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Nearly 190,000 Americans Have Lost Their Lives Due To Coronavirus; Election Alarms, Conspiracies, Armed Militias; Iowa Senator Doubts Virus Death Toll As State Sees Cases Surge; Biden Lays Out Plan To Reopen Schools Amid Pandemic. Aired 1-1:30p ET
Aired September 02, 2020 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:00:00]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Matthew Chance reporting for us from Moscow, an important story. Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you back here this time tomorrow.
Don't go anywhere, a busy news day. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.
It is September 2nd, two months until election day, six months into the pandemic. And as events move as a dizzying pace, here's perspective on where we are.
Nearly 190,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus in just six months. Almost 30 million Americans are out of work with no relief in sight, because the Senate is on a month-long vacation, and Congress can't compromise. A newly revealed document showed the president has painted a rosy picture of the pandemic and pushed states to reopen while his task force issued dire warning after dire warning about the rapid spread of coronavirus across America.
The president of the United States is denying that the death toll of coronavirus is as high as the official count that his administration refers to.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I saw a specific come out the other day talking about only 6 percent of the people actually died from COVID, which is a very interest -- that they died from --
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Well, they have co-morbidities, which you've gotten criticized for because there are co-morbidities, as the Italians showed, for every COVID death, I think, of 70 something percent, had two or three co-morbidities. But the COVID might ultimately have been the key morbidity to hit them. But bottom line --
TRUMP: It could be, but it's an interesting statistic.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: He is a coronavirus death toll denier. And his claim traced from a Facebook post to the tweet of QAnon conspiracy theorist. That's the group that believes Trump is fighting a ring of Satan-worshipping celebrity and politician pedophiles who drink the blood of children to stay young.
To an article on a conspiracy website that a Trump campaign adviser tweeted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The numbers that you've been hearing, the 180,000-plus deaths, are real deaths, from COVID-19. Let that not be any confusion about that. It's not 9,000 deaths from COVID-19. It's 180,000-plus deaths.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The president isn't alone pushing these lies. Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst is giving life to the conspiracy theory too. Senator Ernst said, quote, 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?
Well, I'll tell you what they're doing. They are caring for infected patients. They are getting a lot of Americans to the other side of this disease alive. And they're watching a lot of Americans die alone from COVID without family members by their side in their final moments. And those health care providers are risking their health, their lives, as they do this heroes' work.
Those health care providers didn't sign up to be deploys to a war zone, as Senator Ernst and an Iraq War veteran, did. But these doctors and nurses, these patient transporters, hospital janitors, administrative workers, they answer the call anyway. And Senator Ernst is disrespecting their service, accusing them of secretly fudging numbers to make hospitals more money. Even as hospitals are losing $50 billion a month treating COVID patients, according to an industry group that represents them, putting many at risk of bankruptcy.
And it's not like Senator Ernst doesn't know the reality of what COVID can do. Her state has highest number of cases per capita right now. Her state is facing an impending crisis, according to a warning from the White House coronavirus task force, even as her state's governor refuses to mandate masks.
Conspiracy theories have infected the Senate and they're propelling candidates into the House of Representatives. A QAnon supporter in Georgia is one step closer to Congress expected to win her race for a House seat. The president calls Marjorie Taylor Greene a rising star, and even invited her to the White House for his convention speech.
This threat is fueled by the most prominent conspiracy theorist in the U.S. government, the president himself. Just a sampling of the conspiracies that he has pushed without evidence or basis in reality, birtherism, President Obama spying on him, Uranium One, unemployment numbers, JFK's assassination, American Muslims celebrating on 9/11, death tolls from disasters, widespread voter fraud, suggesting a T.V. host murdered someone, the cause of Jeffrey Epstein's death, windmills, climate change, vaccines, migrant caravans and social media companies plotting against him.
In the cases of many those, he teased new evidence to come to light based on anonymous sources, but remember what the president himself has said about anonymous sources? Quote, don't believe any article or story you read or see that uses anonymous sources.
He's even got a new conspiracy about his opponent, Joe Biden. After Biden received good reviews for his convention speech not long before the president teetered on his way to a podium at the New Hampshire campaign stop Friday that he was on, a new question that had been raised about an unusual trip he made to Walter Reed Medical Center late last year.
[13:05:13]
(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's 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)
KEILAR: The president can't even keep up with his own lies, as he alleges thugs in dark clothing were spotted on planes heading to protests at the RNC and that dark forces are controlling Joe Biden. Then he said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: On a plane.
INGRAHAM: Where is this?
TRUMP: I'll tell you sometime, but it's under investigation right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The next day, this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This would be a person you know. So I will see whether or not I can get that person. I'll let them know and I'll see whether or not I can get that person to speak to you. Maybe they'll speak to you, maybe they won't.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: What he's playing to is a conspiracy theory that Joe Biden is controlled by people in dark shadows. So what does that mean? What's he talking about? Is this the deep state? Is it the same worshipping pedophiles that QAnon folks say they are taking over the world? I think our fact checker, Daniel Dale, put it best.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: It's almost too stupid to fact check. I mean, when you Fox's Laura Ingraham telling you it sounds like a conspiracy theory, it's called a conspiracy theory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Back to that mystery Walter Reed visit, it's mysterious because the president has made it so. First explaining it this way in November, that he visited servicemen and went for a short visit to start -- to start phase one of his annual physical. Fast forward to now. He says he went to complete his physical.
But we still don't have a clear explanation why he went there in a hurry on a Saturday afternoon, breaking a number of protocols for a routine medical visit. But a new book by an acclaimed New York Times reporter suggests whatever it was, it was serious enough that Vice President Mike Pence was told to be on standby, to assume the power of the presidency. And he responded this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I don't -- I don't recall being told to be on standby. I was informed that the president had a doctor's appointment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Seems being on the verge of stepping into the role of leader of the free world is something you'd remember, right? But there was a clear pattern with Pence when it comes to some of the critical moments of the Trump presidency, whether it's the Ukraine scandal or a contentious meeting in the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENCE: I -- I don't recall ever having met Mr. Parnas, although I've seen a couple of photographs where apparently he was in my vicinity.
Well, as we've been clear, I made -- I made no comments in my meeting with President Zelensky concerning any investigations or tying investigations to U.S. aid to Ukraine. And I have no recollection of any discussion with Ambassador Sondland before that meeting.
I have heard that it was in a briefing book. I have no recollection of having seen the transcript of the call.
But, you know, I received literally hundreds of transcripts over the time. I don't recall ever reading it. It's specific but it doesn't mean that I did. But had I read it, wouldn't have mattered because the president did nothing wrong.
I don't -- I don't recall him ever raising his voice or slamming his hand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The president's hospital visit has taken up a lot of bandwidth at the White House and among his supporters. The president's former White House physician, who is running in Texas as a Republican for a seat in Congress, was prompted to come to Trump's defense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONNY JACKSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: I won't get into the president's health. I'm not longer his physician. But I will comment and tell you that I was consulted regarding this trip weeks in advance. This trip was neither urgent nor emergent nor did it have anything to do with his cerebrovascular or his cardiovascular health. It was part of a routine planned preventive medicine workup to keep him healthy as president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: As I mentioned, that visit to Walter Reed did not follow protocol of a routine presidential medical exam. According to CNN reporting, medical staff at Walter Reed did not get a staff-wide heads-up. The president's physician rode with him in the motorcade, which is not typical. Because if something, God forbid, happens to a president in transit, his physician had better be in a safe place and a separate vehicle to be able to tend to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: And I can tell you furthermore as his physician for three and a half years prior to that --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: All right, that's just a lie. Jackson served as physician to the president for a year, a single year. Then after his V.A. nomination failed, he returned not as physician to the president but as chief medical adviser for less than a year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: The president is in excellent physical condition. He had a head-to-toe physical workup, including extensive cardio workup that put him well within the top 10 percent of men his age from a cardiac standpoint.
[13:10:06]
So, why is the left suddenly talking about this?
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Well, that's just weird. Because in the White House memo at the time of the trip, the White House doctor said the president did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurological evaluations, again, no specifics on what tests he received.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: The reason is, they're trying to defer and distract from the obvious mental, physical and cognitive issues with former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now their nominee for president. They're in trouble, and they're trying to fix it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: A physician diagnosing Joe Biden with a cognitive problem without being Joe Biden's physician.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: So I can tell you two things. I can tell you, number one, the president is in excellent mental and physical condition. He will finish this term and he will finish the four years ahead of him in his second term, which he will get.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Two things about that comment. Ronny Jackson is predicting the future again, and we have no reason to believe he's psychic. But also, the president is clinically obese. He is not in excellent physical condition.
CNN's Sanjay Gupta reported in 2018 that the president has a common form of heart disease easy to address if he increases the dose of his cholesterol medication and makes lifestyle changes.
Keep in mind, though, this is the same doctor who said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Can you tell me a guy who eats McDonald, fried chicks, and all of those Diet Cokes and never exercises is in as good of shape as you say he's in?
JACKSON: It's called genetics. I don't know. Some people have, you know, just great genes. I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old. I don't know.
Well, I think wearing a mask is a personal choice. And I don't particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask.
I don't wear a mask all that often, to be honest with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, the president is embroiled in creating doubt about his opponent's health and trying to distract from questions about his own instead of focusing on the health of the nation and a national response to coronavirus.
And two months from Election Day, he's not focused on the health of our upcoming election, even as alarm bells are going off. For instance, the FBI tipped off Facebook to a Russian network targeting Americans. The Department of Homeland Security reportedly withheld an intelligence bulletin in July that warned law enforcement agencies of a Russian scheme to promote allegations that Joe Biden is in poor health.
One of the baseless conspiracy theories the president and his allies have been promoting. And the Trump administration has decided to end in-person briefings to Congress on election security. Congress will not be able to ask the experts questions about their findings.
And the president is escalating false attacks on mail-in voting even though he votes by mail and so will many American who want to be safe as they cast their ballots during a deadly pandemic. The Postal Service run by a Trump donor is under fire for changes that critics say will impact ballots. Republicans are escalating their promotion of manipulated fake videos without regret or consequence and it's still a guessing came on what social media companies allow and don't allow.
And, once again, the president is declaring he won the popular vote in 2016, when he actually missed that mark by 3 million votes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Make like L, Mr. President, and let it go. Because that widespread fraud that you're hawking, it's fiction. Even the White House commission failed to find it. But the president is very sensitive about his loss of the popular vote and accompanying suggestions that Russia's election interference in 2016 was to his advantage. But does he push back on Russia? No. He's actually sitting by as Vladimir Putin trolls the U.S.
Just this past week, a Russian fighter jet followed a U.S. B-52 into Danish airspace, which NATO called a significant violation of international law. On Friday, Russian jets crossed within 100 feet of a B-52. A few days before that, a Russian submarine surfaced off the Alaska coast. Two days before that, a Russian armored vehicle sideswiped a U.S. vehicle in Syria inuring several American troops and it appeared to be a deliberate move.
And what about here at home? With racial tensions escalating across this country because of deaths or shootings of black men at hands of police, the president does not try to ease those tensions. Instead, he sees a powder keg and he lights a match. Then falsely accuses the Joe Biden of not condemning violence, Biden has, and Trump defends his supporters who shoot paintballs and even bullets in the case of the 17-year-old in Kenosha accused of killing two people with an AR-15- style gun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You saw the same tape as I saw. And he was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like.
[13:15:02]
And he fell. And then they very violently attacked him, and it was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been -- he probably would have been killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: That suspect facing murder charges is one of his supporters. And police say they crowd chased him after he already had shot someone in the head, a man who would later die.
The president also defends armed militias hitting the streets in his name to confront protesters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I understand they have large numbers of people that were supporters but that was a peaceful protest. And paint is not -- and paint is a defensive mechanism. Paint is not bullets.
A lot of people are looking to what's happening to these Democrat-run cities and they're disgusting. They see what's going on and they can't believe this is taking place in our country. I can't believe it either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: He's against black violence but he's fine with white violence. Remember when he said this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I am your president of law and order, and an ally of all peaceful protesters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: B.S. And the president proves himself wrong on that one as he keeps attacking NBA players for speaking out against racism and against him, a form of peaceful protest, ripping them for kneeling, a form of peaceful protest, criticizing them for sitting out some games, a form of peaceful protest.
Trump also spent a day in Kenosha yesterday, but he didn't mention Jacob Blake's name, nor the social justice reasons that Americans are protesting in the first place. In fact, when two black pastors were asked whether police violence is systemic, the president answered for them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I think the police is doing an incredible job and I think you do have some bad apples. I think you would agree, every once in a while, you'll see something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, look, many Americans do agree with that statement by the president, that there are bad cops and there are good cops. But this is how he describes the actions of police officers that have cost the lives and the health of black Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They choke, just like in a golf tournament. They miss a three- foot putt.
INGRAHAM: You're not comparing it to golf, because, of course, that's what media would say (ph).
TRUMP: No. I'm saying people choke.
INGRAHAM: People might panic.
TRUMP: People choke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: When you choke on a putt, you get a bogey instead of a par. You clock an extra stroke on your score card. This isn't a golf swing. This isn't a game. These are lives, and he should not be playing with them.
As I mentioned, Iowa's Republican senator, Joni Ernst, is pushing the lie that deaths from the disease are grossly overreported just as her state has become the national hot spot for coronavirus. The White House task force just issuing a dire warning to the state for its skyrocketing increase in new cases. And it's a 77 percent jump this week from the previous week, the highest rate of new infections per capita in the nation.
And now, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier is reporting that Ernst agreed with a man at one of her campaign events who is doubting this official tally of cases and deaths. Ernst reportedly responded that she too was, quote, so skeptical with the numbers, going on to say, quote, that thing we mentioned before, right? These health care providers, she said, and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if COVID is tied to it. So what do you think they're doing?
Ernst later clarified her statements to The Courier reporter who recorded their conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I have heard it from health care providers that they do get reimbursed higher amounts if it's a COVID-related illness or death. So because of the additional expense for PPE and the treatment that might be necessary for COVID-19.
REPORTER: Do you think that numbers are being inflated because of that?
ERNST: That, I'm not sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Dr. Glenn Hurst is a family medicine physician who runs a health clinic in Western Iowa and he's also chair of the Iowa Democratic Party Rural Caucus. Doctor, just respond even that clarification where Senator Ernst says she's not sure if these numbers are basically being fudged. What's your reaction to that?
DR. GLENN HURST, FAMILY MEDICINE DOCTOR IN RURAL IOWA: I find it to be incredibly offensive. It's an offensive attack on some of the best Iowans out there on the frontlines. The people that, one side of her mouth, she will refer to as heroes, and the next side of her mouth, she has just accused of Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
KEILAR: Tell us what's going on in Iowa right now. What is it there -- what is it like on the scene?
HURST: So what we're seeing is just this beginning of an exponential increase in numbers of cases, just like we saw back in February and March in countries around the world, where numbers began doubling every two to three days, 20 cases, 40 cases, then 80 cases, 160 cases.
[13:20:09]
We're starting to see the beginning of that curve here.
And as that curve goes up and up and up, we still see Governor Reynolds, and our administration, the Republicans, supporting scaling back the precautions, which flattened us out up until Memorial Day.
KEILAR: And tell us a little bit about what's happening at hospitals there. Because as we understand it, hospitals are actually losing a lot of money -- I mean, tons of money, here as they are struggling to fight COVID and they're not getting what are actually much more expensive procedures to do, than non-COVID procedures?
HURST: Right. I would put her comments in the category that one of your peers used which was, too stupid to fact check. These facilities are treating patients that have, you know, incredibly severe consequences and severe presentations. And it requires more than what a normal pneumonia would take to take care of these patients.
We are seeing our hospital beds having extended lengths of stay for COVID positive patients compared to other forms of pneumonia. And, yes, they should rightfully be reimbursed for that. It's just shameful that she would even suggest that that additional payment and additional funding, which is minuscule, would be worth risking your license for fraud over. It's, again, it's -- it's shameful.
KEILAR: No, it's a very serious charge, right? It's like -- it's like if you're talking about a lawyer and they're doing something that they would be disbarred over. This is your medical license. You need it to practice your livelihood.
HURST: Right, you would lose your medical license for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.
KEILAR: Dr. Hurst, thank you so much for setting us straight. We appreciate it.
HURST: My pleasure.
KEILAR: And good luck. I know Iowa has its work cut out for it.
In moments, Joe Biden delivering a speech on schools and the coronavirus. Is he going to take some questions after it?
Plus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi under fire after video surfaces of her at a hair appointment, which violates the rules in San Francisco, salons not open for indoor appointments there. We'll have her response.
And the owner of the Kenosha shop where President Trump visited says he refused to meet with him, so he was replaced by someone else who wasn't the owner of the business.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- being felt all across the United States of America. And Jill and I have just been briefed, as you know, in this room by our public health and education experts about what it's going to take to be able to reopen our schools safely and effectively.
And back-to-school has always been a special time. It is indeed in your family as in mine but particularly in mine, because for all of the years, Jill and I were married, she was going back to school too as a teacher. She was an educator and she will be the first one to tell you that this should be a season of promise for our country, times when classrooms were crackling with the possibilities of the New Year, students hopes and the -- all about the future.
But this year, we're facing the most difficult circumstances and we're seeing an awful lot of heart and a lot of grit from our educators, our students and to try to rise to the occasion here. But our government hasn't come up to that bar, hasn't shown much grit at all or determination.
Let me be clear, if President Trump and his administration had done their jobs early on with this crisis, American schools would be open and would be opened safely. Instead, American families all across this country are paying the price for his failures and his administration's failures.
Like many of you, because you're all reporters, you also have a lot of friends and you have children and you probably are hearing the same thing I'm hearing throughout this pandemic. They're struggling to figure out how to do the right thing, but they're worried. They're worried, like the devil. They -- what does it mean for my kids? Is this setting my child's education back beyond just a semester?
[13:25:01]
What impact will it have? How is my child going to catch up? What if -- what if I'm not doing enough to help my child succeed? All of those questions, the self-doubt that's been engaged.
President Trump may not think this is a national emergency, but I think going back to school for millions of children and the impacts on their families and the community is a national emergency. I believe that's what it is.
Protecting our students, our educators, our communities, getting our schools open safely and effectively, this is a national emergency. But President Trump still doesn't have any real plan for how to open our schools safely, no real plan for how to help parents feel secure for their children.
He's offering nothing but failure and delusions from the start to finish to American families and our children are paying the price for his failures, failure to take this virus seriously early on in January and February and its spread around the globe, failure to take steps we needed back in March and April to get this pandemic under control, to institute widespread testing and tracing to control the spread, failure to provide clear national science-based guidelines to state and local authorities, and failure to model even basic responsibility, like socially distancing and wearing a mask, and failure to make sure educators and administrators have the equipment, the resources and the training they need to open safely under the circumstances we find now.
Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, haven't stepped up and we're all seeing the results. Millions of students are now starting the new school year in the same way they finished the last one, at home, at home. Parents are doing their best, but more and more were finding themselves at wit's end, struggling to balance work and child care and education duties, educational duties, or worrying about their lost paycheck, and how they'll make ends meet while trying to keep their kids on track with remote learning.
Educators are taking on countless hours of additional training to learn how to use remote learning tools so they can still be there for their students but they're worried about all the kids who used to count on our schools. All of those children who need it so badly and particularly those children who need more than education, they provide their meals and safe places to spend the day.
You know, we're all concerned about making sure COVID-19 doesn't further exacerbate the disparities, the disparities that already have existed in our education system. For so many poor children and in so many communities of color, it's unacceptable. And it can't go on like this. We all want our schools to reopen safely with the plan that prioritizes the health of our students and educators and staff alike. I laid out my plans back in June and July, a road map for how to open, reopen safely, and effectively. You can read them by going to joebiden.com.
We need straightforward common sense solutions, but Trump refuses to act, starving schools of the needed funding, funding they need now, now. They needed it beginning of the summer.
Now Trump's FEMA director is cutting schools loose. Just yesterday, FEMA announced after helping three districts, I think it was three, they announced they're not going to help pay for cloth masks, other PPE for school settings, clean those basic health needs, sanitize everything from the laboratories to the classrooms, and safety costs for schools that don't qualify for emergency assistance. This is an emergency, Mr. President. This is an emergency. And Donald Trump and his FEMA should treat it as one.
If I were president today, I would direct FEMA to make sure our kids K-12 get full access to disaster relief and emergency assistance under the Stafford Act. I'd make sure that PPE and sanitation supplies for schools qualify as emergency protective measures, which is a phrase they use, to fully be eligible for federal assistance. On top of that, I would be working with leaders of Congress now, today, to pass emergency packages for schools so they have resources they need in order to be able to open safely.
[13:30:08]
