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Georgia Governor Bans Cities, Counties from Mandating Masks; Refrigerated Trucks Arrive in Texas to Expand Morgue Capacity; Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, (D-Pennsylvania), Discusses Governor Tom Wolf Imposing New Restrictions as Cases Rise; Pelosi Pushing to Help States with New Stimulus; China Pushes Back as Trump Administration Considers Travel Ban on Chinese Communist Party Members. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 16, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:30:31]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: To some big coronavirus developments in the states, now beginning with Georgia, where Republican Governor Brian Kemp is banning cities and counties from mandating masks. This, as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the state of Georgia.

With me is CNN's Dianne Gallagher, live from Atlanta.

Dianne, the governor says you should wear a mask but he won't allow mayors to mandate it.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, that's kind of what's perplexing about this, John. What was supposed to happen yesterday and what did happen is Governor Brian Kemp extended an expiring public health emergency for COVID-19. He extended it through the end of the month.

The order had already said, for months, local governments could not pass any more restrictions that were more restrictive than what the state had done.

But he tucked in yesterday this little new passage that explicitly states that county and city governments cannot mandate masks or facial coverings. That not there before.

And Governor Brian Kemp, who wears a mask everywhere, went on a six- city flying tour telling people to mask up.

He's been in a pretty public battle with the mayor of Atlanta with the mask mandate here in the city. Here's the thing. Atlanta wasn't the only city with a mask mandate, wasn't even first.

The mayor of Savannah reacted last night to the new part of the executive order saying that he felt like Governor Kemp just didn't give a damn about Georgians. And they said they were going to continue to listen to science in Savannah. And got a similar comment from Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom's office saying the mayor's order remains in effect, that "science and date will continue to drive the city's decisions. Masks save lives."

And, look, lives are at stake here in Georgia. The numbers continue to climb here. Yesterday, we saw the new hospitalization rate double from what it was the day before. So the hospitalization numbers double what they were on Tuesday, John. We have seen case numbers go up.

The governor himself has reactivated an overflow hospital just because of the number of hospitalizations here in Georgia. The numbers are going up but Georgia Governor Brian Kemp still not going to mandate masks.

KING: Dianne Gallagher live on the ground for us in Atlanta. We will continue to watch that one. Both a political and public health debate raging in Georgia.

Now off to Texas where, in San Antonio, refrigerated trucks are being brought in as temporary morgues because the morgues are reaching capacity. The governor saying masks might be the only thing that can help get this virus under control.

CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us live from Dallas.

The Texas governor seems a little on a different beat than the Georgia governor, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting to see how things have dramatically changed. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, sounding very different than governors of Georgia and Oklahoma as we reported on extensively over the last few days.

The governor here in Texas is answering a lot of questions of concerns about another economic shutdown based on the medical data coming out of this state.

It's been another record-breaking week here in Texas. The number of new cases continues to go up dramatically. The death toll continues to go up at record levels. Hospitalizations are up. The positive infection rate of the new coronavirus cases has more than quadrupled in the last month and a half.

And of that's leading questions to the governor about whether or not there will be an economic shut down again here in Texas. This is how he answered this last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): People are panicking thinking I'm about to shut down Texas again. The answer is no. That's not the goal. What I want to do is to make sure that everyone begins to wear a mask so that we will be able to get COVID-19 under control so we will not have to shut Texas back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LAVANDERA: John, you know, there's some wiggle room if you listen closely. And, again, in a briefing with reporters this morning, the governor basically saying the same thing, there will be no need for an economic shutdown, in his view if people go along with the mask mandate and wearing their masks in public.

So there's some wiggle room. He's really basically saying that he's hoping the masks will get everything under control and not force him to shut the economy down here in Texas again.

But he's saying it really lies on the backs of people here in the state, whether or not they comply with that mask mandate whenever they go out into public -- John?

[11:35:02]

KING: Ed Lavandera, appreciate the reporting live in Dallas. We'll take another look at Texas next hour again as those numbers go up.

Ed, thanks so much for us.

Now to Pennsylvania. New cases starting to rise there. The state's governor imposing new restrictions similar to phase one of the Pennsylvania shutdown, limiting large gatherings, indoors and outside, at restaurants and at bars.

The governor says this is necessary to slow the spread.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TOM WOLF (D-PA): This is what we have to do. It may feel like a step backwards but it isn't. It's just a reminder we need to get back on the course of mask-wearing, social distancing, and successfully mitigating COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman.

Lieutenant Governor, thank you, again, for your time.

I just want to point to, as we start this conversation, show the viewers the line chart at the moment. Pennsylvania is in green, at the bottom. Yes, trickling up a little bit. But because of the work of your state, the commonwealth, Pennsylvania in a pretty good place there. Down low, you obviously see Texas and Florida there.

I assume it's watching the experience of these states that are having the dramatic spikes right now that are causing the administration to say we're not going to wait. We see a most spike, and we're going to move. Is that what is happening?

LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I mean, that's a safe assumption. But it really comes back to the original question and the original balance Governor Wolf tried to strike in Pennsylvania, and that's between lives and livelihoods.

He took early action and shut the states down in ways that made sense and minimized the economic harm. But -- and as they have reopened, we've discovered now that we are now facing a bit -- a little bit of an uptick.

And he's being preemptive. And he's being -- I think he's doing the right thing in making sure that we keep our numbers where they need to be or less.

But the thing about it that I find most dismaying is we're arguing about masking. I don't know why. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do about keeping businesses open, keeping each other safe, respecting our frontline workers.

The fact that we're arguing about masking, I don't understand that in the middle of a pandemic.

KING: I couldn't agree with you more. It's a ridiculous sideshow but it's a real sideshow, as you know.

When you mentioned you have a bit of an uptick there, can you explain or is it too soon? Is it any one thing, large gatherings, dining, a little bit of everything?

FETTERMAN: Well, it's a little bit of everything, but primarily, it's bars and indoor restaurants. I think -- I think there's a little bit -- you know, people missed that experience, and rightfully so, and I think that led to a jump that alarmed some people.

But -- but the governor took some corrective steps to make sure that we ease back off. I mean, again, it's all about adjusting that knob between lives and livelihoods and making sure we can stay as hope as we can.

And it's like, if you're worried about your personal freedom by wearing a mask, you know, masks maximize your personal freedom right now. It protects you. It protects the immunocompromised and frontline workers.

And it protects businesses because businesses can stay open if our case load stays down. And nothing keeps the case load numbers down like universal masking.

And I would just ask anybody -- I don't care if you're MAGA or Joe Biden or where you are on that political spectrum, masking is going to be critical if we're going to successfully live with this virus and minimize the economic fallout of this as well as the loss of life.

KING: As you deal with the day-to-day challenges, including the current uptick, one of your jobs is also to study the racial disparities in what we've seen in the coronavirus.

We have some numbers. I know we don't have complete numbers yet from Pennsylvania. But if you look at the numbers from Pennsylvania, what we know, the white, black, Asian and other, African-Americans are about 8 percent of your state population, I believe. No, 12 percent of your state population.

FETTERMAN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: The cases -- yes. The cases and the deaths are running higher than those numbers.

I know you're still in the middle of this but what have you learned so Senator are steps being taken to address them mid-stream? Are you waiting for more data?

FETTERMAN: Steps are being taken to address that. One of the most comprehensive steps that we took was one of the leading feedback action items that we from our commissioner on the disparities is the looming rent crisis in Pennsylvania that disproportionately affects people of color, a massive homelessness problem with evictions.

The governor issued $200 million in rental assistance and also extended the eviction ban in Pennsylvania to the end of August.

This virus has -- has laid bare the racial disparities here in our state.

And the next looming one we'll have to confront is opening our public schools back up, whether that happens or not in August.

[11:40:00]

And you have nearly half of Philadelphia's children that didn't even logon, let alone receive any instruction, didn't even log on from march, when the schools closed, to the end of the school year. So there's an idea of what will be lost if we open schools.

And if you are a parent that wants to safely open schools, it all comes back to what you're willing to do, and masking, masking, masking.

It's not about red or blue, Republican or Democrat. You know, it's about this virus.

And if we -- you know, we need to fight our common enemy, and that's the virus, and we're turning on each other, and it's only going to continue to spiral until we get to the point where we can say, look, vote who you're going to vote for, but let's do it wearing masks.

KING: The lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman.

Sir, appreciate your time today. We'll circle back as this conversation and challenge continues. Thank you, again.

FETTERMAN: Thank you for having me.

KING: Thank you.

Coming up, another 1.3 million Americans file for unemployment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:50]

KING: New numbers out this morning show 1.3 million more Americans joining the ranks of the unemployed. That now means that more than 51 million have filed new unemployment claims since the beginning of this coronavirus pandemic.

Congress says it might pass a new stimulus package. Struggling states, schools, the unemployed, all part of the political debate up on Capitol Hill about a new plan.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today saying she's willing to cancel a planned August recess to get a deal done. But we also know there are giant differences between the House Democrats and the Senate Republicans and the White House.

CNN's Manu Raju live for us up on Capitol Hill.

Any progress that we've heard from the speaker or just staking out the Democratic ground?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Each side is taking its position right now. We're not getting into any real horse trading. That's probably not going to happen for more than a week. And Congress is out of session right now. Both chambers get back into session next week.

Senate Republicans plan to put forward their plan next week. And they are trying to get their own conference on the same page. They are not engaging in bipartisan discussions as of yet.

But what Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is talking about, is much different than what passed the House roughly two months ago. The Senate Republican plan, for instance, roughly $1.3 trillion and the Democratic plan is roughly $3 trillion and change. That's just on the size and scope. And the details are much different.

One of the big things the Republicans are pushing for is to ensure that anybody affected by the coronavirus, businesses, schools, health care workers, et cetera, essentially have liability protections. Democrats say no. There needs to be much more -- there needs to be other protections for health care workers and the like.

There's much differences on exactly how to provide money for schools. Republicans want to make it contingent on reopening schools and give that money to school districts. Democrats, on the other hand, say that is not -- that's a non-starter.

So those are just some of the small details. There are big other major differences ahead.

And Pelosi made very clear here, John, that she is not yet engaged in these discussions yet with the Republicans, the administration. But that's something that they will have to deal with if they want to get something done, get it to the president's desk.

An open question still if that will happen -- John?

KING: Open question. We will see. Stakeout position time now. We'll see if the trading begins later.

Manu Raju, live on the Hill, appreciate that very much.

Up next for us, China pushing back now as the Trump administration considers a travel ban on members of the Chinese Communist Party.

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[11:52:45]

KING: The Trump administration is said to be considering a travel ban on members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families. This coming to us from the "New York Times," which also reports the order could allow the U.S. to revoke visas of CCP members already here in the United States.

The order has yet to be finalized but China's ministry of foreign affairs reacting already weighing in on this proposed ban as, quote, "pathetic."

CNN's David Culver joining us now live from Beijing.

David, this the latest in a number of tense little standoffs between the two governments.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting increasingly tense, too, John. This is a suggestion, according to the "New York Times," that some 92 million members of the Chinese Communist Party and their family members would be told they cannot travel into the U.S.

And right now, what we are seeing is that this is, as of now, just being put onto sources really. They're looking at the White House or Homeland Security, looking at the Department of State, in particular.

But what China is saying is that this is something this is not surprising to them, in that they feel that the Trump administration is going to continue to ratchet up the attacks on members of not only the party but also really China in general, anybody who's connected to China and the Chinese government and state entities, too.

What we do anticipate though is that China would respond perhaps more with rhetoric than anything else because that's what we've seen when the U.S. put sanctions, for example, on Chinese officials involved in the internment of Uighur ethnic Muslims in the far western region of China, with Hong Kong after the U.S. decided to strip it of its special trade status.

And now we're seeing even issues out in the South China Sea that are likewise tense.

So this back and forth is also, from the Chinese side, just going to be more rhetoric that they're likely to put forward in saying we'll take reciprocal actions, as they like to say, and necessary countermeasures.

But it is not necessarily going to mean anything in true action as of now -- John?

KING: Would there not be a question of enforceability in the sense that you mentioned the big number, members of the Chinese Communist Party, if you're part of the government, part of some big government panel? Obviously, you're titled, you're on the letterhead, the United States could say, bang, we got you.

[11:55:09]

How do you enforce it against rank-and-file members, just citizens of China who happen to identify with the Communist Party?

CULVER: You're right. If you're part of a state entity, that is easily tied to the individual. But aside from that, it's tough to enforce.

The reality is the folks are not necessarily stepping into the country and having to fill out a form saying that they're members of the Communist Party. So that's something that will be interesting to see if it's actually going to be part of the criteria for applying for a visa going forward.

KING: We'll see if the regulation gets promulgated. We'll see the fine details. That's what matters most.

David Culver, in Beijing, appreciate your reporting from there.

Up next for us, a major Twitter hack targets some of the most- prominent names in politics just 100 days or so before the election.

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