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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Officials Alarmed at Trump's Calls With Foreign Leaders; Trump Under Fire Over Russia Bounty Intelligence; Coronavirus Surging. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 30, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: With many traditional Fourth of July events canceled across the country, CNN is hosting a star-studded "The Fourth in America" special.

So, of course, do not miss these two amazing humans, Don Lemon and Dana Bash, hosting that.

So, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

Our coverage continues now on "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER."

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

And we begin with our health lead and the latest on the failed response by the Trump administration and many governors to protect the American people from the coronavirus.

Today, a grim new forecast from the nation's top doctors, Dr. Anthony Fauci warning, the United States could hit 100,000 new coronavirus cases every day if things do not turn around, noting that the U.S. is already at 40,000 new cases a day.

In addition, the CDC director is urging Americans to take personal responsibility and wear masks in public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Specifically, I'm addressing the younger members of our society, the millennials and the Generation Z's.

I asked those that are listening to spread the word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Thirty-six states, 36, are now trending upward when it comes to new cases. Only two states are seeing a decline. Yesterday, 15 states saw their highest seven-day average for new daily

cases yet. Only three of those 15 have statewide face mask requirements. The European Union reopens its borders tomorrow, and the E.U. has announced the countries allowed to travel there, including our neighbors to the north, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, even China, once China reciprocates with the E.U.

Among those countries banned from entering as of now, Brazil, Russia and the United States.

States within the U.S. are also now currently imposing regulations on Americans from other states where the virus is still spreading like wildfire. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are all expanding their travel advisories, adding eight more states that will have to quarantine for 14 days if travelers from there enter that tristate area region.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now live from New York.

And, Alexandra, which states are being singled out, and why?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jake, it feels less and less like being singled out because the list of states is growing, doubling since just last week. It includes the hardest-hit states. And there are a lot of them.

The latest additions include California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, and Tennessee.

So, you have got 16 states across the country where people, if they choose to travel to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut, will have to go ahead and quarantine for 14 days. The governor of New York has reminded people there will be penalties for breaking that quarantine.

You could be fined and, if you're found out, you could also be forced into a mandatory quarantine, so the governors in this area really trying to hold on to the gains that they fought so hard to make -- Jake.

TAPPER: And, Alexandra, Massachusetts also just announced that anyone coming to their commonwealth, with the exception of others in New England, will have to quarantine for 14 days.

FIELD: Yes, and not just Massachusetts. You have got other states following suit as well.

Earlier this week, you had Rhode Island announce even stricter terms for going to Rhode Island. They will only allow people to travel in that are coming from states with less than a 5 percent positivity rate. Compare that to the 10 percent threshold that was set by the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The only other way to get into Rhode Island is by presenting a negative test for COVID. So, if you come from a state that's got a lot of COVID, you have got to do the quarantine or you have got to show that negative test. Again, Jake. We're looking at a country where you have got cases

surging. In the Northeast, you have got two states that are seeing declines and they're trying to keep their progress here.

TAPPER: All right, Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

In Texas, several bar owners are now suing Republican Governor Greg Abbott over his recent emergency order shutting bars back down due to the recent surge in cases in the Lone Star State. They claim that Abbott's order is unconstitutional.

Texas reported more than 6,500 new coronavirus cases just yesterday.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is in Texas for us, and she joins us now.

Lucy, clearly, bar owners are reluctant to follow these new measures. What about Texans? What do they say? Are they also objecting?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, some bar owners are reluctant. They hosted a small rally of protest in Austin.

But when you talk to ordinary people, yes, the economic concern is front and center on everyone's mind, but people understand that the numbers here in Texas are trending in the wrong direction, both in terms of new cases and hospitalizations. They hear the urgent calls to take more care by local officials. They see that testing capacity is at a limit.

[15:05:04]

I was walking around downtown in Houston last night, and it was a ghost town, almost not a single soul on the street. The few people that I did see were wearing masks. Businesses were quite empty. But that is because we're in the midst of a national crisis, one that's hitting Texas incredibly hard.

And you can see behind me the line of cars of people trying to get tested, people taking this seriously, that line of cars, by the way, sneaking around for miles hours before this facility even opened.

Now, the Houston mayor also expanding testing facilities here in the city. He also said that, even though the mortality rate here is remaining relatively stable, thankfully, the number of people affected is growing exponentially.

And I can tell you one more thing. The governor signed -- extended his executive order to expand space at hospitals by basically limiting nonessential surgeries. But there is still no statewide mandate for masks. And that is tying the hands of local officials. It's also putting businesses in the awkward position of enforcing the rules, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Lucy Kafanov in Houston, Texas, thank you so much.

Joining us now, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a CNN medical analyst and chief of infectious diseases at Mass General. Doctor, thanks so much.

Let's start with Dr. Anthony Fauci. Take a listen to what he said today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: You can't just focus on those areas that are having the surge. It puts the entire country at risk.

We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think? Is that actually possible, 100,000 new cases a day?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good afternoon, Jake. I think it's not only possible. It's very likely.

We know that we have -- where we were last week in some of these very hot hard-hit states, states like Florida, Arizona, Texas, we know a week ago they had half the number of cases. We know that the cases that we are seeing today have already infected the people of tomorrow that we are going to detect probably in the next week to 14 days.

So, the best hope that we have is taking those people who we haven't even found yet and trying to prevent the transmission from them. So, I really think we need some measures to -- strong measures in place now.

We know from March that it took a month of being shut down, of being in stay-at-home orders to curb this. Our peaks were on April 24, when the shutdown was on March 22. So, really, we need some pretty drastic measures, I would say, today, so that we can start hoping to see some benefits a month from now.

And if we continue to double every week, we could easily be at 100,000 in the next week or two.

TAPPER: CDC Director Redfield specifically addressed millennials and Generation Z in his comments today before the Congress, telling them to embrace masks in public.

Is this consistent with what you're seeing at your hospital, that there's an increase in younger people getting infected and not taking the virus seriously when they go out in public?

WALENSKY: Yes, I want to say that this is critically important.

So, the one thing -- we know numerous things. One is that the young people tend to do well. They tend to not have a severe disease. They tend to have a lower mortality rate. But, importantly, they also tend to have less common -- less commonly have symptoms.

And because of that, they could unknowingly be transmitting because they are feeling well. And I would say, even more importantly for this population, because they are more frequently asymptomatic, they are the ones that actually need to be wearing the mask.

TAPPER: Thirty-six states are trending in the wrong direction, only two states seeing a decline, even though more than a dozen states, 17, to be precise, are pausing or reversing their reopening plans.

Is that enough to change the trajectory, pausing or even going back?

WALENSKY: So, I want to just emphasize how heterogeneous the United States is right now. We have some states, largely in the Northeast, that are doing quite well.

And, in fact, I will note that those are states that have had a really tough time in April -- in March and April, really had hospital shortages, massive loads of patients, and have been incredibly conservative as they have thought through and had policies towards opening up.

Other states have been more complacent, have opened up quicker, have not mandated face masks, have had open bars and restaurants. I think we need to take a lesson from the states who have been able to do this well and slowly.

And, yes, I think it's critically important that we do so.

TAPPER: Here's Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the CDC. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: When you look at where we were Memorial Day, so many states moving in the right direction, with numbers of cases going down, parts of the country really trying to use public health guidance, and then, in other parts of the country, the message being, get back to work, go out, enjoy your social life, when you see that clash of messages between some political leaders and then every public health leader taking this so incredibly seriously, when you see that clash of messages, this is the outcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:10:25]

TAPPER: Can that even be changed?

I still hear governors -- and we know about the record of the president when it comes to belittling this threat. Is it too late to change this, so that there is one consistent voice on this?

WALENSKY: I wouldn't say it's too late.

We certainly have a lot of people who are susceptible to this disease out there, and anything we can do at the -- certainly, at the local level, at the state level, at the federal level, we need to do because infections are soaring.

And I think we can -- the map clearly demonstrates and the policies clearly demonstrate that states that have taken this seriously, that have decided for the time being that the virus is in charge, and we have to listen to what the virus says, so that we can -- we can create the policies to decrease transmission, those are the states that are doing well.

And so I think, at a state-by-state level, if not at a federal level, we're going to need to make policies and then sort of sleep in the bed that we make, so to speak.

I also want to just emphasize that there's been some comment that states that have seen a rise in cases have not seen a rise in deaths. And, certainly, I would really hope that we don't see a rise in deaths. But I don't want to be falsely reassured that we will not see a rise in deaths.

Certainly, young people who might be more likely to have been infected now are -- have lower death rates than older people. But I will say, those death rates followed by four to six weeks after the case rates. And so I think it's really clear to watch that we have to watch that.

TAPPER: Right, the hospitalizations come next, then the deaths.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you so much.

WALENSKY: Absolutely.

TAPPER: Appreciate it.

The White House just briefed Democrats on the intelligence report that claims Russia paid the Taliban or offered them bounties to attack American and British troops in Afghanistan. Now, however, there are even more questions about the intelligence. That's next.

Then, it's not the coronavirus, but scientists are now looking at a new virus in China they say has pandemic potential.

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: In our world lead today: Despite President Trump's claim that he was never briefed on the matter, details of U.S. intelligence claims that Russia has offered a bounty on U.S. troops' heads in Afghanistan were in President Trump's presidential daily briefing, or PDB, earlier this year, a source tell CNN.

"The New York Times" is reporting that that day may have been February 27. And that's the same day that President Trump met with Diamond and Silk at the White House and also claimed that the coronavirus would soon disappear. Today, House Democrats went to the White House to get their own

briefing on this intelligence. Then they came out and slammed the briefing itself, saying that the whole meeting was essentially the White House giving their perspective of the information, but added, the intelligence itself was very troubling.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, one of the Democrats briefed, says, it's still not clear if the president was ever properly briefed himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): It's not a justification to say that the president should have read whatever materials he has. If he doesn't read, he doesn't read. They should know that by now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now.

And, Jeremy, it's been reported that then Chief of Staff Kelly reduced the numbers of actual briefings because of the president's short attention span. It's been reported that the president's not a big reader. It's been reported that briefers are reluctant to bring up Russian hostilities. Is any of that relevant here?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, certainly, the fact that the president is known for not regularly reading his daily intelligence briefing is relevant here, because it appears that that may be the reason why he says he was not aware of these reports, even though it was in this daily highly classified intelligence packet that the president and his top advisers receive every single morning.

Now, the White House is trying to use that to try and insulate the president from any potential American inaction this front, but, ultimately, Jake, it does fall on the president. It is his responsibility to read these materials.

And the question is now, Jake, now that the president does know about this, what is he going to do about it and what has he said about it so far? And the answer, Jake, is that we haven't seen much from the president. We have seen him criticize "The New York Times" and go after them for reporting this in the first place.

But we have not heard from the president any concern that this intelligence may indeed be real. And we certainly haven't heard the president give a message of what kind of consequences Russia would face if indeed this intelligence proves to be fully, fully corroborated.

And, ultimately, Jake, what we're not hearing from the president is any of that. And now we're finding the White House in a position of trying to dismiss this notion of this intelligence being real, rather than saying what they're going to do about it.

TAPPER: Jeremy, House Democrats say that the top intelligence agency officials, when they went to this briefing, were not even in the room.

DIAMOND: Yes, so a Democratic aide has actually told CNN that the director of national intelligence was in the room.

But, again, all of the officials who were in the room were all political appointees of the president's, and most of them former Republicans.

[15:20:02]

The officials who you did not have there who the Democrats say they would like to get briefed by now on the intelligence is the career intelligence officials, the intelligence analysts who would actually be able to provide an unvarnished, unbiased view of this intelligence.

And that is what Democrats say that they so far have not gotten. Instead, what they said they got in this briefing today was the White House's perspective on this intelligence. What they would like to see is the intelligence community's actual views of this purported intelligence -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, good clarification. I appreciate that.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.

First on CNN, alarming new reporting about how President Trump handles highly classified information and how he deals with world leaders when he's on the phone with them.

Legendary investigative reporter Carl Bernstein spoke with multiple sources, who tell him that President Trump has been consistently unprepared for serious talks and was often outplayed by other world leaders, while being abusive to the leaders of American allied countries, that it -- quote -- "helped convince some senior U.S. officials, including President Trump's former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers, and his longest serving chief of staff that the president himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States."

Joining me now, Carl Bernstein to talk about his reporting.

Carl, from your sources, let me just ask, how is America's national security at risk?

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's at risk because these foreign leaders, particularly strongmen like Putin and Erdogan, took great advantage of an unbriefed, ignorant, to use their word, the sources, president of the United States.

The best example is the withdrawal of American troops from Syria, at Erdogan's and Putin's urging, doing their business and putting our allies the Kurds at risk of slaughter.

Erdogan had wanted this for a long time, and he got it. And Putin had wanted it for a long time. And it goes partly to this question of an unprepared president who doesn't read his briefings, and also is slavish in these phone calls, hundreds of them, to these strongmen, while berating and denigrating, and even being sadistic in terms of women heads of state of our allies.

And what these calls show, according to the people that you just enumerated, former chiefs of staff, secretaries of state and defense, is that he is unfit, in their view, to be the president of the United States, because he has endangered the national security and continues to.

TAPPER: You had this anecdote in there where President Trump had a conversation with Putin, and he received praise for that call from one aide. But, tellingly, tell us who the aide was.

BERNSTEIN: Well, the aide was there -- there were two aides there, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who were in the room to listen to one of his earliest calls with Putin, but also in the room were the great experts and intelligence officials and national security officials, including Fiona Hill, who was director of the Soviet and Russian and European part of the NSC operation, the secretary of defense, others who were in the room.

And Trump just cut them off because they were skeptical about the call and thought that Putin, indeed, had -- was outplaying him, but he didn't want to hear from them. And he went right to listening to Jared and Ivanka.

This is not a president interested in anything having to do with real information, but, rather, is seeking praise, building himself up. And that's what's in the calls, and so disturbing to those who heard them and know their contents.

TAPPER: And tell me about the conversations President Trump has had with some of our oldest allies, the U.K. and France.

What have your sources told you about that?

BERNSTEIN: Well, that he has berated our allies in the most demeaning terms.

Let's look at Germany, France and the U.K. In the case of Germany, Angela Merkel, the chancellor, he called her stupid, attacked her for playing ball with the Russians, of all things, and -- quote -- "being in their pocket," went on to talk about how she didn't know what she was doing, in the case of Theresa May, the prime minister of England, said that she had no spine, had no backbone, she didn't know what she was doing in terms of Brexit, that she had allowed the U.K. to get away with not paying NATO dues.

But rather than dealing with issues of real mutual concern with these allies, for 75 years our closest allies, rather than dealing on a substantive basis with real strengths and problems, he always in these conversations went to the default point of these countries ripping us off and talking about himself as being ripped off, rather than having an integrated discussion about European and NATO policy.

[15:25:02] But, in the case of these two women, it was misogyny. It was treating them in a near sadistic way, as the sources said to me. And there has now been confirmation to the CNN report by German officials of these calls and the abuse of Merkel.

One of our CNN colleagues got a response from a German official. I'm not even sure exactly where the German official was positioned, whether it -- I think it might have been in Germany. I'm not sure. It might have been here in the U.S.

But that confirmation is extraordinary. People who read the story ought to take a look at it, confirming that he was sadistic, abusive to the chancellor of Germany.

TAPPER: In light of these new reports about U.S. intelligence saying that the Russians have put a bounty on U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, how do you see this new report, given how -- given your new report about the president dealing with world leaders?

BERNSTEIN: The two stories fit together hand in glove, because, in both cases, the sources of both stories have to do with a president of the United States who refuses to be briefed in an intelligent way, in fact, refuses to be briefed very often altogether.

That's what shows in the calls with Putin, with Erdogan, that the briefers have no role. And the result is a president that, as one of my sources said, Putin is like a grand chess master, and on the calls with Trump, he's up against, Putin, somebody who's a Sunday checkers player.

And that's what comes through. But the extraordinary thing that we're looking at now, all of these people that are listed in my story, some of -- one of whom you named at the beginning, Chief of Staff Kelly, came to the conclusion that the president in United States, Bolton, others, is unfit to be the president of the United States.

Why didn't these people go to Mitch McConnell? Why didn't these people go to Capitol Hill and say, we have a national security emergency in which the president of the United States is endangering the national security of the United States, who is unfit to be president, and let those politicians on the Hill know what the hell was going on?

They have abrogated their duty, it seems to me, the more and more we learn, by not bringing to the attention of the American people and its representatives that -- a president unfit. Clearly, we now are seeing why he's so unfit. And these people knew.

Finally, we're getting the record, and it's being reflected in how the president is being viewed at this late term in his presidency.

TAPPER: All right, Carl Bernstein, thank you so much for your reporting and for being here with us today.

Coming up: A vaccine, it's the only thing that could really allow the world to safely go back to semi-normal.

A look at where the race for a vaccine stands, that's next.

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