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Soon, Congressional Hearing with Top Health Officials; Health Experts Warn Florida Could Become Next Epicenter; 25 States Report Rising Coronavirus Cases; Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo Discusses the Surge in Coronavirus Cases in Texas, Experts' Warnings on Houston/Harris County; Trump Threatens Force Against Citizens, Vows to Protect Statues; Trump Says He Wasn't Kidding When He Told Officials to Slow Coronavirus Testing, Contact Tracing; 4 Top Trump Administration Health Officials Testify in House Hearing on Coronavirus Response. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 23, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:43]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. Thanks for sharing this very busy news day with us.

We'll go to Capitol Hill in a moment with critical testimony from the Trump administration's top doctors.

The House hearing comes as half, half the states reporting week-to- week coronavirus case increases, and as hospitalizations are also spiking in several areas.

President Trump is on his way to Arizona, one of the states scrambling to fights a coronavirus surge. He'll visit the U.S.-Mexico border and then he'll speak in Phoenix at an event that the mayor says violates the coronavirus restrictions against large gatherings.

Before leaving Washington, tough words from the president on the other giant national crisis. The president says he's preparing a new executive order designed to protect statues on federal lands.

And he is warning if protesters here in the nation's capital try to set up a so-called autonomous zone, quote, "They will be met with serious force."

Today's coronavirus hearings come at quite a critical moment. The president uses words like "fading" and "dying off" when asked about the pandemic, but the numbers tell us a very, very different story.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, for example, last testified on Capitol Hill six weeks ago. That was May 12th. Then 82,000 coronavirus deaths and 1.3 total million cases can and nearly 24,000 new cases added each day.

Now, despite what the president says, 120,000-plus Americans dead and 2.3 million total cases, an average of 28,000 new coronavirus infections added each day.

And 25 states this week reporting more new coronavirus infections than they did last week. Now, each state is different. Some are seeing stress on their hospitals, some not, at least not yet. And the coronavirus death rate is down. Though the experts do remind us it always lags the case count.

The president's response to all of this, actually quite stunning. More testing gives the experts more information. But the president says he isn't kidding -- said that just today -- he isn't kidding when he wishes there was less testing because the higher case count doesn't look good politically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were you just kidding, or do you have a plan to slow down testing?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear. We have got the greatest testing program anywhere in the world. We test, we're going to have more cases.

By having more cases, it sounds bad, but actually what it is we're finding people, many of those people aren't sick or very little.

Here's what I say. Testing is a double-edged sword.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's get straight to our CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

Elizabeth, momentarily, a very big hearing up on Capitol Hill. What are we expecting? It.

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: First, I want to say testing is not a double-edged sword. Testing is a single-edged sword. It's just good to test. But I'll leave that aside for a moment. I just have to explain that.

KING: Amen.

COHEN: There's a congressional hearing that -- there's a congressional hearing that's going to be going on today, and we're expecting to hear testimony from four top-ranking health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Let's take a look at what we're expecting to hear. From Dr. Redfield, the head of the CDC, we're expecting to hear that they are developing a single test to test both for flu, for two strains of flu, as well as for coronavirus.

That's a very smart idea. It saves time in the lab. It saves resources. It could save lives because the symptoms are so similar that people are going to need to be tested for both when they show up with those symptoms come flu system.

Also, Dr. Fauci will be talking about vaccines. The NIAID, which is part of the National Institute of Health, is working with several partners expecting to start phase three trials, those large-scale, tens of thousands of people trials you do before you put something on the market in July, August and September. They are also looking for therapeutics, for drugs as well as vaccines.

Now it's interesting that Dr. Fauci used the term or plans to use the term "rigorous." Rigorous testing before we put these vaccines on the market to make sure that they work and to make sure that they are safe, that we're not hurting anyone.

John, I think that language is so important because this vaccine effort is called Operation Warp Speed. Operation Warp Speed does not give you the feeling of rigorous testing, rigorous safety checks. It makes it sound just fast.

And so Dr. Fauci is going to be emphasizing how rigorous these tests will be to make sure that the vaccine works and that we're not hurting anyone -- John?

[11:05:00]

KING: Very critical testimony coming at a very crucial moment as the case count does explode in many cases. And I will echo you, Elizabeth, testing is not a double-edged sword. Testing is information. Information is vital.

Elizabeth Cohen will be watching this testimony with us.

Elizabeth, thank you so much.

Florida is one of major factors in this recent coronavirus case surge. The latest numbers from that state just out.

And Rosa Flores joins us live from Miami -- Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Multiple mayors here in Miami-Dade requiring masks out in public. That's why I'm wearing one right now. They require masks that cover both your nose and your mouth as well.

Now, they cite an increase in hospitalizations and an increase in the number of people needing ventilators. They are moving forward with that message.

As you and I have talked about before, Governor Ron DeSantis has not made that statement statewide. But where I am right now, if you're in a public place, according to local leaders, you must wear a mask.

According to Governor DeSantis, the latest uptick in cases is due to young people, out in public, not social distancing and not wearing masks. He surmises that that means that there will be fewer people that will need to be hospitalized. The state of Florida releases the number of available hospital beds in

the state. Right now, that stands at 28 percent. Now, that number is difficult to understand unless you know the number of COVID-19 patients daily.

Now, that number is not released by the state of Florida. We're getting a sense of what that number is from Jackson Health. That's one of the largest health agencies here in the state of Florida. And they report that in the last 14 days, they have seen an 88 percent increase.

One of the ICU doctors from one hospital telling CNN that, a week ago, they had eight COVID-19 patients and now they have 40. They started off with one floor for COVID-19 patients, John, and now they are looking for a third.

Again, that's why local leaders here in Miami are taking these measures into their own hands. Even though Governor Ron DeSantis is not requiring masks out in public statewide, here locally, if you're going to be out and about in a public place, the rule you is must wear a mask -- John?

KING: That rule common sense.

Rosa Flores on the ground for us live in Miami. Thank you very much.

It would be helpful if the governor of Florida was more transparent about the numbers.

Texas is another state seeing alarming rises in its numbers, too. And let's look at that and let's look at the national context.

First, just the national trend. Rising cases alone doesn't mean you should be overly worried. Rising cases is not good. And 25 states, 25 states reporting more cases this week than last week and 50 percent more higher cases in eight states.

You see those in deep red. They include Miami, Florida, Texas as well, Oklahoma where the president's rally was, Arizona where the president is heading today.

Michigan is back on the map there. And 50 percent plus higher this week than last week. Not good. Doesn't mean it's out of control, but simply not good.

If you want to look at states with the highest new cases. Again, the president uses words like "fading" and "dying off." Thirteen states just yesterday, just yesterday hit their highest seven-day average of new cases. That's not fading or dying off. That's a continuing growing problem in some of these states.

Twenty-five states up and 13 states with the highest seven-day average just yesterday.

Now, let's look at Texas. You see here, this tracks the reopening. Restaurants at 25 percent and bars at 25 percent, bars at 50 and restaurants at 75.

As Texas has reopened, go a week, two, three, here's what we've seen go up. In recent days, these numbers are quite alarming, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, approaching 5,000 new cases. The seven-day average moving up in Texas.

Not always a problem when the case count goes up. But look here. This is hospitalizations. Now trending back up in the state of Texas. This is a problem, something to keep an eye on.

Also, as you test more, you hope the positive rate of return in those tests go down.

In Texas, it was down and kind of flat and now it's inching up a little bit, if you look at the seven-day moving average of the percentage of the tests in Texas coming back positive.

Now the governor, Republican, Greg Abbott, he was very aggressive in the reopening. He says he's watching those numbers now and he's starting to get worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG ABBOTT, (R), TEXAS GOVERNOR: COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas, and it must be corralled.

If we were to experience another doubling of those numbers over the next month, that would mean that we are in an urgent situation where tougher actions will be required to make sure that we do contain the spread of COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's the governor of Texas there.

The Houston Health Department within that state raising the alarm, tweeting that the condition of the coronavirus in hospitals there is, quote, "rapidly worsening." Hospitalizations in Harris County, which includes Houston, up 177 percent from May 31st. That's just three weeks ago.

[11:10:07]

With me now is Harris County judge, Lina Hidalgo.

Judge, thank you so much for your time today.

When you hear had the governor say, if the numbers go up and double over the next month, he might have to do more. Do you have a month?

LINA HIDALGO, (D), JUDGE, HARRIS COUNTY, TX: I'm afraid we may not. Look, nobody has the absolute truth on this. But I've been looking hat those numbers very, very closely, and what we're seeing is the projections.

If the trends continue, you don't assume acceleration, but just assume that they continue, our ICUs would run out of basic operational capacity and surge capacity, anywhere between the next 11 and 40 days.

Which, if you think about how long it takes to flatten the curve, how long it took Massachusetts, how long it took us here, how long it takes us where it -- it took us the first time around about three weeks to flatten that curve.

So my concern is we have to take action very, very soon if we want to avoid our hospitals being overwhelmed.

KING: Well, by take action, I want more details of exactly what you think is necessary?

I want to show just in Harris County the age groups impacted right now. If you look at the graphic, it does show greater impact is among those younger, 20 to 29 and 29-35 and 40 to 49.

And you hear sometimes, especially from the politicians, saying the recent increases are among young people who are going out to bars or going back out into large gatherings. And it's not good, but it's not as bad because they are young and they are healthy. The risk, though, is, who do they come in contact next.

What do you think needs to be done, to use the governor's words, to corral this?

HIDALGO: Yes, John, let me be very clear. You know, when folks say it's young people who are being impacted and hospitalized, that is true when folks talk about there's a lower death rate in Texas and Harris County compared to other communities. That's also true.

We still have space in our hospitals. That's true as well. But the concern is whether young or old, if you're taking it up a hospital bed, you're taking up a hospital bed. That's a bed that someone with a heart attack, a stroke, a pregnant woman needing to give birth, that they can't use.

These trends of the hospitals, you know, filling up, they are getting full, filled up by these younger people taking into account the lower death rate and it's still an issue.

I'm in touch with the governor's team. Our teams are in communication looking at these numbers and pushing very hard for, you know, we have to take drastic action.

I've shared with our community, we are at the second-highest level of threat, of concern. That is orange. And if these things continue -- and I'm looking at it on a day-to-day basis -- we would have to go to red. At that point, my recommendation would be for everybody to stay home again.

Now the concern is, of course, I don't have the authority to enforce that anymore. And so that's why it's so important for us to communicate with the state about these very, very concerning numbers that we're seeing.

KING: Well, that's a dicey moment, indeed. I think we can show people what the Houston color code chart looks

like. And you're at color orange, which is significant. And if you go to level red, that would be severe.

One of the leading experts happens to know your community quite well, Dr. Peter Hotez. He's a scientist and pediatrician.

Tweeting over the weekend, "The latest numbers for Harris County, my observations if this persists, Houston would become the worst affected city, maybe rival what we're seeing in Brazil. Masks equal first good step but won't be enough. We would need to proceed to red alert."

But you've -- you pose a very fascinating question. The governor has taken away local authority to impose new restrictions. What are you going to do?

HIDALGO: For now, it's a matter of making sure that the state is seeing the same numbers we are seeing, and so that dialogue is ongoing currently.

And it's saying, look, we cannot wait another month. We have to start curbing and flattening that hospitalization curve right now because we only have at most a month until we run out, and then saying, OK, what drastic action do we have to take.

I'm afraid, just as Dr. Hotez said, that everybody wearing face coverings is not enough and so that's something we're discussing with the experts and the state.

The clock is ticking. I think this is something we have to figure out here in a matter of days.

And -- and ultimately, when push comes to shove, irrespective of what the state does, I'm responsible for this community and so I will sound the alarm, the red alert.

But, of course, it will be a lot more effective if I have that enforcement mechanism. And right now, I need the state's support in order to have that so I'm pursuing it with everything we've got.

KING: Judge Lina Hidalgo, in Harris County, keep touch in the days ahead. We wish you the best of luck as you go through this crisis in Houston and Harris County. Please keep in touch.

HIDALGO: Thank you.

KING: Thank you so much.

I want to remind you we're waiting for live testimony from top Trump administration officials. You see Dr. Anthony Fauci getting ready to testify to the House about the coronavirus response and about this recent surge in cases.

[11:15:10]

Up next, as the president travels to Arizona, he steps up the rhetoric in some new interviews. And, yes, of course, some new tweets.

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KING: The president is building a 2020 campaign around symbols. He left Washington for Arizona this morning. He's visiting one of the symbols, the 2,900 miles of border wall that represents a campaign promise. Though it should be noted, you are paying for it, not Mexico.

Statues and monuments, part of the checkered racial heritage re now another important symbol. And the president ranks 2020 as a test of law and order.

Protesters outside the White House last night attempted to tear down a monument to President Andrew Jackson, spray painting "killer" across the base.

[11:20:07]

Jackson, as we know, is a personal hero of the current president. President Jackson led the systematic removal and murder of Native Americans nearly two centuries ago.

The president this morning making a vow that that statue will stand, he says, and the protesters will go to jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Last night, we stopped an attack on a great monument, the monument of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park.

We are looking at long-term jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators and call them whatever you want.

Some people don't like that language, but that's what they are. They are bad people. They don't love our country. And they are not taking down our monuments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Here to share their reporting and their insights, Toluse Olorunnipa, of the "Washington Post," Seung Min Kim, also of the "Washington Post" and "Politico's, Laura Barron-Lopez.

Laura, let me start with you.

The president is right, some of these protesters are veering into lawlessness and destruction of property. But it poses a choice for all political leaders: What do you want to say about it, and what is the tone going to be?

He could say, we're listening. We understand. We're moving on issues like police reform and improving the racial climate. Please stop or else. Instead, he goes straight to the you will go to jail. You will go to jail for a very long time, anarchy, looters, et cetera. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": That's

right, John. There's been a common thread through Trump's response so far to the unrest that we've seen, which has been going on now for about a month. And though some of the protests have veered into violence, there has been a separation from peaceful protesters and those who decided to burn buildings or to exert some form of violence.

But Trump -- the through line has been that Trump has embraced police power. He's encouraged violence against even peaceful protesters repeatedly.

And so his effort has been to -- to either reject the notion that there's systemic racism, which is something that a number of his allies and administration members have repeatedly said, and not try to listen or to engage any debate on police reform and also, in addition to that, encourage more police action.

KING: And so he clearly believes -- and we'll see if he's right -- he clearly believes emphasizing law and order will help him politically. We'll see if that plays out. We know where his standing is with the African-Americans and in the suburbs. We'll see if the president's approach can improve it.

The other thing that's been interesting, Seung Min, maybe not surprising, is that the math is the math and coronavirus numbers are the numbers. The president's team is up on Capitol Hill. They are going to face questions about the actual numbers happening across America.

And yet, the president has been openly saying, and today he said he was not kidding on the issue of testing. He says testing has improved and almost wishes aloud -- let's listen -- that it hadn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Just to clear up, there wasn't a direct order, if you will, to the staff to stop the testing.

TRUMP: No. But I just think --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I think we put ourselves at a disadvantage. So instead of doing 25 million tests, let's say we did 10 million tests, we would look like we're doing much better because we'd have far fewer cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I think we have become numb to this over the three-plus years of President Trump, but that is mind-blowing. We put ourselves at a disadvantage by testing.

Every public health expert in the world, not just in the United States, will tell you the more testing, the more information, the more information the more knowledge, the more knowledge, the more success in fighting the coronavirus. The president means it puts him at a disadvantage because the case

count is going up again where he says it's fading and dying and that hurts him politically.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": And that is how the focus and how he has been looking at that pandemic has always been on him.

And what's remarkable is that we heard the comments of the Tulsa rally when he said, I told my people is to slow down testing, and now White House officials said was made in gest.

But we see from his own mouth from his comments this morning when he departed for Arizona and in the interview last night with CBS that he wasn't kidding.

He may not have issued an actual direct order to stop testing, but he is not kidding by the fact that he seems to be displeased by the increased testing because it -- in his view, that's the reason why the numbers are going up.

And I want to point to another tweet that he had shortly before we came on air, John, when he said we did a great job fighting the coronavirus.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Seung Min, my apologies. I need to interrupt.

We need to go live up to Capitol Hill. Dr. Redfield, head of the CDC, now delivering remarks to the House.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: This pandemic is the greatest health crisis are nation and our world has confronted in more than a century.

Overall case counts are going down. Several communities are seeing increased cases driven by multiple factors, including increased testing outbreaks and evidence of community transmission.

[11:25:08]

Right now, the most powerful weapon against this disease are social distancing, face coverings and hand hygiene. These actions will help us contain transmission, along with readily available testing, comprehensive, timely contact tracing, timely isolation of known cases, and self-quarantine to break the chains of transmission.

Once again, I call on the American people to remain vigilant in our collective obligation to protect those who may be at risk for severe complications of COVID-19 due to age or underlying medical conditions.

We must also lessen the burden of COVID-19 among racial and ethnic groups disproportionately impacted.

The CDC continues to improve its data collection of comprehensive data of each case, race and ethnicity from our state, local and tribal and territorial partners.

Reporting from hospital surveillance sites, for example, have increased in completeness on race and ethnicity from 30 percent to now more than 80 percent. CDC is also receiving more complete data from our public health partners.

A recent CDC study examined more than 1.3 million COVID-19 cases found that the most underlying health conditions were cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity and chronic lung disease. Hospitalizations were six times higher for these individuals and death 12 times higher for those reporting these conditions compared to those without.

The CDC is working to ensure the equity and health outcomes. And the social determinates are being addressed through the COVID-19 response.

The CDC continues to provide communities with technical expertise, tools and information to confront the virus.

The CDC has created more than 1,500 specialized resource and guidance documents that would have been consulted more than 1.5 billion times on the CDC Web site.

We've deployed over 5,000 personnel in the response. We have more than 40 rapid response teams on the ground now providing local health departments and health officials with expertise and epidemiology surveillance, infection control, laboratory science and community mitigation.

We're enormously grateful to the heroes of the response. That's the public health and health care professionals, the first responders, the critical infrastructure workers who have served and sacrificed too much.

The CDC and our nation's public health partners are actively working on the front lines of this pandemic to remedy the shortcomings in a public health system that has been under-resourced for decades.

With your support, CDC has been able to award nearly $12 billion to states, territories, tribes and localities to enhance their response capabilities.

When confronted by any disease threats, CDC and public health departments must make real-time decisions based on real-time data. Data is the backbone of any disease threat response.

With the resources that Congress has provided, data monetization is under way.

We also must ensure that our laboratories have resilience, advanced technology personnel, expertise, and supplies are being sourced.

Our public health workforce must grow exponentially to address COVID- 19 and future public health threats. Thousands of contact tracers are on board and being recruited by public health departments across our nation.

Bottom line, sustained investment in the public health system is an investment in the health and prosperity of our nation.

Last, the CDC has begun to prepare for the months ahead when the next season's influenza illness will occur simultaneously potentially with COVID-19, increasing the challenges on hospitals, health care professionals and the public.

This fall, before the seasonal circulation of influenza increased, I encouraged the American people to be prepared and to embrace flu vaccination with confidence for yourself, your families and your communities. This single act will save lives.

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Walden.

Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to discuss with you today the role of the National Institute of Health and Research addressing COVID-19.

The approach to the NIH is very similar to what we do with other emerging infections. It's a four-pronged approach, first to study the fundamental knowledge of the virus itself as well as the host response to the virus. The second is to help develop diagnostics and essays. The third is to characterize and test therapeutics. And the fourth is to develop safe and effective vaccines.

[11:30:00]

Speaking of the first, fundamental knowledge of the virus and what the virus is capable of doing. We've done a number of studies now that have informed how we're approaching therapeutics and vaccines.