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New Fiery Protests Erupting Overnight; Trump Bars Federal "Propaganda" Training Sessions On Race; Trump Denies "Atlantic" Article; Officials Warn Of COVID-19 Surge Over Labor Day Weekend. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired September 05, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:21]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: September surge as Americans enjoy their holiday weekend. New concerns that a spike in cases could be coming.

Plus playing defense. President Trump still venting over a report that paints him as disrespectful to members of the military. We have new CNN reporting in minutes.

And making the case. Jill Biden speaking out about how she and her husband would tackle the education crisis in America. My sit-down with the former second lady.

Hi, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Fredricka Whitfield.

This is a special Labor Day Weekend Edition of CNN NEWSROOM.

We begin this hour with new fiery protests erupting overnight. Hundreds taking to the streets of Rochester, New York clashing with police for a third straight night. Officers firing pepper balls and tear gas as protesters lit fires and threw rocks during the demonstration.

The protests erupting after the release of body cam video showing Rochester police pinning down Daniel Prude, a black man who was having a mental health episode and naked when he was detained back in March. Prude stopped breathing and he later died. Medical examiners have ruled his death a homicide.

President Trump is also weighing in. The president retweeting a video of protesters shouting at restaurant patrons in Rochester.

And CNN's Polo Sandoval is there now.

But first let's turn to CNN's Kevin Liptak who's at the White House.

Kevin, the president seemed to be doubling down on his law and order message yet again. But it also comes as the White House is banning racial sensitivity training. What are you learning about that? KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. this was something of an under

the radar memo that was sent yesterday afternoon by the president's budget chief. And it really seems to codify a lot of the president's dismissive use toward the idea of systemic racism.

Now, in the memo, the director of the Office of the Management and Budget is directing federal agencies to dramatically revamp their racial sensitivity training programs. And in the memo he writes "It has come to the president's attention that executive branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date training government workers to believe divisive anti-American propaganda."

Now it goes on to say, "The president has directed me to ensure that federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions."

Now, of course, the president has railed against what he calls cancel culture. And throughout the summer as we've seen protests prompted by policing incidents and systemic racism, we've seen him fall squarely on the side of violence. He's focused on that aspect of it without necessarily addressing the questions of what precipitated the violence in the first place, whether it's treatment of African-Americans at the hands of police these larger questions of structural racism.

Now, the president is trying to amplify the move this morning on Twitter. He's been retweeting several accounts, praising him for the move and in his own message he said, "This is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue. Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish."

Now, that's a major question in this memo. It doesn't actually cite any specific examples of these trainings taking place. It's not clear what specifically the president is trying to end.

And officials this morning haven't necessarily said what prompted the memo to go out. In the memo all that's cited are press reports. And now it's not clear what even that is. The White House hasn't provided those press reports either but I will say that Fox News has been covering this over the last several weeks. The president has been known to watch that channel, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, it does appear that he's doing this for a certain audience and not trying to calm tensions that are already high in the country, especially since there aren't that many details in this proposal.

Polo, you were there on the ground in Rochester. What is the latest that you are seeing there?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianna. Last night, another wave of protests as Rochester police described there were about 2,000 people who actually gathered at a nearby park here earlier in the evening at a park bearing the name of Martin Luther King for a peaceful rally and then at one point, as they usually do, that rally then turned into a march where saw many members of that protest then take to the streets. Police this morning here in Rochester telling us that on at least two occasions they had to use pepper balls and also tear gas to try to disperse the crowds mainly in response to what police are describing as commercial grade fireworks that were being shot at them, also rocks and bottles that were being hurled at Rochester police officers. Though in an attempt to try to disperse the crowd they used, like I said, pepper balls and other agents as well to try to do that.

[11:05:04]

SANDOVAL: At the end of the day there were about three officers that -- at the end of the night rather, there were three officers who sustained minor injuries, about 11 arrests. Though we should point out that at one point in the evening, a certain cross section of that protest did appear to in essence chase away multiple diners. They were at two local restaurants here.

Those videos, we've seen them this morning, even shared by the commander in chief this morning, at least retweeted at one point. But we should also point out that was really a small number compared to the roughly 2,000 demonstrators that were actually taking to the streets yesterday, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Yet another American city where there's a night of unrest. And there may be a reason that the president is wanting to focus on this as opposed to something else that was in the news.

And Kevin, you have some new reporting on the details of that bombshell "Atlantic" article which said that President Trump disparaged dead American service members, called them losers and suckers during a visit to France in 2018. What are you learning?

LIPTAK: Yes, even as the president continues to very angrily deny that article and everything that's in it, some of the details are being borne out by our own reporting. And speaking to someone who's familiar with the president's comments today we can report that the president has actually repeatedly questioned why some Americans served in Vietnam. Specifically he's asked why they didn't learn how to exploit the system so that they couldn't go to Vietnam? And of course, the president received a draft deferment for bone spurs during that conflict.

The president has also, we're learning, generally questioned the point of going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now those are wars that the president has very publicly said were mistakes. Behind the scenes the president has wondered aloud what did they get out of it for the people that went to that war.

So the president has, of course, denied the suggestion in that article that he doesn't respect American service men and women. He said yesterday that they're all heroes. It's hard to believe how they could do it. The level of bravery, he said, that they're absolute heroes.

But the general gist of that article is still being borne out by both what people say the president has said behind the scenes and some of the president's own comments, well-documented comments over the last several years, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Despicable comments by any American, much less coming from the president of the United States.

We should also note that his network of choice, Fox News, has also confirmed that reporting as well.

Kevin Liptak and Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

And let's discuss this some more. With me now is retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's a CNN military analyst and a former Army Commanding General for Europe and the Seventh Army.

General, thank you so much for joining me. I wish it could be on a better topic. But first off, let me get you to discuss the impact these reports have on members of the service like you who served this country for so many years.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think many are seeing the disconnect in culture and thought process, Bianna. The president is very transformational -- that's been -- I'm sorry, very transactional. That's been reported multiple times.

He is a win-lose kind of guy. He makes the deal. He tries to profit from various things. As he's talked about the military, you notice that he always talks about the monetary aspects. Allegedly paying more, giving more funding, pulling people out because other nations, our allies, aren't according the funds as he believes they should be. So it's all monetary transactions much like a businessman would -- many businessmen would.

The military however, is trained in transformational leadership which means you're contributing to something. An organization in a military state. It's a society. You do things for others. You take in the other -- you take others' feelings and beliefs into account. You try to and build a large organization that has the same mission objectives and pay, the monetary aspect of that is not very important to most people who serve.

They are in it for service to the nation. And that really is the disconnect between what the president is saying and what he's doing versus what the military is saying and what they're doing.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Such a transactional mindset and obviously that is the opposite of what people go into the military for, right? They get back and they protect the country they love.

Let me ask you, on Friday the president attacked his former chief of staff after that "Atlantic" article said that the president questioned why anyone would enter military service while standing with a four- star general at his son's grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

Now, on Friday without that saying he believed Kelly was behind the report, President Trump called the retired four star Marine general unfit for the job as his top aide. Let's take a listen.

[11:09:43]

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know John Kelly. He was with me. Didn't do a good job. Had no temperament and ultimately he was petered out. He was exhausted. This man was totally exhausted. He wasn't even able to function in the last number of months. He was not able to function.

He was sort of a tough guy. By the time he got eaten up in this world, it's a different world than he was used to, he was unable to function.

And I told him, John, you're going to have to go. Please give me a letter of resignation, and we did that. And now he goes out and bad mouths. Now there are people that are jealous, there are people that are upset that they're not here anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: General, what do you make of the president's attacks on General Kelly? And are you surprised that we have yet to hear from him, that he has not come forward yet to dismiss or confirm that these conversations took place though I would believe that if they did not take place, he would probably have come out and denied them at least.

HERTLING: Well, most people would, Bianna. But that's a critical issue. And a lot of Americans don't understand the culture of the military. And now, Kelly was serving in a civilian capacity. He is the secretary of Homeland Security and the chief of staff. But he has a military mindset.

You don't insult your boss in public. You make your feelings known in private. That's something that's really rammed into every soldier and member of the military that you just don't publicly insult your boss if you're wearing the uniform or if you served in the administration.

The thing with -- I actually think the president may be taunting General Kelly. I think he's trying to get him to do something. Kelly is trying to be professional in nature and unfortunately I'm not sure I could be as professional.

By the way, I know John Kelly. I served with him, too. We were in combat together. And he's one tough guy. I don't think the president's comments on him are accurate at all.

GOLODRYGA: I would imagine that he does have thick skin given what he's been through in his life. Of course, when somebody is talking about and disparaging one's own son from the mother's perspective and obviously your own, that's a quite different situation.

Let me end by asking you about what really stood out to me in this piece. It was all abhorrent, but what really triggered a nerve in me was the way the president was described in talking about wounded veterans.

In an exchange where he was trying to plan a military parade in 2018, he reportedly said nobody wants to see that. Obviously those who are disfigured by serving their country. We are so fortunate to live in a country where so many of our troops do not get killed on the battlefield anymore because there's great medicine, there's great technology.

But obviously there are repercussions. They are wounded. They are wounded for life. What is your message to those five million wounded vets in this country who have to read something like that from this president?

HERTLING: It's difficult and that's the thing that struck me the most, too. We see eye to eye on this, Bianna. You know, I have a box behind me that has 253 cards on it with pictures of soldiers I served with who made the ultimate sacrifice.

I don't have a box with all the soldiers who were wounded, who lost limbs, who were burned but I do have a memory. And it was the toughest day I ever spent. A young soldier when I was in Europe was shipped back (INAUDIBLE) from Afghanistan with 80 percent of his body burned and a triple amputee. His family and the doctors knew he was going to die. And I had a discussion with his wife to request that she dedicate his organs, basically giving the organs to others.

It was the toughest conversation I ever had and the hardest memory I can remember. Those are the kinds of people that Mr. Trump is insulting, and it's vile and disgusting in my view.

So I feel the same way about it as you do. And God bless all those who are wounded. I receive many messages from wounded veterans after speaking on CNN the other night and they all feel the same way.

GOLODRYGA: And not only physical wounds but mental as well and we salute them all. They are heroes. And they do not need to hear words like these.

Thank you so much for your service. Thank you, all of our veterans, for your service.

General Mark Hertling, thank you.

HERTLING: My pleasure.

GOLODRYGA: and coming up, Labor Day weekend is sparking new concerns about the spread of coronavirus. We'll have a warning from Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Plus, back in business. New Jersey allowing movie theaters, malls, and indoor dining to reopen, but how will they keep customers safe?

[11:14:12]

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GOLODRYGA: New concerns this Labor Day weekend over a possible spike in coronavirus cases as many Americans gather with family and friends. While trends in a number of states are either steady or going in the right direction, case numbers in at least 15 states are not.

And now Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning Americans to stay vigilant especially during this holiday weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We want to make sure that in -- all over the country, but particularly in the vulnerable states that are starting to show an uptick, that we abide by the public health mandates and rules that we talk about all the time over the weekend and not, in essence, have the same kind of surges that we have seen following other holiday weekends like the Fourth of July and Memorial Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Let's go now to New Jersey where the state is allowing movie theaters, malls, indoor dining to now reopen. I forgot what those things all were.

Evan McMorris-Santoro is there now. And Evan, from what you can tell, are people there listening to Dr. Fauci's warnings?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, that is the central question of this Labor Day weekend here in New Jersey. I'm outside a movie theater in Hoboken which is going to be open for customers today. There are movies you can go and see if you can get tickets. You got to buy them online.

And let me show you a bit about how it works to go to the movies under the new rules. Here at this movie theater you can come, if you buy tickets in advance and if you show up here it says right on the front, you have to make sure you haven't had any symptoms. If you have had them, they'll give you a refund. And if you choose to go into the theater, you have to wear a mask, you can sit with the people that you bought tickets with but you can only sit -- you have to distance from each other.

[11:19:57]

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And the cap of people in the theater allowed is 25 percent. That's the same thing for restaurants.

Now, back to your original question. That is what people are looking at here in New Jersey. Governor Phil Murphy said in a press conference yesterday that if he doesn't see people abiding by the rules, he says the state has now earned its way to allowing indoor dining and allowing these movie theaters to reopen.

But if things like those caps aren't abided by, if things like masks aren't abided by, he'll shut the whole thing down again and take things back to when these places couldn't be open, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, that state like so many others in the northeast really suffered a lot at the beginning of this virus. Of course, you have to be very vigilant to make sure that those cases do not continue to rise like they did.

Evan McMorris-Santoro, thank you so much.

And joining me now to discuss is Dr. Dara Kass, the emergency medical physician at Columbia University Medical Center and medical analyst for Yahoo News.

Doctor, thanks so much for joining us today on a holiday weekend. So we did see a spike in cases following previous holiday weekends including Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. How concerned are you that the same could result following Labor Day weekend?

DR. DARA KASS, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: We're very concerned. I think that what happens at the end of a summer or end of a holiday weekend is the people just want to celebrate and they want to ignore the virus for a while.

They want to have a barbecue with their family. They want to collect with people, greater than 10 -- maybe 20 or 30 people. And what we're saying is if you're smart this weekend, you won't see the effects when we open schools in a month or two and the kids are back and then they have to come home again because we're seeing the spikes that we see after these holiday weekends two, three and four weeks down the line.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. My kids are going back to cool next week. So many kids across the country have already started. We know that the number of Americans wearing masks has declined, unfortunately since its peak earlier this summer. Are you concerned that that coupled with a long holiday weekend could potentially lead to an uptick in infections?

DR. KASS: Yes, absolutely. And those uptick in infections will affect everybody, not just the most vulnerable. They'll affect, you know, children and adults. Eventually those will get to our parents and grandparents.

We know that mask wearing works. And there's no reason not to do it. It can protect us to be able to go to the movies, even go to an indoor dining restaurant in between, you know, getting served your food.

So I don't understand why people won't embrace mask wearing when it's really the thing that's going to get us to be able to get back to whatever our new normal is.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. It's not that difficult to put a mask on.

Meantime the president claims that the U.S. is on the verge of putting this pandemic behind us. He also continues to say that a vaccine is near.

First, listen to how the president sees things and then how Dr. Fauci is responding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: By the way, we're rounding the corner. We're rounding the corner on the virus. DR. FAUCI: I'm not sure what he means. There are certain states that

are actually doing well in the sense that the case numbers are coming down. Our concern right now is that there are a number of states particularly, for example, the Dakotas, Montana, Michigan, Minnesota and others who are starting to have an uptick in what we call percent positive of testing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: A bit of mixed messaging there that we've sort of seen a lot of lately between the two of them. but you know the CDC has recently alerted states to prepare for a vaccine as early as late October. Pfizer CEO now saying that it might know if a vaccine is safe to use as early as October.

That has caused a lot of concern within the medical community about this possibly being politicized or rushed. Dr. Fauci said on our air this week that an October vaccine is highly unlikely but possible. How are you and your colleagues in the medical community looking at all of this?

DR. KASS: Look, my colleagues and myself are sitting here trying to continue to invoke public trust in the data that we have, in the public health measure that we know work. And what we don't need is undermining that with either a vaccine that comes out too early or just not even with enough data to show that it's effective in all populations.

We are all looking forward to a vaccine. We are pro vaccine physicians who are very interested in getting this pandemic behind us. But we have to do it while making sure that the public trusts the information that we're giving them.

And unfortunately when we give too many high hopes too early or just not enough science behind it, it really puts us in a very difficult position to both be like, hey, wait for the data. And by the way, when it comes out and we say go, you should really take this vaccine.

GOLODRYGA: And on the subject of data, Dr. Fauci tried to ease concerns about the process saying that these trials have independent safety and monitoring boards and that they are data driven and focused. And because that data will become public it's not in their interest to try to manipulate it or oversell it.

But given that, you are well aware that the FDA commissioner, just a couple of weeks ago, oversold the effectiveness of convalescent plasma. Should we be so sure about this?

[11:24:48]

DR. KASS: Sure. Remember that the EUA that was invoked for the convalescent plasma over sold data that was not put out by a pharmaceutical company but was actually put out by a research trial. And we need to remember that the pharmaceutical companies are in the interests of putting out a vaccine that's both safe and effective but more importantly that people will take. So we want to make sure that we don't take press releases or public statements for data and science and look for the research behind why those press releases are even put out. We need to be critical, now everybody does, about the science that we're being told because unfortunately we just can't trust all of the messaging coming out of the podium at the White House.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. We will all be doing more of our own research, I guess, coming out of this. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Dr. Dara Kass, thank you so much.

Well, Election Day is less than two months away.

Coming up, Dr. Jill Biden goes after Education Secretary Betsy Devos and the Trump administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILL BIDEN, WIFE OF JOE BIDEN: We are in Donald Trump's America and there's just so much chaos. And I feel that, you know, educators don't know what to do, students don't know what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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GOLODRYGA: The 2020 presidential race is officially underway in a key swing state. The first handful of ballots for the general election have now been returned to North Carolina's state board of elections. More than 650,000 people requested mail-in ballots in North Carolina which allows no excuse absentee voting. This as the Joe Biden campaign lays out what it sees as its path to victory with Election Day just 59 days away.

I had a chance to speak with Dr. Jill Biden earlier this week about what she hopes to accomplish if she becomes first lady.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

J. BIDEN: As a teacher and as a mother and as a grandmother, I mean, I just -- I just feel that, you know, we are in Donald Trump's America and there's just so much chaos. And I feel that, you know, educators don't know what to do, students don't know what to do.

GOLODRYGA: The education secretary has been asked time and time again, whether there's a plan. What is the plan about reopening schools?

J. BIDEN: Yes, what is the plan?

GOLODRYGA: And there doesn't seem to be one.

J. BIDEN: No.

GOLODRYGA: Does that surprise you? And what would a plan look like in a Biden administration? J. BIDEN: You know, no, it doesn't surprise me coming from Betsy

Devos. I mean, I don't think she ever felt invested in America's public schools. She didn't have a strategy; Trump didn't have a strategy.

There are so many things that Joe already has planned to do, and that includes replacing the Secretary of Education with somebody who has been in the public schools, knows what it's like to be a public school educator as I was and listens to the teachers. Joe Biden will listen to the educators.

So he's already planning to give funds to the schools so that they have enough supplies. He's already talking about handling some of the broadband issues and investing in broadband so that every child across America will have access to the Internet.

GOLODRYGA: We know the downside of children not being in school. What is your response to those who argue that those repercussions aren't weighed as much as the coronavirus is?

J. BIDEN: Oh, I hear it from educators all the time. Jill, we need more mental health support across the board. Because just like you're saying, now children are at home. Domestic violence has increased. Child abuse has increased. Children are dealing with anxiety and then now when children come back into the schools, you know, they're bringing all of that with them.

GOLODRYGA: This picture went viral of a five-year-old boy in Georgia who had just broken down into tears while he was learning online. What is your message to boys like this one, his mother and of course, he speaks for millions?

J. BIDEN: My message is when Joe Biden is elected, that he won't be sitting there crying. He will be sitting there with his laptop with a smile on his face. Joe has empathy. He understands what families are going through.

GOLODRYGA: How often do you talk to your husband about your views on education?

J. BIDEN: Probably every day.

GOLODRYGA: And I'm sure you didn't think you would be this vocal about something, but here we are in the midst of a pandemic and this is your area of expertise.

If he does become president and is elected, can we expect that you will weigh in more and be a voice for this administration or at least with him on the issue of education?

J. BIDEN: You know, Joe has his advisers in all the different policy areas but I'm his spouse. And he has always supported my career and obviously I'm supporting his career. And so, you know, he listens to what I have to say, but I'm not going to be in an adviser role.

It's just what a husband and a wife do. They talk about what they see, what they want different, what they -- what should be changed. And so I think -- I think that's my role.

GOLODRYGA: Well you would have a busy role because you also say you'd like to still work as a teacher --

J. BIDEN: Yes. Yes.

GOLODRYGA: -- which would -- first maybe I think you would be actually going to school? I mean I know you did it as second lady.

J. BIDEN: That's right.

GOLODRYGA: A bit more pressure as first lady. Why is that so important to you to continue?

J. BIDEN: Well, I think it's important because, first of all, it's my career. It's my passion. And I want to continue to teach. and I feel I really want to lift up the profession of educators because I think previous to this pandemic, you know, I think educators were feeling like they weren't appreciated.

[11:34:54]

J. BIDEN: But now through this pandemic when parents have had to take a lot of the role of helping their kids with their schoolwork, parents are saying, hey, you know what, this is hard.

Like we just thought teachers just left at 3:00. That's not the case. I mean, you know, this is what I've heard today from teachers saying they -- parents have their cell phone numbers, students do. They're calling them all hours of the day.

GOLODRYGA: They're teachers, they're therapists, they're everything, right?

F 1: Yes. And you never leave your students in the classroom. They're with you, you know, wherever you go. You're thinking, how could I make something different for a student? Gee, I should have said this to -- you know, this student about there -- well, for me, about their writing, their essay. You know, you're always thinking. They're always with you.

GOLODRYGA: Teachers are now having to focus on a syllabus. And not only has to deal with talking to children about a pandemic but also and racial inequality and injustice in this country. What is your message to the black students in a classroom to remind them that their lives matter?

J. BIDEN: I think people, especially today, need to have hope that things are going to get better. Joe Biden will heal this country.

And Bianna, like you heard in my speech that I made at Brandy Wine High School (ph). I said Joe brought our family together and healed our family and he will do the same for this nation. And that's who Joe Biden is.

GOLODRYGA: My final question is just your response to his powerful speech yesterday denouncing violence. And I was struck by what he said. "You know me. Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters," which is I guess a label the president and the administration are trying to put on him.

You know him better than anyone else. Why was that important for him to say? And what should America's children take from that?

J. BIDEN: Because I think the administration is trying to paint Joe in that way, but what he was saying is that, you know, protesting, yes, that's an American right, but not violence. Not violence.

And you could see Jacob Blake's parents led that peaceful protest through the streets and that's what it should be, peaceful, not violent. And I think that was Joe's message.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And our thanks to Dr. Jill Biden for that in depth interview.

Meantime, her husband Joe Biden is expressing concerns that President Trump may announce a coronavirus vaccine right around Election Day.

CNN's Dana Bash just sat down with the vice presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris who worries about politics influencing health care decisions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And do you trust that in a situation where we're in now that the public health experts and the scientists will get the last word on the efficacy of a vaccine?

SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If past is prolog, they will not. They'll be muzzled. They'll be suppressed. They will be side lined because he's looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days and he's grasping for whatever he can get to pretend that he has been a leader on this issue when he has not.

BASH: So let's just say there is a vaccine that is approved and even distributed before the election, would you get it?

HARRIS: Well, I think that's going to be an issue for all of us. I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. I will not take his word for it. He wants us to inject bleach

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And You can watch Dana's full interview with Senator Harris, tomorrow morning on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION".

And then on Monday, CNN brings you the stories of Joe Biden and Donald Trump and their fight for the White House. Don't miss the back-to-back documentary event starting Monday at 8 p.m. on CNN. And we'll be right back.

[11:39:00]

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GOLODRYGA: Amid the coronavirus pandemic, many schools are beginning classes online but this week, a cyber attack brought Miami-Dade to a standstill. Police arrested a 16-year-old they say is responsible for some but not all of the attacks.

The student is a junior at a Miami high school. The FBI, Secret Service and Florida Department of Law Enforcement are all now involved in the investigation.

And now, Florida Senator Marco Rubio is asking for department of homeland security briefing saying hostile actors, including foreign cyber criminals, appear to have also attacked the school system to undermine the lives of Americans.

And joining me now is the author of the book "Rigged: America, Russia and 100 years of covert electoral interference, and a fellow at Yale University, David Shimer.

David, thank you so much for joining me on this really troubling story. Let's begin there.

Miami-Dade school police say they've traced some of the cyber attacks back to IP addresses in Russia, Ukraine, China and Iraq. Why would foreign cyber criminals want to attack the servers of a school district?

DAVID SHIMER, AUTHOR: So that's exactly right. What we know so far is that eight of the cyber attacks that have been detected originated from the 16-year-old that many others originated from the countries that countries that you named. And there are many questions that need to be answered here as to why and how our foreign adversaries are seeking to undermine our ability to function and democracy and a central aspect of that is to really be able to educate our citizens in our schools.

But perhaps more broadly as our elections approach, I think that this attack should serve as a really glaring reminder at how vulnerable our infrastructure is to digital sabotage.

As I detail in my book "Rigged" back in 2016, Russian intelligence is inside many of our voting systems, our election infrastructure across our country. John Brennan told me that Russia had the capability to alter the vote tally from voter data of U.S. citizens.

[11:45:02]

SHIMER: And so whether it's our school districts, whether it's our election systems, our adversaries have access to our infrastructure. And we should be working as hard and diligently as we can to make sure that those the systems are therefore secure. GOLODRYGA: So on the issue of schools, because I want to get to voting

in just a moment, but on the issue of schools specifically with so many students now learning online, how concerned should parents be that this type of thing could happen again? And what can be done to prevent further disruptions in many schools?

SHIMER: So I think that as with anything connected to the Internet, there always has to be the concern about vulnerabilities, about exposure. And I think that it falls on districts to secure their systems in consultation with DHS and with the FBI in recognizing that part of what, for example, Russia is after is to show the world that our democratic system is not actually functioning properly.

That we're unable to handle the crises in front of us and the coronavirus pandemic is perhaps the leading crisis of our moment and therefore, if we are unable to function as a society to contain this disease while also educating our citizens, that degrades America's image in the eyes of the world and it limits our ability to function as a society that others would seek to emulate.

GOLODRYGA: And in terms of a government response to any foreign interference, I want to get your reaction to the report that the DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, actually withheld information and a memo that focused on information it had that Russia specifically was trying to attack Joe Biden's campaign by handing out and distributing misinformation on his mental health.

If they blocked this, what does that say about how this country is responding to potential foreign attacks, especially those that may come from Russia?

SHIMER: So it doesn't say anything good. A clear pattern of the history of foreign election interference is that the greatest advantage that are under siege have is to know what is happening to the best of their ability in real time, to provide facts to citizens so that citizens can be aware of efforts to manipulate them and resist those efforts as best they can.

And if our government, therefore, withholds that information, it limits the ability of our democracy to defend itself as Russia seeks to take advantage of vulnerabilities and weaknesses that already exist which is the Russian tradition.

If the current president is saying that there are mental health issues with his opponent or he's saying that the election mail-in voting will be rigged -- that is fertile ground for Russia to seek to amplify that messaging in order to degrade and disrupt our democratic system. And, therefore, I would hope that citizens would be looped into those efforts by Russia as best as possible in order to hold a stable election which is in the interest of every American or at least it should be.

GOLODRYGA: And quickly, on a scale of 1 to 10, if 5 was the damage that Russia inflicted on the 2016 U.S. election, what do you expect the damage that they're going to inflict be in 2020? SHIMER: So I'm quite worried because it is now a fact. It has been

confirmed by the U.S. Intelligence community that Russia is actively interfering in the 2020 election in favor of one candidate with a variety of measures.

And we know that that's happening. We know that Facebook and Twitter have already taken down a covert Russian network of accounts. We know as is often the case that there is usually more to uncover as time goes on. What we see now will be the tip of the iceberg.

And finally we also know, as I mentioned, that Russia actually didn't go as far as it could back in 2016. That Russia did have the capability to sabotage our infrastructure. And that remains a threat today.

GOLODRYGA: So it could go even further. David Shimer, thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate it.

SHIMER: Thank you.

And still ahead, signs of life in Beirut. This is an incredible story. New information on the search for potential survivors one month after a deadly explosion leveled a neighborhood.

[11:49:07]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: President Trump is declining to condemn an apparent attack on a Russian opposition leader. The German government says Alexey Navalny who's an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent and demanded the Russian government to explain itself. But here's what President Trump said about it at a press conference Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We haven't had any proof yet, but I will take a look. It is interesting that everybody is always mentioning Russia. I don't mind you mentioning Russia, but I think probably China at this point is a nation that you should be talking about much more so than Russia because the things that China is doing are far worse if you take a look at what's happening with the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: An unbelievable response yet again. It's just the latest example of the president declining to condemn Russia and its president for authoritarian actions. Other world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered strong condemnation of the apparent attack.

[11:54:53]

GOLODRYGA: And still ahead, heartbreaking scenes across America. Police going door to door to evict families during the pandemic. How strangers are lending a helping hand. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining me. I'm Bianna Golodryga, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

And this is a special Labor Day Weekend edition of CNN NEWSROOM.

[11:59:55]

GOLODRYGA: We begin this Labor Day weekend with a sobering projection in the fight against COVID-19 and a new warning from health officials as many Americans gather with family and friends.

A key model now predicts that the country could surpass more than 410,000 coronavirus deaths.