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Trump Sending Law Enforcement to Chicago?; Interview With Dunwoody, Georgia, Mayor Lynn Deutsch; Coronavirus Surging. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired July 20, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:06]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And you are watching CNN. Thank you for being with me.

Months after President Trump said the coronavirus would -- quote, unquote -- "disappear," the U.S. is setting single-day records for new cases, and the president is in deep denial about the reality facing the country.

Twelve states are now seeing their highest seven-day averages for new cases, while deaths are rising in at least 20 states, more than 50 percent in several of them. Hospitalizations in the U.S. are near the record levels that we saw back in April.

And one of the top officials at the Health and Human Services Department is telling CNN that, despite the alarming numbers, the federal government is capable of handling the surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We are approaching this with extreme seriousness. It really is all hands on deck. This is serious, but we know how to stop this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The one thing that could stop the spread, a federal mask mandate.

The head of the CDC saying just last week that if every American and wore a mask for the next couple of months, he thinks the U.S. could get the virus under control. Yesterday, President Trump said this about why he is still refusing to order masks nationwide:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don't believe in that, no. And I don't agree with the statement that, if everybody wore a mask, everything disappears.

All of a sudden, everybody's got to wear a mask. And, as you know, masks cause problems, too. With that being said, I'm a believer in masks. I think masks are good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, something else that would help get a clearer picture of the toll of COVID-19, more funding for CDC tracing and testing.

But a source tells CNN that the White House is pushing back on efforts by some Senate Republicans to do exactly that in an upcoming stimulus. We will have more on that in just a second.

And now, after two weeks without an event specifically focused on the coronavirus, President Trump says he will resume the coronavirus briefings, where he once inexplicably suggested that those infected should inject disinfectant as a cure.

Those briefings will likely return tomorrow. And the move comes as polls show Americans are increasingly losing confidence in his handling of the pandemic.

For his part, the president remains confident that his approach was the right one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will be right eventually.

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": I understand.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I will be right eventually.

I said, it's going to disappear. I will say it again. It's going to disappear.

WALLACE: But does that discredit you?

TRUMP: And I will be right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Promising developments this afternoon, though, on the vaccine front, with two vaccine trials showing encouraging preliminary results.

So, for that, let's go to CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard live with more.

And so, Jacqueline, let's start with the study out of Oxford. What's it showing?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yes.

Well, like you said, Brooke, the results are exciting, but they are preliminary. So this is still early data. Now, for the study out of Oxford, that study was done on more than 1,000 healthy adults ages 18 to 55.

And it showed that this particular vaccine candidate was able to elicit an antibody response within 28 days, and T-cell responses within 14 days. What that means is the vaccine did what researchers want it to do. It elicited an immune response. So that's good.

But we also have to keep in mind this is early data, and there were some side effects. Some people experienced pain at the injection site and muscle aches. The study said that over-the-counter pain medication helps with that.

But it's still something to watch, especially as trials continue. We want to see how this vaccine will look in older adults and people with underlying health conditions. So, this is still early, but it's exciting.

BALDWIN: So, then what about, Jackie (ph), the results for the Pfizer vaccine?

HOWARD: That's right. There was another preliminary, again, report that came out today for Pfizer.

That also was done in adults ages 18 to 55. And it also showed an immune response, so that's positive. There were some side effects there as well. And researchers for Pfizer also said that they plan to continue with a phase three trial by the end of this month. If that gets approved, it will be in late July.

And that's when they will look at -- take a closer look at safety and effectiveness. And those plans are to be studied in up to 30,000 people. So this study will continue.

But, overall, these are just two vaccine candidates, Oxford and Pfizer. They're two out of at least 23 in clinical evaluation around the world. So there are many, many other vaccines currently being studied. And it just shows that the race for a vaccine continues. But it will still take some time.

BALDWIN: I get it. And I hear you couching that it's still so early, but we will take the promising news and cross our fingers.

Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.

I want to go to Georgia now and the situation there, which posted record single-day increases this weekend, nearly 4,700.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Atlanta.

And, Dianne, what's happening in Georgia?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

[15:05:00]

So, we have seen over the past week or so, Brooke, things continue to get worse in terms of new cases, new deaths and new hospitalizations. Actually just got the numbers for today from the Georgia Department of Public Health. And these are the lowest numbers that I have seen in about 10 days or so, about 2,452 confirmed cases, three deaths and 37 hospitalizations.

Now, I want to put this in perspective. Those numbers would have seemed insane back in April, when the state became reopening. It's something we have been dealing with now for months here. The governor of Georgia, of course, is -- has filed a lawsuit against the mayor of Atlanta over her recommendations to roll back the reopening to phase one in the city, as well as the mask mandate.

The mayor maintains that there's no enforceable issue with it as far as anything to do enforcement, so she's not going outside of his executive order. But now the governor has gone even further. He has filed for this emergency injunction that would limit Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from speaking to the press or even issuing press releases about her COVID-19 restrictions.

Now, there's a hearing scheduled for tomorrow at this point. But this is something that has, of course, played out in the headlines, as more Georgians are getting sick and dying. And as the governor of Georgia is publicly battling with the mayor of Atlanta, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, well, he's in Savannah right now with the mayor there.

They also have a mask mandate that the governor said is unenforceable. And Andrew Cuomo and the mayor of Savannah came together for this roundtable, where the governor of New York announced a large donation of PPE, testing sites that they're setting up in Savannah, two separate sites, as well as an education program to help teach contact tracing, while they try and increase testing.

Now, Brooke, contact tracing is difficult right now in Georgia. I can tell you from personal experience. I just got my COVID test results today 12 days after I took the test.

BALDWIN: Wow.

GALLAGHER: My producer Pamela Kirkland got hers 13 days after she took her test today.

Both of us are negative, thank goodness. But if it had been the alternate, if we'd been positive, it wouldn't have mattered. That test would have been useless. And there are stories like this all around the state of Georgia, within the city of Atlanta. They have to increase their testing, but they have got to reduce that turnaround, because those tests right now are useless.

BALDWIN: I have heard so many stories such as yours. I'm so glad you and your producer are negative, but, my goodness, it should not take that long.

Dianne Gallagher, thank you for the update in Georgia.

We're talking to the mayor of Dunwoody there in Atlanta in just a second. I want to go now to California, though, where the mayor of Los Angeles

is actually warning that he may reimpose stay-at-home orders. Hospitalizations in L.A. hit a record high yesterday, more than 2,200.

So, Stephanie Elam is live in Los Angeles.

And, Stephanie, what do officials think is behind such a huge spike in cases in Los Angeles?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a few reasons, Brooke.

And one of those reasons, as the mayor said, Mayor Eric Garcetti, on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" over the weekend that some of it has to do with complacency. We were the first state to go into that stay-at-home order.

And he also pointed to the lack of leadership coming from the federal government, coming from the president as well, which, all of that aside, when you look at the numbers, they're just not in the right place.

When you talk about that hospitalization number, you saw that 2,200 new cases. And then you have the fact that, over the last five days, there have been more than 2,100 new cases announced on each of those days.

The positivity rate here in the state, in -- I'm sorry -- the county is at 10 percent. These are all not the way people want to see these numbers to go.

The other part of this that's really worth noting is the fact that, of these cases, 52 percent here in Los Angeles County are from people who are 41 years and younger. So this idea that this is only affecting older people in the country is obviously not the case here in Los Angeles, which is the center of the outbreak in the state.

In fact, half of the deaths, more than half of the deaths that we have seen in California have been here in California.

I can tell you, too, that California just put out their new numbers. The cases now stand at 391,538, the number of deaths, close to 7,700 at this point. The positivity rate is at 7.4 percent. And it is trending upward over the last 14 days, and then also noting too that hospitalizations and ICU admissions, those are also up incrementally from the day before -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Which, looking at that graph and how it's spiking, would make sense, if Eric Garcetti ends up saying, all right, for the safety of everyone, everyone's got to stay home again.

We will stay tuned if in fact that happens.

Stephanie Elam, thank you very much.

Stunning how many young people in L.A. County have been sick. [15:10:01]

President Trump continues to repeat the false claim that the surge in cases is a direct result of more testing, doubling down in an interview with FOX News' Chris Wallace just over this weekend. And in that same interview, he once again downplayed the severity of the virus. Listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: There -- the virus is--

TRUMP: Many of those cases--

WALLACE: -- worse than it was.

TRUMP: Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test, many of them.

Don't forget, I guess it's like 99.7 percent, people are going to get better and in many cases they're going to get better very quickly.

Cases are up. Well, cases are up. Many of those cases shouldn't even be cases. Cases are up because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This comes as the White House is pushing to block billions of dollars in funding for testing and the CDC in the new stimulus bill.

So, Kaitlan Collins is at the White House for us.

And, Kaitlan, the president talked about this stimulus package this morning at that Oval Office meeting he had with Republican leaders. What came out of the meeting?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, that's why he had Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy here, because they want to make sure they're on the same page as they move forward.

They're not supposed to be negotiating with each other. They're supposed to be negotiating with Democrats. But, right now, they're still trying to smooth out their own differences, because the White House really ticked off some Senate Republicans over the weekend after they moved to block some funding that Senate Republicans wanted in this draft proposal, specifically money for states that would be in grants for testing and tracing, and then also millions of dollar -- or billions of dollars, actually, for the CDC, for the NIH, for other federal agencies like that.

And so the question is, where did they come down on this? And they sought to put on this united front in the Oval Office, talking about where their priorities were, talking about what they're going to do with those enhanced unemployment benefits that some Republicans say they do not want to extend because they do not want people to not be going to work because they're making more money with that additional unemployment money, though, of course, we know the Democrats are going to push back on that, but also on liability for businesses and for workers, as they're returning, these liability protections.

And that's what you heard the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, talk about today, Brooke.

Then the president also was talking. And he said he's going to revive those daily coronavirus task force briefings that all but came to a halt after he held that one here at the White House where he infamously said that potentially you could use disinfectants like bleach to treat coronavirus.

Now he says he's going to be back and taking questions from reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to give you a lot of briefings in the next week and over the next few weeks as to -- I think it's very important to do it -- the vaccines and the therapeutics.

I think I'm going to bring some of the great companies that are working, and very successfully in the past have worked on these things, and they're going to tell you very specifically what they're doing and how they're doing. But we think we're doing very well in that regard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: So, Brooke, he talks there about getting information out to people, but he also talked about the ratings at these briefings.

And we know some aides were pushing the president to come back and have a more public-facing response on this, because, largely, he's been pretty absent from it. And they think that's part of the reason you're seeing his bad poll numbers over his response to the pandemic.

BALDWIN: Kaitlan, thank you for that.

I want to jump right into analysis.

Dr. Seema Yasmin is a CNN medical analyst and former CDC disease detective.

And so, Doctor, welcome back.

Just perspective for all of us. The first confirmed U.S. COVID case was January 20. So here we are, six months later, still no national testing and tracing. In fact, we were just, Kaitlan and I, talking about the White House now pushing back on these Republicans who want to add money to those efforts in the next stimulus.

How is that helpful?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's really dangerous and really unhelpful, Brooke.

Right now, the U.S. is doing only one-third of the bare minimum daily tests that we need to do just to lower the spread of this virus. At the moment, we're averaging around 700,000 tests every day. We should be doing at least 2.1 million, but get this. Research as the Harvard Global Health Institute have been crunching the numbers.

They say that the amount of testing we actually need to do every day to suppress the virus, to get cases somewhere close to zero, is four million tests a day. We're nowhere near that. We would need to increase current testing levels sixfold to get there.

So we have had this really tricky and demanding last four or five months, but the next five, six, seven months bode really, really badly, if we can't ramp up the most basic part of the pandemic response, which is testing to identify who's infected and who isn't.

So we need to be pouring billions of dollars into testing, not pulling money out of that.

BALDWIN: So here's something that may be helping that. I was reading about this concept of pool testing over the weekend, and I really wanted to ask you about it.

So the FDA has issued this emergency authorization for COVID pool testing. In a statement, the agency's commissioner says that it will help get more tests to more Americans quickly.

[15:15:01]

Explain for people who don't know, what is pool testing? How does it work? And why might it give more test results faster?

YASMIN: So, pool testing is a great way of making the testing process more efficient.

Let's imagine we're in a classroom where there's like 28 children, you want to swab them every day to see who's got COVID and who hasn't. Instead of running 28 separate tests, what you do is pool together those tests. So, instead of running 28, you would run about six tests, pooling together about four tests at a time.

That way, if one of those pooled tests comes back positive, you're like, OK, I think one of these four kids is positive. Let's test them individually again.

So, by doing that you're not running 28 tests. You're running about four or six tests instead. It's a great way of increasing the efficiency. But -- and here's a really massive and depressing caveat -- pooled testing works best in places where the virus is already at low levels.

BALDWIN: Oh.

YASMIN: Can you use it in Arizona? Probably not. Probably not in California, Georgia, Texas, the places where we need testing the most. And the reason for that is, you're just going to get too many positive

pooled specimens. You're going back, you're doing swabs again. The other thing, though, that you can get around that caveat a little bit, Brooke, by increasing the frequency of pooled testing.

The big caveat then, though, is that, in the U.S., we still have supply chain challenges around swabs, around reagents. Quest Diagnostics and other commercial labs are saying to us that, because of the record-breaking spikes in the U.S., they have a massive backlog, which is why Dianne Gallagher and her producer just told you they were waiting almost two weeks to get their results back.

So, pool testing can work really well. But we're not there yet. We need to really ramp up testing and just get community transmission closer, a lot closer to zero.

BALDWIN: I appreciate the gut checks, though, the caveats on all of this. It's so important. That's why we're talking to you, as an M.D.

Dr. Seema Yasmin, thank you so much. Great to have you on, as always.

YASMIN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And a programming note for all of you.

Join CNN's Fareed Zakaria as he investigates why President Trump believes in conspiracy theories. It's a new CNN special report that airs tonight at 9:00.

And as this battle over masks is heating up in Georgia, I will talk to one of the mayors pushing back against the governor.

And a warning from a young healthy man about the dangers of the virus, after he nearly loses a lung, recovers from COVID, only to test positive again months later. You do not want to miss this interview.

You're watching CNN.

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[15:21:43]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

This news just into us here at CNN. Two law enforcement officials tell CNN that the White House is planning to send federal agents to Chicago. This is happening as part of the administration's plans to crack down on violence and crime in the country's major cities.

So, CNN's Evan Perez is the one breaking the news.

And so, Evan, what are the administration's plans for Chicago?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, we're expecting to hear a lot more about this as the summer goes along. This is along the lines of what the president says is an uptick in

violence and crime by -- in cities that are run by Democratic governors. And Chicago is first in line. So we expect that there's going to be an announcement in the next couple of days from the White House and from the Justice Department that they're surging a number of federal agents to Chicago.

Now, what exactly they're going to be doing, it appears that some of it is tackling gun crimes, people who have outstanding warrants, and a number of other issues that are a problem in Chicago. You have seen obviously a number of shootings in Chicago and in other cities.

This appears to be separate, Brooke, from what we have seen in Portland, Oregon, over the last few days. You have seen federal agents they're clashing with protesters, which has gotten a lot of attention. And, of course, some of the mayors have been pushing back, saying, we don't want federal resources here doing that kind of thing.

This appears to be something separate that's going on in Chicago. We heard from the Chicago mayor this afternoon. She's basically saying, look, if they're here to help us get some of these guns off the streets, then they are welcome. But if it's more of what's going on in Portland, then you can stay away -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Evan, thank you so much. We will we will stay posted for more news from the administration on this. Thank you for the news.

Let's get to -- back to Georgia. A battle is escalating over something that nearly every medical expert agrees will slow the spread of coronavirus, wearing a face mask. And in Georgia, it has become a legal showdown. Mayors are taking on Republican Governor Kemp's executive order which banned local officials from mandating masks.

But mayors are looking at the numbers, seeing that the virus is spreading through the state and cases are soaring. Some cities and counties in Georgia are still requiring face coverings, despite the governor's order.

And now Governor Kemp is actually suing the mayor of Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, for her mandate, even going so far as to file an emergency order to stop her from speaking to the press about this issue.

So joining me now, the mayor of Dunwoody in Georgia, Lynn Deutsch.

So, Mayor Deutsch, thank you so much for being with me.

MAYOR LYNN DEUTSCH, DUNWOODY, GEORGIA: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: So, you mandated masks. This is why we wanted to talk to you, right?

And the governor comes along and essentially says, not so fast.

I'm curious, first, have you personally heard from Governor Kemp? I have not. I have not heard from Governor Kemp.

We mandated masks a week ago tonight. The governor's rewritten updated executive order came out 48 hours later with explicit language forbidding us from mandating masks.

So--

DEUTSCH: But I have not heard from him personally.

BALDWIN: OK. Got it.

I was reminding myself of what the governor had said earlier this month, and this was his quote on masks. He said: "We don't need a mandate for people to do the right thing."

[15:25:06]

And so he seems to be saying that wearing a face covering is the right thing. Why do you think he refuses to take it a step further and make it a mandate?

DEUTSCH: I'm not 100 percent sure.

I believe that many people are doing the right thing and wearing masks, certainly in my community. But the reality is, is that there are people out there that are resisting masks for reasons other than just forgetting it at home or leaving it in the car.

And they will not wear a mask unless they're told they must. And so I can give you an example.

BALDWIN: Sure.

DEUTSCH: We have a baseball program here that a couple of weeks ago mandated masks for everybody but the athletes, so that they could continue with their summer league.

And as soon as the governor announced -- and it was going well, everyone was wearing masks. And I got a phone call this morning from the volunteer operator of the baseball program, saying, now that the governor has announced that you just should wear a mask because it's the right thing to do, a lot of the parents are no longer wearing masks.

And so it's much harder.

BALDWIN: That has to be incredibly frustrating. That has to be incredibly frustrating for you.

It's like you have all this good and trying to keep people -- and especially, I know, you're passionate about keeping essential workers safe and healthy.

DEUTSCH: Right.

BALDWIN: And then you have this from the governor. What is in your power, because, obviously, the governor at the end of

the day trumps you?

DEUTSCH: Right.

Well, I'm interested to see the litigation. I'm glad that there's a hearing tomorrow.

I am puzzled by an emergency power that was given to the governor to keep Georgia healthy and then telling cities that we can't use every tool out there to keep our residents healthy.

And essential workers, the people that are serving us in restaurants and in our hospitals, they need that extra little bit of courteousness. I do not understand why there's so much resistance or some resistance to simply putting on a mask as an act of courtesy.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. Go ahead, Mayor Deutsch, quickly. Go ahead.

DEUTSCH: Early in your session, you talked about -- your producer talked about the challenge with getting test results.

In my county, people can't even get tests, let alone the results. And so you may be ill and not even know it. And so wearing a mask just adds that extra little bit of protection.

BALDWIN: That's right. In case people missed it, our correspondent in Atlanta said she got tested. She finally got her results today, negative.

It took them 13 days. I mean, basically, if you end up having the virus, you're -- that is the entire duration of potentially having the virus before even finding out if you had the virus or not.

DEUTSCH: Yes.

BALDWIN: It's just -- it's unacceptable. And I hear you loud and clear. Wear one of these things, whether it's a mandate or not.

DEUTSCH: Right. Right.

BALDWIN: Mayor Deutsch there in Dunwoody in Atlanta, thank you so much. Be well. Stay healthy.

DEUTSCH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Appreciate you.

DEUTSCH: You too.

BALDWIN: How about this one, getting COVID twice?

A 29-year-old man, without any underlying conditions, gets the virus, recovers, only to get it again months later. How could this happen? Let's talk to him next.

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