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Fauci Optimistic About Year-End Vaccine; Confirmation Hearing For Judge Barrett October 12; Portland Arrests; Women March In Minsk Against Lukashenko; U.K. Has Highest Death Toll In Europe; Biden And Trump Debate Tuesday. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired September 27, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): President Donald Trump announces his choice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This hour, we explore what this could mean for the United States Supreme Court.
Also this hour, protests over Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement get heated in Seattle and other major cities. We'll show you.
Plus, we'll also show you the way a D.C. opera company honored the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg because, you know, she loved her opera.
We're live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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ALLEN: Thank you so much for joining us.
Our top story: it now appears all but certain that Amy Coney Barrett will be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court just days before the U.S. presidential election. And that could eventually have a profound effect on the future of healthcare for millions of Americans plus a host of other social and political issues.
President Trump nominated the federal appeals court judge on Saturday to fill the seat of late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Here's what the president said about his choice.
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TRUMP: Amy Coney Barrett will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution as written. As Amy has said, being a judge takes courage. You are not there to decide cases as you may prefer; you are there to do your duty and to follow the law, whatever it may take you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Republicans are thrilled at the prospect of a sixth conservative justice on the bench. Her confirmation hearings set to begin October 12th. And Senate Republicans appear to have the votes to get her confirmed before Election Day, November 3rd.
Democrats are dismayed over Barrett and the rushed process but there is very little they can do since they are the minority party in the Senate. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments against the Affordable Care Act just one week after the election.
With Barrett on the bench, this new challenge has the potential to end Obamacare and leave millions of people with pre-existing conditions without healthcare. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on this high stakes pick.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump on Saturday officially nominating judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is his third nomination. And the first woman that the president has nominated to put on the bench.
The president certainly relishing this moment. After, all the president has talked about how appointing justices to the Supreme Court is one of the most important things that he does as president. He certainly views this as a critical part of his legacy.
It is one of the reasons why so many conservatives, including those who are perhaps turned off by his brash political style, ultimately flock to his campaign and have supported him through his four years in the White House.
The president is really remaking the balance of the Supreme Court, there already was a conservative majority on the Supreme Court and now if she becomes the next Supreme Court justice, you will have a 6-3 conservative majority on that court and that could have an impact for decades, particularly given the fact that judge Amy Coney Barrett is 48 years old.
She can serve on this bench for a long time to come. Of course there are political implications in the short term as well. The president and his campaign certainly hoping that this will rev up his conservative base and encourage them to turn out to the polls on November 3rd in droves.
But there's also the question about the impact that this will have on the Left. Certainly Democrats, criticizing President Trump for moving ahead with this nomination and before Election Day.
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DIAMOND: They are driving home the point that this could really, not only fundamentally alter the balance of power on the Supreme Court but put into question things like Obamacare and those pre-existing conditions, protections for those pre-existing conditions.
The case on Obamacare is coming before the court in a matter of weeks and the White House certainly hopes that judge Amy Coney Barrett will be on the court by that point. We should note, of course, that a majority of Americans, nearly six in
10 Americans believe that it is the president who is elected in the November 3rd, 2020, election, who should pick the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The president not at all abiding by that timeline; RAY: pushing for judge Amy Coney Barrett confirmed before the November 3rd election. On Saturday, the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows saying he believes if everything goes smoothly, they could have Barrett confirmed by November 1st -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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ALLEN: Top Democrats are denouncing the Barrett nomination. They call it a power grab, designed to gut President Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was Obama's vice president.
Biden says Judge Barrett has a written track record of disagreeing with the court's 2012 decision to uphold Obamacare.
Biden also said this, quote, "The Senate should not act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress," end quote.
With coronavirus deaths in the U.S. surpassing 204,000 now, safety protocols were all but missing at that Supreme Court announcement. Many people simply did not wear them. Guests appeared to be seated closer and standing closer than six feet or about two meters apart.
COVID tests needed for anyone interacting with the president were not required of others. Alex Azar, head of the Health and Human Services Department, wore his mask some of the time but not when he first bumped -- fist bumped others. A spokesperson put it this way, quoting, "Secretary Azar wore a mask the majority of the event and consistently communicates and practices the three Ws of wearing a mask, watching your distance and washing your hands.
"In this circumstance, everyone he had contact with, including the secretary, tested negative before the event."
President Trump spent the rest of his Saturday in Pennsylvania, a battleground state he won in 2016 and launched into another round of baseless attacks on mail-in voting. CNN's Ryan Nobles was there.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump making a visit to the key swing state of Pennsylvania and a rally here in Middleton, Pennsylvania, just outside of Harrisburg. The president brought up an issue here in Pennsylvania attempting to sow doubt in the electoral process where a group of discarded ballots were found and that the Justice Department is looking into.
The president didn't necessarily tell the whole story. He used it as a vehicle to undermine the electoral process. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're going to try and steal the election. Look at this crowd. The only way they can win Pennsylvania frankly is to cheat on the ballots.
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NOBLES: Pennsylvania isn't the first state where President Trump has suggested that if he doesn't win, that something fraudulent would've happened. He said this in a number of swing states around the country and, in fact, even brought Iowa up on Saturday night, somehow saying that the problems with counting ballots in the Iowa caucuses back in February had to do with absentee ballots.
The caucuses did allow for a small number of absentee ballots, the counting process had nothing to do with mail-in ballots but the president continuing to sow confusion on all levels. This as absentee ballots are already being mailed out around the country and voters are already starting to send them back in -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Middletown, Pennsylvania.
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ALLEN: Joining me now in Austin, Texas, CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
Thanks for coming, on Mr. Brinkley.
DOUG BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Thank you for having me.
ALLEN: First up, what does Amy Coney Barrett's nomination signal for the Supreme Court and the balance of power?
BRINKLEY: This is a giant moment for Donald Trump if he can actually pull off getting three justices into the Supreme Court during his first term or only term, that is something to reckon with in the history books.
But it's falling at such a moment, right with the election going on, that I think President Trump's got to be talking about her nonstop, waving her photograph, putting her everywhere out there. He has a real deficit with women and the idea that he might be able to show something different than a bad economy, COVID and impeachment. And it's that talk about his three justices plays in his favor.
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ALLEN: She invoked the name of Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she spoke during the Rose Garden ceremony when he nominated her.
But she would be a very different justice than the late Ms. Ginsburg, would she not? BRINKLEY: Oh, boy, so different than the late Ginsburg. She is an arch conservative. She worked for justice Scalia. She is about as far right as we have seen anybody that would enter the Supreme Court.
But this happens in American history. Suddenly the courts can become very ideological. It doesn't mean she may not change down the line. When we look at when Dwight Eisenhower picked Earl Warren at the Supreme Court, nobody could believe that he would turn progressive but he did. In many ways.
So you never can tell. But for Donald Trump the timing of this could not have been a better political moment for him. And I think we will see it front and center of the debate this coming Tuesday, where Trump is trying to brag about Coney Barrett.
ALLEN: Speaking of timing, has the Supreme Court confirmation ever begun this close to a presidential election?
BRINKLEY: We have never had such a thing of the Supreme Court being jammed down people's throats right before an election and particularly in a climate like we're in right now. This is unprecedented territory we are in.
If it was a proper order out there, President Trump would wait until after the election. But he is an opportunist and he sees that this is a moment to change the conversation to the fact that he got Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and now Coney Barrett.
And that is a big Laurel that he is going to wave and boast about. He really -- I think he is even moving at such lightning speed on this that it is almost blinding. But we will have to see how it pans out.
And the confirmation hearing in the Senate is going to be very controversial and you will hear a lot of dissent from all of the Democrats. They don't want her.
ALLEN: And she has been outspoken in her opposition to the Affordable Care Act. She is a devout Catholic and she joins many other Catholics on the Supreme Court.
So what issues do you expect will be at the forefront during her confirmation proceeding?
BRINKLEY: Right off the bat, the Affordable Care Act, Obama's great signature act that he was able to get through. That is on the line. And unwinding or unspooling the Roe v. Wade. She is a fierce antiabortion voice probably of anybody he was looking, she was the loudest megaphone against Roe v. Wade in her own way or at least early in her career.
So I think that's going to frighten many women in the women's movement, that she is somebody that is really to the Right of Clarence Thomas. One didn't think one could get somebody on the Supreme Court more Right than that.
ALLEN: Do Democrats have a hand to play here? Could they, if this election tilts in their favor, move to put more justices on the Supreme Court up from the nine?
BRINKLEY: I don't think so. I think the Democrats are just stuck with this. The idea that you're going to go in and trying to find enough votes to be able to blow up the nine justices, it's not in our Constitution.
But when FDR in 1937 tried to pack the Supreme Court and went haywire on members of his own party turning against him. So I think it's a lot of blusters when the Democrats say they're going to do that. If Biden became president and they got control over the Senate.
This just tells us elections matter for Democrats. The timing of Justice Ginsburg's death was not good and we have to live with these things. There is not much the Democrats can do except protest right now, trying to get media moments against her, talk about and use her selection by Trump to motivate people to register to vote for Biden and other Democrats.
Many people don't like what her judicial views are. Get out there and vote for another president because Trump got a second term, he could easily have a fourth or maybe even a fifth Supreme Court justice. We could be living in the age of Trump for a very long time.
ALLEN: We know when she was nominated that the Democrats raised a lot of money so, as you mention, the debate coming up will be interesting to see how this plays out there.
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ALLEN: Thank you so much for your insight, your expertise, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley for us.
BRINKLEY: Thank you.
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ALLEN: A day of competing protests in Portland, Oregon. Just ahead here, how police kept far right and far left groups holding rallies there peaceful.
Also, Florida bars and restaurants can now operate at full capacity despite being third in the nation in coronavirus case numbers. We'll have more about it straight ahead. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: Authorities say they arrested at least seven people after protests turned violent in Seattle Saturday night. Police tweeted photos, showing smashed windows and graffiti they say protesters caused during a march to city hall. They ordered the crowd to disperse after some in the group began
setting fires and throwing rocks and bottles at officers. Recent protests there have been part of a nationwide reaction to the lack of charges in the police-involved shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
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ALLEN: Police in Portland, Oregon, have arrested more than a dozen people after a crowd threw rocks and other projects as police tried to clear the streets. Earlier Saturday, hundreds of protesters gathered at three opposing rallies.
One group, the far right Proud Boys. They carried firearms, wore body armor and voiced their support of Donald Trump.
Nearby, anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter groups held their own rallies. CNN's Dan Simon is in Portland. Here is his report from a short time ago.
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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in downtown Portland and what you're seeing behind me is pretty much the same thing in terms of what we've seen the last few months, when you have a group of protesters. They're in front of the justice center and right now we're not seeing much of a police presence.
But earlier in the night we did see some protesters clash with police. Protesters throwing different things and more than a dozen people were arrested.
I have to say there was a concern that could things could have been a lot worse today. You did have members from the Proud Boys group hold a mass rally. More than 200 people showed up at a local park. The Proud Boys, of course, an extremist group. The Southern Poverty Law Center say they are a hate group.
These are pro-Trump people, they showed up with their weapons. They applied for a permit from the city (INAUDIBLE) denied due to COVID-19 concerns but they came anyway. And as a result of that you did have several hundred left-leaning protesters come to a separate rally.
Fortunately there was no clashes between them. The police fanned out across the city and did their best to try to keep those two groups separate. And fortunately we did not see any violence between those 2 groups.
Now as we approach the midnight hour in downtown Portland, there is a concern that we could see more violence, more clashes between protesters and police. We'll just have to see what happens -- Dan Simon, CNN, Portland, Oregon,
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ALLEN: A curfew is in effect for Louisville, Kentucky, for the fourth night in a row. Crowds gathered in the streets there on Saturday to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, killed by police during that botched drug raid in March.
This follows Wednesday's announcement that none of the officers involved in her death are being charged directly. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has an update for us from Louisville.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: After spending hours in Jefferson Square Park and vowing not to leave as curfew approached at 9 pm, the protesters all left after police made several announcements, saying that they would be arrested if they did not leave.
As the 9 o'clock hour came, the police started to move in; they brought in some of the tactical vehicles, National Guard came in and all the protesters by that time had left. And they came to this church behind me, which they've been coming to every night, which has been serving as a sanctuary so that they can stay on the property.
The church has allowed them to stay on the property so that they could avoid arrest -- Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky.
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ALLEN: The United States has reported more than 7 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. The death toll now stands at over 204,000. And many states have case numbers that are trending up.
But the top U.S. infectious disease expert is sounding an optimistic note. Here is CNN's Polo Sandoval with more.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Anthony Fauci now says vaccinations could start before the end of the year.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: In reality, by the time you get enough people vaccinated so you can feel that you have had an impact enough on the outbreak, so that you can start thinking about maybe getting a little bit more towards normality, that very likely, as I and others have said, would be maybe the third quarter or so of 2021, maybe even into the fourth quarter.
But the availability and starting vaccination could very likely start in November or December.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): Fauci's comments come as the U.S. passed 7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 203,000 people have been killed by the virus. Dr. Fauci also raising concerns about fighting COVID as we head into the fall and winter.
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FAUCI: If you look at some of the super spreading type things that have occurred, almost all of them occurred in indoor situations. You're going to have to do a lot of things indoors out of necessity of temperature.
And I'm afraid, with that being the case, if we don't carefully follow the guidelines, the other guidelines, the masking, the distance, the crowds, that we may see another surge.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): Case wise California is the first state to surpass 800,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): Despite the state's rising infections, Florida governor Ron DeSantis says the state was moving into phase three of reopening, allowing restaurants and bars to fully reopen. DeSantis also said he expects the state to host a full Super Bowl by this February.
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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I also want to be able to show we're going to be able to host the Super Bowl in February. We expect to do a full Super Bowl. And we're going to show that we're going to be able to do that.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): Meantime, new York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city's outdoor dining will be permanent, allowing restaurants to keep using sidewalks and streets for seating.
New York deputy mayor for operations Laura Anglin (ph) crediting it with saving jobs and called it a lifeline for the struggling restaurant industry.
About 12 states are now seeing mask usage rates above 50 percent, according to researchers for the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and evaluation. The IHME also said more than 95,000 lives could be saved by January, if 95 percent of Americans wore masks.
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ALLEN: The prospect and likely reality of a third Trump justice on the Supreme Court is changing the dynamic of the presidential race. The confirmation hearing is set to begin just weeks before the election. We take a look at the route ahead and more about the nominee.
Plus, later, a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg that might have had the late Supreme Court justice remarking, "Bravo."
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Atlanta.
Our top story, President Trump's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to speed through the U.S. Senate and be confirmed by November 1. Two days before the presidential election. Confirmation hearings for federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett are set to begin October 12th.
It's a lifetime appointment and the Republican majority in the Senate appears to have the votes to get her on the bench quickly.
Democrats bluntly warn that putting a sixth conservative justice on the high court will spell the end of Obamacare and abortion rights and have a profound decades long impact on immigration and many other social and political issues.
So President Trump's nomination of Ms. Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is official.
But now what?
CNN's Phil Mattingly explains the next steps for the nominee for Republicans and for Democrats.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the words of one Republican official after I spoke to after the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, this is Mitch McConnell's ball game now, as in the Senate majority leader, who's been the focal point of President Trump's term for him. He's moved 200, including 2 Supreme Court justices, now is moving towards a third and he's going to move fast.
In fact Republican sources say the calendar has already been circulated for hearings for Amy Coney Barrett starting on October 12th. That's the tentative calendar. It just underscores how fast Republicans plan to move.
They want to confirm Amy Coney Barrett before the November 3rd election and they are laying out the process to do just that. Here's how things are going to work over the next couple of weeks.
The next week the nominee will start her visits with Mitch McConnell, Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham will follow shortly after and then other rank and file senators will likely speak with the nominee. That will all lead up to those October 12th hearings.
It will be 4 days of hearings, opening statements, 2 days of questioning, then outside witnesses as well. That will tee up a Senate floor vote after the committee approves the nomination.
The expectation is that every Republican on the committee will vote for Amy Coney Barrett and at least 51 of the 53 Republicans in the United States in the Senate when it gets to the Senate floor will do the same.
Democrats have made it clear they are unified in their opposition, not just to the nominee but to the process itself. However they have very little that they can do to slow down or stop it altogether. There are procedural tactics that they can deploy and they do in plan to do that both in the Senate and on the committee floor.
But as long as Republicans have the votes, there's nothing Democrats can do to stop them. That's why Republicans are targeting shortly before the election to confirm President Trump's third Supreme Court justice to the court.
Right now all signs point to that happening. Of course they still have to see over the course of the next several weeks -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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ALLEN: For more on the showdown, let's bring in Julie Norman, a lecturer in politics at University College London.
Good morning, Professor. Thank you for coming on.
JULIE NORMAN, LECTURER IN POLITICS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning.
ALLEN: Well, I guess I should say it may not be a showdown so much since we know that the Republicans have a majority for this process.
But what did you think of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, her opening remarks and President Trump's move to fill this seat so quickly?
NORMAN: Yeah, well, Natalie, I don't think that Amy Coney Barrett's nomination was a surprise. She's been a long time favorite of Trump and really for conservatives more broadly. She's a member of the Federalist Society, she was a clerk for Scalia, so she really was a pretty solid pick and will appeal to a lot of Trump's voters.
And Trump trying to move this through fast, we heard the Senate trying to move it through quickly and, again, this is what we expected as well. And as we heard, there is not going to be much that the Democrats can do to stop that.
So we expect this nomination to be moving forward quickly and to be hearing a lot more from Amy Coney Barrett in these upcoming days and weeks.
ALLEN: What implications will the likely tilt of the court to a 6-3 conservative have?
NORMAN: Well, this is significant. Of course, the court has already had the 5-4 conservative majority for quite a while. But with Roberts in particular, there has been an element of a swing vote.
So a lot of issues that will be much more likely to come forward now around abortion, around other rights such as gun rights, affirmative action, voting rights, these will be more of a slam dunk now for the conservative leaning justices. That will affect not only the rulings and the willingness or unwillingness to look for a compromise or consensus.
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NORMAN: But also just the kinds of cases that the justices are willing to take on, if they're more confident about getting that kind of decision.
ALLEN: You mentioned abortion; there have been cases before the court in the past that resulted in limiting abortion.
But could this nominee's presence on the court see Roe v. Wade overturned?
NORMAN: Well, Natalie, this is one of the big concerns now for Democrats. Amy Coney Barrett is pretty forward about her stances, has ruled against abortion in several cases on the federal bench so far.
In terms of overturning Roe versus Wade, though, that would be a pretty big move. One that, even though Trump has pushed for it in the past, would really be quite significant. What is more likely is probably to see more cases coming forward that would restrict abortion rights in terms of certain kinds of procedures and in terms of timing, in terms of regulations, that would constrain Roe more than it has been already.
ALLEN: Well, the Supreme Court now has galvanized both presidential campaigns, this issue has.
How do you see this affecting Trump or Biden in the election?
NORMAN: Yeah, it is going to affect both campaigns significantly and quite crucially for Trump, just being able to change the news cycle from the pandemic and issues, where he's polling quite poorly, to focus on this nomination is a boon for him.
This nomination allows Trump to try to court voters who are perhaps still very committed to conservative values and ideas but maybe weren't so enthusiastic about him and also quite crucially to try and get more women to come out in support for Trump, which is a demographic he has struggled with.
So it really is quite a boon for Trump and Republicans in that way. But as you mentioned, of course, Democrats who will be trying to leverage this will be trying to galvanize more enthusiasm for voters, who, again, maybe were not super keen on Biden but feel strongly about some of the issues that are going to be going up before the court.
And we already have seen this in terms of a lot of the small donor donations that are coming in, not only to the presidential campaign but also to many Senate races that will hopefully -- for these voters galvanize the Democrats.
ALLEN: Finally, what if the results of the election were to reach the Supreme Court as we saw in 2000?
NORMAN: Well, that certainly is a big question, one that Trump himself put on the table by saying that he wants to get a justice in place for just that reason. If that were the case, three of the nine justices would be Trump appointees.
So would -- the court would be slanted in his favor. Your Democrats will probably be pushing for -- if she's confirmed, to recuse herself from that. But the extent to which they would have any leverage and that kind of pressure is really unforeseen.
But the important thing, I think, to underscore is that is still a big if, it is certainly a possibility but not strongly likely at this point that the election will necessarily get to that point.
ALLEN: Well, we appreciate your insight and hope to talk with you again as we inch closer to that day. Julie Norman in London, thank you so much.
NORMAN: Thank you, Natalie.
ALLEN: New coronavirus cases are surging in the United Kingdom. But this was the scene in central London Saturday. These protesters want virus restrictions lifted, regardless of the number of cases. We'll have a live report from London for you next.
Also, Tuesday's first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden won't be anything like we have seen before. You'll see it here on CNN. We'll explain how the pandemic forced major changes to a staple of American elections.
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ALLEN: In Belarus, thousands of women marched in the capital, Minsk, on Saturday. For weeks Belarusians have protested the contested election that ushered in longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko into a new presidential term.
Protest organizers called Saturday's March a rehearsal inauguration for the main opposition candidate. Police arrested at least 79 people, including 6 journalists, according to a human rights group.
Here is another remarkable image, one protester handing out flowers to police officers as they usher her into a van.
Israel has shattered its record for daily coronavirus cases. On Friday, it counted more than 8,300 new infections. The number of patients in serious condition and on ventilators are apparently climbing, too.
People aren't happy with how the government is handling the crisis and they're taking their anger to the streets. Thousands gathering outside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence on Saturday, demanding he resign.
They are outraged over new lockdown measures meant to restrict protests. Mr. Netanyahu, as you may recall, also faces corruption charges.
Saturday also saw protests in London against the British government's COVID lockdown measures. Police eventually broke up the demonstration after people failed to follow social distancing guidelines. The U.K. now has more than 431,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Let's get more about it from Scott McLean, standing by live for us in London.
It is really interesting, Scott; we see this in many countries. Even though cases are on the rise, people do not want their freedoms encroached upon.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know, a lot of people look at those protest pictures and wonder how protest is even allowed in this type of climate. Believe it or not, protests are perfectly fine provided that the organizers submit a plan for risk assessment and then commit to social distancing, wearing masks, things like that.
Then they're allowed to go ahead. Despite the fact that the U.K. has limited social gatherings to six people, the police in this case felt that the crowd wasn't adhering to the plan that it had put forward in the first place.
The bottom line is, in the U.K., cases are rising quickly at a pretty alarming rate. For the last couple of days, we had more than 6,000 new confirmed cases every single day. The government last week said the virus is doubling about every seven days.
The number of people, the total number of people in the hospital, is rising by about 100 per day for the last week or so. And as a result, the government has put in new restrictions.
I mentioned the social gatherings; mandating bars and restaurants close early, mandates or guidelines to wear masks inside stores and shops have become legal requirements.
[04:45:00] MCLEAN: The government is trying to really address two things, enforcement and education. And for good reason. Earlier this week, a Kings College Study came out and said less than half of the British public could not name the key COVID-19 symptoms, that's high temperature, cough and loss of taste or smell.
ALLEN: That sounds unusual with all the news over the coronavirus.
Want to ask you, though, do the new restrictions affect schools?
MCLEAN: Yes. So when it comes to younger students, masks are not required. Each school is sort of left to its own devices to make a plan that is safe with the exception of places that are in specific localized lockdown conditions.
When it comes to older students, universities, they have their own set of conditions depending on where they are. One good example, a university in Manchester, on Friday, is mandating that students in two different dormitories, about 1,700, self-isolate for the next two weeks after 127 cases were reported on campus.
Friday was also the same day that Scotland announced the university students are barred from going to pubs, cafes, restaurants. All of this is an effort to keep the virus contained on these campuses so they don't spread out to the wider parts of the population, of course.
That's when the virus may come into contact with much older, much more vulnerable people. And earlier this week the health secretary was actually asked whether or not there is any possibility that these restrictions could bar students from returning home for Christmas or around the holidays.
And he said, look, I've learned not rule anything out -- Natalie.
ALLEN: All right, we appreciate it. Scott McLean in London for us.
After being idle for five months because of the pandemic, the Beijing international auto show is in full gear. Almost 800 models are on display from automakers in China and beyond. That includes 147 new energy vehicles as well as concept cars from around the world.
Among them, a car based on 5G technology with electronic mirrors and microrobots.
The first presidential debate between Trump and Biden just days away now. We'll have a preview of what we might expect coming up right after this.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) ALLEN: Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off in their first presidential
debate Tuesday night in Cleveland, Ohio. But of course, it will be a much different affair than in the past, due to the pandemic.
At a rally on Saturday, in Pennsylvania, President Trump noted that his Democratic challenger is the more seasoned debater but only after he repeatedly insulted the former vice president. Here he is.
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TRUMP: That's what you call a really dishonest, dumb politician. A dumb guy. Dumb. Always known as a dumb guy. But we look forward to seeing him in the debate. He's got a lot more experience. He's got 47 years. I've got three and a half years. So we'll see. He's got 47 years of experience.
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ALLEN: For his part, Biden says the president lies and isn't smart. Jessica Dean has a preview of Tuesday's debate.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former Vice President Joe Biden spending this weekend focusing heavily on his debate preparations as he gets ready to face off against President Trump in their first debate together in his 2020 election.
It'll happen in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday. We're told that the former vice president, when he's going through these preparations, really likes his aides to just pepper him rapid fire with questions about policy as opposed to a mock debate.
We're also told his former chief of staff, Ron Klain, is heavily involved in his debate prep. Klain was also very much involved in Hillary Clinton's debate preparation with then candidate Trump back in 2016.
Now in previous weeks, Biden had been studying briefing books. He'd been holding smaller sessions with policy aides, really drilling down on details. He also told the traveling press he's been playing close attention to what President Trump has said and what President Trump has not said.
To that end, the Biden team believes that Trump will be pretty unpredictable on that stage. They believe that he will tell a number of lies, falsehoods. They are relying on the moderator, in this case Chris Wallace from FOX News, to really call that out, thinking that it's not lies or maybe even possible for Biden to be the soul fact checker on that debate stage.
What they really want to do is what Biden has been doing for the past months on the campaign trail, draw the focus back to president Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the ensuing health crisis and economic crisis and really lay that at his feet saying that it's President Trump's fault. And his lack of response that he bungled a response, that America is struggling so much with that.
Now as for the debate itself, there are going to be changes made to that because of the pandemic. It's already moved locations, going from Notre Dame to Case Western in Cleveland, Ohio. We're also told thee will be a smaller audience, typically normally around 900 people. This time will be 60 to 70 people.
All of whom will be tested for COVID before they can go inside. And something we're also really used to seeing, is the spin room, crowds of people and campaign surrogates walking through with media following their every move.
Well, you can't do that in this age of social distancing. There will be no spin room post-debate. Instead television networks will make special appointments with campaign surrogates and that's how they will get their interviews. A lot of changes as we look forward to Tuesday's debate -- in Washington, Jessica Dean, CNN.
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ALLEN: CNN will carry Tuesday's debate live, our special coverage beginning at 7:00 pm Eastern.
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ALLEN: That's midnight, Wednesday morning, in London and 7:00 am in Hong Kong for our international viewers.
The late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a deep passion for the law and also famously for opera. The liberal judge even shared those powerful feelings with the late conservative justice Antonin Scalia, helping to bridge their differences. They went to the opera together.
So it was no surprise when an opera company staged a musical tribute to Ginsburg near the steps of the Supreme Court. Photojournalist Andrew Crissman (ph) takes us there.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in serious (ph) where D.C. Opera company. We mix opera theater and social justice. And we know that music was Justice Ginsburg's release, her escape. So we thought it was the one gift we could offer her now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: RBG meant so much as a woman growing up in the 20th and 21st century. Her persistent fight for women to have an equal say in important decisions.
She was an avid opera fan. For me, opera and music, it brings hope to people's hearts, it inspires people and that is exactly what we are trying to do here today. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Kim's up next with more news for you. See you soon.
