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Trump Holds Press Conference; Dr. Paul Offit Discusses Trump Saying Good News On Therapeutics, Vaccines, Trump Again Touting Hydroxychloroquine; Trump Calls For Firing Of Head Of Tennessee Valley Authority; Birx: U.S. In "New Phase" Of Pandemic, More Widespread Cases; Treasury Secretary: Relief Benefits A Disincentive To Finding Work. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 03, 2020 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But what the Democrats want, they want, they're slow rolling it.

All they're really interested in is bailout money for radical left governors and radial left mayors like in Portland and places that are so badly run, Chicago, New York City. You see what's going on over there.

Bailout cities and states who have been poorly run and spent a fortune doing it. They want a trillion dollars and we are really not interested in that.

OK. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go!

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, guys.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jim, very much. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. I want to bring in our experts to talk about this but just a quick fact-check on what the president said about Hydroxychloroquine because he was not accurate at all there, touting a study that's been discredited. Touting a doctor who has touted studies not randomized or controlled.

So just do not take what he said as any sort of medical advice because it's very contrary to what experts overwhelmingly say.

I want to bring in Jim Acosta, who is at the White House.

Jim, you were there at that event with the president.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I was. And we tried to ask him about why there's so many members of the Coronavirus Task Force now contradicting him on almost a regular basis now when it comes to Hydroxychloroquine or just a widespread nature of the coronavirus here in the U.S.

Dr. Deborah Birx was on with Dana Bash yesterday with "STATE OF THE UNION," talking about this. Essentially, saying that the reason why the virus is spreading so quickly around the country is because it is now seeped into both urban and rural areas, that essentially can't escape it.

And I tried to pin the president on that and, as you saw, Brianna, he retreats to some of the same talking points.

And we should note Admiral Giroir, who is on the task force, was on one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday questioning the effectiveness of the Hydroxychloroquine, a drug that the president has touted time and time again, how the president is citing studies that have been discredited by very senior and respected members of the public health community.

But this, I think, all comes out of and stems from the president, for the first time, really taking aim at Dr. Birx who, who up until just over the weekend, had really been sort of a team player, not really questioning the president's statements publicly. That seemed to change over the weekend.

And I think that question about why there are members of the task force contradicting him -- it's not just Dr. Fauci anymore. You heard the president talking about Dr. Fauci. He tends to treat Dr. Fauci as a punching bag from time to time.

And not just Dr. Fauci contradicting the president anymore. It's other members of the task force. And I think, it shows, Brianna, that some of the members of this task force are thinking of themselves. You know, we can't just stand idly by and let the president put bad information out there to the American people.

And I think that is why you're seeing some of these other members of the task force contradicting him. I tried to ask the president about that.

You also heard the president make some news about TikTok, saying if the very popular social media platform with teenagers and so on is not sold to Microsoft or some other acceptable company by September 15th that he is going to pull the plug on the social media platform in the U.S.

But as you know, Brianna -- you cover this as much as I do -- the president makes threats but doesn't always follow through them on -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, that was interesting. He said they better buy basically the whole thing and not 30 percent, Microsoft or another company, he said.

All right. You said he uses Dr. Fauci as a punching bag. He did that again and also misrepresenting the things that Dr. Fauci has said. But he also trying to start with some good news there about vaccines and therapeutics.

So on that, I want to bring Dr. Paul Offit, who is the director of the Vacation Center. He's a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, as well.

Doctor, if you can speak to that, he said good news coming on therapeutics, which we have heard good news on that, good news coming on vaccines.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR OF THE VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER & PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Well, We don't know that yet.

You have to give credit to the administration for one thing. We only had the strain that causes this infection COVID-19 in January. And now I really do think by the middle of next year, maybe a year and a half, we can have a vaccine, which to some extent is shown to be safe and effective.

What the administration that's been done right is that they've basically taken the risk out of it for pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical companies would never have mass produced a vaccine without first showing that it worked and is safe. That's what this administration had done. That's great.

And what they should do is not blow it at the end, which is to say we can't let the phase three trials finish up and show they're effective at some level before we release them.

Because if we do that and release them before they're ready and before we know enough to say that they're, at some level, safe and effective, then that will shake the fragile vaccine confidence in this country.

[13:35:14]

KEILAR: Doctor, I look forward to the day I don't have to do a fact- check again on Hydroxychloroquine. But unfortunately, today is not that day. Because the president touting it again. He said that it has tremendous support with doctors but is politically toxic because people don't want him to be right about it.

He pointed out that he's used it himself, which is odd because, of course, it is not a prophylactic. It's not recommended for treating COVID or for being a prophylactic for COVID.

Fact-check his allegations there that this is something that's really good for treating coronavirus. OFFIT: It's perfectly reasonable to raise the question: Could this

particular drug treat COVID-19? It's an answerable question and it's answered in a scientific venue.

The way you answer it is you take people who are similarly ill with this virus and either treat half with Hydroxychloroquine and then don't treat the other half and see what happens. It is the scientific method.

You have had three studies to show you're not better off with that drug than didn't receive it and, frankly, you were worse off because you were likely to get cardiac toxicities, meaning arrhythmias.

I can only imagine that President Trump either doesn't understand the scientific method or he has disdain for it. It is the scientific method that brought us into the Age of Darkness into the Age of Enlightenment. He shouldn't want us to go back to the Age of Darkness so quickly.

KEILAR: And to that point, look, this is a new virus. Everyone is searching for answers. And it's evolving as we get it.

But one of the studies, and this is the study that they will point to, which is the Henry Ford study. It was observational. And it also treated patients with steroids, which we know is an effective treatment for many patients when it comes to coronavirus.

And he also highlighted a doctor from Yale, who we now know has been touting studies, including one study that's discredited it, and others not randomized or controlled.

Why is it important to not focus on -- you know, what sounds great, a doctor of Yale, but read the fine print, it is not.

OFFIT: Yes. The beauty of science is it doesn't matter what you believe. You have to -- doesn't matter what Donald Trump says or I say. The only thing that matters is the data.

And you do an observation study, and you introduce bias. The only way to know if a drug works is to randomly assign it to a group and another and make sure they're alike in terms of illness and see what happens.

It never is of value to say this person thinks this, this person thinks that. Just do the study and then the data will tell you whether it works or doesn't work.

KEILAR: Yes.

Doctor, thank you so much. Your expertise is so needed and appreciated.

Back to you, Jim Acosta, at the White House.

The president also made news, tell us, calling for someone to be fired. Tell us about this. ACOSTA: Yes. This is an issue that he's been harping on over time. It

didn't just come up today.

But the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the president said, is making too much money. The president was going around the room, before he took our questions, talking to employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority who are complaining that they are being replaced by foreign workers.

And the president, again and again, railed against the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, saying that he makes $8 million a year and so on, and threatened in the remarks, during these remarks, if the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority does not replace this CEO, that he will replace the board.

And it was during these remarks, that the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, for the White House, came into the room, handed the president a note card. And the president said he read it and claimed that it said something to the effect of a message coming from the TVA CEO saying that they're going to try to rectify the problems that have been brought up by the White House.

So the president is calling for the ouster of the Tennessee Valley Authority. It is another example of the president trying to throw his weight around inside the federal bureaucracy.

But in this case, and in east Tennessee, other areas where there are TVA workers, there isn't a whole lot of sympathy for the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

And one thing other thing we should point out, this event got politicized toward the very end. There was a woman in the room who, at one point, referred to former Vice President Joe Biden as "Slow Biden." She appeared to be there for the TVA event. And the president picked up on that and went after the former vice president.

So this was another one of those examples, Brianna, where an official White House event gets politicized, turned into a campaign event on the taxpayers' dime -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Who was the guest of the president who said that?

[13:40:04]

ACOSTA: You know, I need to look this up in my notes.

KEILAR: Yes.

ACOSTA: I just came out of the pool spray. But it is a representative from an organization who does not want to see outsourcing of U.S. workers in the U.S. It's in my pool notes and I'll see if I can find it for you and send it to you. Brianna, this happened at the very end.

Sarah Blackwell, who works with Protect U.S. Workers, made this remark at the end. She described herself as a nationalist. And there was a bit of that vibe in the room as well, where the president tapping into some of the sentiment that he likes to tap into from time to time, talking about foreign workers replacing jobs, taking the U.S. jobs of U.S. workers -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Jim, sorry. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I was just curious.

ACOSTA: No problem.

KEILAR: I know you just rolled out of this pool event.

Thank you, Jim Acosta, from the White House.

ACOSTA: No problem. You've got it. Sure.

KEILAR: If you travel to a hotspot, you assume you're infected. That is the new warning as we look at the map of the latest outbreaks.

Plus, an investigation under way after dozens gather without masks at a party for first responders.

And the daughter of a Republican congressman infected with COVID says her father ignored medical advice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:13]

KEILAR: We are entering a new phase of the pandemic -- that is what Dr. Deborah Birx said about a rise in the number of cases in rural America.

Let's bring in Tom Foreman to discuss this.

Tell us about what you're seeing. Why is there this surge in rural America?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We'll get to the why in a moment.

But, first, to address this notion that president ended the comments a while ago with the idea that, again, this is basically an urban problem. Dr. Birx and others are making it's clear it's not the case.

Look at the graphic here, for Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. Look at how they started to spike up around early June, when they started reopening. That is largely driven by -- yes, there are cities and related rural problems.

Move across to Louisiana, the numbers there, very high plateau. Staying there. Keep going across to Arizona. Very high plateau, staying there.

All of these are states that backed Donald Trump, all of them have large rural populations.

Why is that an issue right now? It is different than the cities, where you talk about high population density, people around each other all the time. In many rural places, people are naturally socially distant and aren't that many people to be around.

But here are the big risk factors. They have older populations than you find in the rest of the country. They're more vulnerable.

Because they have older populations, they have more people with underlying health issues, diabetes, heart disease, things that can make it worse.

They also have the potential for virus centers. If you talk about factories, meat packing plants, prisons. Where do you put them? In the country. Not in the middle of cities, by and large. When the virus gets in there, it is a huge problem in.

And rural America, for a long time, has had less access to ready health care, lower levels of health insurance combined with that. And that's why the areas that supported Donald Trump is really at such risk now -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Tom, thank you so much for walking us through that.

In addition to rural America, large cities in the U.S. are major coronavirus hotspots, including Los Angeles, where an investigation is now under way after dozens of people attended a party at a bar for first responders. There were no masks, no social distancing.

CNN reporters have that story and more from around the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kyung Lah, in Los Angeles, where the Department of Public Health is investigating this indoor party at a Hollywood bar, held, says the bar, for first responders.

CNN observed dozens of people there with no masks, no social distancing. California's bars, if they are serving indoors, have been ordered closed to try to contain the COVID crisis in the state.

In a statement, L.A.'s Public Health Department said there are no exceptions to this indoor bar usage ban. And that this is, quote, "exactly the situation that puts our entire community at unnecessary risk."

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Stephanie Elam, in California. All nine countries in the San Francisco Bay area are now on the state's monitors list, meaning all indoor operations must be shuddered.

This, as the region is seeing an uptick in cases and hospitalizations.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, said contract tracers are learning of more in-door gatherings as people become complacent.

Also an issue, the counties in the region has responded differently as they started to ease from lockdown mode.

And another issue is the prisons. If you look at San Quintin Prison, which had an outbreak there, that is also affecting Marin County, which is part of the bay area.

[13:49:59]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Lavandera, Last week, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert announced he tested positive for coronavirus and now he is being criticized by his own daughter.

Gohmert's daughter, in a social media post, wrote that, "Wearing a mask is a nonpartisan issue." And that because her father ignored medical expertise, he now has COVID. She goes on to say it's heartbreaking and that she loves her father.

But she ends with this, saying, quote, "It's not worth following a president who has no remorse, leading his followers to an early grave."

Gohmert has said he is asymptomatic and will self-quarantine until he's over the infection.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dianne Gallagher, in Atlanta. The largest school district in the state of Georgia, Gwinnett County Public Schools, says that roughly 260 of its employees can't work right now because they either have COVID-19 or have been exposed to a case of it.

The districts says that it does have contact tracing measures in place and determined most were case of community spread.

But school is supposed to start in Gwinnett County, although it's happening online. There's no word at this point on whether or not this will impact the beginning of the school year.

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I'm Kate Bennett, in Washington. As President Trump pushes for schools to reopen in person and on time across the country, the private school attended by his own son, Barron Trump, is not scheduled to reopen now until October 1st.

Based on an order from Montgomery County, Maryland's, public health official, rising COVID case numbers and scientific evidence is preventing private schools from opening on time.

Barron Trump is scheduled to enter the nineth grade at his private school in Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Thank you, everyone, for those reports.

The treasury secretary is saying that more financial relief encourages Americans to not work.

Plus, you'll know in two weeks if the tease the president makes about policies and plans, but another deadline just came and went. This time is was on health care.

And it's not just sports. How The Rock is filming his new movie inside a bubble.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:05]

KEILAR: As the pandemic rages across the U.S., President Trump misses another self-imposed two-week deadline. This time, it's on the release of a new GOP health care plan.

If that two-week timetable sounds familiar, it should.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to be announcing something, I would say, over the next two or three that will be phenomenal.

I'll be making a big decision on the Paris Accord over the next two weeks.

We'll do infrastructure very quickly. We've got the plan largely completed. And we'll be filing it over the next two weeks, maybe sooner.

We're going to be having a news conference in about two weeks to let everybody know how well we're doing.

Women, unemployment, recently reached the 65-year low. We think that's probably the lowest ever.

In two weeks or three weeks, it will be. It will be the lowest.

We have tests coming out perhaps over the next few weeks that will blow the whole industry away.

I'll have a statement over the next two weeks on minimum wage.

UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: In terms of?

TRUMP: Well, I think I'm going to have a very positive statement.

You'll be hearing about it a lot more in the next two weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CNN Economics Commentator and "Washington Post" Opinion Columnist, Catherine Rampell, is joining me now.

Catherine, why does the president continue to volunteer a two-week time frame when he's going to miss it?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: I think this is the Yolo president. All that matters is the stock market today, his approval ratings today. He doesn't care about tomorrow, let alone, two weeks from now. He

hopes that he, along with the rest of America, will forget, by the time the two weeks have come and past, what he has promised and neglected to do.

And to be clear, of course, on health care, this is not just a two- week deadline he has missed. It's arguably a five-year deadline. Almost exactly five years ago, on this network, Trump came on and said something to the effect he was going to propose a new health care plan that would be something terrific.

Of course, not only has he not passed that plan, he has not even proposed such a plan or at least not, in any event, one that meets all of his criteria.

It's really 10 years since Obamacare was passed. And the Republican Party overall, declared that they would come up with a replacement and it never has.

KEILAR: Yes. That's a very good point.

And right now, you have stimulus negotiations ongoing on Capitol Hill. And Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spelled out why Republicans are fighting the Democrats on this $600 a week federal unemployment benefit that adds to state unemployment dollars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: So, I think on the concept, we absolutely agree on enhanced unemployment. We want to fix the issue where, in some cases, people are overpaid. And we want to make sure there are the right incentives.

UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: So, you do think it's a disincentive to find a job if you have that extra $600?

MNUCHIN: There's no question, in certain cases, where we're paying them more to stay home than to work. That's created issues in the entire economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:00:06]

KEILAR: Is -- he's saying this incentivizes people not to work.