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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Trump in Oval Office Right Now Despite Infection, Being Briefed on Stimulus Bill; Trump Reverses Course on Stimulus Talks 8 Hours After Stopping Negotiations; Trump Continues to Sow Doubt on Election Security; Post Office Says Number One Priority Is Ensuring Secure, Timely Election Mail; Today Marks 19 Years Since Start of America's Longest War. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired October 07, 2020 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And Kaitlan, this is something aides were preparing for?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they knew that the President wanted to go to the Oval Office yesterday, so they started getting it ready and of course, now he is there, now being briefed on stimulus talks, and the hurricane, hurricane Delta, of course, we are told by a deputy press secretary.
But Jake, what's not clear is who is briefing the President on both of those matters and whether or not it's in person? And if it's a hurricane, you'd have to think that the FEMA administrator is involved, and whether or not it's virtual, we still don't know answers to simple questions like that. Though earlier the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was talking about the protective gear they had prepared in case the President did come into the West Wing.
But Jake, you got to look at how strange things have been in the West Wing this week, more so than they ever have been in the Donald Trump presidency, because so many people are either not in the West Wing because they've tested positive for coronavirus, or they're at home quarantining because they came into contact with someone who did and they want to wait out this infectious period to see what's going to happen.
And so, the President was anxious to get back there. We know he's in there now, though he is still very much into this coronavirus diagnosis, and his doctor did not tell reporters today, has not said anything about this in recent days, whether or not they still believe the President is contagious for coronavirus?
So there are so many questions raised by this, but, of course, whether or not it is wise for the President to be there working in the West Wing instead of quarantining like most people who are diagnosed with coronavirus would obviously do.
TAPPER: Presumably if he had tested negative, they would have told us given that they tend to share information that's good news and not any of the information that might be bad news. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much, keep us to speed on what's going on there.
Let's turn now to the MONEY LEAD because President Trump is being briefed on the stimulus talks. In the last 24 hours, President Trump's message about that stimulus bill, so many people have a dire need for, and that the Fed chair has called for. The President's messages have been nothing short of dizzying and confusing.
He tweeted that he wanted his team to cancel negotiations with the Democrats on the stimulus bill. Today Wall Street is thankfully rebounding after that tweet.
Then the President said last night he would sign a smaller bill to help airlines and small businesses, more focused on those two groups. Then 24 minutes after that, he tweeted that he would be open to a stand-alone deal for new stimulus checks for citizens who need them.
Democrats have, of course, previously made similar suggestions for stand alone airline relief and other matters. Republicans have blocked those measures. It's almost as if the President has had no idea what's been going on with negotiations for weeks.
I want to bring in CNN business anchor Julia Chatterley. And Julia, given how little the President cares about deficits and the national debt, I have to say I'm kind of stunned that a compromise has not been hammered out weeks ago. What's going on right now?
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It's 50 shades of chaos, or 50 tweets of chaos quite frankly, except there's near 100 tweets I believe today at last check. It's like his Twitter handle's on steroids.
And perhaps that's the bigger point here, Jake, but let's just take a step back. Because we have seen this blow-up negotiating strategy before from the President during the trade talks. It's like he believes the Democrats are simply not willing to compromise further.
The bottom line is we need transparency now. Just if you look in terms of the numbers here of the deals, the Democrats need to explain why they're not willing to sign a $1.6 trillion deal from the Republicans, go win the election and then come back and do the rest of it.
Likewise, for the Republicans. They need to explain what's so wrong with the Democrats' $2.2 trillion deal that they're simply not willing to sign it. I think that's where we are at this stage, and we can debate this further, but for the 26 million people that are collecting some form of jobless benefit, and the one in seven American families that can't put food on the table, they're owed an explanation and they're owed a compromised deal. And that's it.
TAPPER: And Julia, today, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said that she and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are still negotiating. Here is her take, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: All he has ever wanted in the negotiation was to send out a check with his name printed on it. He's just again rebounding from a terrible mistake that he made yesterday, and the Republicans in Congress were going down the drain with him on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So, Julia, President Trump has said that he wants, quote, $25 billion for airline payroll support and $135 billion for paycheck protection programs for small business, unquote.
If he's spelling out dollar for dollar what he would approve, couldn't a deal be done today, theoretically?
CHATTERLEY: It should be that easy. If only -- if you remember on Friday Nancy Pelosi put out that statement directly targeting airline aid. And she said something is imminent. It will be done either as a stand-alone amount of money or it will be done as part of a bigger package here.
[15:35:03]
So, when that tweet came out, apparently the Treasury Secretary called Nancy Pelosi this morning to discuss. Nancy Pelosi's deputy chief of staff tweeted this today --
The secretary inquired about a stand-alone airlines bill. The Speaker reminded him that Republicans blocked that bill on Friday.
And this is the heartbreaking thing, they're close to an agreement or agree on many things, stimulus checks, small business aid, even the support for airlines. It seems to be politics before people. And that's the deal here.
TAPPER: And Julia, we can't lose sight of the people affected by all this. The pandemic has been a disaster, a shock to the economy, a lot of millions, tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs, they're still losing their jobs every single day.
CHATTERLEY: And this is the key point. And it's not just the jobs that they lose. I spoke to the International President of the Association for Flight Attendants today. Just listen to what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA NELSON, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS-CWA: These are people who have been on the front lines since the beginning of this virus. Hiding, every day going to work risking their lives, and they have not only been put out of work, they have been put out of their medical insurance as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: She was crying, Jake. She said, we have people going into hospitals to have babies and now they have no medical insurance. Real lives, real tragedy. They all need a compromised deal. TAPPER: And the airline industry is having problems because people are
afraid to fly, and people don't have money to fly because President Trump and the administration --
CHATTERLEY: Right.
TAPPER: -- have not been able to get a hold on the pandemic.
CHATTERLEY: You have to buy the recovery. In the absence of a broader plan to fix this, you have to buy the recovery and that means spending money. There's no other way.
TAPPER: Thank you so much, Julia Chatterley, appreciate it.
President Trump's latest attempt to try to poison the election now as Trump's own officials try to protect the election from him. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:40:00]
TAPPER: We're following breaking news. The Oval Office is now a coronavirus hot zone. President Trump is inside the Oval Office despite being actively infected with the virus. The White House says the President is being briefed on stimulus talks and the hurricane hitting the U.S.
Now to our 2020 LEAD, President Trump spent the morning on a Twitter spree, swinging wildly between urging people to vote and perpetuating baseless claims about security of mail-in voting and voter fraud.
More than 3 million ballots have already been cast across the United States. And polls in another early voting state, Arizona, opened just today. But as CNN's Pamela Brown reports efforts to guard against voter intimidation are already underway.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is back at it on Twitter, attempting to undermine the election. This time he's seizing on small printing errors in North Carolina and California, saying it will be the most corrupt in American history, a completely baseless claim.
INAJO CHAPPELL, MEMBER, CUYAHOGA COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS: In the 13 years I have served on the Cuyahoga County, Ohio board of elections, including the last three presidential elections, I've never witnessed the kind of falsehoods being disseminated about the integrity of our elections process that I've been seeing in this presidential cycle.
BROWN: In a new series of videos from the Army for Trump website, the President's campaign is training supporters to become poll watchers, something both campaigns do. This video gives some specific instructions. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the time you're looking at body language.
If you see a confused look on a voter's face or a confused look on the poll worker's face or any kind of delay in the process, there's your clue.
BROWN: The videos say to be respectful and not disrupt the process. But Philadelphia's district attorney announcing a plan to protect voters from those who may show up at polling stations and try to intimidate them.
LARRY KRASNER, PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We are here to tell you that the District Attorney's office intends to make sure that there is no threatening presence at these polls. We are well prepared and ready to act immediately along with our criminal justice partners if anything like that should happen.
Your voice is important.
BROWN: And now security experts, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, are going directly to voters in a new nine-minute video.
KRIS KREBS, DIRECTOR of HOMELAND SECURITY'S CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: Because of the changes due to COVID, on November 3rd, we might not know the outcome of our election. And that's OK. But we're going to need your patience until official results are announced.
BROWN: Today early voting is now underway in the crucial swing state of Arizona, with voters lining up early to get their votes tallied. Meantime, the U.S. Postal Service says it's doing all it can to try and implement election mail rulings in light of recent data from the agency itself, showing on-time first class mail delivery plunged in September
KRISTIN SEAVER, CHIEF RETAIL AND DELIVERY OFFICER, USPS: Our number one priority between now and the November election is the secure and timely delivery of the nation's election mail. It's our duty and we take it very seriously.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And Jake, if an election matter this year goes before the Supreme Court, the President's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett remains noncommittal of whether she would recuse herself.
[15:45:00]
Christopher Coons, the Senator on -- a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, telling reporters today that he specifically asked Barrett on the phone to recuse herself over an election matter, and he said that she would not commit to that -- Jake.
TAPPER: It's quite the opposite, Republican Senators are saying that's why they need her on the court, to rule just in case there's an election issue that goes before them. Pamela Brown, thank you so much. In just a few hours, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris are going to face
off in only vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Utah. Perhaps the most important vice presidential debate in history, I have to say. And you can see it right here live on CNN, our special coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
Teleworking to protect the country. The President's top generals are quarantining with the world watching. The biggest national security concerns about that quarantine. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:50:00]
TAPPER: Back now with our POLITICS LEAD. Almost all of the nation's top military leaders are under quarantine for a second day after a senior Coast Guard official tested positive for coronavirus on Monday of this week having participated at an event for Gold Star families at the White House the week before. Nine other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are working from home today and likely through next week.
CNN chief Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me now. And Barbara, this is clearly raising some national security concerns.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is making everybody make sure that everything that can be done is being done.
General Mark Mille, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he is working at home. He is the President's chief military adviser and he maintains a classified suite of communications in his house so he can talk to anybody, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day.
And you are right, Jake. The rest of the Joint Chiefs including Mille, now expected to work from home through early next week and be in compliance with CDC guidelines about staying quarantined.
TAPPER: And Barbara, today, also marks the 19th anniversary of the beginning of America's longest war, the war in Afghanistan almost two decades ago. Service members deployed to fight against terrorist following the 9/11 attacks. Today there are sons deployed today to the same region where their fathers were years ago -- Barbara Starr.
STARR: It is amazing, Jake. You know --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STARR (voice-over): President Trump hopes to end America's longest war at the negotiating table with the Taliban.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Very shortly, we'll be down to less than 4,000 soldiers. Certain things have to be fulfilled but 19 years is a long time.
STARR: But for months, the top U.S. commander has warned the war is not over. GEN. AUSTIN SCOTT MILLER, U.S. FORCES AFGHANISTAN COMMANDER: We all
know that as long as the violence levels go high, the people that are going to pay are the civilians and so the violence needs to come down. And it needs to come down so that we have an opportunity for a sustainable peace pathway.
STARR: The current plan calls for 4,500 troops in Afghanistan by next month. Down from 8,600 earlier in the year. They will still be involved in supporting Afghan forces in the fight against the Taliban remnants of Al Qaeda and ISIS all still numbering in perhaps hundreds of fighters.
But there are still deadly Taliban attacks against the Afghan government, despite the insurgent group signing an agreement in February. The top U.S. negotiator says the Taliban are still serious about negotiating and Afghan casualties are down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the rural areas and there is violence. There are accusations by each side that the other is responsible for it. We believe that violence needs to be brought down by both sides.
STARR: The cost in lives and treasure is staggering. 2,442 Americans dead, 1,909 in combat. More than 20,000 Americans wounded, and the price tag of $793 billion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: But if conditions improve, if violence is reduced, the U.S. is still pledged to get all troops out of Afghanistan by April of next year -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much.
Breaking news. A live look at the West Wing where a Marine is standing guard as a very contagious President Trump returns to the Oval Office infected with coronavirus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:55:00]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
TAPPER: And welcome to our second hour of THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we start with the breaking news.
President Trump returning to the Oval Office this afternoon despite the fact he is infected with the highly contagious and deadly coronavirus. The White House confirming that the President was briefed in Oval Office on hurricane Delta and on stimulus talks minutes ago. The President's sudden move to pull out of stimulus negotiations yesterday left the markets plunging.
Now the Dow is about close up to 500 points -- plus -- more than 500. Plus, this afternoon, Commander Sean Conley reported that the President has been symptom free for 24 hours and fever free for 4 days. Though Conley's brief update notably leaves out specifics about the President's current course of medications, his oxygen levels or the condition of his lung. Dr. Conley however believes that President Trump reporting that he's feeling great!
The President's medical team in the White House as recently as last hour will still not say when President Trump last tested negative. That is critical information because if Trump was infected at the White House on Saturday, September 26th, as some White House aides suggest, the President may have had the virus on Air Force One that night.
He may have had virus at an event for Gold Star families the next day. He may have had the virus at the debate in Ohio on Tuesday. He may have had the virus in Minnesota at a rally on Wednesday. He may have had the virus in New Jersey on Thursday.
When did the President last test negative? We still do not know and the White House will not tell us.
CNN's White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins joins me now live. And Kaitlan, White House aides were prepared for the President to return to the West Wing but that doesn't change the fact that he's still likely contagious and further putting everyone at the complex at risk.
COLLINS: Yes, Jake, I spoke to several White House officials.
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