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Trump Holds News Conference As U.S. Nears Five Million Coronavirus Cases; Trump Announces Executive Orders After Stimulus Talks Break Down. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 08, 2020 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Erica Hill in New York, in for Ana Cabrera. We are waiting for President Trump at this hour. He's expected to speak any minute and to take questions.
This is coming from his golf resort in New Jersey. The White House says the president will touch on the stalled coronavirus stimulus package, meant to help millions of Americans cover their bills, their rent, help them put food on the table.
The president has promised a series of executive orders if there is no deal.
[16:00:01]
And two senior White House officials tell CNN he will sign executive orders today. As we wait for the president and his press conference, stay with us, we're going to bring it to you live when it begins.
Also with us this hour, CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who's a professor of medicine at George Washington University. Daniel Dale and Christine Romans here with us as we look at what is expected to come.
Christine, as we look at the help that could be coming, we know that the president is signing -- we're told he's going to be signing these executive orders which are expected to deal with a payroll tax deferment, an eviction moratorium. That expired, of course. Potentially student loan payment deferment and even on interest.
When we look at all of those, what stands out here is that a lot of this feels, again, like the president finding ways to go around Congress because we know that this could end up in some legal trouble. All of these, though, are so important to Americans who are sitting at home looking for some help and for some answers.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
HILL: They find themselves in a situation --
ROMANS: He's sending a message.
HILL: -- beyond their control.
ROMANS: He's sending a message that I'm going to help you on the bills that are happening right now, right?
The issue here, for me, that's so interesting is that the Democrats already passed a whole bunch of this, except for the payroll tax holiday, back in May, $3.5 trillion worth of economic stimulus for the economy heading into the election and Republicans have a much smaller deal and they're not on the same page at all.
So, the president is sort of stepping in here in the breach. I think the optics are to tell Main Street, real, working Americans and out of work Americans that help is coming on your bills right now. We know they've faced this brick wall, we've just run into this brick wall.
We still have almost 13 million people who have lost their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic and are still out of work but the extra money from the unemployment benefits is gone. They've already spent their check, their first stimulus check and they're waiting for another one, and the PPP loans, the small business loans, have also expired.
So we're right here at this critical juncture.
HILL: It is a critical juncture.
And as all of this is happening, right, the virus is still spreading around the country, Dr. Reiner, and there are mixed efforts, frankly, there's not only mixed messaging that we're seeing but there is a real patchwork way that the virus is being addressed across the country. We've known that from the beginning.
As we look at this help that is so desperately needed, there's also a concern that some states, more than 30, have paused or pulled back on reopening plans. That may continue to happen if the virus is not under control at some point, Doctor.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it's clearly not under control in large swaths of the south and southwest. We haven't had a national testing policy, which we desperately need. We haven't had a national mask policy, and we know that masks work.
There was a really interesting -- some really interesting data that came out of Kansas this week that showed what happened when some of the counties in Kansas enacted the governor's mask mandate. About nine counties in Kansas did that. About 15 counties did that. About 90 counties didn't, largely rural counties, and what you see is that the incidence of new cases dropped dramatically in the cases that enacted the universal mask mandate and remained absolutely flat in the 90 counties that didn't.
So, it's sort of a role-life laboratory that shows that masks work. So, we have the ability to suppress this virus. Look at New York state. It has a, right now, a current positivity rate of about 1 percent compared to a place like Florida where it's still 17 percent.
So we know how to do this. We just need the political will to enact the measures that we know work. HILL: Right, maybe we won't find ourselves in this position again
where we need to keep finding solutions or calling on Washington to find solutions.
CNN White House Correspondent, Jeremy Diamond is with us as well.
Jeremy, what is the reaction so far since the president has floated this, saying, hey, he's going to sign these executive orders?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Democrats last week made very clear that they will challenge these executive orders in court if the president does indeed move forward with them. Keep in mind, this is something that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has been floating for about a week now, trying to put this over the heads of those negotiations, trying to put it over the heads of Democrats to try and encourage them to come closer to the Republican position as it relates to this phase four stimulus measure. But they are still $1 trillion apart as of yesterday when those talks finally broke down and no additional meetings have since been scheduled.
And so, now, the president, moving with this unilateral executive action, and there is no question that this fits right into the gamesmanship and the blame game that we are seeing between these two sides. Democrats saying that Republicans took weeks to get their own position clear before they actually came to the negotiating table with Democrats themselves.
[16:05:07]
That has now been going on for two weeks. Republicans and the White House on their end are saying that Democrats have been completely intransigent here and unwilling to come closer to their position. Until Friday, Democrats were still insisting on that $3 trillion package. It was only on Friday in that last round of negotiations that they finally came down to about $2 trillion, but the White House position was a bill for just over $1 trillion. So, that still left a huge, huge gap there.
So, again, we will see how this actually ends up playing out, but this is the president's opening salvo here in terms of blaming Democrats for not getting this done and trying to take on the mantle here of, I am the one who is able to get this done.
But as we have talked about already, there is the threat of those legal challenges and there is the question of whether these executive actions that the president is going to sign can actually go into effect and can actually provide the benefit that the president is intending here.
HILL: There's also a question of, if the president understands what the need is on the ground. That eviction moratorium is so important, as we know. Student loan, addressing student loan issues, that's important as well.
But when we look at the standing, when we heard from the president last night in this hastily-called news conference, I think we should use that term loosely based on what we saw last night, the president wasn't really addressing the meat of what is concerning at this point. In fact, he used that time to sort of recycle some old lines and wasn't even really addressing what he could do to change things.
DIAMOND: Right. And we should point out that when the president came out just before that news conference, he told the supporters in the room, enjoy it, I'm going to be fighting with the news media, essentially. So it is a show for the president.
And as to the question of what else remains here, even if the president addresses the executive action, the issue of unemployment insurance, the issue of the eviction moratorium and the payroll tax cut, there are so many other issues that still remain that will simply fall to the wayside and that includes the billions of dollars in funding that Democrats have been seeking for state and local governments, that includes billions of dollars of funding for schools to help them safely reopen, as well as billions more dollars as it relates to funding for testing and contact-tracing.
Those are all the issues that still remain, even if the president moves forward with these executive actions as we have told he will be as soon as he comes out for this news conference. So, we're not clear on whether the White House will be willing to negotiate with Democrats or vice versa after the president moves with this unilateral action.
HILL: Daniel, as we look at what we've heard from the president over the last couple of weeks, and as Jeremy pointed out for us earlier, he hasn't been as involved. Mark Meadows has really been leading the White House part of these talks, but what we've heard from the president -- listen, your fact checks help us all, I have to say, on a regular basis.
Is there something that stood out to you that we've heard consistently from the president that you expect might be part of the message today that perhaps may need a little fact check?
DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Frankly, it's the same lies over and over at all these briefings, all these so-called news conferences. There are lies about the state of the pandemic. He said yesterday that it is disappearing, that's something we've heard over and over. We keep hearing him say it's under control.
That's been wrong since he started saying this stuff literally six months ago, more than six months now. There are lies about mail-in voting which he continues to insist against all the evidence is fraught with fraud and corruption. That's just not true.
There is an entire category of lies about his opponent, Joe Biden, who he keeps alleging is -- you know, has been captured by the far left and in doing so, he'll cite imaginary positions that Biden does not hold and he keeps saying false things about China, about China's economic performance, about tariffs from China.
And so I think these are sort of four big grab bags of lies that he keeps dipping into almost every time we see him at the camera.
HILL: All right. Stay with us, everyone, as we wait for the president to make his way to the podium. We also want to check in on a major event happening starting this weekend, an estimated quarter of a million bikers from around the country rolling into South Dakota for the 88th annual Sturgis motorcycle rally.
Lot of focus on this event, not just because it's an annual tradition but because of the sheer number of people there. Masks are not required. The mayor is encouraging personal responsibility in asking people to follow CDC guidelines.
CNN's Ryan Young is there now, and joins us.
Ryan, you've been talking to a lot of folks who have made their way to Sturgis. What are you seeing on the ground there?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely. Look, we've been here for almost two days now, and I can tell you, people are super excited about the idea of even being able to come here through all the pent-up frustration. You hear the bikes behind us and all the power they have with them.
(INAUDIBLE)
[16:10:06]
HILL: This happens at an event. Don't worry. We'll wait.
YOUNG: Yeah, I know. Look, sometimes you got to just keep pushing through it, right?
So, people are excited, definitely, to be out and about after four months of COVID. This is the excitement that you see from the streets, people going to be here as people go by. You talk about thousands of people showed up on their bikes from as far away as Florida, from Utah. They want to show their support.
Another part of this is, that was in part Trump rally, because you see so many flags supporting the president. Listen to this one rider that we talked to about coming to this event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's crazy. Bunch of crazy people here.
YOUNG: But you weren't going to miss it.
UNIDENTIFIED FAMLE: No. No, she needed to see this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Look, Erica, the excitement here, you almost can't measure it. The full idea of people wanted to show up here. Not one person has turned us down for an interview. They've all wanted to talk about how much they love this event, how much they love riding, how much they love their Harleys, how much they love this country. We've heard that over and over again and they said people who live in urban areas can't really even understand the diversity that is out here in terms of just the space and the country.
As far back as you can see, you can see the tents out here. There is a COVID station out here as well. Not a lot of people at that COVID station but they have some supplies that have been provided.
Let's take an aerial look and you can see one street over from where I'm standing right now, all the people who have gathered here. One of the things you do notice is there's not a lot of masks in the area. In fact, we've been able to count on one hand the number of people that we have seen walking with masks on.
Add on top of that, we've talked to several businesses who tell us, this is mission critical when it comes to the weekend. They need to be able to land this weekend in terms of some sort of dollar amount. They traveled from all across the country.
We talked to one man from New Orleans who brought shrimp here to sell grilled shrimp because he says there's no way that there's going to be an event bigger that he'll be able to attend before the end of the year. So you understand the pain that several business people are experiencing, but then you have this idea of, look, are people going to social distance or not?
This bar that's right over here has been packed the entire time. A lot of it, hey, a lot of people on the outside. But you still have to wonder about the social distancing, and there's going to be concerts later on, so a lot going on here with an event of this size.
HILL: Yeah, that is for sure. All right, Ryan Young with the latest for us from Sturgis. Ryan, thank you.
Also, I want to get you this breaking news. The governor and first lady of Ohio have tested negative for coronavirus for a second time. This was done with what's known as a PCR test. The governor and his wife also had a negative PCR test on Thursday.
You may recall Governor Mike DeWine and his wife were tested rigorously because the governor received a positive result from a rapid test. He took that test ahead of what was supposed to be his meeting with President Trump earlier this week.
Still with us here, Dr. Jonathan Reiner.
So, Dr. Reiner, what do we make of this news out of Ohio? There's been a lot made about these tests and we had heard more about false negatives that be false positives, but this raises an issue.
REINER: It does. The antigen tests hold a lot of promise. To hold a promise to cheaply and quickly get results back for, you know, millions of people, potentially, at their places of work or in schools and things like that. And we've known that the false positive rate for these tests has been relatively low, but there was always a concern of a false negative rate, a higher false negative rate. But so these tests have been promoted as a way to sort of capture, you
know, a significant number of cases with the caveat that it may not capture them all. We're not really accustomed to thinking about the false positive rate with these tests, so it's interesting, but it does underscore how, you know, imperfect the science is right now, and sometimes you need to test someone multiple times.
We'll often test somebody who has all of the symptoms and signs of COVID disease who test negative. We know that the reliability of the test is often related to the quality of the sample. So, we will repeat test a patient many times. So I'm glad that the governor and his wife are negative.
HILL: Staying on that point, are you concerned, though, about the message that this sends?
REINER: No, I'm not --
HILL: Meaning the message of, the false positive and we've made so much about it, oh, this isn't a big deal, look, we don't have to worry about it.
REINER: No, I think that the message that I would send is, look, our system works. You had somebody who was very low likelihood of having the disease, he felt well, absolutely no symptoms, and when his tests came back positive (AUDIO GAP) that was the right move.
[16:15:00]
And the other right move was that he quarantined himself until the results came back.
HILL: I also want to get your take on this rally that we're seeing in Sturgis, annual event as we know, quarter of a million people from across the country expected to crowd into this town of about 7,000 for more than a week.
The concern that I have heard from experts is what happens when they leave, right? They go back home, wherever home may be, around the country, maybe they stop along the way, and what they could potentially be bringing with them that we can't see.
REINER: Yeah, completely. They're very mobile. By very nature, this is a motorcycle rally and a quarter of a million people are going to spread out into their communities, so this has the potential to be a super spreader event.
Now, I'm less concerned with these folks just riding their bikes through the hills than I am about what happens at night, in bars and restaurants and hotels, and on the streets in close quarters.
When you look at the video from Sturgis now, there are very few people wearing masks and we know that this virus is super contagious and it will spread from person to person and they will take it back to their homes. The -- we heard a visitor saying that they were just tired of this and
looking to have some fun. Well, the virus doesn't really care, and the virus doesn't care if they're tired about this. The virus will infect whoever it can get close to.
So, this is a ridiculous thing to have in the middle of a pandemic, a quarter of a million people coming together. You know, the rest of the world is laughing at us. How could you hold this kind of mass event when we have the highest rate of this virus on the planet?
It shows a lack of commitment, a lack of the willingness to do some things that are hard. We all want to do fun things. But we can't until it's safe to do so.
HILL: Yeah. Many people are tired of it, to your point.
REINER: Yeah.
HILL: But there is still a lot of work to be done.
When and how will we know if this was a super spreader event? Will we?
REINER: Well, these people aren't just confined to South Dakota. Many of the people who attend this come from all over the country.
HILL: Right.
REINER: It's an annual -- right. So, you know, the rise in number of cases will be spread through different parts of the country, so it might be hard to know.
HILL: Yeah.
REINER: If we see an uptick in South Dakota, then I think you can get a pretty good clue that this resulted from the rally, but otherwise, it will be diffused out into the rest of the country.
HILL: The mayor who was on with us earlier had said that they're offering testing. So 60 percent of the town said they were apprehensive about holding this event. City council overruled. Obviously, they're holding it.
Listen, it has a really important financial impact, as we know. But the mayor said they're making tests available to employees, to residents, after the fact, right? He wants to put their minds at ease. They're about 7,000 residents. He said they've got, I believe, about 1,300 tests.
If you were advising him on what a testing strategy should be for those who were involved in the rally, who are living there in Sturgis, when should they be tested? How often? How many tests do they need?
REINER: Well, I would advise them to acquire antigen tests and test everybody as they enter town. It would require the rapid assay and test everyone as they came into town. So, now, if testing residents after the rally is over is basically
just going to assess the damage, how much damage was done. And why wasn't masks -- why weren't masks made a mandatory part of this rally? If you want to hold a rally because it's important to the economic life blood of the community, OK, make your argument. But how about doing it as safely as possible? Have all the participants wear a mask.
Masks have been unreasonably politicized in this country, and in asking people to wear masks, I think would have been a reasonable compromise to continuing to hold the rally. But sadly, that's not the case.
HILL: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, always appreciate your input. We are, as you can see on your screen there, still awaiting this press conference with the president.
Stay with us. We are going to bring to you in just a moment. We'll take a quick break. We'll see you on the other side.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- to reach an agreement with Democrats on additional China virus relief.
Already, my administration has enacted over $3 trillion in historic relief, saving many tens of millions of dollars in jobs and you see how fast the economy is coming back. It does look like it's going to be a very sharp "V."
We have a tremendous enthusiasm, tremendous spirit, and tremendous job growth. We set a record on number of jobs in the last three months. It's the most jobs ever created in a three-month period, during a three-month period. That's great.
Before we begin, I've just signed two bills that are great for our vets. Our vets are very special. We passed Choice, as you know, Veterans Choice, and Veterans Accountability, and they've been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades, and no president's ever been able to do it, and we got it done.
So veterans have choice, and now you have accountability that if you don't love your vets, if you're in the V.A. and you don't love the vets or take care of the vets, you can actually get fired if you don't do your job. We want people that love our vets.
The first expands the eligibility for vets with blindness in both eyes, so we have an expansion of benefits, an expansion of various elements of being and working with the V.A. for vets with blindness and in particular blindness in both eyes. And we have a lot of problems with blindness in the V.A., and we're doing something about it. They have been talking about this for many years, so that is expanding eligibility for vets with blindness in both eyes. OK?
Second is, requires the V.A. to establish a treatment court program for vets who need treatment rather than punishment for certain nonviolent crimes. And you know what that all means, and it's really something that they've been trying to get done for a long time, the second requires the V.A. to establish a treatment court.
So, this is a treatment court program for vets who need treatment rather than punishment for certain nonviolent crimes. OK? I think it's self-explanatory. We've wanted this for a long time. They've been trying to get it for a long time, and now we have it.
And I want to thank everybody for helping us get that done. We had a lot of support from a lot of great people, including people in the V.A.
In the current negotiations, we have repeatedly stated our willingness to immediately sign legislation providing expanded unemployment benefits, protecting Americans from eviction, and providing additional relief payments to families.
[16:25:04]
Democrats have refused these offers. They want to negotiate. What they really want is bailout money for states that are run by Democrat governors and mayors and that have been run very badly for many, many years and many decades, in fact. You know the states. Everybody knows who we're talking about and what we're talking about. I don't think we have to go over it.
But what the Democrats primarily want is bailout money, has nothing to do with the China virus. It has nothing to do with anything that we've been talking about over the last period of time. They want to bailout states that have been badly managed by Democrats, badly run by Democrats for many years, and in fact, in all cases, many decades, and we're not willing to do that.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage on behalf of very extreme partisan demands and the radical left Democrats and we just can't do that. So hopefully we can do something with them at a later date but we're going to be signing some bills in a little while that are going to be very important and will take care of pretty much this entire situation. As we know it. And as you have been covering it and in some cases actually covering it accurately.
Many of the far left policies they're pushing have nothing to do, again, with what we have been working on so hard, namely, the corona -- you can call it so many different names. What a horrible thing China released upon the world.
One-third of their bill, the HEROES Act, is spending completely unrelated money to the virus. Here are just a few of the policies in their extreme left bill, and again, this is a bill supported by Biden.
And Biden is totally controlled now by the Bernie Sanders left wing of the party and in fact, he's gone further left than Bernie Sanders ever dreamt of going. So, obviously, other than Bernie, have brought him left. If you look at the manifesto that they've agreed to, it's far further left than I've ever heard anything about Bernie Sanders.
The massive taxpayer bailout of badly-run blue states, we talked about. That's one of the things they are looking to do.
Measures designed to increase voter fraud, banning voter ID. They want to ban voter ID. We should have voter ID in every state. Every state should have voter ID.
You have ID on everything you do, practically. Everybody has voter ID. Everybody has ID except for voters.
When you vote, you don't want ID. They don't want it. We have some states where it works out great, and if you want to stop fraud in elections, have voter ID. They want measures designed to increase voter fraud, which is banning voter ID in all states and banning requirements for signature verification in federal elections.
Now, why would they want, in this bill, which really has nothing to do with what we're talking about, stimulus, something banning voter ID in every single state, they want to ban it, including states where we already have it because we have some states where we have it, Indiana and others that do very well. Why would they want to ban voter ID in all states, and why would they want to ban requirements for signature verification in federal election?
Who would want a bill banning signature verification? What's that all about?
You know what it's about? Fraud. That's what they want. Fraud. They want to try and steal this election, because frankly, it's the only way they can win the election.
The bill also requires all states to do universal mail-in balloting, which nobody is -- nobody's prepared for, regardless of whether or not they have the infrastructure. They want to steal an election. That's all this is all about. They want to steal the election.
So, in the bill, they have a bill that requires all states to do universal mail-in balloting, regardless of whether or not they have the infrastructure, like in Nevada, it's such a disaster, their infrastructure is a total disaster. They don't want to have signature verification.
They don't want to have any of the safeguards that you need, and they don't want to have safeguards that are so common and so basic and even other states that we disagree with have -- this Nevada thing is a mess but we'll see how the courts determine, what the courts determine.
But they certainly don't have the infrastructure in Nevada. So we'll see how it is. As you know, we brought suit last week, and we'll see how that all works out. I think we're going to win it.
But basically, what they're trying to do with all of these requirements, including no signature verification, they're trying to steal an election. And I was in Ohio. I was in Texas. I was in Florida over the last four or five days. And if you would see the crowds along the highways and the roadways, people have said they've never seen anything like that it. And they haven't seen anything like it. And the press doesn't report it because they're fake news.
They even want to force states to implement the controversial practice known as ballot harvesting, very dangerous practice. Meaning they would allow Democrat party operatives to deposit thousands and thousands of completed ballots at the post office without any verification of who filled them out, including a verification of signatures on the ballot.
So you're not even going to have a verified signature. Anybody -- I could sign it, you could sign it, anybody in this room could sign it. And that's going to count as a vote.
How can you do a thing like this? So, this is what they're asking for. This is what Nancy Pelosi and crying Chuck Schumer are asking for. OK? It's ridiculous. It's horrible. It's a horrible thing.
The Democrat bill includes stimulus checks for illegal aliens. So if you were able to get into the country illegally -- and our borders, as you know, doing very well right now. We have a very strong border.
And the wall is up to 276 miles and will be completed with it around the end of the year. We're going to do some extra mileage in certain areas that people didn't realize were so bad. So we'll be completed with it right after. We're going to do the additional mileage. We'll do it probably a little bit after the year.
I think, from what I have heard, Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe, wants to rip the wall down. He wants people to pour into our country. They want to have open borders. We don't want to have open borders.
So the Democrat bill includes stimulus checks for illegal aliens. They require the mass release of illegal aliens from detention. They also compel the mass release of inmates, including serious felons. How do you like that one?
And this is in the bill that we're talking about. What does this have to do with stimulus to the economy? What does this have to do with the coronavirus?
HILL: You've been listening to President Trump there. President Trump is set to sign a couple of executive orders and started to talk about that.
But then it started to go more in the vein of one of the president's campaign events, the president starting to slam his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
As we -- as we look at what we're waiting to see in terms of relief for the American people. CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond is with us, along with CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, CNN medial analyst, Jonathan Reiner. Jeremy, let me start with you.
What we're hearing from the president here is, frankly, a well well- worn line that we've heard that Speaker Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are holding help hostage. He's here to save the day. And then devolving into what feels like an attempt at a campaign talking point there.
What do we know about what's actually supposed to be happening today in terms of executive action to help the American people?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what we're seeing from the president right now is part of that blame game between the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill after those talks broke down yesterday over this phase four stimulus bill.
The president making clear that he believes the Democrats have been holding up the help and funding that is really needed to address the coronavirus, the economic and health consequences of the coronavirus, in order to get some of their ideological priorities in the bill.
And the president specifically referring to the notion of state and local funding, which we know has been one these negotiations over the last two weeks.
Democrats, of course, will argue that everything in this bill is related in some way or another to this coronavirus pandemic, that the funding for state and local governments is not related to mismanagement.
And in fact, they do have a point on that because both Democrat and Republican governors, including the National Governors Association put out a statement saying they do need funding for state and local governments to help with this pandemic.
Now, the president making clear that he is going to be signing these executive actions now to address at least part of the issues that were at stake here in these negotiations.
One of those is extending the enhanced unemployment benefits. It's not clear at this point whether that will be keeping it at that $600 a week level that it was at just before it expired a week ago.
And then also addressing issues like student loan forgiveness and extending a payroll tax holiday. That is one of the major issues here that we expect to face legal challenge as the president moves forward.
Taxing, spending, typically in the hands of Congress, according to the Constitution, not in the hands of the president. And Democrats made very clear last week that they will be challenging these executive actions in court.
So there's a huge question mark over whether these executive actions can actually be implemented, if there could potentially be an injunction put forward by a federal court that will be ruling on this matter.
[16:35:02]
But certainly, the president here moving forward, not just to put these things into effect. But also to put the blame on Democrats for why these negotiations stalled yesterday.
And why millions of Americans across the country won't be seeing the kind of relief that could have come from a bipartisan bill.
HILL: Daniel, I mean, there are a number of points, obviously, even just those first couple of minutes that we can fact check with you, as we know, but specifically related to what the president was saying Democrats are pushing.
Just keep us honest here, he's talking about what was proposed back in May by the House, which was passed, the bill that was passed in the House, and saying that it aims to steal the election, that they are pushing voter fraud with some of the measures in there, that's asking for funding for voter I.D. for election help.
There's, too, some $25 billion in there to help the postal service. Talk to us a little bit about what we heard from the president and what the reality is.
DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Yes, so, the suggestion that Democrats are trying to use this bill to steal the election is entirely baseless. That's just a lie. There are measures in there about voter I.D.
And frankly, I want to take a little deeper dive into those before I try to fact check the president on them. But the thing that's false.
The president's suggestion is that in that bill, Democrats are trying to make states adopt universal mail-in voting. There's no mandate. Democrats understand that as Republicans do, except for Trump, apparently, states decide how they're going to conduct their elections.
The Democrats are proposing to supply funding to support states that may require additional use of mail-in voting. They're not saying you have to do it.
And Trump, for at least the 143rd time in office, that he is the one who passed the Veterans Choice Healthcare Program. That was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014.
And he again keeps boasting of these, quote, "record job gains" over the past three months without noting that there are much bigger losses in the previous two months, that we're still in a big hole.
HILL: Which is such an important point.
And, Christine, he said, no one believes how fast the economy is coming back, it's going to be a sharp "V."
As you pointed out earlier, that record job growth in three months came at a serious cost. And it does not look like this is going to be a sharp "V" that's going to happen overnight. No matter how much we would all like that to be the case.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The fact is, we're down, still, 13 million jobs since March. I mean, the fact is, as of this week, there were 30 million people receiving some form of jobless benefits from the government -- 30 million people. And we know that we've just taken the shock absorbers out small business loans.
Today is the last day to apply for a small business loan through the PPP and the extra $600 a week came off the unemployment benefits. That's real money that is now not in the economy.
Just those jobless claims checks alone is about $18 billion a week. That money was going right into the economy. So we're at this moment now where this relief and this support is drying up. And that is going to hinder spending in the economy and hinder the recovery. And that's why it's just such an urgency right here.
You still have a real jobs emergency on main street. And you still need some more support to make sure that we do have a definitive recovery heading into 2021.
The president is right, the last three months have had solid jobs gains. I mean, you had 2.7 million jobs gains in May, 4.7 million in June, and 1.8 million in July. So the pace of the jobs gains is slowing.
And there are a lot of economists who think you've got to still have targeted stimulus to keep those jobs coming back. And you have to have a real strong national response to keeping the coronavirus under control so people can go back to work.
HILL: Christine, what the president just said, I'm told, a payroll tax cut, not a holiday, a payroll tax cut, I'm told, for those making under $100,000. Again, you have to actually be getting a paycheck for that to benefit you.
But if it's a cut, does that mean that it's, you know, a deferment, a holiday would have to be repaid at some point. That's a big difference.
ROMANS: Right. Yes. So, it depends on what -- how he wants to structure this. But a payroll tax cut would mean that you would have more money in your paycheck and that's what he really wants. He wants more money in people's paychecks.
But there wasn't really support from this among Democrats or Republicans, quite frankly. They're really more interested in making sure people who are out of work are getting extra money because we know those jobless benefits go right into the economy, and you want to keep that money flowing.
So there's still going to be some controversy about this payroll tax cut or deferral or holiday or whatever it looks like at the end.
HILL: However it shakes out, there will be some questions about it. Dr. Reiner, all of this, of course, on the backdrop, and we can see,
on the side of the screen there, that the country is approaching five million confirmed cases as we know.
You know, we heard from Dr. Redfield who says it could be 10 times that number, frankly, the number of cases in this country.
[16:40:06]
Did you think that we would be at this place on August 8th? Six months into this?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You know, our response was so chaotic and disorganized that I have feared -- as many of my colleagues around the country, I have feared that it would be this bad because there's been no organized, coordinated federal effort.
There was some interesting data that was reported in the "New York Times" this week that looked at excess deaths between March 15th and the end of July. Data from the CDC, comparing it to the comparable periods over the last three years.
And it looks like the U.S. has had over 200,000 excess deaths. So some of that probably unreported COVID deaths and some of that probably collateral deaths from people with heart attacks and strokes not seeking care.
So, I think the toll has been even worse than our current statistics have reported.
HILL: As we're looking at all that, I'm learning the president just said $400 a week. And just checking with our producers in the Control Room.
Did the president says, if that's $400 a week for a definite period of time? Is there an end date that the president put on there? Do we know?
We don't.
But, Christine, we're hearing $400 a week. That was the most recent proposal, if my memory serves, from Republicans. Democrats had been asking for the $600 a week enhanced benefit to continue. Republicans initially countered with $200. Came back with $400.
ROMANS: The position from the White House. And we heard Larry Kudlow, the president's chief economic advisor, say so many people, more than 60 percent of people getting unemployment benefits were getting more than they had in their paycheck. And the White House was interpreting that data as it's a disincentive to go back to work.
But we don't have all the jobs back yet. The incentive to go back to work is when you have a safe environment. And you have jobs -- there's still, you know, five million jobs open, five million job openings in the country right now. But 13 million people out of work. So, you know, this argument about the disincentive to go back to work,
it's why the president and the Republicans want to cut down on how much people get for unemployment.
HILL: But to your point, we don't have hard evidence that that is the case and some people who have gone back to work.
ROMANS: No.
HILL: There are people out of work and people who have gone back to work have lost their jobs a second time because of what is happening.
ROMANS: These are not normal times. These are not normal times. In normal times, you argue about whether unemployment benefits prevent people from going back to work. And that's why so many states keep their unemployment checks less than you were making as an incentive to go out and get another job.
These are not normal times. I mean, it's almost impossible to apply the kind of argument you would have with a 7 percent or a 6 percent or a 5 percent unemployment rate when we've got an unemployment rate that is still higher than we had in the worst of the Great Recession.
So these are not normal times. And taking away too much of the stimulus too quickly, I think, really threatens the recovery.
HILL: As we look at what else could be coming our way, we're told that the president was also going to address student loans. That was part, too, of initially what Democrats had brought up, student loan forgiveness, some intersection interest as well.
That, especially, as we look at the number of young people who are looking for jobs, who are saddled with this debt, that could be a really important point.
ROMANS: And the first -- in the very first stimulus plan, the very first CARES Act, there was lifting of some of these payments for student loans, deferring these student loan payments for the summer, I think, all the way through to September. And that was really important.
So you're coming up on this deadline here, again, where people are going have to pay their student loan.
But if you're a young person that was working in a job that disappeared in retail or leisure and hospitality, you're not in a position yet where you can pay those student loans right now.
And so this is something I think that keeps money in people's pockets if you can do that. Keep money in people's pockets in the near term. That's what's going to build a recovery.
People spending money, people having the confidence to be able to spend money, and not just save it and crouch, quite frankly, waiting and not spending money.
HILL: As we're getting more tidbits out of this event with the president, Jeremy Diamond, I'll throw this one to you.
The president saying, as we said before, he was saying a payroll tax cut. That's a big difference from a holiday or a deferment.
Now he's saying, though -- and just remind me again, producers in my ear -- he's saying that it's a payroll tax holiday unless he's re- elected and then he'll make it permanent?
Is that what the president just said?
Jeremy, again, I don't know, I guess it is a campaign event. I'm not sure at this point.
So the president is saying, here's what I'm giving you now but if you re-elect me, I will do this. But that's actually been what some of the speculation has been, because in deferring these, if it was a holiday, deferring payments, eventually the money needs to get paid unless there's some further action.
[16:45:97]
And I guess the president is saying that further action could come if he is re-elected. And so then that could come, perhaps, in 2021.
DIAMOND: Right. And the -- there's -- the president is lifting the veil here on the political motivations behind what he is doing here with that sentence, by suggesting that those payroll tax -- that payroll tax holiday will only need to be repaid, essentially, if he is not re-elected. It won't need to be repaid if he is re-elected is what the president is saying.
But I don't think that's something that the president can do unilaterally. My understanding is that the president would need Congress to actually forgive these repayments. They would need to waive those repayments.
That's not something, based on my understanding, that the president can do, unilaterally, so this is a shot in the dark from the president here once again, to try and encourage people to vote for him based on this -- by kind of dangling this possibility over voters.
What we're also hearing from the president here, with this $400 a week is notable because, in the Republican bill, it was talking about $200 a week initially. and then phasing it over to a system that is based on a percentage of income. So the president is raising that to $400.
But it is a decrease, of course, from what Democrats wanted and from what previously existed at $600 a week.
And it also appears, based on what I'm reading here, that the president is going to require some of the states to pay a percentage of that $400 a week increase here.
But I do think we need to kind of put this in context in terms of the blame game that is happening here, and in terms of the way that the president is trying to characterize what Democrats were trying to do here. There's no question.
And I think Democrats will probably admit it themselves, that they were intransigent to a certain extent in terms of not being willing to budge from certain positions.
But the president is completely mischaracterizing the Democratic position. For example, on the issue of that moratorium on evictions, the president was suggesting that Democrats were not interested in helping people not get evicted.
Democrats not only wanted that moratorium, but they wanted to fund rental assistance for people, millions of people across the country. And that was a step too far for the White House, at least in terms of the funding levels that Democrats were talking about.
And this is kind of the strategy that we are seeing in this, quote, unquote, "news conferences" that devolved into a campaign rally.
As you were just talking about, is the president trying to once again as he has been done in recent weeks and months, trying to paint Democrats broadly with this boogeyman of being the radical left, of being left wing fascists, as the president talked about during his Fourth of July address.
The president really trying to paint Democrats with a broad brush and painting them as far more extreme than the positions that Democrats actually hold, certainly, as it pertains to what's in the Democrats' bill for coronavirus relief.
HILL: Well, to your point, using the word "manifesto," which was certainly has a different connotation, the president using that word today.
Daniel Dale, as we look at everything that we're learning at this point, is there anything else that really sticks out to you?
The president, what we heard from the very beginning, and as Jeremy, I think, said so well, I mean, this is really part of the narrative that the president wants to put out there. We see the president signing these executive orders now.
You know, the question is, and you to such a fantastic job of fact checking this for all of us, which message is getting out? What more is coming your way in terms of what you're having to fact check even just out of this today?
DALE: Well, I haven't heard the last five minutes or so because I've been here at the camera.
But I think what the president is doing, on that point Jeremy just made about eviction, it's kind of the same thing as he did yesterday when he said he's going to sign an executive order protecting people with preexisting conditions. And he said nobody has done that before.
So he presents himself as the savior, even on things where he's not at all in that case. Of course, Obamacare, signed by President Barack Obama, included strong protections for people with preexisting conditions.
In this case, he's presenting himself as tenants' savior, even as Democrats were proposing stronger protections than Trump's own party is.
So it's this constant narrative of Trump as the conquering hero, even when, factually, he is not.
HILL: There's also, you know, the narrative.
Daniel, you talked about this when we were fact checking what the president was saying on the bailout money that the Democrats have asked for, that they put in their bill.
Christine, as we look at that, the president railing that these are states that have been poorly run by Democratic governors or cities by Democratic mayors.
ROMANS: Yes.
HILL: The reality is the money, a lot of the money that these states and cities need, this municipalities, A, is directly related to the virus, and lack of money coming in. But it's also money that funds essential workers. This funds schools. You know, firefighters.
[16:50:02]
I mean, there's so much of that money that is essential to keeping cities and states running.
ROMANS: It's such a great point.
And look, you know, the president says years of mismanagement by Democrats in blue states has led them to this moment where they have had a revenue shortfall today.
The revenue shortfall is because of the virus. It's because businesses were closed. Taxes weren't collected because the commerce didn't happen.
And we've just never seen this kind of a precipitous decline in, you know, in what's going into the coffers of these states, the tax coffers of these states.
They have to, by law, balance their budgets every year, right? So, they're going to have a big shortfall. How do you fix that shortfall?
HILL: Christine?
ROMANS: You're going to have to fire streets and sanitation.
Yes?
HILL: Hold that thought for one second. We're going to listen as the president takes questions now.
TRUMP: If they don't, they don't. That's going to be their problem. I don't think that people will be too happy.
They have the money. So, I don't think their people will be too happy. But if they don't, they don't. But again, the states have the money. It's sitting there.
All right, Kelly?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, why did you decide on $400 when previously families were receiving $600?
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That will be a hardship for many. What do you say to them?
TRUMP: Well, it's not a hardship. This is the money that they need. This is the money they want. And this gives them a great incentive to go back to work.
So, this was much more than was originally agreed. The $600 was a number that was there. And as you know, there was difficulty with the $600 number because it really was a disincentive.
Go ahead, please.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, sir, the payroll tax cut was opposed by both parties on Capitol Hill. Can you give your rationale as to why you think that's so important, particularly since it doesn't help Americans who currently don't have jobs?
TRUMP: It helps people greatly. It helps our country get back. And anybody that would say anything different, I think, is very foolish.
Everybody wanted it. By the way, the Democrats want it. The Republicans want it. They just couldn't get it -- they just couldn't come to an agreement. But everybody wants it.
And the very important thing is the people want it. And the people need it, actually.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, you said that this will pretty much take care of the entire situation. But as you said, there's not many for reopening schools, other important items. Is your administration willing to go back to Democrats to try to actually negotiate?
TRUMP: The answer is yes but we have money to do other things. We have a lot of money that was unspent and will be able to do things with the money that was unspent. We have significant money that was unspent. And we will be able to use that for different purposes. Go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, when will this relief get in the hands of Americans that need it? What date?
TRUMP: We think it's going to be very rapid. We want it to be very rapid. It's going to be distributed in a way that, whichever the way the fastest way. There are various methods and it will be rapidly distributed.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're also expecting legal challenges with this, right?
TRUMP: I didn't say that. No, no. I didn't say that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yesterday, sir, you said that you were expecting legal --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I said -- what I said is people can do whatever they want. I guess maybe they'll bring legal actions, maybe they won't, but they won't win.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If legal action is brought against you on this, why not just work with Congress on this deal?
TRUMP: I'm not saying they're not going to come back and negotiate. They might very well come back and negotiate.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're signing the executive order today and Americans want to know when they're going to see this relief.
TRUMP: Very soon. They're going to see it very soon. There it is right there.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Excuse me. Excuse me. There it is right there.
Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, though, this is expected to be tied up in the courts so this relief is either going to be delayed or blocked indefinitely --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I think it's going to go very rapidly through the courts.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you giving people false hope?
TRUMP: -- get sued. Maybe we don't get sued. If we get pursued, it's somebody that doesn't want people to get money, OK? And that's not going to be a very popular thing.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- go around Congress. Are you trying to set a new precedent that the president can go around Congress and decide --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Ever hear the word "obstruction?" They've obstructed. Congress has obstructed. The Democrats have obstructed people from getting desperately needed money.
Go ahead, please. Right here.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: No. You're finished.
(CROSSTALK)
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Veterans Choice --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, Veterans Choice, it was passed in 2014.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead, please.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It was a false statement, sir.
TRUMP: OK.
Thank you very much, every. Thank you very much.
(CHEERING)
HILL: The president -- the president cutting off questions there when he was challenged for a statement that he has made multiple times saying that he signed Veterans Choice.
Daniel Dale, you brought this up in the very beginning. We know that's not true. And yet this is a statement that the president continues to push. He did not. He's not responsible for that.
DALE: He is not. What Trump did was sign a 2018 law called the V.A. Mission Act that modified and expanded the Choice program. But he describes himself as the one who got choice after others had tried and failed for 50 years.
That was kind of a historic fact check moment because I don't think anyone had ever challenged Trump on this law lie he keeps telling over and over.
And it was revealing that, when presented with the facts, he just ran away. He ended the briefing.
He also made a number of other false claims in that last segment. He said that everybody wants a payroll tax cut. That's not true. They oppose that. That's up-or-down lying.
[16:55:09]
HILL: He did.
And listen, even in the question, he was asked, you know, was very clear, the reporter said, this is opposed. This has bipartisan opposition. Why would you move forward with this?
And also, this does not help the Americans without jobs. That question, he ignored. In addition to stating that this had brought support, which, again, was not true.
He also said, when asked when the money would be available, he just said, rapid. But refused to give a date.
And, Jeremy Diamond, when he was talking about the legal action, said that any lawsuit would come from someone who doesn't want the people to get money. So we can see what the political messaging will be there, that he's setting up.
But the fact, too, that he couldn't offer a date of when this money can be in the hands of Americans because that's what we need to know.
DIAMOND: Right. Right. There were very few specifics here. And to actually understand exactly how this money is going to go out, when it will go out, I think, we're going to have to read the text of these executive orders that the president just signed.
And as you pointed out, I read that line the exact same way, where the president is talking about, anybody who challenges these executive orders is someone who doesn't want to help the American people.
Of course, we know Democrats have already said over this last week that they do plan to bring forward a legal challenge arguing that the president doesn't have the authority to do these things in the executive order that he's doing. And so we can expect that as Democrats file that lawsuit.
The president is going to go on and make that one of his go-to lines here.
I also think it's interesting the president was saying that he doesn't believe he will be sued, even though, yesterday, he said exactly that. And the president was also talking about this notion of the $400 per
week. He was pressed on why this isn't $600 per week, which is what millions of Americans who are out of work due to this pandemic had been receiving up until just a week ago.
And the president arguing that $400 a week is what the American people need, it's what they want, suggesting that they should basically be thankful for this and not expect anything more.
Obviously, there are many Americans who do need those $600 a week in additional unemployment insurance. And $400 a week is not going to cut it for everybody.
HILL: It's -- Christine, just help us put that in perspective. Listen, I think a lot of us know exactly what that extra $200 means. But $600 was agreed upon for a reason.
So, $400 is it better than nothing? Yes, it's better than nothing but that is a significant gap for a lot of folks to make up when they don't have a paycheck.
ROMANS: So, I'm told that $600 number was kind of for technical reasons because they were trying to figure out how to get money out quickly and that was a number they felt like they could handle with the states.
So, that's, I think, fascinating that the first wave of those checks were meant to really get out quickly and to be a shock absorber and that's what they really were. So I don't know how the president decided on this magic $400 number.
But can we remark for a moment just how bizarre that is, to have the media asking the president questions about lies he is saying on national television and then have golf -- the golf club members cheering and jeering the media who are asking the president questions?
I mean, what an odd moment that is 2020 there in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The president, you know, calling this signing ceremony that is either a campaign rally or kind of a reality TV episode or a presidential signing, it's just kind of unclear. But I think a hallmark of 2020, don't you?
HILL: I think it's such -- I think it's an excellent point.
And I have to say, until I heard, to your point, until I heard that applause, I forgot, because it's much different than what we saw last night. This was made to look like a far more official presidential, serious event, the president signing these executive orders.
But when the president shut down a reporter, who was asking a valid question, I believe it was when he was being asked for a date, a specific date, the president just said, it's rapid.
Asking, you know, what was going to happen. Well, it's all in there. How's it going to get to Americans? It's all in there. It's not in there. If it is, we certainly haven't seen it.
And the fact that the president can't provide those answers is certainly also a very 2020 moment in a lot of ways.
I want to play the substance from that event because, while there are a lot of very political moments, while there was a bit of a campaign rally feel, and not just from the applause, there was some substance to what we heard from the president.
So let's listen to that moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Taking executive action, we've had it. And we're going to save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers that I'll be signing these bills in a very short period of time.
[17:00:07]
First one is I'm providing a payroll tax holiday to Americans earning less than $100,000 per year.
