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Americans Sent to Omaha from Evacuation Flights; Impact on Global Economy as Virus Spreads; Trump Lashes out at Obama; New Polls show Contested Convention; Deliberations to begin in Weinstein Trial. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired February 18, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:21]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, 13 Americans who have tested positive for the coronavirus are being treated at a medical facility in Omaha, Nebraska. The patients have been on a cruise ship docked in Japan, then flown home on U.S. chartered evacuation flights.

Our Nick Watt is in Omaha.

Nick, thank you for being with me this morning.

One of the passengers on that flight says she didn't know that there were infected passengers on it until she landed. Is that right?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, some people are a little bit annoyed about that. They were told that this flight was just for people who did not have this novel coronavirus. But it turns out that some people who had been tested in Japan were, in fact, positive for the disease.

Now, there was an isolation, I suppose, section of the plane that we're told was cordoned off with large plastic sheets. But as you mentioned, 13 of those Americans are now here because this is one of the only places in the country that has a decontamination unit. They have the facilities. And they have the expertise for exactly this type of situation. They've treated people with Ebola here in the past. They know what they're doing.

Now, we spoke to one of those 13 Americans who's in there, Carl Goodman, 66 years old, from California. He has the virus. He says he is getting very good care from a doctor and a couple of nurses who are all wearing full hazmat suits. The 13 people are being kept in separate rooms, isolated from each other. So Carl Goodman and his wife, who are both in there, are having to speak to each other over FaceTime. They cannot meet face to face.

So these people will be here for at least another 14 days. And they may be joined by others. But good news for some people down at Miramar, down near San Diego, who were evacuated from Wuhan February 5th, we're expecting about 160 of them to be released sometime today. Their 14-day quarantine is over.

Back to you.

HARLOW: OK, Nick, appreciate the reporting for us there from Omaha. Thank you.

To discuss the economic impact of this outbreak, Peter Navarro is with me, assistant to the president, White House trade adviser.

Peter, so good to have you on something so important.

PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: Hi, Poppy.

HARLOW: Let's just break this down and start -- start first, Peter, with China.

What is your assessment now, the White House assessment, of the economic impact on China's growth from coronavirus?

NAVARRO: It's still unclear, Poppy. I think we're going to need two to four more weeks to find out how much the contagion may or may not continue. In the meantime, what I'm focused on here at the White House is looking at the supply chains for the kinds of elements we're going to need should we need to treat the coronavirus here. There's 30 different elements.

The interesting thing, Poppy, is that much of our medical supply chain has been offshored. And that's a dangerous risk that we face more broadly. So we're trying to focus on figuring that out now.

If you're a -- if you have to get treatment for coronavirus and it's severe or you need something like a ventilator, after you get the ventilator, you neat a bronchodilator. If you -- for -- for -- if you intubate the patient, you need sedation. You can have secondary bacterial infections, which mean you need antibiotics. In the worst case, you get renal failure and you need those kind of drugs. All of those things, what we're trying to do is assess where those things are and make sure we have adequate stockpiles of that.

HARLOW: Yes.

NAVARRO: So -- so that's -- the task force is doing a great job. It's a -- it's a two-tier process where you have the task force itself with principals and then there's a second element where you have deputy level folks working, meeting every day and just really trying to escape to where the puck might be in case this thing gets worse.

HARLOW: I'm glad to hear and we know how hard so many teams are working on this, Peter, teamed up with big pharma on that.

When it comes to the economic impact on the United States, what are you guys looking at? Because we just heard what Apple said yesterday about the warning they're not going to hit their sales targets because of all the closures they've had to endure in China.

NAVARRO: Yes. HARLOW: It's a big, important American company. Should we expect that from more U.S. companies? And what are you look at in terms of a slower quarter as a result?

NAVARRO: Well -- well, the good news about Apple is that it's kind of sui generis. It's one of the most heavily dependent companies on China both for its production and some of its growth. So we don't see Apple as -- as the -- as the norm.

[09:35:03]

HARLOW: OK.

NAVARRO: We have a really solid economy here. Numbers are coming out well, which you would begin to expect from China is portions of the supply chain across different sectors, might experience bottlenecks. That could lead to some slowdowns or perhaps inflationary pressures. But we're seeing absolutely none of that yet. And, again, I think what we need to do is just -- just get more data out of China. One of the frustrations with China is --

HARLOW: Right.

NAVARRO: It's really not shared the kind of information from day one that we really need to assess this.

HARLOW: Right. OK. But you're -- it sounds like not too big of a U.S. economic impact at this point at least. That's good to hear. Let's -- let's see what we -- we see going forward and you're always welcome back as you get new numbers on that.

NAVARRO: Sure. Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: I want to ask you about the budget released from the White House, the 2021 budget released from the White House last week. As you know, it does not eliminate the federal deficit in ten years. And as you also know, when the president was running, because you were advising him, I remember meeting with you during that time, he promised to "The Washington Post" that he would eliminate the national debt if given eight years in office. What happened to that promise?

NAVARRO: Well, we still got five more years to go. And I think we can get there if we get the kind of growth --

HARLOW: Yes, but you -- even this budget -- no, no, no, but, Peter, this budget says it's going to take to 2036.

NAVARRO: Well, one of the problems we have in terms --

HARLOW: To even start narrowing --

NAVARRO: Sure.

HARLOW: To even start narrowing, not eliminating it.

NAVARRO: So -- yes, just let me just make this point. Elections do have consequences. And one of the problems we faced in the short term with the Democrats holding the House is that when we made the last budget deal, that was -- that was more expenditures than we otherwise would have had.

The trick of the budget, really, is not cutting expenditures or raising taxes, so much as growing faster. The difference between the 2 percent growth rate and the 3 percent growth rate is all the difference in the world. So that's -- that's where we're focused on.

HARLOW: I hear you, but even, you know, Kevin Hassett, your good friend, formerly worked with you on all things economy at the White House, said there's some pretty aggressive growth projections in this budget. And when you look at the tax cut impact on all of this, it was a big factor. Even he admitted it.

Listen to this with me just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, FORMER CHAIRMAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Military spending is way above what we originally thought --

HARLOW: Yes.

HASSETT: Which, you know, the president has advocated. And then the tax cuts reduced revenue by more than we thought in the first year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Fair to say the tax cuts aren't paying for themselves as promised and just adding to the deficit?

NAVARRO: Well, Kevin -- Kevin was one of the architects of those tax cuts. And I think if he were sitting in this chair he'd say that the tax cuts are doing great to stimulate this economy. Things like opportunity zones, helping blue collar workers, the lowest unemployment rate in history for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, veterans and disabled. So --

HARLOW: No, I hear you on all that, but they're adding to the deficit. And I'm just asking you about the president's promise --

NAVARRO: Well, I -- look --

HARLOW: To the American people and Republicans who used to care about these things, Peter.

NAVARRO: Yes. So, look, the economy is doing great. We've got a great economic plan to do it. If we get back the House of Representatives, we'll have a lot better fiscal situation than we do now.

The bond market doesn't seem to be worried about the prospect of a large fiscal deficit, which I think is supportive of President Trump's economic policies because they believe that our economy will grow faster because of the Trump policies. So --

HARLOW: Yes. Well, all right -- at some point it comes -- comes home to roost.

NAVARRO: Yes.

HARLOW: But I hear what you're saying on the bond market.

NAVARRO: 2031 I guess is what you're telling me --

HARLOW: I think a lot of us are confused.

NAVARRO: But in the meantime --

HARLOW: Let me ask you this, Peter.

NAVARRO: What we need to do is -- is spend money on our defense and things like that.

HARLOW: Let me -- let -- let me ask --

NAVARRO: Sure.

HARLOW: And there's a lot of defense spending in that budget.

Let me ask you about this, finally. The president, overnight, slamming former President Obama for what he calls taking credit for the good economy.

NAVARRO: Yes.

HARLOW: The president was marking 11 years since the Recovery Act. Of course, the depths of the Great Recession.

But when you look at the numbers, I mean we have not yet seen one quarter of 4 percent economic growth under President Trump. We saw that four times under President Obama. And if you compare job growth in the last, you know, 36 months of President Obama's term, it was 227,000 jobs on average and President Trump, also good, but 191,000 jobs per month on average. Don't both presidents deserve credit for good economies?

NAVARRO: If -- if you lived through the Obama years, which everybody watching this show did, they remember what it was like. What President Obama did was double the debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion, swell many --

HARLOW: This president's continuing.

NAVARRO: Hang on, Poppy, let me just do this. Let me just do this.

HARLOW: All right.

NAVARRO: Because when -- what Obama also did was swell the balance sheet of the Fed, trying to use Keynesian tools to pump up an economy which basically was suffering.

What President Trump realized is that we had a structural problem, primarily with offshoring our jobs and over regulation and high taxes relative to around the world.

[09:40:09]

He fixed those structural problems. That set up the economic boom that we're having right now. And back in the Obama/Biden years, it was -- it was horrible. We had this new normal of a growth under 2 percent, wages were not rising and things were bleak.

HARLOW: Peter, I'm sorry. I can't -- I can't let --

NAVARRO: You can look at your numbers, but I lived that.

HARLOW: Peter, I'm just going to pull back the numbers up. The numbers are the numbers, Peter.

NAVARRO: I -- I lived that, Poppy. I was on the campaign trail and you cannot --

HARLOW: Guys, can we please just pull back up the -- can we please just pull back up the GDP growth.

NAVARRO: Put -- put your numbers up, but that --

HARLOW: Nope, the other one. They're not my numbers. These are numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis over 4 percent economic growth, four quarters under President Obama. We have not seen growth above 4 percent on a quarterly basis under President Trump.

NAVARRO: He -- here's the thing, Poppy. Poppy, here's --

HARLOW: It's a good economy now. It's a great economy now. All I'm asking you is, wasn't it a good economy then as well? That's all I'm asking you.

NAVARRO: No, it was not. It was a horrible economy during the Obama years.

HARLOW: OK.

NAVARRO: We had -- we had the new normal. We were sending our jobs offshore and Barack Obama himself said you need a magic wand to bring half a million manufacturing jobs back.

And, guess what, President Trump was the magic wand, because that's what he did. And if you can tell me that higher regulation --

HARLOW: Peter --

NAVARRO: Higher taxes are going to really propel growth like the Democrats want to do --

HARLOW: Right.

NAVARRO: You know, I got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, which I think you're probably pretty close to right there.

HARLOW: Peter --

NAVARRO: But we can have that debate. This is --

HARLOW: Peter, we'll have --

NAVARRO: This is all --

HARLOW: We'll have you back.

NAVARRO: This is all politics.

HARLOW: Well, actually, I was just asking about the numbers. We'll have you back.

NAVARRO: Well --

HARLOW: Thanks, Peter.

NAVARRO: The underlying theme.

Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks, Peter.

NAVARRO: Nice to talk, Poppy.

HARLOW: You, too.

As Bloomberg surges in a new poll, so does the possibility of a contested Democratic Convention. We're on that, next.

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[09:46:14]

HARLOW: All right, this morning, a pretty dramatic shift in the Democratic race for the White House as Michael Bloomberg surges to second place in a national poll. The big question now, did a contested convention just get more likely?

With me now, CNN senior politics writer and analyst Harry Enten.

Good morning, my friend.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Good morning.

HARLOW: So one interesting thing is that we now have multiple candidates that have hit or exceeded that 15 percent threshold. So what does that tell us? What's the significance of that?

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, the key thing about a 15 percent threshold on the Democratic side is, look at this bottom line, 1992 was the first year in which all contests were proportional, a 15 percent threshold, which essentially means you need to be hitting that 15 percent threshold to get delegates, right? So you obviously want more candidates above that threshold as that new national poll show we have multiple candidates and we've also seen in Iowa and New Hampshire so far.

So, in Iowa, four candidates were at or above the 15 percent threshold. That is the first time since 1992 that that has happened in Iowa or, in fact, any contest.

And in New Hampshire we had three candidates at or above 20 percent. That was the first time that's ever happened in a New Hampshire Democratic primary since 1992. So both Iowa and New Hampshire are showing that same pattern we've seen nationally of multiple candidates hitting that 15 percent threshold or even higher.

HARLOW: OK. So that's those two. What if we look nationally in terms of no clear frontrunner and what that means in terms of the likelihood for a contested convention?

ENTEN: Right. That's exactly right. So basically I'll look again since 1992 and basically it was like, OK, where is the frontrunner at this point? And what we normally see is the frontrunner is usually hovering around 50 percent or greater. The lowest before this year in the polling share after the New Hampshire primary was Bill Clinton at 39 percent.

Look at where Bernie Sanders is, though. Although he's ahead, he's at just 28 percent. So that is a clear indication of what we're seeing in Iowa and New Hampshire, it's transferring nationally, whereby we do have a frontrunner, but it's not an overblown frontrunner, and that, of course, increases the chance for a contested convention.

HARLOW: So if you were a betting man --

ENTEN: Yes.

HARLOW: Which I think you are, for at least for chicken sandwiches and the like, what -- how likely is the contested convention and, maybe more importantly, when will Americans know, yea or nay, it's going to happen?

ENTEN: Yes. So right now, you know, I averaged a few sources and right now the greater chance is still that we're a no at a 5.5 in 10.

HARLOW: OK.

ENTEN: But, a 4.5 in ten, yes, there is a real shot of it. I think after Super Tuesday we'll have a much better shot because California and Texas both have a significant chunk of delegates.

HARLOW: OK. So we'll know soon-ish.

ENTEN: We'll know soon-ish. Of course, California takes a long time to count it votes. But, of course, after Iowa, I think we're used to that.

HARLOW: Thank you, Harry. We appreciate it very much.

ENTEN: Thank you. HARLOW: Ahead for us, the trial of ex-movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is coming to a close as the jury has its say. We'll take you to the courthouse, next.

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[09:53:27]

HARLOW: So, minutes from now, jurors will begin deliberations in the sexual assault trial of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. This follows weeks of testimony. He faces five charges, including rape and predatory sexual assault. And, if convicted, he could face a sentence of life in prison.

Jean Casarez joins us outside the courtroom in New York.

Jurors are set to decide his fate.

Jean, what do you know?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the courtroom action has started. All are assembled in that courtroom. The jury has not entered yet. They are currently having some argument.

But this is a case, and a criminal case, 28 witnesses for the prosecution, there were seven witnesses for the defense. And the arguments on both sides were extremely diverse, as you can imagine, because the prosecutor in the closing argument said that Harvey Weinstein is an abusive rapist, and all six accusers that testified to that, and the pattern of conduct that was shown to you, the jury, showed that.

And all of the women had very similar stories in regard to, that they would meet Weinstein. They all wanted to be actresses. That he promised to mentor them. That he would take them to dinners. He would invite them to premieres. He would invite them into his hotel room or his apartment where nothing would happen, but then ultimately the alleged sexual assault and even rapes.

The defense, on the other side, said look at the facts. Look at what happened before the alleged assaults and after the alleged assaults. You will see consensual relationships. And they had dozens and dozens and dozens of e-mails from the two primary accusers, which they say bolster that this was all consensual.

[09:55:05]

Now, as soon as the jury's instructed by the judge, they will begin their deliberations. There are five charges, as you said. This is very serious. Predatory sexual assault is a life felony. So, Poppy, anything can happen, and there could be a verdict as early as later today.

HARLOW: Wow. OK, Jean, we'll keep an eye out for that. Thank you very much, live outside the courthouse here in New York. A scary situation in one of Nascar's most popular events. Driver Ryan Newman is in serious condition this morning after, look at that, oh, a fiery crash at the Daytona 500. He was on the final lap of his race when his car spun out, hit a wall and then went airborne. Newman was rushed to the hospital. Doctors say his injuries are not considered life threatening.

By the way, Denny Hamlin took home the checkered flag for his third Daytona 500 victory.

Michael Bloomberg upending the race to the White House for weeks now and especially today because he's made it into the Democratic debate tomorrow night. Much more on that ahead.

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