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President Donald Trump Denies Systemic Racism Exists During Kenosha Visit; Donald Trump Back On Campaign Trail In North Carolina; Biden, Trump Campaign Ads Focus On Racial Unrest; White House Coronavirus Task Force Issues Dire Warning For Iowa; Markey: "My Progressive View" Won Yesterday. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 02, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

STEPHANIE WINSTON WOLKOFF, FORMER FRIEND AND ADVISER TO MELANIA TRUMP: And Ivanka went right by her and looked at Donald and ignored Melania.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Wolkoff calls the relationship between the two women, "A cold war." It is the top of the hour welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us.

A positive Coronavirus development this hour, new research confirming common steroids can reduce death among critically ill Coronavirus patients. But with good news also comes a reason to worry heading into the holiday weekend. This Labor Day warning from Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Holiday travel and holiday festivities may drive another Coronavirus spike. Driving the baseline of new infections down right now is critical Dr. Fauci says. But the new numbers remind us the virus has a plan of its own. We are back above 40,000 new infections a day here in the United States.

Add in this as parents wrestle with the back-to-school decision cases among children has jumped 17 percent over the last two weeks more on the virus and the urgency of this moment just ahead. First though, a little 2016 deja vu Democrat Joe Biden leads the president in a new national poll with big leads among women and among non-white voters.

But a poll out of a key battleground shows Biden's margin narrowing. The president needs to rerun the 2016 script to win and closer numbers in Pennsylvania made clear today that remains possible. It's clear from his words and his tweets that the president's law and order stoking the U.S. racial divide as his path to re-election.

Battleground North Carolina gets his attention today. Tuesday, Wisconsin and specifically, Kenosha the latest American city teeming with anger over a police shooting of a black man. The president's itinerary included a visit with the law enforcement but the president did not meet with the family of Jacob Blake. In fact he never mentioned Blake's name.

Let's get straight to White House and CNN's Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, the president on the road again today? KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yep and John it's of course another battleground state. You see where the campaign's focus is these days. What we're really seeing play out this week, is what's this divide going to look like between Trump's visit to Kenosha and what Biden's visit is going to look like when he goes there tomorrow to give a speech where he is going to be talking on what's going on with the Jacob Blake family?

We know that he and Senator Kamala Harris have already spoken with the Blake family. You'll really see that divide of how the president made the priorities during his visit to be law enforcement and those businesses that had been affected by the riots, burned down by those riots and what Joe Biden is going to focus on tomorrow.

But it also comes as they are really in this advertising war also trying to capitalize on this law and order message that the president is trying to push, because if you look at these new ads that are out this week, some in Wisconsin and these states, you see the Trump campaign is pushing this idea trying to tie Biden to these riots the protests, that have turned into riots saying that Biden is allowing these lawless criminals to go around Kenosha.

I believe that's one of the Trump ads says. And then Biden's campaign has a very different ad where they're quoting from his speech this week where he was saying that he is okay with peaceful protests but he does not want people to be riding in the streets burning down businesses.

He says that's not protesting. You're seeing just how much the Biden campaign is starting to realize that this could be a message that voters take to heart and they feel the need to respond to it in a more forceful way than we've seeing in the weeks before this as the president was pushing that.

Now, of course, the question is ultimately going to be whether or not that's something voters prioritize over something like the pandemic, and right now polls have shown that voters are still much more concerned with health care, with the pandemic, with the economy and getting their jobs back than this. But it is a message that the president says he's going to be sticking to until November.

KING: And when you have the White House and you have the Trump megaphone you can drive the agenda. Some we will see if this succeeds. Kaitlan Collins grateful for the live reporting from the White House. Let's continue the conversation. Now joining me is CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson.

Dana, I just want to start with the Deja vu moment because I'm going to a broken record between now and Election Day. National polls are helpful. National polls are hopeful, but state by state is how we pick presidents. And if you look at those Pennsylvania numbers, we have what is predictable.

People should not be overly alarmed about this. You have post convention, you have a tightening race, Republican voters go back to their DNA, Democratic voters go back to their DNA. But we all reminded we need to be careful. Not over-focus on national polls?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No question about it, because national polls equal the national mood. As you said, that is not how Donald Trump became president. Despite the fact that he says with absolutely no credence to it whatsoever that the national numbers at the popular vote was wrong.

It wasn't wrong. The popular vote was something that Hillary Clinton won by millions. So what we are looking at is a State like Pennsylvania. Is a State like Wisconsin? Is a State like North Carolina where the president is going back today? That's what matters.

And the campaigns understand that extremely well. The fact that - which Joe Biden is going to Wisconsin tomorrow, is to give the broader pushback on the law and order message.

[12:05:00]

BASH: The broader pushback on the idea that he is sides with the peaceful protesters and so on and so forth, but it's also about Wisconsin. Because had Donald Trump not one Wisconsin he would not be president right now.

KING: And another thing number one lesson number one. State polls not national polls. Lesson number two, Nia-Malika Henderson is that Donald Trump is going to say some outrageous things along the way. And the question is a lot of them remember in 2016, a lot of people said oh, he will never get away with that.

Oh, he can never get elected after saying that, and he did. Among them to Dana's point let's just listen here; Donald Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. 6 million Illegal undocumented immigrants however he wants to put it did not vote in the presidential election. Yet here we are four years later, Donald Trump says this--

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think I did win the popular vote in a true sense. I think there was tremendous cheating in California. There was tremendous cheating in New York and other places.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ah, no. There was not. And then let me add in this. If you watched the conventions, both speeches, the final night, went past 11:00. You can go back and look at the tape yourself no matter who you support at home. Joe Biden had a lot more energy after 11:00 finishing his speech than Donald Trump did after 11:00 finishing his speech. Donald Trump says there is something going on there. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Because I watched Biden in the previous debates and he was horrible. And I watched him in the Bernie debate and he was normal. He wasn't Winston Churchill but he was normal. He is on some kind of an enhancement in my opinion. And I say we should both, I should take a drug test. So should he.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We're in the middle of a pandemic; we have a racial reckoning going on in our country and the President of the United States sitting in the White House he is saying the candidates for president should take a drug test before a debate?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I didn't know that there were PEDs for debate performances but apparently Donald Trump thinks that's what was going on with Joe Biden. We know that Donald Trump isn't someone who tells the truth all the time. He makes things up. He is a conspiracy theorist. So that's what you have here.

I think he said this before to and he may have said something similar around his debates with Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016. At this point in the race, this is sort of a man-to-man race. You're going to see these folks go around the country.

First you saw Donald Trump go to Wisconsin and now you see Joe Biden wanting to go to Wisconsin, too trying to show a contrast with Donald Trump. He had that speech earlier on this week, where essentially fact checked what Donald Trump said. And I think you'll see him go to Wisconsin and try to do the same thing.

He's arguing that he can bring all sides to the table. Not just law enforcement folks, but also activists who are out protesting what they see as unfair treatment in the hands of law enforcement. Do we'll see what that trip does for him? We do see these polls tightening.

We knew that was going to happen. And one of the things that we're going to be looking at and we're going to sound like broken records over and over again is how these candidates are doing with white voters?

Donald Trump I think won overall white voters, I think he won 58 percent white voters. You see Joe Biden doing much better with white voters at this point. He's a Catholic and knows particularly Midwestern states, a lot of Catholics in those states as well. Something I think you'll see him sort of hit.

He quoted John Paul, Pope John Paul II in his last speech. So I think that's something that they're looking to capitalize on, too. More contrast with this president who we know is going to play down and dirty. We know that he is going to play the race card in a way he did in 2016. Much, much more sort of boldly, I think, going forward in this race as we've seen so far.

KING: And Dana, we'll see that on the ground when Joe Biden goes to Kenosha tomorrow. Same issue, very different messages. And as Kaitlan noted it is also playing out in advertisement. Let's listen it is just a snippet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames. He can't stop the violence, because for years he's fermented it. His failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lawless criminals terrorize Kenosha. Joe Biden takes as knee. Biden and the radical left's weak response have led to chaos and violence and there are calls for defunding police would make it worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Again be, the Trump ad there breaks the fact check machine. Biden has not said some of the things they say he said but I yield the floor.

BASH: No, exactly right. I mean, starting with the fact that Joe Biden has said over and over again he opposes some of his fellow Democrats calls to defund the police. That's just a, one example. Look, this is that - that ad, the back-to-back ad you played there.

The sound bite you played before of Donald Trump questioning whether or not Joe Biden is on drugs. That in particular means - that is exhibit A of the huge challenge that the Joe Biden campaign has that the Hillary Clinton campaign had four years ago of how do you fight against that kind of thing?

[12:10:00]

BASH: When you - the Biden campaign has - you know, they would claim, more intellectual honesty. They don't want to go out and just throw something out that is just an absolute lie, but they also want to try to stay on the offense and they think that comes with the whole idea that Donald Trump has done poorly with the response to the Coronavirus and so forth.

And yet you have a president throwing out these wild distractions, and you know, I'm sure you talk to people, as I do, who are in the Biden campaign now, who are in the Hillary Clinton campaign four years ago, and even the Obama world when Donald Trump came on the scene talking about the conspiracy theory about Barack Obama not being a U.S. citizen.

The big challenge and the very narrow thread that they have to sort of weave here is how do you make sure that that doesn't become the lure and make sure that doesn't become reality that sticks in places that matter, and yet not get too distracted by it. It's really hard running against Donald Trump and he knows that.

KING: They both know that. What do you respond to and what do you lead? That's why we have an interesting campaign to finish. Dana Bash and Nia-Malika Henderson I appreciate your time and we'll obviously as the vice president travels to Kenosha tomorrow. Up next for us, the White House warning Iowa, the White House Task Force warning Iowa wear a mask, shut down your bars. How the state is responding, next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: A dire warning from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Iowa, you're in the red zone. The state now has highest Coronavirus infection rate in the United States. Let's take a look. First the national trends and if you look at it you see Iowa in the middle in red. What does it mean? The deep red that means it is reporting significantly higher.

50 percent higher case rate this week than last new infections. 17 states are trending up, 25 states half holding steady right now, 8 states trending down. So the White House Coronavirus Task Force specifically Dr. Deborah Birx looking at these states in red and orange and states that are trending in the wrong direction and giving them warnings and this is why.

You look at the new cases since June 1st in Iowa a spike in recent days. You see it going up right there. No need to explain it the graphic tells you the story there. Hospitalizations, something people say, always watch that, too, are these cases that are landing people in hospitals?

Yes. Look at the hospitalization rate trending up and certainly not what you want there and the positivity rate. Look at this, 22 percent positivity rate yesterday. Coronavirus tests in Iowa coming back 22 percent of the people taking those tests positive. Way up from where it was in June.

You see it rising up right here. You just take a look at the map. The deeper the color, the worst that county is 99 counties in Iowa you see the dark red; you see a lot of orange. The state has a problem. 66,000 cases confirmed since the beginning 1,100 deaths.

Dr. Birx warning the state things is going to get even worse if you don't do something and do it now. White House Task Force calling for tougher restrictions in Iowa to bring those numbers down. CNN's Omar Jimenez joins us now live from Des Moines, the White House says be on alert. Omar, the question is, is the state listening?

OMAR JIMINEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. The White House Coronavirus Task Force send these reports every week to Governors here and the latest one to come here to Iowa shows that over the past week at least Iowa has the highest new case rate in the country, and it also touched on test positivity rates showing that Iowa now is in fifth place for test positivity rate.

And obviously, these are numbers that have been going up in recent days, but one of the things that officials are looking at here, is that they point to universities as being potentially major spreading points, and that demographic is different than what we saw in the early days of the Coronavirus taking hold here in the country as one infectious disease experts puts it here in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. RAVI VEMURI, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: What we're seeing now in the community is, I think it has to do with, you know, 18 to 24- year-olds coming in for university a smaller percentage of those people will probably require hospital-level medical care,

But it's still dangerous from a public health perspective, because obviously those people then can perpetuate the infection, keep it going in the community. So it's very disheartening when you're trying to break the chain of transmission, when you have such surges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMINEZ: Now, this report also offers recommendations to the states. Among them it says mask mandates across the state must be in place to decrease transmission. It also says bars must be closed and indoor dining must be restricted to 50 percent of normal capacity in yellow zones and 25 percent of normal capacity in red zone counties and metro areas.

Notably, there is not a mask mandate in place here in Iowa. It is something that Governor Kim Reynolds has been working to put in place even as other states including Wisconsin for example have taken that extra step and individual jurisdictions have tried to put it in place.

Knowing that again if you look at these universities as again as potential new spreading locations people are coming back to school. We're two weeks away from Iowa State's first football game who say they have social distancing protocols in place. But that is as a gathering it is going to bring together, they say, around 25,000 people.

So obviously, there are points of concern in the future. The question is, if there will be a response to this new data from the White House Coronavirus Task Force from the Governor's office and the Governor herself here. John?

KING: That's a big event to watch as we watch the state deal with this hot zone crisis at the moment. Omar Jimenez, grateful for the live reporting on the ground.

[12:20:00]

KING: Keep in touch. Let's continue the conversation now with Dr. Celine Gounder she is an Infectious Disease Specialist and Epidemiologist. Dr. Gounder there is something interesting going on at the moment. In the sense that you have Dr. Birx traveling the country doing what she should be doing.

She has all the data at the White House Coronavirus Task Force. She is traveling the country, warning Governors and local public health officials what they should do. We see Dr. Fauci on television saying we knew what happened after Memorial Day, we know what happened after July 4th.

Please be careful come Labor Day. Two public health experts trying to be responsible and alarm states, we hear nothing from the White House briefing room anymore about this. We don't hear from the president. He does not give those doctors a platform.

Instead we're told increasingly his listening to Dr. Scott Atlas, who was pashing back he says the media is making it up. I'm not out there pushing this herd immunity theory. He says he is not pushing this herd immunity theory. Do you see a breakdown in communication how the White House is doing its business?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: John, I don't just see a breakdown of communication. What I see is something that we call doctor shopping. He would not, if you had a heart attack, go to see a podiatrist to help you with your heart attack, unless you were looking for somebody, I guess, to say, yes get a new pair of shoes and your heart attack will go away.

If you had Coronavirus/pneumonia, you would see an ER Doc or an Infectious Disease Specialist or pulmonologist. If you wanted to develop a new test or set up a lab you would have an Infectious Disease Specialist or Virologist or Immunologist which by the way is what Dr. Birx, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield are.

You would have them on your side. Dr. Atlas is a Neuro Radiologist. Unless they're looking to have a lot of brain MRIs read as part of the Coronavirus Task Force work he is completely unqualified for the advice that he's giving right now.

KING: And that's - I'm not qualified to say what you just said, but you are. You say he is unqualified but he is also saying he's like the president, he says I never said that. Now he's brushing back saying, who out there in the media says that I'm talking about herd immunity which would mean allows tens of thousands more Americans to come in touch with the Coronavirus. He says he's never pushed it. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: The more immunity in the community, the better we can eradicate the threat of the virus, including the threat to people who are vulnerable. That's what herd immunity is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Am I not hearing what I heard?

DR. GOUNDER: He is certainly advocating for herd immunity. He has advocated for the Swedish approach which is herd immunity. What he just said is a statement of herd immunity. We know that that approach will lead to millions of Americans dying, and we may not actually even get to herd immunity after all of that. That would be deaths in vain.

KING: I want you to help me with something else, too. And I'm sorry sometimes to drag medical professionals into the politics but there's been a big debate over whether those numbers on the side of our screen are believable 6 million cases in the United States, 185,000 almost Americans dead on our way to 200,000 or more. Joni Ernst is a Senator up for reelection in the State of Iowa. We just saw Omar Jimenez it has a problem at the moment. This is from a town hall. One attendee told Ernst during the question and answer period he believed COVID-19 cases and deaths are being over counted. A theory discounted by medical professionals who say the actual numbers are actually much higher than the official tallies.

Ernst said she was "So skeptical of these numbers as well". These health care providers and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if COVID is tied to it. So what do you think they're doing? She told the crowd, are the numbers over inflated and what happens when elected officials people in responsibility that people in the community look to for leadership say things like that?

DR. GOUNDER: John, to be very clear, these numbers are underestimates. We are undercounting the number of Coronavirus cases out there. Essentially what's happened, let's say you have a patient who comes in, has a heart attack and dies. That patient also had high blood pressure, diabetes and smoked two packs a day for 40 years.

Did they die from their heart attack? Did they die from smoking? Did they die from all of the above? And so when you have a patient who dies from pneumonia who also had underlying conditions in addition to COVID, some of these politicians are basically saying, oh, well, they didn't really die from just COVID.

That's a completely inappropriate way to make the count. What we know is that there have been an excess of deaths related to Coronavirus and it is due to Coronavirus infection and the damage caused to people by the Coronavirus.

KING: Every one of those numbers is a person we should not disrespect the numbers because you're disrespecting the victim, if you will Dr. Gounder, as always grateful for your expertise and your insights and your candor. Still ahead for us political history in Massachusetts, a Kennedy loses.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: Political history last night in Massachusetts, a Kennedy losing a state-wide election for the first time. That would be Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, member of the house trying to move up to the Senate challenging the Democratic incumbent Senator Edward Markey in a primary, but Markey was the big winner and last hour said he owes his thanks to progressives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Voters won big changes in our country. My progressive view of where our country has to go is the one that was chosen by the voters yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)