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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Food Insecurity Crisis; Interview With Former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn; Trump, Pence Trying to Rewrite History on Coronavirus?. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired April 01, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:33:41]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The vice president joining President Trump today in trying to rewrite history, falsely insisting that the president did not downplay the severity and significance of the coronavirus, when, in fact, of course, he did repeatedly throughout January, February, and all the way through to mid-March.

As CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, with the possibility of nearly a quarter-million deaths in the United States, the president seems to have finally acknowledged the sobering reality of what's to come, though who knows how long that will last?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As he warned of a challenging time ahead, President Trump came to grips with the reality he's denied for months.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks.

COLLINS: The president somberly acknowledged the potential for a staggering death toll that his team of experts has warned about for weeks. He said, if you took no action, a move no public health experts have suggested, millions would have died instead of the hundreds of thousands that could now.

On CNN, the vice president followed Trump's lead and said he took it seriously all along.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus.

COLLINS: But in late February, the president says this about the coronavirus cases:

TRUMP: When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we have done.

[16:35:03]

COLLINS: In fact, the stark numbers caused the president to reverse many of his own arguments, including this one:

TRUMP: The flu in our country kills from 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year. That was shocking to me.

We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don't turn the country off, I mean, every year.

COLLINS: Trump now concedes the coronavirus is not like the flu.

TRUMP: But it's not the flu. It's vicious.

COLLINS: Though, last month, the surgeon general urged Americans to stop buying masks, most members of the president's task force now think the public should start wearing them. But there are concerns about a run on an already short national supply.

DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: If you're going to wear a face covering, please save the 95 masks for health care workers who need them.

COLLINS: Today, the vice president visited a Walmart distribution center in Virginia.

It's one of several major retailers at the president invited on stage last month, as he announced that the federal government would partner with private companies to set up drive-through testing sites.

TRUMP: The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car.

COLLINS: That announcement hasn't come close to being fulfilled.

The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CNN there are only currently five locations at these stores in the entire country offering drive-through testing, and none are available to the general public.

PENCE: Today, with this historic public-private partnership, we have laid the foundation to meet that need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, nearly all of those five locations are only offering testing to the first responders and health care workers. Most of those are only offering it to those people who fall into that category and are exhibiting coronavirus symptoms, though we should note CVS, which only has one location, is now going to start testing senior citizens who have coronavirus symptoms.

And right now, Jake, those companies did not disclose any plans, at least to us, to open up more locations for that drive-through testing that the president promised.

TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins at the White House.

Let's talk about the economic impact of this all. Joining me now is Gary Cohn. He served as a top economic adviser to

President Trump.

Gary, thanks so much for joining us.

You have known for President Trump for years. You served in the White House during a number of other crises, though I don't think any as significant as this one. Have you spoken with the president since the pandemic began?

GARY COHN, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Jake, thanks for having me.

Yes, I have spoken to the president and I have spoken to others in the White House. Look, I'm trying to reach out and be as helpful as I can.

TAPPER: And what have -- I know you don't want to disclose what they have said to you, but what have you been talking to them about, just how to save the economy, how to preserve jobs and well-being for Americans?

COHN: Yes.

Look, the most important thing here that the government can do -- and they're doing a lot of it, they're not doing all of it -- is that we need the income replacement that the CARES Act put into place last week.

Companies have to be able to pay their employees and keep them on the books and records. It's important for their day-to-day well-being. But it's also important for the recovery when it comes, and we will have a recovery.

If we keep people on the books and records, they will know where they work, they will know where they're going back to work. And when it is time to start to recovery sort of inch by inch, we will know what people go back to work, where they -- and where they go back to work.

We won't have to start with a new hiring process. And we will be able to stimulate economic growth faster by keeping people on the books and records.

TAPPER: So, Speaker Pelosi said that the $2 trillion stimulus that you just referred to is just a down payment. Do you agree? And if so, how much more do you think Congress needs to inject into the economy? And should it be immediately or should it be spaced out?

COHN: Well, Jake, this money hasn't even gotten out yet.

Hopefully, some of it will start getting out this week. Secretary Mnuchin said that the small business money will get out this week. I know that the application went up on the Treasury Web site this morning. I have looked at it. Some of the small businesses I'm involved with, I have encouraged them to go fill it out and get the money as soon as possible. That money needs to get out very quickly. Once that money gets out,

and once we know how long we're going to be in social distancing, we're going to have the economy shut down, we will be in a better position to decide what to do next.

That said, it would be prudent for Congress and the administration to be thinking about what they can do next. We don't want to wait until we have to implement that to think about it. We should be thinking about what else we can be doing.

TAPPER: It's April 1. Rent is due, mortgage payments are due for millions of Americans, and obviously tens of millions of people have been furloughed, so they don't have paychecks coming in, or laid off entirely.

Your former firm Goldman Sachs predicts 15 percent unemployment to come.

[16:40:03]

What could be done right now to keep people employed, to enable Americans to pay basic bills, like for food and rent?

COHN: Jake, it's the plan that was laid out. It was the plan that was implemented. Now we have got to execute.

Execution is the key here. As in any crisis, you have got to go into execution mode, and you have got to go into high-speed execution mode. And by that, I mean we have got to get the money out of the federal government and into the hands of citizens.

Citizens need to see the money. They need to receive the paycheck they're used to receiving. That way, they will be able to pay their rent, they will be able to pay for their groceries, they will be able to pay for the prescriptions they need to buy and live off of every day.

Right now, it's all about execution of what they have already passed.

TAPPER: Obviously, President Trump, it took him a few weeks to acknowledge the severity of this crisis.

Vice President Pence said today, said that that was because the president's optimistic. I know you would like to stick with the economic matters and not the politics of it all. But let me ask you, would it have been less of a shock to the system if there had been more acknowledgement earlier about what was to come?

COHN: Jake, look, I don't know.

But what I do know -- and this is important for people to understand -- seven weeks ago, seven weeks ago, we were at a record high on the Dow. We were at record employment levels in the United States, meaning we had 3.5 percent unemployment. We were at 3 percent wage growth.

Our economy was doing exactly what everyone in this country had hoped it would be doing. In less than seven weeks, we have rightfully and justifiably asked American consumers to stop consuming. And, remember, we're an 80 percent consumption economy.

When you ask people to stop driving 80 percent of the economy, you're going to get an economic move like this. Now what we need to do is exactly with the legislation that was passed last week is going to do, put money back in people's pockets to pay for their basic needs, and continue to move forward in as more normalized fashion as we possibly can.

Look, we still have some issues that we need to fix. The oil market is still broken. We have got to get the oil market fixed. Look, we worked for decades in the United States not to be dependent on foreign oil imports. And once again, we may go back to the point where we're dependent on foreign oil imports.

This is not just about oil. It's about alternatives as well. We need to be self-sufficient on energy in this country. And I think the president needs to get involved in the price of oil right now.

TAPPER: All right, Gary Cohn, thank you so much. Stay healthy. We appreciate your coming on.

COHN: You too, Jake. Be well.

TAPPER: Coming up: one country taking a very unusual step to stop the spread of the virus. It's forcing a split in every home. We will explain next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:47:23]

TAPPER: In our world lead, France has turned two high-speed trains into hospitals to transport critical patients from Paris out to Western France to try to relieve the overflow.

And Panama is taking an interesting approach to manage the spread, telling men and women they cannot be in public at the same time.

We have reporters around the world.

And we're going to begin with CNN's Bianca Nobilo in London.

Bianca, the U.K. has had its deadliest day yet, 563 deaths due to coronavirus. What is the latest there?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Jake.

There have now been 2,352 deaths in the United Kingdom. And, obviously, as journalists, we wish that we could tell a story about each and every one of them.

But one of the victims that's been capturing the hearts of Brits today is the youngest victim of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom recorded so far. That's Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab. He died of the virus in a London hospital. And tragically, Jake, he died alone, without his parents and without his siblings.

The British Health Service then tried to clarify afterwards that children could have parents in the room with them, at least one. For fear of infection, obviously, there had been some wires crossed about who could be allowed in the room with patients who are dying.

Now, there is an urgency in the United Kingdom. There has been a steep rise in deaths today, up from 381 yesterday, and the U.K. is now tracking Italy. In the earlier days of the outbreak, Italy was seeing a steeper rise in the cumulative deaths, but now the United Kingdom has had a rise. And it's now tracking Italy, almost the lines converging, if you like, Jake.

Now, there is also confusion as to what the government's reassuring us about and the reality on the ground. I have been speaking to doctors. I have been speaking to nurses. They don't have the protective equipment that they need. And they don't have the ventilators that they need, Jake.

So there's a real disconnect between the reality and the government's reassurances and rhetoric.

TAPPER: All right, Bianca Nobilo, thank you so much.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann joins me now from Havana.

And, Patrick, can you explain these bizarre gender-based lockdown restrictions that Panama is now implementing?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I will do my best, Jake.

So, this is how it works. Panama already has some of the toughest restrictions of any country in the region. Panama is on lockdown. There are no flights coming in. You cannot cross land borders. People already were not supposed to be leaving their homes unless it was an emergency or they were going out to buy food.

What happened? Panamanian authorities said too many people were still out in the street. So they came up with a novel, pretty unorthodox way that a police officer could look around and see who is not supposed to be out. And so they said that women out can only go out Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. Men have Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

[16:50:17]

And they're taking this very, very seriously. If you are out on a day you're not supposed to be, you could be fined. Many people, hundreds of them, have been arrested.

(AUDIO GAP) what happens on Sunday? That is the day that everyone is supposed to stay home. It is now the only place in Panama both men and women can still be together at the same time -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Patrick Oppmann, thank you so much.

With international travel essentially shut down around the world, thousands of Americans have been left stranded abroad. The desperate rescue operations by the State Department and other good deed doers, that's next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:55:33]

TAPPER: It is the 1st of the month, and millions of Americans would get paid today.

But for so many of you out there impacted by furloughs and layoffs, paychecks have stopped. Today is also the day many rent bills are due and other bills.

CNN's Tom Foreman reports for us now, but that has more Americans turning to the government for help simply putting food on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rush is all. With the 1st-of-the-month release of government food assistance funds, some grocery stores are expecting floods of low-income shoppers, desperate to stock up and rattled by reports of shelves empty by more affluent folks.

Antonio Pinchback says he's out of work, on aid, and he's seen it.

ANTONIO PINCHBACK, FOOD ASSISTANCE RECIPIENT: When you go, all of the cheaper, like, options are gone. Like, if it's like chicken or, like -- even like ground beef, like, all that's gone.

FOREMAN (on camera): It's all bought up?

PINCHBACK: Yes. So, the only thing got left is like salami. And I can't afford to use salami every day.

FOREMAN (voice-over): The store owner here says shortages have driven prices through the roof too.

IN SUK PAK, OWNER, BESTWORLD SUPERMARKET: I never, ever believed with one dozen egg for almost $4 right now.

FOREMAN (on camera): Everything costs more?

SUK PAK: Much more, not a little bit more, much more higher.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Prices, of course, vary from place to place. And federal officials believe those shortages are now largely under control.

But they also expect pressure for food assistance to intensify. Millions of low-wage earners are losing their jobs, and private free food, lines like this one in Pittsburgh, can't handle it all.

CHARLESE MCKINNEY, GREATER PITTSBURGH COMMUNITY FOOD BANK: We really can tighten the controls and knowing exactly what it is that we have, so that we have enough to go out for the need.

FOREMAN: In California alone, applications to CalFresh, which administers federal SNAP funds, or food stamps, have reportedly jumped dramatically.

So, the USDA is loosening guidelines coast to coast, hoping to get more people signed up and fed faster, especially children. And that could help businesses too, while everyone waits for slower-moving stimulus funds to make it into the marketplace and better times.

PINCHBACK: I'm waiting on two jobs right now.

FOREMAN (on camera): Do you have much hope that they will come through in these circumstances?

PINCHBACK: Maybe.

(LAUGHTER)

PINCHBACK: I don't really know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Prior to the pandemic, the Trump administration was actually just trying to push a lot of people off the food stamp rolls, and just a couple of weeks ago pledged to continue that legal fight.

That stands in stark contrast to advocates for low-income families, who are actually asking many people in places to stay away from grocery stores for a couple of days, so those folks have a better chance at shopping and feeding their families well -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Tom Foreman, thank you so much.

Desperate rescue operations around the world have already brought more than 27,000 Americans previously stranded back to the United States, but there seem to be another 24,000 or so still not home, still abroad.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is live for us at the State Department.

And, Kylie, one longtime official says it's like nothing he has ever seen, no challenge that the State Department has ever had to deal with before.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, that's right.

I spoke with Alex Delora (ph). He is a 17-year State Department veteran. He is based in Ecuador, one of the officials, just one of the many officials working to get these Americans home. And he painted the picture for me, right? He said that essentially anyone who works at the embassy right now, no matter what they are assigned to officially be working on, they are working on repatriating Americans. They are spending time at the airports, helping these Americans get home, sometimes staying there until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.

They are sacrificing time with their own families and putting their own health on the line as well.

And I think, Jake, it's important to note that Alex told me that there are crisis responses that are developed by the State Department. Those are for things like volcanoes or earthquakes. He said he has never seen a crisis response developed for a situation based on a global pandemic.

He said that's bewildering, and said, essentially, it means that they have had to try to be creative here in setting up this operation. It hasn't been a well-oiled machine from day one. But it is a tremendous effort at this point on behalf of the State Department.

As you said, 25,000 Americans have already received assistance from the State Department in getting home. And so there are Americans, however, in some of these places that have not gotten to these flights from the U.S.

And that's because they're being prevented from getting to those flights.

One of those Americans is named Alex. He is in Peru. And let's listen to what he said.

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