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Trump Says, We've Done a Great Job Handling Pandemic; Far-Right Group Celebrates Trump Debate Shout-Out; NFL Postpones Titans Vs. Steelers Game After COVID Outbreak. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired September 30, 2020 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: The president last night insisting that the presidential debate he has done a great job when it comes to the coronavirus. You see the numbers on your screen, more than 7 million infections in the United States, more than 200,000 deaths. The president says that's a great job.
Where are we now? That's another question as we move close to Election Day, and we are still in trouble when it comes to the coronavirus. The orange and the red means more new infections from last week compared to the data from last week, 27 states, more than half of the states now heading in the wrong direction, reporting more new infections now than a week ago.
If you look at the death trends, we have 19 states reporting more coronavirus deaths this week compared to last week.
[11:35:06]
And just to point, you see a lot of green out here in the west here, and that's where a lot of the cases are out here in the west. And often, there's a couple of week lag, more cases now tends to mean more deaths later. Let's hope that's not the case, but you still have 19 states trending in the wrong direction when it comes to deaths.
Let's look at the overall trends. Yes, we are down from the peak of the summer surge, but look at this, it's either trickling back up or maybe in a plateau yesterday, back above 42,000 new infections, above 40,000 new infections again yesterday. The United States on average the past week plus averaging more than 40,000 new coronavirus infections a day. It was down to 20,000 before the summer surge, got up around 70,000 and now back, but still that's around 40.
As this plays out nationally, different states, different policies, California among the states easing restrictions, it's holding steady right now. Nevada and Wyoming easing some restrictions even though their case count is heading up this week. Florida right now going down, easing some restrictions. We'll watch the data for the next few weeks. And in New York, some restrictions being eased at the moment even though it has done well in recent weeks, its case count going up at the moment. We all remember the history, New York one of the first states up the coronavirus hill, nearly 500,000 cases, more than 33,000 deaths.
But in New York City, restaurants can now reopen in-room dining, inside dining at 25 percent, excuse me, capacity. The mayor says do this, but be careful.
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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY): Look, if we see the kinds of violations that create problems, like employees not wearing a mask or a violation of the 25 percent limit, if a restaurant has more than 25 percent capacity, whether it's diners or where we see alcohol being consumed in bar, those are the kinds of things that will lead to immediate summonses.
And, again, we want to have a situation where everyone follows the rules and no one is penalized. We certainly don't want to see any restaurants shut down.
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KING: CNNs Alexandra Field joins us live now. It's a big day in New York. You heard the mayor there, though he sounds a little nervous.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly. Look, and you see there are strict protocols that are in place and certainly the expectation that people are going to have to follow those protocols if they want the lifting of restrictions to continue.
I mean, John, frankly, it is astonishing to think that in a city that is known as much for its restaurants, its food, its nightlife as anything else that people have not been eating indoors for the last six months, really. That changes today with the strict new rules in place.
Will people go back inside? Well, that question was put to the mayor himself. Here is how he answered it.
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DE BLASIO: My outdoor dining experiences have been amazing. I'm going to keep doing that for the foreseeable future and then, of course, shift to indoor when the outdoor isn't as prevalent because of the weather.
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FIELD: John, we've got to underscore the fact that this easing of restrictions in New York, this milestone in New York is happening at a time where officials are very much aware of a cluster and they are working very hard to defeat that cluster, which is driving up the case count in certain parts of Brooklyn and in Queens.
For the first time in months, we had seen the city's positivity rate go over 3 percent a day ago. It is back under 1 percent today. The seven-day rolling average, which is the number that we really care about, is at 1.46 percent. That in and of itself is not really an alarmingly high number but certainly it indicated the fact that there was a problem in certain neighborhoods.
The mayor has said that thousands of people have been deployed, including public health officials and also police officers, to increase the distribution of resources like masks, like availability of testing in the neighborhoods that have been the most heavily affected. We're talking about a handful of zip codes where they're really seeing these clusters of cases.
Interestingly though, John, the mayor is saying that there doesn't seem to be a correlation with the schools in those neighborhoods. They're not seeing an uptick in cases at the schools. That's the silver lining here. But, certainly, they are taking this pretty seriously.
KING: That's an important silver lining. Let's hope it stays that way. Alexandra Field, I'm grateful for the live reporting. A big day in New York City, and we'll keep an eye on that one.
Up next for us, back to the debate, the Proud Boys, the far-right group that got a name drop during last night's debate, well, how are they reacting to the president?
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ENRIQUE TARRIO, CHAIRMAN, PROUD BOYS: We're a drinking club with a patriot problem. As Proud Boys, I think, our main objective is to defend the west.
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you here to get in fights with Antifa?
TARRIO: Absolutely not.
REEVE: But you are sort of dressed in the aesthetics of political violence?
TARRIO: Aesthetics and actually what we are is two different things. We are all wearing gears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who needs a shield?
REEVE: It just seems like every time there is a Proud Boys event, it ends with some people getting beat up.
TARRIO: If our mere presence causes people to want to commit acts of violence, and we're not afraid to defend ourselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: A glimpse there at a Proud Boys rally, that in Portland, Oregon, last weekend. The all-male right-wing group is labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Proud Boys dispute that label. But the organization is banned on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram because of its hate speech.
[11:45:01]
Last night though, a name check at the presidential debate, as President Trump refused to speak clearly and directly when asked if he would condemn white supremacists.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody has got to do something about Antifa and the left.
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KING: Stand back and stand by, immediately celebrated by the Proud Boys as a presidential call to action.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan joins us now with more. Donie?
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, John. Yes, that's right. These members of this violent right-wing group, the Proud Boys, taking the president's words last night really as an endorsement, seeing this as the president calling on them to help him.
I want to show you, John, some of the messages that the group were posting online right after the president appeared to praise them last night. One shows the Proud Boys' logo with the president's words, stand back, stand by, emblazoned across just like a slogan.
Now, this group is posting messages all over social media and messaging forms that are lesser known and that's actually because Facebook, back in 2018, identified this group as a hate group and banned it from its platform.
I want to show you also what the head of the Anti-Defamation League said about this last night, the head of the ADL. He said, it's astonishing that when asked a simple question, will you condemn white supremacists, POTUS responded, the Proud Boys can stand back and stand by, trying to determine if this was an answer or an admission. POTUS owes America an apology or an explanation now.
And, John, you and I talk a lot about Facebook's failures in many ways in the political context and how it stokes hate in the U.S. Facebook does do a whole lot around. But, obviously, in this case, they have taken action on this group for quite some time. And I think this underscores one of the big problems here, even when a company like Facebook tries to step up to the plate, identifying this group as a hate group, taking action against him. You have the president of the United States on the biggest stage in the world giving that group a shout out. John? KING: Giving that group a shout out is right. Donie O'Sullivan, I appreciate it there.
I just want to note, our reporters are asking Tim Scott. He is the only black Republican senator in the United States Senate to comment about this. And he said, first, he thought the president misspoke. He also said, I've already sent my comments to the chief of staff. So, Senator Scott clearly pressing the White House to get the president to try to clear this up.
Donie O'Sullivan, again, I appreciate it very much.
Up next for us, how the president and Joe Biden tried to sell their economic records on the debate stage and what the facts tell us.
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KING: Both candidates trying to sell their economic ideas last night at the debate, this as the country, of course, struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans fact checks the president and Joe Biden on jobs, the GDP and the prospect of recovery.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John, the president, true to form, is rebranding the coronavirus recession, ignoring the virus in our midst, declaring the U.S. is open for business.
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TRUMP: We closed it down and now we're reopening and we're doing record business. We had 10.4 million people in a four-month period that we've put back into the workforce. That's a record the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.
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ROMANS: We've never seen that before because we've never seen anything like the crash that came before it. Yes, more than 10 million jobs came back from May to August but the economy is still down 11.5 million jobs. The recovery is losing steam.
And the pandemic puts Trump in a jobs hole, down 4.7 million jobs since he came into office, of course, that's because of the virus. But even before coronavirus, job creation in the first three years of Trump trailed the last three years of Obama.
But Trump's sales pitch is, before the pandemic, it was greatest economy in history built by him. Truth is the recovery was under way before he took office. Tax cuts in 2017 gave a temporary lift to GDP but it never reached the 4 percent growth he promised.
The president made this claim while attacking Joe Biden's record.
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TRUMP: They said it would take a miracle to bring back manufacturing. I brought back 700,000 jobs, they brought back nothing. They gave up on manufacturing.
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ROMANS: This is false. It was not even true before the coronavirus recession. His trade war last year led to a manufacturing recession. As of August, 237,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost under Trump. John?
KING: Christine Romans, thanks for that. And for the latest market news, check out Markets Now streaming live 12:45 P.M. Eastern only at CNN Business.
Coming up for us next, an NFL Sunday game now postponed because of the coronavirus.
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[11:55:00]
KING: Breaking news this hour, and it is confirmation of how the coronavirus disrupts everything. The National Football League announcing it must now postpone Sunday's contest between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tennessee Titans. That move coming after at least four Titans players tested positive for COVID-19, including a starting offensive lineman. The NFL says it will share details next week about when and how it plans to reschedule that game.
Welcome to top of the hour. Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy news day with us.
America is a global laughingstock today thanks to its president who ignored the rules, the facts and common decency in a campaign debate that was full of interruptions and rants but short of desperately needed discussions about problems, like coronavirus pandemic, the economy and the nation's racial reckoning.
President Trump is trailing in his bid for re-election and his frustration was bared to the world for 90 sad minutes as he and Democrat Joe Biden shared the stage for what was supposed to be a debate, but instead was a debacle.
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Yes, both men tossed insults.
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BIDEN: He's a racist and the worst president America has ever had.
