Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Record Heat Wave Fueling California Wildfires; Michael Cohen: President Trump "A Bully, Racist, Predator"; Americans Attend Large Labor Day Gatherings Despite COVID Warnings; Experts Fear Labor Day Gatherings Could Fuel Rise In Infections; Trump Says, Education Department Will Investigate Use Of 1619 Project In Schools; Parents Making Tough Choices As More U.S. Schools Reopen. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired September 06, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

[13:59:48]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Do you think she would be surprised that her daughter was the first woman of color on the ticket?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't think she would. I think she would be immensely proud. But she always encouraged to go for it, you know. She encouraged me to never listen to no except if she said it, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Spoken like a true tough mom who loves her children. Great interview by Dana Bash.

And for more on the candidates, don't miss the back to back documentary event "JOE BIDEN'S LONG JOURNEY" and "DONALD TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY". It all starts tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Bianna Golodryga, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

This is a special Labor Day weekend edition of CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin this hour with a severe threat in California. Wildfires raging right now, endangering lives as they burn out of control. At least 15 are burning across the state all fueled by a record breaking heat wave that saw temperatures soar in some places to over 120 degrees.

At the Creek Fire near Fresno, rescuers were forced to air lift more than 200 to safety. The fire there engulfing part of a national forest and cutting off the only road out. But officials fear many more may still be trapped calling this a mass casualty event with a dozen people already injured.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is monitoring the situation. And Paul, what are you learning about the efforts to get this fire under control at this hour? PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, many of these fires that are

now burning are either zero percent contained or only 5 percent contained. And Bianna, we have breaking news now. Richard Cordova, captain of California Fire telling me that with this latest fire burning up in the Madera County area and other fires, we have now broken the all-time California record for acres burned.

According to Cordova, we now stand at 2,094,000 acres burned in California and his concern it is only September. We have the harrowing months of October and November still to come when the Santa Ana Winds come.

So let's get to that fire that is burning in the in the Sierra National Forest. We understand 224 people have been evacuated from the Mammoth Reservoir. Two remain by their own choice. Of those people evacuated, we understand that 20 of them had to be transported to neighboring hospitals in Fresno County, the nature of the injuries, burns as well as broken bones.

And this fire has now burned 45,000 acres according to Cal Fire, it's sending up a massive pyro cumulus cloud. The top of this cloud, according to weather officials, 8 or 9 miles high, these clouds create their own weather and because of this and other factors, they are now evacuating other lakes in this Sierra National Forest.

At Bass Lake we understand that they have been warned told to reduce the speed of their boats to five miles per hour. There is video out there that shows people on their boat in midday and it looks like nighttime. So a dangerous situation there.

Of course they factor in all of this. These hellish fires as they were described by the county sheriff throughout California is the heat. We're going to see heat in Southern California again today that will break records. Some of those temperatures reaching up to 118 degrees in places in valleys where they never see this type of heat, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Unbelievable those aerial images, Paul. And you breaking that news to us from the fire chief -- 2,094,000 acres have already been burned in the state and that is a record nobody wants to hear.

Paul Vercammen, thank you so much. Stay safe.

Well, a truly terrifying situation for people trapped in these fires. Just take a look at the moment when a group of hikers tried to drive to safety as the fire closed in on them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my gosh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just keep going.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just keep going.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go, go, go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just keep going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We made it. We made it. We made it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And joining me now is one of those hikers, Juliana Park. Juliana, first of all I'm so happy that you're safe right now because those images were terrifying. The video of you in that car trying to drive through. I don't want to ask you how you were feeling because we could hear it in real time. "Oh my God, oh my God". I would be saying the same thing.

Walk us through what happened and when did you realize that you were in desperate need to get out?

JULIANA PARK, HIKER, FLED WILDFIRE IN SIERRA NATIONAL FOREST: Thank you, Bianna. Yes. I actually hadn't listened to that audio. I muted it when I posted it on Twitter because of the -- I didn't want to kind of relive what we were feeling. But a group of us, five of us, wanted to go backpacking at the time that location was not on fire. We departed very early. We hit the Mammoth Trailhead around 1:00 p.m.

[14:04:54]

PARK: And we had noticed the sky was a lot hazier. We had hiked maybe two miles when we heard thunder. And that's when we decided to turn back.

A smaller group behind us caught up to us and, you know, asked us what that might have been. All of us not having any cell service decided it would just be best to turn back to the -- to our cars.

I think if we had stayed just ten minutes more we might not have been so lucky. We did run into a ranger on the road, on the 6SO1, the road. And still without cell service and she was able to lead us up to the point of that spot fire and it was actually per her instruction that we drove through that fire. She said it was the only way down and it hadn't yet crossed the road and that we just had to drive through it.

GOLODRYGA: That ranger was really your guardian angel and savior.

PARK: Truly. GOLODRYGA: Can you explain to us how quickly in a time lapse you went

from seeing a hazy sky to being engulfed by flames all around you?

PARK: Yes. I would say it was maybe a little under two hours. I look at photos because at the time I was on a hike with just some hazy air. That became, you know, soon ash rain. We were wearing masks but it was getting, you know, harder to breathe, harder to see.

would say between the time of 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. We could see that, you know, we needed to leave immediately.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Well, this area for those that don't know is very popular, especially around Labor Day weekend. Did you see a lot of other people out there while you were hiking?

PARK: When we arrived we did see at least 15 other cars. We saw people setting up camp, their tents were already pitched and then we also saw I guess footprints of other backpackers going down into the valley. And then when we turned around we only saw maybe one or two cars left.

GOLODRYGA: Wow. Well, let's hope that they're all safe, as well. Juliana Park, we are so glad that you are safe and sound at home.

PARK: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And thank you for listening to that audio for the first time. I know that was traumatic for you but I think it's a good -- it's a good model for those who are at home watching this trying to get a sense of what things are like out there. Things change on a dime.

Thank you so much. Stay safe.

PARK: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, complicating the fire -- the fire-fighting and rescue efforts, an intense record breaking heat wave hitting California.

Meteorologist Tom Sater joins me now. Tom, I don't know if you were able to hear that conversation with Juliana but these things change so quickly.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Talk about the impact of the heat on all this. She said she heard thunder. Is there any relief in sight for those people?

SATER: Right. You know, there might be, Bianna, a little bit. There's a cold front that's expected to come into northern California but the more south it moves it's going to break up. It's not going to bring rain with it but it will cool temperatures down.

But there's 13 states right now that have -- under red flag warnings and advisories and many of those states are going to see a dramatic drop in temperatures. We're going to go from using the air conditioning to heaters by Monday, you know, Tuesday morning. Take a look now, we talked about these pyro cumulus clouds and Juliana was right. I mean blue skies for everyone. Tents are pitched and out of nowhere then you start to see this billowing effect and the satellite images show this especially for the Creek Fire.

This one grew at a rate of over 600 percent in the amount of aerial coverage. It just scorched. We have seen this time and time again with fires this season and the last few seasons. The greater the steep of the terrain the faster these flames move up and the ridge top and then the embers blow over into the next area in the valleys.

This satellite imagery really is something. Blue skies. These are not storms. We've got fires that went from blue skies to blanketing and choking smoke across all of California.

High pressure is so strong that it pushes the weight of the atmosphere down to the surface. So not only is it compressing the air and heating it up but it's also creating that smoke to come down into the valleys and homes.

Over 80 high temperature records will be broken today and tomorrow. Notice Denver at 101 degrees, they're going to see temperatures in the 30s come Tuesday morning. 50 million Americans under excessive heat warnings and advisories. Los Angeles at 102.

But what a dramatic shocking change for areas -- this will help and will help firefighters in areas of Montana, Colorado down to the area's possibly even in New Mexico. When you see a drop like this, 98 degrees Sunday to 36 on Tuesday for Denver and the mountain snows.

I wish there was more of it to help these firefighters. Just remember the thousands of people that are working on this Labor Day to keep everybody safe from the park service to the hospital crews and the emergency management, and obviously the firefighters. They sure could use a break.

[14:09:54]

GOLODRYGA: Yes, our hats off to them. They've been working around the clock nonstop this summer. This cold front can't come soon enough for them.

Tom Sater, thank you so much.

Well, President Trump threatens to withhold school funding over a program designed to examine the impact of slavery on the U.S. Is this an attempt to distract from his alleged comments about the military?

We'll have a live report from the White House.

Plus, new details from Michael Cohen's tell-all book about President Trump, his former attorney calling the President a bully, a racist and a predator.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: We are getting our first look at damning details from a new tell-all book from one of the President's closest former allies.

In the book, the president's long-time attorney Michael Cohen calls his former boss a cheat, liar, fraud, bully, racist, predator and a con man. "Disloyal: A Memoir" is out on Tuesday and adds to the growing list of insider accounts on President Trump and his character.

[14:14:55]

GOLODRYGA: Cohen details his former boss's alleged racist view of black leaders specifically Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela. He also writes about Trumps' disdain of black people and Hispanics in general and even of his own evangelical supporters.

And Cohen further adds to the narrative that Trump has a deep admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Brian Stelter is CNN's chief media correspondent and anchor of "RELIABLE SOURCES".

Brian, there's so much that jumps out here. So much of it should be shocking and yet we've heard so many similar accounts. What stood out to you in this particular book?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Cohen is adding to the narrative of President Trump as a con man, a swindler and a racist. Those are the themes that come through loud and clear in "Disloyal". This is by far the number one bestselling book in the country at this moment, thanks to all the pre-orders. So there's a lot of interest in what Cohen is going to say when this officially comes out on Tuesday.

So let me read a couple of quotes from the copy that CNN has obtained in advance. Here's a quote, talking about race. This is Cohen alleging that Trump talks this way about race saying, quote, "I will never get the Hispanic vote," Trump allegedly said to Cohen." Like the blacks, they're too stupid to vote for Trump. They're not my people."

That's one instance of Cohen quoting Trump making racist remarks.

Other examples as well where Cohen says Trump talked about black leaders of black countries and saying all those countries are s-hole countries. We have heard that -- that disparaging remark before.

And then the other big narrative of the book that's going to get a lot of attention is about the president's, you know, appreciation of Vladimir Putin, his desire to be more like the Russian leader. Here's a quote talking about Cohen viewing Trump's use of power. Quote, "I honestly believe the most extreme ideas of power and its uses only really took shape as he, Trump, began to seriously contemplate the implications of taking power and how he could leverage it to the absolute maximum extent possible."

There's a theme throughout the story in "Disloyal" of Trump using political actions to benefit his business actions where he's trying to get a tower built in Moscow and things like that.

So, you know, we're going to talk and hear from Cohen. He's going to be giving interviews starting on Tuesday. He clearly believes this book is an essential pre-election read. And I think obviously trying to sway the election in Biden's favor with this tell-all book.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And explaining this admiration for Vladimir Putin is very simple, it comes down to power and money, right. And of course we know that Michael Cohen is a flawed character as well. He's lied before Congress. Those are the allegations in defense that's coming from the White House, as well.

But I was really struck by something he said in this book and you just alluded to this, Brian. He said you now have all the information you need to decide for yourself in November.

And I have to think we have heard similar, shocking accounts about the president before. I mean just look at "The Atlantic's" bombshell reporting about the president disparaging U.S. troops and servicemen calling them losers and suckers. And every single time there's a question of will this move the needle, will this change people's views. And thus far it doesn't seem to have.

Do you think that this book will have the impact that Michael Cohen seems to suggest that it will or should?

STELTER: I think whether books change minds or not, it's great that we have the fullest possible picture of all the people running. And that's what Mary Trump's book has contributed to and John Bolton's and this one, Bob Woodward's is coming up next week.

Look Cohen, you know -- try to imagine what it would have been like if one of Barack Obama's best friend, one of Barack Obama's closest confidants, one of his lawyers came out with a tell-all book saying that Obama, after his first term in office was a predator and a con man and a bully and -- I mean it is unbelievable. We are in such crazy territory here.

But in terms of the White House response it is pretty obvious. They're just going to say Cohen is a liar over and over again. The statement from Kayleigh McEnany says he's a disgraced felon, a disbarred lawyer who lied to Congress. He's lost all credibility and now he's trying to profit off of lies.

Here's the thing that Kayleigh McEnany's leaving out. The reason why Cohen lied is in defense of Donald Trump.

GOLODRYGA: Right.

STELTER: The reason why he was convicted of lying was in service to Donald Trump. This is what it was all about. He was lying to protect his boss. So that's where the explanations of Cohen being not lacking credibility because he's a liar, it starts to fall apart. Also he does apologize in the book for lying. He tries to make amends and that is a striking thing to read from one of the president's former allies.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Loyalty really being a one way street from the president's perspective.

Brian you mentioned this book being a bestseller. I hate to leave you without mentioning your book as well, "Hoax", also a bestseller. It really gives you a sense of all this craziness and understanding of how we got here. I urge everybody to buy it not just because you're a colleague and a friend but because it is a very important read. And congratulations on that book, as well.

Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.

[14:19:56]

STELTER: Well, thank you.

Hey, Bianna, people can read it in the next two days before Cohen's book comes out and all these other books. I got to tell you, September is going to be an extraordinary month full of Trump books and I'm just glad I came out in August, ok.

GOLODRYGA: Well, you're just one of the top to read. Brian, thank you.

STELTER: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, CNN brings you the stories of Joe Biden and Donald Trump and their fight for the White House. See their triumphs, tragedies and dramatic journeys to a showdown. Don't miss the back to back documentary events starting tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. on CNN.

Well, some Americans are spending the holiday weekend at large gatherings. But will trips to the beach or the movies lead to a surge in coronavirus cases? I'll ask a medical expert coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:04]

GOLODRYGA: Despite warnings from health experts, this Labor Day weekend we're seeing large gatherings across the country. People are flocking to beaches and parties. This, as fears grow over a possible surge in coronavirus cases.

CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is in New Jersey at Asbury Park. And Even, how are the crowds where you are? And are people wearing masks?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're here on the Boardwalk, the iconic Boardwalk and I can see, if you look over the beach right over my left shoulder over here, you can see there are people on the beach. They are kind of distant and you can see on the boardwalk here behind me that there are people walking around, some of them are wearing masks and some aren't.

I have with me the deputy mayor of Asbury Park, Amy Quinn. We're going to ask a couple of questions about this. Deputy Mayor, thanks for being with us.

AMY QUINN, DEPUTY MAYOR, ASBURY PARK: Greetings from Asbury Park. MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So this holiday weekend, you're really concerning a

lot of public health experts. They're concerned about what the long- term effects of people gathering on this weekend might be. Is Asbury Park doing enough to keep people safe this weekend?

QUINN: Yes, I think we are. I mean listen, we cut our capacity by half, so we normally would -- can get 15,000 to 20,000 people on the beach and right now we are only taking between 8,000 to 10,000. And spacing people apart, keeping track so we can move people to different avenues and we're expanding our beach season through September for that season.

So today, for example, we know that we're only allowing 9,000 people on the beach but if we didn't monitor these badges you would get 20,000 and no social distancing whatsoever.

So one of the main reasons we're extending the season is to be able to keep capacity by monitoring how many dailies and seasonals are coming on.

And then the other reason is really keeping lifeguards on so. So you know, we're getting a real diverse population coming to the beach, some strong summer, some not so strong summers. And our beach staff who are doing an amazing job in passing right now. We want to make sure that we have lifeguards out and ready to go should anything happen.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Got you. Now, you're wearing a mask. And I'm wearing a mask. But I have to say, looking on the boardwalk, a lot of people are not wearing masks. What do you have to say to those people?

QUINN: So we strongly ask everyone to wear a mask. And Asbury Park is actually linking up with Twitter for, you know, a mask-up campaign that we're hoping helps. I mean I'm seeing about 50 percent to 60 percent which I think that's ok. Could we do better? Absolutely. And we should do better.

But I'm seeing about 50 to 60 percent. But we're going to do -- we're working with Twitter to do a whole mask-up campaign and if you come to Asbury Park, if you come on the boardwalk, wear a mask, you can take your mask off when you sit down at your seat.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Do you enforce the mask rules? Do you have like police need to wear mask or what?

QUINN: So, I mean that is a little complicated. We strongly encourage people to wear a mask. Are we ticketing people? No. But we strongly, strongly encourage you don't wear masks and if you don't -- you have to wear it at our indoor establishments. You will not get service. And you have to wear it, you know, online for the bathroom.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Got it. Thank you. Got it.

All right. Bianna, so that's the news form Asbury Park, trying to keep the numbers down to make this Labor Day safe for the rest of the year, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Look it's a privilege just once for people to be able to out to the beaches given that the infection rates and percentages are low in that state. Let's keep them there. Everyone wear a mask.

Evan McMorris-Santoro, thank you so much.

Well joining me now is primary care physician and public health especially Dr. Saju Mathew. Doctor always great to see you. So we're seeing these large Labor Day gatherings, do you predict that these activities will lead to another surge in cases?

DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: Hi, Bianna.

I don't want to be an alarmist, but yes, absolutely yes. Listen, we're still dealing with the aftermath of July Fourth and Memorial Day.

A lot of these events unfortunately are potentially super spreader events. And now I'm really upset because wait two or four weeks, and you have heard physicians say this over and over again on CNN that the numbers will already rise and we're walking into the flu season with COVID and flu existing together.

And let's also remember the young people 18 to 25 -- and I don't want to be hard on all young people but these are the most mobile group, Bianna. And 10 percent of them are responsible for 80 percent of the transmission.

So my advice is when people go back to their homes after this weekend is over make sure you wear a mask and get tested in a week.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. I always think back to what Sanjay Gupta said, Dr. Gupta said here on our air months ago that if we could actually see the virus that we would have had things under control, that people would have socially distanced and followed all of these the guidelines and yet it's an invisible killer and pandemic.

What can Americans then do to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID this Labor Day weekend when you see so many people out and about?

DR. MATHEW: You know, what I tell all my patients if they ask me like a week before and I try to also talk about this on social media. Listen. Outdoors for sure is safer. I want to use the word "safer". Nothing is 100 percent safe and also the other thing to remember is introducing new people into your bubble.

We are six months into the pandemic. We've already established our safe bubbles, if you will.

[14:30:01]

My safe bubble is my family and few friends and then, of course, the fact that I work, and that's the highest risk for me.

But if you're going to introduce new people this weekend, you've got to make sure that you wear a mask and that you're at least a minimum of six feet away. I know people are tired of hearing the three Ws, wash your hands, wear a mask and watch that distance, but until we have a good, safe and effective vaccine, Bianna, those three tools are powerful. Look at South Korea. Look at Taiwan. They're talking about death rates in the teens, 100s. And we're talking about deaths in the 100,000s.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And speaking of vaccines, we're also learning that Moderna and Pfizer are still struggling to recruit minorities to participate in vaccine trials. How important is it for minority representation? And how can the companies successfully recruit black and brown people who don't want to be part of what they fear is will be another Tuskegee syphilis experiment?

MATHEW: You hit it right on the nail, Bianna. You've got to talk about the elephant in the room. I'm a people of color, a physician. I graduated from Morehouse School of Medicine right here in Atlanta. And I think it is important for physicians like myself, especially, to be transparent and to encourage minorities to participate in these vaccine trials.

Listen, we know from science data that minority communities can respond differently to vaccines than other people so it's going to be really imperative. I've also heard that some of these vaccine trials are slowing down the recruitment to make sure that we have enough minority representation. It's crucial.

I think the most important thing is to not be afraid and talk to people about, listen, we are aware of this Tuskegee syphilis experiment where African-Americans were really blinded. They weren't told they had syphilis. Hundreds of people died or were crippled. And they were withheld from penicillin, which is the most important drug to treat syphilis at that time.

It's important to be transparent and it's important to talk about the importance of how people regarding vaccine trials.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, trust and public health is so vital for us to get this under wraps and under control. Dr. Saju Mathew, thank you so much, really important points.

MATHEW: Thank you, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: President Trump tweeted today that he will withhold funds for schools if they use a The New York Times program to teach children about the impact of slavery on the United States. Meanwhile, a white sports commentator breaks down in tears while talking about what black people endure in this country.

You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:00]

GOLODRYGA: President Trump is ramping up his battle against interpretations of U.S. history which he claims are un-American. In a tweet the president said the U.S. Department of Education would investigate whether California schools use The New York Times 1619 project in public school curriculums.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning collection reframes American history around the date of August 1619, when the first slave ship arrived on American shores.

For more on this, let's bring in Jeremy Diamond at the White House. Jeremy, I think I know what this is all about but this is also happening when there are much bigger crises for the Department of Education to be focusing on right now.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt. I mean, look, the schools across the country are still waiting on funding from the federal government to help them prepare for the coronavirus crisis but the president's focus, as far as the Department of Education, relates right now to this issue of the 1619 project from The New York Times being used in history classes in public schools around the country.

The president is suggesting that he is asking the Department of Education to look into this issue and that he would withhold funding from public schools that do use this 1619 project.

Now, look, you can say what you want about this project, but, ultimately, its ultimate goal is to teach American children a little bit more about slavery in the United States and the lasting impact that slavery has had on our institutions in America.

And it's not clear the extent to which this is used widely in the United States but this does seem to be simply the latest issue that the president is using to throw red meat at his base and to once again continue to stoke division and the cultural wars in the United States.

It follows a pattern. On Friday night, we saw the president, through his OMB director, the Office of Management and Budget, announced that he was going to bar federal agencies from conducting certain racial sensitivity trainings if they deal with issues like white privilege, for example. And then earlier in the week, we also saw the president announce that he was going to try and defund Democrat-controlled cities where you have seen many of these Black Lives Matter protests take place.

In all of these moves, it's not clear that any of these things will actually come to pass but the president is certainly trying to drive this issue. And it's especially notable because this is a moment in this country where it seems like everyone is trying to deal with these issues of racism together.

Poll after poll after poll has shown that a majority of Americans believe that racism is a problem in the United States and yet the president has just completely abdicated any kind of leadership responsibility in terms of leading or even just participating in that national conversation. Instead, it seems he's more intent on stoking these divisions.

Why is the president continuing to do all this? I think it is notable to look at what's happening with this Atlantic article. The president perhaps trying to divert attention away from the story, which is suggesting, of course, that the president referred to fallen service members in World War I as losers and suckers.

A pair of administration officials today went on air to defend the president. Listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Have you ever heard the president disparage U.S. service members or veterans?

ROBERT WILKIE, VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Well, absolutely not. And I would be offended too if I thought it was true.

STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: I think this president has enormous respect for the military and for the generals. And I have been at the tank at the Pentagon with him. I have been at 9/11 at the Pentagon with him. This president respects and supports the U.S. military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:01]

DIAMOND: And these are just the latest of two administration officials who have been part of the parade of administration officials coming out publicly to say, this story is not true, it does not reflect the president that they know, and the president himself has vociferously denied this story.

Nonetheless, we should note that CNN, Fox News, several other outlets have already confirmed different aspects of this Atlantic story, and so this is something that's going to continue to impact the president and, of course, the 2020 campaign.

GOLODRYGA: And, of course, what's evident is the silence from General Kelly and Dunford as well. One would think that if this was false, they would have come out and said so themselves.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much, at the White House.

GOLODRYGA: Well, ESPN College Football Analyst Kirk Herbstreit breaks down in tears while discussing social injustice on air, Herbstreit calling on white Americans to show empathy and compassion for the plight of black Americans in order to spark change. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK HERBSTREIT, ESPN COLLEGE FOOTBALL ANALYST: How do you listen to these stories and not feel pain and not -- not want to help? You know what I mean? It is like the -- wearing a hoodie and putting your hands at 10:00 and 2:00? Oh, God, I better look out because I'm wearing Nike gear. Like what? What are we talking about?

And so you can't relate to that if you're white but you can listen. And you can try to help, because this is not okay. It's just not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not.

HERBSTREIT: And we've just -- we got to do better, man. We got to like lock arm in arm and be together in a football locker room. That stuff is gone. Those barriers are gone. And we got to do better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: What a raw and emotional moment. And it was followed by a roundtable of discussion with several college football players who spoke about their experiences and explained why they have decided to use their platform as athletes to try to make a difference.

Herbstreit saying a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, saying, justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who aren't.

More schools are reopening next week, and that has many parents making tough choices. Is it safe to send kids to school during the pandemic? That story is next on CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:00]

GOLODRYGA: Schools in New York are set to reopen later this month after a long delay because of the coronavirus pandemic. The city had to reach a deal with teachers who continue to push for more safety measures before both sides settled on a date.

But it's not just staff who are worried about the virus, it is parents too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel so happy that I want to explode.

GOLODRYGA: For five-year-old Isabella (ph) and her 13-year-old brother, Kelvin, going back to school is a long awaited return to some form of normalcy.

KEVIN ESPINAL, STUDENT: Like the school from 8:00 to 2:20, I think I'll learn more.

GOLODRYGA: Like millions of other students across the country, remote learning has been a struggle for the Brooklyn, New York, siblings.

KARLA MONCADA, MOTHER: I had so much stress getting my daughter to learn in remote learning and she cried most of the time. My son is distracting himself by talking to his peers and playing on the computer.

GOLODRYGA: But returning to in-person instruction is not without risk. Their mother, Karla, suffered a probable case of COVID-19 in the spring when tests were scarce. She says her asthma made her recovery much more difficult.

MONCADA: It was very scary. I thought I was going to die. So I don't raise (ph) that to anybody.

GOLODRYGA: She worries of sending her children back to school, especially Isabella, who also asthma, but says, the alternative, another semester online would be even worse.

MONCADA: I don't have a choice. But it is either try to get her into this education saying that she is going to, that is so essential. Or, you know, just stay at home and do the same thing that we did last time.

GOLODRYGA: Two-thirds of the 100 largest school districts in the country are starting the school year entirely online.

EMILY OSTER, AUTHOR, EXPECTING BETTER: School reopening is really important for our society. It's not that I think that we should reopen at all cost but I think that trying to do this safely in places where we can do it safely seems just really important for kids, for getting people back to work, for the mental health of parents, for learning.

GOLODRYGA: As doctors continue to study how susceptible children are to the coronavirus and whether they transmit the disease as easily as adults, dozens of schools that have reopened have already experienced outbreaks. And thousands of students and teachers have been forced to quarantine just weeks into the school year.

Some teachers' unions have fought against returning to in-person learning, threatening not to return to the classroom unless additional safety measures are taken.

BECKY PRINGLE, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: We cannot open our school buildings unless it is safe.

[14:50:03]

GOLODRYGA: For parents like Karla still haunted by scenes like this one in a Georgia high school, where packed hallways full of maskless students, ultimately led to positive cases and a school shutdown, the decision to send her kids back to school wasn't an easy one, proof that there are no easy choices in a pandemic.

MONCADA: We tried it. Let's see how this works.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And as students and parents struggle to get through this school year, a group of college students primarily from Stanford University started a teaching and mentoring program to help kids get through the year. Curious Cardinals offers mentoring and enrichment classes in everything from aviation to diversity in a curriculum driven by the individual students.

Audrey Wisch is the co-Founder and a teacher for Curious Cardinals and a student of Stanford, class of 2023, and Ava Frankel is a high school student and she is also working with Curious Cardinals. Thank you so much both of you for joining me today.

Full disclosure, I first heard about Curious Cardinals when my step daughter, who is a rising junior at Stanford, with you, Audrey, began tutoring young kids in math over the summer. And I just thought it was a great way for college students to spend their team since they're not on campus, and, of course, for millions of students who were struggling with online learning, how many students, Audrey, do you currently have and how many teachers are with you nationwide?

AUDREY WISCH, CO-FOUNDER AND TEACHER, CURIOUS CARDINALS: Yes, we have a couple hundred students nationwide and we have about just over 50 teachers and tutors, but we're growing every day. Every day, we're getting new request from students and parents. So we are growing our team as well.

GOLODRYGA: And what is your ultimate goal with the program?

WISCH: So we want to rethink education. We are trying to fill a gap here. What are students getting excited about? What are they feeling inspired about? And that's where we come in.

So we offer a plethora of classes and our goal is to first equip students with the foundational knowledge and then inspire them to be act activators, to be game changers and to get involved themselves.

And we, as college students, aren't proclaiming to be experts on these subjects but we are enthusiasts. And we can tell students what the pursuit of passion looks like. But we do also invite experts of these subjects, like Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy, to come to my mass incarceration class, and Liz Klein (ph) to come to the feminist class.

We want to inspire students. And any range of interests, we really want to encourage you to take it to agency and think about what you want to learn. Education isn't something to regard passively. It's something to harness.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And, Ava, what made you decide to take the classes? And I'm curious, what have you gained from them thus far?

AVA FRANKEL, STUDENT IN THE CURIOUS CARDINALS TUTORING PROGRAM: Okay. Well, that's a great question. Audrey, once -- I love Audrey. And when she told me she was making classes, I knew I had to be part of it. And mass incarceration has always been something I've really been interested in but I didn't feel there were classes at my school where I could really take it. So I was super happy and excited to take this course when I found out Audrey was teaching it.

And I feel like I've gained a lot. And it's also super special, I took this class during June at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. I feel in our nation we have a lot of racial issues and I really want to talk more about them, but I didn't feel I had the historical base to really understand them deeply.

So I think Audrey's class gave me a big foundation into understanding racism today in America and specifically how it manifests in the mass incarceration system.

GOLODRYGA: And, Audrey, I know a lot of these classes you have expert speakers who come in and you not only offer academic classes but also these broader issues, societal issues. Your classes range -- you have private classes and group classes and they range from about $35 an hour, I believe, to $50 an hour.

So, for parents who are struggling in a middle of a massive recession and thus counting every single penny, every single dollar, but they also see that their children are struggling to keep up online, maybe emotionally and mentally as well, why is a program like yours ultimately worth that investment?

WISCH: Bianna, thank you so much for asking that question, because that's vital to us in our mission. We care deeply about accessibility and we don't want to turn any curious student down. So, right now, we are actually in the works of finding a fiscal sponsor whose mission aligns with ours and trying to raise money. But diversity in our student base and our teachers is really, really key.

We want any student to be able to find a role model who can help them cultivate their interest, who looks like them, talks like them, comes from a similar place as them and also shares a similar interest. So have such an amazing team and I am so grateful to be working with the Curious Cardinals community because everyone has a unique interest that drives them every day.

So, we are just striving for as much accessibility as we can because that matters deeply to us. And we want every student to be able take a Curious Cardinals class. We all say that we wish we could have taken these classes when we were in middle and high school.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, of course.

And, Ava, as you start this new school year, what is your message to other students who can't afford to hire professional teachers or tutors and don't have private education pods?

[14:55:00]

Why would a college student course be worth this? And I know this is not just about Curious Cardinals. There are plenty of organizations like this, as well.

FRANKEL: Well, I think this is more than a course, right? I think, yes, I learned a lot but I got so many things out of it. I think, one, I was able to develop nice relationships with kids I would have never met before, which I'm super thankful for. I also -- Audrey is a big mentor of mine but I was also able to meet some amazing other cool peoples and really grow your network.

And I think as a high school student, it's really important to develop these networking skills at a young age. So I would say, Curious Cardinals isn't just an education, it's learning how to become the person you want to be. It's actually meeting these interesting, awesome people and talking to them and learning about how to get I involved in the field I want to be and getting these awesome connections? So it's so much more than a class.

GOLODRYGA: And also, if you need help with fractions you are also there for that, a perfect example of people making lemonade out of lemons. Audrey Wisch and Ava Frankel, best of luck to you both. We appreciate your time. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:00]