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Known Cases In U.S. Now More Than Five Million; Trump's Executive Actions On COVID-19 Relief Come With Strings Attached; Masks Not Required At South Dakota Biker Rally Expected To Draw 250,000 People; NSA Says Russia, China Absolutely Tampering With U.S. Election Infrastructure; Trump's Executive Actions On COVID-19 Relief Come With Strings Attached. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 09, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

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[18:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington in for Ana Cabrera. Thanks so for joining us.

Today, no doubt, a milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, but it is nothing to celebrate. 5 million people in the United States now confirmed to have the coronavirus with the number of new infections and the deaths still on the rise.

And breaking news right now, this from Georgia, where a viral photo thrust a high school in the national spotlight a few days ago. That photo showing students packed in the school hallways, most of them not wearing masks and certainly not putting space between themselves.

I want to go straight to CNN's Natasha Chen who has the breaking news for us. Natasha, this is some startling news about that school. What are you learning?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, Jim, we're hearing from the school's superintendent, the district superintendent, sending a letter to families, a copy of which we've obtained saying that on Monday and Tuesday, the students of that high school, North Paulding High School, will be staying at home doing virtual learning. This is the time during which the school district and the school will figure out their next plan. And they'll be telling those families on Tuesday whether virtual learning will continue.

And just to give you some context here, they started with all the students in-class three days last week. They had already planned ahead of time to have the students at home Thursday and Friday to see how that first week went. And that same week is when one of the students who was on our air talked about the fact that she took pictures of what their passing time looked like in hallways when they were changing classes.

Now, during that time, you saw very crowded hallways and that went viral on the internet. The superintendent responded to that photo saying, yes, it looks bad, but the full context is that those hallways may look like that during passing time when you've got more than 2,000 students in a school, and that it was a fire-minute period. He emphasized earlier in the week that the exposure to COVID-19 is -- the risk is increased when someone is within six feet of a sick person for about 15 minutes.

Now, this weekend, the principal of that school told families that at least six students and three staff members have tested positive, and now, another 24 hours later, we're seeing this letter from the superintendent saying, Monday and Tuesday, they're going all-virtual so the entire campus can be disinfected, so that they can have time to consult with the public health department on what to do next, and they are, of course, taking things very seriously to give that message to families on what to expect by Tuesday.

Now, this school district is outside of the metro Atlanta area. It's not at all uncommon to be seeing these tough decisions being made. There are other districts in this area that have already reported more than 260 students and staff who have had to quarantine in Cherokee County, because some people tested positive there. In Gwinnett County, with largest school district Georgia, some of the teachers, they've only been doing prep in the classrooms so far, 260 employees have had to quarantine, have either tested positive or are in quarantine there as well.

So these are just numbers and reports that we're seeing now pop up in various school districts around the Atlanta metro area, of course, each of them taking a slightly different approach to whether they do virtual or face-to-face instruction. Jim?

ACOSTA: Okay. A very big development in that school that went viral last week with the photograph of those students in the hallway all crammed together next to one another. And now, it turns out this school is going to have to switch to virtual learning for a couple of days. That is pretty stunning stuff. Okay. Natasha Chen, thank you very much for that. We appreciate it.

And with me now to discuss, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN Medical Analyst and a Professor of Medicine at George Washington University, and Dr. William Schaffner, Professor with the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

I guess, Dr. Reiner, first, let me get your reaction to this. I suppose we should have seen this coming.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes, of course. Georgia opened with widespread virus in the community. And, actually, when you look at the CDC recommendations for opening schools that were just published about ten days ago, one of the caveats was a caution in communities with widespread virus.

So just to give you a sense, Georgia has about 4,400 new cases per day. So that's about 440 cases per million population. When Taiwan opened their schools in February, they had zero cases per million. They had no community spread. When Japan opened in April, they had about 3.5 cases per million.

[18:05:03]

And when Germany opened in May, they had 13 cases per million in the community.

Georgia has 440 cases per million in the community, about 3 to 3.5 times what is it in the U.S. as whole. There's too much virus in the community. It's nice that they're closing down the school to disinfect the school, but the virus isn't being transmitted by the school. It's being transmitted by the people who attend the school. It's in the community. Disinfecting the school isn't going to have a big impact.

ACOSTA: And, Dr. Schaffner, just to pick up on that, do you think the school made the right choice to close for just a couple of days or should they be considering staying shut down longer than that?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, Jim, I'm sure they are considering staying shut down for longer than that. One wonders about the elaborateness of the planning that went on in this particular school system because those students were not being masked. They weren't wearing masks. That's kind of elementary.

And I would have thought that in addition, obviously, to the issues that Dr. Reiner brings up because of so much virus, they've spread in the community, you wonder about how elaborately that particular school system has thought about moving into the new normal if the students are not masked. You have to wonder about the faculty and the staff and all of the other elaborate interventions that many other school systems are doing.

This is a big problem across the country at the present time. And I'll give them one gold star for pulling back, being flexible, reconsidering what they're doing, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Dr. Reiner, I mean, I have to say that one of the things that just stunned me about these photos coming out of this Georgia school, it's just the number of students who were not wearing masks. Should it be mandatory for students going back to school that they wear masks?

I mean, obviously, some of the kids, they were wearing masks, and good for them. But you could just tell in the photo so many were not. And it just seems kind of stunning to send children into an environment, into a crowded environment like that without masks on.

REINER: Sure, it should be. Look, if we're going to open schools -- let me take a step back. In medicine, we have something called shared decision-making, shared risk-taking, when physicians and patients talk about a procedure and discuss the risks and together decide whether the risks out -- whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

And so it's a similar thing in the community here in opening a school. We have to have shared decision-making along with the parents and the teachers and the school boards to understand whether the risks are really worth it. But a way to attenuate the risk obviously is to have, you know, alternate school days. So you're shrinking the population of students in the school at any one time, spacing out the desks, and having students wear masks. What's the downside for the students to wearing a masks? There isn't any, right? It's not an encroachment on their freedom, right? Your freedom to spread virus ends when your breath leaves your mouth.

It's a small price to pay for opening the schools, and I think that the only way to open schools, in just about any place in the United States, even places where the virus is much less widespread than Georgia right now, should be with universal mask wearing.

The problem is it's become a political football. If you support masks somehow, you're a Democrat, and if you're against universal mask wearing, you're a Republican. It's nonsense. The virus doesn't care. If we need to get back to a new normal, if we want to get back to a new normal, we have to do some things which are uncomfortable, some things which are hard. So let's just all wear masks. Let's be smart about it.

ACOSTA: And, Dr. Schaffner, I can just see school districts around the country, administrators around the country seeing what's happening in this Georgia school and saying, hold on a second, what are we doing with our planning for bringing children back into the classrooms?

What lessons do you think other school districts, other school administrators around the country, what should they drawing from what's happening in Georgia? Because, obviously, when we all saw these pictures of these kids jammed into these hallways, many of them without masks on, it just seemed, you know, just a given that something like this was going to happen?

SCHAFFNER: So I think there are some lessons, and if there's some good that will come out of this event, it's that other school systems should look very closely at it. Many of them have already. Staggered days, separating the students, staggered times of arrival so all the parents aren't there together. Not all the students eating in the cafeteria at the same time, some of the students actually eating at their desks.

[18:10:01]

Yes, disinfection of the school itself is important, but also wearing masks, very, very important.

If we do all of those things, I think at least some of the school systems can function, but they have to constantly look at what's happening in the community, what's happening in the school, and be prepared to spend more time teaching virtually rather than in-person. Flexibility has survival value here. It's very important.

ACOSTA: Okay. Dr. Schaffner, Dr. Reiner, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thanks for joining us with the breaking news for the school coming out of Georgia. Right now, the school that went viral last week with pictures of students crammed into hallway, many not wearing masks, that school now switching to virtual learning for two days while that school is being disinfected. This is breaking news coming into CNN right now. Just stunning news, and perhaps not surprising though after those pictures came out.

The student who took that picture, Hannah Watters, she's going to be joining my colleague, Boris Sanchez, next hour in the CNN Newsroom. So, stay tuned for that.

And up next, the president signed executive actions Saturday that he said would bring economic relief to millions of Americans. But will it really? We'll break those down those executive actions next with Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman.

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ACOSTA: President Trump this weekend at his luxury golf resort in New Jersey, he has been creating new policy on his own after negotiations on Capitol Hill for another stimulus package stalled with fanfare and a group of supporters around him. He signed executive actions.

Then he touted and said that they would bring much needed economic relief to Americans. But then the text of those executive actions, that came out, and it turns out parts of them don't exactly live up to what the president promised. And let's join CNN's Kristen Holmes about that. She joins us now.

Kristen, it sounds like you've got to read the fine print here in these executive actions.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Jim. So there are four executive actions, and three of them are incredibly complicated. So I'll start with easiest one, which is an executive action on student loan deferment. That is straightforward, it does exactly what it says and it lasts through end of the year.

Then a payroll tax holiday. This is very complex. We have heard multiple people weigh in that companies would have to get involved, they have to sign up, or people could be saddled with an extraordinarily large amount of back tax. So, a lot of questions still how that would work.

Evictions, it is not an eviction moratorium. This is the actual only executive order. And, essentially, according to a constitutional lawyer I spoke to earlier, it is President Trump asking agencies to play nice when it comes to eviction. There is no actual law there.

But then we get to the most complicated one, which is the unemployment benefits. And this is arguably the one that will affect people the most. I want to start by having you listen to what Larry Kudlow told Dana Bash about this program.

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LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: And I think it's going to come to about $1,200 per person. That's a huge --

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You keep saying $1,200 per person. Are you talking about in addition to the unemployment that they're already getting?

KUDLOW: Oh, no.

BASH: Where does that number come from?

KUDLOW: That's the payroll. I beg your pardon. The $1,200 will come from the payroll tax. It should be $800. I beg your pardon. It should be $800 for the unemployment.

BASH: $800 or $400?

KUDLOW: No, it should be $800. If the states step up, we're prepared to match. That should be, come out, $400 federal, $400 states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: OK. So, $1,200, $800, $400, which is it? Well, here is what we know, that people were getting $600 in aid per week from Congress. That was federal money that was going on top of what they were getting from the states. President Trump said that they will now get $400. That is not as simple as it sounds, is not as though this money is going to end up in people's accounts tomorrow.

Essentially, the federal government is only giving $300 and they're only giving that $300 if governors decide to pay that extra $100. So governors say, we don't have the money, our economies have been completely depleted from coronavirus, then no one in that state sees any of that $400.

And there's another complication, which is how exactly the states would get people this money. And I've talked to some expert who say, because the system is so complicated, states have to set up an entirely new distribution program, meaning that some people who need the money or were waiting for this money, might never get it. Because by the time those states actually get that program ready to distribute those funds, there aren't going to be any funds left, because it wasn't an infinite amount of money.

So this is very complicated and it's very important to break down to people, because we know, we've talked to so many people who are waiting for this money, they need that money for groceries, they need that money to get their kids ready to go back to school, to pay their rent. And they need to know that this is not just showing up in their account just because they were getting that $600, Jim.

ACOSTA: A lot of different numbers moving in all sorts of directions. Thanks for breaking it down for us and helping us understanding this all better. Kristen Holmes, thank you very much, we appreciate it. Now, I want to bring in Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times Columnist, Paul Krugman. Paul, this week, you wrote the U.S. to be heading for a greater recession, as you called it. Do any of the president's executive actions from yesterday ease those concerns that you have?

PAUL KRUGMAN, NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING ECONOMIST: No. I mean, your correspondent had it exactly right, this unemployment. The most important thing that's happening is the unemployment benefits, the supplemental benefits have expired. And this new thing, whatever it is, is both limited and it calls for a new program.

[18:20:00]

It calls for complicated actions from the states, more money. And there's one thing we learned, it's that our unemployment insurance system in this country is not designed to do complicated things.

The virtue of the last round was that it was very, very simple, just $600 a month. And even so, a lot of people took a long, long time before they got those benefits. Now, you're saying to states, okay, set up something completely new, use your existing bureaucracy, use your outdated computer programs and put it all together.

And, by the way, the money is going to run out in a few weeks, and this is just not going to happen. This is completely -- this is something that was thrown together by somebody who has paid no attention to how these things actually work, what it actually takes to get out money to people in need.

And so my concern, which is that we're going to see a collapse in consumer spending because people are desperate isn't delayed at all by this.

ACOSTA: I suppose uncertainty around these programs is going to contribute to that, because people might say to themselves, well, if I don't understand how this works and I don't know if I'm going to get this money, because of what the president described may not be what it's cracked up to be, perhaps I pull back?

KRUGMAN: Well, actually, if people understood how it works or actually how it doesn't work, it would be even worse, because there's nothing coming. For most people, there will be no relief.

Let me also say something about the payroll tax, which is the amazing thing there is that that is a really known bad idea. Even Senate Republicans basically said, let's forget about that. That's a really stupid idea. And then Trump comes out with it.

And I've been saying that this is the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy. It's a known quack remedy that everybody who knows anything has said is useless and dangerous, including Republicans, including Senate Republicans are contemptuous about the thing. And yet here it is as the kind of the centerpiece of this plan to rescue the economy.

So take the two of them together, an unworkable unemployment plan and a probably destructive payroll tax plan, and all of this on top of what are already really problematic negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. I don't know -- those negotiations might fail. I'm extremely worried. Again, a greater recession coming from it, but if there was any chance something might come out of it, I think Trump just blew it up at his golf course.

ACOSTA: And explaining the unemployment benefit, there are questions about the constitutionality of that and whether states will be able to afford it, as you were just saying. What about the constitutional questions of all of this?

As I was trying to ask Jason Miller, the president's campaign adviser last hour, he didn't really have a good answer for why conservatives are suddenly embracing something that they criticized President Obama, for example, for doing back -- something similar to it back when he was in office?

KRUGMAN: Yes, there's no real mystery. I mean, the principles can -- the rules are different if it's a Republican president. But, no, I'm not an expert on the constitutional stuff, but this is certainly skating very close. I mean, the power of the purse is supposed to represent the Congress.

It's not supposed to be the case that the president can choose to spend money that Congress hasn't appropriated, if he feels like it, and it's not supposed to be the case that the president can choose not to collect a tax that Congress has enacted into law. So you're having all of this stuff taking place with a -- what appears to be a complete disregard for the separation of powers.

Now, there are, you know, the stuff is complicated enough, and confused enough, and possibly ineffective enough, that the constitutional issues may not even come to bear because the whole thing is going to be such a fiasco. But, you know, if Trump were better at doing this stuff, then there would be real worries about whatever happened to democracy in America.

ACOSTA: And many of these states -- I mean, this has been one of the issues that really divided both sides in these talks. Many of these states are asking for another round of stimulus money, something Republicans have opposed, as we saw this whole thing play out this last week. What will happen if these states don't get this kind of funding that they've asked for, do you think?

KRUGMAN: Well, there's going to be tremendous cuts in public services, but also states -- there are -- most government workers in America are state and local workers. Actually, typically, about half are schoolteachers. So we're going to see mass layoffs of school teachers. We're going to see big cuts. So we're having two things about to hit us.

There's going to be this collapse of consumer demand because people are not getting unemployment benefits, and we're going to see a collapse of government spending at the state and local level because the states are -- and cities are running out of money. And put all of that together in a number, they're shockingly big. I kept on thinking, well, how big can this be compared with the coronavirus? But the answer is, actually, we're looking at a second shock that is a pretty -- pretty close in size to what the pandemic did.

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So, really, we're talking about on enormous hit to the economy all because we allowed things to drift, it would be because of Republican leaders. The Democrats had a bill three months ago. But because Republican leaders allowed things to drift and now time has run out. And we're about to suck hundreds of billions of dollars of purchasing power out of the economy at a moment when we already have mass unemployment.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, let's hope they wake up and get back to the negotiating table. Paul Krugman, thanks very much. We appreciate it. We'll see what happens. We'll see if that happens. But thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

On a normal day, the town of Sturgis, South Dakota has about 7,000 people. But over the next few days, a quarter of a million people are expected to visit for a biker rally, that in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic. We'll take you there live, next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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ACOSTA: A bike rally is drawing tens of thousands of people to a small town in South Dakota for what doctors warn could turn into a coronavirus super spreader event. The Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is happening right now. That's despite the majority of town residents opposing it. The event is expected to draw, get this, 250,000 visitors over the next week.

CNN's Ryan Young is there right now.

Ryan, we've watching you all day long for days now reporting on this. We are concerned about you. I hope you're staying safe. Obviously you've got the mask on there. But it looks like a lot of other folks out there are not wearing masks and not really adhering to social distancing guidelines?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely. Look, we've been here for the last few days and for the most part everyone has been pretty open. They've wanted to share their thought process about why they decided to come here. One, they didn't want to miss this massive rally.

The other thing that people wanted to express to us is a lot of people just like the guy who just walked by a second ago, basically he thought the fact that I was wearing a mask didn't make any sense. He's like, there's no way that this can stop COVID-19. So you have a lot of varying opinions here. Met a lot of scientists who basically are telling us they don't believe in COVID-19. That's one side.

There are other people who said, look, it's their freedom of choice. They can decide to do whatever they want to do. But I want to show you this video from down the street. It is packed here. That's the only way to explain this. If you've ever gone to one of these rallies, the bars are packed here, the restaurants are packed here. And quite honestly people are having a good time. This had been -- if someone's picked up emotions over the last few months of being stuck on the inside, they weren't going to miss this.

And you have people coming from all across the country to be here. And we've seen them from as far away as Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Utah, people who want to be out and about. They said they love this country and they decided to be here. In fact, take a listen to this couple that traveled here for three days from California.

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GARRETT MILLER, TRAVELED FROM CALIFORNIA TO ATTEND RALLY: I'm not worried about it at all. We're from California so you've got to wear masks everywhere you go. So honestly, this is kind of refreshing coming out and not have to worry about it.

SIA MILLER, TRAVELLED FROM CALIFORNIA TO ATTEND RALLY: I feel comfortable not wearing it. So it's good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And Jim, look, you've experienced this before. People often see us with the cameras and the mic, and they want to express their opinion about things. No different here. People riding up. They want to tell us that look, they believe some of this stuff that we've been saying for months is junk science.

Take a look from above and look at the crowd and see all motorcycles that are lined up on this street. This multiplies itself over and over again. When you look at the overall case numbers for the state it's below 10,000 so a lot of people feel assured of that. They also point to the president having that rally here on July 4th and they say, look, there were some firework display, without a super spreader event.

So there's no reason to go back and forth with people when they believe what they believe. Of course, there are people who are health officials who are concerned. Now this is an economic giant for the area. So there are some smaller businesses that are concerned about this.

They've actually closed their doors, but there's others who are banking on the next few days to fill their registers with money, because obviously it's been a very tough year for small businesses across America.

So a shot in the arm like this is unbelievable. And I can tell you, as you drive down the streets here it is just packed in terms of motorcycle after motorcycle after motorcycle, and on (INAUDIBLE), so, so far, people seem pretty excited about the events and that's, again, people also looking at most people wearing masks and saying, why are you even wearing one?

ACOSTA: Well, we're glad you're wearing one, Ryan, and we hope you continue to do so. We know you'll continue to do so.

And for anybody who's talking to Ryan Young out there, please be polite. He is a great guy and a great reporter.

Ryan Young, in South Dakota, thanks so much. We appreciate it. Good talking to you.

Up next, as Americans cast their ballots beginning next month, what are officials doing to make sure they're vote is safe. Your weekend presidential brief is next and you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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ACOSTA: Well, a sacred part of American democracy, the vote, is being threatened once again by foreign actors as we near the election. But today in a new interview National Security adviser Robert O'Brien offered more on what that could mean.

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ROBERT O'BRIEN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We've got our cyberteams in place. DHS is working very hard to track downloads from maligned actors but again it's not just Russia.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is it Russia again?

O'BRIEN: Well, look, we know it's China. We know it's Russia. We know it's Iran. And --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tampering with election infrastructure?

O'BRIEN: Well, absolutely. Trying to access secretary of State Web sites and that sort of thing, and collect data on Americans and engage in influence operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And time now for your "Weekend Presidential Brief" with CNN national security analyst Sam Vinograd.

Sam, great to see you. When asked about whether or not Mr. Trump has told leaders like Vladimir Putin to cut it out, the National Security adviser responded with this, quote, "I don't get into conversations that the president has with foreign heads of state."

As somebody who's covered the White House for a little while now, that is a stunning statement. What did you think of that? SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Jim, this is a

bad look from the U.S. National Security. I worked under two National Security advisers and I can tell you that advising the president on what to say to foreign leaders is considered a key part of the job. That's because these foreign leader calls require careful prep and the National Security adviser is viewed as best positioned to perform that function.

O'Brien, however, is seemingly bragging about his own negligence in this regard. His comments raise real questions about who is briefing President Trump ahead of these calls. If it isn't his National Security advisers, or if Trump is just winging it. For those reasons and so many more, Jim, it is a dangerous day when the National Security advisers brags on national television that he isn't doing his job.

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ACOSTA: Right. He's supposed to be in the room. He's supposed to be briefing the president on all of these things, prepping the president to get ready for these calls. And give us some more backgrounds, Sam, on what the National Security adviser said today about these threats. If what he says is true I suppose President Trump would have known about this for quite some time.

VINOGRAD: Well, having worked in the public release of intelligence, I can tell you that it is definitely available to the president in more detailed classified form before it's released publicly. So undoubtedly President Trump had this intelligence at his fingertips for some time. However, he has arguably continued to aid and abet some of the influence operations detailed in this assessment. Namely the Russian influence operations to degrade Biden and spread disinformation.

So this statement informs the public about foreign threats to our elections, but it also informs us about the president's priorities. He's continued to prioritize pursuing his personal political needs rather than integrating this intelligence into policies that help protect Americans.

ACOSTA: And on Friday as you know the U.S. intelligence community's top elections security official released a statement about the threat to U.S. election security. What did we learn from that?

VINOGRAD: Well, even the cleft note version of this statement is scary, Jim. The key takeaway is that four years into this administration, foreign actors continue to view U.S. politics as their playpen. Foreign threats haven't been mitigated under this president, arguably they've metastasized. Now if we dive into the details, this assessment does provide new information about which candidate certain countries prefer.

But the statement is misleading when we look at the threats themselves. The statement puts the threats from China, Russia and Iran into the same threat basket. That's mixing apples and oranges. According to the statement, for example, China doesn't want Trump to win re-election and they've upped their public criticism of the administration. That is a very far cry from Russia's active covert operations to degrade Biden and, for example, to spread disinformation.

This statement is unhelpful in that regard because it is confusing to the public to try to make sense of the different scale and scope of the threats facing our election.

ACOSTA: All right. Sam Vinograd, thanks for breaking it down for us. We appreciate it. Very important information. Thanks for joining us.

Up next, both Democrats and Republicans are criticizing the president for taking executive action on the coronavirus stimulus package. One even called it unconstitutional slop.

We will discuss that next, you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. But first, here's CNN's Christine Romans with this week's "Before the Bell."

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The jobs recovery losing some steam, but investors are relieved the July employment report wasn't worse. The U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs. The unemployment rate slipped to 10.2 percent. That's a sharp slowdown in hiring from the prior two months but was in line with expectations.

This week July retail sales could provide more insight into the economic recovery. Over the past few months sales rebounded as businesses reopened. But a spike in COVID infections has hurt consumer confidence. Economists expect retail sales rose just 1.7 percent last month.

Meantime, the flow of corporate earnings will slow this week. Overall, companies have delivered better than expected second quarter results with 89 percent of the S&P 500 reporting, 83 percent of companies have topped estimates. But analysts don't expect to see earnings growth until the first quarter of 2021.

In New York, I'm Christine Romans.

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[18:48:24]

ACOSTA: Unconstitutional slop, meager, absurdly unconstitutional. That's how politicians from both sides of the aisle are describing President Trump's move to bypass Congress and sign multiple executive actions yesterday aimed at people who are dealing with the coronavirus.

Paul Begala is a CNN political commentator and Mia Love is a CNN political commentator as well and is a former Republican congresswoman from Utah.

Congresswoman Mia Love, thank you very much, and Paul, thank you very much for joining us.

Let me start with you first, Congresswoman. I'm old enough to remember when conservatives used to rail against Barack Obama for executive orders and going around Congress with his pen and his phone, and so on.

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

ACOSTA: It feels like a million years ago but I do remember those things. Are you onboard with President Trump taking these executive actions?

LOVE: Look, I have never been onboard. I haven't been onboard with Bush, haven't been onboard with Obama, or even this president going outside of Congress, but I mean, I wonder -- it's really fascinating to me because we have been discussing this for two weeks and I have to say that this is an absolute failure of Congress to come to some sort of negotiation.

There are many people that are asking me, what is happening? My sister asked me earlier, what is going on? And I said, if you're waiting for Congress to come up with a deal then you're going have to hold your breath, because this is something that they're not going to be able to see eye to eye on.

And the other thing I want to say is, what are -- I guess I just want to know so I know exactly how to respond, what are Democrats really upset about? Are they upset that the president signed an executive order or are they upset that he did sign an executive order that mirrors the type of policies they want, or the stimulus package they want? Because those are two completely different things.

[18:50:13]

ACOSTA: Paul, what do you think of that?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I actually don't have as big a problem with executive action. I'm going to be consistent, too. I helped President Clinton when he was in the White House and we used executive authority. It's what this guy -- this president, forgive me, is using the executive authority for. He is suspending funding for Social Security and Medicare. That's what the payroll tax is.

The payroll tax fund, Social Security and Medicare. It's already taking a hit because Trump has got 10.5 percent unemployment. So we're already getting less money to Social Security and Medicare because the payroll tax is not raising enough revenue. Now he's going to take it to zero. This is a declaration of war on Social Security and Medicare. I think that's far more important than whether he does it through Congress or whatever.

And by the way, and I do admire Mia. But if President Trump wanted to deal with Congress, he shouldn't have been out there playing golf at his stupid country club, he should have been sitting down at the table with Congress and negotiating. That's what a real president does.

ACOSTA: Yes, Congresswoman, I guess I need to pressure you on that a little bit because you were saying, you know, you were describing this as sort of a breakdown of Congress. But Paul knows because he's been involved in these battles before, you know all too well because you've been involved in these battles before, President Trump was sort of MIA in a lot of these negotiations.

And I think Roy Blunt, the senator on the Republican side, commented that, you know, he told one of our reporters he doesn't want President Trump involved in the negotiations and so, can you fully blame Congress here?

LOVE: Right.

ACOSTA: Or as a Republican, can you see that perhaps the president should have been more engaged?

LOVE: I absolutely can. I absolutely can. And you know, I am not one to shy away from criticizing the president. I think that we've forgotten what Congress's role is and that is to make sure that they're the ones that are writing the laws and it is the president's job to execute those laws.

So I've been consistent when it comes to executive actions and executive orders. I really think that this is the job of Congress to do it because if Congress was able to actually put together a stimulus package that they are able to agree upon and you know what, compromise and negotiation is OK.

We can agree upon that. Then the president wouldn't have to step in, nor do we want him to step in to make these decisions. I think that it is overstepping and I think the overstep is happening because the same reason why Obama said it happened when he was president, it's the same reason why it's happening now. I really think that Congress needs to get together and really put -- really start to negotiate.

I think this is a perfect example of perfect being the enemy of a really good win. And the only people that lose completely is the American people that is waiting for Congress to do something.

ACOSTA: And Paul, let me switch over to this "New York Times" story about these discussions that were apparently going on between the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, and the White House. I'm sure you read this. Regarding adding President Trump's face to Mt. Rushmore.

I'm not going to say any more than that and just ask what did you think of that?

BEGALA: Yes. I -- we're much more likely to see his face on a mugshot, Jim, than Mt. Rushmore. I mean, let's face it, if it was Mt. Crook- more, maybe they'd put him on there. But this is preposterous. This is like I got to -- he's got a chance of winning the Heisman Trophy. It just shows you how delusional this man is. And he's got over 5,000 nuclear weapons. We have got to get him out of there.

I'm serious. Like he's out of his mind if he thinks -- I mean, it's just too preposterous to even state. And by the way, shame on Governor Noem who has a terrible COVID problem in her state wasting time making a four-foot mock-up of what Mt. Rushmore would like with Donald Trump's cotton candy hair on it? I mean, it's obscene.

ACOSTA: Congresswoman, Donald Trump on Mt. Rushmore. Your take?

LOVE: I don't have words.

(LAUGHTER)

LOVE: Most people -- look, we've got a lot of problems that we have to deal with. Again, I have so much respect for Paul and I have to agree with him on this. This is not something that we should be focused on. I mean, it's a little -- it's just a little presumptuous and arrogant, and from what I understand, I'm not -- we're not really sure he asked for it. If he did, he should stop. If he didn't, then great.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, Congresswoman, we appreciate your time very much. Paul Begala, who has a new book out, we appreciate your time very much. Great talking to both of you. Perhaps we'll put you on Mt. Rushmore, at least we will go there someday for a visit. How about that?

BEGALA: Mia would be on there, way before I ever would. She's a terrific congresswoman.

ACOSTA: All right, thanks to you both.

LOVE: I don't want it.

(LAUGHTER)

ACOSTA: All right. Thank you.

A quick programming note. In an election year like we've never seen, get ready for political conventions like no other. First up are the Democrats and Joe Biden starting August 17th, and the Republicans and Donald Trump take the spotlight starting August 24th.

[18:55:01]

CNN will have special live coverage every night at the convention starting at 8:00 Eastern.

I'm Jim Acosta. Thank you very much for joining me tonight. CNN's coverage continues with my excellent colleague, Boris Sanchez.

And the breaking news from the top of the hour, a suburban Atlanta high school confirming cases of the coronavirus. Boris will speak with the young woman who took the picture that went viral and put a spotlight on that school. That is after a quick break. Stay with us right here on CNN.

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