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Anti-Government Protests Erupt for Fourth Night; Food Bank Giveaways Underscore Economic Struggle; Biden Picks Sen. Kamala Harris as Running Mate; Russia Touts "World First" COVID-19 Vaccine; New Zealand Reimposes Restrictions Due to New Cases; Opposition Candidate Flees to Lithuania; U.K. Shrinks by Record 20.4 Percent in Q2. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 12, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:00]
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow.
So just ahead on the show, a historic day in U.S. politics, Kamala Harris is now the first woman of color on a major party's presidential ticket.
Russia's president is so confident his country's COVID-19 vaccine. He says his daughter has taken it. But health experts are raising safety concerns.
Plus, why New Zealand's largest city is now under lockdown after just four new COVID cases?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: Great to have you along. So the ticket is finally set for the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden made history on Tuesday selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate. Now the senator from California is the first black woman or the first woman of Indian descent to vie for the vice presidency. She found out during a Zoom call from the -- from Mr. Biden who praised her as the best person to help him lead the nation.
Jeff Zeleny begins our coverage.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: -- in California to be only the third woman in U.S. history to be on a major party's presidential ticket as a running mate. Certainly, other history making factors as well. Her father was Jamaican, her mother was Indian. She's the unique American story. She grew up in California, a product of the civil rights movement as well.
But more important to this search, the former vice president, I am told had his eye on a variety of candidates. He vetted nearly a dozen specific candidates but it was Senator Harris in the end he kept coming back to. I'm told by his advisors one of the central reasons why is she had been tested in a national campaign. Of course, she had run against him in the Democratic primary campaign, but knew the rigors of that campaign.
And Joe Biden, of course, knows how difficult it can be on the national stage running for president. Of course, this is his third time running for president and he knew that, you know, the potential of throwing in someone who had never been on a national stage as they try and do something very difficult in U.S. politics that's defeating a sitting president. He knew he wanted someone with campaign experience, but it's also this moment in time, this moment in the U.S. history here, you know, with calls for racial justice, police reform, the coronavirus crisis. Certainly, she fits the moment at least in his view.
So this is something that is going to be a fascinating dynamic going forward here. President Trump already immediately went after Senator Harris called her nasty. He uses that word a lot to talk about women he doesn't like to disparage. So this certainly injects history and energy under the Democratic side of the ticket. But it also is interesting on the Republican side of the ticket, really, this is less than three months until the general election campaign here. The president has pledged to leave Mike Pence on the ticket as vice president but that's certainly something that will be discussed going forward.
But we do know that on Wednesday, in Wilmington, Delaware, we will see Senator Harris for the first time next to Joe Biden, they'll have an event and then have a fundraiser in the evening. So, in this very unusual campaign, essentially a virtual campaign, they will be coming together, face to face one week before the Democratic convention. And then voting begins -- early voting at least about one month from now.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
CURNOW: Thanks to Jeff for that.
So the Trump campaign has already released an ad attacking Kamala Harris. The U.S. president blasted her treatment of Joe Biden during the Democratic debates and also of Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She was extraordinarily nasty to Kavanaugh. That was a horrible event. I thought it was terrible for her. I thought it was terrible for our nation. I thought she was the meanest, the most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Ron Brownstein is CNN's senior political analyst and a senior editor for the Atlantic. He joins me now from Los Angeles.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Robyn.
CURNOW: I want to get to Mr. Trump's comments in just a moment but I do want to just talk about the moment. Which voters will be energized by Kamala Harris on the ticket? What does she bring to the Biden campaign?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, as Jeff noted, as you noted, this is an historic moment. I mean, Joe Biden has certain strengths as a candidate. He was hired really, I think, above all for a very specific job, trying to recapture some of those blue collar white voters in the Midwest who tilted the 2016 election to President Trump.
[02:05:04]
But he is a 77-year-old white man who has been in politics for 50 years. And there are real issues about his ability to connect with and energize younger voters, especially younger voters of color. He really struggled with them in the primaries and in polling toward the general election. His personal favorability with them is not where it should be. And their level of enthusiasm about the election is not where it should be.
So just as the Democratic Party, I believe, in effect, hired Biden to reach older whites in the Midwest in many ways and is now looking to Kamala Harris to reach younger non-white voters particularly across the Sun Belt and in some of those Rust Belt states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
CURNOW: That's interesting. Also, I just want to take it from the other angle perhaps, which voters will be uncomfortable with an African-American woman of Indian descent as well, a woman potentially being commander-in-chief, you know, if there's a worst case scenario there. I mean, if you look at the sexism that was laid here like at Hillary Clinton's feet --
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
CURNOW: -- you look at the bold racism that we've seen just this summer across all corners of society even in the White House. Who is turned off by her and perhaps emboldened by even saying it?
BROWNSTEIN: It's a really good question. I mean, look, the fact that he picked her in many ways, you know, Joe Biden, to me embodies the Democratic coalition of the late 20th century, kind of the decades of Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson when it was essentially a blue collar party rooted in industrial towns like Scranton when he grew up. Kamala Harris is sort of the personification of the Democratic Party of the 21st century. She's the child of immigrants, she's mixed race herself, she's in an interracial marriage, and she's rooted in San Francisco, one of the big thriving info age Metropolitan centers where the Democrats now get the majority of their votes.
And I think in all of those ways, she will energize the coalition that they now can realistically aspire to assemble. But as we saw in 2016, as we saw in polling around Brett Kavanaugh, there is a constituency of culturally conservative voters who are uneasy with all of the changes both cultural and demographic and economic that she represents. And that includes women, evangelical women, blue collar women, non-urban white women. And, you know, for her, she's not necessarily the bridge to those voters. But what she is, I think, is a way for Biden to connect with more of the modern Democratic coalition than he can do intrinsically on his own.
CURNOW: OK. So that -- we were -- we're talking about connections with Democratic voters. I want to talk about what she brings or what she doesn't bring to that clash between the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign. You heard him call her a nasty woman already. That was right off the bat.
I mean, how difficult in many ways is going to be for this president to try and belittle this woman because by her track record, I mean, it suggests she's making mincemeat of men like Donald Trump before?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, you know, he is probably the -- I think, you know, probably he is the most openly racist candidate that we've seen on a national level since George Wallace in 1968. And he's probably the misogynistic candidate that we have ever seen. And as he shown there is an audience for that. But by picking Kamala Harris, I think Biden has shown that he wants to go at that directly.
And one thing, I think was very clear during her presidential race which was unsteady in a lot of ways, she was much better at prosecuting the case against Donald Trump than she was at making the case for herself. And that really is what you want above all for a vice president to make the case -- vice presidential nominee to make the case against the incumbent administration. And as you say, you know, in that hearing that Donald Trump was, you know, kind of decrying today, she was very effective in going after Brett Kavanaugh. She was very effective, she's been very effective at other hearings, and I think a lot of Democrats are looking forward to seeing her on the stage with Mike Pence in I believe Salt Lake City in a few weeks.
CURNOW: Well, that's my next question. Will Mike Pence be on that podium? I mean, this is a president, we know he likes to turn things upside down at the last minute. Is there a likelihood that Donald Trump could dump Mike Pence here that he could perhaps bring a woman like Nikki Haley? Or is the time passed for that?
BROWNSTEIN: Right? Well, is there anyone who -- you know, anyone who bets on kind of understanding the whims and impulses of Donald Trump I think, you know, is in the wrong business. So I can't predict what he's going to do. I will say that the core of his support, the last piece that he's with him above all are white evangelical Christians. He's still winning about 80 percent of them. They are a disproportionate share of his vote relative to their role in the overall electorate and Mike Pence is a favorite of those voters.
So, for him to abandon Pence even for someone potentially as attractive as Haley would be a very risky moment when so many other components of what has been his coalition, college educated voters start peeling away in 2018, older voters are peeling away now.
[02:10:02]
I don't see how he risks kind of the foundation of his support with evangelical -- white evangelical Christians.
CURNOW: Oh boy, oh boy. So that is going to be quite a debate between Mr. Pence and Ms. Harris. Wow. I think that I'm pretty looking forward and pretty much looking forward to that one.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, indeed.
CURNOW: Ron, always good to speak to you. Thanks for joining us. Ron Brownstein.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
CURNOW: So, Russia is set to begin a massive COVID-19 vaccination campaign in October despite questions about the safety of its new vaccine. President -- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the vaccine had been approved on Tuesday. The head of the state-run funding group says it will go into phase three trials on Wednesday.
And Brazil apparently wants a piece of the action. A Brazilian state is signing a cooperation agreement for testing the Russian vaccine. But as CNN's Matthew Chance now reports many experts aren't as enthusiastic.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You couldn't accuse the Kremlin of ignoring the propaganda value of its vaccine. They've even called it Sputnik after the Soviet satellites that shocked the world and launched the space race. Now it's the vaccine race. The Kremlin says it's one hands down.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A vaccine against coronavirus has been registered for the first time in the world this morning. I know that it works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity.
CHANCE (voice-over): But how does he know? Well, he says one of his own daughters, perhaps the one who's an acrobatic dancer, has already been vaccinated, or his eldest, a medical specialist. Whom Putin says that she had a slight temperature at first but feels much better now. Extraordinary from a Russian president who rarely mentions his family. We still don't know for sure how many children he has.
Still, it underlines how much confidence the Kremlin wants to show in its new vaccine. Despite concerns no clinical data has been published, soldiers were used as volunteers in early testing and crucial third phase human trials and not even started worrying shortcuts say critics in the Kremlin dash across the line.
ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: The point is not to be first with a vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world. CHANCE (voice-over): There's been criticism inside Russia too. A prominent pharmaceutical industry body this week calling on health officials to postpone the vaccine because it may put lives at risk, not a warning that's been heeded. Officials say frontline health workers and teachers will be vaccinated first, then the elderly and other vulnerable groups.
In fact, Russian officials say there's a vast global appetite for their vaccine. Applications for more than a billion doses they say have already been received from more than 20 countries. It may not be safe or even work but Russia can proclaim at least to itself that it is once again, a planet saving scientific superpower.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, the top infectious disease experts in the U.S. is among those who are pretty skeptical about this Russian vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. follows certain standards for vaccine development and that people should remember that when they hear announcements from countries like China and Russia, and a former food and drug administration official has his own doubts as well. Here's what they said.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE: Having a vaccine, Deborah (ph), and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things. I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they've done that.
SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I wouldn't take it certainly not outside a clinical trial right now. It appears that it's only been tested in several hundred. Certainly not ahead of us and we certainly wouldn't allow a vaccine to be used for mass distribution at this point based on the data that we have in hand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Now, the only other COVID-19 vaccine approved for use anywhere is China's CanSino vaccine which was given the green light for military use only on June the 25th for a period of a year.
And the U.S. is betting big on a potential vaccine from a donor. The Trump administration has struck a deal with a biotech company to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine if and when it is approved. The deal is worth more than $1.5 billion and the vaccine would be provided to Americans at no cost. While the Moderna vaccine is one of six under contracts with the U.S. government and it's being developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Clinical trials are currently underway to test whether it's safe or effective.
And this growing push comes in as the U.S. death toll lurches higher every day, nearly 165,000 Americans have now died from the virus.
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And then in New Zealand, the country has reimposed coronavirus restrictions after reporting its first locally transmitted cases in more than 100 days. Auckland where these infections were confirmed is now under lockdown. But the rest of the country is facing far less severe restrictions.
Well, let's go to Will Ripley. Will is in Hong Kong and has been monitoring what's going on in New Zealand. And it's really interesting how fast, how quick, and how severe this lockdown has been.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's been their approach from the beginning, even though New Zealand has so far just 1,200 or so confirmed cases this entire pandemic. And remember, they've had a stretch of 102 days where they have declared the country free of COVID-19 at least when it comes to local transmission. There were occasional cases that would come in from the outside and those people would be tested and identified as soon as they flew in and quarantine immediately.
What is happening now is that there are four confirmed cases, four probable cases. And all of these people are in isolation, are being treated if necessary, and the contact tracing is underway. What they're trying to figure out is how did this happen? But that kind of comes later.
The other more pressing concern is getting these people tested and out of the general population which is why the New Zealand health authorities, Robyn, are saying that they are prepared to test tens of thousands of people in the coming days if necessary.
CURNOW: And Will, I mean, just talk us through the leadership of Jacinda Ardern here who's also been front and center as she's been making these decisions. How does that play into it? And also sort of the social pact that the New Zealand people have made with government here?
RIPLEY: Yes. There has certainly been cooperation on the part of the public and that has been in large part because of Prime Minister Ardern's popularity. I mean, she was lauded after the Christchurch shooting for decisive action with gun control and she was also praised for her handling of the pandemic and essentially allowing New Zealanders for the last 100 plus days to feel safe and feel like life is normal even though they're not able to really travel or leave the country for anything but non-essential travel.
Now, her party, Prime Minister Ardern's party is expected to do well in the national elections next month. However, the dissolution of parliament actually is being postponed as a result of this flare up of COVID-19. So I think how the government handles things is going to be important as the general public looks to make their choice in the national elections next month.
But in the meantime, they're closing schools, they're closing non- essential businesses like bars, restaurants, shops, basically trying to contain this and get New Zealand back to that zero number that everybody, of course, strives for. And science shows, Robyn, these measures if the public does agree and if they follow them, they do work.
Here in Hong Kong, we've been dealing with our own third wave. Like New Zealand, they were possibly looking at cargo as one possible way that the virus got back in here after many weeks without community spread. But we've been in a full lockdown, they've limited the size of groups, they've closed non-essential businesses, and the number of cases per day has gone down significantly here. They're hoping that they don't even have to get to a third wave situation in New Zealand. They're hoping they can nip this latest outbreak in the bud.
CURNOW: OK. Will, great to speak to you. Thanks so much for that.
So you're watching CNN. Still to come, grim new economic numbers out of the U.K. as the fallout from the pandemic really takes hold. A live report after this.
Plus, there is no end to protests in Belarus after Sunday's contested election. Why the opposition candidate says she fled the country? Details on that story also ahead.
You're watching CNN.
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CURNOW: So we certainly have some dramatic new developments in Belarus where the opposition candidate in the presidential elections says she fled to Lithuania to protect her children. After claiming Sunday's vote was rigged, a video of her surfaced on Tuesday calling for an end to anti-government protests and saying the nation has made its choice. Demonstrators once again filled the streets of Minsk anyway, and many are speculating she was threatened and forced to flee by the longtime president. Her husband is in jail and several members of her campaign have also been detained.
Well, Nic Robertson joins us now live outside the Belarus Embassy in London. And Nic, I mean, this is certainly getting perhaps more and more mysterious as all eyes are focused on this opposition leader.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: At least certainly worrying a lot of Belarus' neighbors here in the rest of Europe. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is in Lithuania and is apparently out of danger. But her supporters say that that statement that was aired on Belarus state television where she said -- where she called on protesters not to go out and protest, they said that was made under duress. The Lithuanian foreign minister indicated that perhaps threats were used to get her out of the country. She herself in a second video posting said that no one should have to go through or make the sort of decision that she had made. She said that she knew some people would be critical of the decision but that no protests was worth lives being lost. And her supporters are indicating that perhaps the lives of her children who are out of the country at the moment as well were under threat by state authorities. Remembering she was detained for a number of hours by herself when she went to the electoral commission to complain about the outcome of the results on Monday. Tuesday morning, she arrives in Lithuania. The European Union is certainly looking very, very carefully at the situation. The Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said that, you know, the European Union is considering the possibility of sanctions on Belarus. They're saying that it was neither free nor fair the election and the crackdown on protesters has been disproportionate and widespread. Thousands of people they say have been attacked by the police even we understand photographers working for well-known news agencies were had their cameras broken and memory cards ripped from them by the police.
So a very strong crackdown. The Nordic and Scandina -- the Nordic and Baltic nations, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, all as well are issuing a joint statement because this is right on their doorstep calling on the government there for an end to the violence as well.
CURNOW: OK. Nic Robertson there, thanks so much. Keeping an eye on that important story.
So some news just in to us here at CNN, grim economic numbers from the U.K. as new data shows that the second quarter GDP fell by 20.4 percent, the worst quarterly slump on record. Let's go to Eleni Giokos, she joins us now live with the latest on that. That is certainly some pain that ordinary Britons are feeling.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, there's no other way to put this other than it is absolutely catastrophic. To give you a sense of the scale of the contraction here, during the height of the global financial crisis at any one time, we saw the economy contracting on a quarterly basis by just over two percent. When you see a quarterly contraction here by 20.4 percent, it shows you the depth and the scale of economic pain that was inflicted.
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I want to drill into some of the numbers here. The biggest drop on a quarterly basis was in the accommodation and food services sector. That dropped by 86 percent. And this is what happens when you ask your -- the lifeblood of your economy, the consumer to stay home and not spend. This is the effect of the lockdown, it's a story of lives versus livelihoods. It's something that the U.K. economy had to absolutely do.
We know that we've been seeing immense pain across the board in all developed economies but it is incredible to see the U.K. taking the biggest hit. I want you to take a look at this graph, and it's basically comparing some of the G7 countries. If you look at Germany and France and Italy, and even in the U.S. number, the U.K. has dropped a lot more and doubled the rate of any of the other developed economies. We also know that the suffering -- we saw Europe experiencing the death toll is -- very high death toll is across the board but the U.K. had the highest of the lot.
And again, this is now what we're seeing in the numbers, friends. What is encouraging here, Robyn, is that the June month-on-month GDP number, we saw an increase of 8.7 percent. The economy is slowly starting to open up again but it's a confidence game here as well. Do people want to go out and spend? Do businesses want to open up?
And the unemployment figures also really vital. Remember that the Bank of England gave a lot of monetary policy support, fiscal support has come through by the way on furloughed people, and ensuring that businesses are able to keep jobs as opposed to get rid of the employees through a furlough scheme. So that was really encouraging as well. Without this kind of support and stimulus, this number would have been far worse.
Now, the question is where. We're well into the third quarter of the year, is it going to be a V-shaped recovery? Is there an anticipation of a potential second wave? What would that look like?
The new numbers show that perhaps we're getting slightly back on track. I mean, we're looking at a monthly increase on the agricultural front by two percent. Construction has recovered by 23 percent. Remember, this is a monthly number for June.
So on a month-on-month basis, it is encouraged quarterly, of course -- I mean, a catastrophic number. I mean, there's no other way to put it here, Robyn.
CURNOW: Eleni Giokos, thanks so much for that.
So you're watching CNN. She's been a U.S. senator for less than four years, but now she's set to become a standard bearer for the Democratic Party. The rise of Kamala Harris. That's next.
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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.
So Democrat Joe Biden and his new running mate Kamala Harris are scheduled to make their first appearance.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. So, Democrat Joe Biden and his new running mate Kamala Harris are scheduled to make their first appearance as a team in the day ahead. Now, Harris is the first woman of color to be selected for the vice presidency. Randi Kaye has a look on how she got that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I describe myself as a proud American.
RANDI KAYE, CNN JOURNALIST: And now, Kamala Harris can add two more words to that description, running mate, the first black woman nominated in that role.
HARRIS: I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.
KAYE: It wasn't that long ago that Kamala Harris had her own plans to unseat President Donald Trump.
HARRIS: I feel a sense of responsibility to stand up and fight for the best of who we are. And I'm prepared to fight and I know how to fight.
KAYE: Big dreams for the daughter of two immigrants who she says came to America to pursue their own dreams. Kamala Harris was born in 1964, the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother. She attended both a Christian church and a Hindu temple as a young girl while growing up near Oakland, California. Her parents separated when she was just 7 years old. Harris later attended Howard University, the historically black university in Washington, DC. She began her law career After returning to California.
HARRIS: It was just a couple of blocks from this very spot, nearly 30 years ago, as a young district attorney, I walked into the courtroom for the first time.
KAYE: Harris became San Francisco's district attorney in 2004.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Congratulations, Attorney.
HARRIS: Thank you.
KAYE: In 2011, she became California's first black female Attorney General. She considered herself an innovator on crime, including a controversial truancy program, which threatened to jail parents for failing to get their children to school. She married an L.A. lawyer in 2014 and has two stepchildren who she says call her Mamala. In 2017, Harris became only the second black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
HARRIS: I do.
KAYE: It was there that Senator Harris' experience as a prosecutor was on full display. Her no-nonsense rapid fire, slicing and dicing of testimony during key televised hearings, kept witnesses on their toes. When she grilled then Attorney General Jeff Sessions about whether he had contacts with Russian nationals during the 2016 campaign, he practically pleaded for mercy.
JEFF SESSIONS, THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I can't --
HARRIS: I want you to be honest.
SESSIONS: I'm not able to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous.
KAYE: In 2018, she set her sights on Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.
HARRIS: Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?
BRETT KAVANAUGH, CANDIDATE, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm happy to answer more specific question.
HARRIS: Male versus female.
KAYE: And last year, Senator Harris took on Attorney General William Barr.
HARRIS: Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir.
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: The President or anybody else.
HARRIS: Seems you'd remember something like that and be able to tell us.
KAYE: She also took on her now running mate.
HARRIS: I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you, when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe and it is personal, and I was actually very -- it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.
And, you know, there was a little girl in California, who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.
KAYE: Despite Harris' story, some have challenged her racial identity and criticized her for identifying as black when her parents are Jamaican and Indian.
HARRIS: I'm black.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HARRIS: And I'm proud of being black.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
HARRIS: And I was born black, I will die black. And I'm proud of being black. And I'm not going to make any excuses for anybody because they don't understand. This is the same thing they did to Barack. They're trying to do what has been happening over the last two years, which is powerful voices trying to sow hate and division among us. And so, we need to recognize when we're being played.
KAYE: Harris ran on Medicare for All. She opposes the death penalty and is hesitant to commit on reparations. She likes the Green New Deal and is in favor of legalizing marijuana. She's also a proponent of LGBTQ rights.
HARRIS: I now declare you spouses for life.
KAYE: Officiating at the first legal same sex marriage in California back in 2013.
[02:35:12]
KAYE: In March, after Biden became the presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris officially through her support his way.
HARRIS: I have decided that I am with great enthusiasm going to endorse Joe Biden for President of the United States. I believe in Joe. I really believe in him and I've known him for a long time.
KAYE: Once a challenger, now a partner.
HARRIS: I intend to fight for truth and transparency and trust. I intend to fight.
KAYE: And with the Biden-Harris ticket set, they could soon make history. Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Kamala Harris is getting congratulations and advice from the woman who came before her, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted this. I'm thrilled to welcome Kamala Harris to a historic Democratic ticket. She's already proven herself to be an incredible public servant and leader and I know she'll be a strong partner to Joe Biden.
And then Republican Sarah Palin is the last woman to run for vice president. That was back in 2008. If you remember, she tells Harris, trust no one new, fight to keep your own team with you. Don't get muzzled. Palin also says don't forget the woman who came before you.
Now, moving on to another story, in Hong Kong, a prodemocracy newspaper owner arrested under the National Security Law has posted bail. Jimmy Lai was detained on Monday on suspicion of colluding with foreign powers and police raided the headquarters of his Apple Daily newspaper. Critics called his detention and attack on press freedom. Authorities claimed they're targeting individual offenders not entire media organizations.
And then crews off the coast of Mauritius are racing against time to pump the remaining oil out of a grounded Japanese cargo ship, just take a look at these images. Nearly 1,000 tons of oil have already leaked into this pristine part of the Indian Ocean. The ship ran aground two weeks ago. But now, there are growing fears the vessel could split in half and release thousands more tons of oil into the lagoon. We know that international assistance is coming in as Japan sends a disaster response team.
And we also know the U.N., the United Nations is sending a team of experts to help reduce the impact of the environmental emergency. So, you're watching CNN. Still to come, will a new government mean real change for Lebanon? These protesters don't think so. They went back to the streets for fourth night, even after the government resigned.
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[02:40:00]
CURNOW: Take a look at these images, thousands of people held a solemn vigil for the victims of last week's massive explosion in Beirut. More than 170 people were killed, 6,000 wounded and hundreds of thousands are now homeless. Later, protesters returned to the streets facing off against police who responded with tear gas. As you can see here, the demonstrators are not satisfied with the resignation of Lebanon's government. They want the ruling elite stripped of power. Well, Arwa Damon is in Beirut with the latest on all of that. Arwa, hi. Good to see you. What can you tell us?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Robyn. Look, what has happened here has shaken this country like nothing else before. And that is why you are seeing such understandable anger on the streets, the kind of change that the protesters that many Lebanese want to see happen.
That's not the sort of change that can take place overnight because we're talking about a fundamental rebuilding of every single level of governance to get rid of corruption, and the sort of political alliances that currently exist that effectively just keep recycling the same faces and the same individuals because what happened here, just over a week ago has shaken this country unlike anything it has been through before. And it has been through a lot, a civil war, multiple bombings, running street battles, but this explosion has left this population traumatized in an entirely different way.
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DAMON: As she felt the air being sucked out of the house, Lana thought, it's a bomb.
LANA: It's not that it's loud. It's like it's -- it was vicious, it was hurtful, it was like --
DAMON: Her daughters had just asked her if they could go over to a friend's place.
LANA: I looked up and Zoey and Leah were like standing here where you can see the clock, holding each other, screaming.
DAMON: Time stood still. She imagined them being blown away, decapitated.
LANA: They're like it's --
ZOEY: We were screaming like crazy!
LANA: So, I got them here on the floor. I thought I saw -- I pull this.
DAMON: Oh, there's still blood on the mattress.
LANA: Yes, yes, yes. This, if you try to move it, try to -- don't ask me. Don't ask me how. This was like literally here, like I made a turn.
ANDRE: So, I was driving just to reach the children and Lana.
DAMON: Andre her husband was not home.
ANDRE: And I ran to see them and I see that everything -- it was fallen. It was the chaos. And I start shouting, where are the kids? Where are the kids? And then --
DAMON: Lana's back was shredded. There was a massive gash on her thigh.
ZOEY: We were scared when we saw mommy injured. We said "mommy you are injured!" She said "I didn't feel anything."
LANA: And I was just in complete denial. Just like, oh, nothing, it's like scratches. And the other one is like completely -- she's having PTSD as we say, like, I see her crying. She says -- she told me it's going to -- it's going to happen again. And I told her no, I promise. And she's like, you can't make me this promise.
DAMON: Leah asked if she could crawl back into her belly.
LEAH: I said I can sit in there like a frog.
DAMON: She also told her mother that Thor would have stopped the explosion with his hammer.
LANA: Is mommy a hero? You think mommy is a hero?
DAMON: No one knows how to explain this to themselves, never mind to their children. The sheer madness of it, the carnage, the chaos, seems they can't escape from ingrained in their psyche, threatening to push them over the abyss into hysteria.
LANA: I'm still too angry to understand what's happened. Why all this happened? (INAUDIBLE) injured, wounded, and like in my head like night, it's equals the stapling and the hospital and blood, night is blood. They're holding our kids physically and mentally hostages. It's this. It's this that I can't go anywhere. I can't --
DAMON: She doesn't like the sounds anymore of honking?
LANA: I'm 36. I'm terrified every time like, she's 7. They didn't want to sleep here. They don't feel safe in their parents' room. They took this away from many, many kids, not just my kids.
[02:45:09]
LANA: My kids went in six months from drawing rainbows and mermaids. Three months later, I was being asked every day. What's the corona that stole today in Beirut, to what's nitrate, in six months. My 7- year-old went from drawing rainbows to trying to understand the process of nitrate combustion.
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DAMON: And Robyn, you can just hear it in her voice and how still a week later, she's still struggling to put her sentences together. You know, her girls go from looking like they're OK to all of a sudden having you know that that trauma, the terror of that experience resettle on their faces. And this is a similar situation for you know, hundreds of thousands of the population of Beirut that were directly impacted by this and you know, just imagine what it's like for the children who saw their parents die in front of them.
The children who themselves were wounded in a hospital, getting stapled together because hospitals had to triage without proper anesthetic or cleaning products or medication. And you know, the Lebanese to a certain degree, they pride themselves on being able to soldier on and being this beautiful no-matter-what-happens-to-us- we're-going-to-love-life-population. They can't keep going like this anymore.
They refused to keep going like this to sort of push this aside and allow the status quo to continue. And that is why you're seeing such anger. That is why you're seeing such demands for such radical change.
CURNOW: Arwa, thanks so much, really powerful piece, really powerful, such a long journey ahead for those kids and so many of the others. Thanks so much. Arwa there, live in Beirut.
The additional $600 and unemployment benefits from the U.S. government officially ended nearly two weeks ago. Congressional leaders haven't been able to agree on another coronavirus aid package and the strain on American families is clear. Here's Ed Lavandera who's now going to take us to a food bank in Dallas, Texas. Ed?
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the middle of the night, a fleet of trucks carrying more than 10,000 boxes of food arrive in a desolate Dallas parking lot.
VALERIE HAWTHORNE, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS DIRECTOR, NORTH TEXAS FOOD BANK: Probably drop him here.
LAVANDERA: Valerie Hawthorne of the North Texas Food Bank is making sure all the crates are perfectly lined up. The last time the North Texas Food Bank sponsored a drive thru food giveaway was in May. And Hawthorne knows that life has only become more desperate for millions of people struggling through the pandemic.
HAWTHORNE: These distributions truly reveal what the need is and how many of our community members are just one paycheck away from hunger. So, we have to be out there to support them during this time.
LAVANDERA: First people in line were Pauletta Johnson and Arthur Ferrazas. They arrived three hours before the food giveaway even started. Pauletta is on a fixed income and cares for her grandchildren. Arthur is a handyman and says work has dried up in recent months.
PAULETTA JOHNSON, DALLAS RESIDENT: It helps feed the grandkids when they're here, when they (INAUDIBLE) and it just -- it just means a lot. I don't really have the money. I'm on a fixed income, and I don't have the money to buy some of the things that I need to get. So, that's why I'm here this morning.
ARTHUR FERRAZAS, DALLAS RESIDENT: It means a lot. You know, that's a little bit of help. You know, it's going to help us a lot, you know? I got two kids at the house. My wife's kind of sick right now, but not with the virus, you know? So, that's why I'm here.
LAVANDERA: At this food delivery event, about 100 volunteers will distribute more than 10,000 boxes of food for nearly 8,000 people. The images have long lines seen at Food Bank distributions are a searing reminder of the economic toll inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. The images taken over recent months span the country.
HAWTHORNE: Our families tomorrow will be receiving a box that has noodles and rice, some fruit and nut mix, some cereal.
LAVANDERA: That's why it doesn't surprise Valerie Hawthorne to see thousands lineup before the sun comes up just days after millions of people have lost their $600 a week unemployment benefits. Since March, about 3.1 million Texans have filed Unemployment Claims.
HAWTHORNE: We know that the need is out there. We know that it's great. And what this pandemic has done has just shown -- shine a light on poverty and hunger and our communities that are in desperate need.
LAVANDERA: From this warehouse, the North Texas Food Bank is distributing more than a million pounds of food per week.
[02:50:13]
LAVANDERA: Jesus Baca is a disabled former law enforcement officer and says these boxes can feed him for up to three weeks.
HAWTHORNE: How does that help you?
JESUS BACA, FORMER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Really financially strain. I got house payments and doctor bills and so on. I got pay.
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LAVANDERA: From our vantage point, the line of cars stretched at least a mile and a half, and organizers say that really is symbolic of the dire need that so many people are finding themselves in, during this pandemic that they waited in line this long for a box of food, which really amounts to about $50.00 worth of food that can last a family of four, about a week. Ed Lavandera, CNN Dallas.
CURNOW: Thanks, Ed, for that. So, from an after-school activity to a national charitable organization, we'll speak with a teenage CEO who is putting protective equipment in hospitals around the country. That conversation next.
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CURNOW: So, a new charitable organization is changing the game when it comes to providing health care professionals with protective equipment. Take a look at this, 16-year-old Edward Aguilar and his classmates created Paralink which gets volunteers to make and deliver this badly needed gift throughout the Atlanta area and elsewhere. The project was such a success that Paralink has expanded its operations to New York, Colorado and California. Well, earlier on, I spoke with Edward about how the experience has impacted his life. Take a listen to this.
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EDWARD AGUILAR, FOUNDER AND CEO, PROJECT PARALINK: We've been having a lot of fun at work over the last four months. We have been manufacturing and distributing PPE across the United States, because unfortunately, our government wouldn't do it. So, we decided we needed to stand up and see what we could do to, you know, replace that need.
CURNOW: And how did you do it? Because you're 16, you're still at school? And how did you manage to create this supply chain that even American states and the American government seems to fail that on some levels?
AGUILAR: Yes. So, we're lucky because we're taking a completely different approach than what you would traditionally see in a manufacturing line. So, today, if you think about how a manufacturer or factory works, you know, everybody's very, you know, next to each other in a line, going around in circles, it's all very efficient. Now, the issue is, when you have something like COVID, where people need to be separated, you can't have everybody packed into one building.
What we need to do is distribute them out. So, what we've done is invented this new form of distributed manufacturing where all of our workers are able to work almost completely isolated in their own homes. And that is extremely useful because of course, right now with COVID, it keeps people safe. But more importantly, allows us to move faster and become more flexible, because each one of our workers has their own machines. So, we do a lot of our printing with 3D printers.
So, everybody's able to sit at home and you know, they can produce 200 shields in one day, just completely automatically. And overnight, we can turn it on and the next day, we can turn it off.
CURNOW: So, what exactly are you printing and what have you been supplying hospitals and doctors with?
AGUILAR: Yes. So, right now, we've been mainly focusing on the three main types of PPE. So, that's face masks, face shields, and gowns. And that's what we've been producing right now.
CURNOW: And how do you get it to the doctors and the hospitals and how do you assess their needs? I mean, it can't just be random, knocking on the ER door and saying, hey, we've got a present for you. How do you manage to coordinate all of us?
[02:55:13]
AGUILAR: Well, in the beginning of everything, that's kind of how we did do it. We -- the day we founded it --
CURNOW: Oh, did you?
AGUILAR: Yes, we ended up calling 15 of our local hospitals. And we said, hey, we have supplies, we want to help out. What is it that you guys need? Of course, we've been able to make it a little bit more advanced. We've had a number of fantastic organizations reach out to us. One of them is Atlanta Beats COVID right here in my hometown of Atlanta, and then as well as Get Us PPE, which are both major organizations where doctors and hospital workers and people from all walks of life are able to go into the website and submit a request for exactly what type of PPE they need and when they need it.
So, what happens is that after they go through those websites, the organizations give us their data, and from there, we're able to deliver for them.
CURNOW: At the same time, as we said, you've been at school. You started this off earlier on in the year and you're also juggling schoolwork.
AGUILAR: Yes.
CURNOW: How did that go?
AGUILAR: It was an interesting experience to try and balance both of them. I honestly felt that even though we only had school for the first two months that we started this, it feels like I've been in school the entire time because we work alongside professors from Ivy Leagues that I would only be lucky to be able to go visit in person. I mean, we have Stanford professors, MIT professors, who are sitting in college with us, trying to teach us every day. How do you do supply chain?
How do you do distribution of manufacturing? So, it still feels like we're in school today. But when I was in the first couple months, our teachers were super supportive. At first, they didn't believe us, we needed to get signatures from the teachers. We were working with that, hey, you know, this is a real person that actually does want to help out and you know, I'm not trying to skip class. But after a while, once they realized that we were actually making progress and working on this, they were extremely supportive.
CURNOW: Yes. Now, your teachers are very proud of you, your family as well. And thanks so much, amazing work. Obviously, CNN's here in Atlanta and I know you've made a huge difference to many people's lives. Edward, thank you.
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CURNOW: What a kid, shows a little bit of imagination can do. Well, thanks for joining me. I'm Robyn Curnow. Wherever you are in the world, thanks for watching. I'm going to hand you over to Rosemary. She's next.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are going to take very seriously the issue of community engagement and community outreach. We've got to get out there with people who are trusted at the community level, to get individuals to understand that this is extremely important for their own health, and importantly for the health of the community and the health of the nation.
Because if we get a widespread uptake of vaccine, we can put an end to this pandemic. And we could create a veil of immunity in this country that would prevent the infection from coming back. We've got to get these people convinced. And you have to do it by extending yourself to the community, not by a dictum from Washington, but by engaging the community at the community level. And I hope we can turn around that reluctance to get vaccinated.
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