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President Trump, Still Infected, Returns to the White House; COVID-19 Pandemic Worldwide; Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict; U.S. Stock Market Looks to Extend Strong Rally; Groups Sue Texas Governor over Ballot Drop-off Locations. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired October 06, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our reviewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Donald Trump's choreographed return to the White House and the infected president downplayed coronavirus once again.

International calls for cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues to put civilians at risk.

Later we go to Harris County, Texas, where there is now just one ballot dropoff box for its 2.4 million registered voters because of an order from the governor.

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CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

Donald Trump is still infected with the coronavirus. He's back at the White House after spending the past 3 days in the hospital. The U.S. president was anxious to project an image of strength and triumph as he walked across the South Lawn from Marine One to the Truman Balcony.

At the stop of the stairs, he took off his mask as a photographer scrambled to get pictures. Since we don't know exactly when the president was infected, it is impossible to know if he is still contagious.

What came next was a scene right out of one of Donald Trump's reality shows. He walked back out onto the balcony and redid his entrance for the cameras, recording a Twitter video, urging Americans not to be afraid of COVID and get back out there. Be careful.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I knew there's a danger to it but I had to do it. I stood out front. I led. Nobody that's a leader would not do what I did. And I know there's a risk. There's a danger but that's OK and now I'm better and maybe I'm immune, I don't know.

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CHURCH: The president's return to the White House comes as the U.S. death toll from coronavirus has passed 210,000. Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is the latest member of his inner circle to test positive.

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DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: I think we should be alarmed by the lessons he is taking with him. The very idea that people should not be afraid of COVID-19, he is doubling down on the biggest mistake of his presidency, which was to take COVID in a cavalier fashion to begin with, to downplay it, to sugarcoat it.

Now he is sending that same signal out to millions of people who are in his base, telling them basically they do not have to worry about this.

Why would you have to use masks?

Why would you have to do all this?

You don't have to worry about it. If you are not scared of it -- and I think he is going to get a lot of people killed as a result, starting in the White House itself. You've got some 90 people in the residence, Blacks and Latinos, who look after the first family year after year and do such a superlative job.

They are now increasingly at risk. Secret Service is increasingly at risk. That should be unacceptable.

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CHURCH: And we get more now from CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was less than 72 hours after the president was actually admitted to Walter Reed Hospital that he returned to the White House where he dramatically climbed the steps of the White House and facing live television cameras took off his mask.

Standing there for several moments before turning to back inside and then coming back out briefly as he could let a camera crew waiting inside the White House shoot his return so he could then post a video on his Twitter feed. Touting his time in the hospital and downplaying coronavirus. Overall saying that it cannot dominate American life.

Of course that comes as the president was on steroids and another drug that fewer than ten people outside of clinical trials have gotten in the United States.

But he sought to really downplay his diagnosis, even as he was just a few days into it and his doctor earlier told reporters that he was not out of the woods yet when it came to coronavirus and they would be monitoring him closely while he was back at the White House.

He's also returning to a much different White House where his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump will not be there. Because she's at home quarantining after coming into contact with people who tested positive. Because we are seeing this outbreak inside the West Wing grow.

Starting with Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary, who had been briefing reporters for several days without a mask on and now has tested positive for coronavirus. And is also working remotely as are two of her aides in the press shop who also tested positive.

It's raising concerns about what life inside the West Wing is going to look like over the next several days and whether or not the president is actually going to stay quarantined or if he's going to try to break out of that a little bit early-- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

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CHURCH: So let's talk about that, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Leana Wen. She is an emergency physician at George Washington University. Thank you, doctor, for all you do and for talking with us at this time.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Of course. Thank you.

CHURCH: So why would President Trump's medical team discharge him and send him back to the White House when they say he may not entirely be out of the woods.

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CHURCH: How risky could this prove to be and what did you make of the photo op that he staged on his return?

WEN: Well, there's just a lot about President Trump's medical condition that we don't fully understand, Rosemary and it feels like we are forced to play detective here. We're piecing together various sources of information. It sounds like he had two episodes where his oxygen saturation dropped. One of those episodes was so severe that he ended up having to be hospitalized in the first place.

We know that he is on at least three medications, one of which is dexamethasone, which is a steroid medication that's given to patients who are severely or critically ill. Notably, it's not given to patients with non-severe illness. So it does make you wonder, how serious is the president's condition.

Also by the White House's own timeline, it appears that he is on day five of his illness. Day seven through ten is when things could really deteriorate and go downhill quickly. And so, I don't understand, if they transferred him to the hospital in the first place, why let him go two to three days before the worst could be still to come.

CHURCH: And doctor, as you mentioned, President Trump is taking a mixture of new drugs right now, some designed for severe cases of COVID-19. What impact do you think these drugs are having on his decision making skills, like his premature discharge from hospital, his joyride on Sunday and, of course, that very bizarre staged photo op at the White House?

WEN: You know, we as physicians often have patients who may disagree with our recommendation. They may want to leave the hospital before we think that they are ready, for example. And we always have to assess the capacity of the patient to make that decision because in this case, it's about his health.

I mean, the Secret Service car ride yesterday to me was the most troubling of the lot. Because first of all, he may have been unstable himself in terms of his medical condition so it could have endangered his health. But also this was something that directly, purposefully, knowingly endangered other people's health as well. And so, I do really worry about the president's decision making and his judgment and you're right, he is on medications including steroids that could alter one's ability to make sound decisions.

CHURCH: And why do you think President Trump won't let his doctors share information about the condition of his lungs or tell us when he last had a negative COVID test?

WEN: These are all critical questions. It seems like from every piece of information that we have and the ones that they won't disclose, that President Trump almost certainly has pneumonia. And not a mild pneumonia but at least a moderate, maybe a severe pneumonia, which is why he's on all of these medications and had a decrease, several decreases in his oxygen saturation. Perhaps he doesn't want to share that with the American people but we need to know. And we need to know the time course of his illness so we know what to expect. What day of his illness are we actually at?

And also, this is important for contact tracing because the president was highly mobile prior to his diagnosis. The period that a person is most infectious is 48 hours before they develop symptoms. So we critically need to understand when he developed symptoms exactly. When his last negative test was and his first positive test so that we can pinpoint who he was exposed to and protect them and their loved ones too.

CHURCH: Yes, indeed, Dr. Leana Wen, thank you so much for talking with us.

WEN: Thank you.

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CHURCH: A majority of Americans believe President Trump is not taking the risks of infecting others seriously enough.

[02:10:00] CHURCH: In a new CNN poll, 63 percent said his handling of the risk to people around him in this for a responsible way while just 33 percent say he has behaved responsibly. The credibility problem is clear; 69 percent say they do not trust what the White House says about the president's health.

President Trump's Democratic rival has never wavered on following COVID-19 precautions. While campaigning in the battleground state of Florida, Joe Biden criticized the president's tweets that said not to be afraid of the virus and not to let it rule your life. Listen.

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JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying, masks don't matter, social distancing does not matter, I think is responsible for what happens to them.

I view wearing this mask not so much protecting me but as a patriotic responsibility. All the tough guys, say I'm not wearing a mask, I'm not afraid. Well, be afraid for your husband, your wife, your son, your neighbor, your coworker. That is who you are protecting having this mask on.

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CHURCH: A reminder, the U.S. death toll from the virus is now at 210,000 people and counting. Infections have been soaring at a rate of 43,000 per day. New York, the former epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., is again reporting some of the worst numbers in this country. CNN's Nick Watt reports.

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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In nine New York City zip codes, schools are closing down again.

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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: It's time for us to rewind.

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WATT: In those same zip codes, the mayor also wants nonessential stores, gyms, indoor dining closed again, as test positivity rates rise now, too high for comfort. The governor will not go for that. Not yet.

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SALVATORE MUSSO, OWNER, LA STRADA PIZZERIA: Very sad. We expect to move forward by this or we go behind.

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WATT: Also concern over New Jersey after that fundraiser Thursday hosted by a likely infectious president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The actions leading up to and during this event have put lives at risk.

WATT (voice-over): Case counts are now rising again across the Northeast, which was so recently a success story.

These five states saw at least 50 percent more cases this past week compared to the week before.

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DE BLASIO: This is a wakeup call to everyone in New York City, to tighten up again, to do the things that worked. Look, we overcame the worst problem in the entire country.

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WATT (voice-over): New York state's governor says a lack of local enforcement is a big part of the problem.

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): You will see people die if we don't do more enforcement. The state is going to take over the enforcement oversight in all the hot spot clusters.

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WATT: Meanwhile, this morning, down in Miami-Dade County, another former hot spot, more than 22,000 kids returned to the classroom.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here to report happily that I've seen nothing but happy faces.

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WATT (voice-over): At one North Carolina school, all third grade now quarantined after a teacher, Julie Davis, tested positive. She later died.

There will be plenty more pain ahead.

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FAUCI: I am actually disturbed and concerned about the fact that our baseline of infections is still stuck at around 40,000 per day.

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WATT: He has been saying that for weeks and we've only gotten worse. Back-to-back days of 50,000-plus new cases nationwide, Friday and Saturday, the first time we've seen that since mid-August -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: France is imposing new coronavirus restrictions on Paris, where the COVID alert has been raised to its highest level. It comes as the country is seeing greater infection numbers and a rise in hospital admissions.

Starting today, bars and cafes in Paris will be closed for at least two weeks while restaurants will have to follow new sanitary guidelines to remain open. The government says it is targeting places where the virus can be easily transmitted.

The British government is facing more scrutiny over its handling of the pandemic. Now it's trying to figure out why thousands of cases of COVID-19 have gone unreported. CNN's Scott McLean has that report.

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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Last week, it looked like the U.K. was tamping down its resurgence of the coronavirus with relative ease. Daily new case counts were almost flat, weeks after the government enacted new restrictions on social gatherings and forced bars and restaurants to close early.

But by Friday, it became apparent that there was a problem, a technical problem, which meant that almost 16,000 new cases of the virus had not been counted over the previous 9 days.

Those who had tested positive were notified but their close contacts were not.

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MCLEAN: The government has launched an investigation into exactly what went wrong. The latest daily case count is almost twice as high as it was a week ago.

This weekend, British prime minister Boris Johnson acknowledge public frustration over coronavirus restrictions but warned that things will continue to be bumpy until Christmas, perhaps even beyond then. Scott McLean, CNN, London.

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CHURCH: The World Health Organization believes one in 10 people around the world have been infected with the coronavirus. That is about 770 million people, more than 20 times higher than the official count of 35 million cases by Johns Hopkins University. The WHO says it's likely to get much worse before it gets better.

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DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: (INAUDIBLE) continues to see a surge in cases, with Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean regions showing an increase in cases and tests. The situation in Africa and the Western Pacific is currently rather

more positive. Our current best estimates tell us that about 10 percent of the global population may have been infected by this virus. This varies, depending on country, from urban to rural. It varies between different groups.

But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk.

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CHURCH: CNN uses data from Johns Hopkins University in our reporting. That data also confirms recent surges in parts of Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia.

And across Europe, several countries have seen an increase in cases since last week, up more than 50 percent in the U.K., Latvia, Poland, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM. Azerbaijan and Armenia accuse each other of attacking civilians as the fighting alarms world powers. The growing urgency to avoid a wide conflict -- up next.

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CHURCH: Armenia and Azerbaijan are accusing each other of missile and rocket attacks on civilians as their deadly conflict enters a second week. The fighting is focused on the breakaway region of Nagorno- Karabakh. It belongs to Azerbaijan under international law but ethnic Armenians live and govern there. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting since late last month.

The U.S., Russia, France and NATO's chief are all calling for a cease- fire amid concerns the violence could turn into a wider regional conflict. Catherine Norris-Trent reports from Azerbaijan.

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CATHERINE NORRIS-TRENT, FRANCE 24 CORRESPONDENT: I am in the city of Mingachevir in Azerbaijan, which has come under rocket fire, which the authorities here say came from Nagorno-Karabakh.

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NORRIS-TRENT: But what is interesting is that the city is about 17 miles from the front line and Azerbaijan says it was no accident it was targeted, because of highly strategic fight. It is home to one of the biggest hydroelectric power plants in the whole region and supplies power to more than 40 cities and districts in Azerbaijan.

So yield curve inversion how sensitive it is. One of the rockets landed right in the middle of the grounds of the electricity plant. Although it did not explode. Others we were told were shot down by Azerbaijan air defense system.

Nagorno-Karabakh leadership says it is not targeting Azerbaijan civilian infrastructure but it's incidents like this that are generating real fears now that this conflict could escalate outside of Nagorno-Karabakh and fully draw in other powers from across the region, Russia, Turkey and even Iran, who are vying for influence in this zone.

There have been a series of rocket strikes well outside the breakaway territory. I've witnessed the aftermath of those attacks myself, some of them hit residential neighborhoods and homes in the country's second largest city.

Azerbaijan authorities say more than 20 civilians have been killed so far. There is real anger increasing. Many see the strikes as sheer provocation. I should say I am reporting here under the watch of the government of Azerbaijan and we have an official minder with us at all times and verifying the claims and counterclaims is extremely complicated.

But I have heard intense shelling continuing around the border area and Azerbaijan president says he will accept no cease-fire unless all Armenian forces pull out of Nagorno-Karabakh. So this conflict does not look like it is at all ready to die down -- Catherine Norris-Trent for CNN in Mingachevir.

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CHURCH: Turkey's role in the conflict has become a subject of bitter dispute. Azerbaijan's president is calling for Turkey to be an active participant in resolving the situation but Armenia's president tells CNN that he has asked the leaders of many countries to put pressure on Turkey to stop interfering in the region.

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ILHAM ALIYEV, AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Turkey is a strong nation. It is a nation with big global potential. It is our neighbor, Armenia's neighbor and neighbor to the South Caucasus. This is why Turkey should, of course, be active in these issues.

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ARMEN SARKISSIAN, ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: I have openly spoken with others to a big multinational community.

I was speaking this about this to many presidents and prime ministers of different countries, asking them to interfere and put pressure on Turkey, stop interfering in the region, because their interference is taking the conflict order up in magnitude, in complexity and also creating something that eventually will become another serial Caucasus.

But Caucasus, is if it becomes a place like Syria, then God help everybody. (INAUDIBLE) Europe, north of central Asia, it will affect everybody, including Turkey, Iran and Russia. So my plea is, if Turkey will be restrained, with the help of Russia and the United States and France, then we have a chance of cease-fire, further negotiations, maybe peacekeepers.

And then we will have a chance to go back to the negotiating table, because there is no solution, military solution, to this conflict. There is only -- there can only be peaceful, diplomatic solutions.

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CHURCH: Turkey has denied involvement in the conflict.

U.S. stock futures have been mixed in early trading after Wall Street saw a strong rally on Monday. The Dow, Nasdaq and SNP 500 all with their biggest gains in weeks. The rally picked up after President Trump announced he would been leaving the hospital where he was treated for COVID-19. And he did just that.

CNN's John Defterios joins us now. Live from Abu Dhabi.

Good to see you, John.

Is this a market that is looking for a silver lining out of all the uncertainties since the president tested positive for COVID-19?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Let's see what played out, Rosemary. The initial shock on Friday. A lot of theatrics Saturday and Sunday. That carried over to Monday.

But at the end of the day, the president was back at the White House by the market close on Monday. It triggered the rally late in the afternoon, a pretty decent one, by the way. The Dow industrials at the highest level since mid-July. The SNP 500, the best in 1.5 months. That sort of vibe or mood music is playing off in Asia as well.

Let's take a look at the numbers.

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DEFTERIOS: We see gains of about 0.2 percent to less than 1 percent but again that is masking a very solid 2 weeks, a 2 week high here again. Oil was the stellar performer, internationally on Monday and the gains are holding again. We saw a spike of 5 percent to 6 percent.

There's a couple of other factors here at play. There is the labor strike in the oil and gas fields of Norway, which have not been on production. Also a tropical storm again in the United States off the Gulf Coast called Delta, which is forcing shut-ins of more production. We are starting to see demand pick up.

We are going to get a later reading from the U.S. government after the market close today. Finally, we see this response by Wall Street. But it's not unusual. CFRA research, going back to 1919, says it usually takes 4 days from the initial shock of a medical surprise against the president to stability. And it was exactly 4 days. We could count the days of the weekend in between. Give it a chance to

settle in and, as I've noted before, the strong performance by Joe Biden in the polls also providing some clarity of what could happen at the polls on November 3rd -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, a few things playing into this. John, a U.S. stimulus bill is still being debated well after the September 30th deadline.

Is the market view that the deal is imminent here?

DEFTERIOS: Yes. I think that is the mistake, because we have been talking about that for the last month. This has been debated for 3 months. We are well past the September 30th deadline.

Let's put it another way. If failure is on the table, it's not an option for Wall Street, because they've baked in a deal that is done. The separations between the House Democrats and the Senate Republicans, with the White House trying to broker in between a package, here is the chief of staff to the president.

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MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, I do think there is a potential for a deal as long as politics do not get in the way again. Even with a large comprehension bill, if it's not possible because of a few things that are out there and there's still major differences, let's go ahead and pass a number of the things that we can agree upon.

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DEFTERIOS: No deal by Friday, Rosemary and I think Wall Street will change its view on the stimulus package. Back to you.

CHURCH: We will keep an eye on all of. That John Defterios. Always a pleasure to chat with you. Thanks so much.

Polls show a majority of Americans are critical of Donald Trump's COVID response. Now Joe Biden's campaign is launching a new attack at the president. Our political analyst weighs in. We will take a look at that next.

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DR. SEAN CONLEY, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: Though we may not be entirely out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all our evaluations, most importantly, his clinical status, support the president's safe return home, where he will be surrounded by world class medical care 24-7. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Donald Trump's doctor there, just a few hours before the president left Walter Reed Medical Center and returned to the White House. President Trump is still infected with COVID-19 but he took off his mask and entered the White House anyway, surrounded by a photographer and several staffers.

The president spent about 3 days in the hospital but a source tells CNN he thought that made him look weak. Critics say his behavior Monday was reckless and put others in danger, much like his SUV ride outside the hospital on Sunday to wave to his supporters.

The president says he is doing fine and he urged Americans not to be afraid of the coronavirus.

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TRUMP: I learned so much about coronavirus. And one thing that's for certain, don't let it dominate you. Don't be afraid of it. You're going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines.

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CHURCH: He certainly does. Now that he has left the hospital, President Trump is downplaying just how serious the deadly virus can be. But America's leading expert on infectious diseases says it's possible the president could experience a reversal in his recovery. Take a listen.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: He looks fine and you can see. The way he looked when he came out of the hospital. The issue is that he is still early enough in the disease that, it is no secret that, if you look at the clinical course of people, sometimes when you're five to eight days in, you could have a reversal.

His physicians know -- a reversal meaning going in the wrong direction and get into trouble. It's unlikely that it will happen but they need to be heads up for it. He knows it, the physicians know it.

So they are going to keep an eye out on it. They will try and do that within the confines of the White House as opposed to in a hospital. But yes, you are not out of it until you've gone several days out and doing well.

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CHURCH: Joining me now is CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa. He's also the White House reporter for "The Washington Post."

Great to have you with us.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Great to be here.

CHURCH: So medical experts across the country and indeed the world are scratching their heads as they watch President Trump's response to his own COVID-19 infection and then his rather bizarre staged return to the White House. And now we learn he plans to participate in the next presidential debate with rival Joe Biden.

What is your political reading of all of this?

OLORUNNIPA: Well, it's clear the president was determined to make it seem like things are getting back to normal at the White House. He did not want to be cooped up within the hospital. He did not want to be stuck behind the doors of the hospital as the campaign is in its very last stages.

So he decided to check himself out of the hospital, go back to the White House in this dramatic return and start campaigning right away. He went on video and essentially said that he thinks he's immune from the virus, that people should not be afraid of it and he's looking forward to getting back out on the campaign trail and getting back out to debate his rival Joe Biden.

CHURCH: A new CNN polling shows that most Americans say Donald Trump acted irresponsibly with his own COVID infection and they distrust the White House information regarding his health. Most Americans also think his diagnosis will not change the way he deals with this pandemic.

What impact would you expect all of this to have on the presidential race?

OLORUNNIPA: Well, the president's own diagnosis with coronavirus means that this issue continues to be the number one issue that's covered here and it continues to be the number one topic on the mind of voters as they cast their ballots.

And the fact that they give President Trump such low marks when it comes to how he handles the coronavirus. How trustworthy his administration is. It means it's going to be very difficult for the president to spin this as a positive thing or to spin it as a political benefit.

That's part of the reason the president has an uphill battle in the upcoming election to try to convince voters to give him four more years. When they know that he couldn't keep themselves safe from the virus and they don't trust that he will keep them and their families safe from the virus.

He has an uphill battle in the upcoming election to try to convince voters to give him 4 more years when they know he cannot keep himself safe from the virus or them where their family safe from the virus.

These polls also show that trump's overall job approval rating is at 40 percent with a 57 percent disapproval rating. That is very high. What did these numbers tell you? Will the presidential election less than a month away?

It shows the president has not done enough to change his fortunes. He has been hit the low forties for quite a long time. The fact that he is at 57 percent disapproval which is nearing an all-time high shows that he is not doing very much to convince American voters to change their minds about him right now. People have very low opinions of how he is and on his job as president.

[02:35:00]

OLORUNNIPA: They are living through the worst pandemic in a century. Unemployment remains high. People are worried about trying to send their kids to school, trying to get back to work. And they don't trust him to do that job well and his numbers remain low as a result and seem to be getting lower.

His disapproval numbers are astronomical for a president trying to be reelected. They just continue to go higher and it's a sign that his handling of the virus, of this era in American politics is not helping him as he faces reelection in a month.

CHURCH: Right, and Joe Biden had taken down his negative campaign ads while President Trump was in the hospital as a way of respect.

But now we see this on Biden's Twitter account, using the image of the president taking off his mask on his return to the White House Monday. And comparing that image to Biden putting his on with a message that reads masks matter. They save lives.

What does this signal to you?

OLORUNNIPA: They realize in the Joe Biden camp that contrasting Joe Biden's vision for the coronavirus with President Trump's is a strong position for them. They want to be able to show that Joe Biden will be a different kind of president in the middle of a pandemic than President Trump has been.

And this is a clear example. The issue of wearing masks. The president went back to the White House and immediately took off his mask in front of the cameras, not modeling good public health behavior. And Joe Biden has been wearing a mask to try to show the public that that's the right thing to do.

And so I imagine they will continue to push out those images to contrast what Joe Biden is doing with what President Trump is doing and the race is back on. There's no more sort of piecemeal approach to how they're approaching this.

Instead they're going to attack one another holistically and try to focus on the hardest argument they can make against each other and for Joe Biden, it's on the coronavirus.

CHURCH: Toluse Olorunnipa, thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.

OLORUNNIPA: Thank you. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The Republican governor of one of the largest U.S. states is accused of trying to suppress voter turnout. Our correspondent takes a drive through one sprawling county to explain what is an stake. Back in a moment.

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CHURCH: Early voting kicks off next week in the sprawling U.S. state of Texas. But two organizations are suing the governor because he ordered that all counties, regardless of size and population, only have one ballot dropoff location. Some say that will lead to voter suppression. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just after 9 o'clock in the morning. We are in the far northeast corner of Harris County.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The only drop box now available in this county is at NRG football stadium, which is 45 miles away.

[02:40:00]

LAVANDERA: But one of the locations that was closed down was just over 20 miles. So it is kind of along the way, so we are going to drive by that location first.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, is nearly 1,800 square miles, much larger than Rhode Island.

LAVANDERA: This county building is one of the 11 drop sites that was shut down by governor Greg Abbott. It took us about 31 minutes to get here.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): It's where we met Peaches Sullivan, who was dropping off voter registration forms for nursing home residents.

PEACHES SULLIVAN, NURSING HOME ASSISTANT: People are still worried.

Why would he risk being -- having people come out even more when they don't have to, especially with the pre-existing conditions that they have?

LAVANDERA: This is a driver -- you will see -- it's almost like a slice of America. You will see a little bit of everything on this drive. From northeast Harris County into NRG Stadium, where this drop box location is.

Of course critics of the governor say this is really just a masquerade way of suppressing voter turnout, making it more difficult for voting populations in highly Democratic towns like Houston and Austin to be able to safely submit their votes in the age of this COVID pandemic.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Texas governor says his decision will increase ballot security and help stop illegal voting though there are no widespread problems with voter fraud.

LAVANDERA: So this is the one drop box ballot site in Harris County.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Harris county clerk Chris Holland says the Texas governor's move to close down the ballot drop sites is an abuse of power.

CHRIS HOLLAND, HARRIS COUNTY CLERK: They make it so that our voters who have disabilities, our elderly voters have to drive over an hour, more than 50 miles in some cases, to drop off their mail ballot. It is unfair, it's prejudicial and it's dangerous.

LAVANDERA: Yes, the drive took us about an hour and 8 minutes. So round trip you are looking at about 2 hours and 15 minutes and, quite honestly, it was an easy drive. We caught the traffic at a good time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: CNN's Ed Lavandera reporting there from Texas.

Two2 separate federal lawsuits have been filed over Abbott's order, with one saying it will confuse voters and the others saying it is a ploy to suppress votes. Abbott's office said in a statement over the weekend that the governor has not limited voting and has instead expanded access to voting.

We will see if that issue comes up at the next debate, when Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris and vice president Mike Pence face off. CNN's special coverage begins at 7 pm Wednesday on the U.S. East Coast, midnight Thursday in London, 3 am in Abu Dhabi and 7 am in Hong Kong. Don't miss it.

Thanks so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM at this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Be sure to connect with me on Twitter @RosemaryCNN. "WORLD SPORT" is next and I will be back in 15 minutes for another hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Please stay with us.

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