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CA GOP Refuses To Remove Unofficial Ballot Boxes Deemed Illegal; COVID Surges, U.S. Adds 59,000 Plus Cases Wednesday; CDC Forecast Projects Up To 240,000 U.S. COVID-19 Deaths By November 7th; Senator Harris Staffer Tests Positive For COVID-19, V.P. Nominee Off The Campaign Trial Temporarily; Trump-Biden Battle Intensifies In Pennsylvania. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 15, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

BEN GINSBERG, LAWYER AND PARTNER AT JONES DAY: Putting their votes out and their votes will be in the bank come Election Day.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: and we will count 19 days from today. Ben Ginsberg, I appreciate your insights. Thank you very much.

GINSBERG: Thanks John.

KING: Thank you and hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world top of the hour. I am John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy news day with us. 35 of the 50 United States are reporting an increase in new Coronavirus infections today. And there's a new COVID economic punch too. New unemployment claims are also on the rise.

The unwelcome Coronavirus disruption includes the 2020 campaign. The Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee, Kamala Harris, cancelling a North Carolina campaign stop. The reason all too familiar. A staffer tested positive for the Coronavirus.

The Biden Campaign says the Senator was not exposed and that her shift to online events for a few days is out of an abundance of caution. The Coronavirus is also the reason why there's no presidential debate tonight. The president's diagnosis scrambled the original plan.

And instead, voters now have to choose who they're watching prime time, the President on NBC or Joe Biden on ABC. The president is on the road. A North Carolina Trump rally first, then to Miami for his Town Hall.

The president again says the United States is doing just fine versus the virus, and you need not worry. But the numbers don't lie. Nearly 60,000 new infections added to the U.S. case count just yesterday, Wednesday.

All the data tell us we're climbing toward a new peak, not as the president says coming down. Dr. Anthony Fauci calls this math self- evident, and says the United States enters the next months "In a compromised position." Look to Europe, leaders there already speaking out considering another

round of Coronavirus shutdowns in some cases. Look to the President of the United States, and you hear something very, very different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens if you get a big spike in cases in the United States? And cases are rising. What would you do there?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right. We're not doing any more lockdowns and we're doing fine. We're not doing any shutdowns. We learned about the disease. Young people, 99.9 percent, right, are in great shape, strong immune systems. The younger the better, it's hard to believe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We're doing fine. That's the President of the United States, you heard him right there. We're doing fine. That was the President of the United States just a couple hours ago. We're doing fine.

Let's take a look at the state trends. 35 states, there are 50 Unites States, 35 of them heading in the wrong direction. More new infections right now compared to the data one week ago. 35 states trending up. If that's your definition of doing fine, that's an odd definition. 12 states holding steady.

Only three states reporting fewer infections now than a week ago. You see all of that red and orange that is new Coronavirus cases heading up. Three states in fact setting records. Ohio, North Dakota, and New Mexico, setting records for their single day case count. That means those three states are heading up as well, part of the national surge.

When the cases go up, wait a few weeks, sadly, we have learned over the last eight months, the deaths tend to go up as well. 23 of the 50 states, nearly half, reporting more deaths from Coronavirus today compared to the data a week ago, if you look at it, it's just about everywhere.

The deep red states, 50 percent. Ten of them, ten of the states reporting 50 percent more Coronavirus deaths this week than the data one week ago trending in the wrong direction. Here's the case time line.

And again this is where we are now right now. If you just want to look at the trajectory, you see the red line is going up. That is not fine. You do not want to be going up as it gets colder as more people go indoors. About 18,000 cases a day on average heading into the summer surge. We got close to 80. Some days we're above 60 for many days, from 20,000 up to 60,000 in the summer surge.

So question is, if we're starting about 40,000 and we have a fall surge, how high we will go. That is the concern of public health experts. That concern is deepened by this. The deeper the blue on the map, the higher the positivity rate. How many people are getting tested in your state, what percentage of them is positive? Well, that's 40 percent in Wyoming right now, 32 percent in South Dakota, 22 percent in Idaho, 20 percent in Iowa, 22 percent in Wisconsin. You get the point. High double digit positivity means more cases today and the likelihood of those people spreading it and more cases tomorrow.

When positivity goes up, cases go up, hospitalizations which had come down start to go back up. So we are months away from a vaccine. Some at the White House say well, we'll have herd immunity. Just let this play out. More people will get infected; they will start to develop immunity. But the scientists, the top experts say that idea is simply nuts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There's about 30 percent of the population has underlying conditions that make them more susceptible to getting the adverse events and outcomes of serious disease with COVID-19. If you just let things rip and let the infection go, no masks, crowd, it doesn't make any difference. That quite frankly, George is ridiculous.

Because what that will do is that there will be so many people in the community that you can't shelter, that you can't protect who are going to get sick and get serious consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining our conversation, our CNN Medical Analyst and Former CDC Detective, Dr. Seema Yasmin. Dr. Yasmin, grateful for your time today. So you heard the president, he says no lockdowns, no lockdowns, no lockdowns, he said it repeatedly.

[12:05:00]

KING: He also says we're doing fine. We're simply not doing fine if we are going up towards 60,000 new infections a day. But at this perilous moment, as we start to climb up a hill, what should a country be doing, and even if you have decided the economy cannot sustain a national lockdown. What should a country be trying to do to turn those numbers around?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes. America is definitely not doing fine. We should be doing many of the things that other nations have done to successfully at least control this pandemic. Instead, the U.S. has the world's worst COVID-19 epidemic and the highest COVID death rate compared to any other developed nation, John.

In fact, there was an article just published in Yammer (ph) a few days ago, the study that found that if we were even on track with other developed nations like Spain, for example, that we would have had a death rate that was lower by 47 percent, meaning that about 90,000 to 100,000 Americans who've died from COVID-19 would still be with us today.

Like that's how bad our COVID-19 response has been, because we're refusing on a national level, sometimes on a statewide level to implement these measures that we know work. And as you mentioned, we have 60,000 Americans newly diagnosed yesterday. Last week, we had four days straight of more than 50,000 new infections. 50,000 infections diagnosed each day.

And the health care system is already signaling that it can't cope with that. There were 30,000 Americans sick with COVID-19 in hospitals last week; it's already up by more than 5,000 this week. So the uptick is happening and it's not even happening slowly. And in places like North Dakota, I am really worried about; they're saying the health care system is at capacity.

And in fact in Bismarck, there's only one available ICU bed because of COVID-19. So that's not only bad for COVID patients, that's bad for your grandmother if she has a heart attack, or a kid who gets into a car accident. This has a knock-on effect on so many other people and so many other health areas.

KING: And so, as we have these conversations just as we're speaking, the Centers for Disease Control updating its forecast now. It projects 240,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 by November 7th. You see 217,000 on your screen. So 25,000 more Americans to die in just the several weeks ahead, just the several weeks ahead as we go into this rise in the case count.

And so, you get that when you see that, the projection, the president's own CDC, saying 240,000 Americans, that number will go up in just a couple of weeks. Then you understand the exasperation of the experts like Dr. Fauci, who has been saying please separate and wear a mask.

The president mocks mask use, and he packs people into rallies. Listen to Dr. Fauci now trying to urge Americans I know after Halloween comes Thanksgiving. You cannot, must not do what you normally do. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. FAUCI: It is unfortunate because that's such a sacred part of American tradition, the family gathering around Thanksgiving. But that is a risk. You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering unless you're pretty certain that the people that you're dealing with are not infected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There's no question, if you look at the data, the CDC saying it plainly that more and more people are having more and more gatherings. And that's why we're getting more and more cases.

DR. YASMIN: Yes. And it can be these pretty small gatherings sometimes, John, not to mention that there are states across the U.S. that are allowing large gatherings, only capping them at 500. I mean, that's huge. And that's how easily we see that these can turn into super spreader events. Now is not the time to let our guard down.

The fact that hospitalizations are increasing in about 41 states shows that not only are we not doing the right things to prevent transmission of the Coronavirus, but we're also doing all of the wrong things to try and curb the spread of flu. And we're in for a double whammy right now, we are in for this convergence of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the flu epidemic.

So now is the time to really wear a mask, even if it happens that you live in the U.S. and mask mandates are really not happening, despite all of the evidence from other nations, the mask mandates can save lives. There was a study from the University of Washington, John, they estimated that about 95 percent of Americans were to wear a mask for the next few months, we'd save 80,000 lives.

That's what's really at stake here. So mask wearing, getting your flu shot, doing physical distancing, even when the president, even when your local officials are not telling you to do that, that's the right thing to do in order to save your life and protect those around you as well.

KING: We started the conversation with the president saying, we're fine. One of the thing that frustrates public health experts is he is traveling the country now are saying, I recovered, they gave me a cure. I had Coronavirus, they gave me a cure. There is no cure.

But he had an experimental treatment that you and I couldn't get if we came down with Coronavirus, at least not as quickly as he did. And that's one of the things Dr. Fauci worries about.

[12:10:00]

KING: As you see the case count going back up, as you see the hospitalizations going back up, Dr. Fauci is afraid; this is me adding to him. But the president says one thing, but guesses what; most Americans can't get that kind of care. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When people say the president beat it, I'm not worried about it, what's your response?

DR. FAUCI: That's sort of like saying somebody was speeding in a car at 95 miles now or didn't get in an accident, so I can go ahead and speed and not get in an accident. There are also a lot of people who are his age and his weight which did not do as well as the president did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is interesting. We've discussed this before. But right now in the final days of a campaign, Dr. Fauci, he is not saying it this way, but he seems compelled every day to go out and say pay no attention to your president, please listen to the science.

DR. YASMIN: Yes, absolutely because the president was essentially a guinea pig. He received experimental medical treatments that haven't even been tested on that many people. You and I, if we get sick, your grandmother, if she falls ill, they're not going to have access to those kinds of sophisticated medical and experimental medical treatments.

You cannot compare the standard of health care that privileged level of having personal physicians that the president got to what most Americans got. Think back to the summer, John, when people in Houston were dying of COVID in their homes, not getting any medical care, because they couldn't even get to a hospital because that's how overwhelmed the health care system was.

That's not any comparison to the kind of care the president is getting. But not only is he being cavalier about his own health, about adults he is also saying really an inaccurate things about young people. Because not every young person has a robust immune system. We've seen kids get really sick and even die with COVID-19.

So this misinformation, this disinformation that he is spreading is costing lives and will continue to do so, which is why we need people to listen to Dr. Fauci, listen to the scientists, and not listen to him.

KING: Dr. Yasmin, grateful. I'm listening to you. That's one of the reasons we bring you back to put science in the program.

DR. YASMIN: Thank you.

KING: Grateful for your time and insights today. Thank you so much. Up next for us, we return to campaign 2020. The president is on his way to North Carolina soon. Kamala Harris was supposed to go to North Carolina, that trip cancelled because a Biden Campaign staffer testing positive for Coronavirus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: More now on today's decision to keep Kamala Harris off the campaign trail for a few days. The Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee is supposed to be in North Carolina right now. But those plans were cancelled after a member of the senator's campaign staff tested positive for COVID-19. A campaign flight worker also tested positive.

Let get to CNN's Arlette Saenz traveling with the Biden Campaign in Philadelphia. Arlette, what's the latest?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well John, the Biden Campaign says, they're doing this out of abundance of caution after two members of the traveling team with Kamala Harris tested positive for Coronavirus. This morning, the campaign announced that Harris' Communications Director and then a non-campaign person who was a member of the flight staff also tested positive for COVID-19 last night.

Senator Harris herself yesterday taking a Coronavirus test and testing negative. Let me run you through a bit of what we know about this incident. So these two individuals were on an October 8th flight with Harris. On this flight, the campaign says Harris wore an N95 mask as did both individuals who were on that flight. Now the campaign says that Harris doesn't meet the CDC definition of close contact for exposure, and both of these individuals tested negative immediately before and after that flight.

Now, the campaign also says that these two individuals attended personal events in the days after they flew with Harris, and then returned back to work and tested positive before returning to work, before that scheduled trip that they were supposed to take today.

Now, both of the individuals did not have contact with Biden or Harris 48 hours prior to testing positive, and Senator Harris was last tested on Wednesday with a PCR test, she tested negative, but she is expected to be tested again today. They have cancelled all of her campaign, in- person campaign events up through Sunday.

And as for Joe Biden, the campaign has said that he did not have contact with these individuals in the few days prior to their positive test. So he is going to move forward with his in-person campaigning, starting tonight, here in Philadelphia, a Town Hall that he is going to participate in.

Now the Biden Campaign believes they can still safely campaign in these final weeks before the election. But what you're seeing here, John is the Biden Campaign practicing what they preach.

They have been transparent, were very deliberative in the information they are providing to the public, surrounding these Coronavirus diagnoses, a stark contrast to what we've seen play out at the White House over the past few weeks, John.

KING: They're hoping their caution will be rewarded, not punished by voters. Kamala Harris off the trail for at least a couple of days. Arlette Saenz, I appreciate the live reporting there. We'll keep on top of that story. Up next for us, Arlette is in Pennsylvania, one of the big swing states, and the source of a giant 2020 battle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

KING: Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes are viewed by both the Trump and the Biden Campaigns as crucial, and the Commonwealth's 2016 embrace of Trump helped him shatter the so-called blue wall of industrial states.

Now in the final days of 2020, Joe Biden holds the edge, and believes that Pennsylvania win would block any Trump path to victory. Our Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash was recently visiting Pennsylvania, she is back to join us now. Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, as you know, in 2016 President Trump was the first Republican to win Pennsylvania in almost three decades. And he did it by boosting the vote in conservative areas much higher than Republican candidates before him. Well, Trump's Campaign Manager, Bill Stepien, points to a surge in new Republican voter registrations as evidence that there are even more votes to squeeze out of his base. So we went to a key Pennsylvania county to check it out.

[12:25:00]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: A line forms outside well before opening waiting to enter the Trump House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're ready for the next group to come in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: A Mecca of sorts for president's supporters in Southwest Pennsylvania where Trump's record turnout four years ago helped deliver his surprise Pennsylvania victory and the White House. Leslie Rossi created the Trump House in 2016 where she pushed disaffected Democrats and never before voter to choose Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We gave people a chance to come to, to believe they could win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now Trump supporters show up daily for swag and yard signs and help registering to vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT HARRER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: We need Trump in there again. I'm 65. I think it's time to register.

BASH: Have you not voted ever?

HARRER: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Rural Westmoreland County seeing a surge in Republican registrations. They help with that here too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITA BLAIR, FORMER DDEMOCRAT: I changed my registration from Democrat to Republican.

BASH: Why?

BLAIR: From what I have seen in last past couple of years, I'm ashamed to say I was a Democrat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a great honor to have you here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Joe Biden is ahead in Pennsylvania polls, yet his campaign motto is every vote matters. Campaigning here in Westmoreland county this month which Hillary Clinton did not in the 2016 general election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: It's not an area Democrats come and campaign very often but you're here why?

JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: I'm here because like I said I - we are not taking any vote for granted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Gina Cerilli is County Commissioner of Westmoreland P.A. Ten years ago she was Miss. Pennsylvania in Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant. Now she is an elected Democrat working to blunt Trump's advantage here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINA CERILLI, WESTMORELAND COUNTY COMMISSIONER: In 2016, Donald Trump was a fresh face. He was new to politics. Everyone was excited. He made big promises. Bring back jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: In small town Pennsylvania signs matter. Trumps are everywhere, big and bold. But Biden's are out there, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CERILLI: When you see signs like this, it makes the Republicans and the Democrats that voted for Trump in 2016 realize I'm not alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: A big Biden challenge, his supporters are being COVID careful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never did we think we would be meeting by Zoom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Phyllis Friend, Head of Democratic Women of Westmoreland County organizes from home. She is clear right about the democrat's goal here in Trump country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHYLLIS FRIEND, HEAD OF DEMOCRATIC WOMEN OF WESTMORELAND: We can't win Pennsylvania for him, but we can add to the total numbers. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey David, this is Joe and I'm volunteering for the

Trump Campaign. How are you doing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: As for Republicans, they never stopped traditional ways of getting out the vote. Knocking on doors, walking in neighborhoods in masks, and using a GOP data driven app to find and persuade voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITTNEY ROBINSON, RUNS THE PENNSYLVANIA RNC OPERATION: Depending on whom that voter is we're able to tailor that message at the door and on the phone to how we think we need to target that voter and turn them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Given the president's struggles in the suburbs, boosting the vote here is critical for Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: How important is it for him to get his numbers even higher than it was four years ago?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do think that we need to increase our voter turnout here for the president to offset some of what may be happening in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Back at the Trump house, Leslie Rossi shows us the log of visits from thousands of Trump supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What do you think this year?

LESLIE ROSSI, THE TRUMP HOUSE OWNER AND CREATOR: Oh, my numbers have tripled, tripled. Four years ago my work was really hard here. I had to convince the voters to vote for the candidate. I had to convince them President Trump was the best choice for them. This time, I don't have to do any of that. They're all in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Whether enough are all in could determine whether Trump can overcome the head winds he faces to win Pennsylvania and a second term.

And Republicans we talked to in rural Southwest Pennsylvania where we traveled to a person, John, they were really candid about the fact that they understand the president has real problems in densely populated suburbs in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, never mind elsewhere. But right there, they really feel a lot of pressure to deliver big for Trump if he has any chance of winning the keystone state. And they know that, that could determine whether he wins a second term.

KING: A fascinating piece at a fascinating time at a fascinating place. Dana thanks for that. And let's continue the conversation with someone who knows this territory, quite well, Pennsylvania Congressman Conor Lamb.

Congressman, grateful for your time today and you listened to the piece there from Dana. Let me ask you up front, look, the polls are bad for the president if you look at, and including in your part of the state right now.

But the Trump Campaign says it has the secret weapon of newly registered Republicans, people coming out of the wood work who haven't voted in the past. Are you seeing that in your district and your area?

REP. CONOR LAMB (D-PA): We're seeing a little bit of that in the registration numbers, of course. I personally, I am not sure how many new votes that actually represents for the president. I think what they may be doing is going back and getting people who were registered as Democrats.