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At Least 135 Dead, Dozens Missing After Huge Blast in Beirut; U.S. Defense Chief Says Most Believe Blast an Accident; Iowa Teacher Pushing for Masks in Schools Sends His Mock Obit to The Governor; Sally Yates Says Neither Obama Nor Biden Tried to Influence Flynn Investigation; Trump Again Blasts Mail-In Voting Despite Endorsing It for Florida; Kids Pack Hallway Without Masks in Georgia School. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 05, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was not the sort of place where you would store something that is this volatile especially given the climate conditions.

Now we don't know what exactly caused the fire that then set off this volume of ammonium nitrate, whether it was foul play whether it was some sort of an accident but either way, Brooke, the bottom line is clear, that substance should not have been there. That is not how you safely store something.

And this is really reinforcing this prevalent idea, already prevalent idea among the Lebanese population, that you know their leadership, the political elite, do not care for their lives. I mean these videos that we saw emerge are absolutely mind blowing. You can actually, physically see that shock wave ripping through the streets, through the alleyways, leaving behind this incredible, devastating trail of destruction.

And right now when you talk to people, I mean they're still so shocked, so traumatized, Brooke, you can tell from their eyes, you can tell from how difficult it is for them to string together, you know, words to form a sentence there, they're actually going to adequately describe the depth of what it is that they've gone through.

BALDWIN: Arwa, just seeing all of these pictures, the devastation, the windows blasted and just as you pointed out, the looks on her faces. Arwa, thank you so much. And agree, never should have been stored there in that amount.

DAMON: Defense officials say there is no evidence that this was a planned attack. But President Trump was floating that idea last night. And he says he got that from top generals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've met with some of our great generals and they just seemed to feel that it was -- this was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a -- seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN national security analyst Samantha Vinograd also served as senior adviser to the national security adviser under President Obama. And Sam, I mean you've handled I know plenty of sensitive information during your tenure at the White House. How dangerous is the President's use of the word "attack"?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Brooke, adlibbing with intelligence or in this case the lack there of is just plain dangerous. I worked at the White House in the aftermath of high casualty events and it's just standard operating procedure to really scrub any public talking points to make sure that leadership is accurately informing the public.

There's a reason for that. If you inaccurately attribute an attack for example or indicate that a bomb went off, that can exacerbate an already volatile situation. It can cause panic and confusion when resources really need to be focused on things like search and rescue for example.

And on a more strategic level, Brooke, it really begs the question of whether we can ever trust the President. This is literally a life and death situation. And he's seemingly just spit balling with respect to the attribution for a mass casualty event.

BALDWIN: Well the fact that defense officials are contradicting the President's claim. And this isn't the first time something like this has happened, Sam. You know, the President said something, officials have to step in and correct the record. What does that do to the U.S. standing on the world stage?

VINOGRAD: Well, let's just be clear. This is wasting a precious resource in this kind of situation which is time. U.S. officials and Lebanese officials have a lot more important things to do than clean up the President's PR mess.

They have to spend time right now trying to discount what the President himself said. It shows a disconnect between the President and his actual national security team. And, you know, I'm really struck by the fact, Brooke, that the President and his team have said repeatedly for example that he hasn't been briefed on threats to American troops in Afghanistan, the Russian bounties threat stream because the intelligence was unverified and unreliable.

And here we have him sharing either made-up or misunderstood unverified, unreliable intelligence in front of the TV cameras. It is such a double standard and really just indicates that he has no come comprehension of how intelligence should be integrated into policy and how intelligence should be appropriately and responsibly integrated into his public talking points. BALDWIN: Sam Vinograd, thank you.

VINOGRAD: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And on Beirut, if you would like more information on how you can help the victims, you can go to CNN.com/impact.

Fearing for their safety, some teachers are speaking out against the push to return to the classroom. One even writing his own mock obituary and sending it to his governor. We'll talk to him about that next.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Teachers in Iowa are expressing fear and outrage over the governor's hard line on returning to school. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is warning schools that if students do not attend classes, in person at least 50 percent of the time that they are violating state law.

An Iowa art teacher whose wife is a nurse penned his own mock obituary depicting his death from coronavirus, and then he sent it to the governor. So, let me just read part of this to you.

That is what Jeremy Dumkrieger wrote: Jeremy Dumkrieger, 43, passed away on -- insert date here -- due to complications arising from COVID-19. He died alone, isolated from the family who meant the world to him. Jeremy worked as an art teacher for 6 years. His students call him Mr. D. because they thought saying it out loud was a bad word.

[15:40:02]

He loved getting drawings as gifts especially if they were portraits of Mr. D. It wasn't a job to Jeremy. He often joked he was the smartest teacher in the building because he got paid the same as the math teacher and they had to do algebra all day while he got to play with clay. It is was a dream job for Jeremy. It fulfilled him.

And Jeremy Dumkrieger is with me now. And Jeremy, you know, so you have this idea. You took to Iowa Starting Line to write this blog post a couple of weeks ago to ask your fellow teachers across Iowa to join you to prepare their own obituaries ahead of the school year to demand Governor Reynolds declare this statewide school mask mandate. But why did you feel taking such extreme action, writing an obit is necessary?

JEREMY DUMKRIEGER, TEACHER IN IOWA: Well, I wanted to get everyone's attention with it. And, you know, it's not just the school mandate. We don't have a mandate across Iowa whatsoever. So, we have people walking around in stores, even restaurants with no masks on and it's just spreading here. I mean we need to stop it, so it doesn't come into the schools.

But I wanted to get everybody's attention with it. And I know that are some people who are actually were upset with me doing that, I got some emails from teachers but imagine how upset they're going to be when teachers are actually dying.

BALDWIN: Did you get the attention of the governor or anyone from the governor's office?

DUMKRIEGER: Not at all. I've heard nothing.

BALDWIN: Is that frustrating, does that anger you?

DUMKRIEGER: I could speak for myself and a lot of other teachers that I've spoke with, we're not getting a lot from the governor. It is her way or the highway with it. In June, end of June she dropped no recommendations whatsoever for standards for schools. Schools were on their own. So basically, she ran them over with the proverbial school bus, right. No guidance whatsoever.

Schools decided to make their plans, they're putting them through. Schools, I believe it was like Iowa City, it is all virtual learning. They decided that the governor -- the governor decided that was not good enough and put in a proclamation just a couple weeks ago saying that anything -- that we did, schools did would have to go through her first to get their absolute permission so local control is gone.

BALDWIN: And I mentioned a second ago, your wife is a nurse which is Germane to the whole conversation because I imagine, you know, you have this unique front-row seat to your wife coming home every day, right, after dealing with presumably COVID patients, correct?

DUMKRIEGER: Yes, yes. Every day she comes home and we have this routine where he walks in the door, she changes her clothes before she actually gets in the actual house, so we have a little containment unit there so she can change, walks in, no shoes in the house ever. We touch -- everything she touches we wash down, scrub down and she bathes and then we sanitize everything twice just to be sure that nothing got tracked in.

BALDWIN: What is your plan if the governor doesn't budge on this?

DUMKRIEGER: Well, I'm going to go to school, I'm going to do my job. I'm going to wear a mask and a shield. And I'm going to make sure that I'm helping with other teachers to teach kids how to be safe.

And as an art teacher, what I'm going to do is sort of try to sow as much joy as I can into the year because it's going to be a difficult year. And I think I have the one subject that is able to do that.

BALDWIN: You heard the President this morning say that schools should be open because kids are, quote/unquote, almost immune from the virus, which we know by the way from facts and science that is not the case.

DUMKRIEGER: Right.

BALDWIN: As a teacher though who has actually written his own obituary, do you have a message for the President?

DUMKRIEGER: I would suggest that perhaps he'd transfer his son into a different school so he could attend classes in person. BALDWIN: Jeremy Dumkrieger, thank you so much. Thank you.

DUMKRIEGER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And good luck.

How about Sally Yates? Remember that name? She is the former Acting Attorney General who first raised alarms about Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn, ultimately leading to his firing during the Russia probe. Now she's answering to Republicans in Congress.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to Capitol Hill where it is a wait and see game whether top Democratic leaders and White House negotiators will be able to reach a deal about the next stimulus package by the end of this week. CNN Congressional correspondent Phil Mattingly is live on The Hill for us. And so, Phil, what's the story today?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the story of the day is going to be what's determined behind closed doors right now. The eighth meeting in 10 days between the top negotiators, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

And I can tell you, Brooke, before they entered that meeting about 30 minutes ago they met with Senate Republicans behind closed doors and multiple people who were inside that lunch came out with a very downcast view about what's coming next.

Now you noted yesterday was by far the best meeting between the top negotiators trying to agree at least to getting something done on the top line by the end of this week hoping to have votes next week. And, yet, even though offers were put on the table, offers on unemployment, offers on state and local funding, at this point in time the White House negotiators do not have an upbeat view of where things are going.

They do not believe Democrats are coming across the table to meet them kind of halfway or even a quarter of the way. And because of that, the odds of a deal right now according to one Senator who was in the room characterized it as 50/50.

Again, real quick, lay out the stakes here. There are people who need and have relied upon that $600 federal enhancement of unemployment for the better part of the last three or four months. That has expired.

There is an eviction moratorium. That has expired. The Paycheck Protection Plan for small business loans, that expires on August 8th. This is the urgency that lawmakers are supposed to operating with right now.

[15:50:00] But how they get to the end game, how they even get to an outcome? Brooke, eight meetings, ten days, over 15 hours of talks, still not there yet and no clear path forward. It's raising a lot of questions right now no matter what artificial deadlines they put in place as people are really hurting.

BALDWIN: Phil Mattingly, thank you for the update there on The Hill. Let's head down the road and talk a minute about the White House. But first former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates making news on The Hill today.

Yates is testifying remotely in a Senate hearing. She has been called by Republicans as part of their investigation into the Russia probe and what they see as potential wrongdoing by the Obama administration. Wrongdoing that they along with President Trump would like to tie back to Joe Biden.

Under oath, Yates said that neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden tried to influence the investigation in any way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALLY YATES, FORMER ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- President Obama or Vice President Biden or national security adviser Rice was in any way trying to influence an investigation, that which would off alarms for me. This was not about that. This was about the national security implications of continuing to share sensitive information with General Flynn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now to the White House. The President speaking from the Oval Office in a meeting with the governor of Arizona moments ago, again, blasting mail-in voting but only for certain states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But this mail-in voting where they've mailed indiscriminately millions and millions of ballots to people, you're never going to know who won the election. You can't have that. And Nevada's a big state. It's an important state. It's a very political state. And the governor happens to be a Democrat. And I don't believe the Post Office can be set up. They were given no notice. I mean you're talking about millions of votes. Now it'll be -- it's a catastrophe waiting to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, is there for us live. And, Jim, why does he keep doing this?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has become one of his chief distractions for his base in recent days, Brooke. I mean, you know obviously he's facing a lot of tough questions about the coronavirus. And he has been trying to change the subject to the security of mail-in balloting, which over the years has proven to be very safe, effective and fraud-free way of voting in this country.

Obviously, there are problems here and there. But even conservative groups that have looked at it have found the cases of problems to be few and far between. Now getting to what the President was just saying a few moments ago, he has been seizing on this effort to expand mail- in balloting in Nevada. They've been trying to do that obviously to protect people from the coronavirus.

But at the same time the President is speaking out of the other side of his mouth in recent days saying that mail-in balloting is just fine in Florida because he has Republicans in that state and also advisers to his campaign who are saying, Mr. President, there are a lot of people down in Florida who depend on mail-in balloting and they're going to vote for you by the way. So, he's backed off of this threat down in Florida.

But he was asked in the Oval Office just a few moments ago, whether or not he's comfortable with mail-in balloting in Arizona. He was asked this question because he was sitting next to the governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, a fellow Republican who is here in Washington to talk about battling the coronavirus in his state. And during this exchange the governor of Arizona said that he believes mail-in balloting will be just fine in his state. If we have a little bit that sound, we can play it and talk about it on the other side.

OK, Brooke, we don't have that sound. But the governor of Arizona went on to say during that exchange that he believes that mail-in balloting will be just fine in Arizona, that it's been just fine for years and that he's confident that the President said he doesn't know what's happening in Arizona but he would look into it.

He's going to have a press conference here at the White House at 5:30. But it just goes to show you, Brooke, the President appears to, at this point, he appears to be sort of engaging in this preemptive cherry-picking of ballots. You know, typically after elections you see campaigns fight over ballots, you know, whether this ballot is OK and that ballot is OK. That happens after elections are over. The President appears to be trying to do that before ballots are even cast in this country.

But by and large, Brooke, what has been happening so far is we've been noticing this. This has been sort of the President's distraction of the week if you will. And so, he's been seizing on it once again today -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: As we though, have been discussing, as you point, you know, it can really backfire on him though. A lot of Republicans do mail-in ballots. And if you hear the President of the United States saying there is fraud, even though there is zero evidence, people may not vote. And that may be taking votes away from President Trump. Jim Acosta at the White House, Jim, thank you so much for that.

ACOSTA: You bet.

BALDWIN: Coming up here on CNN, images of a crowded hallway with all these students not wearing masks in this one Georgia school have sparked new concerns about reopening schools. Is there a way to keep students healthy, safe, and inside the classroom? A reality check ahead.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN: And welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Pamela Brown in for Jake Tapper today. And this afternoon Dr. Anthony Fauci is calling testing delays in this nation, quote, unacceptable, period. And warning the pandemic will keep smoldering without a more unified response.

We have a source telling CNN that President Trump is still struggling to grasp the severity of the pandemic. This source said, quote, he does not get it.