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Large Motorcycle Rally Being Held in Sturgis, South Dakota, Raises Concerns about Coronavirus Spread; Teachers Protest Plans in Georgia to Reopen Schools During Coronavirus Pandemic; Protestors Take to Streets of Beirut after Massive Explosion Kills More than 150 People; National Education Association President Becky Pringle Interviewed on Need for Funding to Reopen Schools Safely; Former Education Secretary under President Obama Arne Duncan Interviewed on Steps Government Should Take to Help with Continuing Education During Coronavirus Pandemic; President Trump States He Will Take Executive Action If Congress Cannot Reach Deal on Economic Stimulus Bill. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired August 08, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sounding the alarm not about fraud, but about bureaucratic inadequacies amidst the pandemic. You didn't get the message.

I'll see you all here next week.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. We're grateful to have you here. It's Saturday, August 8th. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell, and you are in the CNN Newsroom.

PAUL: Right now there are tens of thousands of people pouring into Sturgis, South Dakota. I want to give you a look here. Social distancing and masks are not required. The city is preparing for nearly 250,000 motorcycle riders and enthusiasts, so you don't see that right this moment on that street.

BLACKWELL: And this morning, there are millions of Americans who are wondering when is there going to be some help? Nearly 40 million people could be facing eviction by the end of the year. Negotiations over a new stimulus package ended in deadlock.

PAUL: As New York schools are cleared to reopen this fall, the National Association of School Nurses says on campus medics are, quote, wholly unprepared.

BLACKWELL: And later this hour, we're going to speak with the president of the National Education Association, Becky Pringle, and former education secretary Arne Duncan.

PAUL: We have more now on that motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Carolina -- South Dakota, excuse me. The mayor there says there's no mask mandate. There are no travel restrictions. But hundreds of thousands of people, up to 250,000, in fact, expected in this town where the population is less than 7,000.

BLACKWELL: Here is CNN's Ryan Young.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Any other year and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is a novelty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is cool. You guys should come out.

YOUNG: A pilgrimage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We came 2,000 miles to work.

YOUNG: A celebration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're just the happiest people in the world.

YOUNG: But this year, some fear it could be deadly -- 250,000 people expected to crowd a town of 7,000, making it the largest public gathering since the start of the pandemic.

LAURA ARMSTRONG, PRESIDENT, RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA COMMON COUNCIL: They're not going to be able to handle any kind of social distancing. There's a significant amount of alcohol involved. It's a huge party.

YOUNG: Total coronavirus cases are low but rising in South Dakota. The state's testing positivity rate is between eight and nine percent. The WHO recommends locations be at five percent or lower for at least 14 days before opening, but South Dakota never closed, so the rally isn't breaking any laws.

ROD WOODRUFF, OWNER, BUFFALO CHIP CAMPGROUND: I always look at fear as being false evidence appearing real. And I think that's what has happened.

YOUNG: Rod Woodruff owns the Buffalo Chip campground with 600 acres. He says there's plenty of room for social distancing and common sense.

WOODRUFF: Ride free, take risks. That's our motto, right? That doesn't mean you don't calculate them. And these people calculate their risks every time they get on a motorcycle.

YOUNG: A city survey of Sturgis residents found 60 percent wanted the rally cancelled at this time. But the city leaders say bikers were coming anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care if it's closed down. I'm going. They can all kiss my -- I'm going.

YOUNG: So the city council allowed it with fewer official events, but no mask requirement. For those afraid to leave home, the city will deliver supplies.

MAYOR MARK CARSTENSEN, STURGIS, SOUTH DAKOTA: We've been doing that the entire time. We're expanding the program during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to include anything that can be bought in Sturgis, basically.

GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): Our economy benefits when people come and visit us.

YOUNG: South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem welcomes the crowd and says events like the Independence Day celebration out in Mount Rushmore proved the state isn't drastically affected by large gatherings.

NOEM: So we know we can have these events, give people information, let them protect their health, but still enjoy their way of life.

YOUNG: That's what vendors like Ted Smith want to hear. He came all the way from Florida.

TED SMITH, OWNER, "THE RAT'S HOLE": We can't do any work in Florida. It's no shows, no bike shows. They've all cancelled.

YOUNG: But others worry that 250,000 people crowding bars and restaurants could spread the virus, then send it home to others.

ARMSTRONG: They can infect our Native American population, our law enforcement, and potentially our bar staff.

YOUNG: And a lot of the bikers that we talked to say they believe some of the mask requirements are just political nonsense, and they plan not to really wear them throughout this weekend. They plan to social distance. They said there's a lot of space out there. They feel they're going to be safe.

Ryan Young, CNN, Sturgis, South Dakota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: And Ryan, thank you so much.

Now, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, Meade County, South Dakota, where Sturgis is located, has recorded 82 cases and one death there.

Let's talk about schools. All school districts across New York state are cleared to open for in-person classes. There are safety measures in place, we understand. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made that announcement yesterday and says the state will watch the infection rates between now and the dates that schools are scheduled to open, noting that if they spike, they will revisit that plan.

[10:05:00]

BLACKWELL: Classes start online next week for students in the biggest school districts in Georgia.

PAUL: Yes. Officials in Gwinnett County plan to bring some students back to class by the end of the month. CNN's Natasha Chen is with us now. So Natasha, good to see you. The plan to bring back students is not sitting well with some of the teachers, though. NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. In fact, the teacher

protests happened just a couple weeks after parent protests. So, the school district has really tried to listen to all parties here. But as you just said in New York City, they're watching in case cases spike. If it goes to three percent positivity rate or above in New York, they're going to revert to all virtual learning.

Meanwhile here in Georgia the positivity rate is well over that number. But here is what the school district the metro Atlanta area are considering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Teachers are sounding the alarm over Georgia's largest school districts new plan to phase in face-to-face instruction later in August after starting with all virtual classes next week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like standardized test scores matter a whole lot to this county, but COVID test scores don't seem to matter enough.

CHEN: Teachers honked from inside their cars in Gwinnett County outside of Atlanta this week as a socially distant protest, in contrast to the one organized by some parents two weeks ago in the same spot calling for face-to-face instruction. A district spokesperson said their difficult decisions will not be popular with everyone, but say they're committed to student's health, safety, and education.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems they keep making decisions, milquetoast decisions that placate different parties without considering that we need consistency and we need bold leadership.

CHEN: Troy (ph) Powell (ph) teaches second grade students who would be back in the classroom at the end of August, but no one has given her any detailed plans of what that looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll be in the room teaching children on top of also teaching online children, too. So I actually have three jobs -- a mom, a classroom teacher, and an online teacher.

CHEN: Her own children are allowed to go with her to work which alleviates child care concerns, but she says it's not ideal since they have asthma.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not well-thought out at all.

CHEN: The fears are real, with about 260 Gwinnett employees already testing positive or in quarantine before school has even started. In Cherokee County, at least 260 students and eight teachers are quarantined after several people tested positive during the first week of school. In Effingham County, WTOC reports one person tested positive at an elementary school, resulting in an entire class being sent home. And in Paulding County, this image resulted in a suspension, then a reversal of that suspension for the student who posted it on social media. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is some good and necessary trouble. So, I

don't regret posting this because it's -- it needed to be said.

CHEN: Waters (ph) said she was concerned for everyone's safety. The Paulding County superintendent sent a letter to families saying crowding in between classes for five minutes may happen in a school with more than 2,000 students, and they're complying with state guidelines. This kind of anxiety is what Gwinnett teachers say keep them up at night, even though special ed teacher Nicole (ph) Conway (ph) loves her job and her students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the students do come back into the building, it's really like a 90 percent chance right now that I'm probably going to end up resigning to make sure that my personal babies are safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And in that crowded hallway picture you saw in Paulding County, that district does not require masks, so some people are wearing them, some people are not. And that's just adding to the anxiety for teachers, like the ones in Gwinnett County who are having to work in the buildings even if they are teaching virtual classes. Christi and Victor, back to you.

BLACKWELL: Natasha Chen for us this morning. Natasha, thanks so much.

PAUL: And do stay with CNN. Coming up, we're talking with former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association about the education system's response to the virus thus far.

BLACKWELL: We have got a live look for you right now. These are protests in Beirut. So far we've seen teargas deployed. You can see that's still in the air. Protesters throwing some objects. You'll see some of those fly through the air as well. Those are going at security forces.

PAUL: Some of the anger that you're seeing there is due to obviously that massive deadly explosion that happened on Tuesday. It destroyed the Beirut port and much of the surrounding area. But the anger, as we're learning, is from Lebanese officials who may have been warned years ago about the dangerous explosives that were stored there, and they triggered the blast that killed more than 150 people at this point. This is a tragedy that's adding to the toll of a country already suffering from the coronavirus pandemic as well, so the protesters you see.

I want to go to Ben Wedeman who is live in Beirut right now. Ben, the protesters, as we understand it, have real trepidations about the government conducting an investigation because there are suspicions of corruption and negligence.

[10:10:12]

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But more than anything, it's the big picture. The fact that five days ago there was an explosion in Beirut that killed at least 150 people, wounded 5,000, made 300,000 homeless. And really, it fundamentally, it's a total lack of confidence and trust in the government, in the fact that in the five days since that explosion took place, no government, no official help has been given to the people who are so badly affected by the explosion.

And people are calling for a revolution. They've come out with nooses. And today has been declared a day of judgment because they want the entire ruling oligarchy to step down from power. And of course, these soldiers and members of the gendarme are the ones who actually have to defend the government. And even they aren't in a very enviable position because of the collapse of the economy and the local currency. They have seen their income basically reduced by 75 percent.

Let's go have a look. They're firing teargas into the crowd. And there's a fire burning up the road as well. Thousands, thousands of people have come to the center of Beirut for this protest demanding justice, demanding a revolution is what they have been calling for, calling for going back many months. But those demands have been intensified since the blast in Beirut on Tuesday evening.

These clashes between citizens and the security forces were predictable. In the first 24, 48 hours after the blast, it was as if people were in a state of shock. But that state of shock has quickly boiled over into fury. And we may be seeing the beginning of a long period of these sorts of clashes, this sort of unrest.

Now you see the gendarme, we're moving back because the protesters are pushing them back, throwing rocks and sticks at them. Really what we've seen for the last hour or so is that the security forces are on the defensive here. Even though obviously they have plenty of teargas and rubber bullets and whatnot, it really isn't enough to just do more than keep the crowd a bit away. Any questions?

BLACKWELL: Yes, Ben. I've got a question. We've learned from our own protests here across the U.S. that what appears on TV can look like Armageddon but be much smaller. You said thousands came. Is there any way to know, just a ballpark figure, how many are engaging with security forces?

WEDEMAN: I would say in this instance probably a few hundred, maybe 200 or 300 in this instance. But there are thousands more in the streets and in the square over there who are there in support of them, moral support. But among the protesters there are many children, many families. So this is really sort of angry young men and women who are here in this area.

But it really is just the tip of the iceberg of the anger that people feel. They're incredibly anger. Thousands of homes have been made inhabitable, 300,000 people have lost their homes in an instant, just a few minutes after 6:00 p.m. Tuesday evening. And so really what we're seeing -- this was inevitable. Everybody wants to know why 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical substance, sat for six years in the Port of Beirut, which is really just the middle of the city. And as a result of that explosion, the port, through which 60 percent of Lebanon's imports pass, is now completely out of action. The grain silo that held 85 percent of Lebanon's grain was utterly destroyed.

[10:15:00]

This is a profound fundamental crisis for this country, and the state, the government, seems incapable of doing little more than just firing teargas and throwing rocks at protesters, who of course are throwing rocks at them. And as you can see, once we get our colleagues in the media out of the way, it does appear that they're pulling back at this point. They're shooting inside where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live bullets.

WEDEMAN: Live bullets. I don't think so. Anyway, there's often in a situation like this a tendency to overstate the case. But anyway, any other questions?

PAUL: Ben, actually we're going to take a break. Let us all regroup here for a moment. Please stay with us, though. We're going to be back. Again, what you're seeing here are protesters facing off with security forces who are firing teargas canisters at them. This is near the Lebanese parliament. We are back with more in just a moment. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

PAUL: It's 19 minutes past the hour right now. At least three of the biggest school districts in the U.S. have yet to finalize their plans for reopening schools, but of the 101 largest districts, take a look at what we're looking at here -- 63 are starting school online, completely online. Those districts account for at least 7 million students. There are 17 districts starting with either all online or all in-person instruction. That decision apparently left parents.

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, is with us now. Ms. Pringle, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it. I know you are newly named to this position. Congratulations, first of all. But as such, what is your first priority as we head into what's really an unprecedented start to the school year?

BECKY PRINGLE, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: It is unprecedented. Good morning, and I appreciate you having me on. There's no question that we are facing a time in our country, honestly, that we never anticipated would happen. We at the National Education Association have been saying all along that we cannot open our school buildings unless it is safe for our students, for the adults that are working in those buildings, for our communities, all of that.

Our teachers and other educators, they absolutely want to be with their students. When we went out just like that in the spring, we weren't -- none of us were prepared to go into that virtual learning environment that took us away from our students. But we have to make sure they're safe. And what we're seeing is they are not safe. If the transmission rates are not low and have been low for two weeks, they are not safe. If we don't have the ability to socially distance, they are not safe. If we don't have masks and protective equipment, they are not safe. If you can't do daily health checks and sanitizing and if we don't have a plan for when, not if, but when our students get sick, or our adults get sick.

And we're already seeing that, right? We're seeing that happen in Georgia, in Indiana, in Iowa where they're closing down schools that have already started. They're closing down buildings or hallways. There's just so much chaos right now. And our concern is that we're not focusing on centering our decisions that we're making in the learning inequity.

And that's what I'm calling on. So what I'm doing is I'm marshalling the resources of the NEA and I am allocating additional funding so that our teachers cannot only do whatever they need to keep their students safe, but they can also focus on ensuring that our students are getting a quality education.

PAUL: I wanted to ask you about the inequality issue. There are kids who are going to be learning from home who don't have computers, whose parents might be working and they have to try to figure things out for themselves. Is there a plan to try to help those students?

PRINGLE: That is a great question. And we've learned a lot over these five months. One of the things we've learned is that in our systems that had community schools where they had already the processes and the systems and structures in place to bring to bear the support of that entire community where the school, not the building, but the school was the hub of that community, they surrounded those students and the families with what they needed from health care to addressing the food insecurity that so many of them were facing.

And so, as we head back to school, it's one of the concerns that I have, and it's one of the things that I've been talking about, as we have been fighting so hard to get Mitch McConnell and do his job and give us federal funding, not just for our schools, but our states and localities need that funding because they're suffering through this economic crisis. And exactly what you're talking about is what we're asking for. We need the funding to ensure that every student, every family has access to the Internet, that they have the digital tools they need.

No local school district planned for a pandemic. They cannot stand in that gap. We need the federal government to stand up right now and stop bullying us and give ugh the resources we need so we can reopen our schools safely.

PAUL: I can see the frustration that you have and that so many have as well. If you don't get those funds, President Pringle, where does that leave you? What do you do?

PRINGLE: We are, at the NEA, are ready to support our members in whatever as they need to take from grassroots actions to, I'm sure you know, we supported our affiliate in Florida in actually bringing suit against their governor because their schools were not safe, to political action. Because we know, we certainly know now, if we didn't know before, we know now, every single decision that's made for our kids in our classrooms is a political one, from the school board all the way up to the president of the United States.

[10:24:54]

And if they are not going to demonstrate that they care about our students or the men and women who have dedicated their lives to educating America's students, then we are going to let them know in November that we need someone who does care about our students and our schools, who will invest in public education, who understand that public education is a common good, and it is the foundation of this democracy, and who will help us actually transform it into a racial and socially just and equitable system that is designed to ensure that every student, every single one is prepared to succeed in a diverse and independent world.

PAUL: Becky Pringle, she is ready to go, as you can hear in her voice and her character. Thank you so much, Ms. Pringle, we appreciate it. Best of luck to you this year.

PRINGLE: Thank you. You too. Stay safe.

PAUL: Thank you. You as well. You as well.

PRINGLE: Thank you.

PAUL: And up next, we're continuing this conversation. We're talking with former education secretary Arne Duncan. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:23]

PAUL: A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds COVID-19 cases among children are not common, but when they're hospitalized, they do need intensive care treatment at the same rate that adults do. The report found one in three hospitalized children needed to be treated in ICU. Black and Hispanic children had the highest rates of hospitalization. Most were under the age of two. And nearly 40 percent did have some sort of underlying condition. And you look at that and you wonder, what is next for our schools.

We just heard from Becky Pringle, the National Education Association president, newly named. And she is saying that it is critical to get federal funding in order to get our school system back up and running for these children, and for the teachers and for the families that it serves. So I want to bring in Arne Duncan. He's the former education secretary under President Obama. Secretary, thank you for being with us.

ARNE DUNCAN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

PAUL: Good morning. I know you listened to Ms. Pringle as well. As a former secretary of education, when you look at what's happening right now, I want you, if you would, please, to imagine yourself back in that seat. What is the first action you would take in this moment?

DUNCAN: I'll say this is a heartbreaking time. It started out as a natural disaster and became a manmade catastrophe. We don't have to be here. We shouldn't be here. This past week in America, Americans were eight times more likely to die than anyone who lived in Europe. And good leadership saves lives. Bad leadership kills. What I would have done, what our team would have done is every single day been joined at the hip with the head of the CDC, with my partner at HHS, we would have paid attention to science. If we want to open schools, which we all want to do as parents, as educators, as teachers, we need to beat down this virus in our communities.

And we simply haven't done as a nation in the vast majority of our communities to do that. And that's why we're struggling so hard to open schools physically as we go into the fall.

PAUL: I heard you say something that I know you mentioned earlier this week when you testified to the house subcommittee hearing on the COVID crisis. You said this is a manmade catastrophe. Are you referring only to the virus, or obviously does that bleed into the school system and what we're dealing with now?

DUNCAN: It's really the total absence of leadership from our president and his administration, and the unwillingness to pay attention to science, to wear masks, to take this thing seriously, to not hide the facts. All those things have contributed to a rate of death that is staggering, it is unacceptable and doesn't need to be that way. Our schools reflect our communities. The best thing we can do to keep our schools open, not just to open them, but to keep them open, is to beat down this virus in our communities. That's what as a nation we have refused to do, and our leadership has led us absolutely in the wrong direction.

PAUL: There are a lot of parents who are watching what's happening, and they're afraid to send their kids to school. On the other side of that, there are parents who want their kids back in school, who say they need that social interaction. They need to meet their teachers face to face. With that said, have you seen any proposals in any school districts thus far that you could get behind?

DUNCAN: Oh, many, many. And for all the lack of leadership at the federal level, the leadership at the local level has been extraordinary. I'm talking to superintendents across the country on basically a daily basis. What they're doing in terms of food distribution throughout this pandemic has been extraordinary. What they're doing to take care of students' social and emotional health during a really, really difficult time has been fantastic.

And what we're seeing is just a huge level of thoughtfulness, of empathy, humility in doing this work. Many places who wanted to open physically aren't able to do that because it's not safe for children, for staff, for teachers, or for our kids' parents back home. They may open virtually to start. They may open in a hybrid basis to start. And for me this is about slow and steady wins the race. We want to be the tortoise here, not the hare. We want to open slowly, gradually, carefully, and if we do that, not only can we stay open, we can bring more and more students back to a physical school over time. If we open too fast, if kids get sick, if adults get sick and we have to shut back down in two or three weeks, that's the worst possible outcome, just further retraumatizes kids and endangers the adults in their lives.

PAUL: And to that point, there are kids who are having to learn virtually who do not have the resources. We know that there are huge inequities, and there are kids who are going to be left at home because their parents have to go to work. How do we close that gap? How do we take care of those children to make sure that they don't lose out on their education?

[10:35:02]

DUNCAN: It's a really thoughtful question. And what this pandemic has done is sort of ripped the scab off, ripped the band aid off these massive inequities across our society but also including our education system. So we have to close the digital divide. Every child has to have access to a device, to wi-fi, to the Internet. And we're seeing real creativity there. Here in Chicago they have given out 100,000 devices, Boston, 30,000, San Antonio, 47,000. I can give you example after example, not just devices but hot spots and other things like that. That's been fantastic. So we have to continue to do -- continue to get devices into our kids' hands and make sure they have that. They can learn anything they want anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

And as we bring kids back, we have to be really thoughtful about who we bring back first. We have to bring back in the most vulnerable, those where mom and dad, to your point, might be an essential worker. My son or daughter might want to go back to school four or five days a week, but because we have two parents at home, because we have food in our house, maybe they can only come back a day a week and another child whose parent is an essential worker, they have to be in school, they may need to come back to school four, five days a week.

So in a really, really difficult time, I think there's some hugely important lessons we can teach our children about empathy, about not just looking out for own family, for our own children, but looking out for the community, for our neighbor's children. And we have to have that level of thoughtfulness and just an absolute focus on fairness and what is right to do in these really tough times as we go into the fall.

PAUL: It's an important point to make that all of the lessons we need to learn and that we can get out of this don't just come from the classroom. Secretary of education, former secretary, we appreciate it so much, Arne Duncan, thank you.

DUNCAN: Thank you. Have a good day.

PAUL: You as well.

BLACKWELL: When we come back, President Trump says that he wants to do something for the first time through executive order. It's already a law, and it's a law that he wants the courts to throw out. We'll be right back with Brian Robinson and A. Scott Bolden in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:02]

BLACKWELL: So there's no coronavirus deal on Capitol Hill in sight. President Trump says that he'll act on his own if lawmakers can't reach a deal. It's unclear whether the president really has the authority to do so.

Let's bring in now former District of Columbia Democratic Party chair A. Scott Bolden and Republican strategist Brian Robinson. Gentlemen, it's been a while. Welcome back.

BRIAN ROBINSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thanks, Victor, good to be here.

A. SCOTT BOLDEN, FORMER D.C. DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN: It has. Hope everybody is safe and sound. Been a long time.

BLACKWELL: Yes, sir. I hope so, too. Let me start with you, Scott. Republicans are sowing this narrative of the intractable Democratic Party. Democrats want to include $600 to include that per week. Republicans said no. Then they said $200. Then $400 a month. Now, potentially $400 a week. What's your explanation to the people who just need that money to pay the rent, to make sure they can pay for food to say that, nope, we need to hold off in accepting that deal as part of a broader deal?

BOLDEN: Because it's a piecemeal deal. You see, we're here because the president waited 70 days to even acknowledge that we had a problem with the coronavirus. Then he urged the governors to open up like in Georgia and Florida. You saw the numbers go up. That wasn't anything shocking. And now the Republicans and Donald Trump don't want to pay for those sins and those mistakes. They want to give a piecemeal amount of money on a short-term basis.

And the Democrats are saying, listen, you messed this up. We've got to give the people what they want and need long-term until we can get through this. And so it's a $2 million price tag paying for the Republicans mistakes by opening up this country when corona was still on the rise. Remember, we've got 5 million people who have it, 150,000 that have died, and of that 5 million there are many that have long- term effects. This is a GOP problem, and they need to pay for it.

BLACKWELL: But Scott, let me ask you. You say it's a piecemeal approach. For people living check to check, piecemeal may get them to September. Right? How salient is that point that they're not giving you the whole pie. Some people just need to get to September and to October. What's your argument to those people who will take piecemeal just to buy meals?

BOLDEN: Well, that may be true. But at the same time, $1 trillion of that goes to the state and local folks who are trying to help these individuals get there. The bottom line is it won't be enough. They won't be in the same position in September or October because of the failed leadership in dealing with the corona and having a real game plan so that we can once and for all beat this coronavirus.

And so piecemeal is appealing but remember how we got here. It was the Republicans who opened up these states way too early to save the economy and to save the president's campaign. That's what I would say to them. I would say the Republicans ought to come to the table and get real and put a total package together so we can not only get to September or October, but you can get through the coronavirus.

BLACKWELL: Well, it's not just Republicans who are asking for assistance. Brian --

BOLDEN: Yes, but there are 20 Republicans on the Senate side who want --

BLACKWELL: Let me bring Brian into the conversation.

BOLDEN: OK.

ROBINSON: The Democrats had a deal offered by the Republicans that would have given a bridge to people who are going to now lose their $600 a week unemployment supplement. And they own that. They have been intransigent. That's the word you're using. You're absolutely right -- $3 trillion, $3.4 trillion is where they started. That's not a place where we can start.

We have to fix our short-term problems. We've got to help people in need. We've got to help people not be evicted from their homes. Those are all important. But it's not the only consideration. We already added $3 trillion to our national debt in the last few months. That's never happened in our nation's history. There is a limit to how much we can do. Republicans aren't pinching pennies. They're trying to use some common sense.

[10:45:04]

BLACKWELL: Wait a minute, Brian, listen. Brian, come on, all of a sudden --

ROBINSON: -- a leftwing wish list.

BLACKWELL: Brian, all of a sudden Republicans are now fiscal conservatives after the 2017 tax bill that put us back into trillion- dollar deficits far before the CBO originally projected?

Let me ask you about spending, because one of the pushbacks from the president is that he doesn't want to fund -- all the Democrats think that cities and municipalities needed. And we had a guest on earlier who said something I thought was important, is that local governments didn't budget for a pandemic, and that the federal government needs to step up. If the president is willing to bail out airlines and bail out cruise lines and bail out hotel industries, why not support cities so that police can keep their jobs and teachers can keep their jobs and trash can be picked up? Why push back on municipality support?

ROBINSON: You know, Victor, I don't know that this is a sheer partisan divide. I know here in my home state of Georgia, the Republican speaker of the House has called on Congress to pass that state aid that they've been considering.

Now, the problem that many Republicans on Capitol Hill have and that the president has, is that many states were living beyond their means before the pandemic. They had pension liabilities, for example, that were unsustainable. And so now they want to backfill their preexisting problems on federal taxpayer's backs. And that's the problem. There is a balance. I think there will be some state and local aid that comes this year because it will -- job losses across the country if we don't. But there's got to be a limit to it.

BLACKWELL: I don't know if anybody talked about those limits when they were trying to give money to Delta and United and all the other airlines. But let me play this soundbite. The president talked about, and I want to get both of you on this. The president talked about now there's going to be an executive order, something he wants to do. Let's play 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)

BLACKWELL: That's clearly the wrong soundbite. What the president said at Bedminster yesterday is that he wants to through executive order --

BOLDEN: I want to talk about that soundbite, too.

BLACKWELL: I know you do. He wants to protect people with preexisting conditions, something no one has ever done before. Brian, you know somebody has done that. Who would that be?

(LAUGHTER)

ROBINSON: No one has done it before through executive order. Maybe that's what he means.

BLACKWELL: Who would need to if it's already a law? Who could that be?

BOLDEN: Here we go. Here we go.

ROBINSON: What this is, is looking into the future and blocking a political attack. President Trump has said since the campaign began in 2015 that he wanted to dismantle Obamacare. They've made numerous attempts at it. And what are the Democrats going to say? They're going to say he wants to take away protections for preexisting conditions. What this allows him to do politically is say I'm against Obamacare, which Republicans, his base doesn't like, and allows him to say I'm going to make sure people with preexisting conditions are still going to be covered. It's looking to the future and making sure Democrats can't use this as a political attack.

BLACKWELL: That was fantastic spin.

ROBINSON: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Scott, to you. Scott?

BOLDEN: That dog won't hunt, as my grandmother used to say -- 55 million Americans love Obamacare and have Obamacare. And one of the big pieces to it even Republican support is the coverage for preexisting conditions. So it's in there already. Now, the DOJ and this president are trying to abolish Obamacare in federal courts as a result of the fact that they are opposing it and want to abolish it and take that away, even though the president's political --

BLACKWELL: A frozen shot gives us the opportunity to wrap this conversation. A. Scott Bolden, Brian Robinson, thank you both. I will say that the question is not over just support for people with preexisting conditions. It's that you don't charge them more because of those. And the president, whether he knows it or not, there are protections already in law. His predecessor handled that.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:54:00]

Let's go back live to Beirut and the protests that we've seen. Earlier we saw teargas being fired, protesters throwing projectiles. You can still see it thick in the air now. Security forces -- I don't know if we can see them in the shot, but they have been facing off with these demonstrators.

PAUL: Again, these are live pictures of what is happening in the street of Beirut right now. That anger is over the massive deadly explosion, obviously, that we saw on Tuesday that destroyed the Beirut port as well as much of the surrounding area. And we understand -- and there's the blast. You just can't forget that. But the anger of these protesters is coming as we learn Lebanese officials may have been warned for years about the dangerous explosives, that 2,700 plus metric tons of ammonium nitrate that was stored for six years at the port. They triggered that blast. More than 150 people were killed. And that adds to the toll of this country that's already suffering obviously, like the rest of us are from the coronavirus pandemic as well. So we're going to continue, obviously, to follow what you're seeing on your screen there right now.

[10:55:06]

Thank you so much for taking time with us this morning. We appreciate spending the morning with you.

BLACKWELL: Much more ahead in the next hour of CNN's Newsroom. Bianna Golodyrga, is in for Fredricka Whitfield.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me, I'm Bianna Golodyrga in for Fredricka Whitfield.