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The Lead with Jake Tapper
U.S. Surpasses 8 Million Coronavirus Cases; Trump in Florida, Biden in Michigan. Aired 3-3:30p ET
Aired October 16, 2020 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:02]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Go to CNNHeroes.com right now for that.
Our special coverage continues now with Jake Tapper.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
And we begin this Friday with the 2020 lead.
Minutes ago, President Trump wrapped up remarks in Fort Myers, Florida, making a pitch to seniors during this final 18-day stretch of the presidential race. President Trump making this last-ditch appeal to this key electoral group, claiming he will soon be ending the pandemic. Soon, he will crush coronavirus, he says.
The president is coming off a contentious town hall last night, in lieu of a debate with Joe Biden, a town hall in which he, in the words of Republican Senator Mitt Romney, displayed an -- quote -- "unwillingness to denounce an absurd and dangerous conspiracy theory" -- unquote -- and expressed no position a different deranged conspiracy theory that he has been spreading about whether the bin Laden raid was staged.
President Trump also claimed that the nation is rounding a corner when it comes to the pandemic. But, to be clear, according to health officials, the U.S. is not rounding any corner. In fact, that trajectory is not round at all. It's up.
The United States just past eight million confirmed cases of coronavirus. That's the highest in the world. And on the same day the president said, the U.S. topped 60,000 new cases for the first time in two months, 60,000, with nine states reporting their highest single day of new cases ever.
Yet, next hour, President Trump will continue to hold these large rallies, potential super-spreader events, as previous rallies have proven to be, with two today in Florida and Georgia.
We're going to get to President Trump in a moment.
Actually, we're going to go to Jeremy Diamond right now, who is in Florida with President Trump -- Jeremy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jake, to arrive at this Trump rally is really to enter an alternate universe of sorts.
You have thousands of people here, the same amount of crowds that you would see for the president back in the 2016 campaign, here in the state of Florida. What is so remarkable, Jake, is that, of course, we are in the middle of this pandemic. You have people who are tightly packed together.
Very, very few people here are wearing masks, Jake, and this is as cases in the United States are surging across the country. The majority of states are seeing increases. And we know that the president, as recently as last night, continued to cast out on this issue of masks.
While he talked about the fact that masks are a good thing, that he's OK with masks, he also sought to cast some doubt on the effectiveness of masks by incorrectly citing a CDC study that didn't say what the president said it was.
And what's also remarkable, Jake, is that while the president is trying to make inroads with the demographic of seniors here in the state of Florida he's been losing over his handling of the pandemic, while the president addressed them earlier today and touted his handling of the pandemic, he's continuing to hold events like this one, where a lot of senior citizens are attending, putting themselves and others in the community, of course, at risk -- Jake.
TAPPER: And, Jeremy, yes, he's calling it Protect -- he's calling these events Protecting America's Seniors, and yet the events themselves are the opposite of protecting America's seniors.
Jeremy, last night, the president was asked about whether he had been tested on the day of his first and only debate so far, tested for coronavirus, which he had been required to do. His White House communications team had said that he was tested not just every day, but multiple times every day.
He dodged the question. He refused to answer. I assume that that means the answer is likely no?
DIAMOND: Yes, the nonanswer was telling, in and of itself, right, because if he had been tested on the day of the debate, you would expect the president to remember that, especially after the weeks of speculation, and to be able to say that quite clearly.
Instead, this is what the president said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was afterwards.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS: Did you test the day of the debate?
TRUMP: I don't know, I don't even remember. GUTHRIE: Did you take a test on the day of the debate, I guess is the
bottom line?
TRUMP: I probably did.
GUTHRIE: And you don't know if you took a test the day of the debate?
TRUMP: Possibly, I did. Possibly, I didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And, Jake, not only is this critical for the questions of contact tracing, but also because the president, not only during the debate, but then after that, he continued to travel across the country. He went to a rally and some fund-raisers in Minnesota the next day and then to a fund-raiser in Bedminster, New Jersey, the day after his close aide Hope Hicks started experiencing symptoms of the virus -- Jake.
TAPPER: Yes, just continues to dodge and refuse to answer a very straight question.
Jeremy Diamond with the president in Florida, thanks so much.
Joe Biden is also back on the campaign trail today, after striking a -- I think it's fair to say, a drastically different tone in his town hall last night. Biden said that a decades-old crime bill he helped lead the way to pass was a mistake.
He said President Trump deserved a little credit for an accord between Israel and some Arab countries. He did not clarify his position on whether or not he would add justices to the Supreme Court or be willing to sign a bill that would do so. He said he would announce a position on that before the election.
CNN's M.J. Lee joins us live now.
[15:05:00]
M.J., Biden is in Michigan right now.
What is his closing message to Michiganders? It's a vital state. He has to win Michigan in 18 days.
M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It is vital state.
You cannot overstate how much the Biden campaign and the Biden candidacy right now is so centered around the issue of the coronavirus pandemic. He did just arrive in Michigan, where he is going to be giving a speech in a little while on the issue of health care.
But the overarching dynamic is going to be the pandemic and just pointing out the reality that, more than ever before, Americans are going to be needing affordable health care across the country. And when you talk to the Biden campaign, what they will say is that, yes, this issue, health care, is going to be central to their closing message.
And they see this issue as basically being sort of at the nexus of several key things that they want Biden to be talking about right now. That, of course, includes the pandemic, as I just said, but also President Trump's conduct, as you're seeing him holding this rally right now, and, obviously, the SCOTUS confirmation hearings that are going on, with Amy Coney Barrett having been nominated, and what that potentially means for the future of the Affordable Care Act.
I will just quickly note as well, in this final stage, we are going to be seeing some high-profile surrogates out on the campaign trail for Joe Biden. Former President Barack Obama is going to be campaigning in Philadelphia next week. And we are told that this is going to be one of several stops that he makes in this final stretch before Election Day.
TAPPER: All right, M.J., thanks so much.
Joining us now to discuss, CNN's Abby Phillip and "The Washington Post"'s Seung Min Kim.
Abby, let me start with you.
The ratings are in from last night's town halls. Let me just also state the ratings are irrelevant to who's going to win the election one way or the other. But it is just a fact that, according to these ratings, more people watched the Biden town hall than the Trump town hall.
We know ratings are all-important to the president. I'm wondering how you think he's going to react?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think he's going to be certainly disappointed. I mean, I think the president thinks of himself as a ratings bonanza, both because he thinks that is his value to the media ecosystem, but also because he believes that that is a measure of how interested the American public is in him.
And, in that respect, I think he's correct. What the ratings, for whatever they're worth, might show us is that perhaps Americans really actually do want to hear what Joe Biden has to say. That shouldn't be too surprising. He is the challenger here. They have had four years of President Trump.
And I think that there seems to have been some interest in really kind of getting that one-on-one experience with Joe Biden, understanding what he's campaigning on and what he's for.
On the other hand, President Trump really took that opportunity to sort of give them more of the same, which I think is probably reflected as well in the ratings.
TAPPER: Seung Min, a more important number, the U.S. has surpassed eight million coronavirus cases, nine states reporting their highest single day of new cases ever. More than 218,000 people in the U.S. have died. And yet President Trump is still out there traveling the country.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What we've done has been amazing. And we have done an amazing job. And it's rounding the corner, and we have the vaccines coming, and we have the therapies coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: We're not rounding the corner, according to health officials.
How do you think this alternative, alternate universe plays for the undecided voters out there?
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the undecided voters can actually see the facts, that, no, of course not, we have not turned the corner in this pandemic. The cases are still rising. The number of deaths are still rising.
We don't -- we hope a vaccine is available soon, but we don't have a precise timeline on that yet. And health experts are telling us we could be kind of in this situation, in this quarantine, isolated, working remotely situation for at least another year, if not more.
And I think undecided voters do see that. But you do see the president repeatedly kind of creating this alternate universe, where things will be just fine. And if there was any inkling that the president's own coronavirus diagnosis would provide more of a reality check for the president to kind of, for example, promote better public health practices, such as wearing masks, it certainly did not happen.
And you saw that at his events earlier today in Florida. You were talking about not only a crowded event with seniors, who are the most -- age-wise, the most vulnerable population to the virus, but it was an indoor event.
I mean, we have -- you have seen the president at least try to have some of these events outside. We expect his events later in Florida and in Georgia today to be just as crowded.
And this is an administration, this is a president that has continuously flouted and not practiced these vital public health guidelines that health officials have tried -- implored us to follow.
TAPPER: It's not just theory. I mean, we know for a fact of Trump events in Tulsa, in Minnesota, at the White House that led to a spread of the coronavirus.
Abby, when it comes to a broader health care plan, we know that Trump is against keeping the Affordable Care Act. He has yet to propose a detailed alternative. He was asked about this last night by Savannah Guthrie.
[15:10:06] Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTHRIE: You Have repealed, but you haven't replaced.
TRUMP: No, no.
GUTHRIE: Now, you've been in office almost four years.
TRUMP: What we have done--
GUTHRIE: You have both houses of Congress, Senate and House, in Republican hands, and there is not a replacement yet.
TRUMP: That's right. I'm sorry, but, if you look, we had both houses. And what did we do? We got rid of the individual mandate. That went through the legislature.
GUTHRIE: But the promise was repeal and replace.
TRUMP: Look, look, we should be on the same side. I want it very simple. I'm going to put it very simple.
We would like to terminate it, and we would like to replace it with something that's much less expensive and much better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: I mean, at this point, it's a joke. I mean, they have not introduced any legislation.
I mean, they could. And he's been promising one coming for two weeks now for at least a year. Does this affect Trump supporters? Are they bothered at all by this, do you think?
PHILLIP: I don't think that Trump supporters care about this now, because, if they had cared about it, they might have cared about it two years ago, when the Republican House and Senate and White House failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
There's a reason that there's no -- there's there's no attempt to put pen to paper on an actual bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act. And that's because they know that this is basically a political mine field for Republicans. They have been campaigning on it, but the details of replacing a health care plan, politically, very, very difficult.
This is just a talking point at this point. It's not going to happen between now and November. And I have questions about whether it would even happen after that. And I know Seung Min knows about this more than probably anyone.
This is a tough thing to do. And Republicans learned that the hard way. But President Trump knows that, for independent voters and for moderate voters, health care is so important. So he has to give the appearance that this is something that he has a plan for, even though the evidence shows that he does not.
TAPPER: And, Seung Min, President Trump last night also had a bizarre answer when asked to condemn this group of conspiracy theorists QAnon, which has been labeled a potential domestic terror threat by the FBI. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I know nothing about QAnon.
GUTHRIE: I just told you.
TRUMP: I know very little. You told me, but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact. I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard.
But I know nothing about it. If you'd like me to--
GUTHRIE: They believe that it is a Satanic cult run by the deep state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: It's crazy. This is not a group that fights pedophilia. This is a group that believes that Democrats in Hollywood have a secret Satanic pedophilia, cannibalistic cabal.
People have been hurt. At least one person has been killed. The FBI is warning about it.
Why? Why will he not denounce this group?
KIM: And it's also surprising why the president keeps saying he does not know much details about this group, because, like I said, like you pointed out, federal officials have pointed out the danger of this group, but also he has been asked about this before by reporters.
But what the president knows is that some of these QAnon supporters are his supporters.
TAPPER: Right.
KIM: And he's loath to kind of denounce that.
But you do see the QAnon influence spread, if slowly, through the Republican Party. You have Kelly Loeffler, the appointed senator in Georgia, who is trying to win reelection outright. She is very proudly touting the endorsement of a QAnon candidate in Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
And that's why you hear voices like Mitt Romney trying to spread this before it goes too much further within the GOP.
TAPPER: All right, Abby Phillip, Seung Min, thank you both. Nine states just set a record for the most coronavirus cases in a
single day, and President Trump will soon be on the way to another one of them to pack people into a rally.
And a bitterly fought race in a battleground state that could decide the direction of this country. And I'm not talking Trump v. Biden.
Stay with us.
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[15:18:14]
TAPPER: In our national lead today, today, the United States surpassed eight million diagnosed coronavirus cases, eight million, and there are more warning signs that the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction.
The U.S. topped 60,000 new cases in a single day yesterday. That's the first time that's happened in more than two months. And 820 Americans died from the virus yesterday, 820. Nine states just set a record for most new cases in a day throughout this pandemic.
And, as CNN's Nick Watt reports for us now, there are new concerns that the president's visit to one of those states will become another super-spreader event.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a MAGA rally in Wisconsin tomorrow night. Will the president mentioned the state is now seeing all-time record high new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths? Unlikely.
TOM BARRETT (D), MAYOR OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: We saw it at the Rose Garden just a couple of weeks ago. And we could see another super- spreader event in Janesville tomorrow.
WATT: Hot spots are popping up again in Connecticut, 12 now dead in a nursing home outbreak in California. New Mexico's average daily case count more than doubled over the past two weeks.
GOV. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM (D-NM): Pay attention to the facts. It is a deadly, highly contagious virus. The virus is now winning.
WATT: Nine states just set a record, most new cases in a day. Latest national numbers, yesterday, we topped 60,000 for the first time since mid-August. Second wave, third wave, ominous either way.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: It's still not too late to vigorously apply good public health measures and, again, I emphasize, without necessarily shutting down the country.
[15:20:04]
WATT: Disappointing news on remdesivir, used on the president, the only drug explicitly authorized to treat COVID-19 in the U.S.: It has little or no effect on mortality for hospitalized patients, according to the WHO.
Better news on vaccines. Assuming positive data, Pfizer will apply for emergency authorization use in the U.S. soon after the safety milestone is achieved in the third week of November, so after the election, and note the word "assuming" is doing a little work there.
The data would be reviewed, not only by the FDA's own scientists, but also by an external panel of independent experts at a publicly held meeting convened by the agency to ensure public trust. Some say the president has eroded that trust.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: And, Jake, you mentioned eight million confirmed cases now in the U.S.
We are world leaders. Only three other countries have even passed the one million case mark. Now, our latest one million, we added them in just 22 days. Now, are we going to pick up the pace, or are we going to slow the spread? That is still largely down to all of us and these -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Nick Watt in Los Angeles, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Joining us now to discuss, Dr. Austin Baeth. He's a physician at UnityPoint Health in Des Moines, Iowa.
Doctor, thanks so much for joining us.
So, Iowa, sadly, one of the states that appears on our coronavirus tracking maps in red, not just for averaging new cases, but also for new deaths.
How bad is it on the ground in Iowa right now? And what is driving it?
DR. AUSTIN BAETH, UNITYPOINT HEALTH DES MOINES: The virus is absolutely winning right now. We are on defense.
What's driving it, I believe, is probably the lack of our personal safety measures to try to prevent ourselves from getting this disease. And that's mostly wearing masks in public and keeping our distance, avoiding mass gatherings.
Unfortunately, the adherence of Iowans to these recommendations is spotty, at best. We see probably better adherence, it appears, in the urban areas, but lackluster adherence in the rural areas.
TAPPER: Iowa also has the fourth highest positivity rate in the country over the past week, 20.17 percent.
That means, of every 100 people who come in for a test, 20 of them, more than 20, have a virus -- have the virus. The state also had a record number of new hospitalizations on Wednesday. Graphs show a pretty clear increase in the number of patients who need to be hospitalized.
It seems to me -- and I hope I'm wrong, but it seems to me that these signs suggest things are going to keep getting worse in Iowa.
BAETH: Absolutely.
The fact that our test positivity rate is so high means that we are missing a lot of cases. There are a lot of people out there who aren't even being diagnosed yet. The WHO and the CDC says that we should have a case positivity -- a test positivity rate of 5 percent or less to be able to have a handle on what's going on with the pandemic.
So it's probably really worse than what we actually see right now in terms of number of cases.
The rising hospitalization rate is a more robust data set that we are now looking at that is really causing us concern. All parts of the state are rising in hospitalizations, especially the corners of the state.
TAPPER: I know you have treated coronavirus patients.
Without disclosing any personal patient information, of course, can you walk us through what treatments you have actually seen some success with?
BAETH: Sure.
And, anecdotally -- that's why we have large trials to really tell what treatments actually made somebody better vs. a placebo effect. We have two main treatments right now that have decent evidence behind them. Dexamethasone is something that we are using now that appears to be effective for people who are requiring oxygen.
And then, well, as you just heard prior to my interview, remdesivir, which we had been using pretty broadly, just now we have this study coming out that now questions whether it improves mortality. We had prior studies that show that it might help people recover faster. And so we're going to have to hash out whether this actually has a benefit for patients.
It's a helpless feeling taking care of patients with coronavirus, because we don't really have that many evidence-based tools in our tool set. We give them oxygen. We support them. We try those drugs. And then we hope for the best.
TAPPER: You're a big proponent of mask-wearing, obviously, as is every reputable health official. You have criticized the governor Iowa for not imposing a mask mandate.
[15:25:02]
I have seen pictures of her hosting events, participating in events indoors, no masks, crowds in the room. Yesterday, President Trump questioned whether face -- whether masks are effective.
It really seems like the leadership of this country, specific leaders, your governor, President Trump, are sending the exact wrong message.
BAETH: We know that behavioral change is critical to controlling pandemics.
We all need to take our part in making some sacrifice to protect ourselves and, in turn, protect others, especially the more vulnerable people around us.
And that requires leadership. I'm going to tell you the truth. We doctors are feeling frustrated and we're feeling helpless.
They refer to health care workers as being on the front lines. We're actually more in the back, taking care of the casualties. The people on the front lines are everyday people trying to get by in their daily lives in the midst of a terrible health crisis. And they need to be guided by leaders to figure out how to navigate this crisis.
And those who are showing neglect we are seeing in the back, trying to help them. And we're also taking care of other people's neglect.
TAPPER: Yes.
Dr. Austin Baeth, thank you so much, and thanks for what you do.
President Trump compared to someone's crazy uncle to his face on national TV, as he gives himself a pass for retweeting the disgusting lie about President Obama, Vice President Biden, and SEAL Team Six.
Stay with us.
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