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President Donald Trump Enters First Presidential Debate Trailing Biden In Polls; Flashback: Trump Defends Birther Controversy At 2016 Debate; Pandemic, Supreme Court Fight Among Topics At Tonight's Debate; New York City: Daily Test Positivity Rate Above Three Percent For First Time In Months; Ex-Pence Aide: White House Pressured CDC To Downplay Risks Of Opening Schools. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired September 29, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Working from home is still a big piece of the coronavirus experience. Stanford University is conducting a rolling study of this issue and here are the latest numbers. 36 percent of Americans reported working from home in August, down from 42 percent back in May.
Here is the flip side, 37 percent of Americans reported being back at their place of work last month, that up from 26 percent in May. Now 27 percent responded they are not working at all. It's a high number but it is down from the 33 percent who said that in May.
Top of the hour, hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world I am John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing your day with us. It is presidential debate night in America. Exactly five weeks to Election Day. The coronavirus pandemic will shape how Americans vote and it will no doubt be a topic tonight.
The daily trends telling us the virus right now moving in a troublesome direction in New York City, the Mayor says he may close nonessential businesses because the positivity rate is again above 3 percent. And there's a messy public fight among White House scientists.
The president insists we have rounded the final turn. The numbers around Joe Biden side is he insists things remain bleak. The president and Democrat Biden will share a stage in Cleveland Ohio. A no handshake allowed rule one more reminder this is the pandemic campaign in a year like no other. We are 35 days to Election Day.
In this first presidential debate is a 90-minute national platform to rally supporters and to try to reach and persuade the few voters who say they are undecided at least not locked in on a candidate. The incumbent enters tonight as the underdog. The race right now tilts decidedly Joe Biden's way.
New Pennsylvania polling today reinforces that Democratic advantage and underscores the president's debate and final week's challenge. Without Pennsylvania the president's path to 270 electoral votes and reelection not impossible, but it is highly improbable.
We know this. The president does things his way, meaning he wings it. More often they're not, and debates apparently are no exception. Sources telling our White House team the president have spent little time in formal debate prep, roughly two hours. 9 pm eastern is the debate time let's go to Cleveland now, the White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
Kaitlan, unlike in 2016, the burden heavily on the incumbent, he is no longer the slashing challenger.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we've seen with incumbent presidents in the past. They have actually struggled typically in the first debate. You saw it even when Barack Obama when he debated Mitt Romney.
So the advantage is not the president's tonight, the aides are hoping that this will be a chance for the president to try to make up some ground because for the last several weeks, of course, you have seen these polls coming out just like the ones you've referenced earlier where in these key states that the president needs to win, he has not been gaining ground like his advisers hoped he would this close out from the election.
So they're looking for that tonight, but they have not spent a lot of time preparing for that. And most of that has to do less with the president's advisers and staff, and more with the candidate himself because he is resisting doing what typically you see candidates do before a debate like this which is where they had a formal mock debate or somebody plays Joe Biden or someone plays Donald Trump and then they pretend like they're actually on the stage.
The president has not done that and instead John he's done these kind of sporadic question and answer sessions with people like Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway he's been helping out with some of the debate prep along with other campaign staffers and some White House staffers.
And that is really been the president's preferred method of getting ready for this, saying that his daily preparations by being at work is enough to prepare him to be on stage with Joe Biden. And of course, he is not a typical candidate, he never has been, he wasn't in 2016.
But in 2016, I was speaking with someone who actually helped the president with debate prep back then, John. And they said, he was really resistant to doing it before that first debate and then after that debate when that "Access Hollywood" tape came out he was actually in the middle of debate prep getting ready for the next debate with Hilary Clinton, because he wanted to start it then.
So whether or not the way he's preparing changes for this debate and the next debate, it remains to be seen, but this will be the first time to see those two candidates on stage together and the president's team is preparing him with one liners, all these questions about Joe Biden's son, Hunter and his business dealings. Those are things that will come up they say on the debate stage here in Cleveland tonight in just a few hours, John.
KING: Just nine hours from now. The two candidates begin 90-minute debate. Kaitlan Collins grateful for the live reporting from the scene and let's go behind the curtain now behind the curtain perspective from two campaign, veterans who know what it is like to prepare for big debates.
Democrat Karen Finney, was the Hilary Clinton Advisor, Republican Michael Steel help the House Speaker Paul Ryan prepare for his 2012 debate with Joe Biden. Karen, I want to start with you because the 2016 debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the general election debates, came after we saw a very unconventional style, but a very successful style for Donald Trump in the Republican primary debates.
And when facing off with Hillary Clinton we got what we've become used to, sometimes the president seems to be rambling, but he often still makes his point. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The birth certificate was produced in 2011. You continue to tell the story and question the president's legitimacy in 2012, '13, '14 and '15.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As recently his January. What do you say to Americans -?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, it was very - I say nothing. I say nothing, but developed very, very good relationships over the last little while with the African-American community. I think you can see that.
[12:05:00]
TRUMP: And I feel that they really wanted me to come to that conclusion and I think I did a great job and a great service not only for the country but even for the president in getting him to produce his birth certificate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: He has stuck Karen Finney to that, that the whole birther episode and getting the birth certificate, I was somehow a great service to the country.
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. But now we are in a moment, John, where people are taking to the streets in a moment of racial reckoning. And the feeling is that this president is not doing anything to bring us together, to heal this country.
And when I talk to voters in focus groups across the country, even people who voted for Trump, the man they would want to see on a stage tonight is the Commander in Chief who is trying to heal the nation, they recognize his actions frankly of like we saw in Portland sending federal resources there was not helpful. So the style of his is not going to work when Americans are in the middle of a crisis.
KING: And Michael, so the vice presidential debates tend not to get as much attention, but they do give those debating some national TV exposure, some one-on-one debate exposure. Let's go back. This is October 11, 2012. Paul Ryan trying to make a point and then Joe Biden saying, wait a minute.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have never met two guys more down on America across the board. Just get out of the way. Stop talking about how you care about people? Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility and by the way, they talk about this great recession. Like it fell out on the sky like Oh my goodness! Where did it come from? It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: What did you learn from that experience about Joe Biden the debater?
MICHAEL STEEL, FORMER JEB BUSH ADVISER FOR POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS: I think it's important to remember the context there. The reason that Joe Biden kind of took the Uncle Joe act to 11 that day was because President Obama did so badly in the first presidential debate. And Vice Presidential debate right afterwards.
President Trump seems to be repeating every error of an incumbent president not doing the prep, not taking his opponent seriously, and Joe Biden is a very, very experienced debater. He's done this more often at this level than anyone in American public life.
And the president keeps lower in expectations for the former vice president. At this point if he walks out on stage, puts a mirror under his nostrils and proves that he's alive and he knows it, he's exceeded what the president sets out for.
KING: I think they've tested a little higher than that, but I get your point. The president essentially tried to say he can't stay up late, but I think it goes, I think it goes past than - I'm fond of saying they both gave convention, final night convention speeches that went after 11'o clock at night. Joe Biden had plenty of energy than more energy than the president.
But we will see how we go tonight. Karen Finney and Michael, to both of you, I want to go back in time again because one thing we know from the president's approach to Secretary Clinton in 2016 is it gets personal, it gets kind of slashing. This is an exchange over character.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: It is not only women and it's not only this video that raises questions about his fitness to be our president. He's also targeted immigrants, African-Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims.
TRUMP: Bill Clinton was abusive to women. Hillary Clinton attacked the same women and attacks them viciously. I think it's disgraceful and she should be ashamed of herself if you want to know the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Karen, this has been part of a trademark Trump strategy that I think that's important to think about as we go into tonight in the sense that Joe Biden is leading in this race. The president needs to change the dynamic. And what he does when his character is questioned instead of almost defending himself he says well, the other person is just as bad or worse.
FINNEY: Yes, he does this sort of muddy the waters and we certainly saw it in 2016 and we saw this frankly already in this cycle with attempts to try and mislead about what was happening with Hunter Biden and Vice President Biden, so Vice President Biden absolutely needs to be prepared for that.
And look I think one of the biggest challenges, this was a similar challenge that Hillary faced in 2016 is to not get drawn into the personal attacks and the drama, all of which is a distraction from what Biden needs to do tonight to both try to hold Trump accountable for his abysmal record and his incompetence on COVID and then put forward his positive plan.
You know John, when we prep people, right, it is about how much time you have to make your case and you have to make sure that you are using every single minute very judiciously. The more time you spend on defunds or the more time you spend time to correct a lie is less time you're making your argument.
KING: And so, one of the - you analyze these debate moments and people who work in Washington who believe there's a professional way to do this, they see some of President Trump's debate answers and they find kind of word salad and they find it sort of nonsensical and about this all over the place.
[12:10:00]
KING: But Michael, you pointed out this one from January 2016, where you listen to most of the president's answering like what is he talking about, but let's listen because he also does manage to sneak in a point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If they don't start treating us fairly and stop devaluing and let their currency rise so that our companies can compete and we don't lose all of these millions of jobs that we're losing, I would certainly start taxing goods that come in from China. Who the hell has to lose $505 billion a year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, sir. You lost but I do want to understand this.
TRUMP: Well, it's not that complicated, actually. I have many friends that deal with China. They can't deal - number one, they don't want the product. And when they finally get the product it is taxed and if you look at what happened with Boeing and if you look to what happened with so many companies that deal, so we don't have an equal playing field.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But it's kind of all over the place there, Michael. And Neil Cavuto is trying to challenge and that sort of a tariff math the president always does. There is a little odd. But your point in listening to that was, he got in Boeing right up the road into the neighborhood where he is debating that it might sound nuts sometimes, but he is making a point.
STEEL: Yes. He talked about not prepping. I suspect he is actually underestimating the amount of time that he spent in prep on this debate. He likes to pretend that he just wings it. But at the same time, it does debate North Charleston right up the road from the Boeing plan.
He was ready with an answer that worked for him and made an effective point for him about why the jobs in the area wouldn't be lost as a result of the trade war that he was promising to inflict on the American people.
KING: Before I want to - one more big flashback and then I'll ask you at the end you need to explain your stakes for tonight, how you see this stakes for tonight? But I want people to understand these are two guys who we have met now throughout 2016 campaign and Joe Biden's previous debates, very different styles. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John McCain has been the consummate maverick in the Senate over all these years.
BIDEN: Can I respond to that? Look, the maverick, let's talk about the maverick, John McCain. Again I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things and mattered to people's lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our allies are less willing to--
BIDEN: We all do respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And why that's sir?
BIDEN: Because not a single thing he said is accurate. This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here's the deal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that mean a bunch of stuff?
BIDEN: Well, it means it's simply inaccurate. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Irish.
BIDEN: Exactly, it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We Irish call it malarkey.
TRUMP: Your husband signed NAFTA, which was one of the worst things that ever happened to the manufacturing industry.
CLINTON: That is your opinion.
TRUMP: You go to New England, you go to Ohio, Pennsylvania, you go anywhere you want, Secretary Clinton, and you will see devastation. People have been - their lives have been destroyed for doing one fifth of what you have done and it is a disgrace and honestly you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Karen Finney, I expect the ethics issue you heard it right at the end there to come up. I expect the president to question Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and the like. One thing we won't have tonight though is nasty women. How different is the dynamic that President Trump is debating a man?
FINNEY: It is much different. Look, the body language will communicate very different things and we're looking for different things when we are watching two men when we were four years ago. With Hillary we were looking to see how could she or how would she hold her own with Trump?
He is as we saw in that one very iconic example where he was sort of menacing around the stage, that communicated a lot about him not just through what was being said. And so in this instance, I think what we'll see is, two men in their nice suits trying to make their arguments.
And again I think what you will see from Biden is an attempt to be competent, calm leader for these troubled times. That is a very different dynamic than what we had in 2016 and he has a very different task than what Hillary had in 2016.
KING: And, Michael finally for the president, when you are behind in the battleground state polls, when you are down eight or nine points in the national polls. And you need to change the dynamic of the race, can you do that by talking about yourself or is the president's only choice and often it's his preference anyway to tear down the other guy?
STEEL: Right. If this is a referendum he loses, it's got to be a choice and he's got to swing for the fences with probably what's going to be nasty, personal attacks on the vice president, attacking his surviving son, attacking his ethics record, his long carrier in Washington and hoping frankly that Biden will gaffe, will make a mistake, will somehow prove himself incompetent or senile. That's the president's bet right now. KING: That's the president's bet and less than nine hours away from the big debate. I appreciate the insights from both of you, Karen Finney, Michael Steel very much appreciate your time. And there it is right there you can watch the first presidential debate.
And we watch it to right here on CNN, our special coverage begins tonight starting at 7:00 pm eastern. Up next CDC puts - the White House puts pressure on the CDC to reopen America's schools.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:15:00]
KING: This just in to us, the Mayor of New York City now warning of an inflection point, due to a jump in the test positivity rate there in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio calling the numbers, "Cause for real concern adding the city will be taking serious action", what does he mean? CNN's Alexandra Field is following this. What exactly does the Mayor mean Alexandra?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well look, he means that further restrictions could be implemented and he's warning people across the city that they need to sit up and pay attention to the latest numbers. We're talking about a single data point that is causing a lot of concern among public health official's city and state leaders.
A 3.25 percent positivity rate but that reflects positive tests on a single day. The important number to keep your eye on here John is the 7-day rolling average. The 7-day rolling average right now even with that uptick is at 1.38 percent. So that doesn't necessarily trigger any kinds of shutdowns, the threshold for closing schools is 3 percent.
We are certainly not there yet, but this is the week that the majority of students in the nation's largest school district are returning for some in-person learning in their classrooms. The city doesn't want to see those schools, have to shut back down. So what we know right now is that, they're going to take some action, they're flooding the city with testing.
[12:20:00]
FIELD: They're focusing specifically on nine zip codes out of 146 zip codes throughout the city where they're really seeing this uptick in cases; this has been referred to as the Brooklyn/Queens cluster. People who live in those nine zip codes are all being encouraged to get tested.
We know the Governor has also said that he's going to send an extra 200 rapid testing machines throughout New York City, largely targeting those affected zip codes those will be available for schools to request as well, so that students can also be tested. John?
KING: A very important development. We'll keep an eye on that cause of concern. Alexander, Field grateful for the quick hustle on reporting there and increasingly rare event today at the White House, a meeting of the Coronavirus Task Force. It comes amid a messy public dispute between taskforce members.
Several of the scientists not happy the president is listening more and more these days to the new task force member, Dr. Scott Atlas. And another taskforce member, Dr. Deborah Birx is central to new reporting showing how the White House put pressure on the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control to try to get the CDC to play down the risks of reopening schools this fall.
More of the turmoil in a moment first, let's just looks at the latest numbers. And we're on a very interesting moment 23 states trending up. 23 states trending up, meaning more new infections this week compared to the data a week ago. 23 states trending up, you see across the plains and out into the west where most of those states are, they're not the most populous states.
So the overall numbers aren't going up at as big giant spike, but look at that, 23 states, 20 states holding steady. Seven states at the moment trending down. If you look through it now, if you look at this, I just want to highlight Georgia, Florida, Texas and Arizona they of course were a big part of the summer surge in cases.
They are all this week reporting fewer new infections right now than a week ago. So they're trending in the right direction at the moment. Again the trouble is in the less populous states across the plains and the prairie.
We'll keep an eye on that. The state testing rate right now, the positivity rate, you see a high positivity rate, you just heard Alexander talking about a slight uptick in New York to 3 percent. It's 21 percent in Idaho. 25 percent that's number one, highest in the country in South Dakota.
You see it in the teens 16 in Kansas 17 in Idaho and 19 in Wisconsin 11 in Florida. Texas is down to 8, Arizona down to 5. You want to get it to five and shove it down. But that's where you look for new cases when you see this high positivity rate there.
Now one of the issues right now not just the politics of the pressure on the CDC is how is this back to school experiment going? Well, these are four states that require in-person, some in-person K-12 instruction. You have to go every day, they not require that. But they do require some Iowa, Arkansas, Florida and Texas.
Two Iowa and Arkansas holding steady in their case count at the moment. Texas and Florida going down in their case count at the moment. Why do we bring that up, because of the controversy now, Olivia Troye worked for the Vice President, she was a key aide on the Coronavirus Task Force.
She left, because she says the president simply wasn't up to the challenge, was not taking seriously the pandemic. She says the White House Task Force put pressure on the CDC, play down the risks of sending kids back to school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OLIVIA TROYE, FMR. HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER TO VP MIKE PENCE: What I saw firsthand was a lot of manipulation of the data trying to figure out how to tell a story that was less grim than the reality really was.
It was people within the White House specifically tasking more junior level staff to try to find alternate data, data that fit the narrative that they wanted which it was only affects people above the age of 75 and it doesn't affect younger school children. It was all part of the narrative we need to open up these schools; we need to open them up now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Let's get more from CNN's Nick Valencia who is on top of this turmoil at the CDC. Nick?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, we know that from the beginning of the pandemic speaking to sources at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention that they have been by and large sidelined by the White House, that they have to work within the margins set by the White House and have fallen victim to the politics of Washington.
We've seen it play out with CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, seeing him how to walk this fine line with President Trump. And this is just yet another example. Olivia Troye as you mentioned worked for Vice President Mike Pence, she was part of the White House coronavirus Task Force and she described a situation that was a nightmare she says.
She said in June that she was pressured along with junior staffers; they were pressured by Mark Short who's the Chief of Staff for Vice President Pence to find data that supported the president's mission to safely reopen schools. She says that this pressure was just continuing to happen all along. Listen to what she said last night to CNN's Chris Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TROYE: Well, I think you've seen from the beginning the president's narrative has been everything is fine, everything is OK, time to go back to normal, let's get the economy going again. He told the Governors you need to open the schools.
You need to try to make it seem like everything's OK when in reality it's not. And I think it's because this response has been so broken along the way that it was anything to tell anything but the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[12:25:00]
VALENCIA: John, I want to be very clear about something, I spoke to an official that was part of the safely reopening schools drafting that guidance at the CDC. They told me that they believed at the time that the science was there. However, they did say that the president, the comments that he was making publicly, were clearly challenging to the CDC professionals working on that guidance behind the scenes. John?
KING: It's a dynamic we've talked about far too much I guess the president trying to influence the science. Nick Valencia important reporting, thank you so much also weighing on the coronavirus task force is the influence of the White House newest advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas.
Dr. Atlas is a Neuroradiologist not an Infectious Disease or Public Health Expert. Yet he has the ear of the president and there is concern he's feeding the president misleading information on COVID-19. Two key members of the Task Force avoided calling out Atlas by name when asked by CNN about turmoil in the group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, MD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: We agree on the great majority of things but whether it's Dr. Atlas and Dr. Birx or me and Dr. Fauci or Dr. Redfield, there is some disagreement, there is a diversity of opinions. I think that's very important because science is not black and white.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: But these news stories about Atlas and Redfield, they get to this question of, are the medical voices on the Task Force working together or working against each other?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, most are working together. I think you know what the outlier is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joining us now is Brian Stelter. Who you just saw the interview of Dr. Fauci. But Brian let's just make it clear I get it to someone who's watching you know who the outlier is. It's pretty remarkable Dr. Fauci tries everyday to be a diplomat. Some days are better than other.
STELTER: Yes.
KING: But this tension is very real and we can laugh about it as a keystone cops moment but there are lives at stake here.
STELTER: Yes, Fauci doesn't want this in public; he doesn't like to have these disputes in the press. But they're visible to everyone, that's why I brought this up with Fauci. I said to him you've been helping keep the American people healthy for decades. What you've done with the newest media for decades, what's changed this year, what's changed on this pandemic?
And unprompted, Fauci brought up misinformation and he brought up Fox News. He said on Fox, on the talk shows, like Laura Ingraham's talk show there these are opposing perspectives to obvious facts. Here's more of Fauci said about Fox.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FAUCI: Well I mean, I think if you listen to Fox News, you know, with all due respect to the fact that they do have some good reporters, some of the things that they report there are outlandish to be honest with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STELTER: A regular on Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas is regular on Fox News. I brought up the controversy with Atlas. As you saw, Fauci did not say his name but he called him an outlier. Atlas was on Fox News last night which perhaps just proves Fauci's point.
KING: To a degree and you know what let's be fair be Dr. Atlas and let's listen to some of that, Brian.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: I think that this is all if what that says is really sad it is all about delegitimizing the president and feeding into some kind of a false narrative that the president doesn't listen to the science or the scientist, because the reality is, I was called in, because I can translate the medical science into public policy.
I'm not here to make friends, there are certain experts that say, what I just said which is vulnerable people protection and save lives by also opening up society safely. And there are other experts that say things like, no, you shouldn't wear masks, yes, you should wear mask.
So hey, a mask is better than a vaccine or some other expert might say, no, you shouldn't wear mask and then change to yes, we should wear mask then. Oh, everyone should wear goggles. You're not going to hear me say that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: If you listen to that Brian, A he says quite plainly, I'm not here to make friends, but he's mocking Dr. Redfield there at the end. And so, he's clearly not interested in making friends.
STELTER: I am not here to make friends is a reality TV trope. That's what you hear on Survivor or Big Brother. You are not supposed to hear it at the White House coronavirus Task Force, although that was disturbing on Atlas's part talking in that way. The inescapable truth of this situation is that Trump does want to hear from voices that are downplaying and denying the threat of the pandemic.
It still happening every day, it's hearing those voices downplaying it every day from his friends on Fox. So it's not a coincidence that Atlas is there on Fox as well. And my take away from that sound bite John is just the way it was so confusing, he is throwing up all this confusion, talking about different people making different recommendations. Public health communication 101 says be consistent, be clear, be calm
and that's not what we are getting from the White House Task Force with Atlas there as the outlier.
KING: Right. And this public messy debate sends mixed signals to people--
STELTER: Mixed signals.
KING: --very important time. The numbers on the - I need to explain them. Just look at them, 7.1 million cases 205,000 dead Americans. Brian Stelter excellent reporting, thank you for sharing it with us
STELTER: Thanks.
KING: Up next for us in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, New York City schools are reopening for elementary students today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
