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President Trump Speaks To Crowd At White House Event Despite Recent Coronavirus Diagnosis; President Trump Plans To Resume Campaigning; Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Criticizes President Trump For White House Event; Model Predicts Nearly 395,000 Coronavirus Deaths In United States By February Of 2021; New Study Highlights Negative Economic Impact Of Coronavirus Pandemic On Low- Income Black And Hispanic Households; Republican Senators Reject White House Proposal For Economic Stimulus Bill. Aired 2-3p ET
Aired October 10, 2020 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got to get rid of them, so bad for our country.
First of all, I'm feeling great. I don't know about you. How is everyone feeling? Good?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I'm honored to welcome, we call this a peaceful protest --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- to the White House in support of the incredible men and women of law enforcement, and all of the people that work so well with us. And I have to tell you, our black community, our Hispanic community, thank you very much, thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But before going any further, I want to thank all of you for your prayers. I know you've been praying when I was in that hospital. I was watching down over so many people. And I went out to say hello to those people, and I took a little heat for it, but I'd do it again. Let me tell you, I'd do it again.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And on behalf of myself and the first lady, it just has been really an incredible outpouring, and we're starting very, very big with our rallies and with our everything, because we cannot allow our country become a socialist nation. We cannot let that happen.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And that's what would happen, or worse. By the way, or worse.
I want you to know, our nation's going to defeat this terrible China virus, as we call it.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we're producing powerful therapies and drugs, and we're healing the sick, and we're going to recover, and the vaccine is coming out very, very quickly, in record time, as you know. It's coming out very, very soon. We have great, great companies doing it, and they'll be distributing it, and we will through our military, very, very rapidly. through the power of the American spirit, I think, more than anything else, science, medicine will eradicate the China virus once and for all. We'll get rid of it.
All over the world, you see big flare-ups in Europe, big flare-ups in Canada, a very big flare-up in Canada, you saw that today. A lot of flare-ups, but it's going to disappear. It is disappearing. And vaccines are going to help, and the therapeutics are going to help a lot.
I just want to thank everyone this afternoon. What beautiful colors. Where did you get that color, Candace? Where did that come from?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: What a beautiful color. I want to get one of them. I want to put one of them on instead of a white shirt. I want to thank you, though, seriously. Every day, more black and Latino Americans are leaving behind left wing politicians and their --
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, there you have the president there addressing a mostly black and brown community of people there at that rally on the South Lawn of the White House, and the president, perhaps a little bit of a departure from the language he has been using, that the virus will just simply go away. In this case, we just heard him say that science and medicine will help eradicate the virus.
Bottom line, still unclear whether the president is still contagious, what his latest numbers are, whether he has been tested, and whether he has tested negative after nine days since his diagnosis for COVID- 19. And now this is his first public event, inviting people to come to the White House, and from the images of the people standing in line earlier, very few wearing masks, and in close proximity to one another, all defying guidelines by the scientific and medical community on how to protect yourself in this pandemic.
Let's talk further about all of this, and this remarkable scene here on the South Lawn. I'm joined by a team of correspondents and experts, CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond, CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger, Carl Bernstein, CNN political analyst, journalist, and author, and Dr. Richina Bicette, medical director at Baylor St. Luke McNair campus emergency department and an assistant medical director at Ben Taub Hospital Emergency Center, and Dr. Jeremy Faust, emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Good to see all of you.
Jeremy, let me begin with you, and perhaps you can help paint a better picture of who was there and why the president felt like he needed to do this. Clearly there are signs from many who are analyzing him that this is an erratic president who is just starving for attention right now and feeling like the underdog and would invite people to the White House to make him feel better.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, no question. Listen, when the president was in the hospital last weekend, he was agitating to get out of there and get back to the White House. Once he made it back to the White House residence, he was agitating to get out of the White House residence and into the Oval Office, which he then subsequently did even as he put several other White House aides at risk of potentially catching that virus. Now we see the president is running back to the campaign trail essentially.
[14:05:00]
The White House is calling this an official White House event, but you heard very clearly from the president at the very top of his remarks, he talks about voting Democrats into oblivion, and now he's talking about clearly a political message, calling this a peaceful protest, which is the exact same thing that the president says when he is holding campaign rallies across the country.
So there's no question that the president has been agitating to get back on the campaign trail. He is currently losing this race for reelection, and the president knows that as much campaigning as he can do to try and change that message.
Now, in terms of who was actually there, we know that there were several hundred people on the White House South Lawn. As you can see, there is almost no social distancing whatsoever. I did check in with the pool producer who is representing the five TV networks in there. She told me that most people are indeed wearing masks, so that is something that has perhaps changed slightly previous events that we have seen at the White House.
But no question, these people have not been tested. They've only gotten temperature checks and a questionnaire asking them whether they've had symptoms recently or not, which we know is no stopping people with asymptomatic, from transmitting this virus asymptomatically. But there are at least most people wearing masks it seems here.
Now, most of these people are coming from this Blexit group, which is a conservative group founded by Candace Owens, the black conservative activist, and this group is essentially aimed at getting African- Americans, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic, to begin voting for the Republican Party and specifically, of course, for President Trump.
So the president, as he is delivering this law and order message, he is addressing this group, but of course we know that so much of this is about establishing that permission structure for white voters, to convince white voters that this president is not racist, as he, of course, contends, despite what Democrats have said. And so obviously, much of this message is aimed not just at the people who are in this audience, but at a broader white audience across the country, specifically in the suburbs, which the president needs in order to win this race for reelection.
WHITFIELD: And then Gloria, notable. The president essentially giving a shoutout to the black community, the Hispanic community, as he's looking out at the audience. And when you think about this pandemic, people of color are dying and are impacted disproportionately, and yet the president repeatedly insists that he's done more for the black community than just about any other president. There are so many messages here and contrasts.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, you're absolutely right. And there's another message here, which is we're in the process of normalizing campaign events at the people's house, at the White House. We had a convention there, and the president's handlers went out of their way this morning to say, no, no, this is just an event. It's not a campaign event. And yet the president comes out saying vote these people into oblivion. Well, what does that mean? That's a campaign event. So the question is, the Hatch Act, and all the other things that they're not paying any attention to in order to get the president out there.
And I want to repeat again. Not only has this pandemic, as you point out, Fred, affected minorities, but the president hasn't told us he's negative yet. And these people, if they don't catch COVID from him, could be giving it to each other. So you had the president standing up there on the balcony telling a lie, saying that COVID is disappearing, as he put it. It is not disappearing, as we all know. We know it's on the rise in many states. We know it is not going away. And yet the president of the United States, who wants to be the super hero, says it's disappearing, and I'm exhibit A.
WHITFIELD: So Carl, the president has been sending some extraordinary messages throughout, and clearly you can see his frustration that he hasn't been able to be on the campaign trail, and he's trying to make some modifications, and he's been sending a lot of messages in so doing. Take a listen from the president just this week alone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They had some big events at the White House, and perhaps there, I don't really know, nobody really knows for sure, numerous people have contracted it, but people have contracted it all over the world. It's highly contagious.
I was in not great shape, and we have a medicine that healed me, that fixed me. I feel better now than I did two weeks ago. It's crazy. And I recovered immediately, almost immediately. I might not have recovered at all from COVID.
I just saw the doctors today. They think I'm in great shape. I'm in great shape.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you test negative?
TRUMP: And I'll tell you, I took this Regeneron. It's phenomenal.
HANNITY: Have you had a test since your diagnosis a week ago? TRUMP: Well, what we're doing is probably the test will be tomorrow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So Carl, again, his condition remains a mystery, but the president continues to downplay the seriousness of COVID, even after he said, while in Walter Reed, I get it, I get it. Clearly, he doesn't get it.
[14:10:09]
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The significance of this event at the White House today is that it is taking place in the midst of an unprecedented national security crisis about the real mental and physical health and condition of the president of the United States, and a cover-up to keep both of those elements secret. We need information. We don't need the president of the United States at the balcony spouting the kind of stuff that his self-serving rhetoric that we just heard and that the virus is going to, again, magically disappear.
We need to know where the virus is with the president. We need to know what the virus has done to affect his physical health, whether or not he still has pneumonia of the kind that afflicts patients with COVID- 19. We need to know his test results. We need to know the testing regime itself which has been covered up. When don't when the president was tested and for what.
And it really at this point is a national security threat unlike we've ever seen because of the ability of America's adversaries to take advantage of this situation, of a president who, from what we have seen in some of the clips you showed us, and Republicans on Capitol Hill themselves are saying he has shown himself to be demonstrably unstable, physically, mentally unstable in the last week.
And we need to know what his condition really is. This event told us nothing about it, his real condition, nor has his doctors or his family or anyone else with the ability to get hold of the records told us anything reliable about his real condition. And this event has done nothing to clear that up.
WHITFIELD: Everyone, stand by. I want to hear from the doctors as well. We're going to take a short break for now. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:16:06]
WHITFIELD: You're looking at live pictures right now. The crowd of people there on the South Lawn as the president holds his first public event after being diagnosed with COVID-19 just nine days after his diagnosis. And we have some pictures of the moment ago, 15 minutes ago, what it looked like when the president emerged from the White House, there he is, steps off into the balcony, his own Pope or Eva Peron moment there, waving, and then taking off his mask before he addresses the crowd there. We understand the crowd to be mostly black and brown people there,
brought in by a conservative political group there who reportedly paid for their travel and lodging there.
My panel back with me now. And so, Dr. Bicette, you first. What are the risks for the crowd there? We still don't know the condition, the full condition of the president. Yes, he's on a balcony, and yes, they are feet away, but what are the risks that you're seeing among the crowd there, many of whom are wearing masks, but in very close proximity.
DR. RICHINA BICETTE, ASSISTANT MEDICAL DIRECTOR, BEN TAUB HOSPITAL EMERGENCY CENTER: Fred, we don't know the condition of the president, and that's the first big problem. He refuses to answer when the last time he tested positive. He refuses to be honest about what his symptoms are. Just two days ago we heard him on a phone interview with FOX News coughing and clearing his throat, which shows that he's clearly not out of the woods and he clearly is still displaying symptoms.
The CDC very clearly has guidelines which states when a person can come out of isolation. And Donald Trump, being 74 and obese, is at risk for having severe disease. We also suspect that he had severe disease given the treatments that he was given. So he is not following the 20 day isolation guideline set for by the CDC.
Now, although the people on the lawn are feet away from him, the CDC has also updated its guidelines just this past week, and again are recognizing that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is a very real thing. You can contract COVID from being in a closed space with someone who was in the room previous to you and is no longer even there. Not just that but we see that the people on the lawn are clustered together, not social distancing, and some of them are not wearing masks.
If the event in the Rose Garden, which was a super-spreader event, taught us anything, it's that not wearing masks and not social distancing is a guaranteed failure.
WHITFIELD: And Dr. Jeremy Faust, I mentioned mostly black and brown people there because in this pandemic, the world has learned that disproportionately black and brown people are impacted by this pandemic. The president himself even directly making a reference to the black community, the Hispanic community. What damage do you see, however, done here by commandeering this kind of event?
DR. JEREMY FAUST, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: The images we are seeing are absolutely extraordinary. And he mentions black and Hispanic people, who are the very people who have been, as you said, the most disproportionately affected by this. So to literally draw them into the White House, to a hot zone, is extraordinarily inept in terms of public policy and public health.
We don't need to do this to show anything. If you believe that nuclear power is safe, you don't go and have a picnic at Chernobyl the next day to prove that point. You have a discussion with the American people about what is safe. The opportunity to educate people on what he went through and what others have gone through is really, it's an important one, and he's absolutely decided to make it about him and not about other people.
And so then I look at this, and I see these events. And yes, he may be OK, we don't know yet, certainly big questions. But certainly, those around him could be now affected. And these events don't just happen. They take coordination and they take staff. And so he's putting people at risk to make it about himself and not about other people. And as a doctor who is going to be seeing these patients, I just say, would you please send some more PPE, because it's October and we're running short.
[14:20:09]
WHITFIELD: Carl, you can't help but want to talk about the intentional harm, or just the harm. You look back at the timeline of still unclear when the president's last negative coronavirus test was before he was diagnosed. The president going to a public event in Bedminster even after learning Hope Hicks, his close adviser, had tested positive. And now you're talking about potentially putting these people in harm's way, the intent of doing so knowing that you still might be contagious. And this behavior coming from the president of the United States, it's extraordinary.
BERNSTEIN: Let's be clear, that from when he first learned of the existence of the coronavirus back in January, January 28th, and how seriously his national security adviser told him this was going to be a horrible event, a pandemic, President Trump's response to the pandemic in its initially phases and now has been consistently homicidal negligence.
Hundreds of thousands of people dead because of his homicidal negligence, not using the powers of the presidency in the early months of the pandemic to really do what countries who have dealt with the pandemic successfully have done in terms of mandates that people take to make themselves protected from this terrible virus.
And now we continue to see in the White House Rose Garden event for the appointment of a new justice to the Supreme Court and what has resulted apparently from that homicidal negligence, having these rallies, homicidal negligence not taking care.
But I think we need to stop for a minute and come back to this national security question. Just imagine, in the midst of what obviously is a cover-up, not one can say with any kind of certainty or even sensibility that this is not a cover-up, because the president of the United States, his doctors, his White House staff will not give us the information about his real existing condition.
So what do we think that all the intelligence services of all the countries that have embassies in Washington, what are those intelligence services sending back in the way of information to their home governments about the condition of the United States, because it's president will not level with the people of this country or the world about his medical condition? And what these intelligence officers are seeing, the same thing as reporters, the same thing as Republicans on Capitol Hill who are deeply concerned about the president's mental and physical condition.
This is a crisis in which the United States' stability is being undermined by the recklessness of the president as well as what he's doing in his total inability to care for the health of the American people.
WHITFIELD: Gloria, this being yet another distraction, particularly there are so many unanswered questions, and not just important or notable amongst those on there. How about the people who are not there, all of his supporters and Republican leadership there in Washington who were quick to be there at the Rose Garden even and so many others, notably not there, absent?
BORGER: Struggling in Washington right now trying to figure out what to do with the president's erratic behavior, with one day he says I don't want a stimulus plan, and the next day, he says I want a really big stimulus plan. And they just met with White House officials and said to them no, we're not going to do this, and they have to go now to tell the president that his Republicans are saying there's no way we're going to support you.
Look, this is chaos. We've never seen anything like this, as Carl says. And the stunning thing to me last night, FOX News had an interview with their doctor with, with the president of the United States --
WHITFIELD: Yes, a medical examination for T.V.
BORGER: So to speak. And the president was asked, what lessons have you learned. Soft ball. What lessons have you learned from COVID. And instead of staying and modeling, and saying, you know, I've really learned that you should wear a mask. I've really learned a whole host of things, what the president did was talk about himself. And he said, you know, I've really learned that this is contagious. He knew it was contagious on February 7th when he told Bob Woodward it was contagious.
[14:25:00]
But he didn't talk about the lessons that he could impart to the American people to keep them safe. He is only focused on his reelection. He is reading the polls. He is throwing the Republican Party into chaos. He is throwing the country into chaos and divisiveness right now. And he stands on the balcony of the White House and tells us how great he is. So that will no doubt continue until Election Day, but I think we're watching something that's quite extraordinary.
WHITFIELD: Yes, to say the very least. Jeremy, perhaps you have a better handle of what is the real goal here for the president? I still can't get past something he said up there on the balcony, and I'm still not sure what he means, when he said I was watching down on so many people when reflecting on his experience at Walter Reed and what he's been through. DIAMOND: Just to pick up where Gloria left off, what is so remarkable
is the way in which the president has used his illness. He has not used his illness to educate the public about the real risks of coronavirus, the real risks of getting seriously ill as we believe the president did over this last week. Instead, the president has used it to amplify what he has been doing since the beginning of the pandemic, which is to downplay the risks of the coronavirus.
We saw the president in some of those videos that he released in the immediacy of his release from the hospital, where the president says, don't be afraid of this. Don't let it dominate your life.
And so the president is sending the exact opposite message that many Republicans even have been hoping the president would use, which would be to use this moment, to use his illness as a warning sign to his supporters and to so many people across the country about the real dangers of this disease. And instead what the president is doing is he's continuing to downplay it.
And of course, we know that he is also going to continue to campaign in exactly the same way that we have been watching him do over these last couple of months, which is to say that the president is expected to hold several rallies next week, the first one being in Florida on Monday. I expect you'll see the same thing, Fredricka, which is thousands of people closely packed together, very few of them actually wearing any masks, and that's because for the president, to do anything different to change that would be admitting that he was wrong in the first place to have that. And the president of course is incapable and unwilling, as he often is, to admit fault in any way whatsoever.
WHITFIELD: Right, and no willingness to make adjustments. Hello, he didn't even say yes to a virtual debate because, well, for a number of reasons, but notably, he said, it just wouldn't be the same, and somebody would come him off, and he wouldn't get an opportunity to talk the way he wants to.
Jeremy Diamond, Gloria Borger, Carl Bernstein, Dr. Richina Bicette, and Dr. Jeremy Faust, thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.
Straight ahead, the second scheduled presidential debate cancelled after that feud over the format. We're live with more reaction, this time coming from the Biden campaign.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:32:05]
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Former vice president Joe Biden is campaigning in Pennsylvania today while the president hosts supporters on the White House lawn. And we don't see them together on the debate stage next week. The event has been cancelled. CNN's Jessica Dean is following the Biden campaign and joins us from Erie, Pennsylvania. So Jessica, how is the Biden reacting to the White House event that just took place, and then of course the debate commission just formally canceling their scheduled debate altogether. JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: To answer your latter
question there, Fred, they have totally moved on from this October 15th debate. They have set their own town hall in Philadelphia, so that will be happening next week.
As far as President Trump's event today, the campaign released a statement yesterday saying that thought it was reckless, that President Trump is living in an alternate universe. We also heard from Vice President Biden on the campaign trail in his sharpest rebuke yet at Donald Trump since his diagnosis. Take a listen.
Well, we hope to have that for you there, but Vice President Biden attacking Donald Trump and his handling on the coronavirus pandemic. That has been a central, integral theme of Biden campaign. Just to note, Vice President Biden tested again for COVID today, PCR testing, that gold standard test, tested negative. The campaign has said he will be tested every time he travels. And he's due here in Erie Pennsylvania this afternoon. There's a union hall right behind me. That's where he's going to be giving remarks on his economic message.
And if we go back to 2016, Fred, Erie County was won just slightly by Donald Trump. This is the type of place that the Biden campaign believes they can go back into, get their messaging to white working class voters here, union workers, manufacturing workers, talk about their economic message, and that Joe Biden is a messenger that they feel like those voters can connect with, who they believe in to help them over the next four years. So expect to hear all of that this afternoon from Joe Biden's remarks, and probably we'll hear much more on President Trump's COVID response as well. Fred?
WHITFIELD: Jessica Dean, thanks so much in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Coming up next, with no deal in sight on the second stimulus plan, Americans struggling to pay for everything, including their electric bills.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:38:39]
WHITFIELD: A grim new forecast predicts the United States will now see nearly 395,000 coronavirus deaths by February. And that would mean another 180,000 deaths between now and the second month of 2021. This increase prediction comes as several regions of the country are seeing a surge in cases. The model predicts the daily death toll will peak in mid-January with around 2,300 deaths a day.
I want to bring back now Dr. Richina Bicette, who is the medical director at Baylor St. Luke McNair campus emergency department. Dr. Bicette, good to see you again. So this new model predicts 180,000 more deaths under current conditions. But states are still rolling back regulations despite the surge. What do you make of that?
BICETTE: I'm not sure what to make of that, Fred. And I really don't know what these states are thinking. Specifically, let's look at Florida. Florida this week has reported
6,000 new cases of COVID-19 over a two-day period. And despite that staggering number, they're still rolling back their regulations and allowing bars and restaurants to fully open. It just doesn't make sense. We know without a doubt, the data has shown that allowing people to gather in close proximity and in close spaces is guaranteed to spread COVID-19. Why are we rolling back restrictions when we're seeing cases start to rise?
[14:40:03]
WHITFIELD: So this model also says that we could save nearly 80,000 lives if 95 percent of Americans were to wear masks. Everyone should know this by now, right, the power of the masks. But do you have much hope that more people will honor that kind of so that the numbers do stay lower as opposed to rising?
BICETTE: Ninety-five percent is quite a lofty goal. We have to look at what's going on around us right now. The commander in chief of the United States of America is not following the guidelines that have been set forth, the same guidelines that we're saying could potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. So if the leader of our country isn't following those guidelines, how do we expect 95 percent of other people to follow those guidelines?
What's even more sobering to think about is that the current model predicts that we will reach almost half-a-million lives lost if things stay as they are right now. We're seeing a rise in cases. So if cases continue to rise as the models are showing recently over the last two weeks we've seen numbers going up, I would hate to think what the case load could really look like.
WHITFIELD: So this also comes on the heels of a disturbing "New York Times" report saying the White House blocked an order from the CDC requiring masks on all public transportation. Again, this seems like common sense, and again, we're talking about close confines that people would be on a bus, subway, et cetera. How frustrating is this for you as a member of the medical community to hear that that urging would be pulled back?
BICETTE: I'm bewildered. I'm in a state of disbelief. The federal government has mishandled this pandemic from the very beginning, and just when I think it can't get any worse, there's yet another egregious display of a lack of empathy, a lick of humanity, a lack of care for the almost 214,000 lives that have been lost. There is a saying that if you play foolish games, you win foolish prizes. And I think that's what we seeing coming out of the White House right now.
I'm not surprised that they're not requiring masks and they're not listening to the CDC guidelines. We've seen Donald Trump who recently tested positive for COVID-19 completely let the CDC guidelines fly in the wind regarding his isolation and when he should be in contact with other people. He's holding events, not wearing masks. He's going to Florida to have a rally next week. I feel as if I'm not Twilight Zone here. WHITFIELD: It's one thing for the president to say, OK, I'm going to
stick to my guns because I said this message earlier and I don't want to change my tune, but by now the general populace should be hip to what's real, which is the masks do save lives, and it's just astounding that there would be so many people that would be defiant just because they see the president being defiant.
BICETTE: Absolutely. There are a lot of people who take his words as gold, and there are a lot of people who don't look into the data and who don't research these things for themselves. And that is why Donald Trump is so very dangerous.
That's why he's a threat to public health, and that's why he's a threat to national security, because the rhetoric that he's spouting, despite it being disproven, and despite you being able to figure out that a lot of these things are not true in our lives just by doing a little bit of fact checking, there is still a large fanbase of his that will believe them.
WHITFIELD: Dr. Richina Bicette, always good to see you, thank you so much.
BICETTE: Thank you for having me, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Absolutely.
More news in a moment, but first, book lovers on a mission to make sure young readers have access to books about black children. Today's Impact Your World has more on an organization called Young, Black, and Lit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRENICE ROSEMAN, CO-FOUNDER, YOUNG, BLACK, & LIT: When a child sees themselves reflected in the books that they read and the books are a mirror to them, they feel valued. It wasn't something I really thought about until my niece came around, and it really kind of saddened me that there were bookstores that she would walk into and not be able to feel seen.
Young, Black, and Lit, is a non-profit organization based in the Chicagoland area. Our mission is to provide children's book to youth featuring black characters at no cost to the youth or their families.
DERRICK RAMSEY, CO-FOUNDER, YOUNG, BLACK, & LIT: Since 2018, we've provided over 5,000 books to community centers, organizations, schools, and directly to student's homes.
KAREEM WILSON, AMIR'S FATHER: It was just always a challenge finding the ones for his age. They introduced the program to the school. he was pretty excited about it. Show them your favorite.
AMIR WILSON, THIRD GRAD STUDENT: Other people say they can't do stuff, then they prove them wrong.
RAMSEY: We try not to just focus on the historical figures, though we value their importance, but we also try to focus on some of the simple, everyday life activities that you can go through. But we also have books around getting a haircut.
[14:45:07]
A. WILSON: Is Miles Morales the best Spiderman ever? His suit is better than all the other suits. And he has powers.
K. WILSON: You think your Spiderman?
A. WILSON: Yes, I do.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:50:00]
WHITFIELD: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly told 20 GOP senators today you all will have to come to my funeral. Meadows said that would be the possible outcome of being a messenger of bad news. He would have to be the one to tell the president that the Senate had rejected his proposed $1.8 trillion stimulus package.
While the GOP found the price tag too high, in a letter today to Democrats, House speaker Nancy Pelosi called it insufficient, and, I'm quoting now, one step forward, two steps back. This all but assures Congress won't pass an economic relief package before Election Day.
Meantime, some of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic continue to be people living in communities of color and low-income households. In addition to not having enough food to feed their families, these already vulnerable populations are also facing the inability to pay their electric and gas bills. This gets even more worrisome as the temperatures drop in the coming months, making the need for help by way of another stimulus package all the more urgent.
Joining me right now are Sanya Carley and David Konisky, professors from Indiana University's O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Good to see both of you. You two have just published a second set of survey data, building on data released in June, which finds that 22 percent of respondents have had to forgo medicine or food to pay their energy bill in the previous month.
Nine percent are waiting for the power to be shut off, and four percent already had their service disconnected. So Sanya, you first. In addition to these results, your survey showed that only 30 percent of black and Hispanic households reported receiving a stimulus check. How concerning are these results?
SANYA CARLEY, PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND POLICY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY: Well, thank you, Fred, for having us. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate you devoting a segment to this immensely important subject. So as you noted, we've been following a population of about 2,000 low income households over the course of this year during the pandemic, and we are following up with them for many rounds of survey administration. And this is a representative sample, so we can draw inferences from this sample back to the broader population of low-income households.
And what we found, you already gave some of the statistics, we've found that energy and security, which is the inability to pay one's energy bill, or to have access to energy, is incredibly prevalent, and it's growing increasingly worse over the course of the pandemic. As you noted as well, it's the case that it's not just all low-income households, but particularly certain social demographic populations are experiencing energy insecurity at a much higher rate.
And so we find that households that identify as black or Hispanic, about a third of them have identified an inability to pay their energy bill, and approximately 14 percent of Hispanic households have been disconnected from their electricity provider, which is especially concerning because this has been during a time in which there have been many state protections for disconnection.
So you also noted the statistic on the stimulus, so this is quite concerning for us. Approximately 38 percent of our respondents report that they never -- I'm sorry, it's actually the opposite -- 38 percent of the respondents say that they received the first stimulus check. And it's much worse for black and Hispanic households -- 30 percent. This is incredibly concerning because this money could be used to pay one's energy bill, or pay off other things, pay for other things such as food.
WHITFIELD: And David, many of these problems existed before the pandemic in terms of food insecurity, having a hard time paying bills, basic necessities. But what parts have been made worse as a result of this pandemic?
DAVID KONISKY, PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND POLICY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY: I think the point you raise is a very good one, Fred, that this is a chronic problem. People across the country, millions of Americans every month face very difficult decisions about whether they should devote limited resources to paying utility bills or putting food on the table, perhaps seeking medical care. So these are impossible trade-offs that people have to make all the time.
Certainly, the pandemic has made things worse. The severe economic dislocation that we've seen as a result of the pandemic has really exacerbated these problems. We have households that already were having difficulties becoming amplified, becoming worse. But we also have households where this is a new problem, right, where previously maybe they had an easier time making ends meet. They're now facing pretty severe consequences of the economic disruption that we've seen across the country.
WHITFIELD: Sanya Carley, David Konisky, thank you so much for shedding more light on what has already been a persistent problem only worsening as a result of the pandemic, appreciate it.
[14:55:01] This breaking news on an alleged terror plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. According to a statement released by the military, two of the suspects previously served in the Marine Corps. They are Joseph Morrison and Daniel Harris. Thirteen men are charged in this plot to kidnap and kill Governor Whitmer. Six faced federal charges of conspiracy to kidnap, and seven others linked to a militia group are facing state charges.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Erica Hill in a moment.
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