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Texans Struggles Through Pandemic; Evacuations in California; Stocks Fall as Cases Surge; El Paso Overwhelmed by Coronavirus; Final Presidential Campaign Push. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 27, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The COVID pandemic forced owner Will Tanner to unplug the music.

WILL TANNER, OWNER, HOLE IN THE WALL BAR: Oh, it's sad, man.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Do you find yourself getting down?

TANNER: Everybody's a little down. I don't think I -- I've got it much worse than anyone else.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Just before the pandemic, life was great. Jimmy Fallon featured the Hole in the Wall Bar on "The Tonight Show."

But this year Tanner says he laid off almost 20 employees. He's fighting to keep the bar alive, going into debt. He misses the magical nights, deeply woven into the city's cultural soundtrack. The silence isn't right.

TANNER: Everything's starting to fray. The cracks are starting to show, you know. So, yes.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Does the iconic kind of nature of this venue make you want to protect it and fight for it? Is that one of the things that is driving you?

TANNER: Yes. I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure this exists.

TAYLOR JOHNSON, SON OF SHONDA JOHNSON: I know, I'm saying they're right there.

SHONDA JOHNSON, OWNER, ANOINTED HANDS SALON: OK, I was looking at the wrong thing.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Shonda Johnson symbolizes the daily struggles of millions of Americans. For her, the pandemic is a test of emotional endurance.

S. JOHNSON: I don't know what God is doing, but I do trust him and I know that he is strengthening me to be able to put on all of these different hats.

Control. You've got to have ball control!

LAVANDERA: Johnson is diabetic and the single mother with an eighth grade boy with asthma, who is attending school virtually and misses his friends.

T. JOHNSON: I honestly don't even know what they look like anymore. Like, I've forgotten.

S. JOHNSON: Just hearing what he has to endure. As a mother, you want to be a protector. I see the frustration.

LAVANDERA: Johnson is a self-employed hairstylist. Her salon was shut down for two months and she is still trying to recover financially, only serving about half the clients she used to and Johnson is also caring for her elderly parents. Mother is in a wheelchair and her father is stricken with Alzheimer's. She's juggling it all by sheer force of will.

S. JOHNSON: You just keep going. You just keep going and try to survive.

LAVANDERA: Perhaps many Americans find themselves thinking about the end of the COVID pandemic. Will Tanner likes to think it will look and feel like those iconic images of Americans celebrating the end of World War II.

TANNER: It's going to be just, you know, people in the streets and people making out and hugging their friends, do you know what I mean? It just -- I think it's going to be awesome and that's what I'm hanging on to, you know.

LAVANDERA: It's those fleeting dreams that help us see the end of this dark tunnel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And, John and Alisyn, you know, this pandemic fatigue setting in at absolutely the worst time. Here in El Paso, hospitals are filled to capacity. The hospitalization rate is skyrocketing here this month. Death count is up. It is really all just coming at the worst possible time as we're seeing this surge in the pandemic across the country.

John and Alisyn.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Ed, thanks so much for being there. Obviously, the situation there is currently dire. We appreciate your reporting.

Tens of thousands of people in southern California evacuating this morning as this raging wildfire grew four times its size in a single day. A live report, next.

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[08:37:18] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have some breaking news right now.

More than 90,000 residents in southern California forced to evacuate as a wildfire quadruples in size. These are live pictures on your screen from Yorba Linda. That's in Orange County. It looks like a hell scape there. At least two firefighters have been critical injured.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is live for us on the scene.

Oh, my gosh, Stephanie, what's happening?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a lot going on out here right now and it's basically the middle of the night, Alisyn, but I just want to give you an idea and show you what is going on here.

We keep watching this area behind here flare up with flames. This is referencing the Blue Ridge Fire. Now, there's two fires. There's the Silverado Fire and the Blue Ridge Fire, both burning in Orange County. Having more than 100,000 people evacuated.

And this is the issue. You can probably see that the wind is picking up those embers and throwing them into the sky. The wind is picking it up. And what is the concern here is that it will burn over to the houses that are nearby.

The Silverado Fire has burned more than 7,000 acres. The Blue Ridge, close to 7,000. So you're looking at all of these people -- and there's a lot of people out here tonight right now watching because they're afraid of the fact that those embers come out and then they could come across here to these houses that are right here across the street.

There's a homeowner back there that is hosing down their house, hosing down across the street trying to stop that because when those embers get in the air, it is so dangerous.

And as the sunlight comes up, it's going to heat up and the winds will probably get stronger, and that is the concern here. So the firefighters have been out here fighting this, working on this. Obviously, it's very dangerous. You talked about those two firefighters at the Silverado Fire. They are the ground crews for the Orange County Fire Authority. They are the ones who go in there, dig those fire lines to try to stop the progression of fire.

We saw those winds yesterday. They were very horrific when you're talking about fire. And that is the concern here. So you've got the fire trucks out here. You do have people trying to do their part. Most of the people here not sleeping. I talked to one resident who said that 12 years ago this happened. He lived just on the other side of this house. He's concerned about it blowing over. But he says that he feels like that they are doing a much better job this time, he said, of knocking down these fires and knocking down these hot spots. But we continue to see them right here behind us, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. And we see it on our screens and we're thinking of those firefighters. Stephanie, thank you. Stay safe, please.

All right, "CNN Business Now."

U.S. stocks had their worst day in more than a month as coronavirus cases surge and stimulus talks stall.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us with more.

What do we know, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, stocks had a really bad day Monday. The grim news of rising U.S. coronavirus cases, new shutdowns in Europe and this stalemate in Washington over economic relief.

[08:40:00]

The Dow, in the end, lost 2.3 percent. The broadest measure of the stock market, the S&P 500, fell 1.9 percent. That's the worst day there in a month. The travel industry hit hard with a big sell-off for U.S. airlines and hotels. Cruise lines among the worst performing stocks in the S&P. There's just a lot for investors to grapple with. European shares fell due to new restrictions there combatting this second wave of the pandemic.

In the U.S., virus cases are surging, but Congress seems to be at a stalemate here over new stimulus. That would help millions out of work Americans and struggling industries. Economists across the board say more stimulus is crucial to the economic recovery. In fact, following an ugly September, Wall Street rallied on hopes of more government spending. Most of those gains now have been erased.

Looking at the future right now, it looks like they're going to try to find some stability, John, after what was a pretty -- a pretty ugly day yesterday.

BERMAN: All right, Christine Romans, the markets reacting to the news, it really seems obvious around the country, which is the coronavirus is surging.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: Thank you so much for being with us.

One place it is particularly bad, we just had a report from there, El Paso, Texas. And the mayor of El Paso joins us now, Dee Margo.

Mayor Margo, thanks so much for being with us. It's always great to see you. I wish it were under better circumstances.

I want to talk about what's happening in your city. Hospital capacity is a real concern. I've heard you say you were at the end of your rope in terms of hospital capacity. What's the current situation?

MAYOR DEE MARGO (R), EL PASO, TEXAS: It's very tight. I mean we announced yesterday, 1,390 new positives. Today it's -- I mean, excuse me, yesterday it was 1,443, today is was 1,390. Our hospitalizations are at 892 are up 67 from yesterday.

The governor has sent out care sites. We've got a -- we're -- we've got four tents, pressurized tents set up at hospitals for overflow and we're looking at an alternate care site at our convention center, which we'll set up with 50 beds and then it could be expanded to a hundred.

But it's not -- it's not good. We're air evacing non-COVID positive patients if we -- if -- if we need to. The hospitals are all working together. But we've just got a surge that I'm not sure exactly where it's coming from.

We did a deep dive the other day and for two weeks from October 6th to the 20th and 37 percent were -- the positives were coming from big box stores and shopping, 22.5 percent were restaurants and 19 percent, almost 20 percent was from travel to Mexico, which is -- you know, we're the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border.

So we're just -- we're trying to get our arms around it. But I also think one of the issues is, because we haven't had that stimulus yet, that people are positive and are showing up for work because that's their only paycheck. And there is a delay in the announcement of the -- acknowledgment to us from private labs to the public health department on when they're -- when they turn positive, when they're notified of being positive. For instance, you can go to a private lab, be notified if your positive within 24, 48 hours or whatever, yet the data goes to the state and then it comes back to us at our public health department before we're confirming it. So it may be some of that.

I don't know, but we're hoping to get our arms around it.

BERMAN: You say stimulus. I mean the Senate just went home. They're not getting back until November 9th at the earliest. So that money's not coming anytime soon. And I know that is only cause for greater concern there.

Mayor, you know, I've had a chance to talk to you under many different circumstances, including crises before. You sound frustrated and, to an extent, exhausted in dealing with this. It's a very big thing. You talk about hospital capacity. You talk about the tents that are being created. When do you think you'll need to start putting people in these tents?

MARGO: I haven't checked today on what the status is. They were set up this weekend. The governor has provided us with every resource we need. We have no issues related to testing materials, reagents, PPE, whatever we -- they sent us about 800 medical personnel, nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists. You know, those folks are at the front line. They're putting in the 12-hour days. They're the ones that are tired and exhausted and I'm just trying to figure out how to put it all together.

BERMAN: Yes. MARGO: But it is frustrating and --

BERMAN: Well, talk to me about that. talk to me about that because the county judge who is the one who gets to make these decisions in Texas, has instituted a curfew, a nighttime curfew. I don't think anyone is talking about shutdowns at this point. One of the situations around the country is it's very hard to shut down again. And you're not talking about that there yet.

So what are you going to do to try to bring these numbers down? What can you do?

MARGO: Well, we hope we're instituting what we need to do and it takes, you know, several days, a week, maybe two to see any movement given what's transpired historically.

[08:45:03]

But the only individual, the only person who can call for a shutdown in the state of Texas is the governor. And then, of course, I think, the WHO last week came out and said shutdowns don't work.

I instituted restrictions on the restaurants to close at -- close their kitchens at 9:00 p.m. a couple of weeks ago. And then our county judge, who does have authority that -- that preempts mine in the state of Texas, it's the governor and the county judge and then the mayor, irrespective of size of city, instituted a 10:00 p.m. curfew until 5:00 a.m. But yet the curfew doesn't apply to essential businesses, it doesn't apply to others. My issue on that is I'm very much in favor of moral persuasion (ph) and getting -- making sure people understand they need to do this and send a message and do what you can do. But I'm also concerned about our ability to truly enforce something we're mandating. But we will follow his order as directed.

We brought in more -- we were concerned about the restaurants. We've had a number of bars convert to restaurants and we brought in the Texas alcohol and beverage control people to do inspections because we think they're gaming the system where you walk in, and in certain cases buy a beer for a dollar and nachos for 15 and things like that.

BERMAN: Listen, Mayor Dee Margo, we appreciate you being with us this morning. We wish you the best of luck. Let us know how we can help. I know the situation there is difficult. El Paso knows how to deal with difficult situations.

Best of luck, sir.

MARGO: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, just one week left to vote. We'll get "The Bottom Line" on where the candidates are focusing their attention and what that tells us, next.

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[08:51:29] CAMEROTA: President Trump and Joe Biden have a lot of ground to cover in the final week of the 2020 race. Joe Biden is on offense today, heading to Georgia, while President Trump is focused on the blue wall states that he flipped in 2016.

Let's get "The Bottom Line" with CNN political director David Chalian.

Good morning, David.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: The map is fascinating, Alisyn. It really does reveal their -- their strategies, their strategic necessities, if you will.

CAMEROTA: Their strategery (ph). Other than jet lag, what do you see on this map if we pull it up, their -- their final campaign stops?

CHALIAN: Well, as you noted about that so-called blue wall, I mean you heard Joe Biden say it yesterday when he popped up in Pennsylvania briefly. He said, you know, rebuilding that blue wall is critical. And, right now, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, the polling there at least is showing they're leaning a bit in Biden's direction. But that is why you see Donald Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin today, three stops in Pennsylvania yesterday. He too knows that if the Democrat is able to rebuild that whole blue wall in the Great Lakes states, it really does block him from getting re-elect.

BERMAN: Joe Biden's in Georgia, David.

CHALIAN: Yes.

BERMAN: He's in Georgia. You will learn -- you have a six-month-old. You will learn Dora the Explorer and the songs there. The "I'm the Map" song is my favorite. And the --

CAMEROTA: He's been singing it all morning.

BERMAN: Yes, I've been singing it all morning.

The "I'm the Map" song is telling the story of where this campaign is right now.

CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, no Democrat has won Georgia since 1992. It is one of those states that Democrats, for a decade now, along with Arizona and Texas have had on this sort of long-term project of trying to take some red states across the sun belt and flip them blue as demographic changes are taking place there.

All the polling we see out of Georgia shows a really tight race. The fact that the Democratic nominee one week before Election Day is going to spend his whole day there doing two events there, his wife, his running mate have been there in recent days, they are looking to see if they can make fetch (ph) happen there and expand the map. It's basically an insurance policy. Make sure you tend to that to see if it can flip in case that blue wall in the Great Lakes doesn't get rebuilt. It is -- it is a fascinating thing to see the Democratic nominee in

Georgia a week before, John. But also just note his message today. He's going to be in Warm Springs, Georgia, as you know. I mean he's going to clearly evoke FDR and that notion of a nation unifying together for a purpose overcoming great challenges, similar what did he in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

And, by the way, even pre-pandemic, similar to how Joe Biden launched this campaign in talking about a battle for the soul of the nation. So I think you'll see that unifying closing message that Joe Biden is going to try to sell to voters in this final week.

CAMEROTA: Hey, David, h\ow about these new numbers that we just got moments ago, 65.5 million early votes have already been cast. It's 7 million more than just yesterday.

What are we to make of these numbers?

CHALIAN: I mean I make the notion that this American electorate is showing up like never before and is totally engaged in this moment. And it's astonishing. It's also quite heartening to see so many Americans coming out and voting.

But as you noted, it's not just the 7 million increase from yesterday. We are now well past what the total early vote was four years ago in 2016. There are still several more days to go, five days or so, six days of early voting to occur in many states.

[08:55:05]

So this -- this total is going to keep going up. And we know that more and more Americans are voting early in absentee because of the pandemic than ever before. So the missing piece of the puzzle, as we see this explosion in early vote, what will we see on Election Day itself next Tuesday?

BERMAN: By the way, David, I heard you make the "Mean Girls" reference, trying to say that you are not boring Dora dad, you are cool dad. I got that whole thing.

Very quickly, President Trump is going to Nebraska today. He's going there for one electoral vote.

CHALIAN: He is. This is amazing. You know, Nebraska and Maine, they award their electoral votes by congressional district. It just shows you, I think, how narrow a path Donald Trump has right now. He needs a week out to actually spend some time in the Omaha area, in that second congressional district of Nebraska, to try to win, hold, because he won it last time, that single electoral vote.

Now, listen, you also know, it's right across the river from western Iowa and Iowa is very competitive as well. So a lot of getting out the Republican vote is western Iowa is important to the president as well. But he's making the stop in Omaha, exactly that reason, for that single electoral vote.

CAMEROTA: David Chalian, your enthusiasm is infectious.

CHALIAN: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Great -- great to see you.

CHALIAN: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Wisconsin -- the Supreme Court made a big decision last night. It affects Wisconsin. It may affect the whole presidential race.

And CNN's coverage continues next.

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