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Don Lemon Tonight

U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Pass 156,000; President Trump On The Rising Death Toll: It Is What It Is; Governors Band Together For Coronavirus Testing Strategy As White House Faces Criticism; Preliminary Results Show Novavax Coronavirus Vaccine Is Safe And Elicits Immune Response; President Trump Claims Virus Is Under Control. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired August 04, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Time for "CNN TONIGHT' with Laura Coates. It is what it is. And that's an upgrade for D. Lemon.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: It is what it is. That phrase is going to haunt me forever. You know, it's a kind of thing, it's just so cavalier, Chris. But you know what's not cavalier? I love your closing, I love the life lessons we're giving. And so, I'm wearing my flowers for you. Because I feel like you have to have your flowers while you can still see them.

CUOMO: That's good. Thank you very much. Hey, look.

COATES: I'm dropping the gems tonight.

CUOMO: I applaud the president for saying it is what it is. He happens to be right. His problem is that it is what it is means that it is a pandemic, it is real. It's not a hoax. It's not going to magically disappear and he's not doing a damn thing about it.

He's not even talking the right talk in terms of you are what you do. Boy, if that's the measure for him, he's in trouble, because he is the sum total of his inaction in the face of a crisis the likes of which we've never seen a president run away from.

COATES: Well, look. It's not just him, his sum total. It's all of us out here. I mean, it's one thing if you want to act the way you want to act on your own time, on your own peril, all of those things.

But I'm telling you, if your actions start to infiltrate into my life and undermine the things we want to do and make it harder for people to breathe, to live, let alone to thrive, you know, it's more than just about you doing you.

That's what it really is. It's about not understanding fundamentally that his actions have a ripple effect. His words have meaning. I mean, his platform is there. It is ubiquitous. And everyone has to be able to trust the president of the United States. And you see what happens when you can't.

CUOMO: You're telling me. I'll tell you what, we've got some pain coming our way. And I'll tell you how we're both parents. We both have kids in the school game. There's going to be some ugliness, one, because, you know, what's going to happen.

Anybody who has got money is going to start playing this pod game which is where they are going to start having these groups of kids together that they are going to pay -- the parent is going to pay for a teacher to augment all this stupid zoom stuff we're going to do, whatever the platform is and there's going to be exclusion. There's going to be fights among communities and they're going to be entrenched in inequalities all because we can't get the testing together.

COATES: I've got news for you, Chris, there's not going to be inequality. There has been inequality.

CUOMO: True.

COATES: And in any return to normalcy can't be a return to status quo. We've got to go forward. We are talking about places that don't even have broadband, let alone being able to use Zoom. But you and I are in the same boat, we all are. We've got to figure out what to do and our kids have to come first.

CUOMO: That's right.

COATES: Thank you.

CUOMO: Laura Coates, I'll be watching.

COATES: Thank you. You know, this is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Laura Coates in for Don Lemon. And tonight, the United States is approaching a staggering figure. Nearly 4.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus. And shortly, we are going to pass the even more grim milestone of 5 million cases.

Again today, more than 1,000 Americans died from COVID-19. So the last thing anyone in this country should have to hear is the sound of the president throwing in the towel. Listen, and you will hear it. It is what it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN SWAN, REPORTER, AXIOS: The question, Mr. President is by June, we knew things were bad. And, you know, the last time I was with you was the day before your Tulsa rally in the oval and, you know, you were saying big, huge crowd, it was indoors.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way --

SWAN: These people -- they listen to you.

TRUMP: That speech was the highest rated speech in the history of Fox television on Saturday night, and nobody says that. SWAN: I think you misunderstand me. I'm not criticizing your ability

to draw a crowd. Are you kidding me? I've covered you for five years. You draw massive crowds, you get huge ratings. I'm asking about the public health.

TRUMP: I have good health and I cancelled another one. I have to cancel it. I had a great crowd in New Hampshire and I canceled it for the same reason.

SWAN: Here's the question, you know, I've covered you for a long time. I've gone to your rallies. I've talked to your people. They love you. They listen to you. They listen to every word you say. They hang on every word. They don't listen to me or the media or Fauci.

They think we're fake news. They want to get their advice from you. And so when they hear you say everything is under control, don't worry about wearing masks, I mean these people -- many of them are older people, Mr. President.

TRUMP: What happen is you've been thrown -- yeah.

SWAN: It's giving them a false sense of security.

TRUMP: Right now I think it's under control. I'll tell you what.

SWAN: How? A thousand of Americans are dying a day.

TRUMP: They are dying, that's true. And it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague that beset us.

SWAN: You really think this is as much as we can control it? A thousand deaths a day?

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you. I would like to know if somebody -- first of all, we have done a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Did you happen to hear him say what's your definition of control before he talked about it is what it is? But there is so much more we could have done to control this, by any definition. This did not have to happen. It doesn't have to keep happening.

[23:05:10]

But the president always needs to blame someone or something, and today he blamed the soaring numbers on New York and New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A lot of our numbers were based on the New York had a very tough time, as you know. New York, New Jersey, that area. And when you take them out, just as an example, take a look at Florida relative to New York. That's not to say anything wrong with New York or it's just a very tough place. People are close together. It's crowded. It's not easy.

But when you take that out, our numbers are among the lowest and even with it in -- I will get back to you, but we have among the lowest numbers. They've done a fantastic job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: It's not the first time he has tried to cook the COVID books. Remember, it was just last week he tried to claim we're virtually corona free except for the three biggest states in the entire country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Its corona free, but we are watching very carefully California, Arizona, Texas, and most of Florida. It's starting to head down in the right direction. And I think you'll see it rapidly head down very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Oh, so we're good? Except for New York and New Jersey, and California, and Texas, and Florida, and Arizona. Other than that though, except for, you know, all of the other states. And except for the almost 157,000 dead Americans. And while we're talking about Florida, the president doing a complete reversal about mail-in voting.

Now supporting it but only for one state, only for Florida where, I might add, the president himself votes by mail. But in blue states he still falsely claims that voting by mail is riddled with fraud, which, of course, it's not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Florida has got a great Republican Governor and it had a great Republican Governor, Scott -- Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, two great governors. And over a long period of time, they've been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. Florida is different from other states. I mean, in Nevada where you have a governor, he said, let's just send out millions of ballots and the post office cannot be prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, that's a new Ben Stiller movie, there's just something about Florida, apparently. We'll talk more about that dubious claim ahead tonight. But right now I want to bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Program at George Washington University Hospital and Dr. Leana Wen, former Baltimore City health commissioner.

So glad to have you both here tonight doctors. Let me begin with you Dr. Wen, because President Trump says it is what it is. I mean, as a doctor, what went through your mind when you heard the president's reaction to all of these deaths, all the surge in cases that just, it is what it is? LEANA WEN, FORMER HEALTH COMMISSIONER, BALTIMORE: I can't imagine it,

because I was thinking about if I'm a physician and treating a patient, and this patient was telling me about their pain and suffering, can you imagine any doctor or nurse saying, it is what it is? Because that's what's happening to our country right now. Our country is in the middle of a public health catastrophe, and we need to hear acknowledgement from the leader of our country.

First, that this is a major problem and that second, we are not powerless here. There are actually things that we can do to turn the tide. There are things that other countries have done.

There are things that our states individually have been able to do in the New York region, for example, to suppress the level of COVID-19 infections. And then I wanted to hear a rally, a call to action, because we can do this. We need to do this, because this is about people's lives.

COATES: Well, you didn't hear that. You heard crickets, saying it is what it is. Right? And Dr. Reiner, I want to play another moment from the president's interview with Axios. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're lower than the world.

SWAN: Lower than the world? What does that mean?

TRUMP: We're lower than Europe.

SWAN: In what? In what?

TRUMP: Look. Take a look. Right here. Here is case death.

SWAN: Oh, you're doing death as a proportion of cases. I'm talking about death as a proportion of population. That's where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, et cetera.

TRUMP: You can't do that.

SWAN: Why can't I do that?

TRUMP: You have to go by -- you have to go by where -- look. Here is the United States. You have to go by the cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: He seems befuddled, I mean, he's shuffling papers. One of my think was actually blank there, Dr. Reiner, but you're pointing to a graph that's only been given to him by a staff in some way, I mean, we are talking about the death by proportion versus percentages. I mean, is it possible that he still does not understand truly, Dr. Reiner, where we are with this virus after so many months and so many deaths?

[23:10:18] JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think it's entirely likely

that he does not have a grasp on what is happening in this country with this virus. And the truth is that this country leads the world in deaths, as it's widely reported. We have about 4 percent of the world's population about a quarter of the world's deaths from COVID- 19.

You know, the president was trying to tout, I guess, the case fatality rate, which is basically the likelihood that an individual who acquires the virus will die from it. And it's impossible really to know what that number is. Because we don't know what the denominator is. We don't know how many people in this country have actually acquired the virus. We only know what the tests show.

But when you look at the number of people in this country who have died from the virus, and you look at it on a per capita basis, it's about 480 people per million population. Compare that to Germany, where the death rate is about 110 per million or Israel where it's about 60, or Japan where it's eight.

So, we're nowhere near the top of the world in terms of our mortality rate. And as I like to say, any successes that we've had in lowering the case fatality rate have come at the great expense and risk, blood and sweat of our front line health care workers, the nurses, and the doctors and the other staff members in the hospital. They get full credit for lowering the mortality rate on an individual basis in this country.

COATES: Well, I mean that was not on any of the papers he was shuffling around.

REINER: No.

COATES: But probably it should have been. Dr. Wen, I have to ask you with the briefing today, President Trump tried to blame New York and New Jersey, the state you just talked about for the high numbers when the virus has taken off across the entire country, by the way, including red states. So, are we far beyond where the virus first took hold? Are we past that part of the discussion?

WEN: Well, we are definitely in a much worse place, Laura, than we were back in March or April. At that time, we had one major epicenter in the New York region and then there were some other outbreak areas, epidemic areas in California, in Washington, but now it is all over the country.

I mean, we are seeing more than 30 states now that have rising test positivity rates, which means that we're not even getting a grasp on how big this problem is.

We are seeing that there are some states that have done OK, that are now plateauing, but they're plateauing at a very high level of infection. We're still having 1,000 deaths per day, which means that within three months at this rate, we are going to have 100,000 more deaths. And so, there are epicenters now all over the country and it's time for us to take dramatic action. We need a national strategy. This piecemeal approach where each state is doing their own thing just is not working.

We need to have universal masking. We need to be limiting indoor gatherings. We need to be avoiding crowds. We, by this point, know what works. Other countries have done it. It's not like they have a secret vaccine or treatment that we don't have access to. We know how to do it, too. It's just a matter of political will.

COATES: You know, every time I hear that number, 1,000 a day, I think about my college and how my class size was about 1,000. And to think that every single day another entire class is gone. Every single day, the next class is gone. I mean, it's unbelievable to think about that number.

Dr. Reiner, the president tweeted out that he met with the coronavirus task force in the Oval Office, talking about it today. Here is a photo of it. He's pushing out these photos. But I know it feels like groundhog's day to people, and that every day may seem the same while we're working from home.

But the president has not actually attended a meeting since April. We are now in August. It's a full three months, and tens of thousands more Americans have died between those dates. So, why is he only now attending these meetings?

REINER: Because his advisers are telling him that unlike an election in the '90s, where it was the economy, stupid, this election is the pandemic, stupid. And the president bet on the economy this spring against that against the country by ignoring the pandemic. And now all his advisers are telling him that the one issue the voters are going to look at is the pandemic.

So now he has to be the pandemic president. We're 155,000 deaths down the road. 1,000 deaths per day. The one thing about that photo that bothered me is that very few people in the room were wearing face masks. I still don't get that.

[23:15:05]

COATES: No one gets it. I don't understand the complexity, the real difficulty in putting something over your face. I keep thinking about it like a life preserver. I'm just asking you to put it on. I'm trying to save your life. And you don't want to do it. And it could drag everyone under with you when you don't do so. It's frustrating.

But Dr. Wen, the president says that the virus is under control as much as you can control it. But you keep saying to us that there are things we could do, there's so much more that could have been done. Is there some hope? Can there still be things that can be done? I know that we are late in the game. These numbers are going up, but what can we still do to try to stop this, to arrest this?

WEN: I'm glad you're focusing on this because I do think that we're really late to the game. There's a lot that we could have done. But hindsight is 2020. We need to move forward and there are definitely things that we, as a country, can do now. We can have this national strategy. We can ramp up testing dramatically. We can improve our public health infrastructure and very importantly, universal mask wearing and limiting these indoor gatherings.

There is a chance for us to suppress the virus, just like other countries have done. And we can get our kids back to school. We can get back to work. We can get our economy back on track. But we have to do the hard things and make the investments now.

COATES: I need your optimism combined with the expertise of science and we can get this done. Thank you to both of you for being here and sharing with us your insight as always. I appreciate it.

You know, some states are now working together to fix the federal failure. We'll tell you about the deal they've made to improve testing. And what other plans public health officials say need to get done. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:20:00]

COATES: President Trump says it is what it is, when pushed on the fact that about a 1,000 Americans are dying every day from the coronavirus. The president also trying to boast that U.S. coronavirus testing has been incredible despite many people waiting multiple days or even more than a week for results.

Joining me now, Dr. Mark McClellan, former FDA commissioner and director of the Duke- Margolis Center for health policy. And Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Let me begin with you, Andy here and I guess it's not just because you happen to be in my home state of Minnesota. But we're going there anyway. Let me tell you, between the briefing tonight and what we see in this Axios interview, this is going to be a difficult day for all of the people who are trying to take a public health approach to this crisis, right?

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: Well, you know, I think what's happening today is that increasingly he has been told by his staff that this is an untenable situation. And the fact that they're producing charts and graphs with different ratios to try to put in front of America isn't exactly the kind of response that we're hoping for.

You know, I think Mark and I, and others have really been pushing for just some very specific tests, very specific steps, making sure we have enough testing, making sure we have enough contact tracing. Getting it down to the level where we have small amounts of case growth so we can start school, so that we can go back to work. The country wants to get moving again and I think the president right now is being an impediment. COATES: Well, you know, whoever said that charts could cure anything,

no one, ever. I mean, Dr. McClellan, I ask you here, you know, seven Governors who have signed a deal with the Rockefeller Foundation, which by the way you advise to help develop their own testing strategy. I mean, have the states been now left with no choice in the face of the federal government failing?

MARK MCCLELLAN, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Well, I think there are more steps that states can take, not only to increase testing, but to get the right test for the right purposes, Laura.

Much of the testing that's going on today is to help prevent the spread of outbreaks, not just by testing people who have symptoms and contacts of cases but by testing people who are in high-risk settings, like nursing homes or front line workers.

And we need more tests for those individuals. What the states are specifically pushing for here is more purchases of tests that can be used at the point of care, can get quick results out there. Not just for people who have symptoms but to help go more on the offense of preventing spread in situations where there is a high risk of outbreaks from people who are not showing any symptoms.

COATES: And, of course, we want to think about being proactive, right? The idea of being so reactive and reflexive is not going to get ahead of this. You have to do the things you're talking about.

But Andy, the president is you know, pushing for schools to reopen and we're just starting to see cases plateau. If you look at this graph here, we're starting to see cases plateau in this country. Could we see another big surge if schools don't approach this in just the right way?

SLAVITT: Well, the president is actually calling for schools to open in every district in the country in person, regardless of the data. And while there are certainly parts of the country that schools can probably open safely and even there, I would urge the school districts to make sure there's enough testing in place, to make sure there aren't outbreaks. And places where there is a lot of case.

We've got a lot to be concerned about. Dr. Birx look at a study that recently showed that actually children can often be quite efficient spreaders and quite efficient people in terms of getting a full viral load. The president is quite aware of this, and yet he's not been willing to say these ought to be local decisions. And I think they ought to be.

COATES: Well, I mean, anyone who has ever had kids, I joke around with my own kids that when they were in daycare they were walking Petri dishes. I mean, they were all everyone around them was always sick and we were getting sick because of them. So, it's shouldn't be a great shock that children unfortunately could be carriers.

[23:25:06]

And of course, Dr. McClellan, there is some positive news or some positive news on vaccine development, but how can people feel assured that this vaccine is going to be safe? I mean, that you've got this very critical process that is not being politicized. People want to be able to have the vaccine. But can they feel secure given the expedience of trying to get it out?

MCCLELLAN: I think that staff at the FDA are professionals who are committed to doing the right thing. They have written very clear guidance about what they expect the vaccines to show before they're approved.

And the FDA, working with industry and others, have taken some steps to not only provide a clear path to doing clinical trials, but also to work on getting manufacturing of these vaccines done ahead of actually finishing the trials. It doesn't mean we'll use it. It just means there will be a lot less wait for people to get a vaccine if it works.

All that said, it is really important for FDA and the public health leaders who are involved in the vaccine development to be out there with some clear messages and clear communication with the public about the fact that they are really following their usual rules for vaccines.

They're just doing it in a very intense, parallel way, doing things like the clinical testing and manufacturing at the same time. It's going to be important to stick to that strategy to get the public confidence about vaccines up.

COATES: We certainly do. And we need that information and the confidence to match it. You know, Andy, Mississippi's Republican Governor is pushing back the school start date for some students who are in the hot spot that we spoke about.

Now, he has also put in place a mask mandate after having resisted using having one for months. So, are places that didn't take this threat seriously enough now, as you are seeing, finally starting to do so?

SLAVITT: I think the majority of Governors of either party, whether it's in Mississippi or whether it's the seven Governors, three of whom who are Republican, four of whom who are Democrat working together, I think they're finally realizing that the amount of help they're going to get from the federal government isn't going to be enough.

And so, they are starting to do the things that slowly but surely Europe and Asia and other parts of the world did three to four months ago. But there's no question with the mask mandate, if you close some of the major hot spots, like the bars, if you limit travel, if you really prevent the virus from spreading, in a few months you will be able to walk your kids to school, we should be able to vote in person.

But that will require some real steps and real sacrifice and real leadership. And the Governors may be able to pull it off state by state. I think, New York is getting there right now. We need to do it in the rest of the country.

COATES: Science and selflessness. Thank you both for being here. I appreciate your insight. Thank you.

It is what it is. That's the president says about the death toll. Because while he is what he is. Everything we learned about President Trump today, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: We learned a lot about the president of the United States today, all in just one day. We learned that the president, after the deaths of more than 156,000 Americans, still doesn't understand that he doesn't have the virus under control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's under control. I'll tell you what.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.

TRUMP: They are dying, that's true, and you -- it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: It is what it is. That's what you say when you don't care. That's what you say when you want to move on without giving a substantive response. It's dismissive. It's cavalier.

And we are talking about the families and loved ones of more than 156,000 Americans who have lost their lives under your presidential watch and you can't admit that you're not in control of this virus? Well, it's cruel. It is what it is, huh?

Well, here's what it is. It's a president who thinks it's him against the world, a president who takes everything personally. I mean, just listen to what he says about the late civil rights giant, Congressman John Lewis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He didn't come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my state of the union speeches. And that's OK. That's his right. And, again, nobody has done more --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

TRUMP: -- for Black Americans than I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand.

TRUMP: He should have come. I think he made a big mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But taking you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I mean, it's really stunning that this president could claim, first of all, that he has done more for Black Americans than anybody, a claim, by the way, he has made before from the infamous 'what do you have to lose' question to claiming that he has done more than even Abraham Lincoln, and ignore the fact that John Lewis risked his life -- I mean, literally risked his life fighting for equal rights for all people, including Black Americans.

But for President Trump, John Lewis's entire legacy just boiled down to, well, he didn't come to my inauguration.

Here's what it is: A president unprepared and uninterested in the science, let alone the pronunciation of some of our greatest natural resources, even while he's praising them.

[23:34:58]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When young Americans experience the breathtaking beauty of the Grand Canyon, when their eyes widen in amazement as Old Faithful bursts into the sky, when they gaze upon Yosemite's towering sequoias, their love of country grows stronger and they know that every American has truly a duty to preserve this wondrous inheritance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: So I guess we also learned he doesn't know or care how to pronounce Yosemite, sir. Also a cartoon figure, Yosemite Sam or sequoia. He doesn't prepare. That's the point. He is not informed and it is what it is.

And we learned that members of the president's own party don't support his efforts to distract and divide us instead of uniting us. I mean, just listen to what the former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, says about the confederate monuments that the president insists on defending.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I actually don't know why anybody wants to defend the confederacy and confederate monuments. This glorification of, you know, people with military bases named after military officers who tried to destroy the country, I don't get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Maybe you just don't get, secretary, that it is just is what it is. I mean, we so rarely hear Condoleezza Rice being that blunt. And listen to what she says about racism in this country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICE: I think that, yes, these are issues that continue to bedevil us from a long history with racism, and they do get built in to systems in ways that have negative impacts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: She's absolutely right. But who is doing the glorifying? That would be the president of the United States. It is what it is? Glorifying the traitors who fought for slavery while refusing to admit systemic racism, dog-whistling suburbanites about the stench of low- income housing, and failing to contain a virus that has a disparate impact on black and brown communities in this country, Americans.

And then, of course, there is the president's former national security adviser, John Bolton, who is reacting to his comments about even potentially delaying the election and floating that idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What message does a comment like that from the president of the United States send?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it is another good reason to vote against him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, like I said, we learned a lot about the president in just one day. The question is, of course, has the president learned anything in the last four years? If not, I mean, I guess it is what it is, but it didn't have to be.

Up next, has the Republican Party learned anything from President Trump? My next guest says, well, they've become him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: President Trump changing his mind about voting by mail, well, if you're a Republican.

Joining me now is former Romney campaign adviser, Stuart Stevens. He is also the author of "It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump."

Stuart, I'm glad you're here. Fascinating read of your book, as well. You know, Stuart, the president has completely flip flopped on mail-in voting after, by the way, trashing it constantly.

But today, he tweeted, look at this, encouraging people in Florida to vote by mail, and he explained why he changed his tune here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Florida has got a great Republican governor and it had a great Republican governor. It got Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, two great governors. And over long period of time, they've been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. Florida is different from other states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Something about that sounds like a tale, Stuart. What is it?

STUART STEVENS, FORMER ROMNEY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Look, you know, the irony of this is generations of Republican operatives grew up working in a program for absentee ballots that Republicans like to think they did better than Democrats. There are states out there that are republican states, like Utah, that vote entirely by mail.

This is absolutely insane. What's happening is, Republicans, who know they need absentee ballots, they need vote by mail to win, are pressuring the president and telling him, quit, basically suppressing our voters. It's the weirdest thing. He's telling his own voters to be afraid of voting.

COATES: I mean, it shoot yourself in the foot, cutting off your nose to spite your face and any other litany of analogies one can make here.

But in your new book, Stuart, you make the case that the Trump presidency is really a culmination of a decades-long evolution within the GOP.

[23:45:00]

COATES: I want to read an excerpt from your book here. "How did this happen? How do you abandon deeply held beliefs about character, personal responsibility, foreign policy and the national debt in a matter of months? You don't.

The obvious answer is those beliefs weren't deeply held. What others and I thought were bedrock values turned out to be mere marketing slogans easily replaced. I feel like the guy working for Bernie Madoff who thought they were actually beating the market."

And we know the answer is, without him, they believe they're going to lose their seats. Is that what's happening here? Very strong words.

STEVENS: Yeah. Look, the Republican Party has made a deal with Donald Trump, and they seem very comfortable with that deal. I find it incredibly sad.

You know, occasionally, parties would drift away from principles, but there was a series of principles that I and I think, you know, not a few other people in the Republican Party felt were bedrock republican principles -- character count, personal responsibility, strong on Russia, national debt is important, fiscal sanity, free trade, throw legal immigration. Ronald Reagan announced from the Statue of Liberty, signed a bill that made everyone in the country before 1983 legal. Now, we are not just sort of forgotten those principles, we are against those, where the character doesn't count party. We are (INAUDIBLE). We are anti- immigration party. We are sort of the left of Bernie Sanders on trade.

I mean, now, character doesn't count. I've never -- it's just a complete collapse. And I think when you're inside something it's always difficult to imagine the moment. But I don't really think we've seen such a collapse, certainly in modern American history, and very possibly in American history.

COATES: You know, speaking of history, you write, Stuart, in your book that racism is the original sin of the modern Republican Party. What do you mean by that?

STEVENS: Well, look, 1956, Eisenhower got almost 40 percent of the African-American vote. That dropped to seven percent in 1964 with Goldwater. Now, you could have made a case, Goldwater (ph) against the Civil Rights Act. You could have made the case that some African- Americans in significant numbers would come back to the Republican Party because of commonality, cultural conservatism, role of faith in the public square, entrepreneurship. But it didn't happen.

So, since 1964, the Republican Party has been basically marketing itself to overwhelmingly white voters. Now, you know, it used to be that we looked at this and we knew it was a failure, we admitted it was a failure, and we aspired to do better.

We had a lot of talk about the big tent party. Ken Mehlman in 2005, chairman of the RNC, went to the NAACP and apologized for the southern strategy. Nixon had to try to divide African-Americans from the Democratic Party and maximize white votes.

COATES: Mm-hmm.

STEVENS: Now, we've just settled into this sort of comfortableness. We don't even talk about being a big party. Trump really is running like George Wallace. He's out there tweeting (INAUDIBLE) suburbs, confederate flag. I mean, he is on the wrong side of the cultural war with NASCAR. It is what it is, as he would say.

COATES: Well, it is what it is. But what it is, this fascinating book called "It Was All a Lie." Thank you, Stuart Stevens.

STEVENS: Thank you.

COATES: "It Was All A Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump." We will be right back.

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[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COATES: More and more Americans are dying every day from the coronavirus. The death toll is nearly 157,000 tonight. But the president claims he's got it all under control. Well, CNN's Sara Sidner has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The coronavirus is still spreading out of control in parts of the United States despite the president's assertion otherwise.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: I just categorically reject we can't do something about it or that the status quo is acceptable.

SIDNER (voice-over): With more than 4.7 million diagnosed cases and more than 156,000 deaths.

JAY VARKEY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: The U.S. is the fourth worst-performing country in the world. We have four percent of the world's population yet we account for 25 percent of the world's deaths. That is unacceptable.

SIDNER (voice-over): New case rates are steady or down in 42 states. But often, the numbers are steady at a very high level, with Florida about to become the second state to total a half million cases during the pandemic.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I think by the time we get, you know, a couple weeks into the future, I think we are going to continue to see the prevalence decline, and that will be a very, very good thing.

SIDNER (voice-over): In Mississippi, the positivity rate is now higher than any other state, prompting the governor to announce a state mask mandate in public spaces and for teachers and students in schools located in hot spots.

GOV. TATE REEVES (R-MS): We must pump the brakes in hardest hit areas.

SIDNER (voice-over): In neighboring Louisiana, the governor just extended several restrictions there, including a state mask mandate for another three weeks.

And while cases may be declining in many places, daily death tolls across the country continue to climb.

[23:55:03]

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This is a very serious situation that our country is facing. I don't -- you know, you don't need anybody to tell you that. You just need to look at the numbers.

SIDNER (voice-over): Despite the worrying data for the U.S. as whole, some citizens are still throwing caution to the wind. Another massive house party, this time at a mansion in Los Angeles, a potential coronavirus petri dish that ended in gunfire, one person killed, three shot.

CHRIS RAMIREZ, LIEUTENANT, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: We as a public have to be conscious of everybody else, everybody's public safety, our own safety.

SIDNER (voice-over): Schools continue to be the great unknown. Some communities eager to start up, others more concerned with the risks of sending kids and teachers back into the classrooms.

DEBBI BURDICK, SUPERINTENDENT, CAVE CREEK UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: We can make great academic decisions, but I don't think talking about somebody's health, not knowing all the underlying conditions, are the types of things that we should be deciding.

SIDNER (voice-over): Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COATES: Thank you, Sara. And thank you for watching. Our coverage continues.

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