Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Florida Cuts Ties With Quest Laboratories Over Testing Backlog; More Than 25,000 Cases At Colleges & Universities In 37 States; Pence Says He Doesn't Recall Being Put On Standby To Take Over For Trump During 2019 Walter Reed Visit; Trump Banking On A "Super V" Economy; New Analysis On Melania's Side Eye At Ivanka At The RNC. Aired 11:30a- 12p ET
Aired September 02, 2020 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:31:46]
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: We're waiting for updated coronavirus numbers from Florida. At the moment, there's some controversy about the state's coronavirus case count.
We want to show you, just yesterday, 7,569 cases reported. Look at the giant spike from the day before, 1,885.
That giant spike yesterday coming at a time the state is in a fight with Quest Laboratories. It fired that company saying it has been too late and too stalled in reporting coronavirus results.
Let's get right to Rosa Flores. She's in Miami for us.
Rosa, we've been through this before with the state of Florida, with the reliability of the date. But when you look at yesterday compared to one day before, that's a wow.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right. And very conveniently John, in a press release that was sent out by the Department of Health, they said, if you take out some of those records, well, the positivity rate in the state is lower than what they had posted for that given day.
Well, here is what we know about this. The Florida Department of Health is severing ties with Quest Diagnostics. According to the state agency, this laboratory failed to report nearly 75,000 COVID-19 tests that date all of the way back to April.
According to the state, by law, these lab companies are required to report the test results to the Florida Department of Health in a timely manner.
Governor Ron DeSantis making this announcement yesterday and blasting the quality of the COVID-19 data in his own state. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): These test results are not the best indicator when we're looking at COVID-19 data. The best indicators are things like E.D. visits for COVID--like illness, the number of COVID- positive patients in the hospital, the number of COVID-positive patients in the ICU.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES: Quest Diagnostics issuing a statement yesterday saying that they apologize, that they regret the situation.
And they say that the delay was actually due to a technical issue that impacted those 75,000 test results out of the 1.4 million results that they performed for the state of Florida.
Meanwhile, more than five months into the pandemic, Governor Ron DeSantis made an announcement yesterday that he will allow limited visitations to long-term care facilities and nursing homes.
But there will be some rules according to the governor. Visitors have to make an appointment. There can only be two individuals visiting someone at one point in time. No children will be allowed. And everyone will have to be wearing PPE.
Now, John, Governor Ron DeSantis became very emotional yesterday during this press conference while he made this announcement. And of course, he was the one who made the decision to stop visitations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he said that many people in Florida died alone -- John?
KING: Rosa Flores, on the ground for us. Grateful as always for the live reporting in Florida. We'll continue to track those numbers and see if they even out.
Rosa, thank you very much.
And as students return from summer break, schools are quickly becoming hot spots for COVID-19 infections. At last count, more than 25,000 cases reported at colleges and universities in 37 of the 50 states.
As these outbreaks emerge, Dr. Anthony Fauci urging schools, do not send infected students home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Keep them at the university in a place that is sequestered enough from the other students. But don't have them go home because they could be spreading it in their home state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[11:35:11]
KING: Nicko Henderson is a freshman at Baylor University in Texas, one of the schools currently experiencing an outbreak. Baylor has 400 active cases, a positive rate of 10 percent.
Today is Nicko's last day of his school-mandated quarantine after positive cases were reported in his dorm.
Nicko, thanks for joining us today.
I'm a big fan of Waco. I used to get down there a lot covering the Bush presidency when he went to Crawford to the ranch.
You're quarantine, you do not have COVID, but it was in your dorm hall. Is that what happened?
NICKO HENDERSON, BAYLOR UNIVERSITY FRESHMAN WHO WAS UNDER QUARANTINE FOR FOUR DAYS: Yes. Thank you for having me.
I do not and my roommate does not have COVID, but there were a couple of cases around us, yes.
KING: And so what has quarantine meant for you? Do you get to leave the room? How are you getting your meals?
HENDERSON: We are brought meals at 8:00 a.m. and noon and at 5:00 each day. We're allowed to leave our rooms to go to the bathroom and shower and get water. But, honestly, it's been cool. It's a unique experience. It's really different from anything I've ever done. So.
KING: That's a positive outlook. It's a unique and cool experience to be in COVID quarantine. OK.
Are you doing class work while you're in quarantine?
HENDERSON: Yes, I am, and a lot of it.
KING: A lot of it, that's good. Your parents will be glad to hear that.
In terms of that, how much of an adjustment was that in the sense that you came -- were you expecting to be back in the classroom or were you expected to do mostly remote learning anyway?
HENDERSON: I was expecting to be in the classroom, but Baylor has done just an amazing job of adjusting and being available if we needed to go to an online platform.
And they made so many preparations before school came back and before students returned that they basically said, hey, we're not going to be afraid of this and we're going to attack this head-on.
We're going to take a lot of safety precautions and measures, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure that our students have the best semester and that they can be in the face-to-face environment and on campus.
KING: When you look at this, 25,000 cases -- we can show a map, 37 states. This has been a pretty common occurrence as students your age head back to campus. Different schools handling it in different ways.
You've been in quarantine for the last few days.
Do you talk to friends who go to other schools and other colleges and universities, and is it a similar experience, or do you think Baylor is doing something different that you think is better or worse than the others?
HENDERSON: I'm actually from North Carolina so a lot of my friends go to North Carolina schools. And it's -- the approach that Baylor is taking is a lot different from other schools.
They prepared in ways over the summer, building tent space for students to use for studying or for eating, and enforcing a lot of cleanliness measures, cleaning a lot, social distancing, mask policies.
But they have prepared in other ways that other schools haven't. And I would love to see other schools look at Baylor as an example because what they have done so far has been amazing. And all of the students here are loving it.
The approach that Baylor is taking, where they're not afraid, but they are taking safety precautions and they just want the students to have the best semester. So.
KING: That's good to hear. Seven months into this, I learn something new every day. And to hear someone say quarantine at college has been cool, I'll mark that as a positive new. There's a lot of negative we hear. I'll mark that as a positive new.
Nicko, very much appreciate your time. Best of luck in the school year ahead. And best of luck as you transition out of cool quarantine back to the real world.
HENDERSON: Thank you so much. Shout out to my family.
KING: I'm sure they're happy to see you and happy that you think this is cool and doing your schoolwork.
Nicko, thanks very much. We'll circle back and see how you're doing.
[11:38:48]
Still ahead for us, the vice president says he does not recall being told to be on standby when the president went to the hospital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:43:45]
KING: Well, it's not a direct denial. Mike Pence saying he does not recall being put on standby during President Trump's unannounced visit to Walter Reed last year.
Let's get straight to the White House and CNN's John Harwood. John, this little drama. As if there's not enough going on, now we
have this drama about, was the vice president put on alert when the president made that surprise trip to Walter Reed last November.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, it's striking what an aggressive White House response, both from the president and from his allies, that we've seen to questions that none of us on the outside know the answer to that Mike Schmidt again raised with his book.
Here is Ronny Jackson, former White House physician, and now a Trump- supporting member of Congress, trying to knock back the idea that the president had some sort of serious medical event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. RONNY JACKSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN & TEXAS REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I was consulted regarding this trip weeks in advance. This trip was neither urgent, nor emergent. Nor did it have to do with his cerebral or cardiovascular health. It was part of a routine, planned, preventive-medicine work-up to keep him healthy as president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARWOOD: So he described it as a routine event. Of course, we've heard different descriptions, whether it was the beginning of the president's annual physical or the end of his annual physical, which ended up coming out six months later.
[11:45:04]
And we also had the Vice President Mike Pence being a little evasive on the question of whether, as Mike Schmidt reported in his book, he was placed on standby in case the president had to be anesthetized during this visit that Ronny Jackson calls routine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENCE: I don't recall being told to be on standby. I was informed that the president had a doctor's appointment. And I don't want to --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I just want to clear that up.
PENCE: I have to tell you, part of this job is you're always on standby if you're vice president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARWOOD: Always on standby is the message we've also gotten from White House chief of staff, Mike Meadows.
Still does not clear up the central mystery here: Why was this visit, which had not been publicly announce, which did not follow normal protocols for going to Walter Reed, including how the president's doctor traveled there, what was that visit all about? What sort of tests were conducted?
They haven't told us that yet.
KING: One of the things you learn there, whether you like Mike Pence or not, viewers at home, is he has learned over the years, there are certain questions the president does not want him talking about things. That was very clear in the vice president's eyes when the question came up.
John Harwood, appreciate the important reporting from the White House. Thank you so much.
The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now drawing some backlash after getting her hair done inside a San Francisco salon. That's an apparent violation of the city's coronavirus safety regulations requiring hair treatments to be done outdoors.
The speaker's deputy chief of staff says Pelosi and her team relied on the interpretation of someone at the salon about what was now allowed under new city regulations. And it turns out that person, Pelosi's office says, was incorrect.
Pelosi's staff added that she did wear a mask, minus this period you're seeing on tape here where she was getting her hair washed.
Still ahead for us, President Trump is hoping for what he calls a super "V" economic recovery, but is a longer, flatter recovery more likely?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:51:30]
KING: Word from Ford today is it's trying to cut as many as 1,400 jobs because of facing more economic uncertainty in the coronavirus pandemic. Ford says it's trying to hit this cost-cutting goal with voluntary cuts.
The company now offering early retirement to eligible employees. Ford suffered a 50 percent drop in revenue, 50 percent drop in the second quarter.
United Airline says the lack of a government bailout will force it to furlough over 16,000, about 20 percent of the United workforce.
United says though furloughs will happen October 1st. That's when it is allowed under the terms set forth in the first airline bailout. The company says those jobs can only be saved if there's a new bailout before October.
President Trump says the economy is roaring back. He calls it a super "V" economy. A big drop followed by what he calls like a rocket-ship rebound. That's a pitch central to his re-election campaign. But is it true? CNN Chief Business Correspondent, Christine Romans, takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John, the most painful period in modern American history and the president is cheerleading the shape of the stock market bounce.
TRUMP: We have now the all-time highest stock market. If you take the average. The enthusiasm for the country, enthusiasm for the comeback, the "V." You look at the "V." Now I think it's a super "V."
ROMANS: Here's what that "V" looks like. The S&P 500 has soared 35 percent over the past five months. Wall Street is riding high on record stimulus and low rest rates. But the stock market, the stock market is not the economy.
On Main Street, there's a health and jobs crisis as more than six million people are infected with COVID-19 and more than 184,000 people have died and layoffs continue.
The split screen is stark here. Rent and mortgage payments due again this week while a few stocks are driving the stock market to record highs.
This, right here, the super "V" the president is talking about.
But corporate America is becoming more worried about the recovery from here on out. A survey of executives found nearly half think a U-shaped recovery is more likely than a sharp "V" recovery.
And then there's this, the fear of a so-called K-shaped recovery that widens the gap between winners and losers. Hiring comes back in officers and factories. But job losses become permanent in retail and restaurants and leisure -- John?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Something we'll continue to track.
Christine Romans, thanks very much.
For the latest market news, check out "MARKETS NOW," streaming live at 12:45 p.m. Eastern, only at CNN Business.
[11:54:02]
Up next for us, a private email account, tensions with Ivanka. A former adviser and friend of Melania Trump reveals the inner workings of the first lady's office.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: First lady, Melania Trump, used private email accounts rather than White House email to discuss official White House business. That's according to her former senior adviser, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.
Wolkoff, who have a falling out with the first lady, is promoting a new book, 'Melania and Me, The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady."
In an interview this morning on CNN, Wolkoff also offered a new spin on a viral moment from the Republican National Convention.
You remember these images maybe of first daughter, Ivanka Trump, walking onstage to join her father and the first lady. Melania gave her a smile. But then, you see there, the moment Ivanka passed, Melania's face shifted quite a bit.
This was interpreted on the Internet as a serious case of side eye. But today, Wolkoff offered this analysis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE WINSTON WOLKOFF, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO FIRST LADY, MELANIA TRUMP: I take that and I look at it completely different than everybody else.
I actually saw Melania was trying to smile, represent properly, not show any type of friction between the two of them.
[12:00:04]
And Ivanka walked right by her and looked at Donald, ignored Melania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
