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U.S. Adds 40,000+ New Infections on Tuesday as Fauci Issues Labor Day Warning; Fauci: Vaccine Could be Available Earlier Than Expected if Ongoing Clinical Trials Show Overwhelming Positive Results; Dr. Joseph Allen Discusses Research Indicating Strong Ventilation Is Key to Preventing Indoor Spread; Trump Dismisses "Systemic Racism," Defends Police During Visit to Kenosha; Biden to Travel to Kenosha on Thursday; Very Tight Race Underway for Ohio's 18 Electoral Votes. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:12]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing this busy news day with us.

Sixty-two days from the November election and there's a little 2016 deja vu that should remind us all how we pick presidents.

A new national poll shows a stable Joe Biden lead. A new Pennsylvania poll, however, shows a tightening race in a key battleground. Both candidates looking to frame your choice today.

Democrat Biden offers a speech on schools in what his campaign describes as the president's, quote, "barreling forward on reopening," in Biden's view, putting his re-election wishes ahead of student safety.

The president is on the campaign trail. He's heading to North Carolina. That trip falls a day on the ground in Wisconsin that included a visit with law enforcement.

And yes, fake news, stated by the president of the United States. He stood in front of a boarded-up business with its former owner because the current owner wanted no part of the made-for-TV campaign play.

The president did not meet with the family of Jacob Blake. In fact, he never mentioned Blake by name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel terribly for anybody that goes through that. That's why I was so honored to meet the pastors. I feel terribly for anybody that goes through that.

As you know, it's under investigation. I feel terribly for anybody that has to go through. And I didn't get

to speak to the mother. I hear she's a fine woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We just learned moments ago, Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, tomorrow. More on that and the 2020 politics ahead.

But first, a Labor Day warning from Dr. Anthony fauci. Dr. Fauci says in a new interview that Labor Day revelers pose a threat to the nation's health. And he's worried about another holiday coronavirus spike. Dr. Fauci says it's critical to get the baseline of new infections down as we head into the fall.

But the numbers today remind us just how stubborn and resilient this virus is. And they remind us the price of not forcing that baseline down before Memorial Day.

New infections back above 40,000 today. When you have that many cases, this sad statistic is as hard to change as it is to swallow. Another 1,000 Americans lost their lives to this virus Tuesday.

Where are the cases rising? Let's take a look as we go through the next 50 states. And you see a mix of orange and red across the country. And 17 states trending up. And that means new coronavirus new infections reporting now than a week ago. Seventeen states trending up.

Half of the states, 25, holding steady. That's the beige color. And it includes Texas, which, of course, was a big piece of the summer surge.

Eight states trending down, still including Arizona and California. They were a big part of the summer surge.

Florida holding steady, although, in recent days, a spike there, as well. We'll get to that in a moment.

This is the saddest map we show. And 15 states still reporting more deaths this week than last week. The case count stays up, sadly, the deaths follow.

And 15 states reporting more deaths this week than a week ago. And 12 states holding steady. And 23 states trending down, meaning fewer deaths reported this week than last week. Let's hope that number grows, the trending down number there.

You watch the case trend and you see this is where we were in the beginning of summer. And this is why Dr. Fauci is worried about Labor Day. You had Memorial Day in here. You had July Fourth and it started to climb up into here. Memorial Day, start of the summer surge and up we went.

This is where the baseline was. This is where it is. Above 40,000 again. And the cases coming in yesterday. Too high, the public health experts say, as people go back to school, as we get into the fall flu season and beyond.

Look at this. This is a trend we've seen throughout. You have cases drop on the weekend and you think perhaps we're starting a new workweek, perhaps we're shutting the baseline down. And 35,000 here, 37,000 here. This past week, we were at 34,000.

But this has been a tradition, if you will, a sad tradition. Case counts drop out of the weekend and then jump back up. And you can see it throughout the month of August. The baseline holding at about 40,000.

The key to getting it down more is to get fewer positive test results. But look here. The positivity rate weekly change, 27 states -- that's all the red. It's most of the southeast and the middle of the country.

It's a lot of red states, to be honest. I don't mean red on the map. I mean red when it comes on to politics.

And 27 states reporting right now increasing positivity rates in their tests. Meaning, a higher positivity rate this week than last week, which means, count a week, count two weeks, more cases tend to follow that.

This is why you look at the positivity rate. And you remember what happened Memorial Day, July Fourth, which is why Dr. Fauci says this weekend, as you celebrate the end of summer and the passage into fall, please be careful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you have a holiday like Labor Day, we have seen after the Fourth of july, we saw after Memorial Day a surge in cases.

What I would really like to see is kind of a full-court press to get us way down as a baseline, so that when you get these cases in the fall, they won't surge up. They'll be controllable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:05:05]

KING: Dr. Fauci, in addition to calling for that full-court press, he also says a vaccine could -- emphasis on could -- be available earlier than expected if ongoing clinical trials produce overwhelmingly positive results.

And let's discuss that with our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

Could and if, two big conditionals. Is there reason to be optimistic or are we still in holding?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We are still in holding in a big way. Here's the way that these trials work, John. And you and I have talked

about this several times over the past few weeks.

So you do a vaccine trial. You think you'll have to wait until all 30,000 people have run the course, which can take a while. But sort of like when you're baking a batch of cookies, you open the oven every so often to see if they're done.

It is possible that they will take a look, an early look, and they'll see that so many people who got the placebo got sick with COVID-19 and so few people who got the actual vaccine got sick with COVID-19.

Because, remember, this trial was divided equally between giving people a shot of saline and giving them the actual vaccine.

If that overwhelmingly positive data, as you put it, comes through early or a strong signal comes in early, there's a possibility for an early emergency use authorization, or EUA, from the Food and Drug Administration.

Let's take a listen to what Dr. Fauci had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: I believe that by the time we get to the end of this calendar year that we will feel comfortable that we do have a safe and effective vaccine.

I've been through a number of vaccine trials in which EUAs have ultimately been done. But they've been done when there was enough data that you would really feel comfortable that it was safe and effective for the American public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Dr. Fauci has been very consistent about this, John. Back in January, he said to me, Elizabeth, 12 to 18 months until we can have a vaccine. And he's said that over and over again.

And 12 months from January would be the end of this year. Note that he did not say November 3rd. He did not say by Election Day.

And you might think, November 3rd, December 31st, whatever. That's actually a huge difference. And in a vaccine trial of this kind, from November 3rd to December 31st, that is a big chunk of time -- John?

KING: That may be another issue. The president said yesterday he disagrees with Dr. Fauci a lot. And that could be another disagreement.

Elizabeth Cohen, grateful for the insights and the reporting there. Appreciate it very much.

Now add open classroom windows, even on rainy days and chilly days, to the new wrinkles of our new normal. It's a reflection of research indicating that air flow is absolutely critical if people are going to be in one location for extended periods, even if coronavirus precautions like social distancing and wearing a mask are also in effect.

Let's discuss this now with Dr. Joseph Allen. He's an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Also the co-author of "Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity."

Mr. Allen, grateful for your time today.

And I just want to show -- especially, I was reading about it yesterday, New York City schools. You think about older public-school systems, older buildings. Sometimes you can't even get the windows open.

And they've had this surge of a handyman essentially going around the New York public school system to make sure the windows can open.

Explain what the research tells you about why this air flow is so critical.

DR. JOSEPH ALLEN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, thanks for having me on.

That's really great to see in New York City. And we've been talking about these -- short on time, short on resources, and what can you do to improve ventilation.

Well, it is as simple sometimes as opening up windows and making sure what's happening. And you can get the outdoor air flowing in.

The reason why this is so important is because, since February, we have known and every piece of information since that time, has supported that airborne transmission is happening.

It's nothing to be feared. It just means we have to add additional controls, like the smart things we're doing, like hand washing, wearing a mask and distancing.

Now we have to add in ventilation and filtration. So opening up the windows allows you to bring in more outdoor air that dilutes any airborne particles.

If you can't do that, we recommend bringing in a portable air cleaner with a HEPA filter so you can clean any airborne particles that are in the classroom.

KING: So we have some graphics. You were quoted in a "Wall Street Journal" piece on this research. And we have graphics from that.

If you look, you can look at some where you have the placement of the air purifiers. You're putting them this is a classroom, probably an older building, doesn't have great ventilation. Might not even have an air conditioning system in some school buildings.

And you have that -- you say placement matters. You have air purifiers.

Explain what you mean about changing the air. It sounds like a bit of an odd concept. But you need to change the air in the room by moving it around and getting the old out and new in.

ALLEN: Yes, right. It really is that simple. But some of the terminology people might not be familiar with. And I totally understand.

But we tend to think of ventilation or in terms of air changes per hour. And let me de-mystify this a bit.

When we say that a classroom is four changes of air is good. Five is excellent. Six is ideal.

I mean, six air changes per hour, that simply means, every 10 minutes, the full volume of air in the classroom is either diluted with fresh outdoor air or cleaned through one of these portable air cleaners.

[11:10:07]

And to put some numbers on that, your home, a typical home has half an air change per hour. That means it takes two hours to clean the full volume of air in your house.

What we're going for here is four, five or six air changes per hour. If you can't do it through opening windows or your mechanical ventilation system, there's always something we can do. In this case, we like using portable air cleaner with the good HEPA filter. No need for air ducts. Just a portable air cleaner with a good HEPA filter.

KING: For a parent watching this who might have the option to send their child back to school, connect the dots for me if you will.

Let's say a school does all it can. It's going to open the windows, brings in a new purifier or something to distribute the air.

Is that enough? Can you drop the masks then? Or do you still need to keep the desks six feet apart and keep the masks on the children as much as possible?

ALLEN: Absolutely keep the masks on. In all of the risk models that my team has built and other faculty around the country have built, these engineering controls and healthy building strategies we're talking about really do drive down risk.

But the most effective tool to drive down risk from airborne spread and close contact spread is that universal mask wearing. That is an absolute must.

KING: Joseph Allen, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School, really appreciate it. It's a fascinating dynamic and debate in the country right now. Grateful for your insight, sir.

ALLEN: Yes, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate that.

KING: No, thank you.

Up next for us, the president travels to Kenosha, Wisconsin. He talks with police. He says there's no systemic racism in America. And he does not mention the name of jacob Blake.

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[11:15:55]

KING: The president says people, quote, "in the dark shadows" are controlling Joe Biden. And he says no -- he just says "no" when asked key questions about the country's racial reckoning. No systemic racism in America, the president says, and no systemic violence against black by police, he insists.

He gets offended at the suggestion or the question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you believe systemic racism is a problem in this country?

TRUMP: Well, you know, you just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence that we've seen in portland and here and other places. It's tremendous violence. You always get to the other side, well, what do you think about this or that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining me now to discuss, Toluse Olorunnipa, of "The Washington Post," and Josh Dawsey, also from "The Post."

Toluse, it's very interesting. That's a choice by the president. He could say yes -- but, he can say yes. Instead, he chooses to ignore the question about racism entirely and move on to defending the police and lashing out against what he views as violence, looting and anarchy.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is a clear strategy by this president. He wants to focus on this issue of law and order because he thinks that works for him politically. He thinks that's a message that he'll be able to drive over the next two months to help his political campaign.

More thorny, nuanced issues about racial justice, about inequality, about systemic racism, these are issues that, one, he doesn't want to talk about because they're harder for him to score political points on.

But also because he doesn't believe that they exist. He doesn't believe that the country has issues, racial inequality.

And he wants to be able to tell people that he's done more for black America than any other president since possibly Abraham Lincoln. Statements that on their face are just preposterous. But the president wants to put those talking points out there and wants to move on to his broader message which is law and order. I'm going to protect the suburbs. I'm going to protect people from violence, chaos and anarchy.

And he really would rather be focusing on that than trying to heal some of the wounds that are existing in this country when it comes to police violence and when it comes to racial injustice.

He doesn't want to focus on that. He'd much more rather focus on law and order and presenting himself as a candidate of law and order.

KING: Josh, you write in the newspaper today -- you know, we're used to it by now, this president saying things that are outrageous that make you stop in your tracks. There have been quite a few in the last 24 hours or so.

First, let's listen to a little bit of the president yesterday defending the police. Because part of one of these more startling things he said is included in this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have to condemn the dangerous anti-police rhetoric.

You have people who choke. They have a quarter of a second, a quarter of a second to make a decision. And if they make a wrong decision, one way or the other, they're either dead or they're in big trouble.

They choke sometimes. And it's a very tough situation, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's kind of a crass way to describe a police officer who, yes, in a tense situation, might make a bad call.

But he was using this after using it the night before in an interview with Laura Ingraham, of FOX News. And you note in your piece, she tried to stop him.

He described this as a golfer missing a clutch putt, the same as a police officer putting seven bullets in the back of a black man. She tried to stop him there.

She also tried to stop him when he did the Joe Biden in under control of people in the dark shadows.

But this is what he is choosing to say.

JOSH DAWSEY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, the president made a lot of revelations in that interview, a lot of assertions where even Laura Ingraham tried to kind of guide him back to safer territory.

He obviously said in that interview that he thought Black Lives Matter was a Marxist organization. He was talking about police, as you said, with the golf comment. At one point, he suggested that more low-income housing would lead to

crime. Where Laura Ingraham cut him off and said, you're not suggesting that all poor people are criminals or all minorities are criminals.

It was an interview where she was trying to steer him back in a more guided direction, I guess you would say.

The interview was not viewed internally by many of the president's advisers as a particularly helpful one.

They were really pressing two messages. One, that he's better than Joe Biden on the economy and recovery after coronavirus. And, two, that he will do more to stop rioting and looting in these cities. And mayors and the Democratic administrations cities are to blame.

[11:20:09]

Those are two somewhat challenging messages for an incumbent. But they're messages that his advisers believe work. They don't see the comments that the president has been making in recent days as helpful.

KING: Toluse, we learned before coming on the air for this hour that Joe Biden and Jill Biden will travel to Kenosha.

There's been a debate in the Democratic campaign about, how directly do you respond, how much time do you spend on law and order, on the racial reckoning going in the country right now.

And that takes you away from talking about the coronavirus. Joe Biden is trying to connect the dots.

But what is the conversation in the campaign, that they've made this decision to travel to the battleground state, to go in after the president of the United States.

Do they see risk in that or do they see all gain?

OLORUNNIPA: There's definitely power in the presidency and power in the incumbency in setting the agenda. The president spent a good portion of last week during his own convention talking about law and order and talking about cities on fire.

And that did break through in the national conversation. And that does require Joe Biden to have a forceful response.

We saw him go to Pittsburgh and essentially condemn looting and violent protesting, saying there's a difference between protesting peacefully and burning a city on fire.

I do think, because the president has made this campaign for the past week or so all about law and order, has used the power of the bully pulpit to focus this issue, that that has changed the narrative and that has pushed Joe Biden to have to forcefully respond.

He would much rather be talking about the coronavirus because polling shows that people trust Joe Biden much more than Donald Trump on this issue.

But because President Trump has successfully changed the narrative over the last couple of weeks, Joe Biden and his campaign feel the need to respond, to go to Kenosha to show that they can take that presidential role of more of a healer.

And also flip the question back onto to President Trump and say, this is President Trump's America. He seems to be inflaming some of the tension and he seems to be egging on some of these vigilante groups. He is not calling for calm in a way that brings both sides to the table.

Joe Biden wants to be able to show that he will be a president that will do that.

KING: It will be interesting to watch Biden on that stage, if you will, Josh Dawsey, in the sense that you're following the president, who, yesterday, did not meet with members of the Blake family.

The president said they want to bring in an attorney and he refused. He would not do that.

Members of the Blake family were harshly critical of the president. So you might even understand why the president didn't want to walk into that.

But he didn't even mention Jacob Blake by name.

And in his effort to point out destruction, he went and stood in front of the camera shop that was burned to the ground with the former owner because the current owner wanted no part of it. He said, every time Trump touches something, it turns into a circus and he didn't want to be there.

The president creating a fake news event, if you will, as he always runs around blaming others for such a thing.

DAWSEY: The president yesterday, his visit was determined to show one thing, that he could get these cities back under control if he was given power to do so.

You know, that was a visit that was not about the Blake family. They have been -- as you said, John, it was a visit just to show carnage and American cities in disrepair.

And sometimes, a lot of these cities have not welcomed the president. The mayors have not often wanted him there. The mayors have been resistant of his rhetoric and resistant of his entreaties.

And the president decided yesterday it was worthy of going anyway. You saw the Wisconsin governor say it was not helpful for him to come. But that didn't stop the president from going.

KING: Josh Dawsey, Toluse Olorunnipa, thank you both for coming and sharing the important insight. And we thank "The Post" for sharing two of its best for a few minutes. Appreciate it, gentlemen. We are reminded today of how we pick presidents. A new national poll

by Grinnell College gives Democrat Joe Biden an eight-point national lead. That's about in line with other recent national surveys. And those national surveys are full of trouble signs for President Trump.

But a new Pennsylvania poll, by Monmouth University -- you see the numbers right there -- shows a very tight race in that key battleground. Biden up 49 percent to 45 percent.

Pennsylvania, of course, is one of the industrial states President Trump flipped from blue to red four years ago.

Ohio also included on that list. President Obama carried Ohio twice. But its 18 electoral votes were solid for Trump in 2016. Ohio is viewed as more Republican leaning than, say, Pennsylvania or Michigan.

So just the fact that it is in play this year for Biden gives Democrats some hope for a more favorable electoral map.

Jeff Zeleny is there for a reason, talking to voters in Columbus.

Jeff, what is the lay of the land in battleground Ohio?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, there's one clear sign that the Trump campaign believes that they need to spend some money, time and attention here in Ohio.

Because they have reserved millions of dollars in television advertising here in Ohio for the final stretch of the general election campaign, about $6 million this month alone, and about $18 million overall.

And it is a sense of, post-convention, this discussion between the law and order message versus the leadership of coronavirus.

We've been spending the last couple of days here talking to a variety of voters, just how these messages are resonating.

[11:25:03]

And it's fascinating, John, when you drive through these neighborhoods. You see Trump signs next to Biden signs and All Lives Matter next to Black Lives Matter. That is the tension underneath this here.

KING: The president talks about the suburbs. We talked to a Democratic candidate who is running for the Delaware County commissioner about what she thinks of the president's message on suburbs.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA FOSTER, (D), DELAWARE COUNTY COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE: We're not talking about the 1950s. We're talking about a time when people are moving where they can afford to move and living where they can afford to live and people walk together. They take walks together. We talk, we hang out together.

I think it's going to be very competitive here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So no question that these suburbs right around here, in Columbus, these counties have long voted Republican, but it's been changing in local elections. We saw that in 2018.

So, John, that is one of the places where this race in Ohio will be won or lost in the suburbs of Cleveland, of Columbus, and in Cincinnati, of course. And of course, the president is strong in rural areas.

But it's certainly these underlying tensions here, this message of law and order, versus how he has handled a coronavirus that was coming up again and again.

So once again, Ohio, it's not on the top of the set of battlegrounds. But if the Trump campaign is defending this, they know they need this to win the White House, no question.

Joe Biden doesn't necessarily. But, boy, if he had it, John, it almost blocks President Trump's chances for re-election.

KING: What's the old cliche? No Republican has won the presidency in modern times without Ohio. Joe Biden wins Ohio, he's on his way to 325, 330.

Jeff Zeleny, grateful that you're on the ground in a key battleground state. Appreciate the reporting.

Coming up for us, Florida fires a lab company. The state says it failed to report tens of thousands of coronavirus test results.

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