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Biden Campaign Reports Post-Debate Fundraising Surge; Trump Tries to Rewrite Debate Performance; CDC Predicts as Many as 232,000 Americans Dead by October 24. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 01, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:25]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thanks for sharing your day with us.

Money now pouring into the Biden campaign and to its Democratic allies. This just as a mini panic sets in among Republicans who think President Trump is making an already difficult campaign climate even worse.

The president heads soon to New Jersey -- to his golf club. His team is hoping it sinks in that his first debate performance was anything but the way he describes it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The verdict is in, and they say that we, we, all of us, won big last night. You know, Biden lost badly when his supporters are saying he should cancel the rest of the debates. Now I understand he's cancelling the debates. Let's see what happens. I think that's not going to be a good move.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Most alarming to Republicans is that the president punted both in Tuesday's debate and again yesterday when asked to clearly and firmly denounce white supremacism. The Republican worry is that the damage now ripples from the White House race through other competitive races.

They say money follows momentum in politics so consider this. Joe Biden had the best fund-raising day of the 2020 campaign yesterday pulling in more than $21 million. The Democratic nominee also had his busiest campaign day since coronavirus changed everything taking a train trip from the debate site in Cleveland across Ohio and into western Pennsylvania, simple math here. Simple math.

If Biden runs strong enough in blue collar communities like Alliance, Ohio and Johnstown, Pennsylvania then a little more than a month from now he will be president-elect Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A lot of white working-class Democrats thought we forgot them and didn't pay attention, and I think that's important that they know. I get it, and I get their sense of being left behind they've been. They know they have been screwed by Trump but they also, you know, they are not sure that is the old Democratic Party back and looking at them, listening to them. And so, I think it's important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Here's something else that is important and alarming. The coronavirus case count is up today. So, is the coronavirus death count, and 27 of the 50 states are reporting more positive COVID tests now compared to a week ago. The Centers for Disease Control now predicts as many as 232,000 Americans will be dead from this virus by the end of October, just days before Election Day.

And once again, the coronavirus in the campaign are on a collision course. Wisconsin is among the states hardest hit right now. The president's own White House task force is warning the state of Wisconsin, quote, of an "intense period of viral surge" and urging people in Wisconsin to practice maximum social distancing. The president though is once again ignoring both the data and his own team. The president's weekend includes back-to-back Wisconsin rallies.

Let's get straight to the White House and CNN's John Harwood.

John, the president publicly saying I won the debate. Joe Biden is on his heels. Publicly his aides support him but privately there's a lot of jitters, and even worse in the Republican Party right now.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's no question about it because you look at this polling, nationally hand into the battlegrounds, especially in those midwestern states that the president flipped to defeat narrowly Hillary Clinton in 2016. Those are -- have moved decisively against him.

You know, what we've seen from the president is first of all, on coronavirus, as you mentioned, strong determination to act as if the virus doesn't exist. We saw that in the debate when he disputed his -- the head of his vaccine project as well as Anthony Fauci. He's counting on a rapid vaccine breakthrough and ignoring the consequences in the meantime.

Second thing he's doing is doubling down on this strategy of appealing almost exclusively to white voters. We saw it throughout the summer after the death of George Floyd where his message was law and order above everything else, even when it was plain that the public had turned away from an exclusively one-sided message on justice issues and police community relations as it affects the black community. He did the same thing in the debate when he declined to condemn white supremacism.

Yesterday, he half-heartedly tried to act as if he was backing off. He had gotten some pressure from Republicans who found his comments too open and embarrassing as a result. But then at that rally last night in Minnesota he went with open appeals to racism in saying that Democrats want to turn Minnesota into a camp for refugees and going after Ilhan Omar who of course, is a United States citizen and a member of Congress.

[11:05:11]

This is the path that the Republican Party has been on for a long time, worked much better when white voters were 90 percent of the American electorate. Now it's down to 70 percent. It's gotten more difficult and it's especially gotten more difficult for the reasons you were just pointing to a moment ago, John.

Joe Biden, who is a bit of a throwback Democrat with a strong blue- collar identity himself is eating into those margins. That's not causing the president to change his strategy. It's causing him to intensify his strategy. So far not working.

KING: So far not working. John Hardwood, grateful live reporting from the White House.

Let's continue the conversation. With us to discuss, national political reporter for "POLITICO," Laura Barron-Lopez and the congressional editor for "The New York Times," Julie Hirschfeld Davis.

And, Julie, let me start with you. You have covered this president, and this is an issue that has come up repeatedly, David Duke back in the 2016 campaign after Charlottesville, just asking the president to do something that should be simple. Speak the words, I denounce white supremacists. I do not want their support. They are not welcome anywhere around me and yet in the debate and again listen to the president here yesterday he says it sort of kind of but never directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't know who the proud boys are. I mean you ought to give me a definition because I really don't know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work. Everybody, they have to -- whatever group you're talking about. Let law enforcement do the work. Now, Antifa is a real problem because the problem is on the left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You get to a point, Julie Davis, where, you know -- I don't know who they are, give me a definition. He's the president of the United States. He has more access to information than any human being in the United States. You have to come to a conclusion after years of this that it's deliberate.

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, and as you pointed out, it's basically the same thing he said about David Duke when he was asked to disavow him during the campaign after Duke had endorsed him. He said I don't know who that is. Whether you believe that or not, as the president, I think at this point it's pretty clear that if he wanted to say let's call this what it is, it's white supremacy and it's unacceptable. He could say that.

But that's not what he said even after he did get some pushback from some Republicans who are deeply uncomfortable with this rhetoric, deeply uncomfortable with the fact that he's unwilling to condemn these groups and this way of thinking. And instead what you hear is let law enforcement take care of it. But he doesn't come out and say that this is -- this is not something that is in keeping with the values of this country. He has had many opportunities to do that, and he simply doesn't take them.

And so, I think that is why you have Republicans really feeling so anxious about that debate performance and realizing that here in the last stretch of the campaign this is going to be not just something that he refuses to condemn but as John said, a key theme of his rallies and his appeal to voters is this kind of race-baiting approach, that he obviously thinks is working in his favor.

KING: Right. And so, Laura, that's what makes the Republican reaction interesting because they have increasingly listened to the president. Right now, in the final weeks of this campaign, he's borrowing the language of George Wallace, if you will. And so, I want you to listen to some of the Republican reaction because at first -- it's pretty commonsense but on the other side we'll talk about how it's rare. Listen.

(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 Sen. Tim Scott. He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists. And so, I do so in the strongest possible way.

QUESTION: Does the president condemn white supremacy?

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Absolutely.

QUESTION: Was it a statement for him to leave that hanging out there?

COLLINS: Yes.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): He should unequivocally condemn white supremacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Look, that's duh, right? It should be the easiest thing in the world. It should be tee-ball for anybody. Anybody to condemn white supremacy. But Republicans often either shrug off or hide or say nothing when there's a Trump outrage. This time, they see damage down ballot. This is not just about him. They see it as hurting them.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": And to everything we've talked about so far in this segment, John, it's surprising that it's taken them this long to realize that it could potentially hurt them in key races given that Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacy is a feature, not a bug of his presidency. It's something that he hasn't done the entire time he's in office. And we saw that on Tuesday he refused, on Wednesday again, as you said, he - he very weakly appeared to say I -- I denounce some forms of that, whatever it is you're referring to.

And then also last night, he -- in keeping with this strategy he equated being low income to being a person of color in the country and in the next breath he said, and so, this is quote, "ruining our American dream."

[11:10:01]

So, again, this is a strategy that he has used repeatedly. It's one Republicans have used since the 1960s to win white voters. And so, it should come as no surprise to Republican senators at this point in the presidency.

KING: And so, Julie, to Laura's point. It is part of a Republican playbook that goes back years, but I just want to put up our road to 270 map at the moment. A playbook that you used in the '50s and '60s may not work in 2020 when Arizona, yes, back in the '50s and '60s a largely white state is growing more brown and Latino by the second. We lean it Democratic right now. You see Florida. There's a tossup, a state with remarkable diversity, North Carolina, a place where George Wallace might have sole his message in the '60s, a lot harder for President Trump to sell that same message in the 2020 because the changing demographics of America. The president just refuses to accept the country he leads.

DAVIS: Well, that's right. But Republicans very well understand all of those dynamics. And I think far from you know, sort of being caught by surprise by this, I think Republicans have been living in this reality for quite a while, that this is -- this is there. This is as Laura said a feature, not a bug of Trump's message and all they can hope for is that it sort of fades into the background. It isn't just prominent for voters.

But what the president is doing now is making it his primary focus and that's a real problem for them because some of those states you've talked about, clearly they are important in terms of the presidential race. They are also very important in terms of Republicans efforts to maintain the Senate majority, and you have independent voters in some of those states, women, more moderate voters. People in the suburbs and some of these incredibly competitive House districts who are just turned off by this.

And this is a dynamic that they saw in play in 2018 in advance of the mid-term elections. They were worried that Trump's rhetoric and his approach was going to sweep them out. They saw that actually come true and I think everyone is quite nervous that we're going to see a similar pattern playout here in the general election.

KING: Not happy with the message and especially not happy with that message at this moment. Just 33 days to Election Day. Julie Davis, Laura Barron-Lopez, appreciate the reporting and the insights. Up next for us, an inside look at the White House response to the coronavirus, including how optics interfered with the White House handling of this from the very beginning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:45]

KING: The coronavirus numbers are heading in the wrong direction. The rate of new infection is up in more than half of the states. 29 states reporting higher positivity rates right now compared to a week ago. It's just about the opposite of what the president tells you and his own Coronavirus Task Force right now is pushing states to do more to try to slow a fall surge.

Let's look at the numbers and they are not encouraging at the moment. We have 27 states -- that's the orange and the red - 27 states reporting more new infections now compared to a week ago. Look where they are.

Northern half of the country. It's getting colder as we head into the fall. 27 states reporting more new infections now than a week ago. We have 14 states holding steady. Nine states in green. Fewer new infections now than a week ago.

Just take a peek two weeks ago at the map. You have more red down here, Texas, New Mexico and the southern half of the state here. We had 23 states -- 24 states, excuse me, trending up two weeks ago. But look at the different places in the country where they are. Now it's essentially a swath across the northern part of the country and then a few other spots.

If you look at the case trend, again, this is troubling. The idea to push the baseline down. Well, we're either trickling up a little bit again or plateauing at above 40,000 new infections a day on average. 40,000 new infections a day as the baseline. As you see the positivity rate going up and as you see across the northern part of the country the case count going up. This is a dangerous place to start if you're heading into a surge.

Remember, this is starting from 20,000. That's where we went. If we're at 40,000 here, the last thing you want is a surge going up. You look at the death trend, also a little bit of trouble signs in this as well. It was trending down. The blue line is your seven-day average. And never down fast enough when it comes to this but it was trending down.

You see this, but yesterday 946 deaths. A lot of the model suggests heading up above 1,000. Let's hope not but that's what the projection show especially as that case count plays out.

Where do you live in America?

Look at the map. The deeper the red, the deeper the orange, the higher the case count per 100,000 residents. See all these really deep red across here. No coincidence public health experts would say that many of these are the states that would reopen early. Many of these are the states that were late or still not having mask mandates or not having strict mask mandates.

Look at all that deep red. Look at it up here as well. The masks, a debate now. Whether it comes to politics or public health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: If everybody wore a mask and social distanced between now and January, we'd probably save up to 100,000 lives. It matters.

TRUMP: And they have also said the opposite. They've also said --

BIDEN: No serious person has said the opposite. No serious person.

CHRIS WALLACE, MODERATOR: OK. I want to ask you --

TRUMP: Dr. Fauci -- Dr. Fauci said the opposite.

BIDEN: He did not.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: That's taken out of context. I have explained this multiple times, and I'm on the record countless times about that. So, anybody who has been listening to me over the last several months know that a conversation does not go by where I do not strongly recommend that people wear masks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You heard Dr. Fauci saying right there. The president took him out of context. Well, listen here. New CNN reporting today illustrates how hard Fauci's boss makes it to sell that important message about wearing masks. Administration officials recall an early West Wing directive that wearing a mask was, quote, "not a good look" inside the White House as the goal was to portray confidence and to make the public believe there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

[11:20:12]

Joining us now, our CNN national security correspondent Vivian Salama who has this reporting. Vivian, I was reading your report. And this is from the very beginning. Certain people inside the White House saying do not make this look like people need to worry.

VIVIAN SALAMA, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. What began as the president's desire to save face and avoid a public panic as we've heard him say many times actually began with internal wrangling at the White House and the National Security Council which is right across the street about what the policy should be internally for employees of the government.

My long read if you go to CNN.com really dives into that wrangling, especially on two issues, messaging to the public. And these things masks, whether or not to wear them. And it began with efforts by senior administration officials, senior national security officials to get staff on the National Security Council and at the White House to wear masks.

One particular person, Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger who was a China expert and had been watching this very closely was very alarmed by what was - he was seeing in China and started to really get the word out to senior officials about the need to protect the staff. So that if the government is inundated or the country is inundated by this, they would be safe. And so, he kept on advocating for mask-wearing.

Another person, Peter Navarro, the president's top trade adviser for China also advocating for this. And other officials as well and the West Wing started to push back essentially listening to a lot of the advice that their boss was putting out there, the president.

In which - which they were saying, listen, it's "not a good look." And that's a direct quote with one official - the direct knowledge saying it's not a good look if people are walking around wearing a mask. We're trying to portray this confidence. What if the media sees us walking around, what is that going to say about us?

The president, of course, to this day has been skeptical about the need for wearing masks and certainly in those days he was very skeptical. And so, that view began trickling down. And essentially, national security staff were said you can't -- legally you cannot force people to wear masks on staff.

And so, they were essentially pushed back and said, you know what, you can't do this. You can't enforce this. And that's really how it all began. And now, here we are, six months later 200,000 people dead and the public really still not clear what the mask policy should be in terms of keeping safe. John?

KING: What is clear is an example from the top always helps. Vivian Salama, important reporting. I hope all of our viewers go to CNN.com and read the full report in detail. Think about this for yourself.

Joining us now to continue the conversation, the former CDC official, Dr. Cyrus Shahpar. He's also director of the Resolve to Save Lives and Prevent Epidemics team. Dr. Shahpar, it's good to see you today. You'll hear Vivian Salama talking about from the very beginning, masks are not a good look.

The president doesn't like them in the West Wing. It conveys some urgency or alarm or panic. An issue at the very beginning and an issue today. The Coronavirus Task Force at White House again alerting states across the country.

This is to Georgia: "Mitigation efforts must continue including mask wearing."

Iowa: "Institute mask requirements statewide."

Wyoming: "Face coverings in indoor, public, and commercial spaces in all red, orange, and yellow zone counties."

Now, that's what the Coronavirus Task Force urges. Look at here. This is the national positivity rate right now. I was talking the other day about how there appeared to be some progress. It's down below 5 percent. Now at least on a daily basis, you see those numbers are starting to trend back up again at a bad time. This as the administration's point man on - on testing, excuse me, saying you want to get that positivity rate down, spread out, wear mask.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, MD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: It's very critical right now particularly as we re-socialize and open up the country that everyone needs to be disciplined about wearing a mask. Our national surveys are about 50 percent of people wear mask all the times when they are outdoors and can't physically distance. We really need to up that to 75, 80, 85 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: How hard is it, Dr. Shahpar, as a public health leader if you're trying to get people to listen, pay attention, adopt commonsense, save themselves and save others. When the CEO of the operation, in this case, the president on a debate stage the other night, when Joe Biden was pushing for mask use, says well some people say the opposite.

DR. CYRUS SHAHPAR, FORMER CDC OFFICIAL: Yes. I think it's - it's very concerning when there's not a unified message about something that we know works. So, it gives people a reason not to do things that we know, you know, can help save lives. So, this kind of mixed messaging means that we're not going to get mask-wearing levels up to where they need nobody.

KING: Help me as the former CDC official. The CDC put out a no sail order for cruise ships last night and this is what it says, "Recent outbreaks on cruise ships overseas provide current evidence that cruise ship travel continues to transmit and amplify the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes , even when ships sail at reduced passenger capacities and would likely spread the infection into U.S. communities if passenger operations were to resume prematurely in the United States."

[11:25:10]

So, this now says no sail through October, but the CDC wanted to go deeper - months deeper into next year and received pressure from the White House not to do that. What does that tell you?

SHAHPAR: It's another example of science being overwritten or kind of edited by people who aren't experts. CDC has a long history of working with work cruise through its vessel sanitation program even before COVID and cruise ships have been described as Petri dishes for COVID.

We know there's a lot of people in a closed space and if they have a problem they could be out in the middle of an ocean. And a lot of departures leading from areas of high community transmission like Florida, so it's going to be impossible to keep the virus out. We can't keep it out of schools in Florida, so why would we be able to keep it out of cruise ships and if there are cases on a cruise ship, you know, it's a big problem.

KING: Help me understand this moment. I was just over at the wall going through. We have more than half of the states reporting more new infections. We have the positivity rate up. I believe 29 states this week compared to last week.

I just want to show you Wisconsin. New confirmed cases, a lot of this is across the Midwest and across what I'll call the northern swath of the country where it's just a fact we're getting colder as we head into fall. You see the Wisconsin, our cases going up. You see the hospitalization arc going up. Where are we at this very moment in this fight?

SHAHPAR: Yes. We're getting worse again. I mean, you know, as schools and universities opened, as we have the Labor Day holiday, we could expect to see a rise in cases, and we are seeing that. So, you know, we've seen a regional transition from the northeast to the south and west and now to the Midwest. And these are areas where there's a lot of people who haven't had COVID and they are susceptible to getting infected and we're seeing the disease spread.

So, the situation is worsening and as you said earlier, this is a difficult time that we're entering into, with colder weather and people indoors and we know the disease is transmitted more easily, the flu season. So, there's definitely reasons to be concerned.

And the last point I'll make is that we're losing sight of the virus with rapid antigen testing rolling out across the country and not connected to public health efforts not being counted potentially in the case counts, that's going to be an increasing problem where we don't know where disease is spreading so we can't stop it.

KING: Sober insights, but I'm grateful for them as always. Doctor Cyrus Shahpar, thank you for your time.

Up next for us, thousands of job cuts hitting had the major airlines today as the industry struggles because of the coronavirus economy.

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