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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Escalating Coronavirus Pandemic; Trump Says He Will "Put Pressure on Governors" to Reopen Schools. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired July 07, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:02]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: And how must teachers be feeling? Obviously, it's parents, it's the kids, but it's the teachers. I want to talk to the teachers.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you for the update.

That's it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

"THE LEAD" starts right now.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Jake Tapper today.

The United States in freefall from the coronavirus, a top infectious disease doctor is warning today. And right now, as we speak, the number of daily cases is double what it was just a month ago. Take that in, double what it was just a month ago.

Cases are rising so quickly in the South and Southwest, a health expert says contact tracing is no longer even possible. The World Health Organization today saying cases are accelerating worldwide, and it's not because more testing is being done.

And now Brazil's president, who has been months downplaying the threat of coronavirus, said today he has it.

Florida's Miami-Dade County appears to be the new epicenter of the virus in the U.S.

But, as CNN's Nick Watt reports, Governor Ron DeSantis still won't disclose how many coronavirus patients are hospitalized statewide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Big Tex taking a break for the first time since World War II, the Texas State Fair just canceled, as the military sends medical personnel to San Antonio to help.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): The four days leading up to the Fourth of July combined were the four deadliest days that we have had. My concern is that we may see greater fatalities going forward.

WATT: In Florida, ICUs in 43 hospitals are now full.

CARLOS GIMENEZ (R), MAYOR OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA: Especially, we need to look at our younger population that we know had a tremendous spike in their positivity rate, which in turn has infected other people.

WATT: Florida still won't reveal how many calls COVID-19 patients they have in hospitals, despite the governor's claims today.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): All the data that goes into this is all available.

QUESTION: I have spreadsheet from that data, Governor. It is not available.

WATT: But Miami-Dade does. And it's up 90 percent in just two weeks.

Still, the state just issued an order for schools to reopen next month.

SHEVRIN D. JONES (D), FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: We can't go on this on this path of putting our teachers in this petri dish of danger.

ALBERTO CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, PUBLIC SCHOOLS: I will not reopen our school system August 24 if the conditions are what they are today.

WATT: Meanwhile, in California, the capitol now closed indefinitely after at least five lawmakers tested positive. Test lines are getting longer.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: All of this just makes it so much harder to manage this disease.

WATT: Quest Diagnostics says, last month, results were taking two to three days. Now it's four to six. And quick results are key in effectively isolate the infected.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: The cases are rising so rapidly that we cannot even do contact tracing anymore.

WATT: Undiagnosed silent spreaders might be responsible for around half of all cases, according to one new study. And as cases climb, nearly half of states now slowing or rolling back reopening.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): So, if they keep moving up, we're going to dial back if we have to. And that's the last thing any of us want.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: Now, San Francisco's mayor just said, we have no choice, after she announced that indoor dining and outdoor bars will not reopen, as planned, on Monday. And, today, Dr. Fauci reiterated that bars are just the perfect setup

for spreading this virus. He also said, by the way, that he's strongly in favor of mandating things like masks, but only on a local level, not on the federal level. He says he doesn't like to be too authoritarian -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, thank you so much, Nick.

And joining me now, Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the CDC.

Dr. Besser, thank you for coming on.

As we just saw laid out there by Nick, we're seeing a tale here of two governors in states that we're seeing a surge in coronavirus. On one hand, you have the Republican governor of Florida playing down the data and ordering schools to reopen, and then, on the other hand, the Republican governor of Texas acknowledging businesses need to close again, there could be a surge in deaths.

What are the consequences of these conflicting messages to the public?

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Pamela, I think this is one of the biggest challenges we face with this pandemic.

And it's that clash of messages, where every public health leader in the nation is saying the same thing. It's early days in this pandemic. It's extremely dangerous. What we do individually, what we do as the society will determine how severe this is going forward.

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And then you hear from politicians a real mix. You hear some who are saying -- echoing and reinforcing the public health message, and then others who are saying, there's really nothing to worry about, it's overblown, let's get back to work, let's get back to our social lives.

When that happens, we have this situation where you don't have everyone in the community doing the right thing. And that just isn't an effective way to control a pandemic.

BROWN: Right, because the public is looking to the leaders in their community at the state level and federally in terms of what to think about this virus.

And you look at the White House, Dr. Besser, and there seems to be this message coming from there, nothing to see here. Look -- you look back a couple of months ago, the president himself is holding press briefings on COVID, along with top health officials. That has gone away, along with media interviews of those key officials, like Dr. Fauci.

Are you concerned that the message people are getting here is that, hey, this is less serious, there's not as much urgency here? BESSER: When I look around the globe, and I see how effective so many countries have been at containing this and so many regions, when you look at the European Union, and the numbers there, with a steady decline across countries with so many different cultures, what it says to me is that we could do that in the United States.

If we come together as a nation, if we take the politics out of this, and if we're led by public health science at the federal, state and local level, we can contain this.

And what happens when you contain it, when you follow that public health blueprint is, you can slowly, gradually, carefully get people back to work. You can slowly and carefully get children back to school.

But if you don't -- if you don't do those things, and there continues to be widespread transmission in the communities, then you have this stop and start, where you will start to roll back some of these restrictions, and then you have to put them back in place.

BROWN: Right, just as we're seeing happen today, that San Francisco mayor having to roll back.

BESSER: That's right.

BROWN: And we also just learned, Dr. Besser, the federal government is launching new testing sites in three hot spots, Jacksonville, Florida, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Edinburg, Texas, but many other cities and states, they are still struggling to keep up with testing.

In Phoenix, residents have waited as long as eight hours to get tested. Then you have New Orleans. Sites ran out of test five minutes after doors open. It's really all over the map there.

Who is responsible for this failure? And what is the solution?

BESSER: Well, I mean, testing is a critical piece of this. And the numbers that you share and those pictures hide what is probably an even deeper crisis.

This pandemic so far has hit certain populations the hardest, black Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, lower-income essential workers being hit really hard. And when you see these lines in places like drive-in, drive-through testing sites, it begs the questions, what's happening in lower-income communities?

What's happening there in terms of testing? Who's getting hit the hardest? What's being done to ensure that we see what's happening at the neighborhood level, so that this can be contained?

But if you're not on the same page that public health is leading the charge here, and we're following their guidance, I don't see a way to control this in those states.

BROWN: Why is it disproportionately impacting those parts of the population? BESSER: Yes, I mean, there are a number of reasons.

One is a higher proportion of minority Americans are essential workers. So, as essential workers, they're not able to work remotely. They're out and about. They're having more contact with the general public. If the general public isn't wearing masks -- when I wear a mask, what I'm saying, Pamela, is, I care about your health.

And when you wear a mask, you're saying, you care about mine. And if you're an essential worker, and people are coming into your business where you're working, they're not wearing a mask, they're basically putting you at risk. So that's a big factor.

You also see a whole higher proportion of low-income workers who don't have sick leave, don't have unemployment insurance. So they're having to make really tough decisions if they're infected or they have been exposed.

Do they stay home and risk not putting food on the table or risk eviction, or do they go to work and hope that they don't get sicker and hope they don't spread it to someone else? We're seeing a lot of the federal supports in terms of supplemental unemployment insurance go away this month.

A lot of states have rolled back protection for eviction and mortgage foreclosure. This is a really dangerous situation, when these supports are going away just at the time when we need them most.

BROWN: And let's talk about the testing. Let's go back to that, because, today, you have two major U.S. lab companies, LabCorp and Quest, saying that it is taking twice as long to get test results back as it did last month because of the surge in demand.

What are the practical implications of this?

BESSER: Well, what it does is, it prevents you from acting as quickly to ensure that people who are exposed are able to quarantine, that people who are infected are able to isolate.

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It means that someone may be out in the community for several days longer spreading this infection. So, you have to get past those backlogs in testing.

And, as Nick Watt was saying, in some of these states, where the number of cases is in the thousands per day, it's absolutely impossible to do contact tracing and isolation and quarantine at those numbers. In those areas, you're going to have to be moving back to everyone shelter in place, everyone stay home, if you really want to get this under control.

BROWN: All right, really important information there from Dr. Richard Besser.

Thank you very much for laying it out for us. BESSER: It's a pleasure, Pamela. Thank you.

BROWN: And minutes ago, President Trump insisted schools must open in the fall. But how? We will discuss the challenges for schools set to begin in just a matter of weeks from now.

Plus: bad blood -- an explosive tell-all book about Donald Trump written by his own niece.

What she thinks is really motivating the president -- up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We hope that most schools are going to be open. We don't want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. They think it's going to be good for them politically. So they keep the schools closed. No way. So we're very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So that was President Trump moments ago. He said, as you heard, that he will pressure states to reopen schools in just weeks from now. President Trump also praised the Florida governor for requiring schools to open next month. Ron DeSantis faced this parade of protesting teachers today.

And joining me now, Scott Walker, a seventh grade English teacher in Massachusetts, and Amy Gasser, a seventh and eighth grade science teacher in Ohio. And both of you are parents as well.

So you bring a really unique perspective to this discussion, Amy. Schools are confronting a real struggle here -- the risk of contracting coronavirus versus the risk to kids at home who aren't being educated. As a teacher and a mother, what is your reaction to the president saying he'll put pressure on schools to reopen?

AMY GASSER, 7TH & 8TH GRADE SCIENCE TEACHER IN HUBBARD, OHIO: Well, with him saying that today, we have to then just move forward. We need to look at the rules and regulations, keep social distancing, look at the masks. And as a teacher, I want to make sure that my environment is safe for all of my students with encouraging the hand-washing, the sanitizing.

They tell us to go back to school, we'll go back to school. And I will talk to my own two daughters and explain to them that they need to pay attention to the rules that, we need to follow to keep everyone around us safe because that's what's most important.

BROWN: So do you think the schools -- and just to be clear -- do you think schools should reopen in the fall? GASSER: In my opinion, when it comes to my students, I know that we

are working on a virtually part going back to school. I think if we do it slowly and if everything stays under control when it comes to the COVID reactions from that, then we need to move forward.

I have a lot of students who need the personal back-to-back conversations with me. They need to see me. I need to see them. I miss them. I miss their faces. I miss their demeanor in the classroom.

So for me if they say it's safe to go back, then we move forward and we go on from this point. And we try to make it as safe as possible. If the numbers spike, then, you know, we'll go back to the virtual, and we will make sure everyone is safe as best can be. And we will move forward with that.

It's going to be one of those evolving situations where we need an open mind with educators.

BROWN: And, Scott, you're a dad and a teacher as well. Amy hit on this idea of wanting to be with her students in person. You have the American Academy of Pediatrics wanting in-person learning because they believe the in-person benefits of being in a classroom outweigh the risks.

What do you think? What are your thoughts on that?

SCOTT WALKER, 7TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER IN FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS: Well, you know, the APA is absolutely right in that it is important for the social and emotional health of the students as well as their academic success that they be back in the building. And, obviously, it's a benefit to the parents as well and certainly for us, this is what we do. This is where we want to be. We want to be with the kids.

The key here is, you know, it can't be a one size fits all kind of situation. You know, I have twin 13-year-olds. They will be going to middle school, going to a particular district this year. I have an 11- year-old who is in elementary school who will be in a different district. I teach in yet a third district and I work after school in a 4th district.

So for me personally, you know, we're really talking about four different systems. And it really has to be something that is done on the municipal level, something that is really tailored to what each town can do and the logistics and infrastructure available to them there.

BROWN: And, Amy, what are the differences -- for our audience to understand -- teaching virtually versus in the classroom, from your experience over these last few months?

GASSER: Well, I experienced students not being able to email me because there are a variety of children in their households in which they only have the computer for a short period of time. I have tried to do various Google Meet, Zoom meetings with them. And for some of them, it is just not accessible.

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So for that aspect, the idea that it's not just about my students, it's about the entire family, what the entire family in that house needs, that plays a factor which I don't always understand or know about unless they tell me. So, for me I lose that.

I also lose their demeanor, like how are they acting? Like, if I teach a new subject and I see a lot of crinkled foreheads or confusion, I know that I need to go over it again or do it a different way or introduce it with maybe more of a path to it.

BROWN: Interesting, right.

GASSER: And I don't get to see that.

BROWN: Right.

GASSER: So if I don't get to see their confusion, then how do I move on?

BROWN: That's really -- that's a really interesting point. And the other point you were making is, look, every child has a unique family situation. So, on that note, Scott, what is the socioeconomic factor here when you look at the quality of education some of these kids are getting at home?

WALKER: You know, we have a system where every town is different. And you have situations where within that town you have families that both parents are working. You know, you put a situation where kids are remote learning at home and both parents are also learning or working in their home offices at the same time. Now you have three, four, five, six devices all on scattered amounts of Wi-Fi, if that's something that can be offered in their home, and if that's something that they are able to make happen.

In another family, that might not be possible. We know that when we have them in front of us that we are able to work with them on their level to meet with them, to -- you know, we have a captive audience of sorts and we're able to do activities with them there. When they are at home, they're not all given the same opportunities and they don't all go home to the same kind of environments, and not everybody has the same Wi-Fi, the same technology. But that's true within the school system too when they come back to school, what one town and one district can offer is not necessarily the same thing that the next town over can offer.

BROWN: All right. A really important discussion, Scott Walker, Amy Gasser, we'll see how this all plays out over the next couple of months. Thank you so much for coming on.

GASSER: Thank you, Pamela.

WALKER: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: And up next, President Trump's niece out with a new scathing book claiming he paid someone to take the SATs for him, and that is just the beginning.

Plus, after months of downplaying the threat of coronavirus, Brazil's president has now been infected. We are live on the ground with the very latest, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:27:39]

BROWN: In our politics lead, a new scathing indictment of President Trump's character from a member of his own family. CNN has obtained a copy of the new book written by president Trump's niece Mary where she claims the president is a threat to the country is willfully ignorant, and only ran for president to boost his own brand.

Mary Trump writes: By the time this book is published, hundreds of thousands of American lives will have been sacrificed on the altar of Donald's hubris and willful ignorance if he is afforded a second term. It would be the end of American democracy.

CNN political correspondent Sara Murray joins me live.

So what else does Mary Trump say about her uncle, President Trump?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly not a very flattering portrayal of her uncle or of the Trump family in general. I mean, she essentially calls Donald Trump a sociopath and Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist. And so, she sort of digs into this family's history and their relationship with each other and essentially says the patriarch Fred Trump, who is Donald Trump's father, created this really toxic environment that made Donald Trump the way that he is.

And when she talks about her uncle, she describes him, like I said, as a sociopath, as a liar, as a cheater. You know, she writes at one point in this book that the lies may become true in his mind as soon as he utters them. But they're still lies. It's just another way for him to see what he can get away with. And so far he's gotten away with everything.

Now, there's a lot of bad blood in this family and it goes back truly for decades. That's very clear in the book because she does not hold back on any embarrassing anecdotes, including one from a younger Donald Trump where he wants to get into the University of Pennsylvania and Mary Trump claims that he actually paid another kid to take the SATs for him.

Now the White House has a new comment this afternoon where they say that Donald Trump had a warm relationship with his father and they're calling the claim about the SATs absurd and absolutely false.

And, Pam, there is still litigation going on around this book, one of Donald Trump's brothers tried to block the release unsuccessfully. But as of right now, Mary Trump is still under a temporary restraining order.

BROWN: And do we know why she's writing the book now several years into the Trump administration?

MURRAY: You know, she writes in the book that she just felt like she couldn't stay silent any longer. She talks a little bit about her father who was Freddy Trump who died after a long struggle with alcoholism.

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