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Don Lemon Tonight
President Trump Denies Seeing Peter Navarro's Memo; White House Press Secretary Out Of Her Post; Too Soon For New York To Chill; Acting Secretary Of The Navy Resigns After Calling Ousted Aircraft Carrier Captain Stupid; USNS Comfort Changes Mission, Now Taking Coronavirus Patients; President Trump On Reopening The Country: I'd Love To Open With A Big Bang; More Than 12,800 U.S. Deaths From Coronavirus Cases, 1,800-Plus Deaths Reported Today, The Most In One Day; Voting In Wisconsin Amid Coronavirus Fears. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired April 07, 2020 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right. Time for tonight's dose of gratitude. Listen to New York City saluting our heroes.
Big cities impressive, but this is happening all over the country, communities big and small. Look at this in New Jersey, a nurse who treats COVID patients came home to her little quiet suburb and look what she found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Janeke (Ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: Janeke Nobles (Ph) of Montclair, New Jersey. Listen to your neighbors. They are all of us. We see you. Thank you for being our best. This is the medicine that will make us get better. Remember how many are doing so much for us. Do your part as well. That's how we get through it. Together, as ever, as one.
Time for "CNN TONIGHT." You know what that means. D. Lemon.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: How are you doing, brother?
CUOMO: Better than I deserve.
LEMON: You know I'm worried about you. I didn't talk to you that much. I haven't -- well, I got a text -- we texted, what, a little bit today? What do you have? Is that a cough drop?
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: You're looking a little red today, got to be honest.
CUOMO: I got sun. LEMON: Yes? You went outside again?
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: Huh?
CUOMO: You're not a doctor.
LEMON: I know I'm not a doctor. I just said you're looking a little red.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: I have sun. I went out today to get vitamin D. That's what they tell you to do, is to try to get it directly from the sun. It helps activate and process the vitamin D in your system. So, to the extent that I can get lucky and I do it, it helps. And also, my fever --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I'm not judging.
CUOMO: -- checks down faster.
LEMON: I'm not judging. Last time I saw you were in the sun. And I was 10 feet away from you. You don't remember? You were sitting out on the deck, and I came over and had your toilet paper in the car.
CUOMO: I'm trying to forget as much of this as possible.
LEMON: I know. But how are you doing? As I say, you look a little red. I'm just checking up on you. So, I just got a text you said --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: I'm doing well. I'm --
LEMON: -- you said you had the fever last night.
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: Last night sucked.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: Last night sucked. And it depressed me this morning. And then I started hearing from a couple of my buddies who are getting back to their families, and I'm so happy for them. It made me cry. Cry, I really don't even understand why. You know, I haven't touched my kids in over a week.
And imagine 23 days, 25 days with these guys who are every bit as much about their family as I am not touching your kid, not touching your loved one. I mean, you know, you know why you're doing it, but, man, that's tough.
So, I feel so good for them and I'm so jealous of them at the same time, you know? I look so forward to that. And it helps me talking to a guy like Mario Diaz-Balart. You know, I've been a fan of his since way before he got into this dirty game, but the -- the idea that he worked through it. It wasn't always easy.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: He had to take some breaks, but he didn't let it keep him down and I respect that.
LEMON: Don't let this go to your head and don't get too used to this, but I think I've been a little hard on you because you know I keep telling you --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: I'm sorry, can you say that again?
LEMON: I've been a little hard -- yes, I've been a little hard on you because I've been saying, Chris, get off TV, relax, we want you back. But this is what's keeping you going. That's who you are. I realized that.
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: I was sitting in my office watching, I'm like, he can't help himself. He cannot -- this is who he is. In the same way -- I'll let you. You want to respond to that? Because you can't help yourself.
That's -- if you weren't doing this, you'd be doing it some other way. You'd be shouting across the fence to neighbors or you'd be on the radio doing it or you'd be calling me up or you'd be texting or you'd be putting out a newsletter. You'd be doing something.
CUOMO: I'll tell you why I'm doing it. One, my life right now is all about the future, right? I got nothing right now. My body is nothing. What I'm able to accomplish myself is nothing. That I'm used to doing. My whole perspective is about what comes next. When I get phone call from people or social media contacts saying, hey, can you help me with that breathing exercise?
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: Hey, you know, what supplements work for you? I can't take Tylenol or different things like that, and I'm able to give them information, that makes it all worthwhile. I look forward to this show more than I ever have before.
LEMON: OK. I just want people to know that -- because you know there are haters out there, right? That you really are sick and I don't want you to put your own health in jeopardy.
CUOMO: Don, please. LEMON: I know. I don't want you -- no, forget that. I don't want
people -- I don't want you to put your own health in jeopardy because you're trying to help others so much. That's what gets me upset.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: But that's -- but that's what keeps --
LEMON: That's what I -- didn't I just tell you like a minute ago?
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: And I don't care. People don't -- I don't care. People think so many stupid things.
LEMON: I know.
[22:05:00]
CUOMO: You know, one of my hopes about the pandemic is that it really clears away some of this B.S. fog of all of these things that we fabricate to keep ourselves apart. And, you know, you want to believe I'm not sick? I wish you were right, for the first time with so many of you people. I wish you were right about me being wrong.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: But that's not my concern. My concern is the authenticity of the need. And if I can help people, give them information, let them know they're going to get through it. Even when I doubted myself from time to time, that makes any heat that comes with this way more than worth it, even if it means I got to talk to my brother more than usual.
LEMON: Well, listen, you put yourself first, OK? That's all I want you to do. Stop crunching that cough drop. You're still on TV. Don't forget. It's just not --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: I keep it real. I keep it real.
LEMON: All right, Chris.
CUOMO: I keep it real. You -- you know, that's what happens. When I talk to you, I grinded my teeth. D. Lemon, thank you for the love.
LEMON: I'll see you, brother. Love you. Take it easy.
This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.
CUOMO: I love you.
LEMON: Here is our breaking news. This is the new tragic death toll from the coronavirus right now. The total deaths in this country more than 12,800, 12,800. That is an increase of more than 1,800 deaths just today. The highest new deaths in a single day.
Tonight, we are closing in on 400,000 U.S. cases. And in the face of that, the president says that he wants to be a cheerleader for the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to go out and start screaming this could happen, this could happen. So, again, as president, I think a president has to be a cheerleader for their country. But at the same time, I'm cheerleading, I'm also closing down a very highly infected place, specifically the location as you know in China that had the problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, he's got one part of that right. It's leader. Leader. Not cheerleader. Telling people what could happen and preparing for that to happen is what you are supposed to do.
Yes, Americans do need their president to give them hope, but we also need the facts about what we are facing. Facts could be -- well, no, they are the difference between life and death. Which means the weeks and months this administration spent not taking this seriously is a bitter pill to swallow on a day that over 1,700 Americans died.
No amount of cheerleading can ever bring those people back.
And we know there was yet another warning in the form of memos written by his own trade adviser back in January. Memos warning the coronavirus could become a full-blown pandemic, risking trillions of dollars in economic losses and the health of millions.
CNN has seen one of those memos and it's addressed to the president. Yet he claims he never saw it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see these memos that reportedly Peter Navarro wrote back in January? When did you see them and how does that -- these memos sort of square with what you've often said, that nobody could have predicted this? It sounds like he was predicting this.
TRUMP: I didn't see them, but I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic. I didn't see them. I didn't look for them either. But that was about the same time as I felt that we should do it. That was about the same time that I closed it down.
I asked him about it just a little while ago because I read something about a memo. I said, did you do a memo? I didn't look -- I didn't see it. I didn't ask him to show it to me. He said, yes, I talked about the possibility of a pandemic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So think about this. He says he didn't see the memos. He says he didn't look for them either. Maybe he didn't. So then this is the best-case scenario is that a member of his administration warns of a deadly pandemic, puts that warning in writing twice, send it is to multiple officials up to and including his chief of staff, and the president doesn't know anything about it and shrugs off the whole thing?
That's just not the kind of leadership we need right now. It's not even cheer leadership. I've said it before, this is a president who cannot handle the truth. He even denies what we've all heard him say before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said this week will be very painful, very difficult, but a few weeks ago you said this was just like a flu. What have you learned --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I didn't say two weeks ago it was like a flu.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Few weeks ago.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: You know what, can I tell you what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question is this, Mr. President, what have you learned --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Excuse me. Ready?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- that it could offer as an advice to foreign leaders who still skeptical about this pandemic and who are against social distancing. What is your advice? What have you learned?
TRUMP: OK. You said I said it was just like a flu. So, the worst pandemic we ever had in this world was a flu, and it was called -- you know that.
[22:10:04]
It was in 1917, 1918, and anywhere from 50 to 100 million people died. That was a flu, OK? So, you could say that I said it was a flu or you could say -- the flu is nothing to sneeze at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The president denying that he compared the coronavirus to the flu. That is exactly what he said. And when he compared the coronavirus to the flu, he was not talking about the pandemic flu in 1918, he was talking about the seasonal flu, the kind of flu we see every year. Here is the proof. You ready? This is March 24th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We've had horrible flus. I mean, think of it. We average 36,000 people, death, death. I'm not talking about cases, I'm talking about death, 36,000 deaths a year. People die, 36 -- from the flu, but we've never closed down the country for the flu. So, you say to yourself, what is this all about?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Deny, deny, deny. And as voters lined up in Wisconsin today, forced to choose between a stay-at-home order and voting in the state that was blocked from delaying the election and extending absentee voting, the president was all worked up about voting by mail, claiming that people who vote by mail cheat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The other thing they want to do, which is crazy, at the end of the election, they wanted to have one week for proxies to come in or mail ballots. Now, mail ballots, they cheat, OK? People cheat. Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country because they're cheaters. They go and collect them. They're fraudulent in many cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Cheaters, huh? This from the president who himself voted by mail in Florida's election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were highly critical of mail-in voting, mailing in mail-in ballots for voting.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I think mail-in voting is horrible. It's corrupt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you voted by mail in Florida's election last month, didn't you?
TRUMP: Sure, I can vote by mail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So how do you reconcile that?
TRUMP: Because I'm allowed to. Well, that's called out of state. You know why I voted? Because I happened to be in the White House and I won't be able to go to Florida to vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So, it is okay for you because you are allowed to vote -- it's OK for you. Wisconsinites need to stand in line, though, for hours in a pandemic -- in a pandemic hotspot, though. OK. Got it.
This really makes me so angry. I hope to God that every single one of these devoted Americans who stood in line to vote today remain safe and they remain well. If not, there should be hell to pay for it.
This should never happen in the United States. Never, ever. Don't get it twisted here. You know why the president wants to make it harder to vote. It's not his claims of fraud, which are totally bogus. He told his friends on Fox, but it was all about what he described his opposition some of the different funding the Democrats tried to put into financial rescue package, that package which included vote by mail. Watch.
(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)
TRUMP: The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again.
(END VOICE CLIP)
LEMON: It is not about fraud. Don't fall for the okey-doke. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, in the revolving door that is this White House, press secretary who never held a single press briefing, her name is Stephanie Grisham, in case you probably don't know because she's never had press briefings. She is out. Right?
The unbroken record of refusing to answer questions from reporters in anything approaching an actual briefing. Which was her literal job. Even now under the coronavirus. But American lives depend on having the facts, instead she went on Fox News day after day saying things like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE GRISHAM, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I just want to stress to politicians and the media to stop using this as a tool to politicize things and to scare people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It is definitely not the time to politicize this. It would be a shame for that to happen. It would be a shame if every day White House officials, including the president, would stand at that podium and use these briefings to score political points and spread lies from the podium.
[22:14:55]
Who's replacing Stephanie Grisham? Kayleigh McEnany, who said this to Trish Regan on Fox Business, who, by the way, is also out of a job after she dismissed the coronavirus as a scam by the president's enemies. Here is Kayleigh McEnany in a clip posted by Andrew Kosinski of CNN's K-File.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: This president will always put America first. He will always protect American citizens. We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here. We will not see terrorism come here. And isn't that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: There you go. Speaking to an audience of one. One who just can't get enough of the old blame Obama okey-doke. But you heard what Kayleigh McEnany said about the coronavirus. We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here.
She said that on February 25th when this country already had 57 cases of the coronavirus, 40 of them connected to the Diamond Princess. And listen to what she said in a radio interview. This was March 11th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCENANY: They tried to score cheap political points. We've seen this all along. The coronavirus is just one example. They tried it with Russia, with Ukraine. It's whatever they can come up with to try to knock this president down, which isn't just about the president, it's about taking down the vote of the American people. That's ultimately what this is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's what the president said, remember? Same thing. Kind of what everybody said. All of the right-wing media. All of the apologists for the president, they said the same thing. Remember, that it was a Democratic media hoax about taking out the president.
And yet here we are. This is not about taking down the president. This is not about taking down the vote of the American people. This is about Americans' lives. It is about 1,858 people who lost their lives today. It is about a whole country that is in mourning.
CNN's White House Correspondent is Kaitlan Collins, our Chief Political Correspondent is Dana Bash. They're both here to discuss. Good evening to both of you.
Dana, the president was asked about why he downplayed the virus for so long. He said he was obviously worried about it. He said he was just being a cheerleader. Is that the case then where -- where are these tests? Where are the PPE the doctors need and the nurses and the people on the front line? Why is the entire country closed down if he knew?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not the case that he -- maybe he now is saying that he was a cheerleader then, but the reality of it was that he was in denial. Publicly and privately. Privately at the time, I was reporting. I know Kaitlan was hearing. He was making the rounds of calls to people he knows saying woe is me. The economy is going to go south with all this if it gets worse.
Making it about him and about his re-election prospects. And that was much more of a focus, at least in conversations with people who he was talking to outside the White House than about what he needed to do inside the White House as a leader to do the things that you mentioned, Don. Not just talk about, you know, how wonderful America is, which is all
nice and terrific, but to do the things he needs to do to keep Americans safe. And back then it was, as you said, making sure that people had proper equipment, and by people, I mean America's heroes, the health -- healthcare workers, but also ventilators and much more importantly, tests.
And you could even fast forward back to where we are right now. There are a lot more tests. There are not enough tests. Particularly to do what he wants to do and everybody wants to do, which is re-open society. You can't do that without proper testing, and we're nowhere near that point.
LEMON: Kaitlan, we're also hearing that the U.S. death toll may not be as bad as the task force's modelling predicted last week. What can you tell us about that?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is notable. Remember last week, we were kind of stunned when the doctors came out, they showed these projections. They said even if the country did its best social distancing, the death toll they were looking at was 100,000 to 240,000 people.
And today we heard the CDC director, Robert -- Dr. Robert Redfield go on radio. He said that actually those -- he said the estimate that they've been looking at was a 50 percent of the country advised and observe those social distancing mandates that the White House has put out, those guidelines that they put out.
[22:19:54]
But when we asked the task force about this, Katie Miller, a spokesperson for the vice president said he was basing that off of revision that they put in as they plugged in more data and that the models that Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci had been going off of at that briefing was really a conglomeration of all these models that they've been pulling in.
But it's really notable. Because the question of course is what exactly is the accurate information here? And what are we getting from the White House? And what are they basing their numbers off of?
Because of course, people want to know what is going to be the result of them protecting these social distancing guidelines? And we haven't gotten clear answers on that in the last 24 hours or so.
So, we're still waiting to see exactly what these models are going to look at. Because we wanted to know what the White House is looking at when they get up every day what they're basing their projections and their decisions that the president himself is making based off of what data.
LEMON: Dana, thank you. Kaitlan, we appreciate you working on your birthday. Thank you very much.
BASH: Happy birthday. LEMON: Yes. Thank you. Happy birthday to you.
COLLINS: Of course.
LEMON: This was the deadliest day so far of the coronavirus, but there are signs things may be starting to get better. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains. He's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The new death toll from coronavirus in this country, more than 12,800. That is an increase of more than 1,800 deaths just today. But we are seeing a glimmer of hope that social distancing is working.
[22:24:59]
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me. Sanjay, good to see you. Man, you have been working. How you holding up?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. I'm doing OK.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: Feeling a little tired, but feeling good, Don. How are you?
LEMON: I'm doing OK, but you've been working a lot more than me, man. I see you on TV 24/7. So, make sure you get some rest because we need you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
LEMON: Let's talk about this. Today was the deadliest day of this pandemic in New York City. The governor, Governor Andrew Cuomo says that the number of hospitalizations was -- has plateaued. How do we square these two developments? Because they seem sort of counterintuitive.
GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting, Don. As you know when you look at these numbers that we're putting up on the screen, they're really reflecting a period of time that was a couple, three weeks ago.
Think about it, Don. Someone gets exposed. By the time they might develop symptoms or get tested, a week or two may pass. If they need hospitalization, which is a small percentage of people, it may be another week to 10 days, and then after that, sadly, if they die, sometime after that.
So, when you see these deaths reported and you're asking yourself, what time did the exposure occur? When did somebody start to develop symptoms? It's in the past. So, infection, hospitalization and then these sad deaths.
So, you can see the deaths continue to go up if the hospitalizations are going down, that's a good sign, Don, as long as the trend continues, that means deaths will likely follow within the next week or so. Don, take a look at the numbers on the screen. Better projections this
week versus last week. You see that the total number of deaths predicted gone down, but the peak deaths gone up at any particular time. And that's because they're expecting more of a -- of a sort of -- instead of having a long, flat sort of plateau, it will still be a plateau, but maybe a shorter duration, so you can have a higher number of peak deaths, but overall, fewer number of deaths.
Don, these are models. We're going to see a lot of models and they have a lot of variation within these models. Someone once said to me that all models are wrong but some are useful, and I think that's what, you know, what we can say here as well. We're going to keep reading them and try to make sense of them for you, don.
LEMON: All right. I got a couple more things I want to talk to you about but there's something that I said last night. Anderson we both noticed. I said last night Anderson said today he notice.
I have been seeing, I've been noticing more people out on the streets in New York. The traffic is busier. I've been seeing more people out. I don't know if it's because people are saying, there's a plateau or people are just getting more comfortable, but that's not a good sign. That is not a good sign, doctor.
GUPTA: It's not. And, you know, I think, you know, a certain complacency starts to set in, you know, and, you know, look, I can understand it. I got three kids in the house here. And you know, people are starting to go stir crazy. I get that part of it, but you can't let up.
I mean, all these models, as tragic as those numbers are, are predicated not only on the fact that we continue to stay at home, but we still have to do this for a while.
I know that's not what anybody wants to hear, but if we do this now, it's going to save us a lot of pain later on. You know, sometimes things like this in life, you know -- nothing like this has ever happened to us, I think, most people.
But this is a tough period and we got to stay on it. I will tell you that, you know, if you start to look around these places where people have started to take their foot off the pedal, if you will, in terms of stay-at-home orders, you do start to see some questionable, you know, resurgence or at least the numbers starting to creep up again in other countries around the world. So, we can't do that.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: We can't do that. All the models predicate on that we stay home.
LEMON: Good advice from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our chief medical correspondent. Sanjay has been doing a lot of research on this. Sanjay, thank you. Including the high risk of African-Americans that they're facing in this crisis. He's going to bring us that next hour. And make sure you join Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson for another town
hall. This time with a special guest, Magic Johnson. Coronavirus: Facts and Fears, live Thursday night, 8 p.m. Eastern. We'll see Sanjay next hour.
The navy hospital docked in New York is officially taking coronavirus patients. We're going to get an update live on board.
[22:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly resigning today, the day after audio leaked of him blasting the fired commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as stupid in an address to the ship's crew. Modly apologized for those comments last night.
And in a memo to the Navy today, Modly writes, I brought incoming fire on to our team and I am convinced that the fire will continue unrelentingly until the target is gone. I know what I have to do to save the ship. It's my fault. I own it.
So, the resignation comes a week after a memo written by Captain Brett Crozier sounding the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak on his ship was leaked to the press. Modly will be replaced by the undersecretary of the army, James McPherson, who served on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the 1980s, according to the Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Now I want to bring in Captain Patrick Amersbach. He's the commanding officer of the USNS Comfort in New York City, where the ship is now taking coronavirus patients. Captain, thank you very much. I understand a crew member of your ship, by the way, good evening and thank you for doing this.
CAPTAIN PATRICK AMERSBACH, MILITARY TREATMENT FACILITY COMMANDING OFFICER, USNS COMFORT: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
LEMON: I understand a crew member onboard of your ship has tested positive for the coronavirus. This person didn't have contact with patients. But what is being done to care for that crew member and isolate any potential spread?
AMERSBACH: Sure. The crew member is doing well. They are isolated from the rest of the crew. And as you had mentioned, they had absolutely no contact with any patients aboard the ship.
LEMON: So, there should -- no one on board the ship should be worried? You're sure that all will be OK, no potential spread to any other crew members?
[22:35:04]
AMERSBACH: Well, you know, again, now that we are seeing covid-19 aboard the ship, we really don't know. All we can do is prepare. We can follow guidelines. We can follow policies set forth by both the DOD and the CDC to protect our crew. We are doing everything that we possibly can to ensure the crew remains safe.
The methods or actually some of the procedures we're doing may be not common. We are actually blocking off some of the areas to the actual hospital within the ship. Minimizing traffic in those areas. We're moving some of our crew to a local hotel just to allow for greater social distancing and to mitigate that the possibility of spreading amongst the crew.
LEMON: So, you think that you will be able to continue your mission, that this doesn't compromise the Comfort's mission?
AMERSBACH: No, sir. Not at all. Not at this time. We've had a very busy day and we're going to continue to take patients into the night. We have I believe around 10 ICU-level vented patients that are headed our way over the next six hours from one of the local hospitals. So, again, our mission change a little bit. We are adaptable. We are ready for that kind of change and we are ready to go.
LEMON: All right. Captain, the Comfort will be acting together with the Javits medical station to handle coronavirus cases. How is that cooperation working?
AMERSBACH: It's working very well. So the Javits Center was set up. Actually, we were communicating almost exclusively with them through a communication center. That was the hub by which hospitals could communicate with the comfort to transfer patients.
They have the ability to take care of patients themselves, all covid- 19 patients, including some critical patients. So, it is a very good relationship between that location and ours. There's plenty of work to do, so we're ready to share and take care of New Yorkers.
LEMON: Well, captain, I know it's an interesting and very busy time. We appreciate you joining us. We know that you have a lot of work to do. We can see that you are being safe there. You have your mask on. Thank you so much for joining us and we hope that you'll come back.
AMERSBACH: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
LEMON: Thank you.
AMERSBACH: And I will.
LEMON: Thank you very much.
The president tonight says that he wants to re-open the country, quote, with a big bang. What exactly does that mean? And when will the country be ready to re-open?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:40:00]
LEMON: President Trump saying tonight he'd love to re-open the country with a bang. Here's what he said in a Fox News interview just moments ago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'd love to open with a big bang, one beautiful country and just open, but it's very possible, you know, there are some areas that are not affected very much. We're looking at two concepts. We are looking at the concept, we open up sections, and we're also looking at the concept where you open up everything.
I think New York is getting ready, if not already, but getting ready to peak. And once it peaks, it will start coming down and then it's going to come down fast. We're way under any polls or any of the models as they call them -- they have models, and we're way under and we hope to keep it that way in terms of death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The president making those comments despite this country reporting its highest death toll in a single day and health experts are still sounding the alarm about inadequate testing. CNN's Drew Griffin is here with the truth about the testing, and also joining me, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, George Washington University Hospital cardiologist to former Vice President Dick Cheney. Good evening, gentlemen.
So transparent, I'm sure, when he says big bang. He's talking about the Fourth of July, big pageantry, parade. There you go, I said it. Mark my words. So, good evening. Good to see both of you. Dr. Reiner, I'm going to start with you. When you hear the president talk about re-opening with a big bang, what goes through your mind?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CARDIOLOGIST, WASHINGTON: It's a little bit of an unrealistic goal. What I think everyone has to just become comfortable with is that this pandemic is going to play out, you know, probably over 18 months. The 1918 pandemic wasn't just 1918. It went almost to 1921. So we're going to have to develop strategies to open our society. We can do that. We're resilient.
Resilience is baked into our DNA, but we're going to have to be smart and we're going to have to reinvent how we live. So rather than just -- this is not a binary process of just simply turning the switch on. We're going to have to reinvent how we live in an environment where threat isn't going to go away completely.
LEMON: Drew, getting testing to where it needs to be is key to even consider re-opening the country. You have been speaking to health experts. Why does testing -- where does testing, I should say, stand at the moment?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It keeps getting better, Don, but just like the virus itself, as the virus marches across the United States, there is the hot spots that pick up and shortages persist. We're still not getting enough testing. Everybody who wants a test is not getting a test. Turnaround times at some of the big labs, Lab Corps, Quest, they're still reporting turnaround times of four to five days. So, patients are waiting that long. Doctors are waiting that long just
to find out if they have it. And even as these testing improve, the shortages are tremendous. I've talked to several people today, including Glenn Morris, he is the -- he runs the labs down at the University of Florida, and he almost laughed when he heard the president talk yesterday about how great the testing is. Here's what he told me today.
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DR. J. GLENN MORRIS, DIRECTOR, EMERGING PATHOGENS INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: So, it's day by day. I mean, the availability of testing really goes on a day by day basis. Depending on what supplies are in-house and what the availability is.
[22:45:11]
And as I said, it's crazy, but the availability of swabs. You know, again, this is insane. We don't have enough swabs to do swab testing of patients? But that's the reality on the ground, and I think as you talk to, you know, people on the front lines across the country, you're going to get this -- these same messages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: And, Don, that is exactly the message we are getting from all corners of the country. There is still the shortages of what it takes to do a test, let alone have the tests ready and available for all the patients who need it.
LEMON: Dr. Reiner, when you hear about where we are with this testing, you heard what Drew said, what does that tell you?
REINER: Well, we have a long way to go and we have to also at some point pivot to simply just testing for the antigen, for presence of the virus itself to also testing widely for the antibody. And that's going to be key because the widespread assumption is that the virus has been here longer than we think and many more people have been exposed to the virus. And what that means by extension is that a lot of people have antibodies to the virus and are essentially at least for the near term immune.
So, once we start testing for antibodies, we're going to find that a significant portion of our population is immune and can be back to work. It's going to be a big confidence boost. So that's how we're going to get segments of our sort of normalcy back, by identifying the proportion of folks in our population that have already either convalesced or had asymptomatic infection. So antibody testing is going to be the next frontier and we're going to have to ramp up and be able to do that on an enormous scale.
LEMON: Dr. Reiner, Drew Griffin, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Wisconsin holding elections today despite the coronavirus crisis, forcing voters to choose between their health and their vote.
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[22:50:00]
LEMON: Wisconsin holding its primary today in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. State GOP leaders blocking the effort by the Democratic governor to delay the vote until June. Here's Republican assembly speaker, Robin Vos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ROBIN VOS (R-WI): You are incredibly safe to go out. So, I think that is why people have to use their own best judgment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. Vos went on to say that voters face minimal exposure. Yet he was dressed more like a surgeon or like someone who works in a hazmat situation than a political leader. So voters who want to cast their ballot many likely afraid of coronavirus did their best to stand far apart from each other. You see them there. Trying to distance themselves. So, let's bring in now former Congressman Charlie Dent, and Juliette Kayyem, Juliette is a former official with the Department of Homeland Security.
Good evening. Boy, I haven't seen you two in quite a while. What strange times we are living in. Who would have thought? Good to see you. Especially you, Charlie, we'll talk about that in a moment. But Juliette, I just want to get your comment before I talk to Charlie. In a middle of a deadly pandemic the death toll rising with the statewide shelter in place order in effect. Wisconsin asked its citizens to come out and vote today. Give me your reaction.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's outrageous. I mean, to the extent that the court wasn't meeting in person. I'm not quite sure why they would demand citizens to meet in person or to vote. Let me just be clear. It's not safe to be outside. No, you can be in whatever you're wearing whatever he was in some space suit or whatever. We should not have average citizens going outside even if masked. If you have to go outside wear a mask. But mostly stay inside.
So, I think it's outrageous. I think the calendar hit at a really bad time for Wisconsin. So hopefully states will see what happened in Wisconsin and prepare for the potential that either primaries will be delayed or that they are going to have alternative voting. You know, whether it's mail in or absentee ballots or whatever it may be. I'm pretty confident that by the time we get to November, even if we have a second wave of the virus.
We are going to have enough tools to be able to manage and minimize its impact on people's right to vote. And I think the real big question now is whether the conventions occur. I don't think people are going to miss them if they don't. But I think that's sort of probably the big question right now.
LEMON: Charlie, so, the reason I said it's especially good to see you is because you have tested positive for covid-19. And I just want to hear first how you're doing. And then second, how you feel about these people going to vote during a pandemic.
FMR. REP. CHARLIE DENT (R-PA), CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure, Don. Hey, I'm actually feeling all right. Believe it or not. The worst of it for me has been this persistent feeling of fatigue. You know, I had a slight cough a couple of weeks ago. And that developed into some back aches. That was the worst of it for me. I never really felt very feverish. Had chills and sweats at times. But just it's really the persistent feeling of fatigue. It's been probably the hardest part of this so far.
You know, the mornings are better than the evening generally. But I'll get through it. And you know, I got tested at the recommendation of my physician. I found the results, got them back in about four or five, you know, four or five days. It was pretty quick. Pretty painless. And I hope to kind of power through this.
And by the way, speaking of Wisconsin, I got to tell you, here in Pennsylvania we have a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature. And they postponed the election here from April 28 until June 2nd. And without any controversy. Everybody agreed it was the right thing to do and they moved on.
[22:55:16]
I'm just surprised Wisconsin would take the risk like this. Really knowing that they don't have to.
LEMON: Juliette, there were many Wisconsin voters at the polls without the protective equipment that Vos is wearing. I mean, how do we balance in these situations? Public health with electoral responsibility. I mean, this is -- it is a presidential election year. We have to keep that in mind.
KAYYEM: Right. That's exactly right. And first of all can I just say, Charlie, I can't see you, but you sound great? And I hope you get your health back. Listen. So, the primary goal here is a communal goal with this virus, which is together we can eradicate it from the society.
We are not going to get rid of it until we get the vaccine, 18, 2020 two months from now. But we can actually manage to live with it. And that should be our primary goal. Voting can be waited overtime. As long as we get it in by November. That's a long time away, we have plenty of time.
LEMON: He looks good. He looks better than Chris. I'm kidding.
(LAUGHTER)
KAYYEM: I'll check the tape. He always -- Don, he always looks better than Chris. That's the problem.
LEMON: And I understand what he says. Chris says, he feels better during the day. Not that he feels good. But then at night, nighttime is always the worst time, yes. So, Charlie, you take care of yourself. It's good to see you.
KAYYEM: Yes, Charlie, take care.
LEMON: It's good to see you.
DENT: Thank you guys. Thanks, Don, thanks, Juliette.
LEMON: We'll be right back.
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