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Trump Denies Calling U.S. War Dead "Losers" & "Suckers"; Key Model: 410,000 Americans Could Die By January If Mask Use Declines; Up To 40 Million Americans Facing Eviction From Homes; Why Florida Is A Must-Watch State On Election Night; "On the Trail" Airs at 8:00 P.M. Tonight. Aired on 4-5p ET

Aired September 05, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:11]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Welcome. You are watching a special Labor Day edition of CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for joining us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Fifty-nine days now until the 2020 presidential election, and the president is fighting to control a damaging report from "The Atlantic" magazine claiming he skipped a 2018 visit to a World War I memorial in France because he was, one, concerned rain could dishevel his hair and considered the cemetery for America's war dead to be, quote, filled with losers.

While CNN has not independently verified this report, other outlets have.

President Trump, however, insists the story is fake. And here's part of his denial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I called home. I spoke to my wife. I said, I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony and to the one that was the following day, which I did go to. I said, I feel terribly. And that was the end of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: There's a glaring problem with this claim, though. If the president had, in fact, called home, he wouldn't have reached Melania because she was right by his side on that trip to France and was scheduled to visit the cemetery with him.

There is one man who could serve as either the president's strongest defender or greatest critic. At the center one of the claims in "The Atlantic" is former White House chief of staff, General John Kelly. Not only did Kelly attend the memorial in France in the president's place but a year earlier in 2017, the two men stood by the grave of Kelly's son, who was killed while serving in Afghanistan. And this is some video from that day in Arlington National Cemetery.

"The Atlantic" sources allege that Trump turned directly to Kelly and said, I don't get it. What was in it for them?

While CNN has yet to match "The Atlantic's" report, again, other outlets have, and we are learning more about additional comments the president has made about veterans, specifically those who served in Vietnam.

Let's go to the White House where Jeremy Diamond is standing by.

Jeremy, what have you learned?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana.

Well, somebody who heard the president president's remarks has told CNN that the president has repeatedly questioned why Americans who went on to serve in the Vietnam War did so, and specifically, wondered why they were not able to exploit the system to avoid getting drafted and to avoid going to war in Vietnam, specifically as the president did himself.

We know that the president received multiple educational draft deferments and then ultimately also received a medical deferment to avoid serving in Vietnam. That medical deferment was granted on the basis that the president got a doctor's note saying that he had bone spurs, which made him ineligible to serve in Vietnam.

According to this same source, the president also expressed -- was perplexed, it seems, about why military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan went on to do so, wondering, specifically, what did they get out of it. And this seems to speak to that broader transactional nature of the president that we know and that is also cited in this "Atlantic" article, which suggests that the president doesn't understand the notion of people serving in the military and the notion of self-sacrifice when you yourself aren't getting anything out of it, specifically nothing of monetary gain.

CABRERA: And yet, the silence from General Kelly is deafening, Jeremy.

DIAMOND: It certainly is, and you know, we know that General Kelly has really resisted criticizing the president publicly. He has made some criticisms of the president's actions. He criticized how the president handled the dispersal of protesters at Lafayette Square a few months ago, but we have not heard from him on this.

And the president was asked yesterday how, you know, about the fact that General Kelly is the one official at the center of all this who has yet to comment on this publicly. Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I know John Kelly. He was with me, didn't do a good job, had no temperament, and ultimately he was petered out. He got -- he was exhausted. This man was totally exhausted. He wasn't even able to function in the last number of months.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DIAMOND: And so you see the president's response there to the fact that General Kelly has not commented, is to disparage him, the president even suggesting at one point that the former four star Marine Corps general might have been the source of this or one of the sources, at least, of this "Atlantic" story.

Of course, we have been trying to see if General Kelly will comment on this and, Ana, I know that some people close to Kelly are trying to get him to come out and talk publicly about his feelings about the president but so far, he has resisted doing so -- Ana.

CABRERA: We will see. Jim Diamond at the White House -- thank you.

I want to bring in someone who served nearly three decades in the U.S. Navy and retired as a rear admiral following his military career. He went on to return to government to serve as a spokesperson for the Pentagon as well as the U.S. State Department. Rear Admiral John Kirby is joining us now.

Admiral, thanks for your service.

And I just want to give our viewers a fact check because the president has said he's done more for veterans than anyone.

[16:05:03]

Is that true?

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: No, not tangibly, it's not, Ana. I mean, look, the president did make some improvements at the V.A. in terms of their hiring and firing practices, administrative changes. He certainly has supported President Obama's decision early on to allow more choice for medical providers for veterans, but it's not factually true for him to say that he's done more for veterans than any other president in the United States.

I don't think you could arguably say he's done a lot of worse in terms of the V.A. itself, but certainly not better than anybody before him.

CABRERA: I mean, he makes these broader claims, too, not just about what he's done for veterans but what he's done for the military and he talks about, again, he uses the language, this, you know, maybe it's hyperbole here, but he says, you know, he's done more for the military -- I'm going to just quote what he wrote about how much he's done for military spending, specifically. I'm looking for the actual article.

But the bottom line is, he's like, you know, with the budget, with the money that he's provided for them, it's better than anybody else has done. What's true there?

KIRBY: Well, certainly, the Pentagon's budget has never been higher than under each year of the Trump years. So, you know, certainly true that he has secured more funding for the military than predecessors but you have to remember, we were already on an upward trajectory before Trump got elected because we were trying to dig out of the hole we were in thanks to sequestration back in 2012 and 2013. So, if you look at the final years of the Obama administration, you see an upward trajectory in defense spending.

You also have to remember that a lot of additional spending has been put on by members of Congress. So, not everything Trump says he's spending money on is not necessarily things he asked to spend money on whether it's new ships or new aircrafts. Some of that has been preserved by members of Congress.

And the strength of the military isn't just about the money you're spending on it, right? It's about the readiness of it. It's about the force structure, it's about whether they're being used appropriately, and I don't think under any measure the president can logically say that he has rebuilt the military. There is still a lot of are readiness problems in all the services right now that they're trying to deal with.

CABRERA: When you hear these allegations, these claims that are in this article, what's your reaction as a member of the military and as a veteran yourself?

KIRBY: I want so desperately, Ana, to believe the president's denials. I don't want to live in a country where the commander in chief would speak so disparagingly of men and women who have given their lives to defend our freedoms and our national security.

But unfortunately, the president's past credibility problems on a range of issues and the way he has treated members -- Gold Star families and the way he has treated, in disparaging, sometimes disrespectful way, the military community, makes it hard for me to accept the president's denials.

And I'm not proud to say that, Ana. I really wish I could believe him but I just can't get there.

CABRERA: Rear Admiral John Kirby, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for your service.

KIRBY: My pleasure.

CABRERA: Perhaps the most well-known member of the military who Trump has continually taken issue with is the late Senator John McCain. His inability to let go of his differences with the war hero has often stirred unnecessary controversy within the military world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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, Frank, Frank, let me get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero.

TRUMP: He's not a war hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a war hero, five and a half years --

TRUMP: He is a war hero -- he's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you agree with that?

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured.

I never got along with John McCain. I disagreed with John McCain. You know that better than anybody, frankly. I wasn't a fan.

I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which, as president, I had to approve. I don't care about this. I didn't get thank you. That's okay. We sent him on the way, but I wasn't a fan of John McCain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Joining us now to discuss is CNN political commentators Charles Blow and Amanda Carpenter.

Amanda, the president denies this new reporting in "The Atlantic", but just given the president's history, what he has said, publicly, do you think this changes anything? Are any Trump supporters taking down their Trump flags?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it would change things if we talked about it more in the context of all the people who have served under Trump who have come out to warn us in very stark terms about the threat that he poses. I think at the top of the list is former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who, you know, wrote in printed words that he's a threat to the Constitution and he's the first president he's seen that seeks to divide us rather than unite us.

But as painful as it is to keep hearing those words about John McCain, I think it gives us a clue on why John Kelly may be so reluctant to speak out. Those words are painful for military families to hear, when you hear Trump say those things about John McCain. But also his family.

[16:10:05]

And they've spoken about that, how this is like a wound that gets ripped open every time and we all just watch it bleed all over again. And so, I've got to think, John Kelly's a very smart guy who loves his son, who talks about how hard it is to talk to other military families about loss because he knows it firsthand.

So, number one, he hasn't denied that story. I think that's important. But think about what happens if he comes -- he confirms it. As soon as he comes out, he says it's true, the president said this stuff at my son's grave, that becomes a permanent memory in their family that will be permanently attached to their names and their son's names that will get ripped open again and again and again every time we replay those tapes and talk about this story. And so I do wish that John Kelly could speak out, but if that's the reason why, I find that 100 percent understandable.

CABRERA: It is so personal for so many families, Charles. Joe Biden talked about his late son, Beau, serving in Iraq as he responded. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If it's true, based on other things he's said, I believe the article's true, I'd ask you all the rhetorical question, how do you feel? How would you feel if you had a kid in Afghanistan right now? How would you feel if you lost a son, daughter, husband, wife? How you would you feel? For real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Pretty emotional. It makes me wonder, how's this going to play in their upcoming debate, Charles?

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's a strong point for Biden to make, but I think he should make it as a bigger point, which is, this man does not understand the concept of service of country, and that is a lot of the reason that we have problems with him as a president is that he doesn't understand the concept of service, that all of government is about service, that you become president not because you can get something out of it, not because it enters you in the history books. You do it because you want to serve.

People join the military because they want to serve. They want to give of themselves to the country, not take from the country for themselves, which is precisely how Donald Trump looks at everything that he does and looks at -- that's how he looks at everything that everybody else does. They should be doing what he is doing, exploiting.

So, I think that you know, Biden is perfectly suited for this as a father of someone who served. But I think he should make it bigger. I think he should really underscore that this president doesn't understand what government is even supposed to do.

CABRERA: And let's just remember, there's so much more happening right now that is affecting American lives, the coronavirus, number one. We had this new model that came out yesterday predicting 400,000 Americans or more will be dead by January 1st. So that's, you know, more than double the number of lives lost in this country so far from the coronavirus. And that's just four months from now.

And, Amanda, Senator Kamala Harris spoke exclusively today with our Dana Bash about the chances of a vaccine coming before November, which we know the president wants. He's been talking a lot about it. She was asked whether or not she would trust it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITCAL CORRESPONDENT: But do you trust that, in the 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?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If past is prologue, that they will not. They'll be muzzled. They'll be suppressed. They will be sidelined, 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's 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)

CABRERA: Amanda, how much could a potential vaccine impact this election?

CARPENTER: I mean, if it were here, it would be helpful, but listen, I think we shouldn't buy into this, you know, politicized timeline and I actually think Harris and Biden need to be much more careful about how they talk about this, because when you go in and just say, I can't trust Donald Trump, well, guess what?

[16:15:02]

If you win the election, and you are sworn into office in January, you are going to be inheriting his FDA and a lot of those scientists who are working hard.

And so I understand that there's not trust in the process, but they do have to try to restore it. And what I'm looking for Biden and Harris to do on this front is don't tell me why Donald Trump can't be trusted. Yes, that's a point. But you need to tell me what I can trust. What are the markers we can look forward to?

I know you've had medical experts on saying we can look to those third party validators. This is what a good timeline looks like. I really hope that they lean into that public education, because we need it for our public health, and it is direly missing at this point.

CABRERA: I want to get to one more issue impacting Americans right now, this racial reckoning we are in the middle of, Charles. There's an ESPN college football analyst who broke down today while addressing the racial injustice we're seeing in this country. Just listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK HERBSTREIT, ESPN ANALYST: How do you listen to these stories and not feel pain and not -- I want to help. You can't relate to that if you're white, but you can listen, and you can -- you can try to help, because this is not okay. It's just not. It just -- we got to do better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Charles, is this a sign of progress?

BLOW: Listen, policy is a sign of progress. I need to see policies change.

It is a mistake to believe that racism is about attitudes only or about intentions and hatred or love. It is a mistake, because it is about power. It was built into the power structures, and you're going to have to get it out.

And I see so little of that actual policy changing and I see a lot of performative gestures, and that's fine, individually, for people to grow. They're going to have to have some breakthroughs. That's great.

But for the system to change, you have to actually have -- it's a policy change. And not one. Innumerable policy changes because you know, this is -- we built this system over 400 years and every time we try to break part of it down, it reemerged in a more elegant form.

It will take that much effort. All that effort, all those centuries of effort that it took to build it, it's going to take that much effort to unbuild it. No amount of me saying how I feel about it changes a thing or anybody else.

CABRERA: Charles Blow and Amanda Carpenter, thank you both. Really appreciate your perspective.

Up next, here in the NEWSDROOM, a sobering prediction from the coronavirus forecast model used by the White House. It now predicts 410,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths by New Year's Day, and what's particularly worrying is that this model has notoriously been too conservative in its estimates. We'll discuss with a doctor next, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:22:33]

CABRERA: We are six months into this pandemic now and yet according to one model cited by health officials, the worst may be yet to come, at least in terms of deaths. Unthinkable as it sounds, the University of Washington model predicts 410,000 Americans dead by the end of this year, meaning more than 220,000 deaths in the next 4 months alone after we've already endured nearly 190,000 Americans losing their lives.

CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Celine Gounder, is joining us now. She is the former New York City assistant commissioner of health, and the host of "The Epidemic" podcast.

Dr. Gounder, thank you as always for being here with us.

Labor Day weekend, we saw what happened over Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July, there were surges that followed both of those holidays, and we're seeing images like this today in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Does anything from the first six months make you feel it is safer now for Americans to go to the beach or the lake this holiday weekend?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Ana, we know that if you are outside, your risk of transmission or being infected is lower, but it's not zero, and so that's why, for months now, we've been saying, it's about face masking and being outside and maintaining social distance, and for many of these people, maybe they're outside now, but they might go to the local bar or restaurant after they've been to the beach.

And so this is not a safe trend that we're seeing, and if the previous two holidays are any indication, we're likely to see an increase in transmissions as a result of this.

CABRERA: This model that now projects a death toll of more than 400,000 Americans by the end of the year in part because mask use is declining, researchers say, and yet instead of national leadership, here is the president again this week finding a way to undermine his own health experts' guidance -- pleas, at this point, for Americans to wear masks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? And then he makes a speech and he always has it -- not always, but a lot of times, he has it hanging down because you know what? It gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist -- right? No, I'd say -- I'd say, this guy's got some big issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: No doctor has the megaphone that President Trump has. What would it mean, medically, if he lauded mask-wearing as the most patriotic act you could do right now to save the lives of other Americans?

[16:25:03]

GOUNDER: I think that many more Americans would start wearing masks if they felt like they could do so without betraying their party and their social circle, and so I really think that the president should be advocating the wearing of masks. I would ask the president, what do you have to lose by asking people to wear masks, by you yourself wearing a mask? Is it simply that you don't want to admit that you have been wrong?

CABRERA: Another dangerous factor right now, of course, the weather starting to cool down a little bit, at least in some areas, and it will be in months to come. We also have school starting up, so new groups of kids are mixing. That creates higher-risk situations, obviously. If you were to advise my family, for example, what would you say? How

do we sort of recalibrate during this next phase that we're entering into?

GOUNDER: Well, I would first start by asking what does the transmission infection rate look like in my community? So, looking at New York City, it's very different from looking at Houston, Texas, for example, where my little sister is a high school principal.

And so you really need to be looking at how likely is it that you're going to be -- to encounter somebody who's infected and then what are the -- what are the measures being put in place in schools? Is everybody going to be required to wear a mask? How are they going to enforce that? What does the ventilation look like? How crowded are the classrooms going to be?

So, all of this is going to vary tremendously from school to school, from region to region, even here in New York City where I have been advising some of our local leaders. One school is not the same as another. And so it's a very different situation.

CABRERA: All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Celine Gounder. As always, good to have you here with us and happy Labor Day weekend. I hope you stay well and enjoy.

All right. Up to 40 million Americans could face evictions during the pandemic. As CNN saw in Houston, no one is being spared, not the elderly, not those with young children. This emotional report and how you can help, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:33]

CABRERA: This next story is one you have to see. And it is worth watching again. They are just some of the faces behind the economic suffering happening across the country right now. People are literally getting kicked out of their homes because they can't pay their rent.

Our Kyung Lah brings us some of their stories from Houston, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BENNIE GANT, HARRIS COUNTY CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 1: Hello? Constable, I need you to come at the door.

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From one Houston home to the next --

GANT: Hello, constable.

LAH: -- Deputy Bennie Gant with Harris County Constable's Office executes judge's orders to evict.

GANT: Hello? Constable.

ISRAEL RODRIGUEZ, EVICTED FROM APARTMENT: We ain't got nowhere to go.

LAH: Israel Rodriguez is a tenant at this apartment, but he's not alone. 20-month-old Israel, his brother, four-year-old Fabian and their mother are some of the estimated 40 million Americans facing eviction in the downward spiral of the COVID economy.

RODRIGUEZ: They didn't rush us but they're like, get everything you need.

LAH: Rodriguez admits he hasn't been paying rent, behind thousands of dollars.

RODRIGUEZ: It's my fault on the eviction. It was a lot going on in the corona. When it hit, I lost my job. So it took like a month to get another job. This is my check but I ain't making it with $300. It's literally $300.

LAH: Their stroller now carries their possessions.

RODRIGUEZ: It's mainly the kids' clothes because me and her, we wear the same clothes almost every day. Make sure we got toilet paper, a little bit of snacks for the kids.

LAH (on camera): What are you going to do with all of your stuff?

RODRIGUEZ: That's trash. They get thrown into trash because we don't have a car, we don't have help, we don't nobody that can come and help us out right now, nobody. We've got ourselves, me and the kids and her. That's it.

LAH: How do you feel, as law enforcement, feel about seeing for that family to go?

GANT: That's a tough situation. I've got six kids, six children. And, you know, the kids see the mom and dad in desperate situation, it is tough.

LAH (voice-over): Deputy Gant, an officer for 35 years, is just starting his day.

(KNOCKING)

LAH: Eight evictions are on his list.

GANT: Co-defendant is here, two of them.

LAH: At each stop, people behind on rent are ordered to leave, possessions, pulled out.

(on camera): Where are you guys going to go now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can go to a hotel.

LAH: You can go to a hotel?

GANT: Constable. LAH (voice-over): As Deputy Gant works through his list, we get word that 200 eviction orders have come through the Harris County courts for this week. That's double what they normally saw for an entire month before COVID.

(on camera): And 200 on Monday, what does that --

GANT: Well, that's a lot, yes.

LAH: What does that say to you?

GANT: Well, what that means is that they're ready to start having people removed from properties.

LAH (voice-over): It is a backlog, but it's also just one precinct in one of America's hardest-hit cities in evictions.

The job takes its toll.

GANT: I don't really want to put her out here, but I have to under this judge's order.

LAH: At this apartment, the tenant is an elderly woman who can no longer afford the rent.

(CRYING)

LAH: The landlord's mover, Francisco Munoz, works though he doesn't want to.

FRANCISCO MUNOZ, HELPING MOVE EVICTED TENANT: I have a family, I have a sister, I have my mom, and we never know. Maybe today it's her, tomorrow it's me, you know?

LAH: Midway through the eviction, Deputy Gant decides it's too dangerous to evict her in the Houston summer heat.

GANT: I'm not going to put her out here in this heat.

[16:35:01]

LAH: And will call social services instead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay today?

GANT: But tomorrow, you are leaving.

LAH: A one-day reprieve with an uncertain tomorrow.

GANT: You have a situation where people aren't working, they don't have money and they're desperate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: So powerful. So heartbreaking. But there's a silver lining here, because in the wake of Kyung's

report, the local constable's report received so many calls from people who wanted to help, they started a GoFundMe page that has now raised more than $150,000 for those facing eviction.

I will tweet out a link to this fundraiser if you want to donate. The handle is @anaCabrera.

Coming up, Florida, Florida, Florida. Twenty years after that state decided an election, why it's once again a must-watch on election night.

Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We have this just in, a pro-Trump boat parade in Texas goes awry when several boats start to sink. These are images coming in from Lake Travis. Officials say they responded to multiple calls involving boats in distress.

[16:40:06]

No immediate information is available on injuries. But according to a Facebook page about this event, more than 2,600 people had been scheduled to attend the parade.

Twenty years ago, a great journalist predicted what would happen in an election by writing one word three times on a white board. And, boy, was he right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM RUSSET, FORMER NBC MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": There are still some votes that have not been counted.

UNIDENTIFIED HOST: And there's still votes to be counted because we're at 99.8. Broward and Palm Beach are the uncounted votes. What if this goes the other way?

RUSSET: Well, it's only 3:17. We're here. Cameras are hot.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED HOST: That's entirely possible. Because -- we've got -

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED HOST: Tim gets his board out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That was the late Tim Russert saying about the 2000 election what many analysts are saying now: Florida, Florida, Florida.

For one thing, no Republican has won the White House without Florida since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

Plus CNN's own Harry Enten says models suggest, if Biden takes Florida, his odds of winning the Electoral College are 95 percent.

But it could be a nail-biter. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows a tight race with Biden up by just three points right now, 59 days out from the election.

Joining us now is Marc Caputo, senior political reporter for "Politico" in Florida.

And, Marc, be our eyes on the ground there in Florida. What are you seeing? What are you hearing from voters about this race and who might have the momentum at this point?

MARC CAPUTO, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": Oh, it really depends on who you talk to. We're really a polarized state.

In fact, 2000 was a good intro to this because it was at that point that we really saw how equally divided this state has been.

And like the past, what, four, five, top of the ticket races have been decided by about a point or less. In 2018, two or actually three of the races were decided by less than half a point. So it just gives you an idea of how close it is.

That Quinnipiac poll you mentioned, Quinnipiac has a tendency of polling Florida pretty well for Democrats. And then Democrats end up losing the state. Quinnipiac's not alone there.

I would urge you to talk about the margin of error. Because when you factor that in, it's basically a tie. And the state is probably basically a tie. It will be a tie on Election Day, probably. And it might be a tie after Election Day, who knows.

CABRERA: Do you have any idea of how long it could take for us to get results from Florida, then?

CAPUTO: No. That's a good question. One of the advantages that Florida has is this. We have a robust mail-in, or we still call it, or at least I do, absentee ballot program.

We have a lot of absentee ballot voters. And the Democrats have really poured it on and converted a lot of their voters to voting-by-mail voters.

We have a long 10 to eight-day, depending on what county you live in, in-person early voting period. So all those votes get logged into the system before Election Day.

And so we could have 75 percent of the vote passed and actually logged into the system by election supervisors before Election Day.

So it's 7:01 p.m. Eastern standard time, you're going to see a lot of votes start to really load in from a lot of the counties.

So, Florida could be -- I won't say decided early but we could have a really great idea of Florida's results by 9:00 p.m., maybe 10:00 p.m.

Understand we have two -- I don't know what just happened to my computer. I don't know if you're still there.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: We hear you and we see you. You're still with us.

CAPUTO: All right, great. Well, it was one of those moments in live at-home television where my computer suddenly went kind of blue. I can't see you.

In Florida, we have two time zones and so some of our polls close at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, the others close at 7:00 p.m. Central. So the official results don't start to pour in until about 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.

CABRERA: A couple of other dynamics at play right now, obviously. Florida's a state that's been devastated by the coronavirus, more than 640,000 cases.

CAPUTO: Yes.

CABRERA: Trump won't mandate masks, neither will his big supporter, Governor Ron DeSantis.

How do voters in Florida feel about the way their leaders have handled the pandemic? And how big of an impact does it have on their vote?

CAPUTO: I would assume -- I don't want to say -- I don't want to speak for voters and say how much of a -- how much of a difference it makes in their vote for president or not.

But what we know is that Joe Biden, whether it's Florida polls or national polls, is trusted much more on handling coronavirus than the president.

But we also know that Governor Ron DeSantis's poll numbers, his approval ratings, really dropped in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, we do have a decline in cases, a decline in hospitalizations from our peak, a decline in deaths from our peak.

But you know, for some of us, we've kind of seen this rodeo before, where it looked like there was a peak and then there was a lull and people were like, let's go back outside and everything's great, and then we had problems again.

[16:45:03]

So, it's yet to be seen what's going to occur now that schools are back open.

And the governor himself was just encouraging people to play football. In fact, he gave a speech to a high school football team at halftime or before the game saying, hey, look, if you're in Florida, you can play football. If you're in California, you wouldn't be able to play.

In Jacksonville, there were a lot of video -- there's a lot of video footage of folks sitting pretty closely together without masks on. We're going to see if that's going to make a difference or not.

But I think the coronavirus question is not settled yet. However, what we do know is the polling tells us it's an advantage for Biden.

The economy is more of an advantage for the president. But his advantage there has been shrinking over Biden over the months.

CABRERA: OK, so, just goes to show why this race could go either way and there's still more to come between now and then that could change the race dynamics.

Marc Caputo, thank you. Let's check in with you periodically as we get closer to the election. I really appreciate your time this weekend.

CAPUTO: Please do. Thanks, and we'll talk to you later.

CABRERA: OK.

Coming up, an up-close and personal look at life on the trail from the women covering the election of a lifetime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:50:47]

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN POLITICAL EMBED PRODUCER: This is what we call hell week.

Oh, my god, this feels so nice.

On a normal day, I do three events a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.

(CHEERING)

DIAZ: This isn't going to work.

I'm a campaign embed. I stalk presidential candidates for a living.

Can I just get in there?

I run around with a 20-pound camera, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Oh, there she is.

Documenting everything that a presidential candidate is doing.

Right now, I'm covering Senator Elizabeth Warren. I've been traveling the country with her for eight months, full-time, nonstop, providing the base for coverage to our company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So, what is life really like on the campaign trail? You just got a taste. A new CNN film seeks to answer that question.

And joining us now are two of the journalists featured in "On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primary," CNN political embeds, Daniella Diaz, as well as Jasmine Wright.

Thank you, ladies. Good to see you both.

First, remind our viewers -- Daniella, because we just saw you - remind us of who you were covering.

And, Jasmine, we didn't get a chance to see who you were covering in that clip. So tell us about who you covered and for how long.

DIAZ: Yes, Ana, I covered Senator Elizabeth Warren. I was embedded with her for almost a year.

CABRERA: OK.

Jasmine?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN POLITICAL EMBED PRODUCER: And I covered Senator Kamala Harris, and then, when she exited the race, I covered Senator Amy Klobuchar. So what you see in the film is me covering Senator Amy Klobuchar.

CABRERA: OK, life on the road during the primary season is certainly not glamorous, as much as people think it may be.

Daniella, what was a typical day like?

DIAZ: Yes, I woke up very early in the morning, caught up with the news really quickly. Often would have to shower, get ready, make sure all my gear was charged, and immediately hit the road to my first campaign event.

And that's if I was lucky to already be in the state that I had to be in to cover an event. Sometimes it would mean early morning flights, late night flights.

You know, I would get lucky -- I would be lucky if I got a meal in between all of that, some coffee, a bathroom break. It was chaotic.

CABRERA: So chaotic, long days, running after candidates for a sound byte, maybe getting pushed aside or lost in the press gaggle.

Jasmine, what do you get out of this?

WRIGHT: I mean, really, you get to cover a presidential election from the ground. You get, really, to be the ears and eyes of the network, that first connection between the candidates and the network. And so it's fantastic because you're getting that reporting

experience. But you're also getting to learn about the country and learn what makes it tick and how the democratic process really works up front.

CABRERA: And as women of color, what kind of impact do you think that had on your experiences?

Daniella, you first.

DIAZ: You know, Ana, I am Latina. I'm from McAllen, Texas. I'm from the border. That impacted my work every single day. I was able to bring my perspective into my job every day as a bilingual woman.

My parents are from Mexico. It was beautiful to be able to bring that perspective into my job.

Jasmine?

WRIGHT: And you know, we are part of some of the really underrepresented groups in this country.

And so being able to tell the story of Senator Kamala Harris, a black woman, tell the story of Senator Amy Klobuchar, a woman in this space was really, really impactful.

And being able to input my lived experiences and have that provide context to my reporting.

And say, this matters. Because it matters to my aunt, and it matters to my mom, and it matters to my brother and my sister. Also black people. That was really important.

CABRERA: Well, thank you both so much for giving us a snippet of, you know, what you experience personally and just a little preview of what we can all watch tonight when we see this film air right here on CNN.

Jasmine Wright and Daniella Diaz, great to see you ladies. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend.

[16:55:04]

We look forward to "On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.

That does it for me. I'm Ana Cabrera. Thanks for being here for me.

My colleague, Dana Bash, picks up our coverage after a quick break. Have a good night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:04]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Welcome to a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Dana Bash in Washington. We begin tonight with President Trump's credibility.