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Georgia School Highlighted in Viral Photo to Switch to Virtual Learning for Two Days; Trump Adjusts Unemployment Benefit with Executive Action. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 09, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:19]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Welcome and thank you so much for joining us. I'm Boris Sanchez in Washington.
Over five million cases of the coronavirus have now been reported across the country. And the rate of the spread is stunning. It took 99 days for the United States to surpass the first million cases and now each successive million after that has been surpassed much quicker. Look at the numbers. We went from four million to five million in all of 17 days. Yesterday alone, 1,037 Americans lost their lives to the virus.
That is the fifth straight single day that over 1,000 American lives have been lost. In fact, since July 21st, there have only been four days, four days, where the daily death toll has not surpassed 1,000. Despite what you've heard from the White House and other leaders across the country, the virus is by no means under control.
And now sobering and breaking news for all parents who remember this photo of a packed Georgia high school reopening. The photo showing students packed in a school hallway, many of them not wearing masks, certainly not putting space between themselves.
I want to get right to Natasha Chen in Georgia with our breaking news, and then we'll shortly talk to the student who took that photograph.
And Natasha, the school announcing that they're going to be closed for the next two days.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We just got a copy of this letter from the superintendent of the Paulding County public schools who says that, you know, they're going to have to have kids at home Monday and Tuesday doing virtual learning to disinfect the school, to give the district time to consult with the public health department on how they're going to proceed after this.
This letter comes one day after the principal told families of that high school that at least six students and three staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. And this letter tonight from the superintendent acknowledges that there could be more people who are still awaiting test results.
And so when you think about at least nine people, knowing they're positive with maybe more people waiting to see if they are, this was the move that they thought would be safest. Now, they are also saying that by Tuesday evening, they should be able to tell families how they are going to continue classes in the days after that. Whether the virtual learning continues or if they go back to the school building.
Now keep in mind, the school district had already determined that for the first week of class, they were going to have students in the building for three days and at home virtual learning for two days. Now that, of course, has been extended an additional two days into Monday and Tuesday.
I know you'll be speaking with Hannah Watters in a bit about the photo that she took of that crowded hallway. But just to keep in mind that when that circulated the internet, the superintendent also responded to that saying that, yes, it looks bad, but gave some context and said this is a passing period when students are going between classes and that it may look like that when you have more than 2,000 students in a school changing classes.
And he also emphasized at the time that this was following state education guidelines and he even noted the health department's guidance that exposure to COVID-19 is increased only when you're within six feet of a sick person for about 15 minutes. So he was giving all that context in relation to the photo, and then just a couple of days later, now we're learning of the positive test cases and the fact that students have to stay home a bit longer while they figure out their next move.
Of course this is not exclusive to Paulding county. There are other counties around Atlanta that are dealing with similar difficult decisions. In Cherokee County, after the first week of class, 260 students and staff have quarantined after some people tested positive. In Gwinnett County, where teachers up to this point have been prepping for class inside the buildings, 260 employees in that district are either testing positive or quarantined at this time. So this is all something that various districts are grappling with -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And something that we will likely hear more about as those nine cases perhaps expand into many more, especially seeing that picture.
Natasha Chen, reporting from Atlanta, thank you so much.
We're joined now by the student who took that viral photo that put the school in the headlines. 15-year-old Hannah Watters.
Ana, thanks so much for joining us. You're a sophomore at North Paulding High School. And we just learned your school is shutting down on Monday and Tuesday to disinfect after reporting nine new coronavirus cases. What's your reaction?
[19:05:01]
HANNAH WATTERS, POSTED VIRAL PHOTO OF CROWDED SCHOOL HALLWAY: I've heard from many friends that they've been getting tests or that their family members or that their teacher has gotten tested because it hasn't been safe over these few days and we were only in school for three days and the fact that we already have nine cases just at the end of that week is very concerning because even then we don't know how many people those nine people came in contact with and how many people aren't taking tests yet so they don't know, and then they come back possibly this week, too. So this is going to spread like wildfire in that school.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And you were sounding the alarm several days ago. Do you think the school would have done this if your photo hadn't gone viral?
WATTERS: I think it would have been later on in the year when they would have addressed what's happening, when more cases started circulating in the school. But I think it would have kind of gone under people's radar for a while, until people started posting videos and pictures about it.
SANCHEZ: I heard you speaking with my colleague Laura Coates a few nights ago. You said that posting this was good and necessary trouble, an homage to Congressman John Lewis. You were punished for calling attention to this. You were suspended and then the principal, as I understand it reversed that decision. School officials as you heard from Natasha there they were still defending reopening. But we won't even know if the school is going to reopen Wednesday. What's your message now to administrators?
WATTERS: We could have just delayed opening, like many other schools and many other counties, because most of them I've heard from friends that are opening on September 8th or around that time. So we could have delayed school so that we could find more safety measures to follow in the school and they would have found more plans for all the students and teachers and staff members but they kind of sent us into school and used us as guinea pigs to see what would happen later on.
SANCHEZ: Guinea pigs. I heard you mention that a lot of your friends and some teachers are getting tested for COVID-19. Have any of your friends expressed concerns or fears about going back to school right now?
WATTERS: We're all pretty concerned about going back and I know a lot of my teachers are too because we all want to go to in-person -- I have no intention of shutting the county down, the state down, because I know a lot of people don't learn well online, I don't learn well online. And I want to be able to go to in-person school, I want to be able to have some type of normality this year for my semester, but we can't if we're not safe.
SANCHEZ: Now the administrators have said that your picture is not fully in context. They're saying that students are actually transitioning classes, a process that takes five to 10 minutes. So the chances of exposure actually aren't that high. But do you buy that?
WATTERS: Exposure is, like, very high in the hallways because we're all smooshed together and -- yes, it's only five minutes to get to class. But there's barely any people wearing masks and we're all smooshed together. There's people trying to talk to their friends. And we're all coming from different classrooms. So it's -- the transmission rate is very high in that hallway.
SANCHEZ: Yes. What set this whole thing off is that you took this photo and posted it to social media. Pretty normal thing for a kid your age to do. You got suspended, the school lifting your suspension. Remind me, what reasons exactly did they give you?
WATTERS: They didn't give us any reason why they had lifted the suspension. They mostly just apologized and said that they did delete it, but they gave no reasoning behind why they lifted it.
SANCHEZ: Are you concerned at all that now that you've posted this, you're on national news, that maybe teachers and other students might look at you as a troublemaker, as somebody who is out to start a ruckus?
WATTERS: I feel like a lot of teachers have my back because they know how dangerous it is going to school. But I know that a lot of the kids I go to school with, I've already gotten backlash for it, I've gotten threats and things like that. But I know that I'm doing the right thing and it's not going to stop me from continuing doing it. But it is concerning, especially since it's a lot of the people I go to school with, people I've known for years now, that are threatening me now.
SANCHEZ: If you don't mind, tell me about these threats. What are people saying?
WATTERS: There's a group chat that a lot of people -- that the senior class in North Paulding has and I think almost all of the seniors are in it. And a lot of them have been screenshotting things and sending them to even my family or some of my friends and they sent it to us. And some of the things are like, we're going to jump every girl named Hannah in the tenth grade or Hannah is going to have a rough day at school on Monday or someone even said, I know where this girl lives because he lives in my neighborhood. So just not -- they're not entirely, like, something to worry about, but we do try to take them seriously.
[19:10:05]
SANCHEZ: But it's still -- I mean, that's saying you know where somebody lives in that manner, there's an insinuation there. Why do you think that is? I mean, when I was in high school, if somebody did something that gave you days off from school, usually they were congratulated. But these kids are angry at you.
WATTERS: I feel like a lot of it comes from the seniors, which is understandable because last year our seniors last semester, a lot of their senior year was taken away from them.
SANCHEZ: I see.
WATTERS: But it's happening again this year so hopefully it doesn't. I don't want it to. I've never wanted it to. But they think it is and they're trying to blame it on me, which I don't make the final decision at county office. I'm just trying to keep everyone safe. SANCHEZ: Yes. And what's your message to those students?
WATTERS: I just hope that sooner or later everyone can understand that I'm not trying to shut it down and when I did, quote-unquote, "expose" Paulding County, it wasn't to cancel the senior year, it's not to go after anyone, it was just to keep us all safe because you wouldn't have your senior year because sooner or later the school was going to shut down and if we shut down or just go online for a week earlier, we can contain it quicker and we can use the rest of your senior year, the rest of the school year normally.
SANCHEZ: Yes. There's also a toll that comes with coronavirus, the cost of life. And I think that far outweighs the cost of losing prom.
Nevertheless, Hannah, you mentioned that a lot of teachers have your back. What are they saying to you?
WATTERS: A lot of them haven't really said anything directly to me. But we've heard people, like, saying that they have my back or they have messaged or posted some things like, this is the right thing to do. And even though they can't really say much because they work for the county, I do have a feeling from a lot of teachers that they know I'm doing the right thing.
SANCHEZ: And how about your parents? How do they feel about all of this?
WATTERS: They are -- they've been telling me for a while now that they're proud of me and I've been doing the right thing.
SANCHEZ: Yes. You certainly have, Hannah. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate what you've done and, you know, keep fighting the good fight. Thanks again, Hannah.
WATTERS: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Of course.
Let's discuss further. We have Kathleen Sebelius. She's the former Health and Human Services secretary under President Obama. We also have Rochelle Walensky. She's a CNN medical analyst and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mass General Hospital.
Dr. Walensky, I want to start with you, the school in Georgia now returning to virtual learning for two days. Do you think they jumped the gun on reopening?
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good evening, Boris. Yes. I think we've seen in places that have reopened schools well, places in Europe, Norway, Denmark, that the case counts there were in the range of less than one per 100,000. Paulding County case counts were 20 fold higher than that. At 21 per hundred thousand over the last two weeks. So I think in that -- at that level of community spread, there should be no reopening of schools.
I commend the county for closing the schools when they found this. But, you know, I will say disinfecting these schools is like firemen going into a burning house and turning off the stove. That is not going to be the root cause of this problem and you really need to fix the problem. And the problem is that it is too dense. That there's not enough space between people and that people are not wearing masks. And until we can get the numbers from that community down and until we can fix the problems there, disinfecting the classrooms is not going to fix this problem.
SANCHEZ: Kathleen, I'm curious to get your assessment of what Dr. Walensky just said about firemen going into a burning building and only turning off the stove.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, FORMER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think Dr. Walensky is right on target. We know a couple of things about Georgia. One is that the death count is going up in Georgia. It's one of the 19 states where deaths are increasing. That should really alarm a lot of people as we look at spreading cases.
Hannah said it very well, the kids are being used as guinea pigs but we know they're not socially distancing, we know they are not wearing masks. We know that group sizes are too large. And I think that there's no question that two days off will not solve this problem. I'm not sure how many rapid tests there are in Georgia or how fast they're even going to know how many people were exposed to this early experiment.
[19:15:03]
But getting a handle on the overall community spread in Georgia is essential to open schools and they haven't really done that. So we're putting kids and teachers and their parents and their loved ones at serious risk. We know that children over the age of 10 are likely to be spreaders, the same way adults are spreaders. There's some evidence that seems that if you're younger than 10, maybe you don't spread it as efficiently.
These kids are clearly over 10 and there were lots of cases in the schools. So I think we've got a bad experiment going on and a very dangerous situation, and I'm glad that there's a student like Hannah who can actually use social media to bring attention to a situation that seems pretty out of control.
SANCHEZ: And Dr. Walensky, I want to turn to South Dakota now. An estimated 100,000 bikers are at the 80th Annual Sturgis motorcycle rally. We're told by our reporters on the ground there are very few masks being worn.
You're on the front lines of the pandemic. What is your reaction when you see these kinds of mass gatherings?
WALENSKY: You know, I'm less worried about the footage you're seeing and I'm really worried about the scenes that are happening that you're not seeing. So it is true that South Dakota is doing pretty well. The county they're in has case counts at around 10 per 100,000. And most of these people in the footages that you're seeing are outside. It is probably OK to not wear a mask outside on a motorcycle. It wouldn't be what I would do. But it probably is OK.
But what I really worry about is that 250,000 people are expected from all over the country. They've flown in. They've trained in. They are going to be dining tonight at some indoor restaurant, perhaps indoor and outdoor. They will be at bars every evening. They will be, you know, doing this for the next 10 days and then they're going to get, you know, on their planes and trains and they are going to go bring home whatever they mix together, whatever virus they may have contracted in those closed settings, and they're going to bring them to their community and they will probably leave some of that virus into the community of Sturgis with 7,000 people. So I think it's terribly concerning.
SANCHEZ: And Doctor, do you think more should be done from a federal level to try to mandate things like masks or other efforts at mitigation to prevent the spread of the virus?
WALENSKY: I certainly think so. I think that, you know, we are bickering about what a stimulus package would look like. The stimulus package is going to come every several months until we make a decision to instead fix the problem at the other end and try and give out money. You know, this is a problem that six weeks of stamina, of quarantine, of masking, of staying at home could solve. We just have to have the unification.
We have to fight against the common foe, which is not each other, it's the virus, in order to make this happen. And instead we are, you know, giving away money to try and solve the problem. That's not going to solve the problem.
ACOSTA: Now, Kathleen, I hope you don't mind if I pivot and ask you about Joe Biden. I have to ask you, he has said that he's very close to picking his vice presidential candidate, his running mate. The short list includes Senator Kamala Harris, Susan Rice, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Who would you like to see on the ticket with Joe Biden?
SEBELIUS: Well, Boris, I think the great news about this process is that since the vice president has said he will pick a woman, we've had a bright spotlight on these talented women from all over the country who are doing incredible leadership jobs as mayors, as governors and the House and Senate, and people have learned a lot about women's leadership.
So Joe Biden will pick somebody who is well equipped to be the next president of the United States, should God forbid something happen to him, and more importantly, somebody who he is very close to, simpatico with and would be a good governors partner. That's really up to him. But I'm thrilled with the opportunity for Americans to learn about women leaders all over the country and to know there are so many talented women in the pipeline.
SANCHEZ: Now at one point you were being vetted back in 2008 to potentially be Obama's running mate. Can you share what that process is like? SEBELIUS: Well, I would say it's humbling to have a candidate say to
you, would you be willing to be vetted for vice president? It's very surreal. The vetting process, at least the way it was conducted by then Senator Obama and I'm sure the way Joe Biden is conducting it is not fun, I would say. It's like a -- you know, think about an audit that is about your finances, about your personal life, about your children, about every decision you've made, every vote you've taken.
[19:20:12]
There's a lot of interesting conversations that result in that. But at the end of the day I wanted to do whatever I could. I think there's no question, President Obama made the best possible choice in Joe Biden. I was thrilled with it. I was thrilled to be able to participate on the team and I think this process has, as I say, highlighted this array of talent. But the personality of the two candidates who will run together, serve together is probably the most important factor once you establish the credentials and that's a very personal decision for Joe Biden to make.
SANCHEZ: Yes, he has passed two self-imposed deadlines to announce his VP pick. So it could come ostensibly at any minute.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Kathleen Sebelius, ladies, thank you so much for sharing part of your Sunday night with us.
SEBELIUS: Great to be with you.
WALENSKY: Thanks so much, Boris.
SANCHEZ: Of course.
President Trump said his executive actions this week will help Americans dealing with financial hardships because of the pandemic. But it turns out some of the directives don't actually do what the president said they would do.
We're going to break them down next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:33]
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. President Trump going it alone. Signing a number of executive actions this weekend that he says helped millions of Americans struggling financially because of the pandemic. That's after dealmakers from Congress failed to strike a stimulus agreement with the White House. One of the actions the president signed reducing the enhanced federal unemployment benefits. The new benefit puts some of the payment burden on individual states.
The president's top economic adviser had some difficulty explaining the breakdown this morning on CNN. I want you to watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: And I think it's going to come to about $1200 per person. That's a huge wage increase.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: You keep saying $1200 per person. Are you talking about in addition to the unemployment that they're already getting?
KUDLOW: Oh, no. That's the payroll --
BASH: Where does that number come from?
KUDLOW: I beg your pardon, the $1200 will come from the payroll tax. It should be 800 bucks, I beg your pardon. It should be 800 bucks for the unemployment.
BASH: 800 or 400?
KUDLOW: No, it should be -- 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)
SANCHEZ: Let's go straight to the White House and CNN's Jeremy Diamond.
Jeremy, Larry Kudlow there, fumbling the numbers. How exactly is the president's action this weekend being received even among Republicans, some of them are critical.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Larry Kudlow there was not at all getting the numbers right specifically on this question of the unemployment insurance. But even if you do look at what the numbers actually say, the president is facing some criticism already for these executive actions including from some Republicans. We heard the Republican Senator Ben Sasse call this unconstitutional slop.
On the Democratic side, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying this morning that these executive actions are absurdly unconstitutional. And as we have been reporting for the last week, we do expect Democrats to challenge the legality of these executive actions.
But then if you dig in to what these executive actions actually do, Boris, they do not exactly what the president said. Yesterday we heard the president talking time and again about this $400 per week in additional unemployment insurance that millions of Americans can receive to replace the $600 per week that had previously lapsed. It is much more complicated than the White House and the president yesterday acknowledged.
In fact, in order to receive that $400, not only would the states have to pitch in $100 per week of that, but they'd actually have to agree to even do that and to administer this additional benefit in order to receive the $300 per week from the federal governments. That means that if states do not opt into the system and you are unemployed in one of those states, you will not receive this additional benefit.
On the issue of evictions, as well, Boris, we had the president talking about the fact that he was reinstating this moratorium on evictions, when in fact all this does is direct the secretary of Health and Human Services and the CDC director to determine whether measures to halt evictions would be in the public health interest to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
And lastly, this big issue of the payroll tax cut which is one of those issues that constitutional experts have been saying, how can the president do this, taxing and spending power lies in the hands of Congress? The president was talking about this repeatedly yesterday as a tax cut. In fact, this is a tax deferral. Meaning that those -- that payroll tax that Americans typically pay on every one of their paychecks, they will still owe that money once this deferral is up.
Of course we heard the president yesterday floating this idea that if he is re-elected, he will waive that deferral, but, Boris, the president can't do that without Congress.
SANCHEZ: Yes. The president literally telling Americans, if you vote for me, you don't have to give this money back, even though he doesn't actually have the authority to promise that.
Jeremy Diamond reporting from the White House, thanks so much.
More than 200,000 bikers are expected to converge on one town in South Dakota for the next week. In Sturgis. And they're still revving their engines mostly not wearing masks despite the pandemic. Next, fears that it could turn into a coronavirus super spreader event.
Stay with us. We're live after a quick break.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It's day three of a 10-day motorcycle festival in Sturgis, South Dakota, a tiny town now bursting at the seams with bikers from all over the country.
It's estimated, the festival is going to draw a quarter of a million visitors this year. There's food, music, merchandise, but very few masks. They're only suggested, they're not required.
As in other states, South Dakota's numbers are on the rise again. A hundred and twenty nine new cases just reported today. The last time the state had that many new cases was back in mid-May. The bottom line, many health experts fear this festival is going to prove to be a super spreader event that could have reverberate across America when these folks head home.
CNN's Ryan Young, wisely masked is in the thick of things. Ryan, are the crowds getting bigger today?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Of course, you have the loud powerful engines from some of these beautiful motorcycles behind us.
You can understand as you look down the way here, look at the massive amount of people that are just out and about. This is what will be coming into the city.
[19:35:21]
YOUNG: Now, the city is about 7,000 people and it is swelling because of all the motorcycle riders that have come from across America to be here.
We've seen license plates from all across the country, people who have been traveling days to be at this event. Let's not forget, a lot of things have been canceled across the country. People are showing up here, but I will tell you, a lot of folks want to have their voices heard.
We've heard a lot of people say, this pandemic talk is just nonsense. They don't believe there is going to be any real risk. In fact, looking at some of the bars that were full just down the street from here. They were packed with people, not a lot of social distancing going on, and not a lot of masks.
We hear it over and over again, they are not worried about having to wear a master here and it's their choice.
In fact, take a listen to some of the people who we met over the last few hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that people are just pretty normal, and like, I don't think they are worried about COVID. I think they are just -- here is the thing though, with bikers, they are all good at social distancing anyway because they are on bikes and they are not right next to each other.
I guess, when you're right here, you have to make the choice if you want to eat next to somebody or not, but I mean, I am next to my family, so I'm good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't worry about it at all. We are from California, so we've got to wear masks everywhere you go, so honestly, this is kind of refreshing coming out and not have to worry about it.
YOUNG: What about you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The same. I feel, you know, he is out of the way, and I feel comfortable not wearing it, so it's good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: And you can look from above here and see the stretch of motorcyclese all the way down the road here. People have shown up by the thousands and say they're having a good time.
There's tons of American flags here. Harley Davidson motorcycles, really powerful fancy motorcycles, so to speak, also there are some -- there are custom bikes everywhere and we've been talking to shop owners about some of those custom add-ons. People are spending thousands of dollars here as they're starting to
get their bikes equipped. There are other businesses that serve food that say they haven't seen the sort of walk-in traffic that they normally see. So they're not making as much money.
But this is really the story right here. There's tons and tons of people clearly that are having a good time, enjoying South Dakota. I hope you heard anything I had to say, Boris because obviously, it is terribly loud here and these folks are having a good time, revving their engines up behind us, hoping to disturb the live shot, but it's all good, man.
The motorcycle sounds pretty cool.
SANCHEZ: Yes, they do sound pretty cool. We could we could make out what you were saying.
I do have a quick question for you, if you can hear me. Sturgis added extra hospital beds and tests ahead of this rally. But if this is indeed a super spreader event, a surge isn't going to hit from 10 to 14 days from now. What have we heard from local health officials about what preparations they're making?
YOUNG: The last part, I'll be honest, I don't know if I heard all the way, so I am going to just guess I think what you asked was how they're going to deal with this after the 10 to 14 days.
I can tell you, there are a lot of people who are staying at RV parks and they plan to travel all throughout the rest of the country. I talked to several motorcycle groups who say they plan to do the West Coast over the next 10 days. So they're going to go to Washington and Oregon and come back down.
So it'll be interesting to see where the people end up, Boris, if they get sick.
SANCHEZ: Yes, close enough. It wasn't exactly what I asked, but close enough. You do what you can in these situations. Ryan Young, appreciate you, man. Thanks so much.
Events like this simply don't happen in a vacuum. What is going to happen once those bikers leave town? There will almost certainly be consequences.
Laura Armstrong joins me now. She is the City Council President in Rapid City, South Dakota. It's the largest town near Sturgis.
Laura, welcome and thank you for joining us. Rapid City only about 30 miles from Sturgis. I assume a lot of the attendees are going to come through your town on their way home. They're from all over the country. Are you concerned about any spillover effects in your community?
LAURA ARMSTRONG, CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT, RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA: Well, thank you for having me, and absolutely. They usually -- the first part, they stop in Rapid City either flying in or they stay here. And the good thing about the Sturgis rally is it does go up and down the northern and southern hills with the motorcycles, but the big party and the big cluster is in Sturgis, which is about a 25-minute drive north of Rapid City.
SANCHEZ: Now, you're especially concerned about the effects that this event potentially as a super spreader could have on Native American communities in your area. Tell me more about that.
ARMSTRONG: Well, it affects our entire Black Hills community as well, and let me just start by saying, I'm not against the rally, I'm not against motorcycles or tourism, but not during a global pandemic. That's where I take issue.
SANCHEZ: Yes, of course and on that question of Native Americans, is that right, that you were especially concerned about that community?
[19:40:15]
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely. I mean, we see what happened down in New Mexico. It decimated the Native American reservation there and we have our -- we have a lot of reservations in our area and people of color, unfortunately, take the brunt of this, and it's something to be very concerned about.
I'm concerned about everybody, the people that live here and the people that visit here.
SANCHEZ: Do you think your hospitals are equipped to handle a surge in cases right now?
ARMSTRONG: You know, our hospital system, I think is fantastic. They have been extending a weekly conference call that we've been doing, I think close to three months now, and they have expanded and made appropriate accommodations for a surge. But we don't want a surge here. That's our issue right here.
I think that they're prepared. But my concern is, they have shared with us that there has been a disruption in the supply chain of our tests and we really need to increase the testing. We need to expedite the results and we really need to do much better and expand our contact tracing.
SANCHEZ: And is that something you think the Federal government should be responsible for, for maintaining that steady supply of tests and doing more to get rapid responses?
ARMSTRONG: I think we all need to do our part. You know, right now, the tests are being diverted to hotspots, but there's a really good chance that we might be a hotspot in the next two to three weeks.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And have you voiced these concerns to the City Council of Sturgis? I mean, from what I understand, some 60 percent of residents in Sturgis said that they did not want to hold this motorcycle rally this year. They wanted to postpone it, but the City Council voted to anyway. What's your communication with them been like? ARMSTRONG: You know, we have our sister cities up and down the Black
Hills and we've been communicating pretty frequently. I think our mayor has done a really good job.
But it's true. I mean, 60 percent of Sturgis didn't want this. And I would say about 60 percent of Rapid City had concerns as well. But then again, you have a good consensus that wanted this to go and they're tired of being in their minds, a lockdown and they want to get back to normal.
And I'm really concerned about our health and safety and wellbeing of our community.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and unfortunately, if it is a super spreader event, the effects will not just be felt in South Dakota because there are folks there from all over the country.
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely, these people are going to return to their respective states and we're never going to know if they contract it or spread COVID here, it's never in our data.
And we have our private schools opening in two weeks. We have our public schools opening September 8th, and I'm just really concerned. If you look at our Department of Health's website, they did not increase their testing goals for August knowing that this Sturgis rally is here. We're going to have our Central State Fair a week or so later. And then we have our Labor Day weekend right after that.
So there are three, back to back super spreader events and that's very concerning. I mean, you need to ramp up these testing goals. They haven't changed since July or June. They're the same.
SANCHEZ: All right, Laura Armstrong, we have to leave it there. We want to listen to President Trump who is returning from Bedminster, New Jersey. Listen.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... and we had it -- a lot of things were worked out. We're going to do a lot of help. We've got to help them.
A lot of countries are going to be helping. They think 150, but it's probably the number of loss there could be astronomical.
They say at least 5000 were injured and that means many hundreds of people were killed. That is a horrible situation.
So the United States is working very diligently. We have three planes going over, loaded up with medical supplies, food and water. We'll be sending additional planes. That took place this morning. It was a teleconference call with various leaders from -- and United Nations -- throughout the world.
Please, Jonathan?
QUESTION: How much aid is the U.S. pledging (INAUDIBLE) financial (INAUDIBLE) conditions attached to it? [19:45:10]
TRUMP: Right, we haven't given a number, but it'll be substantial. On a humanitarian basis, we have to do it. We have to do it. You can almost say how does the country survive such a tragedy? This was at a level of -- I have people over there, they said, this is at a level that we've never seen before -- the blast. They've never seen anything like it. So we'll be helping them and substantially.
We've had three major planes already over with a lot of medical, mostly medical equipment and various things to help. We have some excellent military that do this and they've reported back that they've never seen anything like this before.
So it's a horrific situation, but we'll help.
QUESTION: Mr. President, there was a lot of criticism today from Democrats on your executive order. How do you see talks going forward? Do you think talks will start again?
TRUMP: So the Democrats were just unwilling to do anything, and all they wanted to think about was how to steal an election. We discussed it yesterday, Jeff, where they wanted all sorts of things having to do with mail-in voting. They wanted no signature verification. They were asking for things that just had nothing to do with what we're talking about.
And we've been going through this routine for a long time, number of weeks, and it was time to act. And actually, we've been largely praised, we have to get money out to the people. It was China's fault. They did this horrific thing. It was China's fault. We have to get money out to the people.
So I would say, I mean, you may say that, you know, you've heard some negatives, but I've heard mostly positive -- mostly positive, even from people that you at least think would be very positive.
QUESTION: So likely talks will start again?
TRUMP: I hear that's what the Democrats want to do now. They want -- look, they were not interested in doing what they had to do. Their big point of discussion was bailouts. They wanted to bail out poorly run Democratic states, like, you know, I could name them. I could give them to you right now. But why do it? Because you know, the same states as I do, and cities, and we don't -- we're not going to do that.
We will help, but we're not going to do numbers. They talked about a number of a trillion dollars. We can't do that. Jonathan?
QUESTION: On the issue of unemployment insurance, the $400.00 There are some (INAUDIBLE) Democrats saying there is a lot of states can't afford their part of giving $100.00. Is that something (INAUDIBLE) that you're willing to give?
TRUMP: Yes, we have a system where we can do a hundred percent or we can do 75 percent, they'd pay 25, and it'll depend on the state and they'll make an application. We'll look at it and we'll make a decision.
So it may be they'll pay nothing in some instances. It may be a little bit like the National Guard. You know, the National Guard as you know, sometimes we will pay all of it, depending on the tragedy or whatever it may be, the disaster, and sometimes the state will pay 40 percent, 25 percent, 10 percent or nothing, depending on how it works out. So this would be --
QUESTION: How long will that --
TRUMP: We can make a decision on that on individual states with an application, okay?
QUESTION: Mr. President, is it time for you to personally (INAUDIBLE) Speaker Pelosi a call or invite her to the Oval Office?
TRUMP: Well, I've been involved personally and, you know, through my representatives who are wonderful. We have additional people, too, but I'm involved very -- you know, look, I've been on the phone a lot over the last three or four days and I think it actually works better if we do it the way we're doing it.
We've gotten much of what we've wanted, without having to give up anything and that's very good. You can't beat that. You can't beat the deal we've made. We've gotten much of what we wanted and they didn't get what they wanted and they would have. And I guess they still do in all fairness.
I mean, I hear that Nancy Pelosi wants to call and she wants to see if she could do something, but they're much more inclined to make a deal now than they would have been two days ago.
QUESTION: Has she called? Have you seen her?
TRUMP: Yes, I talked to them.
QUESTION: Mr. President, you mentioned the Postal Service. We've seen some cutbacks. Is now the right time to be doing that? And is it going to be prepared for November? Would you think about doing any sort of actions on your own?
TRUMP: Well, I didn't speak to the Postmaster General of the Post Office. I know this. He is a very good businessman. He's very successful. And I know he wants to make the Post Office at least somewhat, lose a lot less money. Its cost so much money over the decades. Nobody's ever -- nothing loses money like the Post Office.
And he wants to make it successful. He wants to make it so it can operate so that you don't have to give $25 billion a year to sustain itself. So you'd really have to ask him those questions, but he wants to make it self-sustaining and successful.
He's a very, very smart guy. He is a great businessman. So let's see what he could do. [19:50:18]
QUESTION: You have confidence in the Postal Service for November?
TRUMP: Well, I have confidence that they're going to make it into something. But as you know, it's been losing massive amounts of money over the last number of decades, massive amounts of money. This is not something new. This is something that's been taking place for a long time. It loses a tremendous amount of money.
QUESTION: But you -- there is some criticism that the Post Master's (INAUDIBLE) was causing the mail delays. Do you think now is the time to be delaying the mail (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: Well, in light of the stories that are coming out about all of the problems with mail-in voting and voting, whether it's a congressional race, Carolyn Maloney in New York, where they called it, they don't even have to ballots. The whole thing is crazy.
There's one that just came across my desk and I'm going to look into it. But I hear it's a catastrophe on mail-in voting. We just can't have that. You've got to have an honest election, and if it's not going to be an honest election, you have to call them out.
QUESTION: Mr. President, you were at the home of your friend, Stanley Chera for the fundraiser --
TRUMP: Who passed away due to COVID.
QUESTION: Right.
TRUMP: And he's a great man. He was a great person. He was a very early supporter. He just thought -- he was a very successful real estate man. I knew him in New York.
One of the most successful and he was really one of my early supporters. He said Trump is going to win. He was so -- he said, you don't understand, right from the day I came down the escalator with our First Lady, our future First Lady, he said, you don't understand Trump is going to win.
And he said that to the smartest people in New York, and he said it to the richest people and he said it to the poorest people. He said, you don't understand Trump. He is going to win, and he was right. And he was very much involved. But he was diagnosed, you know, a number of weeks ago. He went to the hospital, and unfortunately, he didn't make it.
And he was just a fantastic person. One of the most charitable people you'll ever meet. He helped a lot of people, okay?
QUESTION: Did you just say that you wanted to permanently cut the payroll tax versus just a temporary cut?
TRUMP: It may be permanent. We're looking into it. Right now, we haven't cut. It's going to a certain time, as you know, and we'll take it out until the end of the year, and then I'm going to make a decision as to number one, an extension; and number two, making it permanent. And no reimbursement.
QUESTION: What about Social Security? The impact on Social Security?
TRUMP: So, yes. Well, what we're doing is we reimburse through the General Fund, not through Social Security. This will have no impact on Social Security.
We're going to impact -- we're going to -- through the General Fund, reimburse. This will have zero impact on Social Security.
QUESTION: Sir --
TRUMP: And I've been constant on that. We will protect Social Security. We protect Social Security. They won't protect it. Because, you know, it's a beautiful thing what's happening. You look at our markets, how well they're doing that in a pandemic, we're going to hit -- we're very close to hitting new stock market highs.
And in some instances, as an example, NASDAQ, we've hit the highest it's ever been, I think 14 or 15 days have set records. So that's a great achievement.
We're going to have tremendous growth and a lot of good things happening. But that's going to come out of the General Fund, not out of Social Security, please.
QUESTION: Mr. President, how long do you think you're going to pay on insurance because most likely (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: No, we'll be able to do it, as long as we deem it necessary, and I will say this, the Democrats have called. They'd like to get together, and we say if it's not a waste of time, we'll do it. But if it is a waste of time, it doesn't make sense.
Thank you all very much. Have a good flight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: You were just watching President Trump live on the runway as he boards Air Force One returning to the White House following a weekend at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
I want to turn it over to Jeremy Diamond. He has been watching this. He is live at the White House right now. Jeremy, the President with a remarkable amount of spin.
First saying that he has been involved personally in negotiations with Democrats over a potential stimulus bill to help struggling Americans recover following the coronavirus pandemic.
But as far as we know, the President has not actually had contact with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since October. The President also claiming that he got everything that he wanted out of the deal without giving up anything.
[19:55:10]
SANCHEZ: There was no deal. He was passing Executive Actions that legal experts question whether they will actually stand or not. Further, he didn't get the payroll tax cut that he wanted. It's a deferment. And now he's basically telling voters that if they vote for him, he'll make it permanent. They won't have to pay that money back.
He also didn't get that new F.B.I. building that we know that he wanted, one of the few things the President was adamant about, specifically the President in these negotiations.
He also said something very confusing about the unemployment benefit payments.
From what we understand, this memorandum made it so that the Federal government would potentially pay 75 percent of the $400.00 that the White House has determined is what they are going to offer Americans who are unemployed right now.
States would have to fill in that missing 25 percent, but just now, the President said that in that memorandum, there's a function where the Federal government could pay all of it. Is that the case, Jeremy?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly the Executive Action that the President signed yesterday does not do that. The Executive Action that the President signed yesterday essentially says that this whole $400.00, meaning the $300.00 from the Federal government and another hundred dollars from the states, it is entirely contingent on these states accepting this new structure, accepting to not only administer this additional benefit, but also accepting to pay this $100.00 per week per unemployed individual in order to receive that $300.00 from the Federal government.
The President is now saying that essentially, we have a system where we could do a hundred percent saying that some states might be able to pay something, some might be able to pay nothing, and they would have to request that and put in some kind of an application. That hasn't been discussed so far by the White House. We'll have to check that out and see whether or not that is the case.
The President did compare it to this issue with the National Guard funding, which, quite notably, the President extended a hundred percent Federal government payments for just two states, two very important states, Texas and Florida, whose Republican governors, the President has a close personal relationship with.
And when I asked the White House about why only those two states got it, they said that those governors made a special direct case to the President. So it appears in a continuation of this please and thank you presidency that we have been watching during this coronavirus pandemic that these states would have to do the same thing.
And as you said, on that issue of the payroll tax cut, Boris, the President there suggesting once again, this might be permanent. And as we said last hour, and it still holds true now, Congress would have to actually approve that in order for that deferral of the payroll tax cut, which is what the President signed yesterday, in order for that to be permanent, and Americans not have to actually reimburse that money.
SANCHEZ: And Jeremy, what do you make of this statement when he is asked about the criticism that he has received -- bipartisan criticism -- calling these executive actions that he put out sloppy -- legally sloppy. He says that he's mostly heard positive criticism.
It's like he doesn't hear the voices that are saying that what he is doing is not constitutional.
DIAMOND: Yes, he certainly only wants to amplify the positive feedback that he gets. And yes, there has been some positive feedback from some Republicans, including on Capitol Hill, but there was this statement from Senator Ben Sasse, calling this unconstitutional slop.
And even those Republican senators who weren't as critical of this executive action, many of them said, ultimately, we need Congress to do a deal here and that is not what we heard from the President.
Instead, we were hearing him take a victory lap here suggesting that because he has signed these executive actions that don't even go as far as what the President and the way the President described them yesterday, that somehow that is a victory for him and for the American people.
But what we should keep in mind is that these executive actions not only do they fall short on some of these issues, in terms of the way the President described them, but they also don't cover a whole host of issues that were at stake in these negotiations, including billions of dollars of funding for schools to help schools reopen.
One of the things that the President has been pushing for four weeks now is for schools to reopen. They need the funding to do that. There's the funding for state and local governments that Democrats have been insisting on. And then, of course, billions of dollars in funding for additional testing and contact tracing. None of that was in the President's executive actions yesterday.
SANCHEZ: Jeremy, and very quickly, we only have about 30 seconds or so. I wanted to stress this point. The President is saying he has been involved personally. He has been on the phone nonstop for the last several days.
As far as our reporting indicates, he has been on the phone with Mark Meadows and maybe Steve Mnuchin, but he hasn't actually spoken to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to broker a deal.
DIAMOND: Right. Usually when you're personally invested and personally involved in a negotiation that means you're talking to the other party, right?
The President here has only been talking to his side, which is the Treasury Secretary and the White House Chief of Staff. He has not talked to Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. He hasn't talked to Pelosi since October -- Boris.
[20:00:06]
