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Virtual Democratic Convention To Kick Off As Trump Tries To Distract; Georgia Governor Says Cities Can Mandate Masks, But With Several Limitations; NCAA Medical Adviser Says We Are Not Ready To Open Fall Sports. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 16, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: No big crowds, but the list of speakers include former Presidents Clinton and Obama, and on Thursday, Joe Biden makes it official when he accepts the Democratic nomination for President, a personal triumph for him more than 30 years after he first ran for President.

But there will be counter programming that same day when President Trump travels to the area of Scranton, Pennsylvania, that's Biden's hometown to assail him as a failure, and the distractions don't stop there.

The President is already claiming that November's election will be so fraudulent and full of problems that the results won't be reliable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are going to have an election that takes place on a beautiful day, November 3rd, and usually at the end of the evening, they say Donald Trump has won the election. Donald Trump is your new President. Whatever they say, you know what, you're not going to know this possibly, if you really did it right, for months or for years because these ballots are all going to be lost, they are going to be gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: To be clear, there is no evidence that an election held largely by mail-in votes will be fraudulent and CNN's Jake Tapper reminded the White House Chief of Staff of that this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud though.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Either way -- that is not --

TAPPER: But there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud --

MEADOWS: There is no evidence that there is not either. That is the definition of fraud, Jake. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let me get CNN's Kristen Holmes in here. She is near the President's golf result where he is spending the weekend. Kristen, the President's Chief of Staff there hanging on to this notion that mail- in voting won't produce clear results. The President claiming months and years for all of the votes to finally be counted.

What is the reality and how are Democrats working to counter that drumbeat from the White House?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, I think that we need to break this down even further because basing this on viewer e- mails, I think there is a little bit of confusion here.

These are two separate things that all fall under the same umbrella. On one hand, you have this idea of widespread fraud in mail-in voting. That is just simply not true. There is no evidence of that.

On the other hand, just because you say that, just because you say there is no evidence, does not mean that there aren't concerns about mail-in voting. We have spent the last week discussing some of those concerns.

What we're seeing within the Postal Service right now run by the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor and ally. Now, I want to show you some of the things here that have been done in the last week or two that have people concerned.

Almost 700 high volume mail processing machines being removed. Now, Mark Meadows said that process is going to stop. The Postal Service confirmed that to us, though we already know several of these machines have been dismantled.

You have removal of some letter collection boxes. You have mail arriving late to facilities that won't being delivered or sorted. You have most overtime for Postal workers not being permitted, meaning that when their shift is over, they just stop delivering the mail. I mean, the mail is going back and piling up.

And lastly, you have Post Offices that are operating on hours -- they are forced to close early or midday. This is raising a lot of alarms about mail-in voting overall by Democrats and Republicans who are looking at this and saying, this is causing delays.

Postal Service workers have complained that this is actually causing serious problems that could impact the election in 2020. So, that is the playing field right now.

The big question is how do we move forward from it that? How do Democratic and Republicans get on the same page? And it is all about the funding now. How can the Postal Service get that funding because Democrats believe that this is all connected and that Republicans are purposely trying to sabotage the election?

Republicans say, well, this was already planned. We were already going to remove some of these devices, these boxes, these sorting machines. But the big question is of course, why would they do it just 80 days before the election that we know is going to have an unprecedented amount of mail-in voters.

So Democrats have proposed billions and billions of dollars for a stimulus for the Postal Service in order to get them up and running for the election.

President Trump said on numerous occasions that he was not going to support that. It was a nonstarter. But now Mark Meadows is coming to the table and he is saying, there is a possibility of a standalone bill that would just focus on this funding. Now, we sit back and we wait to see how exactly they execute this -- Ana.

CABRERA: Okay, Kristen Holmes, we will be watching and waiting anxiously. Thank you.

Call it an unconventional convention. Tomorrow, the Democratic National Convention begins and as we mentioned, this year it will look dramatically different than years past.

In this age of COVID, speakers and delegates will be participating virtually. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is set to accept the party's nomination from his hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, and CNN's Jessica Dean is there now.

So, Jessica, what can we expect to see?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this will be very, very different, Ana, than conventions past as you were explaining as the Democrats seek to make this fun and exciting and engaging as it moves entirely virtual and we're getting an idea of what that actually means and how that actually might look over the next few days starting tomorrow.

[15:05:20]

DEAN: A source telling me that as of right now, there are four stages that will be set up across America: one in New York, one in Los Angeles, Milwaukee which was the original site of the full convention and then here in Wilmington, Delaware.

There will be emcees during the evening. Remember, it is only two hours of programming at night as opposed to the typical four hours of primetime programming that these conventions would typically be. So we're expecting shorter speeches.

And emcees that will carry kind of the programming through the night, I'm told, they will primarily be broadcasting from that Los Angeles location. Then there are going to be live speakers sprinkled all across the country. They will be giving remarks from various historic sites, I'm told that these sites will be kind of thematically tied in with what they are talking about.

And then, we also note that there have been video kits sent to people all across the country that allow them with cameras and setups to set up essentially a virtual studio in their home, and that those people will be used for the roll call, remember we typically hear from each state, they do the big roll call with all the delegates, this will all be done virtually with 57 locations across the country. So imagine the technical prowess it is going to take to pull that off.

And then also reaction shots. I'm told that there will be a production truck here in Wilmington where they will be monitoring hundreds of live feeds coming in from people's living rooms in these locations all across the country.

They will be looking for reaction shots that they can then take live as if you were in a convention hall, as if you were at a sporting event, something like that and just to give you an idea of how fluid all of this has been because of the pandemic, and because they were going to be in Milwaukee then they decided that Joe Biden would not be traveling to Milwaukee that no delegates would be traveling there, these trucks, the production trucks were actually en route to Wisconsin last week and were turned around and told to come here to Wilmington, Delaware where they are setting up.

We also are getting an idea of who is going to be speaking. We have got the speaking schedule spread out, again, Monday through Thursday.

On Monday, the Democrats seeking to project a message of unity and if you look at who is speaking on Monday, you will notice they are very much across the spectrum, Ana. It goes from Bernie Sanders, Michelle Obama, John Kasich, Republican governor who ran for the Republican nomination back in 2016. So that gives you a peek into what we're expecting as this convention kicks off tomorrow -- Ana.

CABRERA: Okay. Lots of good details there. Thank you, Jessica Dean.

My next guest has been added to the speaker list at the D.N.C. after originally being left out. Joining us now is former Democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang.

Andrew, you initially weren't on the schedule to speak, and you put out a tweet saying you were kind of surprised by that; now you are speaking, so how did this come about?

ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The Power of the Yang Gang. I can't I was going to be on the list anyway, Ana. They released a preliminary list. I wasn't on it. And I'm grateful to all the people who expressed that I should be there, and I am thrilled even more to be addressing the American people as part of the D.N.C. Convention on Thursday night, the night that Joe is going to accept the nomination.

So thank you to everyone who let the D.N.C. know, but the D.N.C. it seemed like I was going to be on the docket in no time anyway.

CABRERA: You obviously ran a competitive campaign. You attracted a large following, as you mentioned, on your key platform of universal basic income.

Beyond that though is the diversity issue, and Congressman Ted Lieu pointed out the lack of Asian-American speakers at the D.N.C. before you were announced. He called it a slap in the face, do you agree?

YANG: I'm very proud to be the first Asian-American man to run for President as a Democrat, and I met people around the country that were inspired by my candidacy.

Having someone from different communities on that big stage at the D.N.C. National Convention or the presidential debates, I think is very important because people see themselves in the candidates, and the fact that an Asian-American was on that debate stage, I think led many Asian-Americans to think that we need to get more involved in our politics, to run for office, to vote, to donate and to make our voices heard.

CABRERA: On that same issue, Senator Kamala Harris, now the first black and Asian-American woman on a presidential ticket. How does that make you feel?

YANG: I feel great about it. Just like the vast majority of Americans are excited about Kamala being added to the ticket. I saw a poll that said that her approval ratings are through the roof and it is one advantage to Joe selecting someone who has already been in the presidential race and in the public eye for these last number of months.

But it is a thrill to see her break new ground as both a woman of color, a black woman, and an Asian-American woman who is going to be our next Vice President.

[15:10:07]

CABRERA: And yet it has exposed the dark underbelly of parts of our society because since the announcement, birtherism has returned.

An article in "Newsweek" questioning Harris's eligibility because of her immigrant parents. The President wouldn't denounce this or say that he believed Harris is eligible.

I mean, just to be clear, the facts are the facts and she was born in California, so clearly she is an American citizen. He did say though he will not pursue this, this birtherism theory. Can you can believe though that this is happening again?

YANG: Well, he's got a very tired playbook, Ana, and he is losing. And so he is going back to the things that helped bring him some degree of success, but it is not working because the American people are focused on what is happening to our country today.

The fact that the coronavirus crisis has led us to lose tens of millions of jobs, the fact that parents like me and Evelyn aren't sure whether our children's schools are going to open in the next number of days, those are things that the American people care good and the fact that Trump is trying to divert the American people's attention is one reason why he is set to lose very badly to Joe and Kamala in just, at this point, less than three months.

CABRERA: You sound like you are part of Team Biden and I know you told Yahoo! Last month you had been in talks with the team -- with Biden's camp about a position in the administration if he wins the election. What role are you thinking?

YANG: I ran for President on a set of issues that I am very passionate about, unfortunately those issues are more front and center today than they were even when I was running.

This pandemic has accelerated many of the trends that I was most concerned about, and if I have a chance to work where Joe and Kamala to help address these concerns, Ana, I am going to be one of the first on board for sure.

And in terms of the capacity, the actual position, there are a lot of things that I think I could help with, but ultimately that would be up to Joe and Kamala.

CABRERA: But if you could pick your role, what would it be?

YANG: Well, I'm passionate about the fact that America is falling behind in terms of figuring out how technology is impacting our lives. Everything from our democracy to the mental health of our children to the fact that our data is now getting sold and resold for hundreds of billions a year and we're not seeing a dime.

So if there is a role that helps face some of these issues and helps speed up our government, that would be something I'd be very interested in.

CABRERA: So in the Obama administration, you were the presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship and again, your whole campaign was related to the economy. So do you perhaps have your eye on a Labor or Treasury role?

YANG: We all know that I ran for President on this idea of universal basic income and a poll just came out that said a majority of Americans now support universal basic income and 74 percent support cash relief during this crisis. Anything we can do to get more buying power into the hands of the American people is going to be a huge win for the economy and for families and our communities.

And I am thrilled that Kamala is one of the leaders in proposing cash relief as a senator.

CABRERA: But CNN is learning just last night that Democrats are now considering returning to Capitol Hill to address the recent changes at the U.S. Postal service that could impact the election, when more people, of course are going to be voting by Mail. Do you have confidence right now this election will be free and fair?

YANG: I wish I had greater confidence, Ana, just like millions of Americans who are looking around saying, is this happening that a sitting President is literally trying to undermine the Postal Service and cast doubt on this race?

I'm confident that the American people will want to make a change in November. I think the margin of victory will be so great that the results will be clear, but we have to do everything we can to protect the integrity of our elections and that includes potentially bringing people back to D.C. to pass funding not just for American families and to keep our economy from tipping in to a depression.

But also making sure that our Postal Service and our postal workers have the resources they need to process our votes properly on November 3rd, or leading up to because mail-in obviously can take numbers of days and weeks ahead of time.

CABRERA: Right. And a lot of states in fact have to have the mail-in ballots or have them dropped off at least by Election Day. Andrew Yang, thank you as always for joining us and good luck on the speakers' stage this week at the D.N.C.

YANG: See you at the convention, Ana. It's going to be great.

CABRERA: I'll see you virtually, indeed. Thank you.

YANG: Virtually, of course.

CABRERA: Of course.

YANG: I talked with you in Milwaukee, but that was a while ago.

CABRERA: All right. See you later. My next story here is about the mask mandates, right? Because after months of not just resisting mask mandates, but actually suing those who tried to impose them, the Governor of Georgia just reversed course, kind of. Is it too late too little? Too little too late?

A live report from Georgia coming up next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:19:13]

CABRERA: In Georgia, coronavirus numbers are starting to trend in the right direction. Minutes ago, the state announcing its daily numbers reporting just over 1,800 new cases; and yesterday, officials said the new infection rate has declined 22 percent over the last two weeks.

But the pandemic has already taken the lives of more than 4,700 Georgians and infected more than 237,000 people in that state, and only now is the Governor reversing course at least partially on his opposition to mask mandates.

Natasha Chen joins us now. Natasha what can you tell us about this new order and why Governor Brian Kemp is reversing course now?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, Governor Kemp did say when he withdrew his lawsuit against the Atlanta Mayor and City Council that his new executive order would address some of these discrepancies between local and state rules especially when it comes to masks.

[15:20:05]

CHEN: I wouldn't say that this is a complete reversal here because there is still no mask mandate in Georgia even though the White House Coronavirus Taskforce on August 9th, that document shows that they felt Georgia is not doing enough, that a state mandate should be in place.

But there is no state mandate at this point. This executive order does, however, carve out situations in which local counties, local cities can create their own rules, and the circumstances underwhich they can enforce those rules.

The basic guideline is that a city like Atlanta can now have a mask mandate, but only on public property, and business owners can have their orders to enforce mask mandates as well, but the executive order specifically says that you cannot fine someone for violating that rule more than $50.00 and they must warned before such a fine.

Specifically, he can't enforce these mask mandates at polling places either, and State Farm Arena behind us, that's an early voting location. On their website, they recommend face coverings when they come to vote and said that they will hand them out to people who don't have masks. But now with this executive order, they can't enforce that.

Now, this has been a problem in schools where students have come back to class. Just today, we are learning that Creekview High School in Cherokee County outside of Atlanta will be temporarily suspending in- person learning through August 31st because the School District says there are more than 20 positive test cases now with 500 people in precautionary quarantine.

And that is an example where the School District doesn't require masks. We've asked the Governor why he hasn't specifically required masks in schools statewide. He says that that is a decision best left to local school leaders to make for their communities -- Ana.

CABRERA: Okay, Natasha Chen, thank you. And speaking of schools, as colleges try to decide whether to allow school sports to resume, a chilling comparison from a top infectious disease doctor.

Deciding to play fall sports is like being on the sinking Titanic and deciding what time the band should play, he says. That doctor join us next live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:39]

CABRERA: This past week, the PAC-12 and Big Ten conferences voted to postpone their upcoming college football seasons over concerns about coronavirus. Three of the other power five conferences are still planning on playing football this fall despite the dangers.

President Trump is one of the biggest supporters of college teams returning to the gridiron and this weekend, he once again pleaded for college football to play ball and downplayed the concerns for players' health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want college football to come back. These are strong, healthy, incredible people. These are people that want to play football very badly.

These are great athletes. These are not people that seem to be at all susceptible to this horrible disease, and they want to play football and we have great testing so you will be able to test.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Dr. Carlos del Rio joins us now. He is the Executive Associate Dean of Emory University School of Medicine at Grady Health and he is also a member of the NCAA Advisory Panel.

Doctor, the President says that football players are strong and healthy people implying they are at low risk when it comes to the coronavirus. That is not entirely true, right? Give us the facts.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN OF EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, GRADY HEALTH: Yes, the facts are that everybody is susceptible. Everybody can get infected. And true, younger people tend to do better. They tend not to get as sick, but do remember that people also have families and they also have coaches and they are older individuals they interact with.

If they get infected, they can infect somebody else who can then get very sick.

In addition to that, even young people can have serious complications of COVID-19 and one of those serious complications is what is called myocarditis, damage to the heart that could be lifelong.

And in my mind, even one case of myocarditis in a young person is way too many.

I am totally in favor of --I want to play football. I want to see football.

But if we wanted to see football, we need to control the pandemic and we need to do what we needed to do back in March and April.

If you look at the NCAA advisory panel, when we started talking about football in the fall, we were expecting that by now, the epidemic would be controlled, very much like it is in New York for example.

And if we had done that in the rest of the country, we would be ready to play football for sure.

CABRERA: The President though was echoing what we have now heard from his new advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas who is a radiologist, not an infectious disease expert. Here is what he has said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. SCOTT ATLAS, HOOVER INSTITUTION: I think we have to get a grip

here, look at the science. Understand who we are talking about here. There is not a lot of obese diabetic 78-year-olds playing football.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Does it worry you that this is the doctor who now has the President's ear?

DEL RIO: It totally worries me, because, you know, I don't know Dr. Atlas, but I did many years of training to become an infectious disease specialist and I personally consider it an insult that somebody who doesn't know infectious disease is giving infectious disease advice.

It simply is not respecting other person's training and I respect his training as a radiologist. I am not going to be telling him how to read an MRI, but he should not be giving infectious disease advice.

And the reality is, there may not be many 78-year-olds playing football, but unfortunately, many of these people playing football including many of the tackles, many of the centers, are actually overweight and they are actually at high risk of having complications from COVID.

CABRERA: You compare playing fall sports to being on this sinking Titanic and deciding what time the band should play while a couple of conferences have cancelled or postponed their fall sports, a number of conferences are moving forward, as we mentioned at the top. What is your biggest concern?

[15:30:17]

DEL RIO: Well, my biggest concern is that we're not controlling the epidemic in our country. We don't have a national plan. We're not serious about it.

I mean, by now, I would love to see a national mask mandate. I would love to see a way that is coordinated we can actually be doing testing nationally.

Right now, for example in the south, we don't have enough testing and in the north, there is too much testing capability. If there was national coordination, you can actually do testing and move it around as much as you need it too.

We just have not done a good job controlling the epidemic and now, we are talking about playing football.

We really need to be planning and talking about what is important. A thousand Americans are dying every day and if we keep on this trend, by December 1st, it is expected that we are going to have 300,000 people dead from this infection.

I'm a clinician. I am in the hospital. I am seeing patients all the time. I really am disappointed that we still continue to have people infected from coronavirus because we're not doing what we need to be doing. I see what is happening in other places, and quite frankly, it is all about leadership.

CABRERA: When it comes to sports, specifically, given where we are right now, the NBA and NHL, they have these bubbles which seem to be pretty effective so far as far as professional sports are concerned.

Do you think anything less than that is going to be successful?

DEL RIO: You know, I'm really impressed with what the NBA has done. I am really impressed with what the NFL is planning on doing. I think if you have a bubble, if you do testing and you do it appropriately, you can actually have a very safe season and do it well.

Yes, you cannot have fans in the stadium, but the NBA has virtual fans in the stadium, and yes, you have to keep people from going out because again, the biggest risk and we learned that from Major League Baseball, you know, the Marlins that got get infected did not get infected on the field, they got infected going to a party.

So it is really not what happens in the field only that's at risk, but it is what happens outside the field when you go to social events, when you go to parties.

And the reality is, I also worry about the locker rooms.

So the bubble concept that the NBA and NHL are playing, I think is probably the way to go, and the reality is, if we do that, we can actually have sports.

CABRERA: Well, here is hoping. Dr. Carlos del Rio, thank you very much.

DEL RIO: Delighted to be with you, Ana.

CABRERA: Still to come, we'll take you live to Belarus where an estimated 60,000 people have gathered in the capital of Minsk. They are protesting the recent elections there which the U.S. has said were not fair or free.

But first, here is CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans with your "Before the Bell" report -- Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. A temperature check on the health of the consumer.

This week, some of the biggest retailers deliver quarterly report cards to Wall Street. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Kohl's and TJX are among the companies reporting results.

It is a window into how much Americans are opening their wallets as the pandemic rages on. It is likely to be a mixed picture.

Stores like Walmart and Target have benefited from their essential status and their embrace of online shopping. Home Depot shares have climbed as demand booms for home improvement projects. But stores like Kohl's have struggled. Shares have lost half their

value this year.

Overall, second quarter corporate earnings have been better than expected and that has helped the market rally. The S&P 500 is within striking distance of a record high. If it closes at a new high this week, it will mark the official end of the shortest bear market in history.

In New York, I'm Christine Romans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:57]

CABRERA: I want to take you to Belarus now. Thousands of protesters pouring into the streets in opposition of the government. At issue, the re-election of the country's President, Alexander Lukashenko which they are calling rigged, and while this is happening, the embattled leader is organizing his own demonstration to rival these protests in hopes of shoring up some support after weeks of unrest there.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in the capital city and joins us now. So Fred, tell us what is going on there on the ground?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, I quite frankly think that this was an absolutely historic day in the history and possibly for the future of Belarus.

There are many people who are saying that today was by far the largest demonstration for the opposition that this country has ever seen and we were there today as it unfolded.

There were around, I would say, around a hundred thousand people who came out and the thing about it is that their message the whole time was absolutely peaceful. They are calling for new elections, they are calling for transparency. They are obviously calling for Alexander Lukashenko to step down.

But they are doing it in an absolutely nonviolent manner and they are still managing to get a lot of people out on the streets despite the fact of course that this is an extremely repressive state with an extremely repressive leader.

Now, one of the other things that happened is that Lukashenko himself also put on a demonstration, however, that demonstration first all of was much smaller and secondly, he apparently had to bus people in from other cities in Belarus to make that demonstration happen at all.

The opposition as you can hear and see is getting a lot of people here out into the streets. The vibe very positive. And people that we are speaking to are saying, of course, they are still concerned. They are still afraid to go out, but they feel that now is the time that they must speak up if they want to try and make change happen in their country -- Ana.

CABRERA: Okay. Thanks so much for being our eyes and ears on the ground there. Fred Pleitgen again in Belarus.

Now joining us is CNN national security analyst, Samantha Vinograd with our weekend presidential brief. Sam, what should the Trump administration consider doing perhaps this coming week in response to this unrest?

[15:35:02]

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Ana, double standards don't cut it when it comes to defending democracy.

If the administration's goals are to protect protesters and to push for free elections in Belarus, their strategy is hindered by their actions here at home.

Attacks on peaceful protesters in the United States, not to mention, the President's ongoing attacks against our own elections means that we have a major credibility deficit when it calls for -- when it comes to calling for democratic freedoms in Belarus.

Now, despite these realities, the administration could impose cost in the Lukashenko regime in the form of sanctions for example to try to change his cost/benefit calculation with respect to more violence against protesters.

The E.U. is also considering sanctions against Belarusian officials. Those may have more bite. The E.U. is Belarus's second largest trading partner.

It is worth noting that Lukashenko did appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for help. We don't know to which and what degree Russia is going to get involved in the ground, but that is a complicating factor. Not only because we all know that President Trump is not opposed to a trial for pushing back on Putin.

CABRERA: Let's talk more about the threats to America's democracy. Where are we with respect to election security this time around?

VINOGRAD: Well, from a foreign threat perspective, the Intelligence Community publicly acknowledged several foreign influence operations against our elections in varying scale and scope earlier this month.

Shortly thereafter, the National Security Adviser went on television and alleged that China as well as other countries are engaged in cyberattacks against critical election infrastructure, Secretary of State websites -- we haven't heard anything further to back that up, but we also haven't heard about any policy responses against the actors that are named in these recently disclosed threat streams.

That is really worrisome. The fact that this is now publicly available knowledge and it appears that the President is sitting on it really just empowers people like Putin. Bad actors have no reason to start stop what they are doing, absent direct action by the administration.

CABRERA: What would you say is America's biggest election security threat right now? VINOGRAD: Unfortunately, I say that President Trump may be the biggest

threat to our elections. In addition to failing to hold certain foreign actors accountable, in addition to make statements that arguably help certain foreign influence operations, President Trump and his appointees appear to be engaged in active measures targeting key election infrastructure, namely the U.S. Postal Service.

It is clear that the U.S. Postal Service is critical to allowing Americans to vote safely in November. A patriotic President would be doing everything possible to shore up the Postal Service.

Instead, there are serious allegations that the Postmaster General is taking measures that could delay the ability of Americans to votes by mail.

We have the President himself engaged in influence operations targeting the Postal Service and the President has said that he opposes more funding for the Postal Service because he wants to stop mail-in voting.

Instead of steps to protect our election infrastructure and to shore it up, the President is actively degrading it and for those reasons, President Trump represents a live multipronged threat to U.S. elections.

CABRERA: Samantha Vinograd, good too have you here. Thank you.

In today's "Represented," we set our sights high on the world's first certified armless pilot.

Jessica Cox, her limitless courage is inspiring women in aviation around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA COX, PILOT: Knowing that I'm doing this in an unmodified airplane just flying with my feet, it is the most incredible sense of freedom.

It is still a mystery as to why I was born without arms. As a child, I found myself very frustrated because everyone was telling me, "You can't do that because you don't have arms. You have a disability."

I have had some wonderful opportunities. I'm a Cuba Diver. I've surfed. I have a fourth degree black belt in American taekwondo.

The summer after my college graduation, I remember being approached by a fighter pilot, he asked me if I wanted to go flying. Losing contact with the ground was a terrifying thought to me.

I made the commitment after that first flight that I would do everything it takes to become a pilot.

Preparing for flying is as critical as flying the airplane as itself. You check the oil. You check the fuel quantities. Because once you are in the sky, you don't have any other choice but to fly that plane. It is a tremendous deal for me to be the first woman to fly an

airplane with just her feet and to be certified to do so. It has given me a vehicle to inspire people with disabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: An amazing woman there. CNN is exploring the past, the present and the future of women's rights here in the U.S. Be sure to tune in this coming Saturday to CNN's special report, "Women Represented: The 100-Year Battle for Equality," airing at 10:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.

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[15:49:53]

CABRERA: Welcome back. On tonight's brand new episode of "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA," W. Kamau Bell tackles a very difficult question -- what is America's debt for slavery?

Here is a preview.

[15:55:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the thing like, racism makes you illogical.

W. KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST, UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So like, all of a sudden, all of these concepts of law and morality that we understand every else when it comes to black folks, we're all like, "Oh, hell no." No. I don't get it.

BELL: It doesn't make sense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, money due.

BELL: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to pay you for something -- I never owned slaves. You didn't have to.

BELL: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me, if the government -- if you can inherit wealth, which we all understand, then you also inherit debt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: W. Kamau Bell joins us now from Oakland, California and Kamau, you chose to go to New Orleans for this episode. Why? Where does that city fit in this discussion about race and inequality in America? BELL: Well, you know, you could really go to any city here and talk

about America's debt to black people because you can see through the entire country, but New Orleans, there's such a love of the past and the buildings are there and they are really -- there's a lot of celebrating of the plantation culture and Antebellum South that you can see and sort of align from there to current day.

CABRERA: In this episode, you attempt to find a number for just how much money is owed to the black community, and you come away with a truly staggering figure, $19 trillion. So how did you get that number and why is it perhaps just the beginning?

BELL: Well, first of all, I didn't get that number. Remember, I dropped out of the college. Thomas Craemer who is a Professor at UConn did the math of saying, if you were enslaved from the time the slavery started, he had figured out how many people were enslaved approximately.

They didn't have 24 hours of freedom, so they paid them for 24 hours like 11 cents an hour through the end of the Emancipation Proclamation, and then he gave three percent interest and that ended up being $19.00 to $20.00, which sounds like a lot of money and it is, but it is also about one year of the GDP in this country.

CABRERA: And so why is it just the beginning?

BELL: Because that number just talks about what happened during slavery. That number doesn't talk about Jim Crow and reconstruction and lynching in the South. It doesn't talk about everything that followed that. So that's a very conservative number.

How it is executed is up to people who are smarter than me.

CABRERA: All right, well, not to mention just how the system currently works against people of color, and so there are ongoing trickle-down effects from what happened so many, many years, decades, centuries ago.

Reparations have obviously come up recently on the debate stage, in Congress over the past year or so. Do you think the U.S. is moving toward real action on this issue?

BELL: Well, you know, I just got a phone call yesterday from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. And if she is calling me, there must be some action happening.

So, I think that she is co-sponsoring H.R. 40. That bill has been a bill that they've tried to push forward for years. I think this next election will determine if we're really ready to take on this conversation, because I'm sure Sheila Jackson Lee who is close to Kamala Harris will be trying to forward that conversation.

CABRERA: What do you make of birtherism rising up again in this election this time when it comes to Kamala Harris being on the ticket with Joe Biden? BELL: I think so much of racism is institutional and structural, and

if you had black people in positions of power that birtherism debate wouldn't same the same way that it happened.

So if you look at the "Newsweek" article this week, from what I can see, the editors of the opinion section are white. The guy who wrote it was white. So what happens is they said, we didn't see this coming. That's because you don't have any black people in positions of power there who can speak up and say, this is racist.

So, I think the fact we even -- the fact that we had the birtherism conversation before is horrible, and the fact that there aren't enough black people in positions of power to prevent it this time is equally horrible.

CABRERA: W. Kamau Bell, always appreciate your conversations and your thoughts on this. Thank you.

BELL: Thank you.

CABRERA: Don't miss tonight's new episode of "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific here on CNN. We'll be right back.

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[15:58:46]

CABRERA: New York City continues to see a rise in violent crime. This weekend, the city reported 32 shootings in the span of 48 hours, Friday and Saturday. Forty three people were shot. The NYPD is yet to release data on the number of deaths.

Now, this weekend's violence brings the total number of shooting incidents this year to 888, that's nearly double what it was at this time last year.

And in Philadelphia last night, five people were shot after police responded to a call about a person with a gun. Officers arrived to find a gathering of nearly 200 people, several of whom opened fire at police, we are told. No officers were injured. The five victims were transported to the hospital in stable condition.

Have you seen this yet? A fire tornado swirling across the sky in Northern California. The firenado formed near the Loyalton Fire, this was on Saturday and fire tornadoes are caused by strong winds pulling rising heat into a vortex of smoke, fire and dirt.

The Loyalton Fire scorched now 20,000 acres, so far it's only five percent contained. It is one of several wildfires raging across the west right now, more than 100,000 acres have been burned across California, Oregon and Colorado.

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