Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Stokes Racial Divide in Bid for Reelection. Trump Falsely Accuses Bubba Wallace of Devising Hoax; Trump Approval Rating Down Among Educated, White Voters; Spanish Study Shows COVID Antibodies Can Disappear After a Few Weeks; 95 Percent People in Spain Do Not Have COVID Antibodies after Infection; Dubai Reopens to International Tourists; Case of Bubonic Plague Suspected in China. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 07, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, President Trump's re-election strategy appears to be to spread misleading information while dividing and conquering the nation. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic Mr. Trump has downplayed the severity of the problem as cases surge around the country, the President makes false claims like 99 percent of infections are, quote, totally harmless, which of course we know is not true.

And as the nation reels from the kind of racial unrest not seen since the civil rights era, the President chooses to stoke racial division. His latest target, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump ramping up his divisive and racially charged rhetoric. The President suggesting he disagrees with NASCAR's decision to ban the Confederate flag at its races and falsely accusing NASCAR's only black driver of orchestrating a hoax after a member of his team found a noose in his garage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is the President even suggesting that Mr. Wallace should apologize?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, look, the FBI noted and concluded this was not a hate crime and he believes it would go a long way if Bubba came out and acknowledged that as well.

DIAMOND: But Wallace did, back on June 24th saying he was relieved after the FBI determined the noose had been in the garage since last year.

This afternoon Wallace tweeted, always deal with the hate being thrown at you with love adding, even when it's hate, from the President.

The White House Press Secretary also trying to claim that Trump was not expressing support for the Confederate flag.

MCENANY: I spoke to him this morning about this and he said he was not making a judgment one way or the other.

DIAMOND: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a loyal Trump supporter, backing NASCAR's decision.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): They're trying to grow the sport. The Confederate flag is not a good way to grow your business.

DIAMOND: And defending Wallace.

GRAHAM: Well, I don't think Bubba Wallace has anything to apologize for.

DIAMOND: Trump's tweet builds on the inflammatory rhetoric he delivered in a pair of Independence Day speeches in which he painted racial injustice protesters as fascists trying to end America as we know it.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.

We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms.

DIAMOND: After trying to recast his fight to protect Confederate monuments as an attempt to --

TRUMP: Protect and preserve our history, our heritage and our great heroes.

DIAMOND: The President's race-based appeals unmasked by his own tweets. Signaling a campaign strategy to stoke fear among white Americans just like in 2016.

(on camera): So it's clear that the President is, indeed, diving back into that 2016 playbook dividing Americans along racial and cultural lines. But it's also clear that the President is swimming against the current more than ever before, appealing to a smaller and smaller slice of the American electorate.

Beyond NASCAR, we also saw just last week Mississippi removing the Confederate battle flag from its state flag and political attitudes in terms of racial injustice in America are also quickly changing.

[04:35:00]

Recent polls have shown that about 2/3 of Americans support the protests in the wake of George Floyd's death and only about 1/3 of Americans believe that President Trump is handling race relations adequately.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And joining me now is Bakari Sellers. He is a CNN political commentator, attorney, and former South Carolina state representative. He's also the author of "My Vanishing Country, A Memoir." A pleasure to have you with us.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you so much for having me.

CHURCH: So, the White House is refusing to denounce the Confederate flag after President Trump criticized NASCAR's recent decision to ban that flag from all races and events. So here's the question. Is stoking racist division and defending a racist symbol in an effort to boost the President's election chances going to work for him politically?

SELLERS: Well, I'm not going to say it won't work. I'm hopeful that it won't work, but we saw the same thing work in 2016. This is the same man who came down the escalator and said Mexicans were rapists. He is the same individual who marked C's on housing applications for color. Who actually got sued for discrimination against dealers and waitresses and bartenders in Atlantic City. So he has this history of racism and using racism as political currency so this isn't new.

The question is can he expand his base and I'm not so certain he can. But I do think it's going to backfire ever so slightly because there are about 4 million people who voted for Barack Obama who stayed at home during the election of Hillary Clinton. Over 1/3 of those were African-American and this may get those individuals to come out and vote in this 2020 election.

CHURCH: Right, and in a tweet President Trump also called on the only black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace, to apologize over the noose found in his garage. Which the FBI investigated and found to be a garage door pull made in the shape of a noose late last year. What does Mr. Trump think Wallace needs to apologize for here? And what is going on, do you think?

SELLERS: Well, let's just be clear. The FBI called it a noose. It was a noose. NASCAR actually discovered this, not Bubba Wallace. And NASCAR asked for this investigation. NASCAR searched every single garage they had and only one garage had a pull in the shape of a noose.

And so NASCAR did the right thing. The President is on the wrong side of history here, but he has this propensity to lash out at black folk in the media and black athletes. And this is another case. Bubba Wallace had absolutely nothing to apologize for. In fact, his statement in response was amazing saying that love was going to win over his haters, even when your hater is the President of the United States. You saw the President of NASCAR come out and support Bubba Wallace.

But I want to be clear for the viewers around the world how big it is for NASCAR to ban Confederate flags. Confederate flags and NASCAR fandom have been something that have gone hand in hand since NASCAR's invention, but for them to say enough is enough goes a long way in showing how much our country's changing on the issue of race.

But then you think about the person who is occupying the White House being on the wrong side of that history, it shows that even though we make progress, we still have so far to go.

CHURCH: Right. And I want to look now at the President's handling of the pandemic. More than 130,000 Americans have died so far from COVID- 19. More than 45,000 U.S. cases are recorded each day taking that toll to nearly 3 million. And now the White House says the world views the U.S. as a global leader in its handling of this health crisis. And Mr. Trump falsely claimed that 99 percent of all cases of COVID-19 are totally harmless. How do these claims go over with smart Republican voters who surely know better at this time?

SELLERS: I don't know how they're going to go over with smart Republican voters. I wish more Republicans would speak out. I wish that you would have a Senator McConnell or a Lindsey Graham or a Cornyn or any of these people just have backbone and speak out. Rick Scott, speak out against the President of the United States and his lunacy. Because what we have here is his effectiveness is literally killing Americans every single day.

The world is not looking at us as a leader when it comes to coronavirus. In fact, I think there may be two countries that would look to us as a leader, Venezuela and maybe North Korea, but the list is extremely short. No one is looking to us as a leader. I mean in fact, they are turning away. The world is turning away American citizens because we cannot handle this coronavirus.

What I do believe though is that voters in November will vote like their life depends on it, because we're seeing that our life really does.

[04:40:00]

CHURCH: And speaking of that, I do want to bring up a recent poll and it shows along with others at this point that President Trump is well behind the -- his Democratic rival Joe Biden. How reliable though are any of these polls at this juncture and any other, in fact, given what we saw in 2016?

SELLERS: Yes, polls don't vote. I remind people around the world. Polls do not vote. And so no one's paying attention to those polls. We're not paying attention to those polls.

You know, the polls had Hillary Clinton winning. In fact, I came on national TV and said that Hillary Clinton was going to get 330 electoral votes. She ended up losing although she did get 65 million votes to his 62 million votes.

So it's a -- this is a long way to go. And Joe Biden, the interesting thing, let me be clear, the interesting thing is that Joe Biden simply cannot say that he's not Donald Trump. He cannot say that Donald Trump is a racist and expect people just to show up and vote for him. He's going to have to give people a reason to come out and vote for him. He's going to have to give them a reason to cast the ballot for Joe Biden. The next four months are really important not just for this election but for the future of our country.

CHURCH: So you don't feel he's doing that at this point?

SELLERS: I think he's doing a good job, but we can't take our foot off the gas. I mean, we still have a long way to go. Again, we're not saying President Hillary Clinton, are we? So my advice to Joe Biden is to continue to run through the tape because we have a long way to go.

CHURCH: Bakari Sellers, thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.

SELLERS: Thank you so much for having me.

CHURCH: Well, one-way scientists say we could fight the coronavirus pandemic is with herd immunity, but when we come back, we want to show you a study that shows and indicates that might be very difficult. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

CHURCH: Well, a new study by the Spanish government finds that COVID- 19 antibodies can disappear after just a few weeks. The study was conducted over several phases and found the number of people with antibodies declined over time.

The health ministry says it shows herd immunity against COVID-19 could be difficult to achieve in the short term, and this news comes as Spain has been forced into new lockdowns to contain new coronavirus outbreaks.

So let's bring in Al Goodman. He joins us live from Madrid in Spain. Good to see you, Al. This study is an unfortunate wake-up call, isn't it? How reliable is it? And what's the latest on Spain's new outbreaks?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Rosemary. Well, the prestigious medical journal, "The Lancet" published this study which was peer reviewed. It is thought to be the largest in Europe. It had 61,000 people participating over these phases in a representative sample of the population according to the government, and significantly most of them participated throughout of giving blood several times to see if they had the antibodies.

And that was achieved with the help of neighborhood health clinics like this one in that building. The door has been blocked by that delivery van. The nurses in these neighborhood clinics knew the people who had agreed to participate. And they were able to get to them to give blood several times to add to the validity.

So here's the results. The results are that only 5 percent of the Spaniards had antibodies, OK? Which is some sort of alleged immunity if you have the antibodies. But 95 percent did not. So the Spanish government in the finding says that herd immunity is very far away. "Lancet" in an expert companion piece said it's unachievable. Also, those who had the antibodies at the beginning of the study, the

small number that did have the antibodies at the beginning of this study, a couple months later, 14 percent did not. So the government says that means antibodies are incomplete, transitory and they might just disappear altogether.

So as the Spanish government lifted the state of emergency here after more than three months, more than 28,000 deaths in this hard-hit country by the coronavirus, they require by law that you have to wear a mask in public if there's not social distancing.

And we're seeing that sort of caution now in these two regions in Spain in the northeast near Barcelona and northwest along the Atlantic coast. 270,000 people are confined to their counties. They can move around within their counties but they can't leave because there are a total now of about almost 700 cases in those two locations with 270,000 people locked down.

That's the kind of caution that the government here is taking to try to prevent any widespread outbreaks although over in the area of northeastern Spain in Catalonia health officials there warn the cases are going to increase -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Al Goodman joining us live from Madrid. Many thanks.

Israel is now re-imposing tighter restrictions in light of a new spike in coronavirus cases. Just days ago, Israel hit a record daily figure soaring past 1,000 new infections. The government is now -- has now closed bars, clubs, and gyms and ordered restaurants and houses of worship to limit their capacity.

And in Iran it is now mandatory to wear a mask in public after a rise in coronavirus cases there. President Hassan Rouhani says citizens who do not wear masks will be denied state services, and workplaces that fail to comply with health protocols could be shut for a week. Up until Sunday wearing a mask in Iran had been encouraged but remained a personal choice. The total death toll in the country is nearing 12,000. And there are more than 243,000 cases.

A Middle East tourism hub is getting back to business by opening its borders to international travelers, but there's one key condition. We'll explain when we come back.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: All right. Want to take a look at the major U.S. markets ahead of opening. As you can see the Dow Futures down .91 percent there. NASDAQ Futures down nearly half a percent. And the S&P 500 Futures down .74 percent.

John Defterios is live in Abu Dhabi. He joins us now. So John, after all the rallying of stocks in the U.S. despite the spike in COVID-19 cases, those futures numbers don't look too good. What is going on here, do you think? JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, we had a

blistering day on Monday after the long holiday weekend in the United States for the Fourth of July. And gains of 1.7 percent for the Dow Industrials and 2.2 percent to a new record for the Nasdaq Composite with Amazon setting a new record high of $3,000 a share.

So let's bring up those futures again, Rosemary. It's pointing to a loss of about 240 to 250 points for the Dow Industrials. So it's not extraordinary.

What is driving this and what drove markets in Asia as well is a rising dollar because there's more enthusiasm into the U.S. market. But this is eroding the gains in equity markets.

The Shanghai Composite Index was the only major index higher in Asia after gaining better than 5 percent on Monday. It finished up 1/3 of 1 percent but well off its highs for the day. And we're seeing similar losses for Germany and the London FTSE 100. We're looking at losses of about 1 percent.

There is a reset or a pause taking place because the valuations are very high with all of the liquidity in the global markets of $10 trillion for the stimulus packages. It's found its way into equities and why we've seen such gains recently.

CHURCH: So we don't have to panic is what you're saying, right?

DEFTERIOS: Not yet. No.

CHURCH: No panic. Not yet. And John, I want to move on to Dubai because they're opening up and welcoming international travelers. What are the risks here though?

DEFTERIOS: Well, you know, Rosemary, this is kind of the new normal if you will. I know it's a worn-out phrase. But it's living with the virus. That's the view that they're taking in Dubai right now.

[04:55:00]

There is a risk. But they see it as a calculated one. Because they have all these new protocols in place for the PCR testing on the ground if you haven't tested before leaving your home country. And you have to wait to get the clearance in six to eight hours, self- quarantine at your hotel, that's your home. Also new standards within the flights themselves for hygiene with full-time staff taking care of that.

Now Emirates is flying to 52 destinations. It sounds big, it is big compared to other global carriers but 1/3 of what they had prior to the COVID-19 crisis. It is about tourism in one aspect because it's 11 percent GDP in Dubai. It is a tourism trade and financial services hub. This is an effort to try to reset it and also send a signal. And what I mean by that, they're going to be hosting the Expo in October of 2021. It, too, is delayed because of COVID-19.

So this is saying, look, we're putting all the protocols in place. We need to re-establish ourselves as a global economy. $10 trillion -- as I talked about before -- being spent but the private sector needs to re-engage. And that's the signal they're sending at Emirates, trying to wake up those icons that they have, the Burj al Arab, and the tallest tower of course, the Burj Khalifa -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Absolutely, absolutely. John Defterios joining us there from Abu Dhabi. Appreciate it.

All right. I don't even really want to tell you this story, but as if 2020 wasn't enough of a disaster, the bubonic plague may be back. Chinese authorities have placed the Inner Mongolia region on high alert after a suspected case.

The plague is caused by bacteria and transmitted through flea bites and infected animals. It killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages. Modern antibiotics of course can prevent complications and deaths if they're administered quickly enough.

Sorry to leave you on that note. But thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. Do have yourselves a great day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END