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Trump Signs Executive Orders After Stimulus Talks Break Down; Fears As Bikers Rally Expects 250K People Without Mask, Distancing Rules; Fear Of New Spikes Ahead In Arizona; Teachers In Georgia's Largest School District Staging A Protest; Biden Holds Lead Over Trump In Polls As Election Nears; The Testing Crisis: What 20 Experts Say They Need From Government. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 08, 2020 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Hello and thank you so much for joining us, here live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Boris Sanchez in the nation's capital.

President Trump, who like the rest of us, watch pandemic stimulus talks, crash and burn on Capitol Hill, took pen in hand this afternoon and brought to life four executive actions aimed at helping financially struggling Americans. A student loan deferment, directing the federal government to help homeowners and renters try to avoid eviction, a payroll tax holiday, and the stickiest thing that Republican and Democratic dealmakers simply could not agree on, that extra unemployment benefits and the dollar amount out of work Americans have gotten used to seeing every week.

We'll get some clarity on that in just a moment. But keep in mind, this is the weekend when the United States will very likely hit the 5 million mark in cases of coronavirus, 5 million Americans known to be infected. The actual number is almost certainly much higher. More than 162,000 people have died from the pandemic in this country. That number of human lives keeps going up disturbingly fast while the country's elected leaders argue and disagree and fail to act.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now. She's traveling with the President just outside of Bedminster, New Jersey. Kristen, you were there when President Trump signed those executive actions. Millions of unemployed people in the country are nervous. They're eager to hear how their unemployment benefits are going to change. What did the President actually sign?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well, let's actually start there with those unemployment benefits, Boris. I think we have a graphic here to explain it because it's a little bit complicated. Essentially, people were getting $600 in assistance from the federal government. Now, that was on top of whatever they were getting from their state

unemployment offices. Now, they will get 400, according to President Trump. But it's not quite actually 400. It's actually $300 from the federal government because President Trump is asking governors and asking states to pay that last 25 percent, meaning, of course, $100.

Now, will states be able to do this? Well, we simply don't know. But I will tell you that I spoke to one state official immediately after the remarks and told them what President Trump, said, one, they had no idea that this was coming. And two, he actually laughed and he said there is absolutely no way that we can pay that. Our resources are just tapped out. Now, on the other or -- actions, excuse me, they were memoranda, not everything was what it seemed, President Trump talking about that eviction moratorium.

But I went through the text in between when we talked to you last hour and now, and it's not quite an eviction moratorium. Instead, it calls on various agencies like Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control to, quote, consider whether it was necessary to temporarily halt evictions, so a lot of wordplay there. And then I want to also talk to you about another one of these, which was the payroll tax holiday for people who make $100,000 or less.

There are also a few complications with this, meaning that companies will have to sign on because eventually they will have to take that money out of paychecks, which will be a larger sum down the road, or people will have to pay an enormous amount of back tax. It's unclear how President Trump is going to handle that.

He said that he would dissolve those taxes if he was reelected. But I think you put it best when we talked about this about an hour ago, when you said he's temporary -- he's potentially putting millions of Americans on the hook to have to pay back all of those taxes.

Now, the last part of this will make people very happy. It was the student loan deferment. So people who have to pay off those student loans, it will be deferred. So as I know, a lot of people will be very happy about that but a lot of nuance in all of these different executive actions that President Trump signed today.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And potentially some legal challenges ahead to Nancy Pelosi, making clear that the President, the Office of the President does not hold the purse strings when it comes to the United States government. Kristen, the President in his availability before reporters, didn't stick around for long. He walked away in the middle of a reporter's question about veterans choice. What exactly happened?

HOLMES: Boris, this is something President Trump has talked about really since the beginning of his tenure, and he simply states it falsely. He says that he is the one who passed the Veterans Choice into law.

Now, of course, what Veterans Choice is, is it expanded the availability for veterans to choose care outside of just the V.A. And as you'll remember when this happened, when Barack Obama passed this into law in 2014, that is when we were seeing all of those horrible stories coming out of the V.A, people having to wait for hours, for days, for weeks. And this helped alleviate some of that.

[20:05:03]

Now, President Trump did sign an extension onto that to make it a more extensive program, but he did not put this Veterans Choice into law. And this is something he has said, according to a fact checker, more than 140 times, that this is his bill, his, you know, writings and putting out there. So if he was pressed on this issue, why he keeps saying this and eventually he stormed out, as we have seen him do in the past.

SANCHEZ: Yes. That's right. According to Daniel Dale, CNN's fact checker, it's at least the 143rd time the President has repeated that falsehood. And he almost always freezes it the exact same way, saying that they've been trying to get it done for decades and decades and no President has been able to do it. It was made into law in 2014. Kristen Holmes, traveling with the President near Bedminster, New Jersey, thanks so much.

I want to turn to South Dakota right now. One of the largest motorcycle events in the world is underway. The 10-day event expected to draw more than a quarter million people to the city of Sturgis, which has a population of just 7,000. That's where CNN's Ryan Young joins us right now.

Ryan, you're wearing a mask. They are not being required there. You know, a lot of the concern that we've heard from medical experts also has to do with what happens as the sun starts going down and people start heading to restaurants and bars. Not much social distancing there. Tell us what you're seeing.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Look, when you look at the numbers of people who showed up to this city, when you have a city that's just 7,000 people everything that could possibly swell to such a large number, you can understand why people are going to be paying attention to it.

But I can tell you, we talked to dozens and dozens of bikers just about the idea of them wanting to come here, not to miss this event. They said they look forward to this every single year. They were not going to be deterred by COVID-19. So you put all that together, you know that people are going to show up in force.

But when you look down this direction and you see all the people down here, one thing you don't see Boris, excuse me, is a lot of mass. And that is the thing that you don't see all throughout this area. In fact, take a listen to one of the bikers that we talked to earlier about what they've seen and what's been going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are trying to kind of social distance. We haven't like, when we went to the bar, just a drink here, there, and then leave. It's too crowded. We really stepped out. So we're trying to still practice social distancing while enjoying the event.

YOUNG (voice-over): Are you worried COVID at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, no. We're going to get it sooner or later.

(voice-over): So that's how you feel, no mask, that you don't --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No mask. As you long as you ain't seeking you've got no business being out here, that's the bottom line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Boris, think about this. This state here has had less than 10,000 people test positive for COVID-19. So you can understand there are some concerns in this community. We have talked to folks who have shut down their businesses here because they didn't want to deal with all the folks and the influx that have shown up.

The other side of this is the weather has been pretty good. There's a lot of camping. So they're not in hotel rooms. They're spread out in R.V.s. They're at 600 acre sort of campground. And that's what a lot of these concerts going to be going on.

But I will tell you, when you go to the main street and you see all the bars and restaurants full, it's like pre-COVID times when people not really social distancing. They are having a good time.

And on top of that, there's a lot of people who say, look, we don't even wear helmets when we ride a bike. This is part of being free. It's a choice that they are making. They want to continue to make that choice. And that's one of the reasons why they say, they don't plan to wear masks.

But just last hour, we talked to a couple who showed up here. They were wearing a mask. And they said, look, we had to make that decision based upon our health. So you can understand it from that perspective as well.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Deciding not to wear a helmet when you're riding a motorcycle maybe puts you in danger, but potentially spreading this very contagious, very deadly virus. You're putting a lot of other people at risk. Ryan Young reporting from South Dakota, thank you.

The large event in Sturgis comes as the U.S. approaches 5 million coronavirus cases. And joining us now to discuss, emergency physician Dr. Megan Ranney and CNN medical analyst Dr. Seema Yasmin. Dr. Yasmin, I want to start with you. All these people from all over the country at a mask optional event, as you heard from Ryan, not much social distancing, giving everything we know about coronavirus and asymptomatic spread. Is this a good idea right now?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So, Boris, this is an event that last year drew half a million people from around the country to this one small town. And this year, we think that a quarter of a million people will converge on Sturgis, which, as you said, is home to only 7,000 residents, 60 percent of whom said they don't want this event to happen. Now, this is an outdoor event. So we think that that does reduce the risk of people becoming infected. But the issue is the after party. What happens after the outdoor celebrations? It's likely that people will converge in the kinds of bars and restaurants that Ryan was just showing us. And in that kind of close quarters, especially when you end up indoors sharing restrooms or you're sharing a tent with others, that's when infection can happen.

[20:10:05]

Again, remembering that about 40 to maybe even 50 percent of transmission happens from people that don't have any symptoms. And of course, this is all happening in South Dakota, which has never had a mask mandate, does not have a mask mandate. Now, Ryan, of course, was being very responsible, wearing a mask, but many around him were not.

So the concern then is that there is a local hospital that's added about 172 beds in case there is a surge in COVID-19 infections. They've also said they're going to add 1,300 tests for anyone that goes to this festival and then wants to get tested afterwards.

But 1,300 tests for a quarter of a million people. That's not very much. And of course, I really worry that we'll get that quarter of a million people then riding back home to states around the country, possibly taking the infection with them.

SANCHEZ: And yes, and Dr. Ranney, I wanted to dovetail off that point. How concerning is it that at the end of next week after this 10-day event, all these folks from all across the country are going to be heading home? What are the chances that this becomes a super spreader and how soon will we know?

MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, LIFESPAN/BROWN UNIVERSITY: You know, Ryan, I think that -- or Boris, excuse me, I think that you hit the nail on the head by identifying that this is a unique event and that it's not just about their own health, but also about the health of their communities.

You do have these 250,000 people coming from across the country. We know that about 80 percent of infections come from about 20 percent of people. Those super spreader events are real. We have reports from across the country of one person infecting 90 or 100 or even more. And so, if you have a few of those infections that start at Sturgis, people go back home. They then have the potential to spread in their own communities.

And of course, we know that those positive tests and those initial symptoms are not going to show up for somewhere between 5 and 14 days. So we're looking at about a two-week lag until people start testing positive and until they know that they've spread it to their own community. This has the potential to seed new hotspots literally across the country.

Now, as Dr. Yasmin identified, people are outside, which is the one really positive thing and may protect us from this having a negative effect on the incidence of COVID-19 across the country. But those bars and those after-hours events are what do you make me and other public health officials quite nervous.

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially when you hear that they're holding concerts. It doesn't sound like conditions for social distancing are going to be enforced either. Dr. Ranney, I want stay with you and ask you about something that Dr. Yasmin brought up, and that's a mask mandate. How troubling is it to you that there isn't one, whether in South Dakota or federally?

RANNEY: So, Boris, I and a few other physicians actually wrote a piece in health affairs this week, Dr. Aurora, Dr. Bursztyn, and Dr. Jain suggesting that there should be a federal mask mandate. We know from studies across the country that when there is a mask mandate in place, the number of infections drops dramatically. There have been studies suggesting that mask mandates are actually more effective than lockdowns.

So if we put mask mandates in effect, we may not have to go back into shutdowns. And moreover, mask mandates can save us money and allow us to save our economy. Of course, as the interviewees from Sturgis mentioned to Ryan, there is that concern about personal liberty. But again, here it's about keeping the community safe.

If we have mask mandates and allow businesses to insist that people wear masks and then protect not just the customers, but again, the entire community. Mask mandates really should be enforce in states across the country and ideally on a federal level.

SANCHEZ: I thought it was really notable part of the rationale for hosting this event this year was to boost tourism and businesses there. But Ryan, as he reported, several businesses deciding to close down because they didn't want to deal with the crowds. Dr. Yasmin, the President has continued saying the country is making great progress in the fight against the virus that we're doing, everything that we can do. Is the U.S. really making progress?

YASMIN: It doesn't seem that, Boris, because even in some of those states, here in California, for example, where it feels like, we were a hotspot, but now cases are on the decline. Actually, it turns out that we've had technical glitches and may have been undercounting cases for a long time. And so much of our failure, it feels like, in responding to this pandemic, goes back to February and goes back to our failure of testing.

So back then, you know, the CDC sent out those faulty test kits and we still quite haven't gotten our act together. And testing is so important because it helps you distinguish who's a case from who's not, who needs contact tracing.

Right now, we're only doing about 800,000 tests a day, which is so far below the minimum daily target of at least 2 million tests a day, if not 4 million tests every day. That's what we need to do to get a handle on this. So you combine that testing failure with the lack of a federal mask mandate and really the lack of a cohesive federal plan altogether.

[20:15:11] And that seems to be where the biggest failures are. And it looks like that's why we're not getting a handle on this. We keep seeing if it's not one region that's a hotspot, then it's another reason, then it's another region. And we're not getting this under control as we could be.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Ranney, you're on the front lines. We're six months in. Why do we still lack reliable testing?

RANNEY: I wish I could answer that question, Boris. It flummoxes me and other frontline physicians every day. You know, most of the major hospital systems have set up ways to do their own testing internally, but even we lack access to adequate supplies of those reagents and the swabs that are needed to do the tests.

And then for states that are trying to send out labs -- to send out tests to commercial labs, they're facing backlogs of five to seven days. Many of us believe that, as Dr. Yasmin mentioned, if the CDC had been better empowered early on, if we use the resources of the international community that the WHO was offering, we may be in a better spot.

Additionally, if the federal government had developed a national strategy around testing back in February, March, even April, we'd be better prepared now. And what really worries us is we're just heading into the fall. Schools are reopening, colleges are reopening.

Respiratory virus season is coming. If we're facing backlogs of tests now, it's going to be nothing compared to what we're going to see in September, October, November, and beyond.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Megan Ranney, Dr. Seema Yasmin, we appreciate you sharing your insights with us. Thanks so much.

YASMIN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We want to -- of course, we want to take a closer look at Arizona now, where the virus case count is down. But the crisis is far from over, the state facing the obstacle of thousands of students returning to classrooms and university campuses. Coming up, you'll hear directly from Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego on how his state plans to fight the spread. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[20:21:14]

SANCHEZ: Arizona tonight ranking seventh among states with the most coronavirus cases, the death toll now topping 4,000. And there are now more than 185,000 cases in all. There's a lot of anger. But the state's early reopening on May 9th may have caused the numbers to skyrocket. Miguel Marquez shows us how the next major milestones on the calendar are only adding to the fear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Arizona at a crossroads, cases decreasing, but still a lot of virus out there just in time for high season in the desert.

WILL HUMBLE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ARIZONA PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION: We've got to get our act in order now to prepare for the fall when the winter visitors return, when the cold and flu season returns.

(voice-over): In addition, some 70,000 students will soon return to Arizona State University, tens of thousands more to universities statewide. And many K through 12 schools are expected to begin soon, offering at least limited in-person instruction, Arizona in a race to tame its outbreak.

HUMBLE: To think that this virus is in control I think is a mistake. And I've heard people say that.

(voice-over): The state's positivity rate has dropped from more than 27 percent in July to just over 16 percent now. Guidelines for fully reopening schools here say the positivity rate among other factors should be at 5 percent or lower on a two-week rolling average.

MAYOR REGINA ROMERO (D), TUCSON, ARIZONA: When Governor Ducey decided to open up the state, we were at 18 cases per day.

(voice-over): In this --

ROMERO: In Pima County.

(voice-over): Right.

ROMERO: Yesterday we had 283 cases. And that's a good day.

(voice-over): Like all local officials, Tucson's mayor was barred in May and early June from issuing mask orders. Arizona's governor reversed himself on June 17th, reimposed restrictions on businesses and allowed localities to require masks in public.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We saw in Arizona, which was a good example, they went up and they started to really clamp down and do things right and the cases came right down.

(voice-over): But Arizona has a long way to go. Before reopening, Arizona's daily case count was in the hundreds. By July 1st, it was nearly 5,000 new cases every day. Today, the state is seeing about 1,500 cases daily. Much of the spread attributed to the state reopening too aggressively. Even some business owners agree.

LEON ESPINOZA, OWNER, ESPO'S MEXICAN FOOD: It went crazy. It was as if they declared that the pandemic was over.

(voice-over): Esco's has dished up Mexican food for 56 years. Its owner, Leon Espinoza, shut his own restaurant down until the spread of the virus slowed. ESPINOZA: It took on this big financial hit so that we could concentrate on being safe. Our health and well-being is the foremost important thing here at the business.

(voice-over): The Grand Canyon State learning that lesson the hard way.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Miguel, thanks so much for that.

Let's bring in Arizona Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego. His district covers much of Phoenix. He's joining us now over the phone. Congressman, you know full well the points that Miguel made in his report. The tourist season is coming. The schools are reopening, at least to some extent. How worried are you about more spikes in Arizona?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): I'm very worried. To begin with, we did not have a proper plan when we reopened. The governor urging President Trump just to reopen businesses and as soon as that happened, we had a huge COVID infection. And now with the cool season coming and potentially schools reopening, I don't see the same level of intensity that you see in places like New York State in terms of preparing for a potential spike in COVID infections.

[20:25:16]

SANCHEZ: Now, Congressman, I'm curious for your reaction to the President's executive actions today after the stimulus talks collapsed, the President arguing that Democrats forced his hand. What do you think?

GALLEGO: Well, I think its typical chaos from Donald Trump. He doesn't know how to lead. The whole time the Democrats that have been negotiating with Republicans, he's been -- that's not leadership. And not only that, but his proposed solutions only create more chaos and less predictability.

And, you know, if he actually truly cared about what's actually happening out there, especially when it comes to unemployment, he would get into the weeds and work with Pelosi, work with Schumer, and Mnuchin to get this done.

SANCHEZ: So his actions on enhanced unemployment benefits leaves 25 percent of the cost for states to cover. CNN spoke to an official from a northeastern state run by a Democratic governor who laughed at that idea, saying, quote, we don't have that money because of the pandemic. Given the issues and coming up with a deal, do you think Congress is going to find a way to cover that 25 percent gap?

GALLEGO: No, I think that we should come up with a deal that covers the $600. Again, this is a haphazard approach to leadership that consistently is taking. There are too many demands that our state governments have right now. And having them come up with 25 percent of the unemployment benefit, it just doesn't make any sense.

Instead, we should focus on making sure that families get the opportunity that they need and also the resources that the state needs to keep the government open. And that could be the solution, not these haphazard deals that he's trying to put together.

SANCHEZ: Now, I want your help to understand some of the thinking here. The Democratic leadership walking away from the negotiating table, largely because Republicans refused to give a trillion dollars for state and local governments, doesn't that open Democrats up to attacks from Republicans who will say that at a time of desperate need, Democrats wouldn't agree to offering Americans some form of help?

GALLEGO: Well, look, we know the negotiation tactics of the Republican Senate right now. They had 12-weeks since the Democratic bill passed and they did nothing. At the same time, they accuse Democrats of defunding police and public safety. While we're actually trying to make sure that our frontliners and first responders kept them -- keep employed.

And what we need is true leadership from President Trump and some collaboration and negotiation from the Senate so we could come up to a compromise. We want a solution that's going to last until December 31st, not a stop that measure.

SANCHEZ: All right, Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona. Unfortunate that you had some connectivity issues, but we're glad that we were able to get you on the phone. Thank you very much, Sir.

GALLEGO: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We have a quick programming notes in an all new episode of United Shades of America, W. Kamau Bell goes to Austin, where people there, like millions of Americans, are now working multiple jobs in the new gig economy. Don't miss it. It's right here, tomorrow night at 10:00 on CNN.

[20:28:43]

Teachers in Georgia's largest school district staging a protest. This hunkathon coming after one county announces it will phase students back to in-person learning at the end of the month, details on the other end of a quick break.

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[20:30:26]

SANCHEZ: Georgia was one of the first states to reopen, and now, only four other states, and the New York City area have more confirmed cases of Coronavirus than the Peach State. The numbers are still high, more than 213,000 total cases, with more than 4,400 of those reported just today.

This grim reality is hitting home for the state's public school teachers who are struggling with the push to return to in-person classes.

CNN's Natasha Chen reports on their dilemma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

BRIAN WESTLAKE, GWINNETT COUNTY TEACHER: It seems like standardized test scores matter a whole lot to this county, but overall test scores don't seem to matter enough.

CHEN: Teachers honked from inside their cars in Gwinnett County outside of Atlanta this week as a socially distant protest, in contrast to the one organized by some parents two weeks ago in the same spot, calling for face to face instruction.

A district spokesperson said their difficult decisions will not be popular with everyone, but say they're committed to student's health, safety and education.

ANTHONY DOWNER, GWINNETT COUNTY TEACHER: But it seems that they keep making the decisions, milk toast decisions that placate different parties without considering that we need consistency and we need bold leadership.

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

[20:35:03]

TOYE POWELL, SECOND GRADE TEACHER: I'll be in the room teaching children on top of also teaching online children, so I actually have three jobs, a mom, a classroom teacher, and an online teacher.

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

POWELL: This is not well-thought out at all.

CHEN: The fears are real, with about 260 Gwinnett employees already testing positive or in quarantine before school has even started.

In Cherokee County, at least 260 students and eight teachers are quarantined after several people tested positive during the first week of school.

In Effingham County, WTOC reports one person tested positive at an elementary school resulting in an entire class being sent home.

And in Paulding County, this image resulted in a suspension than a reversal of that suspension for the student who posted it on social media.

HANNAH WATERS, PAULDING COUNTY, GEORGIA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: This is some good and necessary trouble, so I don't regret this because it's -- it needed to be set.

CHEN: Watters said she was concerned for everyone's safety. The Paulding County Superintendent sent a letter to families saying crowding in between classes for five minutes may happen in a school with more than 2,000 students and they're complying with state guidelines.

This kind of anxiety is what Gwinnett teachers say keeps them up at night. Even though special ed teacher, Nicole Conway, loves her job and her students.

NICOLE CONWAY, SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER: 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.

Natasha Chen, CNN Suwanee, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much, Natasha.

The President's polling numbers appearing to stabilize, but is it enough to make a ground loss to Joe Biden? The latest on the 2020 presidential election with our polling guru, Harry Enten, next. Stay with us. You're live in the "CNN NEWSROOM."

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[20:40:05]

SANCHEZ: Just 87 days until the presidential election, and new polls show that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, is holding his lead over President Trump.

Joining us now to discuss the polls, CNN Senior Political Writer and Analyst, Harry Enten.

Harry, thanks for joining us this Saturday night. Break it down for us, if these averages of polls were the results, what would they tell us?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER: Right. So, you know, number one, Boris, the thing that I keep pointing out, you know, it's obviously all about the Electoral College, right?

SANCHEZ: Right.

ENTEN: And I've been putting out this map, which is essentially what the polling averages look like in the individual states. And if that was the end result, where would we be, right? We're still, as you say, a little under 90 days to go. But right now, we see that Joe Biden holds a clear advantage. He had get 353 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 185. That's pretty much what's been going on the last few weeks.

But here's something that I think is so important, right? And that is the trend line and we can see that best than the national polls, right? If we compare where we are right now, compare that to where we were, say, just about a month ago on July 1st. And what we see here is that Donald Trump is not losing momentum anymore.

You know, we saw a big drop in the polls going into June in July. But at this point, it's sort of stabilized. So, Joe Biden still out in front, but he's out in front by eight, instead of being out in front by 10, as he was, say, a month ago, so perhaps a slight tightening in the polls right now.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're just nine days out from the Democratic National Convention. You've said that Biden is in a better position than Hillary Clinton ever was. How is that the case?

ENTEN: Yes. Look at this, I think it's so important to look at the polling average right now nine days out versus nine days out from the conventions the last time. And what we see here, the number one thing I would point out to you, it's not the margin between the candidates.

Yes, it's true by both the larger lead over Trump and Clinton did at this point in the 2016 race, but look at the individual numbers for both Biden right now and Clinton right now. And what you see is Biden is after about 50 percent, 51 percent the average, Clinton wasn't anywhere close to that.

There were a ton more undecided at this point in the 2016 campaign. And when there's undecideds, there can be more volatility. And right now, what we're seeing in the 2020 polls is not a lot of volatility, in large part because there are many fewer undecideds than there were back then.

SANCHEZ: Now, Harry, I'm curious, because we're talking about the convention, typically after the in-person conventions, the -- what we've seen historically, there's a bump for whichever party hosts their convention. Now, because they're all virtual, do you suspect that there might be a change in the bumping polling that we see post- convention time?

ENTEN: You know, this is a great question. You're right. You know, normally you see these bumps that occur, right, especially for the more successful convention. But, you know, I've done a lot of research on this. And what we do know is the bumps have tended to shrink over time, that is, in 2016, there was a lower bump than perhaps you would expect the 1984.

Well, Walter Mondale actually came very close to Ronald Reagan, despite the fact that he ended up losing the election by nearly 20 points, so to take into effect -- take that into account right that longer term trend, and then all of a sudden you're not even having these in-person conventions. I really wouldn't be surprised if the conventions really don't produce that big of a bump. But, of course, this year, everything's so crazy who can really say?

SANCHEZ: Unprecedented times, right? So, let's talk about mail-in voting. President Trump has relentlessly attacked the idea, he even sued the state of Nevada this week for its vote by mail plan. But he says he supports places like Florida and Arizona voting by mail. Do you think this could have any influence on how Democrats and Republicans might plan to vote?

ENTEN: Yes. I think it's going to actually have a huge impact. We already see it in the polls right now. You know, usually last time around, only about 25 percent of American voters actually cast their ballots by mail, 26 percent are Democrats, 23 percent are Republicans. Look at the number on your screen right now. That number for Democrats has doubled, doubled from 2016 percentage of Democrats who say they're going to vote by mail.

Republicans are about stable if not dropped a little bit, so it's clearly having an impact. And what's so important, Boris, is that we're, in fact, less than a month away from when the first state starts sending out their absentee ballots to voters. North Carolina starts on September 4th, and a slew swing states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, Texas, all them start voting in the month of September.

[20:45:15]

So, the fact is, early voting by mail is going to be a huge impact in this election. And, of course, in a pandemic, you'd rather get votes on the board earlier than later because everything's so unpredictable. So, the fact that more Democrats say they're going to vote by mail, could in fact be a little bit of a push in their favor.

SANCHEZ: There are a lot of key states on that list. Harry, right now, Biden is weighing who he's going to pick for his running mate, how much could his pick change the poll numbers?

ENTEN: You know, I love VP picks, because I think there's just such palace intrigue, right? You never know what exactly is going to happen. Who's going to pick? I don't know, you know, there's no model for this.

But what I will say is, generally speaking, vice presidential picks don't have that large of an impact. You know, perhaps it's a percentage or two in the home state that the VP comes from, but I think the one key thing that the literature teaches us is that voters do not like when presidents or presidential nominees pick someone that they believe is unprepared for the job.

So, if there's one thing I will say and I think Biden's weighing this heavily is he doesn't want to pick someone who's seen as unqualified. That was something like John McCain did back in 2008 where voters really liked that he picked Sarah Palin too much.

SANCHEZ: All right, Harry Enten, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

ENTEN: My pleasure, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course, you too.

Testing delays and supply shortage, coming up, a CNN investigation on why coronavirus testing is still an issue so many months into fighting this pandemic. Stay with us.

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[20:50:05]

SANCHEZ: Now to a new CNN investigation into the ongoing coronavirus testing crisis in the United States. The Trump administration testing Czar, Brett Giroir, telling Jake Tapper, the federal government is doing enough with testing.

But our CNN Senior Investigative Correspondent, Drew Griffin, spoke with more than 20 experts and they made it clear what the federal government is doing is not enough. Here's what they want.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Why is coronavirus testing in the U.S. still a debacle? CNN spoke to state health officials, testing labs, test suppliers, hospitals and industry insiders, more than 20 testing experts, the overwhelming consensus, no federal plan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to have a better national strategy to deal with testing.

GRIFFIN: But wait a minute, wasn't there supposed to be a plan, a White House Coronavirus Task Force, and wasn't this man, Admiral Brett Giroir, tasked with the fixing testing? The answer to all three is yes. And according to Admiral Brett Giroir, the federal government is doing all it can.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: But it's not enough.

BRETT GIROIR, DONALD TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS TESTING CZAR: Of course, it's enough. Tell me one thing that we should be doing with any of these private labs that we're not doing or they're not doing their own and I'm happy to do it.

GRIFFIN: Well here, Admiral Giroir is what the federal government should be doing, according to those experts. First, National coordination of supplies.

HEATHER PIERCE, SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR SCIENCE POLICY AND REGULATORY COUNSEL: You have whether intentionally or not competition across states, across labs.

GRIFFIN: There is not enough of anything, those swabs, pipettes, the chemicals needed to perform a test called reagents, which is leading to huge competition between states and labs.

KARISSA CULBREATH, TRICORE REFERENCE LABORATORIES: So, if we had all of the supplies that we could use, we could perform around 10,000 tests per day, but we just don't have all of the supplies or all of the people.

GRIFFIN: Case in point, Tricore, New Mexico's largest medical lab is running just 3,700 tests a day, instead of the 10,000 it could handle, nowhere near its capacity.

CULBREATH: We need goals at a federal level and the support at the federal level for us to get to where we need to be for testing.

GRIFFIN: That sounds like a very polite way to say that if there is a national strategy, nobody in New Mexico knows about it.

CULBREATH: Probably yes.

GRIFFIN: One way to get more of those supplies is increased use of the defense production act or DPA. CNN previously reported how the administration isn't using the DPA as much as it could, a plan released by the Rockefeller Foundation, said the government should immediately invoke the act, specifically to increase supplies for reagents and machinery to process testing.

DR. RAJIV SHAH, THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION PRESIDENT: What we have seen is that industry left to its own devices is not going to produce the types of tests and the scale of tests necessary.

GRIFFIN: And several of the experts say the Trump administration needs to abandon its idea that the competitive marketplace will solve supply issues. It simply won't. And if you want proof, Dr. Rajiv Shah of the Rockefeller Foundation says turn on your TV and watch some sports.

SHAH: If you are a multimillion-dollar baseball or basketball player, you're getting tested quite often so that you can go to work. But if you're a teacher, if you're a healthcare worker, you're out there doing your job and asked to do your job without the benefit of support for testing, that's not fair and that's not right.

GRIFFIN: Heather Pierce with the Association of American Medical Colleges says it's time to let science lead this U.S. response.

PIERCE: That is not a market-driven response. That is something that requires the engagement of the public health community, the academic community, and the government public health forces.

GRIFFIN: In other words, a federal plan.

GRIFFIN (on-camera): The response to the story from the Department of Health and Human Services is that the department does have a plan and works with states to implement that every single day. But that a single national plan is inappropriate because states have different needs.

[20:55:11] On the issue of supplies, the department says it's simply unrealistic that the federal government can manage the supplies of every lab in the country.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

SANCHEZ: Excellent reporting from Drew, thank you for that.

President Trump signing executive actions to extend the enhanced federal unemployment benefits, but leaving a big chunk of the bill to states, many of which probably simply won't be able to pay, more on that, next.

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