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U.S. Averages 1,000 Daily Deaths Over the Past Week; Johns Hopkins: U.S. Test Positivity Rate Higher Than 7 percent; Many European Countries See Sharp Rise in COVID-19; New Zealand Reports 12 New Cases as Testing Ramps Up; Israel, UAE Establish 'Full Normalization of Relations'; Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Call for U.S. Mask Mandate; Trump Admits Opposing Postal Service Funding to Block Mail-in Voting; Thousands Arrested as Protestors Claim Belarusian Election Rigged; Hong Kong Media Mogul Speaks Out About Arrest; U.S. Government Releases New Guidelines on Hand Sanitizers. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired August 14, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause. Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM. Politicizing the pandemic. With well over five million coronavirus cases in the U.S., Donald Trump sinks to a new low.
[00:00:44]
A momentous peace deal between Israel and the UAE, and it may not be the last to come. And Israel gives up absolutely nothing in return.
And, withholding funding from the U.S. postal Service. The U.S. President makes a stunning admission.
U.S. health experts say not only is the coronavirus epidemic not under control, it's dangerously out of control, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. There are now nearly 5.2 million cases in the country. More than 167,000 people have died.
The CDC says the way things are going, the virus could kill more than 20,000 additional people by early next month. And as the country suffers and waits for a national strategy, the U.S. president is attacking his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, who's taking a different approach to the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months, at a minimum. Every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe doesn't know too much. Unlike the Biden approach, our approach is guided by science.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Right. To be clear, the advice from the CDC, the World Health Organization, and the White House's own task force is to wear masks. But the Trump administration, some Republican governors, and even Donald Trump himself spent months giving conflicting guidance on masks and flat-out refused to wear them.
Meanwhile, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health says there's not going to be an October surprise coronavirus vaccine. So, if you're hoping for that, don't.
The number of new coronavirus has slowed somewhat in the past few days, but the number of deaths are on the rise. Here's Martin Savidge.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the past week, the average daily number of new coronavirus cases dropped slightly. But Americans are still dying at a rate of more than 1,000 people a day.
Wednesday, the deadliest day of the summer so far, with close to 1,500 deaths, a number not seen since May.
It's not the only worrisome news. A new study finds that the number of deaths in New York City in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic comparable to the deaths in the city during the 1918 pandemic when it was at its worst. The 1918 pandemic is believed to have killed 50 million people worldwide.
Researchers say the comparison demonstrates just how serious the coronavirus pandemic really is.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: For goodness sakes, we are living, all of us, in a historic pandemic. We've never had anything like this for the last hundred and 2 years, since the pandemic of 1918.
SAVIDGE: But not everyone sees it that way. Tuesday, Marion County, Florida, saw its deadliest day of the pandemic so far. That same day, the local sheriff issued a mandate banning office visitors from wearing masks; also banning his deputies, though he offered some exceptions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My thoughts on that is that it's totally moronic.
SAVIDGE: Also in Florida, one day after the Martin County School District reopened for in-person learning, an entire elementary classroom and a bus route were placed under quarantine after a student showed COVID-19 symptoms.
That same day, President Trump give Florida's education commissioner a shout-out of praise.
TRUMP: A great job you're doing in Florida.
SAVIDGE: Nationally, more than 2,000 students, teachers and staff across five states have been quarantined after at least 230 positive coronavirus cases have been reported. Schools aren't the only thing reopening. So are movie theaters. AMC,
the world's largest movie theater chain, saying it's reopening more than 100 U.S. Theaters August 20.
The company says an opening day ticket will cost you 15 cents. They will require masks and reduce seating.
Many businesses have been relying on temperature checks as a safety precaution. But Dr. Anthony Fauci today discounted their effectiveness.
[00:05:04]
FAUCI: We have found at the NIH that it is much, much better to just question people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine at George Washington University, joins us now from Washington.
Dr. Reiner, good to see you.
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Nice to see you.
VAUSE: OK, I want to start off with, when it comes to tracking the spread of the coronavirus, it's not just the number of tests, which actually matter, but specifically, it's the test positivity rate, which is one of the main metrics here.
And right now, when we look at the numbers in the United States, and what we're hearing from Dr. Fauci, is that there is this increasing concern that those numbers are ticking up. So explain exactly what that means and why that would be a concern right now, because across the U.S. it seems, you know, the number of new cases every day is slowly starting to come down.
REINER: Right. So when you see a drop in the number of identified cases every day, it's important to understand whether the drop in incidents of -- or identified cases is a result of a decline in the incidence of the virus, or is it simply a decline in testing?
And what we've seen over the last few weeks is a decline in testing in the United States. The U.S. had been testing routinely at over 800,000 cases per day. But for at least a two-week period, we had dropped to about 700. So we'd gone from, really, more than 800 to 900,000 cases a day to 700.
And consequent with that, we also saw a drop in the number of identified cases. So if you look at the positivity rate, which is simply the proportion of identified coronavirus-positive patients to total number tested. What you see is that that is actually ticked up a bit over the last several days, from about 7.3 percent to 7.8 percent.
Think about the positivity rate as sort of the odds of hooking a fish when you toss a hook into the water. If every time you cast, you know, you get a fish, there are probably a lot of fish in the pond. You know, and that's the same way for this testing. If a lot of patients were testing positive, there's a lot of virus in the community.
So when we see a positive rate that's not dropping and, in fact, is going up a little bit, you wonder if we're not doing enough tests. And that really has been the consensus among public health experts, that some of the decline in testing in the United States were a consequence of less testing.
VAUSE: The WHO says the positivity rate needs to be at or below 5 percent for 14 days before a country can start easing up on those restrictions.
But even when countries, you know, like New Zealand, for example, even when they reach that benchmark, what we're seeing is that there is a return of the virus.
In the case of New Zealand and other places, they're looking at the possibility that they're being imported by freight. You know, three cities in China have now discovered that there was a coronavirus imported on frozen foods.
So how concerned are you that, you know, contaminated shipments. Maybe, you know, the next spreader of the coronavirus globally.
REINER: You know, I'm not really worried about that. I'm worried about putting down person-to-person spread in places like the United States, which is far and away the predominant mechanism of transmission.
This is primarily a respiratory virus, and it's -- it's acquired principally by inhaling either droplets or aerosolized particles. Certainly, there is some transmission on surfaces, but primarily, this is a respiratory virus.
And I think societies that have instituted universal mask wearing and quarantining of infected patients and large-scale testing have been successful in -- in putting down this virus. I'm less worried about cargo and surfaces now. We'll have to see how that pans out.
VAUSE: Now to another major hotspot. That would be Brazil. The government there reporting more than 60,000 new cases on Thursday. The country now has 3.2 million infections. More than 105,000 people have died.
Meantime, a new report shows a majority of Brazilian states lack supplies, to put breathing tubes into COVID-19 patients. The health minister says the issue is due to unbalanced supplies around the country. Chinese authorities are urging people to be careful when buying imported meats after a sample of frozen chicken wings from Brazil tested positive for coronavirus.
Xinjiang health officials say everyone who may have come in contact with the product has since tested negative. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have repeatedly said there is no evidence of food transmission. The possibility is highly unlikely.
Well, to Europe, where the U.K. is adding France, Malta and the Netherlands to its travel quarantine list. Starting Saturday, visitors from those countries must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
Many European countries are bracing now for a second wave. CNN's Scott McLean reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the summer heats up in Spain, so has the coronavirus pandemic, daily new infections the highs they've been in months. Some of the worst spikes have come in Madrid, Barcelona, and Zaragoza.
But the Spanish air force is building a brand-new field hospital to deal with the surge of new patients.
ARANCHA GONZALEZ LAYA, SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER: So the situation is under control. Outbreaks are the new normal. The important thing is to manage them in a responsible manner to prevent them from becoming a sanitary crisis.
MCLEAN: Spain has had the most confirmed cases in western Europe, and once had one of the strictest lockdowns, too. But as restrictions eased, cases have risen, many linked to young people and nightlife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Because we do not take care or take precautions or pay attention to the health ministry.
MCLEAN: It's a similar trend across Europe, where overall infections are rising.
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Call it a second wave. You can call that a second spike. You can call it a flare-up. You can call it anything you like. Take the pressure off this virus. The virus will bounce back.
MCLEAN: Italy, once the epicenter of the pandemic, is now requiring visitors from Spain, Croatia, Malta, and Greece to be tested for the virus.
Greece, which was spared the worst of Europe's first wave, just registered its highest daily increase ever. France is also seeing its sharpest rise in cases since its lockdown ended, and even requiring masks outdoors in some places.
OLIVIER VERAN, FRENCH HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 now are younger, 20 to 14, and less fragile. And because older people continue to protect themselves.
MCLEAN: So far, the number of deaths in Europe is holding steady, but experts warn more deaths will follow if new measures to control the virus aren't taken soon.
Scott McLean, CNN, London. (END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: New Zealand is scrambling to contain its outbreak as the country reports 12 new coronavirus cases. In response, more than 15,000 people were tested on Thursday alone, the most in a single day in New Zealand since the pandemic began.
CNN's Selina Wang is following the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from Hong Kong.
You know, they beat the coronavirus once before. The question now is how do they plan to do it again.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You've seen this -- almost what some would say an outside response to a relatively low number of new cases.
But remember that New Zealand is pursuing this total elimination strategy.
For the new cases that were just reported, two of them came from students and one was from a preschooler. So the schools that they have attended have been completely closed down, and their contacts are being traced. That is according to the director general of health in New Zealand.
And again, we've seen this country really respond with extraordinary urgency. Auckland, which is a city of about 1.7 million people, they are under level 3 alert restrictions. So that means people need to stay at home, except for essential trips.
The rest of New Zealand is under level two. And I'll be watching for a press conference later this afternoon in which they may announce that this three-day lockdown could be extended.
Now, New Zealand has been praised by the global community for its very effective response to the coronavirus. Remember, back in March, they put in some of the harshest restrictions in the world. And they paired that, as well, with quarantine isolation, aggressive contact tracing.
And for this latest resurgence, it's still unclear where it came from exactly. Earlier this week, health officials said they were looking into the low possibility that it could have come from frozen food. We know that the coronavirus can live for longer periods of time in refrigerated environments and in China we've seen instances of the virus being traced to frozen seafood packaging.
But what this is all a reminder of is that, even in countries where the virus seems to have been completely stamped out, they're still not out of the woods yet. Whether we're talking about Hong Kong here or Australia, and it is very easy for this virus to resurge.
VAUSE: Selina, thank you. Selina Wang there, in Hong Kong with the very latest.
Well, Mexico and Argentina have announced a major deal with AstraZeneca to produce 150 to 250 million doses of a new vaccine in the first half of 2021.
This vaccine would then be distributed throughout Latin America, except Brazil, at a cost of 3 or $4 each dose.
Still to come here, for Israel, the deal of the century as they make an historic agreement to establish diplomatic relations with the UAE while giving up nothing in return. And now, other Gulf states apparently are looking to make a similar deal. Details in a moment.
Also, the U.S. president admits he's undermining the integrity of the next election by withholding money from the Post Office. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:17:05]
VAUSE: A groundbreaking deal, a tectonic shift to the Middle East, a stab in the back, a nightmare for Iran, all descriptions of the U.S.- brokered deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. president says he's expecting leaders of both countries to visit Washington relatively soon for a formal signing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: After 49 years, Israel and the United Arab Emirates will fully normalize their diplomatic relations. Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates' lead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Here are some of the details. Israel has agreed to suspend plans to annex parts of the West Bank, for now at least. The two countries will exchange ambassadors. They'll sign a pact on investment, tourism, direct flights, security, technology, telecommunications, energy, health, culture, the environment, the whole enchilada.
The Israeli prime minister, who has his own problems, though, he put it squarely -- no kidding -- in the "win" column.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel and the UAE are two of the most advanced countries in the world. Together, we'll transform the region and forge an even better future for our people. This is a future of peace, a future of security, and the future of prosperity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Journalist Elliott Gotkine is live for us in Tel Aviv. We also have CNN's Sam Kiley. He's standing by in Beirut in Lebanon.
But Elliott, first to you. You know, this deal, apparently, it was born out of national interest of both the UAE and Israel. But when it comes to Israel, and in particular Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you know, he scores this historic diplomatic breakthrough at the same time he can walk away from these very controversial, and difficult promises he made between the past two elections to annex the West Bank, and he gets everything he wants. This is incredible.
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It's a huge win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But let's not forget, of course, he's not walking away from those promises, or at least he says he's not walking away from that promise to annex the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank. He says it is still on the table, just that, at the request of President Donald Trump, he's now putting it on hold.
But yes, huge win for Netanyahu. And it's almost like, before the elections here, we had President Trump's peace plan was seen by many as a gift to Netanyahu ahead of elections in this country.
And now, of course, we have a major foreign policy achievement for Donald Trump in the months leading up to the U.S. presidential election. So it's almost as if that they're kind of returning each other the favor there.
But it's a huge win, certainly for the -- for President Trump. It's a big win for Prime Minister Netanyahu. And a big win for Israel, of course.
This is just the third Arab country with whom it is set to normalize relations after Egypt and Jordan. And these are the two most dynamic economies in the region. You've talked about some of the areas of cooperation, whether it's technology or tourism. I'm sure Israeli travelers will, once they are able to travel again, will be delighted at having another option of flying, you know, some of the -- some of the emirates respectable airlines from this country, as well.
[00:20:05]
And they've also talked about working on developing a coronavirus vaccine together.
So certainly, it's a bit of a surprising, but very positive, announcement from the Israelis' perspective. And as you say, certainly, the U.S. expects some kind of signing to take place within the next few weeks. And that other countries in the region, in the Gulf, will follow suit.
VAUSE: And with that, let's go to Sam Kiley, who is standing by in Beirut for more on this. Sam, you know, if you look at the reaction from around the region, from Saudi Arabia, to Bahrain. It seems that, you know, this may not be the last historic agreement we're seeing signed between a Gulf state and the Israelis. They're simply lining up on board for these terms.
SAM KILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's been a lot of this in the atmosphere, if you like, John, over the last year and a half, particularly from the Emiratis, who have been itching to normalize relations with Israel. Because they have certainly, at a -- the highest levels, decided that the Palestinian leadership -- not the Palestinian people, but the Palestinian leadership -- is feckless, corrupt, lacking imagination, and geriatric.
Those are sort of terms that they would use in private in reference to Abu Mazen and the other senior members of the Palestinian Administration who, of course, have rejected the so-called deal of the century, because particularly, of the threat of annexation coming from Benjamin Netanyahu, firstly.
And secondly, because of the continued march of Israeli settlements across the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law. These, for viewers who don't know what I'm talking about, are areas that are being built on a very large scale, easing into the land that, ultimately, the Palestinians want to use as their future state, under a two-state solution, which, under any major and significant peace proposal in the two-state solution scenario would be ceded to Israel, and they break up the West Bank into a number of ink splotch lumps of territory.
Now those areas, and more, had been proposed by the Netanyahu administration, by Benjamin Netanyahu himself, as areas that they were going to annex, outright, unilaterally, without negotiation. That is still on the cards. It has not been abandoned as a policy of Israel.
It is simply being suspended, at the request of the United States, so that the Emiratis can get into bed with the Israelis. From the Emirati perspective, this is a marvelous opportunity to get their hands on Israeli military, technology, on Israeli surveillance technology, to expand their growing high-tech sector, which of course, is highly developed in Israel. And until now, something that they couldn't get access to.
So there's lots of -- there's lots of incentive for an economy in the United Arab Emirates that's dependent on oil experts that are going to be increasingly problematic for them economically to diversify and work with -- with Israel.
From a Palestinian perspective, this actually is just a return to the status quo, before the threat of annexation was absolutely real but simply a sword of Damocles that was hanging over them. That continues to hang over them now, just as it has done for some decades during the so-called peace process.
And it's really striking that the Palestinians really haven't come up with any serious response, or any exciting response, as it were, to the Emirati proposal. They just will be feeling abandoned, John.
VAUSE: Very much so. The Palestinians, felt (ph) they're being thrown under the bus. It seems to be the Palestinians. But -- but Elliott, you in Tel Aviv, there is criticism among Israelis. It's coming from the right wing. It's coming from those settler groups, who believe that if Netanyahu, if he was serious at all, that's debatable about annexing the West Bank. He's given up a once-in-a-100-year opportunity to do so.
GOTKINE: That's correct. The secular leader, in fact, was -- was talking in reaction to this, saying that Netanyahu deceived them. He deceived half a million residents of the area, and hundreds of thousands of voters.
Netanyahu did make this part of his campaign promise. Clearly, there are a number of -- a number of Israelis who voted for him on the basis that he would make good on his promise. And although Netanyahu was adamant, just you know, in the minutes and hours after this -- this announcement yesterday of normalization of ties between the UAE and Israel.
[06:25:00]
Netanyahu said, quite categorically, this isn't going away. It is still on the table. It is still a plan, and it will still happen. So from that perspective, Netanyahu would argue, that he is still going to make good on his promises, and they just need to bide their time a little bit more.
But I suppose from the settlers' perspective, they may be concerned, but if the Trump administration isn't reelected, then, perhaps, the window of opportunity for annexing parts of the West Bank will be gone.
VAUSE: OK. Elliott, as well as Sam in Beirut, thanks to you both. Appreciate it.
Joining me now from Jerusalem for more on this, Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent, and analyst for "The Jerusalem Post." He joins us on the line.
So Gil, you know, until now, the basis for this whole Mideast peace between Israel and the Arab world was this 2002 initiative. Part of it said that Israel would achieve full diplomatic relations only when there was full Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since June 1967, the establishment of a Palestinian state, East Jerusalem as capital, just (ph) an agreed-upon solution to the Palestinian refugee question.
Not only is that paradigm dead, but now it seems, you know, other Gulf states are willing to establish diplomatic relations under these terms. In fact, you know, Israel gets everything it wants; it gives up nothing.
What has happened that has made such a dramatic change possible?
GIL HOFFMAN, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT/ANALYST, "THE JERUSALEM POST" (via phone): There has been an impact of Iran's role in the region. The old adage of the enemy of your enemy being your friend is very much true in the Middle East right now.
The countries around Iran feel threatened by Iran, and they also realize that Israel was never really an enemy and that relations with Israel as the top economic and technological country in the region is something that benefits them. Also, the country that's closest to the current president of the United States.
And so that made countries realize that they don't have to sit and wait for the Palestinians anymore, that their own people are being harmed by waiting for the Palestinians to finally come back to the negotiating table and make the concessions necessary to help their own people.
And so there is this new paradigm, and it's not peace for nothing. It's peace for peace, and that's a very good thing.
VAUSE: Could this have happened without the Trump administration making it very clear, from very -- from the earliest of days after Donald Trump's inauguration, that it would be the most pro-Israel White House ever?
HOFFMAN: Well, the Trump administration certainly tried a different strategy than any other president ever had before. And apparently, it's working. The Arab world realized that the road to Washington went through Jerusalem, and that wasn't such a bad thing. And that has led to them finally making concessions that other presidents didn't succeed in getting them to do.
And it could very well be that Joe Biden will be the president in another few months, but this is something that will send a message to him that maybe Donald Trump's way of doing things is something that potentially can continue working, whereas, what was done with Barack Obama while Joe Biden was vice president didn't succeed in bringing Arabs and Jews together, other than a dislike of Obama himself.
VAUSE: Yes. It certainly has been a different way of doing business, and it certainly has achieved a very different result. Gil, thanks for being with us. Gil Hoffman there, on the line from Jerusalem.
Well, the U.S. Democratic National Convention, next week apparently. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are already out there working, calling for mandatory face masks across the United States.
Also ahead, why President Trump admits he's blocking money for the U.S. Post Office to undercut voting by mail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:31:17]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. I'm John Vause.
Well, the U.S. Democratic National Convention is just a few days away. And Joe Biden and his vice-presidential pick, Kamala Harris, are making the coronavirus pandemic a central issue in their campaign. Here's CNN's Jessica Dean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Joe Biden calling for governors to implement an immediate mask mandate, saying it could save tens of thousands of lives. BIDEN: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're
outside for the next three months at a minimum. Every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing. The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months.
DEAN: Biden has previously said, if elected, he would consider using his authority to mandate face coverings. Joined by running mate Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee today pushed back on those who oppose such mandates.
BIDEN: It's not about your rights. It's about your responsibilities as an American.
DEAN: A day after their public debut on the Democratic ticket, Biden and Harris were briefed on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy by a host of experts, including former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellin and former surgeon general Vivek Murthy.
BIDEN: I've been doing these briefings with two of the four docs up there.
DEAN: Today's event is aimed at drawing a contrast with the Trump administration, offering a vision of how a Biden-Harris White House would confront the crises facing the country.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That's what real leadership looks like.
DEAN: Harris, continuing her indictment of President Trump's handling of the pandemic.
HARRIS: There may be some grand gestures offered by the current president about a vaccine, but it really doesn't matter until you can answer the question, when am I going to get vaccinated?
DEAN: The campaign's focus on policy today comes as it announced bringing in big money since Biden announced Harris as his vice- presidential pick, raising $34 million on Tuesday and Wednesday.
(on camera): Biden and Harris did not take questions on Thursday, but on Wednesday, they told my colleague Arlette Saenz that they would campaign together in the fall, if science allows. Going back to the scene may have seen from the Biden campaign that they really want science to lead their decisions.
Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And President Trump admits he's holding up funding for the U.S. Post Office so it will be unable to deal with an expected surge in mail-in voting for this year's election. He continues to falsely claim that voting by mail encourages fraud.
Notably, Trump and the first lady have already requested their mail-in ballots. Here's CNN's Kristen Holmes with more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump admitting he's opposed to funding for the postal service for political reasons.
TRUMP (via phone): They want three and a half million dollars for something that will turn out to be fraudulent. That's election money, basically.
Now, they need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Those two items. That means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it.
HOLMES: Fueling outrage over the Trump administration's attempts to use the postal service to meddle in the election.
BIDEN: Pure Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, guys, let's go. Let's go. Come on.
BIDEN: He doesn't want an election.
HOLMES: With more people than ever expected to vote by mail in an election held in the middle of a pandemic, President Trump has spent months making false claims about widespread fraud.
TRUMP: This is a thing that will be a disaster like never before.
HOLMES: Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans raising concerns over changes made to the agency by the new postmaster general, a Trump fundraiser and ally, including major shake-ups in leadership and cost cuts that some workers say have slowed delivery.
[00:35:13]
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Now is not the time to be cutting back services.
HOLMES: All this as postal workers across the country are sounding alarms this week over the removal of hundreds of mail-processing machines from postal facilities.
Documents obtained by CNN outline the plan to remove nearly 700 machines used for organizing letters and other mail.
While a spokesperson for the service described the removal as a cost- saving measure, postal union leaders warn that something like this just months before the election could cause delays.
In a statement, the postal service saying it, quote, "routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes."
S. DAVID FINEMAN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, USPS BOARD OF GOVERNORS: I don't understand why they were taken out. Someone -- I heard someone report that they might have been taking out to use for spare parts. That made little sense to me.
HOLMES: And new revelations over the postal services urging that's states use more expensive first-class mail to make sure the ballots are prioritized or "risk that voters will not receive their ballots in time to return them by mail."
The influx of mail-in voting causing some states, already financially unstable during a pandemic, to balk at the cost.
Now, Democrats are asking for a new USPS inspector general investigation, this time to look into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's finances. New financial disclosures obtained by CNN show DeJoy apparently did not divest millions in stock from his former company, a current postal service contractor, and that DeJoy holds stock options in a major USPS customer, Amazon.
The postal service says he has followed all of the ethics requirements.
(on camera): So just to recap here, we have a president who is now openly undermining the system. You have not only Democratic and Republican lawmakers raising concern, but also postal workers. State officials all sounding the alarm. And we are just three months out from this election.
And we have to be clear. This is the integrity of the election, and right now, it remains unclear whether or not this is going to change ahead of November.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, CNN legal analyst Renato Mariotti joins us now from Chicago. He's a former federal prosecutor, host of the "On Topic" podcast.
Renato, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Just to be clear here about what the president has actually said, the U.S. Postal Service is incapable of dealing with an expected surge in voting by mail, and that will happen without receiving the extra money from Congress; and he's now holding up that money to ensure that that actually happens.
How is that not an admission of fraud or, at the very least, trying to undermine the electoral process?
RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST (via phone): Well, it's certainly an admission that he's trying to underline [SIC] the -- to undermine the electoral process. Certainly, an admission that he's engaging in corrupt activity.
Unfortunately, it's not something that is circumscribed in federal criminal law in the United States, because it's not a fraud. He's not defrauding anybody. He's not lying. But what he's doing, of course, is undermining our electoral system and our ability to vote.
VAUSE: You know, of course, the reason why there is expected to be this surge in mail-in voting is because, come November, this country will still be in the midst of a pandemic, which has been made so much worse by the response from the Trump administration. That's why a lot of people want to vote by mail, and that includes the president and the first lady.
MARIOTTI: Yes. It is amazing that the president of the United States is voting by mail himself, and yet is trying to make it difficult for others to do so.
I will say, just like the Ukraine episode, for which the president was impeached earlier in this past year, this is another situation in which our criminal laws and our system of laws here in the United States did not contemplate a president who is going to use the power of the government itself to try to undermine the functions of the government or to try to use them to get himself reelected, and that's really what's going on here.
And the only way that Democrats can do anything about it is either to impeach again, which I doubt they'll do, or to try to fight and use the power of the purse here to get funding for the postal service.
VAUSE: You know, Donald Trump has this history of saying out loud exactly what he is up to, whether it's Ukraine or Russia hacking the election, or firing the director of the FBI over the Russia investigation. And it almost seems to be this, you know, at the end of it, like, yes, so what are you going to do about it?
MARIOTTI: And that is really the problem, is that if, you know, really, the constitutional system we have set up in the United States contemplates that the president of the United States, really, the remedy there is impeachment and removal. And if Republicans refuse to do that, there's not much we can do.
[00:40:07]
And what makes this particularly problematic is it undermines our -- the normal check that we have on a runaway presidency, which is an election and people voting him out. And so if that doesn't happen here, you know, really, that is going to be a major problem for democracy going forward in the United States.
VAUSE: Yes. So you have an impeachment process which isn't working and possibly an election which, you know, won't be working as it should because of the pandemic.
And also, the other part of the scam here is that there's been this deliberate effort, it seems, to slow down the entire process of mail delivery. And the current postmaster general, who was appointed by Donald Trump, is the man who seems to be behind this.
And it's important to note this, because out of all the states, 34 states in the U.S., including eight swing states, ballots have to be postmarked not just by election day, but they actually have to arrive by election day to be counted. If they arrive after election day, they don't matter.
So, you know, this is now receiving significant attention, if you like. The word is out that this is happening. Is that going to be enough?
MARIOTTI: You know, it's probably not going to be enough. Already, there have been voter suppression efforts in the United States, efforts to make it more difficult to vote.
And President Trump had said earlier that, if we had measures that made it easier to vote, Republicans would never win another election. Once again, saying out loud, as you put it, exactly what he's thinking.
And here, we have a similar situation where I think what you're going to do is erode the ability to vote. It's not that people won't be able to, but it's just obstacles. It's made harder for people, particularly people who are working multiple jobs, people who are low income, who don't have the time to get on top of this months in advance like people who are wealthier do.
VAUSE: Yes, and we heard from the White House adviser, Larry Kudlow, who described voter rights as just a sort of left-wing progressive wish list. So it's -- it's pervasive throughout the administration.
Renato, thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.
MARIOTTI: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, Protests continue in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko declared his reelection this week. The opposition calls the vote rigged and is challenging the results, despite a violent crackdown by government forces.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the very latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The Belarusian opposition is coming out in full force, thousands of people lining the streets of the capital, Minsk, peacefully calling for change while hoping things don't take a turn for the worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He should go away. Otherwise, it will be a civil war in our country. And it's very scary, because we are a very peaceful people.
PLEITGEN: The protesters' answer to a recent government crackdown: holding up flowers as motorists honked in support.
(on camera): Despite the repression and despite the use of stun grenades, tear gas, the mass arrests and the beatings, the opposition is still coming out. Their action now is more decentralized, with marches like this one seemingly popping up out of nowhere to avoid the security forces. (voice-over): Belarusian police and army units beat down crowds
protesting the recent contested presidential election, detaining thousands. State TV parading and humiliating some of those arrested on air.
Many remain missing, possibly incarcerated here, the central detention facility where hundreds have been waiting outside, hoping for any information about the fate of their loved ones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to understand that people are being beaten up, tortured from the moment when they are detained in the streets. Then they are taken to the local police station. They're beaten -- they're being beaten there. And then they bring them either to here, after maybe a day or two, and the beatings and tortures, they continue.
PLEITGEN: Strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who's ruled Belarus for around 26 years, claimed he won last Sunday's election, garnering 80 percent of the vote. His opponent, opposition icon Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has since had to flee the country.
The U.S. and E.U. have heavily criticize the election, and at night in Minsky, many people are coming out and also saying they believe the vote was rigged, and they won't take it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to -- to be heard. When we -- nobody hears us. Nobody sees us. Everybody will just really like to not exist here, because we want changes. We want to -- just to try to live another way, not being afraid of the police.
PLEITGEN: The opposition is demanding talks and a new transparent election. And they say the demonstrations won't stop until change happens.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Minsk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[00:45:04]
VAUSE: Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is free on bail after being arrested under the controversial new security law. The founder of Apple Daily tells us why he does not want independence for Hong Kong. A lot more on that in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:47:22]
VAUSE: The FBI will assist with Lebanon's investigation into last week's deadly port explosion. The blast killed more than 170,000 [SIC] people, wounded 6,000, and devastated the capital of Beirut.
Lebanon's president has acknowledged he was warned about the highly- explosive ammonium nitrate, which was being stored at the port. North Korea's Kim Jong-un says he will not accept international aid
after recent flooding. Red Cross and Red Crescent officials say nearly two dozen people have died. Several are missing, and more than 20,000 hectares of farmland have been destroyed.
State media reports more than 16,000 homes also destroyed or damaged, with many roads and bridges washed away.
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy media mogul in Hong Kong, is now speaking out about his recent arrest. Two of his sons were also arrested under the new controversial national security law. Police accused them all of colluding with foreign forces and conspiracy to defraud.
CNN's Will Ripley just spoke to Lai. He joins us now live. I'm sure he had plenty to say.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, it's interesting how nonchalant and relaxed he seemed in his home in one of Hong Kong's most exclusive neighborhoods where we were the first to actually sit down with him and kind of see his world.
And his world is very much dedicated to this fight, not for independence. And I think that is a key distinction that he wants to make. He says he's never been one to call for Hong Kong's independence, but he thinks that people should have the right to express their political views, whatever they are, without having to worry about being arrested by a government that he thinks is too insecure to allow people to speak their minds. Here's part of our conversation that wrapped up just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMMY LAI, FOUNDER, APPLE DAILY: It's very stupid to think that Hong Kong can be independent when they can send troops to, you know, to calm you down and free house (ph). This is not possible.
RIPLEY: Because a lot of people associate you with the pro- independence movement. So you're going on the record saying you're not pushing for independence, but you want people to have the right --
LAI: To keep the rule and the freedom we have.
RIPLEY: And the right to say that they want independence?
LAI: Yes, exactly. The freedom -- you know, the freedom of speech. I don't associate with the independent camp. Not at all. I never have.
RIPLEY: Did you meet with U.S. officials at the consulate and other places, as China alleges and, you know, try to encourage U.S. officials in Washington? Did you have a lot of connections in the States to sanction Hong Kong government leaders and whatnot?
LAI: Well, I -- I did not do it in person, but in the interview, I did -- I said the only thing that we can get from the U.S., you know, and when -- when they asked that whether the U.S. should revoke the special status of Hong Kong, I said that is sensitive. You know, what you should do is to censure China. And that's the kind of things I have said.
[00:50:14]
Because when the national security law is here whether you revoke the special status of Hong Kong or not. Hong Kong is dead, because we've got the rule of law. Our international financial center is dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY: This is what I found so interesting when he described his questioning for 40 hours. He was detained by Hong Kong police, and they have a whole unit dedicated to the national security law.
Most of the questions were about interviews that he gave on CNN and other networks. That was the majority of the evidence, apparently, that they used to charge him, statements that he's made to the media.
He said they did take his phone. They took his wife's computer. They took documents from the newsroom of Apple Daily, the newspaper he owns. But he doesn't think they're going to find anything that could actually prove these charges that he's colluding with foreign forces and other things.
Of course, Beijing has a very different view. Their state media has come out really strongly saying that there's plenty of evidence that Lai has been conspiring against mainland China.
But this arrest and his prosecution, because if anyone has the resources to fight this legally, it's Jimmy Lai. I mean, most of these young kids, 19, 20, they don't have, you know, the huge amount of cash and lawyers that Jimmy Lai has to go up against this. So he says it's going to be a real litmus test of whether this national security law has any teeth.
He did say, though, John, you know, even though he lives, you know, a life of luxury, you know, he is prepared, if need be, to spend some of his final years of his life in jail if that's what it takes. He's still dedicated to this cause.
But he says younger people need to really have a hard think about whether they're willing to risk the same, because again, they're -- most people are not like him in terms of being able to defend against this, and also, he's much older. And a lot of the people, other people being arrested, you know, there was a 15-year-old girl who was arrested under this new law.
VAUSE: Yes. It's interesting take there from Jimmy Lai about who should be involved in these protests and, you know, what they should be looking forward to in their future, that kind of stuff. But good for him, I guess.
Will, thank you. Will Ripley live in Hong Kong.
Well, sales of hand sanitizer, they went through the roof in the early stages of the pandemic, but now health experts are warning the ones that now fill the shelf could actually be a little bit dangerous. What to check for when we come back on CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Remember those early days of the pandemic when hand sanitizer -- and toilet paper -- was just impossible to find? Well now, in the rush to meet demand, it could be that some of these hand sanitizers on the shelves are just downright dangerous.
CNN's Brian Todd explains what you should look for on the label before you buy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In your local grocery store or pharmacy, you might be seeing some unfamiliar brands of hand sanitizer. High demand during the pandemic prompted the FDA to allow distilleries and other makers of alcohol products to jump into the market and start making sanitizer. New warnings from experts: Check the label.
ALEXANDRA PHELAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Not every hand sanitizer is equal. In fact, a number of hand sanitizers the FDA has identified include things like methanol.
TODD: Methanol, a dangerous type of alcohol often used in products like antifreeze. In recent days, the FDA has said it's seeing an increase in the number of sanitizer products contaminated with methanol. So the agency has released a new set of guidelines to help companies make the product safely and meet the demand.
[00:55:08]
Experts say methanol can even be lethal when ingested in high enough concentrations.
DR. MATTHEW HEINZ, HOSPITAL PHYSICIAN, TUCSON, ARIZONA: That can cause central nervous system effects. It can cause seizures.
TODD: Methanol shouldn't be in hand sanitizer, experts say, because even taken in through the skin, it's dangerous. What should be in hand sanitizer, ethel alcohol, according to doctors, and to be effective, each bottle of sanitizer should say it's got at least a 60 percent concentration of ethyl alcohol.
HEINZ: Anything below 60, you're going to reduce the ability of that hand sanitizer to actually, you know, do its job. And if -- you know, significantly below that, again, it's not much different than putting water on.
TODD: What's also not effective, experts say, is using only hand sanitizer dozens of times a day, which reduces its effectiveness.
HEINZ: Some will have aloe. Some will have all sorts of other fillers and things in and scents. And so you -- you get a little residue as that alcohol kind of dries into your hand. You get that film. And then if you apply it again, you get that film again. TODD: So it's important, experts say, to wash your hands with warm
water and soap between uses of sanitizer. Hand sanitizer, they say, is not a substitute for handwashing, which experts call the gold standard of hand hygiene during the pandemic.
HEINZ: It stabilized oils and lifts dirt and all sorts of stuff off the skin. It's just warm soap and water, 20 seconds or more, is -- is very, very difficult for just about anything at all in terms of bacteria or viruses to survive.
TODD: But if you have to have to use hand sanitizer, experts say, use a generous amount and don't just apply to your palms, as many people do.
PHELAN: And similar to the handwashing procedures, you want to sort of rub one palm on top of the other. Do the same on the other side. You want to make sure that you're covering down on your thumbs on both sides, under your fingers and sort of into your finger joints and then around the wrist.
TODD (on camera): Some experts have told us they have also heard of people trying to make their own hand sanitizer at home, especially during the early days of the pandemic. They say that is exceedingly dangerous, especially trying to mix ethyl alcohol, which they say can cause contact burns and even start fires.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Good advice.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. I will be back with more news after the break.
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