Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Claims Biden will Destroy America in Dark Speech; Jacob Blake's Family to Speak during Today's March on Washington; White House Announces Purchase of 150 million Rapid COVID-19 Tests. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 28, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

Racial justice, police violence, politics, all coming to a potential inflection point in America, the divisions getting no better, arguably worse in this country. This morning, the father of Jacob Blake, the man shot multiple times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin in front of three of those children pictured there, gave an emotional interview to CNN describing the first time he spoke to his son in the hospital and noting this fact. His son, though paralyzed from the waist down, is shackled by his leg to his bed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACOB BLAKE SR., FATHER OF JACOB BLAKE: When I got to his side, he grabbed my hands and began to weep, and he told me he thought he was a hallucinating. And then he said, I love you, daddy. Daddy, I love you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that must be so hard to see him in this condition.

BLAKE: Yes. Then his next question was why did they shoot me so many times? And I said, baby, they weren't supposed to shoot you at all.

CAMEROTA: I mean, of course, you don't have an answer to that, and none of us have been given an answer to that?

BLAKE: But we love him. We spread a lot of love in there, and he knows where I live. And he just said, I didn't think you were going to be able to come, and I just reassured him I'm not leaving.

CAMEROTA: And he didn't think you'd be able to come because you live in a different state?

BLAKE: Yes.

There's so many things that bothered me, but when I walked into that room, you know, he's paralyzed from the waist down, why do they have the cold steel on my son's ankle? He can't get up. He couldn't get up if he wanted to. So what's -- that's a little overkill to have him shackled to the bed. That just makes no sense to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Well, also this morning, an attorney for the 17-year-old charged with killing two protesters, there he is with his weapon, says that his client acted in self-defense, Kyle Rittenhouse is facing multiple homicide charges. He will be in court for the first time this morning.

After days of unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake, thousands expected on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that is a live picture there, for another march on Washington. 57 years after that iconic moment when Martin Luther King gave his I have a dream speech on those same steps, and yet so many of those issues remain.

Also today, President Trump hits the campaign trail again. After accepting his party's nomination last night on the White House lawn, the people's house turned into something of a campaign event, his speech was full of dire predictions if Joe Biden becomes president, and we should note riddled with false claims about his response to the pandemic.

There's a lot to go to this morning, but first let's go to Shimon Prokupecz for more on 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. He's going to be in court this morning. What will we see this morning?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that could happen at any minute, Jim. He's supposed to appear -- it's going to be via Zoom. Courtrooms are closed because of the coronavirus. So he's going to appear via Zoom with his lawyer and the prosecutors. It's an extradition hearing because he has to be brought back to Kenosha to face charges, the two counts of murder and then the other count on shooting a third individual.

So this could be a quick hearing. If he waives his extradition hearing, it could go quick. If it doesn't, then it could take a little longer. As you said, a man by the name of John Pierce, a lawyer, a noted conservative attorney, has claimed to be representing him, a man by the name of John Pierce, and he told NBC that, quote, this was classic self-defense and we are going to prove it. We will obtain justice for Kyle no matter how hard the fight takes or how long it takes.

I should note that, you know, I spoke to court staff here.

[10:05:02]

They said they have received phone calls from four different people claiming to represent Rittenhouse. So we'll see exactly who actually appears for him when he does show up in court, which could happen at any minute, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Listen, what's happening is there are some on the far right who are rallying around Rittenhouse, calling him a hero. Folks should be aware of that. Watch it.

Shimon, I want to talk about the conditions under which Jacob Blake is being held now. He's shackled to his bed, his father says, though he's paralyzed from the waist down. Have police given any explanation for why that is?

PROKUPECZ: No. We have no explanation from the Kenosha Police, who would be the ones charging him if they were charging him for something would be the ones responsible for watching over him because if he's shackled, that means he's in custody and they would have responsibility for him. So far, they have not answered those questions. I emailed the D.A. who is overseeing the entire investigation. He has not responded.

When you think about everything that has happened in this case, for him to be laying in that kind of situation, in that position and to be shackled really doesn't make any sense. So, hopefully, at some point, they can explain to us.

SCIUTTO: Very briefly, Shimon, do we know if Rittenhouse is shackled as he is being held in custody?

PROKUPECZ: Well, he is in custody in a jail, at a juvenile facility. So I would assume that his appearance, he will not be shackled because he's not actually being brought to court, but I don't know, you know. We're yet to see how he's going to look once he appears.

SCIUTTO: It's worth checking. Shimon Prokupecz, thanks very much.

President Trump is back on the campaign trail today, his first rally since accepting the Republican nomination last night.

CNN's Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins us now. Jeff, an acceptance speech for a re-election typically far more optimistic. But I have to tell you, listening to it last night, it recalled his inauguration speech, right, talking about American carnage. Of course, the president has been in charge for four years but he is making the claim that all this will be worse, I suppose, under Joe Biden.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It certainly did have some of those same themes that his inauguration had but certainly one difference was Joe Biden, mentioning him some 41 times during the course of a 71-minute address.

So, really, what the president was trying to do is put an exclamation point on what Republicans have been trying to do all week long at their national convention. And that is essentially re-branding the president, much of which through a revisionist history about the handling of the coronavirus and other matters and the economy as well as, you know, some speakers are trying to put a softer edge on the president.

We saw Ivanka Trump there saying, I wish you could see him working behind the scenes, but she took a couple of digs at the vice president as well. But it was the branding of Joe Biden that President Trump certainly was seizing after. There was some fear mongering with that law and order message is something that he seems to have settled on here going forward in the next 67 days of this campaign.

So the question I have, has he done anything to improve -- has the president done anything to improve his standing among independent voters, among women voters, among senior voters? That's one thing that we'll keep an eye on.

But, Jim, the biggest thing, of course, we saw very few masks there, no social distancing. We're just getting word in now that four people tested positive on the first day of the RNC meeting in Charlotte. Mecklenburg County in North Carolina is reporting out this morning that four people out of about 700 tested positive. We'll see if we ever find out the events of last evening if that led to any positive test case or not, but certainly not a sign of leadership there in terms ever no masks and no social distancing. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, Tulsa rally, there were some infections that followed that, including to the staff of the president and Secret Service. Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much.

Joining me now is CNN's Senior Political Commentator, former Republican U.S. Senator Rick Santorum. Rick, thanks for coming on this morning.

RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. Yes, thank you.

SCIUTTO: We heard a lot of doom and gloom last night about the possibility of a Biden presidency. I wonder, given that this president has been in charge for four years, he warned of American carnage four years ago in his inauguration speech. Should the president take responsibility for any of the violence or division that we're seeing today?

SANTORUM: Look, I think everybody has some role in taking responsibility and certainly the president and some of his rhetoric, you know, would fit into that category, But, look, there's -- as there always is, there's two sides to every story.

And, look, I thought the president's speech, candidly, for the president was pretty standard political fare. I mean, it was not -- it was what you would expect from a president who is going to defend his record, who is going to say, you know, all the positive things he's done. I don't know too many presidents go out there and apologize for everything that they have done.

They highlight the good things that they have done and they talk about, you know, the good things that they are going to do and they contrast it with Joe Biden with 47 years of experience in Washington.

[10:10:00]

There's a long, long record there. And I think he did a very good job, actually an absolutely necessary job to sort of lay the lumber to Joe a little bit. I think the convention was actually fairly light on its criticism of Biden compared to the Democratic Convention's criticisms of Trump.

And I think he needed to sort of recast Joe Biden as, you know, as what he is, a career politician, 47 years and record of not -- of actually getting a lot of things wrong and doing a lot of things wrong. And now, sort of having moved which he has clearly, you know, he's the most progressive candidate who has ever run for president and sort of casting a vision of what this new Joe Biden is going to be.

SCIUTTO: Well, I mean, that's the caricature. I mean, the fact is many of his positions are more centrist than the president described, and he did say he was going to be a destroyer of America. So it wasn't that --

SANTORUM: Jim, even if they are more -- they may be more centrist than the president -- he president is describing. But there's no doubt that Joe Biden and the Democrats are running on is the hardest left agenda that's ever been run in this country.

SCIUTTO: I'm just saying that many of the positions the president claims Biden has, he does not actually have. But let's set aside for a moment. I'm curious. I get -- I think many commentators get, both Democratic and Republican, get the law and order message as you've seen violence on many American streets. Given the depth of feeling though right now -- and you see this, remember, I mean, Colin Kaepernick take a knee, that was an isolated move and is a somewhat fringe movement. And it's gone fairly broad scale, right? Multiple sports, but not just sports, America's view of Black Lives Matter has changed remarkably over that time.

Given that depth of feeling right now and the breadth of that, does the president risk further galvanizing, particularly black voters against him, and he's tried to reach out to them, by not addressing it in some way? I spoke to Tim Murtaugh, his campaign spokesperson, who said that the president was going to address the killing of Blake and he didn't. Does the president risk not getting it right by not acknowledging that heartache?

SANTORUM: Yes. Look, as you -- as you see from the president's speeches, he's not particularly good at acknowledging those types of things. I mean, he just -- he's not good at it. And he won't do it, and I think he won't do it because he's not good at it and it doesn't come across as genuine.

So, you know, when you're not good at something and your speech is inconsistent with how you're feeling, I think he feels that -- that the more serious issue out there to the American public, and I'm telling you how he feels, is the issue of violence in the streets and civil unrest. And that these other issues, while important, you know, he -- he doesn't see them as important to the country.

And you may say, well, that's wrong, but I think that's where he comes down.

SCIUTTO: Well, pandemic, too, which, of course, he claims success there, but I get your point on law and order. By the way, my mistake, I said killing of Blake, I should have said grave wounding of Blake. Rick Santorum, thanks very much for your time.

SANTORUM: My pleasure, Jim. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Right now, Jacob Blake's father and mother are here other in Washington, D.C. expected to seek in just a matter of hours in front of thousands of people, this as the nation commemorates the 57th anniversary of the march on Washington, that, of course, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous I have a dream speech. Here we are, 57 years later, a lifetime, and yet many of these issues remain, and perhaps you might even say some of them worse then, which is remarkable to see.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is there. I imagine that's sentiment you're hearing a lot on those steps this morning, Suzanne, is things that folks thought their grandparents have taken care of are still an issue today.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really quite remarkable, Jim. I mean, I've spoken to a lot of people here and including just folks in D.C. who say they have had their own issues with police brutality and they've been speaking, but also very famous people, Martin Luther King III, who had an opportunity to speak for about 30 minutes or so as well as Deborah Watt. She is the cousin of Emmett Till. And they too talk about the fact that this is an issue and challenge that was 57 years ago, nearly six decades, that they are talking about police brutality, racial injustice, jobs and voting rights.

And so this hits home for so many people, both those who are locally here who have never told their stories but also the names who have now become familiar household names. You're going to hear from not only Reverend Al Sharpton but you'll also hear from King and the family members of those who have been slain, and now we know their names. We're talking about George Floyd. We're talking about Jacob Blake. We're talking about Breonna Taylor. These are people that we know about, and this is part of a movement success that we can talk about this.

[10:15:05]

I talked to Deborah Watts, and she said that the thing that is most important with the case of Emmett Till is not just to come out and say, we want change, but to be very specific about the change. For the case of Emmett Till, she says it's about reopening that case, holding people accountable who are still alive today. That is the message, Jim. Do what you can. Do whatever you can to make a change. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes. I would imagine if back then there was video of Emmett Till's killing as you have now, right, in the age of cell phones, smart phones.

Suzanne Malveaux, good to have you there. We look forward to hearing more. Thanks very much.

Other news we're following this morning, could a coronavirus test that gives results in as little as 15 minutes and is very simple to take, be a game-changer? There is some skepticism so let's get to the questions here. I'll speak to Sanjay Gupta.

Plus, demonstrators have been marching in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and across the country, calling for racial equality and justice. And now we're learning that top Pentagon leaders have been watching, and we're going to tell you why. You'll want to hear this.

Plus, it's a stunning message from the mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana to the residents who evacuated ahead of Hurricane Laura. Look and leave, he says. Just the devastation, so incredible, it may take weeks before residents are even able to return and stay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: The White House says it will buy 150 million new rapid coronavirus tests, but officials have not said where or when those could be deployed, this after the FDA approved a new test from Abbott Labs, which the company says can detect an infection in just 15 minutes without the need for a lab. There are questions about its accuracy.

CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now with more.

Sanjay, I spoke with Dr. Michael Osterholm, who I know you know well, last hour, and he said that this test is no more accurate than a similar rapid flu test, which has a low accuracy rate. What do we know about how accurate this one is?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've looked at some of this data pretty carefully. And keep in mind, first of all, this is a test known as an antigen test. It has emergency use authorization. It's not the first test to get emergency use authorization that is an antigen test. But we wanted to really understand how it works and how they got at some of this data that they are quoting. Here is what we found. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: This is what most people immediately think of when they hear of COVID testing. Besides a nasal or oral swab, the sample can also be saliva. The goal is to get a respiratory secretion. That sample is then typically sent to a lab and under goes PCR or polymerase chain reaction testing, considered to be the gold standard of diagnostics.

It's an extremely accurate technique because PCR amplifies the amount of genetic material in the sample, making it much easier for scientists to spot the genetic material of something like the novel coronavirus. Think of it like this. Instead of looking for a needle in a haystack, amplification makes a haystack full of needles. But in order for that process I just described to happen, it can take hours. And to get the results back can sometimes take days. And if you're in the middle of a pandemic, speed is of the essence.

Which is why the test I'm about to describe may be a game-changer. It's called a rapid antigen test, and here is how it works. Instead of amplifying the genetic material of the virus, this test just has to spot proteins of the virus.

The sample doesn't have to go to a lab, doesn't have to be amplified. It's a lot less complicated, and as a result, a lot faster.

This new test known as the Binex just required a swab. That sample is then applied to a strip of nitrocellulose paper that already has the virus' antibodies embedded on it. A solution is then applied and then you can't see this happening but the sample starts to make its way across the paper.

If your sample has the virus in it, it will react to the antibody on the strip and light up. Think of it like a pregnancy test. In this case two lines are positive, one line negative. There's no additional machinery needed.

Now, experts will say the challenge of creating a test like this, you want antibodies that are sensitive enough to actually find the virus as it's coming across the paper. You don't want to miss it. Otherwise that would be a false negative.

On the other hand, you also have to have antibodies that are highly specific to this particular virus. You don't want it showing up as positive for another coronavirus, for example. That would be a false positive.

When we talked to the folks at Abbott, they say this test is 97 percent accurate for people who have symptoms within the last seven days.

Another key ingredient for Abbott is the ability to scale. They say they will be able to create 50 million of these tests every month starting in October.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And I think that's probably one of the biggest points of distinction, Jim, with this Abbott test versus the other antigen tests out there is just their scale. They started ramping up their manufacturing earlier in the spring in anticipation of this.

But the question you ask about accuracy, the reason it's taken so long when I ask this question is that they needed to get the precise sort of mash of antibodies on that strip of paper. The virus comes across. If it reacts to the antibodies, it should light up.

[10:25:00] If you get the mash of antibodies right, you should be able to improve the accuracy.

But keep in mind. This was for symptomatic patients within search days of symptoms. How well it's going to work for asymptomatic people, how well it's going to work after seven days, we don't have that data yet.

SCIUTTO: And that's important. I want to get to asymptomatic, right, because, as you know, the CDC somewhat surreptitiously changed its guidelines a couple of days ago on testing. The guidance have been if you're exposed to someone who is positive for this, you should be tested and then they said, well, not necessarily, which, of course, raises questions because asymptomatic transmission is a big deal.

What is going on there? Why the change? Does it make any sense, and what happens now?

GUPTA: Well, first of all, it makes no sense, to answer the second part of your question, first, because, you know, 40 percent of people who are infected don't know it. They are asymptomatic. And they account for about half the spread in this country. And as we go back to school, I mean, that's going to become a big issue. You know, are you going to be spreading this virus in schools unwittingly?

Why did it happen is the first part of your question. Jim, I don't know. I've got to tell you, I don't know. What I can tell you is that if you talk to public health officials outside of the White House, you know, people who have been talking about this in academic circles for some time, they are in lockstep on the fact that this doesn't make sense, that there's no evidence to justify this decision.

And they are very concerned that this was just another reason to basically pull back on testing to sort of, you know, minimize the issue of how much this virus is spreading. Of course, it is a very wrong-headed thing to do because when you do that, the virus is just going to spread more. It's not going to be stagnant even. It's going to increase in numbers.

So, you know, to the extent that anyone listens to us and other public health officials, asymptomatic people do need to be tested. We need to be increasing testing, not decreasing it. Hopefully, people understand that.

SCIUTTO: That's the consistent guidance, you know, and it's not the first time we've seen this administration seemingly with a political motivation deny the guidance.

Dr. Gupta, folks, if you're listening, listen to him, thanks very much as always.

GUPTA: I appreciate it. Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: We're now just hours away from the march on Washington, commemorating the historic event 57 years ago. Live pictures there. You can always see people gathering now. They are following very strictly social distancing guidelines, mask-wearing et cetera. The family of Jacob Blake, the black man shot multiple times in the back by a white officer in front of his children, they're going to speak today.

We're going to have more on the significance of this moment, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]