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COVID-19 Death Toll in the U.S. Passes 200K; British Prime Minister under Fire; Trump Blames China for COVID-19; Supreme Court Showdown; Putin's Influence Campaign against Biden; U.S. Surpasses 200,000 COVID-19 Deaths; Mexico Surpasses 700,000 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases; Ex-Street Vendor Makes Debut with Indian Premier League. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 23, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, a perilous turning point. Britain imposes tough new restrictions amid fears of a second wave of the coronavirus.
U.S. Republicans quickly moving ahead to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, despite accusations of hypocrisy and threats of retaliation from Democrats.
And Vladimir Putin calling the shots in Russia's campaign to influence the U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
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VAUSE: Hello, everybody; 770 people are dying every day in the U.S. from the coronavirus, pushing the death toll past 200,000. In sheer numbers of dead, that is the equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 67 days.
And for a U.S. president that has admitted to downplaying the threat and lying to the public, the staggering death toll, the highest by far of any country in the world, seems barely worth mentioning. On Tuesday, as he left the White House, he tried to pass the buck and blame China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, I think it's a shame. I think if we didn't do it properly, and do it right, you would have two and a half million deaths.
If you take a look at alternatives, you could have two and a half million deaths or something there about. But it's a horrible thing. It should never, ever happen. China let this happen, and just remember that. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The British prime minister has also struggled politically throughout this pandemic. He has now announced new restrictions to try and contain a rising infection rate.
From Thursday, pubs, restaurants and bars in England will close by 10:00 pm and can only offer table service. Masks will be required in more places. The prime minister warns he will call in the army if needed to enforce those rules.
New measures could be in place for 6 months or longer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: We must rely on our willingness to look out for each other, to protect each other. Never in our history has our collective destiny and our collective health depended so completely on our individual behavior.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: 2020 has been a no good, horrible, very bad year for the prime minister. And as CNN's Nic Robertson reports it's not just because of his response to the pandemic.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): One damning headline after another. Lampooned mercilessly, British prime minister Boris Johnson is having a torrid year. Last December a massive election victory at hand.
JOHNSON: I'm humbled that you have put your trust in me.
ROBERTSON: It all seemed so different, but now trust in his leadership has withered. Matthew Parris, a former conservative MP and newspaper columnist saw it coming.
MATTHEW PARRIS, FORMER CONSERVATIVE MP: He has no record in government, he has no record as a party spokesman. He did very little as London mayor. In a sense, the fall is not his. The fall is in our own imaginations.
ROBERTSON: Johnson styles himself on Winston Churchill whose wisdom and rhetoric carried the country through World War II, but in the nation's biggest challenge since Johnson stumbled, his upbeat charisma insufficient to combat COVID-19.
JOHNSON: I shook hands with everybody, you'll be pleased to know --
ROBERTSON: He seemed slow to grasp COVID-19's speed and scale; infections and deaths were rocketing. The worst in Europe.
JOHNSON: I've taken a test that has come out positive.
ROBERTSON: Johnson himself, a casualty, admitted to the hospital.
JOHNSON: The NHS has saved my life, no question.
ROBERTSON: As he recovered and the first wave subsided --
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JOHNSON: I want people to go back to work.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): His return to work message ridiculed as confusing.
MATT LUCAS, COMEDIAN: We are saying don't go to work, go to work. Don't take public transport into work. Go to work. Don't go to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he has often sounded upbeat, done a great deal in his after dinner speech kind of way to encourage as it's all going to be great by Christmas and then falling down and constant over promising.
ROBERTSON: A litany of failures from a late lockdown to shortages of PPE, care home deaths, shortages of tests, a bungled return to school, an exam great fiasco. His chief advisor busting lockdown regulations and keeping his job.
JOHNSON: We are now seeing a second wave coming in.
ROBERTSON: Cases doubling every week. Some of the same problems as before reemerging.
The government promised a world class test and trace system that's been falling short. I'll just try to book a test. Some people have been sent hundreds of miles to get this -- there is a problem.
This is one of the reasons why people have been losing confidence in Johnson and his ministers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please don't break international law.
ROBERTSON: Johnson's credibility is sinking further, when his minister announced Johnson would break his Brexit deal with the E.U. drawing rebuke from his own party.
THERESA MAY, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER The government is acting recklessly and irresponsibly. I cannot support this bill.
ROBERTSON: Even his predecessor, Theresa May turning against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A straight answer to a straight question please, Prime Minister.
ROBERTSON: And a new leader of the opposition, much tougher than the last adding to Johnson's woes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will publish a draft bill, setting out the proposed terms and timing of an independent referendum. ROBERTSON: And worse, Scotland's handling of COVID-19 perceived better than his. The 300-year union, an inviolate totem of U.K. leadership under real threat.
If 2020 has a silver lining for Johnson, perhaps this, a new wife to be, number 3 and a new baby. Oh and surviving COVID to see it all play out -- Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas is with us now from Los Angeles. Dominic, it is good to see you.
DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Good to see you, John.
VAUSE: OK. A little more from the prime minister and his address to the nation. Here he is.
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JOHNSON: But we have to acknowledge that this is a great and freedom loving country and while the vast majority have complied with the rules, there have been too many breaches. Too many opportunities for our invisible enemy to slip through undetected.
The virus has started to spread again in an exponential way. Infections are up. Hospital admissions are climbing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: On the positive side, the hair was neat. The tie was straight. The suit seemed to be ironed, but it was notable that, you know, this is a man who is unable to deliver bad news and he was placing much of the blame it seems for the surge in the virus and the infections, you know, on the freedom loving people of a small island nation.
They talk of the governor's failing when it comes to testing. No one mentioned this would be the worst Christmas the country has seen since World War II.
So we'll just jolly hockey sticks.
THOMAS: Well, John, there are other island nations that have done very well in dealing with this. and if there's anything you want the government to be able to do in a competent manner, it is to take care of health care issues and education. And these are two areas in which Johnson's government has failed absolutely dramatically.
A whole range of inconsistent measures and slow response, bad preventive measures and so on and people within his own government ignoring the regulations that they had initially imposed. And so obviously deflecting this, trying to sort of responsibilize (sic) the rest of the British people and is genuinely unfair. And it is clear that the responsibility lies with him and with his response and that of his government.
VAUSE: And with that, here's Boris Johnson now on how these new restrictions will be enforced. Listen to this.
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JOHNSON: We need to suppress the virus now. And as for that minority who may continue to flout the rules, we will enforce those rules with tougher penalties and fines of up to 10,000 pounds. We will put more police out on the streets and use the army to backfill if necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Churchill declared we shall fight on the beaches, Johnson seems to say we shall fight them in the bars. Police have called these measures absurd and nonsense. And the criticism once again, you know, this is sort of Johnson at his worse: all tip, no iceberg, there's no substance here.
THOMAS: No. There's nothing at all, John.
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THOMAS: And what you do see here which is so interesting is the other aspect of this is that they have the responsibility for health care. They have the responsibility for education.
And so what we have here is the other branch of government, you know, repressing people, penalizing people, criminalizing people. And ultimately, making them responsible for the failures of the government.
What these half measures which ultimately achieved nothing whatsoever reveal on the deep divisions within his own party. Between those that don't care about the health care issues and are merely concerned with the economy and believe that the economy can be relaunched without addressing these issues. And the others that perfectly understand that COVID and the economy are absolutely, inextricably linked.
And you've got to deal with the one without being able to sort of go over to the other. And so these are the divisions within his own party and as I just said these half measures will not lead to anything.
If the pub is a dangerous place to frequent, it doesn't matter really whether you close it at 10:00 or at 11:00. These kinds of things are things that the British people are going to have to forego in the name of getting to the other side of this particular issue. And it's completely unreasonable to be penalizing people for these kinds of actions.
VAUSE: You know, what is interesting though is the contrast with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who finds herself sort of in a completely opposite position as Boris Johnson.
Here're some recent headlines. This is from CNN: "How Angela Merkel went from lame duck to global leader on coronavirus."
"Coronavirus in Germany and why the world is looking to Angela Merkel"; that's a report from "Deutsche Welle."
And the subheadline from the "Financial Times" reads, "The cool-headed chancellor is the leader Europe needs amid the worst peacetime crisis."
You know, it's all praise for Merkel. She seems to have rewritten, you know, her place in history. She's been in office for 15 years. She plans to stand down.
Could those plans change at some point?
THOMAS: Well, she's smart, John. And she is strategic. Clearly at the moment, she's concerned with her legacy and with governing, which is the opposite -- diametrically opposed to what Boris Johnson has been doing.
And it's a lot easier to govern when you are not also running a reelection campaign. So strategically that works. It's also she generally wants a leadership race to play out in her party, in the CDU, then of course, repeatedly saying that she is not going to run again will help with that process.
But having said all of that, what we have seen over the last 10 or 15 years is a dramatic erosion of the support that the main political parties in Germany have been getting. So for example, in the 2017 general election, her party scored barely 33 percent.
And since the outbreak of COVID, the popularity of her party has gone up to somewhere between 36 percent and 40 percent. So the big question that Angela Merkel faces is not so much her own personal legacy, but the legacy of the party and whether a new leader of the CDU can command the kind of popularity that she has currently obtained because of her effective managing of the COVID response and so on.
And I think that that may ultimately be the big factor that ends up determining whether or not she does go for a fifth term, which would of course be a record term in the contemporary era in Germany.
VAUSE: It would be incredible if she does, an incredible stretch. Dominic, thank you. Dominic Thomas with us there from Los Angeles.
THOMAS: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It's all about blaming China for the U.S. president, not just at the White House on Tuesday but also at the U.N.
In a pre-recorded address to the General Assembly, Trump once again misstated or overexaggerated what he considers to be his own achievements and successes in the pandemic. He said the U.S. will end the pandemic and enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity, cooperation and peace. Then he took aim at Beijing. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world, China. In the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domestically, while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world. The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Going live now to China. Steven Jiang is in Beijing for us.
Steven, it's a long time since chocolate cake at Mar-a-lago.
What is the response from Xi Jinping and official leadership?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: The fact he, Trump delivered a speech on the day when U.S. death toll surpassed 200,000, really made it easy for Chinese officials and state media to make their rebuttal. And they have certainly done so.
The Chinese ambassador to the U.N. basically called Trump a liar, saying a lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie when it comes to the U.S. accusations against China's COVID response.
Also repeating his government's longstanding position that the U.S. should stop politicizing the issue and stop smearing China. Here is what the ambassador said.
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ZHANG JUN, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: If we do look at the situation very carefully, we can say it's a completely (ph) failure. If we do have to hold anyone accountable, it should be the United States held accountable (ph) for losing so many lives and with their irresponsible behaviors.
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JIANG: But what really stood out on Tuesday is the two speeches by Mr. Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi was trying to take the high road. He did not mention the U.S. or Mr. Trump by name, even though Mr. Trump mentioned China almost a dozen times in his speech.
Mr. Xi struck a more familiar and more positive tone, mentioning a lot of buzzwords and catchphrases that we have often here, have often heard from the Chinese global cooperation multilateral approach international order.
The Chinese are really pledging their commitment to the U.N. and with Mr. Xi pledging another $100 million donated for two different U.N. causes.
The other thing is Mr. Xi was really trying to be the adult in the room, compare and contrast China and his own leadership to what the U.S. and Mr. Trump are doing. He mentioned a lot of things the audience wanted to hear.
But the problem is he had said a lot of the same things in the past. And they've not necessarily translated into policies or reality. For example, he said China is not seeking hegemony or expansion.
Then you look at what's happening in the South China Sea. Xi said China doesn't want a cold or a hot war, then you look at what the Chinese military is increasingly doing in the Taiwan Strait.
One of his highlights was China's green initiatives about carbon neutrality in 2060. Then people tell you China is expanding the use of coal.
So at the end of the day, to borrow a favorite phrase from the Chinese, you should not only listen to what they say but also watch what they do -- John.
VAUSE: I like, that Steven, thank, you in Beijing. Appreciate it.
Still to come, no word on who the nominee for the vacant Supreme Court seat will be. But we do know when we will find out. A favorite has clearly emerged. More details in a moment.
Plus, no surprise, the latest intelligence says Russia is meddling in the U.S. election again but what is surprising is the involvement, the direct involvement, of Vladimir Putin.
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VAUSE: The process to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court has hit high gear. Senate Republicans are fast-tracking the next nominee and President Trump says he'll reveal who that nominee is on Saturday.
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TRUMP: We need nine justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they are sending, it's a scam.
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TRUMP: It's a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anyone else. So you are going to need 9 justices up. There I think it's going to be very important.
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VAUSE: They're important because that may be how the election is resolved. Donald Trump may be challenging those mail ballots in the Supreme Court. Maybe he will need nine justices by then. Even so, whatever happens, a clear front-runner is now emerging. Here is Kaitlan Collins.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At this rally in Pennsylvania, the president wants again teasing the Supreme Court pick. He now says he's going to make 5:00 p.m. on Saturday at the White House. Of course, that's just a few days away.
But we already seem to know who is the clear favorite and that's Amy Coney Barrett, a judge who met with the president at the White House earlier this week and returned to the White House yesterday for more meetings. Of course, this is a very lengthy, laborious process.
And Amy Coney Barrett has been making multiple appearances. We have not determined if any other candidates have been interviewed at the White House.
One other candidate we know they are considering interviewing is Barbara Lagoa. She, of course, is a Cuban American judge. Her hometown is in Miami, which is where the president is going to be on Friday. So we're still waiting to see if they do ultimately set up a meeting between two of them.
But basically, sources have conveyed to us that Amy Coney Barrett is seen as the safest choice. She's well-liked by Republicans. So unless something dramatic happens, that is the general thinking. Of course, with President Trump and this White House, things could change and do often change at the last minute.
For right now, the president says he will make his pick on Saturday at 5 o'clock.
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VAUSE: That would be 5 pm in the U.S. Eastern time, 10 pm in London, 5 am in Hong Kong. Our thanks to Kaitlan Collins for the report.
The latest intelligence says not only is Russia once again meddling in the U.S. presidential election but the target this time appears to be the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.
But "The Washington Post" adds this, obtaining an assessment from the CIA, which reads, "We assess that president Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. vice president, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November."
"The Washington Post" columnist Josh Rogin tells CNN, the intel was not easy to obtain and it was not easy to publish.
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JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The government did not want to release it, and I assure you that when I told the government that I was going to release it, they were not happy about it. But the bottom line is that this has been came out on August 31st, it
was published on the highest level classification, top secret on what's called the CIA wire, the worldwide intelligence review and was very, very closely held.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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VAUSE: Miles Taylor is a CNN contributor and he served in the Trump White House as chief of staff to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Great to have you with us.
MILES TAYLOR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks for having me, John.
VAUSE: OK. Well, last week, the FBI Director, he briefed a congressional committee on Russian efforts to interfere with the outcome of November's vote. Here's part of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: We certainly have seen very active, very active efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020. An effort to both sow divisiveness and discord and I think the intelligence community has assessed this publicly to primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So add to that, this new information we have that Putin is directly calling the shots, if you like. So how does his level of involvement here change the dynamics of this Russian operation?
TAYLOR: Well, look, John. The answer is, the United States government should be absolutely moving in full motion to both deter and punish Vladimir Putin. Here you have intelligence officials saying, they have high confidence. What that means in the American intelligence community is that intelligence officials are willing to put their reputations on the line about this information. It means they take it very seriously.
And what they are saying is a foreign head of state is personally involved in trying to sow discord in the United States. Again, in 2016, we saw this as a digital 9/11, a digital September 11 style terrorist attack on the United States. That's how serious Russian involvement was and now we have the American intelligence community raising the red flag and saying, it is happening again.
If Donald Trump does not respond to this decisively and very, very actively, it will be damning and it will be a damning indictment on his unwillingness to actually punish foreign adversaries for trying to sow discord in the United States. I think that's very alarming if we don't see action from the president. Voters will hold them accountable.
VAUSE: Well, the president was very concerned about that news, but not the actual news itself for the fact that the FBI director vocalized it before Congress.
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VAUSE: And if Christopher Wray would like to know how he should have answered that question, he should listen to the attorney general. Here is Bill Barr.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Of those three countries that the intelligence community has pointed to Russia, China and Iran, which is the most assertive, the most aggressive in this area?
WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I believe it's China.
BLITZER: Which one?
BARR: China.
BLITZER: China more than Russia right now?
BARR: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So answer me this.
Would Trump and his attorney general be aware of this intelligence report which details prudent involvement -- it was back in August I think it came out -- is there any indication that China's President Xi, for instance, is personally involved in any Chinese operation to influence the outcome of the election?
TAYLOR: So let me say this. It's one of two things, John. If the president is aware of this intelligence and he is not acting decisively, then that is a very, very bad sign for how he is handling U.S. national security.
If he is not aware of this intelligence, it's a sign that the president has sent such a chilling effect throughout his administration about information related to Russia that it is not even reaching him in the first place, which is another very terrible sign.
But I'm going to tell you this firsthand. I spent 2.5 years in the Trump administration, 2.5 years as one of the lead officials overseeing election security and trying to prevent foreign interference in the United States. And we could not get the president's attention on this issue.
VAUSE: And there was a superspreader campaign event on Monday and President Trump boasted about his close relationship with President Putin. Here it is.
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TRUMP: If I get along with Putin, somebody said he gets along well with Putin. I'm saying it myself, but isn't this sort of a good thing? Is that bad?
We have been very rough, but at the same time we get along. I like Putin, he likes me. We get along. Isn't it what you say, it's smart to get along. OK, smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I guess then Trump could ask his good friend Vladimir to stop assessing rival politicians and his critics. Listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do think poisoned Alexei Navalny in Russia?
TRUMP: We'll talk about that at another time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I can get along in this game for seven other very significant events in the past couple of years where Trump has sided with Putin every single time. He always seems to be rolling over for the Russian president. And after a while, coincidences just doesn't explain that.
TAYLOR: It doesn't. It doesn't at all, John. And I'm going to tell you that the majority of Donald Trump's national security cabinet, his top lieutenants that advised him on these issues, at least when I was in the administration were very alarmed about his behavior towards Vladimir Putin and his affinity towards Russia. We could not figure it out.
But I'm going to give you a supposition and that is Donald Trump has consistently looked beyond his term of office and to try to see what relationships he can cultivate that will help make him rich after his presidency. That's why you see him becoming friends with President Xi in China, Kim Jong-un in North Korea, Erdogan in Turkey and Putin in Russia.
He learned as a businessman that dictators can get things done in their countries. Dictators can cut through red tape and bureaucracy, they can cut deals and they can give you lots.
In democratic countries, democratic leaders don't have the ability to do that, because there are checks and balances. That's where most of us ended up at the end of the Trump administration.
He is thinking at the end of our tenure at Trump administration, he is thinking that the president was doing this because he wanted those good relationships so he could cut business deals after the fact.
Again, that's another statement on the president's character and his integrity, but it's certainly not him putting U.S. national security first, it's his putting his own personal self interest before the security of the United States.
VAUSE: Miles, we're out of time. But that's as good reason as any I've heard. Good to see you, Miles Taylor there, CNN contributor, former White
House chief of staff to the Secretary of Homeland Security.
TAYLOR: Thanks, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, such a shame. That's how the president sees 200,000 pandemic death toll and quickly adds, it could have been so much worse if not for him.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
[00:31:39]
Joseph Stalin once said a million dead was a statistic. To Donald Trump, 200,000 dead is a shame. The U.S. president seemed to have little to say about the staggering death toll, the highest in the world by any measure, preferring to talk about his own dubious achievements and successes during the pandemic.
CNN's Erica Hill has more.
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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Twenty-thousand small flags dotting the National Mall to memorialize 200,000 lives lost.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The idea of 200,000 deaths is really very sobering, and in some respects, stunning.
HILL: Stunning because it didn't have to happen.
ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: It feels like a day for some humility.
HILL: Two hundred thousand lives. That's more than the entire population of Little Rock, Arkansas, gone. Families forever changed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's beyond hurt. It's beyond pain.
HILL: And yet, 24 states now reporting an increase in new cases over the past seven days. But look at the same map this time last week. Just nine states on the rise then.
FAUCI: If we don't get that baseline down sharply to a very low level, when you have a lot of cases floating around, it's much more difficult to contain that than if you have a relatively low number.
HILL: Troubling trends in Wisconsin, which has seen a steady, sharp rise in new cases over the past month. Steep climbs in North Dakota, as well. The president sticking to his narrative. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're rounding the turn,
and it's happening. I mean, it's happening.
In some states, thousands of people, nobody young, below the age of 18, nobody.
SLAVITT: Unfortunately, when the president makes comments like that, it minimizes the virus and tells people that, unless you're old, you're not going to get it. That encourages more spread. It encourages more reckless behavior.
HILL: The University of Colorado at Boulder moving classes online for at least two weeks in an effort to slow the spread. Texas announcing more than 4,500 positive cases at its public schools, just over half of those in students.
There are positive signs. California, which struggled over the summer, now has a positivity rate near 3 percent. But cold weather and flu season loom.
FAUCI: We've got to be in this together. We've got to start acting now to do the things that we've all been saying.
HILL: As the president continues to push for a vaccine --
TRUMP: We're developing a vaccine in record time.
HILL: -- approval before the election now looking less likely. The FDA is poised to set tough new standards for emergency-use authorization of a coronavirus vaccine, according to "The Washington Post," part of an effort to renew confidence in the agency and to increase public trust in a vaccine.
DR. JAY VARKEY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I think mentally, the sooner the general public realizes that this is likely to push well into 2021, and that introduction of this vaccine is only a beginning of the end game to this pandemic, I think the better.
HILL (on camera): As for one a vaccine may be available, the head of the world's largest vaccine manufacturer telling CNN it will likely be 2024 before 90 percent of the world is vaccinated.
In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Six weeks now before the presidential election, and Donald Trump returned to the battleground state of Pennsylvania for a super- spreader campaign rally on Tuesday. While health experts have pleaded for Americans to wear face masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus, President Trump mocked his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, for doing just that.
[00:35:15] TRUMP: He's like 100 yards from the nearest human being. He's got a mask. He feels good about the mask. I wonder, in the debate, it will be him and I on the stage. Is he going to walk in with a mask? Will he leave it on during the debate? Because it's a little hard.
And I'm all for masks when you need them. I'll all -- but when you're making a speech and the nearest person is, like, where you are, and you're on a stage all by yourself. And then he had a habit of taking it off, and it hangs down on his ear as he's speaking. It makes him feel comfortable. And you know, honestly, whatever makes you feel good is OK with me.
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VAUSE: Biden has slammed President Trump's handling of the pandemic saying he just wasn't up to the challenge and froze.
Nowhere is the number of infections and dead higher than Latin America. Argentina and Brazil are seeing some of the biggest spikes, Mexico's infection rate continues to climb, putting it among the world's hardest-hit countries.
CNN's Matt Rivers has an update now, reporting from Mexico City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in Mexico, total cases have crossed the 700,000 mark for the very first time. The death toll sits just below 75,000.
And all of this comes as we're getting some new, disturbing information about how all this is affecting pregnant women. On Tuesday, the Pan American Health Organization reported that across 14 countries in the Americas, more than 450 pregnant women have died as a result of COVID-19.
Mexico says it topped that list with 140 deaths recorded so far. Brazil is in second with 135 deaths. The United States has reported 44 deaths of pregnant women due to this virus.
The Pan American Health Organization says, quote, "recently published results and studies based on COVID-19 surveillance data have indicated an increased risk among pregnant women of presenting with severe forms of COVID-19, and, therefore, of being hospitalized and admitted to intensive care units."
We get that information as we know that many countries in this region are still really dealing with severe effects of this pandemic. Take Argentina, for example, where you see the seven-day moving average of both newly-confirmed cases and newly-confirmed deaths. Those two numbers are amongst the highest that they have been in Argentina since this pandemic began.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Up next, from rags to riches, how an 18-year-old former street vendor made his way into the world's largest cricket leagues.
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VAUSE: Rescue efforts continue to save hundreds of pilot whales in one of the world's largest mass strandings. They're scattered on two sandbars it a strip of beach in the southern island state of Tasmania. Dozens have already died, possibly hundreds.
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Biologists don't know what happened. One expert says it may be possible the whales tried to save a distressed member of the pod.
Weather conditions have kept the whales cool and wet, but the rescues mission will take days to complete. And in that time, it's feared, many more could die.
Well, from a rural village in India to one the world's biggest cricket leagues, a young batsman defied the odds as he made his debut with the Indian Premier League.
Vedika Sud reports on the 18-year-old's incredible journey.
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VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donning a pink and purple jersey, Yashasvi Jaiswal is all set to debut in the Indian Premier League. He's now part of the Rajasthan Royals. The franchise bought the Indian cricketer for over $327,000, a staggering sum.
ZUBIN BHARUCHA, DIRECTOR OF CRICKET, RAJASTHAN ROYALS: We asked him to come for a trial, and what he did at that moment, when he walked in to bat, the very first ball, he walked across the stumps and flicked it over fine leg for four. And all of us just stopped and stared and wondered, there is something really special here.
SUD: It hasn't been an easy journey for Jaiswal. He was only 8 when he left his family and village to pursue cricket in Mumbai. His father, an owner of a paint shop, did not have the means to sponsor him, nor the heart to cut short his dream.
For over three years, Jaiswal was alone and homeless. After living at a relative's house and then a dairy (ph) shop, he stayed in a tent on a cricket field for three years.
YASHASVI JAISWAL, RAJASTHAN ROYALS PLAYER: There was no electricity. There was -- there was not good water, not food. You have to make your own food. And, you know, at that time, my parents didn't -- they didn't afford that much money.
SUD: Struggling to make ends meet, Jaiswal sold food as a street vendor. Hungry or broke, he continued practicing the game.
JAISWAL: Sometimes I really missed my mom. Then if I want to meet her, but I couldn't, then that time I was crying, you know, alone and sitting by the wicket.
SUD: The turning point in Jaiswal's life came when he was 12. Cricket coach Jwala Singh spotted him batting and decided to test his talent.
JWALA SINGH, CRICKET COACH: I told him that, from tomorrow onwards, you will come to my academy, at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) India, and I will see you for the next seven days. And if I find something in you, then I'll definitely help you out.
SUD: And from that point, there was no looking back.
The cricketer made his mark in the sport in 2015 when he scored 319 runs in a single match and took 13 wickets in two innings for his school team.
Awards and praise followed, as did being selected for Mumbai's under 16 squad, and then India's under 19s. Jaiswal is the youngest double centurion in the world in 50 over cricket, and he was the top run scorer in the under 19 world cup earlier this year.
JAISWAL: I just want to play cricket as much as I can, and I really love it.
SUD: Very few get the opportunity to share the dressing room with international cricketers Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. Jaiswal is living that dream.
JAKE LUSH MCCRUM, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, RAJASTHAN ROYALS: What he's overcome is immense, and how -- how humble he is, I think, even now, is -- is a -- yes, it just shows there's a quality of him as a -- as an individual.
SUD: Jaiswal's story is not only one of rags to riches, but an inspiring example of perseverance. His ultimate dream is to wear India's senior cricket team jersey someday.
Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
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VAUSE: Great story. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.
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