Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Interview with Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian; Presidential Commission on Debates Considering Format Changes; Ohio Expands Eviction Court into Convention Center. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 01, 2020 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:30:00]

ED BASTIAN, CEO, DELTA AIR LINES: Well the industry first and foremost is an essential industry to our economy, to our nation. And we've had our people out working throughout the pandemic, providing really vital services.

At the time, we got the first CARES Act, we all thought we'd hopefully be in a better position relative to the virus than we are today, we're not. If we don't get the support from Congress, we will be required as an industry to furlough tens of thousands of workers.

Takes a long time in our industry to get people back up, trained in all the various categories. Plus also, very importantly, we're flying to a lot of small cities because of the CARES Act that were being provided, that otherwise would lose service. So you know, we're keeping our nation's infrastructure in place.

And hopefully in six months' time, we'll be in a better spot. We're not going to be through this virus, there's no question about that. But we'll at least be in a more stable position to start to see how the recovery is taking shape.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: I mean that's important, especially about the smaller cities, et cetera. Because in this memo you wrote to employees this morning, you wrote, "Unfortunately as of today, Congress has not acted to continue protection for airline employees."

There are some -- as you know, Ed -- who are restaurant owners, you know, venue owners who are going through dire times as well, and they are looking at the airline industry and saying, hey, they already got one package, looks like they're going to get another one. What about us? What do you say to them?

BASTIAN: Well you know, I can't -- it's hard to compare one industry to the next. I think that's the role of our national leaders, the restaurants, I completely agree. Our restaurants, our small business owners do have other packages and other opportunities to provide maintenance of their businesses.

But this is a tough time for all of us. And when you think about all of the training and all of the requirements and the skills in piloting an aircraft and maintaining aircraft, if you lay people off, it takes quite a while before you can get back up and running.

HARLOW: Of course.

BASTIAN: Restaurants, a little easier. But I'm not trying to compare it and put the airlines ahead of anybody else.

HARLOW: Ed, it just seems to me like testing -- rapid testing that is widespread -- could make such a difference in getting people to feel secure flying again. And I wonder, I know you've got this partnership, you've got CVS and the Mayo Clinic on rapid testing for your employees. United has announced they're going to offer some rapid tests -- at a cost -- to people going to Hawaii, American's sort of talking about similar moves. Is Delta going to be offering rapid tests soon for flyers?

BASTIAN: We will be, we're working on that. I don't know -- you know, Hawaii for example has got a 72-hour requirement to present a negative test in order to avoid quarantine when you get to Hawaii, that's a relatively new opening of an island. We already have that in place at several other islands in some of the smaller international markets we're flying to today.

But to get real scale going back across to Europe, into Asia, into South America, it's going to require -- two things, it's going to require testing, it's going to require tracing. The authorities are going to have to be able to have information as to transit from a tracing standpoint and a monitoring, if anyone came into contact with a COVID individual, they'd want to know, be able to notify everyone. I think tracing's real important. We're working on that also.

Antigen testing is coming to market, it's rapid, it's relatively low cost, certainly something that we're going to -- and we're working with the CDC, we're working with international authorities as to how to get some pilots up. Because what we need to do is we need to get a couple of these markets opened and then start to see how it works and what we can learn from it to open other markets.

HARLOW: Yes. But do you foresee a day when it is a condition to get on a Delta flight, you need to take a rapid COVID test? I mean, is there a day where that may be the case, six months, a year from now?

BASTIAN: I think internationally, it very well may be.

HARLOW: Wow.

BASTIAN: Either a rapid test, or evidence of a vaccine or some type of form so that everyone knows they've all been protected. And it's maybe not as important only to the people on the plane, Poppy, but really to avoid the quarantines.

The thing that's holding traffic back internationally -- and you know in New York -- are the quarantine measures. And no one is going to be flying to Europe in the spring if they're uncertain whether they can do anything or how long they have to stay --

HARLOW: That's right (ph). BASTIAN: -- or if they're able to enjoy their trip or conduct

business. So --

HARLOW: Ed --

BASTIAN: -- the testing is critical to avoid those quarantines.

HARLOW: -- what about masks? You have been so outspoken on masks, you've you know, banned 400-plus people from flying Delta again because they've refused to wear masks. And last time we spoke in July, you had communication with the White House, you talked to the White House, you want a national mask mandate.

[10:35:02]

Have you called the president or the White House again on that? Because the FAA could do it today. They could say anyone getting on a plane has to wear a mask.

BASTIAN: Yes, the administration has decided that they're not going to put in a mandate, and that's their decision. At Delta, we are mandating it. And --

HARLOW: So do you think it's the wrong decision?

BASTIAN: -- we have -- I'm not -- no, I'm not trying to criticize the administration. But I do think masks are essential. And you listen to the CDC, they'll tell you --

HARLOW: Yes.

BASTIAN: -- it's one of the most important forms of protection we can all have.

Fortunately on our planes, our team has done a great job. And what we have found over time here, Poppy, is that customers are policing that themselves. If someone gets on a plane and isn't wearing a mask, customers will speak to their fellow customer and say, hey, I need you to wear that to protect me.

So you know, I think as a society we're getting more comfortable with wearing masks. But we're enforcing it, there's no question about it.

HARLOW: Ed, if you had known back in February, early February, what we now know the president told journalist Bob Woodward about how contagious and deadly, and how COVID's spread, if you knew that on February 7th when the president said it, would things have changed for Delta? I mean, you mandated masks April 30th, among the first to do so. But I guess I'm asking, if you'd known sooner would you have done that sooner?

BASTIAN: If we had known, looking back, of course we would have mandated masks, we would have done a number of things.

You know, it's important to note that we stopped flying to China in late January. So while the president put his own restrictions in place, we had already taken our own steps to stop flying to China, stop accepting traffic from China a couple weeks earlier than that.

HARLOW: Right. Ed, final question to you. Last time on this program, we talked about the moves you'd made on race and diversity. And you said very candidly, we as a company need to do more on this, we need more black leaders. You said you were ashamed that more had not been done sooner.

And I know there have been a lot of steps you've taken since, and you've been really vocal about this in the company. And I wonder what your response is to this. Because in response just a few weeks ago, the chairman of Delta's pilot union wrote a letter to all of the pilots, and said that it's causing distraction and it's not something that Delta should focus on.

He writes, "Our company leadership has decided to weigh into many of the social issues of our society today... the discussion of these have (sic) no place in our workplace." What do you say to that?

BASTIAN: Well, I think there's two sides to that question. First of all, absolutely, when you're in the cockpit, we should not be talking about anything controversial of any -- the lack of distraction is critical, and our pilots are professionals and they manage that down.

But the reality is that we live in a big world, our society, and we have seen evidence that we can do better, we know we can do better and we are going to do better.

And while there may be parts of society that may take offense or take objection to -- and becoming maybe somewhat uncomfortable with the topics that we are discussing, racial equity, injustice, systemic racism are things that we know exist. And it's our responsibility as business leaders to take the steps we need to counteract them, to protect all of our employees, not just some of our employees.

You know, one of the things that I've been very transparent about, Poppy, is that we've got, you know, a pretty big disconnect between our top leaders in our company who are black and the number of employees that work at Delta who are black. We can do better than that, and we are going to do better than that.

HARLOW: Thank you for leading on this, Ed. Good luck.

BASTIAN: Thank you, Poppy.

[10:38:58]

HARLOW: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Welcome back. President Trump is claiming that Joe Biden will cancel the remaining presidential debates? That's not true.

HARLOW: Right. SCIUTTO: In fact shortly after Tuesday night's debate, the Biden

campaign publicly confirmed he is committed to participating. That's a fact.

HARLOW: Thank you for the important fact-check on that, Jim. What may be different though is how these debates look and how they sound, and if you can actually hear any answers, folks. The Presidential Commission on Debates says they're considering changes to the format after the first one devolved into chaos. Jessica Dean is following this story.

So Jess, what's going to be different?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know the exact specifics yet, Poppy and Jim, but we do know that the commission has said they have to make some structural changes, that they want to facilitate better conversation and that in order to do that they need to make some changes, so they announced that yesterday.

They said that once they make those decisions, they will be announcing them shortly. Listen to what Joe Biden said about the debate going forward on the trail yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I just hope there's a way in which the debate commission can control the ability of us to answer the question without interruptions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Now, Biden went on to call Trump's performance in the debate a, quote, "national embarrassment." For their part, the Trump campaign says they are adverse to any rule changes, they don't want any rules changing in the middle of all of this, Poppy and Jim.

[10:45:00]

But it sounds like they are coming, we're just waiting to hear exactly what the commission decides. And also, too, guys, think about this, how are they going to enforce this and make it happen? All questions that still have to be answered.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Jessica, the Biden campaign claims it had its best fundraising day of the entire race so far, just after the debate. One, is that true? Have we seen the data? And how does that compare to 2016 for Hillary Clinton?

DEAN: Right, so that is exactly what the Biden campaign is saying. These are massive numbers, Jim. I mean you guys know, you follow politics, you've covered it for a long time. That -- the Biden campaign said that it raised $21.5 million in the day after the debate, the biggest day they said that they've had. That's on top of $10 million that they said they raised from 9:00 p.m.

to 12:00 a.m. on the night of the debate. So that combined, about a little over $31 million in just over one day. And to give you a little perspective on that, that's more than Biden was raising in some entire quarters earlier in this race.

HARLOW: Wow.

SCIUTTO: Jessica Dean, we're getting close and --

DEAN: We are.

SCIUTTO: -- sometimes that money can matter in these races.

DEAN: Yes, yes.

SCIUTTO: Thanks very much.

Well, the new CNN original series, "FIRST LADIES," tells the remarkable story of six remarkable women who were second to none. "FIRST LADIES" premieres with an intimate portrait of Michelle Obama, Sunday night, 10:00 Eastern time, only on CNN.

HARLOW: In Ohio, a convention center is now a courtroom, hundreds of people every day fighting to save their homes because of COVID. You will want to see this piece, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[0:51:05]

SCIUTTO: Well, if you think the economic pain in this country is over, listen to these numbers it's just heartbreaking, 837,000 more Americans filed for first-time -- first-time -- unemployment last week, millions in total remain out of work. This of course because of the pandemic. Millions who have to figure out how to put food on the table, and crucially how to keep a roof over their heads.

HARLOW: That's right, millions with children. But for many, they're fighting to save their homes in this pandemic, and the problem is growing so much one city is using it convention center as an eviction court. Our senior national correspondent Kyung Lah joins us with more.

Now, you have been all over, shining a light on these evictions. What is happening here?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well four weeks ago, Poppy and Jim, the CDC eviction moratorium went into effect -- a national moratorium. The intent is to keep people in their homes during this pandemic. But as we found, in Columbus, Ohio, that is not what's happening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH (voice-over): In Columbus, Ohio, the city convention center --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All rise.

LAH (voice-over): -- is now the courtroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're occupying this property?

LAH (voice-over): This space, chosen to socially distance crowds during the pandemic, 118 evictions are on the docket today. Among them? Umu Conteh.

UMU CONTEH, FACING EVICTION: I work in the nursing home. When I get infected with the COVID.

LAH (voice-over): Conteh says she contracted the virus in June at the nursing home where she worked. The U.S. resident, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, was out of work for two months. She's now working as a home health care aide, making $12 an hour. It's not enough to pay the rent she owes.

CONTEH: They gave me 30 days. I'm just thinking about my kids, where did (ph) I go with my kids?

LAH (voice-over): Everywhere you turn, a different face shares an economic plight that landed them here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why did you do that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For nonpayment of rent.

LAH (voice-over): Cases filed against tenants despite a national moratorium on most evictions until the end of the year.

LAH: The public often things a moratorium means nothing's happening. Is that the case?

MELISSA BENSON, LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF COLUMBUS: Absolutely not here, and I don't believe in any other places at this point. There are cases being filed every day, still.

LAH (voice-over): The Legal Aid Society of Columbus says most tenants don't know about the moratorium or how to get the federal protection. In Columbus, financial aid and pro bono lawyers sit on the wings of Magistrate Kirk Lindsey's eviction court --

KIRK LINDSEY, MAGISTRATE, FRANKLIN COUNTY MUNICIPAL COURT: These are certainly unprecedented times from my perspective.

LAH (voice-over): -- working to get that moratorium information to tenants like the Turner family.

SHAYLYNN WEBB, FACING EVICTION: I'm sorry. Yes. It's just scary for her because this is like our first apartment, like we're new, really, to the adulthood.

LAH (voice-over): They're new parents, afraid to comfort their 8- month-old daughter in the public air in the pandemic.

RODNEY TURNER, FACING EVICTION: Everything was going so perfect until it just wasn't, you know?

LAH: Both of you lost your jobs?

WEBB: Yes.

TURNER: Yes.

LAH (voice-over): That was in March. Rodney Turner just got a new job two weeks ago, but they're months behind on rent.

WEBB: It's just really overwhelming. And it's scary because we don't know, you know, what's going to happen in there. They could saw we've got to move out in a week, and we don't know.

LAH (voice-over): The tenants we meet today won't know if they can stay in their homes until yet another court appearance next week. Umu Conteh heads home.

A single mother, the health care worker asks friends to care for her children day to day, while she cares for the elderly.

CONTEH: This is Ramatu (ph), that is Khadijah (ph). It's my daughter.

LAH (voice-over): She is grateful for her small home.

CONTEH: My apartment is nice, as you can see.

LAH (voice-over): She just needs to find a way to stay.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[10:55:00]

LAH: And last week in Columbus, Ohio, according to the court, eviction filings for that week were the highest that they have been since the pandemic began.

And something else, Poppy and Jim. Jim, you were just talking about those unemployment numbers? The people in our story are employed, they're newly employed, they're part of the economic recovery. They're just behind in their bills, so that's something to keep in mind as you look at this data coming out.

SCIUTTO: You wonder where homelessness starts? It starts in that courtroom there, right? For many families. Kyung Lah, we're so glad to have you on the story.

HARLOW: Yes. Thanks, Kyung.

Thanks to all of you for joining us today, we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

[11:00:00]