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Ex-FBI Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Lying; Sports and Coronavirus; Who Will Get Vaccine First?. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:31]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. It is Friday. You are watching CNN. Thank you so much for being here.

Here's what we have for you today, that there is a dire, in fact, ominous projection coming from the CDC about the future of coronavirus deaths here in the U.S. The agency is projecting nearly 189,000 Americans will die from the virus by September 5.

That is about three weeks from now. And that figure comes as Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that, if the country allows coronavirus infections to run rampant hoping to reach herd immunity, the death toll would be massive and the consequences -- quote, unquote -- "devastating" if this virus is not contained.

Listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: This is the thing that's disturbing to me is that we're starting to see the inkling of the upticks in the percent of the tests that are positive, which we know now, from sad past experience, that that's a predictor that you're going to have more surges.

To think that you could ignore the biologic and get the economy back, it's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. You have got to do both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, then there is my home state of Georgia, one of 12 states without a statewide mask mandate, and one of the last states to shut down and shelter in place at the start of this outbreak, but one of the first to aggressively reopen, despite its rising number of cases and deaths, and the state whose governor sued the Atlanta mayor, but then backed off over her local mask mandate and other safety protocols.

Well, the story today is that Georgia just got singled out by President Trump's White House Coronavirus Task Force. "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reports it obtained a task force report that said that Georgia is not doing enough to stop -- quote -- "widespread and expanding community viral spread" -- quote.

The report also said the state's spread remained nearly double the national average.

CNN's Martin Savidge is live in Atlanta.

And, Martin, when you read this report, it is jaw-dropping. What else does it say? And why are we just hearing about this?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, this was not a public report. It was leaked, apparently, and "The AJC" was able to get a copy of it and then they made it known.

It's a jaw-dropping -- jaw-dropping, as you say, because it's so damning of the governor and his policies, Brian Kemp, when it comes to try to bring coronavirus under control.

The language of it is so blunt against the state. It says "current mitigation efforts not having a sufficient impact." In other words, whatever you're doing is not doing it. You got to do better.

It goes on to say that Georgia needs to have a statewide mask mandate. That is something that the governor has been adamantly opposed against, something he went and has feuded with the mayor of Atlanta about.

Georgia also allows nightclubs and bars and also gyms to open and operate, but under restrictions. The task force says, you cannot do that in counties where you have severe infections. Georgia also allows restaurants pretty much to seat anyone they want, as long as they can social distance of up to six feet.

The task force says, no, you have got to keep it to one-quarter of the total attendance ability of that restaurant. And then it goes on from there, continuing to say, look, Georgia needs to ramp up its testing. Georgia needs to do better on its contact testing and tracing. It needs to do better in nursing homes, as well as long-term health care facilities.

It goes on to say that Georgia allows social gatherings of up to 50 people. The task force says, no, it's 10 and under. So, on and on and on, it goes on against Governor Kemp, saying, everything that you're doing just does not match up against what needs to be done.

Now, what has been the reaction of the governor? Well, the governor himself has not directly responded to these criticisms or to this report, but they did essentially say, look, the governor is following the recommendations he gets from the Georgia Department of Health, and he's always worked to balance life and livelihood, in other words, the economy, in this state, Brooke.

And I should just remind you, this week, Georgia twice set new records for its death on single day coronavirus deaths.

BALDWIN: Don't like hearing that one bit. Martin, thank you, though, for all of that in Georgia. That's part of the story today. The other is this, the breaking news

that we got moments ago. President Trump standing at the podium with the White House revealed who he thinks should be the first receive the COVID-19 vaccine when and if it's approved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would say probably the elderly. I would say nursing homes. A lot of people said, would you take it?

I said, I will take it if they want or I will go first or last. I will do whatever they want me to do, but I would think that the elderly, the people that are most vulnerable to the disease.

[15:05:05]

And we're actually making those lists right now, mostly nursing homes and retirement centers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Dr. Celine Gounder is a CNN medical analyst and the former New York City assistant commissioner of health, and she's also the host of the podcast "Epidemic.'

So, Dr. Gounder, good to see you again.

And so let's -- off of what we heard from President Trump, and before that, the clip in the sound bite, he said, well, I will leave it to the doctors, but, if you ask me it should be older folks, and the more vulnerable, and how they're making lists.

Can you just tell me, how do they determine who gets the first round of the vaccine?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, Brooke, we really look at risk and benefit.

And so in the first round of the vaccine, you want to focus on the people at highest risk of infection and at highest risk of severe disease. So that is one place where public health issues and the president will certainly agree that the elderly are at high risk for getting severe COVID and from dying from COVID.

And so they will be among those prioritized in the very early phase of vaccination, along with health care workers, other front-line and essential workers, and other people who may have underlying medical illnesses that would put them at higher risk as well.

BALDWIN: So, let's just juxtapose that and the older folks with the youth in our country, because we're months into this thing now, Dr. Gounder, and we're getting a clearer picture of who is most at risk.

And if you take a look at this graph, which we will put up on the screen here, and you can barely see the little line, where it's that the younger people, it's under the age of 24 least likely to suffer serious illness or death, but, obviously, we know they can still spread COVID.

So, what's your takeaway from that?

GOUNDER: Well, I think we really need to ramp up testing. There continues to be a lot of questions about, do we have enough testing? I think we need not just more testing. We need a revolution in testing.

The testing that we have widely available now is for the genetic material of the virus. And there are other tests that are more like a urine pregnancy test you could do at home. It's like a paper strip, much cheaper, quicker, but they have not yet been approved by the FDA.

And that's really an obstacle, because what we need is a test for contagiousness, for infectiousness, not for the disease. We want to separate some of those young people, for example, who have the infection, who are not really sick, but who could transmit on to others.

And we don't have the tools at scale to do that right now.

BALDWIN: Wouldn't that be nice, though, if it's that simple, and we can do it at home? Here's hoping it gets approved soon.

Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you very much.

Here's some more breaking news. As President Trump attacks mail-in voting, a new warning from the post office. It may not be able to deliver ballots on time to many states, which obviously adds to all this uncertainty. Will your vote be counted? Let's talk about that.

And he says there is no chance of even a spring college football season. And with three national championships, he may know what he's talking about, the warning today from legendary football coach Urban Meyer ahead.

And he was a beloved husband, teacher and high school football coach, and the coronavirus just cut his bright, influential life far too short. His wife joins me live to honor his memory. Do not miss this interview.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:23]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The U.S. Postal Service is warning that voters may not be able to deliver ballots to election offices in time to be counted because of the current state election laws. And that warning comes as members of the U.S. Postal Workers Union throw their support to former Vice President Joe Biden, saying that the pandemic threatens the very survival of the organization. And that endorsement in this 2020 campaign coming as President Trump

continues to make fact-free claims about mail-in voting being fraudulent. And now his predecessor is voicing concerns about the impact of Trump's words and inaction when it comes to funding the Postal Service.

Here is former President Barack Obama.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you ask me the single thing that I am most concerned about between now and November, it is that we do everything humanly possible to ensure that everybody who wants a change in administration actually registers that change at the ballot box, whether that is in person or by mail-in voting.

Usually, the Republican Party, for quite some time, has actively tried to discourage people's votes from counting in all kinds of ways. What we have never seen before is a president say, I'm going to try to actively kneecap the Postal Service to encourage voting, and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it.

That's sort of unheard of, right?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's start there with CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

And, Gloria, you know, he also -- former President Obama underscored that mail-in ballots aren't the only thing at risk, that the post office delivers benefits for Social Security and veterans, which is an alternative to those who can't quite afford, you know, FedEx or UPS.

Do you think that message would resonate with just everyday Americans, and could Trump's targeting of the post office actually backfire?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it could mean.

The Postal Service delivers medicine, for example, and other important things that people develop on every day. And when you look at the polling, Brooke, a healthy majority of the American public believes that mail-in voting is just fine and the every day and when you look at the polling, Brooke, a healthy majority of the American public believes that mail-in voting is just fine, and that the president may be appealing to his base.

[15:15:13]

Republicans in his base may be with him. But independent voters are not with him. And about 58 percent of all Americans are not with him. And so the more he keeps pushing at this, the more you have to ask the question, why? Why is he doing this? Why is he trying to delegitimize an election before it even occurs?

And the answer is, I think, that he's afraid he's behind.

BALDWIN: And to the former president's point -- and Chris Cillizza wrote about this -- it's like, it's one thing to think the thing. He's saying it. He's saying it out loud.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: And so to your to your point about Americans seeing right through it, we learned that, despite his attacks, Gloria, the president and first lady have requested mail-in ballots for Tuesday's primary election in Florida.

And he has--

BORGER: Hmm. Yes. How about that?

BALDWIN: I know. I know. And he has previously said that mail-in voting should go forward in Florida due to its Republican governor, purely political. Will voters see that?

BORGER: It's pretty obvious. It's pretty obvious.

Talk about a mixed message. The president comes out at first and says, all mail-in voting is wrong. Millions and millions of ballots are going to be foiled by foreigners because of mail-in voting. There is no proof. In Pennsylvania, the administration is going to be required to submit some proof, I mean, the campaign required to submit some proof by midnight tonight on that very issue.

But here you have the president and his wife, saying, OK, we're going to submit mail-in ballots. There is no difference at all between a mail-in ballot and an absentee ballot. And the fact that the president is saying Florida is administered well, he didn't say that at the beginning of all of this.

He only said it after Republicans whispered in his ear and said, Mr. President, you are discouraging our voters, Republican voters, from going to the polls in the state of Florida, which, as we all know, is an important battleground state. You cannot do that.

And what did he do? He turned on a dime and said, OK, well, never mind, forget about it. Florida is fine. But everybody else is not fine.

I think you can see right through that.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BORGER: And it's so obvious what he is doing.

And if you can't see through it, it's because you don't want to.

BALDWIN: Exactly right.

Gloria Borger, thank you very much.

BORGER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Breaking news also this afternoon resulting from the Russia investigation. A former FBI attorney is expected to plead guilty to making a false statement in connection with the surveillance of the Trump adviser Carter Page.

So let's go straight to our senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez. He's over at Department of Justice.

And so, Evan, what is this lawyer accused of doing wrong?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, his name is Kevin Clinesmith, and he's a former FBI lawyer, Brooke.

And he was working on the documents that were being prepared to be submitted to the FISA court, the surveillance court that approved those warrants to surveil Carter Page. And according to the documents filed in court today, he is pleading guilty to falsifying an e-mail, an e-mail that was sent from someone at the CIA saying that Carter Page at one point was a source.

He changed that e-mail before he forwarded it to another FBI lawyer to indicate that Carter Page was not a source. So he changed the meaning of this -- of this e-mail. And that became a very key fact in why there was a fourth surveillance warrant that was requested by the FBI to target Carter Page.

Now, the lawyer for Kevin Clinesmith says -- quote -- "Kevin deeply regrets having altered the e-mail. It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues, as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility."

Brooke, this is the first of any kind of action that we have seen come out of the John Durham investigation. Durham was appointed by Bill Barr to take a look at the origins of the Russia investigation. Of course, as you saw in the last hour, the president is very pleased that somebody at least has been charged with something from the Durham investigations.

He promises that there's more to come. We don't know whether that's the case or not, Brooke. We have heard in the last few days from the attorney general that it's quite possible Durham's not going to finish his work before the election.

BALDWIN: Evan, thank you for that.

And one of the greatest football coaches of all time says that there is no chance the games postponed for the spring will actually happen, Urban Meyer's new warning next.

And the president returns to an ugly page in his political playbook, blatant racism.

[15:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Whether you use the word postponed or canceled, one thing is clear. College football for the Big Ten and Pac-12 is not happening this fall. And if your hopes are pinned on a spring football season, you are not going to like what the former head coach of the Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes has to say.

[15:25:06]

Urban Meyer says there is no chance of a spring college football season. This is exactly what he says. Let me quote him back to you.

"You can't ask a player to play two seasons in a calendar year. The body, in my very strong opinion, is not made to play two seasons within a calendar year. That is 2,000 repetitive reps. And football is a physical, tough sport. So I don't -- I really don't see that happening."

CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan is with me. She's also a sports columnist for "USA Today."

And, Christine, what do you think of that?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Well, Urban Meyer certainly knows a lot about football. But I think right now all bets are off in terms of what could happen, Brooke, moving forward over the next few months.

And so you could you see, for example, a spring football season of eight games, and then maybe another eight to 10 games in the fall? I think anything that you can imagine could happen.

We're in that stage of the football in the pandemic planning, and I think the idea is to try to have student athletes, not just with football, but volleyball, field hockey, et cetera, be able to have some semblance of a season. That's clearly what everyone would love to have happen.

Of course, the money in football is extraordinary. So there's that, the TV dollars, but I do think that Urban Meyer is correct. But I do think there could well be a lot of innovation in trying to figure out how to cobble together a bit of a season this year and then coming back with one a few -- several months later.

BALDWIN: Yes.

I also wanted to ask you about your recent opinion piece in "USA Today." You wrote -- quote -- "Duke and Notre Dame" -- or this was the title of it -- "Duke and Notre Dame, prestigious academic schools, surprisingly silent as football presses on."

And you write that these schools, you would at least expect to remain silent. Why aren't we hearing from them and so many other colleges? I mean, to your point about money, is it just about the big money that college football brings in?

BRENNAN: Brooke, who would have picked Duke as the football powerhouse that wants to keep playing football school?

The only school in the top 10 of the prestigious "U.S. News & World Report" rankings, the best schools in the country ranking system, Duke is the only one of the top 10 that's still playing football this fall. And that, I think, speaks volumes. Obviously, most of the top 10 is Ivy League. It's my alma mater, Northwestern, Chicago, MIT, places that don't have football, Stanford, of course.

But the Big Ten in the end in the Pac-12, Stanford, Northwestern among them, said the other day, they can't do it, cannot do it. And there's no conferences on Earth that would love to play football and other sports more this fall, this fall, than the Big Ten and the Pac-12.

So this notion that they kind of gave up, oh, that's ridiculous. They listened to science. They listened to the doctors. They listened to the very, very serious concerns of the NCAA advisory board on COVID- 19. And Duke is not doing that right now. They're pressing forward. So is Notre Dame. So is Rice and Vanderbilt.

And I find that very surprising, considering those are schools that pride themselves on academics, science, knowledge. Right now, they're just kind of winging it. And we will see what happens, of course, over the next few weeks.

BALDWIN: Winging it, some schools yes, some schools no. It's so -- it's just piecemeal. It's -- to me, just this whole sports story is a microcosm of what is happening in our entire country when it comes to this virus.

Christine Brennan, thank you very much. Good to see you.

BRENNAN: You too, Brooke. Thank you.

BALDWIN: The president of the United States is engaging in blatant racism again, this time questioning the citizenship of Senator Kamala Harris.

And I have a thing or two say about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)