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GOP Formally Nominates Trump For Re-Election As Convention Starts; New Virus Cases Sink To Lowest Level In Two Months; GOP Convention Begins, Trump Expected To Speak Every Night. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 24, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:03]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: So those are just a couple of examples you mentioned, the shutdown. If these states reopened more quickly -- we know what happened. We know what happened when states started to reopen. That's why we had the summer surge of coronavirus crisis. That is why the president's poll numbers are so bad.

So when he criticizes these governors saying they're keeping their states to hurt him politically, those governors would say, and those governors are accountable with so many people, that they did that to try to save lives.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Dana Bash, to John's point, I mean, I spoke to the secretary of state in Washington State, who is a Republican. She was on my program last week or two weeks ago. They have -- they mail out ballots to every household in the state. She said it doesn't impact Republicans or Democrats any differently. It's not -- doesn't favor one party over the other.

And the millions of votes cast, they've had less than or just a little over 100 some people who voted twice, other people, a couple other people actually tried to sign -- have somebody else vote. And those people are being pursued by the law now, were well-known. But that's statistically insignificant given all the amount of votes they get.

She even invited the president to come to see how Washington State does it and does it fairly and accurately and -- but, of course, he doesn't do that.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And, again, just to underscore what you said, this is a Republican that you are talking about. It really is remarkable even for Donald Trump that he goes to make a surprise appearance at the kind of scaled down convention that is going on to nominate him formally to be the Republican nominee again. And the first thing out of his mouth is something akin to trying to suppress the vote. It's unbelievable.

And it -- we know the reason. We know why. And it is because the reality is what you said, that fraud is very minimal in the places that have done this. And the fact is the more people who mail in ballots, the more people vote and the worse it is for him when it comes to his viability to get a second term. And that's just the reality. That's why he is doing this. That's why -- that's how he started remarks at this very big moment in his political life. And there's no other way to look at it.

And for a candidate, never mind a sitting president, to do that is, frankly, reprehensible, especially since so many people listened to him and believe what he is saying and, therefore, they -- if they want to vote, they are going to, try to find a place to do it in person, which is just less safe.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, Dana, this is as real as his previous comments, which he echoed again today, that there was massive voter fraud in the 2016 election. That's what he is using to justify him losing the popular vote. But he formed this commission on voter fraud that eventually just disbanded because there was nothing to find.

BASH: Yes. And, look, there is a real concern, a real question about voting by mail but the concern and the question is about whether or not the post office can make it happen, which is what the hearing that has been going on in Capitol Hill this morning was all about.

So, again, you know, if he really was interested in making sure that vote by mail wasn't problematic, what he would do would be to focus on making sure that the post office has as much money, as much personnel, everything that they need to make sure that the most fundamental right of Americans in this democracy, the right to vote, can work well during a pandemic.

COOPER: Yes. His own postmaster general, who is a huge -- who is a mega donor to Trump, has under oath encouraged people, said mail-in voting is an absolute right. We're going to do it well, we're going to do it efficiently. And people should be able to mail-in vote and have that right.

Ryan Nobles, I mean, the idea that the president again continues and, again, we're going to hear this a lot, of course, because the president has repeatedly said this, that Democrats or Democratic governors want a shutdown to hurt the economy, to hurt the president or want to keep schools closed in order to hurt the president's re- election chances is just ludicrous on its face.

I mean, the idea that a governor is going to anger and upset every parent in his or her state and every person who is out of a job in their state by keeping things shut down or keeping schools shut down to hurt the president is just ludicrous.

[13:05:03]

If a governor did that, that would not be politically beneficial for that governor.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONEDNT: We covered the whole debate over whether or not the convention was ultimately going to be held here as they were battling over this throughout the summer. And there were these numerous instances where President Trump essentially was baiting Governor Roy Cooper, trying to back him into a corner to allow him to hold this big, massive convention, where they were going to pack as many as 20,000 people into a room with no social distancing, they didn't want any kind of a no mask ordinance.

And this was at a time where North Carolina's coronavirus case numbers were skyrocketing. And it was among the most difficult time for the state to grappling with this. And Cooper and his team attempted to come to the table and draw some sort of a compromise with President Trump and his team and President Trump in the Republican National Committee just would not budge in any way, shape or form.

Then they tried to move it to Florida, where he had a friendly Republican governor, or a friendly mayor of the city of Jacksonville, and they quickly determined it couldn't be pulled off there as well. And that's now why they're and dealing with a scaled back convention because it just practically didn't make any sense regardless of whether or not it was a Republican governor or a Democratic governor.

And one other point I'll make, Anderson, about the president's speech here today, it's so interesting because all of his aides leading up to the convention this week and on the heels of the Democratic National Convention just hammered Joe Biden and the Democrats for putting on a convention that they claimed was all doom and gloom, that talked about all the bad things going on in this country and didn't talk enough about the hope and the future.

And they said that this convention this week was going to be about that optimism, about the great American comeback, about all the work that President Trump has done over the past four years and what he'll do if he's able to stay in office for another four years. And here, the president of the United States, has his first opportunity to speak this week at the convention and all it is, is a long list of grievance. There wasn't one hopeful or optimistic thing in that speech at all.

So this is the setting, this is the launch of this convention that they claim is going to be all about optimism and hope. Anderson?

COOPER: Yes. And, John King, the idea that what we're going to be hearing this week is a unified message of America as a shining city on the hill and our greatest days are ahead of us. And, obviously, the president had said a little bit about things to come roaring back. But, clearly, this president, what is in his DNA is to paint a picture of America, land of carnage, a dystopian America. The irony is this time -- I mean, he said that at his swearing-in.

This time, he has been presiding over this America now for three years. And if he is painting a picture of this is America in chaos, crisis, cities out of control, this is the country that he is the leader of. He is no longer just some observer, real estate, you know, investor who's an observer criticizing things.

KING: You raised right there fundamentally the challenge for this president, because he was the disruptive outsider last time. They were all these character questions about him in 2016 but the American people in enough places, he lost the popular vote by quite a large margin. But there are enough people in enough places who wanted something different in Washington, they wanted Washington disrupted, they voted for Donald Trump and he got his Electoral College victory. Now, he is the beleaguered incumbent, and you're right, he often almost seems like Pontius Pilate. These things happening in America, how could they be happening? Well, he is the president of the United States.

Now, he can beat on Democratic cities and can try to appeal to law and order by saying that governor or that mayor should do things different, and he will. He will go after Democrats who try to defund the police. That's a perfectly logical debate in the country. The question is, is he misrepresenting Joe Biden's view when he does that? That's a challenge for us.

But it's just much more difficult. The psychology of an incumbent election is much more difficult and the president is trying to say, re-elect me, at a time, some of it is because of his decisions, his inaction in February, his inaction March. We still don't have a national testing plan. We still don't really have a good national schools plan. Some of this is on the president, some of it is bad things happen to every president. But he is the incumbent right now.

And can you convince people, give me four more years, when they don't like what has happened in the country for the last seven months? It is an enormous challenge for this president. Can he still eke out an Electoral College win again? Yes, he can. For Democrats who look at the poll numbers and say, we've got this, don't be naive.

But the president -- the incumbency part is an enormous challenge as he has this convention, which is why to Ryan's and to Dana's point, if they want to be optimistic, if they want to convince people the worst is almost behind us or it is behind us, you need to be upbeat about that, but that's just not the president's DNA, Anderson.

And, again, I would just urge, he programs people not to believe us, right? He's telling voters, don't believe what you hear from the media, especially on this voting thing, the most sacred piece of our democracy, use this, use this, do your homework.

[13:10:07]

And, people out there, if you don't believe us, reach out to a friend in Washington, in Utah, in Republican Florida, which just held a successful primary using a lot of mail-in ballots. This is -- it is not the way the president portrays it. It simply isn't and it's reckless.

COOPER: Yes. Thanks to all of you. North Carolina, the host state for today's RNC activities, is just one of just 11 states showing an increase in COVID-19 cases compared to a week ago. Nationwide, the average for new cases, it's continuing a downward trend, that is a good news. Sunday's total just over 34,000, the lowest level in two months.

And for the first time in 26 days, the average number of Americans who are dying from COVID has fallen below 1,000. And the nation's colleges and universities, the race to stop the spread leading to swifter and harsher punishments in some schools, Central Michigan University threatening to fine or suspend students who host or attend large gatherings, while two fraternities in the University of Kansas have been issued cease and desist, plus, a 14-day public health ban for hosting events this past weekend.

All of that, as several new developments spark concern about how politicized the process of treating the virus and finding a vaccine has become. We'll have more of that in a moment.

Scientists in Hong Kong claim to have discovered the world's first case of a human being re-infected with coronavirus. While this could have big implications on the development of vaccines, other researchers are holding up a caution sign.

I want to talk about it more with Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

So what does this tell us about re-infection? Because the idea of re- infection is somebody has the virus and then later on gets re-infected and gets it again. What does that tell us about whether a vaccine will work?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Anderson, you might think when you hear this news, oh no, when, really, what we should be thinking is, oh, yes, this is actually good news.

And I also want to note, we said that this is the first case, the first documented case. There may be all sorts of re-infection out there and we just don't know. They sort of caught this guy.

But let's take a look at what actually happened. So, in Hong Kong, a 33-year-old man tested positive for COVID-19 on March 26th and then tested positive again August 15th. So that's the, oh, no. Here is the, oh, yes, part. In March he was sick with fever, cough, headache, sore throat for three days. In August, he was asymptomatic. The only reason that he was caught is that he was caught on an airport screening. That's why he was caught.

And so what this tells us, according to the vaccinologist and the infectious disease folks I've talking to is this is good news. This shows that when you infected the second time, it's okay to get infected. There's nothing wrong with getting infected. We don't people want to get severely ill and this guy was asymptomatic.

That is good news for a vaccine. A vaccine is made to mimic natural infection. So if the vaccine mimics this man, and this is just one case, but if it mimics this man, it means that the second time around, you'll get infected but won't get sick.

Again, fine to be infected, we don't want people to become severe ill.

COOPER: But, I mean, it is not great news, obviously. I mean, it would be better news if you didn't get infected a second time. Because if you're infected and asymptomatic, you can still -- from a -- I don't know with -- can you still spread the virus the second time?

COHEN: You might be able to spread it and that's something that they have to work on. You're absolutely right about that. But I think sometimes that we think a vaccine is something that gives us this armor, for example, the measles vaccine. If you get the measles vaccine, you have about a 97 percent chance of never getting infected with measles again. That's sterilizing immunity.

That is actually not always the case for all vaccines. For example, the flu vaccine doesn't -- hopefully, it will keep you from getting re-infected but it might also just keep you from getting very sick. So, not all vaccines sort of as magical or -- I shouldn't say magical because it's true, but are not as complete as the measles vaccine.

But you are right. I think the thinking has been for quite a while that this is a coronavirus, it's like the common cold, which is also a coronavirus. So I think the thinking has been for quite some time, yes, re-infection is possible. What we're seeing here documentation of it.

COOPER: All right, and it's fascinating. Elizabeth Cohen, I appreciate it, thank you.

Dr. Peter Hotez is a Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He's also developing a vaccine for COVID.

Doctor, you tweeted that you think this emergency use authorization for plasma treatment may have, in your words, an ulterior motive to lower the bar for those authorizations, in general, in order to push what they really want, an emergency authorization for COVID vaccine.

So, can you explain what you mean by that? Because CNN has learned that in July, Trump administration officials, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, they raised the possibility of an emergency use authorization for a vaccine before phase three trials are completed, and that AstraZeneca effort could be ready by September. I wonder your reaction.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, that work, that gives me a lot of pause for concern and I'm worried.

[13:15:01]

So, the reason I raised that concern about the emergency use authorization for the plasma treatment was not necessarily around the UEA for plasma treatment per se but this is the first, to my knowledge, time they have done it for a biologic, which uses a different branch of the FDA called CBER, the same branch that would authorize a vaccine, since I'm worrying that they're doing a dry run, that they're actually considering emergency use authorization for vaccines.

And I don't want to see that. What I want to see is that all of these vaccines for Operation Warp Speed go through the full process of a phase three trial to show that these vaccines actually work and that they're safe. You could potentially do an expedited review but it's really important that the scientific community have full access to all of the information about those Operation Warp Speed vaccines before they're approved and licensed.

COOPER: I mean, what is the danger of not having a phase three trial? Because if they've had a phase one and phase two, a lot of people may hear, well, okay, look, it's bureaucrats who want to make sure to do a phase three when, in fact, look, this is an emergency, the country is in dire straits, let's just get this thing out there?

HOTEZ: Well, those phrase three trials, which generally involve 30,000 individuals divided among placebo and the actual vaccine, were carefully crafted in order to maximize the likelihood we'll see that the vaccines actually work and if there's going to be a serious safety flare signal that we'll see it in a 30,000-person trial.

If you try to release the vaccine ahead of time, say, with only a few thousand, you could start seeing safety problems after you're starting to immunize large numbers of individuals. And that would undermine confidence not only in that particular vaccine but all the Operation Warp Speed vaccines, and even our entire vaccine supply.

And we have seen this happen all around the world just last year, in Samoa, in Philippines, where there was a lack of confidence and then parents weren't vaccinating their kids against measles and resulted in thousands of deaths.

So things could go wrong very quickly if we try to rush this. And the point is we don't have to. We've got one of the most secure systems for safety and efficacy testing of vaccines the world has ever seen and it's been fine-tuned over decades involving not only phase three trials but the oversight by committees of the FDA, like Burbach and ACIP through CDC, and also a post-licensure system of monitoring and it works and it's robust. And if you mess with that, it could only cause trouble, likely.

COOPER: Dr. Peter Hotez, I appreciate it, thank you very much.

The RNC not even releasing a platform at this year's convention but instead pledging support for whatever the president wants to do in his second term.

Plus, the president's sister calling out his lying, his lack of principles and cruelty in secret recordings. I'll speak with the Art of the Deal co-author, or actually the author of the book.

And anger grows in Wisconsin after a disturbing video shows police shooting a black man in the back at close range with his children in the vehicle. We'll take you there.

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[13:20:00]

COOPER: President Trump has now been formally nominated to lead his party for another four years on day one at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. We just heard the president's largely negative remarks that were riddled with false claims, unfortunately. The president is expected to buck tradition, making appearance every night of this week's Republican National Convention.

I want to talk about this Tony Schwartz. He is the author of the Art of the Deal.

Tony, first, I'm wondering what you make of the president breaking with tradition, insisting on speaking every night at the convention, probably not much of a surprise. More of a surprise, the GOP not adapting a platform and basically just backing whatever the president wants to do, which he has not been able to really elaborate on in two interviews.

TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-AUTHOR, THE ART OF THE DEAL: Well, they have stood down for four years, no surprise, they're standing down again. You're right that it's not surprising. And I think the idea of no platform is a reflection of the fact that there is no guidance to a platform from a man who has no platform other than some of your previous guests have said, grievance. The more fear, Trump is now singly focused on the notion that the more fear he can create, the more chaos he can create, the better the chance he has. I don't necessarily believe that's true but it's all he's got left.

COOPER: So what you expect then for the next 75-plus days or 70-plus days, however long it is until the election, it sounds like you are expecting kind of a scorched earth attempt by the president.

SCHWARTZ: Yes, I am. The question, the reason I smiling is because I'm wondering whose earth gets scorched. Because, on the one hand, Trump is going to get more and more extreme, every time you think you've seen the limits of what he can do, his own fear, his own concern, I think, not least that he will end up in jail if he's not the president, increases what he's willing to do. He is so openly the things he's been accused of being before now, such as racist.

But on the other hand, the person Trump's earth -- the person that Trump is most capable of scorching is himself. And so the idea that his being at this convention for four nights, fine for his base, but we know his base is not enough to win the election. He will almost surely step on himself multiple times during these four days, so the more of Trump the better, although it isn't my plan to watch.

[13:25:06]

COOPER: The president's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, these recordings of her bitterly criticizing her brother when secretly recorded by with her niece, Mary Trump, in one of the tapes, Barry was commenting on how her brother operated as president. I just want to play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY, DONALD TRUMP'S SISTER: The goddamn tweet and the lies, oh, my God, I'm talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying, the -- holy shit.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: It's kind of remarkable that if this was a -- you know, somebody in President Obama's family when he was president, this would have been a huge story. This would have been something that, you know, people were stunned by and said, oh, my God, opponents of the president would have used. I don't know if it's just that people know who Donald Trump is, for better, for worse, it is extraordinary to have the president's sister saying these things who is, herself, a respected federal judge, who's just retired.

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think one of the dangers running up to this election, if you believe it's important for Trump to be defeated, is that we are somewhat anesthetized to any outrage, to any law that gets broken, to any number of lies that get told. There is nothing that's surprising with Trump anymore.

And that isn't good because you do get numb and you stop recognizing that any given one of, say, the five things, six things that have happened in the past week, Bannon getting accused, Kellyanne Conway leaving the White House because her daughter is, you know, acting out, actually saying a lot of truth, all of these things that have happened are one after another and important in their own right. But when you get a flood of them, you tend to stop noticing. So keeping that reality check alive is critical.

So, my fantasy, Anderson, is that after Claudia Conway comes forward, now Baron Trump comes forward. I mean, who could come forward that his base or at least the undecided voters would actually believe? Because you certainly wouldn't have voted for him on the basis of what Maryanne said, so maybe Baron, maybe his wife? Not sure who it is.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, I hope families are left out of this because it's going to get ugly, as you said. Tony Schwartz, I really appreciate --

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think it's important --

COOPER: Yes?

SCHWARTZ: I think it's really important that families have -- that members of the family have spoken up. I admire the bravery of Mary Trump very much.

COOPER: Tony Schwartz, thank you.

One of the most famous athletes in the world is now isolating after a coronavirus scare.

Plus, the postmaster general grilled by House Democrats today as he denies accusations that he is trying to suppress voters.

Plus, protests erupt in Wisconsin after a horrifying video shows a police officer shooting a black man at the back at close range and as his children sat inside the car. What we led up to this moment, what we know so far, ahead.

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[13:30:00]