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Trump Town Hall Misses A Chance To Give Straight Answers; Biden Lays Out Vision For America In Stark Contrast To Trump; Washington Post: White House Was Warned Giuliani Was Target Of Misinformation. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 16, 2020 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:37]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Two stages, two realities. President Trump and Joe Biden make a pitch at dueling town halls as coronavirus worsens and voting ramps up across the country.
We have reports this morning from Miami, Philadelphia, London, France, and Rome. Good Friday morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Boris Sanchez in for Laura Jarrett. We are 30 minutes past the hour. And the weekend is almost upon us, Christine.
ROMANS: And so is the election, Boris. Eighteen days to that election and as of this morning, voting officially underway all across the U.S.
Absentee ballots are now available in Hawaii and Washington, the final states to send them out. Washington State and Louisiana start early in-person voting today, among 30 states nationwide.
President Trump and Joe Biden speaking directly to those voters last night, but viewers had to pick one between these dueling town halls on separate networks.
Now, defying the universal view among health experts, the president claimed the science is not settled on wearing masks to mitigate the spread of coronavirus and that's just false. He said that the same day the U.S. reported almost 64,000 new cases, the most since July and the 15th-highest count for the entire pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As far as the mask is concerned, I'm good with masks -- I'm OK with masks. I tell people to wear masks.
But just the other day they came out with a statement that 85 percent of the people that wear masks catch it. So, you know, this is a very tricky one. SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS ANCHOR, "TODAY": Well, they didn't say
that. I know that study. That's --
TRUMP: Well, that's what I heard and that's what I saw.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: For the record, the president was misrepresenting a CDC study.
Trump's night was almost marked by what he could not or would not say, specifically when asked about a conspiracy theory that Democrats are running a satanic pedophile ring. That's a QAnon claim that the president has repeatedly elevated on Twitter from a group that the FBI calls a domestic terror threat.
Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta is on the ground in Miami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, the voters did not get a lot of straight answers from President Trump during that town hall that took the place of a presidential debate with Joe Biden.
Given multiple opportunities to denounce the false conspiracy theory QAnon, the president evaded the question and simply would not say what he thought about the group. Here's more of what he had to say.
TRUMP: I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it. If you'd like me to study the subject --
GUTHRIE: They believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state.
TRUMP: I'll tell you what I do know about, I know about Antifa and I know about the radical left. And I know how violent they are and how vicious they are. And I know how they're burning down cities run by Democrats, not run by Republicans.
GUTHRIE: Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said, quote, "QAnon is nuts and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories."
TRUMP: He may be right.
GUTHRIE: Why not just say it's crazy and not true?
TRUMP: Can I be honest? He may be right. I just don't know about QAnon.
GUTHRIE: You do know.
TRUMP: I don't know. No, I don't know.
ACOSTA: The president also gave a base of answers on health care, abortion, and even his own personal income taxes. But perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of the night for the voters was when the president would not say when his last negative coronavirus test was.
GUTHRIE: The debate commission's rule -- it was the honor system --
TRUMP: Yes.
GUTHRIE: -- would be that you would come with a negative test. You say you don't know if you got a test on the day of the debate?
TRUMP: I had no problem. Again, the doctors do it. I don't ask them. I test all the time and they --
GUTHRIE: Did you take a test, though, on the day of the debate?
TRUMP: You know, if you ask the doctor they'll give you a perfect answer. But --
GUTHRIE: Yes.
TRUMP: -- they take a test and I leave and I go about my business.
GUTHRIE: So did you take a test on the day of the debate, I guess is the bottom line.
TRUMP: I probably did.
ACOSTA: Leaving open the possibility that he walked into that last presidential debate with Joe Biden potentially symptomatic for COVID- 19 -- Boris and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Jim Acosta for us. Thanks, Jim.
At Joe Biden's town hall, the former vice president laid out a requirement for President Trump before the two men square off in their final debate next week.
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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC ANCHOR, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": Will you demand that President Trump take a test that day and that it be negative before you debate?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Yes. By the way, before I came up here I took another test. I've been taking them every day -- the deep test. You know, the one they go in both. And -- because I wanted to be able to -- if I had not passed that test I did not want to come here and not -- you know, expose anybody.
I'm less concerned about me than the people -- the guys at the cameras, the people working on the -- you know, the Secret Service guys you drive up with. All those people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:35:00] ROMANS: Biden tried to keep the focus on policy at his event last night, offering voters a calm presence in the face of President Trump's bombast.
CNN's Arlette Saenz has more for us this morning from Philadelphia.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Christine, over the course of this 90-minute town hall, Joe Biden faced a range of questions from how to handle the coronavirus pandemic to the economy and even his support of the 1994 crime bill. This was a very policy- focused discussion as Biden faced questions from a mix of undecided voters and people who have already decided if they're voting for Trump or Biden.
And one of the more noteworthy exchanges came around the issue of court packing. That is a question that Joe Biden has deflected on for weeks now as he has not given a clear answer of whether he would add more justices to the Supreme Court, simply saying that he's not a fan of it right now but not entirely ruling it out in his answer on Thursday night.
Take a listen to more of what he had to say.
BIDEN: I'm not a fan. I didn't say -- it depends on how this turns out. I'm open to considering what happens from that point on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you've said so many times during the campaign and all through the course of your career it's important to level with the American people.
BIDEN: It is. But, George, if I -- if I say -- no matter what answer I gave you, if I say it, that's the headline tomorrow. It won't be about what's going on now -- the improper way they're proceeding.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But don't voters have a right to know where you stand?
BIDEN: They do have a right to know where I stand and they'll have a right to know where I stand before they vote.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you'll come out with a clear position before Election Day?
BIDEN: Yes.
SAENZ: So, Biden saying he will make his position known before Election Day but that his decision will depend on how the confirmation process plays out for Amy Coney Barrett.
Now, Biden was, once again, critical of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And when he was asked about the possibility of a vaccine and making it mandatory, Biden said there should be a discussion about possibly mandating it. But he did acknowledge that it would be difficult to enforce legally. Now, Biden, over the course of his town hall, really tried to stay focused on the policy. He didn't spend the entire night criticizing President Trump. Instead, trying to offer his agenda for what a Biden administration would look like, presenting a clear contrast to the president who wasn't on that stage on Thursday night.
Now, later today, Joe Biden is traveling to the battleground state of Michigan, making two stops there as early voting is underway, as he is encouraging his supporters to get out and vote in these final weeks before the election -- Boris and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Arlette Saenz, thank you.
An influential model used by the White House predicts nearly 395,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by February first, and that's actually down 6,000 from the last forecast because the pandemic is moving into younger populations. But that decline is most likely temporary. Health experts say deaths will begin to increase over the next week or two.
We all remember the chaotic scenes in hospitals that played out at the start of the pandemic in the spring and we could be seeing a repeat soon. More Americans are in the hospital than any time in the last seven weeks.
Colorado, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas, and New Mexico all hitting record case counts just yesterday.
Today, President Trump travels to Georgia where Gov. Brian Kemp just signed an executive order extending most coronavirus restrictions throughout the month of October.
ROMANS: All right.
So, 18 days to the election. It's time for three questions in three minutes. Today, let's bring in CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston. Nice to see you, Mark.
Look --
SANCHEZ: Good morning, Mark.
ROMANS: -- let's begin on Trump here.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
ROMANS: He admitted he may not have taken a coronavirus test before the first debate. Bizarrely, he seems to be advocating against masks. I mean, his whole mangling of this 85 percent statistic really just shows you kind of how he -- how he synthesizes information, right? He refused to denounce, and in some cases, defended a dangerous conspiracy group. I could go on and on and on.
Eighteen days to save his job. Did he do himself any favors?
PRESTON: No, of course, not. What he did last night was he came out and he showed the state of the race -- and just by the tone of each of those two events we saw last night. He was very combative and he literally came out last night swinging, even before Savannah Guthrie could even get a question out of her mouth. At the beginning, she came out -- he came out directly at her.
Now, what I do find interesting, Christine, is that the most interesting thing that I think Donald Trump said last night was a response to the coronavirus question when he said that's not what I heard -- when he heard about the -- when he was discussing the study. That's not what I heard.
Well, it's not necessarily what you heard, Mr. President, it's what your health officials are telling you that you need to parrot, and he's just refusing to do so.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and who he's listening to, right?
ROMANS: Right.
SANCHEZ: On the other side --
PRESTON: Right.
SANCHEZ: -- we have to talk about Joe Biden. He's just naturally more measured and not as bombastic as the president. He also didn't have to play that interruption power game with President Trump sharing the stage with him --
PRESTON: Right.
[05:40:00]
SANCHEZ: -- so he got a chance to really speak his mind.
Things have been trending his way lately -- polls in swing states, fundraising. Was there anything you saw last night that might shift that in the other direction -- that might move the momentum?
PRESTON: I don't think so, Boris. You know, really, the state of the race right now is Donald Trump is hurting financially. He's also hurting in support in these key battleground states that he won -- was able to take away from Hillary Clinton four years ago. I do think what we saw last night is grasping attempts by Donald Trump to try to just have anybody support him.
To the point what Christine said too -- you know, what Christine said about QAnon. I mean, the fact of the matter is that he supported QAnon last night and said that they're against pedophilia. I mean, that's insane. It was just an insane response by Donald Trump.
ROMANS: He said he doesn't know anything about QAnon, except he does know for sure that they're strongly against pedophilia. I mean, it's just -- PRESTON: Yes.
SANCHEZ: It's just a -- we have to point out the obvious. The FBI has labeled them a domestic terror threat.
PRESTON: Right.
SANCHEZ: And yet, the President of the United States and many of his aides claim they know nothing about them.
ROMANS: Even though they retweet stuff about it.
SANCHEZ: Right.
ROMANS: Right. It's just so bizarre.
OK. We were speaking earlier about that -- I guess that split-screen that the country faces right now, Mark. The president's general irresponsibility or disinterest in the virus. Joe Biden taking it more seriously.
Bottom line, 18 days to the election, wherever you live in America you can now vote. What's the first thing on your mind this morning?
PRESTON: Get up early and get in line because these lines that we are seeing are outrageous right now all across the country. The fact that people have to spend hours in line to cast their vote is absolutely ridiculous.
And I think when we get past this election there's a lot of things we have to fix. That is one that really needs to be at the top of the list.
ROMANS: All right, Mark Preston, CNN senior political analyst. I would agree. I think we all agree.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: I'm so glad so many people are going out there to cast their votes. It's -- I don't -- I don't like to see those lines.
PRESTON: Yes.
ROMANS: All right.
President Trump lags far behind Joe Biden in the final fundraising tally before Election Day. The Trump campaign says the president raised $248 million in September compared to the former vice president's fundraising haul of $383 million. Biden's total broke a record his campaign had just set in August.
The Biden campaign also has significantly more money to spend during the final month of the race. They have $432 million on hand. The Trump campaign, about $251 million.
SANCHEZ: It's rare to see any Republican publicly criticize President Trump, so some new comments from Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse may stun you. Sasse has criticized the president before but he's sort of drifted back in the president's direction multiple times.
In a telephone town hall with constituents this week, though, he let Trump have it -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): The way he kisses dictators' butts. I mean, the way he ignores that the Uighurs are in literal concentration camps in Xinjiang right now. He hasn't lifted a finger on behalf of the Hong-Kongers.
I mean, he and I have a very different foreign policy. It isn't just that he fails to lead our allies, it's that we -- the United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership.
The way he treats women and spends like a drunken sailor. The ways I criticized President Obama for that kind of spending, I've criticized President Trump for as well.
He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He's flirted with white supremacists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The Senator's office says that while the Beltway is obsessing over the presidential race, Sasse is focused on keeping the Senate in Republican hands. And that concern may be valid. Democratic challengers have raised tens of millions of dollars, breaking records in the bid to win back the Senate, especially in Arizona, Montana, Kentucky, and South Carolina as well.
ROMANS: Yes. Those South Carolina numbers are just amazing how much money they've raised there -- $57 million.
All right, a startling revelation this morning. "The Washington Post" reports the White House was warned last year that the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence to feed misinformation to Mr. Trump. Former officials say the warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications.
Mr. Giuliani was not the target but surveillance on suspected Russian assets captured Giuliani while he was on a trip to Ukraine.
SANCHEZ: Yes, his trip came last December. You might recall it coincided with the House Democrats' vote to impeach the president.
The warnings led the national security adviser Robert O'Brien to caution Trump that any information brought to him from Giuliani back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated. Now, the "Post" reports that Trump just shrugged his shoulders.
There is no comment, so far, coming from the parties involved. ROMANS: All right.
Congress' swift response to the pandemic in March spared millions from falling into poverty after losing their jobs. Now that stimulus is gone -- it has ended -- and the poverty rate has climbed. Without more help from Congress, more people -- particularly, black Americans, children, and people with a high school education or less -- they fell into poverty over the summer.
[05:45:02]
One study shows the poverty rate rose to 11 percent in September. Another study found the stimulus checks and enhanced jobless benefits lifted more than 18 million out of poverty in April.
We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: Europe is, once again, a global hotspot for COVID-19 and hoping to avoid a full-on return to the tragic toll of the spring. Many countries are already spiking upward, but higher case counts now do not automatically mean record death tolls ahead. Testing and treatment have significantly improved over the last six months.
Just a few minutes ago, the British foreign secretary urged Manchester to accept a local lockdown that leaders are resisting as numbers begin to climb in the U.K.
CNN has the pandemic covered across Europe.
[05:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Phil Black in London, where tough new restrictions on people's personal lives are set to kick in.
From this weekend, it will be illegal for people who don't live together to spend time together indoors. So, no hanging out with wider friends and family in homes, cafes, restaurants -- anywhere inside. It will be harder for people to maintain and draw support from key personal relationships.
There will be similar restrictions in other parts of England, but London's mayor says it's necessary here because it's clear the virus is spreading rapidly in all parts of the capital.
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Bordeaux.
Here in France, another record set on Thursday night -- more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases declared for a single day. This, as curfews come into effect from tomorrow in Paris and in eight other French cities. Between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., you won't be able to leave your house. Everything will be shut.
Will that be enough to bring the numbers back under control? Emmanuel Macron made it clear on Wednesday night he's looking to get things to a level where we'd be seeing no more than 3,000 to 5,000 new cases a day -- a long way off the 30,000 we saw yesterday.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman in Rome, where Italy has seen ever-greater numbers of new coronavirus cases, more so than we saw earlier in the year when Italy was the epicenter of the European pandemic.
Of particular concern is the situation in Campania in southern Italy where Naples is located. This is an area where because of the lower income levels, the public health system is much less prepared for the pandemic and it has some of the highest population densities in Europe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Thanks to all of our correspondents for filing those reports for us.
Seventeen million Americans have already voted for president. That's about 15 percent of the total vote count in 2016.
Trouble in Pennsylvania where Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, will have to reissue 29,000 ballots due to a technical issue by a contractor. In 2016, Donald Trump won that state by less than 45,000 votes so that's why these margins really matter.
In North Carolina, Republican lawmakers asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that extended the deadline for absentee ballots to arrive as late as November 12th.
SANCHEZ: And there's more confusion in Texas. Now, a state judge has struck down the governor's order limiting drop boxes. A federal appeals court backed the governor this week, so the legal split is causing lots of uncertainty.
And then in Alabama, the Republican attorney general is asking the Supreme Court to restore a state ban on curbside voting. A lower court allowed curbside balloting this election cycle because of the pandemic.
ROMANS: All right.
The Trump administration is rejecting California's request for a federal disaster declaration in response to six huge wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres. One fire was the largest ever in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom says infrastructure damage alone is nearly a quarter-billion dollars.
Now, this decision to reject California is in keeping with the president's combative history with reliably blue California. The state plans to appeal.
SANCHEZ: Instead of moderating the second presidential debate, C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully has been suspended.
Scully admitted about lying regarding his Twitter feed being hacked. A tweet from his official account asked for advice from Trump friend- turned foe Anthony Scaramucci. And when the tweet went viral, Scully claimed that he was hacked. Scully now admits an error in judgment and has apologized.
ROMANS: All right.
Markets around the world looking to rebound from Thursday's losses. Taking a look at how they ended the week in Asia, mixed. And, Europe has opened higher here.
On Wall Street, futures barely moving this morning -- mixed, even. Stocks fell sharply at the opening bell before recovering some of their losses. Investors have plenty to worry about here. There's still no stimulus deal, coronavirus cases are rising again, and the jobs recovery appears to be heading in the wrong direction.
The Dow closed 19 points lower, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also fell.
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People whistling and humming.
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ROMANS: All right, can you hum a few bars? Google has a solution for that song that's stuck in your head. You can -- you can hum to search. The new feature is now part of Google's app and Google Assistant.
Users can ask what's this song and then hum, whistle, or sing part of the song for 15 seconds. Google will then give them a list of probable songs.
Google says you don't need to have perfect pitch to get this feature to work, which is important for -- you know, I can't whistle, even.
SANCHEZ: I can't whistle.
ROMANS: I can sing it but I can't whistle.
SANCHEZ: I can't sing, I can't whistle. I don't think it's going to work for me, honestly. It'd be a miracle if it did. But I'm going to try anyway -- why not?
ROMANS: You're talented in many other ways, so there you go.
SANCHEZ: Oh, thank you, Christine. I appreciate that.
ROMANS: Nice to see you this week. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez in for Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:59:23]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No second presidential debate. Instead, dueling town halls.
ACOSTA: Voters did not get a lot of straight answers from President Trump.
GUTHRIE: Did you take a test on the day of the debate?
TRUMP: I probably did.
BIDEN: It's just decency to be able to determine whether or not you are clear.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Nearly 60,000 new COVID-19 infections across America yesterday.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: As we enter the cooler season of the fall, you don't want to be in that compromised position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is now unconscionable this late into the outbreak.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, October 16th, 6:00 here in New York.
The stark differences between Joe Biden and President Trump were on display.
