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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Interview With Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates; Joe Biden Set to Deliver Address at Democratic National Convention; Steve Bannon Arrested on Fraud Charges; At Least 17 States Report COVID Cases At Colleges. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired August 20, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:18]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome, everyone, to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Just moments ago, in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, President Trump slammed Joe Biden ahead of Biden's big speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention, charging that Biden has abandoned his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and after spending so much time in Washington, Biden will not fix anything, the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He spent the last half- century in Washington selling out our country and ripping off our jobs and letting other countries steal our jobs, Mexico, China, all of them.

Stealing our jobs. He's been there for 47 years. And now he's going to come in and make a change. I don't think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The president's attacks on his 2020 opponent for ripping off the American people come as a top Trump adviser who was key to President Trump's 2016 election is expected to appear virtually in court any moment for ripping off the American people.

Former Trump campaign CEO and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon accused of defrauding the president's own supporters, arrested today on a yacht off the coast of Connecticut. Bannon was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, prosecutors saying that Bannon took hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own personal gain, under the guise of raising money for We Build the Wall, a group trying to fulfill President Trump's signature campaign promise to build a border wall.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf visited the site where this group was building some sort of wall device. And the president's son Donald Trump Jr. gave a speech at one of the group's events, calling what they were doing what capitalism is all about, interestingly enough. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization telling "The New York Times" that Trump Jr. was also deceived by the group and had no involvement beyond that speech.

Bannon joining a long line of Trump associates and former associates who have been charged with or convicted of various felonies. The president today distanced himself from Bannon, or attempted to do so, calling the arrest of his former top adviser sad.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, where President Trump is speaking

Kaitlan, President Trump railing against Biden's record, trying to tie him to the ultra left wing of the Democratic Party?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's been using these almost apocalyptic-style terms since he came out here and started speaking behind me, Jake, going off against Joe Biden, saying that he is going to be this tool of the radical left.

And just listen to what he said, what he envisions a Joe Biden presidency would look like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you want a vision of your life under Biden presidency, think of the smoldering ruins in Minneapolis, the violent anarchy of Portland, the bloodstained sidewalks of Chicago, and imagine the mayhem coming to your town, and every single town in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, of course, all of those things have happened while Donald Trump is in office. So it's not clear how he thinks that's going to be a successful line of attack against Joe Biden.

But regarding those attacks that you were talking about, where the president was telling the crowd, of course, we are in the backyard of Joe Biden's hometown.

He said that he thought Joe Biden had abandoned Scranton. Of course, he left when he was just 10 years old because his dad could not find work in Scranton. So, of course, he's 10 at the time when that happened.

So that's been a line of attack the president has tried to use on Joe Biden before. It's not clear at all that it's a successful line of attack for the president.

TAPPER: And, Kaitlan, President Obama made the case last night during the convention that Trump, in his view, is not a serious enough person to be president.

Trump responded by basically proving the point, all -- these all-caps tweets containing lies and conspiracy theories, completely undisciplined. Is his team expecting that Trump is going to live-tweet Biden's speech again tonight?

COLLINS: It could very well happen.

I mean, he has been watching the Democratic Convention so closely, mainly not only because he wants to see what they're saying and what they're saying about him, since he's been an incredibly significant topic there, but also because he wants to watch and learn for what to do for the Republican Convention.

We have been told by sources that, this week, the president's been calling his own staff while watching what's going on at the Democratic Convention, saying, I do want something like this, I don't want it to look like that, kind of like watching and learning from how they're doing things.

But as far as the criticism of President Obama's speech last night, we should note that, within about two minutes of the president getting on stage here in Pennsylvania, he brought that speech up, was criticizing Obama, and then, of course, is criticizing mail-in voting again.

And I want to read this quote from the president where he said: "The only way they are going to win is by a rigged election. I really believe that."

That's what the president just told the crowd here, this crowd of -- the president trying to woo these suburban voters. And it comes as his own aides have still refused to say whether or not the president is going to accept the results of the November election, regardless of the outcome.

[16:05:11]

TAPPER: Mail-in voting prevalent throughout the country, including in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where you are, Kaitlan Collins.

Thank you so much for that report.

Joe Biden expected to level significant criticism right back at President Trump this evening, when he formally accepts the Democratic nomination for president.

But, as CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports for us now, Biden does not want Trump to be the central focus of his speech, we're told. Instead, he hopes to project an optimistic view of the future.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's Joe Biden's night, as he formally accepts the Democratic presidential nomination.

At the apex of a half-century in politics, he becomes the party's standard-bearer for the first time and now owns the burden of trying to defeat a sitting president.

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running to offer our country, Democrats, Republicans and independents, a different path.

ZELENY: For the last year, a promise to restore the soul of the nation has been the anthem of his candidacy.

BIDEN: We choose hope over fear, truth over lies, and, yes, unity over division!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

ZELENY: And it will be a theme of his address tonight, aides tells CNN, but with a message focused on the future, with a spirit of resilience to lift up a country in crisis.

Tonight, former rivals Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang and Michael Bloomberg all stepping up to help Biden prosecute his case against President Trump.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know a predator when I see one.

ZELENY: On Wednesday night, California Senator Kamala Harris accepted the party's vice presidential nomination, presenting herself to the country as a history-making agent of change.

HARRIS: Donald Trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. And let's be clear, there is no vaccine for racism.

We have got to do the work.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our democracy.

ZELENY: Yet the words of former President Barack Obama perhaps carrying the most weight, delivering a remarkable rebuke of his successor.

OBAMA: Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job, because he can't.

ZELENY: And a call to action that the nation's democracy is on the line.

OBAMA: This president and those in power, those who benefit from keeping things the way they are, they are counting on your cynicism. That is how they win.

ZELENY: Tonight, Biden effectively becomes the leader of the Democratic Party. It's a role that even he says is temporary.

BIDEN: I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.

ZELENY: His place in American history is still unfolding. But he is that bridge, from the Obama/Biden coalition to the Biden/Harris coalition, which he hopes will lead him to the Oval Office to become the 46th president of the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, Joe Biden has delivered many speeches in his long political career, many key ones right here in his hometown of Wilmington.

It was 48 years ago this summer that he was running for Senate for the first time. And, of course, he announced at least one of his presidential campaigns here as well. But, Jake, there is no question tonight's speech in the Chase Center right behind me here is the most important, impactful speech he will give.

Of course, it will set the tone for the rest of this campaign.

Now, it's going to be different than any convention speech we have seen before. There will not be applause on the inside. He's in there essentially all alone, so certainly different than a big speech he has given.

But I am told by his advisers he's not going to let the president, President Trump's words, hijack his speech. He's going to give an optimistic, forward-looking address. But, of course, he's going to make the argument for why change, he believes, is needed -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny in Wilmington, Delaware, thanks so much.

Let's bring in former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who served under both Presidents Obama and briefly Trump. She was fired by President Trump for refusing to defend his travel ban on majority- Muslim countries.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We have heard the criticism of President Trump for three days now. How important do you think it is that Joe Biden comes out tonight and gives people an affirmative reason to vote for him, with information as to how he will improve their lives, instead of just not being Donald Trump?

SALLY YATES, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Right.

Well, first, thanks for having me here today.

I think that the American people will have a chance to see Joe Biden up close tonight. And when I think about this election, and the kind of questions that need to be answered, I think first about, will this president, will whoever is elected be making decisions that are in the best interests of the country, rather than himself?

Will he tell us the truth? And will he live up to the values of our country, or at least the values to which we have always aspired? And I think that's Joe Biden to his core.

[16:10:02] I think you answer yes to all three of those. And I would expect that the folks listening to that speech would be able to say yes as well.

TAPPER: Let me ask you.

President Trump has long argued that the law enforcement -- quote, unquote -- "deep state" had it in for him, that you were part of that.

Did you have any moment of pause about endorsing Joe Biden just because of any concerns it might feed into his narrative?

YATES: No.

Look, the work that we did with respect to the Russia investigation was in connection with the Russians, a foreign adversary's interference in our election.

I mean, I would hope that we would all agree that we shouldn't allow Vladimir Putin to try to pick our president. So, I think that's something, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, that you should be in favor of.

And, look, I have never spoken at a convention before. I have never been involved in anything political before, but, Jake, I don't think this is the ordinary election. This isn't just about who's going to be president for the next four years.

In my view, it's about the trajectory of our country and what path are we going to take? And I think it's way too important a decision for any of us to sit on the sidelines.

TAPPER: The Senate Intelligence Committee put out its fifth and final report this week.

They outlined a basic -- a lot of ways in which there were dealings between people on the Trump campaign and Russians. But they also did not find any evidence of -- quote, unquote -- "collusion" or conspiracy, according to the bipartisan report. What did you make of that?

YATES: Yes, I think it's along the lines, although there was more information in this -- and I will confess, I haven't made it through all thousand pages yet -- but there was more information in the Senate report than in the Mueller report.

And I don't think that either of them said there was no evidence of conspiracy or collusion. In fact, the Mueller report specifically said that what they found was is, there was not sufficient evidence to establish.

And I think that's what you see. There was a whole lot of contact with the Russians, a campaign almost brimming with Russians.

TAPPER: Yes, no prosecutable evidence, I should have said.

Another member of the Trump campaign orbit was arrested and charged today, former campaign CEO Steve Bannon. He also served as a White House strategist.

You were part of the team who warned the Trump administration about incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. What's your reaction to the news of Steve Bannon 's arrest?

YATES: Well, I don't know a lot about the facts of that case, just what I have read some in the media today.

But for a president who said that he was going to surround himself with only the best people, a whole lot of them are sure ending up charged and convicted felons.

TAPPER: And, lastly, what do you make of President Trump giving an encouraging word to members of the QAnon group that believes this bizarre conspiracy theory of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles running the government?

The FBI has suggested that the group is a potential domestic terrorist threat. Obviously, people who believe this crazy conspiracy theory have committed kidnappings, murders, other acts of violence, and yet President Trump seemed to give them a thumbs-up.

YATES: Yes, which is just a frightening and incredibly irresponsible thing to do.

The FBI has made clear that QAnon is a dangerous group. And the idea that the president of the United States, because they have said nice things about them -- about him, would embrace them is, to me, just another example of his putting his own interests ahead of what's best for the country.

TAPPER: Sally Yates, thanks so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.

And you can watch the final night of the Democratic National Convention and watch Joe Biden accept the nomination for president of the United States this evening on CNN.

Our special coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

You heard from Sally Yates.

Coming up, I'm going to talk to one of the president's fiercest allies and what he makes of Steve Bannon's arrest and the president's embrace of the conspiracy group QAnon.

But, first, crackdowns in California, power cut at a packed house party hosted by a social media star.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:35]

TAPPER: Turning to our health lead now, at least 17 states are now reporting COVID cases on college campuses just weeks into the new school year. And now, the White House coronavirus response coordinator is calling for a surge in testing on campuses across the country.

As CNN's Nick Watt reports, while some states are seeing a downward trend in cases, the death toll is still climbing, continuing a grim and horrific streak of more than 1,000 deaths a day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifteen student athletes now COVID positive at Ole Miss, two new clusters identified at North Carolina State sorority houses, five new collegiate outbreaks in Kansas -- Greek life in the spotlight.

DR. LEE NORMAN, SECRETARY, KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT: There needs to be a significant curtailment of their social activities because they're not just getting it, quite honestly.

WATT: COVID-19 cases now reported at colleges and universities in at least 17 states.

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Each university not only have to do entrance testing but we talked to every university about is being able to do surge testing.

WATT: Massachusetts now mandating flu vaccines for most students, from kindergarten through college.

DR. EDITH BRACHO-SANCHEZ, ASST. PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: We really can't afford to have both illnesses circulating at a significant level.

WATT: COVID-19 vaccine news: the warp speed chief estimates one will be widely available spring or early summer. He told "Business Insider": We might be back to normal end of 2021.

[16:20:02]

After claiming first viable vaccine in the world, Russia is just now planning phase three clinical trials but details of their vaccine still a mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't hold themselves to any sort of standard. I do worry deeply about that.

WATT: Nationwide, the rate of new cases is falling for now. But there are spikes in Maine and Wyoming. And in these 18 states, the average death toll is still climbing.

Nationally --

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Deaths are the lagging indicator, and deaths are now flat. They are not yet decreasing.

WATT: We're told they will but only if we're smart. And --

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: The population seems to have divided itself into two groups. There's the safe group and the other group that are more carefree rather than careful.

WATT: Allegedly in that latter category, a TikTok star who reportedly owns this Hollywood Hills party pad. The city of Los Angeles just cut the utilities after complaints of crowds from neighbors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dozens of kids without masks piled against my door. I can't get in or out. So, I'm a rat. What can I say?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: And Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana has tested positive. He realized he had been in contact with somebody who has the virus. He got a test. It came back positive. That is the responsible thing to do.

Cassidy says he's now in 14 days quarantine following all the guidelines and urging everybody else to do the same. Louisiana, by the way, Jake, right now leading the nation in the number of COVID-19 cases per capita. Back to you.

TAPPER: All right. Nick Watt, thank you so much.

And our thoughts are with Senator Cassidy and his family.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now.

Sanjay, what's your take on the predictions from the head of Operation Warp Speed to find a vaccine. Do you think it's realistic that most of our country's vulnerable population will have received the vaccine or will receive a vaccine by next summer?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's possible, Jake. I mean, this is sort of the time line that we've been hearing. We've been talking to the manufacturers themselves. There are six candidates that are sort of further along in trials, two of them that we talked about a lot, Moderna and Pfizer that are in phrase three trials.

Pfizer says they may have some real data to look at, they say, by the end of September. Moderna says October. As you know, Jake, they have been treating this differently in the sense they are making big investments trying to manufacturing some of these vaccines even before the data comes back. The thing we don't know, which is the critical point is, is the vaccine going to work in these larger segments of the population? Just don't have that data yet.

What Moncef Slaoui, who's the Operation Warp Speed adviser, senior adviser, said was that probably four of the six candidates should be, you know, viable vaccine candidates. So, if that happens, we could sort of maintain that time line and more of the country than by the end of the year, end of 2021 I should say.

TAPPER: What do you make of this new information coming out of Russia about their attempts at a vaccine? I understand it involves two doses. What more are you learning?

GUPTA: Yeah. Well, you know, I spoke to the spokesperson, Mr. Dmitriev, about this. You're right, it's a two dose-vaccine. It's using an adenovirus. So, it basically takes an existing virus, scoops out the genetic material from that virus, puts in the coronavirus genetic material and uses that sort of as the vaccine.

Two doses, we don't know a lot about this, though. We know the mechanism. We haven't seen any data. I've been asking for this data over and over again, as have other people. We're told that a major publication is supposed to come out this month, in August.

What we're learning is that as part of the phase three trial, originally, they said, you know, maybe it would be 1,600 to 2,000 people which isn't typically enough people for a phase three trial. Now, they are saying it's going to be some 40,000 people.

So, we need to see the data. We need to see if this trial is going on. They are now suggesting which is different than what they first suggested.

TAPPER: Back here in the U.S., Notre Dame University now has more than 300 positive cases on coronavirus. On Tuesday, the president of Notre Dame announced the classes are going to be remote for two weeks. I was surprised. Only two weeks?

GUPTA: You know, I've been speaking to Father Jenkins really since May. We spoke to him when he first came up with the plan and announced at that point that he was planning on bringing students back. And keep in mind how much has changed since May, Jake. We learned a lot more.

They wanted to do testing. They wanted to maintain this public health practices. I think, you know, every one would do well to pay attention to what's happening in places like Notre Dame, despite I think, you know, a lot of planning, the virus is behaving exactly the way you think the virus would behave, it's very contagious.

And, frankly, college students are behaving the way you would think they would behave.

TAPPER: Yeah.

GUPTA: What we're learning is that most of the spread is occurring off campus parties. I think there's a sense talking to university administrators, look, we can control things on campus.

[16:25:04]

I think even that's challenging, frankly, as we're learning. But it's these off campus gatherings that are just impossible to control, super spreader events, and you see that the positivity rate has gone way up on the campus there. TAPPER: Yeah, I believe it was President George W. Bush who said,

when I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible.

Across the U.S. COVID cases are declining but in Texas and Mississippi and Georgia, those are three states that are struggling. Georgia Governor Kemp slammed the White House's own assessment of the state insufficient response as pandemic politics.

What do you make of all that? And as a Georgian, what do you make of how Governor Kemp has handled this crisis?

GUPTA: I mean, it's incredibly frustrating, Jake. We've talked about this almost since the start. I mean, you know, he says more information should be out there about what's happening in Georgia. More information is that we closed too late and we opened way too early. We were the first to open.

President Trump even was surprised that we were opening nail salons and bars and bowling alleys, really making it difficult now that we're starting to try get back in school.

Now, look at the positivity rate. I mean, you know, we're still hovering around 15 percent. That's one of the highest in the country. We have one of the highest per capita rates of COVID in the country. You know, this is a governor who seemed genuinely surprised to learn weeks, even months after every one else seemed to know this virus could be spread asymptomatically.

This is a governor who sued mayors because they tried to enforce a mask ordinance. Not only he did not do the mask ordinance, he sued people who tried to do this.

TAPPER: Yeah.

GUPTA: It's a disaster. And there's no guidance really, Jake. I mean, I get so many calls from parents and other people, what do we do? What do we do at our kids' school? You know, how do we navigate our way through life? There's been no guidance, no transparency.

So, what do I make of it? It's been a real problem, real disaster here.

TAPPER: Yeah. And it was all -- we all saw it happening in real time and we're criticizing it in real time and he did it any way and the results were what we expected.

Lastly, I know you have texted with Dr. Fauci today. Tell us more about how his surgery went. I think he had a polyp removed from his vocal cord.

GUPTA: That's right. He had a polyp removed. It is an outpatient operation, but does require general anesthesia. Let's show an image. You know, this is a polyp on the vocal cord from irritation, people who are using their vocal cords a lot, which he has been.

He had a bad flu in December, pre-COVID. And, you know, this probably started that process and he's been talking non-stop for the last several months. He could finally get this polyp removed.

He texted, Jake, me right after he out of the operating room. He's almost 80 years. It's amazing. He's home now. He says he's comfortable. But one of the piece of advice he gets from his doctor, don't talk so much for a while. So, we may not hear as much from him for a little bit.

TAPPER: Yeah, that's probably something that President Trump would say to him too, sadly enough.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Health officials warn young people are driving the spread of coronavirus. I'm going to talk to the head of a school district that has hundreds of students quarantined. That's next.

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