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Soon: House Votes To Pause Postal Service Changes Amid Trump Attacks; Biden On Trump Calling Harris Nasty And Mad Woman: No President Has Ever Said Anything Like That; New Research Shows Risk Of Catching COVID-19 On Airplane Relatively Low; Nursing Home Installs "Hugging Booth" For Visitors; New Hampshire Restaurants Allowed To Return To 100 Percent Capacity For Indoor Dining; California Firefighters Struggle To Contain 500-Plus Wildfires. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired August 22, 2020 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[15:00:00]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.
And we begin this Saturday with a fight over something that millions of you rely on every day, for everything, from letters from loved ones to much-needed medicines. I'm talking about the U.S. Postal Service. And today the House is back in a rare Saturday session on Capitol Hill called back from its August recess by Speaker Nancy Pelosi has House Democrats speak to pass a $25 billion bill to fund the agency.
Now, the post office is at the center of fact-free claims of mail-in voting fraud by President Trump, as well as concerns that recent changes implemented by a postmaster general, who is also a Trump donor, are not just impacting deliveries now but also paving the way for potential disruption in the presidential election as people turn to the post office to safely cast their ballots in this pandemic.
And while the postmaster general now says he will pause any further changes until after the election, Speaker Pelosi says all of this adds up to an attempt to suppress the vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It's how we communicate. It's how we vote. It's how we protect the health and well-being of the American people. And what they're doing, both in the Postal Service until they got caught, and what the president is saying and now his move about putting law enforcement, extra law enforcement people at the polls, why would he do that, except to scare people off?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: For its part, the White House has vowed to veto the measure while the Senate also, which continues to be on recess, is unlikely to take it up upon return. CNN Congressional Correspondent Phil Mattingly is on Capitol Hill right now. And, Phil, a couple of hours now until that, House vote is expected, as I understand it. Until then, what's happening and is there any way that any House bill passed today will go forward?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems unlikely that the Senate controlled by Republicans is going to take it up. And if you want to understand why, I want to play some sound for you from the debate over this bill that shows just how divided the two sides are about its need. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA): Mr. Speaker, I was elected on 9/11, the day of the terrorist attacks on our country. As horrific as that day was, I feel proud that our nation came together as Americans do in difficult times.
Looking back, I believe our democracy was less endangered then than it is today. I say that for two reasons. First, because we were united then and we are divided today and we know who divides us. Secondly, back then, the threat was external. But today, today at this moment, the greatest threat to our democracy is the current administration.
REP. DREW FERGUSON (R-GA): I would first like to wish my mother a happy birthday. Happy birthday, mom. I wish I was there to celebrate with you. But, instead, I'm in D.C. voting on a senseless bill that was designed for political purposes and will put your beloved grandchildren further into debt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: I'm not sure you can find more dramatically diverse feelings about how things are going. But, frankly, that's where the majority of Republicans and Democrats stand on their two sides. Republicans almost unanimously opposed to this bill. There will be some Republicans in the House that vote for it.
And I think when you talk to Democrats about it, there are really two things. It's the election that is really kind of driven the outrage on the Democratic side over the course of the last several weeks, concerns that given the pandemic, given the fact that 10, 20, 30 million more mail-in ballots are likely because of that pandemic, that any changes to the U.S. postal service and how they deliver operational changes may be tied to potentially suppressing the vote.
When you talk to Republicans, they're concerned about the delivery delays. They're hearing from their constituents as well but they don't see the tie-in to the mail-in ballots. They cite the postmaster general, who had a congressional testimony on Friday, said that they are fully capable and have the capacity to handle millions more mail- in ballots.
So I think you see the divide here, Republicans calling it a conspiracy theory, Democrats saying, frankly, listen to what the president says, he's the leader of your party and he's, more than anything else, the reason why we are passing legislation like this, why we are pursuing hearings like this.
So the political divide certainly isn't going to change any time soon, Ana. This bill will pass, it will have some Republican support. But, really, the next thing to watch is not whether it happens in the Senate, but on Monday, House Democrats will hold a hearing with the postmaster general.
House Oversight Committee run by Democrats will have him up really in the spotlight. That hearing will be very important to watch as this continues to be an issue that the entire country is watching over the course of the next several weeks and months.
CABRERA: And we will be talking about the chairwoman of that House Oversight Committee coming up in the next hour.
[15:05:02]
Phil Mattingly, thank you for your reporting.
Joining us now is Bill Kristol, the Director of Defending Democracy Together and Editor-at-Large at the Bulwark, and CNN Political Commentator and former Senior Staffer to Ted Cruz, Amanda Carpenter.
So, Bill, you remember fully the insanity, that was the 2000 recount, you even wrote a book on it, punch card ballots, of course, there was the hanging chad and the dimpled chad, election officials using magnifying glasses or holding ballots up to the light to determine who the vote was for. Could we see a repeat of that nightmare just on a much bigger scale?
BILL KRISTOL, DIRECTOR, DEFENDING DEMOCRACY TOGETHER: Well, we could see a repeat and we could see one with the president of the United States encouraging citizens not to believe in the credibility of the process, not to cooperate with the process, trying to discredit the results, instead of what George W. Bush and Al Gore did, which was to say, let's be patient, let's see what happens. And there was the legal jostling back and forth, but it was done within the norms. That may not happen this time.
But on the post office and Phil's very interesting report on that, just step back for a second. The post office said itself earlier this year that it needed $25 billion more to conduct business as usual. Then there's the pandemic, which has put increased burdens on the post office, not just for voting but for delivery of medications and all kinds of things.
Now, we have a lot of evidence, I mean, a lot of anecdotes and I think actual evidence that medications, checks, other forms of mail, birthday cards, to mention what the congressman was talking about, aren't getting delivered on time, including pretty serious stuff, not just birthday cards, medications.
What is the rationale for not giving the post office that money? They're spending a ton because of the pandemic, as they should. This is a perfectly reasonable appropriation. If they don't need it all, they could get back some at the end. But what is the rationale for voting against it?
And, really, I think it's almost -- it's a sign of how much the Republican Party in Congress has just become Trump's party and following Trump and just because he doesn't like certain things, as opposed to actually voting on the merits.
CABRERA: Amanda, there is some irony in what is happening. Right now, we have a president who embraces conspiracy theories, and that may be an understatement. Yet you have the RNC and the Trump campaign right now accusing Democrats of pedaling a conspiracy theory about the post office while you also have the president saying things like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not prepared for this 51 million ballots. It will be a tremendous embarrassment to our country. It will go on forever, and you'll never know who won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Amanda, do you think that's already sinking in with voters?
AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and I think it's very much sinking in with the campaign. Listen, a lot of people are saying, well, what's going to happen when he challenges the results possibly on election night? And I say, he's already challenging results in places like the State of Pennsylvania, where his legal team is questioning how mail-in ballots are returned and challenging that. He's talking about sending law enforcement to polling stations. And so don't wait for this to happen because it already is.
And the period I am most worried about is the 24-48 hours where we might not have results on election night and people get freaked out about that because that's something new. This election is going to look different because there are more mail-in ballots, which take longer to count because of the pandemic. We need to get used to that idea now, because those hours while we are waiting are going to be critical, because we know how Donald Trump pushes these conspiracy- riddled narratives.
And I'm worried, quite frankly, about how the Biden campaign will respond. They have never been reactive, which is a good thing when you want to stick to your message. But they are going to have to be prepared for that and there are going to be people in the states that are needed to defend and explain the system so that people can have trust in it.
CABRERA: And speaking of trust or not, the president tweeted this morning without evidence that the deep state at the FDA is making it difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics and he claims that it's because they want to delay it until after the election.
Bill, what's your reaction to that?
KRISTOL: Well, he's the president. The FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. If he wants to change something there, he can do so. So it's utterly irresponsible.
CABRERA: He appointed, by the way, this FDA commissioner.
KRISTOL: Sure, and he can remove him or someone below him. I mean, it's really so irresponsible. Instead of being serious about getting the kinds of tests we need so that schools and universities could open, so that businesses could go back to work, and there's a lot of promising work now on some of these screening tests, which would be cheap and easy and adequate, really, for the purpose of at least letting people begin to open up, instead of putting the federal government's shoulder to the wheel on that.
He seems to be doing nothing, frankly, on the pandemic except vaguely saying irresponsible things and, as Amanda says, conspiratorial things and how much damage does that do to the country.
[15:10:04]
I mean, it's -- we've never -- really, this is where it is, kind of jaw-dropping, to have a president of the United States calling into question the elections in two months. He says the post office may be undermanned or underfunded and then he does nothing and he opposes giving it more funds.
His appointee there seems to be interested in having an experiment and changing the way they deliver the mail two months before an election, and during a pandemic when people depend on the post office more for medication. So the damage it's doing to our trust in our institutions, our civic culture, almost, is really remarkable.
CABRERA: Amanda, I just have to wonder if the president knows really what he's doing to that point because here's a list of some of just some of the president's more high profile conspiracies that he has touted without evidence or basis in reality, birtherism, he's talked over and over again about President Obama spying on him, again, no evidence, there's Uranium One, he's tweeted conspiracies about unemployment numbers, the JFK assassination, American-Muslims celebrating in 9/11, death tolls from disaster, widespread voter fraud, for which his own commission couldn't find evidence, suggesting a T.V. host murdered someone, Jeffrey Epstein's death, windmills and cancer, climate change, vaccines, migrant caravans, social media companies plotting against him. The list goes on and on.
Amanda, you wrote a book on gaslighting. Why was he been able to survive politically peddling all of these conspiracy theories?
CARPENTER: Because it's unexpected and there is an appetite for conspiracy-thinking in the American electorate. Donald Trump is deprived of it. He coddles and cultivates this kind of thinking with his followers. And so you look at all the -- you look at that list that you gave and then people really wonder where a movement like QAnon came from. Donald Trump gave rise to this kind of thinking. It is his brand and style of politics.
And so I get really frustrated when I see some -- a handful of Republican leaders come out and say, oh, well, we reject QAnon thinking. Oh, really? Do you reject the idea that Donald Trump started a narrative that somehow Barack Obama launched a deep state campaign to overturn his presidency on day one, because that's the kind of stuff that he campaigned on and Republicans embraced in their style of governing when they're on Capitol Hill.
And so until you reject that style of conspiracy-thinking that leads to Donald Trump to say that his own FDA is suppressing a cure from us, this stuff is going to continue, you're going to have more QAnon members of Congress because that's what you're asking from your base.
CABRERA: Amanda Carpenter and Bill Kristol, interesting conversation. Thank you both for being here and lending your perspective.
Coming up, Joe Biden speaking out in a new interview and taking on Trump for what he has said about Kamala Harris.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: No president has ever said anything like that. No president has ever used those words.
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CABRERA: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sitting down for their first joint T.V. interview since the Democratic National Convention, and they did not mince words when it came to President Trump's recent attacks on Senator Harris.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump has referred to you as nasty, a sort of madwoman, the meanest, a disaster, the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate. How do you define what you hear from the president?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Listen, I really -- I think that there is so much about what comes out of Donald Trump's mouth that is designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day that is about neglect, negligence and harm to the American people.
BIDEN: And incompetence.
HARRIS: Absolutely.
BIDEN: The idea that he would say something like that, no president, no president has ever said anything like that. No president has ever used those words. And no president has said people come out of the field with torches and spewing anti-Semitic bile (ph) and met by people who oppose them and someone dies and he says they're good people on both sides. No president of the United States has ever said anything like that, ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CABRERA: Biden's campaign revealing just yesterday it raised $70 million during the DNC and that 122 million people tuned in on T.V. or online to that four-day event. So, the spotlight now shifts to the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday, and sources tell CNN the president has been in overdrive, watching the Democrats convention for hours and insisting his own convention outshines theirs.
He told Fox's Sean Hannity, quote, I think we're going to have more as live than what they did. I think it's boring when you do tapes. I'm going to go live and do mine live.
Joining me, former Republican Congresswoman from Utah, Mia Love, and former Clinton White House Adviser, Paul Begal.
So, Congresswoman, I'm sure the president wishes he could have a convention like he had in 2016, big crowds and his entrance to, We Are the Champions. But here we are 2020 in the middle of a pandemic and that obviously puts limitations on some things. So how is his team going to balance giving him this television blockbuster he wants and keeping people safe?
MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's going to be difficult to have a convention where mainly it's going to be on Zoom, remotely or -- I do believe that having it live is going to be the a little bit better. At least there's kind of like this atmosphere. I think one of the things that the DNC, I think, actually suffered from was the fact that they had pre-recorded conversations that made it very difficult to answer to the times and what was going on in the moment.
[15:20:04]
And so I think that doing it live is probably better, but he's not going to get the fanfare that he really likes. He's not going to get the big crowds that he really likes that he thrives off of. But he likes being fed that -- you know, being loved. He loves feeling the crowd and he loves the love they give him. So he's not going to get that and that's going to be difficult for him.
CABRERA: It fuels him, and we know that, those crowds.
Paul, you heard Biden take on Trump directly in that interview with ABC for how he's spoken about Kamala Harris. But how does Biden keep the momentum going? Because we've learned he's not planning to hit the campaign trail in a traditional way. He's just going to keep doing interviews and appearances virtually, we are told. Is that going to be enough to keep voters excited?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's going to have to be because, unlike President Trump, Joe Biden doesn't want to risk people's health. It's so irresponsible when Mr. Trump goes to places like Tulsa, which are great American towns, and gathers thousands of people together, some of whom could be sick and spreads a deadly virus in the hall. It's just -- it's really callus. It shows you that Trump is only about himself. I will note though that the way that Kamala Harris turned the attack was -- it was literally textbook. I wrote a whole book about it, Ana. When Trump attacks you, don't respond in kind. Do exactly what Senator Harris did.
He said all these horrible things about her and she said he's just doing that to distract from the fact that he's destroyed the economy and ruined healthcare. And that's the truth and it's certainly much more relevant in people's lives than whatever name-calling Mr. Trump does to Senator Harris.
So I thought that really was a textbook example of how to handle these Trump attacks.
CABRERA: He may get the last word this week at the convention though because the Dems made the first impression, Republicans get to make the last impression, Congresswoman. And it seems like we're going to have a preview here of what the president might see at his convention. Here is what he said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history. They spent four straight days attacking America as racists in a horrible country that must be redeemed. Joe Biden grimly declared a season of American darkness, and yet look at what we've accomplished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: The reality is a lot of people in America are struggling right now, more than 175,000 have died of COVID-19. People are without work. They're worried about feeding their kids or being evicted from their homes. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUANA MOORE, VISITING THE FOOD BANK FOR THE FIRST TIME: My kids are in there right now, we don't have anything to eat. I'm like, I know, let me go see what I can do.
We were homeless and then we just got into our apartment. We've been there for a year. We just got the car in November. So everything has been like a stair step for me. And now the stair steps are going back down. So I'm like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Congresswoman, if the president goes to the RNC and does nothing but brag about how great everything is in his administration, I wonder, will it come across as tone deaf?
LOVE: Well, I think it will come across as tone deaf. I think that the greatest advantage that the president has right now is to paint a vision of what it's going to be like in the next four years, how he's going to get the economy back on track, how he's going to work and make sure that people are getting back to work and also to make sure that people are healthy.
If he goes off and attacks people instead of the policies that are really hurting Americans, then he is going to make a grave mistake because people are tired of it. They're tired of the divide.
They're tired of how, as Americans, we've forgotten that we actually have enemies out there. You've got Putin that has -- you see what's happening with the young man that has gone against the Kremlin. We've got North Korea. We've got so many people that want to attack America. It would really be nice and refreshing to see an RNC that has focused on the American people.
I am crossing my fingers and hoping that that's what we see. We talk about policies that are going to help the American people. But crossing my fingers is what I can do.
CABRERA: Paul, you had predicted President Trump was going to dump Mike Pence and put Nikki Haley on the ticket to court suburban moms, and you originally said this would happen on the night of Biden's acceptance speech. Of course, that didn't happen and now we have Haley speaking at the RNC for the Trump/Pence ticket. Do you really think it's still happening?
BEGALA: Oh, yes. She'll be speaking to accept to vice president. Trump is still going to dump her.
CABRERA: Dump him.
CABRERA: Trump is scared of me. You know that. No, I'm serious. I frighten him because I actually have -- well, actually I have better hair than he does and I have almost done. He's going to do it.
[15:25:00]
Ana, I promise, he's going to do it. We know what the Republicans need to do. They need make Mia Love their keynote speaker. Everything she said was 100 percent right. You know I mean this. And we were friends anyway. But we're in different parties, but what she said is 100 percent right.
This enterprise has to be about people's lives. We've got 170,000 dead and we've got 50 million on unemployment and we've got 10 million that have lost their health insurance. That woman you played the clip from is heartbreaking.
And Mia, she gets that and feels that and speaks to that instead of this politics of self-absorption that you get from Mr. Trump. It's a tragedy for the Republicans that Mia is not front and center at their convention. I mean that.
CABRERA: Congresswoman, today, the president got his facts wrong. I know you're surprised. But he was talking about the DNC and the pledge of allegiance. And he wrote this, and I quote, the Democrats took the word God out of the pledge of allegiance at the Democratic National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn't. It was done on purpose. Remember, Evangelical Christians and all, this is where they are coming from. It's done. Vote November 3rd.
We checked the tape. Here is what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: One nation under God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One nation under God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: So that was from all four days. It's right there.
LOVE: Once again, focused on the wrong thing. Focus on the American people. Focus on what you are going to do.
CABRERA: He's making things up. He's not focusing on the right things. He's saying they didn't say it. It's right there.
LOVE: I don't know. I mean, I don't know why this is the focus. I have no idea. It's right there. And that is not the thing to pick on. I mean, there's a lot of content on policy that you can pick on and that is just not it. So, again, and this is a great example, Paul and I are good friends, we're on completely different ends of the political spectrum. Yet I remember when everything was going down with Clinton, what he did was he had a vision for the American people and focused on that and just got away from all of the negative things that was driving America apart. And that's what I would like to see.
Again, there's so many different things, so many people are suffering. We really need leadership and leadership that is not going to focus on pettiness. We've got too many kids -- I've got a daughter in high school that have -- so many kids that have suffered from suicides and families suffered from suicides. They're seeing adults beat each other up. We can do better. It's really nonsense. We've got to focus on the policies that get America back on their feet and stop all of the -- just the petty behavior.
CABRERA: Paul, I just have to end on this note because only in 2020 where we also hear the news from NASA that they believe an asteroid will pass close to earth the day before the election. I'm not making this up. I mean, this is the truth. This is the news today. What's next?
BEGALA: It's astonishing. I was saying one of the reasons the Democrats are so united at their convention is because nothing unites the people of earth like a threat from mars. And now we actually have. It's not from Mars. It's from wherever in the universe, but, oh, my stars, it is just amazing. I'm thunder struck.
I will say, coming back to Mia's point, Trump uses division for diversion. The reason he's lying about whether the American pledge of allegiance the Democrats included under God, it's not because he cares about God. Let's face it. Last time he went to a church, he tear- gassed everybody in front. So it's not his issue. He's issues is he's trying to divert from 170,000 dead.
CABRERA: Or he's trying to appeal to evangelicals, as he says in that tweet.
BEGALA: Yes, but some of those evangelicals are getting sick. And so he's trying to divert them too. He uses division for diversion. This is his strategy. And the Democrats have to understand that and do just what Mia said. I said, look, the pledge is fine, the Democrats had the pledge. But now let's talk about our vision for rebuilding the economy and repairing our health.
CABRERA: All right, guys, got to leave it there. Paul, we're having a problem with the graphics. Can you put up your book again, your new book? You're Fired, the Perfect Guide to Beating Trump, it's out now.
BEGALA: Oh, my gosh, you're so kind. Thank you.
CABRERA: All right. Paul, thank you. And thank you so much, Mia Love, former congresswoman from Utah. Great to talk with you both. And let's continue the conversation as we continue toward the election.
Okay, coming up, popcorn, dim the lights, as major movie theaters reopen after a five-month shutdown. The big question is, will anyone go?
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CABRERA: Are Americans ready to go to the movies again? The biggest chain of movie theatres in the world is finding out.
AMC reopened about 100 theatres a couple of days ago after shutting them all back in March.
Regal and Cinemark theatres are in the process of reopening as well.
They've got rules. Face coverings are required for everybody. Seating arrangements will keep everyone separated.
AMC says they will disinfect between movies and that their ventilation systems are improved.
Epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Celine Gounder, is joining us now.
Dr. Gounder, is the country ready to go back to the movies? And given the masks and improved ventilation and disinfection procedures, would you personally feel safe today taking your family to the movies?
DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Ana, I think any assessment of risk in a situation like this needs to begin with the question, how much coronavirus is being transmitted in my community where I live.
[15:35:07]
So that's going to be a very different answer in some place like New York City, which has some of the lowest rates across the country, versus some of the places that continue to be hot spots as in Florida, Georgia and Texas and many places across the south and west.
So I think you really need to begin by asking that question.
Another major concern I have is you can say that people are required to wear masks, but who is going to be enforcing that.
And is that going to fall to other theatergoers or the people working there, neither of whom I think are equipped to deal with potential confrontations in that setting.
CABRERA: Even if you walk into the theatre with a mask, there's no guarantee people are going to keep it on during the movie when the lights are down and people are eating their popcorn, thinking sodas, that sort of thing.
There's obviously still a lot of anxiety about air travel. And just this week there was a brawl on an American Airlines flight when a passenger refused to follow the mask policy, to your point. Obviously, people are stressed out right now.
But there's some new scientific research that's making a case that the risk of catching COVID-19 in an airplane is relatively low.
The ventilation on modern aircraft is very effective. Everyone is required to wear a mask on the plane. And people usually don't move around a whole lot during a flight.
Doctor, where would you put flying today on the scale of risky behavior?
GOUNDER: I think it's important to remember that those ventilation systems were designed for the days when people still smoked on airplanes. So they have very high air exchange frequencies, very high levels of ventilation.
So your real danger on a plane is from the people within one or two rows of you who are sitting next to you.
In that setting, wearing a mask is very important.
I think the other thing, again, going back to what I was saying earlier about what is happening in your community, where are you coming from, where are you traveling to, and what is the risk among the passengers who would be coming to and from those places.
CABRERA: Doctor, I want to show you something very heartwarming and innovative. A nursing home in Mississippi built a hugging booth to let visitors touch and hug their loved ones through these plastic sheets.
Some of these senior citizens haven't been able to physically touch their children or their grandchildren in months.
Is this something you would like to see installed in nursing homes around the country?
GOUNDER: I would love to see this. My husband and I have not seen our father-in-law, who is at a memory care facility in Arizona. We haven't seen him since January. I haven't seen my mom since Christmas.
And the idea that we have not been able to do so, travel safely, see our own loved ones safely, to have options like this available that can be done safely I think is really very creative and a really resilient way to deal with a stressful situation.
CABRERA: It is heartwarming to see that video. I can only imagine how that felt for that family.
I also have to ask you about eating out because, for the first time, when I was a vacation recently, I ate at a restaurant outside.
I don't feel comfortable eating inside anywhere, no matter what the infection rate is at this point, and even in places where they have reduced capacity.
But we do know that, in New Hampshire, restaurants are now allowed to go to 100 percent capacity for indoor dining. Tables will still be required to be six feet apart.
What do you think? Is it safe?
GOUNDER: I have to say, I'm with you, Ana. I live in New York where our rates are very low. I still would not go back to indoor dining. We haven't as a city gone back to that.
And I think it's still a little bit too early to say that that is safe.
I think New York, among other places, have taken a very step-wise slow approach. And I think that's the approach that makes sense, is to re- evaluate slowly every step of the way.
New Hampshire does have lower rates of transmission than many parts of the country but I think it's premature. CABRERA: Dr. Celine Gounder, I always appreciate our conversations.
Thanks for being here.
Some serious and dangerous weather is moving in. The gulf coast preparing for not one, but two tropical storms currently gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean.
[15:39:21]
Stay with us. We'll have the latest, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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CABRERA: Gulf coast residents need to pay attention. Two tropical systems could impact the area in a couple of days. And both could intensify to hurricane strength. This is coming up in the gulf coast.
The first system to watch is Tropical Storm Laura, which is currently over Puerto Rico. It's expected to head toward Hispaniola and Cuba in the coming days.
And the second is Tropical Storm Marco, just east of the Yucatan Peninsula right now. This system should head north toward the U.S.
And since there are two systems as of now, essentially, anywhere from Texas to Florida could be impacted.
So rare to have two storms of this strength in the Gulf of Mexico simultaneously. It's only happened twice in recorded history.
Meantime, in California, firefighters are struggling to contain massive wildfires that have killed at least four people and charred nearly a million acres.
More than 500 fires are burning across the state after a blitz of lightning strikes this week.
California's governor, Gavin Newsom, says firefighting resources are stretched to the limit. And he is pleading for assistance.
At least 119,000 people have fled their homes because of mandatory evacuation orders and warnings.
I want to bring in CNN's Paul Vercammen on the ground in Napa County, California.
Paul, this just sounds and looks horrific.
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, you are so right. And this is the lightning complex. And you can see behind me the charred remains of homes.
Ana, I want to give you the overhead view because everything around this neighborhood is gone, devastated, obliterated. Once in a while, you'll see a home standing.
[15:45:07]
In all, 560 structures were destroyed on this, the lightning complex, 314,000 acres.
And we talked to Marty. His home still stands. He feels a sense of survivor's guilt because, everywhere you look, he says, his friends and neighbors' homes are gone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTY RODEN, NAPA COUNTY HOMEOWNER: I was one of the lucky ones. My house is down at the end of the street. Pretty much every house is gone. Other than like five houses in the whole neighborhood.
VERCAMMEN: You said you're one of the lucky ones. Anything you can attribute that to?
RODEN: I have no idea. God, maybe? Luck? But I feel sick for all my neighbors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: And now, back here live, one of the things that Marty is so sick about, behind me, this classic Pontiac Firebird. He said it's one of his employee's. Marty owns a boat rental business, among other things. And he just was shocked to see that happen.
We should also note, the human toll, tremendous.
Animals all over. We're seeing them in the neighborhood. We saw a family of deer. It was obvious they were looking for some sort of greenery, something to forage on.
And a neighbor had left out a white bowl of water. The deer found that and seemed thrilled to be finding some moisture in these bone-dry conditions.
Weather and air quality horrendous here, Ana. And also, tomorrow, the possibility of more lightning strikes.
They're crossing their fingers here because they know that fire crews are really being tapped out.
Back to you now.
CABRERA: Sending our best wishes and strength to that community and everybody affected by the fires.
Paul Vercammen, thank you.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:51:28] CABRERA: This was an historic week for women in America with the nomination of Senator Kamala Harris. It has so many of us talking about the many barriers that still block women in this country.
And tonight, CNN is taking an expansive look at gender equality in America with a brand-new special report, "WOMEN REPRESENTED."
Here's my colleague, Erin Burnett, with a preview. Erin?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Ana, you know that it's the hundred-year anniversary of women's suffrage this week. And that's something to celebrate.
But it is not what so many people think it is. Black women didn't even truly get the right to vote until 1965.
So, we decided to take a look back at the progress we've made towards gender equality in this country and the progress that, frankly, we haven't.
I mean, take politics, right? This week, Senator Harris makes history becoming the first black and Asian woman vice presidential nominee. But she was only the second black woman to ever serve in the Senate.
And, in fact, it took 25 years from the first Senator to get to Senator Harris.
That first was Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun. And I spoke with her for the special report.
Here she is. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, FORMER DEMOCRATIC ILLINOIS SENATOR & FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR: I came to work one morning. I had on a pantsuit. I thought I was looking cute.
I get there and come to find out it was this great hullabaloo behind the scenes about me having on pants.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's welcome Senator Carol Moseley Braun.
(CHEERING)
MOSELEY BRAUN: That's what started it.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: Do you ever think to yourself, wow, I'm a trail blazer? And it's about wearing pants, right? I mean, you know, you wouldn't have thought that that would have been a place you had to blaze a trail.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Right, right. (MUSIC)
MOSELEY BRAUN: When I first showed up at the Senate, the guard didn't want to let me in the door until someone told him, that's the Senator from Illinois. I guess he had never seen a black woman coming in the door of the Senate as a member.
(CHEERING)
MOSELEY BRAUN: It's a new day in America!
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And 1993 doesn't even sound that long ago. I mean, so, it's pretty shocking to look back and to talk with women like Ambassador Moseley Braun about the barriers they faced and the barriers that are still there for so many women.
Women make up less than a quarter of the seats in Congress right now. The number, again, much lower for women of color.
We're going to talk about why that is, why we haven't elected a woman president in this country, and so much more in our special, "WOMEN REPRESENTED." And we hope that everyone will tune in, Ana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Absolutely.
Thank you. Thank you, Erin.
The CNN special report, "WOMEN REPRESENTED: THE 100-YEAR BATTLE FOR EQUALITY," begins tonight at 10:00, right here on CNN.
This week, "CNN Heroes" salutes Hector Guadalupe for his work helping former incarcerated individuals emerging from confinement, for body and mind.
Here's Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HECTOR GUADALUPE, CNN HERO: I've spent close to 31 months in solitary confinement. I would spend half a day doing certain exercises to keep my blood moving through my body, keep my body strong, you know?
We got the moms on deck. The moms are getting it in this morning.
I started the Second You Foundation.
We have formally incarcerated men and women. They get certified and have job placement. Not one has reoffended.
People won't reoffend as long as they're provided livable wages. And go down.
[15:55:01]
If I can help other people become successful, that means a lot of families are fed. That means success to me.
We all deserve a second chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Anderson Cooper shares the full story about Hector's work at CNNheroes.com.
Stay right there. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
