Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Trump and Biden Clash in Comments; Search for Survivors Continues in Beirut; Advisers Hesitated to Give Military Options to Trump; Schools Plan Reopening; Players Opt out of Season. Aired 6:30- 7a ET

Aired August 07, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: They are already with him. Those who believe that Joe Biden is -- is -- is not, they're probably not voting for Joe Biden. So I -- you think the idea that you can convince voters that Joe Biden is sort of an atheist, even though he's well known to be a devout Catholic, is just -- it's hard to believe and I think it's a little bit of an insult to voters on some level.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And, by the way, a devout Catholic who has leaned on his faith through some very difficult times --

PHILLIP: Yes.

BERMAN: And speaks more fluently on the subject of faith than the president does, be that as it may.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The president also, Abby, going after former Vice President Biden on comments that he made the other day about the Latino community and also the African-American community here in the United States. And he had to do a little bit of cleanup after that, but the president really seizing on that moment. I'm not sure that is landing the way he intended either.

PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, look, for starters, Joe -- what Joe Biden said in that interview, which aired yesterday, was clearly wrong. I mean it was just factually not correct. And that's why you saw him clean it up and in some ways, although it wasn't quite an apology, tried to explain what he meant.

Joe Biden is not the candidate who is going to -- who is the most fluent candidate on issues of race. That has always been true. That was true in the campaign. He even -- even running against multiple black candidates, Hispanic candidate, Joe Biden is not the person who was at the top of people's list for racial fluency, and yet he still has the support of a majority of black voters. And I think that for President Trump, it's a hard argument to make because the president has spent much of the summer defending confederate statues, defending the confederate flag, calling Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate, doing all of these things that really erode his own credibility on issues of race. So it's very difficult for this to be one of those arguments where voters -- he might expect black voters in particular to turn away from Joe Biden and to him. That may not even be the objective.

The Trump campaign is really trying to chip away at Joe Biden's support among black voters through apathy, primarily. And that might be the objective here. But the idea that somehow President Trump has more credibility on these issues, I think, most voters will find that hard to believe.

BERMAN: It is notable that the Biden campaign, or Joe Biden, issued a personal statement clarifying/sort of apologizing for suggesting that the black community is not diverse.

PHILLIP: Yes.

BERMAN: Clearly he needed to do some cleanup there because the statement is factually incorrect.

Abby, it's in the same vein when you say that the president's going after Joe Biden on issues of race when the president goes after Joe Biden on issues of mental acuity or cognitive ability. There is, you know, some example of irony in the last 24 hours on this.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, look, the Trump campaign is trying to find something to -- to really work in their effort to bring Joe Biden down. One of the main things has been this idea that Joe Biden is losing it, mentally. But this is all happening in the context of the president, for example, just yesterday, reading the word "Thailand" from the teleprompter as "thy-land." I mean these are the kinds of things that I think it's very difficult to make these arguments for this president who himself has a long history of these kind of gaffes.

One of the troubles for the Trump campaign also is that just like perhaps voters are used to President Trump and these kinds of public missteps, they might also be used to Joe Biden and these kind of public missteps. Joe Biden has been known to be a gaffe machine for much of his political career. It has, in some ways, proceeded his advanced age and so it is not something that I think would be new to voters. And that's why it's been really difficult for them to get this one to stick, but they are still trying. It's -- it's -- I would say, John, a huge part of the Trump campaign right now is memes and the messaging around Joe Biden and his mental acuity.

BERMAN: Yes, it's hard to make this matter in a pandemic, but let's play this moment before we go to break here. Let's play this geography lesson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And to avoid liability, shifting production to thy-land and to Vietnam.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: By the way, thy-land not far from lap-land and the other city of quad-city, right?

PHILLIP: Right. Exactly. BERMAN: It had to be said.

PHILLIP: We all know where thy-land is, right?

BERMAN: Yes, we do. In this pandemic -- in this pandemic, we're all much more familiar with thy-land.

HILL: Yes. When I can travel again, that's the first place I'm going.

BERMAN: All right, Abby, thank you very much.

PHILLIP: Good to see you guys.

HILL: Coming up, exclusive CNN reporting on a stunning decision of U.S. military leaders. What they withheld from the commander in chief. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:50]

HILL: Developing this morning, at least 16 employees of Beirut's port has been detained in connection with Tuesday's devastating explosion. At least 137 people were killed, thousands were injured, and the frantic search continues this morning for the missing.

CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is live in Beirut for us with the latest.

Arwa, good morning.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

And national assistance has begun to arrive. There are now French teams on the ground continuing to assist in that search for any survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON (voice over): Could there be anyone left alive? It's a hope dozens of family members of the missing cling to, knowing that it's unlikely, but not wanting to accept that their loved one could be gone.

Others are laid to rest. Lives utterly shattered in the trail of destruction by Tuesday's explosion in Lebanon's capital city.

Those who survived are trying to pick up the pieces. Glass and debris crunch below the feet of an army of volunteers, stepping in where the government is not, attempting to clear the rubbles of billions of dollars of damage.

[06:40:03]

They urge each other on, but for others, it's all just too much. The intensity of the emotional roller coaster that is being Lebanese has left them hollow shells.

What should we feel, asks one resident? You can't feel anything in Lebanon. There's nothing to be sad about anymore, he says.

As the cleanup continues, a rage grows across the country at how a new disaster could happen, still without any clear explanation or apology.

As French President Emmanuel Macron toured the wreckage, the first foreign leader to set foot here, he was surrounded by hundreds of Lebanese calling for revolution, urging him, begging him, do something. He vowed that France would stand with the Lebanese people, but cautioned its leaders.

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The requirement of a friend in times of need is to rush to the scene when times are hard, but not to hand out blank checks to a system not trusted by the people.

DAMON: From outside and inside the country, demands for answers grow louder as calls emerge for an independent probe into the explosion. This is not just about accountability, or how the country is going to rebuild emotionally and physically, it's about how it's going to find its soul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: And, John, as they try to rebuild, as they try to re-find their soul to a certain degree, citizens of this country are going to continue in their demands for an entire re-haul of the Lebanese government, of the way that the government interacts with its population, because if there has been any large lesson learned from this horrific explosion, most Lebanese will tell you it's that their government truly does not care about them or their well-being and they are going to be out there demanding that that change.

BERMAN: Yes, and it's really remarkable, talk about a city that did not need this. Talk about a city that was already suffering and going through so much.

Arwa Damon, thank you so much for being there and keeping us honest on this.

So new this morning, we're learning now that President Trump's unpredictable behavior led advisers to hesitate to give him military options amid escalating tensions with North Korea. We're learning this because of a brand-new book out from CNN anchor in chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, the author of the book out next Tuesday, "The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World."

I am holding a well-worn copy, Jim, in my hands right now.

This reporting is fascinating, particularly as it pertains to North Korea. What have you learned?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This happened at the height of tensions with North Korea in late 2017 where the president's military advisers hesitated to give him military options because they were concerned he might use them, and that would take the U.S. and North Korea on the path to war. This was something that military advisers were reluctant to do and diplomats, U.S. diplomats involved in this.

And, remarkably, John, in the midst of that, you had U.S. negotiators communicating to their North Korean counterparts that they did not know what the president was going to do, that he was unpredictable, out of concern, again, about what path this would lead the country on. This was not isolated to North Korea during the most tense moments with Iran in 2019. A similar dynamic, reluctance to give military options, worry that the president would use them, unjustifiably to some degree, but also, again, communicating to the Iranian side, the president's unpredictable, we don't know how he's going to act here, because they were worried about spiraling towards a conflict there.

It's a remarkable instance of distrust in the president's decision making from his own advisers.

BERMAN: There's a lot in this book, Jim, and everyone should go out and read it as soon as they can. One of the things that jumped out to me, and, again, you spoke to a lot of the people involved here, is that they had to pare down what they would tell him every day because they knew he wouldn't get that far. They basically knew he wouldn't get to number three on a list of information?

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, this was early on in the Trump administration. It became very clear that the president was not reading his briefing materials. His briefers would come in and they could tell because when they began to discuss stuff that was in his briefing materials, it was the first time he heard it.

So, under H.R. McMaster and his team, national security adviser, he devised a plan to boil down the briefings to just three bullet points on notecards hoping that that level of information would get through. What they discovered over time was that the president was only reading the first two of those three bullet points, so they adjusted again and then concentrated the most important information in the first two points and the third point became sort of a throwaway line hoping he'd at least get through those first two.

[06:45:08]

Then they began to discover he wasn't even reading the first two. And, again, because they would brief him and as they brought up issues, it was clearly the first time he was -- he was hearing it.

Why does this matter? Of course, we want our leaders make informed decisions here. And you have a president who often doesn't take in that information, but also, at times, ignores it, dismisses it, disagrees with it, says he knows better than his briefers or even intelligence agencies. It's a remarkable dynamic.

BERMAN: Or sometimes he invents things, Jim, which brings us to this week.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERMAN: Because I think one of the most under covered stories of this remarkable week has been when the president went out there, after the Beirut explosion, we just had Arwa reporting from there, and at the White House, in the Briefing Room, said he was told that it was bombs, or a bomb that caused this explosion. He even said that military advisers told him that. And we can't find any evidence that anyone told him that.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERMAN: What went on there?

SCIUTTO: It's not clear where they came from, right? And it is, as you say, not the first time the president has claimed something that, well, either turned out not to be true or had no basis.

And it matters, right, because in the midst of that, tensions are very high in Lebanon. They always are in that region, particularly now. There were suspicions, you know, did Israel carry out an attack? And when you have the U.S. president say, well, heck, it might have been an attack, that, of course, puts people on alert here. And that is a dynamic, John, we should note, that the president has contradicted, the intelligence, his military advisers, not just on the Lebanon attack, but on intelligence about Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal, on intelligence about North Korea expanding its nuclear program. And, of course, most notably on Russian interference in the election. This is -- this is a feature, not a bug of the Trump presidency, and that's one reflation from this book.

BERMAN: Jim Sciutto, great to have you on. Congratulations on your work. Again, the book is "The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World," out next week.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BERMAN: This morning, schools reopening and some are already seeing cases of coronavirus. What are the country's largest school districts doing to prepare, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:10]

HILL: As coronavirus cases surge across the country, some school districts are being forced to rethink their plans.

Let's bring in CNN's senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga.

Bianna, good morning.

I know you've been looking into what's happening around the country. And if we look at I think the 101 largest school districts, it's really painting an important picture.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Look, there's so much more confusion as we're just weeks away from millions of Americans starting school. As we know, many students are already back in school. There's so much more confusion in parents and in children and in teachers' minds than there is any sort of clarity.

And here's why. Let's take a look at the 101 largest school districts in the country. Out of those, 63 are now saying that they are starting online. Erica, that's some 7 million students.

Now, 12 are starting with a hybrid model and 17 are starting with either all online or all in person, so that doesn't give you much clarity there. And four have yet to finalize a plan.

And, now, if we want to narrow the picture down and the scope down, let's take a look at the 25 largest school districts in the country. All but five have announced that they're going to be starting remotely. The latest, of course, being Chicago. We're still waiting on final plans out of New York City right now. They have proposed a hybrid model.

But there's so much concern because remember what medical experts are saying to make sure that kids can be as safe as possible, and that is for community spread to be under 5 percent. For 32 states, that's just not the case.

And look at some of the states where we've already seen a reopening and then closing subsequently the next day. We're talking about Mississippi, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, hundreds of students have contracted the disease. And, of course, it comes down to not just testing, but getting the results, and the results and the waiting time is so long, you need immediate results for this to be contained.

HILL: And we've seen some schools in those areas close down, as you point out.

There is this new polling from "The Washington Post" which I thought was very telling. Polling of parents and what they -- what they are supportive of at this point.

GOLODRYGA: Well, guess what, Erica, you and I know, parents are nervous. We're all nervous!

HILL: Yes, we are.

GOLODRYGA: We want our kids back in school, but we want them to be healthy and we want for our family members to remain healthy, as well.

And look at the numbers here because they really do say it all. Fifty- six percent of parents say that do not feel safe sending their kids back to school. That's the majority of those polled. Forty-four percent say they prefer a mix of online and in-person, but, of course, that would take a huge toll on their professional careers, maintaining their own schedules while keeping their kids at home and then bringing them back to school on some days. Thirty-nine percent prefer to have it all online. And only 16 percent prefer in-person.

Look at the disconnect between that poll number and where the president stands by saying that all schools must reopen. The American public just isn't confident with that and we need it. It's a big blow to the economy, it's a big blow to students learning. Sixty-eight percent of parents believe their students are going to be at a disadvantage learning online.

So there's no winner here. Anybody that says this is political, parents want to keep their kids at home, that's just not the case. We want to keep them safe.

HILL: Absolutely. That is the number one priority, as we know.

Bianna, great to see you this morning. Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Sure. You too.

HILL: John.

BERMAN: So nearly 70 NFL players have opted out of the upcoming football season because of coronavirus concerns. Almost all of them it seems play for the Patriots.

Andy Scholes with this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

So, players had until yesterday afternoon to make that decision on whether or not they were going to play this season. And a spokesperson for the league telling CNN that of the more than 2,800 players, 66 have chosen to opt out of this season. And the majority of those players or a little more than half of them are lineman, 20 on offense, 11 of defense. The New England Patriots had the most players opt out with eight. Only three teams had no one opting out. That was the Steelers, Falcons, and Chargers.

Players who are considered high risk are getting paid -- will be paid $350,000 stipend and players without risk will receive $150,000 as an advance against future salaries.

[06:55:02]

NFL season, as of now, still scheduled to kick off Thursday, September 10th.

All right, in the meantime, Braves' outfielder Nick Markakis, he reversed his decision to opt out of the season, rejoining the team for last night's game against the Blue Jays, and what a way to return. Markakis with a walk off home run in the ninth.

And, John, check out the celebration. You know, you can't mob them. No high-fives. Just kind of have to dance around by yourself. And I can see the -- or I can hear the compliance officer from the dugout, right, yelling at the players as they're running out there. Don't get too close! No high- fives! Don't jump on him! But as you can see, I guess that's the way celebrations are going to look this year in baseball.

BERMAN: That was a great picture. I mean, good for them. Good for them.

SCHOLES: Yes.

BERMAN: And good for Nick Markakis hitting the home run, but good for the Braves to have the common sense not to high-five there.

All right, Andy, thanks very much.

SCHOLES: All right.

BERMAN: An alarming prediction this morning. The U.S. death toll could nearly double by December. That's what a new model says. We'll tell you much more about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END