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Record Numbers of Black Americans Buying Guns; President Trump to Hold Two Wisconsin Rallies; Senate Votes Down Pre-Existing Conditions Bill. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 01, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:29]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It is the top of the hour, I'm Brianna Keilar. And for two days now, President Trump has been unable or unwilling to condemn white supremacists in a way that would make it clear he does not welcome the support of white supremacists.

He danced around this during the debate when he told a far-right group to stand back and stand by. And when given the chance to denounce them the day after, he refused. And today, the White House flat-out wouldn't denounce white supremacy when asked directly by multiple reporters.

And since the White House wonders why everyone is asking him to do so, it's because of examples like this. As Election Day nears, President Trump is escalating his campaign of fear and falsehoods, refusing to specifically condemn white supremacists two times in the past three days while stoking division during his latest rally in Minnesota. His targets? Democratic freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and refugees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What is going on with Omar? I've been reading these reports for two years about how corrupt and crooked she is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

TRUMP: Let's get with her, let's get with her.

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?

Another massive issue for Minnesota is the election of Joe Biden's plan to inundate your state with an historic flood of refugees.

Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp -- and he said that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, Congresswoman Omar is a Somali refugee who has been an American citizen for two decades. This is her country. And Trump made those comments on the same day that his White House announced it will cut refugee admissions to a new low next year, something that Biden has pledged to reverse if elected.

But this latest round of racist rhetoric is setting off alarms for Republicans in Washington and beyond. A former RNC chair and Montana governor, telling "The New York Times" that he will vote for Biden, calling Trump, quote, "dangerous to the existence of the republic as we know it."

John Blake is a senior writer for CNN Digital; Juliette Kayyem is a CNN national security analyst and former Obama Homeland Security official. And Juliette, to you first, FBI Director Wray said that white supremacists are the biggest threat. Both the president and his chief of staff have said essentially that Wray misspoke. I mean, mixed messaging is one way to describe it. How do hate groups interpret that?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right. It doesn't really matter what Trump says, if it's coy, if it's confusing or whatever. What matters is what white supremacists are hearing.

So we are beyond the point where we wonder what Donald Trump is doing. He is promoting terrorism, right? It is violence to effect political consequences -- in this case, he wants violence around the election. And he is supporting white supremacy groups and racist groups.

Once you accept that, his explanation, his press spokeswoman's explanation, his silly apologies, his -- you know -- attempt to explain himself? They don't matter. And so you know, a month away from an election, we have a supporter of white supremacy, a supporter of terrorism who is running to seek re-election.

And once you accept that, then what he says doesn't matter. We know exactly what he's doing. And I do worry we spend too much time focused on him, and not on what we can do -- right? -- to protect ourselves, to protect the election process, to get governors and mayors ready for potential violence. Because that -- we know -- he knows what he's doing at this stage.

KEILAR: I mean, I do want to talk about that, what people can do. But it appears that, you know, people have their own ideas about what they can do.

And John, Director Wray said he's worried about clashed between the far left and the far right at protests this fall. You have increasingly written about how African-Americans are arming themselves in the wake of this escalating rhetoric, which would be an indication that they feel more unsafe. What are the numbers showing?

JOHN BLAKE, CNN DIGITAL SENIOR WRITER: The numbers are showing a record increase in numbers of black Americans who are buying guns. It comes along (ph) like with two different groups. You have armed groups that are forming in the black community, but you also have private citizens in the black community who are also buying guns, saying that they need to protect themselves against racism, need to protect themselves against racist police officers.

[14:05:08]

And I think what this is doing is that it's creating this explosive mix. You have these armed white groups that are showing up at these racial protests, but you also have more African-Americans who say, I have to be armed. And they may appear at these protests.

So what happens when these two different movements collide? Now, I'm very concerned that there will be some kind of confrontation where there will be a video or photograph taken of an African-American using a gun in self-defense, but it won't be seen that way. It will be seen as the black person being violent.

And in a sense, what that would provide President Trump is a Willie Horton 2.0. A new image of a black person as a violent person? That could change everything.

KEILAR: And Juliette, you touched on this. I want to ask you, what can be done to counter the possibility -- it sounds like you expect that there will be violence, what can be done both from the -- you know, the establishment and just from people who are trying to make sure this doesn't happen?

KAYYEM: Right. And I'm glad you asked because there's obviously a lot of tension and fear, and I don't mean to minimize that. But I just think, you know, you hear people come on and talk about -- you know, use words like "civil war," we're not in a civil war. We have agency. We need to empower ourselves, and there's a lot of things that we can do.

So I want people to leave optimistically because it is scary to have a president who promotes terrorism and violence, I get that. What he is promoting is a minority viewpoint in America, a small group of random men -- pathetic men -- who arm themselves for a cause that the president give them voice to.

We are greater than them, we are a lot more than them. We can support law enforcement as well as mayors and governors -- who are preparing for this, I work with them specifically. They are setting up command posts, they are getting the National Guard prepared just in case they need to deploy. They are surveying and watching public sites to make sure that these pathetic men do not try to congregate.

There are ways in which individuals can you know, support voting and be out lawfully to support voting. The media can stop trying to explain Donald Trump, and recognize the support he's giving to white supremacy and terrorism as we lead into an election season. And I think once you do that, then whatever he does, doesn't matter and it's basically, you know, calling him out.

And then I think Republicans who can and will, need to come out. They have constituencies (INAUDIBLE). So I think it is a big deal, honestly, I think it's a big deal when someone like Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania, a swing state, comes out and says not only is he not voting for Trump, but he's voting for Biden.

We need people to feel that they need to leave -- if they want to make a statement about the racism, there's only one statement to make at this stage.

Donald Trump's not worth our outrage anymore because I think we do have agency. We've been living in fear and trying to explain someone for the last four years? We don't need to do that anymore. He knows what he means, he does it every single time and then he tries to apologize or explain, or his people explain? We're done, we're done.

We've got a month of this, and so just prepare yourself. There might be pockets of violence, it's scary, but it's not a civil war. It's a small group of very, very hapless men who are supported by a president who has no other game to play. I've been in terrorism a long time, shaming it and calling it out is how an ideology ends, and that's what will happen.

KEILAR: And John, you mentioned that black Americans are increasingly arming themselves legally, they're practicing their Second Amendment rights. Are you seeing the Second Amendment playing a significant role when it comes to black voters at the ballot box? Is this a consideration?

BLAKE: I don't think that's a primary motivation for black voters. I think the primary motivation is Trump. I don't think a lot of black voters need any more motivation than that.

What I'm concerned about with the Second Amendment and African- Americans is that the Second Amendment hasn't really traditionally been reserved for black folks. We haven't traditionally been allowed to practice it like white Americans, frankly. And I think that's what I'm really concerned about.

What I say often is that if you have armed white men in public carrying guns and waving the American flag, some people will see them as patriots. But if you have armed black or brown men in public honoring their Second Amendment rights, people call them thugs and a threat to public safety.

KEILAR: No, we've seen that play out historically, the double standard when it comes to race and bearing arms. John Black, Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much to both of you.

[14:10:01]

President Trump is planning to hold two rallies in Wisconsin this weekend despite the state's alarming new coronavirus numbers. Wisconsin is reporting major spikes in new cases and hospitalizations along with a record high number of COVID deaths reported in a single day.

Both of the rally locations, Green Bay and La Crosse, have been deemed red zones by the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has more details from Green Bay.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, here in Wisconsin, we are coming off the deadliest single day we have seen for coronavirus since the pandemic began. And Wednesday, we also saw a record number of hospitalizations just days after the state set a single-day case record over the weekend.

Now when you look back at the numbers -- even going back to mid-June -- we were actually seeing a steady increase in coronavirus cases. But then starting in early September to now, an absolute spike. The White House Coronavirus Task Force, specifically citing Wisconsin as one of the highest rates of spread in the country.

And county officials here in Green Bay tell us that some of the factors that have made things difficult are things like COVID fatigue and increased social activities -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Omar, thank you so much.

CNN has new details today on what was driving the coronavirus decisions inside the White House in the early days of the pandemic. And the takeaway was that it was all about optics. CNN national security correspondent Vivian Salama, who wrote this report, is joining us now.

And, Vivian, you detail how officials in the West Wing didn't think that masks were a, quote, "good look," which is infuriating, right? Because that's not the point. Death is also not a good, extreme sickness is not a good look. Expand on what you found for us.

VIVIAN SALAMA, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna, so I took on this deep dive essentially after finding out that one of the most senior National Security Council officials went and got a bunch of masks for staff at the White House and the NSC, and was trying to advocate for them to use it.

And that was as early as early February, where still this was new, we only had a couple dozen cases in the United States and they were really bracing for something really severe hitting the United States, and they wanted to protect the government.

But if you go to the White House now and you walk the halls of the Executive Office Building where the NSC sits, you don't really see people wearing masks any more. And so I tried to understand sort of what happened between that initial push and the fact that we are today usually seeing people without masks for the most part.

And so what I learned is that essentially when national security officials -- and not just the one, many of them together -- started insisting in January that this, we are bracing for a storm and that the United States could really face something very severe in terms of the pandemic, which was still in those days in China.

The White House, the West Wing started pushing back on them and saying, we cannot enforce mask-wearing, make it mandatory. It's not legal, but it's also not a good look, is what they kept on saying.

They didn't want to undermine the president's message of competence, that he has everything under control, that it's nothing to worry about, his praise of Xi Jinping of China, who remember, in mid- January, had signed a trade deal with the president and he didn't want to also kind of rock that boat.

We have to go back to January and remember that in those days, the president was still going through an impeachment trial, and he had just signed this trade deal with China, the economy was still doing pretty well. And his political team ultimately didn't want anything rocking the boat. They wanted to avoid any crisis.

And so for them, having White House and national security officials walking around campus wearing masks, they felt was just going to send the wrong message. And I heard this from dozens of officials that I spoke to, that it was a huge problem with regard to messaging and particularly with regard to wearing masks.

KEILAR: Such a shame. Vivian Salama, thank you so much for bringing that report to us.

The Senate just voted down a bill by minority leader Chuck Schumer that would protect people with pre-existing conditions even if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act. Let's go to CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill for this.

I mean, this measure failed, I think we expected that. There were some Republicans who crossed the aisle, though. Tell us about what happened.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well Brianna, I think that that is really the important point here, and this is why Chuck Schumer went to the floor a couple of days ago and brought forward this bill, it was a highly unusual move, very surprising to folks watching on Capitol Hill.

But the reason is he wanted to put some of those members up for re- election in a tough spot, and that's exactly what happened. You had a handful of Republicans -- six total, five of whom are up for re- election this cycle -- voting with Democrats. And I want to go through who those individuals are.

You had Lisa Murkowski, who's not up for re-election but a Republican from Alaska, independent-minded. As well as Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who is up for re-election. You had Cory Gardner from Colorado, as well as Joni Ernst, who is from Iowa, voting with Democrats. Also surprisingly, Martha McSally, a Republican from Arizona who is up for re-election.

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So a number of Republicans joining Democrats, still far from actually moving this piece of legislation forward. But it's important to note that this bill essentially said the Justice Department, the Trump Justice Department, should not be involved in the ACA lawsuit that is going before the Supreme Court after the election in November.

What they wanted to do was make sure that they tied the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the health care law. That's what they did this afternoon. And while they fell short, they certainly forced some Republicans to take a tough vote -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Lauren, thank you so much for that report from Capitol Hill for us.

Next, vaccine maker Moderna gives a new timeline for its vaccine to be ready, and it will not be in time for the election.

Plus, a new study finds that losing your sense of taste and smell could be the only symptom that you ever get from coronavirus.

And then later, a Philadelphia city commissioner fact-checks the president's claim that election fraud is happening there.

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KEILAR: If you have lost your sense of taste or smell recently, listen up. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard has details on how those specific symptoms may be the only symptoms that some patients ever have after contracting coronavirus -- Jacqueline.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, it's having a recent loss of taste or smell that's key. We already know that can be a COVID-19 symptom, but this new study details how about four out of five people with a recent loss of smell and-or taste may test positive for COVID-19 antibodies, which means they probably had the illness.

Here's what this study found. The researchers looked 567 people in London with a recent loss of smell and-or taste. Among those people, about 78 percent had COVID-19 antibodies. Among those with antibodies, about 40 percent had no history of cough or fever.

The study also found loss of smell was more prevalent than loss of taste. People with loss of smell were three times more likely to have antibodies than those with just loss of taste -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jacqueline, thank you for that.

And another new study shows cardiac arrest is common among patients with severe cases of coronavirus. And even when CPR is performed, survival rates are low.

University of Michigan researchers studied more than 5,000 patients early in the pandemic. And of the coronavirus patients who received CPR after their heart stopped, just 12 percent survived and just seven percent survived with normal or mildly impaired neurological function. Younger patients who experienced cardiac arrest, however, were more likely to live.

And this brings me now to Dr. Austin Baeth. It is great to see you, Doctor, I hope that you are hanging in there. This is a study -- let's talk about it -- that showed these people that they looked at who were sick in the early stages of the pandemic. Do you think that cardiac arrest as an issue is the same today as it was then?

AUSTIN BAETH, PHYSICIAN, UNITYPOINT HEALTH: So yes. So cardiac arrest unfortunately is a very big risk for people who are critically ill, period. But particular to this virus, which causes low oxygen levels in the body, that places people at high risk for cardiac arrest, but it also appears to attack the heart and cause inflammation in the heart, also increasing the risk of cardiac arrest.

As the study highlights, it is a poor prognosis if one's heart stops. Only in this study, only 12 percent of people survived. But I think what is really important to highlight, is only seven percent actually had good neurologic function.

We can oftentimes -- at least sometimes -- bring the body back to life, but bringing the brain back to good function after it's gone without oxygen for so long is the most important outcome to look at.

KEILAR: And let's talk now about the search for a vaccine, because Moderna is saying that its vaccine -- if all goes as expected - that it won't be available to the full public until the spring. What are you hearing from your patients when they're asking questions about a vaccine? What are their expectations for when, and what are their expectations for what it will mean for them? I know some must think it's a silver bullet.

BAETH: Some think it's a silver bullet, others are worried and skeptical. Probably the number one question I get from patients are, are you, Doctor, going to take the vaccine? Because they themselves are hesitant. And I think that's because they're worried about potential political meddling or other incentives for these pharmaceutical companies to push this vaccine through before it's ready.

I think the Moderna announcement is both good and bad news. Starting with the bad news, it's that yes, there's going to be a delay before we have a proven, effective and safe vaccine that's ready for mass distribution.

The good news is, is they are being transparent and they are making a commitment -- which I think all of the pharmaceutical companies are going to do -- to make sure that they're not going to release it until it's ready. And hopefully that will increase confidence in the vaccine so that we can increase the percentage of Americans and the rest of the people of the world to get the vaccine.

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KEILAR: Dr. Baeth, it is wonderful to see you, you are very much on the front lines in the middle of all of this and we just really appreciate you taking the time to talk to our viewers. Thank you.

BAETH: Thanks for having me. KEILAR: Just in, as the Debate Commission says that new rules are

likely coming after Tuesday night's debacle of a debate, the president moments ago just cast doubt on whether he will accept any changes.

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