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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Ohio Governor's Statewide Mask Mandate is Now in Effect; Washington Tightens Restrictions, Announces Mask Requirement Amid Spike. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired July 24, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Now, what we're asking is our counties that don't have as high, our yellow counties and orange counties, we're telling the folks there, look, if you wear a mask, you won't -- you know, this is a good way not to get to red and not to get to purple.

[16:30:02]

So, it's certainly -- I think we're moving now in the right direction.

The other thing that we're finding -- and this is maybe a little surprise -- but it's not just the bars where people are getting infected. It's not just other big groups like churches. We're certainly finding that. But the thing that really is driving a lot of this is just people getting together with friends, getting together --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Right.

DEWINE: -- in their backyard, getting together with their, you know, family members and friends.

And I think what it is is people don't -- when they're with friends or with someone they know, they think they don't need to take precautions. And our message this week has been very clear, you need to take precautions if you're in that type of situation, because you never know with this virus, who has it and who does not.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about the case -- at least one person has died in Ohio and 19 others caught the coronavirus after attending the Pickaway County Fair at the end of June in your state. The county says that food vendors set out shared condiment bottles, which allowed the virus to spread, and also that people who worked at this fair and vendors did not wear masks, did not follow mask guidelines. You're still allowing fairs to operate.

Are you worried at all that you're risking the health and safety of Ohioans by doing that, or are you taking more precautions than they show at this state fair?

DEWINE: Well, we have a lot of county fairs. We have 88 counties and we have some independent fairs. The whole idea of these fairs frankly is to let kids bring in their livestock, what we call the junior fair. And so, we provided money to these fairs to allow them to have the safety that they needed. Clearly, Pickaway County did not do what they should have done. I got

every fair manager and fair members, the boards on the phone a couple of days ago and said, look, if you can't run the fair, you're going to have to shut your fair down. You need to listen to your local health department. If the health department tells you got too many people on the grounds, you need to shut the gate down.

So we've had a conversation about that. It's clear that Pickaway County did not control people, they did not control the crowd, they did not do what they were supposed to do.

Look, we're trying to provide opportunities for kids. We can't shut the whole state down again. This is not what people want, nor is it particularly healthy. We've lost a lot because of the fact that the state, you know, was shut down. So, you can't do that forever.

But what my message is to the people of Ohio is, look, we've got good guidelines. We've got good orders. We need to follow them whether it's the county fair or in your backyard. If people are willing to do that, we're going to make a huge, huge difference in regard to this virus.

TAPPER: Yes, let's hope so. Let's hope they abide by this. Republican Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, thank you so much, and we're all wishing well --

DEWINE: Thank you.

TAPPER: -- for the people of your state.

Coming up, it's home to the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the United States. They seemed to do everything right, but why is Washington state now seeing a resurgence of the virus?

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: In our national lead, brand-new stricter rules announced in the Washington state because of a surge in coronavirus cases there. Washington state, you may recall, was the first epicenter known when it came to the U.S. outbreak. But after getting the situation relatively under control, it's seen a sharp uptick in recent weeks.

CNN's Dan Simon looks at what went wrong with Washington's re-opening strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT CORDOVA, ENTIRE FAMILY DIAGNOSED WITH COVID-19: They came and picked her up and they put here in the ambulance.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventeen-year-old Robert Cordova called 911, when his mom as coronavirus symptoms became severe. CORDOVA: We didn't know if that was the last time we were going to

see her.

SIMON: The single mother was hospitalized in Yakima, Washington, for nearly a month on a ventilator.

CORDOVA: When she was in the coma, we didn't know what to do.

SIMON: Now home, she believes she contracted COVID-19 while working at a fruit packaging plant. All three of her children and her mother were diagnosed with more mild cases. They're among the nearly 50,000 Washingtonians to get COVID-19 since the state's first outbreak in January.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The first case of deadly coronavirus has reached the U.S. It's in Washington state.

SIMON: Washington was the country's original epicenter. Governor Jay Inslee's stay-at-home order seemed to bring things under control, and like other current hot spots, it began to re-open in May.

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D), WASHINGTON: Three months to the day after we declare a state of emergency, we're successfully moving forward.

SIMON: But despite its head start, crowded working conditions, opposition to masks and general quarantine fatigue helped set the state back, with confirmed cases rising since early June.

BRANDY WILTERMUTH, NURSE PRACTITIONER, YAKIMA COUNTY: The virus is going to do what it needs to do and all it needs is a little bit of help to kind of go crazy.

SIMON: Brandy Wiltermuth is a nurse-practitioner using this make shift medical tent to serve a food distribution center in Yakima County. Agricultural workers here bike Bertha are considered essential.

CORDOVA: They're only separated with a plastic screen and masks and gloves.

SIMON: Rural Yakima County now has the second highest number of cases in Washington.

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Yet state-mandated mask wearing has been slow to catch on.

WILTERMUTH: It would be different if everybody did everything that they possibly could, but we haven't seen that.

INSLEE: Our suppression of this virus is not where it needs to be.

SIMON: Governor Inslee is now reinstating restrictions on social gatherings, hitting already struggling businesses hard.

GRANT HARRINGTON, MANAGING PARTNER, SNOHOMISH RUNNING COMPANY: You can only go through this so many times before people throw up their hands and are like, what's the use?

SIMON: Special events promoter Grant Harrington says he lost up to $400,000 in revenue this year.

HARRINGTON: There's a lack of moral. There's a lack of like motivation. And I think that we've got find ways to be proactive in safely opening businesses so we can have time to prepare, so we can do it safer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: Now, the mother you saw there in the piece, Bertha, she has some pretty simple advice for anyone willing to listen, and that is so wear a mask.

Now, Jake, as we saw, Washington is one of these states that thought it had things under control. Now health officials worry it could become the next California or Florida. That's why Governor Inslee issued the new social restrictions and why he's also updated the mask policy.

Bottom line, if you leave your home, you have to wear a mask. The question now is one of compliance -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Dan Simon, thank you so much.

Tune in this Sunday morning for CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION". We have a packed for you. My guests include Admiral Brett Giroir, who's the assistant secretary of health at HHS and the testing czar. We also have Larry Kudlow, the head of the U.S. Economic Council, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congresswoman Karen Bass will be with us, and Maryland's Republican Governor Larry Hogan, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. That's 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern on Sunday.

Coming up, any moment moving trucks will pull away from the Chinese consulate in the in Houston, Texas, after the U.S. and the Trump administration ordered it shut down.

China is now taking retaliatory action. What are they doing? That's next.

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[16:46:10]

TAPPER: The president and his administration lie to the public not infrequently. What they do, do less often is publicly admit that they lie, even.

One exception, we just learned from a court filing that the Trump administration is finally admitting that its officials made false statements when they banned New Yorkers from enrolling in federal programs, including one that allowed passengers to speed through airport security lines.

In February, as you might remember, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that their ban on New Yorkers was because New York allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses without sharing their personal data with the federal government, except the thing is, other states have similar laws, but the Trump administration only singled out New York.

With lawsuits now pending, the Department of Homeland Security is now admitting that prior statements they made were -- quote -- "inaccurate or misleading" and, effective immediately, the department is going to lift this ban.

In just a few minutes, we understand, China's U.S. consulate in Houston will officially close, after the Trump administration ordered it to do so, with officials describing this as a hotbed of spy activity.

We have seen moving trucks parked outside. Now, in retaliation, China today announced that the U.S. must close its consulate in Chengdu, after a week of escalating tensions.

CNN's Kylie Atwood joins me now to discuss this.

And, Kylie, clearly, things are getting even tenser between the U.S. and China. What sparked this move?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, let's just flick through what has happened just this week, Jake.

So, on Tuesday, DOJ prosecutors charged alleged Chinese hackers who they said were backed by the Chinese government of trying to steal vaccine research here in the United States.

On that same day, the State Department told China that it had to vacate its consulate in Houston, essentially kicking it out, for what it said was alleged involvement in Chinese efforts here to steal trade secrets and the like.

And then fast-forward to Thursday. We had Secretary Pompeo sort of describing why they had done that, why had they had kicked the Chinese out of the Houston consulate, saying that it was a hub for spying and intellectual property theft.

And then, just this morning, we are learning that a Chinese scientist who prosecutors alleged had committed visa fraud and had also lied to the FBI about her relations, connections to factions of the Chinese military, she is now in U.S. custody.

So there's a lot that has happened to this week. It's important to note, however, that this is part of the Trump administration's strategy, its stated policy towards China, being really tough on China everywhere it seeds it needs to.

TAPPER: And, Kylie, what's been the reaction at the State Department in the Trump administration to China closing the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu?

ATWOOD: Well, the reaction to closing the consulate hasn't been extensive right now. They knew that the Chinese were going to do something.

Obviously, when they forced them to close their consulate here, the Chinese weren't going to stand back and do nothing. We have seen this happen between the U.S. and China time and time again.

But the U.S. officials are doubling down on the need to have done this. They are saying that they really had to go after China for having its diplomats involved in espionage efforts here in the United States -- Jake.

TAPPER: Hmm.

All right, Kylie Atwood at the State Department, thank you so much.

Debates over masks, seeing family, sending kids back to school, a look at how to negotiate just some of the emotionally charged conversations that might be happening in your household and in households across America.

That's next.

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[16:54:29]

TAPPER: In our health lead today: mask or no mask, open or virtual.

All the divisiveness and politics related to the pandemic has left many Americans confused and stressed about what to do for our emotions, our emotional well-being.

Let's bring in THE LEAD's favorite clinical psychologist, Dr. Andrea Bonior. She's a professor of psychology at Georgetown, author of the book of "Detox Your Thoughts."

Dr. Bonior, always great to have you.

You say you have noticed the stress related to the pandemic is actually getting even worse compared to when it started, when people were pretty -- freaking out, pretty much.

[16:55:03]

What have you noticed? And why do you think it is?

ANDREA BONIOR, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Yes, I do see that, yes.

I think, right now, people are feeling lost, like maybe they already sacrificed so much, and the idea that it might have been for nothing. And people are feeling confused because there's so much divisiveness. We have lost a little bit of a sense that we're all in this together, trying for a common purpose that we know will work.

And so I think that hopelessness is what I'm seeing more of. And, quite frankly, I'm seeing a lot more rage, too, especially among parents, who say, we did our part, and now things aren't happening the way that we had hoped. Our kids are still in jeopardy. What happened?

TAPPER: Yes, that's a lot -- it's understandable rage, frankly.

There's this big debate, as you know, about reopening schools. And that is super stressful. The -- I mean, remote learning sucks. It's awful. It's especially bad for younger kids.

What do you tell parents when they say, I don't know what to tell my kids, they hated remote learning so much, and we might have to do it again?

BONIOR: Yes. Yes. It's really frustrating. And so empathizing with the kids is the first step, but then really making a plan, looking critically at what worked and what didn't, learning from what went on in the spring, and trying to make things better.

Having some specific strategy this time, because we know this is coming and we know we might be in this for the long haul, is so important, because it gives kids a sense of controllability and predictability.

Instead of, uh-oh, next Monday, you're going to be home, now we can say, here's how we're going to ease into it. Here's how we're going to arrange a part of our home to make it a little bit easier for you to focus. Here's how -- here's what equipment we're going to get from the school and how we're going to set it up. Here's how you're going to have some specialized time maybe with some friends that we plan every week to check in about homework and to just talk to each other.

So it's about having a plan and trying to look at what made it miserable in the spring and how we can overcome that in the fall and try to tweak it just in little ways.

TAPPER: I totally hear the arguments of people who say that it's important to open schools. I mean, I get the arguments on the other side, too, that it depends on the situation the ground when it comes to the pandemic.

But talk, if you would, a little bit about what the emotional effects of homeschooling is, because I don't make light of it at all. I mean, people say that suicidal ideation increases. People say that drug abuse and substance abuse increases for kids and for adults.

BONIOR: Yes.

And what you're speaking to, Jake, I think, is so important. And that's the social isolation piece. School is not just a place to learn academics. School is a place where we have peer groups where children are able to kind of find people who respect them and value them and who make them laugh and who they feel part of a community.

That said, there's a big difference between distance learning vs. distance learning in a crisis that's kind of slapped together. So, in my mind, a lot of the deficits of what we're seeing can be overcome if school systems really have a plan, if they spend their energy saying, here's how we're going to do it better than what happened in the spring, and here's how we're going to overcome some of the crisis- level panic that really was off-putting in the spring.

But I think what we really need to think about is, that distance learning can work. We have just got to have a better plan. There needs to be one-on-one check-ins more. There needs to be some breaks from screens. There needs to be creative ways of having kids do assignments that involve their surroundings at home that aren't just staring at the screen all day.

And when we can plan for that, we are going to see better outcomes.

TAPPER: The CDC estimates that coronavirus is going to be a top 10 leading cause of death in the United States this year. Suicide also made the list from data last available in 2018.

And you have said that more attention is needed on preventing suicide, especially as this pandemic continues. Explain. Explain how.

BONIOR: Yes, I'm really concerned, because we saw a rise in suicide rates before this pandemic started.

We also know that having a firearm in the home is a risk factor statistically for suicides. So, an additional concern is that there's been an increase in purchases of firearms in the beginning of the pandemic. And we combine that with economic troubles and the social isolation, and perhaps people being in abusive environments at home that they can't escape, it's very concerning.

We don't have long-term numbers yet to think about how exactly this pandemic has affected suicide rates, but it is something. We see psychiatric care being slashed. We see community mental health programs, the funding disappearing, which is an additional concern.

I think we all need to be talking about the mental health...

TAPPER: Yes.

BONIOR: ... piece of this more, because suicide kills.

TAPPER: Absolutely.

Dr. Andrea Bonior, thank you so much. We will have you on again soon.

BONIOR: Thank you.

TAPPER: Finally, we want to take the time to honor one of the more than 144,000 American lives lost to coronavirus.

Sixty-nine years old, Hortencia Laurens lived in South Florida. That's her on the left at her grandson's wedding in Fort Lauderdale. He told us his grandmother was a hard worker. She was very strong and independent.

She worked as a caregiver. She immigrated to the U.S. from Venezuela in the early 2000s. She got to visit her family back in Venezuela a few months ago. She was diagnosed with coronavirus July 2nd. She dies -- died four days later. To the Laurens family, our condolences. May her memory be a blessing.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now. See you Sunday morning.

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