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Trump Take Joyride to Wave at Supporters Despite COVID-19; Doctors: Trump Given Steroid as Oxygen Levels Dropped; Biden to Ramp Up COVID-19 Testing During Campaign; Parts of NYC Seeing Coronavirus Resurgence; U.K. Failed to Report More Than 15,000 New Cases; Bars in Paris to Close as Cases Spike; Cineworld Confirms Temporary Closure of U.S. and U.K. Cinemas. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired October 05, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, this motorcade is causing a lot of controversy. Reaction to Donald Trump's trip outside Walter Reed Hospital just to wave at supporters.

And Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has pulled his negative advertising for now. We will look at what Mr. Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis means in the race for the White House.

And the latest in the global fight against the coronavirus, several hot spots could face new lock downs, including New York City.

Good to have you with us. Well, after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the U.S. President is trying to turn his recovery into a rally. Donald Trump briefly left Walter Reed Medical Center on Sunday to stage this drive by photo op for supporters, despite the President still being infectious. He wore a mask as he waved to crowds. At least one member of his security detail wore a face shield and medical gown but the confines of that SUV make social distancing impossible.

A physician at Walter Reed warns every person in that vehicle will now have to quarantine. Mr. Trump was already making light of his condition even teasing the joyride on Twitter. And he says he's finally learning about a virus that's killed more than 200,000 Americans. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I also think we're going to pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the street, and they have been out there for a long time, and they've got Trump flags and they love our country. So I'm not telling anybody but you, but I'm about to make a little surprise visit, so perhaps I'll get there before row get you get to see me. But I just -- when I look at the enthusiasm and we have enthusiasm

like probably nobody's ever have, people that love the job we're doing. We have more enthusiasm than maybe anybody, so it's been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn't the let's read the book school, and I get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: He gets it. Well, in photos, the President has been shown working diligently through his illness, and his doctors say he could be released as early as today, but they also admit he was given the steroid dexamethasone after his oxygen levels dropped two times. On Sunday, Mr. Trump's physician tried to defend leaving out some of that crucial information a day before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SEAN CONLEY, WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the President, his course of illness has had. I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something which wasn't necessarily true. And so he is, the fact of the matter is that he's doing really well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So let's go live to Bethesda, Maryland, for the very latest. CNN's Joe Johns is standing by at Walter Reed Medical Center. Good morning, Joe. So medical experts are asking what President Trump was thinking when he put himself and others at risk for that photo op with his supporters. How was this even allowed to happen?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, how was it allowed to happen? He's the President of the United States, and it's pretty clear that he does what he wants as you know, and he has many times against advice on a range of issues.

But also if you want to sort of know the background, it starts with this Twitter feed about 12 hours ago. The President tweeted out that he appreciated the crowd that was outside the hospital grounds here holding flags and so on, rooting for the President, in other words. And about ten hours ago, the President put out that other tweet. You showed some of the video from it where he indicated he was going to go out and see the people.

[04:05:00]

The President loves crowds, he loaves loves the adoration that comes along with being President of the United States and he wanted to say thank you to that small group of people. So he popped into a sports utility vehicle, with Secret Service agents in full protective equipment. We could only see one, but the know all the others did as well. And drove by, gave the crowd a thumbs up and kept moving. On any other day, in any other situation or environment, that would

not be a big deal but it is a big deal simply because the President is in all likelihood still contagious with COVID-19 and possibly shedding virus that could reach people inside an enclosed space like an SUV, even though they are wearing full protective equipment. So that created certainly controversy here in the United States.

Also important to say this isn't the further the President has in one way or another put people in the Secret Service in harm's way as far as COVID-19 is concerned. We have documented reports of a number of people who work for the Secret Service who have gotten sick or at least tested positive for the virus, including at the President's rally in Tulsa some months ago -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, it's a critical point. And Joe, what's the latest information that you have on the President's condition? Of course word, too, that he could possibly be discharged today.

JOHNS: Right. That's what they say, and the doctors say the President has been doing quite extremely well. But when you look at the number and types of medications the President is taking, that indicates the President's sickness is a little bit more serious than the doctors might be trying to lead us to believe. There is that steroid that the President is taking for inflammation. It is the type of steroid that is recommended only in cases of severe COVID-19.

He's taking an antibody cocktail that we've talked about quite a bit, and he's also taking remdesivir, and that is something that he's supposed to get only under a doctor's care. Presumably only in a hospital.

Now, how could he go home? It's possible because the White House could be outfitted with all of the equipment and personnel needed to monitor the President as he goes through this period of the virus. And it's possible, at least, that he could be going home today. It all depends on what the doctors say. Interesting, though, that a doctor would suggest that before making the final determination -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Very true. We will watch to see what they decide to do. Joe Johns at Walter Reed Medical Center. Many thanks.

Well, as President Trump waved to his adoring crowds on Sunday, some doctors harshly criticized the move, including an attending physician at Walter Reed, though he is not involved in the President's care. He spoke with CNN earlier about how irresponsible he found it to be.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. JAMES PHILLIPS NONMILITARY ATTENDING PHYSICIAN, WALTER REED HOSPITAL: I have a hard time believing that without undue influence based on their chain of command that those physicians would have cleared that. When we take care of patients in the emergency department or the thousands of hours I've spent on the inpatient wards, and surgery, medicine and ICU, we don't let people leave the hospital when they're sick unless they sign out against medical advice offering some bit of protection to the medical staff and the hospital itself.

The only reason why someone with COVID-19, severe COVID-19 causing hypoxia, on multiple IV drugs, should ever be leaving the hospital would be in an ambulance to be transferred to a higher level of care. There is no higher level of care than what our President is currently getting. He's being treated by the premier military physicians in the world, being augmented by doctors from Johns Hopkins and potentially elsewhere.

So why leave? What is the purpose of this? It certainly, you're looking at the risk of transmission of COVID-19. What we know is being in enclosed spaces is dangerous. Masks or no masks, being inside of a vehicle that is hermetically sealed circulated virus inside and potentially puts people at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now is Dr. Ali Khan. He is also dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's College of Public Health. Thank you, doctor, for being with us.

DR. ALI KHAN, DEAN, UNMC, COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So what you're reading of the President's current medical condition and do you think his doctors are hiding anything as some have suggested?

KHAN: So it's clear that we really don't have all the information on when the President first became sick, when his symptoms were, when his testing was done.

[04:10:00]

But based on the therapy that he's been administered it suggests that he's been hospitalized for moderate disease.

CHURCH: Interesting because the President has received supplemental oxygen, at least two times we understand, he's on Regeneron, an experimental antibody cocktail. He's also taking the antiviral drug remdesivir and a steroid quickly reserved for those with the severest of symptoms, and yet his medical team says he could be discharged in the coming hours. Does that make sense to you?

KHAN: Well again, since I'm not part of his medical team, it's probably always prudent not to predict when somebody is going to be discharged until you have the opportunity to assess them before they are discharged. But everything that the medical team has told us suggests that he's had a moderate illness at this point and should be monitored to make sure he doesn't get the sort of second phase of severe illness which usually occurs about seven to ten days after onset of symptoms.

CHURCH: The President's doctor, Sean Conley was directly asked what Mr. Trump's x-rays and CT scans show in relation to his lungs and Dr. Conley said they showed expected findings. They were his words. What does that mean to you?

KHAN: What that means to me is that typically other patients who have this disease on their x-rays, on their CT, you'll see these little abnormalities in their air sacs and he probably has the exact same findings, because he's clearly affected with SARS coronavirus 2 and has COVID.

CHURCH: As a doctor, what did you think when you saw Mr. Trump in his motorcade on Sunday waving at his supporters?

KHAN: So, this would be highly unusual. We isolate all of our patients currently in the hospital, and unfortunately in most hospitals in the U.S. they don't even have access to their family members while they are being isolated. So again, if you are sick with COVID, for ten days, you must isolate without anybody else around you and not put anybody else at risk.

CHURCH: All right, Dr. Ali khan, thank you so much for your expertise, we appreciate it.

KHAN: Always a pleasure, mask on.

CHURCH: It is a very important message. Well, one of the top Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives slammed President Trump's decision to go for a ride to wave at supporters. Representative Adam Schiff tells our Wolf Blitzer, the President's actions were irresponsible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): What on earth is he thinking? Why would he imagine it's a good idea to go for a photo op, a joyride when he is sick? When he's on experimental treatments? And what's more, if he wasn't going to look after his own health, what about the people in that vehicle that hermetically sealed vehicle, those Secret Service agents who are not in a position to say no to the President? It's irresponsible to them, and for what? I mean, I just, you know, after he was explaining how much he had learned about the virus, to go and do this, it's just unthinkable.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it was really, really amazing. You're a member of the so called gang of eight, the top leadership in the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans. I take it you guys have not been briefed by the White House on any of this, the President's condition, is that so?

SCHIFF: We have not been briefed on it, and what's more, if foreign nations are looking at taking advantage of the President's potentially diminished capacity, we're not getting briefed on that either. Now maybe that's not happening. Hopefully, that's not happening. But I would hope the administration would keep us in the loop. Although I would have to say, with the experience of the last several months where they have withheld or tried to muddy the waters in terms of the intelligence isn't encouraging in terms of their transparency.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: And Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has once again tested negative for coronavirus. That's according to his campaign. A CNN source familiar with the candidate's testing strategy says Biden plans to take a test every time he travels and he will make the results public. CNN's MJ Lee has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MJ LEE, CNN U.S. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: While President Trump receives treatment at Walter Reed Hospital for COVID-19, Joe Biden's campaign continuing their normal campaign activities. Later today we're going to see the former Vice President travel to Florida. And what the Biden campaign has announced is that they are now going to make sure that Biden is tested more frequently for the virus than he had been previously.

[04:15:00]

And you'll recall that last Friday shortly after news broke that President Trump had tested positive for the virus, Biden himself announced that he was tested twice for the virus, and both of those test results came back negative. And we also learned last night, Sunday night, that he had taken another test that also came back negative.

I also just want to point out heading into this week, that the big political event that is coming up is the first and only vice presidential debate. This is going to be between Vice President Mike Pence, and Senator Kamala Harris. And what CNN can report is that the Biden campaign had raised some concerns about the amount of space between Pence and Harris on the debate stage. And after talks and negotiations where they landed is that instead of there being 7 feet between the two candidates, now we are going to see 12 feet. So more space than originally planned.

And finally the one thing that is entirely unclear right now because of the President's status is what is going to happen to the second presidential debate that was slated for later this month. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Thanks for that. And still to come here on CNN, New York's mayor wants to reinstate some restrictions due to a resurgence of COVID cases in some neighborhoods. It is a disturbing turn for America's biggest city. We're back with that in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:20:00]

CHURCH: The United States has seen its worst five-day period for new coronavirus cases since mid-August. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 232,000 new infections were reported between last Tuesday and last Saturday. That is an average of more than 46,000 new cases every day. Los Angeles County tops the list for the most COVID-19 infections and

deaths in the U.S. There are nearly 275,000 cases and more than 6,600 deaths.

In New York, some areas of the city are seeing a resurgence of COVID cases, and now Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to reinstate some restrictions to help stop the spread of the virus. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro reports on this big setback for America's largest city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After months of great strides forward in the city's battle against the pandemic, a big step back on Sunday. Mayor Bill de Blasio proposing nine zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens return to the kinds of restrictions we saw all over the city back in April, closures of schools and nonessential businesses. And eleven other zip codes, new restrictions on indoor dining and gyms and pools.

The idea is to combat a growing infection rate in those areas, in those nine zip codes, a seven-day, consecutive infection rate over 3 percent, and the eleven rising numbers that give the mayor great cause for concern. There's been a lot of good news in New York, but on Sunday, the mayor said this was not that kind of day.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D) NEW YORK CITY: So today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration. Today is a more difficult day. And I'm going to be giving an update that gives me no joy at all. In fact, it pains me to be putting forward this approach that we'll need, but in some parts of our city, in Brooklyn, and Queens, we're having an extraordinary problem, something we haven't seen since the spring.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: The mayor's proposals now have to go to the governor for final sign off. But for those of us in New York City, this gives us a bad case of deja vu.

Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: India has been seeing a steady fall in new daily coronavirus cases. That is according to figures from the country's health ministry. And the government has just outlined an ambitious plan to vaccinate 250 million of its citizens by next July.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's Prime Minister says restrictions in the city of Auckland will be eased. That means schools and businesses there can reopen.

But in Paris, bars are set to close for at least two weeks starting Tuesday. The French Prime Minister has confirmed the capital will be elevated to the country's maximum alert level.

And in the U.K., officials say a technical issue meant that more than 15,000 new coronavirus cases went unreported last month. S o let's bring in CNN's Melissa Bell. She's live for us in Paris, and CNN's Scott McLean joins us live from London. Good to see you both. So Scott, let's start with you. What more are you learning about this technical issue that resulted in thousands of cases not being included in September records?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rosemary. So we don't have a detailed explanation of what exactly this technical issue was, but we know that it impacted a 9-day period of counting right up until Friday when it was caught. And this is a pretty critical period of time. Coronavirus cases have been on the rise in this country, this second wave of the virus has really been hitting the U.K. full force. And it's come a couple of weeks after new restrictions came into place to try to curb the spread of the virus, like closing pubs early, and new restrictions on social gatherings.

So on Friday, based on the data, things were looking pretty rosy. The daily new case counts were starting to flatten and it look like those new restrictions were actually starting to have an impact. Now all of that is thrown into doubt.

The good news, though is that everyone who did actually have the virus was notified on time. The bad news is it makes things really hard to assess. Look at this graphic showing the rolling seven-day averages and all of a sudden you have this spike at the end, which makes it pretty hard to read as to how well this country is doing on getting a handle on the virus. And the Prime Minister warned that things could be bumpy for a while. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MARR, BBC, THE ANDREW MARR SHOW: Can I jump in?

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The furious have been are furious with the government.

MARR: They are.

JOHNSON: But, but, but, you know, I've got to tell you, in all candor, it's going to continue to be bumpy through to Christmas. It may even be bumpy beyond. But this is the only way to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:25:00]

MCLEAN: So not a whole lot of confidence there from the Prime Minister. He also said that the vaccine, he is hopeful there could be a vaccine by the end of the year, but it's not a certainty by a stretch of the imagination.

One of the things he has been criticized as of late by the opposition is the decision to close the pubs at 10:00 p.m. The opposition Labour Party actually supported this, now they're calling the government to release evidence showing that it might actually work. The Prime Minister didn't offer evidence over the weekend. He even acknowledged that some of the rules and restrictions were illogical, maybe hard to follow, maybe even contradictory in some areas. But he says that look, if this country is going to get a handle on this second wave, people need to follow the guidance -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, absolutely right. Thanks for that, Scott. And Melissa, let's go to now you, and more closures expected in Paris, what's the latest on that.

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Rosemary. From tomorrow, cafes and bars will be closed, this as Paris enters officially that maximum alert category that Marseilles had been in already. Interestingly though restaurants won't be closing. We had imagined that they would. They have been closed in Marseilles. They are now set to reopen there.

That is a measure of the strength of the pushback from restaurateurs really reluctant to have a second period when their establishments had to be closed. But yes, fresh restrictions as authorities try and get the figures back under control.

To give you an idea issue one of the criterion for entering the max maximum alert category, Rosemary, is an incidence rate of more than 250 people sick per hundred thousand. Give you an idea, it is 272 here in Paris now. And amongst the young, people who are between 20 and 29 years old, it is more than 540. That gives you an idea, first of all, of how bad things are in the greater Paris region, but second of all, the fact that it is the young that have been driving this. The young who've been going out. They've been going restaurants. They've been going to cafes bars, socializing and not taking the measures that they needed to protect themselves.

The question is whether this fresh round of restrictions will bring the figures under control in time for the health system to be able to cope.

CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to Melissa Bell in Paris, Scott McLean in London. Appreciate it.

Well, if you were hoping to catch the next Hollywood block buster in theaters, you may have to change your plans. Movie theater giants Cineworld is temporarily suspending all operations at its Regal cinemas here in the United States. It's also closing its Cineworld and Picturehouse theaters in the United Kingdom. The company blames market closures due to COVID-19.

Super spy James Bond may have also had an impact. The decision comes after the next 007 movie got its release date moved to next year. It is the latest high profile film to face a delay.

Well, the U.S. President is playing into pandemic politics while hospitalized with COVID-19. But just how seriously is he taking this virus? His own actions appear to be undermining his message. Back in a moment.

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