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Trump Holds First Rally Since COVID-19 Diagnosis; Trump Claims He's Immune, Despite Unclear Science; Trump Tails Nationally and In Key Battleground States; Amy Coney Barrett Spells Out Judicial Philosophy; Biden Makes Health Care Focus of His Opposition to Barrett; California Orders Removal of Unofficial Ballot Boxes. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired October 13, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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

Just ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I went through it, now they say I'm immune, I feel so powerful. I'll walk into that audience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A defiant President Trump returns to the campaign trail with a rally in Florida. What he told supporters about his health.

Plus, under the microscope, Amy Coney Barrett faces her first day of questioning on Capitol Hill. We will look at what to expect.

And just weeks before the presidential election, unofficial ballot boxes pop up and cause confusion in California.

Good to have you with us. So, with the U.S. election just three weeks away, President Donald Trump has burst back on to the campaign trail after being sidelined with a COVID-19 infection for 11 days. Mr. Trump tried to make up for lost time with a large rally in Florida. It came just hours after his doctor insisted, he was no longer infectious and claimed the President had tested negative on consecutive days.

Mr. Trump told supporters he was feeling fine and once again, claimed, without proof, that he's now immune from COVID-19. He went on to criticize coronavirus lock downs and encourage supporters to go out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The lock downs are doing tremendous damage to these Democrat run states where they're locked down, sealed up, suicide rates, drug rates, alcoholism. Death by so many different forms. You can't do that, and I want to just congratulate the Governor and everybody in Florida, you're open and open for business and doing great.

And we got to remember, I said it right at the beginning, the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself can. The cure cannot be worse. But if you don't feel good about it, if you want to stay, stay. Relax, stay. But if you want to get out there, get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: In the coming hours, Mr. Trump is expected to hold another rally in Pennsylvania. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more on the President's health as he returns to the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was only hours before this rally that President Trump's doctor actually announced that he had tested negative for coronavirus. The first time we had been told that since of course the President's diagnosis. And in this memo Dr. Sean Conley said the President had tested negative for consecutive days using a rapid test. Though he didn't say which days it was that the President had actually tested negative and we know that the White House has declined to say when the President last tested negative before his diagnosis, something that Conley made no mention of in his memo.

But this memo came out just hours before the President took the stage in Florida. With their spoke for a little over 65 minutes or so and at times, he sounded hoarse, but at others, he talked about his diagnosis with coronavirus. Said that he felt powerful and talked about what his recovery has been like and of course as he's been doing now, claimed that he is immune.

TRUMP: One thing with me, the nice part, I went through it, now they say I'm immune, I feel so powerful. I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there and I'll kiss everyone in that audience. I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and everybody, I'll just give you a big fat kiss.

COLLINS: Of course, we know science says that what the determination on immunity is how long it lasts is still very much out, despite the way the President is spinning his own health. And though he tried to talk about coronavirus as if it was in his past. We know it's at the top of mind for voters and it even appeared to be so for some of the President's own advisers including his chief of staff who does not typically wear a mask but was seen wearing a mask on this trip yesterday, only hours after he refused to take questions from reporters on Capitol Hill because they asked him to keep his mask on.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And President Trump's decision to resume his campaign schedule comes despite warnings from the nation's top expert on infectious diseases.

[04:05:00]

Dr. Anthony Fauci stressed that large gatherings, especially political rallies can often lead to more infections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that. We have seen that when you have situations of congregant settings where there are a lot of people without masks. The data speaks for itself. It happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Joining me now is Reid Wilson, he is a national correspondent for The Hill. Thank you so much for being with us.

REID WILSON, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE HILL: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So about three weeks away from the election and just about 10 days or so after testing positive for COVID-19, President Trump is out on the campaign trail holding a rally in Sanford, Florida with more rallies planned in three other states. It's a message of course of business as usual, trying to put this virus behind him. Is that going to work given 60 percent of voters disapproved of the way he's handling this pandemic?

WILSON: Well, I don't think that the virus is ever going to be out of voters' minds. It has been front and center in absolutely everything that we've done for the last nine months as a community, as a nation. And it's not simply going to go away because a president wants to will it away.

As a matter of fact, infections are rising once again. Hospitalizations are rising in many states around the country. And we are heading into a fall and winter that can be really abysmal. We're going to be stuck back inside again. And those are exactly the conditions under which this virus spreads.

So, it's going to be troubling. And President Trump is taking a clear risk every time he hosts one of these forums and one of these big rallies that one of the rallies themselves might become a super spreader event. Which would be a disastrous outcome for his campaign just as it was when his introduction of a new Supreme Court nominee became a super spreader event a few weeks ago.

CHURCH: Right, and new polls Monday from "The New York Times" and Sienna College for likely voters in Michigan show Biden support at 48 percent, Trump at 40 percent. And then in Wisconsin, Biden is at 51 percent to Trump's 41 percent. What do those numbers tell you?

WILSON: Well, there are two things that should be troubling for President Trump in those two numbers, and in a lot of the surveys that we've seen recently.

First of all, he is trailing in some of those blue wall states that he won back in 2016. Michigan and Wisconsin were critical pillars to his taking the White House by such a large margin as he did.

The other thing that trouble -- that should be troubling to the President's campaign is that those numbers that you read off for him are so low. It's not as if he's neck and neck with Joe Biden in the high 40's. It's that only 40, or 41 percent of people in these critical swing states say they're going to back him.

We're only three weeks out from election day, voters have tuned in, millions of voters have already cast their ballots. You know, if those numbers -- if his numbers aren't 45, 46, 47, he's got zero shot at winning these swing states. He needs to improve dramatically. And the clock is ticking and running out very fast.

CHURCH: So, as you point out, all reputable polls show the President trailing his Democratic rival Joe Biden nationally and in some battleground states. But Democrats still fear a repeat of 2016 because of course it's the Electoral College that decides the winner.

Do you see any path to victory for Donald Trump? Because he thinks the polls look very good for him.

WILSON: Yes, and it's funny that you mention the Democrats. They have this collective feeling of what Biden's own pollster called PTSD about the polls being so wrong from 2016. I'd argue that the polls weren't that far off.

The big difference here between 2016 and today is that Hillary Clinton was leading Donald Trump. But she was in the mid-40s and he was in the low 40s. Today, Joe Biden is at or above 50 percent in a lot of these key swing states.

CHURCH: And many thanks to Reid Wilson speaking to me a little earlier.

Well, Johnson & Johnson is now the second drug maker to pause human trials for the coronavirus vaccine after a volunteer fell ill. 60,000 volunteers are taking part in the human trials and experts say complications are not unexpected. Last month, a volunteer from the AstraZeneca's vaccine developed neurological issues, that trial remains on hold in the United States.

Well, in the coming hours, a Republican led Senate panel is set to resume hearings for President Trump's Supreme Court nominee. And it could be a tough day for Amy Coney Barrett who will face questions from Senators for the first time. It comes after a tense first day of hearings as Democrats focused on how her appointment could threaten health care for millions of Americans. And here's how President Trump reacted to that.

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[04:10:00]

TRUMP: As America saw earlier today in Amy's opening statement in the Senate, Judge Barrett, a brilliant scholar who will defend our laws, our rights, our freedom and our Constitution like very few people would have the capability of doing. The radical left is hell bent on destroying everything we love and cherish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CNN's Jessica Schneider has more now on how the first day unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): The floor is yours judge.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amy Coney Barrett starting out her confirmation hearing, spilling out her judicial philosophy.

AMY CONEY BARRETT, U.S. SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life. The public should not expect courts to do so and courts should not try.

SCHNEIDER: The 48-year-old was a clerk for late conservative Justice Anthony Scalia. And while she would step in the spot of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it's Scalia's seat she'll really fill.

BARRETT: It was the content of Justice Scalia's reasoning that shape me. His judicial philosophy was straightforward. A judge must apply the law as it is written, not as she wishes it were.

SCHNEIDER: Democrats immediately aired their disdain that Republicans are racing to fill Justice Ginsburg seat before the election.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senate Republicans have made it crystal clear that rushing a Supreme Court nomination is more important than helping and supporting the American people who are suffering from a deadly pandemic and a devastating economic crisis.

SCHNEIDER: Vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris skip the in- person hearing to go virtual and slammed the committee for moving forward without mandatory testing.

HARRIS: This committee has ignored common sense requests to keep people safe, including not requiring testing for all members despite a coronavirus outbreak among Senators of this very committee.

SCHNEIDER: While Harris stayed in her office, Republican Senator Mike Lee was there in person without a mask despite having tested positive shortly after the White House event announcing Barrett's nomination about two weeks ago. Lee release a letter from the Senate physician today clearing to attend in-person.

While six of Barrett's seven children sat behind her, the political posturing played out for hours in front of her. Democrats warned Americans that their access to healthcare is at stake when the Supreme Court hears arguments on the Affordable Care Act November 10th.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): The President has promised to appoint justices who will vote to dismantle that law. SCHNEIDER: Republicans preemptively made Barrett's Catholic religion the focus, calling out any Democrat who makes Barrett's faith an issue, though no Democrat did.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): When you tell somebody that they're too Catholic to be on the bench, when you tell them they are going to be a Catholic judge, not an American judge, that's bigotry. The pattern and practice of bigotry from members of this committee must stop.

SCHNEIDER: Barrett meanwhile kept the focus on her family and her resume. Noting how she would be the only justice without an Ivy League degree.

BARRETT: I would be the first mother of school age children to serve on the court. I would be the only sitting justice who didn't attend school at Harvard or Yale.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): Monday's format kept things relatively tame, but it could get a lot more fiery on Tuesday and Wednesday when all members of the committee will ask their questions. Democrats will stay laser-focused on healthcare. And we also know it's on the President's mind on Monday. He tweeted twice before noon saying that Republicans have a better plan, at a lower cost but we have yet to see any concrete plans from the President.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is making his feelings clear about Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination. On Monday in Ohio, he told supporters that Barrett could potentially cast the decisive vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What's going on now is this outright effort to do away with health care. That's what it's all about right now. Health care. And they're going to go into court in 28 days, in the Supreme Court and going to try to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. That's 100 million people's preexisting conditions are going to be wiped out. They're not going to be able to have insurance, and you've got 20 million people are going to lose their insurance right away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Joining me is Harry Litman. He is a former U.S. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general. Good to have you with us.

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER CLERK FOR ABNER MIKVA, THURGOOD MARSHALL: Thanks, Rosemary, good to be here.

CHURCH: So, what stood out to you on the first day of hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court? LITMAN: I was actually struck by the Democrats' discipline. They're

often an unruly lot, and each person wants to be sure to get his or her points in. But all of them had obviously caucused and determined to make a kind of unified presentation about the consequences were the ACA, Obama care to be struck down.

CHURCH: Right, and in just a few hours from now, the second day of hearings gets underway with questions from Senators.

[04:15:00]

What do they need to ask the judge about her position on the Affordable Care Act, Roe versus Wade and any possible effort by the President to contest election results and in the end, how much is she likely to reveal to them anyway?

LITMAN: The last question is the easiest. Nothing or next to nothing particularly since it really is something of a charade. Everyone's vote is already committed. It's a razor thin margin for the Republicans but they will preserve it and she is going to be confirmed. Si in that sense, they're really not talking to each other or about the nomination but rather to the American people.

CHURCH: Right, and Republicans talked on that first day about Democrats attacking Barrett for being Catholic, and for her stand on that very issue, when in fact, they didn't mention it at all Monday. But instead stayed focused on health care. Didn't they? How important is it that they stick with that strategy? You touched on that, but that they stick with that strategy, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, and given this confirmation is clearly going forward no matter what.

LITMAN: That's right. And it's obviously quite important. They've thought it through. They're in a position to know how important it is. And as I said at the top, it's striking that they stayed together on it. So, they've obviously decided that this is the horse they're going to ride for the next few days. And they've tried their hardest to put a human face on it today.

Starting tomorrow, the Republicans will put a human face on their nominee, that is Amy Coney Barrett, who is a very appealing candidate in human terms in a lot of ways. She has seven children, two are adopted from Haiti. One has down syndrome. She has the attestations of anyone she has worked with at Notre Dame on either side of the aisle. I think she is going to be likable.

CHURCH: Right, and the Democrats highlighted the hypocrisy of Republicans pushing for this nomination three weeks before an election when they wouldn't do the same nine months before the last presidential election. But the more powerful political argument seems to come from Joe Biden pointing out that Senators should be approving a stimulus package for Americans who are really hurting right now in the midst of this pandemic. Is that argument gaining any traction, or do you see it will gain some traction?

LITMAN: I mean, we'll see. It won't gain it in the sense that it won't displace the nomination, but it's really true. I think the Republicans have even concluded that the President may well go down, but we still want in going down with the ship to be confirming Judge Barrett.

CHURCH: Harry Litman, many thanks for your analysis. Appreciate it.

LITMAN: Thanks, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, fears of vote tampering in California after unofficial ballot boxes are discovered. What the state is doing to address the problem. That's next.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: In California, election officials have ordered Republicans to stop using unofficial drop boxes to collect voter ballots. It comes after several unauthorized boxes were found in at least three counties including one at a church. Republican leaders say they're not doing anything wrong and claim they're simply giving people a chance to drop off ballots with someone they know and trust. But California law does not allow unauthorized vote by mail drop boxes. Officials say they are a disservice to election administrators who have spent months setting up official drop boxes like the ones you see here.

And CNN's Pamela Brown has more on the challenges taking place in early voting across the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Roughly 8 million Americans have already cast their ballots, some standing in line for hours.

JULIA VINEYARD, NEVADA VOTER WHO WAITED 5 HOURS IN LINE: I thought maybe one hour at most. I would never have even came out to be honest if I knew it would be five hours.

BROWN: While others are putting them in drop boxes like these. But the seemingly simple process has turned quite complicated throughout the country.

SHANNON KAEHNY, CALIFORNIA VOTER: It's insane. I just -- I can't imagine in what world you would think that that would be acceptable.

BROWN: This California woman alerted local officials after finding an unofficial ballot drop box at a nearby church.

In a Facebook post, the church's pastor told followers that the church had a voting drop box, but it wasn't a legal one.

MATTHEW JUDGE, CALIFORNIA VOTER: It was up for like four days before I even saw it, before it started to kind of gain traction. So, I'm really worried that someone put their ballot in there.

BROWN: In a sermon at the church, the pastor denied tampering with any ballots.

PASTOR JERRY COOK, FREEDOM'S WAY BAPTIST CHURCH: Obviously, we have a situation here with the ballot box, and folks are saying things that we're tampering, with it and things of that nature. Of course, we're not tampering with anything.

BROWN: Meanwhile, California's secretary of state tells CNN operating unofficial ballot drop boxes, especially those misrepresenting to be official drop boxes, is not just misleading to voters. It's a violation of state law.

The box has been removed. The Facebook post also gone. As a Los Angeles County Registrar's Office investigates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an attack on democracy. It's not OK.

BROWN: And while the President or supporters on a recent peer called to get out and vote for him.

TRUMP: ... The poll booths, and I can tell you, we see it, we see it now. They are going to be swamped, get out and vote and make sure your vote counts.

BROWN: And Pennsylvania, a Trump-appointed federal judge rejected an argument by the RNC and Trump campaign that drop boxes were unconstitutional.

[04:25:00]

While in Texas, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Republican Governor Greg Abbott's directive for one location per county for ballot drop boxes, after a lower court reversed Abbott's decision last week.

And in Georgia, early voting started today at one location with a little hiccup, delays of an hour due to a technical glitch that caused voters cards to be rejected.

(on camera): Now in California, the district attorney is investigating these fake drop boxes that popped up in several counties. In fact, in one county, it was the Republicans who bought these drop boxes, according to the spokesman, though the spokesman would not say how many and where they were placed, the GOP says they have done nothing wrong.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Coming up next, President Trump is launching a potential super spreader campaign push in the final weeks of the election. We'll get a doctor's reaction to his latest political moves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: So, let's return to the U.S. fight against COVID-19. Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail hosting crowded rallies

even as the country's death toll tops 215,000. And infections are soaring in more than half the country. And flu season is upon us. Top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci is worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

:FAUCI: We're entering into the cool months of the fall, and ultimately the cold months of the winter, and that's just a recipe of a real problem if we don't get things under control before we get into that seasonal challenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson is now the second drug maker to pause human trials for a coronavirus vaccine in the U.S. after a volunteer fell ill. Some 60,000 volunteers are said to be taking part in the human trials, and experts say complications are not.