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Family Attorney Says Blake Did Not Have A Weapon In His Car; Two Dead, One Injured In Overnight Shooting In Kenosha; Twenty States Report Decline In New Cases; Official: CDC Pressured "From The Top Down" To Change Guidance On COVID-19 Testing; Trump Convention Spotlights Supporters. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 26, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a busy news day with us. We are at the halfway point now of the Republican Convention.

A very sharp focus so far on the people and places the president sees as pivotal to his re-election chances. Plus a very determined effort to both distort Joe Biden's record and to distort your Coronavirus reality. First thought, this is a day of angst and anxiety here in the United States.

Hurricane Laura now a category 3 storm sending millions in Texas and Louisiana into a rush to get ready or get out. In Wisconsin, a new fracture over how this country threats black men and a new debate over line between making a point through protests and undermining your argument through destruction.

Kenosha is the latest tinderbox here in the United States. Two people were killed and a third wounded last night in a shooting that during the third night of protests over the police shooting of a black man. The shooting last night took place just before midnight.

Police are trying to sort exactly what happened in that chaotic scene. County is demanding the Governor call up more national guardsmen to police those protests. Jacob Blake was shot by police Sunday seven times. The Blake family attorney says the 29-year-old was trying to stop a fight between two women.

When police followed him to his car and opened fire. His family says Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down. CNN Sara Sidner is live for us on the scene in Kenosha. Sara, what's the latest?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A couple bits of new information, the family attorney talking about whether or not Jacob Blake had a weapon on him? There's been a lot of talk about what led up to the shooting where he ended up being shot in the back seven times by police. So I want to let you hear that and then we'll talk about what happened in the streets here in Kenosha where two people were shot and killed and a third person wounded. First, let's listen to what the attorney is now saying about whether or not Jacob Blake actually had a weapon. Leading up to this altercation with police, where police ended up shooting him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Do we know if Mr. Blake owned a weapon or was in possession of are one?

PATRICK SALVI JR., ATTORNEY FOR JACOB BLAKE'S FAMILY: He did not. So in the vehicle he did not have a weapon. I can't speak directly to what he owned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So you hear there, him saying he did not have a weapon in the vehicle and why that is significant? And this is according, of course, to those who are representing Jacob Blake, why that's significant is there was a lot of questions as to whether or not he was reaching in his car for something that could harm police or not?

His attorney emphatically saying he did not have a weapon inside of that car, where, by the way, his three children were sitting and witnessed all of this. Now I want to jump to what happened in the streets here overnight in Kenosha just quickly.

There was, there is great consternation here in this city that this situation has become so untenable that violence is exploding and now two people are dead. We saw a man with a long gun going down the street. A lot of people chasing after him trying to grab on to him, and it turns out that indeed he ended up shooting someone and you see it on camera.

And we are now sort of hearing there's a manhunt under way for this man. There is also, searching for someone else possibly who ended up shooting someone in the head. We talked to a witness today who witnessed all of that and more on that coming up in a bit.

KING: Sara Sidner for us live on the ground in Kenosha. Sara, grateful for the live reporting keep in touch with us. Let's continue the conversation now with one of the community leaders concerned about all this, the Kenosha County Supervisor Andy Berg.

Mr. Berg, thank you for being with us. Supervisor Berg, I should say. Let's walk through this a lot to talk about. Number one, the county has asked for more National Guard troops an increase in the National Guard presence to try to prevent what happened last night. What is response from the Governor? Do you have one?

ANDY BERG, KENOSHA COUNTY SUPERVISOR: I have not heard a response from the Governor as to additional troops. I know we have doubled our troops yesterday in the 125 on Monday to the 250 yesterday. As to the additional beyond that I'm not aware of. KING: And what do you know and are you getting information that you think as quickly as you need about what happened last night? Obviously, you've seen the video. You're there in the community. You had these protests in the street and then there was a shooting. Do we know what caused it and who was the person who opened fire?

BERG: Well, there was apparently a citizens' brigade that decided they wanted to rally up the American patriots, if you want to call them, and come arms to Kenosha to protect our city. We didn't ask them to come here.

[12:05:00]

BERG: We don't need them here, as was the result of last night is what you saw.

KING: Are you certain they're not from Kenosha, when you say "they came here"?

BERG: Well, I'll say the shooters not from Kenosha, the suspect, but others in our community, yes; they did show up with long guns most certainly.

KING: One of the ways to perhaps dial back the protests, those mad about the shooting of Mr. Blake is to get results from the investigation. Where does that stand?

BERG: Word is - the results are that what you're asking?

KING: Yes. Where is the Kenosha Police Department in the tone of investigation of what happened to Mr. Blake?

BERG: Well, the Kenosha Police Department is not investigating the event because it was a police involved shooting. The state is taking on that investigation. Where that investigation right now, I'm not privy to that information.

KING: Just tell me what's it like to be a leader in the community? You've watched this play out, sadly, in other American cities. You have a black man shot by a police. We have every right to get to an investigation, get to the bottom of all this, but then you have legitimate anger in the streets and then you have the escalation of that into more sadness.

What is it like to be in a community, that I'm assuming if I talk you - ran into you a month ago somewhere you would not bet expecting this to playing out in Kenosha?

BERG: I'm not - I don't know if I wouldn't be expecting it. I wouldn't be surprised. I represent one of the second - the second most diverse district in my county, and it's been talked about. People have talked about what needs to be changed, changes that need to happen in the community and we've failed as elected leaders to make those changes for people in our community.

People are scared right now. People are leaving Kenosha. Residents are leaving Kenosha not only because of the protests but because of what happened last night. Businesses are being burned. A lot of the destruction is happening; it's not from people of Kenosha.

It's people coming in. Everybody - across the board - all residents of Kenosha are asking people to not come here and they're asking residents to stay in their homes so that the world sees that it's not us. It's people coming in.

KING: Supervisor Andy Berg, appreciate your thoughts and perspective today. We'll keep in touch as this plays out and we hope it is more peace tonight in Kenosha.

BERG: Thank you.

KING: Thank you sir. Hurricane Laura now churning through the Gulf of Mexico as a category 3 storm expected to come ashore tonight or very early tomorrow morning as a powerful cat 4. This morning the Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards tweeted, that people "Only have a few hours to prepare and that wherever you are by noon local time, that's coming up, is where you'll have to ride out the storm".

CNN's Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center with the latest. Chad this storm has been intensifying rapidly?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. Exactly what we expected when it got over this warm water the same warm water that had Katrina, Charley and Rita, as you know and Ivan it was the rapid intensification of the warm water in the Southern Gulf of Mexico.

This went from a 65 mile-per-hour storm yesterday about this time to 125. And it's going to 145. John, it's not turning. This is something that I'm very concerned with. I mean, we have it on the left side of this cone, almost the entire time.

European model has said left side of the cone, left side of the cone. We need this to turn. We need this to get to the right, or Houston, millions, millions more people, are going to be in trouble. Now, that said, Lake Charles, if it does turn, you are in trouble.

You are the place where the wind will come in somewhere around 125, 130 miles per hour. And also a storm surge up to 20 feet. You need to be away from the water and away from the wind. There's no good place for this to go.

So I know I said we need it to turn and we don't need it to turn. What I'm saying is that if millions of people in Houston won't be devastated, but this will have to turn and it's not. It's simply isn't making that right-hand turn yet.

We'll continue to see if it does. It is going to be very close to the Beaumont, Port Arthur area. Winds are going to 130, 145. There's no good place for this to land. Once the storm gets in the Gulf of Mexico, John, there's no good place for it. That's what's going to happen here.

It's in the Gulf of Mexico, it's still very strong. Look at the Lake Charles winds. 127. Can you imagine that over downtown Houston? Imagine the windows out of the buildings and things like that? This continues to move to the north, loses some steam, but still Shreveport, 85 miles per hour later on tonight.

So this continues to be a major storm. Major surge and the Hurricane Center calling it un-survivable storm surge at 15 to 20 feet.

KING: Critical warnings there and critical for anybody in the area especially given the unpredictability, as Chad just said. Keep in touch here at CNN and listen to your local officials. Chad, appreciate the update. I'm sure I'll be in touch as we go through the next several hours.

[12:10:00]

KING: And up next for us, the CDC make as major change to its Coronavirus testing guidance and a lot of the experts have concerns.

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KING: Some important new reporting just into CNN about the Coronavirus. The CDC overnight changing its testing guidelines saying if you're asymptomatic you don't need a test even if you think you might have come in to contact with somebody with Coronavirus.

Now we call this, our reporters called the CDC they declined comment referring all comment to the HHS. The senior official though telling our Nick Valencia and Sarah Murray this came from "The top down" more on that in a moment.

Let's look at the latest trends right now as we look through it. If you look at the 50-state map right now you see the orange and red those are the 10 states, 9 going up modestly. One up there in North Dakota going up dramatically that means cases now compared to a week ago, 10 states trending up that's an improvement from a couple of weeks ago without a doubt.

20 states holding steady right now and 20 states trending down including Florida, Texas, Arizona and California those were the four states that were the big drivers in the summer surge.

[12:15:00]

KING: So an improved outlook there especially across those states. If you look at the death trend, slight progress here but still this is a sad map. You have 19 states more deaths now than a week ago. It tends to be a lagging indicator.

16 states holding steady. 15 states, the green states there and again, Texas, California, Florida and Arizona reporting fewer deaths now than a week ago. That's why the numbers are getting better somewhat. The case count number dropping, we've now three day in a row fewer than 40,000 new infections reported in the United States three days in a row.

That is an improving number from peak of the summer surge. It is not a great number if you go back to late May and early June. Should all of these cases have happened part of both the public health and the political debate in the country but it is encouraging to see three days in a row now under 40,000 fewer than 40,000 new infections.

Let's see if that can continue to be pushed down. One of the questions is the positivity rate. When you're taking tests, right? 5.8 percent on Tuesday the public health experts would say you want to shove that first, get it below 5 percent, then try to push it down. So this remains stubborn.

Not as high as it has been not as high as it is here at the peak of the summer surge but still stubborn and high here. If you look at it from a state-by-state prospective, the deeper the blue, the higher the positivity rate so you see Texas, you see Mississippi, you see South Carolina still a lot of states in a deeper shade of blue. That means positivity rate still too high. They need to push that one down.

In terms of the trend of new tests, new tests nationally since June, pretty much a flat line up here, right? Not as high as some public health experts think. The administration says they have the tests that they need. One of the big questions now, is the CDC changing its test guidelines? Dr. Scott Gottlieb Former FDA Commissioner saying that raises some questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: It is not clear why CDC reverses guidance whether it is a new clinical understanding that they have or more likely they're recognizing that they don't have enough testing to keep up with the epidemic and keep up with these case-based interventions in tracking and tracing and so they're trying to prioritize testing towards people who are symptomatic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's discuss with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She joins us now she is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Disease in Massachusetts General Hospital. Doctor, it is good to see you. What is your take on this? Is it a smart move what the CDC is doing essentially relaxing guidance for testing who should get a test and when? Or does it trouble you?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CHIEF OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: Good afternoon, John. I think that we need to fully understand that one of the best interventions we have against COVID-19 right now in addition to masking and distancing is testing. It's the triad; it is the things we need to do.

So anything that advocates for less testing rather than more is probably the wrong move. I want to be very clear, though that after a contact people were not always testing in the right time. So we need to be smart about testing. We need to test smart. We need to test during the right time.

If you were exposed yesterday testing today is not the right time to be testing. So I think that the CDC guidance, I question them and I would say after exposure you need a test. But I do advocate for calling your physician, calling your public health authority to say when is the best time for me to get that test after I've been exposed?

And finally, I want to say where the CDC guidance really falls short is that they speak about anti-body testing, they speak about diagnostic testing and still seven months in we don't have any guidance on surveillance testing. When we have so much asymptomatic disease out there that propagates new infections we need to be doing surveillance testing.

KING: Well, it is - I don't want you to put you in a tough spot. But is there - can you get the motivation behind it? Do you agree with Dr. Gottlieb may be, that they just don't have enough testing so they're trying to early. And I just want to read just for our viewers, so you explain the difference this is the previous guidance.

Testing is recommended for all close contacts of person with SARS COV- 2 infection meaning COVID-19 infections. The new guidance, if you're been in close contact of a person with COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but you do not have symptoms you don't necessarily need a test. So that's an easing, that's my word as a layman, from a medical professional, again, does it make sense, and what's the motive?

DR. WALENSKY: I don't understand the motive. I would agree it probably has something to do with lack of available tests for all those people exposed. The only positive I could say based on science here is to say maybe it's advocating for people to call and get help to try to understand when would be the best time to get the test.

KING: And so one of the other new things that we've seen in the last couple days, is this the proof. The proof of things we've talked about several times in the past. That if you have a big event that is not safe. Guess what? You get a super spreader.

This is the research up in Boston now about that Biogen Conference back at the beginning, very beginning. Now the researchers believe could be responsible for 20,000 cases, as many as 20,000 cases, in the Massachusetts area. Now we have at least 70 cases linked to that Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

[12:20:00]

KING: This is the way the Governor put it yesterday the Governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER (R-MS): It speaks to the power of that virus to move from one person to another to another to another to another if people don't wear masks, don't social distance, don't take seriously the fact that the fundamental strength of COVID-19 is its ability to get from one person to the next quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the Biogen Conference there in Boston was a long time ago. It was at the very beginning but the Sturgis Rally was just a couple of weeks end ago. I was just reading on my way up to set, about a bachelorette party in Rhode Island, mostly people from Massachusetts, super spreader event, are people learning the lessons about this?

DR. WALENSKY: Yes, I would like to think so. Although, when you see some of these big events you worry that they're not. Indeed, the Boston study demonstrated that a third of the first 772 cases probably came from that singular genetic mutation or that singular genetic event that happened at Biogen that then led to propagated to 20,000 new infections.

Indeed, this was the first week of March. We weren't doing a lot of, all the things we know now to do and, boy, do I hope that other people are doing them as they start to gather.

KING: Doctor Walensky, as always, grateful for your time and your insights. Thank you so much.

DR. WALENSKY: Thank you so much.

KING: Up next, the Republican National Convention, a different take on the Coronavirus than your life, and this from the First Lady.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, U.S. FIRST LADY: Whether you like it or not, you always know what he's thinking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[12:25:00]

KING: The Republican Convention is at the halfway point. Vice President Mike Pence is tonight's big headliner. He of course leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force and he of course is fond of saying the president has been smart add decisive from the earliest days of this pandemic. Trying to rewrite your Coronavirus experience is a major convention focus.

One Trump Adviser last night referred to it in the past tense. That's an affront to frontline workers and to parents wrestling now with back-to-school. To her credit, the First Lady candidly acknowledged the disruption and pain. She, too, though, glossed over the many missteps and portrayed her husband, the president, as a man of action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. TRUMP: Donald Trump is not and will not lose focus on you. He loves this country, and he knows how to get things done. As you have learned over the past five years he's not a traditional politician. He doesn't just speak words. He demands action and he gets results.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Conventions most of all tell us what a party thinks it needs to win and where it thinks it needs to win. So let's take a look at this map. Right now as we're half way through the Republican Convention, this is how CNN rates the race. Joe Biden has a significant lead. Look, favored in 200 states that have 268 electoral votes. It only takes 270 to win.

So the president's in a ditch right now he has only 170 electoral votes. But take a breath. Let's look at this from the Republican perspective. These gold states were the toss-up states, right? Ohio, yes, it is in play right now but it has pretty strong Republican DNA. Let's lean it to the president.

North Carolina, same thing, Obama won 2008; Republicans have carried it two times since. Let's just say the president holds that one. Florida, it is always the toss-up, but it does lean Republican and it is getting more Republican. Let's give that to the president.

Georgia Democrats say this is the year. We're going to get Georgia, if that is true we'll see. But it is history says Georgia leans, the DNA is Republican. Same with Arizona, the demographics are changing. Democrats do have a strong chance this year. But if you look at history, you would bet at least for now that Arizona goes Republican.

Now look where we are? If the president can carry those it is 268-259. So Maine one of the two states that picks - its wards electoral votes based the Congressional districts. Could the president pick up this one district? Well, if he did that would get you the race there. Then where are we? 268-260 what's left on the board?

State of Wisconsin does that go blue, and then Joe Biden's your president? If that goes red, Donald Trump wins narrowly, which is why among the speakers last night you had a farmer, and a lobsterman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRIS PETERSON, WISCONSIN DAIRY FARMER: My husband Gary, our family and I, milk 1,000 cows on a dairy farm in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Our entire economy and dairy farming are once again roaring back. One person deserves the credit and our vote. President Donald J. Trump.

JAYSON JOYCE, LOBSTER FISHERMAN: Nominates generation lobster fisherman from Swans Island, Maine. I make my living from lobster fishing. As long as Trump is president fishing families like mine will have a voice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's discuss now with Dan Balz of "The Washington Post" and Lisa Lerer of "The New York Times." Dan, I want to start with you. I over simplified that a bit looking at the map but that's how the Trump campaign looks at it. They think they can win more than that. They think they can flip Minnesota, for example. They promised to try to compete out in Nevada.

But if you're looking at it from a conservative perspective, Michigan and Pennsylvania, two states the president did flip last time, had been consistent Biden leads a long time, they're looking at a narrow path that includes a very careful targeting?

DAN BALZ, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. I think that's exactly right, John. You know, you honed in on Wisconsin.