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Trump Launches Racist Attacks Following Failure to Condemn White Supremacy; Presidential Debate Commission Will Change Rules for Presidential Debates; Twenty Seven States in the U.S. Report Increases in New COVID Cases; Wisconsin Reports Record Deaths and Hospitalizations As COVID Cases Surge. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired October 01, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: At a Minnesota rally, he took aim at Ilhan Omar who fled Somalia at the age of 8 yet is and long has been a citizen of this country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What -- what is going on with Omar? I've been reading these reports for two years about how corrupt and crooked she is.
(CROWD CHANTS "LOCK HER UP")
TRUMP: Let's get with it. Let's get with it. How the hell -- then she tells us how to run our country? Can you believe it? How the hell did Minnesota elect her? What the hell is wrong with you people?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: What you didn't see there largely is the very diverse makeup especially of the Twin Cities in the district that Ilhan Omar represents, and it's notable that this comes just as the Trump administration informs Congress that it intends to accept only 15,000 refugees this fiscal year. That is a historic low for the country. They are calling it a move to, quote, "prioritize the safety and well-being of Americans."
Also questions this morning about the message the president is sending by seemingly defying his own COVID task force and planning rallies. Two of them this weekend in Wisconsin which is seeing a record number of deaths and hospitalizations. So right now they have the third highest rate of new cases in the country, in Minnesota. The task force is calling for increased social distancing in the state. That is not, though, stopping the president.
We'll get there in a moment. Let's begin, though, with that rally in Minnesota last night. Our John Harwood is outside at the White House.
Good morning, John. JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. You
know that open appeal to racism that we heard from President Trump at that rally last night, it was all the more striking because it had followed the controversy that was generated by his remarks at the debate on Tuesday night when he refused to condemn white supremacy.
Now he -- then in the White House driveway before leaving for Minnesota, he tried to back away a little bit but it still was not an explicit and emphatic condemnation of white supremacists. He said he didn't know who the Proud Boys were. That followed a backlash in a mild way from Republicans on the hill who are made uncomfortable by the president's remarks at the debate and they had this to say to reporters yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): I think he misspoke. I think he should correct it. If he doesn't correct it I guess he didn't misspeak.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I want to associate myself with the remarks of Senator Tim Scott. He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists and so I do so in the strongest possible way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARWOOD: Now obviously they did not condemn President Trump for his remarks. They backed into it that way. And there's a reason for that. Because the Republican Party just like President Trump is locked into a strategy and has been for decades of almost exclusively appealing to white voters. Republicans have not gotten as much as 20 percent of the white vote for more than a half century, and President Trump makes it embarrassing for them because he's not subtle and he's more explicit in what he does.
But this is a road that the Republican Party has been driving down for a long time to try to squeeze as many votes as possible as they can from whites, even though whites are a declining share of the American population.
And that's the path that they're following all the way through this election. It does not look like it's paying off for the president right now. It's turning off a lot of those college educated white voters but that's the path the Republican Party is on.
SCIUTTO: John Harwood, good to note that. Thanks very much.
Joining us now, "Washington Post" White House reporter, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Politico White House correspondent and associate editor, Anita Kumar.
Thanks to both of you.
Toluse, the contrast between the president's -- a lot of words you could use for it, but milquetoast disassociation of himself with white supremacies on the White House lawn yesterday, then a very explicit attack, repeated attack and one he's done before against a sitting woman of color on Congress, Ilhan Omar. The crowd chanting lock her up. That contrast there, accidental or deliberate?
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's very deliberate. It's clear that the president knows how to condemn certain things. He knows how to disassociate himself from certain things. He knows how to be very expressive when he wants to express a displeasure with certain things. White supremacy, racism, it's not one of those things that the presidents wants to vocally and unequivocally condemn.
He's had multiple opportunities to do that and he always equivocates, he always sort of draws an equivalency between, you know, leftists and Antifa, and any other group that needs to be condemned.
There's never just sort of an explicit condemnation that does not sort of leave a lot of people wanting for more, and the president has made it very clear where he stands on these issues and his attacks on Ilhan Omar last night sort of allowing the crowd to whip up itself into chants of lock her up even with no, you know, actual crime that he's listening.
[09:05:11]
It's pretty clear that the president wants to run a race that's all about us versus them, and I think John put it pretty clearly that he's running a race based on white grievance, and trying to juice up turnout among his base which is overwhelmingly white by focusing on some of these cultural and divisive racial issues rather than trying to build a coalition that's diverse, that includes a broad swath of the country.
HARLOW: The assessment by Mitch McConnell that, quote, "I don't know if any of my colleagues who -- I don't know of any of my colleagues who will have problems as a result of that."
Anita, do we know or is this becoming much more of a gamble for Senate Republicans?
ANITA KUMAR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, POLITICO: I think it's a gamble. The mere fact that Senator McConnell made a statement, he didn't say President Trump's name but made a statement about white supremacy is indication enough. Right? A lot of times he will he'll ignore what President Trump says and not go there. But this time, he felt that he needed to go out there and say that. So did Senator Scott as we just showed. So did others.
I mean, you know, I know people will say that -- and Democrats will say, look, Republicans didn't come out there and really condemn President Trump and that may be true. They're walking this very fine line. He's the head of the Republican Party, but what he said is not helping them. And when you talk to Republicans that are close to people that are working to elect senators, House members, state legislators, governors all across the country, they say these statements don't help.
They want to expand the party. They have been trying to do that to, you know, people of color for, you know, years and years now. And every time the president says something like that it really hurts that effort for them. So they may not be saying it quite out loud, but they are saying it privately and they're trying to figure out what to do.
SCIUTTO: Toluse, you know this well given how many years you've covered Washington. With Mitch McConnell, the only thing more important to him perhaps than not stepping out of line with the president, who remains popular in the Republican Party, is maintaining his majority in the Senate here. Do those comments about white supremacy from Mitch McConnell, do they indicate to you that he sees danger for swing state or vulnerable Republicans from this line of attack from the president in -- on November 3rd?
OLORUNNIPA: Yes. Mitch McConnell realizes that his majority is at stake and he is willing to somewhat disassociate himself from the president and try to make that fine balance that Anita was talking about, try to save some of his vulnerable lawmakers.
A number of different states from Maine to North Carolina to Iowa to even Georgia where the president's low numbers especially when it comes to moderate voters and suburban voters, especially in light of the president's long-running divisive commentary on race, has made it harder for Republicans to win in places where frankly they should be winning just based on, you know, past history and demographics.
But Mitch McConnell realizes that in order to save his majority he needs to not have the discussion a month out of the election be about white supremacy. That is not the kind of message that he wants to be into November. He wants to be talking about the economy and the president is making it very hard for that message to pull through.
HARLOW: Anita, briefly listen to this other comment that the president made last night in Minnesota.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Another massive issue for Minnesotans, the election of Joe Biden's plan to inundate your state with a historic flood of refugees. Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp and he said that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Just not true. But it's notable that it comes, Anita, on the same day that the Trump administration is cutting the amount of refugees it will take in this fiscal year to a historic low. To 15,000. My question is, politically, what does that do for the president? Is it just pandering to a base he already has?
KUMAR: Yes. I mean, I think you're exactly right. But this has sort of been what the president has done, you know, this whole time while the Trump campaign has really tried these last couple of years to appeal to other parts of the country. Not just President Trump's base. They really have -- you know, they have these different coalitions, they're working for women, they're working for people of color.
What the Trump administration often does, the White House, the administration and the president himself is undercut that message. They undercut it both with what the president's statements as you heard, but they also undercut it with policy. And you can see this over and over again where it always seems to come back to energizing the president's base, where it really just doesn't go along with what the campaign is trying to do.
[09:10:01]
So I think you're exactly right. Here we are just a few weeks out from the election. People are already actually voting so the election has started. And he's still kind of goes back to what he has done for the last four years.
So will any of those efforts that his aides are making on the campaign side work? You know, we'll have to wait and see what those results are, but it really does look like what the president is doing and the White House is doing is very different.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And it's been consistent for years, we should note that.
Toluse, Anita, thanks to both of you.
Additional structure. That's a quote. That's what the Presidential Commission on Debates says it hopes to bring to future debates. You might call it the understatement of the century. The commission looking at changing the format for the remaining two presidential debates after what we saw on Tuesday.
HARLOW: Our Jessica Dean has been covering it. Jessica, good morning to you again. What kind of changes?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the big question, right, you guys, is what kind of changes will be put in place by the commission and just how enforceable and realistic are they going to be. We saw how President Trump just blew through any pleas from Chris Wallace to stop talking, to stop interrupting when it wasn't his turn. So the commission is now having these discussions. They say they want to ensure more orderly discussion in the next two debates.
Now keep in mind the next debate is actually a town hall format in Miami, Florida, in two weeks. So it will be interesting to see how that would play into it. But again, the commission making this announcement yesterday.
Here's what Vice President Joe Biden said about it on the trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just hope there's a way in which the debate commission can control the ability of us to answer the question without interruption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: He went on to say yesterday that he considered President Trump's performance in the debate a, quote, "national embarrassment." Now as for the Trump campaign they're reacting to these potential changes saying they don't like them, they don't want to change rules in the middle of the game.
But again, Poppy and Jim, it will be interesting to see what the commission decides to do moving forward. It certainly has to have more structure than it did this week. That just -- we all watched it, it certainly was not -- people were not able to hear anything or much of anything.
HARLOW: You're right. Jess, thanks for the reporting.
SCIUTTO: Yes, people want to hear those answers.
Still to come, how will what the president says affect the broader GOP? Is there concern within his own party about the upcoming election? I'm going to speak to a Republican senator, the number three Republican in the Senate, about the president's comments and the upcoming race and number of issues.
HARLOW: Also as Wisconsin sees a record number of hospitalizations from COVID-19, the president is planning two rallies in the state this weekend, despite his own White House task force calling those cities where he's holding the rallies red zones.
And a devastating day in the aviation industry. Airlines cutting tens of thousands of jobs today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:00]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. We've been watching the map closely and the number of states ticking up, at least 27 states now are reporting an increase of new coronavirus infections. See the red and orange states on the map, New York now has several clusters of outbreaks that have created hot spot zip codes there, the positivity rate in those areas about five times higher than the entire state.
That after New York had seemed to have this under control. Wisconsin is also seeing a surge, yet, the president is still planning on two big rallies there this weekend. CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez is in Green Bay, Wisconsin following these developments. Now, these are going to take the form as we've seen in a lot of these rallies. Recently, right at an airport, outdoors, but not socially-distanced and many people not wearing masks.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. And one of the major concerns is, we are coming off the single deadliest day we have seen for coronavirus in the state of Wisconsin since this pandemic began. And Wednesday, we saw a record number of hospitalizations just days after the state set a record for single-day cases here. Now, when you look back to mid-June, we had actually seen a steady increase in cases, a relatively steady one.
But then starting from September, early September to now, we saw an absolute spike, and specifically, the White House coronavirus taskforce citing Wisconsin as one of the highest rates of spread in the country, writing that during this high rate of spread -- during this intense period of viral surge, large numbers of acutely infected individuals caused exponential growth in infections.
Although, young adults are the most affected group currently, spread to other age groups is inevitable to the maximal degree possible, increase social distancing mitigation measures until cases decline. And based on conversations I've had with county officials here in Green Bay, they point to four factors as being the reason for some of the spread here.
One, they say COVID fatigue after more than six months of this. Two, just a disregard for health guidelines. Three, social activities that they have seen increased, and then four, just an inability to enforce the statewide mask mandate that is currently in place. Jim?
SCIUTTO: Goodness, we are seeing that fatigue in so many places, but boy, the threat is still there. Omar Jimenez, thanks very much. Poppy?
HARLOW: Well, pharmaceutical company Moderna says if their coronavirus vaccine is proven safe and effective, it could be available to the general population by late March or early April. With me now is former acting Director of the CDC and President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. Besser. Doctor, thanks so much for being here.
ROBERT BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: Good to be here, Poppy.
HARLOW: We can pick up on Moderna because, you know, they're saying they could file for an EUA, an emergency use authorization by November 25th for people deemed high priority.
[09:20:00]
What does that actually mean in terms of mass distribution to any American who needs it, and I should note, children? Because again, there have been no U.S. tests scenarios yet on kids with these vaccines.
BESSER: That's right. You know, when I listened to that statement by the head of Moderna, the key word for me is the "if". So, they're in the midst of their big trials to see if the vaccine is safe and effective. And we don't know the answer to that. And there are a lot of vaccines for different diseases that have gone into these trials and have not been found to be safe and effective. So, I would hold judgment on all of these products until those results --
HARLOW: Yes --
BESSER: Are in. What I'm really worried about, Poppy, is all of this belief that there would definitely be a vaccine and that it's coming soon. And when you see what's going on in Wisconsin, I think part of that is this sense that, we don't need to wear masks, the vaccine is about to ride in and save the day. And even if there is a vaccine, and that's that "if" word, the head of Moderna says it won't be widely distributed until the middle of next year, and your question about children --
HARLOW: Right --
BESSER: Is spot on. None of these vaccines will be licensed in children, the studies haven't been done. That's something that we'll follow after there's a point where there's a safe and effective vaccine for adults.
HARLOW: I didn't know that by the way until about a week ago when --
BESSER: Yes --
HARLOW: We had one of your peers on, and I don't think a lot of parents have been -- have been thinking about that. I just thought, oh, my kids are going to get it like when I get it. Let's talk about --
BESSER: Yes, exactly --
HARLOW: Wisconsin. So record hospitalizations there. Record deaths there yesterday from COVID. The third highest rate in the country. The health director there says they are a state in crisis and yet, the president is going to hold two rallies outdoors this weekend in two cities that his own taskforce says are red zones. I'm not going to ask you to opine on whether there's good judgment there or the politics of it, but I do want your assessment of the public health impact of that and what you think it will be.
BESSER: Yes, when you have a state in crisis or a city or a town where you're seeing increases in cases, what you want to see there is doubling down on the measures of social distancing, masks-wearing, testing, tracking, isolation and quarantine.
You want to see all of your political leaders on board wearing masks, modeling the behavior you want everyone to see. If you have a significant proportion of the population who is, again, not wearing masks because of fatigue or not wearing masks because they're believing a political narrative that there's nothing to worry about, you're going to continue to see a rise in cases.
And while young people may do relatively well with this, the disease doesn't say, you know, contained to young people. It's spread to others and other people who may be --
HARLOW: Yes --
BESSER: At higher risk.
HARLOW: OK, quick yes or no here before we move on. Can you get and/or spread coronavirus at an outdoor rally?
BESSER: Yes.
HARLOW: OK, well, the White House keeps saying, but they're outdoors. OK, but you have it indoors --
BESSER: Yes --
HARLOW: As well --
BESSER: Yes.
HARLOW: All right, and what about masks? The White House is not mandating masks. What would a mask mandate at an outdoor rally mean? How much benefit will that provide?
BESSER: You know, you can't put a figure on what the benefit is, but each of these measures, social distancing, hand washing, masks- wearing, being outdoors rather than indoors, those all contribute to prevention, and each step is really important.
You know, if you're crowded, you know, shoulder-to-shoulder outdoors and you're standing there for hours, now, there is risk involved there. You know, if you're 6 feet apart and you're wearing a mask, the risk goes way down. Those are small steps to take to be able to exercise your political freedoms. But without those steps, you're really putting, you know, people at the rally and others in the community at significant risk.
HARLOW: Finally, the op-ed in "The Washington Post" from seven former FDA commissioners saying the Trump administration is undermining the credibility of the FDA. This is the line that struck me. They said "the perception of political influence matters." Not just political influence matters, but the perception of political influence matters. What --
BESSER: Yes --
HARLOW: Can be done now when the perception is already out there?
BESSER: Yes, I mean, this is an issue for FDA. It's an issue for CDC where there will be enough episodes of true political interference that any of these other processes are going to be tainted. So, what you need to see is a message from the top, saying that we are going to keep hands off CDC and FDA. We're going to let them go through their normal process. There will be the external review committees of experts that will weigh in on this, and that we will only move forward with the vaccine after FDA or CDC make their judgments.
HARLOW: Dr. Besser, it's always good to have you. Thank you for the time this morning.
BESSER: Thank you, Poppy.
HARLOW: Well, as Congress still tries to iron out a new stimulus deal, following months of negotiations. One major industry has essentially run out of time. Two of the biggest airlines in the country set today to lay off thousands of people -- United and American.
[09:25:00]
SCIUTTO: Thousands losing their jobs and health care. And we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures up this morning, investors keeping a close eye on those stimulus talks, this as we learn that another 837,000 people in this country filed for first-time jobless claims this week. It's become almost old news, but those are real people with families. We're going to have more on this coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Well, we received this news this morning.
