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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump to Visit Three Swing States in Biggest Campaign Push Since June; Biden Releases Coronavirus Ads After Calling for Mask Mandate. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:03]

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE MEMBER: Yes, we test asymptomatic, particularly when they're in outbreak areas. And yes, we need to support school reopening.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: OK. Thank you so much, Admiral and Sanjay. Unfortunately, we have to go.

But that was a very lively, robust and important discussion. Thank you so much, Admiral, for coming on. We appreciate it.

And we'll be back.

GIROIR: Appreciate it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, President Trump will be back on the campaign trail for the first time since June with visits to three swing states next week.

[16:35:04]

And if the past few hours are any indication he is coming with fuel for his base as a fellow Republican slams a racist, baseless conspiracy theory Trump floated about Kamala Harris.

And also, we're learning that the president praises a Republican newcomer who's no stranger to conspiracy theories and bigoted comments, as CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The conspiracy theorist in chief is back at it, refusing to knock down a pair of baseless conspiracy theories from the White House podium.

REPORTER: Greene has been a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, as she said something that should be -- would be worth listening to. o you agree with her on that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, she did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She was very popular. DIAMOND: Today, Trump standing by his praise of a Republican

congressional candidate who supports QAnon.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL NOMINEE: Q is a patriot. We know that for sure. But we do not know who Q is.

DIAMOND: Declining an opportunity to dismiss a conspiracy theory that is popular among some of his supporters.

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: Do you agree with her on that?

TRUMP: Go ahead, go ahead?

DIAMOND: Just yesterday, Trump gave oxygen to a baseless theory about Kamala Harris, the first black woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

TRUMP: So I just heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements, and by the way the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right.

DIAMOND: Harris was born in Oakland, California, and constitutional law experts are rejecting this theory as nonsense. But for Trump, this is old hat.

TRUMP: He may not have been born in this country. I would like to have him show his birth certificate.

DIAMOND: So far, Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, is the only Republican senator to quash doubts about his colleague's eligibility to be vice president, tweeting: Under the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, she is unequivocally an American citizen.

But Jared Kushner, the president's top adviser and campaign consigliere is taking a pass on debunking this birtherism revival.

JARED KUSHNER, TRUMP TOP ADVISER: He just said that he had no idea whether that's right or wrong. I don't see that as promoting it. But, look, at the end of the day, it's something that's out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was born in Oakland, California.

KUSHNER: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Makes her a qualified candidate.

DIAMOND: As Democrats hold their national convention next week, Trump is returning to the campaign trail with counterprogramming stops in three battleground states.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: And, Pam, President Trump just arrived at New York Presbyterian Hospital where he is visiting his brother Robert Trump who has been hospitalized. We are told he is quite ill.

The president also posted about that on Twitter. He appears to be even linking that visit to the 2020 campaign tweeting about his visit about the cover of a "New York Post" story in which the president says he believe he can win New York in the 2020 election -- Pam.

BROWN: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much for that.

And turning now to our 2020 lead, today, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris signed the papers to make their partnership official as the Democratic 2020 ticket. And their focus appears to be on coronavirus, spending $44 million on ads over this week and next, they released two ads today on the pandemic after calling for a national mask mandate.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins me now.

Thanks for joining us, Jeff.

So, recent polling is showing the vast majority of Americans actually align with Biden's call for a national mask mandate.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, that's right. You can see the numbers right there. This is a Fox News poll showing 74 percent of Americans do indeed favor a national mask mandate, only 21 percent opposing there. This is something that has changed really over the course of this summer as the pandemic has worsened. The Biden campaign, the former vice president has been saying that he would urge governors across the country to impose a three-month mask mandate.

So, this is something that is in line with the mainstream of American thought. People from both parties, Republicans, Democrats, and independents, of course, more Republicans are opposed to this but there are some indeed who support it.

So, Pamela, this is clear, the president is on the wrong side of this, which is obviously why we hear him essentially all over the board saying sometimes that he supports the use of masks, but that certainly has not been a central theme there. But this is a central core message of the Biden campaign and television as well in their public messages. And you can be sure it will be next week at their convention as well, Pamela.

BROWN: Yeah, we heard the president say today you should wear a mask if you can't socially distance. But there hasn't been consistency there. But I'm curious how Biden or Harris responded to Trump's comments.

ZELENY: No, they haven't, particularly the comments about whether Senator Harris is indeed qualified to run for president or eligible. She certainly is. The campaign has responded saying it's absurd, but Senator Harris herself said this is why she is running to defeat President Trump. This is why she's running alongside Joe Biden, but they did not take questions on that specifically today.

[16:40:01] Ironically, it's interesting if you look at the last of several Republican nominees, John McCain was born outside the U.S. and Mitt Romney's father was from Mexico. There's been very little discussion on that front, of course, but there is still discussion about Senator Harris, which simply is this ongoing plan of the president's to divide this country in this respect.

BROWN: Yeah, we should call it for what it is.

ZELENY: Yeah, that's true.

BROWN: Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.

ZELENY: Sure, Pamela.

BROWN: A quick programming note. Now CNN's special live coverage of the 2020 Democratic national convention starts Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Well, as President Trump rails against the safety of mail-in voting, his campaign is racing towards a key court deadline tonight to prove he's right. That's next.

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BROWN: Breaking news in our 2020 lead: a big warning light coming from the Postal Service.

Mail delays might mean mail-in ballots will be delivered late, so late they might not make it in time to be counted in November's election.

In a letter to governors, the agency warns it expects to see a pile-up of mail around Election Day.

And, as CNN's Jessica Schneider reports for us, that may be why Democratic leaders are now encouraging voters to mail their ballots by late October.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republicans are racing toward a Friday night deadline to turn over evidence that proves their claims of mail-in voter fraud in the Pennsylvania primaries.

It will be a pivotal point in a critical battleground state. The Trump campaign has sued to demand changes to Pennsylvania's mail-in balloting process, but now a judge is making them prove there are problems.

Democrats say Republicans should not be permitted to raise such spectacular fraud-related claims, particularly in this national climate.

President Trump has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said it will end up being fraudulent, because, if you look at what's happened over the last few weeks, just look at the few instances where this has happened. It's turned out to be fraudulent.

SCHNEIDER: But CNN's fact-check team has consistently debunked the claim.

New Jersey is just the latest state to adopt universal mail-in balloting, where ballots are automatically mailed to every registered voter. That makes nine states, plus Washington, D.C., that will now give all voters the option to vote by mail-in.

And most also have in-person voting, known as a hybrid model.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Everybody gets a ballot. So we're going to have a hybrid model in November.

SCHNEIDER: Meanwhile, some voters in Virginia, New Hampshire, and D.C. say they are increasingly confused by election information they're receiving in the mail. In D.C., there were erroneous instructions.

And in New Hampshire and Virginia, the mailers contained errors in the return address.

QUESTION: Would you be willing learn to accept the $25 billion for the Postal Service?

SCHNEIDER: This as the fight over funding at the U.S. Postal Service continues, with a new letter from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy obtained by CNN showing that the Trump appointee and longtime Republican donor acknowledges some of the recent changes have had unintended consequences, impacting the level of service.

But DeJoy says the cuts are necessary since the USPS' financial condition is dire. Staff hours have been cut, and CNN obtained documents that showed a proposed plan to remove hundreds of high- volume mail processing machines from facilities across the country just as mail-in ballots are expected to flood through the Postal Service.

The USPS has also sent letters to several states warning them their mail-in deadlines are too close to Election Day and they might not get delivered in time, since first-class mail can take up to two to five days to get to a destination.

TRUMP: People have to go to the polls and vote, like the old days.

SCHNEIDER: The president has admitted that he opposes new funding for the USPS because he does not want widespread vote-by-mail. But when asked today if he will sign a bill that includes new funding, he said:

TRUMP: That's what we want. And it's not what I want. It's what the American people want. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And we have just learned that the internal watchdog for the Postal Service is now reviewing some of these recent changes from the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, which includes the elimination of overtime, also the service slowdowns.

The inspector general for the USPS will also look into DeJoy's compliance with federal ethics rules. Now, this comes after lawmakers from both parties have called these changes in service disruptive, but Pamela, DeJoy has repeatedly denied that these changes are meant to disrupt service.

Instead, he says that they are necessary because of the financial situation the USPS has been in -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, we will keep digging on that. Thanks so much. We appreciate it, Jessica.

And joining me now, Laura Coates, a CNN senior legal analyst who specialized in voting rights enforcement at the Department of Justice, and Kim Wehle, author of the book "What You Need to Know About Voting - and Why."

Thank you, ladies, for coming on. This is such an important topic as we head toward the election.

And, Laura, the Colorado secretary of state accused President Trump of voter suppression. Is that how you see it?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, certainly, he's trying to suppress people's ability or their confidence in the voting mechanisms that have been in existence for a very long time, particularly in Colorado that's been all-mail for quite a number of years now.

And so when the president is offering up these reasons that have not been founded in any evidence to try to discourage voting, when he hasn't given an actual reason why mail-in ballots are different than absentee ballots, why he alone and other members of his Cabinet, including Pence, including Wilbur Ross, including Azar, who have actually voted by mail-in some form or fashion over the number of years, why they are in a lone position to be able to vote, and everyone else is fraudulent, when its own prior commission has not found widespread evidence of fraud.

[16:50:02]

All of this is really odd. And you add that to now a political donor who is trying to revert the post office into the Pony Express, inexplicably, a few months before we all have to rely on it, this is really what you call sort of a covert and very obvious form of trying to get people not to vote.

BROWN: Yes, it's interesting, because there have been these repeated attacks on mail-in voting, but the president and the first lady, Melania, just applied for their vote in Florida. But the president, Kim, has said that there's a difference between

Republican states and the way they run the system and Democratic states. It seems like he's trying to make some distinction there. But you wrote an entire book on the importance of voting. And we have heard the president's repeated attacks on mail-in voting, and now complaints from voters who are getting confusing instructions in the mail.

Do you worry this could be used to undermine the election results?

KIM WEHLE, FORMER ASSOCIATE INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: I'm worried about the election many, many fronts, including this one.

Look, we're in the midst of a pandemic and it's going to be difficult for people to vote in a way that's consistent with their health. We will see polling places close, long lines, et cetera.

And now the president is essentially manufacturing a crisis in the Postal Service, which is in the Constitution itself -- it's about as American is anything -- manufacturing a crisis, so putting Americans in a catch-22. Can't go to the polls because the polls are not available to you or you could get yourself sick, and the flip side is, we're going to not only criticize, unfairly, mail-in voting as fraudulent, but actually got the Postal Service, which, of course, a lot of Americans depend on for medicine, for paychecks, for basic services.

This is an absolute assault on democracy itself. It is a nod to authoritarianism. It is very, very, very troubling. And I should just say, the biggest study done on fraudulent voting from 2010 to 2014, out of one billion ballots, with a B, 31 examples of potential fraud.

And that's because fraud is pretending you're someone you're not. And it carries a five-year prison sentence in federal court. That's different from, this is just complicated and difficult. The states need money, and the president won't give them the money.

BROWN: But, Laura, what do you say to the Trump campaign that says, look, yes, it has been done in states, right, but this is on a whole 'nother scale that this country just isn't prepared for?

And also they make the argument, the campaign makes the argument that people could send in their ballots well before they have all the information that they might need about the candidates. What do you say to that?

COATES: Well, first of all, the Trump campaign and any campaign who is suggesting that people need more time to decide who they'd like to vote for is just odd, in and of itself.

We know that people are very, very entrenched and have really decided a long time ago or are looking forward for more opportunities to get information, not misinformation, of the kind that he's suggesting right now.

And also, Pam, when I was in the voting section, I mean, the idea that the states are somehow slacking on their ability to get ballots to people, there's a whole body of law called UOCAVA, where we actually send ballots to people on the front line at one point in Afghanistan.

The ballots were able to get to them and be returned in time. And you have an instance where you're saying you can't get it 10 miles away from wherever the campaign or the post office is, is actually a fallacy.

And, finally, when it comes to the idea of voting in America, remember, the GOP had previously done things to try to roll back opportunities, including early voting access, that could have been able to use and have the foresight to look at even the unforeseen pandemic.

And so when you cut off your nose to spite your face, it's the nation that actually suffers.

BROWN: All right, Laura Coates, Kim Wehle, thank you so much.

And coming up: Thanks, but no thanks.

What Russia said the U.S. just denied -- up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:57:10]

BROWN: And turning now to our world lead: Russian officials say they have offered to help us with a coronavirus vaccine. But the American government said, no thanks.

Russia claimed to have the world's first COVID vaccine earlier this week. But the country has released no testing data to back that up.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins me live from Moscow now.

So, Matthew, one American health official tells CNN -- quote -- "There is no way in hell the U.S. tries this on monkeys, let alone people." Why is there so much distress?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I know. I mean, that sounds like a definite no, doesn't it? It's not that kind of maybe.

BROWN: I would say.

CHANCE: I mean, look, what the Russians say -- that's right -- what the Russians say is that, look, they have been -- they have essentially made contact with the OWS, Operation Warp Speed, of course, the multiagency body that's been set up to accelerate access in the U.S. to a COVID vaccine.

They have also been in touch with U.S. pharmaceutical companies. But at the moment, they say there is -- the U.S. is not open, in their words, to kind of taking hold of that Russian medical technology. There's a general sense of mistrust, they say, about these medical technologies developed in Russia.

And it's because of that mistrust that the vaccine is not being adopted. Well, of course, there is good reason for that mistrust and that concern, namely, that there is no clinical data that's been made public by the Russians about the efficacy of this vaccine. They haven't completed crucial phase three human trials, which means you don't know whether it's effective or even whether it's safe.

And, as I say, as you said, that U.S. public health official sort of underlining just how deep that mistrust is, wouldn't even give it to monkeys at this stage, never mind humans, I mean, that just says a lot about the U.S. attitude towards what Russia proclaims as the world's first, the world's first coronavirus vaccine.

BROWN: And Russia, quickly, is claiming some U.S. companies are interested in learning about that vaccine. Do we know who else might be interested?

CHANCE: Yes, a couple of U.S. companies, they say, though they haven't named them.

But, I mean, look, I mean, the Russians say there's a billion doses of this vaccine that have been ordered already around the world. We know that the Philippines is very interested. In fact, the Philippine president said that he wanted to be the first in the country to try it. We know that Mexico, Vietnam, and Brazil, all these other countries.

And so I see the flip side of the United States and the European countries not being interested in this Russian vaccine is a lot more of it will be left for other countries in the world.

BROWN: All right, thank you so much, Matthew Chance in Russia for us. We appreciate it.

And be sure to tune in to CNN this Sunday for "STATE OF THE UNION."

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator Cory Booker all join Jake Tapper 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern on Sunday.

And I'm Pamela Brown, in for Jake Tapper on this Friday.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

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