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Trump Tax Report Raises National Security Concerns; Coronavirus Deaths, One Million Worldwide; Trump Biden Debate Tonight; NY Times Report Exposes Trump's Tax Avoidance; Glass Fire Threatens Napa Valley and California Wineries; Controlling COVID in Syrian Camp; Beijing Asks Importers to Avoid Frozen Food from Hotspots; Democrats Prepare for Trump to Challenge Results. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 29, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause. Good to have you with us.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM.
What does the president owe and to who does he owe it? The national concerns which have been raised by that bombshell reporting by the "New York Times."
One million people worldwide dead. And warnings the coronavirus will take many more lives as the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter.
And how the coronavirus made life even worse in one of the most miserable, wretched places on the planet. No healthcare, no running water and in the middle of a civil war.
Thirty-five days before Americans elect their next president and serious national security concerns have been raised about Donald Trump.
Part of the extensive reporting by "The New York Times" has revealed the president is under huge financial pressure with hundreds of millions of dollars in loans he personally guaranteed due within the next four years.
House Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi is among many asking to whom does the president owe this money and to which country.
House Republicans meantime have called for an investigation into how "The New York Times" obtained nearly 20 years of documentation relating to Trump 's tax returns.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins begins our coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's totally fake news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As President Trump is lashing out over a damning New York Times report about the dire state of his finances, his aides are claiming it's a last-minute hit job before the first debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We've seen this play out before where there was a hit piece about the president's taxes just before a debate. An inaccurate one at that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN MORGENSTERN, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The president has paid lots of taxes. But the point is that why would anyone pay more than they owe?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Neither his staff or the president have provided any documents to refute what :The New York Times" is reporting. Including that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, despite the millions that he earned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Actually, I paid tax. But -- and you'll see that as soon as my tax returns -- it's under audit. They've been under audit for a very long time. The IRS does not treat me well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: That number not only pales in comparison to most Americans but also to past presidents who all paid tens of thousands of dollars in federal taxes.
Because of the massive losses, the report says Trump paid no income tax at all in 11 of the 18 years of documents they obtained.
When he did pay taxes, he reduced what he owed using questionable measures including a nearly $73 million dollar tax refund now the subject of an IRS audit.
It turns out that Trump's best known properties drained the most money.
He's lost around $315 million on his golf properties over the last two decades. Including on Trump National Doral near Miami where the president tried to host the G7 Summit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I don't need promotion, OK? But I was willing to do this for free. And it would've been the greatest G7 ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The report also shows Trump made more money than previously known from foreign governments including during his time in office. And used tax deductions for so-called business expenses that most people would consider personal ones.
Like $70,000 in hairstyling while hosting "The Apprentice."
But perhaps what could be most damaging from the reports is what's to come.
The Times says an enormous amount of financial pressure is facing Trump because hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that he is personally responsible for will be due within the next four years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: This president is the commander in chief. He has exposure to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. To whom? The public has a right to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Now the president says he was not contacted for request for comment for that New York Times investigation though his attorney was on the record in this story.
And he later the next day did not answer questions from reporters at the White House about the state of his finances.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN. Traveling with the president in Cleveland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining me now from St. Paul, Minnesota, former White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter.
Mr. Painter, it's good to see you. Thank you for taking the time.
RICHARD PAINTER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ETHICS LAWYER: Thank you.
VAUSE: OK. For me, (inaudible) this seems there are two threads running through this story. There's the political fallout, a lot of the detail like a $70,000 deduction for his haircuts, and claims by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen like this one.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER LAWYER TO DONALD TRUMP: He showed me what he claimed, a $10 million IRS tax refund. And he said that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving someone like him that much money back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:00]
VAUSE: That's the political side. Then there's the national security risk of a sitting U.S. president more than $400 million in debt.
And according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- I'm sure you know a little bit about -- he's amassed more than 3,400 conflicts of interest whilst in office.
So let's start with the very simplistic question here. How could Trump ever receive national security clearance with this sort of financial record?
PAINTER: The only way that Donald Trump has national security clearance is having been chosen by the electoral college to be president of the United States. He did not get the popular vote, he was chosen by the electoral college.
Otherwise, he would never have gotten a security clearance. You cannot have someone with this much debt in a position where they are entrusted with classified information. He has massive amounts of debt.
And furthermore, we have no idea who he owes it to. And some of this is Deutsche Bank's, other banks. But we have no idea who's actually taking the risk. Because a lot of these banks go get other people to guarantee the money.
So it could be someone in Moscow or Saudi Arabia, we have no idea.
All we know is that the president of the United States is in debt for hundreds of millions of dollars to persons unknown and the debt will come due within the next few years. That's a very precarious situation.
And (inaudible) someone in that situation be given a security clearance and entrusted with classified information. It makes absolutely so sense.
VAUSE: So here's the thing. There's always this assumption that this stuff would come out during the course of an election campaign. It didn't.
Should there be now a legal requirement for anyone running for president in this country to at the very minimum release their tax returns and also maybe go through a security clearance?
PAINTER: Well, absolutely. There should be a requirement that basic financial information be disclosed. There is a form 278 that's filed by the presidential (inaudible). But it does not report disclosure of what is in the tax returns which is what is going on at the corporate level with all these entities that Donald Trump owns, how much money is owed, to who is it owed and the basic cash flows coming in and out. And that's nowhere in his financial disclosure form.
It is in the tax forms, some of it. And that's why he won't disclose the tax forms. He doesn't want people to know first of all how little taxes he pays but also how much money he owes to other people. Hundreds of millions of dollars.
And that is something that American voters have the right to know.
VAUSE: Remember when Trump said a couple of years ago he's transferring ownership of his company to his two sons? Here it is, just as a reminder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: These papers are just some of the many documents that I've signed turning over complete and total control to my sons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So it turns out that promise was worth as much as the blank pieces of paper on which it was not written. Trump has continued to run his company, he's been earning tens of millions of dollars from foreign countries.
Isn't there something in the constitution about that? A clause perhaps that says a president shouldn't be doing that?
PAINTER: Well, absolutely. And he never turned ownership over to his sons, he simply turned control over to his sons. So his sons could go around the world collecting money for him. But he owns the companies.
And the clause of the constitution, the so-called emoluments clause, which prohibits a person holding a position of power with the United States government from receiving any profits and benefits from foreign governments or entities controlled by foreign governments including sovereign wealth funds and government-controlled banks. And some of these oligarchs who are close to positions of power might very well have money covered by the emoluments clause.
Once again, we have no idea what Donald Trump is getting because he won't disclose the basic information.
I did bring a lawsuit on behalf of CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, when I was the vice chair of CREW against Donald Trump under the emoluments clients. That lawsuit is proceeding after a ruling in our favor by the Second Circuit. There are two other suits under the emoluments clause.
And the United States House of Representatives we hope is investigating these unconstitutional, illegal payments that are almost certainly being received by Donald Trump through the Trump organization.
VAUSE: Very briefly. We're almost out of time, Richard. But the Biden team has been quick to use this new information, these new revelations in its latest campaign ad. Here's part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(Ad Captions)
Typical Income Tax: Registered Nurse
$10,216
Federal Income Taxes Paid: Donald Trump $750
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The point's pretty clear. That Donald Trump has paid far less than the average American.
But is this the sort of scandal which will impact that small group of still undecided voters who could determine the outcome of the election? Because it seems pretty clear it won't impact his supporters in any way.
[01:10:00]
PAINTER: Well, it should impact every American. We do not want a president who is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to persons unknown. We also don't want a president who is fundamentally dishonest.
And if he could come up with a way to pay $750 worth of taxes in 2017 while calling himself a billionaire, something's wrong. He's not paying enough.
And he's played all sorts of games; tax evasion, tax avoidance, avoision which is half illegal evasion and half avoidance. But bottom line is this is illegal, certainly dishonest.
And we shouldn't have a president who is in this situation. It's very dangerous, once again, to have a president to owes that much money and we don't even know who he owes it to.
VAUSE: Richard, thank you so much for being with us. This story obviously has got a long way to go but a very short time before the election.
Richard Painter, appreciate you being with us, sir. Thank you.
PAINTER: Well, thank you very much.
VAUSE: Trump's refusal to release his tax returns has been a long- running issue. It began more than four years ago during the last campaign.
His then Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, had a prescient warning then at the time.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, THEN U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes.
Because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license. And they show he didn't pay any federal income tax.
So if he's paid zero --
TRUMP: That makes me smart.
CLINTON: -- that that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, President Trump has repeatedly questioned his Democratic rival's mental capabilities. But here's the rub. If Joe Biden actually does well in the debate on Tuesday, that tactic actually backfires.
So now the Trump Campaign is warning Republican lawmakers not to underestimate Joe Biden.
But maybe that's because the president has actually done very little preparation for the debate while Biden has been resting and has been intensively preparing.
Arlette Saenz has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden and President Trump have sparred from afar for about the past year-and-a-half, but they will come face to face here in Cleveland for their first presidential debate, as they make their case to voters.
Each of these candidates preparing for the debate in their own way. Biden started out by reading briefing books and he's huddled with his top advisers as he prepares for what he describes will be personal attacks from the president.
Now the president has also been studying up on possible lines of attack from Joe Biden. He had Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie stand in for Biden at times during debate preparations.
One big question is how the story about the president's tax returns will play into this debate.
The Biden campaign eager to make this a campaign between Scranton and Park Avenue. Arguing that the president is only looking out for his own interests and not those of everyday Americans. And that this story about the tax returns amplifies that case.
Now this debate will look a lot different than past debates. There will be no traditional handshakes between the candidates as they take the stage. They will remain socially distanced.
The audience is a much smaller size and everyone on hand will be tested for coronavirus as the debate commission has adapted to this debate in the middle of a pandemic.
But later tonight, Biden and Trump will be on that stage, one on one for the first time after lobbing all those criticisms at each other, they will be making that case in front of voters.
Arlette Saenz, CNN. Cleveland, Ohio.
VAUSE: CNN's senior political analyst, Mark Preston, joins me now for more. Mark, great to see you.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, good to see you. Good morning, John.
VAUSE: Hey, mate. Look, Hillary Clinton, she must have this herculean level of self restraint to remain virtually silent now that so much of what she warned during those debates would happen has actually happened.
And throughout the debates -- I want to show you how Trump was able to sort of distract and confuse and muddy the waters. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Look, it's just not true. And so, please go to --
TRUMP: Oh, you didn't delete them?
ANDERSON COOPER, DEBATE MODERATOR: Allow her to respond, please.
CLINTON: Personal emails, not official.
TRUMP: Oh, 33,000? Yes, right.
CLINTON: Not -- well, we turned over 35,000. So.
TRUMP: Oh, yes.
CLINTON: It was --
TRUMP: What about the other 15,000?
COOPER: Please allow her to respond. She didn't talk when you talked. CLINTON: Yes, that's true. I didn't.
TRUMP: Because you have nothing to say.
CLINTON: And I didn't in the first --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
TRUMP: Yes. Because you'd be in jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: What we want to do is to replenish this --
TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.
CLINTON: -- the Social Security trust fund --
TRUMP: Honest Abe, Honest Abe never lied. That's the good thing. That's the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: There was also that very unforgettable moment when Trump was just lurking behind Hillary Clinton in that sort of ominous, menacing way.
He only has one playbook, the president. So I guess, what, will every chance he'll try this again. But will it be effective against Joe Biden?
[01:15:00]
PRESTON: Well, it really all depends on how Joe Biden responds to him.
To your point, Donald Trump really has one playbook. That's to be the bully, that's to be the interrupter, that's to try to steer the conversation away from the facts when the facts don't support his argument.
And we will see that this week when they face off.
Now it all depends on what Joe Biden does. Now Joe Biden is somebody who really embraces the old way, the old-school, the idea that Republicans and Democrats may fight it out on the senate floor but afterwards they go out and have a beer together.
Well, that doesn't exist anymore. And I think what you're going to see is Joe Biden during this debate is going to look across at Donald Trump and he's going to have to try to contain his anger. In fact, if I was Joe Biden, what I would do is I would do exactly
what Donald Trump just did to Hillary Clinton back in 2016. Keep on interjecting.
Not true, not true, not true, false, not true, not true, not true. Not true. And just do it dispassionately. That would drive Donald Trump crazy.
VAUSE: Well, for months, Donald Trump has tried to label Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe."
Over the weekend he tweeted:
"I'll be strongly demanding a drug test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to or after the debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I'll agree to take one also. His debate performances have been record setting uneven, to put it mildly."
On drugs could have caused -- "Only drugs" -- I should say only -- "could have crossed this discrepancy?"
But on Monday the Trump Campaign emailed Republican lawmakers and staffers, CNN got a copy of that. Here's the main takeaway.
It reads:
"Yes, Biden's alertness may be suspect. But do not underestimate his abilities in a debate. This may be where he shines."
VAUSE: Essentially because of his record. He's been doing this for four decades.
But is the dilemma here for the president -- for almost a year he's ridiculed the vice president, hinted at dementia and a whole bunch of stuff, he's too old for the job.
And now they're trying to like raise expectations for Biden. It seems like a hard circle to square.
PRESTON: Yes. But it certainly goes right into that Trump playbook to create chaos, confusion, throw a lot of information into the ether. And hopefully folks that are looking to connect with that type of information will do so.
So, for instance, the Trump folks won't concede that all along -- that they've been saying that Joe Biden is incompetent and he's illiterate, and he's a doddering fool. OK.
They're going to continue to say that because there's a segment of the population that wants to hear that and believes that. But there's also some other folks who may not necessarily believe that, that they're kind of on the fence and that's who Donald Trump's campaign spokesperson is speaking to in that quotation.
Does it make any sense, John? No, it absolutely doesn't make any sense. But again, it's all about chaos and just throwing out facts, throwing
things against the wall and hoping that they stick.
VAUSE: Well, there is a new topic, I guess, for this debate. And it will be the president's taxes after that "New York Times" story.
And on Monday Trump just wasn't taking any questions. He didn't want to talk about. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) financial information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, who do you owe hundreds of millions of dollars?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And that is the question. Who does he owe hundreds of millions of dollars to.
PRESTON: Right.
VAUSE: But here's the thing. Does Biden use this during the debate? Because it's a bit like when we find out the World Wrestling Federation was all fake. We knew it all along but we kept watching. Does this matter?
PRESTON: Well, it certainly doesn't matter to folks who support Donald Trump. They have dug in -- you and I have talked about this before. They have dug in on their support for the president.
But if Joe Biden can use it effectively to perhaps reach out to what we used to call Reagan Democrats which are really just conservative democrats; folks who may be Catholics, folks from the Midwest -- this type of democrat that perhaps Joe Biden can win back over.
Because he can say look it, Donald Trump has been lying to you all along. He doesn't even pay taxes; how many taxes have you paid? Oh, and by the way, do you have a job right now?
Because there are a lot of people right now that don't have jobs that look back at all the taxes that they paid last year and say, what's happening to me? What is happening to my family, what's happening in this country?
VAUSE: Mark, fantastic to have you with us. We really appreciate it.
PRESTON: Sure.
VAUSE: Mark Preston, CNN's senior political analyst. Thank you.
CNN will carry the debate live. Our special coverage begins 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time in the United States. And if you'd like to watch the debate but that event doesn't actually
suit with your schedule, we will replay the debate in its entirety 8:00 a.m. in London, 11:00 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong.
Set your DVRs. You may just want to watch it over and over again.
Well, it's taken nine awful tragic months, that's all, for this coronavirus to kill a million people.
When we come back, a warning. There will be much worse in the weeks ahead.
And for all those complaining about their life during this pandemic, we'll take you to a camp in Syria where thousands of women and children are living in appalling conditions, all made worse by the pandemic.
[01:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The relentless steady climb of lives lost to the coronavirus has just passed the one million mark worldwide.
That number is just what has been officially recorded during the nine months since the pandemic began.
We'll never know how many have really died. Just be certain it's likely many times higher.
The virus is still surging in the United States, South America and Europe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY HEALTH PROGRAMS: And, in fact, if anything, the numbers that are currently reported probably represent an underestimate of those individuals who have either contracted COVID-19 or have died as a cause of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE:. Well, last month, the White House announced a new rapid testing program, described it as a game-changer.
On Monday, the U.S. president announced the same program again. Which seems odd considering Trump wrongly believes that more testing causes more infections.
When this program begins, if it begins, 150 million tests will be distributed nationwide to try to contain an outbreak which is once again surging.
The nation's top infectious disease expert has warned a spike in new cases will most likely lead to a much higher death toll. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There are states that are starting to show uptick in cases and even some increase in hospitalizations in some states. And I hope not.
But we very well might start seeing increases in deaths.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More now on the pandemic in the U.S., where more than 20 states are once again seeing a troubling rise in transmission.
CNN's Alexandra Field has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It honestly looks like it's business as usual.
Pre-COVID Florida in a post-COVID world. Packed bars and restaurants all weekend in South Florida, just days after Republican governor Ron DeSanctis dropped virtually all coronavirus restrictions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR, MIAMI: I think it's going to have a huge impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: No more fines for people who refuse to wear a mask. The state's new daily case count has been well below its July peak for more than a month. But the positivity rate remains over 10 percent.
Across the country, new cases are on the rise in 21 states. In just the last few days, at least seven states saw their highest weekly averages for new cases.
With Wisconsin recording its highest single-day increase over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE PARISI, EXECUTIVE, DANE COUNTY, WISCONSIN: One of the biggest challenges we have is that some people just don't believe that this is a serious disease. Even to this day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: In New York, more than 1,000 new cases on Saturday, the most since June. A major cluster in Brooklyn and Queens forcing the city to decide whether to bring back restrictions in impacted neighborhoods.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.) VOICE OVER: It is very targeted and very focused in those clusters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: All this as the top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci says the White House is pivoting away from daily coronavirus task force meetings.
[01:25:00]
And as new task force member and top virus advisor to the president, Dr. Scott Atlas, was reportedly criticized by another top official.
"NBC NEWS" reporting that CDC director, Robert Redfield, was overheard on the phone speaking about Dr. Atlas on a commercial flight. Saying, quote: "Everything he says is false." And going to suggest that Atlas has provided the president with misleading data.
The CDC has responded with a statement saying Redfield and Atlas have different positions on those issues and agree on many other issues.
Dr. Fauci weighed in with this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: Most are working together. I think -- you know what [ph] the outlier is.
Alexandra Field, CNN, new York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider is an internal medicine physician at the California Pacific Medical Center and she is with us from San Francisco. It has been a while, thank you for joining us.
DR. SHOSHANA UNGERLEIDER, INTERNAL MEDICINE PHYSICIAN, CROSSOVER HEALTH, SAN FRANCISCO: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: I think we've seen this movie before in the United States. They start rolling back restrictions, everyone wants to get back to a normal life, let's go out and celebrate the holiday.
But this time we know the ending. And spoiler alert. The only difference now is that history tells us the death toll will be a lot higher. Why does this country keep making the same mistakes?
UNGERLEIDER: John, it's perplexing. The fact remains science is quite predictable.
Social distancing, hand hygiene and mask wearing are really the only tools that we have to combat COVID-19.
And when cities and towns lift restrictions too soon, as they are in many parts of America, and citizens start to let their guard down in terms of behavior, new COVID cases are spiking. Right?
Nationwide in the U.S., 21 states report new cases this past week compared to the previous week. So this is incredibly problematic as we head into flu season.
And those of us in the medical community in the public health world are scratching our head about what to do, aside from just reinforcing this information.
VAUSE: There seems to be two competing camps when it comes to dealing with this virus. There is, what, the logical, sensible advice from the scientific community about social distancing, mask wearing and handwashing.
And then there's the idea of herd immunity.
I want you to listen to the former director of the CDC, Tom Frieden, on the potential cost of herd immunity.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER U.S. CDC DIRECTOR: The only way to get to herd immunity in the U.S. without a vaccine is through the graveyards of hundreds of thousands of Americans who wouldn't have had to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So with the U.S. now heading into winter, at the same senior advisers in the White House possibly even the president himself supportive of herd immunity. They want to let the virus run free.
So put these two factors together. Winter, herd immunity, what does the outcome look like?
UNGERLEIDER: Well, actually there's been significant confusion about what herd immunity is. So it makes sense to first define it.
So this happens when enough people become immune to a disease to make its spread unlikely.
So there's actually two ways to achieve herd immunity; Through getting the infection or a vaccination.
So with herd immunity, the idea is that set chains of infection to get disrupted which stops or slows the spread of the disease, which is what we want, right.
So with COVID-19 since we don't yet have a vaccine, the discussion has really centered on herd immunity through natural or these community- wide infection ideas, which would require something like 60 to 75 percent of the population being infected.
This would come with a cost of millions of lives lost, a complete overwhelming of the health care system as we head into flu season no less. And this is not a viable option.
VAUSE: So everything that was warned about at the beginning of the year -- and that's why we had the shut downs and the lock downs -- would happen by a factor of something, I guess.
But one of the advisers we have at the White House reportedly supporting herd immunity is the president's favored appointee to the coronavirus task force, Dr. Scott Atlas. I say "Doctor," but he has no experience in infectious diseases.
CNN's Erin Burnett asked him about the Trump Campaign holding rallies, the president downplaying the dangers from the virus and not wearing a mask.
I want you to listen to this exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: We don't put them in prison for not wearing a mask. I'm sorry, I don't think he's going to be willing to do that.
And I don't think --
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: But he should -- he's holding a rally with them there.
ATLAS: -- and I don't think he's going to be willing to mandate a mask.
BURNETT: The bottom line is you're saying you do not think he needs to lead by example or stop holding these rallies, which go against his own policy. You think that that is OK?
ATLAS: I think the president does lead by example. I think he articulates the policy, I think he treats people like adults. I think he uses common sense. And I'm completely comfortable with the president's policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Are you completely comfortable with the president's policy? How exactly does the face-mask refusing president lead by example?
[01:29:39]
DR. SHOSHANA UNGERLEIDER, FOUNDER, ENDWELLPROJECT.ORG: I mean absolutely not, John. And I have say dozens of doctors and other faculty affiliated with Stanford, where Dr. Atlas used to be, you know, on staff actually wrote an open letter calling him out.
And I should point out that these are his own former colleagues who have no interest other than upholding the truth. And they felt compelled to let the American public know that Dr. Atlas has repeatedly spoken falsehoods and misrepresentations of science about mask wearing not being effective. We absolutely know that it is. That children don't spread COVID, or that herd immunity, right, is a viable option.
You know, Dr. Atlas, as you said, specialist in radiology, not infectious disease or immunology, which is, you know, pretty far from expertise in the area that he's advising on.
So you know, the big takeaway here is that President Trump is getting advice from a doctor whose views differ significantly from the scientific and the public health community and that is a huge problem.
And we are seeing a lack of clear, consistent science based messaging come out of the White House. And that's, you know, continuing to fuel this pandemic in this country.
VAUSE: Yes. We're out of time but it is interesting how Dr. Atlas' views -- everyone seemed to, you know, mend (ph) perfectly well with Donald Trump's misleading views about what this virus is and is not. Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, thank you very much for being with us.
UNGERLEIDER: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Up next, how could Donald Trump claim the $70,000 deduction for bad hair? Really? We'll have a closer look at a system which apparently allowed Trump to take massive deductions and not pay a dime in taxes for years.
And California's wine country is burning. The latest outbreak has tripled in size.
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VAUSE: The first of three presidential debates will be held in Ohio in the coming hours. And there will most likely be a new topic after that damning "New York Times" report on Donald Trump's strange finances. After calling it fake news on Sunday, he dodged questions about it on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you say anything about the tax returns, Mr. President? When are you going to release them?
TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, who do you owe hundreds of millions of dollars?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: New York Times lays bare Trump's manufactured image of successful businessman and billionaire winner. The reality according to "The Times" is he paid just $750 in income taxes in 2016, the year he won in the White House. The same amount next. [01:34:49]
VAUSE: Before becoming president, Trump paid no federal income tax at all in ten of the previous 15 years. And if he is reelected he will be sitting in office when hundreds of million of dollars in loans are due, raising question about what he might do as president to actually meet that debt.
Here's how much Trump's overseas ventures have paid in taxes the year he became president.
According to "The Times", in 2017 Trump overseas companies paid taxes of more than $150,000 in the Philippines. In India it was $140,000. Panama, the bill $15,000. But at least it was more than the United States.
Let's head to Abu Dhabi and CNN's John Defterios. I mean you know, this is all about tax code, which favors the wealthy, which favors the rich. It screws the lower income earners. I mean this is ridiculous.
I mean Trump, you know, he lost a lot of money. We know he gets to write it off. But I mean at the end of the day, is this the kind of thing that the base will look at and say good on him? Do they care?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, it is a great point, John because the base is very loyal. But I think there is a double whammy here for Donald Trump. What I mean here is kind of two different arguments to make with the base.
The base is the white working class primarily in the Midwest and the South. They have to struggle to get by and they have to pay taxes, right? As you're suggesting here, Donald Trump leverages the tax code because he has a lot of losses to accumulate and he deducts against those losses.
If you look at "The New York Times" examination, they go back 18 years. They say he didn't pay tax on 11 of those 18 years. And when he did pay tax it was extremely little.
The second part of that argument that I'm making here is that he pitches himself as the man with the Midas touch. He will solve the problem for the MAGA followers, the white working class of America by getting corporations to come back to the United States and set up. He will deregulate.
He did deregulate but he did not have the success when it comes to bringing companies back. The unemployment rate was low before COVID- 19. But you can't say he managed COVID-19 well. In fact, quite the opposite.
But how about the leverage he uses on the U.S. tax code. Here's Joseph Bankman who is a specialist on tax law at Stanford University.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BANKMAN, STANFORD LAW SCHOOL: He is spending other people's money right now as in the past. And our tax system allows that to happen tax free. So there is this enormous gap between the level of consumption someone like Trump can enjoy and tax he's paying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: And it is a whole industry in the United States, John, based on tax accountants, of course. The law firms that back it. It is the most complex in the world. And that is not a surprise to anybody else that pays tax in the United States like your good self, John.
The second side of it here is he loves his golf. But the golf courses lose a lot of money -- $315 million. And also, it raises another question. He's going to go in to 2021 with $100 millions of debt payments due. Would banks lean on a U.S. president to pay that debt or would he get a chance to stretch it out because he would be sitting in the Oval Office?
Serious questions I have never seen in my 30 years of covering of presidents. It's extraordinary. It's really out of the box in terms of the discussion.
VAUSE: Absolutely. I mean $70,000 has to be the world's most expensive combover.
We also hear Trump tweeting about Wall Street saying if he is not president, it's all going to collapse. If Joe Biden takes over its game over. What is the reality here?
DEFTERIOS: Well, again, I've been covering Wall Street in the kind of the city of London and overseas here following international markets. That is just not the reality.
And we can go to data from 1945 compiled by CFRA and my colleague Matt Egan who kind of combed through all that data.
Let's take a look at the reality of what happens when a Democrat's in office since 1945 average return is 11 percent. Under Republican presidents it's just under 7 percent. Not bad, not wide.
How about the first year in office, John? Democrats here a gain of 16 percent. And we see Republicans with a gain of less than 1 percent. So there is a scare tactic by Donald Trump, but again, he has cut taxes. That has worked for corporations, right? He has deregulated, but that does not work for Wall Street because they like growth and fiscal responsibility.
And you look at GDP, average GDP for the Democrat since 1945 is 4 percent a year and for Republicans 2.5 percent. So the tweets suggests something, reality is quite different, John.
VAUSE: John -- as is often the case, right John? Thank you, John Defterios in Abu Dhabi.
DEFTERIOS: Yes.
VAUSE: Appreciate it, thank you. Well, California's famous Napa Valley has been overtaken by one of the many wildfires burning across the states. The Glass Fire has ripped through vineyards and homes in the town of St. Helena, tripling in size since Sunday.
Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate. Some 70,000 now under mandatory evacuation. The fire has burned close to 15,000 hectares.
And north of Sacramento, the Zogg Fire has claimed at least three lives. It's being strengthened by winds, doubling in size overnight and has consumed more than 12,000 hectares. Firefighters have been unable to control either of these two blazes.
[01:39:57]
VAUSE: And California's fires have killed nearly 30 people since mid August and it's not even fire season when it began.
Well, there's growing concern about the spread of the coronavirus at a remote camp in war torn Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): World powers could not control this pandemic. How can we control it in a crowded camp?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Why some are accusing the international community of paying little attention and caring even less.
Plus a series of new virus measures are being introduced across Europe as the second wave gets worse.
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VAUSE: The World Health Organization has announced a new plan to provide tens of millions of quick and affordable coronavirus tests to some of the vulnerable parts of the world. The WHO says it will roll out $5 tests to more than 130 low-end middle income countries and in particularly hard to reach areas that lack health facilities and trained medical experts.
The Global Fund is providing $50 million to help countries purchase these tests with the first orders expected this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER SANDS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE GLOBAL FUND: Being able to deploy quality (INAUDIBLE) rapid diagnostic tests will be a significant step forward in enabling countries to contain and combat COVID-19.
They are not a silver bullet, but hugely valuable as a compliment to PCR tests since although they are a bit less accurate, they are much faster, cheaper, and don't require a lab. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: In a desolate region between Syria and Turkey, tens of thousands of people mostly women and children are crying out for help but it seems very few people are listening. They're living in appalling conditions and now dealing with this pandemic.
CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh, live now in Istanbul with more, Jomana.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, John, for -- you know, the entire world is dealing with this COVID pandemic, but a nightmare scenario for NGOs, for aid groups has been the idea of an outbreak in refugee camps. Overcrowded camps where it's going to be very difficult for them to control it so they've tried to shield these camps as much as possible from an outbreak.
And one country where there is, of course, a lot of concern is Syria where you don't have a real health infrastructure to deal with, where aid has been really slow to refugee camps.
And one of those places where there is a lot of concern and we're are now starting to see reports of confirmed cases according to U.N. agencies is the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. That, as you remember, is the camp where tens of thousands of women and their children including foreign ISIS women and their children ended up after the fall of ISIS' so-called Caliphate.
[01:44:46]
KARADSHEH: Now, while COVID hasn't really taken hold in the camp, the knock-on effect, the impact of the health crisis that it has created has been deadly especially for the children.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH: For its residents, this camp in a desolate part of northeastern Syria feels more deadly than the raging global pandemic.
There are things worse than COVID-19, these women from Morocco tell us. The problem is the camp itself and what it is doing to the children.
Shunned by the world in the Al-Hol Camp, an open air prison for those who once lived under ISIS' so-called counterfeit, the women say they're cut off from the outside world and know little about the virus.
CARIBBEAN, AL-HOL RESIDENT: If you hear something can take your life, you would be worried about it. But we are surrounded with death -- we are surrounded with death every day.
KARADSHEH: There has been at least two confirmed cases amongst residents so far. But in this overcrowded city-like camp, there could be more. Some aid groups have been providing support here, but the burden has
been largely left to the Kurdish authorities who are not equipped to deal with this on their own. They fear an outbreak would be catastrophic, almost impossible to control.
JABER MUSTAFA, AL-HOL CAMP CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATION: World powers could not control this pandemic. How can we control it in a crowded camp?
KARADSHEH: Medical access in the camp has plummeted with COVID-19 restrictions and as more and health care workers tested positive. Only 5 out of 24 clinics are still operational, nowhere near enough for the more than 65,000 residents, the vast majority of them, children.
For the youngest, the impact of the health care crisis has been deadly. Eight children all under the age of five died in less than a week from preventable illnesses like complications of malnutrition and diarrhea. But even that was not enough to push the international community to action.
It has always been a slow trickle to this place that many view as justified punishment for those who chose to join a terror group. And while some small repatriations have taken place, a larger-scale effort to take back the nearly 10,000 foreign ISIS women and their children has not.
CARIBBEAN: I want the world to sit and just think about what's best for the children and stop looking at us like a threat and as human beings. My government and international community please hurry up and take us the heck out of here.
KARADSHEH: Even this clinic that has stayed open can only provide limited care.
Jasmiya Mohammed says she has not slept in three days. Her two-month- old cries out in pain.
JASMIYA MOHAMMED, AL-HOL CAMP RESIDENT: This child is going to die and they're distracted with this corona. I brought my daughter here because she had diarrhea, and the doctors told me they have no treatment for her. We will all die if we stay like this.
KARADSHEH: Jasmiya says this miserable existence makes her long for life under ISIS.
MOHAMMED: It was definitely better than this life here in the camp. No disease infected us. Even when we were starving, it was much better than it is here.
KARADSHEH: As conditions deteriorate, as COVID-19 slowly spreads, perhaps the most lethal threat is the ideology left to fester in these fertile grounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH: And John, even before the pandemic, even before conditions worsened, Al-Hol has always been a really miserable place for children to grow up. And aid organizations for nearly two years now. It has been, you know, since March 2019 when you have that influx of humanity that arrived at the Al-Hol camp, aid organizations have been calling on the international community on western countries to take back their nationals, saying that this is not a place for children to grow up.
You have 42,000 to 44,000 children, they all are the vast majority of the population there and they are left in this camp pretty much paying for their parents' sins.
VAUSE: So what is actually being done in a place like this to stop, you know, COVID from spreading?
KARADSHEH: I mean John, we have spoken to health officials. We've spoken to the World Health Organization, and it really is a challenge as you can imagine when you look at this overcrowded place. They are trying to put some measures in place like separating the different parts of the camp, making sure the people aren't free to move around these different areas, restricting movement to the camp.
There are a couple of ventilators on site. They built an isolation center. There is some limited testing, but is usually used when people show symptoms.
But interestingly, one of the biggest challenges we have heard from camp authorities and from health officials at the camp is dealing with that issue of the ideology.
[01:49:45]
KARADSHEH: There has been no real deradicalization taking place at the camp, so you have got a situation now where they're trying to raise awareness about the pandemic, and they are faced with these women who are basically telling them that they are not concerned about COVID-19 because they are protected by God because they say they are the believers. And that God has sent COVID-19 to hit the nonbelievers.
So camp officials tell us awareness and dealing with these -- you know, with a radicalized population amongst the population in Al-Hol has been one of their biggest challenges during the pandemic, John.
VAUSE: It's hard to think of a situation that could get any worse than what's happening there right now.
Jomana, thank you. Jomana Karadsheh in Istanbul.
Right now, the virus is once again surging in counties where the outbreak was under control. An upward trend, for example can be clearly seen in Canada and parts of Europe right there on that graph.
The Netherlands is trying to reduce the rate of infection with a series of new restrictions including a curfew at bars and restaurants, limits on travel.
Canada's most populous province, Ontario, is warning of a more complex second wave after reporting a record number of cases on Monday. The U.K. is considering tougher restrictions as it deals with its own new second wave. From Wednesday, residents in parts of England will be banned from socializing with anyone from outside their household.
In France, the government says there are no plans right now to order another nationwide lockdown, even though infections and hospitalizations are soaring.
Well, Beijing has asked frozen food importers to stop shipment from COVID-19 hotspots after multiple shipments tested positive for the virus. Companies are being asked to improve early warning systems to avoid another outbreak.
More details now from CNN's David Culver.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in China, the Beijing City government is warning about frozen foods coming in to this country, calling on importers to avoid bringing in goods from coronavirus hotspots.
Beijing officials said the actions was necessary because customs and local authorities across the country have repeatedly detected the novel coronavirus on imported, frozen food. This, in their words, proves that cold chain foods are indeed at risk of contamination.
Now this also speaks directly to the concerns that have lingered here for some time, suggesting that the virus could transmit from food surfaces to people. Some had initially believed that to be the cause of a cluster outbreak here in Beijing back in June that started at a seafood market.
That in turn forced many people back into lockdowns. Also led to restaurants and markets purging their supply of frozen salmon. More recently this past weekend, China custom said that samples taken from the outer packaging of imported Russian seafood product in Shandong Province tested positive for the novel coronavirus. And on Friday, customs officials said the inner packaging of a batch of version fish from Brazil was also carrying the virus.
David Culver, CNN -- Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, still to come, here a looming legal battle in the U.S. and a big one. Democrats are working to counter a Republican plan, which would throw the election results into doubt.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody.
For weeks now, the U.S. President has been doing his best to throw the results of the U.S. election into doubt. His false claims about voter fraud or rigged elections now has the Democrats making their own plans to meet any challenge.
CNN's Abby Phillip explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the president continues to cast doubt over the legitimacy of an election that is just over a month away --
TRUMP: This is going to be a disaster.
[01:54:54]
PHILLIP: Democratic officials tell CNN an army of lawyers are preparing for a wide range of obscure election scenarios that Trump himself has floated, from sending law enforcement to monitor polls, to having the election decided in Congress.
TRUMP: We have an advantage if we go back to Congress, does everyone understand that?
PHILLIP: A disputed electoral college result could put the fate of the election in the hands of the new House of representatives elected in November with each state delegation getting one vote. Republicans currently have a 26 to 22 advantage.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ready for this possibility
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I had been working on this for a while. I've been working on almost every scheme he might have to steal the election.
PHILLIP: Sending a letter to her caucus urging them to focus on winning a majority of state delegations in November and flipping the Senate. Writing "We must achieve that majority of delegations or keep the Republicans from doing so."
Trump has also floated the idea of an election that's decided in the Supreme Court, like Bush v. Gore in 2000.
TRUMP: I think this will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it's very important that we have nine justices.
PHILLIP: One of the Florida judges at the center of that recount who sided with Bush to stop the count and has since retired, making his fears of Trump clear in a rare letter to colleagues, saying Trump is a threat to democracy and giving only one real solution.
CHARLES WELLS, FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE, FLORIDA SUPREME COURT: There will not be a problem if the Democrats win the Senate and Biden wins the presidency. The problem will result if there is continued to be a divide between the House and the Senate.
PHILLIP: Trump falsely claiming that voter fraud is rampant tweeting this morning. "The ballots being returned to states cannot be accurately counted. Many things are already going very wrong." But the president has been building the case against absentee ballots or mail-in voting for months, none of which is based on fact. Widespread voter fraud is largely nonexistent in the United States.
TRUMP: You could forget about November 3rd because you're going to be counting these things forever. And it's very dangerous for our country.
PHILLIP: But there are real risks for the election. The FBI issuing its latest election warning, this time about fake cyber attacks.
The cautioned the public to be wary of Internet claims of hacked voter data and compromised election infrastructure, things that manipulate public opinion and discredit the electoral process.
Today, courts in New York and Pennsylvania ordered the post office to stop policy changes that would slow down the mail. Echoing last week's settlement with the post office, forcing it to prioritize election mail.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Our thanks to Abby Phillip for that report.
Thank you for watching.
I'm John Vause.
My colleague Robyn Curnow takes over CNN NEWSROOM at the top of the hour.
You're watching CNN.
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