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Mayor Walt Maddox (D) Of Tuscaloosa Discusses Crowded Bars, People Gathering With No Masks, No Social Distancing & Tuscaloosa Football Season; Teacher Goes To Extremes To Protect Son Who Is Battling Cancer; Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) Discusses CNN Poll Showing Tightening Race Between Trump And Biden, Postmaster General Agreeing To Testify Before Congress, Democrats Asking For FBI Investigation; Sharon Stone Blames Anti-Maskers For Sister's Hospitalization. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 17, 2020 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:00:00]

MAYOR WALT MADDOX (D), TUSCALOOSA, AL: If we want to protect the regional health center and we want to have fall, we've got to do our part by wearing a mask and by social distancing.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes. I guess school starts Wednesday. I'm not sure if -- in classrooms, do they -- do students have to wear masks?

MADDOX: Yes. When they do, there's a modified schedule, but students are required to wear in class.

The university has really gone above and beyond when it comes to the safety of the students and the community.

But unfortunately, Anderson -- and you see this across the nation -- you've got 5 percent or 10 percent who have determined that this is a hoax or not real or not a threat to my health or the health of others.

And I tell all of those people, put that aside. We can have that debate later.

But if we want to protect our health care system and we want to have our economy rolling in the fall and, most importantly, here in Tuscaloosa, have football, then do the right thing, wear a mask, social distance. And we can have the political arguments down the line.

COOPER: What about the football season? It is important to fans and the local economy.

MADDOX: We have got to have it. Football is a $200 million impact on the city of Tuscaloosa. And that's --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Really? That's much?

MADDOX: That's it. A direct economic impact is $200 million. You can only imagine the indirect. So it is important to us.

Not only do we have 100,000 in the stadium, but we normally have another 30,000 or 40,000 outside the stadium.

So we know that's not going to happen even under the best of cases this year -- circumstances this year. But even a modified fall can help us get through the economy.

But I do want to point this out, is when we talk about the economy, people somehow think it's mutually exclusive of protecting our health care system. Our first and foremost priority is protecting our health care system. If we can do that by wearing a mask and social distance, we have a better shot at having some sort of fall that resembles what we've seen in the past.

COOPER: It's not an easy time to be mayor. I appreciate your time. I know how busy you are.

Mayor Maddox, thank you very much.

MADDOX: Thank you for having me.

COOPER: Schools reopen in several states. I speak with a teacher who is going to extremes to protect her son who is battling cancer.

Plus, the race between the president and Joe Biden appears to tighten as the Democrats kick off their convention tonight. The Biden campaign will join me to respond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:01]

COOPER: In Arkansas, a teacher, who also happens to be the mother of a young child with cancer, is going to extreme measures to protect her son and students.

And 7-year-old Hayden Spilman has cancer. In his young life, he's already had 56 chemotherapy sessions and 16 surgeries. He's a very strong little boy. He's the definition of at-risk when it comes to the coronavirus.

To protect her son, Ali Spilman, who is an elementary school teacher, wears a lab coat, a shield, a double mask at school.

At home, she is apart from her husband and three kids. She eats separately. Spends her time in the home apart from her family in the master bedroom.

With me now to share their story is Ali Spilman, and her husband, Zach.

Thank you for joining us both of you.

Zach, let's get an update on your son, your 7-year-old son. How's he doing? ZACH SPILMAN, HAS A SON WHO IS BATTLING CANCER: You know, right now,

he's doing great. We are in a phase of cancer treatment of maintenance so we are in remission right now.

And what we're doing is we're taking regular chemotherapy just to make sure that we don't have the cancer come back.

We just found out on Thursday that they found an abnormal cell. We don't know what that means yet.

So we're -- we're positive. And we are looking forward to doing our best to fight our best fight and to do our best to keep him safe.

COOPER: Ali, as we talked about you have undertaken drastic measures. This is tough for everybody. But for you to be separate is heart breaking.

You have reached out to the governor to see if there's a National Guard location can be set up to help people in your situation. What would you like to see happen?

ALI SPILMAN, TEACHER WHO IS GOING TO EXTREMES TO PROTECT HER SON WHO IS BATTLING CANCER: Well, you know, I would love a place where people could convalesce away from family members, especially if they have high-risk family members.

We have been very blessed to have someone offer their mother-in-law home that's on their property but away from them. So not everybody has that.

So optimally, especially with the community spread is and opening up schools, I think that would be a wise choice.

COOPER: So I know you'd also reached out to anybody from the area for an extra camper or something. You're looking for a place so you can stay separate? Is that what it is?

ALI SPILMAN: Yes. So, basically, you know, COVID is very contagious. And Hayden has only part of a functioning immune system right now. And if I'm symptomatic, I would be tested, not come home and go straight to the location we have had offered to us.

And until three days, four days before I was supposed to report for professional development, we didn't have a plan in place. And it was a very big stress for us trying to figure out how to make that happen.

[13:39:59]

COOPER: Zach, you chosen to stay at home to care for the kids while your wife is teaching at school. How are you and your kids coping?

Z. SPILMAN: You know, it is a challenge. And really, it's doubly stressful right now because this, sadly, is life as normal for a family like ours.

There's several things to deal with in this country, from the challenges of social distancing and working from home and doing education at home.

We have been doing a lot of these things for about two and a half years because of Hayden's situation with being so compromised. Early on, he had as little as 8 percent of a functioning immune system.

We were going through the same things that other families in America are with COVID but doing it with a child that is drastically more at risk.

And so, for us, we feel incredibly stressed and worried, just like everyone. But that's also why I think we have had to take some of the extraordinary measures we have done to keep safe.

And at the same time, as parents, from the very beginning, we have made a commitment to each other and to our family to be positive.

And so what can we do to frame this as an adventure and something that's a challenge and something that is a fun way that we, as a family, can do a lot of the normal things we like to do, and make school and make things happen.

And so far, we have been fortunate that our kids are just so resilient. And they're being brave. And Hayden, in particular, is has been so courageous through the process.

COOPER: Ali, a lot of parents are wondering, how do you care for your kids and going to work. Some people have to sacrifice work.

Do you have virtual teaching? Was that an option? Did you think about not teaching anymore? Or was that not possible?

ALI SPILMAN: Well, you know, with Zach home already, I'm the one who's bringing in the income so I couldn't do that.

And our district was very generous with offering up a leave but unpaid. And then we would have had to have some insurance changes.

And whenever you go through things medically like we are, you have to be careful with how you rearrange those things. Because the system for our family financially is pretty fragile. And we just have to keep things kind of in line. So it just wasn't an option.

As far as virtual teaching, there are positions in the district. But since I'm an art educator, it is a little different. And since I'm not a classroom teacher, there wasn't really an opportunity there.

COOPER: Ali, when I see all that you are as a family going through -- and so many are going through -- it seems like such a small thing that the rest of us can do of wearing masks to try to stop the spread.

It really bothers me that people feel like it doesn't affect me, so I don't have to wear a mask.

What's your message to others out there when it comes to wearing a mask or social distancing? ALI SPILMAN: Anderson, I think wearing a mask is the least you can do.

It's uncomfortable. I have taught in one, whenever Hayden was in the most intense part of the treatment. And it is not easy.

But when come push to shove, it is life. And our little boy and others like him have the chance to live a -- make the journey and have successful treatment and live on into older years.

I think you have the mindset of a community instead of individualism. I think that America has gotten like we have that individual mindset. Even me, as an artist and art teacher, I have that mindset.

But we have to remember we are a community. So whatever choices you're making, please do consider the community whenever you're doing them.

COOPER: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

Z. SPILMAN: The people, the country, they just don't realize how much families like yours needs theirs in order to be successful.

COOPER: That's such an important point.

And I appreciate you coming on and talking. I'm sorry for what your family is going through. And I'm glad you're all together and have each other. And we wish you the best. And just stay strong. You are incredibly strong and brave, all of you.

Thank you.

Z. SPILMAN: Thank you.

ALI SPILMAN: Thank you, Anderson.

COOPER: New CNN polls show a tightening race between President Trump and Joe Biden. I'll talk to a Biden campaign co-chair with their reaction.

[13:44:41]

Plus, efforts to get a vaccine on the market could see delays because there aren't enough black and Latino participants to join the trials. More on that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, a Democratic National Convention like history has never seen. The event almost entirely online.

It will feature big names in the party, all the biggest names really, all giving speeches remotely across the country, leading up to Joe Biden's Thursday's speech from Delaware.

Some of tonight's speakers, Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders and Republican John Kasich. This, as a new CNN poll shows a tightening race. Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump has significantly narrowed since June according to this poll, with 50 percent of registered voters backing the Biden/Harris ticket, while 46 percent say they support Trump and Pence. In June, Biden had a 14-point lead over President Trump.

Overall, this CNN poll of poll finds a bigger national lead for Biden. And 51 percent are backing him while 42 percent support Trump.

I want to talk about it with Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond, of Louisiana. He's a Biden campaign co-chair.

[13:50:02]

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

I want to get your reaction to this new CNN poll showing a tightening of the race. Why do you think it is, if it's accurate?

REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D-LA) & JOE BIDEN CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR: If it's accurate, Anderson, I think it just shows the ebb and flow of a race.

But other -- three of the four polls that came out, instead of being four points, the other two had 10 points and then the last one had nine points.

It very well may be this one is an outlier. But if not, it's the normal ebb and flow of a presidential campaign.

COOPER: I want to turn to the postal service. We just learned that the postmaster general has agreed to testify before Congress. Congressmen Ted Lieu and Hakeem Jeffries had written a letter to the FBI director, Chris Wray, asking for an investigation into Louis DeJoy.

Do you think the FBI should investigate? And what, if anything, is the potential crime?

RICHMOND: Well, absolutely, I think they should investigate.

One, a potential crime could be tampering with a federal election.

Two, it is causing havoc for our constituents right now, who depend on merchandise, depend on medicine, depend on money.

And so what we have seen is that this postmaster is removing mailboxes from communities. He's actually removing sorting machines from the post office.

And it used to be that our fabulous mail carriers would work until all the mail is delivered. And now it seems that there's some instruction that, hey, when it hits this time, just come on back in.

The difference is the United States Postal Service was never created to be a profit center. It was created to provide a service, an essential service to the American people. And that's its constitutional duty. And we want to make sure it's protected. It is a bedrock of the United States of America and our diplomacy.

COOPER: At a recent hearing, you went after the attorney general, Bill Barr, over his department's lack of black staff. And told him to keep John Lewis' name out of the Department of Justice's month.

I wonder what you think Congressman Lewis would have to say about it.

RICHMOND: He would say we have to get in good trouble and need to raise attention to this issue.

And John was far more, you know, dignified in his responses and believed in nonviolence and would make sure he always took the high road.

My problem with the attorney general, he came in to praise John Lewis while he gutted all of John Lewis' work for the last 50 or 60 years.

And that's just more of the same with this administration, is that they're just hypocritical. They say one thing and they do another.

So I'm sure that John Lewis today would be doing what he did his entire life for 65 years of that 85-year life. which is to be on the battlefield for justice and what is right.

And funding the post office and fighting against what they're doing to it is what's right.

COOPER: Just yesterday, President Trump shared a tweet that criticized Democrat cities where -- there's a, quote, "Democrat cities where violence is surging," and called for them to be left to rot.

I'm wondering what your reaction to that was for the president of the United States to say stuff like that.

RICHMOND: Well, you know, there's nothing that comes out of this president's mouth that amazes me. In the words of General Honore, he's stuck on stupid.

The real question: What are we going to do, as a country, to unite and to continue progress.

I think that in terms of uniting the country, Biden has 49 percent of the people's faith that he can unite the country. Trump has somewhere in the 20s. So it's very clear.

That's why, tonight, our theme is we, the people, that's what we believe in as a Biden/Harris team, as a Democratic Party, that we want a more perfect union.

Donald Trump is not necessarily anti-Democrat. He's anti-Democrat and he's anti-Republican. He's anti-anybody whose last name is not Trump.

So when he turns his back on American cities or when McConnell says let states and local governments go bankrupt instead of helping them with the pandemic, that's them letting the American people know what they think about them, black, white, rich, poor, rural, urban.

They don't care about the American people. They just care about themselves.

COOPER: Congressman Cedric Richmond, I appreciate your time. Thanks very much.

RICHMOND: Thank you for having me.

COOPER: President Trump is entering a new phase of pushing so-called cures for the coronavirus. This time he is, quote, "looking into," end quote, a plant extract touted by the CEO of MyPillow that, in its raw form, is not only toxic but can be fatal. And there's no actual peer- review studies that proves it works.

[13:54:54]

Actress Sharon Stone with a frank message to anti-maskers about how COVID-19 has ravaged her family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Actress Sharon Stone taking to Instagram to reveal her sister, who's already suffering with lupus, has been diagnosed with coronavirus. Stone was very clear about who she blames.

Here's CNN's Chloe Melas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Anderson, Sharon Stone is sharing her sister Kelly's experience with coronavirus and says those who aren't wearing masks are to blame.

[13:59:59]

In an Instagram post over the weekend, Stone shared a photo of her sister's hospital room with the caption, "This is her hospital room. One of you non-mask wearers did this."