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Trump Attending Campaign Fundraiser In Florida As State Sees Record Cases; Governor Pushes Schools To Reopen As Cases Surge In Florida; U.S. COVID-19 New Cases Break Single-Day Record; Trump Commutes Pal Roger Stone's Prison Sentence; Defense Department Medical Task Force Arrives In Texas Monday; Cases Continue To Spike Dramatically In South America; Trump Confirms U.S. Conducted Cyber Attack On Russia; English Football Legend Jack Charlton Dies at 85. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired July 11, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Well, Florida averages 9,000 cases a day and one California county has maxed out its ICU capacity. We'll have your U.S. coronavirus headlines this hour.
Also, no hard time for convicted felon Roger Stone. President Trump uses the power of his office to commute his close friend's prison sentence.
Plus, the English football world loses a legend. Jack Charlton dies at 85. We'll talk about his amazing career.
Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. And this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: Thank you for joining us.
It seems that coronavirus records are being set almost daily in the United States. On Friday, the U.S. set another: nearly 67,000 new infections in a single day, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Experts are sounding the alarm about ICU capacity amid a rise in hospitalizations. California's Riverside County reached 100 percent capacity Friday. One medical expert warned of difficult days ahead.
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DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We said there were no deaths. Now we -- we knew there was a lag. Now the deaths are starting to increase. It will accelerate as hospital ICUs become overwhelmed.
We all have students in schools where the teachers are now getting sick. And the school staff will start to abandon the schools.
So what we're looking at is what I think is going to be one of the most unstable times in the history of our country unless we figure out a way to do something.
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ALLEN: Friday also saw the release of the new report compiling the ways the virus can affect us. The report says COVID-19 can attack virtually every major system in the human body.
Facing the dramatic surge in infections, at least half of America's 50 states have paused or rolled back their reopenings. The spiking infection rates are hitting the South and West particularly hard. CNN's Erica Hill has that and more of the day's headlines.
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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long lines for testing in Florida. As the numbers there continue to move in the wrong direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The situation is really concerned here in South Florida.
HILL (voice-over): Florida is now averaging more than 9,000 new cases a day. A staggering jump of more than 1,200 percent since the state began reopening two months ago.
The president in hard hit Miami-Dade County today though not because the positivity rate there is nearly 30 percent.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: There seems to be this lack of understanding or awareness that we are in one of the most extraordinary public health crises that our nation has ever faced.
HILL (voice-over): U.S. is shattering new case records almost daily. West Virginia now has the highest transmission rate in the country.
GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): The only bullet in the gun right now is this right here. This little mask.
HILL (voice-over): 10 states seeing an increase in COVID related deaths over the past week, half of those posting their highest average for new cases since the pandemic began.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I think the numbers are going to look worse as we go into next week and we need to make sure that there's going to be plenty of hospital beds available in the Houston area.
HILL (voice-over): It's not just hospital capacity and ICU beds, personal protective equipment is once again in short supply in some areas.
DEBORAH BURGER, CO-PRESIDENT, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED: We've had plenty of time to plan and take action and it has yet to happen.
HILL (voice-over): As some states paused or roll back their reopening plans, many jobs are also on hold. The $600 weekly unemployment boost will run out at the end of July. But the needs of struggling families will not.
Back to school looming with some states just weeks away.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I don't think there's anybody who can make an argument that this is especially risky for kids. We have to accept that and then figure out you know how you fashion policy around it.
DR. AILEEN MARTY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROFESSOR, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: The viral loads in children are equivalent to that in adults. What does that mean?
That means that they can transmit the virus equally well to other people whether or not they show symptoms.
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HILL (voice-over): As districts work to find the right balance, the one constant in every decision, a virus that is here to stay.
DR. MIKE RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: In our current situation, it is very unlikely that we can eradicate or eliminate this virus.
HILL: Dr. Deborah Birx on Friday reiterating guidance about wearing masks. She also said at the ACE 2020 Conference that it is important as a nation that the United States reduce indoor interactions and reduce indoor gatherings -- in New York, Erica Hill, CNN.
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ALLEN: Let's bring in Dr. Peter Drobac, infectious disease and global health expert at the University of Oxford and he joins me now live.
Good morning, Thanks for coming on.
DR. PETER DROBAC, GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: Thanks for having me, Natalie.
ALLEN: These numbers, what can you say?
In mid-May, in what were then the darkest days of the crisis, the U.S. was reporting about 20,000 new cases. Now it's 60,000. We're seeing a horrific rate of increase. There's only four states going in the right direction currently.
Do you see the U.S. getting out of this hole anytime soon?
DROBAC: Not if we stay on our current trajectory. The current situation is so much worse than it was back in March, April, May. Then, the surge was very much concentrated in the New York-New Jersey area. Now we have multiple New Yorks right now.
What we're seeing today reflects what we did two weeks ago. And so if we start today and go two weeks out ahead and see where we're going to be at the current trajectory, we're talking about 100,000 new cases a day, probably 1 million unreported cases per day. We're talking about overwhelmed hospitals. We're talking about freezer trucks, backing up to hospitals to take care of extra bodies. We're looking at record death rates.
I hate to say this because it should be a last resort and nobody wants it. But we're at a point where a lot of the states and regions where things are out of control need to think about going to back to a shelter-in-place order.
ALLEN: Understand.
What is the recourse?
The White House and President Trump, meantime, continue to claim that the United States is the world leader in fighting this virus.
Does that make any sense?
DROBAC: We're the world leader in all of the wrong ways, unfortunately. We are the richest country in the world with one of the most sophisticated medical systems and greatest concentrations of scientific experts. And we're really in a class of our own, in terms of the endless suffering that has continued to occur.
It's a tragedy. If you look around the world at how the pandemic has unfolded and what's differentiated the places that had some success in containing the virus and those that are struggle, it's not resources, it's not hospital beds. It's leadership and the quality of leadership. And there, unfortunately, we've fallen way behind.
ALLEN: The cases in Florida are staggering. The president was in Florida but barely addressed that. He hasn't met with Dr. Anthony Fauci in weeks. You work with governments on health policy.
Does it make sense that, right now, there's no emergency on the part of the White House, no federal coordinated plan, being addressed?
DROBAC: It's mind-boggling. And I don't understand and you can't wish this away. The virus doesn't respond to bluster and stern talk. It only responds to action. We're months into this pandemic and we know what works.
Unfortunately, as we've seen, relying on states and localities to do this on their own isn't going to be enough. We're only going to do this with a coordinated federal response. Ignoring the problem, as the White House continues to do, doesn't help anybody.
ALLEN: Testing has slowed in the Sun Belt states. Hospitals are trying to keep up. Now we see governors and mayors want different approaches and they're fighting. Contrast the situation with what you're seeing in Europe. DROBAC: In Europe, things started out in a similar fashion. And many
European countries were caught by surprise with a surge in March and that came close to overwhelming the health systems with high numbers of deaths.
What we saw that stay-at-home orders in March, April and May, kept it under control. The difference was probably in May, when most European companies did two things differently.
They were building their capacity to testing, tracing, isolation and containing the virus. Two, they were much more careful and slower and more cautious about reopening. In the U.S., we threw open our doors, even though cases were still rising in mid-May.
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DROBAC: And so from late May until now, the curves have diverged. In many European countries, we're seeing a couple of hundred a day and deaths in the single digits. And in the U.S., it doesn't have to be this way.
ALLEN: Absolutely. There's so much conflict but there's a way to have a solution. There's much debate about schools reopening.
What needs to be considered in making these decisions?
DROBAC: Schools reopening is one thing everyone can agree on as a goal that we want to happen. Schools don't exist in a vacuum. They are a part of communities. One thing is difficult is to think you can open schools when you have a raging, out-of-control pandemic. It's like opening schools in a hurricane.
I think the first thing we do is to bring the pandemic under control. What would happen otherwise, we can open schools but within weeks there will be outbreaks and the schools will be shuttered again. It will cause more harm than good.
We need to be thinking about planning and how we can support school systems and resource school systems to set up for social distancing. There needs to be more teachers' aides, protective equipment.
But the reality is, they need the support and we won't be able to do it in many parts of the country unless we get the virus under control.
ALLEN: We appreciate your expertise, as always. Dr. Peter Drobac, University of Oxford. Thank you so much.
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ALLEN: It doesn't hurt to know people in power. U.S. President Donald Trump commutes the sentence of his friend and longtime political ally, Roger Stone. We'll talk all about that next.
And it is the season of political ads, and the Trump and Biden campaigns have very different approaches in theirs. What they're saying and who they're trying to reach, coming up. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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ALLEN: Roger Stone, a self-described dirty trickster, is now a free man. President Trump commuted the 40-month sentence of his friend and political operative on Friday, just days before Stone was to go to prison. Stone was convicted last year of multiple felonies related to the Russia investigation. CNN's Sara Murray has the details.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump on Friday night commuted the sentence of his longtime friend and political adviser, Roger Stone.
Stone had been convicted of crimes, including lying to Congress, in part to protect the president. He was set to report to prison next week to kick off his three-year sentence.
Stone was pleading publicly for the president to intervene, he said, reporting to prison during the pandemic was akin to a death sentence because he is 67 years old. Ultimately, the president did intervene on Friday and here's Stone, describing his conversation with Trump.
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ROGER STONE, LONG-TIME TRUMP ALLY: He said, you understand, I have the option, I have the authority to either grant a pardon or commute your sentence. He said, you should understand that a pardon would be final and that in accepting a pardon, you are exceptionally (sic) accepting guilt.
And I would rather see you fight this out, which is why I'm commuting your sentence.
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MURRAY: President Trump and Roger stone are insistent that Stone did not get a fair shake at trial. But even attorney general Bill Barr has said the prosecution was righteous. As for Democrats, they're pointing to the president intervening in this case as an indication that he has no respect for the justice system -- Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: Natasha Lindstaedt is professor of government at the University of Essex and joins us from Colchester to talk about this.
Good morning, Natasha. NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Good
morning.
ALLEN: This isn't the first time the president has commuted or pardoned an ally, to be sure. Where does the Roger Stone story fit in?
Was it at all a surprise the president did this?
LINDSTAEDT: It's not a surprise. It's still a stunning show of presidential power to protect one of Trump's friends. It's an egregious attack and comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 7- 2, that the president is not above the law.
He's been dangling pardons for Roger Flynn and Paul Manafort. He has been talking about Stone's case and calling it a witch hunt. He doesn't like what happened with the Russia investigation altogether. Of course, it wasn't a full pardon, as the report mentioned.
But they've started to convince Trump that he needed to do this, those in Stone's inner circle because this was an attack on Trump himself. And Trump is all about himself.
But Trump has really focused on pardoning individuals that wouldn't really be very popular to pardon in the American public. It's a who's who of white collar criminals, politicians, law enforcement that have gone above the call of duty. We see Rod Blagojevich was pardoned. He was a corrupt Democratic politician. Joe Arpaio, the controversial law enforcement from Arizona.
You had financier Mike Milken, White House aide Scooter Libby. These are people that wouldn't be popular to pardon. It really demonstrates, if you are close to Trump, if you are loyal to him and you're a powerful person, he will see to it that you are pardoned and absolved from your crimes.
ALLEN: And Roger Stone, the self-proclaimed dirty trickster, his closest political ally, says he will see the president get a second term, we'll see if he is an asset or detraction on that. Republican Lindsey Graham said he thought the move was justified.
Do you expect his loyal congressional support will stay loyal on something like this?
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LINDSTAEDT: It probably will because Republicans have tried to remain loyal to them. Even they know the ship is sinking, due to the way he's mishandled the coronavirus crisis and the way he's handled race relations, this is just another thing that he's done to show that he can really destroy and erode democratic norms.
And thus, the Republican Party hasn't gone too far in trying to attack him on these orders. They've remained loyal to him so that is not altogether that surprising.
ALLEN: Stay with us, Natasha. I want to get your comments on this next story.
With just four months to go until Election Day in the U.S., President Trump and Joe Biden are ramping up their advertising campaigns. And the tone of the commercials reflects visions of America's future that could not be anymore different. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Never underestimate the power of family or the sacrifices people will make for their children.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest Joe Biden campaign commercial is a warm salute to families, caring, commitment. But in the rapidly heating ad wars...
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Joe Biden's failed old liberal ideas will crush our economy just as it's recovering.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Team Trump is lighting up the flame-throwing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): If you're calling to report a rape, please press one. To report a murder, press two.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Attacking Biden as soft on crime, unable to revive the now flagging economy. And Biden, he is hitting every weak spot for the incumbent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): For the last five years, he's brought America down with him, attacking health care for patients with pre- existing conditions, giving massive tax cuts to billionaires, not working families, praising white supremacists, stoking racial division.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What a beautiful history we wrote together.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump's ads sizzle with attacks on Biden's record, saying he's far too ready to embrace trade deals that have and will destroy American jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Losing 300,000 jobs in a failed trade war.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Biden's counterpunch: Trump's record has cost jobs, security and lives, even as Trump denies it.
TRUMP: No, I don't take responsibility at all.
BIDEN: I will do my job and I will take responsibility. I won't blame others.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump's ads say, at 77, just three years older than Trump --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Biden is clearly diminished.
BIDEN: All men and women are created by -- you know this.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And Biden's ads suggest that's just the kind of talk that hurts everyone, as the nation grapples with a pandemic, racial strife and economic hardship.
BIDEN: The country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. That's what the presidency is, the duty to care, to care for all of us.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The campaign media analysis group says more than 22,000 spots run by Trump since July 1st, nearly all were negative. The same group says Biden in the same period has aired no negative ads, even though he frequently contrasts his record with Trump's.
Where are all of these ads airing?
Trump's are showing up in a broad range of states, including some red ones, where he is clearly trying to bolster his base. Biden's are in fewer places but notably playing in some critical swing states that Trump won in 2016.
FOREMAN: When you watch all of the commercials in a row, the contrast is clear. The president is telling voters he's done a great job. And if he's not re-elected, the sky will fall. And Biden says, go ahead and vote for me, then look up, you'll see a bright new day coming -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: Oh, yes. The campaign ad season. I want to get your thoughts on the approaches behind these ads. The president's negative track and Biden, not directly, biting back.
LINDSTAEDT: Right, well, it's not surprising that Trump has gone negative. That's the way he has tended to campaign, very negative and critical and dirty in some ways and really attacking his opponents in a personal way often and playing to the politics of fear.
Now that worked in 2016. He was able to play on people's fears of what would happen if Hillary Clinton was the president. That it would be disastrous for all a number of areas. That's what his ads are trying to do. That's going to play well to the base.
That's not going to increase his support base, which is something he needs to do. He doesn't really have enough to win it in 2020.
Now Biden, in contrast, is trying to look to the way the American public is feeling at the moment, which is completely hopeless. The economy is in shambles. We have record unemployment rates and a coronavirus epidemic out of control that seems unmanageable. So he's trying to send a message of hope.
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LINDSTAEDT: And the reason for doing that is in order to get people behind his campaign, that he will be able to unite Americans and try to come up with some solutions to these problems. Trump should be trying to focus on how he's going to resolve these problems and try to send a message of unity and hopefulness, what he can do for small businesses. I think his campaign is missing the boat here.
ALLEN: All right. We always appreciate your insights. Thanks so much for commenting on both of these stories for us, Natasha.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
ALLEN: We'll see you next time.
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ALLEN: Texas has had nearly 250,000 coronavirus cases. Now officials are asking for more federal help dealing with the outbreak. We'll have that next.
Also, thousands of Serbians lash out at their government once again over its handling of the virus. What will they think the president has done wrong. We'll have a report.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Friday set another record for daily coronavirus infections in the U.S. Almost 67,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. And case numbers are up across the country, particularly in the South and West.
Experts are sounding the alarm about ICU capacity, as patients flood into hospitals. ICU beds in California's Riverside County east of the Los Angeles are now filled.
A medical task force from the U.S. Department of Defense arrives in Houston, Texas, Monday to help the state deal with the outbreak.
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ALLEN: You can see here, Texas has soaring infection numbers. Confirmed cases nearing 250 million. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Dallas.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been another record setting week here in Texas, the coronavirus statistics continue to raise all sorts of alarms all across this state. Let's take a look at some of the basic numbers.
The number of new coronavirus cases being reported have jumped almost 40,000 in the last four days. That's almost 10,000 per day. And the total number of people who have died because of coronavirus in the state has now topped the 3,000 mark. Nearly another 100 people reported dead on this Friday as well.
So those are alarming statistics as city officials, health officials all across the state are reporting troubling signs of just how much stress is being put on the hospital systems all across the state.
And the governor here in Texas, Greg Abbott, who was one of the first governors to reopen the state economies here in the United States, is now saying that next week could be worse.
And one of the factors that he has been looking at over the last few months is the positive infection rate that are coming back on all of these coronavirus tests in all of these cases. The positive infection rate now has jumped to almost 15 percent.
Just to give you an idea of how dramatically things have changed here in Texas, that number was just at 4.2 percent at the end of May. And that is where state officials had pointed to as being one of the factors that lead them to want to reopen the economy here.
But all of that talk is essentially over for now, as the governor here is preparing residents in the state for a dramatically worse week next week with the coronavirus -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas, Texas.
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ALLEN: Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro still hopes his country will reopen as soon as possible, even as he battles his own case of the virus in semi-isolation. But as CNN's Patrick Oppmann tells us, social conditions across Latin America are making it easier for the virus to spread.
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JAIR BOLSONARO, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: (Speaking Spanish).
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the coronavirus test result heard around the world. Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro is not the first head of state to test positive for the coronavirus but he perhaps more than any other leader has dismissed the impact of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro revealed that he had caught what he had once termed "a little flu" and continued to downplay the danger coronavirus presents, even though the death toll in Brazil is now around 70,000.
"Younger people, take care. But if you are affected by the virus, rest assured that, for you, the possibility of something more serious is close to zero," Bolsonaro claimed falsely.
The coronavirus is raging through Latin America and the Caribbean with a particular vengeance. This week, the number of reported cases reached 3 million. In a region plagued by economic disparity, many live in crowded slums and can't afford to not work or socially distance.
In Peru, many people don't own a refrigerator and have to regularly leave their homes to stock up on food. Despite a strict lockdown, over 11,000 people have died from the pandemic. But increasingly the coronavirus is hitting those at the top of the food chain as well as those at the bottom.
On Thursday, the interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Anez, also announced she tested positive for the virus. At least four other top officials in Bolivia have also tested positive, including the country's health minister and armed forces chief. Anez is now the third Latin American head of state to fall ill.
"I urge the population to collaborate and contribute," she said, "so that they know security measures not only save their lives and avoid contagion but also save the lives and avoid contagion for their families."
In Mexico, the number of reported deaths topped 33,000 and the number of infected is more than 280,000, although some health experts say the true toll could be far greater.
Before heading to the White House to meet President Trump, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was required to take a test for the coronavirus, something he had so far resisted doing. The results came back negative.
The second most powerful official in Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, was not as lucky. Cabello, who the U.S. government has indicted, along with president Nicolas Maduro for drug trafficking and accuses of siphoning off tens of millions of dollars in state funds, announced Thursday he had also tested positive.
Cabello said he would go into isolation quarantine with, quote, "his head held high."
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OPPMANN (voice-over): Latin American populist leaders who continue to hold rallies during a pandemic threaten to spread the disease to their supporters and themselves. Before falling ill, Jair Bolsonaro assured crowds in Brazil they had nothing to fear.
But the grim side of mass graves being dug in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo tells a much different story -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN.
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ALLEN: The prime minister of the U.K. said England may need stricter face mask rules. Boris Johnson was wearing a face covering himself. Of course, he is recovering from the coronavirus. He says he wants to see them worn in shops in England as they are in Scotland. The U.K. has one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in the world but
says it will not join the E.U.'s vaccine program. A statement says London has concerns about key issues, including setting prices.
Meanwhile, it's relaxing travel quarantine rules for travelers from some countries, including France and Italy who may now come back in the U.K. The U.S., however, not on the list.
Serbians are unleashing their anger on the government over its handling of the virus. A fourth night of demonstrations turned violent Friday as protesters clashed with police after officers stopped them from entering parliament. Critics say the country's lockdown measures were lifted too early for political reasons and now cases are spiking. CNN's Milena Veselinovic has the report.
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MILENA VESELINOVIC, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Violence erupted on Belgrade streets during the fourth night of protests. Demonstrators, clashing with the police, angry at the Serbian government's handling of the coronavirus crisis on the day, the country suffered its highest daily death toll, since the pandemic began.
Protests started on Tuesday, night after president Aleksandar Vucic announced plans to reimpose a curfew, to curb a surge in infections, plans he has had to drop, after two nights of rioting.
But rallies continued with protesters blaming footage for the latest health crisis, saying he lifted lockdown too soon, so there could be a general election in June, the first in Europe, during this pandemic. Allegations that Vucic and his government, have dismissed.
Serbia had one of Europe's strictest lockdowns, with nightly curfews. But in early May, restrictions were lifted to allow for political rallies, like this one. Night clubs reopened and thousands of soccer fans packed stadiums. Vucic denies he did anything wrong, blaming his political opponents for staging the protests.
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ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SERBIAN PRESIDENT: The problem is that, when people lose elections with a very big margin and we had a very good turnout, 50 percent, then you see, those frustrated politicians that are not able to admit and to accept, their own defeat. Then, they want to do something in the streets, which is irresponsible.
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VESELINOVIC (voice-over): Amnesty International condemned what it called disproportionate force by the police, Serbia's ministry of the interior said more than 100 of their officers were injured but some protesters accused right wing groups and football hooligans of infiltrating the rallies, to cause violence, in an attempt to discredit them.
Government officials are urging calm, saying the ongoing unrest will make the already critical coronavirus outbreak even worse. There's been a dramatic rise in cases and the country's health system is about to burst, officials say.
In Belgrade, there is no more space in hospitals and patients are being diverted to health centers up to 50 miles away. But frustration with the government shows no signs of abating, with many protesters saying they will continue until President Vucic resigns -- Milena Veselinovic, CNN.
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ALLEN: Next here, a secret mission to stop Russia from interfering in U.S. elections. What president Donald Trump has to say about it just months before Americans head to the polls.
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[05:40:00]
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ALLEN: President Trump has told "The Washington Post" that the U.S. staged a cyber attack on a Russian troll farm in 2018. The covert operation against the Kremlin linked Internet research agency was aimed at stopping Russian interference in the U.S. midterm elections.
This is the same organization accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. Let's turn now to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, he's in Warsaw, Poland.
You know much about this story and the background there, Fred.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Natalie, yes, there had already been reports of the U.S. intelligence services that we had confirmed that the attack had taken place in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
However, there was never a confirmation from the president himself that he was the one that okayed the attack and essentially made the attack happen.
The then Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, came out and said that the U.S., as he put it, was under attack, from this Internet research agency, which does mostly troll operations on social media, trying to sow discord in the United States and destroy -- sow distrust in the institutions in the U.S. as well.
They were saying this was going on as well. And the Democrats saying the Trump administration needs to do this before the situation takes place as much as there was with the 2016 election with everything happening then.
Now President Trump coming out and saying, yes, he made the cyber attack happen and they say it was successful and essentially neutralized what they were trying to do, by taking it offline, at least until that time -- to the run-up to the 2018 midterms and also right after the 2018 midterms as well.
So we knew this attack had essentially taken place. This is the first time President Trump himself has acknowledged that he was the one that okayed this attack. And it was an unprecedented attack because this is the first time the unified cyber command was behind an attack like this.
All right, Fred, thank you so much.
The Biden campaign is jumping on the headline we brought you earlier, criticizing President Trump for commuting Roger Stone's sentence.
And the campaign said this, in part, "President Trump has once again abused his power. He will not be shamed. He will only be stopped when Americans make their voice heard at the ballot box this fall. Enough."
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ALLEN: Meanwhile, President Trump is attacking Joe Biden's alleged cognitive issues, he says, such as the abilities to think, remember and reason. But Trump's critics say maybe he's not the one to talk of mental fitness. Our Tom Foreman has this.
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TRUMP: I actually took one, when I -- very recently, when I was -- you know, the radical left was saying, is he all there, is he all there?
And I proved I was all there because I aced it.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The president's boast of acing a cognitive test is laced with questions.
Does he mean the one he took in 2018, at Walter Reed Medical Center?
Or something more recent?
Perhaps, during his surprise trip there last November. Critics remain skeptical of claims he was getting a physical. And the White House is offering no proof for his latest assertion.
TRUMP: I took -- took it at Walter Reed Medical Center in front of doctors and they were very surprised. They said that's an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Really?
Not likely, according to medical experts, who say such tests are just not that hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was at the air but I doubt very much that astonishment was the reaction of the doctors. FOREMAN (voice-over): The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which we know
Trump took at least once, lasts only 10 minutes.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You may be asked to name animals, such as a lion, a rhino, a camel; draw lines between letters and numbers and in ascending order and maybe even doing things like subtracting 7 sequentially. So 100, 93, 86, 79. You get the idea.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Acing such a test would do nothing to bolster Trump's relentless claims of being much smarter than his political foes.
TRUMP: I know I have an IQ better than all of them. I know that. I guarantee you, my IQ is much higher than theirs. Some of the pundits, you know, the -- you guys -- believe me, we're much smarter than them. IQ-wise, not even a contest.
FOREMAN (voice-over): So why brag about it?
Perhaps because his campaign is attacking 77-year-old Joe Biden on that front.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Biden is clearly diminished.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All men and women are created by -- oh, you know this -- you know the name.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And Trump, just three years younger, has had some awkward moments lately, spurring questions about his mental and physical competence, no matter what he says.
TRUMP: Been very consistent. I'm an extremely stable genius.
FOREMAN: Whatever the reason for the boast, there is also this to consider.
If the doctors were surprised, as the president says, that he did so well, why?
And what was he being tested for in the first place?
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: We've learned, in the past hour, the passing of a giant in the world of English football. Next, here, we'll talk about Jack Charlton and his amazing career.
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ALLEN: The National Hockey League is set to return to the ice on August 1. Its season was postponed in March, due to the pandemic. Now it will begin, in earnest, with 24 teams in Toronto in Edmonton, where players and staff will be inside the containment bubble.
Players will be tested daily and the commissioner says health and safety are top priorities. Anyone who tests positive will immediately be isolated from the team and put in a secure zone.
Some news coming in to CNN this past hour. The passing of a legend in the world of English football, Jack Charlton, has died. He was 85.
He was part of the team that won the 1966 World Cup. And as a player, he spent his entire career at Leeds, although, he went on to manage our teams after that. CNN contributor Darren Lewis joins me live from London to talk about it.
Darren, thanks for coming on. Give us a sense of how big a figure he was.
DARREN LEWIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, very sad news coming out of the U.K. this morning, about a guy who was an extremely charismatic and popular figure but a legend on the pitch.
Anyone who follows British football will know, England has never won the World Cup since that momentous year, 1966, when Jack Charlton, alongside his brother, beat West Germany by 4 goals to 2.
At club level, he made a number of -- record number of appearances for Leeds, 773. He was the ninth highest scorer in their history with 96 goals.
And as a manager, he went on to manage United and Middlesboro and Union Castle. But it was his unprecedented succeed with the Republic of Ireland for which he is best known, Natalie, really lifting hearts and taking them to the kind of height that they could have never dreamed of, taking them to the first of a European championship in 1988 and the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 1990.
He was a tremendous man and I think the tributes that have come in today -- I'll talk a little bit more about them in just a second -- but those tributes tell you everything you need to know about the impact he had at club level, at international level and as a manager.
ALLEN: Yes, that 1966 World Cup win was quite an epic win. And he spent his entire career at one club, Leeds United.
How rare is that these days?
LEWIS: Extremely rare because the money involved in football at the moment, as you know, Natalie, it means that players often go where the money is, where the biggest deal that they can get is. And loyalty is in extremely short supply in the game of soccer. But he was an extremely loyal servant to his club.
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LEWIS: And as I said before, you know, he had made this record number of appearances. He was also a member of the side that lifted the 1969 league title and the 1972 FA Cup.
He was a leader on the field of play, a guy who could inspire other people around him and a guy who wasn't afraid to maybe dish out a few choice words, if need be. He was, very much, somebody that, rightly, will remain in football folklore forever. And his achievements at the club are unlikely, ever, to be surpassed.
ALLEN: Well, he will be remembered for a very long time. He was a giant. We appreciate you reflecting on his life and his career, Darren Lewis there, thanks so much.
A much anticipated day for Japanese baseball fans to tell you about ended in a wash of disappointment. It was the first day the Nippon Professional Baseball league was allowing people to attend a game after the stadium had been closed for months due to COVID-19.
But just 20 minutes before the game between the popular Giants and Swallows, a torrential downpour forced organizers to postpone. Some of the players tried to cheer up the crowd like that. But fans were, clearly, frustrated.
Luckily, five other baseball games were able to go on as planned Friday, as Japan's restrictions continue to ease.
And that is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you tomorrow. "NEW DAY" is next.
