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Physician Clears U.S. President to Return to Active Schedule; Key Model Projects over 394K U.S. COVID-19 Deaths by February; Biden Reaches across Political Divide in Pennsylvania; Trump Holds In-Person Event at White House Saturday; CNN Poll: Percentage of Americans Who Say They Would Get Vaccine Keeps Falling; Coronavirus in Europe; Iraqi Woman Survives COVID-19 with Help from Autistic Son; Trump's False Claims, Ballot Rules, Cyber Attacks Stoke Concerns; U.S. Seniors Increasingly Support Biden over Trump; North Korea Unveils Enormous Ballistic Missile; Soap Opera Actors Get Creative with Kissing Scenes. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired October 11, 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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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Thanks for joining me. You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow.
Coming up, Donald Trump is okayed for travel. Everything we know about the presidents health. Spoiler alert, it is not a lot.
Record spikes in Europe. We will bring you the latest on. That and the virus has changed so much about the world we live in, including Hollywood love scenes. Meet the new standards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: U.S. president Donald Trump's doctor has cleared him to travel to give speeches and start campaigning again. This just more than a week since he was diagnosed with COVID.
Dr. Sean Conley says Mr. Trump is no longer a transmission risk and he can stop isolating. But it leaves many questions about the president's health unanswered. We still don't know if he's tested negative for the virus and we don't know what kind of test he's been given to show that he's no longer contagious.
Here's Jeremy Diamond to break down the doctor's note for us and tell us what's coming next.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, is now clearing him for a return to public activities. Dr. Conley writing in a new memo released late Saturday night that the president is no longer considered a risk of transmission for the coronavirus to others.
Now let me read you a part of this memo by Dr. Sean Conley, where he writes, "This evening I'm happy to report that in addition to the president meeting CDC criteria for the safe decision of isolation, this morning's COVID PCR sample demonstrates by currently recognize standards he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others.
"Now at day 10 from symptom onset, fever free for well over 24 hours and all symptoms improved, the assortment of advanced diagnostic tests obtained reveal there is no longer evidence of actively replicating virus."
The doctor goes on to say that he will continue to monitor the president's health as he returns to a more active schedule. Now President Trump, of course, did not wait for this memo before holding a event on the White House South lawn on Saturday.
Trump did stay at quite a distance from the several hundred people who attended this event on the South Lawn of the White House. While most folks were wearing masks, they were not observing any social distancing, packed quite closely together just two weeks after the event at the Rose Garden of the White House that is now considered a superspreader event and perhaps the origin point for many of those positive coronavirus tests that we have since seen at the White House.
President Trump needed this memo to get some more public confidence in his return to an active schedule. And that is exactly what he's going to be doing this coming week. He'll be hitting 3 battleground states, Florida, Iowa and Pennsylvania, this coming week -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Jeremy.
So President Trump's White House appearance Saturday was his first public event since his coronavirus diagnosis. He said he feels quote great. He's also been upbeat about the trajectory of the virus in the U.S. Too upbeat, according to some health experts.
Mr. Trump is saying the virus is already starting to go away while using a name that many find offensive.
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TRUMP: Through the power of the American spirit, I think more than anything else, science, medicine will eradicate the China virus more and 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CURNOW: But a model that is often being looked at during this pandemic is painting quite a different picture. The model is based on current conditions. Let's look at what those are right now.
As you can see, most states are seeing increasing cases as opposed to a week ago. At this hour, Johns Hopkins University says the numbers of lives lost in the U.S. is more than 214,000 people.
The University of Washington model projects a number of 400,000 COVID deaths by February next year. Now the model says also if social distancing mandates are relaxed, that number could easily pass 500,000 deaths.
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CURNOW: That same model predicts if almost everyone in the U.S. wore masks, tens of thousands of lives would be saved.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist. He joins us now from Los Angeles.
Doctor, lovely to see you again. I just want to get your take on these projections. They are stunning and desperately concerning.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: They are but they are also right on the money. The University of Washington's projections said that we would have approximately 214,000 cases by a few days ago and we are there.
I have no reason to doubt these projections. What I think is very important is, that at the lowest, if we continue doing as we are, we are going to have 390 (sic) or so cases by the end of February.
And if we do not even act even more responsibly, it could go as high as half a million. And they're projecting, in the world at that time, we could have a total of 4 million deaths, approximately 30,000 a day, which is really startling.
All we have to do to try to decrease that tremendously is to put on masks, wash our hands and to respect social distancing.
CURNOW: It's simple but those numbers again, as you say, are startling. So I want to get your opinion as a doctor. As our colleague and correspondent, who's reporting from the White House, this letter from the president's physician.
One of the key takeaways for you as you try to decode?
It
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I agree with a lot of my colleagues that are calling this a master class in medical deception because of its ambiguity. There are so many things in it that it's sort of like medicalspeak but don't really get down to the point, which is, does the president currently have infectious droplets?
They measure viral loads and things like that, that disappear after 6 days so we don't know whether he's infectious.
Something that was interesting to me, the CDC says that if you have been 10 days after your first symptoms and you've been isolated, that it's probably safe for you to go out. This changes the timeline of the president having his first symptoms sometime around the end of September or October 1st, which would be Wednesday.
And we know that he did public speeches and such on that Thursday. So it's also ambiguous, if nothing else. The CDC also says that if you have a serious episode of this infection, that maybe you should isolate for 20 days.
The fact that we don't know specifics tend to tell us that this is becoming more of a political decision than a medical recommendation.
CURNOW: But also if you can give us a sense, this president gave a speech at the White House today. He is planning public rallies over the next few days after being hospitalized a week ago.
So based on the presidents weight, his age, what we know about the severity of his illness, is he out of the woods now?
As a doctor, would you recommend that he still stayed in bed?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes, absolutely, I would not recommend that he go out and do all of these rallies that he's doing, if nothing else, for his own speech. My patients sometimes are 4 to 6 weeks out and they are still feeling winded.
I think it's interesting that the president who usually gives these Fidel Castro type lengthy speeches only spoke for 18 minutes. I think that's all that his body can really tolerate right now.
The weaker he makes himself by stressing his body, by flying, by taking long hours, the more likely he is to not only relapse but perhaps get very seriously ill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez there, thank you..
So despite the fact that the president claims that the coronavirus is disappearing from the United States, it is still a raging epidemic with deadly consequences. The former U.S. national security adviser says twisting the truth for a more flattering outcome is how Trump has always behaved. Take a. Listen
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JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: He tries to shape the world to be the way he wants it through his own rhetoric, by intimidating people, by denying facts, by creating facts. And he's trying to do the same thing here. I think what is increasing
the pressure is the proximity of the election because he can see the numbers like anybody can. He's in trouble and he doesn't have a strategy to turn it around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: John Bolton speaking to Wolf Blitzer there a little earlier.
So Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slammed Trump earlier Saturday over his handling of the pandemic and his own illness.
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CURNOW: As he headed to campaign stops in Pennsylvania, Biden revealed his latest negative coronavirus test and he called on the president to listen to scientists.
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JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Before I came out again today to go somewhere, I had another test this morning. And I am clear. I think it's important the president makes sure of two things.
One that he is clear, that he is not a spreader, like Dr. Fauci said, the superspreader event he had for the Supreme Court announcement.
And secondly, I think it's important that he make it clear to all the people that they should be socially distanced, they can be on the lawn; that's fine. But in fact, they should be socially distanced and wearing masks. That's the only responsible thing to. Do
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, at his campaign event in Pennsylvania, Mr. bidden reached out to independents and disaffected Republicans as Jessica Dean now reports. Jessica.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former Vice President Joe Biden campaigning in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday. He traveled here to Erie, Pennsylvania. It's in a county President Trump won narrowly in 2016 and it's tailor made for Biden's economic message that he's been delivering specifically to white working class voters in towns like Erie.
Notably, Biden touring a train facility and a union hall before giving a message that can be described as his economic bread and butter message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: The top 100 billionaires in the middle of this pandemic, they made $300 billion additional. Hear me now? One hundred individuals made $300 billion this year.
And what did the bottom half get?
They got the kick, they got the slide down, because the fact is the president can only see the world from Park Avenue. I see it from Scranton, I see it from Claymont, for real. You all know what I'm talking about. Y'all see it from Erie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: In the meantime, vice president Biden's campaign reported that he underwent PCR testing. That's the gold standard COVID test on Saturday and that test came back negative. The campaign has said that Joe Biden will be continued to be tested regularly and always when he travels -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Erie, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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CURNOW: CNN Politics White House reporter Stephen Collinson joins us now from Washington.
Stephen, hi, good to see you. Talk us through this latest communique from the White House doctor. If you don't mind, can you read between the lines for us?
It's difficult to quite figure out what they're trying to say.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what it appears is, at least by the letter of the law, the president has now satisfied CDC recommendations for no longer being contagious, given the amount of time that has lapsed since his coronavirus diagnosis.
But of course, given the way that the White House has obscured the truth and real information throughout his illness, I think there's grounds for doubt.
The White House physician still hasn't confirmed that the president has taken a negative COVID test and, most interestingly, the White House is still refusing to tell us the last time the president tested negative before he got sick.
That, of course, is not just important for knowing how long he was likely to be contagious -- he's right on that number of 10 days if we are to believe when he was first tested positive for COVID.
But it's also very important to establish whether the president knew he was infected and carried on doing campaign events before we were told he got sick. And that is the reason perhaps that the White House is not telling us exactly when he last tested negative for coronavirus.
CURNOW: So talk us through these pictures that we're seeing now on the screen. The president speaking from the balcony at the White House to a largely African American audience today. It was a pretty dark message.
What was the reason for this?
COLLINSON: The president has been itching to get out on the campaign trail. Originally, he was even talking about going out on Saturday. We now know that there are 3 rallies in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Florida, scheduled for next week.
But it's all about getting pictures of the president back in the race. Let's face it, there are three weeks and a couple of days left in this campaign. The president is behind. He needs to get himself on television. He needs to convince people that he is recovered and is fit to campaign.
The fact that this was an event that was focused on minorities is interesting. Of course, the president has tried to peel away African American male voters from the Democrats, who traditionally vote for the Democrats. This could be important in some states like Georgia, which is unexpectedly close.
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COLLINSON: And former Vice President Joe Biden needs to get big African American turnout in cities like Cleveland in Ohio, in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and some of these swing states to offset the president's popularity in more rural areas. That was something Hillary Clinton didn't do.
You could say, if you were a cynic, that the real reason he started campaigning with a minority event was do a little bit of clearup over that failure to immediately condemn white supremacy in the presidential debate.
CURNOW: Vice president Biden, what's his messaging?
It certainly seems like he is trying to pick up disaffected voters, former Trump supporters, who might have changed their mind or are still wavering; independents.
How successful is he at that?
COLLINSON: Well, if you look at the polls nationally and in swing states, he is doing pretty well. Since that first debate in which the president behaved in an exceedingly belligerent manner, Biden appears to have stretched his lead in the polls.
Now we don't know whether to trust the poll; some of the polls were wrong last time around, especially in battleground states. But you have to say that the former vice president is ahead in these this race. He's trying to lock in his gains.
It's interesting that he was in Pennsylvania twice this week. He's really concentrating on consolidating that path to 270 electoral votes. If he were to win Pennsylvania, where he currently leads -- and he has been doing well among independents -- and perhaps more moderate, non populist Republican voters, he would almost be assured of the White House.
So that's what the former vice president is doing here. The fact that he now doesn't have to debate against Donald Trump again this week takes another area of risk off the table for him. And I would expect him to carry out his path of his visits to swing states the next couple of days.
CURNOW: Always good to speak to, you always good to get your analysis. Stephen Collinson, live from D.C., thanks a lot.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Still to come, President Trump tries to sow doubt of the integrity of the election. But he's just lost a big court challenge on early voting in a battleground state.
Plus global health experts say they're worried about COVID cases in Europe. More so in hotspots like the U.S. and Brazil. We'll see what it's like in Paris. Coming up.
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CURNOW: Welcome back, I'm Robyn Curnow. This news in just from India. The country is now reporting more than 7 million COVID cases. That's the most in the world after the U.S.
The Indian health ministry reported more than 74,000 new cases in the past 24 hours. More than 108,000 people have died there from the virus.
There is new cause for concern in the U.S. when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. Johns Hopkins University reported the biggest number of daily cases in almost 2 months on Friday. This is just some of the news that's fueling fears of a second wave. Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician with Brown University Emergency Medicine, spoke to CNN about that, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, BROWN UNIVERSITY EMERGENCY MEDICINE: Myself, I'm an ER doc and my colleagues across the country, we are all seeing increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients who are coming into our ERs and are getting really sick, requiring intensive care and hospitalization.
We did see those spikes in numbers, that were largely younger people about a month ago going back to college. But what we're seeing now is it's starting to spread within the community. And we're all deeply afraid this is the start of that dreaded second
wave. We still don't have adequate personal protective equipment for physicians and nurses on the front lines across the country. We still don't have adequate testing supplies. And as you and I just discussed, we still don't have a cure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, a CNN poll shows that only about half of Americans say they would get a COVID vaccine once one becomes available. And that number actually dropped over the last few months.
Health experts are worried that not enough people will choose to get vaccinated, which will help the virus spread. Now a former CDC director explained during CNN's town hall on Saturday what the CDC can do to address those concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA GERBERDING, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: It is about regaining trust and trust depends first and foremost on telling the truth. Even when it's hard. One of the things I learned in my tenure -- and Jeff certainly saw during the 9-1-1 (sic) attacks is that Americans can tolerate really tough truths.
But it has to come from reliable and credible sources. I think the other thing is consistency. One of the reasons that we have so much anxiety among Americans is because they're hearing different things from different political leaders.
We haven't consolidated and cascaded the messages from reliable sources. We kind of a free-for-all, where everyone can invent their own interpretation of the truth. So if we want people to have trust in the vaccines, we have to tell them what we're doing and why.
We have to explain how we're managing the safety and the efficacy evaluation. We have to prepare them whatever side effects we might realistically expect to occur. And then we have to keep them informed as we go forward.
It's kind of the basics of risk communication but it comes now when we're in a deficit of trust. So it's going to be very difficult to crawl back into a situation where people believe that we really do have their best interests at heart.
The good news is that science is on our side. There are more than 700 products in pipelines for treatment and prevention of COVID-19. So we have to be guardedly optimistic, as Tom said, about what the future might hold and, at the same time, it isn't a panacea. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Europe is struggling to keep the coronavirus under control. Cases are surging even though the region once appeared to have the virus largely contained. Some countries are bringing back strict virus restrictions. One of them is France.
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CURNOW: And it's seeing an all-time high in daily cases, beating a record that was set just a day earlier, as Melissa Bell explains from Paris.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in France, another record set on Friday in terms of the new coronavirus cases. More than 20,000 in a single 24 hour period. It comes as four extra French cities see fresh restrictions based on (INAUDIBLE) this Saturday. They've now joined that maximum alert category that Paris and Marseille were already in.
Although those restrictions have applied in Paris for several days, with cafes and bars closed, the figures remain extremely worrying. An emergency plan has been triggered regionally here for the greater Paris hospitals to help them deal with what authorities fear could be a flood of COVID-19 patients for the coming days and weeks.
And it's something reflected in several European countries this week. A number of them are setting fresh records in terms of new COVID cases and some of them putting in fresh restrictions to try to bring those COVID-19 figures down.
It comes as the WHO says that the Europe region is now further ahead than the United States, Brazil and India in terms of rises in coronavirus cases -- Melissa Bell, CNN ,Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Nepal is on the verge of a health care crisis there, as the number of case infections passed the 100,000. Mark on Friday. This woman outside the crematorium in the capital is crying, where bodies are be taken. There were more than 2,000 cases on Friday and so far the country has seen at least 600 deaths.
On a per capita basis, Nepal's daily infections are rising faster than nearby India and Bangladesh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The situation is becoming scary because in a poor country like ours, we don't have sufficient infrastructure. So the virus might be attacking us more. There is a lack of public awareness as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Nepal eased its lockdown measures back in June. And experts say the government is not enforcing health protocols like social distancing and wearing masks.
CNN has been following the story of an Iraqi woman through years of hardship. She's endured sanctions, war and corruption. And after all that, she recently recovered from. COVID and she did it with the help of her 19 year old autistic son. She says this pandemic has a lesson for all of us. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "I tell you that we shouldn't use black. It's sad," Nahla gently reminds her son. Nineteen year old Ussayid is autistic. He uses colors, not words to communicate the depths of his anguish.
Nahla can sit next to him now. We assure him that she's OK. After Nahla and her husband contracted COVID-19, Ussayid had to care for them, a reflection of just how dire the situation of hospitals is in Iraq.
"My first thought was, what if Ussayid also catches it?" she says. "I was scared, I was shaken."
I will never forget the first time I met Nahla shortly after her first husband, Ussayid's father, was killed in a car bomb in 2007. She spoke in gentle tones after about having to identify the love of her life from a photograph of his teeth and a metal pin to his knee. His body was so charred and melted along with nine others.
How she felt as if she was wearing a cloak of death, that life lost its color, becoming black and white. Ussayid was just 6 years old at the time.
Four years later, Nahla looked transformed. She spoke with pride about how Ussayid had just transferred out of the special needs school but that he still carried darkness inside because of the death of his father, a darkness that came out in his drawings, a cloud with rain painted over in black.
"We worked for years to get him away from the black of death," she says. "Corona brought the black back into his drawings."
That in so many ways is the story of Iraq, a nation whose history is more defined by death and bloodshed than the beauty of its people. The beauty of people like Nahla, fighting for her country's soul.
"I always say there is a positive side of any struggle," she tells us. "The positive side is that we discovered that my son has more capabilities than what we thought."
She feels as if Iraqis as a whole are discovering how strong they are when they come together.
"We are saving each other by uniting during COVID-19 and not looking toward the government," she explains. "We could possibly emerge from coronavirus with a great lesson," she continues, "but we should we should all be united to find the beginning of a path of light."
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DAMON (voice-over): And that is a lesson for us all -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: It certainly. Is so coming up on CNN, changing voting patterns among U.S. seniors. Polls show they are switching from Republicans to Democrats across the country. We'll take a closer look after the break.
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CURNOW: Welcome back to all of you here in the United States and all around the world. Thanks for joining me. You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. It is 33 minutes past the hour.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied the Trump campaign effort to make drop boxes in the state unconstitutional. This comes as the president continues to spread more false claims about voter fraud and his capitalizing calls for supporters to be poll watchers. Election Day officials worry this could lead to voter intimidation as Abby Phillip explains.
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CEDRICK BROWN, DETROIT VOTER: I'm not comfortable sending my ballot through the mail. I'd rather just come in and drop it off.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As millions of voters begin casting their ballots in person or by mail, the Postal Service acknowledging in court documents that there has been a significant drop in first class on time mail delivery.
The USPS saying it will increase staffing and make other changes to fix the problem. In battleground Michigan, voting is ramping up and so are the worries from voters.
MARTEZ ROBERTSON, DETROIT VOTER: I want to personally make sure it got handed in. With all the talk of problems with the mail and that sort of thing, I wanted to be sure.
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PHILLIP: In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott is facing at least two separate federal lawsuits after he issued an executive order restricting ballot drop boxes to one per county because he feels they'll be more secure. Opponents say this is no less than voter suppression.
CHRIS HOLLINS, HARRIS COUNTY CLERK: To 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's unfair, it's prejudicial and it's dangerous. PHILLIP: Millions of voters have just hours left to register to vote for the 2020 general election, including competitive states like Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas. Already some 2.6 million general election ballots have been cast according to CNN and Edison researchers survey of election officials in 24 states reporting voting data.
And in six of those states where party data is available, registered Democrats make up more than half of the ballots returned.
In Pennsylvania, ongoing disputes over the changing ballot rules, poll watchers, new voting machines and the spread of disinformation are adding to the challenges some from the President himself.
TRUMP: They had Trump written on it and they were thrown in a garbage can and this is what's going to happen.
PHILLIP: Today we are also learning about a new cyber security threat. CNN has obtained an e-mail from the Democratic National Committee warning campaigns about fraudulent Team Blue Take Action e- mails sent by a hacking group with malicious attachments.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, that was Abby Phillip there reporting. On Saturday a federal appeals allowed the governor for one location per county for ballot drop boxes to remain in place at least for. Now CNN was first to view a new Biden campaign ad featuring Cindy McCain, the widow of Arizona Republican senator John McCain.
Now Cindy McCain has endorsed Biden for president. And the ad is called, "Like John Did," and it makes the case that Biden is a leader who can cross party lines and unite the country.
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CINDY MCCAIN, JOHN MCCAIN'S WIDOW (voice-over): In the Senate, they disagreed on almost everything. They'd fight like hell on the floor and then they'd go eat lunch together because they always put their friendship and their country first.
Now, more than ever, we need a president who will put service before self.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading comfortably in the national polls and that's thanks in part to scenes like this. Senior citizens throwing their support behind the Democrat, rather than the Republican.
That is likely making President Trump nervous. Look at these numbers. A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS says that voters over the age of 65 plan to choose Mr. Biden. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Nora Super is the senior director for the Center for the Future of Aging. She's also executive director of the Milken Institute's Alliance to Improve Dementia Care.
Thanks for joining us. You study the politics of aging.
My question is, how will pensioners and seniors impact this election?
NORA SUPER, MILKEN INSTITUTE ALLIANCE TO IMPROVE DEMENTIA CARE: Well, older voters have always had a significant impact on U.S. elections. They are reliable voters, they turn out to the polls. In 2016, 71 percent of voters over age 65 turned out to vote.
CURNOW: And who did they vote for?
Because, from what I understand, the latest polls are showing that Donald Trump has lost a significant number of these older voters.
SUPER: That's right. We are seeing trends toward Vice President Biden now. Pretty significantly in poll after poll. In the past, it's been since Al Gore that a Democrat has won the majority of voters over the age of 65 in the U.S.
So nearly 20 years since older voters have gone for the Democratic nominee. So this is a very significant shift that we're seeing in this. Election
CURNOW: And why?
Why are they shifting?
SUPER: Well, I think the number one reason is COVID. Even prior to COVID-19, we saw some changing of folks as they were looking at Donald Trump. What we have here is the Baby Boomers who are turning 65, 10,000 of them every day in the U.S. So it's a huge number of people; 38 million that are what we call are the leading edge of the Baby Boom and another 38 million who are at the trail edge, as I am at age 56.
We're not the same as older voters of yesteryear. Older Baby Boomers came of age during Vietnam, during the women's rights movement, civil rights.
[02:40:00]
SUPER: They've really been voters who tried to test autonomy. Watergate happened then and now with younger boomers like myself, the issues that we care about have stayed the same but changed a little bit with COVID for sure.
Health has always been a major issue that older voters look to. And since people over 65 are at higher risk to catch COVID, we see that people over 65 have five times higher risk of getting infected from COVID. And 20 percent of them have died. These numbers just increase dramatically the older you get. I think part of what's happening in the election is that people are
looking at Donald Trump and don't see a real plan of how to move out of the pandemic. They have seen people that they know die or people get infected. And it's really causing quite a bit of anxiety among older voters.
CURNOW: And is this split along racial lines?
Is it just white older voters that seem to be peeling away from the president?
SUPER: Well, I mean, Black Americans did not vote for Donald Trump in the last election, although they didn't turn out for Hillary Clinton, either. So the expectation is that we will see minority populations, since President Trump really has pitted, unfortunately, some races against each other in the U.S.
I think people are predicting that will see a much bigger turnout around minority Americans. And just like populations all across the age span, our older population has become more diverse over time as well. I think that we will see these voters turn out more because they feel -- and especially those in minority populations that have a higher risk of contracting COVID and had disparities and more likely to see death, are really wanting to turn out and vote for a new president.
CURNOW: It'll be interesting to see how that energizes them.
My next question is, where will this impact be felt?
Could this -- could pensioners essentially tilt this election, flip this election?
Particularly when we think about it, Florida, such a key state?
SUPER: Absolutely. The 3 biggest states that have, of course, the larger, older population are California, Texas and Florida. Texas is in play; nobody expected this. But Florida, we are certainly seeing polls trending that voters that went for Donald Trump are now saying that they will vote for Joe Biden.
All it would really take for Joe Biden is to win Florida; that would be a significant gain on election night. Also some of the called Rust Belt states where Trump won big, we have much of older populations there that have been seeing increased risk for COVID-19.
So states like Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, they are all continuing to see high infection rates. With winter coming on board and the typical flu season, unfortunately, the projections are it's going to get worse before the election.
CURNOW: And that's very much on the minds of voters as they make this decision on who to vote for. Great to speak to you. It's going to be fascinating to see how this is broken down in a few weeks time after the vote. Nora Super, thank you very much for joining. Us
SUPER: Thank you.
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CURNOW: North Korea held a military parade showing off a new weapon. What experts are saying about this weapon and what it might be capable of doing. That's next.
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[02:45:00]
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CURNOW: Here's a look at what analysts say could be one of the world's largest ballistic missiles. North Korea unveiled it at a parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Workers Party. South Korea reacted quickly, calling an emergency national security meeting.
And a U.S. official says it is disappointing that the North continues to promote its "prohibited ballistic missile program."
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Back on New Year's Day, January 1st of this year, when Kim Jong-un promised to unveil a new strategic weapon. That was, of course, before the COVID-19 pandemic ground the world to a halt and left the hermetically sealed Hermit Kingdom more isolated than ever.
Now we're getting our first look at what many analysts believe is that weapon, one of the largest world's largest ballistic missiles. It's massive. It's carried by an 11 axle truck. At the climax of an almost 2-hour military parade in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
I've covered these parades many times over the years and they always bring them out at the end, do it for the drama. The ground is actually shaking beneath your feet as they pass by.
Experts are telling us this missile right here could potentially carry multiple warheads, only increasing the threat to the mainland United States, despite dozens of "love letters" between President Trump and Kim Jong-un -- Trump's words, not mine.
This is the kind of thing that North Korea would typically love to showcase for the foreign media, including CNN, who has been invited almost every year. But this year things are different. Borders are closed due to COVID-19, essentially shutting down trade in an already struggling economy, battered by international sanctions over its nuclear program.
A widespread COVID-19 pandemic inside North Korea -- keep in mind, they have very limited, outdated medical resources. That would be catastrophic. This year we barely saw Kim Jong-un in public when compared to previous years. He disappeared from public view for weeks on end, leading to speculation about his health. But Kim appeared to be back in full form at this military parade, staged in the middle of the night with slick special effects, including a drone flyby. Certainly the most dramatic North Korean military parade I've ever seen.
Perhaps the most drama came from Kim himself, dressed in a gray suit and appeared to be almost crying, sobbing at times, tears rolling down his cheeks as he thanked the North Korean people for their hard work during exceptionally hard times.
North Korea has been absolutely battered this year, faced crippling sanctions over the nuclear missile programs, the economic catastrophe of closing the border because of the pandemic and natural disasters like a massive typhoon and flooding.
Things got so bad in North Korea that Kim did something that his grandfather and father never did. He admitted that his economic plans were a failure and that millions of his people, already scraping by, are suffering.
That was reflected in his face and echoed by his audience. Many people were heard crying right along with him. North Korea may struggle for food and electricity but they did show the world their missile program is only getting stronger.
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RIPLEY (voice-over): Will Ripley, CNN, Hong Kong.
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CURNOW: You're watching CNN, I'll be right back.
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CURNOW: Here's a story for you.
What's a Hollywood soap opera without passionate kissing?
But how do you passionately kiss someone on set in the age of COVID?
Well, I suppose you can always send in the mannequins as Jeanne Moos reports.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A soap opera wouldn't be a soap opera without all that kissing, but in the age of COVID, forget passionate 25-second deep dives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL." MOOS (voice-over): Still beautiful, but less bold. That's a mannequin he's kissing. The clip went viral and the hilarity it inspired was contagious.
Normally, Lawrence Saint-Victor and his abs would be intimate with his love interest, Zoe. But, Zoe was replaced by the mannequin.
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MOOS (voice-over): Actress Kiara Barnes tweeted, "We def had to do a billion takes because everyone was cracking up."
"ACCESS HOLLYWOOD" got exclusive access to actors emoting to mannequins on-set.
DENISE RICHARD, ACTRESS, "THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL": I hope you feel the same.
MOOS: Whose mouth is that? Actors are being replaced by spouses in tight shots. That's Denise Richards' husband's head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Action.
MOOS (voice-over): No kissy-poo action for co-star Thorsten Kaye. There's a lot of smooching in the show "RIVERDALE" but these days they link arms and swig mouthwash. Their swishing is timed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirty seconds in.
MOOS (voice-over): Instead of staring romantically, they stare balefully until they crack up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten seconds to go.
MOOS (voice-over): KJ Apa and Camila Mendes had to spit in a baggie, which they mercifully didn't show. "Our new normal is washing our mouths before every take of a make-out scene."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remember how I used to stroke your hair?
MOOS (voice-over): "SNL" invented some COVID soap opera precautions of its own.
KATE MCKINNON, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Take me, please, please.
MOOS (voice-over): But precautions give new meaning to that old lament --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, what are we doing?
MOOS (voice-over): Lawrence Saint-Victor was doing something right. "I mean, the soulful way he looked that mannequin straight in the eyeballs and kissed her. Give that man a Daytime Emmy now."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You will never see her lips on another man. MOOS (voice-over): Make that another mannequin -- Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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CURNOW: This year is just getting so absurd, isn't it?
Wow. Thanks to Jeanne for that.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. My lovely colleague, Kim, is joining you just after the break.
