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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Teachers Threaten Strikes Amid Virus Safety Concerns; Trump's Ex-Chief Strategist Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud Charges. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired August 20, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

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[16:32:50]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Continuing with our health lead, teachers afraid they're going to take COVID home and they are taking a stand, they say, for the safety of themselves and their students. Right now in Detroit, teachers are planning to strike over plan to reopen schools there, a plan that they say does not go far enough to protect their health.

In Florida, today, the government in court defending its emergency order to reopen all public schools by the end of August. This after a teachers group sued the state of Florida, saying that it should be up to local communities.

This also as Martin County School District in Florida announced more than 300 students have to quarantine due to possible cases of the virus in classrooms just over one week into the New Year.

Joining us now to discuss, Laurie Gaylord. She's the superintendent of the Martin County School District.

Superintendent Gaylord, thanks so much for joining us.

So, I just have to ask, Florida just hit 10,000 COVID deaths today. With all the risks, and I understand the desire to open schools. But with all the risks, what led you to make the decision to start in- person learning?

LAURIE GAYLORD, SUPERINTENDENT, MARTIN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, FLORIDA: Well, as you know, in Florida, we typically start schools at this time anyway. So, this is our board-approved calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. But also the commissioner of education came out July 6th and issued an emergency order requiring all Florida school districts to reopen brick and mortar schools at least five days a week for all students in August. So, we are following our board approved calendar at this time.

And so, we did open brick and mortar last week for our students. We also have a remote learning option for parents -- for parents who choose not to send their students to school in-person. They have the option to keep their children home and they have a laptop that's been issued.

We've deployed approximately 12,000 laptop devices at this point in time to students. We also have a laptop for learning program that all of our high school students do receive a laptop when they entered 9th grade. So, that learning will continue at home for those students.

TAPPER: So, you opened up because the education commissioner said that you had to? Am I hearing you correctly? I mean, is that the reason ultimately?

[16:35:01]

GAYLORD: Yes, yes. Looking at that, there was the many school districts did push back their start date of schools. It had come as a recommendation but we followed through and we just maintained our regular adopted school calendar.

TAPPER: Are you -- did you disagree with the decision of the education commissioner. Would you have not done so if you had not been told to do so?

GAYLORD: Yeah, it's a possibility. I mean, I think that we have to look at that. We closed schools pretty quickly in March. So, March of the 2019-'20 school year when everything kind of shut down around the country, we transitioned to remote learning. We know that there's a higher expectation for learning to take place now for those students that are learning at home.

Also, we have been in the preparation and planning to mitigate risk, adapting cleanings, spraying, disinfecting, meeting and providing an option for all students. So, there's a regular team make up (ph) that experience in schools today. But also I think because of this, our students being out of school for five months, you know, we're all afraid of a COVID gap for -- achievement for our students. And I think it's important to have our students back in school learning.

You know, we know that virtual education is not a substitute for the teacher in the classroom. So, it's important for them to be back in school.

TAPPER: Yeah.

GAYLORD: We also know that students, you know, it's the safest place sometimes for some our students to be. It's not just about education anymore in schools today. It's safety, security for students. You know, here in Florida, we've also experienced unfortunately the Parkland situation that we've had.

So, safety, security, there are social development. You know, many of our students receive their -- two-thirds of their meals at school, food nutrition is important for them.

TAPPER: Yeah.

GAYLORD: There's a lot of attention being paid to social, emotional wellbeing of students, as well as, you know, their education. TAPPER: Right.

GAYLORD: So, we do a lot of things in schools these days.

TAPPER: I got it. And, look, I'm a dad. I have a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old. I understand that remote learning is challenging, and that's a generous way to put it.

But what precautions are taking? I mean, does everybody in the school have to wear a mask? Do you have separation? Are kids allowed to sit amongst each other in the lunch room or do they have to maintain distancing? What precautions are being taken?

Obviously, this is a deadly disease and as don't need to tell you, I'm sure you know, kids in Florida have died of COVID.

GAYLORD: Well, I'm glad you asked this question, because I tell you, I could not be more proud of our entire team in the Martin County School District for taking this on as far as, you know, being able to mitigate the risks. We have a K-12 pandemic response team in our district that we work with our local department of health in Martin County. It also includes local medical professionals, including a pediatric and family physician. And we meet regularly actually. You know, that the team has met every day, many days --

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Are kids wearing masks? Is everybody wearing mask?

GAYLORD: Yes, yes. We are wearing masks. It's required to require mask.

If you're going to use our transportation, you must wear a mask. It is -- kids are wearing them in school.

We went out this summer. We measured all of our classrooms. The furniture is socially distanced.

We ordered extra cafeteria tables so the kids can be socially distanced in the cafeteria. We ordered extra tables in middle school and high school where you have more students on campus can be outdoors eating, so there's ample space in between the tables and class room and desk and all those things.

We've also measured space six feet for our teachers to try to keep them safe so that they are six feet from our -- the students in the classroom. Any students that's in transition, they are wearing masks in transition. Hall ways have been labeled with arrows one way.

So, we've done all of those mitigating factors.

TAPPER: Well, I really wish -- I know it's complicated. I know it's a very complicated decision and I really hope for the best for you and all the students of your school district.

Superintendent Gaylord, thank you so much for your time today. GAYLORD: Thank you very much.

TAPPER: The pandemic, election interference and now the president's former senior adviser just pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges. And we're going to talk to a close ally of President Trump about what this might mean for the president's re-election, if anything?

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[16:44:01]

TAPPER: And some breaking news for you now. We have just learned that President Trump's former campaign adviser and chief White House strategist Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty, appearing by video conference in court just minutes ago.

Bannon has been charged by the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney with defrauding donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fund raising campaign supporting a private construction of the border wall.

Joining me now to discuss this and much more and his new book, former Republican congressman and federal prosecutor, Trey Gowdy. His new book is titled "Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect and Persuade".

Congressman Gowdy, good to see you again. Thank you so much for joining us. Congrats on the book.

FMR. REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC), AUTHOR, "DOESN'T HURT TO ASK": You too, Jake. Thank you.

TAPPER: So, I want to ask, Bannon, along with three others are facing one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. They're facing at least 20 years in prison if convicted.

As a former prosecutor, what do you make of this case against them?

GOWDY: Well, I'll have to confess I'm biased out front, Jake. If you read Bannon's deposition when I was on the House Intelligence Committee, I don't like him. I've never liked him. I think he takes credit for things he had nothing to do with and he's the only person on the planet that can elect a Democrat in Alabama.

[16:45:03]

(LAUGHTER)

GOWDY: So, let me confess my bias against Steve Bannon.

Having said that, having said that, you're presumed innocent. They're serious charges. I'd love to tell you I was surprised when I heard about it today. I was not. But you are presumed innocent.

And I want to honor that presumption, unless and until you plead guilty, or a jury of 12 says otherwise.

TAPPER: What do you make of the fact -- as a prominent supporter of President Trump, what do you make of the fact that so many of his associates, ranging from his former attorney Michael Cohen, to a whole range of others -- I'm not going to list them all ,but you're familiar with their names -- have been indicted or sentenced or charged with crimes?

You're a law and order kind of guy. It must bother you, at least to a degree.

GOWDY: It does.

And I think, if you were to talk to the president, I think he would confess that maybe some of these folks were not vetted the way they should have been vetted. I mean, Manafort came, what, after Corey Lewandowski and Cohen? Don't hire a lawyer that is then going to go write a book about you if you're thinking about hiring one.

So, improper vetting or inadequate vetting. I would also say, Jake, though, but money is the second oldest motive that exists. And when I read the Senate Intel report, I think Manafort's contacts were designed to help Manafort. I don't think they were designed to help Donald Trump.

So, if you're going to hire people, vet them first, and then hire people that are loyal to your policies and your positions and not loyal to what it can do for them.

TAPPER: You mentioned the Senate Intelligence Committee report. And Manafort is named in that report as being suspected of posing a grave counterintelligence risk.

The report, bipartisan, as you note, described in detail contacts between Trump's former campaign chief Manafort and a Russian intelligence agent. The report described him, as I said, a grave counterintelligence threat.

It doesn't sound like a hoax to me. Now, clearly, the Russians were attempting something, don't you agree?

GOWDY: Yes, I mean, I haven't used the word hoax. I was on the Intelligence Committee.

We spent, what, a year-and-a-half trying to ask those similar questions. Did anyone with the campaign collude, conspire, have contact with Russians?

So, again, when I read that part about Manafort, the first thing I thought was, he wants money. He's financially strapped -- again, that goes to the vetting -- financially strapped. But I have seen no evidence that -- still no evidence that the president colluded, conspired, coordinated with Russia to impact the 2016 election.

Now, let me say this, though, about Manafort and his contacts I do think -- I do think that would have been a great time for the FBI to come in and do a defensive briefing.

And I think one thing that we have not yet learned, Jake, that we should be interested in was the depth and breadth of this defensive briefing. If the FBI knew that his campaign manager was having these contacts, and if they didn't suspect that the president knew about it, why not tell the president?

Why not say, you got a bad apple in your upper echelon? I think there's more to come on the defensive briefing.

TAPPER: You said the president didn't conspire.

The president did come out during the campaign, though, and say, Russia, if you're listening, get those Hillary Clinton e-mails. People have said later that he was joking.

But, empirically, he has asked...

GOWDY: I actually don't think he was joking.

TAPPER: You don't?

GOWDY: I don't think he was joking. I think he was -- well, I think he was -- remember, there were -- the allegation is that there were some missing e-mails from her server.

TAPPER: Right. She deleted them.

GOWDY: I have always taken that contact to be that.

So -- but, again, I -- yes, I have encouraged the president before. Sometimes, humor doesn't come through.

TAPPER: Yes.

So let me ask you, because you mentioned the FBI. Yesterday, the president of the United States was asked about this conspiracy called QAnon, which ludicrously claims that there is a cabal of powerful Democrats and Hollywood elite who run a Satanic, pedophile, cannibalistic trafficking ring.

The FBI has labeled QAnon a potential domestic terror threat. And yet President Trump didn't denounce them, basically embraced them by giving them a thumbs-up.

As a law enforcement official, as somebody who has worked with FBI agents, does that concern you?

GOWDY: You know, Jake, I'm going to have to confess to you, I think I'm well-read. I try to read the news.

I -- someone described for me what QAnon was for the first time this weekend. I have heard it. I just didn't know what it was. So, I asked someone, what is this theory? It took me about 30 seconds to deconstruct the QAnon conspiracy, 30 seconds.

[16:50:03]

I used to have folks come to me when I was in Congress, and they would lay out these conspiracy theories. And, at the end of the conversation, I would say, you know what, you should not vote for me. If that's what you believe, you should not vote for me, because I don't believe it.

The hardest day I had in Congress, Jake, the hardest day I had was when Boehner made me sit down with the families who lost children in Sandy Hook.

So, anyone who wants to monetize or profit off of other people's grief, no matter what that conspiracy theory is, you can count me out. I would rather not have their support.

I would be curious how much the president -- how familiar he is with this. When he -- when he finds out they deny -- 9/11 was an inside job, and they deny the mass killings, my guess is, he will renounce them.

TAPPER: Well, he's endorsed a couple congressional candidates who have put forward those views.

But let me move on to your book, because that's why you're here.

The -- you served a number of terms in Congress, and you wrote in your book -- quote -- "I left Congress because the questions never matter in politics. Almost everyone in Washington, D.C., already has his or her mind made up. There was little opportunity to persuade anyone other than myself."

I found that a remarkable statement and rather bleak.

Tell me more what you mean by that.

GOWDY: Well, I wish it weren't true. I mean, I wish it weren't true.

But, because of redistricting and other factors, even if you are open to something, if you don't vote with your party, there are consequences for that.

I mean, I think, in some respects, in politics now, 99 is a failing grade. You can be right on lots of things, but if you're not right on one, you're going to get a primary opponent.

Also, I'm not a fan of committee hearings. I mean, five minutes is just not -- it's enough time for a YouTube, but it's not enough time to actually persuade someone.

The good news is, members of Congress get along a whole lot better than we ever want you to believe. And I hope that you saw in the book I had really good relationships with people that you would not think I would have really good relationships with.

But in terms of movement, persuading, changing people's minds, I just don't think there's an appetite for it in our modern political culture right now.

TAPPER: All right, Trey Gowdy, thank you so much. Good to see you again, sir.

GOWDY: Thank you, Jake. You too.

TAPPER: Best of luck on the book.

GOWDY: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: We will be back in right -- we will be back in a moment.

Thanks so much.

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[16:57:10]

TAPPER: In our world lead today: Critics of Vladimir Putin have a curious way of ending up dead.

And now it's a key opposition leader who's fighting for his life after suddenly getting sick on an airplane.

CNN's Matthew Chance reports from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is how the Kremlin's most prominent critic was struck down.

(GROANING)

CHANCE: The painful groans are from Alexei Navalny as medics evacuated him from this commercial flight, forced to make an emergency landing when he was taken ill.

A fellow passenger also recorded the anti-corruption campaigner appearing unconscious, being stretchered into an ambulance on the tarmac outside.

Supporters say they believe he was poisoned, having drank tea before the flight. Russian doctors at the Siberian hospital where he is now in intensive care say they can't yet confirm what would be an extremely disturbing diagnosis.

ANATOLY KALINICHENKO, OMSK EMERGENCY HOSPITAL (through translator): The patient is in serious condition a ventilator, but he is stable. Currently, there are multiple diagnoses which we are trying to eliminate or confirm. Naturally, poisoning is one of the principal reasons for the deterioration of his condition.

CHANCE: Here's another possible reason. More than any other opposition figure in Russia, Alexei Navalny gets ordinary people out to protest. The Kremlin says it's aware Navalny is in serious condition and wishes

him a speedy recovery. But his unrelenting campaign to highlight corruption in Vladimir Putin's Russia and his broadcasts on social media have proved immensely popular here and, at times, a real problem for the Kremlin.

It wouldn't even be the first time Alexei Navalny has been attacked. In March and April 2017, he was pelted with green dye by unknown assailants, resulting in a serious chemical burn and damaged vision in one eye.

Of course, it didn't stop him. To work against the reign of Putin, he told me, the threat of violence was the price you have to pay.

(on camera): Have you accepted that you could be killed for this?

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): Anyone who is engaged in opposition activities in Russia can be arrested or killed. This thought gives me no pleasure or joy, I assure you, but it is a simple choice. You can be silent, or you can speak.

Taking into account all the risks, I continue my work.

CHANCE (voice-over): And, in Russia, speaking is not the easy path.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Jake, tonight, supporters of Alexei Navalny want him medevaced out of the country as soon as possible, so he can get better health care treatment in Germany and avoid becoming yet another Kremlin critic to be silenced -- back to you.

TAPPER: Matthew Chance, thank you so much.

That's it for THE LEAD.

Be sure to join me tonight for the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

We will see you then.

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