment I answer that question. The headline in every one of your papers will be about that. Other than - other than focusing on what's happening now.

TRUMP: What he said then was just disgraceful but what that means, though, really, is that they're going to do it, because, obviously, that means 100 percent that's what they're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Astead, does the president - does the vice president need a better answer to that question?

HERNDON: It's kind of perplexing. I mean this is a question that Joe Biden had previously answered and rejected, the idea of expanding the court. In this moment, you have seen some Democrats say, hey, you know, that's a good question, but we have to see what Republicans do first.

For Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to take the explicit point of this being a distraction is one that they -- we know that the Biden campaign's posture is that they want to make this a referendum on Trump and the coronavirus and that is what they are concerned on in the last two or three weeks.

But if they were to reject the question, if they were to kind of answer in a more clear way, I don't necessarily see it being the kind of a super game changer in the way that maybe some things happened at the end of 2016 that they're worried about.

What this is doing is kind of driving the new cycle further and further. That I'm not sure, it's particularly helpful for them. but it's kind of just frankly odd to me that they don't give a direct answer, considering that Joe Biden has already answered this question in the past.

KING: All right. He's made a conscious decision here to straddle, I guess, for no other reason. Thinking that's the best option. We'll see if that change or not. Astead Herndon, Catherine Lucey, Molly Ball, grateful for the reporting and insights today.

Interesting 25 days ahead. Up next for us, startling new details on the alleged domestic terror plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:18:05] KING: The alleged domestic terror plot to kidnap Michigan's governor and overthrow governments in several states, look at the details beyond startling. 13 people now face state and federal charges. Authorities alleged members of local extremist groups talked of storming Michigan state capitol, in part because of anger at Governor Gretchen Whitmer's strict coronavirus lockdown.

CNN's crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz following this for us. Shimon, what's the latest?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, you know there is obviously a lot of concern across the country that we've heard from, the FBI and Homeland Security officials that this is not the only group that perhaps could be planning this kind of attack. That there could be other groups planning other similar attacks perhaps or other things across the country. And we heard that echoed this morning from the Michigan attorney general who was on "New Day," talking about this case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA NESSEL (D), MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: There are multiple groups that are operating across multiple different jurisdictions in many different states. And it is something that we need to be very concerned about. What we're seeing here in Michigan right now, it's not just a Michigan problem, it's an American problem. And I think there's going to be more incidences to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And John, that is something that we've also heard from FBI officials, as I said, and Homeland Security officials. The other thing the president last night, late last night tweeting about this investigation, really in some ways attacking the governor there and what he wrote is that, quote, while he says, quote, "I do not tolerate any extreme violence. Defending all Americans, even those who oppose and attack me, is what I will always do as your president! Governor Whitmer -- open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your churches."

[11:20:00]

And John, that is - that last line is the type of rhetoric that has concerned many officials across the country because those words, the lockdowns across the country and what the president has said about opening states up, a lot of these groups, government officials have said have been using those words to galvanize, to sort of use it as a way to fight the government, fight some issues that they're taking with some of the states are doing.

And we saw that in this case, where one of the people who was arrested was on video, on Facebook, talking about some of the lockdown efforts in Michigan, how he was unhappy about what the governor was doing. John?

KING: Shimon Prokupecz, tracking this very important story for us. Shimon, appreciate the live update there.

Still ahead for us, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raises questions about the president's behavior. And she says Congress should get a greater role in deciding whether any president is up to the job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:48]

KING: The House speaker Nancy Pelosi today backing an effort to give Congress a say in deciding whether a president should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. The legislation has zero chance of passing. Zero.

But in introducing it 25 days before the election, House Democrats now trying to raise questions about the president's fitness to lead, highlighting several examples of what they say is erratic behavior since it was confirmed he is infected with coronavirus.

CNN's Manu Raju live for us on Capitol Hill for us tracking this. It is a bit of a stunt, Manu, but the Democrats are trying to say they have a point.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're raising concerns about the president's conduct, his behavior after getting infected with the coronavirus. But they're saying that this is not necessarily going to apply to this president, but for future presidents. This is not expected to get a vote before the election, but the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, indicated that this is something that potentially could come up in the next Congress.

Now, of course, as it deals with the 25th Amendment, under the 25th Amendment, the majority of the cabinet with the vice president could essentially declare to the president is not capable of serving in office. Also, the 25th Amendment gives the body of Congress established by Congress along with the vice president the opportunity to move ahead and say that the president is not capable of serving. And at that point, the vice president would immediately become the acting president.

Now, under this legislation, it would create that body by Congress to essentially make that determination about the president's health. This commission under the legislation, we have 17 people. Eight people on each side, on each party would essentially designate people to serve. An additional person also would be part of this. They would ultimately vote on whether or not the president is fit to serve. The commission would study the president's behavior and make that determination and his health.

Now when I asked Speaker Pelosi just moments ago whether or not she believed that the 25th Amendment should be invoked given the situation involving President Trump, she didn't respond. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Would you concede that the president had not met the threshold for invoking the 25th Amendment?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): That is not for us to decide. It isn't about any of us making a decision as to whether the 25th Amendment should be invoked. That's totally not the point. That's not up to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, she would not say whether or not she believes that the 25th Amendment should be invoked. She's saying the point is to create a process to determine one way or the other if a president should be removed. But of course, all of this has to do with the current situation involving the president at the moment, spotlighting their concerns and making this a point right now ahead of the election when all these questions are being raised about the president's behavior.

But John, you're right. It has no chance of becoming law. The question is will it become law? And if it does, it probably will have to wait until next year. John?

KING: We will see if it carries over. Manu Raju live on the Hill for us. Appreciate it, Manu. Thanks very much.

Coming up for us, Hurricane Delta. You see some live pictures here. Delta closing in on Louisiana. This is Houston, Texas.

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