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Trump's Executive Actions on Virus Relief Spark Confusion; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Calls Trump's Executive Action "Absurdly Unconstitutional"; Georgia School Seen in Viral Photo Briefly Closing Due to Positive Cases; Looting Breaks Out in Chicago Overnight; Nearly 100K Children Test Positive for COVID-19 in Last Two Weeks of July; Pelosi: Trump's Executive Actions on COVID Relief Are "Absurdly Unconstitutional". Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:26]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

Well, this morning another very sad marker in this pandemic. Now more than five million coronavirus cases in the United States, and for five straight days, we've seen more than 1,000 deaths per day in this country.

Now an alarming new study just released as schools plan to begin reopening or sort out their reopening plans. Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the virus in the last two weeks of July.

SCIUTTO: In Georgia, do you remember this picture from last week of students packed in the hallways of a high school? The school is now shut down for at least two days, after several positive cases there. We're going to have more on that in a moment. Remember the girl who took that picture, she was suspended.

Also overnight, President Trump sparking new confusion when it comes to relief money for tens of millions of jobless Americans, as well as countless businesses. He's now backtracking just one day after taking executive action on those now expired enhanced unemployment benefits. Saturday he said he would reduce the amount from $600 to $400 and make states pitch in. Now he says states may not have to pay anything at all.

What's the truth? What action can he really take? A lot of open questions there. We're live at the White House and on Capitol Hill. First let's get to CNN's Joe Johns at the White House.

Joe, tell us what these executive actions -- they're not orders, they're actions -- actually accomplished, given that Congress by the Constitution has the exclusive right to spend money.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right, and that of course is the big problem. Congress has the power of the purse. The president is essentially trying to move money around from disaster relief in one case to unemployment insurance benefits that the federal government provides. It's not $600 as Democrats would have wanted. Now the president says $400 in an executive order.

And initially, that executive order said that $100 of that would have to be kicked in by the states. States of course are in real financial trouble right now because they've lost a lot of revenues due to coronavirus, and so yesterday the president suggesting some states may not have to pay upon applying for this new program that he's trying to create in his executive order. Listen to what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a system where we can do 100 percent or we can do 75 percent. They pay 25 and it will depend on the state, and they'll make an application. We'll look at it and we'll make a decision. So it maybe they'll pay nothing in some instances.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So the one thing that is clear at least at this stage is that all of the president's executive orders and that is all four of them, number one, don't go as far as legislation would, and number two, may be subject to court challenges on questions of constitutionality.

We also know that some of the president's top lieutenants were out on the show just yesterday saying as far as they're concerned, there is still room for negotiation with Congress, and they'd like to see that get started again. Back to you.

HARLOW: Joe Johns at the White House, thanks very much.

So House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the president's executive actions are, quote, "absurdly unconstitutional." Republican Senator Ben Sasse called part of them unconstitutional slop.

With us now, Lauren Fox on the Hill.

Good morning, Lauren. You know, I did think it was interesting yesterday speaking to Dana Bash that Larry Kudlow cited the Stafford Act as a way, you know, that he believes and the lawyers for the administration believe that this is legal, but it's still a big question mark as if the president can do all this unilaterally.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right and you know, while we get into the legal argument of whether or not the president can actually do this, remember, these executive actions like Joe said, they're very limited in scope, and the hope on Capitol Hill is that a deal still could be reached.

Now, you heard the president say yesterday that he had heard from Democrats on Capitol Hill. I can tell you from talking to senior Democratic aides that that is not the case. There has been no contact over the weekend between President Trump or anyone at the White House and Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi. They have not had any conversations with the White House since Friday. Of course that was when the deal officially stalled.

[09:05:02]

You heard from both Mark Meadows and Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, arguing that it was now the Democrats' turn to come to the table. Now you heard from Nancy Pelosi yesterday. She argued that at this point the White House needs to come up $1 trillion in their offer. She said Democrats are willing to come down $1 trillion. That's where we were Friday morning. That's where we remain this morning.

And while the Senate is technically not in recess, there are very few members around, most members have gone home awaiting any deal that could happen. So that's where we are this morning, Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Don't forget, this is exactly how the president paid for the border wall. No money got through Congress, took the money from Defense spending, and now that money being kind of backfilled in the latest Defense bill. It's happened before.

Lauren Fox on the Hill, thanks very much.

To Georgia now, where students pictured in this crowded hall last week, you may remember that photo, are right now at home learning online. This because nine people in that school tested positive for the coronavirus.

HARLOW: Our Natasha Chen joins us this morning in Atlanta.

And Natasha, good morning to you. It's not just this school district in Georgia seeing problems.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Yes. Poppy, we just heard about the Cherokee County, a district also outside of Atlanta where at least 19 students and four staff members tested positive. That district told us last week that because of positive test cases there are about 260 total people in quarantine.

Over in Gwinnett County, the largest school system in Georgia, you also have about 260 employees who are either quarantined or who have tested positive after just their prep week in those buildings. Classes haven't even started there. So Paulding County is not alone in this and so far, as you mentioned, we know of at least nine positive cases at North Paulding High School, at least one positive case at one of their middle schools.

And of course this has resulted in the high school keeping those students home for another two days of virtual learning. They are supposed to be notified by tomorrow night on what the school plans to do in the coming days for classes, as they consult with the health department and sanitize that campus.

Now, as you talked about, that crowded hallway photo taken by sophomore Hannah Watters resulted in her suspension, then a reversal of that suspension. She says that now she's gotten threats over that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH WATTERS, STUDENT, NORTH PAULDING HIGH SCHOOL: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And I talked to a parent of a middle schooler in that same district who said that he's concerned that masks are not mandatory there. He's concerned about how much space is even between at the students' desks.

Now when that photo came out, the superintendent did also stress that this was a five-minute period when kids were changing classes, and that may happen when you have a school of about 2,000 students. He emphasized that the risk of exposure to COVID-19 really increases only when you're within six feet of someone sick for about 15 minutes.

Jim and Poppy, back to you.

SCIUTTO: Just so sad, a young girl gets threatened simply for taking that photo.

Natasha Chen, thanks very much.

Now let's go to Florida, Rosa Flores is there.

So, Rosa, schools across Florida, they're reopening this week for in- person learning. I wondered, as they do that, what standards are they following to reduce the risk? Because I know the Florida education commissioner, one of the largest school districts, was starting online.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, you're absolutely right. A lot of them are following some of the social distancing guidelines, but about that district, it's Hillsborough County, Jim. Hillsborough County is in a bit of a battle right now with the Department of Education. Here's what we know about that.

Hillsborough County public schools decided to reopen for in-person instruction last week and they decided that that was going to be the case, I mean, excuse me, for virtual schooling, and they decided that was going to be the case for the first four weeks of the school year.

Well, shortly thereafter, the education commissioner of the state of Florida, Richard Corcoran, sent a letter to Hillsborough County expressing that he had grave concerns because not offering brick-and- mortar type instruction to students was a violation of the executive order, also reminding the school district that not doing so was in contradiction of that executive order.

Well, we checked in with the superintendent of Hillsborough County schools, and he says that they followed, and the districts followed the data from the Florida Department of Health, that they followed the advice of local experts, and also public health authorities, and that that's what they decided as a district what's best for their students and that what they're doing right now is weighing their options, they're looking at this letter from the education commissioner, and talking to their legal team, and that they knew that there could be negative impacts because of their decision to go completely virtual.

Jim and Poppy, but as you know, just last month, CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said that for counties that had a positivity rate higher than 5 percent, officials there might consider closing schools or not reopening them. Well, I checked Hillsborough County this morning and their positivity rate in the past two weeks has ranged from 6.8 percent to 11 percent -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: It's very, very disappointing to hear, obviously. Things not getting better in some places.

Rosa, thank you.

Businesses were vandalized and looted downtown in Chicago overnight.

SCIUTTO: This video shows large groups of people shattering glass, going into stores as well, not clear what sparked this. There are reports of shots fired at and by police early this morning.

HARLOW: Our Polo Sandoval joins us live this morning from Chicago.

Good morning to you, Polo. What are police saying at this hour about the situation?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim and Poppy, you might be able to hear some bells ringing, by the way, in the background. Those are actually the bridges that were lifted just before sunrise on purpose to try to isolate these pockets of violence. Authorities noticed that there was a certain level of coordination among these groups that were basically sweeping across the streets of downtown Chicago, and this is the end result.

I'll get out of the way. This is the entrance to the Apple store here in downtown Chicago, overlooking the Chicago river, and cleanup is certainly under way. At one point looters basically shattering this thick glass, making their way inside the store, then stealing some of the goods inside.

I just walked that iconic, magnificent mile a little while ago. Obviously home to many premium retail stores, restaurants and so on. And these are the scenes that are repeating themselves every other storefront. So as we're taking these pictures we're all left with that key question of what could have caused this, what triggered this?

At this point authorities cannot say for sure, but we also have to look back at the recent wave of civil unrest that we saw not just here in Chicago but American cities across the country in response to a series of police shootings.

We do know that there was a police-involved shooting here over the weekend, that left one individual injured. Police do expect to tell us a little bit more about what took place during the early morning hours here, in a couple of hours so we could potentially learn more about what could be behind this, but in the meantime for the people who live and work around Chicago, this seriously has disrupted their lives. Many of them being asked to simply stay home if they work downtown. So those plans from working from home are basically getting dusted off and getting put to work again while the cleanup continues throughout various parts of Chicago.

HARLOW: OK, Polo, thank you very much for that reporting this morning. We'll wait for some answers on that.

Still to come, a new report says nearly 1,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July. What does that tell us about the virus and how it spreads?

SCIUTTO: Yes, 100,000, incredible. And after a late Friday shakeup at the U.S. Postal Service, note that timing, Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of sabotaging the mail system ahead of the presidential election with the target on mail-in voting.

Plus Joe Biden expected to formally announce his pick for a running mate this week. So who is at the top of the list?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Stunning new numbers out this morning, and they're about children and coronavirus. The American Academy of Pediatrics says in just the last two weeks of July, nearly 100,000 children in the United States tested positive for COVID-19. Remember, it was just days ago that the president falsely claimed that children are quote, "almost immune" from COVID-19. With me now is infectious disease Professor of Vanderbilt University, Dr. William Schaffner.

It's really good to have you, so I mean, just the fact that the EPA says we have those numbers, a 100,000 children testing positive for COVID-19 in just a two-week period at the end of July in this country, and at least 86 children have died from it in this country since May. You said that this will lead to a turbulent school season. I think -- I think yes. I mean, no one can -- no one can dispute that. Does it change your thinking about how and which schools should be opening physically?

WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Well, Poppy, it reinforces the notion that first of all, although children are less apt to get really sick, some do, but they're less apt to get sick. They can certainly become infected. If they can become infected, they can shed the virus and they can be contagious. So they're clearly distributors. And what this means is, we're going to be seeing outbreaks, particularly the more we test around the country, among children, as we open up our schools. Of course, the reason all this is happening is because we haven't

controlled the virus spread in the community. You know, New Zealand has now celebrated its 100th day with no infections in the entire country.

HARLOW: Right.

SCHAFFNER: And of course, they're much smaller than we are, but they had a national policy from the beginning and the Prime Minister promulgated that policy, based it on good public health and they --

HARLOW: Yes --

SCHAFFNER: Continue to observe social distancing and are holding the fort. There are lessons there for us.

[09:20:00]

HARLOW: For sure. I mean, Iceland similar thing. You know, the leader there saying, you know, you cannot have politics inserted when it just has to be all about science. It's a great point. What about the CDC numbers that came out on Friday, and I worry, you know, Friday heading into the weekend, not even people saw this or paid attention to it.

But it's -- I mean, it's tragic, their data showed that Hispanic children are approximately eight times more likely and black children five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than their white peers. What does the government need to be doing to help those most vulnerable children?

SCHAFFNER: Well, what we need to do is absolutely focus our testing and our prevention resources that we have in our local health departments to those neighborhoods where the virus has been disproportionately affecting those portions of our populations. We need to really focus on that and make that a major determination all across the country. That's very important, Poppy.

HARLOW: Your fellow infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm of Minnesota has a really fascinating "New York Times" piece out over the weekend. And what he's calling for, and it is for a state-by-state -- another lockdown essentially. He says four to up to six weeks to crush the spread of the virus to less than one new case per 100,000 a day is what's needed now. And even the Federal Reserve Bank President in Minnesota, Neel Kashkari actually called for a shutdown of four to six weeks.

And that he's a Republican. So from the economic side and those long- term consequences on the health side, you're hearing it from both of them. Do you think they're right?

SCHAFFNER: Well, I think my friend, Dr. Osterholm has a point, but I think in practical terms, it's not likely to happen. What we do need though is leadership on the part of the governors and our national leaders so that everybody wears a mask, social distancing and avoiding these large group events. I mean, for example, this gathering in South Dakota this weekend, of thousands of motorcyclists, I mean, that was absurd, right? That should not be happening. The virus was there. It was spreading.

Now all those good folks full of their exuberance are going to be bringing that virus back to their home cities, and that will be an accelerant for the spread of the virus. We can't go to these large events. I'm sorry. It's a new normal.

HARLOW: Yes, and in a state where they had a really low case count as well in South Dakota overall, so we'll see what the repercussions are I suppose a few weeks from now. Dr. Schaffner, thank you very much.

SCHAFFNER: My pleasure, Poppy.

HARLOW: Jim?

SCIUTTO: Are President Trump's latest executively -- executive orders unconstitutional? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senator Ben Sasse think so. But will lawmakers do anything about it? We're going to speak to a member of the House Oversight Committee next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Democrats and some Republicans now claim that the president's steps over the weekend are simply unconstitutional. President Trump you remember signed four executive actions related to coronavirus relief over the weekend after White House negotiators, lawmakers failed to reach a deal.

The point is though, the constitution says it is Congress that has the sole right to spend money in this country. Does the president's moves actually mean anything in the real world? We're going to speak now to a member of Congress, he's Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly, serves on the Foreign Affairs and Overnight Committees. Congressman, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

REP. GERALD CONNOLLY (D-VA): Great to be with you again, Jim.

SCIUTTO: First, just on negotiations, the president has just tweeted, and granted, he tweets a lot of unfounded claims. But he says that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi want to meet now to negotiate a stimulus package. Is that true? Are Democrats ready to meet again with Republicans and White House representatives?

CONNOLLY: I wouldn't put a lot of credence in this tweet. Is it true that Democrats are prepared to continue negotiations? Yes, both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have indicated we're ready any time, but you've got to have some serious kind of proposals. You can't simply dig in your heels and ignore the devastation in the country, both the public health and the economy --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

CONNOLLY: And do nothing.

SCIUTTO: Is the $600 enhanced unemployment benefit a red line for Democrats or would you -- would others be willing to negotiate?

CONNOLLY: I think it's a very important economic tool. What most economists have told us is that's far more effective in pumping up the economy and stabilizing the economy and helping families get by than a one-time injection or a two-time injection of a check for $1,200 or whatever amount. So it's a much more efficient and effective way of stabilizing the economy. And we saw in the economic data after April that in fact it worked. So to tamper with that at this moment, I think is very precarious and very dangerous.

SCIUTTO: One of the president's executive actions rather over the weekend is doing something that he did before with funding for the wall. Couldn't get it through Congress either with Democratic or Republican support, so took money from elsewhere in that case, the Pentagon, went ahead and put money into the wall.