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New Day

Trump Lashes Out in Final Days of Race, Biden Preps for Debate; New Cases Rise in U.S., Hospitalizations Highest in Two Months; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Warns Against Stimulus Deal before Election. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 21, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: We want to welcome our viewers in United States and all around the world this is New Day.

And this morning, all signs points to the coronavirus pandemic getting worst in the United States. Overnight, more than 60, 000 new cases were reported. One expert predicts cases will, quote, rapidly accelerate in the next week. Ten states reported hospitalizations on Tuesday. The nationwide hospitalization rate now reaching levels we have not seen for two months.

President Trump is ignoring those numbers and the science. He continues to insist we have turned the corner in the pandemic but that's not what experts are seeing.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: So, 13 days left to vote, tens of millions of people not waiting. Look at this numbers. More than 33 million votes have already been casted, and, frankly, that's a low estimate that will go up by a lot in the next hour or so. That is 72 percent of all early vote cast in 2016. It's about a quarter of the total votes cast in 2016. It is staggering.

So what are the candidates doing this morning? There is such a stark contrast coming into focus, probably a deliberate contrast, at least from the Biden campaign. The president is traveling all over the country on the attack against, well, everyone, Lesley Stahl, Anthony Fauci, Kristen Welker, the Debate Commission, Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, dishwashers. The message, have attack, will travel.

And the Biden campaign seems to be saying, have at it. Their message is that Joe Biden will reset the tone in America, a return to calm, a return to the deep, soothing voice of Sam Elliott. We will play you some of their new deliberate ad in just a moment.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Joining us now, we have CNN Political Correspondent, ABBY Phillip and CNN Senior Washington Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny. He's in Philadelphia, where former President Obama will campaign today. But I want to start with Abby.

Unorthodox campaign strategies that you don't normally see within two weeks of an election from both sides. And so as John just pointed out that sort of litany of people that President Trump is going after, Lesley Stahl, Hillary Clinton. You know, okay, I mean, what's the -- I know we always ask what the strategy is and it's often just the politics of personal grievance. But do voters care about Lesley Stahl?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know that voters care about Lesley Stahl in the way that the president and perhaps the White House do. What was so perplexing about this is that the president really -- you know, I mean, I have to just say, he loves 60 Minutes. He wants to be seen on one of the most popular news programs on television. And yet, when he had his moment, it kind of blew up based on what we understand from the reporting that's out there.

And as a result now, they're trying to counterprogram by tweeting mean things about Lesley Stahl. And it just does not seem to be something that will work. Millions of people are going to see what happened in that interview, and it's not going to be counteracted by the president's tweets.

And on top of that, you know, this is a president who is operating almost entirely by impulse right now, from the rallies, to the attacks on the media. This is a president who is angry at the people around him. He thinks that he's being treated unfairly.

He wants to hold campaign rallies, because they make him feel good, but the rallies in particular really run counter to the message that the campaign should be getting out there, which is that he takes this virus seriously. And what the American people see every time he goes to a massive rally is that he doesn't. He doesn't take the virus seriously nor apparently the health and safety of his own supporters.

BERMAN: What's clear to me now, and it's not clear to me that there is a strategy from the Trump campaign, is that the Biden campaign does have a strategy. I'm not saying it will work, but it just became clear to me last night, Jeff, when I was watching the World Series and this ad came on narrated by Sam Elliott. I want to play a little bit of it for you here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM ELLIOTT, AMERICAN ACTOR: Joe Biden doesn't need everyone in this country to always agree. Just to agree we all love this country and go from there.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Joe Biden and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So while you have the president on the trail, on the attack against everybody, you have the Biden campaign with this weaponized normalcy, is how I would call it. This deliberate moderation, small M, not political moderation, but I mean temperamental moderation, and that seems to be the closing message here, Jeff.

[07:05:09]

And it's in such stark relief now with that very expensive ad during the World Series last night.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, it absolutely is. I mean, think of Joe Biden's candidacy right now. At least he's hoping to present it as, you know, Xanax for Democrats, milk of magnesia for Americans. Just like I will bring calm to you. That is, of course, benefited by the fact that they have the money to do so.

That ad in the World Series speaks volumes about where the Biden campaign is right now. They have the resources and he is in command of this race. So he is trying to present an air of calm, really like he's been trying to do from the very beginning, trying to restore the soul of the country. He's been talking about that a lot. So he is not talking about President Trump at all.

President Trump, of course, is talking about everything but the matter at hand. Going back to Lesley Stahl for one second, we're told he walked out of that because of her questions on coronavirus. It is coronavirus that this president cannot get away from. He has tried every way possible. He will try it at the debate as well. But this is something that Americans are living, they're seeing, they're experiencing in their own daily lives. And that is what is frustrating the president. That is what is driving him crazy.

So the Biden campaign is trying to just say, look, two more weeks and you can have a sense of calm in the country. Of course, that is sort of glossing over how difficult any of this will be should he win. And we should point out, with 13 days to go, we do not know the outcome of this race. Millions of people are voting, but millions of people have not yet voted. Others will have a hard time voting. So let's let this play out here. But for right now, at least, the Biden campaign is projecting an air of calm.

CAMEROTA: Well, it's interesting, Abby, on the message, on that message, they seem to be in agreement, the Trump campaign and that the Biden campaign in terms of the milk of magnesia message. And so here is President --

BERMAN: I'm not sure that milk of magnesia specifically does, what Jeff was suggesting it does. I don't know this thing.

CAMEROTA: It doesn't lull (ph) into a sense of calm.

BERMAN: I don't know, it's more of a digestive thing, isn't it?

CAMEROTA: That's, well, who doesn't have (INAUDIBLE)?

Okay. Here is what President Trump had to say about the future with Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If you want depression, doom and despair, vote for Sleepy Joe Biden, and boredom.

If you had Sleepy Joe, that nobody is going to be interested in politics anymore. That's going to be the end of that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Boredom.

PHILLIP: Right. I actually thought -- I mean, when that ad played, it felt a little bit like a lullaby. It was like that thing that you play in a child's room that goes around in circles. I think that's what the Biden campaign wants. These two men have two completely different views of what the American people want from the political sphere. And Biden is arguing that people want to turn this whole thing off.

The president on the other hand is saying to voters, at least I'm interesting, at least I keep you on your toes. Look, it's been four years. You know, I think that this is the referendum on whether the American people want to be kept on their toes with another four years of a Trump presidency, which has been really impossible for people to turn away from.

But what you do hear from a lot of voters is that they really are tired. They really are kind of exhausted by this whole thing. And they really do want things to be a little bit more calm. It's particularly pronounced among women and particularly pronounced among women in those suburbs that the president likes to keep talking about. They want politics to be less dramatic, less grievance-filled, and more responsive to them and what they're going through day-to-day.

That's where I think the president may be a little bit disconnected. He's thinking about this as a T.V. producer wanting to produce the most interesting show when the American people are kind of looking for something else.

BERMAN: Jeff, former President Obama hits the campaign trail for the first time today in Philadelphia, where you are. You have new reporting on what he will say. And I'm also fascinated by the choice of Philadelphia as the location for the first appearance from the former president.

ZELENY: John, there is no question that the road to 270, which is how a presidential candidate wins, runs directly through Pennsylvania and indeed here in Philadelphia. And these 20 electoral votes were critical to President Trump four years ago. They will be critical this time, as well, also important to Joe Biden. So as Joe Biden tries to lock up Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia in particular are in center stage here.

And President Obama, former President Barack Obama, is coming here to Philadelphia, specifically for his first stop, returning to the campaign trail, to make an appeal to younger voters, to black men in particular, to come out and support Joe Biden.

[07:10:01]

Barack Obama, of course, won Pennsylvania, you know, in record numbers, largely because of turnout from African-Americans. And that, of course, fell off somewhat four years ago. So that is his message here today, to try and reach out to some of those voters who supported him, who may not have turned out four years ago.

And I am told by some advisers to the former president that, look, he has been trying to delay this as long as possible, coming out to campaign, because he does not see this, I'm told, as a personal grudge match with President Trump. He tries to, you know, imbue some forward- looking nostalgia, if you will, again, back to, as Abby said, a lullaby moment. Back to where you may not think of your president at every waking moment in terms of exhaustion.

So he is going to be out on the road over the next couple of week, just a handful of times, I'm told, but going after particularly some of those Obama voters who may have stayed home or not voted four years ago.

CAMEROTA: I like forward-looking nostalgia, back to the future.

BERMAN: I was going to say, it is like (INAUDIBLE), wherever you go, there you are. There is a weird time shift there.

CAMEROTA: There is.

BERMAN: Milk of magnesia, a strange thing.

CAMEROTA: Jeff, Abby, thank you both very much.

So, Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off tomorrow night in the final presidential debate. CNN's special live coverage starts at 7:00 P.M. Eastern.

All right, coronavirus, the hospitalizations are hitting levels we have not seen for months. The FDA's former chief says things are about to get worse. We discuss what he means, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: -- that we're about a week away from starting to enter a period where we're going to see a rapid acceleration in cases. And I think November and December are going to be tough months. We're seeing hospitalizations go up in 42 states right now. Cases are going up in 45 states. And there really is no backstop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: About a week away from a rapid acceleration. That's former FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, warning that the pandemic is about to get worse.

It already is, in many ways, worse. More than 60,000 new cases reported overnight in the United States and the nationwide hospitalization rate is now reaching levels we have not seen for months. Joining us now, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, Dr. Gottlieb talked about the rapid acceleration that will happen next week. We may already be there already, but what is he talking about? What is he seeing, what are you seeing there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, we have been following these numbers very closely. And you remember, we were seeing these different waves around the country in the northeast, and then the Midwest, and then south. They sort of started to consolidate. You are still seeing rapid increases or more rapid increases in certain places in the west and the Midwest.

But what I think Dr. Gottlieb is really referring to is sort of tracking this with the European Union to some extent. We could show, and you'll remember, we were all following what was happening in Europe, specifically Italy at the beginning of this pandemic. This is going back to sort of end of March.

And you remember that green line is the European Union. It spiked up about, you know, a week or two earlier than ours. We kept looking at Italy thinking is that going to happen here. It did, and you can see what happened over the next several months.

But now look at the far right side of the graph. European Union really spiking and we are just a couple of weeks probably behind that as well. I think that's what Dr. Gottlieb is referring to. It's a reasonable model to sort of look at. But that's the number of overall confirmed people with the infection.

I think your point about the hospitalizations is the key point. What is happening to the hospitalizations? Are people still being hospitalized? And we find that they are. You're seeing capacity in hospitals around the country really increasing. There are states now that have the highest number of people hospitalized throughout this entire pandemic. 14 or 15 states are in that category and many others are catching up. That's the real concern here. That's the real concern.

Let me just point out one thing that I think might be a little bit of a bright spot here. We don't know yet, so I want to caveat it. But if you look at the death rates among hospitalized, okay, now compared to March/April, there's one hospital system in New York, and we can put up the numbers that, basically, death rates back in March/April were around 25.6 percent, and now around 7.6 percent. Is that because they are younger patients, healthier patients that are ending up hospitalized? Are we better at treating this disease or is this just, you know, again, caveating, is this going to be rebound into the vulnerable communities you saw in Kansas and that nursing home and is this kind of -- is the death rate going to go up? We don't know yet.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, in terms of that rapid acceleration that you just described, can you just give me a specific? If we're at 60,000 cases, new cases, a day, which we are right now, what does rapid acceleration mean? What number are we going to be at in a week?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, you know, if you look at where -- first of all if you go back to sort of middle of July, after July 4th, we got up to 77,000, I think, or so people becoming infected in a single day. I think, you know, it's hard to say it.

And I'm always hesitant a little bit because I don't want to alarm people, but you remember at that point, Dr. Fauci even said, look, we could hit 100,000 or so people becoming infected every day. It's possible. I think we're keeping a very close eye on the European Union, because it is a good model in terms of what is happening here. But those are the sort of numbers that we're looking at.

What does that translate to in terms of hospitalizations and into these tragic deaths? We don't know yet. We have had some improvements, again, with regard to how we treat patients, but what's it really going to mean. I think it's still though to say.

BERMAN: Yes. When you put up that chart comparing the United States to the European Union, if we can put that up again, what concerns me is you can see how quickly Europe shot up there.

[07:20:05]

We're starting almost at where Europe is right now. That's sort of our starting point. If we shoot up as steeply as they are shooting up, we're just going to be in an awful, awful position. And soon, Sanjay, that, I think, is the concern. There's so much virus out there already.

GUPTA: Right. The two things are we are starting at a much higher level of virus. And also if you go back to seeing those spikes that we saw in the middle of July, you know, it was coming after these holiday weekends. There was a lot of COVID fatigue back then. Even you remember, people couldn't believe how long it was lasting, and that was July.

But it was also, you know, warmer weather. People could be outside predominantly. So even if they were getting together, they were more likely getting together outside. We're seeing the same sort of thing now happened going into these months. People clustering inside a lot of time in their own private homes and things like that, that's a significant, significant problem and seeing it in Europe.

Saw it back a hundred years ago in 1918. It was exactly around this time when you saw the huge second wave that they called it that was the most catastrophic of that entire pandemic.

CAMEROTA: I mean, Sanjay, it's not like you haven't been showing us that graph for all of these months. This has been predictable, knowable, and here it is. Sanjay, we have to go. Thank you very much for all of the information this morning.

We do want to take some time right now to remember some of the more than 221,000 Americans lost to coronavirus. Lori Thomas was the Executive Director of Lubbock Impact, a Christian Ministry aimed at helping needy families in industry that helped needy families in Lubbock, Texas, with food, clothing, health care, and spiritual growth. The group remembered its former leader on Facebook as someone who worked in excellence in everything she did.

70-year-old Judy Hill of Mobile, Alabama, had been a dance instructor, attended nursing college and ran a small business applying permanent makeup. Friends say her passion was applying finishing touches at no charge for women who had undergone reconstructive breast surgery. They say she had a wonderful ability to reach people in a positive way.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: So, talks resume this morning on a new relief package to help millions of struggling Americans. Multiple sources though tell CNN that the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, is warning the White House not to get behind a deal at the risk of dividing Senate Republicans before the election.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who is a big supporter of the Biden campaign. Senator, thanks so much for being with us.

Let me read you a little bit of CNN's reporting on what's going on in the Senate in regards to this relief package.

At a closed-door lunch on Tuesday, and McConnell indicated the deal was unlikely to get a vote in his chamber before Election Day, according to multiple sources, and he said he warned the White House against getting behind such a proposal before November 3rd that would badly divide Senate Republicans. So McConnell isn't jumping up and down about this. What do you want this morning?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): John, I want us to make real progress towards delivering relief for the millions of Americans who are suffering through this pandemic, who are struggling through this recession. Both of which have been made far worse than they ever should have been by President Trump's bungled mishandling of this public health crisis.

We have more than 25 million Americans on unemployment right now, more than 8 million Americans infected, more than 220,000 Americans dead. This is a public health crisis of epic proportions and our economy is barely hanging on because of the unanimous support of the Senate six months ago for the cares relief act.

McConnell has been AWOL. He has been absent, a total nonparticipant, and is now actually being a critical speed bump in the last days as Speaker Pelosi is trying hard to work out a robust package of relief. We have 6 million Americans late on their mortgage or their rent. That should be in this bill. Every state is facing rising challenges both in terms of their budgets and the pandemic response. Robust state and local government relief should be in this bill. And there should be another round of support for families.

I hope we can get this done. I have confidence in Speaker Pelosi and her negotiations. Many of us in the Senate are ready to support a broad and significant bill like this. But it's striking that Republicans in the midst of this public health crisis are signaling they will not support any more funding for American families in the middle of this recession and pandemic.

BERMAN: Regardless of what Mitch McConnell will do with it, leave his opposition or reticence aside here, do you want Speaker Pelosi to make the deal? Make the deal?

COONS: I do.

BERMAN: Maybe don't make the perfect the enemy of the good, maybe even take the deal a little bit north of what the $1.8 trillion the White House last offered was.

COONS: Look, let's put this into broader perspective. $1.8 trillion is an enormous amount of money. It's more than double the amount of the relief package, the Recovery Act that the Obama/Biden administration was able to get.

I'll remind you, in 2009, when the Obama/Biden administration came in, our economy was in freefall because of the collapse in Wall Street and Republicans doggedly objected to moving forward with any relief, insisted on major tax cuts to get anything.

[07:30:07]