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Postal Service Fight Brews as Democrats Hold Convention; Pelosi Will Call House Back into Session this Week; Mostly Virtual Democratic Convention Set to Kick Off; Trump Pushes Unproven Claims About Mail-In Voting; Arizona Sees Signs of Progress, Concern in Virus Fight; Latin America and the Caribbean Top 6 Million Cases; New Zealand Delays Election, Reports Nine New Cases; New COVID-19 Cases Spike in Some European Countries. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 17, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls on the House to return to Washington to deal with an escalating crisis over the U.S. Postal Service, accusing President Trump of a campaign to sabotage the election.

This as the Democratic National Convention kicks off today in a way never seen before virtually. More on what to expect in the week ahead.

And New Zealand postponed its general election for a month because of the pandemic. The details coming up.

Good to have you with us. Well, U.S. Democrats are heading into a party convention unlike any seen before while also preparing a political fight over the Postal Service. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling representatives back to Washington this week. They will ramp up their investigation into the new postmaster, a Trump fundraiser. The House will also consider legislation reversing changes made since January 1st.

Meantime the Postal Service now says it will delay removal of mailboxes. This after warning last month it might not be able to deliver some mail-in ballots in time. The stakes are high since many will vote by mail due to the pandemic.

President Donald Trump continued to sow doubts about mail-in voting this weekend saying it would be catastrophic and make the U.S. a laughingstock. And Democrats are prepping for a virtual convention this week. Still, a CNN poll finds Joe Biden's lead among registered voters is 5 percent lower now than in June.

Well, there is, of course, a lot to cover so we turn to CNN's Abby Phillip. She has more on the problems facing the U.S. Postal Service and the political fight that's raging. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Amid national outcry, the U.S. Postal Service appears to be backtracking on two moves that it had made in recent months as part of a major restructuring that had also led to significant delays in mail delivery all across the country. The Postal Service says it will no longer remove those blue mail drop boxes that you'll see in communities all across the United States. Those drop boxes were slated for removal because the Postal Service said some of them were in low usage. They will now no longer remove those Postal Service boxes between now and the election.

They are also keeping in place some of these massive pieces of equipment that were used to sort millions of pieces of mail all across the country. About 700 were slated for removal, destruction or redistribution in the Postal Service system. And amid outcry, they are saying they will leave those pieces of machinery where they are now and November.

At the same time, CNN has obtained internal documents that show that many of those pieces of machinery were already slated to be removed by this point, about 95 percent of them. So it's not clear whether or not this announcement will make a substantive difference.

Meantime, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was pressed this weekend about whether the White House would be willing to come to the table on the issue of funding the Postal Service. Take a listen.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: This Postal Service issue is one that everybody can come together on. Why not have a standalone bill? You seem to be suggesting you don't want to do that. You want part of a bigger package. Let me ask you about a broader --

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Don't -- don't get me wrong. I'm all about piecemeal. If we can a great on postal, let's do it. If we can agree on stimulus checks, let's do it.

PHILLIP: And that would be a reversal of the White House's position on this issue. Last week President Trump made it very clear he did not want to fund the Postal Service to the tune of $25 billion because he was concerned that that money would be used to help the Postal Service process millions of mail-in ballots.

Meantime over on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a major development says she will bring the House of Representatives back from recess by the end of this week to deal with the issue of the Postal Service. She's also calling on her members to have a day of action on Tuesday, urging them to go to postal offices in their district to bring attention to this issue.

Abby Phillip, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The national convention kicks off in a matter of hours, and the party has a lot on its plate. The pandemic, the recession, racism and civil unrest in the U.S. This week we will hear from many of the party's big names. Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders headline Monday's speeches.

[04:05:00]

Jessica Dean shows us what else to watch for.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The 2020 Democratic National Convention is set to kick off on Monday and this is going to be a convention unlike any convention we've seen as Democrats work around the pandemic and work to make sure everyone is socially distanced and safe as they also try to rev up the Democratic party and build support around Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

And we're getting some details on logistically how this might work. We're told first there are four different sets that they'll be using. Los Angeles, New York, Wilmington, Delaware, here in Wilmington, Delaware, where we're told that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will give their acceptance speeches, and then Milwaukee which is where the full convention was originally slated to take place.

In additions to that, there will be speakers all across America from different historic sites that will be giving their speeches, which we're told will be much shorter than we're used to seeing at these conventions. These will be more like 2 to 5 minutes. We're used to seeing maybe 10, 15 minutes from some of these speakers.

And then additionally to that, we're told broadcast kits have been sent out all across the country to delegates and different members of the party who will be able to set up those broadcast kits in their own living room. There will be a truck here in Wilmington, Delaware, that will be able to see those feeds from all of these people across America and be able to punch up reaction shots. They'll also use that for their roll call.

We are also told there will be an emcee and various emcees that will carry the programming. Because again remember, this is going to be like just a television broadcast. Typically a convention is broadcasting to both the room and TV. In this case they are simply broadcasting out to TV and then also across all the various online platforms.

We're also told that there will be a host of speakers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, starting with a real variety within the Democratic Party on Monday that includes Bernie Sanders, Michelle Obama and a former Republican governor John Kasich who actually ran for the Republican nomination back 2016. Now speaking at the Democratic National Convention. A lot to watch as we move into Monday.

Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: With me now from Los Angeles, political analyst Michael Genovese. Good to have you with us and a lot to cover of course. But let's starts with that latest CNN poll showing the Biden/Harris ticket only 4 percentage points ahead of the Trump/Pence ticket going into the DNC. Given the pandemic, high unemployment, the controversy surrounding the U.S. Postal Service, how surprised are you by how close this is right now?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: I think this looked like a close race from the very beginning. Now we're seeing long way away 11 weeks. And we won't really have a clearer picture until a few weeks after that two parties have their conventions. But in all likelihood, this will be another squeaker as it was four years ago.

And Donald Trump has to pass to victory. One, is basically a replay of the 2016 where he loses the popular vote -- this time by probably about 5 million, 4 million -- but wins the electoral vote.

The other way is if Republicans can be successful in voter suppression efforts, as they're trying. And if the mail-in ballot chaos continues and they don't resolve that before the election.

CHURCH: And let's look at that because with President Trump objecting to mail-in voting and even stopping USPS funding, there is concern the elderly and vulnerable won't have an opportunity to vote in the middle of this pandemic. Should the rest of us consider voting in person to ensure our ballots get counted?

GENOVESE: Well, I think this is the universal problem. It's not just the elderly or the infirmed. Who wants to go to a high school gym in the middle of a pandemic with a bunch of other people? This requires us to have some, you know, openly clear thinking and take some risks in terms of trying some new things. We need to open up the process and make voting longer. There's a lot of things we can do to make voting easier.

The problem is, the President is going to try to narrow the range of the vote. Democrats want to expand it and whoever wins that race, the race to open or close the amount of people voting, is going to win the presidency.

CHURCH: Of course, in just a matter of hours, the Democratic National Convention kicks off four days of virtual events. Michelle and Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Governor Andrew Cuomo and others will speak. And this will be very different, of course, to anything we've seen before due to this pandemic. But what are you expecting to see and hear and what are you watching for?

GENOVESE: Yes, it's not your father's convention. This is going to be a strange one. I've been to six party conventions, Democrats and Republicans. They tend to be partly Trump ring circus and partly big tent revival meeting. This is going to be much more tempered, much more moderate and much more controlled.

[04:10:00]

In the past we didn't know the nominee until we got to the convention. But since the era of primaries starting in the 70s, we knew ahead of time who the candidate was going to be. So the drama is gone. It's going to be more of a coronation than a contest. And big infomercials for both parties. And so, what I'm looking for is to see who can manage the process best and who can get their key points across best.

CHURCH: Yes, it's going to be a very different arena. Isn't it? And President Trump, meantime, intends to make a speech near Joe Biden's hometown on the same day the former Vice President accepts the Democratic nomination. What's Trump's strategy? And will it work, do you think?

GENOVESE: Well, he likes to do counter programming. He likes to do counter punching. Donald Trump always has to be the center of attention. And the cameras are going to be on Biden and the Democrats for these next few days. He's going to try to wrestle them away.

It's something like what Teddy Roosevelt's daughter said of her father. She said, her dad has to be the bride in every wedding, the corpse in every funeral, and the baby at every christening. That's Donald Trump. So his counter programming is going to try to get the spotlight on himself, tear down Biden, of course. It's the norm that he's going to bust. Normally the opposition party gives the other party a few days to just sort of make their case and not interfere. But Donald Trump is a norm buster and he's going to try and reclaim center stage. He may very well be able to do it.

CHURCH: We shall watch and see. Michael Genovese joining us live from Los Angeles. Thank you so very much.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And still to come, in just 18 days coronavirus deaths in the U.S. have jumped from 150,000 to 170,000. What the CDC is predicting about the case count in autumn.

Plus, New Zealand is delaying its election due to a new outbreak of COVID-19. We'll have that ahead.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Well, another blow to the United States and its battle against COVID-19. The virus has now claimed more than 170,000 American lives. But what's unsettling is how quickly the U.S. hit this new milestone. It comes just 18 days after the U.S. reported 150,000 fatalities. Over the weekend President Trump disagreed with an assessment by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who had warned the country could be headed for the worst fall ever from a public health perspective. He says the double threat of COVID-19 and seasonal flu could have a catastrophic impact on the U.S.

Well, once a spot, Arizona is seeing signs of progress in its fight against the coronavirus. The state's governor says the virus is spreading at a slower rate. But health officials warn of a few trends that have them concerned. CNN's Miguel Marquez reports from Phoenix.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So things here in Arizona seem to be improving by the day. The positivity rate is now at about 10 percent, perhaps a little lower right now. All that is good. One thing that officials say is not happening in Arizona is that the number of people getting tested is not rising, it's actually falling. That will make it very difficult for officials to know where breakout is, how big it is and then to track and trace that breakout as well.

Officials at ASU, Arizona State University believe that around 1 to 2 percent of the population in this state, it's about 150,000 people, or up to 150,000 people may carry the virus and not know it. So it's important to keep that testing up. And this is something we're seeing not only in Arizona but across the country.

The number of people getting tested is coming down as it's taking too long for results to come back. That it's not readily available at every sort of pharmacy or doctor. So it's very, very frustrating that they can't get the tests quickly, very easily and people just aren't doing it. That is now raising headaches for public health officials in Arizona and beyond.

We'll say one thing that we have seen just being here over the last month, this is anecdotal, but staying in hotels, eating at restaurants, is there was a great adherence to the mask control in Maricopa County and throughout the state. It does seem to be waning to some degree. People are getting more tired of wearing the masks. We see many more people without masks in hotels, in bars, in restaurants as we go about our daily lives.

So officials warning people across Arizona that they have to keep those mask orders on. They have to keep their foot on the gas as they say. Otherwise they risk a very big outbreak, a second wave just as the flu season arrives, just as the snowbirds' return, just as schools might start up and just as university students return to Arizona. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Thanks for that report. Well, nearly 300,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported worldwide in a 24-hour period over the weekend. And that is according to the World Health Organization. South Korea, France and New Zealand are among the countries seeing a new surge in cases. CNN's Kim Brunhuber has more now on how some countries are handling the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were family, not just photos on a wall, or numbers in a death toll. The Diaz family in Peru recently lost five members of its family to the coronavirus. A tragedy they say, it's difficult to bear.

They were family, not just photos on a well or numbers in a death toll. The Diaz family in Peru recently lost five members of its family to the coronavirus. A tragedy, they say, it's difficult to bear. It's something very shocking, one family member says, because not only my mother left, but also my grandparents, my uncles, but the recovery has been slow.

Their losses are just a snapshot of the sickness that's sweeping the globe. Over the weekend, the WHO reported a record number of new cases worldwide in the 24-hour period.

[04:20:00]

And in Latin America, COVID-19 cases have ticked up, passing the six million mark.

More than half of those infections are in Brazil. Experts say it hasn't reached the peak of its health crisis. But despite that, it reopened some of its iconic landmarks over the weekend, with masks required and limited admission.

The city of Seoul is tightening its social distancing measures to try to contain its worst outbreak of the virus since March. Officials say some clusters are linked to religious gatherings and warned there could be tough times ahead.

The situation is showing the early sign of another wave of epidemics, one official says. If we cannot control the virus spread properly, we will face a dangerous situation.

Cruise lines have been largely moored since the beginning of the pandemic, but as of Sunday, some Mediterranean cruise lines can sail again, carrying only European passengers with strict rules about excursions.

Italy is trying to stop travelers from bringing the virus back from holiday. It began testing people coming from popular tourist spots like Spain, Greece, Croatia, and Malta at airport checkpoints.

A more welcoming arrival in Frankfort, where a couple separated for months, since he's German and she's from Brazil, was finally able to reunite after Germany allowed unmarried partners from non-E.U. nations to enter the country.

It's just an incredible feeling, the man says. I'm going to see my darling again after six and a half months. A rare scene these days, where social distancing perhaps shouldn't be required.

Kim Brunhuber, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: New Zealand is delaying its election by four weeks due to a growing outbreak of COVID-19. The country has reported 9 new locally transmitted cases in just the last 24 hours.

CNN's Angus Watson is following the story from Sydney, Australia. He joins us now. Good to see you, Angus. So what is the latest on this new outbreak and of course, reaction to delaying the election? ANGUS WATSON, CNN, NEWSDESK PRODUCER: Well, Rosemary, Jacinda Ardern

have taken the extraordinary step in pushing back the election by four weeks, as you just said. That's not a decision that she would've made lightly, but the government there just does not think that it's safe enough to hold the vote with Auckland, its major city, its largest city, now in the grip of a new cluster of COVID-19. You'll remember that it wasn't too long ago that New Zealand was celebrating 100 days without a case of community transmission. Now the feeling that New Zealand is right back where it started trying to put out this spread. Here's what Jacinda Ardern said about that this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: Ultimately the 17th of October in approximately nine weeks' time provides sufficient time for parties to plan around the range of circumstances we could be campaigning under. For the electoral commission to prepare and for voters to feel assured of a safe, accessible and credible election. Due to this decision, I am proposing that Parliament reconvene tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: So this isn't a political decision that Jacinda Ardern would have made lightly either. Her Labour Party is in the ascendency in New Zealand. The opposition National Party has done very badly this year. It's had three separate leaders and is in a state of -- somewhat, you can say, a state of disarray there. The Labour Party would have been looking forward to the election. The people of New Zealand generally feel that Jacinda Ardern has done a good job in crushing coronavirus. They'd hope to eliminate it completely from the country, Rosemary. They'll hope to do the same thing again, but let's see.

CHURCH: Yes, they're showing the rest of us how hard it is to get rid of this because they did eliminate it initially. Didn't they? Angus Watson, many thanks to you. Appreciate it.

Well, Spain, France, Greece and Germany are seeing worrying spikes in new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. France saw more than 3,000 new cases on Sunday. The second highest daily jump in cases since mid-May. CNN's Melissa Bell is live from Paris. She joins us now. Good to see you, Melissa. So what's driving these new cases in France and of course, other parts of the world?

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, it is all about watching for that dreaded second wave. This is what authorities here in Europe are worried about. You mentioned a moment ago there's cases, more than 3,000 declared here in France. U.K. just declared yesterday. Just over that as well the day before.

It is extremely worrying for authorities. And what's interesting, is that you're seeing that rise in the number of new cases not necessarily yet in the number of people in ICUs or in the number of deaths. Those numbers have stayed fairly low and stable.

And what that tells you is that the age group that's being hit by the latest rising cases is really the younger people who don't necessarily have as many of the complications as the people in the older groups might have.

[04:25:00]

And that is something also that authorities are trying to take on in companies like Italy and Spain, by closing nightclubs. These announcements came over the course of the weekend. Also as a result of these very worrying rises in Spain in particular of those number of new cases.

Here in France, new measures also announced fairly regularly to try and get those numbers back under control. It was already the case, that in some outdoor areas here in France, those areas, those neighborhoods have now risen. The Champs-Elysees, in the center of Paris, to walk down it, you now need to where a mask. It is a bigotry. And there is some suggestion that beyond looking into whether masks being worn in public places like shops and cafes. Of course, it's been the case a while that they've been mandatory here. The authorities now looking into the possibility that even in office spaces they will become obligatory as well. So really the authorities trying to keep that dreaded second wave at bay and to get it under control. There's extreme worry rises in new cases in a number of different European countries -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Proving again the mask is the main weapon we have against this virus. Many thanks. Melissa Bell joining us live from Paris.

And this is CNN NEWSROOM. Massive protests on the streets of Belarus over the disputed election. We are live from Minsk. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Well, the 2020 Democratic National Convention kicks off just hours from now. It will be a scaled down version from what we're used to seeing due to the pandemic. Almost all of the convention speeches and events will be done virtually from across the country. Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders will headline Monday's lineup. Former President Bill Clinton speaks on Tuesday.

END