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Coronavirus Crisis Persists As Stimulus Talks Fail; Biden To Pick Running Mate In Days Ahead; Jump In Cases Among Children Complicates Back-To-School Season; Fifty-five Percent Of City School Districts To Start School Year Remotely; President Donald Trump's Executive Actions On Economic Relief Spark Confusion; Georgia School Seen In Viral Picture Briefly Closing After Nine Test Positive. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 10, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with. We have a very busy week ahead.

In the efforts to cut out the coronavirus and the very much related back-to-school challenge and in 2020 politics, Joe Biden picks his running mate in the days ahead. The President begins this week as he ended the last one, misleading you. He says Democrats called him eager to revive coronavirus stimulus talks.

Top Democrats say that's simply a fable. New talks would be good because it's now clear the President overhyped executive weekend steps he promised would quickly help the unemployed and those facing evictions.

And for many American families, a new report brings a giant backed school complication. Nearly 100,000 American children got sick with the virus just in the last 2 weeks of July. There is also new reporting this morning that shows the President's vaccine timeline likely out of sync with reality.

He says a COVID-19 immunization might be here Election Day that's November 3rd. Experts say 2021 is more realistic but Election Day 2020 is out of the question if safety guidelines are followed. The President's weekend assessment of the case numbers, "They're all coming down" well, some numbers today are down but, no, sir, not all.

New cases dipped over the weekend and the seven-day average you see it there now sits at nearly 54,000, that is 13 percent lower than the previous week. New numbers out of Florida just moments ago show they added the fewest cases in a single day since June 23rd. 4,155 is today's number.

But the decline is relative we must note this relative to the pandemic highs and some states are trending up. The country's still averaging over 30,000 more daily new cases than it was back at the start of summer. At least 11 states report record daily hospitalizations. The daily average of American coronavirus deaths, this is a sad one, again, above 1,000.

One big trouble sign, 35 states are reported higher positivity rates in their coronavirus testing this week than in the previous week. Let's go through some of the trends. And again some of them are more positive. It is hard to say optimistic but some of them are more positive eight states trending up that means more cases this week compared to cases reported last week.

New infections, eight states trending up. 16 states, that's the beige or the yellow holding steady 26 states a majority of the United States, heading down in their case count now compared to last week. Florida, Arizona, California among those trending down. Those were three states that were a big part of the summer surge.

We know this is a lagging indicator. Still a sad map here but even this map has improved somewhat right now as it was middle to late last week in terms of new deaths reported, eight states reporting a higher death toll than they were a week ago. 19 holding steady that's the beige. 23 states fewer deaths this week compared to the data last week.

Let's hope that trend continues because these numbers are quite sobering. If you look at it this way, here's one way to look at this, we know deaths lag cases, that's one of the painful lessons of the last six months if we go back over the last I just want to walk across here, 16 days in the last 30 have had more than 1,000 recorded in the United States of America, that is a sad statistic one that we must push down.

If we look at the back to school debate we start thinking about this. This study is actually quite concerning. Children with COVID in the United States as of July 30th nearly 340,000 cases. You see the number here about 9 percent of the total cases in children.

It's a big complication as you think is it safe for my child to go back to school just in the last two weeks of July, look at this. Two week of July 97,000 cases 40 percent increase in coronavirus among children just as we start to go back to school. Where is this happening the most, Alabama, Wyoming, Tennessee, New Mexico and South Carolina?

You see it consistent here 15, 16. Alabama's number is higher they count children up to age 24. These states cut the age off a little bit lower but this tells you think twice, think three times, think about the safety protocols as your child going back to school.

Listen to public health expert here say yes, you want to get kids back in the classroom but yes you better be careful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These numbers happened while schools were either in lockdown or in summer recess. What do the numbers tell you as we now are sending the students into schools?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Those numbers are a reminder that kids are not immune from this disease. They do get infected. They obviously don't get as sick as adults do and that's really good news. But it's a reminder to me that have to be careful as we think about schools and not turn this into a political issue but really think about when is it safe for kids to go back to school and then only when it is safe should we be sending kids back in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:00]

KING: With us to share their expertise and their insights, the Former CDC official, Director to Prevent the Epidemic Team to Resolve Safe Lives Dr. Cyrus Shahpar also Director at the University of Washington Center on Reinventing Public Education Robin Lake.

Dr. Shahpar, let me start with you. I was reading something you were quoted in over the weekend talking about this testing issue. Number one states count the results differently my word count that's not the right technical word and there is no great standard.

You see in New York City the School Superintendent says we get above 3 percent positivity, we're going to shut things down and make sure we go back to remote learning. What is your biggest issue with testing as we start to send more and more children back to school?

DR. CYRUS SHAHPAR, PREVENT EPIDEMICS TEAM DIRECTOR, RESOLVE TO SAVE LIVES: I think there are a lot of issues with the data around testing. What are people counting? I think one of the things we're looking at in the next few weeks is how are people counting antigen testing which is a newer type of test? Are they including that in totals?

If they're not, is that behind lower tests in the numbers of positive? So I think it's a little bit of discrepancy in how different places look at testing and of course it is important to be consistent and important that we're all looking at the same information for different places but we have a good picture of what's going on in the country?

KING: And Robin, the study that you did is fascinating. Even now the data is a couple of weeks old or about a week old, right? And so this is a quick - it is changing so quickly and it is hard to track but I urge parents who are going through to go and look at this because it is fascinating.

One statistic right here, district recommendations were at the start of the year learning model, about 40 percent say fully in person. About 25 percent not yet announced. Remote 14 percent excuse me and hybrid which is a mix about 12 percent. No information 10 percent.

What jumps out at me looking at that is the not yet announced. We are now in August. The school year starts in August or right after Labor Day for the rest of the country and there are a lot of districts still saying I got to think this through, right?

ROBIN LAKE, DIRECTOR, CENTER ON REINVENTING PUBLIC EDUCATION: Yes, it is amazing. I mean, I have got two kids at home and they're waiting for word. You know, I think a lot of districts spent the summer planning, thinking through different scenarios and now are looking carefully at the health guidance and trying to figure out what to do?

But unfortunately aren't getting the guidance they need to really make clear decisions from their local health officials. So we see a lot of hand wringing from school districts who are trying to make the right decision and certainly from parents.

KING: All right, and so the longer the wait it get adds to the uncertain situation. Dr. Shahpar, I want to come back to the testing because you raise a great point. Are tests counting at the same way are they keeping this statistics the same way? There is also an issue are we doing enough testing at this key moment?

I just want to show you a map here testing is down in 27 states. Down in 27 states right now compared to last week. You look at the states right there. To me that says broadly not just children, it leaves you blinder or less visible in terms of how much coronavirus do I have in my state and in my community? Does that trouble you that there's a decrease in testing at this critical moment?

DR. SHAHPAR: Yes. I think a few months ago if we had looked to where we wanted to be or thought we would be in terms of testing? Now we're not even close to that. We need to be testing more because we have a lot of cases. Ad you said we need eyes on the virus so it's problematic that right now we are already bumping up against capacity constraints in many areas.

Tests take a long time to come back and so there are essentially useless from a public health prospective. So yes, you know very concerned about the testing, especially as schools tie in their decisions to open in some parts of the country around test numbers and test positivity.

KING: Robin, one of the other interesting fascinating pieces of your study if you look at it, are this - what are districts deciding to do around the country? And I want to just show if you look at city versus suburb versus rural, in urban areas, I'm circling a slice here you see a much higher percentage of city districts saying we're going to remote learning.

We're going to keep the children at home. We want to safe to bring them into the school. Much smaller percentage in rural areas or if you flip that and go the other way here excuse me, I hit the wrong the button.

But if you flip that and go the other way much higher percentage 41 percent here of rural areas saying let's get back into class smaller percentage among urban. In terms of looking at the different decisions being made based on different parts city, suburb, rural, what jumped out at you?

LAKE: We were struck by that as well. We have been tracking the large districts and seeing just over the past couple of weeks more and more, most actually were deciding that they had to open schools remotely. They just didn't really have any choice in order to keep kids safe. But when we looked at those rural numbers we were blown away that so many are still planning to open in person and as you say so many are still undecided. The obvious question for us and one we're hoping to dig into next are those decisions being tied to real science?

Is it health conditions that are driving those decisions or is it something else going on behind the scenes? Parent attitudes, teacher attitudes, you know, feeling pressure to keep schools open? We don't know so that's the next step in our research.

[12:10:00]

KING: We don't know, there's a lot we don't know and obviously we have an experiment underway as school districts reopen. So Dr. Shahpar, one of the issues as you see some districts have inevitable, children are going to go back in the classroom they are going to tested. The question is should there be some national standard for what to do when you get positive tests?

I often talk about the 50-state experiment when it comes to reopening. When it comes to reopening schools there are 13,000 school districts across the country. That's just public school districts. Private schools make their own decisions within those districts.

Do you think there should be statewide or national standards for the level of positivity or the percentage of positive tests before things kick in? Or should this be every district to itself?

DR. SHAHPAR: No, I think there should be national science-based guidance in terms of how we should open and also what we do when we get cases? And of course on the other side when we want to think about putting a pause on in-person education?

There's a lot of information out there and I think it's hard for some smaller jurisdictions or small school districts to really digest that information. So it is very helpful to have overarching national guidance that's science based.

KING: Dr. Shahpar, appreciate your insights as always. Robin Lake as well it is a fascinating study. I know parents are one of them wrestling with this issue finding a study and read it. Agree or disagree it helps to inform your thinking as we go through this. I thank you both. We'll continue the conversation as we go through the days and weeks ahead.

Up next for us, the President says Democrats called him asking him to reopen stimulus negotiations but the Democrats say the President is making things up again. The latest on that stimulus debate next. First though, a flashback, six months to go today one of the President's many coronavirus missteps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer it miraculously goes away. I hope that's true. We are doing great in our country. China, I spoke with President Xi. They're working very, very hard and I think it's all going to work out fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:15:00]

KING: There is word today that Congressional Democrats and the White House might try again to negotiate a new coronavirus relief package.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: We are prepared to put more money on the table so we're - there are things as I said that made sense to compromise. We have compromised. So we're not stuck at the trillion dollars but we are not going to go unlimited amounts of money to do things that don't make sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So we will see if new talks actually happen. What we know as we wait to find out is that the President is trying to mislead you again. Sunday night the President said Democrats called him eager to make a deal. Fiction says the Senate's top Democrat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Fables from Donald Trump. Fables, that's what he seems to specialize in. I didn't call him. Speaker Pelosi didn't call him. No. We didn't call him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, this talk of more talks comes after a weekend that did not go as the President had hoped. He signed some executive actions on Saturday promising that would help the unemployed and those facing eviction but if you read the fine print, you quickly find out it doesn't really match up what the President's description of the actions.

With me now to discuss is CNN's Phil Mattingly and White House Reporter for "The Washington Post" Seung Min Kim. Seung Min, let me start with you. I don't want to have an on first comedy routine about who called whom?

But if they're going to get back to the table they're going to have to reach some agreement. What do we know about are they actually planning to talk again or they just going to point fingers about who wants to talk the most?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Probably at this point the latter. I mean, the talks seemed to all but collapse on Friday when both sides came out and said there was really no progress towards a deal.

I mean, the Democrats and the Trump Administration officials could not even agree on the top line figure, a price tag for the package which would kind of help create - you know lay out all the kind of the rest of the fine print of the package.

But they left the meetings on Friday unable to come to that agreement and the President took his executive actions which the administration, the Republicans say are meant to help when Democrats in their view aren't willing to come to the table. But in the Democrats' view this really kind of serves to up end the talks and end them.

Now they're not officially over but certainly with the combination of the executive actions that the President took over the weekend and the fact that they can't agree on this big, big numbers, big top line issues makes it very clear that the talks are all but dead for now.

KING: And so Phil, what puts us at an interesting moment, the Democrats could just let the clock run out and let people judge the President's actions. Here is what he said he was doing. He said he was giving $400 in new unemployment benefits actually it doesn't work that way.

The states would have to put up money in the current version and so it is very complicated and a lot of states say they don't have that money. The President said there would be an eviction moratorium that's not what the paper says.

The paper says it would be nice if Treasury and the Housing Department tried to help people but there's no mandate to end or have a - keep in place a moratorium. There's a payroll tax holiday and there's some student loan relief. There's some help there and nowhere near what the President suggested.

The issue is if you listen to Secretary Mnuchin, he says we're ready to give or ready to negotiate but it is a lot easier to say that on television than it is in the room.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look. There's no question about that. I think Seung Min hits a key point here is you can't agree on the top line if can't agree on the top line then you can't slide everything else underneath, right?

You need the top line numbers whether it is on appropriations or a big emergency relief package to be able to kind figure out where everything else stands? I think the big question right now is not whether the President's executive actions are going to cover for the inability to figure out a legislative deal, they aren't?

And if you talk to White House officials even before the President pulled the trigger on these, they acknowledge this there are limits to what can do and to be frank despite how the President presented it, they actually did them in a way that likely makes them legal and that underscores why they're so limited in their effectiveness?

I think the bigger issue right now is who's going to blink first? Because as Seung Min pointed out the administration started pursuing executive actions in an effort to kind of do a carrot and stick maneuver.

[12:20:00] MATTINGLY: The stick being if you don't agree with us and if you don't come across the table toward our side we will pull the trigger on these. And you've seen the President tout these executive actions is basically saying this is going to drive Democrats back to the table.

We have got no sense of that right now and I think the divides are so enormous on the biggest issues whether it is state and local funding or Democrats are about $800 billion above where the Republicans are right now.

If it is on the unemployment insurance issue or Democrats have maintained sticking at that $600 flat rates as Republicans have perused both an executive action and in their proposals, about $400 or less.

Until those bridges - there's some type of way to cross those bridges or bring them together, there's no sense that there's any possibility of new talks. Speaker put it best, she said when you guys are willing to talk about a bigger number, we'll come talk.

The Treasury Secretary said when you're willing to put something new on the table proposal ones we'll come talk. Neither of those things is happening right now and so neither is talks.

KING: And so what you do get that in the interim and everybody at home that is either unemployed and would like to know if they're going to get a bigger check? If you're facing eviction you would like to know if the federal government is going to help.

And so on instead you get politics including some Republican politics Seung Min. Senator Ben Sass conservative from Nebraska over the weekend called what the President was doing unconstitutional slop meaning the President doesn't have the power to do this.

The President went after Senator Sass on Twitter this morning where I know that's Republican in name only according to the President Ben Sass who need of my support an endorsement. He goes on to beat him up there says this foolishness plays right into the hands of the radical left Dems.

Now that's the President today now this is another example of yes there's a tweet for everything. Back a couple of years ago in 2014 then businessman potential candidate Donald Trump said Republicans must not allow President Obama to subvert the constitution of the United States for his own benefit and because he is unable to negotiate with Congress. So executive actions were horrible when Donald Trump was a private citizen and Barack Obama was President, they're great now?

KIM: That's right. If you have been around in Washington long enough and you have seen different parties take control of Congress and the White House you have taken almost every position and at least Senator Sass here is trying to stay consistent with the view that a President doesn't have the power and legal authority to take certain actions on his own. And as Phil pointed out that there may be - that these executive actions may be written narrowly to make them legal. What matters at the end of the day is that Congress has the power of the purse. Congress has the power of taxation and that's what the President is trying to do right now.

You know during the 2014 debate when then President Obama was taking executive actions on immigration, Republicans back then threatened that perhaps a future Republican President may do this on taxation issues. So, you know, you wait not too long in Washington and all these positions for the most part kind of come back to bite you.

KING: At sometimes it is amusing. It is not amusing at the moment given the concerns faced by millions of Americans who don't have a job, or who worry about eviction. Whose small business can't get money anymore? But we shall see if they figure it out and if they do I'm expecting you two to come back and I want to be able to tell me who called whom to get it going? Phil Mattingly and Seung Min Kim I appreciate that.

Coming up for us, nine cases of coronavirus surface at a Georgia school, you will remember this school. You probably have seen this photo mostly unmasked students filling crowded hallway just days ago.

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[12:25:00]

KING: Students at a Georgia High School that made national headlines after reopening well, they're learning from home today because their school needs a COVID cleaning. You probably saw this image of North Paulding High School last week, students crowded, that's to say the least, in the hall many of them as you can see not wearing masks.

At least nine North Paulding students excuse me and staff members later tested positive for coronavirus and officials decided to order remote learning today and tomorrow so that school can get a deep clean.

Other districts trying to keep schools open when there are positive tests by sending just those in closest contact home into quarantine. CNN's Natasha Chen is in Atlanta following this story. It is remarkable at that school that photo sparked a national conversation and now this?

NATASHA CHENN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. John, there are a lot of school districts making difficult decisions and this one that were talking like you said had to send kids home for today and tomorrow to do virtual learning and they will sanitize the campus in the meantime, consult with public health officials on what to do next?

And those families will be notified by tomorrow night how they will proceed with classes in the coming days? And at North Paulding High School is not alone. We are hearing from Cherokee County also outside of Atlanta after their first week of school they have got at least 19 students and 4 staff members testing positive. Over in Gwinnett County where you have teachers in the buildings required to be in the buildings for prep and training even before classes begin, about 260 employees are either testing positive or quarantining at the moment. So just now we are at this new mega testing site at the Atlanta Airport.

We asked the Georgia Governor who was here to announce this expanded testing about why he doesn't have a mask mandate required for schools. Here's what Governor Kemp told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BRIAN KEMP, (R-GA): I'm confident the superintendents have the tools, the resources, the masks that we have given them as far as the state's concerned to be able to handle that at the local level.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are asking teachers to risk their lives daily to a virus that is preventable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)