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Leon Panetta Discusses Trump Peddling "Bats-- Crazy" Conspiracy Theory on Bin Laden Raid & Trump Refusing to Commit to Peaceful Transition of Power; Update on Coronavirus Responses Around the World; Dozens Refuse to Cooperate after COVID Event, Accuse Contact Tracer of "Working for Satan". Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired October 15, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump's penchant for promoting false claims and his obsession with his predecessor, former President Obama, are colliding in what one Republican congressman tells CNN is -- and I am quoting -- "batshit crazy" conspiracy theory.
The president retweeting a post by a QAnon supporter alleging that an Osama bin Laden body double was killed during the 2011 raid and the terror leader himself is still alive.
The former Navy SEAL who claimed that he personally killed bin Laden responded to Trump with a tweet of his own, saying, quote, "Very brave men said good-bye to their kids to go kill Osama bin Laden. We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body double. Thank you, Mr. President. Happy birthday, U.S. Navy."
With me now is Leon Panetta. He served as CIA director and defense secretary as well.
You were among the officials overseeing the bin Laden raid. What is your reaction to the president promulgating this, I mean crazy -- I will save the expletive -- but this crazy theory?
LEON PANETTA, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR & FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: You know, this president, every time he has to face the truth, he comes up with lies. Every time he is -- is told that something in fact happened, he comes up with conspiracy theories.
And now is basically portraying the raid as having gone after somebody who was other than Osama bin Laden, which is absolutely incredibly ridiculous.
So ask the SEALs. Ask me. Ask Bill McRaven, Admiral McRaven, who headed up that mission. Ask President Obama. And all of us know that that mission went after Osama bin Laden, got
Osama bin Laden and sent a clear message to the world that nobody attacks the United States of America and gets away with it.
That's the fact. That's the truth. And that's what we all know to be the case.
KEILAR: Yes. I mean, I suspect you never thought you would have to answer a question like this. It's just so absurd.
You know that, right? It's like it's not funny, but it's just absurd. That's the quality of it.
President Trump has said that he doesn't know much about QAnon other than they like him. In Georgia and other states, there are Republican congressional candidates who openly tout their ties to QAnon.
Do you think that the Republican Party is becoming a conspiracy theory party?
PANETTA: Well, you know, I -- I sure as hell hope not.
[13:35:01]
But at the same time, the more I see these kind of crazy conspiracy theories going around, the more there are groups like QAnon and other conspiracy type groups that breed on these falsehoods about America, about who we are, it's part of the frightening path that we have seen politics take over these last few years.
And it's part of the reason that we're polarized and divided, because there are these phony presentations that try to play to people's anger and fears and hatreds.
And, you know, I would think that responsible people, both in the Republican and Democratic Party, would be willing to stand up and denounce these conspiracy theories for what they are, baloney,
And try to embrace, frankly, the beliefs that we all hold dear about what this country is really about, what we believe in to be fact and truth, and the fact that we embrace an America that doesn't have to rely on lies in order to know that we're the greatest country on earth.
KEILAR: You know we are less than three weeks from Election Day. There are millions of Americans who have already cast their ballots in early voting, and President Trump is continuing to cast doubt on the results and whether he will accept them.
Let's listen to what he said.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): They spied on my campaign and they got caught. They tried to overthrow the president of the United States, and they got caught. And then they stand up, so innocent, and they say, will you do a fair
transition. Well, they didn't do a fair transition. They spied on my campaign long before I won because they thought I was going to win.
STUART VARNEY, FOX HOST, "VARNEY & CO" (voice-over): You're implying that if you don't think it's fair, you won't leave the White House, which means you won't concede?
TRUMP: I'm not saying anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Do you think that this is bluster on his part, or do you think this thing he's teasing could actually play out in some way?
PANETTA: I think he's doing what he's been doing for the last four years, which is to constantly sow the seeds of doubt about our institutions in our democracy.
Try to undermine the things that we hold dear in this country, whether it's freedom of the press, whether it's -- it's the courts, whether it's the Congress, whether it's, you know, the belief of the American people in a country that has the right to vote and determine who shall be president of the United States.
He's attacked every one of those institutions because, in many ways, as president, he fears those institutions because they are the very checks and balances in a free society.
And, so, you know, the things that the president is now saying, questioning our right to vote, questioning whether or not we'll have free and fair elections in this country after over 200 years of precedent where we have been able to vote in this country freely and fairly and elect our leaders.
During wartime, during crisis times, we have always been able to do this.
And now to have a president kind of imply that somehow there's some kind of conspiracy and fraud out there that will deprive him of the presidency, you know, all of that just has to be totally rejected.
Because I think the American people believe in our system, believe in our right to vote, are going to cast their votes. And when they cast their votes, this president is going to find that he's no longer president of the United States, whether he likes it or not.
That's going to be based on an actual count of the votes of actual voters. That's what counts in our democracy, not the rantings of this president.
KEILAR: Secretary Panetta, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on.
PANETTA: You bet. KEILAR: As the resurgence of COVID grips the rest of the world, new
video shows a packed party tent just before one country shut down bars and restaurants for four weeks.
[13:39:47]
Plus, another damning example of the Trump administration telling the public all was OK in the early days of the pandemic while saying the exact opposite in private.
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KEILAR: Europe is facing a resurgence of coronavirus and a return to restrictions to help slow the spread.
[13:45:01]
This was the scene in the Hague less than an hour before bars and restaurants in the Netherlands were set to close for in-person service.
The Dutch prime minister ordering a four-week partial lockdown in response to a surge in COVID infections. His country has seen a roughly 60 percent spike in new cases compared to the week before.
My CNN colleagues across Europe are following the very latest.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Phil Black in London where tough new restrictions on personal lives are set to kick in.
From Saturday morning, it will be illegal for people in different Households to mix together indoors. So no hanging out in homes, bars, restaurants, cafes.
It will still be possible to socialize outside, but that's going to become less practical as the winter deepens.
London's Mayor Sadiq Khan says there's no choice but to implement these restrictions because it is now clear the virus is spreading rapidly in all parts of the capital.
[13:49:58]
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Paris. Here in France, curfews announced by the French president yesterday to try to bring France's spiraling COVID-19 figures back under control.
Eight French cities, plus the greater Parisian region, will, from Saturday, have curfews from 9:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Those will be policed by some 12,000 policemen and women.
Also on Saturday, France enters a state of sanitary emergency. That really gives local authorities power to enforce more restrictions should they prove necessary. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman
in Rome where, for the second day in a row, authorities are reporting record increases in the number of new coronavirus cases.
Numbers far higher than Italy saw at the height of its lockdown earlier this year.
Most worrying is the situation in Campania in southern Italy where Naples is located. This is an area that has seen dramatic increases in the number of cases.
An area that's poorer, has fewer resources to deal with COVID-19 and is also an area with the country's highest population densities.
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KEILAR: Thank you so much to my colleagues for those reports.
Someone at a men's retreat gets coronavirus and now the whole group appears to be in denial. Health officials who tried to contact trace accused of working for Satan.
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KEILAR: You know it's going to be a long day when someone accuses you of working for Satan. But that's exactly what happened to a health official in Michigan for doing her job, investigating a coronavirus case linked to a four-day men's retreat at a church in the state's Upper Peninsula.
When you look at the uptick of cases in the state, which is now close to 140,000, you understand why it's necessary to follow up on any leads from any possibility super-spreader event.
But members of that men's retreat did not want to cooperate. Instead, they threw out insults about the devil.
Nick Derusha, is the president of the Michigan Association of Local Public Health, which is keeping track of super-spreader events, potentially like this one.
Nick, tell us what happened here.
NICK DERUSHA, PRESIDENT, MICHIGAN ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, actually -- thank you for having me today.
KEILAR: Yes.
DERUSHA: As we have moved through the pandemic here, we've encountered more and more resistance with our case investigators and contact tracers.
So it's becoming more common when our folks reach out to let us know they've been exposed to a case or they're a case themself, to have folks that sometimes aren't honest or maybe don't provide all the details we need to ensure we are able to investigate cases or follow up on contacts. And the men's retreat was one example of that.
We had someone who attended the retreat, later tested positive. So we reached out to the organizers to obtain information of other individuals who may have been there and been exposed, and we did not get the cooperation we needed in order to reach out successfully.
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KEILAR: One thing I do want to point out
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KEILAR: Yes, go on.
DERUSHA: -- Brianna, is that the person that called our member Satan actually was not someone that was involved in the men's retreat. It was another case that we were investigating where that had occurred.
KEILAR: OK. That was another case.
But the resistance is something that you're seeing consistently. And I wonder if, do you get a sense of why people are resistant? Do they just not want to believe they are exposed? Are they embarrassed?
Do you get a sense of why they're being resistant to contract tracing?
DERUSHA: I think there are a host of reasons. I think some folks, like you have stated, they don't want to believe this is a serious illness. They don't want to cooperate with our investigators for that reason.
But in addition to that, I think we have some other folks, that they need to work. If they have to isolate or have to quarantine, it's hard for them to do that.
I think embarrassed, being embarrassed is also a part of that as well. They don't want us reaching out to say this person was positive or someone they were around was positive.
So it's a host of factors that are playing into that.
But it's really difficult for us in public health to be able to contain the virus if we aren't getting accurate information when we're doing our investigations and contact tracing.
KEILAR: Yes, it is very difficult.
Nick, you're doing very good work. So is your team.
Nick Derusha, thank you so much for being with us.
DERUSHA: Yes, thank you very much, Brianna.
KEILAR: Coronavirus hits the campaign staff of Senator Kamala Harris. Who tested positive? And what it means for upcoming events. With 19 days until the election, an aide having tested positive there.
[13:55:02]
Plus, college football's reckoning as outbreaks soar among teams.
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KEILAR: It is the top of the hour. I'm Brianna Keilar.
[13:59:54]
And we begin with a dire projection from the CDC, 240,000 people will likely die of coronavirus in this country by November 7th. That is an average of 1,000 American lives lost each day.
