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CDC Predicts As Many As 232,000 Americans Dead By October 24th; Trump Again Fails To Denounce White Supremacy; Trump To Host Rallies In Wisconsin Despite COVID Surge; Trump Continues To Promise Vaccine In "Record Time"; Montana Judge: Allegations Of Widespread Voter Fraud Are "Fiction". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 01, 2020 - 12:00   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 HOST: A new contact tracing study out of India finds that while children can spread the Coronavirus, its young adults that are the main source of the spread. Researchers track down and tested more than 575,000 people. Their most surprising finding, just 8 percent of patients are responsible for 60 percent of new infections.

I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am John King in

Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy news day with us. The Coronavirus numbers are bad again today. The campaign numbers, too, if you're the president or a member of his Republican Party.

We are one month for Election Day now and two things jump out at us. One is the number $21.5 million. That's Joe Biden's Wednesday fund raising take his best day of the year following the first presidential debate. The second thing that jumps out is a polite but direct message from a top Senate Republican condemns white Supremacism, Mr. President clearly and forcefully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Well, I think we should hear them from the president and from every American. I certainly condemn what we have been seeing in terms of white supremacy in terms of racism, anti- Semitism, all of those things I stand with Senator McConnell and Senator Tim Scott with the comments that they have made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Senator John Barrasso is not alone among Republicans urging the president to change his debate and his campaign script. And that is very significant because, remember, republicans usually stay silent or shrug off Trump outrages.

But they worry this latest one, the President again refusing to the not-so white hate group who'll hurt Republicans beneath their President on this year's ballot. And every day the Trump refuses to do so, this, Democrats take a shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): On speaking of violence, the "Proud Boys," the president's friends, the "Proud Boys" who are celebrating the green light that he gave him in the debate?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is the pandemic election and the Coronavirus is making a late campaign statement of its own. September was another lost month. Zero progress in lowering the baseline of new infections. 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.

Right now just a handful of states are in the green, meaning heading down in their case count. More than half report more new infections now compared to last week. Wisconsin is both a campaign battleground and a Coronavirus hotspot.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force warning the state of an intense viral surge recommending people their practice social distancing to the "Maximum degree possible". We know that big trump rallies flunk the test if the rights answers are wear a mask, keep your distance, and we know the president is often at direct odds with his own Coronavirus experts.

The task force urges Wisconsin right now do all you can to stop that surge the President urging his Wisconsin supporters to pack two planned rallies there this weekend.

Let's get straight to the White House and our White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, on this issue of more and more Republicans again often silent, often reluctant to speak out during Trump outrages saying, Mr. President, condemn the "Proud Boys" and white supremacy and do it clearly.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's not just the President. We can't get a straight answer on that from the Press Secretary who is just pressed three times by three different reporters including myself to just simply put out a statement, put this news cycle to rest, a statement unambiguously saying that they do denounce white supremacy and these far right hate groups that are now emboldened by what the president said on the debate stage Tuesday night.

And we are now going on 36 hours of this news cycle because the president obviously did not sufficiently do so, and it's not just his critics that think that are skeptics, it's also his own party. Republicans saying that the president should have been more forceful with what he said on Tuesday night or what he said yesterday, what he was asked for a second time given an opportunity to denounce these groups?

And John, knowing she was going to get these questions at the press briefing the Press Secretary came out and did not have a prepared statement to say as much, and instead she simply pointed to old statements from the president. Of course, that is not the new full picture because we know that they can point to prepared remarks that the president has read of a teleprompter before.

But they didn't point out where he set things like "Not all of those people at the Charlottesville event were neo-Nazis. Not all of those people were white supremacist." They left those groups out of the briefing there John. But simply asked to clear this up, this is how the Press Secretary generally was responding to the questions that we just had for her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You say he denounced them, that's what you are insisting when the gentlemen debate stage the other night. If that's the case then why are they celebrating what the president said on the debate stage in front of millions of people?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I don't speak for that group, so I'm not sure why you're asking me why they're saying a certain thing.

COLLINS: If - denouncing, you probably would put it on a T-Shirt and make badges of it, right?

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MCENANY: The president did denounce them. He was asked will you tell them to stand down. He said sure.

COLLINS: --standby which seems like a disruption?

MCENANY: He said stand back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: He did not denounce them of course he said, stand back and stand by which sounded more like an instruction as we pointed to her. Of course he did not denounce them again yesterday.

And the "Proud Boys" this group that is now been elevated because of the comments on the debate stage Tuesday night John is a group that espouses these anti-immigrant, Islamophobic misogynistic views, they're a despicable group in just pretty simple terms.

And yet the President would not take the opportunity and instead put an old tactic out of his book where he says, oh! I don't know who they are much like David Duke even though he was on camera talking about David Duke before.

And you've seen Republicans come out and pretty frankly say that president should say more on this. I mean, the Senate Majority Leader McConnell who often will not comment if he doesn't agree with something that president did even aligned himself with the views of Tim Scott who said that if the president misspoke on Tuesday night, then he should come out and clarify his statement.

And if he didn't misspeak, then I guess he wouldn't be clarifying it. And when the Press Secretary just asked if the President misspoke when he was talking about these groups on Tuesday night, John, the Press Secretary said, no, he did not misspeak.

KING: Straight from the White House podium. He did not misspeak. Kaitlan Collins live for us at the White House, a very important story out getting the president to condemn white supremacist is one controversy right now getting the president to listen to his health experts is another.

Those experts say this is a real threat. The president's rallies this weekend could turn into super spreader events, because those two rallies were in Wisconsin, the state right now are a hotspot. Let's take a look at the national numbers now we'll zone in particularly on Wisconsin.

If you look at the state case trend right now, this is simply bad numbers. The president says we've turned the final corner. The president is not telling you the truth. 27 states right now heading in the wrong direction, that means, more new infections now compared to the data last week.

The idea is to flatten the curve, that's not happening right now. 27 states heading in the wrong direction look at this swath along the northern half of the country. It is getting colder in the northern part of the country. The case count is going up, 14 states holding steady nine states going down if you look at the weekly testing map, the deeper the blue, the higher the positivity rate.

That's bad, right? 26 percent in South Dakota, 21 percent in Idaho, 21 percent in Wisconsin double digits in Florida, double digits in Mississippi and Alabama, double digits right out here in the Midwest 17 percent Iowa, 15 percent Missouri, 16 percent Kansas. The numbers are bad double digits there.

Higher positivity means more cases now are also means more people who can spread the virus. If you want to look at Wisconsin right now, zero on a one state again, we've been through this now seven months. That is not the way you want your case count going, not always it going up. It is going up at a very high angle and high.

With higher cases, more cases come more hospitalizations. Again look at that, the trend up in Wisconsin. And let's just take a look at the map right now Wisconsin starting to get more of the deep red, right? A state that early on maybe not as higher case count look it, if the darker the red means, the higher the case count for 100,000 residents.

It is growing at the moment and yet, and yet, White House Task Force says the state needs to do more. The state is having a higher case count. The president has two rallies in the state this week. And listen to this doctor in Green Bay saying, we need a red alert nationally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. PAUL CASEY, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT AT BELLIN HOSPITAL: We are nearing a crisis in my community and we're hoping that the fact that our community has reached national attention will get people to wake up. Currently one hospital out of the four in green bay has more patients than the entire city had at our peak in April.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now is Dr. Ryan Westergaard. He is the Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist for Communicable Diseases for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Dr. Westergaard grateful for your time today.

Let me just ask you up front, is there one or are there one or two things responsible for the surge of cases or is a little bit of everything? And as you answer, how much is the change of seasons do you think a factor here?

DR. RYAN WESTERGAARD, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES: I think the answer is it's a little bit of everything. We don't have a focal epidemic, we have a generalized epidemic. All 72 of our counties have what we call high disease activity. We saw this take off about three or four weeks ago. It started in the younger age group.

We're attributing that somewhat to call just coming back into session, but it's much more than that now. We have generalized high transmission in all of our communities. And I think you are right, it's not attributable to any one thing it's an overall failure to prevent the spread.

KING: You are wearing a mask as we have this conversation. I want to listen to your Governor in a second here. The president is coming to your state for two rallies this weekend. We know what a Trump rally looks like?

We heard the president in the debate states the other night when Joe Biden was making the case to wear a mask, the president says well there are people who think just the opposite. This is your Governor.

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GOV. TONY EVERS (D-WI): When you have leadership at the top that is continuing even to the state somewhat inconsistent with the severity of what this is, we're rounding the corner, it's a hoax, it's a big deal, it's not a big deal, that sends a message what we're trying to accomplish is baloney and it's not baloney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What do you need? What do you need from the President of the United States and from Washington right now as you deal with this crisis? Dr. WESTERGAARD: Well, support from leaders that all of our prevention

strategies, keeping physical distance, wearing masks and keeping our gatherings lower, not having gatherings at all is critically important now at this space where our local public health capacity is outstripped, that frankly falling apart.

We don't have the ability to identify individuals and say, you've been exposed, you need to be in quarantine. There are just too many cases. So we need widespread adoption and cooperation around these prevention strategies like wearing masks and skipping gatherings if we're going to turn the corner on this, because our ability to do so at the micro level of the community level, the individual level has really been damaged by the high volumes that we are seeing.

KING: Let's just put it bluntly. You're essentially the CEO of the Wisconsin Department of Health. I want to read this from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. This is not the fake news, this is not the left this is the president's own team of experts.

Wisconsin has continued to see a rapid worsening of the epidemic in the last week. During the 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. That's from the president's task force to the maximal degree possible increase social distancing. Should their boss hold two rallies in Wisconsin when his scientists are telling the people of Wisconsin to put on a mask and spread out?

DR. WESTERGAARD: Public gatherings of any kind are dangerous right now more so than they have been at anytime during this epidemic. Now meeting outdoors and keeping six feet of distancing and wearing face coverings lower that risk, but we should see them as partially effective, the safest approach is to not have gatherings and it's for people to stay home.

That's what was able to allow us to flatten the curve and turn the trajectory around earlier in the spring. We need that kind of adherence and social distancing right now. So I agree public gatherings should be cancelled to the greatest degree possible if we're going to turn the corner.

KING: Dr. Westergaard, grateful for your insights and I don't think your message is going to be listened too at the top. But I hope it is. Thank you for your time sir. Up next for us the president keeps promising a COVID vaccine before the end of the year. What the timeline means for its safety and its effectiveness?

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KING: One of the big companies working on a Coronavirus vaccine Moderna says spring 2021 is the earliest its product might be ready for use. Other drug companies are still hoping to reach the finish line by the end of this year. But it is October 1st now, 33 days to the election and 85 days to Christmas.

The government approval process takes time. And no drug maker as of today has even filed asking for emergency limited use. But the President at a rally last night in Minnesota, well, the president had some math of his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Through "Operation Warp Speed" we will develop and distribute a vaccine in record time. It's going to be very, very soon and before the end of the year, maybe sooner than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now is Dr. Paul Offit. He is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center of Children's Hospital Philadelphia. He is also a member of the FDA's Advisory Vaccine Committee. Dr. Offit, it's good to see you again. You know the process very well, so you hear the Moderna news spring 2021. You hear the president very, very soon.

We're having this conversation now 85 days to Christmas, so 90 days to the end of the year essentially. If somebody today or tomorrow said OK, I think we've reached the efficacy level and wanted to apply for emergency authorization even for limited distribute - to front line responders, first line responders things like that, how long would that take?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: Well, I think if the Data Safety Monitoring Board, who are the only people who know exactly how this is going, they are the only ones who know who has gotten the vaccine or who hasn't, the only ones who know who's gotten sick and who hasn't.

So they're the ones who know about where things stand. If they feel that we have statistically significant, robust evidence that this vaccine clearly works and at least in 10,000, 20,000 people it's safe, then they can say to the company, you can submit this for UA. And then the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee, which I said will look at those data and then make a recommendation for whether we agree.

And so, how soon can that take? No one knows. When President Trump says that he's hopeful that it can be soon, he is not on the Data Safety Monitoring Board so he doesn't know. He's just hoping it's true. We all hope it's true. We'll just have to wait and see.

KING: We all hope it's true. But we also hope that when somebody comes forward with a reliable vaccine, people will trust it, so they'll actually use it which will help us in the fight of the Coronavirus.

You testified before congress yesterday, you've been here many times outline this process for us which I'm grateful for. But I want people to listen to what you're testifying before Congress essentially saying, I wish I didn't have to be here. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. OFFIT: I don't understand why we are having this meeting to be honest with you. We shouldn't need this meeting, because we should trust the FDA. We don't trust the FDA largely because of what has happened with the administration's pushing the FDA to do things it shouldn't have been doing, and that's why people are upset about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So there is, there is, you are right, there's skepticism out there. We've seen in public opinion poll and we see it in scientists debating what they see coming out of the administration.

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KING: What can be done at this moment again when we're watching the case count go up again, when we are watching especially across the Midwest all this double digit positivity, when we know we are in for another tough weeks if not months if not longer?

What has to be done to A, put more trust back in this process and so that people feel at the end when there is a vaccine whether it is in three weeks or three months or a year I'll rush to get it?

DR. OFFIT: I think we have to see the FDA as an independent body. As doing their job which is to say standing between pharmaceutical companies and the American public to make sure that we get vaccines or products that are shown to be safe and effective and I think that can happen.

I like it when Dr. Hahn has recently said look, I mean, we aren't going to approve these products until they're ready to be approved. And as we said, we're going to go to the Vaccine Advisory Committee to make sure that they agree.

So I think we can rebuild that trust, but certainly the Hydroxychloroquine and the convalescent plasma experiences were bad ones. And when you see the FDA basically serving the administration rather than serving the American public people get skittish and scared and I understand all that.

KING: When you see Moderna good for them publicly at least trying to lay out the time Phil. I know you've been concerned in the past; people are trying to do vaccines by press release which I think can drive stock prices up and down and the like. And we don't want to do that.

But Moderna are saying we think it will be spring of next year. There was a hold-up I think a normal hold-up AstraZeneca's trial because there were some issues and some people getting some illnesses during the trial. So you want to stop and take a look at that.

As you watch the process, take the president out of it; take Dr. Hahn out of it. As you watch the process, is this going do you think the way it's supposed to go or do you see things that alarm you? DR. OFFIT: You know, obviously this is unprecedented. We've never had

anything like this, before there are 180 different vaccine strategies out there. There are more than 100 companies that are making this vaccine across the world, so this is unprecedented.

I think and unprecedented mostly in the way that normally what happen are you wait until the results of the phase three trial rather and then we discuss it. Now we're just doing a lot of discussing during that period of time, which has been a little scary for people, because you don't really know what's going on.

And you have for example, the CEO of the company saying one thing and the president saying another thing and then Dr. Hahn saying a third thing. So it's all been very confusing. I'd like to believe if we could just stop talking about this until the Phase III trials are done that would be helpful. I suspect that's not going to happen.

But yesterday's meeting was a sad day in America for me. I mean I'm on the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee, I know the people there in the FDA, there are exactly who you want them to be.

They really care about doing their job right. And I think it's been hard to watch the administration sort of perturb these science-based federal agencies. It certainly hasn't been to the advantage of the American public.

KING: I hope they strap in and do their jobs, just as you say they're most capable of doing. Let's hope it turns out that way Dr. Offit again as always grateful for your time and your insights sir.

OFFIT: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us, an important fact check of some of the president's latest election fraud claims.

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KING: A Federal Judge in Montana strongly rejecting an effort by the Trump campaign to stop the expansion of mail-in voting in the state, instead the judge blasts the president's claim of widespread fraud.

This is from the ruling "This case requires the Court to separate fact from fiction, Central to some of the Trump campaign's claims is the contention that the upcoming election, both nationally and in Montana will fall prey to the widespread voter fraud. The evidence suggests, however, that this allegation, specifically in Montana, is a fiction."

I want to bring in CNN Election Analyst Rick Hassan. He is the author of "Election Meltdown: Dirty tricks, distrust and the threat to American democracy". Rick, thank you for your time today, I want to ask you, the significance of these court rulings, and this is one in Montana.

There will be dozens if not more than dozens of these challenges. And when you go up through the appeals process, I assume the Trump people will appeal this. It's kind of like a video review in sports.

When you go to appeals court, you have to prove sort of incontrovertible evidence that the first ruling is wrong. How important is it to get these judges on the record saying fiction when the Trump campaign says widespread fraud?

RICK HASEN, PROFESSOR OF LAW, UC IRVINE: Yes. Well, I think one of the main things that the Trump campaign has tried to do on offense is knock down these expansions about balloting on claims of voter fraud. And they're losing in all the courts because they can't come up with the evidence. It's not just Montana, it's Nevada, and it's all over.

I think they may have more success when they're trying to roll back expansions of absentee ballot receipt deadlines, postmark rules. Those cases are already heading to the court. We've got one in Pennsylvania that's already there, one coming from Wisconsin.

And so, I think we are kind of at halftime right now if we use sports metaphor. We don't know where things are going to end up. But I think trying to shut down mail-in balloting on grounds that there is a lot of fraud, that's not going to really go anywhere even in the appeals courts.

KING: We don't know what they're going to end up? But I want you to listen here, this is Ben Ginsburg, he's now a CNN contributor. But he was the premier Republican election law attorney for ten, fifteen, going back 20 years. He was involved in Bush V. Gore and the like. Listen to Ben Ginsburg this morning saying, essentially what that judge in Montana said.

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BEN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION LAWYER: The president's allegations of fraud now have to be proven in court. And I know from my years of looking for this that that proof is not going to exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So you've mentioned all these cases in play.