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Dr. Anthony Fauci Warns Labor Day Could Cause New Surge; President Donald Trump Dismissed Question About Racism While In Kenosha; Joe Biden Says Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake Should Be Charged; CDC Documents Say States Should Prepare To Distribute A Vaccine As Soon As Late October; President Donald Trump Threatens To Cut Funding To Democratic-Led Cities Over Unrest. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired September 03, 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]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: A new normal. He is urging people please wear a mask and socially distance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We don't want to see a repeat of the surges that we have seen following the holiday weekend. We don't want to see a surge under any circumstances. But particularly as we go on the other side of Labor Day and enter into the fall, we want to go into that with a running start in the right direction. We don't want do go into that with another surge that we have to turn around again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: There's also a coming trust question, a trust test on vaccines and if Americans are willing to take them. The CDC putting out all 50 states on notice guidance to them that they need to start to preparing to distribute a Coronavirus vaccine perhaps by late October more on that virus ahead but we begin the hour with both Presidential Candidates on the trail today.
The president off to Pennsylvania, Joe Biden heading to a different battleground Wisconsin for what his campaign calls a healing trip to Kenosha. It is the former vice president's first trip to that state since becoming the Democratic Nominee.
And it is also Biden's first trip of course since Kenosha became this country's latest racial powder keg that after a white police officer shot Jacob Black a black man in the back seven times. This morning a table - sorts the Biden campaign releasing a new ad centered on racial justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Part of the point of freedom is to be free from brutality, from injustice, from racism and all of its manifestations. JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You can't turn away. Now is the time for racial justice. I believe with every fiber in my being we have such an opportunity now to change people's lives for the better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Let's get straight to CNN's Arlette Saenz; she is on the ground ahead of the Former Vice President in Kenosha. Arlette, what are we looking for today as Joe Biden visits Kenosha?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well John, Joe Biden is making his way to Wisconsin right now for a trip that he has described as being one of healing. He is set to hold a community meeting here in Kenosha, he says that will be with local leaders, business leaders and some law enforcement.
There is also a local stop expected later today in the Milwaukee area. And he and Jill Biden will both be sitting down with the family of Jacob Blake. Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris spoke with them last week on the phone but today they will be taking the time to meet with the Blake family in person after that police shooting of Jacob Blake about a week and a half ago.
And this is really offers Biden a chance to present a contrast to Trump. Trump did not meet with the Blake family while he was here in Kenosha, he did not say Jacob Blake's name during his day's stop here.
And Biden is also trying to present himself as this unifying figure, that goes back to the very heart of Biden's message from the start of the campaign as he launched his bid about a year and a half ago almost saying that he is someone who can unite the country, who can bridge some of the division in the country.
And yesterday as he spoke about his trip he talked about how he wants to help this community heal? Now this is also Biden's first major campaign travel outside of Delaware and Pennsylvania since the Coronavirus pandemic brought campaigning to a halt back in March.
Biden did make one trip to Houston, Texas, to meet with the family of George Floyd but this is the first time that he's really getting out there in the Midwest for campaign events for that smaller event and it won't be a giant rally but of course Wisconsin is a critically important state.
This is the first time he's coming here during his presidential campaign and is a bit different from 2016 when the Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton didn't visit the State of Wisconsin. John?
KING: A very important afternoon ahead for the former vice president. Arlette Saenz, grateful you were with the live reporting. We'll check in throughout the day. A test for Joe Biden today in Kenosha, of course and his message of unity he is trying to draw this contrast with the president who was there just two days ago.
Let's discuss now with us to discuss Astead Herndon he is Political Report at "The New York Times" Margaret Talev is the Politics and White House Editor at "AXIOS". Astead, so the former vice president, you saw a little snippet of the ad, they're up with a big ad focusing on racial justice and trying to heal prejudice in this country.
And let's contrast this with the President of the United States he was in Kenosha on Tuesday and here's the question. Do you believe systemic racism is a problem in this country? Here's the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe systemic racism is a problem in this country?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You know you just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence that we have seen in Portland and here and other places. It is tremendous violence. You always get to the other side. What do you think about this or that? The fact is that we have seen tremendous violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We have seen some violence; we could have a debate over the word tremendous. We have seen some reprehensive of violence in some of these cities. But the president just doesn't want to answer the question about systemic racism. And I ask in the context of we're in an election and in politics you're trying to get votes. The president says, no, this is about violence.
The American people, look at this 75 percent in a Quinnipiac Poll believe racism is a big problem in the country. If 75 percent of the American people believe something that means a fair amount of Republicans believe it and yet the president can't bring himself to talk about it in any way.
[12:05:00]
ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is a layup to say that racism is something that exists in this country because and factually is but we know that it this is the president who just does not see this as part of his interest and more so has tried to flip that script, who tried to use this as a wedge issue, particularly in certain swing states rather than rally around it in terms of bringing the country together or a kind of unity message that we are seeing Joe Biden try to present.
I mean, there are Republicans all across this country who says that racism is a problem and they offer different solutions. They say that Democrats are distorting it; the big government is the solution. Someone like Tim Scott who spoke at the Republican National Convention has talked about his own experience and then offered a conservative, small government solution to that.
That has been the tradition of black Republicans specifically and some white Republicans. This is not the tradition of Donald Trump. This is a person, as a personal figure and as a political figure has sought to use race to divide and a kind of a wedge issue for his own personal gain rather than to admit the facts all staring us in the face.
KING: I'm old enough to remember Jack Kemp even a young Paul Ryan who is a disciple of Jack Kemp used to think that was just a few years ago now I understand it was a parallel universe apparently. Margaret, to this challenge now to Joe Biden though, there are some Democrats, of course this is a big issue of violence by police against black Americans is a giant issue.
The law enforcement concerns are a big issue, as well. Yet there are Democrats who are a little bit nervous about this thinking somehow that president has baited Joe Biden onto his turf.
MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know John, that's really true. We have a new focus group out today and obviously focus groups are not polls but they do give you a flavor of some of the messaging that really hits different types of voters and we looked at swing voters who previously voted for Obama and then went to Trump in 2016.
With this group, this focus group gave us some real insights of where there is white resentment over paying so much attention to the needs of black voters and not lower income or middle class white voters or working class white voters. The term structural racism or systemic racism is a term that some white voters, potentially swing voters, don't like even if you ask them or deeply is it fair that there's injustice to people of color?
They would say no of course not and this notion that you have two choices, protecting the public against Coronavirus or protecting law and order which is obviously like a false choice but when you pose it that way and force people to choose off sides the president's calculation is that he can shave off some of that support for Joe Biden or at least depress the support for Joe Biden.
In Kenosha County you're talking about like maybe about 250 votes that that county gave it to Trump by in 2016, is a razor thin majority and this is just pure politics playing out and so for Biden the real needle that he has to thread out to show empathy and talk about what's right and express that what happened to Jacob Blake is not appropriate, at the same time without alienating some of those swing voters and it is a very complicated dance.
KING: It is a complicated dance. Threading a needle as you put it Margaret. And Astead that's what makes this interesting. How different the conversation could be during a primary when we thought some of the progressives and progressives did go after Joe Biden saying you were part of those tough on crime approaches back in the '90s.
And you didn't have the sensitivity that you need today on these issues. It was viewed as a liability potentially during the primaries and some ways it could be an asset to Biden now but only if he can thread the needle as Margaret put it.
Astead, so listen here Joe Biden is going to say I'm for tough cops but only for good cops. And listen to him here MJ asked him what about the person, the officer who shot Jacob Blake and the officers who burst into the home of Breonna Taylor. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Last week your running mate Senator Harris said that the officer who shot Jacob Blake based on what she has seen should be charged and do you agree with her and do you also believe the same for those who were involved in the death of Breonna Taylor?
BIDEN: I think we should let the judicial system work its way. I do think there's a minimum need to be charged, the officers and as well as Breonna Taylor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I guess the question back to Margaret's point, is Joe Biden nimble enough to thread the needle?
HERNDON: Yes, and that's what we're going to test here. I mean, not only have they run this ad saying that you know we're listening and we're kind of listening to the conservative black Americans around police, they published a different ad that's part of a larger ad that talks about Joe Biden condemning rioting and violence.
This is the strategy of this campaign to kind of be all things to all people, to try to push back against the idea that it is a choice between the kind of Coronavirus and law and order; to that it is a choice between being tough on crime and being soft on crime.
[12:10:00]
HERNDON: And frankly the president helps him with that because the president has not proven himself as someone who has credibility on these issues. Now when we think back to the primary, there was such a cadence to these kinds of cycles. Progressives would hit Joe Biden and saying you know he was tough on crime.
He implemented the crime bill and the like and then we were going to voters, particularly black voters who ended up swaying this election for the vice president. And they would say over and over that is not the top concern; we are worried about defeating Trump.
This is about electability and we're still with Joe Biden. Joe Biden has not kind of won back the younger voters. We're not seeing kind of the big kind of Obama ex-coalition from them that he would need and that's tied back to those issues.
But he is building a different coalition driven by seniors, driven by higher number of white voters and driven by moderates and that is not going to be something that that kind of threading of the needle hurts him with.
KING: And one of the interesting things in that part as Joe Biden tries to build this coalition Margaret is that the Trump team keeps saying, you know, well, he is a puppet of Bernie Sanders and the radical left. There was always a question how much will Bernie Sanders help Joe Biden? Listen to this, this is an odd way but Joe Biden will be grateful for this help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): Joe's agenda is not my agenda. If you like my agenda it is not Joe's. If you don't like my agenda, it is not Joe's.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: There will be a lot of gratitude for Bernie Sanders saying, no, no, not me.
TALEV: Right, that's a Bernie Sanders. But I think we saw Joe Biden test this the other day when we saw him come out and you'll notice these are not joint appearances with Kamala Harris and this is Joe Biden and as Joe Biden saying do I look like a radical?
I'm not sure what a radical looks like. There's a bit of a dog whistle there but it is Biden and the Biden campaign testing how they do that messaging without giving any doubts to the coalition the base coalition voters of color, younger voters to bring along that they're trying to bring along.
It is a real balancing act, the problem with the big tent or the challenge with a big tent is that there are different parts of that tent and they respond differently to different messages.
KING: It is a complicated challenge. We'll see the former vice president on the ground in Kenosha today Astead Herndon and Margret Talev grateful for your reporting and your insights. Up next for us, Dr. Fauci weighs in on the vaccine timeline and tries to clean up, clear up some mixed messaging from the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:15:00]
KING: This coming weekend is Labor Day weekend, of course, and public health experts including those working for the government worry, they remember what happened after Memorial Day and they remember what happened after July 4th and they're worried another holiday weekend could lead to a spike in Coronavirus cases.
Let's take a look at where we are right now the state by state trend map. 18 states, that' the orange and the red, trending up including all across New England and the northeast, out here in the middle of America. 18 states trending up that means reporting more new infections now compared to a week ago.
23 states holding steady, nine states in the green trending down across the south west, good news across their California as well, still a high number in California but beginning to trend down. The death trend map follows the case trend map. So if the cases are still up deaths are. 12 states reporting more deaths now compared to a week ago. 16 holding steady. 22 states are heading in the right direction fewer deaths this week than last week. The case trend is what Dr. Fauci talks about when he says we need to get a running start heading into the fall. There is no evidence zero evidence we'll be prepared to get that running start essentially a plateau here recent days of about 40,000 new infections a day.
It was 20,000 back at the beginning of the summer surge up the hill you want to come down the hill as fast as possible this is far too slow to shove the base line down to where Dr. Fauci and other experts think it needs to be again, averaging about 40,000 cases right now.
When you have that many cases well then it is hard to push this line down either, you see the average the blue line here, the seven-day moving average going back really to the end of July and the middle of July, on average 1,000 Americans still dying, a 1,000 Americans still dying every day of Coronavirus.
You see across the line right there. One of the reasons it is hard to get that baseline down, 20 states have a positivity rate over 10 percent from their Coronavirus testing yesterday. People get tested; results come into the state's 10 percent. The experts say get it to 5 percent and then shove it down from there.
You have all of these states highlighted here some of them are heading up to begin with some of them have been in better shape lately but the positivity rate is still high, that means down the road you're going to get more cases. Now the help here would be a vaccine, right?
We can put these conversations behind us if we had a reliable, safe, widely available vaccine. There are 33 vaccines in human trials around the world right now, 9 in China, 5 in the United States. You see Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom this Dr. Fauci said in a wide ranging interview today on CNN; this could be a source of some good news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FAUCI: There's good news in the public health area. We see that when we have states and cities and counties in areas that do abide by the public health mandates that I'm speaking about now with you today that they do turn around the surges and in fact blunt any surges. The other good news is vaccines, I mean, we now have three vaccines in phase III trial. We're on the right track.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Let's bring in our Senior Medical Correspondent CNN's Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, should we be as optimistic as Dr. Fauci seemed to sound there? He at least he said it was good news, is it?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know Dr. Fauci has used a phrase that I have talked about with you many times, John cautiously optimistic. He may not have said it this time but I'm going to go back to what he said hundreds of times cautiously optimistic.
The vaccine trials have enrolled very quickly. The question is how quickly will they get data? So we asked that question here on CNN. We asked Dr. Fauci when you think we might have a vaccine available. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FAUCI: Could this be earlier? Sure. If someone comes out and says, you know, I'm going to shoot for the possibility that I'll get it by October, you can't argue strongly against that. That's unlikely. Not impossible. I think most of the people feel it's going to be November, December.
[12:20:00]
DR. FAUCI: It is conceivable to have it by October though I don't think that that's likely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: John, this is why Dr. Fauci and really no one can tell you exactly when this vaccine will be ready and that's because what they have done is they have taken tens of thousands of people, split them in half, half get a placebo basically say - and half get the vaccine.
They then have to wait and see who gets infected and sick with COVID- 19 and who doesn't. You can't rush biology either people will get infected very, very quickly and will have answers very, very quickly or it can take a while.
A lot it depends on who they enrolled in these vaccines. If they enrolled a bunch of people who like to stay at home and wear masks diligently when they go out it going to take a while to get an answer. If they enrolled high risk people who are living in situations such that they're going to run into the virus very quickly then we could get the answers more quickly. John?
KING: We'll wait in the meantime, Elizabeth Cohen, grateful for the context and reporting there. Thank you so much. Up next for us, President Trump threatens to pull federal funding from Democratic-led cities again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:25:00]
KING: A new threat by President Trump, this time vowing to withhold federal funding to several major cities, all of them just happen to be run by Democrats in blue states. The president says those cities are permitting anarchy, violence and destruction. Joining us now with more our White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins. A threat, will he follow through is the question?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a big question and also what are these states or these cities going to do in response if the president does say try to cut off funding somewhere like Portland?
They will likely sue. It's going to go to court. There are going to be these challenges just like when you saw the president threaten to cut off funding to sanctuary cities, something that of course went to court, as well.
And so now in this new five-page memo that the president sent out last night he singling out these Democrat-led cities that he has singled out on Twitter and in his comments over the last several days, Portland, Seattle, New York, Washington, D.C., going after them saying that they're letting lawlessness run rampant in their cities,
And if they don't get things under control he basically says he is instructing the budget office to have the Department of Justice look at these cities that they're calling anarchists jurisdictions, that's the term that president is using in this official memo from the White House where, of course, these are areas where the president has said they want to defund the police.
Even though we have seen leaders in the Democratic Party people like the former vice president who is now running to be the president saying he does not want to defund the police. But it has been this image that the president has been shaping of lawlessness while he says he is the law and order candidate.
And he is hoping it will be effective ahead of the election. So of course you've got to see there are political motivations here at play. But the question is, John, does it resonate with voters? And so far it hasn't that could change but so far it does not seem like it's resonated with them in a substantive way.
KING: We'll watch that one play out. And Kaitlan on the same morning the president sending a series of tweets about voting seeming to try to clarify or clean up, I don't know what the right word is, what he said yesterday when he essentially urged people in North Carolina to break the law.
The president tweeting this morning about sure you can vote early but then also go to the polls. Walk me through this one.
COLLINS: Yes, he is kind of doubling down on what he said yesterday defending this comment where people were caught off guard because this is the president who has been railing against voter fraud for months now. And now he's tweeting saying that based on the massive number of unsolicited ballots that he says are being sent to people.
He says that basically they need to stress test the system. Vote absentee but then go to polls on Election Day and make sure their vote was counted. Of course that causes problems because some places don't start counting votes until on Election Day and it would be a felony for someone to tie to intentionally go and vote a second time knowing that they have already casted their ballot.
So this is the president pushing this trying to defend it though we haven't really seen his aides come up with a viable defense to this as the president telling people to commit what would be a felony, committing voter fraud.
And of course as he has been railing against voter fraud but this is his way of basically he is concerned that if there is a lot of mail-in voting that he could potentially lose the election. And so he is making this argument and it's not surprising but it is a little stunning to see the president making it so blatantly and repeating it again on Twitter today.
KING: It would be nice if he knew what he was talking about in the sense that North Carolina Attorney General was on last hour who said you know if you vote by mail you can go online to see if your ballot has been received. You don't need to go--
COLLINS: Exactly.
KING: --you don't need to go in the middle of a pandemic put yourself at risk after you decided to vote by mail. Kaitlan Collins I appreciate the live reporting there American of course now in the middle of a racial reckoning we have seen protests now across the summer nationwide calling for an end to systemic racism and policing.
But listen here in one-on-one interview with my colleague Wolf Blitzer yesterday the nation's top law enforcement official the Attorney General William Barr says he feels quite differently about the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENRAL: I don't think there are two justice systems. I think the narrative that there's a - that the police are on some epidemic of shooting unarmed black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that's based on race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Let's discuss this. Joining us now CNN Legal Analyst Elliott Williams he is Former Federal Prosecutor and Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Elliott when you listen to the Attorney General now, do you agree, there's not two systems of justice in America?
