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Some U.S. States Pause or Roll Back Reopening; Miami Mayor Hopes Masks, Beach Closings Will Slow Virus; Hospitals in Texas Overwhelmed with New Cases; Russian Intel Offered Taliban Cash to Kill U.S. Troops; Mississippi Passes Measure to Change State Flag; U.K. Charities Push for Long-Term Housing for Homeless; Disneyland Workers Push for More Safety Measures; Coronavirus Is Hitting States Trump Needs to Win Reelection; Coronavirus Toll on Remote Areas of Brazil's Amazon; Impact of Positive Player Tests on Sports. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired June 28, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Troubling new numbers as coronavirus cases spike in more than half the U.S. as the CDC warns that the total number of infections might be 6 to 24 times greater than actually reported.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, hustle. Grab it when you are ready.
HOLMES (voice-over): New claims that Russian intelligence offered cash to the Taliban as a reward for killing U.S. and U.K. troops in Afghanistan.
And then later in the program...
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a stable place now. And it is stable. As long as I don't -- as long as I don't do something stupid, I'm fine now. I've got a bed. I've got a cooker (ph). I eat food (ph). (INAUDIBLE).
HOLMES (voice-over): A rare positive development from the coronavirus pandemic. Some of Britain's long-term homeless get a second chance to call somewhere their home.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes.
(MUSIC PLAYING) HOLMES: With coronavirus cases surging in much of America, it's becoming increasingly clear that many states moved in the wrong direction and now they're having to roll back their efforts to open up. Take a look at what we're going to show you here.
Cases on the rise in more than half the country. Some states are hitting new highs. It is hard to find a patch of green where the numbers are actually going down. Some of these states started opening back up early but now they are starting to roll back those measures or put them on hold.
California, for example, confirmed nearly 6,000 new cases on Saturday, with hospitals in intensive care units packed. The governor warns that, if the strain gets to be too much, he will pull back the state's reopening.
The U.S. Accounts for about a quarter of the nearly 10 million cases world wide and almost 500,000 deaths worldwide and the situation could be even worse than it appears. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that based on antibodies found in blood samples, the real number of people infected may be at least 6.5 and perhaps even up to 24 times higher and what is being counted.
Let's begin our coverage in Florida, where Saturday saw its highest numbers of coronavirus cases today. Close to 10,000. You can see the number going straight up on the graph.
Check this out. You remember early in the pandemic. One of the big hotspots was Italy. Here are the 7-day averages for Florida and Italy. You can see the direction Italy is headed in versus where Florida is currently. CNN's Randi Kaye reports from West Palm Beach.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Florida, yet another record day, spiking cases, 9,585, that is the highest number of cases in a single day. The governor still saying that that is because of increased testing. Increased testing from about 24,000 tests a day to 45,000 tests a day.
We are seeing higher positivity rates here in the state of Florida, mostly among young people, ages 33 to 35 years old, mostly asymptomatic. But they do hang out a lot in bars and the governor has decided that that was a reason to close all of the state bars which he has done.
But the governor has decided not to issue a mandatory order that everybody in the state of Florida wear masks. So he's leaving that up to the local government and local municipalities, saying he will trust people to make good decisions.
But we see people out and about here in West Palm Beach, not wearing their masks. So it is unclear if everybody really is making good decisions. In Miami, they've decided to close the beaches in Miami- Dade County, despite the spiking cases coming over the very popular, busy July 4th weekend. The mayor there says he does not want to see a spike on top of a spike
-- Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
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HOLMES: The mayor of Miami in Florida says he believes the spike in cases in his state come from people gathering in large groups and, of course, refusing to wear masks. His city is taking steps to stop more illness from spreading.
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MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (D-FL), MIAMI: The numbers we've seen, for example, 2 days ago, we hit the high water mark of 1,500 cases. That's 3 times higher than what we had in late March, early April, at 500 cases.
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SUAREZ: The state of Florida hit 9,600 cases which is 7 times greater than their high water mark of 1,300. So I think Florida, as a state, open bars, we never opened bars in the city of Miami. And the fact that we are closing our beaches now and we are requiring masks and we are now considering stiffer penalties for businesses that do not comply with the rules.
These are things we are hoping are going to help us reverse this horrible trend that we are seeing over the last couple weeks.
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HOLMES: Francis Suarez, mayor of Miami, Florida.
Some hospitals in Texas sounding the alarm, warning that they are getting close to capacity, if they are not there already. Texas reporting more than 5,700 new cases on Saturday. CNN's Alexandra Field reports from Houston.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Officials here in the Houston area, another of the country's hotspots, now sending out more warnings, letting people know the city's hospitals could be overwhelmed in a week to 3 weeks if we continue to see new COVID cases rise at this rate.
Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, reported that 100 percent of their ICU beds were full this week. They also reported that 28 percent of those beds were filled by COVID patients.
Hospitals are now moving to implement their surge plans across the city. Governor Greg Abbott has taken some steps to try to put the genie back in the bottle. He's placed new restrictions on bars and restaurants as we see more of these cases affecting people in their 20s and 30s. But officials say more needs to be done. Nothing will stop the spread
that we are currently seeing, short of an all-out stay-at-home order, something the governor has not ordered -- in Houston, Texas, Alexandra Field, CNN.
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HOLMES: Joining me now is Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He is a co-director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at George Washington University Hospital. Also the cardiologist who cares for former U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney.
Doctor, great to have you back on again. Numbers soaring in many states; even the European Union does not want Americans traveling there, despite the vice president speaking of, quote, "remarkable progress."
What needs to be done, like yesterday?
What would it take, in a perfect world with actual leadership, to bring this back under control?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Reaching out to the public and getting everyone in this country to wear a face mask when they go out into public, number one. Testing many more patients then we are testing now.
Number three, probably in select areas, probably shutting some places down, because the health care systems are really at the breaking point, in places like Texas. So I think we have to have the political will to do all that.
We did it before, in the earlier part of this first wave, in places like New York and Massachusetts, New Jersey. And we can do it now. We have to have the political will. We have seen some rumblings of that in Texas and I hope that kind of strong leadership continues.
HOLMES: With those case numbers soaring, the hospitalizations, of course, lagged behind diagnosis and deaths lagged behind hospitalizations, are you expecting an uptick in deaths at the moment?
A lot of the new cases are young people but they are the carriers for the more vulnerable, right?
REINER: That is right. And it sort of depends on the case mix going forward. So we've sort of plateaued with the death rate sort of fluctuating between 600 and 800 deaths per day.
Our daily case -- new infection rate is really skyrocketing to over 40,000. So if there is a large proportion of new infections in younger people, the mortality rate may stay where it is now.
But as those young people infect older people, the worry is that the death rate will go up. So it's a little hard to tell now. We'll have a better sense in about a week. It takes about a week after someone becomes infected until they get sick enough to be hospitalized.
Then often about another week after that until you start seeing deaths. So it is a lagging indicator and obviously is concerned about the death rates starting to take off again.
HOLMES: What are your concerns?
What is the risk of hospitals being overwhelmed again?
And what is the state of readiness in terms of PPE, ICU beds and so on?
Is that a big concern for you at the moment?
REINER: It certainly is. Let's look at Texas. So Houston, which is now the new epicenter of this pandemic in the United States.
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REINER: They have the largest medical center in the world. Texas Medical Center, which has about 60 hospitals. When I checked yesterday, it looked like about 98 percent of their ICU beds were filled.
Now we have the ability in the United States and we learned this over the last few months, to create innovative spaces to treat patients in an ICU setting that is not really an ICU setting, like turning ORs into ICUs and all kinds -- and recovery rooms into ICUs.
But it is an enormous strain on a hospital. It strains the staff, places the staff at great risk. And hospitals can get to a breaking point.
This was the whole point of flattening the curve, spreading out the cases so that our medical system did not get overwhelmed. We barely missed that in places like in New York and New Jersey six weeks ago.
And I'm worried about Texas. The difference is that when New York was at its breaking point, New York shut down. New York was shut down. Texas has not shut down. We did hear from the Harris County executive, a request for nonessential people to stay home but it is not an order yet. But we have to see the political will to do that in places.
HOLMES: I was just going to ask you about that, leadership, national coordination. You would think it's pretty important in times like these. We have seen that coordination in countries that brought their cases down.
In the U.S., testing was lacking from the start. It still is. The shutdown was slow. The restart was fast in many places. There's been pretty much zero federal coordination of anything. It's literally just scrolling through the president's Twitter feed. It's on everything but this.
Are you worried about the lack of a coordinated federal response? REINER: Absolutely. When we started talking about opening two months ago, the federal government had a reasonable plan. And it called for states to have 14 consecutive days of downward trend in new cases and declining positivity rates and increasing testing rates and hospital capacity.
But look at Texas. When Texas opened, they only had two consecutive days. They barely had two consecutive days of a downward trend. So many of the places that opened were not ready to open and certainly not ready to move towards phase 3.
We are paying the price for that now. The problem is that there is an essential conflict of interest between treating this pandemic the way it needs to be treated and running for reelection. And the president is facing this now.
In order for him to succeed in reelection, he has to make this go away. He has to pretend that it does not exist. That is why the vice president started his briefing yesterday by saying, oh, everyone has heard now the encouraging news.
I have no idea what he was talking about. He is not living in the same world that I am living in.
But in order for them to succeed in reelection, they really have to try and get the people of this country to believe that the pandemic is gone, that we are moving on, that it's business as usual.
So until we have leadership that is willing to do the difficult things, it's going to be very difficult to put this down.
HOLMES: Yes, that is the funny thing about pandemics. It is hard to pretend they have gone away when hospitals are filled with people who are dying. Doctor, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, co-director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at George Washington University Hospital. As always, a pleasure. Thank you for your expertise, sir.
REINER: My pleasure. Have a great night.
HOLMES: On to the growing controversy over claims that Russian intelligence offered cash to Taliban militants as a reward for killing U.S. and U.K. troops in Afghanistan.
This just in, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence has issued a statement saying that he has confirmed that the president and vice president never were briefed on that serious allegation, which seems incredible. Our Nick Paton Walsh has been investigating the story.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: A European intelligence official is telling me that Russian military intelligence officers made offers of cash rewards to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan if they would kill or attack U.S. or other coalition soldiers. Now it's not clear to this European intelligence official quite what
the motivation behind this Russian offer was. But they do believe that these cash incentives resulted in coalition casualties. They're not clear on the date of these casualties, the nature of the casualties or the nationality indeed or their location.
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WALSH: But these are startling direct allegations, initially first reported by "The New York Times," citing U.S. officials.
I should point out the Taliban have denied any involvement in this (INAUDIBLE) foreigners tell them how to conduct their insurgency and the Russian embassy in Washington has put up #BlameRussia, saying they had nothing to do this at all.
The White House has responded to "The New York Times" report on this, which claims that president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence were, in fact, briefed on these intelligence reports about Russian intelligence offering rewards Taliban to attack U.S. troops. The White House denies that that briefing in fact occurred.
So there is some dispute there but certainly the allegations by "The New York Times" and by the European intelligence official that I spoke to are not directly denying this stage at the White House.
The European intelligence official I spoke to said he regarded the Russian military intelligence move as, quote, "callous," and was bewildered by their motivation.
A little more detail, too, from this official, who in fact said that the precise part of Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU that was behind this, is a unit called 291 55.
They were accused by European intelligence officials of being behind the attacks on the Skripal father and daughter in Salisbury, a British town, in early 2018. They've also been accused of other prominent attacks around Europe.
Quite why would Russia want to be behind something like this is unclear.
Are they trying to expedite the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan?
Well, President Trump, who initially wanted to win that war, has made it very clear he wants a peace deal if he can with the Taliban and to get out. In fact, there's been advanced planning to withdraw even more troops from Afghanistan by the United States.
So a lot of questions as to why Russia would do this, if, indeed, these repeated allegations by intelligence officials are true, and also precisely where this leaves U.S. policy in Afghanistan, also too why the president and vice president would not have been briefed as the White House says they weren't, if they received intelligence reports of this nature. Startling revelations about the U.S.' continued presence in
Afghanistan and Russia's meddling therein -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: In the U.K., as many as 15,000 homeless were sleeping in hotels during the lockdown, effectively ending street homelessness overnight. Now that the lockdowns are coming to an end, there is a push to keep that momentum going. We'll discuss after the break.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
Legislators in Mississippi could be on the verge of removing the Confederate symbol from the state flag. Yes, it is there. A resolution to begin the process passed both the Mississippi statehouse and Senate on Saturday. It is only a first step, though.
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HOLMES: The measure paves the way for a bill to be proposed and passed that allows for a change in the state flag. Now if that passes, the governor has said he will sign it.
The great-great grandson of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, Bertram Hayes-Davis, spoke to CNN on Saturday, saying he supports that move.
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BERTRAM HAYES-DAVIS, GREAT-GREAT GRANDSON OF CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS: It does not represent the entire population of Mississippi. It is historic and heritage related, there are a lot of people who look at that that way and God bless them for that heritage.
So put it in a museum and honor it there or put it in your house. But the flag of Mississippi should represent the entire population. And I am thrilled that we are finally going to make that change.
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HOLMES: Mississippi lawmakers have been weighing the removal of the emblem amid recent protests for racial justice. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising to do more to crack down on hate speech shared on the platform.
Household names such as Coca-Cola, Honda and Levi Jeans are joining an ever-growing list of major companies ditching the social media giant over controversial advertising possibilities. CNN's Brian Fung with the details. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN FUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The advertiser revolt against Facebook just keeps growing. Dozens of companies have joined the massive boycott of Facebook's advantage platform, now in its second week.
The list includes Hershey's, Honda, Levi Strauss and Verizon. On Friday, Unilever, a major consumer goods conglomerate that owns Dove, Hellmann's mayo and Lipton, said that they, too, would join the campaign, making it the biggest company yet to give Facebook the cold shoulder.
Advertisers said the core problem is Facebook's lackluster handling of hate speech and misinformation. CNN has reported that Facebook tried to keep its advertisers on board by holding phone calls with marketers and sending them emails.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg even appeared on video Friday to announce new policies, banning hateful ads and labels for controversial content. Facebook said in a statement that it invests billions of dollars a year to keep its communities safe and that its artificial intelligence technology helps it remove hate speech faster than on Twitter or YouTube.
"We know we have more work to do," said the company, "and will continue to work with civil rights groups and other experts to develop even more tools, technology and policies to continue this fight."
But that hasn't stopped the bleeding; advertisers continue to flee the platform in what's become a PR nightmare Zuckerberg cannot afford to ignore.
The growing backlash highlights how brands are increasingly responding to racial justice protests around the country and it illustrates the pressure before the Facebook in the midst of a high-stakes pandemic and an election year -- Brian Fung, CNN, Washington.
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HOLMES: England's lockdown is supposed to be relaxed, starting on July the 4th and some charities are seeing an opportunity to help thousands of homeless people over the long term. These last few months, hotels in the U.K. have opened their doors to thousands of people, who were living on the streets. CNN's Phil Black shows us the impact that has made.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is existing at society's edge, being invisible to most, having no reason to hope. It's life on Britain's streets, without a home, without work or support because of trauma, addiction, mental illness and just bad luck.
It was Bob Sheppard's life until a few months ago.
So how are you doing now? BOB SHEPPARD, HOMELESS MAN: A lot better. A hell of a lot better. (INAUDIBLE) take longer, physically it's coming back together quite well.
BLACKWELL (voice-over): Bob's turnaround is an unlikely positive consequence of COVID-19. As the country locked down, he and the vast majority of Britain's homeless, more than 15,000, were quickly taken off the streets and given their own hotel rooms.
The result, no significant spread among some of the country's most vulnerable people. And many are now engaging with health and drug abuse services.
LOUISE CASEY, COVID-19 ROUGH SLEEPING TASK FORCE: I think that's an amazing tale during what's a really, really dreadful period in certainly our nation's history.
BLACK (voice-over): Louise Casey coordinated that initial effort. Then she and other began pushing the government for something far more ambitious.
CASEY: We all now think, crikey, OK, let's not go back.
BLACK (voice-over): So the goal now is to get those 15,000-plus people into safe, longer-term accommodation. The long lines regularly waiting for a hot meal in London's Trafalgar Square represent only a small part of the need, an expected pandemic recession is going to make that need even greater.
CASEY: I want to get the 15,000 sorted now, so that we are ready to face whatever will happen this autumn, when I think we will see it's inevitable.
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CASEY: You get higher unemployment, higher levels of homelessness and actually get higher levels of hunger.
BLACK (voice-over): One of Britain's leading voices on homelessness, the founder of the "Big Issue" magazine, predicts the government will soon have to find ways of helping hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.
JOHN BIRD, "BIG ISSUE": People in their homes, give them jobs. Train them up, skill them up, new forms of work, job creation, programs around health, around local authorities' support, around education, around the environment. We can do it. We really need a revolution now in government thinking.
BLACK (voice-over): Bob Sheppard is proof, a change in thanking can change lives. He now has a guaranteed home for at least the next six months.
BLACK: Is that comforting?
SHEPPARD: It is. It is comforting. I've got a stable place now. It is stable. As long as I don't do something stupid, I'm fine there. I've got a bed, I've got a cooker, I can eat food. I can build my life back up again.
BLACK (voice-over): For years, homelessness has been a highly visible growing problem in Britain with no easy fix but the recent extraordinary progress points to what's been missing until now: political will -- Phil Black, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back, though. When we do, coronavirus on the campaign trail as cases spike across the U.S.
What does it mean for a campaign efforts and the chances of a second term for President Trump?
We'll explore that when we come back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes.
Bars and beaches are among the places being closed again and some American states see a new spike in the coronavirus. More than half of the states seeing increases in the number of new cases while more than a dozen have actually decided to hold back reopening or even start closing things again.
This as Johns Hopkins University says the global number of cases is now approaching 10 million. Nearly half a million have died from the virus.
California is one of the states that is seeing a surge; the 7-day average is way up and that increase is putting a strain on the hospitals. One of the state's main tourist sites, Disneyland, is still closed.
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HOLMES: CNN's Paul Vercammen is telling us, when it does reopen, workers want big changes.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Anaheim, about 100 cars circling Disneyland. They represented some 3,000 unionized hotel workers, who want Disneyland to put in very strict safeguards when it does reopen. Here is one of the union leaders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) They need a comprehensive plan. It begins with testing, which they are saying no to. But they have got to tell us the details.
We asked them, what happens if a cook gets sick?
How are going to test and protect the other folks in the department?
They don't know.
How are you going to handle the increased cleaning?
They don't know.
Then, beyond that, we ask them, you need to do comprehensive regular testing, they are not willing to do it.
VERCAMMEN: Now Disneyland says it has forged deals other unions. We talked to at least one union that says it's OK with Disney's current plans to reopen under some safety measures.
Doctor Pam Heimer, the chief medical officer, she outlined some of the things Disneyland plans to do; among them, increase use of disinfectant and cleaning. Having both guests and workers wear masks, taking temperature tests from the guests as they come in and checking the temperatures of those workers when they leave for those shifts.
What remains to be seen is when will Disneyland reopen?
It's an important economic barometer in California, 21 million visitors a year, some 31,000 employees at Disneyland. And that doesn't even count the thousands and thousands of other people, who somehow get paid by their business interactions with Disney -- reporting from Southern California, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
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HOLMES: The U.S. vice president has defended holding Trump campaign rallies during the coronavirus spike but now the campaign has postponed events that Mike Pence had scheduled in Florida and Arizona next week. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on coronavirus policy and politics at the White House.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, as coronavirus cases are surging nationwide, President Trump in recent days has continued to downplay the severity of the crisis and insists falsely that testing and increased testing is the reason why we are seeing these spikes in several places around the country.
Of course, the truth of the matter is that while testing is increasing, the percentage of positive cases is also rising. It shows that this is not just about testing. But while the president has downplayed the severity of this crisis publicly, we know that the president has actually been concerned privately about his potential exposure.
And with that we have also seen the protective measures around the president, measures to protect him from getting the virus have actually stepped up, in particular every venue that the president enters is now being inspected for potential areas of contagion by security and medical teams.
The bathroom that he may use during one of those events when he is traveling, scrubbed and sanitized thoroughly. And every individual around the president, who comes into contact with him, is also being tested.
That's despite the fact that the White House has actually scaled back some of its other preventative measures that don't necessarily deal directly with the president.
For example, when I walk into the White House, I've normally gotten a temperature check. That is no longer happening. Now while all of that is happening, we also know the vice president, who has himself made that same claim about testing and really tried to paint a much rosier picture of the situation in the United States than actually exists, he's also scaling back some of his plans to travel and specifically some of his plans to campaign in person.
The vice president was scheduled to travel to Florida and to Arizona for campaign events. The vice president will still be going to those states, we are told, to get an in-person briefing on the situation there.
But he is canceling campaign events that were scheduled to take place in both of those battleground states. Certainly, some changes are happening but, again, protective measures around the president tightening but the president himself, his rhetoric, certainly hasn't changed -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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HOLMES: Ron Brownstein is CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic." He joins me now from Los Angeles.
Good to see you, sir. You've tweeted in recent days regarding the coronavirus and the political impact it could have.
What is President Trump going to say when the virus keeps surging throughout the Sun Belt states, as you point out, ,states that he must win to get reelected?
He's in trouble in Arizona and Florida already.
Where is this heading?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Today, just today, four key Sun Belt states with Republican governors following Trump's cues, who opened early, who have refused to change course as case loads have mounted and who conspicuously have blocked Democratic local officials from in any way regulating or slowing the pace of the reopening.
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BROWNSTEIN: Those four states, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Arizona, today alone reported more than 20,000 cases. And in all of those states, the caseload is concentrated most intently in the big metropolitan centers.
That's important, Michael. The urban and suburban areas of the Sun Belt have not moved toward the Democrats nearly as much as the equivalent places in other parts of the country until Trump's election.
I look, you know, at Maricopa County, Arizona. It's the classic example; it was the largest county in America that Trump won in 2016. No Democrat has won it at a presidential level since 1948.
But in all of the polling done this spring, Trump is now trailing there by as much as double digits. And today, Maricopa passed 42,000 cases. The hospital beds are being filled and, you know, I don't think a lot of predictions but if he loses Maricopa County, there's almost no chance that he can win president.
And all of both political and public health trajectories in that county are moving in the wrong direction for him.
HOLMES: You know, there are a lot of those most affected by this virus. Blue collar people, elderly people and they're the ones that call his constituencies as, again, you've been tweeting about today.
I did want to ask you about the administration going to the Supreme Court to have ObamaCare essentially abolished.
What s the potential for that to be a major political blunder in the middle of a pandemic?
You've got 23 million people lose insurance, everyone could lose coverage of preexisting conditions and it's truly staggering, Republicans have no firm replacement, no firm alternative on the table. They never have, really.
HOLMES: I think there are 2 issues about this that are extraordinary. One, he is forcing back by this choice, in the middle of a pandemic, when people are enormously concerned about their health situation, he's forcing this debate back into the center of a political conversation.
It's an issue on which the Democrats consistently have had a 15-, 20- sometimes 25-point advantage over him in polling on who do you trust to handle health care. He has now guaranteed with this filing that this is going to be front and center for the rest of the year.
Now the other problem he's got is what you kind of alluded to when you talked about the coronavirus. To the extent Republicans have an alternative vision to ObamaCare, it's that ObamaCare requires too much sharing of risk between the young and the healthy and the old and the sick. Their answer to bringing down health care costs is to basically
unravel that and to lower costs and premium costs on people who are younger and healthier at the price of making it more expensive and more difficult for people who are older and sicker to get coverage.
Their problem, the conundrum they face, is that it is their own voters, older, working age white before they qualify for Medicare. People from 45 to 64, who are the big losers in every alternative Republicans have put forward for almost four years.
I do believe that in 2018, this was a big part of the erosion we saw for the president and his party among those blue collar white women who were so critical for him winning in 2016 and, again, if this is front and center, it is probably the most powerful wedge Democrats have to try to win back some of those culturally conservative voters, who like Trump's messaging on many other issues.
HOLMES: I mean, he spent 3.5 years saying he's going to have the best health care and protect pre-existing conditions and here we are, getting rid of all of that. It really is incredible.
A lot of Republicans, meanwhile, they sort of made noises that they want more conciliatory positions from the president, particularly on race. But then on Friday, he signs an executive order, trying to protect Confederate statues, even though laws already exist that do that. Let's not bother with that.
How worried is the GOP about the path the president is taking with an election a few months out?
BROWNSTEIN: I think they're nervous now but, boy, they have no cause to be questioning him after they essentially have been feeding him rope month after month. The president has faced no real constraint on any front from Republicans but particularly on issues of race.
I think it is unlikely the president would have been using the kind of inflammatory, racially divisive language we heard in Tulsa, when he talked about kung flu and bad hombres and attacking Democratic women of color in the House.
If in fact he had faced consistent pushback from the party, over these past 3.5 years. But with very few exceptions, they have been unwilling to call him out.
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BROWNSTEIN: And you know, they are speaking to the portion of the American electorate that is most uneasy about the way the country is changing demographically. But as we have seen in the protests this spring, there is now a pretty clear majority of Americans, including a majority of white Americans, who are more -- of a greater consensus than in the past that there is structural racism in this society and there are things that need to change.
The president, today, released a new ad that he is trying to run as if it was 1968. It's a very different country and I think there are Republicans who are justifiably nervous about him trying to channel Richard Nixon 52 years later.
HOLMES: Yes. We are literally out of time but I've got to ask you this one, the Biden campaign is going to be happy with the polls. But it is important to remember at this point, in 2016, Hillary Clinton was leading by double figures.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, generally speaking, she was not leading by quite as much. And the big difference is that Trump is more of a known commodity than he was then. This is first and foremost a referendum on him.
Now look, it is not a seal for both Joe Biden. There's always the possibility that Trump could lose the popular vote and win the Electoral College by squeezing out very narrow victories in the states right at the tipping point, Florida, Arizona and Wisconsin.
But to do that, he does have to recover. Where he is now, I don't think there's a realistic chance of him being able to win the Electoral College.
The question is, can he get a little bit past the focus on race and the coronavirus, 2 issues where the American public overwhelmingly feel he has failed, a clear majority feel he has failed, and get back to a debate about who is best in position to restart the economy?
That might allow him to gain a little ground and have at least a plausible opportunity to win the Electoral College. But where he is right now, you know, the Electoral College cannot bail him out from the weakness he's displaying right now.
HOLMES: Always fascinating, Ron. Good to see, my friend. Thank you.
Ron Brownstein.
COVID-19 ravaging some of the most remote parts of the Amazon River in Brazil. This is a very important story. This is one of the hardest hit countries with coronavirus.
Why is it so difficult for people to get testing and treatment they need?
We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world fast approaching the 10 million mark and, in the last several months, almost half a million people have lost their lives to this outbreak.
The president of the European Council says the European Union will pledge $6 billion to help vulnerable countries devastated by the coronavirus. Ursula van der Leyen said she is trying to convince wealthy countries to set aside vaccines, not just for themselves but for low and middle income countries as well.
One of those countries devastated by the virus is Brazil, which is now reporting more than 1,100 new deaths in just 24 hours.
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HOLMES: Some of the hardest hit areas are the most remote, deep in the Amazon. CNN's Shasta Darlington shows us why.
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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A house call to one of the most remote inlets of the Amazon River in Brazil. So far away that medical workers must travel hours by boat to get there. But not isolated enough to be spared from the coronavirus.
During this visit, one man is found to be very ill and is taken to the hospital. His daughter says she is afraid for him and says, "We are sad because, even though he is going there, we don't know when he'll get there and we can't be sure he'll come back."
Hundreds of cases of coronaviruses have been reported near Brazil's Madajo (ph) Island, where many victims have been buried before they can be diagnosed, let alone treated. The people are poor, fishermen and farmers who earn a few dollars a day, who live in small wooden shacks with no space to social distance and no phones to call for help.
One resident says, "There are a lot of negative thoughts among us.
"How long is this going to last for?
"How many people are going to die?"
The water ambulances have become a lifeline for the sick, who can't travel the long distances, sometimes as much as 36 hours, to get tested in the town centers.
One health official says, "We use the boats to get by river to places with difficult access."
This makes a difference when combating COVID-19. This woman was stuck at home with a headache and flulike symptoms. The mobile clinic was able to test her and confirm she has the virus.
She says she is grateful for the help, saying, "Thank God they've been coming. We are very happy to people be able to get the service at home," a service that is more and more in demand, as water ambulances navigate the river to try to find more cases, as virus rates reached unchartered (sic) levels -- Shasta Darlington, CNN, Sao Paulo.
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HOLMES: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, Liverpool's star defender talks to CNN about football, the future and how he plans to use his platform to advocate for change. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: It might not be easy to get Major League Baseball back up and running, a number of Texas Rangers' employees say they literally fear for their health and feel pressured to return to the office. Some of the team's employees, not clear who, have tested positive for the virus.
The club says it will adhere to medical protocols, including temperature checks and face masks.
Joining me now is Christine Brennan, CNN sports analyst and columnist with "USA Today" and she has twice been named one of the top 10 sports columnists in the U.S. by the Associated Press sports editors.
Had to throw that in there. Number one to all of us here at CNN. Now listen, the return of sport was always going to be, you know, polarizing in regard to safety. The should they or shouldn't they.
What do you think is going to be the impact?
What has been a pretty high volume of positive tests throughout many different sports?
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HOLMES: How is that going to impact things?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: I think it's going to impact these a lot, Michael. There are a lot of uncertainties now, especially as United States is seeing this incredible spike again in cases. Especially in the South, where, for example, a lot of baseball players have been.
Especially in Florida, where the NBA is going to set up its quote- unquote "bubble" in a place where cases are skyrocketing. We have seen so much uncertainty. These leagues want and sport gives us kind of black and white, gives us decisions, gives us an answer. That's what we look for in sports.
These leagues are all up in the air. It's the (INAUDIBLE) of that. We can say they're going to start playing, they have got schedules, there's going to be some great NBA games starting out when they play, then they have playouts over a 3 month period.
But we have to say, we have to caution, if that happens, I think there is a chance right now for the NBA, for Major League Baseball, for the women's soccer league, for the WNBA, you name it.
I think there is a chance that it could become overwhelming and that an individual team might have to step aside, as we saw with the women's soccer league, with the Orlando team. Or that maybe even a league that would have to shut down again. We have no idea.
HOLMES: The thing you mentioned, the bubble with the NBA, how can you truly keep a bubble?
They are going to be down, I think, at the Disney ESPN campus in Orlando, no fans, all of that, a bubble. You can't keep everyone out of the bubble. We've already seen so many positive tests.
What is the financial impact?
You talk about the NFL, multibillion dollar league. They are currently are going to play, at least with some fans.
What do you think it's going to look like?
What should we expect for, let's say, pro football?
BRENNAN: For pro football they are talking about -- they have a few more months before games would start. They're lucky. They have a chance to watch other leagues go through some of this.
And of course, they were not interrupted back in March, as the NBA and NHL and Major League Baseball with its retraining were interrupted. They are talking about having 6-8 rows, Michael, that would be empty. The first rows in every stadium and then they would have a tarp put up and sponsors could put their logos there.
Bottom line, right now, for all sports, it's basically a TV show. For most fans, that's what it is, anyway. You turn on the TV, you watch your favorite college, pro team, whatever might be in Major League Baseball, it's a television show.
And so everything that the leagues can do to double down on that and just try to recoup some of the money and sponsors, of course, love the idea in the NFL stadium of having their name and their logo, whatever, right there, front and center.
And that's also social distancing because you can't have fans that close to the players. But the NFL wants to have fans; the NFL's also not going to be in a bubble. Dr. Anthony Fauci said last week he thought the NFL should try to be in a bubble. I'm not sure exactly what that would look like.
But you know, the NFL, as you mentioned, to me, it's kind of the ultimate irony because the NFL and social distancing are polar opposites. Football is the antithesis of social distancing and even the coach of the L.A. Rams said that last week.
We are going to have football and social distance?
How does that work?
HOLMES: Even if you try to social distance with some fans, I mean, what are going to do without the beer line and the hot dog line?
On an economic level, it seems -- but will some of these sports be crippled or will they come back?
BRENNAN: Some will be crippled. I hope women's sports are OK, but I think this could be a tough time and if they can't play this year, if by chance they have to shut down again, then I think it's going to be a devastating -- I don't think it will go away entirely.
But we can see all kinds of changes, especially in salary structure and what cities they play, to get teams with new arenas and things like that, I think we -- as I said in every way about our lives and our love of sports may change.
HOLMES: Sad times all around. Christine Brennan, fabulous to see you. Thanks so much.
BRENNAN: Michael, thank you very much.
HOLMES: It is an exhilarating moment for Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold and not just because of the club's Premier League title victory on Thursday. The defender says it is also amazing to be able to use his platform to advocate for change. "WORLD SPORT" contributor Darren Lewis with more.
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DARREN LEWIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you were a kid and you signed up, it was a youth camp, wasn't it?
When you were, what, 6-7 years old?
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LEWIS: Did you ever dream that this moment would come?
TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD, LIVERPOOL DEFENDER: I dreamt it. I didn't really think it would happen. But I always dreamt it. (INAUDIBLE) dreamt it. I dreamt it was like a last minute winner and it was -- it was a tight, tight race up until the last minute, which called me (INAUDIBLE). It was always had to wear (ph) (INAUDIBLE).
And, well, yes, so as of right now, we went (INAUDIBLE) yesterday or we had to play our next game (INAUDIBLE). And (INAUDIBLE) yesterday and be able to celebrate the boys and that was just amazing.
LEWIS: I talk about the football and the fact that you're an inspiration to so many young people. I've got my son, who basically idolizes you. But I think as far as off the page is concerned, your inspiration to young black man as well. The message on your boots head of the mosi si darby (ph) particularly striking.
Can you explain what motivated that message?
And what the issue means to you?
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD: Of course. According to the situation around the world and the movement which has been so inspiring to me, seeing so many people involved and seeing so many people pick it up and so many movements, so many institutions that have beyond it and the Premier League (INAUDIBLE), the players, the managers, everyone getting behind it.
It's powerful to be a part of something and to know that you're an inspiration and a role model to a younger generation. It just inspires you more to put out the right messages and to be able to obviously, partner with Under Armour and then to set it off and help my vision come to life in terms of with the message on the boots and trying to be as powerful as possible and trying to do something individual that young people can look up to and aspire to become was amazing.
And obviously a big thanks to them. And obviously, donating the -- or auctioning the boots off now and then obviously donating the money to the national (INAUDIBLE) foundation and hopefully they can use in the right way for effective change in the future.
I think there just needs to be change that happens. I think we just need equality, people shouldn't be treated differently because of the color of their skin or where there from or stuff like that. So it's just important to educate people, I think.
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HOLMES: On that note, thanks for watching the program. I'll be back with more news in an hour from now. Meanwhile, stay tuned for "INSIDE AFRICA."
