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Stimulus Breakdown: Negotiators Walk Away Without Deal; Struggling Families Get Food, School Supplies At Drive-Thru Event; NYC Schools Cleared For In-Person Classes This Fall; Georgia Teachers Protest Plan To Return In-Person Learning; Children Hospitalized For COVID Need ICU Care At Same Rate As Adults; Bikers Gather In South Dakota For 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally; U.S. Intel's Top Election Official: China Doesn't Want Trump To Win, Russia Working Against Biden. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired August 08, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But in recent years, Falwell Jr. has drawn sharp criticism over how deeply he has dabbled in politics.

JERRY FALWELL JR., PRESIDENT, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY: My boys always had guns in their hands.

FOREMAN: Over his management of university business. Despite the critics Falwell has never backed down, especially over his support of Trump.

FALWELL: We're not electing a pastor-in-chief, we're electing a commander-in-chief.

FOREMAN: CNN reached out to Mr. Falwell to see if he had anything else to say about these latest actions, no reply yet. He has said numerous times, he is not a minister like his father was, but he has now lost a very powerful pulpit. Tom Foreman, CNN, Bethesda, Maryland.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me this afternoon. I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with the nation reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, while Washington is dragging its feet to help millions of Americans looking for answers.

Talks of a new stimulus package breaking down without a resolution. And at this point, no plans to resume talks. The deal is supposed to be a lifeline America -- to help Americans out of work and hurting financially. This is as a new study says 40 million face evictions after protections expired two weeks ago.

But as those talks stalled, President Trump is saying he will issue an executive order in place of a new deal. It's not even clear though if he has the legal authority to do that.

Now all of this as the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. nears five million cases and other 1,200 people died from the disease on Friday alone bringing the total deaths in our country to over 161,000.

Meanwhile, schools are beginning to reopen. In Georgia, at least 260 students and eight teachers are being forced to quarantine, following positive test results in just the first week of classes.

While in New York, once the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus, all schools have been cleared to reopen.

We have reporter stretched out across the country covering all of the latest from the coronavirus pandemic. But let's start with those stimulus talks that seem to have hit a snag. CNN's Kristen Holmes is in Bridgewater, New Jersey close to where the president is spending his weekend.

Kristen, the president scheduled yet another press conference set to happen in a couple of hours. Is there any indication of what he'll say after the executive actions and orders he announced yesterday?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have asked the White House to give us any sort of detail whether or not he's actually going to be signing those executive orders, they have not gotten back to us.

But I want to touch on what exactly they would look like because as you said, there are a lot of questions as to how he could do this and if he could actually do this.

So last night at an impromptu news conference, he started talking about what he would do with a series of executive orders. He said he would extend those benefits to the unemployed. He would help with protections for people who on evictions since that had lapsed. He talked about student loan debt. And he also talked about deferring payroll taxes.

Now, there are two big important things to note here. One is we have no idea what any of this would look like, for example, we talked about the pay -- the unemployment benefits, extending that through the end of the year. He was asked, would it be the $600 people are getting now? He said he wasn't going to answer that question. When followed up with how much money would it be, he didn't answer that either. So, there's one section of this, which is we don't know what any of this will look like.

The other is, can he actually do this legally? Remember, Congress is the one with the power of the purse. They are the one that controls the budget.

Now, today, I spent a lot of time talking to legal experts and lawmakers on what exactly President Trump could do and there are some options. One, there is a way he might be able to do this if he made it extremely temporary and limited.

The other is, drawing from different funds. Perhaps, money from the last stimulus bill that hadn't been spent yet or other government programs and putting it towards these different efforts. So, of course here, President Trump would not give any indication of

how he was going to do, as he said that they would probably get sued. There might be some legal issues but that was it.

And as you said, Bianna, this is coming at a time where there are millions of Americans who are getting really anxious, they are not getting the money that they need. They have lost that federal unemployment benefit that was helping people pay rent, buy groceries.

Remember, all they have now is that state benefit. We were listening to people tell stories of people who are now just getting $100 a week total for the entire week, to buy their groceries, to help their children, all of that.

So, this is a really crucial time here. And we're just waiting to see what President Trump is going to do. As you said, those talks up on the Hill have all been stalled.

GOLODRYGA: And he was all but absent from the talks for weeks and now all of a sudden, unilaterally, he seems to be offering executive orders that we don't even know whether there's a legal principle for them in the first place. But we will continue to follow this and we'll follow that news conference later today as well.

Kristen Holmes, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

[13:05:05]

GOLODRYGA: Well, schools across California are expected to open in just a few weeks even as many families are still struggling financially because of the epidemic.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles where a drive-thru program is providing some necessities during these difficult times. It's so wonderful to hear about programs like this. Paul, what's happening there?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, just over my shoulder, you can see, this is part of the stop gap. As Kristen was alluding to, there's a lot of families who are now not having those checks that they were getting for $600 a week and now they are handing out more food here at St. Agnes School.

A lot of parents hurting here in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Some, almost half a million children are on a reduced meal plan, or a free meal plan, and we ran into a father yesterday with a 10 and 11-year old. Was he ever grateful to be getting some free supplies and food?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY HERRERA, PARENT UNEMPLOYED DUE TO COVID-19: Backpacks for the kids, food, that's really helped out a lot because with the COVID-19, I am not able to work. Without a job, affects a lot of people. Affects me and my wife. So, we're struggling, you know, here and there to make ends meet. But

we're doing it though. And through stuff like this, the county does, you know, it helps out a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And now back here live, this program today put together by USC, the food bank and other partners. They have another whole part of it that was a walk-up distribution where cars are going to come through here, and they're going to be able to grab these boxes of food, the federal government also helping provide some food here.

And there's just such a tremendous need here in this community that they decided to put this event on for the first time. I'm going to talk to Steve Wesson right here. Steve, what prompted you to all of a sudden have to put on this event?

STEVE WESSON, ORGANIZER, ST. AGNES FOOD GIVEAWAY: Well, we -- the need is great in Los Angeles. A lot of people are experiencing food insecurities based on lost jobs and other impacts felt by the coronavirus.

So, we looked at our immediate community and all of the local school kids that are no longer able to access food programs through school, and we put together this program in late April.

And since then, we've given away over 300,000 pounds of food. We service about 700 people a day.

And as you can see, the line is beginning now.

VERCAMMEN: And this is the first time you've tried this on a Saturday.

WESSON: Yes, we were forced to move to Saturday. Previously, we were using Tuesday mornings but the church property, school property that we use there intend to reopen as a school which means the lot would no longer be available to us, so we moved to Saturday.

And as you can see, I have 40 volunteers out here that have given their Saturday morning to come and help us feed the people of Los Angeles.

VERCAMMEN: That's terrific, Steve. Well, as you were alluding to beyond, just a lot of people giving up their time to make this work.

As he had said, this is a Catholic School St. Agnes, so it will reopen, but the L.A. Unified Schools are starting online. And that's why there's this acute need right now for many of those parents to get those meals to make up for all of those free meals or discounted meals that they no longer have.

Back to you now, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: God bless Steve and all of those volunteers there who are helping the millions of people across the country who need this food and this aid urgently and hopefully, this is a wakeup call for Washington as well. Paul Vercammen, thank you.

Well, in New York, the governor has authorized all school districts to reopen with in-person learning and with safety measures in place. That includes New York City schools, the largest public school district in the country.

CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is covering this for us. And Evan, tell us more about why this decision was made. And more importantly, how parents and teachers are reacting to it?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, you nailed it on the -- right on the head with that second question, because that's what's important with this whole reopening process is how parents and teachers feel about it.

Briefly, the Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken a look at the numbers here in New York and said, look, they're low enough in terms of infection rate, hospitalizations and new cases, that schools are safe to open.

But he's not telling schools how to open, he's letting schools make that decision for themselves. They have to submit plans to the state, but how they're going to go about doing it is up to them.

And then, even more importantly than that, how they convince parents and teachers that schools are safe to come back to is also up to as individual schools.

I want to show you a quick graphic just about the New York City school system, and you're looking at -- you know, two -- nearly 2.6 million students, 212,000 teachers and 749 districts. Taking those numbers in reverse order, every district has to make some sort of plan to convince the students and teachers at it, that the school is safe. Every teacher needs to be talked to and convinced that it's safe. And every single one of those students has some kind of adult in their life that wants to make sure that school is safe.

[13:10:06]

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And that's the real question here in New York moving forward. Yes, schools can open the governor says, but it's up to the schools to prove to parents and teachers that school is safe.

GOLODRYGA: Well, because we know how fragile it really is, right, to keep those levels where they are right now. We've been through hell in this state and you can understand why parents and teachers are nervous about reopening, and -- but it's something we'll continue to follow. You and I have been on this beat for months, and we will only be busier in the weeks ahead. Evan, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

Well, classes begin online next week for students in the biggest school district in Georgia but officials in Gwinnett County plan to bring some students back to class by the end of the month.

The decision comes after some school districts in Georgia have already started in-person classes and now are coping with the wave of new cases.

CNN's Natasha Chen joins us now. Natasha, this plan to bring students back has some parents and teachers concerned and so many other states are watching closely.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely and this particular county, the district had actually vacillated a bit on what they were going to do for the beginning of the school year.

At first, they had surveyed people to see what they would like for their options. Then in July, they looked at the numbers and said, we should go all virtual for the beginning of class.

And now, just in the past week, they've said that toward the end of August, they are going to face in face to face instruction. After there were several parent protests calling for that face to face instruction.

Now, this week, teachers heard that and they got very concerned because already, they are being required to be in the buildings to prep and to teach these virtual classes. And already, there are about 260 employees across the district who have either tested positive or have to quarantine.

Here was a protest that happened on Thursday that they did from their cars honking. Take a listen to this.

That was definitely ear splitting when we were there. And that is because they wanted to do a socially distant protest.

These teachers who are required to be in the buildings, they can take their school aged children with them who are five and up. But, you know, some of their own kids have asthma. And now that they know that there are students who may be returning to that classroom, it is not an ideal situation to be teaching some of those kids in person, then teaching online students while also having their own kids in the classroom.

Here's one special ed teacher talking about what she's going to do when her students return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLE CONWAY, SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER AND MOM: 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 her personal child has asthma and so she was perfectly OK bringing her daughter to work with her when it was all virtual, but with special ed students in the classes, well, that's not going to work. So she doesn't know what she's going to do. And that is a common story among a lot of teachers we're talking to. Now, taking a look at other area school districts that have already begun class in the first week of school in Cherokee County, also outside of Atlanta, they now have 260 students and at least eight teachers who are having to quarantine because some people tested positive.

And in Effingham County, we're hearing from our affiliate WTOC that someone tested positive, resulting in an entire elementary school class having to go home.

Then in Paulding County, we also saw very disturbing pictures of a crowded hallway, which the district says may happen during passing period of five minutes when you've got more than 2,000 kids and then in some of these places, masks are not mandatory, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, well, that just doesn't seem acceptable even if it's just five minutes. You know, the spread of germs can take just a few seconds and when you've got so many kids there without masks, that's a recipe for disaster. Natasha Chen, thank you.

Still ahead, children and the coronavirus. New information on kids being treated in the ICU as the number of cases among teens and young adults continues to rise.

Plus, this year's hurricane season is expected to be, quote, extremely active. How a hospital in Florida is preparing for the next storm while also fighting the pandemic.

And Americans will choose the next president in less than 90 days and some countries are already choosing sides. A new warning about election interference.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:47]

GOLODRYGA: A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds COVID-19 cases among children are not common, but when they are hospitalized, they need intensive care treatment at the same rate as adults do. The report found one in three hospitalized children needed to be treated in an ICU.

Black and Hispanic children have the highest rates of hospitalization while most were under the age of two and nearly 40 percent had some underlying condition.

Joining me now to discuss is Dr. Khalilah Gates, a Pulmonary and Critical Care specialist and an assistant professor at Northwestern University's medical school. Doctor, thank you so much for coming on this afternoon. We appreciate it. How concerning is this new report from the CDC?

DR. KHALILAH GATES, PULMONARY & CRITICAL CARE SPECIALIST, NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: I think that it offers us information that we didn't previously have with this pandemic. There was -- the unknown of how this impacts children. And so, it gives us more information and it gives us in particular as we talk about opening schools, daycares, etcetera. It gives us more information to make very informed decisions.

GOLODRYGA: Once again, it's a reminder that we're dealing with a novel virus and we're still learning so much about it. You are in the Midwest where cases unfortunately are on the rise, tell us what is the situation at your hospital?

[13:20:06]

GATES: So, at my hospital, we are stable in Chicago. We have -- we've had a small rise but we're sitting at about a just under five percent positivity rate, and that's translating into a nice steady state of patients hospitalized and particularly in my field in the ICU. So, we're not zero but we don't have the influx that we saw earlier this year.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, that's interesting, you mentioned at five percent community spread rate and yet the Chicago School District announced that they would be online for the start of the year.

New York State, however, is reporting coronavirus positivity rate of just under one percent. And this as Andrew Cuomo announced that all schools in the state can reopen for in-person classes.

What steps must educators take to keep students safe? This is such a slippery slope. We want to keep the rates down. We want to keep the staff and children safe. What are the best measures to ensure that happens?

GATES: So, the first thing I want to point out is not just on educators, this has to be a team effort. It has to be efforts on the educators themselves, on the administration, as well as on the students and their parents. And so, this has to be a team effort.

We have to be able to maintain the things that we know work, that is masking, if there are older children, that has good hand hygiene, that is social distancing as possible.

And so, we can't forget about the things that we know work to decrease the spread. And as we move forward, we have to make sure to incorporate those things.

GOLODRYGA: Such an important point. Teachers can't do this on their own, we need parents help as well.

You know, Georgia school district has moved to all virtual learning rather than offering a hybrid model as originally planned after more than 200 students and staff members have to be quarantined due to one confirmed case, or a suspected case or direct contact with a confirmed case. Is there any way to reasonably keep a school open after even just one or two cases in a building?

GATES: I don't think so. I -- unless you do the pod system where you don't have intermingling of students and teachers. If you can keep a select group of students or people into a group, and if that -- if that group becomes infected and needs to go into quarantine, then you've -- you maintain that.

Otherwise, if people are intermingling, there's really no way to not quarantine the entire system. Because this, we know that this is very infectious and we have to take the appropriate precautions.

GOLODRYGA: Which is why we also need to speed up test results as well, right?

GATES: We do. So, we can't back off of testing. And we do have to have more rapid testing. It also depends on where you are.

So, our technology has improved since we started this and we need to continue to work on technology and making sure that we all have the appropriate testing and that we don't start to back off of that.

GOLODRYGA: Well, Dr. Khalilah Gates, thank you so much for all the work that you are doing and saving so many lives. And let's hope that those rates of infection continue to stay at a stable and low paced. Thank you so much.

GATES: Thank you and have a great afternoon.

GOLODRYGA: You too.

Well, a massive 10-day motorcycle rally in South Dakota expecting to draw up to 250,000 people. Hospitals have so called COVID beds on standby. We'll take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:03]

GOLODRYGA: Thousands of bikers are rolling into South Dakota right now for the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally some 250,000 people are expected to attend the event from all over the country worrying some local residents.

CNN's Ryan Young joins me now from Sturgis. Ryan, are attendees concerned about the coronavirus at all? I know the residents there are.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly doesn't seem like anyone's voicing those concerns so far. I can tell you, look, we've been talking for maybe the last two or three hours, Bianna. And you just look at the difference in terms of the crowd size here. It has swelled within the last half hour or so with thousands of more people coming to the downtown area.

Take a look from above, you'll see this mass cam shot where you can see the distance in terms of how many bikes have built into this area.

Most of the downtown shops are open. There are a few who said they did not want to deal with this because they are scared of the pandemic.

But one thing that you can understand, there are a lot of people here who have feelings. They don't even wear helmets when they ride their motorcycles, so you can understand why they don't feel like they should have to wear a mask. And they feel this is the perfect state to do this because there's a low rate of COVID here.

They believe and some of them have traveled from thousands of miles away to be here for this weekend. They did not want to miss this ride. In fact, take a listen to a few people we just talked to a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No social social distancing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it doesn't seem like anyone's doing social distancing. Some masks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing I know is I know how the people act. Look at everybody out here, they're ready to ride. Everybody's cooped up from the coronavirus. Everybody's ready to have fun. And hell, so am I.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So we keep hearing that over and over, people cooped up from the coronavirus or traveling from all over. That low rumble that you hear all over the place, if you love motorcycles, you'd love this area because every few seconds you'd hear a different engine stroke going behind you.

I can tell you though, there are a lot of businesses that are banking on this weekend to make their entire year, because let's remember, a lot of festivals have been canceled all across this country.

[13:30:03]

So people have decided to come here to make any money they can.

One guy says this may be the difference between his business surviving or failing based upon this weekend.

GOLODRYGA: Unbelievable.

Ryan, I keep looking at these images. You would think, as you mentioned earlier, this was all pre-COVID.

YOUNG: That's right.

GOLODRYGA: And I understand people want business going and they want to have their fun but this is something that should be taken seriously. And it sounds like a lot of those people are not.

Ryan Young, thank you.

Still ahead, election interference. Some countries are trying to spread false information before you vote. So what's being done about it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Russia and China are taking sides in the 2020 U.S. election. According to the U.S. Intel Community's top election security officer, China prefers an outcome where President Trump does not win in November. And Russia would rather he did, which is why they are working to denigrate former Vice President Joe Biden's White House bid.

[13:35:03]

CNN's Alex Marquardt has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This is a remarkable statement from the most-senior election official in the U.S. Intelligence Community, Bill Evanina, who represents 17 different intelligence organizations.

Saying in black and white, who the biggest adversaries of the of the United States want to win and want to lose in the 2020 election. Essentially, saying that we are facing an election like we have never seen before in terms of the potential for foreign adversaries to meddle in the election in November.

So, let's go through the countries one by one that Bill Evanina laid out in this statement on Friday night.

Starting, first, with China, in which he said that China would prefer that President Trump, whom Beijing sees as unpredictable, does not win reelection. China, he says, does not want President Trump to win the election because he's unpredictable.

They also note that the Chinese were not pleased with the Trump administration's response to COVID-19 as well as them shutting down the Chinese consulate in Houston.

Then of course, the big question of what Russia wants. And just like in 2016, Russia is working against the Democratic candidate. Then, it was Hillary Clinton. Now it is Joe Biden. Working against the Democrat in favor of President Trump.

The I.C.'s Bill Evanina saying that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden. He's also saying some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump's candidacy on social media and on Russian television.

And then there's Iran. Iran, according to Bill Evanina, will also look to undermine President Trump and sow division.

And it is through disinformation campaigns from all of these countries that they will sow chaos and division.

The Intelligence Community also assesses that the risk that the elections face are hacking from these countries to the election systems. But Bill Evanina notes it would be very difficult, in fact, to change the vote count, to explicitly change the votes without being detected.

And that is something that President Trump has threatened could happen with mail in voting.

Once again, President Trump at odds with his Intelligence Community.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And here with me to discuss is David Shimer. He is the author of "Rigged, America, Russia and 100 Years of Covert Electoral Inference." He's also a global fellow at the Wilson Center.

David, thank you so much for coming on. Such an important story.

First, I want to get your reaction to the report that while both Russia and China are trying to interfere in the 2020 election, the focus is really more on Russia being a bigger threat here?

DAVID SHIMER, GLOBAL FELLOW, WOODROW WILSON CENTER & AUTHOR: Sure, and thank you very much for having me

And I think that's absolutely right. It's very important to distinguish what we know that China is doing so far, which is just public messaging, critical of one candidate, as compared to what Russia, for example, did in 2016.

Which was launch a sprawling covert operation to actually manipulate the outcome of our election by reaching more than 100 million Americans across social media, by stealing and releasing private communications and by targeting our election systems.

And that is what this new statement indicates, Russia is at it again, seeking to undermine a major party candidate, seeking to spread propaganda across social media, and seeking to weaponize private communications.

Which is far different, again, from what China is known to be doing so far, which is just public messaging that is critical of one policy maker over another.

GOLODRYGA: Which is why there were concerns from some Democrats, in particular, that by inserting China and Iran, it did seem to muddy the waters and take focus away from Russia.

There's a reporting this morning from the "New York Times" about attempts at softening Russia's threat in the presidential daily briefing and overall intelligence assessments.

And I want to read you a quote from former director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, on just this issue, where he said, "I can affirm one of my staffers, who was aware of the controversy, requested that I modify that assessment," Coats told me recently, "But I said, no, we need to stick to what the analysts said."

How alarming is that to you and how alarming should it be to Americans?

SHIMER: It is quite alarming. And what the American people should remember is this is not a partisan issue.

What the history shows is the Soviet Union and now Russia have been targeting our elections for decades. The Soviet Union sought to undermine candidates, like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, who were Republicans. And now Russia is seeking to help a Republican.

But this isn't about one political party. What this is about is Russia advancing Russia's interests and its objectives, which is to sabotage our elections, our process of succession, to choose our leaders, and to undermine our democracy as a viable form of governance.

And that should offend all Americans regardless of their party loyalties.

[13:40:01]

GOLODRYGA: And as we heard from Alex's piece, the Russians were not able to actually change votes but they were able to influence Americans in 2016, in 2018, and sow discord.

So, what should Americans be ready for Russia to do now before the election, especially now that we're focused on mail-in ballots and trying to deal with an election in the midst of a pandemic?

SHIMER: So what history shows is that there are always two ways to interfere covertly in an election, by manipulating public opinion or by manipulating actual ballots. And therefore, Americans should be prepared for both forms of attack.

Between now and Election Day, Russia apparently already is seeking to manipulate the public opinion in our country in favor of one over the other.

And citizens should be on guard for those efforts, be discerning in the information they consume. And be persistent in the notion that it is our right as Americans to choose our elections and not the right of foreign countries.

But the second thing that citizens should watch out for is foreign efforts to manipulate the voting process itself.

As I detail in my book, back in 2016, Russian intelligence systemically penetrated our election systems to the point where the Obama White House was bracing for Russia to manipulate those systems and cause chaos on Election Day.

And I do worry, as a result of the coronavirus, as a result of all of the preexisting doubt about the stability of our voting process, Russia could escalate towards seeking to sabotage the actual voting process as our election unfolds come November.

GOLODRYGA: You does seem like history repeating itself. One could argue and criticize the Obama administration for not doing enough with regards to Russian interference. But now you have a president that's not acknowledging it at all. And as you said, it's happening in the midst of a pandemic.

And this news came out on a Friday. It's important that we keep talking about it in the months and weeks ahead.

David Shimer, thank you so much. What a timely book you have written as well.

SHIMER: Thank you very much for having me.

GOLODRYGA: And a programming note. Follow the fearless female CNN political reporters -- I'm so lucky to work with these women -- as they cover the 2020 presidential campaign. Watch this great new documentary, "ON THE TRAIL: INSIDE THE 2020 PRIMARIES," streaming now on HBO Max. Some really hardworking talented women you will find in this documentary.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:47]

GOLODRYGA: This hurricane season could be one for the history books. This week, the forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it's going to be a "rare" and "extremely active" Atlantic hurricane season.

CNN's Allison Chinchar joins me to explain.

So what can we expect to see, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Quite a high number, is what they're forecasting for. Now, they give multiple forecasts. They give one at the beginning of the season, and then they do an update in August. And that's the most recent number that we have.

So take a look at some of these numbers because it will give you some perspective. On an average hurricane season, you typically get 12 named storms. At the beginning of the season, they were predicting between 13 and 19.

Their latest update that came out on August 6th now calls for 19 to 25 total named storms. So quite a jump there. And total number of hurricanes is expected to be between seven and 11.

I would like to point out, they're not the only entity that puts out hurricane forecasts. In fact, Colorado State -- the numbers you see now -- they have been doing it since 1984.

Here's the key. In their 36 years of forecasting, they have never put out in August a number of 24 named storms. So this is a big deal. And 24 is the number of total storms, with 12 hurricanes, is what they're calling for throughout the season. Now here's the list. This is the list of names. There's technically 21

letters in the alphabet used for hurricane names. We don't use the letters like "U" and "X" and "Y," et cetera.

But if we really do get 24 or 25 storms, that means we will run out of letters of the alphabet. So what they do in those instances is they will have to add from the Greek alphabet.

And if we really do hit 25 total named storms, it means we'll make it all the way through the name Delta by the end of the season. So again, pretty impressive.

But then the other question becomes, OK, why, what makes this season so much different than other seasons. And what we typically look for is either the absence of El Nino or the presence of La Nina. We certainly have an absence of El Nino this year.

But also, Bianna, warmer-than-average water temperatures not just in the Atlantic but also in the gulf. And that's what we have been seeing.

The yellow you see here on the screen shows you the areas where the temperature of the water is above average for what it normally would be for this time of year.

GOLODRYGA: Truly the making of a perfect storm, something we want to avoid. We don't want to go to Alpha. We don't even want to go to Josephine.

Thank you so much for keeping us up to speed, Allison. We appreciate it.

CHINCHAR: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: Well, hurricane preparedness is important every storm season. But doing it during a pandemic adds another challenge.

Just ask the folks at Health First's Cape Canaveral Hospital. The waterlogged hospital evacuated some of its COVID-19 patients as Hurricane Isaias sat offshore.

The job of making it happen fell to Wayne Struble, the hospital's disaster and emergency preparedness manager. And he joins me now.

Fortunately, Wayne, the storm didn't hit hard in Florida or as hard as it could have, but how did that evacuation go?

WAYNE STRUBLE, DISASTER & PREPAREDNESS MANAGER, HEALTH FIRST'S CAPE CANAVERAL HOSPITAL: It went very well. We planned in advance to do that. We started our planning for this season back in February, realizing what was going on as March and COVID heated up.

[13:50:00]

We normally start our hurricane planning in March. So bringing COVID into the mix, we had to start planning for that. So we did it. You know, out of an abundance of precaution, we wanted to get the patients out so we weren't doing it in an emergency fashion.

GOLODRYGA: That's nice to hear.

And you're not panicked. And we should remind our viewers why. You are no stranger to crises. You were on the search-and-rescue crew after 9/11.

How does this pandemic change how you prepare for a natural disaster?

STRUBLE: You've got to keep all of the things, like masking, social distancing, and some of our employees, making sure they're going to be safe. If anybody becomes sick, being able to quarantine them in part of the hospital.

When we locked down the facility during the height of a storm, we had to have places for everybody to sleep. We've got to make sure there's ample room for everyone so they can social distance so they're not sharing beds and they're not sharing areas.

And if somebody were to become sick during that, that we have a place to put them and keep them separate.

So, it's a big challenge.

GOLODRYGA: When you talk about a war room, typically, it's filled with lots of first responders and people like yourself planning and strategizing. And of course, with distancing, you can't do that.

Are you prepared for a hurricane during a pandemic, given the constraints that you're going to be facing?

STRUBLE: Yes, we actually use Webex and we spread out. Normally, we would be much closer to each other. So what we've done is created workstations where nobody is more than six feet -- they're at least six feet apart. This way everybody is separated.

And those extra positions that we would staff in our war room or command center, as we call it, are in other rooms and we can use it to Webex, Zoom and we can talk to them and do what we have to do.

GOLODRYGA: Thanks goodness for technology.

If you can bring your expertise down to the level of most of us, who just need to get our household prepared as best as possible, what is your main piece of advice?

STRUBLE: Listen to the weather forecasters, the politicians. If anybody tells you evacuate, evacuate. Masking is important. Social distancing is important. Try to keep the crowds and groups to less than 10 people. Those things, when it comes to COVID or a hurricane, can all be important.

But listen to the people. They tell you to evacuate for a reason. They tell you, you should wear a mask, for a reason. They tell you to social distance for a reason. That's to keep everybody safer.

GOLODRYGA: Wayne Struble, we appreciate all the work that you've done, the heroic work that you've done throughout the years.

And thank you so much for joining us today.

STRUBLE: Thank you. Have a good day.

GOLODRYGA: You, too.

We continue to follow breaking news overseas, out of Beirut, where protests are spreading just days after a deadly explosion. We just learned that a member of the Lebanese security force has died. We are live, coming up next.

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GOLODRYGA: We're going to bring you breaking news out of Beirut. We are continuing to follow violent protests there erupting in the Lebanese capital.

An official now confirming that a member of the Lebanese security force has been killed amid clashes with protesters.

Today's uprisings are in response to the massive explosion earlier this week that left nearly 160 people dead and more than 6,000 injured. Protesters are blaming the government, accusing it of negligence.

Let's go to CNN's Ben Wedeman.

Ben, this has turned extremely violent. The Red Cross reporting that more than 100 protesters have been injured. What is the latest?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest is that these protesters have now also occupied the foreign ministry, the trade ministry, the Economy Ministry, the Ministry of the Environment and the Lebanese Banking Association. This is something the likes of which we have not seen here in Beirut before.

Now, this really is the result of a total loss of confidence by ordinary Lebanese in the government.

The government, which neglected, which passed the buck when it comes to this cause of the explosion on Tuesday evening, that the 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate that blew up and killed more than 160 people, wounded more than 5,000, and made 300,000 people homeless.

This is the utter failure of a government to do the most basic thing, which is to protect its people's lives and property, both of which have been lost to an amazing extent.

And therefore, we already have been reporting for quite some time on the collapse of the Lebanese economy, the fact that Lebanon's currency has lost much of its value.

So for people, they look at this government, which is infamous for incompetence, negligence, corruption, and are saying, what is the point. What is the point of this government?

So what we've seen during this protest is many people brandishing nooses because they said that this protest today is the Day of Judgment.

GOLODRYGA: Let's be honest. The people there in Lebanon deserve better. They deserve better leadership. This is something they've been protesting and dealing with for years. And you can understand their frustration.