Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

School Reopening Mess?; Biden/Harris Call For Nationwide Mask Mandate; Trump Says He's Against Funding Post Office Because Money Will Be Used for Mail-In Voting; Israel UAE Agree to Establish Formal Diplomatic Ties. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired August 13, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:18]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

And we begin with breaking news.

Moments ago, former Vice President Joe Biden called for every governor to mandate masks, saying that every American should wear a face covering for the next three months in order to save tens of thousands of lives.

Biden's comments come after he and running mate Kamala Harris received a briefing from a panel of public health experts, and as the CDC director is warning these upcoming months could be the worst fall the nation has ever seen.

Globally, more than 750,000 people have died. And yesterday alone, almost 1,500 people in the United States died from coronavirus. To put that in perspective, that's the highest number of deaths in one day since May.

CNN's Jessica Dean is in Wilmington, Delaware, with the new campaign.

And, Jessica, Biden and Harris called for this nationwide ban date. But this time they put the onus on the governors to do so.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Pam.

You know, in the past, back in June, Joe Biden expressed that he would be willing to use federal power to put a mask mandate in place. But, remember, right now, Joe Biden does not have any federal power. So he's using essentially the bully pulpit of being the Democratic nominee to really turn up the heat and put the pressure on the Trump administration and governors in states where a mask mandate is currently not in place. Listen to him and Kamala Harris today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months, at a minimum.

Every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): So, what real leadership looks like is Joe Biden, to speak up, sometimes telling us the stuff that we don't necessarily want to hear, but we need to know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And Biden really framed this as a nonpartisan issue. He said a couple of times this wasn't about being a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, but this was more of a patriotic choice to protect fellow Americans and yourself by wearing a mask, again, calling for that mask mandate for three months.

He says that could save some 40,000 lives if a mask mandate was put in place across the country.

Kamala Harris adding there after her remarks as well that -- the other things that the Biden/Harris administration would do regarding the COVID pandemic, if they were in power. That included getting testing kits. They have an extensive plan for how to get testing kits across the country to millions of Americans and then also contact tracing.

They want to hire 100,000 Americans to take part in contact tracing.

But, Pam, the key question here is too, will governors do this? How would this work? Biden and Harris did not take questions at the end of their remarks today. So we really don't have details on that, again, just calling for a national mandate to be put in place and calling on governors to make it so.

BROWN: Yes, it's interesting, the change. He in the past to said there should be a federal mandate. And now he is saying, yes, there should be a nationwide mandate, but that should be what the governors implement.

Jessica Dean, thank you so much for breaking it down for us. We appreciate it.

And for many U.S. schools welcoming students back to the building, classes were abruptly halted after new coronavirus cases were reported. By CNN's count, more than 2,000 students, teachers and staff have had to quarantine so far.

And now, as CNN's Athena Jones reports, the dilemma has forced districts to navigate what to do if in-person learning proves dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: This is the greatest public health crisis in this nation in a century.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A blunt admission from CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield.

REDFIELD: We were underprepared. And we need to owe it to our children and grandchildren that this nation has never underprepared again for a public health crisis.

JONES: The rare candid remarks coming as the U.S. confronts the deadliest day of the summer, 1,499 people lost to COVID-19 Wednesday.

Redfield warning that, if at least 95 percent of Americans don't follow basic public health guidelines, like mask wearing, handwashing and social distancing:

REDFIELD: This could be the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we have ever had. I'm not asking some of America to do it. We have all got to do it.

JONES: While new cases are steady or falling in 43 states, deaths have averaged more than 1,000 a day for 17 days now. COVID test positivity rates are on the rise in 35 states, with Texas leading the nation at nearly 24 percent, even as the number of tests being conducted nationwide continues to decline.

[16:05:05]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going. This is the thing that's disturbing to me, is that we're starting to see the inkling of the upticks in the percent of the tests that are positive.

JONES: Meanwhile, in Martin County, Florida, north of Palm Beach, an entire elementary school classroom and one bus route were placed under quarantine one day after the district reopened for in-person instruction, and a student began exhibiting symptoms.

Nationally, more than 2,000 students, teachers and staff across five states are under quarantine due to COVID concerns.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: There's just no way right now, where this epidemic is raging across the South, in Florida and Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi, Louisiana, and much of Texas, that you could open up schools safely.

JONES: Still, it's game on in Utah tonight, a state with a positivity rate of almost 9 percent, two high schools facing off in the first football match of the season.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I feel like the Titanic. We have hit the iceberg, and we're trying to make decisions of what time should we have the band play? Not having fall sports this year and controlling this virus, to me, would be the number one priority.

JONES: At the college level, more caution, with the Big East now joining the Big Ten, Pac-12, Mountain West and the Mid-American Conference is in postponing the fall sports season.

DR. BRIAN HAINLINE, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NCAA: We started talking about return to sport in April. We were envisioning that there would be a continued downward trajectory of COVID-19 new infections and deaths. And that hasn't happened. We're moving into very troubled waters right now. It's a very narrow path to get fall sports right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: And we're getting more insight into the pandemic's impact on Americans.

A new CDC survey finding 41 percent of respondents are struggling with anxiety, depression, increased substance use or suicidal thoughts. People ages 18 to 24 and those preexisting mental health conditions were most likely to report adverse symptoms, while self-reported unpaid caregivers for adults were most likely to say they considered suicide in the past 30 days -- Pamela.

BROWN: That is extremely troubling. And then to think that what Dr. Redfield said, Athena, that we could see the worst fall this nation has ever seen, very troubling.

Thank you so much for bringing us that.

And now I want to analyze a little bit, look a little bit deeper at all of this with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CNN medical analyst and chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Thanks for coming on, Dr. Walensky.

I first want to start with this news coming out today. Your reaction to presidential candidate Joe Biden saying every governor across the country should mandate mask wearing for every American.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good afternoon, Pamela. Thanks for having me.

I don't particularly care where the mandate comes from, when it comes for the federal government, the governors or a personal mandate. I actually think it should come from a personal mandate.

The answer is, we need masks, because we know what we need to do over the next -- we could do this in the next eight weeks. We as a country could do this in the next eight weeks. We are now in this fuzzy zone where we count thousands of deaths per day. We will have another 20,000 deaths before Labor Day. And we're not actually doing something about it.

We're throwing stimulus packages at it. But we're not actually fixing the root of the problem. And we know how to fix the root of the problem. People need to stay home, they need to distance, they need to wear masks.

And if it takes the Democratic presidential candidate to say it, great. I just think somebody needs to take these -- everyone needs to take personal responsibility to make it happen.

BROWN: And we have this small window of time, right, right now, where we could really take these concrete steps, these mitigation efforts you just laid out, so that there won't be as many lives lost, and it won't be as bad in the fall and the winter as Dr. Redfield is sort of warning, this ominous warning from him, saying, look, the fall could be the worst this nation has ever seen.

Why is that? And what do we need to do, what does this country need to do to prevent that?

WALENSKY: Well, I would venture to say that this is one of the worst summers that we have ever had.

And I would say we are in many places about four weeks and counting until the beginning of full-fledged school season. We have fall with respiratory viruses coming, and then we have influenza coming. And all of that is going to cloud this picture and make it more and more difficult, that with winter coming, cooler weathers, people needing to be outside, people no longer having the option to be inside.

And I think we have a very tough time ahead, unless we can acutely, rapidly take this problem seriously.

BROWN: And you mentioned schools. We're not even in the full-fledged school season, as you pointed out. Yet we're already seeing a number of positive COVID cases in various schools across the country.

And the responses have been varied, if you look at them. There was one place in Florida, Florida's Marin County, that quarantined an entire elementary class after a positive test, and one bus route after a student showed coronavirus symptoms, but it didn't shut down the entire school.

[16:10:06]

From a medical perspective, what is the proper protocol about that, since the White House hasn't really released any guidelines on what to do for that scenario?

WALENSKY: Yes, it's a really challenging problem right now, because the places that have opened schools have so much community spread that you could have anticipated they'd never get the students in the door before this happened.

And, in fact, what I think is really a problem is that there are places that can responsibly open schools, that should responsibly open schools, if not fully in-person, at least in a hybrid model.

And what they're seeing -- and because -- they can do so because there is limited community spread in their regions, Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Connecticut. That's very possible. But what they're seeing is what's happening in Georgia and Florida, and they're saying it's no way safe to happen.

And, in fact, that's not the message that should be sent. The messages is, it's responsible in some places where there is limited community spread. It is very possible. And it is completely irresponsible in some of the places that have opened already.

BROWN: And the president, President Trump, has said the federal government will provide up to 125 million masks to school districts nationwide. Is that going to be enough, do you think?

WALENSKY: Wow, there are four million teachers and lots of students, I think it's enough when every kid is masked.

And I don't think it's nearly enough if there's rapid community spread ongoing. Masks alone won't fix this when there's so much community spread in schools. People are going to be near each other. Not every child is going to be able to wear a mask.

So, first, you need to look to your hospitals, make sure that they're not overwhelmed, your ICUs aren't overwhelmed. Then you need to look and see how much community spread you have ongoing. If it's limited, then you can bring your kids safely back, and then you need to mask them in the schools.

BROWN: All right, so help us understand these numbers, because cases of the coronavirus appear to be going down or staying steady in most of the country, if you look at most of the states.

But then look at the numbers for percent positive. It is 33 states right now at last check before the show that have a positivity rate over 5 percent. In fact, Texas is up to nearly 24 percent; 34 states have an increasing positivity rate.

So what does this mean? It's sort of like we have a mixed picture here.

WALENSKY: Right.

So we know that if your positivity rate is less than -- is greater than 5 percent, two things are true. One, you have too much disease in your community. And, two, you're not testing enough. Both of those are simultaneously true.

When you look at a place like Texas, a 25 percent positivity rate, it's a shame that -- I mean, that's where we were in Boston in March, when we didn't know what this disease was, we didn't have tests, we didn't know what we were operating with.

To have this be the case six months later in Texas is just shameful, in my mind. So, we recognize, in Texas, they should be doing about fivefold more testing than they are doing. They both have an extraordinary number of cases and they are not testing enough.

BROWN: Yes, you make a really important point.

And you look at other countries and, in Europe, we're seeing spikes in several different places. But what makes it unique here in the United States is that it's really been sustained, really since the beginning of this pandemic. All right, thank you so much, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Appreciate it.

WALENSKY: Thanks so much, Pamela.

BROWN: Well, President Trump not even trying to be discreet about it, admitting on live TV why he really wants to block funding for the post office. And it is raising major red flags.

Plus, the national security adviser suggests Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the deal he just announced.

We will explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:00]

BROWN: Well, with 82 days until Election Day, President Trump is on the attack, appearing to go after anyone and anything in his way of a re-election win.

For starters, today, he admitted why he's against more funding for the postal service.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting. They just can't have it.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BROWN: So, there, you heard it for yourself, Trump linking postal funding to mail-in voting, is yet another sign that he may be trying to suppress votes in November. And the president today also went after the FBI director and the attorney general, two men who Trump put in place himself, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Donald Trump blatantly admitting today that he's opposing funding for the postal service in order to block expanded voting by mail.

TRUMP: If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting.

COLLINS: Out loud and on national television, the president told Fox Business that one reason talks with Democrats on new coronavirus funding have collapsed is because Democrats want more money for the Post Office which he thinks will lead to more mail-in ballots.

TRUMP: They want $25 billion -- billion -- for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. But if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.

COLLINS: Even for a president who has railed against mail-in voting for months, it was a stunning admission.

The Biden campaign responded by calling Trump's comments, quote, an assault on democracy.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Pure Trump. He didn't want an election.

COLLINS: The move puts President Trump in direct conflict with Democrats who say they will not accept a bill without postal service funding.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The president is afraid of the American people. He's been afraid for a while. He knows that on the legit, it would be hard for him to win.

[16:20:03]

So he wants to put obstacles of participation.

COLLINS: The president's attack today didn't stop with the post office. He also took aim at the man he put in charge of the FBI when he was asked if Chris Wray would step down.

TRUMP: I wish he was more forthcoming. He certainly hasn't been. He was chosen by a certain person and I said, go ahead, put whoever you want.

COLLINS: Trump also issued a thinly veiled warning to his attorney general over the Justice Department's investigation of the Russia probe which some of the president's allies are hoping could deliver a last-minute boost before the election.

TRUMP: Bill Barr has a chance to be the greatest of all time, but if he wants to be politically correct, he'll be just another guy.

COLLINS: The president continued to go after Joe Biden and his new running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, though he struggled to land a line of attack on Harris beyond calling her, quote, "nasty" and "disrespectful".

TRUMP: Now you have sort of a mad woman, I call her, because she was so angry and such hatred with Justice Kavanaugh. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. She was the angriest of the group and they were all angry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Now, Pam, Jared Kushner did brief reporters today and he was asked about recent reports he's had discussions with Kanye West. He confirmed they did have a sit-down when they were both recently in Colorado. Of course, West has recently announced a presidential campaign that some Republicans are hoping will take away votes from Joe Biden, though it's not clear it will. And when Jared Kushner was asked if the two of them discussed Kanye

West's presidential campaign, he said they had more of a policy discussion and didn't comment any further.

BROWN: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much for that.

And turning to our world lead now, Israel has agreed to temporarily pause its annexation plans in the West Bank and establish bilateral relationship with United Arab Emirates. All this announced earlier today by President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: After 49 years, Israel and United Arab Emirates will fully normalize their diplomatic relations. Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates lead, and we're already discussing this with other nations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Elliott Gotkine joins us live from Tel Aviv.

And, Elliot, the Trump administration is calling this a significant step toward peace in the Middle East. Put this in context for us. Just how significant is it?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, it's hugely significant. For President Donald Trump, of course, gives him a real foreign policy achievement in which to go into November's elections. For Israeli, this the third country, third Middle Eastern Arab country that Israel is due to normalize relations with after Egypt and Jordan. I think also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not only does it take some of the pressure off he's been facing of late regarding corruption trial and his government's handling of coronavirus pandemic, it also vindicates him in a way.

In his words, he's achieving peace for peace with the United Arab Emirates. In other words, no real concessions. You talked about the suspension of his plans to annex parts of the West Bank, but Netanyahu himself says that it's still on the table. So, Israel in the context of that hasn't given anything away.

BROWN: Yeah, it's temporary.

All right. Palestinian leaders have already rejected this agreement. How are other Arab nations responding? Are they going to follow suit as President Trump suggests?

GOTKINE: The other Arab leader we've heard from so far in terms of other countries, we've heard from the President al-Sisi in Egypt saying he welcomes this agreement. As he said, the Palestinians condemning this agreement and calling for a meeting of the Arab league. In terms of other countries that could follow suit, you often see members of the Gulf Corporation Council, the GCC following -- kind of being on the same page when it comes to diplomatic relations. I think it's unlikely we'll see one of the big ones like Saudi Arabia

but perhaps one of the smaller countries like Bahrain or maybe even Oman, a country that Prime Minister Netanyahu actually visited a couple of years ago to meet with the late leader, Sultan Qaboos -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right. We'll have to see. Elliot Gotkine, thank you so much.

And up next, an exclusive TV interview with top Facebook official joining me with new details about how Facebook is trying to prevent disinformation ahead of the upcoming election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In our 2020 lead, Facebook today is unveiling its new election center designed to flag misleading posts, help register voters and give mail-in voting information. Now, the rollout comes just days after top intelligence officials warned at least three countries, Russia, China, and Iran are already trying to interfere in the 2020 election by spreading disinformation. Facebook has admitted 100 million were faced with posts during the 2016 election.

And joining me now for a TV exclusive interview is Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook.

Thank you so much for coming on, Nathaniel.

NATHANIEL GLEICHER, HEAD OF CYBERSECURITY POLICY, FACEBOOK: Thanks for having me.

BROWN: So, first off. So, there's going to be this new election center Facebook has unveiled. Why should people trust Facebook to provide voting information? What makes it credible?

GLEICHER: Well, the voting information centers are going to be one- stop shops for information on how to vote, how to register, how to make sure you're registered, how to get mail-in ballots. All the information in it is going to come from state election officials and nonpartisan election experts.

[16:30:00]