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1.4 Million Jobs Added in August, Unemployment Rate Falls; Trump Denies Report That He Denigrated U.S. Service Members; COVID-19 Hits California's Latino Community Hard. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 04, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

KEVIN HASSETT, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: And I was thinking back to when I was on the show with Poppy a few months ago, I said that I thought the unemployment rate would likely go above 20 percent. And so it's a big, positive surprise in these numbers and I think the positive surprise is related to all the policies that were enacted to try to help us through this crisis.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: But I also just wonder, you know, how stable this number is and the trajectory that we're on, because you mentioned perspective here. As of just yesterday we were reporting at least 13.3 million Americans are still filing for unemployment. Almost one million of those were new jobless claims.

HASSETT: Sure.

CABRERA: And yet, we have stimulus talks in Congress at a complete standstill right now when we know there is more need out there. What can people who are really hurting right now rely on that's going to help them?

HASSETT: Right. Well, they absolutely should have another stimulus bill because you're right, his is still an incredibly high unemployment rate, but there's sort of one thing to look forward to as we go into the fall is that there's still a lot of places in the country like right here where I am in Washington, D.C. that are pretty much completely shut down.

I was looking at data. How many people are commuting into the city and it's gone down from, you know, 200,000 to 300,000 a day, down around 20,000 a day. And so all the people who serve, all those office workers that come in with restaurants and so on, they're all just basically shut down and not working.

CABRERA: Right.

HASSETT: And if the -- the mayor of D.C. were to turn D.C. on, then all of a sudden you'd get this big positive shock of jobs in D.C. The point is that there are lots of pocket s--

CABRERA: But you still have the pandemic. HASSETT: So we saw the biggest ever decline --

CABRERA: Right.

HASSETT: We saw the biggest ever decline and then the biggest ever increase because a lot of places shut down, and the point is just that the increase from turning back on can still happen in lots of parts of the country. And so therefore, there are probably going to be more numbers like this before we start to have to worry about are we stuck.

CABRERA: But we've also seen a little bit of, you know, forward motion and then pullback and right now in a lot of places that looks like things are getting worse, not better. For a lot of people. Big industries as well as small businesses. This week we learned Ford is looking to cut, you know, 1400 white collar jobs. United Airlines announcing its plans to furlough 20 percent of its employees. That's more than 16,000 jobs.

HASSETT: Right.

CABRERA: Some 2,000 jobs are on the line at Amtrak. That announcement just made this week. 100,000 plus small businesses have not even made it through the pandemic. They're gone according to new data from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

HASSETT: Right.

CABRERA: I don't mean to be like a Debbie Downer here, but you're painting this rosy picture of like everything is going to be fine for everyone. And a lot of people are just now learning that they're about to lose their jobs or they're barely hanging on. Their business is, you know, hanging by a thread, or is already gone.

HASSETT: Right. Well, yes, I think that I would disagree with your characterization of what I'm saying. I'm saying, it's way better than expected but still, as you say, that there's still lots of terrible, bad news. And the fact is though that if the places like Washington, D.C., just stay shut, then we could expect to see a massive wave of bankruptcies. There are all sorts of small businesses that are just barely holding on, especially, you know, restaurants and hotels.

And at some point, they're going to decide that it's not worth it anymore. And so it's very, very important that the country is -- you know, safely as possible, wearing masks and so on, begin to get back to normal because if they don't, then people are going to run out of money and there's not going to be enough cash in the world to bail out all these businesses. And then you're going to get a second wave of bankruptcies and a real, real deep double dip recession.

CABRERA: You talk about -- you talk about people wearing masks and doing those things so that the economy can come back, and we just have this projection this morning that more than the double of number of deaths we've seen in the U.S. is likely, according to current projections by January.

Another 200,000 plus Americans could be dead from the pandemic by January and they say it's because people aren't wearing masks. And you still have the president out there making fun of Joe Biden for not wearing -- I mean, for him wearing a mask, suggesting that he's weak or something for wearing it.

Do you feel like the president is getting in his own way when it comes to economic recovery?

HASSETT: I think that everybody should wear a mask. When I walk around D.C. I see everybody wearing a mask so I know that there are some people that if they're outdoors think they don't have to. But I think to be safe, you know, don't count on your ability to get it on and off at the right time. I would just always wear a mask. You know, I just took it off just now to be here.

But the one thing looking into the fall and I'm certainly not an epidemiologist is there has been some good news like the -- you're hearing that they're getting ready potentially to start moving a vaccine around some time in the fall. The federal government just approved a big, big advance in testing from Abbott where they have a paper test that can be done at the point of care. So you can go to CVS, they swab your nose, they put it on a piece of cardboard and then you find out right away.

And the U.S. government bought 150 million of those tests and they expect that they're going to start getting the first 50 million later this month. And so the point is that testing is going through the roof which should help us control it better because we can do more contact tracing and so on --

CABRERA: Which the president has downplayed all along saying testing is not the answer. If you test more he's been trying to lower the testing. I just think, you know, we have to straight shoot -- shoot straight here.

HASSETT: It starts from zero to 800,000 a day, right? And it's going to jump to two --

CABRERA: Over the course of six months. We're not where a lot of officials say it needs to be --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: I don't -- I don't meant to --

HASSETT: Yes, that's right.

[09:35:09]

CABRERA: You know, epidemiology is not your expertise, but when it comes to the economy you can't separate that, right, from the coronavirus pandemic.

HASSETT: That's right.

CABRERA: And a lot of economists we've talked to, and what I'm hearing from you, is that they do go hand in hand. In fact, you can't really have a full recovery until you get the coronavirus under control.

HASSETT: Yes, that's fair. That's fair. But there are ways to safely open up and we see lots of pockets of the country that are doing it and that's why the jobs numbers are really, really quite good and you don't see a clear pattern where the job numbers are better that they have a lot more COVID cases. For sure, there are still a lot of hotspots in our country. That's incredibly disappointing but the hotspots aren't necessarily correlated with the places that opened up.

And so I think that again the testing -- we haven't had enough and we just had a massive positive shock to testing. We're getting 150 million more tests and I think that's the kind of thing that can start to help us get better control of the situation.

CABRERA: And I just want to make sure we get the facts out there. I mean, the hotspots have been in correlation with places that have opened up or haven't had a strict measure when it comes to testing, when it comes to --

HASSETT: I'm sorry.

CABRERA: -- with masks and so forth. When we look at Florida, when we look at Georgia and now it's moving to the Midwest, places like Missouri and Iowa, and no mask mandates in those states.

Kevin Hassett, I appreciate the conversation. I am glad to see as you are the numbers are improving when it comes to the economy. I just hope that they continue in that trajectory and based on all these other signs that makes me really nervous. And I talk to people, you know, out there who are losing their businesses and it's heartbreaking for them. So thank you for the time and for offering your perspective on all this.

A furious denial from the president after a new report says he called Marines who lost their lives during a crucial battle in the First World War suckers and losers. Well, details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:21]

CABRERA: Shocking allegations and a fierce denial. President Trump furiously pushing back against claims that he made disparaging comments about U.S. troops killed in the First World War. Now according to the Atlantic, these remarks were made during the president's visit to Paris in 2018. And here's part of what they write.

"In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." Now in a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as suckers for being killed. And Trump on that same trip asked aides who were the good guys in this war? He also said that he didn't understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the allies. Now CNN has not independently confirmed this report. Again, the

president is responding to it. So let's discuss with CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and CNN White House correspondent John Harwood.

John, what exactly have we heard from the president in response?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you said, Ana, we've heard a fierce denial from the president which is an indication of how much he knows this could damage him politically but it's also a bit of a scatter shot denial.

The president said on the one hand, the magazine made it up. On the other hand, he said the information may have come from people that he had fired from his administration. Most of all he's counting on people to believe and he asserted that these comments as quoted were so horrible that no president, certainly not him, could have made them. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more. So I just think it's a horrible, horrible thing. We made a great evening into frankly a very sad evening when I see a statement like that. No animal -- nobody, what animal would say such a thing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARWOOD: Now he says no animal would say such a thing. Here's the problem. The president's own public remarks during 2015 as he began his presidential campaign about John McCain where he said I like people who weren't captured expressed precisely the same sentiment that was quoted in the Atlantic articles just in less crude terms, Ana.

CABRERA: And Barbara, back to the Battle of Belleau Wood. It was a defining moment in the history of the Marines. Talk to us about the significance of these reported comments from the president.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, he is talking about Belleau Wood, and that is what strikes very deep if it is true, and we don't know that it is, at the heart of the United States Marine Corps. Belleau Wood is just about 50 or 60 miles northeast of Paris.

If you live there today, you could commute to work inside Paris. But more than 100 years ago, it was the site of one of the most difficult battles that American troops faced in World War I. For several days in June of 1918, they battled to stop the German advance into France.

The president was set to go to that cemetery there and pay his respects. He wound up not going. You can decide whether you think it was due to poor weather and he couldn't fly by helicopter or something else. That's not really the point when it comes to some of what is at the heart of the Marine Corps. Belleau Wood for the United States Marines today more than 100 years later is hallowed ground.

I have talked to Marines today, this morning, about Belleau Wood. They still consider it hallowed, sacred ground. They lost 1800 Marines there in World War I and you have to remember World War I more than 100 years ago, the troops, the Marines, they had very little gear.

[09:45:09]

They did not have what they of course have today. This was a brutal, bloody battle, 1800 Marines falling there. Belleau Wood being their final resting place.

CABRERA: And John, let me come back to these comments on John McCain because you referenced what the president said in 2015 about John McCain, which we all heard, that he is not a war hero because he was captured in his service, and yet we have some new details according to this article about what the president was saying around the time of John McCain's death. Can you share?

HARWOOD: Yes. Well, this goes again to the president's credibility. The article recounts the president resisted lowering flags to half- staff for John McCain and making comments describing John McCain as a loser. Don't know whether he's referring there to the fact that he was a prisoner of war or the fact that he lost the 2008 presidential campaign, but the problem with the president denying which he did on Twitter, denying having made those comments is that we've got tapes of him saying that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I supported him, he lost. He let us down. But, you know, he lost. So I never liked him as much after that because I don't like losers. But -- but frankly -- let me get it to. He hit me -- he's not a war hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero.

TRUMP: He's a war hero --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five and a half years in a prison camp.

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARWOOD: One final point about President Trump's credibility as people evaluate his denial. Remember, we recently heard tape of the president's sister, the retired federal judge, describing him as a liar with no principles who is cruel.

CABRERA: And Barbara, another thing that stuck out to me in reading this article is it mentions President Trump making remarks about wounded veterans. How is this new reporting going over with people in the military and their families? STARR: Well, look there is no question the U.S. Military and I think

it's very fair to say the overwhelming majority of Americans pay their respects to the wounded and value their service so much. This article says -- and let me just quote a bit. Again, president denied it, we do not know, we have not been able to confirm it, but what the article says is, and let me quote.

"Trump has been for the duration of his presidency fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In the 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. Nobody wants to see that, he said."

I think the overwhelming majority of Americans very much to this day and always respect those who had served. Remember, it is a volunteer force. If these troops don't go, if they don't volunteer to serve, the rest of America is going to have to do it.

CABRERA: And again, the president denying all of these allegations in this report.

Thank you, Barbara Starr, John Harwood, for your insights and your reporting. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:42]

CABRERA: The Latino community here in the U.S. is disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, and CNN's Stephanie Elam speaks to a COVID-19 survivor whose health and family were just devastated by the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNY RUELAS, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR: I get tired. I have to take breaks.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Each step for Jenny Ruelas is a challenge.

RUELAS: I have to walk around with an oxygen can.

ELAM: She says her father's 38-year-old girlfriend Karina Bonilla contracted COVID-19 in early May then Jenny's father Umberto Ruelas got sick, and then Jenny did, too. They all lived together with the couple's five other children. Within four days Jenny says she had headaches, chills, a fever and lost her appetite.

RUELAS: I kept feeling chest pain.

ELAM: Jenny was admitted to the hospital first.

RUELAS: They have ice everywhere because they can't control my fever.

ELAM: Within days Umberto and Bonilla were admitted together. Jenny's dad in the room right next to hers.

RUELAS: They're not giving my dad longer than 24 hours. I lost it. I was so mad. I hit the wall. I was like, Dad, don't do this to me.

ELAM: Within minutes he was gone.

RUELAS: Even though he had passed already and his facial expression, you can see the pain. He was in a lot of pain, and that's the face I'll never forget.

ELAM: Eight hours later Bonilla also died.

RUELAS: I can't wait to go home. I want to go home.

ELAM: In California, Jenny's story is not an anomaly. Through August the data shows that Latinos make up 60 percent of coronavirus cases and close to 50 percent of deaths despite representing more than a third of the state's population.

(On camera): Why is the Latino population in California getting hit so hard by the coronavirus?

DR. GIL CHAVEZ, CO-CHAIR, CALIFORNIA COVID-19 TESTING TASK FORCE: Latinos make really a very significant portion of what we would call essential workforce. We have very high rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, obesity, smoking. There is some social disparities in terms of just financial opportunities, health care access and utilization.

[09:55:08]

ELAM (voice-over): But it's the agriculturally rich Central Valley of California where the positivity rate is staggering. In those eight counties the rate is about double that of the state as many of the farming jobs come with increased risk of exposure to the virus.

CHAVEZ: So even within a very high risk, there's even higher risk there.

ELAM: The California Farm Worker Foundation is now offering free testing at work sites. Additionally Governor Gavin Newsom deployed three support teams to the region to boost testing and contract tracing efforts with social services support.

REP. RAUL RUIZ (D-CA): I know that sometimes you have three generations of families living in a two-bedroom trailer, and so they don't the luxury of self-isolating. It's about the contact tracing and providing the resources for them to take time off of work.

ELAM: As for Jenny, while she no longer tests positive for the virus, she definitely hasn't recovered. The 31-year-old had a stroke.

(On camera): For the people who think this can't devastate a family, what do you say to them?

RUELAS: And you go through what my dad went through, trust me, nobody is going to tell you what to do because you're not going to be here anymore.

ELAM (voice-over): Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Still ahead, a new model showing the number of Americans dying of coronavirus can more than double by January. More on this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)