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Trump To Make His Case For Second Term Tonight At RNC; 17 States See Decline In New Cases; Reports: NBA To Resume, Finish Remainder Of Season. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired August 27, 2020 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To divide us by race and color has made America a more dangerous environment.
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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: President Trump closes out the Republican Convention tonight making his case for a second term against the backdrop of a pandemic, racial unrest, and now a hurricane. The speech will be delivered from the White House south lawn, capping a norm busting convention that routinely use government property for political purposes.
The White House says 1,000 to 1,500 guests will attend that despite coronavirus guidelines frowning on large gatherings. Last night was the Vice President's big night.
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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Trump is a doer. We rebuilt our military and moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem. Unemployment rates for African Americans and Hispanic Americans hit the lowest level ever recorded. We also returned American astronauts to space on an American rocket for the first time in nearly 10 years.
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KING: The Vice President mixing frequent praise of his boss with a dire law and order warning.
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PENCE: Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in America's cities. The hard truth is, you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now. Jeff, those are the Vice President's words. What are we expecting from the boss, the President tonight?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we do know that the President is going to deliver a long speech tonight, really accepting the nomination. But more than that, capping off this four-day Republican National Convention in a way that we've never seen before from the south lawn of the White House.
We were out there earlier this morning. And it really is remarkable to be in the people's house, and it is the new floor of the Republican National Convention. But we are getting a look at some of the remarks of the President is going to be delivering this evening. Take a look at this one excerpt this campaign has just released a few moments ago.
It says this, the Republican Party goes forward united and determined and ready to welcome millions of Democrats, independents, and anyone who believes in the Greatness of America and the righteous heart of the American people.
Now, there's no question, the Republican Party is united. That is something that was not necessarily the case four years ago. Republicans at least rank and file are largely behind the President. The other is a bit of an open question here. If you were just arriving on Planet Earth today and listening to all the Republican messaging of this week, that might be true.
Independence may be more likely to come out perhaps even some moderate Democrats. But it is the record of this President that is going to be on the ballot. The referendum here is on the President. So for all this talk about, you know, the America being scary and Joe Biden being a scary place, this is Trump's America. That's what election is on the ballot now, so impossible to a rewrite the record of the last four years. But it is true that some Republicans who were maybe on the fence over the last week or so he may have brought them home here with the call of safety and protecting Americans. That's the question going out of this convention, John.
KING: To that point, it'll be interesting to see what the President says tonight about Kenosha, about the larger racial reckoning in the country right now. The Vice President is on the front page in Wisconsin, a battleground state, obviously, where the Jacob Blake shooting played out. You see the protests here. You see the Vice President there. But in Wisconsin, a big battleground state a little bit, is blowback the right word to the Vice President today?
ZELENY: Well, I think there is. And we're just learning something very interesting. The Vice President was scheduled to be in Wisconsin again on Saturday. That would be a second visit. And as many weeks, he was delivering a commencement address, which is long but on the books at Wisconsin Lutheran College. He was disinvited from giving that speech. They said simply because of the escalating events in Kenosha, the Vice President is not welcome there. So the local pastor will be giving these remarks as well. An example of, you know, someone wanting to, you know, essentially take down the rhetoric, some students and alumni were concerned about Mike Pence's presence there. But it speaks to another reality. It speaks to going forward in Wisconsin. What have the events of Kenosha done? We don't know. It certainly has agitated both sides, politically speaking, riled up both sides.
But the fact that the sitting Vice President cannot go to a Lutheran college and deliver a commencement address and give an uplifting unifying message, certainly says something going forward. So the 10 electoral votes in Wisconsin remain some of the most important. But that's not all, so going out of this convention, has the President been able to reset his campaign? We'll find out but I think at least into a one respect when you talk to Republicans, even though some officials and others are endorsing Joe Biden, the rank and file Republicans may have come home during this convention.
But John, we know this is a base election. There are still some voters in the middle. We have to see how this all shakes out as they process both sides here. But this speech tonight from the White House complete with fireworks at the end over the National Mall will be unlike anything we've ever seen, John.
KING: Unlike and then the conventions turn the page, we move on to debate season. Let's move on to the Democrats now. Jeff Zeleny, thank you. The Democrats want to draw a contrast on this, the President's big night. The vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, plans a speech cashing the incumbent as a failed leader especially when it comes to the pandemic.
CNN's MJ Lee joins us now live with more. What do we expect from Senator Harris?
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we are expecting a pre battle of sorts from Senator Harris to President Trump's speech this evening. We are told that Senator Harris wants to talk about what they are calling a profound failure of leadership that they're seeing from President Trump, particularly when it comes to the administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic and really trying to draw that contrast between the Biden-Harris ticket and the Trump administration.
[12:40:01]
This is something of course we have been seeing for the past several weeks. And John, all of this comes on a day when the Republican National Convention is hardly the biggest news. We have seen Hurricane Laura obviously, pummeling the Gulf Coast. It is going to cost lots of people their livelihoods and their homes. Of course, the COVID-19 crisis, and the pandemic is an ongoing crisis that the nation is facing and then of course, the shooting of Jacob Blake that has unleashed protests. This is something that a campaign aide confirmed to CNN this morning, Senator Harris will address when she speaks here in Washington D.C. in just a couple of hours. We actually heard her address this at a virtual campaign event a little bit yesterday. Here's what she had to say.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Joe Biden and I earlier today spoke with Jacob Blake's family and his mother, his father, his sister. And what happened there is so tragic and still represents the two systems of justice in America. There are still two systems of justice America and we need to fight again for that idea that says all people are supposed to be treated equally, which is still not happening.
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LEE: Just a sign that we are really entering the general election, the Biden campaign is rolling out a two-minute ad ahead of the Republican National Convention events this evening. This is something that they hope will help highlight Biden's empathy and leadership and an ad that we are probably going to see across battleground states heading into the weekend as well, John?
KING: Turning the page last night of the Republican Convention on to debates and beyond. MJ Lee, appreciate the live reporting there.
And stay with CNN tonight, our special coverage of the final night of the Republican National Convention starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, again, right here on CNN. Coming up for us, the administration defense the CDC sudden change to its coronavirus testing guidance.
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[12:46:34]
KING: A big change in federal coronavirus testing guidelines is alarming some public health experts. They say it's a bad idea and maybe a deliberate effort to hide the level of new infections as we get closer to the elections. The governors of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey also joining that protest today, but administration officials reject that argument insisting this change is driven by data, not by politics.
More on that controversy in a moment, but first let's just take a look where things stand right now. In our 50 state trend map when it comes to cases, nine states that's the red and the orange trending up means more cases now than a week ago, 23 states that's the base holding steady, 17 states down, fewer cases now than a week ago. The state's trending down include Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, those of course where the big drivers of the summer search through July and early August, so an improving situation there.
If you look at the death trend right now, this is the map legs the cases, still a lot of pain here, 18 states reporting more deaths today than they were a week ago. You see 12 states holding steady in beige and again, 20 states trending down including those big drivers, California, Texas, and Florida there. If you look at the overall case trend, we thought perhaps we regard dropping down below 40,000 on average a day. But spike back up a bit yesterday, the 44,000 plus cases.
So here's the question. This is the peak of the summer surge. Yes, we have come down some but are we in a plateau around 40,000 or can the case count be shoved down more? States that are improving at the moment, again, the three states drove the summer surge numbers when we were looking at 70,000 cases sometimes a day, Arizona has dropped down quite considerably. California has come down substantially, Texas on its way down as well. That's why the case count has dropped from the 70s. But we're still hovering around 40.
One of the questions now is testing. This is the big debate. The CDC easing its guideline saying if you're asymptomatic, you probably don't need to get a test. Well, the seven-day moving average of tests is down a bit. We were around 800,000 tests a day. Now we're dropping down closer to 600,000 tests or plus on average, many people who don't like this change in policy think that is the administration's goal. Fewer tests means fewer eyes on the coronavirus infections out there. Marc Short, the Vice President's chief of staff pushing back saying, this is a smart policy. It has nothing to do with politics.
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MARC SHORT, CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: People were still able to go get test. If their doctor suggested going to test, go do it.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: But why is it the CDC telling you to do that?
SHORT: The guidance that was updated is because there continue to be backlogs in the system with the testing particularly for people who are getting tested or asymptomatic.
CAMEROTA: OK. So it's because of the backlog so you're having to slow it down because it's backlog.
SHORT: No. It's not a matter of slowing down, Alisyn, over 800,000 tests being conducted today.
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KING: Joining us now is Dr. Susan Bailey. She's the president of the American Medical Association. Dr. Bailey, grateful to have you here today for expertise. So the CDC changes the guidelines, you have public health experts saying they view this as dangerous and just counterproductive. You have governors of some states that went through this early New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, saying this is a bad idea. Is this a good idea or horrible idea?
DR. SUSAN BAILEY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Well, John, thanks for having me. And the AMA has emphasized all along during this pandemic that decisions need to be made based on science and data. And we would like to see the science and data behind this change in CDC testing guidelines. We know there's a lot of asymptomatic spread in this disease. That's one of the reasons that we advise people to wear masks and wash hands and keep their distance. [12:50:02]
Here's an example, I saw a patient last week, a Hispanic teenager, his father is an essential worker who brought home COVID-19 to his family. Everybody in the family was tested though they didn't have symptoms. My patient was positive, quarantine for 14 days and it was fine. What -- but that happened in June. What if that had happened this week, and my patient had gone to school later on in the week and exposed who knows how many people. Testing is an important part of the control of asymptomatic spread.
KING: So there are some people and look, unfortunately, because we're in a campaign year and unfortunately, because the administration has some missteps in the past. There are people who question as we get closer to the election where their politics could be part of this. If you have less testing, the President himself has said he wants less testing because there would be fewer cases. Do you think it's possible that politics is at play here that there are people in the administration who hope, if you drop the number of tests as we get closer to the election, we will see in the reported data fewer infections, it doesn't mean there aren't fewer infections in America, we just won't see some of them.
BAILEY: John, I'm not privy to what goes on inside the meeting rooms. And I really don't want to get involved in the politics because I want to stay focused on the science. We need to know if there is an evidence base behind this decision. And it's not just about trying to get fewer tests for whatever reason. We need to see that evidence. Transparency is incredibly important to make patients and physicians trust the public health authorities that they're making decisions in their behalf.
KING: I appreciate your perspective. I didn't mean to put you in a bad political spot. So let me come at it this way then, you know, if you talk to different experts, you get a different answer. But there have been a lot of public health experts from the beginning when the administration says hey, we have 800,000 tests a day now. We're a little bit below that but around 800,000 tests a day now. That's enough. That's enough as a baseline and then you can surge testing. If you have a big cluster here or breakout there, you can surge testing in. Is that enough or are the experts who say actually you need twice that or three times that to have good eyes on the problem, are they right?
BAILEY: I'm not sure that I can put a number on how many tests is the right number, how many is too many and how many isn't enough. The AMA has called for increased testing when appropriate throughout the pandemic. We know there's a shortage of supplies. We know we need to be good stewards of our medical costs. But when a patient needs a test, they need to be able to get it. And patients need to feel confident that their doctors are doing what is in their best interest.
KING: Dr. Susan Bailey is president of the American Medical Association, grateful for your expertise and insights today. Thank you so much.
BAILEY: Thank you.
KING: Thank you.
Up next for us, some breaking news on the NBA season.
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KING: More this hour, the NBA players who had boycotted games in the name of racial justice are now prepared to take the court again. Let's get straight to CNN's Andy Scholes. Andy, it's a big deal right in the middle of the playoffs, a boycott now back?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks that way, John. And, you know, there was certainly questions of whether or not we had seen our last NBA game in 2020. Last night, you know, all three games were called off and then the players held a meeting where ESPN reported that the Lakers players and Clipper players, they voted to not continue with the rest of the NBA season.
But this morning, the NBA Board of Governors and players were all holding separate meetings again. And according to multiple reports, including ESPN, they say that the players have decided to go forward with this season, and that the players are still having discussions amongst themselves. And there's going to be a meeting with the owners on how to move forward with this season concerning social justice issues because, John, you know, the players, we've heard it from many of them, including LeBron James.
I mean, they thought coming to this bubble, you know, that they could shed light on these social justice issues, and they've certainly done that with messages on their jerseys, messages on the court, kneeling is peaceful protest during the national anthem. In their postgame interviews, they've continued to ask for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, but they just feel like their voices have not been heard. And that's why they almost decided to call it quits on this season and just go back home and start fighting for social justice in their hometowns.
But, you know, according to multiple reports, they are going to have to restart the season. No games will be held today. There were three games scheduled for today. They're aiming, according to ESPN, to restart the NBA Playoffs this weekend, John. But we'll wait and see what the players are asking for, because certainly they aren't going to resume under the circumstances they were already playing under.
KING: Right. And you mentioned that, that there are circumstances they were already planning because they had been frustrated, they're trapped in this bubble, which is for their safety. And they've been successful in terms of the safety of the players and to be able to resume the game. But you saw LeBron James tweeting yesterday in language, it's not family friendly, at the President of the United States.
And, you know, obviously, their frustration with police departments in another shooting of another black man by police. So their frustration has been, you mentioned the jerseys and the like, the conversation among them has been how can we do a better job get -- lending our voices to this debate, correct?
SCHOLES: That's correct, John. And, you know, they feel like, you know, what they're doing, I guess, you know, it's not working because it happened again, and that's what the frustration just boiled out seems to move to, well, you know, what, what can we make ownership do. These owners are billionaires. They're in the room with politicians maybe we can finally force real change that way.
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KING: Let's see. We'll get more details on that. Andy Scholes appreciate the breaking news and thanks for joining us today. See you back here this time tomorrow.
