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HHS Launching COVID P.R. Campaign Ahead of Election?; Trump Fanning Flames of Racial Unrest?; Who Should Get COVID-19 Vaccine First?. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 01, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me today.

We begin this hour with just the latest on coronavirus pandemic. And as flu season is about to be upon us, it is the Upper Midwest that is suddenly the big concern, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa all seeing a spike in cases in more than 50 percent over the last week.

And just talking about Iowa for a second here, the situation there is especially troubling. This new report straight from the White House Coronavirus Task Force puts Iowa in the so-called red zone, with the highest rate of new cases in the entire country.

Now, a key member of the task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is now insisting he does have a good working relationship with President Trump, just hours after the president said that he -- this is the president's word -- inherited Dr. Fauci, inherited Dr. Fauci and doesn't always agree with him.

So, here is Dr. Fauci and how he responded when asked if he thinks the president trusts him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I think he does. I mean, I think, when you get statements like that, that doesn't really reflect what actually goes on.

I mean, I was at the White House yesterday at a task force meeting and with the vice president, and everything that we discussed, including what you just spoke about regarding children, regarding what's going on, gets to the president. He understands that.

So I don't -- I think that's kind of a distraction to pit me against the president. We're all on the same team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Meantime, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn says it's possible that he would resign if there is any political pressure to release a COVID vaccine before he thinks it's ready.

Those comments come just a couple days after he had said that a vaccine could be made available under an emergency use authorization prior to Election Day and before its phase three trials are fully complete.

All of this is happening today as this influential group just released a new report on who should receive the vaccine first whenever it is ready.

So, let's start there with CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

And we will get to the vaccine recommendations and sort of the hierarchy in a second.

But tell me first just about this task force warning for Iowa.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting.

This whole outbreak, Brooke, it's kind of like a snake swallowing a mouse. This big lumps sort of travels across the country, as you know, as you experienced, started in New York. Then you saw these hot spots in places like Texas and Florida, and now getting in larger numbers to more rural areas.

So let's take a look at what this White House report says about the state of Iowa. What they said is, they're seeing a 77 percent increase in cases from the previous week.

And when you look at Iowa, you see 232 cases for every 100,000 people. Now, the national average is 88 cases per 100,000 people. So you can just see in that number right there that Iowa definitely is in a difficult situation -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And what about the story about the vaccine and this new report? Whenever it finally does get green-lit, who does the group recommend who gets it first?

COHEN: Right. So this is the National Academy of Sciences, which is a very prestigious panel.

And they faced the question. When this vaccine comes out, we're not going to get enough doses for everyone immediately. There's not going to be enough. We will have to do some prioritization. So here's the way that they looked at it.

They said the highest priority would be first responders, doctors, nurses, other health care workers on the front lines, seniors in nursing homes. There are lots of other groups here. We're just giving -- giving examples. Middle priority would be other groups, such as those with underlying conditions that would make them more vulnerable to getting very sick from COVID, people like prisoners who live in very sort of tight group settings. Lower priority would be young adults and children. So this is not so

different from what other groups have come up with. And it'll be interesting to see -- there's a lot of on-paper theorizing now -- what's going to happen when the vaccine does eventually come out -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Elizabeth, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, the president in Wisconsin today not focused on the pandemic, but instead, as former Vice President Joe Biden puts it -- quote -- "fanning the flames" of the nation's racial tensions.

He is in Kenosha this afternoon, despite pleas from local leaders not to visit. He has not met with the family of Jacob Blake, the African- American man who was shot seven times in his back by police last month, which ignited local street protests that turned violent and deadly.

And, as the president boarded his plane for Wisconsin, he used provocative language to describe the protesters and made crystal clear he is focused on the violence and the destruction he blames squarely on the Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of people are looking at what's happening to these Democrat-run cities, and they're disgusting.

[15:05:03]

They see what's going on. And they can't believe this is taking place in our country. I can't believe it either.

One of the reasons I'm making the trip today and going to Wisconsin is, we have had such a big success in shutting down what would be right now a city -- that would have been Kenosha -- a city that would have been burnt to the ground by now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to Kenosha to my colleague Ryan Nobles.

And, Ryan, if President Trump isn't visiting with the Blake family, what is he doing this afternoon?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, as we speak, the president is right here behind me in this high school holding a roundtable discussion with law enforcement leaders here in the Kenosha area and some federal law enforcement officials as well, including the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, and the attorney general, William Barr.

And, earlier today, President Trump visited a burned-out building and met with the owners of that business who were dealing with the violence and the protests that have taken place here in Kenosha. But what the president has seemed to focus most of his energy on is

the violence, the protests, and not necessarily what led to those violence and protests. And that is the shooting of Jacob Blake. And he's just now starting to address that.

So, listen to what he said last night on FOX News, and then we will update you with what he just said a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The police are under siege, because of things -- they can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do. And one bad apple or a choker -- you know, a choker. They choke.

Shooting the guy -- shooting the guy in the back many times, I mean, couldn't you have done something different? Couldn't you have wrestled him? I mean, in the meantime, he might have been going for a weapon, and you know there's a whole big thing there.

But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot putt.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS: You're not comparing it to golf, because, of course, that's what the media will say.

TRUMP: No. I'm saying people choke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: As you see there, Laura Ingraham attempting to try and help the president away from this analogy connecting it to a golfer, but the president kind of goes all in on that.

And just a few seconds ago, in this roundtable behind me, Brooke, he once again described the officer involved in the shooting as choking, as basically screwing up this incident, not necessarily dealing with the larger problems related to the arrest itself, and then even go off broader and talk about policing in America generally.

The president kind of leaning into this way to describe this incident, which has caused so much pain, anguish, and, frankly, chaos in Kenosha, and he continues to talk about that even today -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Want to stay on all of this. Ryan, thank you so much for the update.

The president again, as you point out, speaking at that high school right now.

Astead Herndon is now with me, CNN political analyst and national political reporter for "The New York Times."

Astead, a pleasure, as always. Let's just start in Kenosha and the fact that the president is there this afternoon, again, despite pleas from the governor on down to, please, sir, not come right now. Why do you think he chose to go?

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the answer is clearly a political one.

This is a president who has prioritized his role as -- and trying to get reelected over his kind of chief concern as a kind of governing and leading the country and uniting the country, as we have typically seen presidents behave in this time.

If he were doing so, if that was his chief priority, then the calls from local leaders, then the calls from state leaders saying that this is not what is necessary at this time would be something that he would heed to.

That is not what he was doing, because that's not, frankly, what he is interested in. This is an important Electoral College state, of course, and the president and his allies have decided that that message of driving a kind of division, of highlighting these protests, purely the -- just like fringe part of destructive elements of these protests, they think that that helps them both drive out there base and win back some folks they may have lost in suburbs.

There is no real evidence of that. But that is the play they're making, and they are doing so even at the expense of it causing chaos locally in Kenosha.

BALDWIN: I want to come back to that point, because I'm also wondering -- some folks say, well, this may actually help him on, as there has been such violence erupting in multiple cities across the country.

But I have got to get you, Astead, on that clip we just played, where he was sitting with Laura Ingraham, and you heard Ryan just say he's, like, tripled down on this phrase choked, and that he's basically comparing the killing of a man in his back and kneeling on another to golf.

HERNDON: Yes.

BALDWIN: To golf.

HERNDON: Yes. I think that that is a level of insensitivity that we have, frankly, come to expect from this president, particularly on these issues.

I think we often think of it in political terms, as he's talking in the language of his base or he is a trying to drive division for political gain.

But let's be clear. This has been a person who, even in his public life before he ran for office, had leaned into racial division, had been accused, the federal government, of discriminatory housing practices, had suggested a black vs. white season on "The Apprentice."

[15:10:11] This is something that has been a through line through his life. And so that level of empathy, that level of willingness to care, particularly about maybe marginalized groups or groups that have not had -- been a -- he has not been a champion for those groups historically.

I think that is something that we, frankly, should expect at this point from the president.

BALDWIN: Expect it or not, the point is, we have seen violence. Kenosha. We have talked about it in Portland, and certainly not limited to those American cities.

And when you look at this violence, Astead, a number of these largely peaceful protests, do you think it could actually play into President Trump's hands? Might his whole law and order message get him reelected because of this?

HERNDON: I think it's a little early, that we don't necessarily have evidence to really point to that he is -- he's riding a wave of public opinion here.

What we do know is that, when he has tried this previously, whether it has been the caravan in 2018, whether it has been the protests back in Portland that was a few months ago, or highlighting kind of folks taking statues down in places like D.C. or in New York, that has not necessarily driven big support to him.

I think that's for a couple reasons. One, we have seen a large embrace of the general themes of Black Lives Matter, that there is an issue with law enforcement and its treatment of black Americans. But we have also seen folks just roundly reject his responses.

So it's a matter of discipline from this president. If he could just focus on maybe these parts -- these elements and try to drive at Biden, then maybe we would see some resonating here, but he has always created more controversy in the process that has distracted from that message.

Maybe that changes in the next couple months, but the evidence we have up into this point makes it pretty unlikely.

BALDWIN: You think about, since the conventions, we have seen some pretty rough rhetoric from President Trump and Joe Biden, as we're now in the final stretch here before the first presidential debate.

And, obviously, Joe Biden is out there, and he's trying to put the focus squarely on coronavirus and how this administration has failed. Trump is trying to tie Biden and Kamala Harris to the radical left.

Biden is really leaning into this idea that Americans know him. But, Astead, is that enough for Joe Biden?

HERNDON: I think Biden has to -- has a couple options. We have seen him do that big speech yesterday, clearly condemning violence and trying to throw it back on Trump, that this is his America, and that he is not leading up to kind of bring the country together.

We have to see whether that's going to be the only play that the Biden campaign does. Do they stick with this and just hope that voters have an intuitive understanding of Joe Biden and his policies?

But whether it is -- but the RNC was four straight now of hammering Biden on saying that he supports things like defunding the police, which we know he does not, saying that he hasn't condemned violence, which we know that he has.

Will the Biden campaign go up on air in some of these states, refuting that? Will they deploy surrogates like vice president nominee Harris to try to refute that on a bigger scale? Or do they kind of sit back and say, voters know us and they are rejecting the president?

Democrats think that voters will reward them for being more cautious, more -- when it comes to the coronavirus and travel. But does that apply to that same kind of culture, white grievance-driven message that the president is now trying to say?

I don't know if those two strategies are cross-applicable from the virus to the protests.

BALDWIN: They have two months, two months now until Election Day.

Astead Herndon, always nice to have you on. Thank you, sir, very much.

HERNDON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, $250 million, that is reportedly how much money this administration is planning to give to a P.R. firm to help make people feel better about the current pandemic. We have those new details coming in ahead.

And Dr. Anthony Fauci's Labor Day warning -- why he says avoiding these so-called super-spreader events, huge events, this weekend is key to keeping this pandemic under control when it comes time for fall and flu season.

And President Trump's new attack on NBA players, as they speak out and walk out over racial injustice.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

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BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

As the pandemic continues to upend people's lives, the federal government is looking into launching this massive and very expensive public relations campaign to make Americans feel better about what is happening.

Politico is reporting that the Health and Human Services Department will award $250 million in taxpayer money to a communications firm to help -- quote -- "defeat despair and inspire hope" about the pandemic.

Nick Valencia is following the story for us.

So, Nick, what do you know about the P.R. campaign, and why is it being rolled out now?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, perhaps one of the pressing questions, the biggest question since the start of the pandemic has been, are agencies like HHS working in the interest of the American public, or are they putting politics ahead of science?

And that question is even more relevant today after Politico contained an HHS document which shows that they put out a bid for a contract, a whopping $250 million to a communications firm that could -- quote -- "help defeat despair and inspire hope" on the coronavirus.

Here is part of what that work document said obtained by Politico, saying -- quote -- "By harnessing the power of traditional digital and social media, the sports and entertainment industries, public health associations, and other creative partners to deliver important public health and economic information, the administration can defeat despair, inspire hope, and achieve national recovery."

[15:20:08]

Critics say, curiously, this comes just about two months before the November presidential elections, and just really adds fuel to the fire whether or not HHS -- and just how independent they are from the White House -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: We also know, Nick, that a House panel just released new documents that show that, while the Trump administration was publicly downplaying the threat from COVID, its task force members were privately sounding the alarm to state governors about summer outbreaks.

What more do you know about that?

VALENCIA: That's right.

So, every week, the White House Task Force prepares these reports that are privately sent to governors. And, so far, the White House has declined to make them public. But a House subcommittee was able to publish eight weeks of these reports.

And, as you mentioned, it shows that, while, privately, the task force was sending these reports, warning state officials about the dire threats of the coronavirus, President Trump was publicly downplaying the threats, saying things like repeatedly over the summer, calling for the swift reopening of the economy, he and his allies doing that despite the threat to millions of Americans.

Now, the subcommittee went on to say that there's been at least 14 states since June 23 that are in these so-called red zones states, according to the subcommittee, that have failed to follow public health guidance, from the task force, things as easy as closing bars and restaurants where social distancing isn't happening or instituting statewide mask mandates.

Here in Georgia, Governor Kemp, which is one of those states in the red zone, is refusing to institute a mask mandate. This is, of course, troubling information that public health data, according to the subcommittee, is not being listened to.

And according to this Democratic-led panel, it starts at the top with President Trump. Now, the White House has pushed back on these reports, calling them partisan politics.

But, really, it reemphasizes and reconfirms what we have been hearing from sources all along, that the president has failed to prioritize combating the coronavirus, and has not understood the nuance of science since the beginning of the pandemic -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nick, thank you very much.

And, of course, Labor Day weekend right around the corner, two top officials on the White House Coronavirus Task Force are warning all of us to be vigilant.

On a call with governors, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that this weekend will be key in determining whether we get a running start at containing the virus this fall. He told governors it is critical that we do not have a repeat of the Memorial Day and July 4 holidays, which both led to a surge in COVID cases.

And the U.S. testing czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, is urging people to avoid crowds and indoor gatherings over the holiday. He is also stressing the need to wear masks.

So, with me now, Dr. Colleen Kraft, associate chief medical officer at Emory University Hospital.

Dr. Kraft, nice to have you on what happens if there is a repeat from Memorial Day and from the Fourth of July, if there is a spike after this weekend?

DR. COLLEEN KRAFT, EMORY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Yes, I think we're going to be finding ourselves much in the same place we were in mid- July and early August, where we are again swamping hospitals and testing the limits of our health care system, and also seeing a rise in that number of deaths that we have tried so hard to minimize with experimental medications and really trying to keep people away from each other.

BALDWIN: But, again, underscoring the point that now, though, as we inch closer to fall and then winter, we're more at the precipice of flu seasons, thus making it even worse.

KRAFT: Absolutely.

We have been actually planning for a month to try to figure out what type of testing we're going to utilize in order to distinguish flu from COVID. Those are still very different diseases, and so we don't want to expose either group to the other if we're hospitalizing them or treating them.

We also want to get rapid treatment to them. And so now we have to deal with a supply chain, I believe -- I'm not sure how much this has been talked about -- of flu testing as well. Many of the COVID platforms that we have been using all summer and spring for COVID testing, also, we rely on for flu testing.

And the struggle right now, just -- the supply COVID testing is just going to be magnified when we need all of those tests.

BALDWIN: I appreciate you making that point. And I have a feeling we're going to be talking so much more precisely about that.

I mentioned Admiral Giroir a second ago, the nation's testing czar. He once again defended the administration's testing efforts. He also was a bit annoyed about having to answer questions about when every American will be able to quickly and cheaply get a COVID test.

So, let me just play a quick clip of what he said on that call.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: It's great to talk about this utopian kind of idea where everybody has a test every day and we can do that.

I don't live in a utopian world. I live in the real world. And the real world had no tests for this new disease when this first started. We can return to society without having everyone have a test every single day.

We can do that, and we're showing you can do that.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Dr. Kraft, what do you think of his point there?

[15:25:03]

KRAFT: Well, I think that we are living in a dystopia, really, with a lot of things coming at us.

We absolutely need to move forward with testing. We need to have enough tests for everybody to be able to get one. I know Brett. I think he's a wonderful physician and scientist, but I do disagree that going back to how we were with supply chain issues early in March and April is not -- is not forward progress.

We should be investing in quick diagnoses, so we can get people back to work, so we can reassure the population when they begin to have symptoms that seem like COVID.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.

Dr. Kraft, thank you. Coming up: President Trump launches a new attack on NBA players for

speaking out on racial justice, but does not condemn the police killing of Jacob Blake.

We will be right back.

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