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Protesters Demonstrate Outside Postmaster General's Home over Policies Reducing Efficiency of U.S. Postal Service which May Affect 2020 Mail-In Ballots; Long Lines Form in Atlanta for Food Banks; Millions Face Evictions and Food Insecurity as Government Aid Due to Coronavirus Halts; Experts Criticize Testing Capacity in U.S.; Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) Gives First Interview as Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee; President Trump Questions Kamala Harris's Eligibility for Vice Presidential Nomination; Officer Saves Infant Who Was Not Breathing; Special Examines History of U.S. Electoral College. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired August 15, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:14]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, hundreds of people are waiting in line for some help in Atlanta. They are struggling to feed their families.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And the Postal Service is bowing to criticism. Protesters marching on the home of the Postmaster General right now in Washington, D.C., a controversial change that is on pause now.
BLACKWELL: Plus, a famous television mom is offering advice to the Trump campaign. How Marge Simpson is being drawn into the campaign attacks on Senator Kamala Harris.
PAUL: If I ever thought I would see the day Marge Simpson would be in our political conversation.
BLACKWELL: It's 2020. Anything is possible.
PAUL: What the heck.
BLACKWELL: It's 2020.
PAUL: Good morning, everybody. We are so grateful for your company. It is Saturday, August 15th. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. You are in the CNN Newsroom. And this morning, there's some major uncertainty about the presidential election. The Postal Service says in almost all of the 50 states and D.C. mail-in ballots may not make it in time to be counted.
PAUL: And I want to get you back to some of the pictures we're seeing. Protesters outside the postmaster general's home in D.C. right now. They're accusing Louis DeJoy of limiting mail-in voting after he made changes to the Postal Service, including eliminating overtime, slowing some mail delivery. A Postal Service inspector general is now reviewing his controversial policy changes and potential ethics conflict.
BLACKWELL: Last night the USPS did agree it would stop removing boxes in 16 western states and parts of two others until after the election. President Trump has repeatedly claimed that mail-in ballots cause voter fraud and favor his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. According to several studies, mail-in voting does not benefit one political party over the other.
PAUL: Sarah Westwood is with us from the White House right now. So the mail-in voting, we know, Sarah, has been on the president's mind for quite some time. What are we learning this morning about what he thinks?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, good morning, Christi and Victor. And the president is speaking out again this morning about mail-in voting. And that comes on the heels of the revelations that the Postal Service in late July warned 46 states plus the District of Columbia that their election rules are incompatible with Postal Service operations right now. And that means that in those states, most states, the election rules, the deadlines for requesting and returning ballots don't actually leave enough time for the Postal Service under current conditions to deliver those ballots. And that just throws into sharp relief the challenges facing people who do want to vote by mail because of coronavirus concerns heading into November.
But I want to read you a tweet that the president wrote this morning about the Postal Service and the mail-in voting situation. He wrote, "The Democrats know the 2020 election will be a fraudulent mess. We'll maybe never know who won." Now, that's, of course, not true. Experts say there will, of course, be a definitive answer if mail-in voting is heavily relied upon in November.
But they do warn that that could take several days. It could take a little bit longer to count all of the votes, especially in the states that are expanding vote by mail to new heights. The president is exploiting the likelihood of that kind of situation to cast doubt on the validity of the eventual results.
Democrats have blamed the postmaster general for sabotaging, essentially, the Postal Service for doing things that would undermine its ability to deliver mail-in ballots come November, including some cost cutting changes like eliminating overtime and like slowing down some mail delivery times. Those are the kinds of changes that Democrats want to see the Postal Service reverse.
And the president this week has suggested that he opposes additional funding for the Postal Service that it says it needs to make those changes because he does not want to see mail-in voting greatly expanded come November. He's later said, though, that he would agree to give the Postal Service that extra funding if Democrats agreed to the types of stimulus bill requests that Republicans want right now, Victor and Christi.
PAUL: Sarah Westwood, appreciate it so much. Thank you.
We are seeing more evidence this morning as well as to how the coronavirus pandemic has devastated families across the country.
BLACKWELL: People are lined up in Atlanta for a huge food drive there.
PAUL: Natasha Chen is with us from Atlanta. So I know that people have been lined up there. This is what's surprising I think to a lot of people -- for hours just to get some of this. But it's indicative of how much help they need.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christi and Victor. The first car that was parked right here this morning had really waited three hours for this. We know that there are at least 105 cars with multiple families sometimes in each car. And let me just show you what's happening around here. They're pulling around, popping their trunk, and this is where they are going to get some chicken, some vegetables.
[10:05:06]
And this is what we're hearing from these families is that some of them had come to these food distribution centers before in the past, but things have gotten even harder during the pandemic. And some of them I talked to are here for the very first time. As you can imagine, a lot of people have lost their jobs during COVID-19. And what they're saying is that they're really relying on unemployment right now.
And in addition to just needing some immediate help with food, it's an emotional toll as well. You can see just how many people are coming around. That woman right there in the blue shirt is the founder and CEO of Caring for Others. We talked to her before this started this morning about what she's seen. Here is what she said.
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ESLENE RICHMOND-SHOCKLEY, CEO OF CARE FOR OTHERS: Well, when we begun, it was a shorter line. Now it's a longer line. Sometimes it's so hard when you have to turn away families when you say I have no more. The last distribution we had to turn away families. And I had to get up and walk away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEN: And of course, in addition to the struggles of people needing immediate assistance, she's saying that she feels bad that she can't really do too much more in terms of their long-term help. And that's really where people are struggling right now.
In the meantime, we are seeing these case numbers just continue to be more than 3,000 on a daily basis here in Georgia for over a month. And the people I've been talking to have been frustrated with that, seeing that the situation is not really improving, not knowing how long this pandemic is going to last.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Natasha Chen, a lot of people having some difficult time now. Thanks so much.
Now, when you add to the food insecurity the issue of eviction, you can imagine how much stress so many families are facing. I spoke with Hannah Adams, she's an attorney, who is helping renters in New Orleans with legal services. She says that evictions are three times what they were this time last year.
PAUL: And I want to show you what the result of that is. These are belongings of an evicted family that have just been dumped on a street. Now, earlier this morning we asked Hannah about the circumstances in Louisiana that lead to sights like this.
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HANNAH ADAMS, STAFF ATTORNEY, SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA LEGAL SERVICES: Once you receive a judgment in court, you can be given as little as 24 hours to get out of your house. And if you're not out by then, the constable is going to show up at your door and put all your stuff on the street and physically remove you from the property, just like you saw in those pictures. So what ends up happening is folks either face physical removal like that or they just have to leave and leave all their stuff behind.
So these low-income families are losing all of their belongings in addition to facing the financial catastrophe of eviction and trying to find a new home the middle of the pandemic. We're just being inundated with folks who are struggling to pay rent and don't know when they're going to receive a paycheck again, and on top of that just had their federal unemployment benefits cut over night at the end of July. So we have a lot of clients who are service industry workers, hospitality workers, musicians, performers, all the people that make New Orleans what it is and why people come here to visit. All of those folks lost work. If they were lucky enough to get federal unemployment benefits, they just lost those. So we have folks receiving $30, $50, $100 a week now, which you just simply can't live on let alone feed your kids and pay rent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Yes. Hannah Adams there also shared the story of single mother who is living with her three-year-old on just $28 a week after she lost her job. Here is what I love to be able to tell you. After watching our interview, Hannah says someone has already called to pay her client's rent. We thank all of you who watched this, who care enough, and who are able and willing to do something that really is life changing for somebody.
BLACKWELL: It is fantastic. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Now, the man in charge of coronavirus testing in the U.S. says the Trump administration is doing everything it can to increase capacity. We'll talk about that with the director of the Centers for Infectious Disease Research and Policy next.
PAUL: Also, Senator Kamala Harris is breaking barriers. The first African-American and Asian-American woman to become a Democratic presumptive vice presidential nominee. She's talking for the first time about what we should expect.
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[10:13:44]
BLACKWELL: The CDC said that people who recovered from coronavirus do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to three months.
PAUL: Yes. The White House coronavirus testing czar says the administration has done everything they can to increase testing capacity. CNN's Brynn Gingras is following the very latest. But we know, Brynn, the U.S. is still struggling with testing delays and supply chain shortages as well.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, yes, there is continued criticism that the administration should really take the reins on this issue and create a uniform strategy, because, as we know, right now states are left to do what they can on their own with testing, and it's just really exacerbating the problems all across this country. This as the death toll just continues to go up.
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GINGRAS: The U.S. averaging more than 1,000 deaths a day, not for one week or two, but for almost three weeks. And now the CDC forecasting by September 5th the country may reach a death toll of nearly 189,000.
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ASSISTANT SECRETARY: If there is a good idea, I want to hear it.
GINGRAS: The administration's testing czar, Brett Giroir, appearing on CNN Friday after health experts challenged his earlier statements that the country is doing an appropriate amount of testing.
[10:15:02]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now we're testing 700,000, 800,000 people, a fraction of the number we need.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you say enough has been done, enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test gets a test in the country?
GIROIR: Everything that can possibly be done has been done. I've spent every day trying to increase testing. What I want people to understand, though, is that testing is not the panacea, it is not the answer.
GINGRAS: In Georgia where the state reached its highest death toll this week, the governor is praising his state's testing efforts, despite the "Atlanta Journal Constitution" reporting that recommendations from the White House task force urged the governor to boost mitigation measures since the state's infection rate is nearly double the national average.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to tell me that the data that the governor is looking at and examining is the right data? Because if it is, we wouldn't be in the top five with other states that are twice, three times, or four times the size the state of Georgia.
GINGRAS: California now at a disheartening milestone after taking a one-two punch from the virus, the state recording more cases than any other state in the country, more than 600,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not out of the woods.
GINGRAS: For 53 straight days, Florida counting more than 4,000 new cases daily. There are growing concerns in Illinois which is reporting its highest number of cases since May.
One potentially promising note, hospitalizations across the country are declining.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This virus hasn't changed. It's the same as it was before and it's doing very substantial damage to the country. I think we really have to be very focused on mask use, avoiding large gatherings, social distancing, hand hygiene. This plateau we're in now, it's fragile. It could go back in the other direction if people begin to relax.
GINGRAS: This week the CDC's director told Americans to expect the worst fall we have ever had. It's why many parents and teachers are still grappling with tough decisions when it comes to schools.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a member of my family that is at high risk. And so if I'm put into a classroom of 30 more kids, it's a small room, there's one exit, the ventilation isn't all that great for schools.
GINGRAS: In Georgia, one district saw 80 cases of COVID-19 just this week, resulting in the quarantine of more than 1,100 teachers and students, parents there calling on the governor to reevaluate the reopening of schools.
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GINGRAS: And the CDC sent guidelines to pediatricians, telling them that the number of cases among children, they're steadily increasing, likely because schools are reopening, camps are going on. That same guidance essentially says that kids can get very sick from this. They say if you look at the population of children that are hospitalized from COVID-19, one in three children can end up in the ICU. And guys, that is no different from how much we see in adults as well.
BLACKWELL: Brynn Gingras for us there in New York. Thank you so much, Brynn.
PAUL: Let's bring in Dr. Michael Osterholm, he's the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and professor at the University of Minnesota. Director, thank you so much for being with us. Good to see you.
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Thank you. PAUL: I want to get your reaction, first of all, to what we heard from
Brett Giroir there, who said everything that can possibly be done has been done, essentially, by this administration. Your thoughts?
OSTERHOLM: Well, first of all, we need to have a much better definition of what we mean by testing. Right now, we have tests that are being done that are coming back days later, which in our mind is really not a test. We really urge people to think about smart testing. The right people get tested at the right time with the right test for the right result and the right outcome. And so in that regard, what he's saying is that, yes, there's a lot of tests out there. But we still see that the right people are not getting tested. And in that regard, we don't have the testing we need.
PAUL: Who are the right people?
OSTERHOLM: Right now, everyone who is symptomatic, that actually potentially could be infected. Number two is all their contacts, the people who might be asymptomatically infected that could be there. We need special populations covered, such as long-term care facilities, congregate work areas. We may need to do testing routinely on almost a daily to at least once a week basis. So, those are the groups we really need to concentrate on right now.
Ideally every American should get tested everyday if they could. That's not going to happen. So then we need to take the testing capability we do have right now and use it better in a way that will help us give the public the information they need to know whether or not they're transmitting this virus to others.
PAUL: You say the coronavirus is spreading like wildfire and it's going to continue to do so until we achieve sufficient herd immunity. I want to read you what Dr. Fauci said about herd immunity. He said coronavirus cases and deaths don't lie and that a lot of people are going to die if we target herd immunity.
OSTERHOLM: Right. What we're saying is we will get to herd immunity one way or another, whether we get there because of illness or we get there because of a vaccine. Herd immunity is just the concept of being immune.
[10:20:00]
And what herd immunity means is that when you get between 50 to 70 percent of the population that is now immune, the virus transmission will slow down. It's like putting immune rods in a virus transmission reaction. So it's not a discretionary issue. We will get there one way or the other. The challenge how is do we get there? Right now only between eight to 10 percent of the U.S. population has been infected by this virus. That means we have got a long ways to go to 50 percent. We're trying to hold out until we get vaccines that can get us there. But in the meantime, we can't just give up. And so we have to understand how to suppress this infection to have as few people as possible infected until we get to a time to have a vaccine.
PAUL: But if we hear this morning that you don't have to get tested for three months if you've had it, does that mean that it is believed antibodies only last three months? And at that point what good would heard immunity do?
OSTERHOLM: Great question. And number one is we're now three months out in a way that we can look at people who were infected earlier in the spring and say, they still have evidence of some protection. It could be longer than three months. So this is just kind of you might say an update, a message.
But you're absolutely right. And this is one of the challenges that I have been raising for months that we don't know what the status of what we call durable immunity is. Will either natural infections or vaccines gets us there? That means the protection would be lifelong or at least for many years. And with coronavirus, as we know with other ones, that that doesn't happen.
So I think that this is going to be a huge challenge, and to get us to herd immunity may mean we would basically have to be revaccinated over time or we can surely count on having multiple infections over our lifetime with this, which would be a real problem.
PAUL: And you're right. There's so much new information that keeps coming out about this, and twists and turns with this virus one of which is this morning the American Heart Association saying COVID- related heart damage is worse than they originally thought. Do we know how much worse, and what that means?
OSTERHOLM: No. We're basically in one big natural experiment right now. We have to just acknowledge that. Some of the things that will be clear and evident a year from now which we wish we would have known then can only happen because we have spent that year living with this virus. And so the challenges of, for example, what are the long-term effects of being infected with this virus.
This is why I keep really emphasizing to young adults, please don't dismiss this virus. You say, well, I'm not going to really get that sick. We don't know what the long-term effects of this virus might be. We're already hearing of young adults who get infected, who think, it's no big deal, and then a month later they're still having some real health problems.
So I think this is unfortunately information we all want right now, what will this look like a year from now. And we're going to have to live with this virus for a year to find that out.
PAUL: All right, Michael Osterholm, we appreciate your expertise and sharing it with us. Thank you, sir.
OSTERHOLM: Thank you very much.
BLACKWELL: Some pretty unusual criticism of Joe Biden's running mate pulled a cartoon character into the fray.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I usually don't get into politics, but the president's senior adviser Jenna Ellis just said Kamala Harris sounds like me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Coming up, more of why Marge Simpson says she feels disrespected, and what this exchange tells us about the Trump's campaign struggle to settle on a Kamala Harris narrative.
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PAUL: Senator Kamala Harris sat down for her first interview as the presumptive democratic vice presidential nominee. If elected she would make history as the first woman, the first African-American and Asian- American and first graduate of a historically black university to serve as vice president. She praised Joe Biden's choice and highlighted what it means in the days ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, (D-CA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe Biden had the audacity to choose a black woman to be his running mate. How incredible is that? And what a statement about Joe Biden, that he decided that he was going to do that thing that was about breaking one of the most substantial barriers that has existed in our country, and that he made that decision with whatever risk that brings. I think as much as anything it's a statement about the character of the man that we're going to elect as the next president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Let's bring in now CNN political commentators Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist, and Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist. They also host a podcast together "Hot Mics from Left to Right." I'm just learning about this. That is great. Welcome back to both of you.
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.
ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to be here, Victor. You'll be one of our first guests. We'd love to have you.
CARDONA: Absolutely.
BLACKWELL: Excellent. Excellent.
Alice, let me start with you. We've heard the president flirt with the birtherism law with Kamala Harris. Do you expect that will be fruitful, that will have any significant impact this cycle?
STEWART: I hope not. Look, to use that language and to use that talking point, I have said when he used it against Obama it's ill- advised, it's ill-informed, and it's also not productive. You look at what the issues the American people are concerned with, it is health care, meaning COVID, the economy, meaning jobs, and race relations. And right now -- on what he is doing to help the economy and certainly help get this country back on track with regard to COVID. And going down the birtherism route again is just not something that's going to further that narrative.
[10:30:07]
BLACKWELL: All right, so let's move on to this, Maria. A lot of Democrats are really looking forward to the vice presidential debate between Senator Harris and Vice President Pence. But I wonder why, because short of the "that little girl was me" moment, most of her debate performances during the primary were not lauded. And then there was this back and forth. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To reiterate, you support the Medicare for all bill, I think initially cosponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're also a cosponsor on to it. I believe it will totally eliminate private insurance. So for people out there who like their insurance, they don't get to keep it?
HARRIS: Well, listen, the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care. And you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Who of us has not had that situation where you got to wait for approval and the doctor says, well, I don't know if your insurance company is going to cover this. Let's eliminate all that. Let's move on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that private insurance should be eliminated in this country.
HARRIS: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't?
HARRIS: No, I do not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you raised your question last night.
HARRIS: But the question was, would you give up your private insurance for that option? And I said yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I think you heard it differently than others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: So this back and forth, and there was also some muddiness over the bussing issue. Why are Democrats so confident in her ability to beat Pence in a debate?
CARDONA: Because, first of all, when there is going to be a debate about health care, there's going to be no question and frankly no competition between who and what ticket is for giving more access to more Americans to quality health care, and which party is trying to take away health care from millions of Americans. That will be a slam dunk for Senator Harris.
Also, Victor, do you remember watching her during the impeachment hearings? She eviscerated the witnesses. She eviscerated Jeff Sessions. He even said to her, I'm kind of a little afraid of your questioning right now. So, people are focusing on her prosecutorial debate skills, on her toughness, on her understanding of the issues, on how much she has fought for working families, for immigrants, like you said. As a Latina, I am so thrilled that Joe Biden picked her. She understands the immigrant experience.
BLACKWELL: But, Maria, that's a different format.
CARDONA: And she is going to bring the country together.
BLACKWELL: It's a different format, right. In the Senate confirmation hearings you have got five minutes to ask the question. It is the senator's time. When you're in a debate, you've got, what, 60 seconds, and you're bouncing back and forth with a 30 second rebuttal. Same- same is the comparison, debate to debate, right?
CARDONA: She will shine. I guarantee you right now, Victor, she is going to sign shine and she is going to blow Mike Pence out of the water. You know why else, Victor? Because they have no idea how to go at her, right? You have what some of his supporters, even in his own administration, calling her weak on crime. Mike Pence called her weak on crime. And then you have others saying that she is a prosecutor that would lock up and throw away the key. You can't have it both ways.
STEWART: Victor, if I --
BLACKWELL: Go ahead, Alice.
STEWART: If I may politely and respectfully reply to my friend, Maria, there. Loo, I will give it to Kamala Harris. She has a strong prosecutorial background. In terms of being a prosecutor, she's strong. But when it gets down to the end of the day, she might get an A on performance, but she's going to fail on policy. What Mike Pence will do with her on the debate stage will remind people across this country and specifically the independents that will make the difference come November on her policy with regard to Green New Deal, with regard to health care for illegal immigrants, with her policies that are far to the left of general election electorate wants. And they can sit there and call her moderate Joe and moderate Kamala, but they are progressives, and they are the new face of the Democratic Party. And that is failing for the voters.
CARDONA: Yes, they are. They are progressive.
BLACKWELL: Alice, let me stay with you, because I want to talk about the post office. The president directly linked a refusal to increase funding for the post office for his desire to control, to limit mail- in voting. And we heard from Senator Romney, he says, and this is a quote, when politicians attack a judicial system, attack a voting system, attack a free press, these things threaten the foundation upon which not only our democracy rests, but democracies around the world rest. There's no evidence of widespread fraud. What's the plausible explanation other than he thinks this will give him some electoral advantage to control, to limit mail-in ballots.
STEWART: Look, I think the best way we can do elections is -- but that is not feasible with coronavirus going on. We need to look at other ways. Absentee ballots is a much more foolproof and way that you can verify one person, one vote.
[10:35:04]
There have been problems. It is not tremendously widespread, but there are problems with mail-in voting when they mail out millions of ballots that sit in mailboxes that can be used fraudulently. And the key is to make sure that we guarantee right now that the focus of the administration and people on Republican and the Democratic side that this will be a free and fair election. This will be done with the fullest of integrity. But keep in mind, Victor, as many know, I used to be deputy secretary of state in Arkansas. These elections are run state by state. The states have been given money to execute elections safely and fairly.
CARDONA: Not enough.
STEWART: And they need to use that money, use it wisely so we can ensure with the voters that their votes counted.
BLACKWELL: So there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud?
CARDONA: Right.
BLACKWELL: Let's put that in bold letters with an exclamation point at the end of it.
Maria, what do Democrats need to do this week at the convention?
CARDONA: They need to underscore through Joe Biden, through Kamala Harris, through all the amazing speakers that we're going to be having throughout every night, that this is going to be a ticket that's going to fight to bring America together. What Joe Biden said at the beginning of his campaign, this is a fight for the soul of America, Victor. We can no longer have a president and an administration that self-deals, that is corrupt, that focuses on dividing us, that focuses on racism, white supremacy, misogyny, sexism. That is not the kind of America that we all want and deserve.
What Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will do, and all of the speakers at the convention will talk about how to rebuild America together, how to focus on this global pandemic and believe in science and believe in facts, which this administration has done nothing but call this virus a hoax. This is existential, and that's the point that we will be making.
BLACKWELL: Alice, quickly to you. The president will be traveling to four states during the week, during the convention. Sean Hannity gave him a toss-up and said what do you want to do for the second term, and he said I've never been here before for 45 seconds. What does the president want to do in a second term? What's his case to the voters?
STEWART: Clearly, he wants to focus on what he has already promised to people, and that is ensuring we have a strong economy. Immigration is big. I would imagine once he gets into his second term, not if but when, there will be more of an emphasis on --
BLACKWELL: All right, we're having a technical issue with your signal breaking up. Alice Stewart, Maria Cardona, thank you both. The Democratic National Convention starts Monday.
The role of the Electoral College will be back in focus during this election, of course. Coming up, we'll speak to our weekday NEW DAY colleague John Berman about his new CNN special report "Count on Controversy, Inside the Electoral College." It's airing tonight.
PAUL: Do stay with us. There's dash cam police cameras capturing really a life or death moment involving a three week old child. We'll show you what happens here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:42:21]
PAUL: Well, today marks 75 years since Japan unconditionally agreed to accept the terms that would end World War II. A formal surrender was signed September 2nd.
So in the United Kingdom and the U.S., today is known as Victory over Japan Day. A wreath laying ceremony was held this morning in London.
BLACKWELL: There was also a ceremony held at a shrine in Tokyo. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended along with Japanese Emperor Naruhito and grandson of Emperor Hirohito who ruled Japan during the war.
An officer in Michigan is being called a hero after rushing into save the life of an infant. CNN's Ryan Young has the story of their call of duty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Officer Cameron Maciejewski of the Sterling Heights Police Department in Michigan got a heart stopping call of a baby in distress.
CAMERON MACIEJEWSKI, POLICE OFFICER, STERLING HEIGHTS POLICE DEPARTMENT: I was about a mile away from the house. I was right around the corner when the call came out. And the only information I got from our dispatch was there's a three-week-old infant not breathing, and everyone is screaming in the background.
OK. Calm down. Calm down. Let me see the baby.
YOUNG: Dash cam video picks up the next very tense seconds filled with fear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please, please, please.
MACIEJEWSKI: I was checking the baby's mouth to see if I could see anything. Didn't see anything. And then next thing after is trying to do some back blows to dislodge whatever might be deeper down in the baby's airway. And I gave her three back blows, and that third one I heard a faint cry come.
YOUNG: Even before the ambulance could arrive, the baby was breathing on her own.
MACIEJEWSKI: Yes. There you go. OK. He's crying. He's crying.
It was a sigh of relief. I think I actually before I spoke into my radio, I took one -- a deep breath and put that out over the air that baby is crying, which it brings joy to everyone. But that was definitely a giant sigh of relief.
DALE DWOJAKOWSKI, CHIEF, STERLING HEIGHTS POLICE DEPARTMENT: What was going on in the emotion in that moment, and anyone that has a child, any mother on the planet that watches that video, any family, you can just feel the pain, the confusion, the worry. It's all there in the moment, those two or three minutes. Very powerful.
YOUNG: Maciejewski's chief couldn't be more proud of his young officer.
DWOJAKOWSKI: I've been a police officer for 25 years. The last couple months have been brutal, not just for me but every cop in the United States. What a lot of people don't see is what we do every single day. Our guys do great police work, including saving lives.
[10:45:09]
YOUNG: Maciejewski got to meet the infant and the family as they thanked the officer for his calm under pressure. Police officers from around the world have reached out to say good job, but Maciejewski got the seal of approval from his hero and the man who made him want to be a police officer -- his dad, who also served as a police officer for 20 years.
MACIEJEWSKI: And he said, usually it's the dad that's the hero to the son, but he's like, you're my hero today. It hits home. It really does. It pulls on the heart strings, because I'm a human just like everyone else in this world.
YOUNG: Ryan Young, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The present system is dangerous, it's outdated, it's archaic. It's one that needs to be revised.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Born hundreds of years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really was a Frankenstein's monster of sorts.
BERMAN: Challenged and criticized but fiercely resilient until now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are some issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For better or worse I tried a Hail Mary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, I think we can do something about this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I decided maybe someone should take a stand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were the bad news bears of the political world.
BERMAN: Going rogue meant taking risks.
Did you think you were committing a crime?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were fined $1,000.
BERMAN: And the backlash was brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plenty of death threats and hate.
BERMAN: A desperate political play to try to keep one man from becoming president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop Trump!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it scared people, because no one has used the Electoral College this way.
BERMAN: That you thought you had the power to change history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought we had the power to prevent a demagogue from taking office.
BERMAN: Election 2020.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On the path to defeating Donald Trump.
BERMAN: Could it happen again?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America should not take lectures on racial justice from Joe Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to be in uncharted territory. This is a pandora's box.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: So that's just a clip from the new CNN special that airs tonight "Count On Controversy, Inside the Electoral College" with that other NEW DAY man.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: The other NEW DAY man. John Berman is with us now. John, good morning to you. Listen, in considering in five cycles you had two split decisions, this is such a rich topic. And President Trump has been on both sides of this issue.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. In 2012 he literally tweeted -- there is a tweet for everything -- that the Electoral College is a disaster for democracy. That was 2012. And as we sit here today, he has got a clear Electoral College advantage. Our friend Harry Enten has crunched the numbers, and the president does better in the Electoral College than he does with the vote overall.
And if you want a few reasons for that, Victor, number one is because the six closest states that Donald Trump won last time, the battleground states, they're about seven percent whiter than the rest of the country. And those six same battleground states have about 10 percent more non-college whites, which again, is Donald Trump's, one of his strongest groups. So that's where his advantage lies.
He lost the popular vote, which he hates to hear, by about three million votes in 2016. If you run some of the numbers, you could see how he could lose by even more in three months, maybe as many as 5 million plus votes, and still win the Electoral College. So that's what's sort of caused me to look into this more deeply and say, hey, what's going on here? Why do we have this system to begin with? And what attempts, if any, have ever been made to fix it?
PAUL: I know you're going to answer a lot of questions for a lot of people that have those same questions for a while.
BERMAN: Yes. Yes. The answers are not terribly satisfying, I have to say, Christi. It's really interesting. You heard one of the experts say that it was a Frankenstein's monster to begin with, and it was. The Electoral College was this compromise to begin with. And it never really worked the way the founders wanted it to. They had to amend it 12 years in to the entire republic. They had to amend it in 1800 because they had screwed up the whole president/vice president thing.
But there's nothing in the Constitution that requires people, citizens, to vote for president. I didn't know that. All the Constitution requires is that the state legislatures pick the electors in the means they want to. And early on some of these state legislatures picked the electors without an election all together. It wasn't until many years in to the republic that the states started holding elections universally.
And in terms of how they apportion the electors, again, the winner takes all system by state, which is something now which creates a lot of the issues that people see, that developed over time as well. That is not something necessarily that the founders ever envisioned. In fact, James Madison, who more or less wrote the Constitution, he hated it. He was complaining about the fact that states were going to that winner take all system well after he was president. PAUL: Berman, we can't wait to see it. I will be TiVo-ing.
BLACKWELL: Welcome to the weekends. Come back and visit.
BERMAN: It's great to see you guys. I should say, there are songs. There are songs. This is one the Electoral College special you'll ever see that's got music from They Might Be Giants in it.
(LAUGHTER)
PAUL: All right.
BLACKWELL: OK, we will be watching.
PAUL: We will be TiVo-ing because it's at 10:00 p.m. tonight.
[10:55:00]
BLACKWELL: I might be up.
PAUL: Oh, he might be up. Berman, he's giving you some big props there if he's going to be up. But we do give you props here. "Count on Controversy, Inside the Electoral College." It is tonight, 10:00 p.m. eastern.
BLACKWELL: And just one shark fin is enough to clear swimmers from most beaches.
PAUL: Just one. Not Jim Abernethy, though. Tomorrow on NEW DAY WEEKEND he's going to tell us about these ocean predators. And he's sharing -- this video is stunning that he has of close encounters with sharks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In fact, it's very much like your dog swimming up to give you a kiss. It's the same kind of creature.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Tomorrow morning NEW DAY WEEKEND starting at 6:00 a.m. eastern. We hope you go make good memories today.
BLACKWELL: Much more ahead in the next hour of CNN's Newsroom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Testing trouble. The White House task force is pushing back as health experts argue for a major increase in coronavirus testing.
