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1.2 Million Americans File For Unemployment; Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Tests Positive For The Coronavirus; Trump Debate Demands. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 06, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:31:11]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Some striking new jobless numbers today. Another 1.2 million Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits last week, that's on top of the 16 million Americans filing for continuing jobless claims. The White House and both parties in Congress say they want to help but so far, there's little progress toward a deal. There is lots of finger pointing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: I see a light at the end of the tunnel. We don't know how long the tunnel is. But we have to move quickly, more quickly, because the light at that end of tunnel may be the freight train of the virus coming at us.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: There are a lot of struggling Americans to tell Speaker Pelosi exactly how long this tunnel has been. And that will continue to be endless unless the Democrats let us provide more relief to the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's get straight up to our CNN congressional correspondent and how long is the tunnel correspondent Phil Mattingly. It is sometimes funny to watch how they talk but obviously given the issues of the moment, another 1.2 million Americans filing for jobless claims, small businesses out there worrying do I get more? What's going to happen? It's not a laughing matter even there is some comedy in the politics sometimes.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look. Again, some things to find funny just because we have been covering this for the last few weeks and no clear resolution in sight and occasionally lawmakers make jokes but I think the reality is the stakes are enormous, right?

And I think one of the things that appears to be missing right now in these negotiations is recognition. It's something to get done now, right. People have not had access to the enhanced federal unemployment benefits now for several weeks even though it just lapse last week. Obviously the eviction moratorium has lapsed, as well. The end of the Paycheck Protection Program is just in a couple of days.

And I think one of the things that have been somewhat surprised by as the Senate prepares to go home in a couple of hours, the House rank and file lawmakers are going home, is that -- you just -- it doesn't have that vibe up here. It's something needs to get done now.

And I think part of the reason why and the speaker talked about this today. I think Republicans spoken about it as well, there's just a fundamental difference of perspective in terms of what's necessary right now. Democrats want to go big. They want to go bigger than $2.2 trillion package from earlier in the year. Republicans had made clear they want to go targeted. And they've not figure out a way to bridge that gap.

Now, you mentioned the president has talked about if negotiations break down, he will operate unilaterally. This is the speaker's perspective on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: I don't think they know what they're talking about. The one thing that president can do is to extend the moratorium and that would be a good thing if there's money to go with it and that's what we keep telling them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now John, the unilateral action is mostly been viewed as a leverage play trying to enforce Democrats to come to the table, so the president doesn't do that but I think the speaker has a point there which resonates for both parties and that is unilaterally the president can't enough to address all the issues that are out there right now. That's up to Congress. That's the fiscal action they need to take. How they get to that point though still remains an open question next meeting 5:00 p.m. tonight between the top negotiators to see if they get anything further at this point.

KING: We'll see if that missing urgency that you note at the top there comes into play at this later meeting. Phil Mattingly, appreciate the latest up on Capitol Hill.

Next for us, the president said he like another debate against Joe Biden and he wants it before those of you who live in states that get to vote early start to mail in your ballots.

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[12:38:54]

KING: Schools that are already back in session now providing lessons to those whose first day of classes, well, still down the road a little bit and parents are clearly nervous. A new poll out today finds a majority of parents don't feel it's safe to send they children back to school but if you look deeply at the numbers there are sharp partisan and racial divides on that safety question.

Here's what the nation's 101 largest school districts are doing. 62 are starting completely offline. Those 62 districts accounted for nearly 7 million students. 10 will start with a hybrid plan. 17 are requiring parents to choose all online or all in person. 7 are crafting some unique combination of both and we're waiting for New York City, Hillsborough, Florida Dallas, Greenville, South Carolina and Boston to finalize their plans.

Mississippi school district may offer lessons. Just one week after reopening, six students and one teacher have tested positive. More than 100 others have been sent home to quarantine.

Joining us now is Mississippi State Superintendent of Education, Carey Wright. Dr. Wright, thank you so much for being with us. So, this was inevitable. You knew this, your governor knew this, the school districts and the local school districts know that you open schools. You're going to have cases.

From this district, have you learned anything about how it happened that helps you in other districts or it is what it is?

[12:40:07]

CAREY WRIGHT, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION FOR MISSISSIPPI: I think to be honest with you it is what it is. This virus is not discriminating on areas of the state or whether you're in the rural area or suburban area. And so superintendents have been planning all summer long for contingency just like this. We've been working with our state health office Dr. Dobbs, who's giving a lot of guidance to our districts around this, districts have surveyed parents to see which mode of learning they most want to use, whether that's virtual or hybrid or in person and I think all of our districts are offering a virtual option so that parents do have a choice about whether to bring their children in person or to keep them at home.

KING: If you're somebody who says, who just has the position this is unsafe, you're going to jump on this and say aha, I told you so. I want you to listen to your governor here because I think he offers an interesting perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TATE REEVES (R), MISSISSIPPI: Those who want to attack everyone, look at that as a negative, I actually look at it as a positive. The system is working where we've identified positive cases, we've contact traced those back and trying to protect those kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is a uniquely personal to every parent. And I'm sure you get that in your incoming. Some say open the schools. Some say how dare you open the schools? And so, you're going through this debate.

One of the things in this case is this school district has been very transparent about this and they are not required to be so transparent. Why do you think that's a plus?

WRIGHT: I think it's a plus because the more you can communicate with parents, the more you can assuage their fears. And I think if you try to withhold information, that's only going to make parents more fearful. I'm big one being honest and transparent with everybody.

So, I think that the more we can let the public know what is going on the better we can learn from best practices around how this is handled and we've got a lot of schools districts that are opening this week. We've got about a third opening this week and we've got another third of them opening next week and so everybody is trying to make sure that they are contingency planning. What happens when you do have somebody that comes down? Who gets notified? How's that notification handled? So all of those things have been put in the hands of our superintendents during this past spring so that they can prepared for that.

KING: And you not only have the eyes of people in Mississippi at you, because you do open earlier that any states. You're going to have the eyes of the country on you as you go through this. Let me ask a question as a parent.

WRIGHT: Sure.

KING: So you have those 100 students have been put in quarantine now, that's the safety measure, right? Some people test positive, you put the larger group into quarantine to be extra safe. Those students at home, of the 100 are they all students or is it students and faculty, you know, people staff at the school? But of the students, do they get remote learning while they're at home or they just in quarantine until they're back into the system?

WRIGHT: No, absolutely. And that's one of the reasons that we work with our legislature this year to pass two pieces of legislation that gave the state the sufficient funds to put a device in every child's hand. And I know that quarantine (ph) has already been planning for that.

So, even when children are at home, the content of what they need to be learning can be loaded on the devices so that learning can continue. And so thanks to our legislature, every child in the state of Mississippi will have a device that is either Wi-Fi or cellular enabled and then we all make sure that they've got the learning management systems that they need in order to load that content on so that children can download that content on to the laptops.

So, we have been trying to plan for just about everything we can plan for.

KING: Superintendent Carey Wright, appreciate your time and insight. Let's keep in touch as we go through. Everybody has their political perspective. I just think this is a critical issue and my job is to air it out. Let everybody come on. I really greatly appreciate your time and transparency as we go through this and I wish you the best of luck.

WRIGHT: Thank you so much. And thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.

KING: Thank you. Thank you. I'm grateful for you.

I want to get now some breaking news in CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Republican governor very important state very testing positive for coronavirus. Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And this is the second time in the last two weeks that we have seen the rigorous testing protocols at the White House that President Trump benefits from keeping him from being in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.

This morning it is the Ohio governor Mike DeWine. He was scheduled to greet the president on the tarmac in Ohio where the president has just taken off from Joint Base Andrews to head there today and DeWine testing positive as part of those White House testing protocols. The governor's office saying as of now the Governor DeWine is asymptomatic but obviously those testing protocols catching that positive coronavirus diagnosis.

Last week, of course, it was the Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert who scheduled to be on the plane with the president as well as the Republican congressional candidate in Texas who suppose to greet the president on the tarmac. Both of those individuals testing positive again, once again, as part of those testing protocols and it is notable, John, because the president benefits from the most robust testing protocols anywhere in the country and yet we have heard him time and again suggest that there should be less testing not more, suggesting that more testing is simply creating the cases that don't otherwise exist.

[12:45:10]

And we should note, of course, John, that most Americans who are returning to work in the way that the president would like to see the country do, they do not benefit from this kind of testing. John?

KING: They do not and now the footnote that Governor DeWine politely, very politely because he is a good Republican has been among those pushing the White House from the beginning for more PPE, for more testing and the like. We wish the Governor DeWine the best obviously here. Jeremy Diamond, appreciate the breaking news there. We'll keep on track to the governor's case and the president's trip to Ohio.

Up next, speaking of Ohio, that's a big battleground state, right. The Trump team says it wants to move up the first debate with (ph) team Biden, think about that.

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[12:50:26]

KING: President Trump today pushing for the first presidential debate to be held earlier before people start early voting. Mail-in voting does open in some states next month weeks before the first planned debate. Move up the first debate. You see it right there is part of a presidential tweet this morning. Trump's team also adding the debate about debates to the attack lines though, some of what you are about to hear just not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARA TRUMP, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: As of now the first presidential debate is not scheduled until September 29th, a full month, guys, after early voting begins. So we know that Joe Biden will stay right down in the basement as long as he can.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Yes, I remember that his advisers are saying don't even go to the debate. Just skip the debate. Just think about that. Like why are you going to go up against Donald J. Trump?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now to discuss is our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny along with Errin Haines. She's the editor-at-large for The 19th.

Jeff, let me start with you to the point Mercedes Schlapp is making at the end there, are Biden advisers, is there any serious effort to get him to skip debates? I heard him in an interview by other day saying he's looking forward to it.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, actually the Biden campaign is only of the two campaign that have agreed to the three debates that have been set forward and have happened every four years by the Commission on Presidential Debates. So that simply is not true. The Biden campaign has agreed to the rules.

What is most interesting about this is the Trump campaign is showing a couple things, A, they are acknowledging that elections have indeed changed. That early voting is going to be a part of this process. You know, we hear the president railing against that a lot but it also a sign that they know that they're not in a strong position here. So this is something very interesting to watch.

I mean I think it is a certainly legitimate question why are the debates so late in the process when people, you know, certainly will have voted but we do not know if things, you know, will change between the end of September going forward but it is inaccurate to say that the Biden campaign doesn't agree to the debates, in fact they have. So this is something that Trump campaign is trying to use to either try to shake up this race. They have tried again and again to slow Joe Biden to try to define Joe Biden. They have struggled to do so, so they think one on one on the debate stage may be a way to do that, John.

KING: Process argument. We'll see if it works.

Errin Haines, one of the rate things, today we have something that has been quite rare because we have this coronavirus campaign where the candidates aren't in public as much doing rallies. Today we actually have a same day back and forth between the candidates. Joe Biden, this part is on tape. The Biden part. But he gave an interview with National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Latino Journalists at which he said something and the president responds. Let's listen.

Oh, it's not ready yet. I'm sorry about that. That part is not right here.

Let's move on to something else. He said that we'll come back to that. In that same interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, we know he days away from picking his vice presidential candidate and the subject came up because there have been some people in the Biden campaign, Chris Dodd, a former senator, known to have complain about Kamala Harris is attack on Joe Biden on the debate. Here's his take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't hold grudges. And I made it really clear that I don't hold grudges. I think it was a debate, as simple as that and she is very much in contention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: One part of that conversation, Errin, is there any worry that this is been so drawn out that is causing bad blood in the Democratic Party.

ERRIN HAINES, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE 19TH: Yes, John. I think that the people I talk to especially a lot of the women who are in politics who are observers of this veepstakes process have been disturbed and frankly offended by the vitriolic tone that the veepstakes conversation has taken kind of in this home stretch as the vice president gets closer to making a decision.

We are hearing a lot of kind of gendered and racist, frankly, you know, comments about the women who are in contention to possibly be on this ticket and who could make history here headed into November if Joe Biden and that ticket is elected.

You know, conversations around ambition or even pitting, you know, some of the black women candidates in these conversations against each other. And what women voters and organizers and strategists, I'm hearing from or saying is that they're wanting to hear from Joe Biden himself in denouncing this kind of rhetoric, this tone that seems to be reemerging.

I mean we had conversations around electability in the 2020 primary when you say historic six women standing to be president. You know, some of the personality criticisms that were lobbed at those women, you know, the year that we're celebrating, preparing to celebrate the centennial of suffrage. We've still kind of having these conversations that don't really focus on the qualifications that these talented capable and qualified women one of whom is going to be Joe Biden's running mate, possibly as soon as next week.

[12:55:17]

KING: By early next week is when we expect it. We'll watch that plays out. Now let me get back to this back and forth here. This is the vice president speaking, the interview taped I believe on Thursday last week. We're going to played today --

HAINES: Right.

KING: -- at this conference. So let's listen here then the president responds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: By the way, what you all know but most people don't know unlike the African-American community with notable exceptions the Latino community is incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things. You go to Florida and you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you're in Arizona. So it's a very different, a diverse community.

TRUMP: So just I watched the clip and Joe Biden this morning totally disparaged and insulted the black community, what he said is incredible. And I don't know what's going on with him but it was a very insulting statement he made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Errin, let me start with you. Is it very insulting? Did Joe Biden disparaged and insult the black community? He's trying to make the point and maybe he didn't make it as articulately as he would like. I believe the point he's trying to make is most African- Americans overwhelmingly support Democrats and if you travel the county and you go to Florida, for example, you have the Cuban American population or you might have a Puerto Rican population that has moved to Florida that has a different view than say Latino or Nevada or Arizona. Is it disparaging and insulting what the former vice president said?

HAINES: I think that that is right, John, that was maybe inartful, you know, contrast that the vice president was trying to make and then obviously you saw President Donald Trump seizing on that as he saying that he is attempting to make enroads with the black community which is not really -- did not really support him in 2016 and is not really expected to support him by bigger numbers in 2020.

And so, you know, that kind of inartful remark did present kind of an opening for President Trump that did provide kind of a rare real-time exchange and frankly news being made out of NABJ and NAHJ convention which started yesterday and is continuing through the week.

KING: And Jeff, to that point, Errin makes a very good point in that. If you look at the polling, the president support on many African- American is pretty blicked (ph) and then we've watched the wake of George Floyd and the racial reckoning the protests across the country. There does not seem to be a lot of opening for the president there and yet he sees an opportunity, I think much as he say he tried to suppress the African-American vote in the 2016 campaign. What's different in this campaign is that at least a handful of states right now, Kanye West is going to be battle and there are a lot of questions about that, about, you know, whether that's a serious campaign and whether it is potentially viewed as to give people an alternative who might not want to vote for Joe Biden.

ZELENY: John, there is no question. We've been looking into this and there are Republican operatives with allies who are close to the president and the Republican Party who have been helping Kanye West get on the ballot, Wisconsin a prime example earlier this year, Ohio an example yesterday, Colorado, as well.

So this is something that the Trump campaign said it has nothing to do with it but the reality is when you look beneath the layer here, there are Republican operatives helping Kanye West who's running as an independent in some states. No, Kanye West is not going to be president of the United States. But his name on a ballot could siphon (ph) off some younger African-American voters, that is the worry of some Wisconsin democratic officials I spoke to yesterday.

They believe that the Trump campaign has been trying to peel off some younger black voters, if you will. That is the biggest challenge that Joe Biden has, the campaign has, you know, exciting and winning over and reaching out to some younger African-American voters so they believe that Kanye West, this is a stunt. He could be playing the role of a spoiler but the reality here the race is likely not to be won or lost on this but if it close on the margin on some battleground states, it is something that people are keeping an eye on.

Roger Stone, of course, has praised Kanye West. Several indications that he too has the fingerprints on this. Of course, he says he does not. But John, you will know this is Roger Stone has many elections under the belt where he's behind the scenes undergrounds doing many things.

KING: Yes, Roger Stone is often found in the sentence with mischief. The word mischief, Errin, quickly to close up the conversation. There is this question, Joe Biden has a new ad today aimed at African- American voters. There is this question not about supporting polling but intensity when it comes to voting.

HAINES: Yes. And I think that, you know, this is all part of a larger conversation about, you know, voter enthusiasm that is going to need to drive the kind of turnout that it would take to beat an incumbent president generally but I think this president in particular. And there was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm among the democratic voters that I talked to heading into 2020 and I think, you know --