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Team Biden-Harris in Virtual Debut; Virus Regains Ground In Europe; CDC: Coronavirus Will Dominant This Fall; India, Brazil And U.S. Top The World's COVID List; Disconnect Between U.S. Economy and Wall Street; Political Crisis in Belarus; Protecting India's Lakes and Ponds; Trump Praises Conspiracy Theorist Who Won Georgia Primary. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 13, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Coming up this hour. Socially distanced, masks on. No fanfare. A vice presidential roll out in the U.S. like never before.
Also, coronavirus resurgence in Europe. From Italy to France, even Germany. The virus is regaining ground.
Also the conspiracy theorist group known as QAnon making its way into mainstream U.S. politics. And President Trump has only praise for only one Republican candidate who's a true believer.
The Biden-Harris team made their first joint appearance Wednesday. An historic moment in so many ways.
But unlike previous election campaigns, there was no confetti, no balloons, no cheering crowd.
Instead the stark reality of campaigning in the age of the coronavirus pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FRM. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Now let me introduce to you, for the first time, your next Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Kamala, the floor is yours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Deafening silence.
This campaign debut was held at a high school gym in Delaware. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris addressed just a handful of reporters scattered apart.
Even so, their message was clear. The president, Donald Trump, and his response to the pandemic and economic crisis had failed.
CNN's Arlette Saenz begins our coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris making their debut as the Democratic ticket.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: The choice we make this November is going to decide the future of America for a very, very long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: After facing off in the Democratic primary, Biden chose a former rival as his running mate. Saying she is ready to lead on day one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Kamala, as you all know, is smart, she's tough, she's experienced. She's a proven fighter for the backbone of this country.
Kamala knows how to govern, she knows how to make the hard calls. She's ready to do this job on day one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Harris making history as the first woman of color on a major party ticket. Preparing to take the fight to President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is a moment of real consequence for America. Everything we care about. Our economy, our health, our children. The kind of country we live in. It's all on the line.
America is crying out for leadership.
Yet we have a president who cares more about himself than the people who elected him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Biden's decision capped off a months' long search, with his team extensively vetting 11 women.
In the last week-and-a-half Biden interviewed them all himself, in a mix of in-person and remote conversations.
On a video chat Tuesday, the former vice president asked Harris to be his VP.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: You ready to go to work? HARRIS: Oh my God, I am so ready to go to work.
BIDEN: First of all, is the answer yes?
HARRIS: The answer is absolutely yes, Joe. And I am ready to work. I am ready to do this with you for you. I'm just deeply honored and I'm very excited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: The coronavirus pandemic made this roll out vastly different than past running mate announcements.
Like in 2008 in Springfield, Illinois, were Biden appeared for the first time as Barack Obama's running mate. In front of thousands of supporters.
This time Biden and his running mate in a high school gym in Delaware. A small socially distanced event with the candidates and attendees in masks. Their spouses, Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff also on hand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:. Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: The two families share a common bond over Biden's late son, Beau. Harris and Beau became friends when they served together as attorneys general in their home states.
That relationship playing a role in her new partnership as Biden's running mate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The love that they shared was incredible to watch. It was the most beautiful display of the love between a father and a son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: After their in-person event together, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris held a virtual grassroots fundraiser with supporters. Biden announcing they raised $26 million in their first day as the full Democratic ticket.
Arlette Saenz. CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With Harris now in the Democratic ticket Donald Trump, a Republican, seemed to have decided on a strategy of throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
[01:05:00]
Calling her a socialist, weak on crime, a Wall Street pawn, a puppet of the far left.
Here's the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, he made a choice, he picked her.
I watched her, I watched her poll numbers go boom, boom, boom, down to almost nothing. And she left angry, she left mad.
There was nobody more insulting to Biden than she was. She said horrible things about him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Earlier on Wednesday, the president played the racist card with his tweet:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"The suburban housewife will be voting for me. They want safety and are thrilled that I ended the long running program were low-income housing would invade their neighborhood.
Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form with Cory Booker in charge."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Chris Kofinis is a Democratic strategist. He served as communications director in 2008 for the John Edwards presidential campaign.
And he is with us this hour from San Francisco.
Chris, thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
CHRIS KOFINIS, STRATEGIST, DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Thank you.
VAUSE: This historic joint appearance on Wednesday but no cheering supporters so no excitement, at least in the room.
Just very quickly it seems that we're seeing really now for the first time what is a new normal of campaigning in a pandemic.
KOFINIS: Well, when it comes to I think presidential elections and the images and the optics that voters have tended to see in past elections, the big rallies, the big roll outs, the bus tours, the conventions. That's all, for now at least, a thing of the past.
These are going to be much more cerebral affairs in many respects. I think they're going be much more substantive.
It's going to allow in a strange way I think the candidates to speak louder. I think both Vice President Biden and Senator Harris have the
opportunity here, I think, to kind of make their messages heard even louder because it's not going to get drowned by any other type of exterior show or event or whatever it might be.
And I think in a strange way, it's odd to say because you could never have envisioned it, I think it paints a really powerful contrast.
Because I think Senator Harris and Vice President Biden are more comfortable in that style because of their past. President Trump is more uncomfortable, he really needs those crowds.
I think as the race kind of evolves and we get closer and closer to election day, and the reality that those events are not going happen, I think it's going have an even bigger negative impact on him and his campaign.
VAUSE: Well, it seems that in some ways Republicans were all over the map when it came to Biden's decision to choose Harris. There was no consistent line of attack.
A press release from party headquarters of the RNC declared:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"Liberals revolt against Biden, Harris ticket."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But listen to the senior Trump advisor, Sean Hannity, on "Fox News." Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, ANCHOR, "FOX NEWS": This pick now solidifies what is the most extreme radical, far left, out of the mainstream ticket of any major political party in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Thank you, Sean.
The Republican senator from Tennessee was appalled by a lack of support from Harris for law and order.
So listen to the senator from Tennessee. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN, (R-TEN) (Voice over): "You know what, law and order is important to me. And I don't want a vice president who is out there marching in the streets with the BLM organization."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And at the same time, a senior Trump advisor said Harris would have to hide her past as a prosecutor because she's put a lot of people in jail.
That's just a few examples of the contradictions out there.
Why can't Republicans find an effective line of attack here against Harris? And how crucial is that if they are to -- if Trump is to turn this campaign around?
KOFINIS: Yes. I think they're going have a really difficult time trying to figure out what the line of attack should be.
Today was what I call the throw everything, the spaghetti against the wall strategy, see what sticks. Unfortunately, none of it was really effective.
The reality is, especially if you talk to insiders, many of her colleagues who are Republican have a lot of respect for Senator Harris because they consider her a smart, serious senator. And so I think it's going be a bit of a stretch for the Republicans to try to paint her one way or the other.
All that being said, the question that still I think is outstanding is what impact does any vice presidential pick have? I think in this case it has a really positive impact because of the nature of the environment that we're living in.
People can focus more because they're at home a lot more. They're watching the news a lot more.
But I think that the Trump Campaign, if they think they're going to beat Vice President Biden by undermining or attacking Senator Harris, that is a flawed strategy.
[01:10:00]
Voters are going to decide first as a referendum on the president. What was his first term? Are they better off than they were four years ago?
All those kind of critical questions that every incumbent president has to face.
And right now, he's not on the good side of those questions because of where the state of the economy is, the state of the country is, psychologically and otherwise.
And all the attacks in the world can't hide your record.
And that's the difference, I think, and the challenge that the Republicans have.
The challenge the Democrats have, to be frank, is we've just to go out there and articulate a really clear, strong message and vision about where we would take the country in a far better direction if we're elected -- if Vice President Trump [sic] and Senator Harris are elected.
VAUSE: Sure. Often we have a VP who is chosen to be the attack dog, to go after the administration.
And with that in mind, I give you Prosecutor Kamala Harris.
Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut.
Just look where they've gotten us. More than 16 million out of work. Millions of kids who cannot go back to school.
A crisis of poverty, of homelessness, afflicting black, brown, and indigenous people the most. A crisis of hunger afflicting one in five mothers who have children that are hungry.
And tragically, more than 165,000 lives that have been cut short.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What struck me about that, there was no hyperbole, there was no name calling --
KOFONIS: Right. Just the facts.
VAUSE: It was Joe Friday. The facts. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
KOFINIS: Yes.
VAUSE: If that continues, Donald Trump is in for some very unhappy days before November.
KOFINIS: And here's, I think, the fundamental problem. The facts are clearly not on his side. And that's if you look at them truly objectively -- and I'm talking about on the side of the president.
The president, President Trump is going to try to redefine the debate, he's going to try to make people see something else.
It's going to be really challenging him for -- to do that, to be honest.
And just for the simple reality -- I've just started personally traveling again around the country talking to voters and others. And once you go to some of these major cities -- like I'm in San Francisco today, the San Francisco now in the middle of a pandemic versus San Francisco prior to the pandemic or any of the other major cities I've visited, it's night and day.
It's like you're almost -- you feel like you're living in an alternative universe, you can't believe it. In terms of what you see.
The problem I think for President Trump is you cannot -- there are no words that are going to reimagine or redefine the reality that the American people are living through. And so the question really is we're about less than three months
before the election. Do things get dramatically better over the next 60 days?
Is there some kind of significant event that happens that make people go yes, President Trump maybe wasn't that bad. Is that possible? Yes.
What could that be? That I think is open to a significant amount of debate. But right now his position is not very good.
And I think the more that Vice President Biden and Senator Harris really kind of just focus on the facts, give people the facts, then it's really hard to argue with them regardless of whether you're Republican, Democrat, or Independent.
VAUSE: Well, thanks to Democrat strategist, Chris Kofinis there. From San Francisco.
Here's a key few details about Kamala Harris.
She's 55 years old -- notably Joe Biden is 77. Harris was eight years old when Biden was first elected to the senate.
Harris is the junior senator for California. She was elected in 2016. Before that, she was a state's attorney general.
She once called herself "California's top cop." Has a controversial record when it comes to law and order.
Her father came to the U.S. from, Jamaica her mother's side of the family from India has strongly influenced her politics.
CNN's Vedika Sud reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: My mother, who raised me and my sister, was a proud woman. She was a brown women. She was a woman with a very heavy accent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was also the biggest influence in Kamala Harris's life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The answer is absolutely yes, Joe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUD: After the big announcement, Harris's sister wrote in a Twitter post:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"You can't know who Kamala Harris is without knowing who our mother was."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
In 1958, a precocious 19-year old Indian, Gopalan traveled thousands of miles from her home and family to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology in America.
She soon became an active civil rights crusader while studying at U.C. Berkeley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:15:00]
DR. GOPALAN BALACHANDRAN: Once she went there she almost felt free. And she took part in politics. She took in -- she used to bring whole series of leftist literature from Karl Poppers (inaudible), he was a great philosopher.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUD: In her book, Harris says:
"There is no title or honor on earth I'll treasure than to say I am Shyamala Gopalan Harris's daughter."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Harris's visits to India with her mother kept her connected to her roots.
Her grandfather, who had strong views on humanitarian issues, worked closely with officials to reallocate refugees. Their conversations had a strong influence on her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS (Voice over): Those walks along the beach in India really planted something in my mind, and created a commitment in me before I even realized it. And it's led to where I am today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUD: Harris's maternal uncle, Gopalan Balachandran, who lives in Delhi, tells us how the senator turns to her "amma," which means "mother" in Tamil for guidance. Even after her death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALACHANDRAN: I don't have to tell her make your mother proud. She'll say what are you telling me? Everything that I do I ask myself, "Would 'amma' approve of this?"
"Kamala" in Hindi means "lotus flower" and is an important symbol in Indian culture, rooted deep in the bottom of the river.
Very similar to Harris's Indian identity which she wears on her sleeve.
Vedika Sud. CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM. As France records its highest number of new infections since May, many countries in Europe are now fearing a second wave of the coronavirus could be on the way.
Plus Brazil reports tens of thousands of new infections including one very high-profile official.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Europe is bracing for a second wave of the coronavirus and many countries are now taking decisive action, like Italy which plans to test all travelers arriving from Spain, Greece, Croatia, and Malta.
Spain is also seeing an increase in cases. That's according to Johns Hopkins University.
France saw its biggest jump in infections since it eased lockdown restrictions, reporting more than 2,500 new cases just on Wednesday.
And from Paris, here's CNN's Cyril Vanier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The virus is gaining ground in many European countries.
Here in France, numbers are trending up across the board as people have become less disciplined according to the prime minister.
Infections and hospital admissions are increasing, and a research director I spoke to said we should expect to see the number of deaths increase as well.
The French prime minister is now calling on local authorities to massively extend mask wearing outdoors.
In neighboring Germany, which has done better than many of its neighbors new infections are also going up.
[01:20:00]
The country just recorded 1,200 new cases, which is a significant jump from less than 1,000 the day before.
Elsewhere in Europe, look at Greece. With 203 new cases on Sunday, it may not seem like a problem country. Yet that is its highest daily new number of cases ever. There is a true resurgence of the virus in Europe, according to the
European Center for Disease Control. Which is calling on authorities to re-implement the only measures that we know to be effective. Distancing, testing and contact tracing.
Now I do want to end on a positive note.
The situation is actually improving in a handful of European countries. Portugal among them, which has seen infections go down in the last week. Along with Sweden, Croatia, Latvia and Slovenia.
Cyril Vanier. CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Saskia Popescu is a senior epidemiologist specializing in preventing infection. She is with us from Phoenix, Arizona.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.
SASKIA POPESCU, SENIOR INFECTION PREVENTION EPIDEMIOLOGIST, PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Thank you for having me [ph].
VAUSE: I wanted to start with the headline we have from "The New York Times." It's quite stunning.
It reads:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"The Nation Wanted to Eat Out Again" -- and "Everyone Has Paid the Price."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The "Times' is linking a recent uptick in new cases across the U.S. to reopening restaurants.
But it seems whenever restrictions are eased, if it's in the U.K., for example, people go back to the bars or in Greece where the beaches are open up to tourists or laborers go back to work -- every time social distancing goes out the window, people relax, they don't wear masks.
But the question is who's responsible for that?
Because in many cases people have been encouraged to go out, get back to work, kickstart the economy. It's mixed messaging all the time.
POPESCU: You nailed it. Exactly. Mixed messaging has been a problem.
I think as we reopen restaurants we also have to be mindful and educate people on maybe safe times to go, not going with a lot of people.
But also, nightclubs are increasingly becoming an issue. Spain has recently noted that. Bars and nightclubs have been a huge source for transmission.
So as we try to go back to business in the U.S., we also have to be mindful of those areas that are really at an increased risk for transmission, like the bars and indoor restaurants.
So how can we try to reopen things? But safely.
VAUSE: And then there's the situation of reopening schools. In the U.S., it's happening despite the fact community spread is still not under control.
And I'd like you to listen to the governor of Florida.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FLA): Martin County Superintendent Laurie Gaylord told me today that she viewed reopening her schools as a mission akin to a Navy Seal operation.
Just as the Seals surmounted obstacles to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, so too would the Martin County school system find a way to provide parents with a meaningful choice of in-person instruction or continued distance learning. All in, all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes. God bless her for her courage. But seriously, other countries have not called on teachers to perform an act of bravery on par with a Seal team taking out the world's wanted terrorist in order to teach a bunch of kids.
POPESCU: Yes. I think it's a very unfortunate analogy, actually. This is an option, to reopen.
And the truth is that we don't need to rush it, it's not a requirement in that same regard. We want children to go back to school, everybody does. But we have to do so safely.
So to force it and to kind of put it into that context is actually very dangerous . Because it makes it really seem as if, if we don't do this there's going to be an imperative danger when we know if we do go back to school, we reopen things very quickly and dangerously, there will be lives lost.
We're already seeing cases in Georgia as a result of that.
VAUSE: I want to stay in Florida for a little bit longer. Because we had this sheriff, he's in one of the state's largest counties there, and he's officially banned his deputies from wearing face masks.
And here's part of his reasons why. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the email provided to WESH 2 Sheriff Billy Woods explains his logic.
When it comes to his deputies, Sheriff Woods says their "orders/commands to comply" must be clearly heard when working a scene and dealing with the public.
Why can't visitors wear a mask in the sheriff's office lobby and sub- stations?
The email says because of current events --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"... when it comes to the sentiment and/or hatred towards law enforcement in our country today," --
-- the sheriff says they need to see visitors' faces."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. Do any of those reasons, in your opinion, outweigh the importance and the benefit of wearing a face mask during a global pandemic?
POPESCU: Absolutely not. And unfortunately, I think it furthers the politicization of masks and public health. So it's just damaging things even more.
VAUSE: Yes. And keep in mind this comes the same day the director of the CDC called for all Americans to follow public health guidelines like wearing masks and hand-washing and social distancing.
Robert Redfield told "WebMD":
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"I'm not asking some of America to do it. We all got to do it. Or this could be the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:25:00]
VAUSE: If the Florida sheriff is any indication, it's not looking promising come fall, right?
POPESCU: No, it's really not. And I think as we continue to see leaders in the community with this narrative, it's just going to get more dangerous and more concerning especially as we move into an increased time of politicization and very divisive politics in the United States.
So I worry when we see states like that and leaders within those states pushing this narrative and discouraging mask use both in the community and within their own staff and employees. VAUSE: Yes. There needs to be consistent message on pretty much
everything. And that is one thing which has been missing.
Saskia, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
POPESCU: Thanks.
VAUSE: Another 55,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus in Brazil, including the governor of Sao Paulo. The pandemic in Brazil is second only to the U.S. in terms of the number of confirmed cases.
And while the rate of transition [sic] may have stabilized, Shasta Darlington reports the death toll keeps rising.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Brazil, the coronavirus has claimed new victims including the grandmother of the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, who died overnight after being hospitalized for weeks with COVID-19.
Michelle Bolsonaro and the president were diagnosed with COVID-19 last month. The president who has now recovered has consistently downplayed the severity of the virus.
The governor of Brazil's Sao Paulo state, Joao Doria, also announced on Wednesday that he tested positive for the virus. Making him Brazil's eleventh governor to be infected.
Meanwhile, Brazil reported 1,175 additional deaths, and more than 55,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. Bringing the total number of infections to well over 3.1 million.
Shasta Darlington. CNN, Sao Paulo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: New Zealand has confirmed 14 new cases of the coronavirus, just a day after reimposing nationwide restrictions.
That's because Auckland reported the country's first local infections in more than three months, Most of these new infections on Thursday were locally transmitted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACINDA ARDEN, PRIME MINISTER, NEW ZEALAND: I'll say again that, as with our first outbreak, we do have an expectation that things will get worse before they get better. And we'll all remember that pattern as well.
And modeling suggests that we will still see more positive cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Just a short time ago, health officials in India say the country hit a single day high for new cases. Nearly 67,000. India has the third most cases in the world behind the United States and Brazil. More than 4,700 people died.
Another Indian cabinet minister has also tested positive.
A short break now. When we come back, tempers flare in Belarus as police arrest thousands of protesters who claim the election there was stolen.
Plus this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Q is a patriot. We know that for sure. But we do not know who Q is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes. The QAnon supporter who is buying those conspiracy theories and earning praise from none other than President Trump. Now that she's won a primary and is set to go to Congress.
Details in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:36]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause.
Well for 17 straight days, every day the average death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. has been about a thousand people. A thousand people dying every day for a total of more than 166,000 dead.
But there is a glimmer -- a glimmer of good news. New infections appear to be holding steady or falling in 44 of the 50 states. The nationwide average of new cases is starting to dip, but make no mistake here, it is still extremely high.
Some of the worst-hit states are still suffering a record number of fatalities meaning the hotspots are getting hotter. Florida is one of them. And as we mentioned just earlier in the show, a local sheriff there is banning masks inside his department.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods says staff and visitors are not allowed to wear masks and there will be very few exceptions. He writes in an email, "Now I can already hear the whining and just so you know I didn't make this decision easily. The fact is the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should wear masks, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we should not."
Really? Is that right? Well, it's worth noting that even the U.S. President who took months to finally acknowledge that masking in public as a good thing to do, says his administration will now provide up to 125 million masks to school districts nationwide.
Well, a senior official with the U.S. Federal Reserve says the failure to control the virus is slowing the country's economic recovery. But that slowdown is not being felt on Wall Street. Stocks rallied Wednesday. The S&P 500 about five points to a new record high.
To Johannesburg now live, Eleni Giokos there with more. You know, everyone is saying, if you listened to Jeremy Diamond, you know, they're all just basically saying that this is a complete disconnect.
The stock market is meant to be a leading indicator of where the economy is going. This is not reality.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean look, you say that's the leading indicator. We always say that you know, they're forward- looking and they're basically pricing in the recovery. It's like they have a crystal ball right?
But it's such uncertain times and we don't really know where we're going because we are seeing a rising in coronavirus cases and we heard there that it could derail economic activity as well. It's what we're hearing from all the major institutions.
So the big question is, why is the S&P just a few points away from hitting record highs. Well, it's the rise of the tech titans since the start of the pandemic that's really boosted stock market prices. it's been really incredible to see the FAANG stocks, the Facebooks, the Apples, the Amazon, the Googles, the Netflix doing really well. And that's because you can stay at home, you can be entertained using these tech stocks, and they've of course, seen a very big rise.
And the traditional stocks -- the transport stocks, the energy place as well, those are the traditionally big employers in the United States. The companies that own the factories and the manufacturing plants that are still experiencing pain.
And we've seen a big rotation out of those stocks and into the tech stock place. And of course that has been an interesting trend. The recalibration of what is deemed resilient and strong over this time.
And then of course, the stimulus package earlier this year paid a really big role because money needs to find a home. It is liquidity, it needs to go somewhere. And I was hearing an anecdote from one of the market analysts saying that he thinks that perhaps a lot of the money that was going to sports betting is now getting into the stock market and people perhaps are day trading because they've nothing else to do.
Either way you're seeing this kind of bubble emerging in the stock markets and the question is, you know, how disconnected is it from reality and how much good news have they priced in. And are they going to disappointed point down the line?
I mean we've got initial jobless claims coming out later today. You and I have always talked about it. It's a really important part of our week. It's a good barometer to get a sense of where we are in the jobs market. Jobs, unemployment, economic recovery -- all of these things are going to play a really strong role as to how stock markets react. But right now they're enjoying the bubble and, of course, we're sitting very close to (INAUDIBLE) so, interesting.
VAUSE: I mean where we are right now with the here and now with the jobless claims is that it doesn't happen in a vacuum because while the stimulus talks are going between the Democrats and the Republicans and the White House. Donald Trump sat on sidelines. Now he's going to get involved.
But that's holding up, you know, trillions of dollars if you like for this economy. What impact is that likely to have on these numbers?
[01:34:52]
GIOKOS: I mean it's such a good point that you make. Talks completely collapsing. We know the Democrats want $3 trillion into the market. And then we're hearing about a $1 trillion stimulus package from the Republican Party. They have to find common ground. It's going to be really significant this year.
And then, of course, the initial claims are going to tell a wider story. There are about one million John, for the last 20 weeks. To give you an understanding of where we were pre-COVID, initial claims would come in around 200,000 a week.
So we're really far away from the averages that we saw and even far away from the worst level during the global financial crisis. The point here is there's still a lot of pain to be worked through and people are still unemployed waiting for -- to find out about enhanced benefits.
There's a delay in the protections, as you mentioned. That is going to perhaps be a really big problem when it comes to the recovery. We know the Trump administration wants a v-shaped recovery. If they don't put a stimulus package in place and help the vulnerable people in the country, that is going to be a massive risk that they're going to have to contend with.
VAUSE: I always find it interesting when billionaires and millionaires talk about $600 a week as being a lot of money.
Eleni, thank you. Good to see you.
GIOKOS: Yes. Thanks
VAUSE: Well, to Belarus now where as many as 6,000 protesters have been detained since Sunday's contested election, President Alexander Lukashenko blames criminals and also the unemployed for the demonstrations.
He claimed victory -- what many are calling a rigged vote. The opposition candidate fled to Lithuania but others still in Belarus say their fight to rid Europe of its last dictator is not over. Here's CNN's Fred Pleitgen reporting in from the capital Minsk.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The protests against what many believe was a fraudulent election here in Belarus and against the government of Alexander Lukashenko continue, although the protesters have somewhat changed their tactics. They're beginning to be more decentralized to try and get out of the way of the security forces. Now the security forces are still continuing their crackdown.
At the same time I managed to speak to one of the last leaders of the opposition movement -- one of the three female leaders and the last one who is actually still here in Belarus. And Maria Kolesnikova (ph) told me she believes that in the end they will prevail.
MARIA KOLESNIKOVA, BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I think the Belarusians they know now that they can do it and they are sure now they will do it. And it's not on me -- it's not on me or not Sitlana (ph) or Viranika (ph) or somebody else.
They change themselves. Belarusians changed themselves and it could be not be as the last 26 years. We know that we are together. And we know that together we are very strong, and we are able to say stop it. Stop this violence. Stop this disrespect of the whole Belarusian nation.
This resistance can be very long time, and of course, they already lose, government is already lost. And now it's very important time to say please understand and please hear the Belarusian people because only when we stop this violence we can get one dialogue to each other and together we can build or to start to build a new Belarus.
PLEITGEN: Now, she also told me that the opposition certainly appreciates all the support that it's getting from the international community especially from countries in the European Union.
But she also said that in the end it's going to have to be Belarusian who make change happen themselves and from within.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Minsk, Belarus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: An investigation is underway to find the cause of a train derailment in northeast Scotland. Smoke can be seen billowing from the side. Three were killed including the train's driver. Six others were taken to hospitals.
From the air, several carriages can be seen laying on an embankment. Before the deadly incident eastern Scotland recorded about a month's worth of rain in one day. That morning a managing body of the U.K. Rail Network tweeted a video of a landslip of nearby rail lines. Officials were warned a month ago about the dangers of landslips.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, why one man left his job at Google to help protect India's waterways.
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VAUSE: "Call to Earth" is a call action for the environment to share solutions to critical issues like global warming, deforestation, plastic waste. It's a long term priority for CNN to work with the audience, drive awareness, maybe inspire change for a sustainable future.
In this week's report, imagine a lake filled not with water but garbage. That's what Arun Krishnamurthy found in his home country of India. This is what the Rolex Young Laureate did next.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the outskirts of India's sixth largest city, this lake is on life support. Its streams clogged with garbage and shores looking more like a landfill that's growing. That's why these young volunteers are scrambling to revive it.
ARUN KRISHNAMURTHY, FOUNDER, ENVIRONMENTALIST FOUNDATION OF INDIA: I tell you this is a (INAUDIBLE) --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's 2013 in Chennai and leading the pack is Arun Krishnamurthy. Now 33 he's the founder of the Environmentalist Foundation of India, a nonprofit wildlife and habitat restoration group for lakes and ponds across the country.
KRISHNAMURTHY: We are walking around the lake where they're trying to clean the garbage. All sort of non degradable trash, plastic and (INAUDIBLE) -- all that is being removed from the water body.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: India with a population of 1.3 billion people is facing a range of water-related challenges. Around 70 percent of the country's surface water which includes rivers, lakes and ponds is polluted. That's according to the Asian Development Research Institute.
Growing urbanization and the sewage waste that comes with it is only part of the problem. There is climate change to.
KRISHNAMURTHY: There is an excess rainfall in very short times causing inundation and flooding and long periods of no rainfall which leads to water scarcity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: India's government says water conservation is a priority though many experts say not enough is being done.
Krishnamurthy left a job at Google so he you could be part of the solution. Selfishness, he says, got him into conservation because as a teenager, he witnessed a pond near his child home fill up with trash.
KRISHNAMURTHY: Your childhood memories of something so positive and nice when it's snatched away from you, you really want to work towards rebuilding it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His organization has worked on 112 waterways across India over the last 13 years, including this lake outside Chennai which took 70 days to restore from this to this.
EFI says it deepened the lake removing weeds and solid waste. It takes time and money. The organization recently secured enough funds to continue working on that lake you saw earlier in 2013. This is what it looks like today. These water bodies are only sick he says, there is a cure.
KRISHNAMURTHY: Yes, it is possible for common citizens to come together, to work together and get something done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it takes a village. Krishnamurthy's organization has rallied more than 62,000 people to volunteer over the past year and a half.
For EFI, public support is crucial especially in the local communities they work in.
KRISHNAMURTHY: I cannot just walk into any neighborhood and start adopting and cleaning up a lake or a pond. Unless and until that community there has a buy in.
Otherwise it is my responsibility to clean it up and tomorrow it will go back to where it was before.
[01:44:59]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The group uses dance, drama, music and social media as part of its outreach. Krishnamurthy calls it environment- tainment.
KRISHNAMURTHY: We reinvested into our cameras. We reinvested into our speaking skills. We reinvested into everything that we need to tell the story of lakes and ponds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A story that affects a nation as India continues to grow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We will continue showcasing inspirational stories like this as part of this initiative at CNN. Let us know what you're doing to answer the call with the #CallToEarth.
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VAUSE: Senior Republicans including -- let me start that again. Senior Republicans including the U.S. President are praising a conspiracy theorist who is likely to be elected to Congress. Marjorie Taylor Greene secured the Republican nomination for congressional district in a deeply conservative part of Georgia.
She's known for extreme and racist views and her allegiance to the QAnon Conspiracy. But on Twitter, President Trump is calling her a future Republican star, a real winner.
CNN's Manu Raju tells us more about Greene and the controversial belief put forth by QAnon adherents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Q is real. Q is not a conspiracy.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a conspiracy theory born on the dark fringes of the Internet. Something the FBI contends is a national security threat, but the QAnon theory has been embraced by some House Republican candidates in races across the country.
And on Tuesday night, one of them won her Republican primary. And is on track to winning a House Seat in November.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I just want to say to Nancy Pelosi, she is a hypocrite, she's an anti American, and we are going to kick that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of Congress.
RAJU: Businesswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is now the heavy favorite to win a seat representing a deeply conservative district in northwest Georgia. Greene has repeatedly praised the QAnon theory.
GREENE: Q is a patriot; we know that for sure. But we do not know who Q is. People believe that Q is someone very close to President Trump.
RAJU: The movement sprung to life in early 2017 based on a belief that there is a high-level government official, Q, who sprinkles clues on Internet message boards about a series of massive deep state conspiracies at work in the country.
In 2019, the FBI raised concerns over the potential for violence linked to such fringe theories. Greene also won, despite a history of racist and incendiary remarks against Muslims.
GREEENE: We have an Islamic invasion into our government offices. They want to put their hand on the Koran and be sworn in? No. You have to be sworn in on the bible.
RAJU: About Democrats.
GREENE: They are trying to keep the black people in a modern day form of slavery. It's a slavery system to keep their vote.
RAJU: About blacks and confederate statues.
GREENE: If I were a black people today, and I walked by one of those statues, I would be so proud because I'd say look how far I have come in this country.
RAJU: And trumpeting a conspiracy theory about the liberal megadonor George Soros. Echoing an erroneous anti-Semitic attack against the Holocaust survivor that he collaborative with Nazis.
GREENE: I will not apologize for standing up against George Soros, even when they want to call me an anti-Semite.
[01:50:01]
RAJU: Her comments put House Republican leaders in an awkward spot, with the House GOP's campaign arm refusing to endorse her on Wednesday.
When videos of her past comments were first unearthed by Politico in June House Republican Whip Steve Scalise vowed to back her primary opponent and called her remarks "disgusting". A spokesman for House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said they were appalling.
But President Donald Trump was quick to herald her victory, saying in a tweet Wednesday morning that she is a future Republican star and a real winner.
A couple of hours later, a McCarthy spokesperson said we look forward to Greene and other Republicans winning in November.
Asked on Wednesday about Greene's victory in Georgia and embrace of the fringe movement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN that Republicans seem comfortable with it.
Now, as Republican leaders are mostly silent today, one Republican congressman did speak out, and that's Adam Kinzinger of Illinois who went on Twitter and said that this movement is a fabrication and he said that there's no place in congress for these conspiracies.
But that actually drew a rebuke from a top Trump campaign official who went after Kinzinger on Twitter and said that he should be -- the congressman should be focused on Democratic conspiracies instead.
So it goes to show that this debate, an unwelcome debate among many Republicans may soon be entering the halls of the Capitol.
Manu Raju, CNN -- Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Rick Wilson a political strategist, a former member of the Republican Party, cofounder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. He's with us this hour from Tampa in Florida.
Mr. Wilson, welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.
RICK WILSON, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.
VAUSE: Ok. Well, you've written quite a few books over the years, one of the best known ones is "Everything Trump Touches Dies". A brilliant title, but is the exception to that conspiracy theories -- in particular the kind of lunacy which seems to be rocket feel for the crazies who believe in this QAnon stuff?
WILSON: I think that the integral nature now of conspiracy theories to the Trump Republican Party is one of the reasons that it is going to be marginalized as a political force as we move forward because it's now become deeply hard wired into the GOP ranging from the QAnon type conspiracies which are very far out on the fringe to the George Soros conspiracies, to the deep state conspiracies. All these things in the GOP's DNA now make it seem to normal voters like a bus load of "Mad Men".
VAUSE: Well, speaking of that, Donald Trump's director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe, he's been linked to QAnon through his Twitter account. And for a little more now on how team Trump has embraced QAnon, here is part of a report from CNN's John Avalon.
JOHN AVALON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It has seeped into the groundwater of Trump era hyper-partisanship with Q paraphernalia sold out at Trump rallies. And appearing with disturbing regularity on his supporters.
And although he hasn't spoke directly about QAnon the President has fanned the flames repeatedly re-tweeting QAnon supporting accounts, memes and hashtags.
The Trump campaign even included QAnon signs in and out which was later taken down.
This month "Business Insider" published date showing the Trump campaign relies on a huge network of QAnon accounts to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Compare that to a time when Republican leaders shut down militias unfounded rumors. It wasn't that long ago, it was 2008. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't trust Obama. I have heard about him and he's not -- he's an Arab. He is not -- no?
JOHN MCCAIN (R), FORMER SENATOR: No, ma'am. No, ma'am. He is a decent family man, citizen that I just happened to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that's what this campaign is all about. He is not. Thank you. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So how did the Republican Party move from the moral compass of John McCain, to now being the party where whack jobs have a political plan?
WILSON: Well, , that is a moment that I treasure about John, and I have to say I remember that moment very clearly because it did have a resonance that our political differences don't have to be based in some sort of deeper, strange, esoteric secrets. They could just be political differences.
So, you know, that was really the beginning of an era where Fox News prospered greatly by pushing out conspiracy theories -- a lot of what became the Trump right media online enterprises such as Breitbart. The traffic in those sort of things aggressively and look, I remember taking static in 2008 when someone brought me this shifty newspaper article and said he was born in Kenya, and I laughed at it.
[01:54:53]
WILSON: And I said we are never making him out about -- that's ridiculous. And I had forgotten about it until the moment John said that but that was -- you know that sort of thing is now grown into a multi billion dollar enterprise. There are people who monetize the conspiracy clap-trappers out there in great degrees.
And Facebook is making an awful lot of money with these conspiracy groups that use that platform as a primary vector to spread this kind of misinformation.
VAUSE: Here's a little more from Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican candidate who's running in an overwhelmingly conservative district in Georgia, making her almost certainly to be Elected Member of Congress come November.
Listen to this.
GREENE: According to him, many in our government are actively worshipping or they call Morlock (ph). I mean is that going to be true that the child pedophile you and the elites and the Washington -- and easy -- is that really going to see come out? Is that -- we're really going to see come out.
Is it true as type of corruption we are going to see come out? Is it going to be satanic worship?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know part of this is that, you know, you know, they believe a savior will defeat the satanic worshiping pedophile and that savior's Donald Trump which that alone takes quite the takes quite the imagination. But at this point, are the QAnon types -- are they intrench within the GOP? Could they be purged? Does the party want them?
WILSON: I'll give you a great example today. Of how deeply in example today of how deeply entwined they become. A Republican Congressman Adam Mackenzie criticized future Congresswoman Greene for trafficking in the QAnon information.
The Trump campaign then proceeded to attack him. This is how deeply wired it is. This is now the party of Trump and the party of Q. It is not the party of Abraham Lincoln.
VAUSE: Very quickly why isn't that something similar hasn't happened on the Democrat side of politics? Why is it just the Republican side?
WILSON: You know, conspiracies go in a lot of different directions but for a simple reason -- a lot of the Republican base for the last 25 years has been living on a drip of Fox News which has told them over and over again you can't trust anybody but us, the rest of the world is lying to you, everything else is an illusion.
And so those people were sort of primed to disbelieve empirical fact and so when QAnon came along, it was this very appealing seemingly coherent theory that let them explain the world that they didn't understand to themselves. And that's why it's been such an appealing thing on the right, I think.
VAUSE: Yes, it's pretty sad at the end of the day. Rick Wilson --
WILSON: It really is.
VAUSE: -- thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.
WILSON: Appreciate it. Thank you.
VAUSE: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
The news continues after a short break with Robyn Curnow. You're watching CNN.
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