Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Protesters Demonstrate Outside Postmaster General's Home Over Policies Reducing Efficiency Of U.S. Postal Service Which May Affect 2020 Mail-In Ballots; Trump Campaign's Contention That Mail-In Voting Leads To Widespread Fraud Examined; CDC Announces Rate Of Coronavirus Cases Among Children In U.S. Increasing; Demonstrators Gather In Chicago To Protest Police Brutality; Georgia Governor Withdraws Lawsuit Against Atlanta Mayor Over Facemask Mandate; Millions Face Evictions And Food Insecurity As Government Aid Due To Coronavirus Halts. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired August 15, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These stones are not theirs. They are ours.

Fairuz's song ends with the words, "You, Beirut, are mine, you are mine, embrace me."

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: And hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Bianna Golodyrga, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

The fight over mail-in voting now heating up. Today a group of protesters demonstrated outside the home of the postmaster general Louis DeJoy, demanding that DeJoy end a series of recent changes to the Postal Service that have slowed mail delivery. They say DeJoy, who is an ally of President Trump, is trying to sabotage the mail system ahead of the upcoming election where more voters will mail in their ballots because of the pandemic. Among those voters, the president and first lady who both requested mail-in ballots in Florida.

But that didn't stop President Trump from continuing his baseless attacks on mail-in voting today, tweeting that the 2020 election will be a fraudulent mess, and that we may never know who won.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins me now live from Bridgewater, New Jersey, close to where President Trump is spending his weekend. And Kristen, the Trump campaign was forced to hand over documents to prove their allegation of voter fraud in the state of Pennsylvania. What are we learning about that?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Bianna. So keep this in mind. The Trump campaign has sued in several states, particularly notable that they are several key swing states, including Pennsylvania and Nevada. Now, in Pennsylvania a judge said last week that the Trump campaign had to provide documents to Democrats, to the court, over what exactly this widespread fraud would look like. So they did, in fact, turn over these thousands of pages of documents.

Now, the big question is, of course, what exactly is in these documents? As we know, as we have reported, there are no instances of widespread fraud. Now, the campaign has said in the past that they were drawing heavily from news report and public records, and may also look at expert reports, but that was not solidified.

I will say as somebody who talks to the Trump campaign, to advisers on a regular basis, they are always sending stories about some sort of fraud in local markets, anything they can get their hands on. So it's likely that will be the kind of thing that they will be looking at.

And again, though, we really have to stress that there is there is no evidence of widespread fraud as the president is saying there will be, that the election might not be able to be called because there is so much massive fraud. And even members of his own party are saying they don't think there's any actual evidence of fraud. Mitt Romney, who is obviously no friend of President Trump's, had this to say when he was asked about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I don't know of any evidence that voting by mail would increase voter fraud. I've heard some people say they think that the reason the president doesn't want people to vote by mail is that that polls show that people who want to vote by mail tend to vote for Vice President Biden. People who tend to want to vote in person tend to want to vote for President Trump. And so this is a political calculation. But my own view is we want people to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So that is very striking. Again, Mitt Romney is not an ally of President Trump's, but he usually toes the party line. He is saying that the president is doing this for political reasons, and, in fact, saying that there is evidence that Joe Biden might be winning and that's what President Trump is going off of, if people choose to mail- in vote.

And Bianna, I want to note one other thing, because it's not just these claims of fraud that are baseless, it's also what's going on at the post office. This has been a developing story all week, and what we have seen is massive changes put into place by the postmaster general, as you said, a Trump ally and donor, who workers say have really slowed down the system.

They are concerned of how these changes are going to impact the election in 2020, so concerned, in fact, that inspector general of the Postal Service is launching a review of those changes to see exactly what is going -- what they look like and if they will have an impact.

GOLODRYGA: And we'll see what the reaction will be from the president, if, in fact, he will retaliate for the I.G. launching this investigation. He's done that to previous I.G.s in the past.

Kristen, the president is also now, we hear, planning a trip to Pennsylvania next week, the same week as the Democratic National Convention. That's the birthplace of Joe Biden. Is this the president taunting Joe Biden during his big week?

HOLMES: Well, Bianna, let me give you more details about that trip. It is set for Thursday, the same day that Joe Biden is set to accept the nomination. It is just outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the original home of Joe Biden. So one might be able to draw from that that there is a little bit of taunting going on there.

[14:05:05]

But this is just part of a full week of travel for President Trump. We know from the campaign they want him out there on the road, they want him in these swing states. I have spoken to many of these advisers who say this, one, one, he is best when he is interacting with people, when he's on the rally stage, when he is energized, something I think we can agree with if we just look at him in a setting like last night in front of the police union, versus a setting like the briefing room in which he is much more somber and less energized.

So this is what the advisers want, they want him on the road. And Pennsylvania is a critical state. Remember, of course, Trump won it in 2016. It was a shock to a lot of Democrats. It is up for grabs this year, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And according to the most recent CBS poll the president is trailing Joe Biden by about six points, and this is before announcing Senator Harris as his running mate. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much, wonderful reporting, we appreciate it.

Now to the latest on the pandemic. While the world races to find a coronavirus vaccine, U.S. scientists will soon create a strain of the virus that could be used intentionally to infect subjects dosed with an experimental vaccine. Dr. Fauci says it's an absolutely far out contingency, a so-called plan d, and he doesn't think the controversial human challenge trials will ever take place.

And adding to the concerns about the coronavirus, there's new evidence that shows the risk of death from coronavirus related heart damage seems to be far greater than previously thought. The American Heart Association now says inflammation of the vascular system and injury to the heart occur in 20 percent to 30 percent of hospitalized coronavirus patients and contribute to 40 percent of deaths.

And with the number of COVID tests across the country declining, White House Coronavirus Testing Czar Admiral Dr. Brett Giroir says the Trump administration is working aggressively to create technologies making point-of-care testing widely available at low cost within the next six weeks.

And as more schools open across the country, the CDC is now announcing that the number and rate of cases in children in the United States has been steadily increasing. Children under 18 make up 22 percent of the U.S. population and are now accounting for more than seven percent of all cases. That's up from earlier this year when children under 18 accounted for just two percent of all COVID cases.

For more on this, let's bring in Cristina Alesci. And Cristina, great to see you this afternoon. The new guidance also seemed to suggest that almost half of those children show no symptoms of the virus at all. What does that tell us?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN POLITICS AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Correct, Bianna. And I want to point out two other notable things in this guidance that should be of interest to parents as they weigh whether to send their children back to school. One, is that the CDC officially acknowledged evidence that we know has been out there that children do transmit the disease in places like homes and summer camps.

And two, lower down in the document it does talk about those lower rates among children in the early spring and summer, and it gives a reason for that. It says among -- the virus transmission among and to children may have been reduced in the early spring and summer thanks to mitigation measures such as stay-at-home orders and school closures. This may explain the low incidence of children compared with adults.

Now, it is entirely fair at this juncture to go to local officials, governors and mayors, and present them with this new information and this new guidance, and see whether or not they're factoring it into their school reopening plans. As you know, Bianna, because you've reported on this here in New York, the governor has announced that schools can reopen in the state. That is creating a lot of unease among parents and teachers.

And essentially, we have reached out to the governor to see if the New York state is considering these new guidelines or reassessing their plans to reopen schools. We have not heard back. But educators here, particularly a union for principals, 6,400 of them, did send a letter to Mayor de Blasio, pleading with him to delay the opening of schools here in New York City, the biggest school district in the country.

And we'll have to see how this plays out, but so far it seems like it's full speed ahead on school openings for in-person classes here in New York, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Though the infection rate is low in New York, you can understand where parents say, hey, I don't want my kids to be guinea pigs in this experiment here, because just as the virus hit our schools were shut down. We've been living in this quasi-bubble, and who knows, as this data shows, what the real infection among children is. It is a novel virus, just complicating matters even more. Cristina Alesci, thank you.

Let's bring in Dr. Dara Kass. She's an emergency physician at Columbia University Medical School. She is also a Yahoo! News medical contributor. Doctor, thanks so much for joining us.

[14:10:00] So I want to get your takeaway from the CDC report, that children under 18 are now becoming a much bigger share of COVID cases, but that about 45 percent are asymptomatic, showing no symptoms. That's great, you don't want to have kids feeling sick, but it becomes much harder to figure out who among them is infected, right?

DARA KASS, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Absolutely. I think it shows us a couple of things. It shows us that if the virus is spreading -- any restriction, basically exponentially around the country, children are going to get caught up in that maelstrom. And so that's what's happening. We're seeing more children infected because the infection is out of control.

The other issue is if children are asymptomatic, we don't they're infected unless we can test them. And unfortunately, Admiral Giroir is saying our testing is ramping up as fast as we can do it, but it's not ramping up as fast as we need it to be. And we need more testing, faster testing for our children in order to get them back to school.

GOLODRYGA: And Dr. Kass, I also want to get your reaction to this new research from the American Heart Association saying that there's a severe threat of heart damage from the virus, and it's greater than we thought. How concerning is this development?

KASS: So it's very concerning. It's not as new to us on the front lines as it may be to other Americans that weren't seeing the damage, especially in March, April, and May to patients, especially in New York. Basically, this virus can put some patients' bodies on fire, including their hearts. And we're seeing this damage happen in patients that are 30, 40, and 50-years-old.

These aren't the patients that are elderly and immune compromised. They're the patients that are surviving this virus, but now they're going to have a new chronic medical condition related to surviving the virus that we need to recognize and treat before we consider it all clear.

GOLODRYGA: And I'm glad you mentioned that you on the front lines were aware of the damage to the heart system as well and the vascular system as well. But for so many, they thought it was just a respiratory virus, and it's clearly much more than that.

I want to also get your opinion, and if you can weigh in on what you think about this human challenge trials that have become a possibility and would call for actually injecting people with a COVID strand to test for new vaccines. As you heard from Dr. Fauci, he said this is plan d, he thinks this is highly unlikely to ever come forward. But do you agree with what some experts calling the human challenge trials unethical, or do you think that this is just the way science plays out, and it's something that we shouldn't worry too much about?

KASS: So we've never used a human challenge trial on a virus for an illness that has no treatment. And unfortunately, right now, the coronavirus, this coronavirus has no proven treatment to either cure or guarantee recovery to any patient. So it would be completely extraordinary to do a human challenge trial on this particular virus. Like Dr. Fauci said, it's a plan c or d for worst-case scenario. If for some reason there are multiple vaccine candidates that they need to understand quickly which one is more effective or more effective in certain patients.

Remembering, also, that human challenge trials will be only done on the healthiest patients because of the risk of getting them sick and dying, since there is no cure. So it won't even be reflective on the patients that we think need it the most and fastest, which are vulnerable patients, or vulnerable Americans, and those at highest risk of illness.

GOLODRYGA: Let's hope we avoid ever having to need the plan d. Dr. Dara Kass, thank you.

KASS: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And now to Chicago, where demonstrators are gathering to protest police brutality. CNN's Omar Jimenez is there. And Omar, what are you seeing on the streets?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, right now we have a group of people that are marching north from Chicago's southside toward downtown really at this moment. And this, of course, comes a week after those images that that we saw just a week ago of what was unrelated looting happening in the city. But the reason I bring that up is because it put many city officials on very, very high alert.

As you may notice, flanking all of these protesters are really hundreds and hundreds of police that have been with them every single step of the way, some of them in riot gear, many of them holding lines at specific portions to make sure this sort of stays in line with where they want them to be.

The reason these people are out here protesting is they are protesting people that have been killed by police. They are asking for defunding of police. They want reorganization of what they say has been a corrupt system for so, so long.

Now, one very interesting note that came at the beginning of this protest was it was organized by one group, but then members of the community where this protest was actually happening actually came out and confronted the protesters, telling them to go back to the neighborhoods where they came from, because, much similar to what we saw last weekend in a neighborhood called Englewood on Chicago's southside, many of those residents felt that protesters came in from different parts of the city, stirred up trouble, as they said, and then those residents had to then deal with the aftermath of that police presence. And they were arguing a similar aspect here.

[14:15:07]

They were able to talk out some of their differences, and now they are marching in the group that you see here. The plans were initially to go onto Interstate 90, known as the Dan Ryan here in Chicago, but it seems things have changed there. And some of these groups that were speaking have now united. And again, this march continues in stark contrast to what we saw last week, but the message remains the same, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Do we know if these protests are expected to go into the night?

JIMENEZ: At this point we do not expect that to happen. And in fact, many of the police, that's part of why they're here, to make sure this ends when it is supposed to end. But that is part of what officials are prepared for.

When we talk about some of the precautions that they have put in place in response to the looting last weekend, we have been on a strict curfew from any overnight hours here in Chicago for a week now, and the mayor has told me that that is going to extend into at least Monday. That means the bridges leading into downtown are all up so you can't go across those bridges. And the exits from the highways into the city have been closed to prevent people from easy access into the city.

So again, we are going to see that overnight tonight, overnight tomorrow, and then Monday, it seems, they are going to reassess. In regards to some of the looting that we saw last week, over 40 people were arrested and charged for things related to that. But, again, as I mentioned before, the ties to the actual Englewood neighborhood where this supposedly started were slim to none, at least at this point, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Let's hope this protest continues to be as orderly as it appears now. You see the protesters exercising their rights, and the police off to the side making sure that nothing escalates even further. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much. I know you'll be checking back in.

The state of Georgia announces new cases of coronavirus in schools. In one district the numbers have tripled. We have a live report for you coming up next.

Plus, the mental health challenges many people are facing because of the pandemic. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:13]

GOLODRYGA: As some school districts in Georgia begin sending kids back into the classroom, the state has been reporting thousands of new cases every day, and that has been drawing some criticism from unexpected places. CNN's Natasha Chen joins me from Atlanta. And Natasha, we're getting some news from the Georgia governor today, right?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're expecting that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is going to be issuing a new executive order. The existing one expires tonight at midnight, and he did announce late in the week that he was withdrawing the lawsuit that he had over Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms mandate in the city of Atlanta for facemasks in public when you can't socially distance, and her recommendation to roll back to phase one.

He said that the new executive order would address some of those concerns, and in a tweet last night he said he would be protecting property rights of business owners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Georgia is not doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19, that's according to White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations from August 9th, a document obtained by the "Atlanta Journal Constitution." It reads "There is widespread and expanding community viral spread," and "There is no significant improvement in the Atlanta metro area, with continued high levels of new cases at a plateau. Mitigation efforts must increase."

Governor Brian Kemp's office fired back, sending CNN a list of its ongoing efforts to combat the spread of the virus, saying in part, quote, "The DPH lab has been working around the clock with multiple shifts since early summer," and that "Governor Kemp continues to rely on data, science, and the public health advice, of the state's public health director."

MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA: Georgia should roll back. I definitely think Georgia should roll back.

CHEN: In a state seeing at least 3,000 new cases every day over the last month, the Atlanta mayor says it's too soon for students to be in classrooms.

BOTTOMS: And we're seeing it already in our state. As schools have reopened, kids are getting infected. And in my opinion, this is my opinion as a parent, it's more disruptive to think you're sending your child to a situation and then have to pull them all back out.

CHEN: Courtney Smith pulled her daughters out of public school in Atlanta's suburbs altogether when they told her they saw 30 to 40 students in each classroom with few people wearing masks.

COURTNEY SMITH, PARENT: As parents, our number one task in life is to protect our babies, and I really felt like I was dropping mine off at a death trap on Monday. So there were a lot of tears shed by me and shed by my children last week.

CHEN: After two days in their Cherokee County schools, Smith transferred them to a charter school, which she says has far fewer students in class and more of them wearing masks. On Friday, Cherokee County's public school district confirmed 80 new cases of COVID-19 for the week, nearly triple the previous week's count. Two high schools in the district had to temporarily pause in-person learning.

SMITH: If you want your kids in school, your schools have to stay open. And for the schools to stay open, you have to contain your numbers of COVID cases. And the best way that we know of to contain those cases is to implement masks and to also implement a hybrid program where you reduce the number of students in the building at one time.

CHEN: But there is no mask mandate in Cherokee County schools nor at Paulding County schools, where North Paulding High School also had to temporarily stop in-person classes due to students and staff testing positive. Starting Monday, that school will use a hybrid schedule with both in-person and digital learning.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP, (R-GA): There's definitely going to be issues when you open anything. We saw that when we opened businesses, we're seeing that when we open schools. We've given them guidance. We've worked with them to really give them the tools that they need to open.

[14:25:02]

CHEN: Those tools include shipments of masks that aren't required by the state. Though Kemp once sued Atlanta's mayor for mandating masks, he says local school officials are best positioned to make the best rules for their communities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN: And unfortunately, today we're learning of the death of a 15- year-old boy in the metro Atlanta area. He's the second youngest person to die from complications of COVID-19 in the state. Earlier we learned of a seven-year-old boy who died in the Savannah area. That seven-year-old had no underlying conditions, which just shows, Bianna, how dangerous this is. Even if younger people think that they are more invincible in some way, clearly there are young people dying of this virus.

GOLODRYGA: And it's so unfortunate to hear about the loss of life there, and it really is telling that this isn't the first time that the administration has criticized this governor in particular for, a, first opening businesses too soon, and now the handling of schools. And we see that there's lives at stake, and, unfortunately, there are a couple of families now grieving. Natasha Chen, thank you.

I want to bring in Dr. Tyler Black. He's the medical director of emergency psychiatry at B.C. Children's Hospital and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia.

Doctor, thanks so much for coming back on with us this week. We talk a lot about trying to keep kids safe from coronavirus once they are back in the classroom, but what about their mental health? We want them physically to be OK, but mentally this is a conversation that parents have to be having with their kids as well, right?

DR. TYLER BLACK, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY PSYCHIATRY AT B.C. CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Absolutely. And I've been trying to advocate quite a bit for the knowledge that prior to the pandemic, schools themselves were a cause of stress and destress.

We know that prior to the pandemic kids were more likely to die with suicide or present with psychiatric emergencies during school months and school days, and we know that prior to the pandemic, schools had too large class sizes, there wasn't enough funding for under- privileged kids.

All of these things existed before the pandemic. So schools are a cause of stress with all of those issues. When we add the pandemic, of course, we know we're adding more stress.

GOLODRYGA: And we got new data from the CDC just this week that was just stunning, and it says one in four young adults considered suicide in the past month because of this pandemic. We're seeing the real-life effects that this is having on people. And it's a big toll. It seems like this is a really big number, and we need to be addressing this.

BLACK: Well, it's a big number, but to put it into context, in 2017 when there was a survey done by the CDC of students, 17.2 percent of students seriously considered suicide. But a very small percentage of those students ended up dying by suicide, only about 0.008 percent of kids in that age group died of suicide. So when we do surveys of people during a very stressful time, we're not very surprised when we see stressful numbers increased.

But within that report by the CDC, it highlighted that people that were struggling with childcare, people that were struggling with having to go to work, essential workers, were more at risk for suicidal thinking. So we know that any time people's stress and pressure is building up, suicidal thinking will increase.

GOLODRYGA: And we know that the impact, both positive and negative, social media has on young people, especially in young adults, and that has been the one avenue of escape that many children and teenagers have had, has been social media, and many of them see pictures of their friends partying at the beach, what have you, many are still enduring bullying. If anything, it seems like the role that people have with their social media accounts has only increased, given that there's nothing else they can do. Does that concern you at all?

BLACK: Well, it's a different thing. Children of the generation that are now in that younger age group are very used to online communication. I think Snapchat and texting and all those things are more likely their form of communication than phone calls, and children are quite a bit more comfortable with that.

So when we look at the way that kids are using social media, we often look at it through our adult lens and we imagine that it's something that's very disorienting or isolating. But children can feel very connected online, and it's a great thing. I keep thinking about how many lives have been saved by the ability for us all to do things like do videoconferences where I don't have to be in a studio to be meeting with you, or students can be at home from school.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, technology has been really helpful in that regard.

If you are a parent, what signs should you be looking for that your child is struggling to the point where they all might need help? Parents have a lot on their plates, children do, too. But what are the signs that they should be looking out for?

BLACK: Well, there's a lot of the general things that you would look for are a little bit more challenging during the pandemic.

[14:30:02]

For example, disrupted sleep is something that many children are dealing with right now because they don't have the anchoring events of school. So some of the things we might look for, like disrupted sleep, are a little bit more challenging.

But the things that we would ask people to be on the lockout for are changes in mood, where someone may be a little bit more irritable, or they're not quite their normal self with how they interact with others. Reaching out to those people and saying, hey, I've just noticed things aren't going great right now. How are you doing?

But it's the style in which we ask those things. It's so easy to say hi, how are you doing? But it's so much more impactful to really ask, hey, no, really, how are you doing? Is there anything I can do to help? I don't want to burden people with having to monitor everybody's stress, but we all know that we're under stress right now. So we can all do more to reach out to those we care about, and say we legitimately want to help you and we want to reach out and be kind to you.

GOLODRYGA: And communication is key. You can forget we all live in one household, it's fine. But you don't always communicate when you're with each other 24/7. And so it really is important to ask those questions and wait for a meaningful response. Dr. Tyler Black, thank you, always insightful to hear from you.

BLACK: Thanks so much for having me.

GOLODRYGA: Part of the struggle during the pandemic for some people is paying rent and buying food. I'll talk live with someone who is working to make a difference. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blasting Republicans over the failure to come up with a new stimulus package. Negotiations between top Democrats and White House officials broke down last week, and today the speaker sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues criticizing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for adjourning his chamber without passing a bill.

She also said negotiations were, quote, "complicated by the complete disarray on the Republican side -- as President Trump contradicts his own negotiators and his own position."

And that failure is leaving millions of Americans in limbo, unable to afford basic necessities like food and even facing eviction. My next guest knows the struggle Americans face better than most. Va Lecia Adams Kellum is the President and CEO of Saint Joseph Center in southern California which helps underprivileged families with housing, food, and employment opportunities.

Va Lecia, thank you so much for coming on, and let me begin by thanking you and every one of your colleagues for what you do. It really is a Godsend to have people like you looking out for those who are in need this this country right now.

We have seen food drives nationwide. We're covering them daily. Cars lined up bumper to bumper to get food and school supplies to Americans. What are you seeing on the ground? And does it shock you in terms of the volume of people that need help?

VA LECIA ADAMS KELLUM, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ST. JOSEPH CENTER: Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. And we really are seeing families in distress. St. Joseph Center has been serving low- income and homeless individuals for over 40 years, but we are seeing record numbers of families lining up to get food. In fact, we saw at the height of the pandemic about a 70 percent increase in demand. So a number that really looks like about 570 before the pandemic and now 870 or so family households lining up for food, desperate for help.

GOLODRYGA: So what more needs to be done? How can Americans -- we are the most generous country in the world. For those viewers now who want to help, what is the best way to do that?

KELLUM: I think we really need to educate ourselves and understand that so many families were struggling even before the pandemic. And we understand that about 23 million renter households would be at risk of being evicted once the moratorium ends. For California, that's about a million family households, and almost half of those would be children.

In L.A. County, it's about 365,000 rental household, and about 184,000 kids could become homeless. So we need to be educated around the vulnerability of families, even running up to this terrible time that we're in. And now they're going to be the most hit. They'll often be reaching out for families to help, assistance from community centers. Agencies like St. Joseph Center will be there, but resources are stretched. We're talking about tsunami levels of hurt and despair.

GOLODRYGA: And now you've seen --

KELLUM: And I guess, to your point about what -- I'm sorry, and to your point about what people can do, we need to speak up. We need to be reaching out to our local officials to demand that there's an extension of these rent relief programs. I'm really proud of our local officials in L.A. that we do have some rent relief programs, families who've had a layoff due to COVID-19.

But there's just not enough money to reach the demand that we know we're going to see if the moratorium is lifted.

GOLODRYGA: And of course, everything that you're doing is just a temporary stopgap until Washington comes up with a longer, more permanent solution. What are you hearing from folks there that need this assistance when they see that Congressmembers go home, and there's no plan, and who knows when a plan may come together and when they will get the next assistance check?

[14:40:00] KELLUM: Families are desperate. There's a lot of anxiety. And as we see children going back to school, families are stretched more than ever. This is something that vulnerable families have faced for a long time, with systemic racism in our country and so many people out of work or unable to meet the rent even before this tough time. They're just very desperate and very frightened.

GOLODRYGA: Well, Va Lecia Adam Kellum, thank you so much for everything that you continue to do, and let's hope that all of those people that you're assisting finally get the need that they need and support that they need, especially from Washington. We appreciate it.

KELLUM: Thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Some American troops and their families are starting a new tour of duty in quarantine. We'll explain why and show you how they're coping coming up next. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:00]

GOLODRYGA: We want to bring you some news just in to CNN. The U.S. says it will send $30 million in additional funds to help the city of Beirut following last week's massive deadly blast. The U.S. has already pledged $18 million worth of food, medicine, and other essential relief. At least 160 people died when a facility storing ammonium nitrate exploded in the city's port. Lebanon's government resigned after days of outrage and protests following the blast.

And U.S. troops arriving in South Korea faced two weeks of quarantine as soon as they hit the ground, and for good reason. CNN's Paula Hancocks has an exclusive look at how the U.S. military is tackling the coronavirus threat on foreign soil.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Keeping fit with a five-month-old baby is a challenge. Working out when your whole family is in isolation with coronavirus is something else. Sarah and Lincoln Hemjum, their infant and one of their six-year-old twins tested positive shortly after arriving in South Korea from the United States. They are among thousands of military personnel switching in and out of the country this summer.

MAJ. LINCOLN HENJUM, U.S. FORCES, KOREA: My wife has a little bit of chest congestion, so she's coughing a little bit. Myself, I just have a weird sense of taste. So everything I eat or drink tastes like burnt bread.

HANCOCKS: They're all staying in two rooms in a special isolation facility on base, along with the family dog.

HENJUM: So that's my son's bed here. All the beds are twins. And then there's my bed over here.

HANCOCKS: How are you children coping? How are you keeping them busy?

HENJUM: We do get one hour of outside time between 3:00 and 4:00. We play kickball, we play some tag, we walk the dog a little bit.

HANCOCKS: Not the best start to a new posting, but not unusual either. U.S. forces in Korea say of 152 positive cases, the vast majority have been incoming personnel since June when the Pentagon started to lift transfer and travel restrictions.

The U.S. military in Japan is facing a similar challenge.

COL. LEE PETERS, U.S. FORCES KOREA SPOKESPERSON: When they come here, we can't control what happened where they were at. We can control upon their arrival here.

HANCOCKS: The U.S. military insists once the personnel land they enter and remain in a bubble.

COL. MICHAEL TREMBLAY, COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY GARRISON HUMPHREYS: Depart the direct bus right from the airport. We're going to walk into the reception center. Wash their hands. After they signed in, so we make a clear accountability of everyone we have here.

HANCOCKS: After a short briefing, they have their first coronavirus test.

DR. ANDREW OH, MEDICAL DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY COMMAND KOREA: They sit down like this soldier is doing, fills this out. And then we're preparing to do a laboratory sample which is behind you.

HANCOCKS: From there, straight into special quarantine quarters for 14 days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody is exempt. From the private to a three-star general, everybody goes through the quarantine process.

HANCOCKS: Everyone is allowed 90 minutes a day outside so long as they social distance. Colonel Peters says the second test before being released from quarantine is key. A fifth of those who tested positive then had no symptoms at all. But USFK says they haven't had a single local transmission case in more than three months. All cases have been imported.

For the Hemjum family, all they can do now is play games, watch television, work out, and wait for recovery.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Pyeongtaek, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: At least that family has been making the most of it, working out together.

Coming up ahead, explosive fires burning right now across several western states, and the record heat, well, it's definitely not helping. We're live coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:50]

GOLODRYGA: Officials in California are searching for a man they believe started a wildfire in Los Angeles County. Osmin Palencia is wanted in connection with the Ranch 2 fire which has already burned 2,500 acres. The fire is one of several raging across the west, and fires have already burned over 100,000 acres in California, Oregon, and Colorado.

The Lake Fire in northern Los Angeles county has scorched over 17,000 acres and destroyed 21 structures. In Oregon, 565 homes have been evacuated as firefighters work to contain a 1,000-acre blast near Mosier Creek. Meanwhile, in Colorado, parts of Highway 70 are closed as firefighters battle the Grizzly Creek Fire. The blaze has burned 13,000 acres and is zero percent contained. Colorado Governor Jared Polis called it the top fire priority in the country.

The weekend is unlikely to bring relief for firefighters battling the blazes across the west. Over 80 million people are under excessive heat warnings this weekend, stretching from California to Texas. CNN's Allison Chinchar is with us. And Allison, what kind of temperatures should people out west be prepared for?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, so in the desert southwest you have a lot of places that are going to reach the triple digits. And while that may seem normal to you, we also have other places, Portland, Oregon, for example, may even reach triple digit temperatures. That is not normal that far north. Even Seattle likely getting into the low to mid 90s this weekend.

But the heat isn't just a problem for normal people who want to do some activities. The other concern are the firefighters. Remember, they're in full gear right now trying to battle those blazes, and you've got incredibly hot temperatures on top of it. Some of the fires we've talked about, the Ranch 2 Fire still only about three percent contained, the Lake Fire only about 12 percent contained.

Keep in mind, though, the Lake Fire is especially concerning because of how quickly it grew. At one point it was consuming 66 acres per minute. It basically went from 50 to 10,000 acres in just two-and-a- half hours. That's the equivalent of burning an entire football field every second.

Again, one of the main contributing factors have been the lack of rain in a lot of these areas. Los Angeles hasn't picked up rain in 88 days. Las Vegas, it's been over 100 days since they've had measurable rain there at the airport.

[14:55:09]

In addition to that, you have the incredibly hot temperatures, Bianna. And, again, it's not just California. It's not just Arizona. This stretches all the way over towards Texas, Louisiana, and even Colorado as well. GOLODRYGA: Those firefighters could desperately need some help from

Mother Nature. Allison, thank you so much.

And thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Bianna Golodyrga. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Ana Cabrera after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)