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Trump Says, I Think We're Rounding the Turn Very Much; Trump Won't Commit to Peaceful Transfer of Power After Election; 870,000 Americans Filed for Unemployment Benefits Last Week. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 24, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: 21 states heading in the wrong direction.

[11:30:02]

More new coronavirus infections this week compared to last week. 21 states holding steady, that's the base, you'll see over here in the southeast, the middle of the country, eight states reporting fewer new infections this week compared to last week.

If you look at the case curve yesterday, 37,330 cases, but seven-day average, you see the red line, trending back up, back up above 40,000.

It was 77,000 at the peak of the summer surge, so, yes, we've come down some but still above 40,000 on average new infections a day. And if you look more closely at that average, two weeks ago, we were averaging 36,000 new infections a day, just two weeks ago, back up now to 43,000 new infections a day.

The president says we have turned a curve. We've turned a curve for the worse. This is worse two weeks ago than where we are today.

In the terms of positivity, these are the states right here that are above 10 percent positivity. You see them stretched across the country right here. More higher positivity, they're above 10 percent, it tells you you're going to have more infections. When you have more infections, you wait a couple of weeks and, sadly, you have more deaths.

And if you look at the numbers here, again, yesterday, back above 1,000, back above 1,000 Americans dying yesterday of the coronavirus. This number had come down, trickled up and plateaued. Now, it's edging again somewhere right around 1,000. It's 1,200 around September 15th then it fell below 1,000 largely, there you go, 1,000 Americans dying yesterday, more than that, from coronavirus.

And yet, listen to the president at a White House briefing. He says things are getting so much better.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have reduced the fatality rate 85 percent since April. For individuals under 50, they have a 99.98 percent rate of survival from the China virus. I think we're rounding the turn very much. You see what's happening in Europe, however. They have a very big spike, countries that we thought were doing well aren't doing well.

Our approach is pro-science. Biden's approach is anti-science. If you look, it's -- I don't think they know what their approach is, although a lot is copied from what we've done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now is the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. She is also a CNN Medical Analyst. Doctor, it's good to see you.

I'll skip the part about Joe Biden at the end there from the president, it's just not true, but in terms of the rounding the corner, have we rounded the corner?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I don't think you can look at that map, John, and say that we've been rounding the corner. I think that we've squandered our summer. We went into the summer with 20,000 new cases a day and we're now double that. You layer on top of that the fact that we're getting into colder weather. People are going to be inside more. People are going to be gathering more in schools and colleges and whatnot.

It's hard to tell whether this increase is really due to what happened over Labor Day or the fact that people are simply congregating more and masking less, but I consider it a concerning turn of events. I would say stable events.

KING: Right. And so one of the remarkable things that happened yesterday is the president's coronavirus experts were all up on Capitol Hill, and it's striking, to your point, so many of them saying things that are just contrary to what he says and does, what the president says and does, stay away from crowds, wear a mask. They weren't directly criticizing the president because they work for him. But you can connect the dots pretty easily.

But one of the things that Dr. Hahn, the head of the FDA, went out of the day to say that he would not respond to any political pressure, any political pressure, when it comes to an emergency use authorization for a potential coronavirus vaccine. And a short time after that at the White House, the president said, well, the FDA may say that, but that's my power. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you what. We're looking at that. That has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move.

It sounds extremely political. Why would we do this when we come back with these great results? And I think you'll have those great results. Why would we be delaying it? But we're going to look at it. We're going to take a look at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's another example of the president undermining his own scientists, questioning the credibility of his own scientists, the loyalty of his own scientists. But to the point, if the FDA says, we're not ready, can the president of the United States overrule them and send a vaccine to market?

WALENSKY: You know, I want to be very clear here about what the end game is. The end game is not an approved or an authorized vaccine. The end game is getting us out of this pandemic.

And from an authorized or approved vaccine, we need to have public trust in order to be able to take the vaccine and then we need the vaccine to work and we certainly need the vaccine to be safe. And then we start thinking about how we can get out of this pandemic.

So I would say that anything that politics is doing to get away from this end game, that is getting people to take it, undermining the public trust is really a huge problem.

And I would say, I suppose, I don't know if the president has the capacity to do this, the ability to do this, but I would say it would be detrimental to the trust that we need to get people to take this vaccine and that we need to listen to the scientists.

[11:35:10]

KING: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, , as always, grateful for your expertise and insights and your time. I know you're busy. Thank you.

WALENSKY: Thanks for having me.

KING: Thank you.

When we come back, the president standing at the White House podium saying he may not honor the results of the election. Shocking to many but not those who know him well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:00]

KING: This is not supposed to be news. The Senate majority leader tweeting today that the winner of this year's presidential election will be inaugurated on January 20th, yet the leader, Mitch McConnell, felt compelled to promise, quote, there will be an orderly transition. He felt compelled to say that because President Trump is once again forcing Republicans to answer for his outrageous statements.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Will you can commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferral of power after the election. TRUMP: Well, we're going to have to see what happens. You know that. I have been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.

Get rid of the ballots and you'll have -- we'll have a very peaceful -- there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Journalist Michael D'Antonio wrote, The Truth About Trump, back in 2015. He is not surprised of the president's threat to ignore the election results in 2020. Michael D'Antonio is with us now.

Michael, it's supposed to be shocking, shocking to hear a president of the United States do anything but respect the Constitution, anything but uphold the treasure of our democracy and the treasure of the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power. But when the president said that yesterday, I'm guessing for you, it was like, there he goes again.

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It was a there he goes again moment. You know, after 20,000 lives, it isn't really shocking, and if you know the president's background, you know about his upbringing, you understand that he was raised to have a tyrannical personality and to throw tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants.

There's nothing in his background that indicates that he ever experienced power sharing in any circumstance. He wasn't educated on the American system of a balance of powers or democracy. What he believes in is raw power and manipulating the public to get what he wants. So this this crazy stuff he says about ballots and about how he won't necessarily accept a peaceful transfer of power is consistent with his authoritarian personality. He is the most dangerous person to ever occupy high office in America.

KING: Well, let's listen to a bit -- you used the word, authoritarian there. Let's listen to the president, his own words, on presidential authority.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have the ultimate authority.

When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that's the way it's got to be.

REPORTER: Your authority is total?

TRUMP: Total.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He likes to tell us he went to the best schools. But the president's authority in the United States is not total. We have three branches of government for a reason. We have a system of checks and balances for a reason. But he repeatedly ignores the Congress, defies the will of the Congress, and now he's talking about rushing a Supreme Court justice on the bench, which he has every right to try to exercise his power but he blatantly says, so that I have a vote if there are post-election challenges to the voting.

D'ANTONIO: Well, you're observing something that has been part of Donald Trump's game plan throughout his life. He sets up the circumstances of the competition before it begins. So in this case, he wants to load the federal court system and ultimately load the Supreme Court with people he thinks will cheat for him. He's assuming that these justices he's appointed will be loyal.

You know, this is very dangerous. He -- you know, if you look at what has happened around the pandemic and you look at his policies on the border where we all saw the body of a child floating in the Rio Grande and we know that there are tens of thousands of extra deaths due to his mishandling of the pandemic, and he's packing people into these rallies where they risk their own lives, you can see that there's nothing, not human life, not the sanctity of our democracy, not the balance of power that will stand in his way. He will do anything and accept any loss for the rest of us in order to keep his power.

KING: Michael D'Antonio, grateful for your insights today. I just want to read a line you wrote in your second book. Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, an intensely competitive young man who believed he was superior to others. We're watching that play out. So that was good reporting at the time and it stands up today. Michael, thank you so much for your insights.

Coming up from us, a global look at the coronavirus crisis, Israel announcing its second coronavirus lockdown will now be more severe than its first.

[11:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Moscow reporting its highest single day coronavirus case count in months. Yesterday, Russia's anti-coronavirus crisis center reported 150,000 cases in the capital city, its highest mark since back on June 23rd. The country saw nearly 6,600 cases in the past day, the nation's highest single-day clip since mid-July.

More global headlines now from the CNN correspondents around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN JIANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in China, the government announced on Thursday that a capital city of Beijing has punished over 1,000 local officials and public servants because they failed to carry out COVID-19 prevention and control measures.

[11:50:03]

Although the authorities did not specify what kind of punishment were given to these people, it is not the first time local officials are being held accountable for not properly implementing the government's strict coronavirus containment policies.

In June, two Beijing officials were socked and punished after a local outbreak of a wholesale food market. And back in May, multiple officials were removed from their posts for the same reason in the province of Hubei, the original epicenter of this pandemic.

Now, Chinese authorities say they have largely contained the virus within its borders with only a very small number of new cases being reported on a daily basis, almost all of them imported from overseas.

Steven Jiang, CNN, Beijing.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel will tighten their restrictions for the second general lockdown after many critics had said in its initial form, the second general lockdown simply wasn't enough and had too much exceptions and loopholes to seriously reduce the number of new infections in Israel.

It's because of that surging number of cases, and we saw it again yesterday with 6,808 new cases, according to the Ministry of Health, that Netanyahu said, this has to be a tighter lockdown with restrictions on places of work, many businesses that are not essential will be closed, although pharmacies, supermarkets and other essential services will remain open.

Meanwhile, there will be restrictions on public gatherings, including prayer and protest in an attempt to limit the ability of the coronavirus to spread. Netanyahu says this will last for two weeks until early to mid-October and then there will be another two weeks of lockdown hopefully, he says, with reduced restrictions.

But, crucially, he also points out that depends on a reduction in the infection rate in Israel, which remains incredibly high at this point.

In Jerusalem, Oren Liebermann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Still ahead for us, economic recovery slows as more and more Americans file for first-time unemployment benefits.

First, though, because of this pandemic, more Americans have started to grow their own food. In this week's Impact your World, a non-profit shares seeds, compost and knowledge in a Milwaukee neighborhood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVONDA WILDER, NEW GARDENER: We were all under quarantine so it was hard for us to get to the store. And we didn't really feel safe going out. That really helped the decision-making of grow it in your backyard.

When I first heard about Victory Garden, they had a seed giveaway at the beginning of the season that gave away these big bags that you can go and sift your own compost, picking the greens and seeing the tomato sprout and just knowing that it started really from nothing, started from my son sifting compost and now we're growing okra and kale and lettuce. We did that.

CHRISTINE KUHN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VICTORY GARDEN INITIATIVE: Victory Garden Initiative is a non-profit based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anywhere you can put a garden, we will build one and provide education, seeds, compost, all the resources that we can, as well as mentorship. We have had many more families reach out to us this year than in previous year. We have now built over 5,000 garden beds across Milwaukee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not really contemplating on next year. I feel like it's brought our family closer together, it's empowered us financially. We are not going back and forth to the stores anymore and it's therapeutic for me, like you're watching life happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: That is awesome. To learn more go to cnn.com/impact. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:00]

KING: More evidence today the economy is struggling to find its pandemic footing. Another 870,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week.

CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans breaks down the numbers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John, it is no wonder that unemployment was the top Google search related to the U.S. election over the past two weeks, the numbers, 870,000 people filed for the first time for state unemployment benefits in the week ending September 19. Weekly jobless claims are four times higher than pre- pandemic, continuing claims. Those are people receiving benefits for two or more weeks, almost 12.6 million people. Look beneath those headlines.

And the story is one of chronic unemployment. On top of those state of benefits, in one week, another 630,000 people filed for special pandemic relief programs. These are self-employed people trying to get government aid. Altogether, 26 million people getting some sort of jobless assistance.

This data, John, fits into a pattern now. America's recovery from the pandemic crisis is slowing down, it's looking less like a V-shaped recovery by the day. Millions are still out of work. Temporary job losses have turned permanent for many. And there's growing concern the recovery is really a K-shape, worsening inequality with big winners and big losers, especially for people working in retail, restaurants and bars, travel and leisure. John?

KING: Top of the hour. Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. [12:00:00]

To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you so much for sharing your day with us, and a very busy news day it is.

More anger and frustration on the streets of America.