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Interview with Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid; Update on Coronavirus Response from Around the Country; Rep. Mark Walker, (R-NC), Discusses His Call for Jerry Falwell Jr to Resign from Liberty University After Posting Photo with Pants Unzipped, Trump's Comment that Biden Will "Hurt God". Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 07, 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]
HARRY REID (D), FORMER SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: He's had Chris Dodd, as a revered member, former member of the Senate, to help him work through vetting some of these people. Apparently, they've done that.
And there's no one that I know is more prepared, experienced, has the wisdom to do this than Joe Biden. A man that was in the Senate for many years, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, someone who has been vice president for eight years. So he's going to pick the right person.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And obviously, you're familiar with so many of the potential picks. Have you weighed in with Biden or his campaign about who you would like to see the running mate be?
REID: I have talked to Steve Ricchetti, his chief of staff, on a number of occasions, Chris Dodd on a number of occasions.
And I think that he's approaching this in the right way. He is doing it cautiously. And as I have indicated, I have great faith in his ability to do this. He's prepared to do this.
KEILAR: Surely, there's someone you must like in particular. Could you tell us if you weighed in on their behalf? And hopefully, who that person is.
REID: Well, that wouldn't be very fair to anyone so I'm not going to do that. But yes, I have. I have a number of favorites, not one favorite, but a number. I think we have some great, great potential candidates.
And I'm confident that with his experience and with his help from Chris Dodd, it will be a very, very favorable choice he makes.
KEILAR: The president unleashed a new line of attack yesterday on Joe Biden. This is it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's going to do things that nobody ever, would ever think even possible because he's following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns. Destroy your Second Amendment. No religion. No anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He's against God. He's against guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Joe Biden, of course, called that shameful.
You're sort of laughing there. What is your reaction?
REID: I think it's just so absolutely crazy. There's something wrong with that man. We keep -- I keep hoping that he will become more attune with reality but he's getting worse.
Joe Biden's against God? That's kind of a stretch I would think.
KEILAR: And so what do you say to that? He's lobby that. He's attacking his religion. What is it to you for his religion to be attacked like that?
REID: Joe Biden is a man who's been a devout member of the Catholic faith for a number -- for his whole life and he lives his religion. He doesn't wear it on his sleeve. It is a personal thing with him, as it should be.
And it is wrong for anyone to attack Joe Biden with his life history because of his religion or lack thereof.
KEILAR: I think --
REID: Joe Biden is a man of integrity and I'm sorry to say our president is just the opposite.
KEILAR: I'm sure you have been looking at poll numbers. Democrats are looking at poll numbers and they favor Biden considerably right now. Do you think the Democrats might become too confident?
REID: I think that's one thing we won't become, too confident.
But I do say this. This is going to be a change election. Trump is going to be beaten.
We're going to pick up the Senate, pick up seats in Colorado, Montana, Maine, North Carolina. We're going to pick up a seat in Georgia, win in Arizona. As we speak, we are ahead in Alaska. So this is a change election.
And the biggest change is coming as a result of people being fearful of the Trump presidency and how much harm it's done to our country and our standing in the world community.
KEILAR: I mentioned -- Mr. Leader, so great to see you healthy. You are in remission from pancreatic cancer and you had an experimental treatment that was successful.
It makes us think, especially right now as the nation as just lost civil rights icon, John Lewis, to pancreatic cancer, are you hopeful that the therapy you were able to use could save lives kike his.
REID: The answer, of course, if yes. I talked to John a week before he passed away. He was one of my idols, one of my heroes.
But I just say this. This is a time when we should be aware of the fact that we shouldn't be getting rid of the Affordable Care Act. We should be doing everything we can to expand it, the make it stronger.
[13:35:04]
And the Affordable Care Act is one of the hallmarks of modern-day politics. In my opinion, it is the number-one strength of a legacy of Barack Obama.
And what we need to do is make it even stronger by having a public option.
KEILAR: Sir, it is great to see you. Former Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, thanks for joining us today on CNN.
REID: Thank you very much.
KEILAR: As many schools are opening up in Georgia, a 7-year-old boy with no underlying conditions is the youngest to die in the state.
Plus, just in, a reversal in the suspension of a student for taking pictures of the crowded hallways at her school. Stand by for the details on that.
A Republican lawmaker said Jerry Falwell must resign from Liberty University over pictures showing him with his pants unzipped.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:40:48]
KEILAR: The Women's National Basketball Association announcing today that of the league's 139 players, not one tested positive in the latest round of testing for coronavirus. The WNBA season began on July 25 in a bubble in Bradenton, Florida. And prior to arriving, seven players had tested positive for COVID-19.
Now to the biggest headlines on the pandemic from the CNN correspondents around the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dianne Gallagher, in Atlanta. A grim milestone passed in Georgia on Thursday as more than 4,000 people died from COVID-19.
The state also reported its youngest death, a 7-year-old African American boy from the Savannah area. According to the Department of Health, he did not have any known underlying conditions.
More than 200,000 people have tested positive for the virus in the state of Georgia during the pandemic.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Shimon Prokupecz, in New York City, where authorities have set up check points at key access points across New York State to screen out of state travelers traveling from hotspots and warn them that if they are staying in New York City that they need to quarantine for two weeks.
Now, these check points are set up at bridges and tunnels, railway stations and also bus terminals across the city. And one of the things that authorities are saying, that if you don't quarantine, you face the potential of up to $10,000 in fines.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I'm Pete Muntean, at Reagan National Airport. The Transportation Security Administration is taking measures to protect employees after the workers that have tested positive for coronavirus crested 1,500.
The TSA purchased another additional individual acrylic screen for 37 airports that it considers the biggest hubs in the country. The price tag, $2.5 million.
REBECCA BUCK, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I'm Rebecca Buck, in Washington. There's at least one Republican who is embracing face masks in the campaign. But there's a catch.
Nick Freitas is running in Virginia's seventh congressional district and he's selling them on the campaign Web site. But they come with a big controversial message, "COVID-19, Made in China," in big letters.
His campaign defending the practice in a statement to the "Washington Post," saying they're calling out a, quote, "Communist regime" and underscoring how China allowed the virus to spread.
But in a separate statement to "The Post," a spokesperson for his opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a first-term congresswoman, said that the mask trivializes the pandemic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Thank you so much to everyone for those reports.
The president of Liberty University, and a top Trump supporter, posted a racy photo of his pants unzipped. My next guest is a GOP congressman who says an apology is not enough and is calling on him to resign.
[13:44:02]
Plus, the school reversed the suspension of the Georgia student that posted this now viral photo of a crowded, maskless school hallway.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: You have heard of the expression, "Do as I say, not as I do." Well, a leading evangelical voice is apologizing for something that he did that's an apparent violation of the honor code he holds his students to. Jerry Falwell Jr posted a photo of himself in unzipped pants with one
arm around a woman and then holding a glass with what he described as, quote, black water." Falwell explained in a radio interview that it was all in good fun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY FALWELL JR, PRESIDENT, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY (voice-over): You know, it was weird because she was pregnant and couldn't get her pants zipped.
And I was like, trying to like -- I had on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time and I couldn't get mine zipped either.
So -- and so I just put my belly out like hers and it was just -- she's my wife's assistant and she is a sweetheart.
And I should have never put up a photo and embarrassed her because -- anyway, I have apologized to everybody. And I promised my kids I'm going to try to be a better. I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Well, that apology may not be enough. Falwell is the head of Liberty University, which maintains a strict code of ethics, banning lewd lyrics, sexual conduct and immodest dress, among other things.
And this isn't the first time that Falwell Jr has caused a scandal. He was urged to step down after making a black-face joke.
[13:50:09]
One member of university's the advisory board, Congressman Mark Walker, tweeted that he was appalled by Falwell's behavior and is calling on him to resign.
And Congressman Walker is joining me right now.
Sir, thanks for coming on to talk about this.
You are calling for him to resign. Tell us why.
REP. MARK WALKER (R-NC): Brianna, I just think there's a code that leaders have to live by, especially when you're leading the largest Christian evangelical university in the country.
Now, Jerry Jr deserves a lot of credit for building Liberty University to what it is today. But there's a pattern of behavior not becoming to what the school's code of conduct is.
On the property itself, Jonathan Falwell, heads where his father was.
Even if you listen to his comments on the radio show, he apologized for embarrassing the young lady. He did not apologize to the thousands of alumni, the students, faculty and many others who hold Liberty University in a high esteem.
KEILAR: I mean, why do you think there's this pattern of behavior? What do you think is going on here?
WALKER: It's very troubling. I was a pastor for 16 years myself before running for the United States Congress almost seven years ago. I don't want to speculate. I don't know his heart. I don't know if there are other things going on.
Over the last two or three years, it has come to the forefront. And as a pastor, as I was referencing, every meeting I try to have, I try to have a redemptive element that runs through it.
I hope that's how they will talk to Jerry Jr. We cannot look the other way with this behavior where you have a strict code, one I don't disagree with in many cases, but you're out here promoting, talking, and being smug about.
Even the Instagram post that I'm going to try to be a better boy from here on. There's no penitent heart in that. And I would hope that he could do better.
I'm not here to try to attack him. But I am saying this is not the design of the university or his founding father, who, literally, blood, sweat, and tears, created this on the side of a mountain.
KEILAR: Falwell, of course, is a big supporter of President Trump's. Are you worried at all that his actions could hurt the president's evangelical support?
WALKER: I don't think so. Evangelicals are independent in their thinking process when it comes to their churches, whether it's universities, in this case, schools, whatever it might be. I don't think there's any factor in that at all.
I just think as a former pastor, and evangelical, someone who taught as an instructor on the campus of Liberty University.
I felt it was time to address it, not from a harsh or attack vendetta, but something I believe he has reached a place where he needs people around him to help guide him through the season of life.
KEILAR: I want to ask you about something the president said, especially -- I think this is something that, with your perspective as a man of faith and a former pastor and Republican, that I think I really want to get your insight on.
This is an attack he made on Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's following the radical left agenda. No religion. No anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He's against God. He's against guns.
He's against the Bible. Essentially, against religion. But against the Bible.
Joe Biden and the radical Democrats are against fracking. They're against guns. And they're against the Bible, essentially. They're against God.
If Joe Biden were to become president, they want to crush religious liberty. They don't want religion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: I think we all know Joe Biden is a man of faith. I'm sure you have disagreements with him on that.
But just on the president attacking his faith, what do you think of those remarks?
WALKER: Well, I think of the scripture -- I believe it comes from the book of Proverbs -- that says, man looks on the outside, God looks in the heart. We don't know someone's heart. We do have some ability to look at one's actions.
I heard Senator Reid say that's a very personal matter. It is to some degree. But we're also commanded to go and preach, make disciples across the world.
So, I do believe there should be some fruit. If you're going to talk the talk, you must walk the walk.
[13:55:04]
But specifically, as far as going after somebody, as far as their faith and level of it, it's something that's not in my wheelhouse or something I'm not comfortable with.
Yet, at the same time, if you're going to have zero problem when it comes to the level of abortions that we see in this country, and some other, what we would call moral things from our perspective, I think you can push back a little bit and say this lifestyle doesn't match what you're talking about when it comes to your faith.
But as far as knowing what's inside someone's heart, I believe only All Mighty God knows that.
KEILAR: There are a number of moral issues. And you talk about talking the talk and walking the walk. Couldn't you make the same criticism or raise the same questions about President Trump and his actions?
WALKER: I don't believe there's any questions that, when it comes to someone with a background such as the president's, you could certainly make a case this is someone who has not led the most moral life.
But unlike the chancellor of the president of a Christian university, it is the people that get to make that decision every four years in November to be able to say, do we want someone who has am sweet or kind or gentle or moral personality, if you will, or do we want someone able to get us from point A to point B. And I think there's much evidence to support the argument that, for the first three years, three years, two months, three years, three months, that the president did exactly that. When it comes to our economy, when it comes to criminal justice reform, there's much to celebrate.
I think that's where the American people are and were. We'll see what they say this November. But it's not necessarily the moral content that makes a good leader.
Would you like both? Certainly, always. But I think the success in getting things done is what most of the American people are looking for in an elected official.
KEILAR: Congressman Mark Walker, I really appreciate you coming on. Thanks for joining us.
WALKER: A privilege. Thank you.
KEILAR: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is authorizing all New York school districts to reopen for in-person learning. The numbers that he says are driving his decision. And what's the plan if numbers spike?
Plus, as Dr. Fauci says, the country's division is holding the coronavirus response back. We're going to look at how some Americans view the pandemic and how that depends really on what they watch.
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