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Trump Travels To Iowa, Pleads With Suburban Voters; "Washington Post:" No Charges In A.G. Barr's "Unmasking" Probe; Senators Question Trump's Supreme Court Nominee. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 14, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: All the information is there, CNN.com/vote.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much for joining us today. We will see you here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with John King starts right now.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody, I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us.

Today, day three of confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Senators get to ask more questions. Health care and abortion rights are frequent topics again today, but Judge Barrett is well on her way to becoming Justice Barrett. Republicans have the votes. And President Trump's third Supreme Court nominee so far holding tightly to tradition. That means evading specifics about how she would rule on big cases and on big issues.

We are 20 days until the election. Senator Kamala Harris participating in that critical hearing and therefore off the campaign trail. The Democratic nominee Joe Biden spends the day in Delaware. The president plans an economic speech this hour in the Rose Garden, then he travels to battleground Iowa.

The president's busy schedule will test his recovery from coronavirus. He's losing right now, losing by a lot. His urgency, listen, obvious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Suburban women, will you please like me, please, please? I saved your damn neighborhood, OK!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The coronavirus is the defining campaign issue, and the pandemic is making a late campaign statement of its own. This map lays out nationwide trouble. Look at all that red and orange, the very opposite of what you hear from the president. 36 states right now. 36 of the 50 states reporting more new infections this week than last week.

And notice, sadly, no green, meaning no states right now are trending in the right direction. The seven-day average of new cases, new infections, sits at 51,000 per day. Remember, the president told us this virus would disappear back in April. The vice president predicted it would be largely behind us by Memorial Day. Instead here we are heading back up the hill. Dr. Anthony Fauci says 50,000 cases a day is a bad place to be. He's right. Your ballot will say Trump versus Biden. It could just as well say Trump versus science or Trump versus truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're rounding the term on the pandemic. We understand. Hey, I just had it. Here I am.

Who's had it here? Who's had it?

Yes. A lot of people. A lot of people. You're the people I want to say hello to because you're right now immune.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Rounding the corner, the president's words, rounding the corner, that means the final stretch, then the finish line. That's not where we are. The president is either lying or just simply not doing his homework.

Let's look at the numbers. And you go through this map. We do this every day. Orange and red are bad. This is a horrific, a horrific map.

36 states. 36 of 50 states heading in the wrong direction. That means more new coronavirus infections now compared to a week ago. That is not rounding the corner. That is heading back up the hill.

And we'll show you what we mean by that. 33 states in orange. Three states in red, means 50 percent more infections now than a week ago. 14 states holding states holding steady. Goose egg, zero. Zero states trending down right now. That is a bad map.

And look at the trendline. Look at the trendline. Beginning in the summer, up the hill, came down the hill some, that's going up. That is not rounding the turn or if it's rounding a turn, it's rounding a turn in the wrong direction, going back up the hill.

52,406 new infections yesterday. The average now back above 50,000 new infections a day. That is a horrible position to be in as it gets colder.

And you look at the positivity map, this tells you more cases today, more people are testing positive but also suggests more cases tomorrow because the people who are positive spread the infection. 21 percent Wisconsin, 16 percent Indiana, 19 percent Iowa, 24 percent South Dakota, 23 percent Idaho. Not a coincidence, the northern half of the country where it's already getting colder, has a high positivity rate across that stretch here.

Let's zero in on Wisconsin. It's a battleground presidential state. It also is a coronavirus hot spot right now. 21 percent positivity rate. Meaning one in five people, more than one in five people who get a test are coming back positive with coronavirus.

You look at the cases, July wasn't great. Flatline, look at this since the end of August, just look at this Wisconsin heading up the hill and with more cases comes more hospitalizations. You go up here now, Wisconsin one of the state's dealing right now.

North Dakota is another one with the stress and strain on the hospital system. So, we are seeing trying efforts to respond. Let's get straight to CNN's Adrienne Broaddus. She is in West Allis, Wisconsin. And Adrienne, this is an example of the coronavirus coming back in a big number and states having to scramble to take care of people.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John, this is what happens, Governor Tony Evers says, when people let their guard down. You just showed a great visual with all those maps. You can take a dart, throw it towards any U.S. map and no matter what region it lands, the story is the same. No state is heading in the right direction. And that is the case here in Wisconsin.

[11:05:03]

So, to accommodate, they have measures in place. Opening today an alternative care facility. The goal of this alternative care facility, or field hospital, is to relieve the pressure from local hospital systems that have been overwhelmed.

This new facility, which opened about an hour ago, can house more than 500 patients. They have about 530 patient beds. You're looking at video of construction of that. Meanwhile, this is a scenario Governor Tony Evers did not want to become reality.

But back in April, he and other state leaders started planning for this. Wisconsin is on a streak it wants to end. More new records yesterday. More than 3,000 new confirmed cases and about 34 people died in 24 hours. This as the number of cases continues to rise, President Trump is planning to rally in Janesville, Wisconsin, this weekend. John?

KING: The governor of course not happy about the big crowds at that as well. Adrienne brought us live for us on the ground. Grateful for the live reporting. Wisconsin one of the states going through especially hard trouble right now. Many states have trouble. It's especially hard there. Adrienne, thank you.

Let's continue the conversation. Our Toluse Olorunnipa, White House correspondent for "The Washington Post." And Toluse, we're at this interesting moment. We get it. The president wants to get out there and campaign. We get it, the president wants to show to the nation I had coronavirus. I got great treatment. I feel better. All of that part is fine but what he says, let's listen to some of the president - what the president is saying right now is just flatly contradicted by the numbers. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The vaccines are coming soon, the therapeutics and frankly the cure. All I know I took something, whatever the hell it was, I felt good quickly.

I took it. I said I felt like superman. You know I said let me at him.

We're rounding the turn on the pandemic. We understand that, hey, I just had it. Here I am. Now I'm immune they tell me. I'm immune. I could come down and start kissing everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: If we had a doctor present, they would challenge a lot of what the president said. But you and I know the numbers. The vaccines are coming soon. We don't know that. Two of the vaccines have been put on pause. It depends on your definition of soon, I guess. But it's not coming in the days and weeks and it's certainly won't be here before the election.

The cure, the president received an experimental treatment that clearly helped him. But it is not a cure. And it is not widely available at all. And yet the president is trying to convince the American people in these battleground states, pay no attention to the numbers, the facts and the science.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. If everything is fine and if there's a cure already, why are 700-plus people dying on a daily basis? Why do we have more than 50,000 cases on a daily basis? Why are all of these states hitting record highs and why are hospitals being overwhelmed if there's a cure.

It's clear the president is trying to spin this pandemic. It's been his -- his approach for the past several months but it's not working especially if you look at the polls. But if you look at how people are being impacted on the ground, yes, the president can gather hundreds or thousands of people together to cheer him when he sort of downplays this pandemic or makes it seem like it's a joke or something that he got and fought against and won against and now he's immune.

But there are thousands more Americans who are struggling right now who you know are either their loved one is in the hospital or their loved one is in the grave because of this virus. More than 250,000 deaths. And that's not something that you can spin your way out of.

So, as much as the president has been saying for several months that we are right around the corner, this is going to be over in a matter of weeks or days, it's not clear that that's the case and it's clear that a lot of Americans have been fed up with hearing this for several months that we're almost you know over this pandemic when they know that they can't send their kids to school.

They know that you know hospitals are still struggling with PPE and with other issues, and case numbers continue to be high. So, there's a difference between the president spinning this and what people are seeing on the ground and there's a chance that he could be overplaying his hand by trying to spin this too much.

KING: Well, I think that's one of the problems, you look at the polling numbers, one of the reasons the president trails nationally in so many of the states is people get this. They live this -- they are living it every day to your point. You know, they know somebody who's been infected. They know somebody who's a frontline worker. They themselves are still working at home or can't get the kids to school. You can't spin people on something that is happening in their daily lives.

But look, it's a challenge to be an incumbent president running for reelection at the time of great national challenge, in this case a national pandemic, but Scott Atlas, his new favorite doctor on the White House Coronavirus Task Force saying, "Facts matter. Lockdowns are a luxury of the rich. It's the working class and the poor whose lives are destroyed by prolonged lockdowns. Unconscionable and reckless to ignore that in order to naively focus on eliminating asymptomatic cases."

I don't know who Dr. Atlas means, is naively trying to focus on eliminating asymptomatic cases. But the president routinely rails against governors as he did in Pennsylvania last night, who still have some restrictions in place. Joe Biden start calling for national lockdown. He does say he wishes the president would push governors, especially Republican governors whose states still do not have mask mandates or mask policies.

[11:10:07]

But this position for Mr. Atlas here essentially saying, what, let it rip, open up, even though we don't have a vaccine yet?

OLORUNNIPA: Yes, that does seem to be increasingly the position of the Trump administration and the White House led by Scott Atlas, which is herd immunity. Essentially allowing the virus to go through as many people as possible. They say it's this idea of focused protection, where you're protecting you know vulnerable populations and not really saying exactly how they're going to project the elderly and people with preexisting conditions from everyone else.

But they're saying that young people and everyone who does not face a heightened risk because of this pandemic should just go about their lives, don't worry about wearing masks, don't worry about social distancing, catch the virus at will and essentially saying that people will get it. They'll get better and then there'll be herd imminently eventually.

And it's just something that is not embraced by the vast majority of scientists, epidemiologists, people who study this and who have expertise in this area are not saying that we should pursue herd immunity because it's so dangerous, because of a cost. So many more thousands of lives but it is something that's embraced by the White House.

It's something embraced by the president and he is sort of having an open experiment with this by having so many people gather at his rallies and essentially saying, let it rip, let this virus get through as many people as possible and congratulations, you're immune. It's just really a dangerous approach but it seems to be the political approach the president is taking to the pandemic and the final weeks of his campaign.

KING: It does seem to be. And again, I say it's Trump versus Biden on the ballot but in some ways, you see Trump versus Fauci playing out, a public debate between the two of them. Trump versus facts and science. Toluse Olorunnipa, from "The Washington Post." Toluse, thank you so much for your reporting and the insights.

Up next for us, that unmasking investigation hyped by the president. He said it was a big scandal. Conservative media outlets agreed. Well, reportedly ending now without any charges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:12]

KING: President Trump called it a giant scandal. One Republican senator even said it would be the biggest thing since Watergate. Well, in the end it turns out the alleged unmasking scandal is much ado about -- well, much ado about not much.

"The Washington Post" reporting today no charges will be brought after review of so-called unmasking efforts by top Obama administration officials back in 2016. It was the Attorney General William Barr who ordered that investigation. Unmasking is the term used when the government official asks for the name of someone listed in an intelligence report anonymously.

Back in 2016, some Obama administration officials asked for specifics after seeing reports raising concerns that Americans were having unusual campaign year contacts with Russians. The former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's name was unmasked as part of that process. He was having meetings with Russians. The Obama administration officials say they followed the rules and were just doing their jobs. President Trump screamed scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The unmasking and the spying and to me that's the big story.

Well, the unmasking is a massive - it's a massive thing.

(via telephone): We're talking about unmasking, yes. That was a big deal. Horrible deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Horrible deal, the president says. Well, "The Washington Post" now reporting the investigation is over and the prosecutor tapped by AG Barr to look into the unmasking plans no charges and no public report.

CNN Justice Correspondent, Jessica Schneider joins me now. Jessica, this was a big deal to the president, enough of a big deal that Bill Barr named a prosecutor to look into it. Seems to be going out with a bit of a whimper here. JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Very much a whimper, John. The president, like you heard there. He's hyped this for months and so of Republicans. Some saying that this was bigger than Watergate. But now, there will be no public report into these unmasking requests and no charges. That's according to "The Washington Post" despite the president promising and pushing for Obama officials to be indicted.

Now, we got a hint that the investigation actually hit a dead end when the U.S. attorney in charge of this investigation left DOJ last week and "The Post" is now reporting that John Bash, that former U.S. attorney in San Antonio, found no evidence of substantive wrongdoing.

Now, we had previously reported that Bash was brought on in May to handle this unmasking review. It was actually in support of the ongoing Russia investigation led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, and that's an investigation we've also reported likely will not yield any results before Election Day.

This unmasking investigation was announced after then acting director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified the names of former Obama officials who had allegedly requested the unmasking or the revealing of the identity of Michael Flynn, of course, Trump's first National Security adviser. They wanted that unmasking allegedly from foreign intelligence documents.

Now, the names of Americans in those documents, they are always redacted but we do know that some government officials have the authority to unmask their identities. And at the time, Joe Biden's name was listed as an Obama official who requested the unmasking. And, of course, the Trump campaign seized on that.

So, this is how "The Washington Post" is putting it today, saying, "Bash's team was focused not just on unmasking, but also on whether Obama-era officials provided information to reporters. But the findings ultimately turned over to Barr fell short of what Trump and others might have hoped, and the attorney general's office elected not to release them publicly."

Now, the DOJ at this point is not commenting but really now the hyped investigation has come to an anti-climactic end for the president, John, and his allies and what they've railed against for months is now considered cleared with no charges forthcoming. This could rankle the president. You know he's already expressed frustration with the DOJ for not doing enough to move against his political adversaries. So, we will see how he responds to this, John.

[11:20:00]

KING: He won't be happy with his attorney general but yet this is another Trump conspiracy theory that turned out to be just that, a smoke screen. Jessica Schneider, grateful for the reporting there. Thank you very much.

Up next for us, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bit of a Democratic family feud. She pushes back at internal party critics who want her to cut a stimulus deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:15]

KING: Judge Amy Coney Barrett is back in the witness chair today. And with each passing minute, she is closer to becoming Justice Barrett. Live look here at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Another full day of questions today. That following 12 hours in front of senators yesterday.

This morning's highlights include questions about Obamacare, whether cameras should be allowed during Supreme Court proceedings and whether the president of the United States can pardon himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): The president refused to follow what they have said, would that be a threat to our Constitution (INAUDIBLE)?

AMY CONEY BARRETT, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Well, as I've said, the Supreme Court can't control whether or not the president obeys.

LEAHY: Does a president have an absolute right to pardon himself for a crime? I mean, we heard this question after President Nixon's impeachment.

BARRETT: Senator Leahy, so far as I know, that question has never been litigated. So because it would be opining on an open question, when I haven't gone through the judicial process to decide it, it's not one on which I can offer a view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: During that exchange with Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Judge Barrett also said she believes no one, including the president, is above the law.

CNN's Manu Raju is following all this for us up on Capitol Hill and joins us now live. Manu, what is the most interesting part today and the biggest question? Has any of the math changed?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the math has not changed. And the Democrats have been frustrated by not being able to draw her views because oftentimes she has been resorting to a similar response that these are hypothetical legal questions. They could come before the court.

I can't weigh in on this unless a case were to come before me or a case could certainly come and I don't want to prejudice my view in any sort of way, so I'm not going to say one way or the other.

One of the things that again, Democrats tried to press her again today on was whether or not a president could unilaterally delay an election. Of course, the president himself has raised that possibility. Both sides have pushed back on that. But Amy Coney Barrett would not say whether or not the Constitution gives the president that authority.

It would just simply say even if it's an easy question, or hard question, I cannot answer unless I look at this more thoroughly or more closely in a legal case, similarly over the Affordable Care Act that has come up time and again. Her past criticism of the ruling from 2012 that upheld the Affordable Care Act. She has said that that was an academic exercise.

Now in the case before the Supreme Court, it would turn on a different legal issue so she does not want to weigh in one way or the other but she did acknowledge to Senator Patrick Leahy that she's never said anything positive about the Affordable Care Act. He asked her directly, have you ever said anything positive in any way about that law.

And she said, I really have not because it's never been a policy question presented before me. So, that would be the - sort of something Democrats would point out but other than that, not a whole lot that Democrats have been able to glean that could change the math and ensure her confirmation before Election Day, John.

KING: And Manu, you mentioned the election right there. One of the things you've been trying to track while you're keeping tracks of the hearing, is there some vulnerable Republicans senators hoping that this confirmation battle gets them out from under the president's drag right now? Walk us through that.

RAJU: Yes, no question about it. A number of Republicans are feeling the pressure from the president's eroding poll numbers, particularly in their states have been getting tighter and tighter. And one of the ways they hope can turn things around is Amy Coney Barrett's nomination, hoping they can give him a boost with conservative voters, Lindsey Graham in particular.

The chairman of this committee, virtually everywhere he goes, John, he mentions her name and mentions the Supreme Court fight, mentions he's leading the charge. That he's trying push for money, push to get voters to get behind him as his race is a dead heat, like so many other senator races are at the moment, John.

KING: Manu Raju, very important, there on Capitol Hill. Appreciate the live report.

Let's shift now to the other side of the Capitol. The House side where the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi clearly frustrated by criticism, she should be willing to compromise more to get a new coronavirus stimulus deal. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Pelosi says, the White House is fully to blame for this impasse.

She calls its $1.8 trillion proposal far short of what is needed to help families and businesses. But there are Democrats, particularly those facing tough reelection battles who want a deal. Despite that pressure though, listen to the speaker. She is not budging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": There are millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, they can't pay their rent, their kids need the food -

(CROSSTALK)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): That's right. And that's what we're trying to get done.

BLITZER: $1.8 trillion...

It's about millions of Americans who can't put food on the table, who can't pay the rent, who were having trouble -

PELOSI: And we represent them. And we represent them.

BLITZER: -- who are troubled...

PELOSI: And we represent them.

BLITZER: I see them on the street begging for food, begging for money. Madam Speaker, thank you so much.

PELOSI: Have you fed them? We feed them, we feed them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Spokesperson for the speaker says she did speak this morning with the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the phone. Spokesman says that call was productive and that they will speak again tomorrow.

Joining me now to discuss, is "TIME's" Molly Ball.