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Trump Team Attempts Cleanup After First Debate with Biden; Trump and Biden Both Hit Campaign Trail After Chaotic Debate; 26 U.S. States Seeing Rise in Coronavirus Cases; Far-Right Group Proud Boys Celebrated Trump's Shoutout; South Africa Reopens Borders to Low-Risk- Tourists; China's "Golden Week" To Test Country's Tourist Industry; Tens of Thousands of Airline Workers Face Furloughs; Tokyo Stock Market Halted over Technical Glitch; At the Heart of Project Puffin; Raging Wildfires Threaten California Wine Country. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 01, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Ahead this hour, 33 days before the election and Donald Trump is once again under fire because he did not condemn white supremacists. But could there be some hidden political strategery in this move?
This is what happens when a country contains the coronavirus. Hundreds of millions of people in China are heading off on a vacation. All together. All at the same.
And devastation in wine country. A record-breaking fire season in California is leaving behind heartbreaking destruction.
For Donald Trump, it seems, the first presidential debate was a total success. It's the viewing audience which was the total failure, with poll after poll showing they believe his rival Joe Biden had a winning night. And so that meant cleanup day on Wednesday at the White House, mostly over Trump's refusal yet again to condemn white supremacists, a moment which potentially could be so damaging, even some Republican lawmakers are distancing themselves from the president and his remarks.
Privately senior campaign aides are becoming increasingly worried about the upcoming election. Regardless, it seems the Trump show must go on and so it did. It rolled on into Minnesota on Wednesday for another campaign rally, pandemic be damn.
CNN's Jim Acosta has our coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After turning the first debate of the 2020 campaign into a dumpster fire, President Trump is trying to put out the flames. The president is insisting he's not familiar with the right-wing group the Proud Boys, the same organization he declined to criticize when he refused to condemn white supremacy at the debate.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know who the Proud Boys are. They have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.
ACOSTA: The president gave the group a pass in a moment that even had fellow Republicans cringing.
TRUMP: You want to call them -- what do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name. Go ahead.
CHRIS WALLACE, DEBATE MODERATOR: White supremacists and white --
TRUMP: Who would you like me to condemn?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Proud Boys.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: White supremacists and right-wing militia.
TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you like the Proud Boys now?
ACOSTA: Members of the Proud Boys, a violent group embracing racist views, celebrated Mr. Trump's comments posting images on social media stating they are standing by. GOP senators quickly called on Mr. Trump to clarify his remarks.
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): I think he misspoke in response to Chris Wallace's comment. He's asking Chris what he wanted to say. I think he misspoke, I think he should correct it. If he doesn't correct it, I guess he didn't misspeak.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator, should the president have condemned white supremacists last night at the debate?
SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): Of course. Of course.
ACOSTA: The president's decision to clean up his comments came after White House officials maintain Mr. Trump's response was perfectly fine.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Because they're celebrating it, the group.
ALYSSA FARAH, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I don't think that there's anything to clarify.
ACOSTA: Still, one Trump campaign adviser was outrage, telling CNN, "F the Proud Boys. There I said it. Not that hard."
The president is also claiming he's always denounced white supremacy despite his history of equivocating over Neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville.
TRUMP: I've always denounced any form, any form, any form of any of that.
ACOSTA: Democrat Joe Biden's message on the subject was more succinct.
BIDEN: My message to the Proud Boys and any other white supremacist group is cease and desist.
ACOSTA: As for the rest of the debate, there were so many interruptions mainly from Mr. Trump.
BIDEN: The question is -- the question is --
TRUMP: There's a lot of new Supreme Court justice radical left --
BIDEN: Will you shut up, man?
TRUMP: Who's on -- listen, who is your list, Joe?
BIDEN: This is so --
WALLACE: Gentlemen, I think --
BIDEN: This is so unpresidential.
ACOSTA: That the Presidential Debate Commission released a statement saying additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues. One member of the president's debate team said Mr. Trump probably went too far.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: And yes, I think on the Trump side, it was too hot. With all that heat, as you said before, you lose the light. That potentially can be fixed. Maybe, maybe not.
ACOSTA: The president also played fast and loose with the facts, claiming he's paid millions of dollars in taxes after the "New York Times" obtained his tax returns and found that's not the case.
TRUMP: Millions of dollars.
WALLACE: You paid millions of dollars in --
TRUMP: Millions of dollars. Yes.
ACOSTA: Team Biden is dodging the question of whether he would pack the Supreme Court. Republicans are successful in seating their nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The Republican leader of the Senate, together with Donald Trump, are, in the spirit of hypocrisy, trying to push through a nominee while the American people are voting, and so Joe has been really clear. Let's focus on what's happening right now. Deal with later later. ACOSTA (on camera): At this rally in Minnesota, the president false
alleged that Joe Biden would flood the state with refugees. That is one night after the president failed to condemn white supremacy at the president debate. It's a different night for the president but the same playbook.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Duluth, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joe Biden may have spoken for many on Wednesday when he called the debate a national embarrassment.
[01:05:01]
Still, Vice President Biden says he will take part in the next debate but he's hoping for new rules to try and minimize interruptions.
CNN's MJ Lee was with Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MJ LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The day after a chaotic debate, Joe Biden spent almost all day on a train, making stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania, clearly trying to win over voters including rural white working class voters in areas where Donald Trump performed very well back in 2016 when he was running against Hillary Clinton.
Now what the Biden campaign is signaling about how they feel like things went at this first debate is that they presented a clear contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the debate stage. They said that Donald Trump did not seem to have a clear message or lay out a clear vision for himself on that debate stage. And they're emphasizing two things that they feel like Donald Trump failed to do on the debate stage.
First is really talking in detail about the coronavirus pandemic and sort of addressing the pandemic's suffering, and the suffering that people have seen across the country. And then the second thing of course is Donald Trump not saying on the debate stage that he disavowed the Proud Boys.
Here is what Joe Biden had to say yesterday as he campaigned across Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist. That's not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Now something else that we heard Joe Biden says is that he hopes that the debate commission can make sure that they are making some changes to ensure that they are fewer interruptions in future debates. Clearly, the commission agrees with that. They said that they are going to look to make some changes to make sure that future debates can be more orderly.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst. He's also the senior editor for the "Atlantic" and he is with us from Los Angeles.
Oh, boy, it was quite the night. But at least now, Ron, we know what it will take for Republican lawmakers to distance themselves in some significant way or even speak out against this president, and it seems that the real threat down ballot to their place in power, their seats.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I don't think they distanced themselves as much maybe as you do. I mean, I think that what we have seen from Republican lawmakers is this pattern where they kind of object to a comment from the president but don't criticize him for doing. And, you know, and Susan Collins, it was kind of the master, you know, went out and said today, well, there were excesses on both sides last night.
I mean, that's not what happened. Joe Biden didn't turn in a very good debate, but President Trump was belligerent, erratic, volatile, and frankly dangerous in not only his refusal to condemn white supremacist but he's in effect giving them a mission in his final comments, calling on his voters to flood election stations on voting day, basically to intimidate other voters. You know, we saw the governor -- excuse me, the attorney general of Nevada come out and say, that is against the law in Nevada and we will enforce the law.
I haven't heard that today from Republican attorneys general. And I think it really is a -- it points, John, to the critical issue of how far will Republicans go down the line with him and allowing him to try to undermine this election both before and after the voting.
VAUSE: OK. So I would like you to listen now to the spin coming from the Trump team when it comes to the president's refusal to condemn white supremacist. Here they are. Listen to this.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOGAN GIDLEY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: He wants them to get out of the way. He wants them to not do the things they say they want to do. This is a reprehensible group. The president in the clip you just played when asked by Chris Wallace if he would condemn these groups. He said sure.
FARAH: If you heard at the beginning of that clip as Chris Wallace chimes in, he said sure.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He was in very good spirits. He brought the fights that I think the American people wanted to see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. He said the word sure twice. This would be the first time. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups --
TRUMP: Sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: He had all the enthusiasm of a dead fish. And this is the second time he said the word. Just one more time, Ron. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we've seen in Portland.
TRUMP: Sure, I'm willing to do that. But --
WALLACE: Are you prepared to specifically --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Sure, but with a qualification. Trump defenders are honestly really lying here. What does this say when the only way to defend Trump was to lie for Trump?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, we've been through this two-step before. I mean, really the first time was when Jake Tapper interviewed him on CNN in March 2016 right before the Louisiana primary. He would not condemn David Duke. He sent the signal that he meant to send in the original comments. And then inexorably, given how the abhorrent those comments are, he is forced subsequently to walk back under duress, which is kind of a modified version of what happened today, although he didn't walk back that far.
[01:10:06]
I don't think anybody who was the target of the original signal and these far-right groups had any illusions about, you know, what he is trying to tell them or how low and empty are the modified limited hangout walkbacks, to quote the Watergate era, than it did today. I mean, the fact that not only did he say that last night, he went into Minnesota tonight and said that Joe Biden is going to turn your state into a refugee camp. And then Ilhan Omar, the elected Democratic congresswoman from Minneapolis, has no business telling us how to run, quote, "our country." Right? Our country. The country of kind of white Christian non-urban voters who are the core of his base. Everyone who is still part of this coalition can have no illusions
that they are signing on not only to this spectacular, you know, expression of racism that we saw last night, but for the routine every day imbedding racism in the messaging from the highest office in the land. And I think every voter who is part of the Trump coalition, they may not all be racist, but they are all saying that they are OK with an open racist as their president.
VAUSE: Thanks to Ron Brownstein for that.
The coronavirus pandemic is laying bare the chasm between harsh grim reality and the overly optimistic, false, misleading, outright lying statements from the U.S. president because dead bodies can be counted and so, too, infections, and the U.S. is still heading in the wrong direction on both. More than 7.2 million infections and almost 210,000 dead. Not exactly turning a corner. Now more than half of all U.S. states are reporting an increase in the number of confirmed cases.
Here's CNN's Erica Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. TONY EVERS (D) WISCONSIN: We have got to put the brakes on this pandemic.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wisconsin just reported its highest daily number of coronavirus related hospitalizations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) County, we're in deep trouble.
HILL: The White House Task Force recommending state increase social distancing to the maximal degree possible and boost testing at universities.
DR. RYAN WESTERGAARD. WISCONSIN BUREAU OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASE: It's safe to assume that the virus is everywhere. So, everyone needs to be -- to change their behavior.
HILL: It's one of 26 states reporting an increase in new cases over the past week. Nearly the entire northern half of the country.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: And those trends indicate increased activity, increased transmission of the disease, and places where we really need to test and trace and lockdown and make sure that we get it in check.
HILL: New York City focusing on several neighborhoods where cases are surging.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: The numbers can change rapidly in the right direction so we're going to keep working daily, hourly to make that change.
HILL: Hundreds of police officers and city employees dispatched to those areas offering free masks and reminders about how to stop the spread. Meantime, restaurants can now open for indoor dining at 25 percent.
ANDREW SCHULMAN, CO-OWNER, TANNER SMITH'S: We need more to survive. But this is a step in the right direction.
HILL: New numbers from the CDC show infections in 18 to 22-year-olds increased 55 percent in August and early September as many return to campus.
DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT: Colleges have been frankly a real challenge point for transmission.
HILL: An outbreak among Notre Dame's football team spread like wildfire after a pregame team meal according to the head coach Brian Kelly. At least 39 players are now in isolation or quarantine.
Ohio's largest public school district plans to start in-person learning October 19th. Miami-Dade's staggered re-entry begins October 5th.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You should always try to get the children back to school. The risk of going back is really dependent on where you are.
HILL: Researchers say phase one data from Moderna's vaccine trial shows an immune response in older adults. As seven former FDA commissioners warned, the Trump administration is undermining the agency's credibility and public confidence. "Political intrusion," they write, "only prolongs the pandemic and erodes our public health institutions."
Erica Hill, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: After the break, more on the big takeaway from the first presidential debate. It's no surprise, Trump and white supremacists, good people on both sides.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups --
TRUMP: Sure.
WALLACE: -- and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we've seen in Portland.
TRUMP: Sure, I'm willing to do that.
WALLACE: Are you prepared to specifically --
BIDEN: Do it.
WALLACE: Well, go ahead, sir. TRUMP: But I would say -- I would say almost everything I see is from
the left-wing, not from the right-wing.
WALLACE: So what are you -- what are you saying?
TRUMP: I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.
WALLACE: Well, then do it, sir.
BIDEN: Say it. Do it. Say it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:16:58]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name.
WALLACE: White supremacists and white --
BIDEN: Proud Boys.
WALLACE: White supremacists and right-wing militia.
TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: If the past four years is our guide then there's no point in waiting for the U.S. president to make amends for that moment in the first debate. And true to form, though, on Wednesday Trump tried a little gaslighting, saying he didn't know who the Proud Boys are before adding they have to stand down and let law enforcement do their work.
The Proud Boys is considered a hate group and its leader told CNN he was happy with the comments from Donald Trump during the debate.
Elle Reeve has this report on their presence in Portland, Oregon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENRIQUE TARRIO, CHAIRMAN, PROUD BOYS: We're a drinking club with a patriot problem. As Proud Boys, I think our main objective is to defend the West.
(CROWD CHANTING USA)
MILKSHAKE, PROUD BOY MEMBER: Do I look scary with this? I would never use this to hit someone out of just a blatant attack. It would be only self-defense.
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We're at the Proud Boys rally in Delta Park.
(Voice-over): The Proud Boys are far-right with ambiguous beliefs but a clear record of street fights.
TARRIO: We're not punching each other in the face.
REEVE (on camera): But part of the culture is to be lightly punched while naming five breakfast cereals.
TARRIO: Five breakfast cereals, yes.
REEVE (voice-over): They planned this rally after a far-right activist was killed here a few weeks ago. Many worry that their presence in Portland will result in clashes with anti-fascist protesters who planned their own rally as a response.
(On camera): Ahead of this, the governor declared a state of emergency. There's at least 300 people here, although they'd hyped up to 3,000. and the ratio of journalists to Proud Boys is very high.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Antifa. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Antifa.
REEVE: Are you here to get in fights with Antifa?
TARRIO: Absolutely not.
REEVE: But you guys are sort of dressed in the aesthetics of political violence.
TARRIO: Well, aesthetics and actually what we are is two different things. We're all wearing protective gear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who needs a shield?
REEVE: It just seems like every time there is a Proud Boys event, it ends with some people getting beat up.
TARRIO: If our mere presence causes people to want to commit acts of violence, we're not afraid to defend ourselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know what you do, bro. A lot of people, white supremacists are nuts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who? Who that's not a white supremacist in the Nazi?
REEVE: The Proud Boys all tell us they're just here to drink beer and barbecue, but there've already been a couple incidents that have teetered on the edge of violence, including our own crew being threatened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take (EXPLETIVE DELETED) camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN. Get the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out, bitch. You want to get (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up? Wrong place to be.
REEVE: Did you film that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got something to say?
SAM, TRUMP SUPPORTER: We had one Antifa come in here, he openly admitted he was. The camera did not capture it all, oh, wow, look, they're being so violent. They didn't touch him. He wasn't bleeding, he wasn't marked up, he didn't get punched, he didn't get sprayed or nothing. And that's -- I told him later, I was like, hey, you're lucky.
REEVE: Well, if you're not here for violence, then it wouldn't be lucky, it would be the plan, right?
SAM: Wait. I mean, if --
REEVE: It wouldn't be a stroke of luck if --
SAM: Sure, but --
REEVE: You weren't expecting to be violent.
[01:20:02]
SAM: But that doesn't mean -- but I can't speak for everybody else.
REEVE (voice-over): The sheriff's department estimated about a thousand people came to Delta Park throughout the day. Meanwhile, about a thousand counter-protesters gathered three miles away.
(On camera): What do you think the Proud Boys represent?
CHARLIE WESTLEY, PROTESTER: Fear. Fear of losing power. They feel like they're just losing everything they thought that, you know, they're the superior race. We call them the Proud Little Penis Boys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fascism has no place in this city.
REEVE: And why is it important to, like, have a counter-rally to the Proud Boys? Like, why not just ignore them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're out here to show that we're not afraid, and that we're not going to, like, back down in this kind of face of tyranny, especially when our president is amping up this whole situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a counter-protest, this is a different type of night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you work with the Proud Boys?
REEVE (voice-over): At the nightly anti-police protest, people waited warily for the Proud Boys to show up. But they never came. Instead, the only clashes that occurred were the same ones between police and protesters that have happened nearly every night since May. In the end, it was just another night in Portland.
Elle Reeve, CNN, Portland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Brian Levin is the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
It's been a while, Brian. It's good to see you. Good to see you healthy.
BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM: Good to see you, John. Thank you so much.
VAUSE: Thank you. Now, oddly enough when the president of the United States tells the Proud Boys to stand by, they take that to mean stand by. CNN is reporting some have emblazoned the phrase "stand back and stand by" on to the group's logo. Others treated the president's choice of the words "stand by" as a sort of rallying cry and then since been promoting it. Now they're turning it into profit by selling merchandise with the comment on it.
OK, apart from, you know, the guy selling the coffee cups, that kind of stuff, is it possibly a gauge how a presidential shoutout would boost the far-right, I guess in terms of recruitment and legitimacy and ultimately confidence to up the ante?
LEVIN: And thank you so much for the way that you asked the question. This really is, in one sense, about the Proud Boys, but in a much broader sense, the Proud Boys are merely a snapshot of a constellation of violent, neo-fascist, and bigoted groups that are on the far right that are looking to foment conflict around election time and they have a narrative.
They also have something they haven't had before, and that is mainstream support or at least the lack of any meaningful denunciation which they regard, and this is the important question, not whether Trump's a bigot. There's a lot of opinions on that since we don't endorse candidates. I'll leave that to an educated public.
But what I think is most important for what we do in the national security area is that extremist across a constellation including civil guards, vigilantes, hardcore neo-Nazis and others, look to the fomentation of conflict and a civil war coming up around election time. And this statement by the president inflamed it and we have data that shows it.
One quick point. Charlottesville month, August 2017, the third worst month for hate crime over the last decade, and guess what? In the days after the "very fine people" comment, that's when hate crime peaked. We also have seen extremist plots and a rise in hate crime around various statements by the president. So bottom line --
VAUSE: I think for the -- sorry. Finish your thoughts, Brian. LEVIN: Yes. So bottom line, and we've seen reporting in places like
(INAUDIBLE). There are a cadre of people on the extreme right. I'm not talking about conservatives of good will, who will look to what the president says and an echo chamber online and on some networks that encourages violence and aggression against stereotype folks.
VAUSE: OK, so --
LEVIN: And one that we are concerned about and we are upping our threat advisory around election time because that's the shiny object that the president and various networks.
VAUSE: Yes.
LEVIN: And these cesspools on social media are encouraging.
VAUSE: But let's just run the other way. So what -- if this is all coming off the back of a presidential statement, is it logical and realistic to assume that the president, if he wanted, could turn this around?
LEVIN: The president could turn it around. And let me tell you something, I address Congress. I address the intelligence and federal law enforcement folks last year. Pre-El Paso and pre some of these other stuffs we were saying the lethal threat is coming from the hard right, although we're seeing a diversification. We just saw our first left-wing homicide.
[01:25:02]
But the bottom line is this is a longstanding extremist movement. They're responsible for at least 29 deaths, far right and white supremacist, last year. That's the third consecutive increase. And it's more than all the extremist homicide from the year before. Yet this administration has been monkeying around with the intelligence and law enforcement information for political ends. And that's why we petitioned Congress in this respect.
This is a shelving being done by this administration and the president is stoking violence. When President Bush spoke six days after 9/11, hate crimes against Muslims dropped by about two-thrids and they dropped into the next year.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: I want --
LEVIN: Yet when he spoke five days after our community was hit by a terror attack, hate crimes against Muslims went up 23 percent. And guess what, the day after election in 2016 was the worst day for hate crime going back to 2003. And we saw a terror plot around election times including October 2018 with the Tree of Life massacre.
VAUSE: Yes.
LEVIN: So let's not kid ourselves. We've seen assailant invoking his name. We see attacks around statements that the makes around already highly charged events.
VAUSE: Right. So --
LEVIN: He's got to knock it off or the voters may have their final choice. But the bottom line is we're concerned about an expansion, a diversification.
VAUSE: Yes.
LEVIN: Of those who are targeted for aggression beyond racial and religious minorities and others to include people involved in politics. And that's worrisome.
VAUSE: OK. I want you to listen to the president on Wednesday. This is after the debate. It's a Trump classic move sort of pleading ignorance of basic facts. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know who the Proud Boys are. I mean, you have to give 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.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But I'm talking about white supremacist, sir.
TRUMP: Like they've done in New York. I just told you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But do you denounce them? Do you denounce white --
TRUMP: I've always denounced any form -- any form --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Of white supremacy?
TRUMP: Any form of any of that. You have to denounce. But I also -- Joe Biden has to say something about Antifa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I mean, the moral equivalency is staggering because it's just completely wrong, but for the record the Southern Poverty Legal Center says -- they described the Proud Boys members who, "regularly spout white nationalists memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like 'Unite the Right' in Charlottesville."
I mean, this goes on and on and on. If this was just one isolated incident of Trump speaking in error or whatever against the white nationalist, perhaps it can be believable that he doesn't know who they are, but this is just one of so many examples, it's a trend.
LEVIN: It's not only a trend -- you made an excellent point. Whatever we think of it, you know, an educated guy who's an anchor at CNN or some respectable professor is less relevant to the fact that the extremists are eating this up. Just look at what the Proud Boys were putting out on social media and all that. But what I'm saying to you is, we are concerned more in some ways of the stealth loners who have been incubated in an ecosystem, or small cells or duos who are getting into a funnel of grievous that is being fueled by social media, some networks and --
VAUSE: Brian, I got to jump in.
LEVIN: -- political statement coming from D.C.
VAUSE: OK. I got to jump int. We're out of time. But you made some very excellent points. And, you know, it's all like the recruitment for ISIS and al Qaeda. Maybe we can have a discussion about that another time. Brian --
LEVIN: Be careful of election time.
VAUSE: OK.
LEVIN: We're very concerned and we're changing our threat advisory.
VAUSE: OK. Good to know. Brian, thank you. We appreciate it. Take care.
LEVIN: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, China's tourism industry getting a much needed boost thanks to the country's Golden Week holiday, but could it jeopardize China's COVID recovery?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:27]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: European leaders are pleading for everyone to follow guidelines and rules intended to slow the rate of COVID transmission. The German Chancellor said life as we know it will return but now we have to be reasonable.
Angela Merkel is warning of a drastic spike in cases this coming winter and says on a personal note, spontaneous encounters are what she misses the most during the pandemic.
With rising infection in Madrid, a lockdown has been ordered, almost a total lockdown. The only exception, travel to school or to a job. Many businesses are required operate at half capacity. Gatherings limited to six people and the city's borders are closed to non-essential visitors.
In the U.K. new restrictions are not stopping a quickly-spreading second wave. The Prime Minister warns there could be more severe action to come.
And from today, South Africa reopening its borders to tourists from low-risk countries but vacationers from COVID hotspots like the U.S., they will not welcome, not allowed. Only Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are accepting international flights. CNN's Eleni Giokos is with us now from Johannesburg. This is a big day, I guess for Johannesburg, for the country because it depends on tourism for a lot, I guess, is it a significant turning point. Are they convinced that they have this thing under control?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. I mean this is just such a huge turning point for the country. We've had one of the most strict and severe lockdowns globally and it started in late March and we saw domestic travel coming to a blinding halt, no one could take a flight anywhere inland. And of course, international travel now resuming finally. But of course, there are restrictions and there are 57 countries, Johns, that are currently on the high-risk category and that includes the U.S., the United Kingdom as well as France an many other European countries.
And as you say, we started to see second waves emerging and countries scrambling to figure out what to do in terms of trying to curb the spread of COVID-19 in those countries. So that's what they're now taking the decision as we start to see COVID-19 cases coming under control. And of course, we reached peak in August.
The country now says, look, we've got high risk countries. We've got to protect our borders as well and despite the fact that the tourism industry has been really hard-hit, the U.S. and the U.K. and most European countries are really vital for the tourism sector. Now only business travel, diplomatic travel will be allowed in any kind of repatriation from those high-risk countries.
It's been an interesting time and we've only really gotten details yesterday. International carriers now trying to decide in terms of what the scheduling would look like and, of course, high-risk country lists are going to be recalibrated every two weeks depending on infection rates and death rates in those safe countries and if they're higher then what we're seeing in South Africa, every single travel that comes into the country will have to have a medical certificate to show the COVID-19 status and something that isn't older than 72 hours.
So the restrictions basically are going to be pretty much synonymous with what we've been seeing in other countries trying to resume international flights. Most African countries are going to be open for both business and leisure. China is open for both of those elements as well.
[01:34:48]
GIOKOS: You know, tourism accounts for 9 percent of South Africa's GDP and the big spending countries are so basically going to be barred from coming in for tourism. It's going to be an interesting one. I mean, the U.S. in 2019 saw almost 400,000 travelers coming into South Africa. We're now getting into tourism season. It's getting into the summer season in South Africa, John. And I'm curious to see the supply and the value changes (INAUDIBLE) that we see for the hotel space.
And specifically for the industry whether that is going to be in any way recovering down the line and of course, the appetite for people to get back on planes. VAUSE: You know, a lot of good questions there. A lot of good issues to be addressed, I guess as this moves forward. But Eleni Giokos, thank you very much, live in Johannesburg.
After a draconian mass lockdown the size and scale the world has never seen before, China appears to have the hard yard bringing the virus under control and say now hundreds of millions of people are heading off on a holiday.
Golden week marks the first major travel holiday since the coronavirus outbreak began. And China has almost half -- well, more than half a billion trips will be taken this week along. But does this pose a risk to the COVID-19 recovery?
CNN's David Culver, our man in Beijing joins us again, live. David.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, John.
This is the concern. It's what's going to happen in the days and weeks after all of this travel. Nonetheless folks here feel like they're in a rather safe bubble. And if you go by the official government numbers, there've been roughly single-digit reported new cases to -- maybe you've got around 20 each day. And nothing substantial compared to other countries.
However with all this movement, that raises concern and the government says they're still moving forward with their mass testing. They're contact tracing. And should there be a cluster outbreak, they then have these compartmentalized lock downs.
Nonetheless, starting today, and for the next seven plus days, it's going to put containment to the test.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER: The start of China's Golden Week holiday, celebrating the country's founding leading to crowds like this. Travelers wearing masks but standing shoulder to shoulder at the train station.
This marks the first major travel holiday in China since the coronavirus outbreak began more than eight months ago which makes this the first major test of COVID-19 containment here.
Going back roughly to April, we've seen significant easing of restrictions across China. Sure there have been cluster outbreaks including one here in Beijing back in June. But many here are more worried about the spread in other parts of the world.
And so most mainland Chinese travelers are staying within China's borders for their holiday. Feeling a bit more protected perhaps but it makes for a crowded bubble.
From October 1st through the 8th, China Tourism Academy estimates there will be some 550 million domestic trips taken. That is nearly 70 percent of the trips taken at the same time last year. Hotel bookings however are up 50 percent from 2019 and so too is same- city and short distance travel. Think stay-cation.
Recent college graduate Stephy Lu, normally prefers to go abroad. But this year she's among the millions planning a trip to another part of China.
STEPHY LU, SHANGHAI RESIDENT: The main coaster (ph) is a type of transportation. I want to make sure to stay in a familiar environment which is safer (INAUDIBLE) to make sure there is not too many unfamiliar people mixed together.
CULVER: The last significant travel holiday here was the Chinese New Year. And while Beijing's tourism bureau canceled all large-scale celebrations for the holiday, we were at the Beijing train station as people crowded in to head to their hometowns. Very few wearing masks. No immediate worries, so it seemed.
Three days later, Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic went on lockdown and the streets of major cities like Shanghai went bare for weeks. This was the iconic band (ph) in February. But gradually social life resumed.
In April, more people venturing out. And just last weekend, night time crowd packed in, most ditching the face mask. Major indoor events like this Beijing auto show also attracting crowds, a sign that many who, for weeks were shuttered in their homes now feel increasingly comfortable that the virus will stay contained.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER: And so John, one of the things we're watching closely in the days and weeks that follow this Golden Week holiday of travel, we'll see if there are any surges in the numbers and if that leads to more cluster outbreaks and then more lockdowns.
VAUSE: David, thank you. Yes, I guess that's part of the story which remains to be seen at this point.
Thank you. David Culver, live in Beijing.
Well, tens of thousands of U.S. airline employees will be furloughed in the coming hours. The federal aid package that protected their paychecks expired a short time ago.
American Airlines says it will begin furloughing 19,000 workers. United will start to furlough more than 13,000. Thousands of lay-offs are looming at other airlines as well.
Executives say they're prepared to recall workers if Congress approves an additional $25 billion for their financially battered industry.
[01:39:47]
VAUSE: CNN's John Defterios is with us from Abu Dhabi. So John, you know, the stimulus package has been debated for what, five months almost, I think. And now the deadline is here. What does this actually mean for the airlines. I mean if it gets through at some point in time, is there a point of no return where there'll be carriers simply going out of business?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, you know, I'll tell you, John. It's pretty complicated, right. They can go into reverse and come back after furloughs if a package goes through. And genuinely, they have package that was in there by the end of June and they've been waiting about three months between the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate which is controlled by Republicans.
The $2.2 trillion package that's put forward by Nancy Pelosi in the House has been called outlandish by Republicans. Steve Mnuchin is trying to close that gap.
But what we're talking here is specifically for the airline sector is $25 billion for the next six months. The airline CEOS are suggesting, that's it, we wouldn't need anything more after that. They think they can stabilize on their own.
Here's the CEO of American Airlines on what they're expecting and what they're prepared to do, John.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG PARKER, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: The last thing we want to do is furlough employees. That's why we've been fighting so hard doing the counter agreement. So at any rate, it's hard for me to tell you (INAUDIBLE) here until we know where they are. But certainly it's -- you know, it's clear and the House may pass.
As you know, we're not quite done yet but we will be done soon. Of course, if it's you know, if it gets worse, we need, you know much more time to work and unclear (INAUDIBLE) to get whether we can get something done or not, that's going to be -- that's probably going to be much worse (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: Pretty cloudy horizon there for the airline sector, John.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last night we're close to a deal but how many times have we talked about that over the last month? I wouldn't hold your breath to put it that way. And the airline sector is ready to go with these furloughs if they don't get clarity.
VAUSE: Does this mean that the airline industry always tends to be the focus of the headlines in newspapers. But you know, it's not just the airline industry when they bail out these companies. It's a whole spin-on effect, multiplier effect if you like.
DEFTERIOS: Yes, that's a perfect way of putting it, John. It's the busines travel and what's related to that and also the leisure travel that both David and Eleni were taking about here. There is a group out of Geneva, the Air Transport Action Group that's suggesting we could lose 46, million jobs for exactly the same reason that you're talking here. Over 10 percent of that, 4.8 million directly related to airlines, aerospace and the airports themselves. But 26 million jobs related to all the industry around it -- hospitality, transportation, restaurants, and the like.
And the global impact on GDP if we don't get the recovery, which they say is not going to happen until 2024 is $1.8 trillion. Pretty tidy sum to global GDP.
VAUSE: For a GDP which is stalling, going back which is probably not a good idea if it led to fails (ph).
So John, thank you. John Defterios there for us, live in Abu Dhabi.
Now, a technical glitch has caused Tokyo's stock exchange to halt trading. The problem was traced to what officials say is the distribution of market information. Smaller stock exchanges in the world's third largest economy have also been impacted. It's unclear when trading will resume.
CNN's Selina Wang is live in Hong Kong.
This is a very rare event, that happened to the Tokyo Exchange, right.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, that's correct. Trading on the Tokyo stock exchange is halted for the entire day, so this makes it the worst break down the exchange has ever had.
There have been outages in the past but they've only impacted part of the trading day. So the last major one was in 2005 when trading was halted for about 4.5 hours and actually at the time, that led to the resignation of the exchanges' president.
Now we don't yet know what the cause of this was. A Japanese government spokesperson said that they are looking into it now and that there is no indication at this point that it was the cause of a cyber attack.
But John, of course, investors are on high alert for any of these glitches especially after those August cyber attacks in New Zealand that led to multiples days of outages.
Now, the Japanese stock market is worth about $6 trillion. It's the third largest after the U.S. and China. And what this outage means is that trading of thousands of shares are frozen. Now this also shut down one of the only major market in Asia in operation because most are closed because of the national holiday. And in mainland China, it's closed for multiple days because of Golden Week.
This could come at a significant cost to investors depending on how long this lasts for especially for the short term investors. It could dampen market sentiment in the Japanese markets and it could really pressure stocks when trading reopens.
And on top of that John, this glitch also comes on the same day that a closely watched indicated was released by the Bank of Japan. It showed that the Japanese economy may be over the very worst but sentiment for companies is still below pre-pandemic levels.
[01:44:55]
VAUSE: Selina, thank you. Selina Wang there in Hong Kong with all the details.
When we come back, decoys and mirrors. How one man rewrote the book on seabird conservation, restoring an entire species to a little known corner of the United States.
We'll be back. Stay with us.
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VAUSE: Call to Earth is a call to action for the environment to share solutions to critical issues like global warming, deforestation and plastic waste. It's a long term priority for CNN to work with you, our audience, to drive awareness and inspire change so we can engineer a sustainable future.
In this week's report, how Rolex laureate Stephen Kress brought the vulnerable Atlantic Puffin back to the Gulf of Maine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For 47 years, Stephen Kress has had a central passion.
STEPHEN KRESS, ORNITHOLOGIST: My mission for life has been to learn more about the ocean birds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the heart of the mission, a very special species of puffin.
KRESS: Because they look an act kind of like people, people can relate to them. The way they walk, the pair rub bills together, they way they raise their family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Puffins had all but disappeared from the Maine Coast after being hunted for food and feathers back in the 1800s.
In 1973, Kress began in effort to bring them back to Eastern Egg Rock, this tiny speck of an island just 13 minutes off the mainland.
It wasn't an easy task, they have to transplant young seabirds from Canada.
KRESS: The puffin chicks from Newfoundland were put in each o these burrows, hand fed and then they would come out when they were six weeks old and they would work their way to the edge of the island and swim off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For four straight years, none of the puffins came back KRESS: So I began trying to think like a puffin. And I realized that if young puffins did remember this island, maybe they wouldn't come ashore because they were too timid.
Puffins are social birds and they like being with others of their kind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kress tried placing fake puffin decoys around the island. Within days, the first puffin returned.
KRESS: That decoy experience was the first beginning of what we now call social attraction. Social attraction simply means you're attracting birds using artifacts like decoys, audio recordings, mirrors, scent, artificial burrows -- those techniques sort of give birds a little encourage to start. To start the nucleus of a new colony.
[01:49:52]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Project Puffin has come a long way. Kress says there are now at least 1,300 pairs of puffins across five Maine Islands.
DONALD LYONS, PROJECT PUFFIN: Project Puffin is a little bit of a miracle. One person's passion, Steve Kress, can save a particular species, inspired a whole group of people to pitch in. The social attraction techniques are now critically contributing to the restoration of many threatened and endangered species across the world.
KRESS: Oh, what a cutie. Look at that. That's a puffin teenager.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Humans no longer need to hand rear the chicks. The puffins are doing a great job of that all by themselves. These hedges track the puffins by sight and with GPS tied, gain valuable information about the health of local fisheries.
KRESS: The big thing that we discovered is that puffins are an amazing indicator of changes in the climate, the ocean climate.
Gulf of Maine is warming faster than any other ocean in the world. And the puffins being at the southern limit of their range are very sensitive to those changes. The oceans are declining in their productivity, which means there's less food, less oxygen being produced for humans to breathe as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kress is still hopeful though. Through Project Puffin, he's learned nature is listening (ph). It just needs a lot of care.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll continue bringing you those inspirational stories as part of our CNN initiative. Please let us know what you're doing to answer the call with the #CallToEarth.
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VAUSE: Right now in the United States, two major wildfires are burning out of control in Northern California. The Glass fire is threatening wine country as it burns through thousands of hectares and is only 2 percent contained. More than 70,000 people are under evacuation orders and a fourth person has died in what's known as the Zogg fire.
And the current fire emergency in California could soon get even worse. October marks the arrival of dry gusty winds known as Diablo. Just this year more than 8,000 wildfires has scorched more than $3.5 million acres in California.
A headline from the "L.A. Times" puts it like this. "The worst fire season ever again." Fire crews seem to have been on the frontlines across California almost without respite since 2017 which at the time was the state's most destructive wildfire season on record.
Vincent Tofanelli has been there for all of those years. He is the owner of Tofanelli Vineyards. He is on the line from northern California.
Vincent, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. I know a difficult time for everybody. So we appreciate it.
Can you tell us, the damage which we have seen already, on your property is just incredibly extensive it seems. Every structure has bene burned or been burned to the ground. It's still unclear what's happened to the vines. But can you put into words just how much has been lost for you as well as around you in this fire season so far.
VINCENT TOFANELLI, TOFANELLI VINEYARDS: It almost escapes me as, you know, I grew up on the ranch. It's a third generation vineyard operation to see (INAUDIBLE) that my grandfather and grandmother, mother and father tilled in smoke, it's really hard to put that into words. It's devastating, I guess. That would be the word.
[01:55:01]
VAUSE: Yes, it's clearly, you know, everyone has to look at this and they feel sympathy and sorrow and everything else for the people who are going through this. But it's not just this fire season. This is like the fourth year of bad fire seasons.
There was 2017 which had a devastating impact. There's the effects of climate change. You know, there's also the effect of smoke on the vineyards and the grapes long-term. And throw into that a pandemic. What else? What else could come your way. I mean this is --
TOFANELLI: Well, we won't talk about an earthquake.
VAUSE: Yes.
TOFANELLI: That's -- yes, it is taxing. I'm tired to the bone. Harvest time is always a stressful time. Getting those grapes right. making wine out of them. And to have not one but two immense fires, it's mind-boggling. VAUSE: Can you get to the point where it gets all too hard and you'd have to walk away and leave it behind?
TOFANELLI: Well, you know, farmers are resilient. I consider myself a farmer first and foremost and winemaker second. But sometimes you just want to walk away from it but I always end up going back.
So at this point no intention of closing the doors. I think the Napa Valley the home (INAUDIBLE) of me on this. It's -- perhaps it means changing varietals. It might be tweaking of our practices. And only hope that this cycle of fire, destruction and fire, drought just alleviates a little bit so that we can get back to doing what we do best which is farming wine grapes.
VAUSE: I hope you can. It's the question of how long it will take to get to that point. In the short term though there are some tough days to come. This is not over yet by a long shot.
TOFANELLI: No. No. Fortunately all of our grapes had been harvested. So again, my heart goes out to those we have still free (ph) on the vines. So I (INAUDIBLE) and all the wines that are already in cave and are in barrel so for myself. But so many others are still wringing their hands.
VAUSE: Yes. These are tough days in California.
Vincent Tofanelli of Tofanelli Family Vineyards in northern California, thank you sir. We appreciate your time.
TOFANELLI: Well, you're welcome.
VAUSE: And we wish them all the best.
I'm John Vause. Please stay with us.
Robyn Curnow has another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a very short break.
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[01:57:49]
