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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Coronavirus Surging; Trump Downplays Virus Threat, Repeats Claim It Will Disappear. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired July 20, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: (AUDIO GAP) to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we begin today with our health lead and some major news in the search for a coronavirus vaccine, three trials, now three, showing that participants in the studies had a promising immune response to the vaccines, as health experts say the United States is in desperate need of a vaccine, because President Trump and other leaders have so seriously mishandled any serious attempt to contain the virus within our borders.

As of this afternoon, the U.S. is nearing four million confirmed cases in the United States. And that's growing. Almost 141,000 lives have been lost. That number is also, sadly, growing.

And the lack of national leadership that has been apparent since the beginning of this crisis is only seeming to get worse, with the mayor of Washington, D.C., today, calling for the federal government to step up, particularly when it comes to an aggressive national campaign to test Americans, with quick results, and then can immediate contact racing, so as to contain the spread of the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURIEL BOWSER (D), MAYOR OF WASHINGTON, D.C.: We can't have our national leadership throwing up their hands. This may be a time to re- center and reset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Today, President Trump announced that he is bringing back the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings, saying he will now -- quote -- "get involved" due to the surges of the virus in Texas and Florida.

But we have already seen months of examples of what the president does at these briefings. He often downplays the threat of the virus, and he frequently lies about what is really happening.

Here's the president four months ago today at one of these briefings, March 20, when more than 200 Americans had already died: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My message to the American people is that there is a very low incidence of death. You understand that?

And we're going to come through this stronger than ever before.

QUESTION: Where are labs across the country that don't have the testing supplies they need.

What specific actions is the administration taking?

TRUMP: Well, it's going very well, I'll tell you what.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's right. Four months ago, the president said testing was going very well. It was not. And labs continue to lag in being able to test people who need tests, who want tests, and to turn around quick results.

Now, three months ago to this day, on April 20, with more than 40,000 Americans dead, President Trump continued to try to paint a rosy picture of this tragedy, saying that the administration had tremendous testing capability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This capacity is sufficient to allow states to conduct diagnostic testing to treat patients, as well as contact tracing to contain outbreaks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Contain what outbreaks? What outbreaks are being contained? Which ones?

It was not sufficient then, and health experts say it is not sufficient today. In some parts of the country, any serious contact tracing campaign is nonexistent.

Now, just minutes ago, President Trump tweeted this image, saying -- quote -- "Many people say that it is patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance. There is nobody more patriotic than me, your favorite president" -- unquote.

This image comes after months of President Trump openly mocking people who wear masks and refusing to set an example by wearing one publicly. Two months ago today, two months ago today, on May 20, the death toll had surpassed 92,000, and Michigan's attorney general was publicly pleading for President Trump to wear a mask when he visited a Ford factory.

And the next day the president visited that Ford factory and did not wear the mask for the public portion of the tour. He said he didn't want to -- quote -- "give press the pleasure" of seeing him wearing a mask.

Mask wearing, according to health experts, is a critical tool to containing the coronavirus. And the message the president has sent has been clear. His supporters across the country, as well as others, are constantly pushing back on (AUDIO GAP) requests, pleas (AUDIO GAP) every American wear a mask when in public.

The horrible example that the president set may have actually peaked one month ago today, June 20. With nearly 120,000 Americans dead, President Trump held an indoor rally. No masks were required.

"The Washington Post" obtained video of his staffers removing stickers from chairs. These stickers encouraged social distancing. The president at this rally used a racist term for the virus. And he claimed, inexplicably, that he wanted his administration to slow down the testing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Testing is a double-edged sword. When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people. You're going to find more cases.

So, I said to my people, slow the testing down, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:05:02]

TAPPER: The virus is spreading because the virus is spreading. It's not spreading because of the testing.

And that brings us all to today, with nearly 141,100, 141,000 Americans dead from coronavirus, and the Trump administration's testing czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, admitting just this morning that testing is still not where it needs to be, with long wait times continuing across the country.

Yet there is still no new presidential strategy to get us out of this spiraling crisis.

This refusal to lead has a body count.

As CNN's Jason Carroll reports, coronavirus deaths are now rising week over week in almost half of all states.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A glimmer of hope on the vaccine front amid the devastating numbers around the country.

At least three groups developing vaccines announced early human trial results show, so far, they are safe and create an immune response.

DR. MICHAEL J. RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: This is a positive result. But, again, there is a long way to go.

CARROLL: A vaccine cannot come fast enough, as cases soar from coast to coast, Florida reporting at least 10,000 new cases today. Right now in this state, nearly 9,400 people are hospitalized fighting the virus.

So far, 5,072 lives lost, in Miami-Dade County, intensive care units overtaxed at 130 percent capacity.

CARLOS HERNANDEZ, MAYOR OF HIALEAH, FLORIDA: This is scary. I mean, now every day, it's over 10,000. It's almost like a norm. As long as we don't work together, and I'm talking counties and the state, we're going to find ourselves in this problem right now.

CARROLL: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is coming face to face with their frustration at his press conference this afternoon.

(YELLING)

CARROLL: Other states in the South and Sunbelt, like Arizona and Texas, seeing rising numbers as well. Arizona's seven-day average positivity rate is the highest in the country, at 24.4 percent, even reaching an astounding 39 percent on Saturday; 87 doctors signed a letter to Governor Doug Ducey urging him not to reopen schools until at least October.

Ducey has resisted calls for a statewide mask mandate, something President Trump continues to give mixed messages on.

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": Will you consider a national mandate that people need to wear masks?

TRUMP: No I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don't believe in that.

Everybody was saying don't wear a mask. All of sudden, everybody's got to wear a mask. And, as you know, masks cause problems, too. With that being said, I'm a believer in masks. I think masks are good.

CARROLL: Nationwide, the CDC is now forecasting the total U.S. death toll from the virus will be more than 150,000 Americans by August 8.

And in places like Louisiana, where the virus was raging in the spring, and then under control with stay-at-home orders, the virus is back and worse than before, all of this while some are still waiting seven days or longer for test results.

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We're all working to decrease the turnaround times. But let me put this into context.

One state was that five days' average. Seven states were between four and four and five days; 18 states were between two and three days. And the rest for between three and four days. That is not optimum. We want to reduce that. It will be reduced.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: So, again, Jake, the president tweeting out that picture of himself wearing a mask, something that health officials have been asking him to do now for months.

Again, the president calling it the patriotic thing to do. Finally, it seems as though the president may have come around. We will see.

Meanwhile, West Virginia, the governor there, now reporting several outbreaks linked to seven churches spread across seven counties there, Jake, another reminder that this virus continues to spread in any place if you're not careful -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Jason Carroll.

I want to bring in right now William Haseltine. He's a former professor at Harvard Medical School. And he's author of the new book, "A Family Guide to COVID."

Thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

Just minutes ago, President Trump tweeted this photo of himself, seemingly encouraging mask wearing, calling it patriotic. What did you make of it?

DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: I'm very happy to see that. It's about time that happened.

We're in a pretty desperate situation now with the virus raging across the country. More than one to two people a minute are dying today, and will be tomorrow as well.

It's welcome to see the president finally doing what health experts say. I hope he's beginning to follow and our administration will begin to follow many of the other recommendations.

[16:10:02]

We need leadership desperately.

TAPPER: We do.

HASELTINE: It's not just enough for states and local communities to do things. We need leadership.

TAPPER: Absolutely.

And I want to talk about some of the areas where leadership has been sorely lacking in a second. But I also want to talk about this encouraging news in the search for a vaccine.

How significant do you think the early results from these trials are.

HASELTINE: They're early results, but they can only be described as encouraging, that many of the vaccines that have been used -- there are about five or six now -- show immune responses. They show neutralizing responses, which is what you want. They have

varying degrees of safety, which is not good. Some of the ones aren't particularly safe. They have caused serious adverse reactions. But many of them seem to be fully tolerable.

Many of them are -- almost all of us, it seems, you're going to need more than one dose, which is not optimal when you use a virus vaccine around the world. But I would say these are encouraging results. They're early results.

And we need to wait to see whether or not they're going to prevent infection. And if they prevent infection, will they prevent disease? Or if they don't prevent infection, will they prevent disease? That is up in the air.

But this is nothing but encouraging at this point.

TAPPER: What are the next steps for the trials? How soon, theoretically, might the general public get one of these vaccines, should everything go well from here on out?

HASELTINE: I think that it won't be the general public at first. At first, it will be people like emergency health care workers, hospital workers that are exposed everyday to the virus. Then it might be people who are known to be exposed to this virus.

And only after we have much more experience with the safety profile, particularly for people who are older, who are weaker, who already have fragile immune systems, for children, it's going to take some time before general public.

I wouldn't be surprised, with the effort that is going on, if something were approved this year. Now, that something may be effective, and it may be safe. We will know something about that, but we won't be absolutely sure on either score.

So I think it's going to be some time before there is a vaccine. I think we don't have that time right now. That's even four or five, six months away. In that time, with over one person a day -- a minute dying, day in and day out, we have to do something more than that.

We have to control how we mingle. We have to wear masks. We have to distance. We have to be very disciplined about that. And we need leadership. And we need organization. It is not enough that leadership. You have to have the tools to do it too.

And we need the full force of the federal government coming in and helping those places that need help.

TAPPER: I want to play for you something that Missouri Governor Mike Parson told a radio show about children and coronavirus, something fairly shocking. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PARSON (R-MO): These kids have got to get back to school. They're at the lowest risk possible.

And if they do get COVID-19, which they will, and they will when they go to school, they're not going to the hospitals. They're not going to have to sit in doctor's offices. They're going to go home. And they're going to get over it.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: They're going to go home, and then they're going to get over it.

Now, it is true that it does seem children under the age of 9 are the ones that have the least adverse reaction. But there was so much there that was ignorant, I didn't even know how to react.

What do you make of it?

HASELTINE: Well, the first thing, when we talk about schools, we're talking about K-12.

And those people over 10 have the same kind of risk profile you or I do, or maybe you do. You're a younger man than I am. But still they have the same risk profile, and they can get sick.

Secondly, we know that, when kids do get sick, it is truly horrendous. They get the very late stage of the disease. They get heart disease, brain disease, kidney disease. It is terrible. I have a friend whose grandson went through that, barely, barely -- it is terrible and will be damaged probably for the rest of his life, even at this young age.

So, if they do get it, it's a very bad thing to get.

Not only that, but they do spread the virus. This is a cold virus in its essence, the cold virus with a very unpleasant effect, that it kills people as well. But it's fundamentally transmitted like all viruses. And everybody knows how you get a cold virus. You send your kid to school and he comes back and gives you a cold. That's how you get cold viruses.

I'm a grandfather. And when I get a cold, it's because my kid's grandson has gone to school and come back. So -- and old people get viruses from their grandchildren.

So, this is not a -- what he said, it's -- let's say it was misinformed, to be kind.

TAPPER: Yes. And he's a governor.

[16:15:00]

William Haseltine, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. As always, we always appreciate you stopping by the show.

Coming up, why more funding for the CDC testing and contact tracing is getting between President Trump and some Republican lawmakers. Then, a gunman wearing a FedEx uniform kills the son of a judge in a

bizarre and horrific shooting in New Jersey. Now, the hunt is on for the reason why.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our politics lead today, President Trump once again massively downplaying the serious threat of the coronavirus when asked on Fox about his claims earlier this year that the virus would just disappear. The president said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be right eventually.

(LAUGHTER)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": I understand.

TRUMP: I will be right eventually. You know, I said, it's going to disappear. I'll say it again, it's going to disappear.

WALLACE: But does that -- does that discredit you?

TRUMP: I'll be right. I don't think so.

WALLACE: Right.

TRUMP: I don't think so. You know why it doesn't discredit? Because I've been right probably more than anybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The president who infamously said in March that soon, we will be down to zero cases, claims that he's been right on the coronavirus more than anybody else.

[16:20:07]

He has not, of course, particularly on the subject of inadequate testing and contact tracing.

But as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, a source tells CNN that the White House is actually pushing back against Senate Republican efforts to give states and the CDC more money to expand both of those programs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: OK. Well, thank you very much.

COLLINS: President Trump sat down with the top two congressional Republicans today in hopes of getting on the same page when it comes to the next coronavirus relief bill.

STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: We're focused on starting with another trillion dollars. We think that will make a big impact. And the focus is, as I said, is really about kids and jobs and vaccines.

COLLINS: The White House infuriated Senate Republicans this weekend after moving to block billions of dollars that GOP lawmakers wanted in the bill, including $25 billion in grants to states for testing and tracing, and another $10 billion for the CDC. One GOP aide called the administration's efforts "tone deaf as hell".

But today, they're trying to put on a united front when it comes to priorities.

MNUCHIN: We're going to make sure that we don't pay people more money to stay home than go to work. We want to make sure that frivolous lawsuits don't prevent schools, universities, and businesses from re- opening.

TRUMP: It is not effective.

COLLINS: Talks with Democrats are expected to be contentious given time is running short and the two parties are nowhere near an agreement on extending enhanced unemployment benefits or providing liability protections for businesses.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Obviously, you can't pass the bill in the suspect without the Democrats.

COLLINS: After a long hiatus, Trump announced he's resuming his daily coronavirus briefings tomorrow.

TRUMP: I'll do it at 5:00 like we were doing. We had a good slot. And a lot of people were watching and that's a good thing.

And then I see the disinfectant, that knocks it out.

COLLINS: The task force briefings all but came to a halt after the president suggested in April that people could use disinfectants like bleach to treat COVID-19.

TRUMP: Deborah, have you heard of it?

COLLINS: Trump didn't say whether the health experts will join him this time.

In a confrontational interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, he criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci.

TRUMP: He's a little bit of an alarmist. That's okay.

COLLINS: Without citing evidence, the president also claimed that wearing a mask can cause problems, a statement that stands in stark contrast to what the surgeon general said today.

VICE ADMIRAL JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I'm begging you, please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say wear a face covering.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, of course, you have seen this tweet from the president by now sent out just a few moments ago, finally on July 20th, encouraging people to wear a mask. Of course that comes months after the CDC back on April 3rd initially recommend people wear a mask when they were out in public.

And so, the question is, where does this come from? Why is the president tweeting this now? Because for months, aides have been trying to get the president to wear a mask when he's public, to send that kind of message, saying that it is important to do so.

And we are told by colleague, Dana Bash and I, that this is the result of negative poll numbers that the president is looking at, many public, even some internal polls that say people do not approve of the way he's been responding to coronavirus so far. And now, that's what's getting the president to change his activity.

TAPPER: So it's all about his own political standing.

Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much.

Tune in tonight as CNN's Fareed Zakaria investigates the conspiracy theories promoted by President Trump, and why they can be dangerous. The CNN special report airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Coming up next, the current coronavirus epicenter in the United States, Miami, with numbers getting worse by the day. We're going to talk live with the city's mayor on why a new stay-at-home order has not yet been issued.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shame on you Ron DeSantis! You're lying to the public.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shame on you!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in our national lead getting heckled at a press conference this afternoon in Orlando.

Today, the state of Florida reported another 10,000 new cases, the hardest hit area Miami where you can now get fined for not wearing a mask or adhering to social distancing guidelines, although gyms and retail stores and outdoor dining remain open.

Joining us now, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Mayor Suarez, thanks so much for joining us.

Last week, you told CNN that you were meeting with community leaders to talk about the possibility of a future lockdown, stay at home orders. Where are you on a new stay-at-home order? Are you about to do it, or do you still have reservations?

MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MIAMI, FL: No, we're still -- it's something that's still on the table. We're talking about it every single day. We talked about it today in our Monday morning call with the Department of Health, with our biostatisticians, with our epidemiologists.

You know, we're obviously -- you know, it's obviously a difficult decision insofar as we have to weigh the fact that before when we -- when we issued the stay-at-home order in March, April, and I was the first city in the state of Florida to issue the stay-at-home order.

You know, we had full employment, 3 percent unemployment. We had a federal safety net of PPP and unemployment.

[16:30:00]