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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Under Fire Over U.S. Troop Deaths in Afghanistan; Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Anti-Abortion Law; Officers Charged in George Floyd Case Appear in Court; Coronavirus Cases Rising in U.S. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 29, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we begin today with our health lead, the surge of new coronavirus cases so high in the United States, at least 12 states have by now paused or rolled back their efforts to reopen.

More than half the country, 31 states, have their lines trending up, lines of new cases, Florida, California, Texas, Arizona all reporting the highest number of new daily cases that they have ever had. Only four states are seeing a decrease.

One month ago, on Memorial Day, 18 states had rising cases, compared to the 31 who have them today; 10 states were seeing a decline, again, only four of them today.

This is what a failure to contain a virus looks like, as opposed to this chart from the European Union, which shows, at least as of now, a successful effort to contain the virus.

What does that mean? That means European lives will be saved and American lives will be lost.

Now health Secretary Alex Azar is warning Americans that the -- quote -- "window is closing" to get the pandemic under control in the U.S.

And in a new interview with CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said, fueling the surge are Americans not wearing masks, not practicing social or physical distancing, causing a -- quote -- "recipe for disaster."

CNN's Randi Kaye is live for us in Palm Beach County, Florida. That's the state leading the nation in new cases.

And, Randi, things have gotten so bad in Florida, mayors are even shutting down beaches for the Fourth of July weekend?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that's not good news, Jake, for lots of folks here, of course, for a lot of reasons, not only the cases going up, but people are looking forward to their beach time on the July 4 holiday weekend.

Here in Palm Beach County, they decided to close the beach. And if you just take a look here behind me, this is a Monday afternoon. You can see why. They want to stop -- they want to avoid a spike on top of the spike. They don't want crowds coming to the beach here in Palm Beach County.

It's the same reason Broward County has closed the beaches for the July 4 weekend, as well as Miami-Dade County. These three counties are where 60 percent of the cases of coronavirus were. So, these are the hardest-hit counties in the state. So they're taking some extra precautions now and dialing things back.

And they're also looking at the young people. They don't want the young people out and about, because their numbers are going up. The governor said that 20 percent positivity rate is what they're seeing now in the age group 25 to 34. So they're very concerned about that.

But, still, Jake, the governor is not mandating that all beaches closed for the July 4 weekend, nor is he mandating, Jake, that everyone in the state of Florida wear a mask or some type of face covering.

TAPPER: Randi, the city of Jacksonville in Florida announced today that they are going to put in place a mandatory face mask requirement for people who go out in public or for people who are indoor locations, at indoor locations.

How might that impact the Republican National Convention, which is planned for Jacksonville in August?

KAYE: Yes. Well, as of now, the governor is saying that he's not ready to say that face masks won't be required there. In fact, he's saying that masks are a work in progress. And he expects it will be fine by that time because it's just a couple of months away.

But we know that the numbers are now worse than they were a couple of months back, so I'm not sure what he's basing that on. Meanwhile, the city of Jacksonville is saying today that they're watching it, they're monitoring it, they're going to take it step by step, keep their people safe.

But one important note here, Jake, is that Jacksonville was one of the first cities to open. They took it upon themselves back in early May, the first week of May, to reopen their beaches. So, now they have had their firefighters testing positive. They're having to wear face masks now.

And now they're expected to hold the RNC August 24 to 27, so we will see what happens.

TAPPER: All right, Randi Kaye, stay safe.

Arizona saw its largest daily increase in new coronavirus cases just yesterday, reporting nearly 4,000 new cases in Arizona alone. Hospitals in Arizona are now at nearly 90 percent capacity, with the spike in cases showing no signs of slowing down.

CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us now.

And, Stephanie, the executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association is predicting that Arizona hospitals will hit surge capacity by Saturday, by the Fourth of July.

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How is Arizona combating this?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a difficult situation to be in, Jake.

And just to give you an idea, the numbers for Arizona from the department of health here have been updated. However, they didn't get all the numbers in from all of the labs, so the numbers look really low, some 600 or so cases they're announcing. So we may see a very large number tomorrow, just to explain that to anyone who's looking at that.

But what's also key here is that they're saying the ICU beds that are filled, they were at 87 percent with the number they gave us yesterday. Today, they're saying 88 percent. They did not report any more deaths. But that ICU bed issue is huge.

And so we have reached out to a couple of hospital systems. We reached out to Banner Health. They said that one of their children's hospitals, they're taking three floors there and dedicating that to COVID patient.

One floor there will be dedicated to ICU patients. So just think about that. They're taking a children's hospital and making space for adults to treat them for the coronavirus. This is something that speaks to this.

They are also looking to bring in more nurses, some of whom who have worked in New York while New York was going through its really difficult period battling the virus here. So, they're bringing in these nurses to help out as well.

And when you look at these numbers and see what's happening here, you can see it's done by county or by city here. The governor, Doug Ducey, says people should wear masks.

And driving in, you could see the signs saying "Mask up," but he's letting the individual counties and towns make that decision. Here in Maricopa County, it is required that you wear a mask now, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Stephanie Elam in Phoenix, Arizona, thank you so much.

The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been pretty clear on why he thinks several states are seeing surging numbers. People aren't wearing masks, and there are lots of big crowds. All of that, Fauci says, is a recipe for disaster.

CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, interviewed Dr. Fauci. And she joins us now.

Elizabeth, thanks for joining us.

Wearing a mask, social and physical distancing, so important, health experts say, because, otherwise, community spread can happen when asymptomatic people are out in public. They don't even know they have the virus, but they're spreading it.

What did Fauci have to say about states that are telling their residents to do this, to wear masks, to practice distancing, but are still not seeing results?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, in my interview with Dr. Fauci, Jake, he really gave a personal message to the people of these states.

He said to them, look, I understand you want to get out. I understand that lockdown has been really rough. But think of it this way. If you don't wear a mask, if you do go out in crowds, you might be fine, but you might get infected, not even know it, spread it to someone, who spreads it to someone, who spreads it to a grandmother, who dies, an uncle, an aunt, somebody who somebody loves, a child with leukemia who has a depressed immune system.

Why in the world would you want to be part of a chain that kills somebody?

He was very, very strong on this. He said, we need to stop thinking about ourselves. We need to start thinking about other people.

TAPPER: And, Elizabeth, there's new research that shows eight of the hot spots emerging nationwide, officials there are not having sufficient contact tracing in place.

There are supposed to be 30 professionals contact tracing for every 100,000 people in a community. And in Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, there are significantly fewer than that number of people.

You asked Fauci about contact tracing. Here's what he had to say:

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I don't think we're doing very well, for a number of reasons, not all of which is the fault of the system, in that -- I mentioned this over the past few days, that if you go into the community and call up and say, how's the contact tracing going, the dots are not connected, because a lot of it is done by phone.

You make a contact; 50 percent of the people, because you're coming from an authority, don't even want to talk to you if you're in an area where there are a lot of brown people, people who are Latinx at the border. They're concerned, if they will give you -- if you give them confidential information, it's going to work against them.

And then there are those who, they will give you the contact, but you don't exactly isolate them. They get lost in the shuffle. That's a very, very difficult situation. That, we have got to do better on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Elizabeth, with what do you make of all that?

COHEN: It was interesting.

He then went on to say that a lot of this contact tracing is being done by phone. You -- we heard him say that people are getting lost in the shuffle. He thinks that's because some of this is being done or much of this is being done by phone.

He said, we need to have boots on the ground. Those contact tracers need to go into the community and talk to people, not just call them up on the phone.

TAPPER: You also asked Dr. Fauci about the effectiveness of a potential vaccine. Let's roll that sound.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: I doubt seriously that any vaccine will ever be 100 percent protective.

The best we have ever done is measles, which is 97 to 98 percent effective. Oh, that would be wonderful if we get there. I don't think we will. I would settle for a 70, 75 percent effective vaccine, because that would bring you to that level of would be herd immunity level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And then, Elizabeth, combine that with the fact that, according to polls, one-third of Americans say they will not get a vaccine when one is available.

How does that impact the ability of a community to develop herd immunity against the virus?

COHEN: Jake, I asked Dr. Fauci that.

And he said wait -- he said, you know what, if we have a vaccine that 70 to 75 percent effective, and if about a third of the people don't get it, he said it is -- quote -- "unlikely," unlikely that we will achieve herd immunity that way. That is really, really a problem.

And so he said there needs to be an education program to teach people about vaccines and that vaccines are safe, and that they're effective, that we need to counteract that -- what anti-vaxxers are saying on Facebook and other social media. He said that there's a program under way. But, Jake, I will tell you,

we reached out to the CDC, to Operation Warp Speed, which is running the vaccine program in the U.S. They did not point us to a program.

So, now there's concern that there is no such program and that basically the anti-vaxxers are going to win here, and that we won't ever get rid of COVID, because, even if there is a good vaccine, that it won't be effective, because too few people are taking it.

TAPPER: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

A key ruling on abortion from the Supreme Court, and for the third time this month, the chief justice has thrown conservatives a curveball.

Then, Texas is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases, but is the governor on the same page as local officials? That's ahead.

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TAPPER: Breaking news in our national lead today.

The four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the killing of George Floyd appeared in court just moments ago. An attorney for one of the officers blasting President Trump, Minnesota's governor and the attorney general and other officials, saying that they have unfairly spoken publicly about the case.

The judge issued a stern warning to any officials thinking about speaking out, threatening to move the pending trial out of the city of Minneapolis.

CNN's Josh Campbell was in the courtroom and joins us now.

Josh, so there's a date set now for the trial?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, that's right, Jake.

We do have a trial date that is set. This will be in March of early part of next year. And in this hearing that concluded just a short time ago, the key message from this judge is, enough with the public comments about this case.

This followed after one of the attorneys for one of the officers charged in this case publicly blasted, as you mentioned, the president and state officials here in Minnesota, saying that their public comments are prejudicial, that they're trying to unfairly try this case in the media.

And one of the attorneys actually said that -- made an accusation against the attorney for the family of George Floyd, saying that he was leaking information that was presented to him from the state's attorney general, the judge admonishing everyone in this case, saying that, enough with the public comments, that he wants this court -- this trial tried in court.

He wants to see motions and pleadings, not press statements, as it relates to these defendants and the members of the government. He also said that the remedy here is not going to be to open up the court to cameras and audio. The remedy for additional public statements is going to be possibly moving this trial out of Minneapolis, changing the venue.

Now, what we're also learning from, there were people inside the court in addition to the defendants. One of the family members of George Floyd was also there. I caught up with him outside of court, and he talked about what it was like to see the officers here that allegedly murdered his relative. Take a listen.

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SELWYN JONES, UNCLE OF GEORGE FLOYD: I found it absolutely crazy that I sat six feet from a dude that helped -- that was involved in murdering my nephew, and he gets to walk around.

That was two of the last people that felt my nephew breathe, you know? And they -- they had a hand in stopping him from breathing.

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CAMPBELL: Now, as far as where we go from here, Jake, now we're now in the process of discovery, where the government is handing over information to the defendants.

We're told that there's some 8,000 pages of documents, video footage and photography and the like that they're poring through. The next hearing in this case, Jake, is set for September the 11th. Again, the trial is set for March of early next year -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Josh Campbell in Minneapolis, thank you so much.

A major Supreme Court ruling today in our health lead. In a 5-4 decision, the court struck down a Louisiana abortion law that would have imposed rigid standards, that only one clinic would have been left in the entire state of Louisiana.

And once again, conservative chief Justice John Roberts is the one who tipped the scales, siding with the more liberal justices to block the Louisiana law.

CNN's Jessica Schneider is outside of the court for us.

Jessica, what's the restriction Louisiana tried to mandate that that's now been blocked?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

So, Jake, this Louisiana law, it would have required doctors performing abortions to gain admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of where the abortion was performed. Of course, the challengers, they opposed this. They said that this

would have left just one doctor in the entire state of Louisiana able to perform abortions. It would have left only -- it would have closed two out of three remaining abortion clinics.

And the challengers also said that there was no more medical benefit for this, there was no valid state interest.

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And Justice Breyer, in writing this majority opinion, went even further. He said that doctors, in many cases, the evidence showed, they were denied admitting privileges to hospitals because these hospitals or hospital officials were anti-abortion.

But, in the end, Jake, this decision came down to the fact that Chief Justice Roberts said that this restriction was just too similar to a 2016 Texas restriction that the Supreme Court had previously struck down, Jake.

TAPPER: Yes, and today's vote is significant on many, many levels, including a first for Chief Justice Roberts, who usually leans in favor of restrictions on abortion.

SCHNEIDER: That's exactly right.

The chief justice has never actually voted to block an abortion restriction. This morning was the first time that he allowed an abortion restriction to go into effect. But he did say that, essentially, his hands were tied here because of that 2016 Supreme Court ruling knocking down that virtually identical Texas law.

The way Justice Roberts called it, he said, the burden on access to abortion is just as severe in Texas, in blocking this Louisiana law. The White House, though, taking a swipe at Chief Justice Roberts and the liberal justices who voted 5-4 in this majority opinion.

The press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, releasing this statement in part, saying: "Instead of valuing fundamental democratic principles, unelected justices have intruded on the sovereign prerogatives of state governments by imposing their own policy preference in favor of abortion to override legitimate abortion safety regulations."

Now, that is sort of taking a swipe, Jake, at the chief justice, but, notably, the chief justice, in his concurring opinion, he left open the possibility that restrictions like this in other states, they could go through if there were differing circumstances.

So, by virtue of the chief justice's opinion here, the door isn't completely closed on these restrictions, but they have been blocked in Louisiana -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Jessica Schneider at the Supreme Court for us, thank you so much.

Who at the White House knew what, and when? That's the new demand from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers about reports that Russia paid money to terrorists to kill American and British troops in Afghanistan.

We will discuss next.

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TAPPER: In our world today, the White House responding to a damning new report that Russia offered money to Taliban terrorists if they killed American or British troops.

"The Washington Post" is reporting, per the intelligence assessments, that these bounties did result in U.S. troops being killed in Afghanistan.

Today, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said there was no consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies about the veracity of the report.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins me now.

And, Kaitlan, you pushed McEnany about the intelligence today and what the president was going to do about it.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, what has been clear, as the White House is saying, that the president was not briefed on this in person about what was going on, but the question, of course, is, now the president is aware of this intelligence, as most of us are now, and several outlets have confirmed this.

So, the question is, what is his response going to be? Yet the White House today said that they do not believe there is an agreement among the intelligence community about what actually is in that intelligence assessment.

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KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So, intelligence is verified before it reaches the president of the United States. And in this case, it was not verified.

I won't speculate on whether this intelligence is verified or not verified. I have no further -- no further notifications for you, other than to tell you there's no consensus and there are dissenting opinions from someone within the intelligence community.

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COLLINS: -- do not this is true? You don't think this report is true?

MCENANY: I'm telling you this, that there's no consensus in the intelligence community, and that the dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, of course, there does not have to be a consensus among the intelligence community for the president to be told about something.

Oftentimes, these intelligence reports he gets can be fragmented ,and that's the purpose of them, is to tell the president what they know, if there are dissenting opinions from people who don't believe that it's true.

So, the -- a question, of course, going forward is, when did they decide whether or not it's verified? And what is the president's going to -- the response going to be? Because, of course, the concern is making sure that U.S. troops are protected.

TAPPER: And there are a lot of Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill wanting to know more about this.

You have some new details on the briefing that the White House held for some members of Congress about the intelligence. Tell us more.

COLLINS: Yes, seven Republican lawmakers have been briefed on this. They just finished that not long ago here at the White House.

And we're told that briefing was done by the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, and the chief of staff, Mark Meadows. It was seven Republicans there in the room.

And, Jake, that's been raising some questions about who's getting briefed and what they know. We are told that Meadows has offered to Democrats to also give them a briefing with seven members, but it does not appear that that briefing has happened.

It's not clear if the Democrats have even responded to that offer from the chief of staff. So, we're still working on running that down. But we do know at least some of these Republicans -- and these are Republicans who were raising concerns about the fact that the president wasn't briefed.

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