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The Lead with Jake Tapper

President Trump Makes Claims About Vaccine Timeline; Biden Campaigning in Key Battleground State of Minnesota. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired September 18, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Record numbers of television ads as we head into Election Day.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Seven weeks away. Here we go.

Jessica Dean, good to see you. Thank you so much.

And thank you all for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Let's go to Washington. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

We begin today with breaking news and new comments from President Trump based seemingly more on hope, if not desperation, rather than scientific fact as of now.

Now, to be clear, before we bring you this news, we want to let you know there is no COVID-19 vaccine that is available right now that is proven to work and is proven to be safe. There is none.

But President Trump just promised that every American will be able to receive a vaccine by April and that the distribution of millions of doses will begin this year.

That is an assumption that the hundreds of millions of vaccines that the administration has paid for from any number of pharmaceutical companies, Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, which have been paid for, that's an assumption that they will work and that they will be safe.

But let us be clear. As of right now, there is no vaccine that we know works. There is no vaccine that we know is safe. And there is no new information to suggest that a vaccine will indeed be available by Election Day.

This is a promise from the president based not on scientific fact, not on any new scientific developments. This is misinformation based, it seems obvious, on his desire to be reelected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As soon as a vaccine is approved, the administration will deliver it to the American people immediately. Distribution will begin within 24 hours after notice.

We will have manufactured at least 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year, and likely much more than that. Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month. And we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, that sounds great, except for the fact that there is no vaccine that has been proven to be effective. There is no vaccine that has been proven to be safe.

Now, maybe there will be, and we sure hope it's soon. And the administration is paying pharmaceutical companies for vaccines, just in case one of them works.

But, right now, at this moment, what he's saying, it's not true.

Sadly, what is true is that the United States is on track to mark a devastating milestone, potentially as soon as this weekend, nearly 200,000 people in the United States dead from coronavirus, the largest number of dead of any country, according to official records, despite the fact that the United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population.

And yet, tonight, President Trump will be defying the recommendations from top health experts and from his very own White House Coronavirus Task Force, holding yet another political rally in front of a packed, largely maskless, crowd exercising no social distancing.

At his rally last night, the president mocked the socially distanced CNN town hall with Joe Biden. You're seeing images of it right there. He suggested that staying inside to stop the spread is akin to being in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The audience isn't quite like this. You see what his audience -- they have got cars. They have like cars in a parking -- it's the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

You're not allowed to go to church. You're not allowed to meet. You're not allowed to talk to anybody. You have to stay in a prison.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Your home has become your prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, we should note that there's a personal reason that the president is able to be so glib about this, because he is not concerned about the risk of getting infected himself at one of his rallies, as he told a reporter from "The Las Vegas Review-Journal" earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Aren't you concerned about getting COVID, though, in an enclosed...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, I'm not concerned.

QUESTION: What about people here?

TRUMP: I'm more concerned about how close you are, to be honest with you.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Sorry about that.

TRUMP: Because you know why? I'm on a stage. It's very far away. And so I'm not at all concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: As he said -- and it's accurate -- the president is on a stage and he's very far away, so he's not concerned, never mind the crowd in front of him and whether he should be concerned about them.

We also know that President Trump gets tested for coronavirus often, and those who come in close contact with him are tested as well before they can even enter the room with him. That's testing, by the way, that is denied the rest of us.

[16:05:00]

Our kids wouldn't be able to go back to school if there was universal, frequent testing of children and teachers and faculty and support staff. But there is not.

So the president fails to provide that security that he has for the rest of us. And then he mocks those who take precautions, the precautions that his health experts, Birx, Fauci, Hahn, say are vital to stopping this virus from spreading, a virus that has now killed almost 200,000 people in this country.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in Minnesota for us right now, where the president will hold this rally this evening.

Kaitlan, President Trump making a big promise to the American people just now. But, like I said, there is no news in the vaccine development that would suggest that any vaccine is effective and safe. So why did he do this?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Obviously, the president is looking through a lot of this in a political lens.

He has been very clear and blunt about that. But, Jake, saying that every American could have a vaccine by April,it is not only incredibly ambitious. It does not echo what we have heard from a lot of the health experts, who have not only talked about actually getting a vaccine, which, as you correctly note, we do not have one yet.

But it's also about being able to distribute and administer a vaccine to millions of Americans, something that they say, even though they're preparing now, is still going to take several months.

But, Jake, this is a week where the president has undercut his own CDC director when it comes to a vaccine timeline. And so you heard the president and Dr. Scott Atlas there in the Briefing Room. That's the one member of the Coronavirus Task Force who has often echoed the president's views on this.

But as he said and told a reporter there in the room, Jake, sometimes, he thinks he knows better than his own experts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): As he touts an ambitious timeline for vaccines, President Trump is arguing that politics isn't taking priority over science when it comes to the federal government's coronavirus response.

TRUMP: We expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April.

COLLINS: CNN has now learned that controversial CDC guidance claiming people without COVID-19 symptoms didn't need to get tested wasn't written by the agency's scientists and was posted online without their approval, despite what officials claimed last month.

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: All the docs signed off on this before it even got to the task force level.

COLLINS: A source telling CNN's Sanjay Gupta the testing document was sent to the CDC by the Department of Health and Human Services and bypassed the CDC's strict scientific review process. It was even posted online with basic errors, using incorrect terms that sources say scientists wouldn't have let slip.

The administration's testing coordinator, Admiral Giroir, told "The New York Times" the document was reviewed by the CDC director and other members of the White House Task Force in advance, while acknowledging that editing was done.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN the guidelines coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts, after saying earlier this week that the guidance will be updated.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: We have never recommended against asymptomatic testing. You will see in the clarification. COLLINS: That story coming on top of another stunning headline. Newly

obtained documents show the U.S. Postal Service was prepared to distribute 600 and 50 million masks to American households in April. But the White House nixed the plan because they didn't want people to panic.

Instead, the masks were distributed to companies, health care facilities and community organizations, with some set aside for schools, as Trump has argued that nothing more could have been done to stop the spread.

TRUMP: I really don't think so. I think we did a very good job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, another headline today.

Remember after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico back in 2017. The president was so reluctant to grant more aid to Puerto Rico, calling them corrupt, saying all of these things, speaking about them as if they were part of some other U.S. -- or some other territory and not part of the U.S.

Well, now, conveniently timed shortly before the election, the president is now announcing that FEMA is going to grant about $13 billion in aid to Puerto Rico.

And while the president today maintained his stance that they have corrupt politicians in Puerto Rico, he was asked about the political implications and the political timeline here. He said that the reason it took so long was it just took a long time to get the aid package together -- Jake.

TAPPER: That is an interesting excuse.

Kaitlan Collins, stay with us.

I want to bring CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Abby Phillip into this conversation.

And, Sanjay, I want to start with you.

The president says that every American will get a vaccine by April 2021. Obviously, the administration is paying for a bunch of vaccines from a bunch of pharmaceuticals. Hopefully, one of them will work. But, as of now -- tell me if I'm wrong -- there's no information and no new developments suggesting that any of these vaccines will work definitely and are safe definitely.

[16:10:10]

Is it realistic to make this promise?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, I mean, we are dealing with really limited information here and pretty audacious projections, Jake, to your point. I mean, when you go back and look at the data, the phase two data,

it's really a very small number of people who -- that you actually see the data on. You're now going to expect to see data on tens of thousands of people.

But even initially, this is all blinded data. No one has seen it yet. It's going to go to an independent entity first, basically meaning we really have no idea, to your point earlier, whether or not this is going to work.

It's so far -- it's so hard to project anything based on this in terms of an actual timeline without seeing any of that data. And it seems a bit fruitless in terms of actually trying to make those calendars.

You know what was interesting today, Jake, if you looked at that briefing, behind the president was Moncef Slaoui. I don't know if you watched that. He is the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed. I talked to him last week.

He said that look, it's unlikely we're going to have enough doses by the end of the year. He was giving a very realistic timeline, based on everything he knew now. When the question about the vaccine timeline was asked today, the president went to Scott Atlas, despite the fact that the person who's in charge of that entire timeline was standing right behind him.

TAPPER: That's right.

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: ... what Moncef Slaoui has said before.

TAPPER: Yes, because he's actually an expert, whereas Dr. Scott Atlas, who is not an expert on infectious diseases -- I believe he's a neuroradiologist? Is that right, Sanjay? What is Scott -- Dr. Atlas?

GUPTA: That's right. Yes.

TAPPER: So, Abby, I mean, this is what he does. He calls these -- I don't know what else to call them -- sycophants, toadies, people who will say and do whatever the president wants him to do, people who say things that he agrees with that are politically helpful for him, like Dr. Atlas, instead of Moncef Slaoui, who's actually the expert here on the vaccine, not Dr. Fauci, not Dr. Birx.

I mean, we have seen this before, but never when so many lives were actually at stake.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this is exactly what the president does.

He pushes aside the people who have actual knowledge and who are speaking based on the science and the information that they have. And he brings in people who have nothing to do with the subject, sometimes even his economic advisers talking confidently about hydroxychloroquine for months and months, even though they have absolutely no reason to be talking about anything related to science or medicine or anything like that.

This is the pattern with this White House. But it is astounding that, for two days in a row now, the president has gone to the podium to talk futuristically about a vaccine that, as you pointed out, does not exist yet.

And it's because this Election Day is coming up. I mean, it logically doesn't make a lot of sense, because already the polls show the American people are distrustful of anything that seems as if the vaccine is going to be brought into this political sphere.

And yet the president does it day after day after day. So it is one of those completely counterintuitive things. He's doing the very thing that the American people do not want him to do.

TAPPER: Right.

And he's undermining -- I mean, hopefully, there will be a vaccine. Let's just say there's some miracle there's a vaccine available tomorrow and there's like 330 million doses of it ready the day after that. None of that's going to happen.

But, Kaitlan, do you think he has any idea that he is undermining his own ability to get people to take that vaccine by being so nakedly political about this? In fact, he brought up Joe Biden's name, trying to paint Biden as against the vaccine, which is not true.

He just says he trusts the scientists like Fauci, not people like Trump.

COLLINS: Right. That is what the president has cited to say that Joe Biden is promoting these anti-vaccine theories, because the idea among the president's allies that we have spoken with is, Donald Trump is not the one coming up with this vaccine.

So, for Joe Biden to make a statement like that, that's why they have been critical of it, saying it's obviously the scientists who are coming up with it.

But the president has been obviously political here. And I think the thing that would reassure not only the president's supporters, but also even his critics, is if you did let the experts speak to the timeline here, and not people like Dr. Scott Atlas, who is -- obviously does have medical credentials.

That's why he was brought into the White House. But, of course, it's not just Moncef, who is in charge of Operation Ward Speed, that was there that could have spoken to it. General Perna is actually in charge of distributing the vaccine. That's why he was brought in, because they said his expertise in the Army and knowing logistics and having this kind of background would really help them with distributing the vaccine when that time came.

So he is actually the expert who could have spoken to this. Yet he did not get the chance to answer that question. It was Dr. Scott Atlas, who instead spoke to it, which is really notable, because the administration can make this argument. They can be optimistic about a vaccine. They can talk about what exactly they're doing, laying it out.

[16:15:03]

But I think if actually the medical experts were speaking to it, it would have a much different impact than having the president and someone he brought in because he watched him on Fox News echo things he himself has said would make people feel differently about the situation, about what the timeline really is, because people just want them to be honest with them about what's going on, not give them an overly ambitious timeline that's not realistic.

TAPPER: And just to underline this point, Dr. Scott Atlas might be one of the greatest neuroradiologists in the world. It's completely irrelevant to the idea of infectious diseases and vaccines, which is what we're talking about.

President Trump reaches out and grabs people. It doesn't matter if it's -- if it's a dentist or an orthodontist or a podiatrist, as long as it has a doctor or MD after, he thinks that is equal to somebody who spent their whole life fighting infectious diseases like Dr. Fauci.

Sanjay, Kaitlan, Abby, thank you so much.

Coming up next, more on this breaking, quote, unquote, news. President Trump without a vaccine developed and proven to be safe and effective is already promising all Americans a dose by April, a promise he cannot responsibly make. His niece Mary Trump will weigh in on this and more coming up, next.

Plus, these aren't people waiting in line for the grocery store. This is what early voting looks like in one great commonwealth.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Joe Biden is talking right now in Hermantown, Minnesota. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hello, Minnesota. It's good to be back.

As Amy was saying, I've been here a number of times up in the Iron Range, and it's a magnificent part of the world, magnificent part of the world.

And I want to thank you so much, Amy, Senator. You've been a great friend and a great, great senator.

And, Senator Smith, you're something else. I tell you what, thank you for the job you're doing, and I'm counting on it continuing another six years.

You know, I know you're both fighting around the clock to take care of Minnesotans who are hurting in these multiple crises you face today.

We have everything from COVID to unemployment to a country that is divided along these -- being divided along these race lines.

[16:20:04]

We have institutional racism we're dealing with, a whole range of things.

And the people of Minnesota know they have two of the best senators in the country on their side.

And, Matt, thank you so much for that introduction and for showing me around today. This incredible apprentice program here at the Carpenter's Training Center.

What a lot of people don't know if they're not involved with labor is apprenticeship program is not only trains the best workers in the world -- I'm not being facetious, that's a fact -- but they get paid while they're doing it. They're getting paid while -- not full wage, but they're getting paid while they're doing it.

And that's why these union apprenticeship programs are so, so critically important they stay this way. It matters. People who still make it while they're learning a trade, a trade that's going to put them in good stead the rest of their lives.

It was great to see some of the practical hands on experience that apprentices and journeymen and women here receive, and while as I said, earning a wage as a benefit. You know, it's a bit quieter here because -- than usual because of COVID-19 restrictions, but the pride of these workers who are learning the skills that will carry them throughout their careers is still unmistakable.

My father -- and I apologize to the press who follows me for repeating this, but it warrants saying every time. My father used to have an expression. He said, Joey, a job is a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity, it's about respect, it's about your place in the community, being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay, and mean it.

You know, that's a lesson I've never forgotten. It's the way I grew up, surrounded by hard working families in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a lot of steelworkers in Claymont, Delaware. All those jobs are gone now, the steelworker jobs, you know?

And that's what I saw here at this training center -- dedicated women and men investing in their dignity, in their dignity.

Here in the Iron Range, we can see the resilience and the grit of the communities that built America, the metal they're made of, and fortified by the strength of union power, worker power.

I think I was saying to you, Meg, that -- that, you know, my dad has another expression -- the only way to deal with the abuse of power is with power, and the only real power for workers in America is union power. You're the folks that keep the barbarians on the other side of the gate and making sure that people can make a decent living.

And, folks, but here like everywhere else, times are hard. Unemployment is way up due to the pandemic. Fewer workers can be on the job at one time in order to abide by social distancing rules. And the economic outlook for next year, including for the building trades is more uncertain than it need be.

Here in Minnesota and all across the country, there are plenty of folks who are hurting. They're worried about making their next mortgage payment, keeping their rent payments in check. They see the people at the top of the heap doing very well, an incredible number.

Billionaires in America during this pandemic made another $300 billion. You hear what I just said? In the middle of the pandemic.

They're left to wonder as a consequence, ordinary folks, who's looking out for me?

You know, that's been the entire story of Donald Trump's presidency, and now, in the midst of this unprecedented national crises, Trump has given up on even pretending to do his job.

Almost 200,000 lives lost in the last six months. And experts tell us now the same studies relied on, the administration relied on to predict what's coming next, that we're going to lose another 215,000 lives between now and January 1st.

The United States has lost -- has another 36,000 new COVID cases per day, per day. Another average, 1,000 deaths a day.

Just across the border, figuratively speaking, a stone' throw into Canada, one day earlier this month, the United States had 1,000 deaths of COVID. Canada had zero. Just two days ago -- three days ago, I believe it was.

America had 1,200 deaths.

[16:25:03]

Canada had nine. Nine.

So many lives lost unnecessarily because the president is only worried about the stock market and his re-election. He refused what you're doing right here in this program -- social distance, wear a mask, sanitize.

You're protecting your apprentices. He's not protecting America.

It's estimated by the scientists that if we just wore masks nationally, we'd save 100,000 lives between now and January 1st. Let me say that again -- if we just wore a mask nationally, we'd save 100,000 lives between now and January according to the same study.

You know, and it was estimated by a great medical school, Columbia Medical School, that if the president started just one week earlier in March than he did, we'd have 36,000 more people sitting at a dinner table tonight or being able to put your arm around grandpa or grandma tonight.

And again, in his own words, recorded by Bob Woodward, the president knew back in February that this was an extremely dangerous communicable disease.

Think about it. How many people across the Iron Range, how many empty chairs around those dinner tables because of his negligence and selfishness, how many lives said (ph) and lives lost?

Imagine if he had just, Amy, on the State of the Union that year spoke up and said, we got a problem. We can handle it. Here's what we got to do.

I can't think of any president who's ever acted, in my view, so selfishly about his own re-election, instead of his sworn obligation to protect and defend the American people.

As I said last night in my hometown, I view this campaign as between Scranton and Park Avenue. All Trump sees from Park Avenue is Wall Street. That's why the only metric of the American prosperity for him is the value of the Dow Jones.

Like of you, I spent a lot of my life with guys like Donald Trump looking down on me, looking down on the people that make a living with their hands, people who take care of our kids, clean our streets. Maybe what bothers me most is the way he talks about -- reportedly talks about from too many sources confirmed by many outlets -- the way he's talked about the men and women who join the military and gave a full measure for their country as suckers and losers.

Unless you think it's made up, remember how he talked about John McCain, a political opponent but a close friend, who I did his eulogy. John McCain was no sucker or loser. He was a hero.

My son, who volunteered and spent a year in Iraq, won the Bronze Star, (INAUDIBLE), he wasn't a loser or a sucker. He was a proud patriot.

These are the guys that always thought they were better than me, better than us, because they had a lot of money. Guys that inherit everything they got and still manage to squander it.

I have to admit, which I guess is coming out pretty obvious, particularly relative to Trump, I just have a little bit of my -- a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about these guys.

Recently -- I probably shouldn't have said that last night, but I did. Recently, I read some stories and was asked questions by a leading columnist. It went like this. You know, if you get elected, you're going to be the first guy in a long time, an elected president without an Ivy League degree.

Like, somehow, a kid who went to a state university isn't qualified to be president of the United States? Doesn't have an Ivy League degree?

Let me tell you something -- I know how to do the job of being president. It's pretty clear. No matter how wealthy Donald Trump is, now matter how much he doctors his -- if he does -- his tax returns, he doesn't have a clue how to be president.

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