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Michelle Obama Rallies Democrats; Sanders: Price of Failure Too Great to Imagine; Michelle Obama: Trump is the Wrong President for Our Country; Republican John Kasich Urges His Party to Abandon Trump; Democrats Slam Trump's Response to COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 the Third Most Common Cause of Death in U.S.; Major U.S. University Switches to Remote Learning; U.S. Approves Emergency Use of Saliva- Based Test; Outcry Forces U.K. Government U-Turn on Exam Policy. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 18, 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, the first night of the U.S. Democratic National Convention had nothing conventional about it. And it was former first lady Michelle Obama who stole the show with a withering attack on Donald Trump's presidency.

COVID-19 dashed hopes for a packed convention hall this year and the infection numbers keep rising. We will bring you the very latest on that.

Good to have you with us. Well, the U.S. Democratic Party has opened its national convention making a case for Joe Biden's presidency and attacking President Donald Trump. The event is being conducted virtually due to the coronavirus. It has speakers spanning the ideological spectrum including Republicans in support of Joe Biden. Former first lady Michelle Obama was among the headliners on opening night and she delivered an impassioned speech pleading with voters to pick Biden. She also called Mr. Trump the wrong President for the country and said he was in over his head.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is. So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this, if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can and they will if we don't make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: And there was also Bernie Sanders, the Senator once challenged Biden for the party's nomination. But now he's stressing the need for unity and encouraging voters to back his former rival. He said the price of failure was just too great to imagine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT) FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, I say to you, to everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election, the future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston joins me now from Washington D.C. Good to see you, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, so let's look at what all these speeches on the first night of this virtual DNC convention, what they were trying to achieve. Former first lady Michelle Obama warned voters things could get worse if voters don't make a change in this election, really telling them, get out and vote. How likely is it that her words will resonate and encourage Americans to do just that?

PRESTON: Well, she's an interesting messenger for the Biden campaign to put out on the first day and in many ways could be their secret weapon. And when I say that is that Michelle Obama is very reserved about how she uses her time, how she uses her likeness. She's very careful only to wade into the political waters when she really, really wants to, and I think that tonight we saw her do that. And she did that in a way that most politicians can't do it. She delivered her thoughts in a very sincere way. Her requests in a very sincere way.

And you have to wonder, are folks who are on the fence, or are there mothers, are there young women out there that perhaps who wouldn't be considering voting, who wouldn't want to take the time, wouldn't think that their vote would count. I think that's who Michelle Obama was trying to reach out to tonight. And she did so very effectively. Now will see if in fact people will go to the polls and will she be more involved, Rosemary, in the coming months.

[04:05:00]

But the fact is, Michelle Obama was a good highlight for the Democrats to kick off this very bizarre convention week.

CHURCH: Yes, I mean, she was the main voice of the night, wasn't she? And of course, the latest CNN poll shows this is going to be a very tight race and it will require all of Bernie Sanders supporters voting this time around rather than staying home as they did back in 2016. Did Sanders go far enough in his address appealing to the far-left progressives who don't think the Biden/Harris ticket represents them in any way? Do you think he achieved that talking about authoritarianism?

PRESTON: I think so. And it was interesting too that if you really listened to his speech -- and I talked to one of Bernie Sanders advisers right before the speech, and the advisor told me, to listen what Bernie Sanders says when he talks about authoritarianism. And he talks about his own family. You know, he doesn't often talk about Jewish heritage or about the fact how his family had to flee Europe because of the Nazis. But in fact that happened. So, Bernie Sanders, I think, took a note from the Obama book tonight and that note is the sincerity note.

If you compare about how he was endorsing Joe Biden tonight compared to the bitterness of the 2016 race when a lot of people who supported Hillary Clinton didn't think that he did enough, I think you'll see night and day. And I do think that you will see Bernie Sanders do whatever he can do -- and it's very difficult in these campaigning days -- wherever you can do to try to help elect Joe Biden. He doesn't necessarily agree with him, Rosemary, on every issue, health care for instance.

But he looks at him and he thinks that Joe Biden can at least help preserve these real liberal progressive policies that Democrats have pushed for and have been successful over the past couple of years, pushing more to the left. He sees Joe Biden as somebody who will keep on championing that. And if Donald Trump wins another term, Bernie Sanders tonight very starkly said to his followers, everything we've work for is going to be lost. Whether that's true or not, we don't know. But still it's a message he tried to get across.

CHURCH: Yes, and he was certainly making a clear message, there's the choice of two guys here. You have to work out which one will suit you but that is your choice. So Republican John Kasich, his address of course was designed to convince other Republicans that country comes before party. How well did he do with that? And is he the guy to let other Republicans know that it's OK to vote for Biden.

PRESTON: He's certainly the guy for some Republicans. John Kasich a very interesting fellow. Very conservative, extremely smart but somebody that you either like John Kasich or you don't like John Kasich. But tonight what you saw from John Kasich was -- again, I go back to this one word, sincerity. This level of sincerity.

This is somebody who ran for the Republican presidential nomination himself and lost. This is somebody who I remember when I first came to Washington was considered one of the fiscally conservative and smartest individuals on Capitol Hill. But this is somebody obviously that doesn't share the same Republican philosophy, that grounded Republican philosophy that President Trump shares. And I think he was making that distinction tonight and trying to tell folks that if you don't necessarily support Donald Trump, if you're a Republican, it's OK to come over here to Joe Biden.

I don't necessarily think you're going to see a lot of Republicans jump ship. But you can see a lot of people in the middle and you could see folks like John Kasich who say to themselves, you know, at this point I can't be loyal to my party because of who the nominee is. We'll see what happens in November.

CHURCH: We certainly shall. We'll be counting down. Mark Preston, always a pleasure, thanks so much.

PRESTON: Thanks, Rosemary.

CHURCH: A former senior Trump administration official and long-time Republican is endorsing Joe Biden's presidential campaign. Miles Taylor served as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and is one of the highest-ranking former officials from the Trump administration to back Biden. In a video message, Taylor accused Mr. Trump of using his office for political purposes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILES TAYLOR, FORMER SENIOR TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn't support him and that politically it wasn't a base.

The policies at the border, he said he wanted to go further and have a deliberate policy of ripping children away from their parents to show those parents that they shouldn't come to the border in the first place. And even though I'm not a Democrat, even though I disagree on the key issues, I'm confident that Joe Biden will protect the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And another top Republican, former Ohio Governor John Kasich is also taking aim at President Trump. During his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Kasich urged other Republicans to join him in voting for Democrat Joe Biden.

[04:10:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KASICH, FORMER OHIO GOVERNOR: I'm sure there are Republicans and independents who couldn't imagine crossing over to support a Democrat. They fear Joe may turned sharp left and leave them behind. I don't believe that because I know the measure of the man, he's reasonable, faithful, respectful and, you know, no one pushes Joe around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And hours before that convention speech President Trump slammed the former Ohio governor. On the campaign trail Monday the President said, quote, he was a loser as a Republican and he'll be a loser as a Democrat. He also claimed people don't like John Kasich and don't trust him. Kasich ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign back in 2016. And he's been a vocal critic of the President for years.

An American couple who said their lives were ruined by a viral video of them pointing guns at protesters will now be speaking at the Republican National Convention next week. Now you may remember these scenes from earlier this summer. Patricia and Mark McCloskey brandishing weapons as demonstrators walked outside of their home located in a private St. Louis neighborhood. Both were charged with unlawful use of a weapon but received supportive words from the White House.

Well, the coronavirus is now the number three cause of death in the United States but still many people are refusing to wear masks and social distance. We will have more on the deadly impact of those decisions. That's next.

[04:15:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, the first night of the Democratic National Convention saw Democrats slam President Donald Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The speakers included New York Governor Andrew Cuomo whose state has been hit hard by the outbreak and a woman whose father died from COVID-19. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We went through hell but we have learned much. We know that our problems go beyond the COVID virus. COVID is the symptom, not the illness. Our nation is in crisis and in many ways COVID is just a metaphor.

KRISTIN URQUIZA, LOST FATHER TO COVID-19: The coronavirus has made it clear that there are two Americas, the America that Donald Trump lives in and the America that my father died in. Enough is enough. Donald Trump may not have caused the coronavirus, but his dishonesty and his irresponsible actions made it so much worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And later today on night two of the convention, the Democrats are expected to officially select Joe Biden as the party's nominee. His wife Jill Biden is scheduled to speak along with representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Well a year ago the coronavirus likely did not exist, and now it's killing more people in the U.S. than Alzheimer's disease, accidents and diabetes. COVID-19 has infected more than 5.4 million people in the country and killed more than 170,000. That is according to Johns Hopkins University. In fact, over the past three weeks the U.S. is averaging more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths a day. But despite all these numbers, some people are still not following basic safety precautions. CNN's Nick Watt has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): College party in Georgia, I can't see any masks, not a lot of distance. Crowds also snapped outside student bars in Alabama. And four COVID clusters uncovered this weekend at UNC Chapel Hill where classes resumed one week ago. UNC will now from Wednesday shift to online only for all undergraduates.

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: You're going to get cases at colleges. There's no question about it. The question is whether you can stop at 5 cases or have 500 cases.

WATT: Meanwhile, COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. just past a staggering 170,000.

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: COVID is now the number three cause of death in the U.S.

WATT: Young people are not immune. Infection rates among under 18s rose steadily from March through July says the CDC. Meanwhile, more evidence that minority communities are hardest hit. The study just found that, for example, in Ohio, 13 percent of people are black but 31.8 percent with hospitalized COVID patients were black. In Virginia, less than 10 percent of people are Latinx but more than 36 percent of hospitalized COVID patients were Latinx. And the latest on testing, experts have long said we should be doing 5 million a day. Here's President Trump late April.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well we're going to be there very soon.

WATT: But we have never achieved even 1/5 of that 5 million goal.

WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: We're probably missing eight out of ten people who are contagious.

WATT: And since July the average number of tests every day is actually falling.

HASELTINE: Supplies are being shipped to places that can test. I think it's part of a strategy not to count how many people are infected.

WATT: But a newly authorized quick and cheap saliva test could be a game changer.

ANNE WYLLIE, ASSOCIATE RESEARCH SCIENTIST IN EPIDEMIOLOGY, YALE UNIVERSITY: We think this could actually get same-day results in most situations and that alone can allow it to have reopening strategies.

WATT (on camera): An interesting admission from Dr. Deborah Birx from the White House coronavirus task force that basically the U.S. didn't lock down well enough. She says she wishes the country looked a bit more like Italy where people during lockdown weren't even really allowed to leave their houses. But as she says, Americans don't necessarily respond well to that kind of prohibition.

[04:20:00]

Comparison of how the two countries are doing right now. Well, Sunday Italy reported four deaths from COVID-19, the U.S., 571. Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: William Haseltine is a former professor at Harvard's medical school and school of public health. He's also the author of "A COVID Back to School Guide". And he joins me now from Roxbury in Connecticut. Thank you, sir, for talking with us.

HASELTINE: My pleasure. Thank you.

CHURCH: So I want to start with White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx saying, she wishes the U.S. had locked down the same way Italy had where people were not allowed to leave their homes except to buy groceries once a week. She acknowledged that Americans don't react well to that sort of prohibition. So why wouldn't she and the other task force members have insisted at some point on a national mask mandate instead to reduce the spread of the coronavirus but also keep the economy moving?

HASELTINE: I think that the health authorities, whether it's the CDC, the NIH, the task force, the people who are trained in public health, gave the right advice. But in a political setting giving advice and getting action are two different things. And unfortunately, this administration did not act on the advice they were given.

CHURCH: So you don't think that we'll ever see this administration call for a mask mandate across the nation?

HASELTINE: I don't think we're likely to see that from this administration. I don't think we have seen the kind of steps we need to control the COVID epidemic. As you know, the United States with 4 percent of the population accounts for 1/4 of all infections and deaths. This is an unmitigated disaster for a country that has traditionally been the leader in public health. It shows you what a difference leadership makes.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, Los Angeles schools have announced massive testing and tracing for students and staff, but the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill just announced that they are suspending in person learning after just a week of classes due to numerous COVID- 19 clusters. How inevitable is it that we will see other schools and colleges close and move to remote learning?

HASELTINE: It's absolutely inevitable. If you are in a zone that's yellow, orange or red and you open especially with the rather careless procedures that we have, it is inevitable that many people will be infected in colleges. We're doing the same thing with our public education and it is inevitable that we are going to see many infections, many quarantines and many closings. And a very large number of unhappy and distressed parents.

CHURCH: And President Trump and his administration are pushing for all schools to open for in-person learning insisting that children are immune, or not vulnerable. Even though studies of course show that is false. When would it be safe to open schools and colleges for in- person learning and could that newly approved saliva-based test be key to doing this?

HASELTINE: Well, let's take the saliva-based test. It isn't all that it seems. There's some good parts about it and it shows that you can use saliva. But it's still a test that needs to be supervised. You have to spit under supervision and then you have to send it off for testing. It is not a home test. Home tests are being devised. Those will make a difference. They should be fast, they should be cheap, but the saliva test that was just approved is not that.

All it essentially does is replace the long swab that goes into the back of your nose with a saliva test. There are some simplifications of the reagents which they claim may make things faster. It's not the reagents that make things slow, it's bad bureaucracy that makes things slow.

CHURCH: Well let's hope in some way that problem with testing can be solved. William Haseltine, thank you so much for talking with us. We do appreciate it.

HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

CHURCH: The World Health Organization says there is a new phase of the pandemic defined by younger people catching and spreading the disease. Now this is happening now in Asia-Pacific countries and the WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific says, it's not just a resurgence but a sign the pandemic is changing with people in their 20s, 30s and 40s driving the spread.

[04:25:03]

The WHO says some countries are seeing surges that in some cases are larger than the original outbreaks.

And meantime, thousands of people gathered for a party in Wuhan, China, the former epicenter of this pandemic. And you can see the audience packed in tightly for this concert at a water park with very few masks in sight. Wuhan reportedly hasn't seen any new coronavirus cases since May. Officials are hoping to boost the economy with the lockdown now lifted. And to do that they have waived ticket fees at hundreds of tourist sights.

Well, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing massive public anger, this time from students, parents and teachers. So the U.K. government has U-turned on plans to deal with exam grades in the COVID era. Because students could not take the all-important A-level exams when the country was under lockdown. The government had planned to rely on an algorithm for grades, but not anymore. CNN's Max Foster joins us now to explain. So Max, what is the latest on this?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest is that fallout continues. Because after this farcical situation where students' grades were effectively upgraded after a huge amount of pressure from the government and educational authorities. We now have a situation where many students, perhaps 1/3 of students, had their grades upgraded to the level where they now qualify for the initial courses they applied to at the university. So take someone that had got a place at a top university, they thought

they had a place and they were effectively downgraded with their results. Now they've been upgraded, they can now get into that university. But a lot of those places were awarded to students last week after the initial set of results. So now we have students who did actually qualified for places didn't get those places.

And there's an example I heard this morning where a student has been allowed a place but it's going to be deferred until next year. And she's obviously pointing out, in a knock down, what's she going to do with the gap here, so a real mess. And universities are putting a huge amount of pressure on the government to try to come up with some sort of solution here. The obvious solution is to create more places at top universities. But we have social distancing rules to consider right now. So that might not always be possible.

And the universities, you know, outside the top tier also have an issue where they're losing students who now want to go to those universities, to a top universities.

So a huge amount of pressure on students right now and pressure on the government. Calls in the British newspapers for the Education Secretary to resign. This, "The Daily Mail," is a Boris Johnson government supporting newspaper. So a real situation for Boris Johnson and his government. But he's standing by his Education Secretary. He isn't expecting him to leave. So we'll see what happens. We saw a similar situation where his senior advisor, Dominic Cummings, was under pressure to resign and Boris Johnson stood by him as well. So most people saying they're not going to see Boris Johnson basically sacking the Education Secretary anytime soon.

CHURCH: Yes, it's so frustrating for those students. We're seeing a similar situation in the U.S. and of course, around the world. Exams for these kids going into university having to be canceled because of this pandemic. Very frustrating. Max Foster in Newbury, England, bringing us that live update. Many thanks.

And still to come, not all Democrats see eye to eye. Can the party unite for the common goal of beating Donald Trump? Or is the Bernie or bust brigade back? We'll take a look.

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