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Obama: Conspiracies Will Outlast Trump as GOP Pretends Not to See; Backlash Against NBC over Dueling Trump-Biden Town Halls Tonight; Standoff: CA GOP Refuses to Remove Unofficial Ballot Drop Boxes; College Football Reckoning as Cases Soar Among Big Teams; U.S. Tennis Player Sam Querrey Accused of Fleeing Russia after Testing Positive for COVID. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 15, 2020 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:30:00]

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I think one of the biggest challenges all of us have -- this is not just progressives versus right-wing issue, this is really a genuine American society issue -- is, how do we reestablish some baselines of truth that at least the vast majority of people can agree to.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Joining me now is former FOX News chief political correspondent, Carl Cameron. He's currently the chief political correspondent for "Front Page Live."

Great to see you, Carl.

I wonder if you agree with former President Obama that this lives in the bloodstream beyond President Trump.

CARL CAMERON, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "FRONT PAGE LIVE": Sure it does. It has been made normal in a lot of parts of America to believe whatever the incoming conspiracy theory might be.

It's worth noting that Barack Obama was a firsthand victim of that when it was Donald Trump who created the Birtherism movement, suggesting that he wasn't an American-born citizen. That kind of thing is very real for Obama and Democrats.

It's important to remember that conspiracy theoryism is not new and not unique to Trump and to what happened to Barack Obama.

In the modern era, all of this stuff really kind of started with the Kennedy assassination and the attempts to find out what really happened. Americans, coast to coast, were inundated with conspiracy theories.

Then came Nixon. That wasn't a conspiracy theory. That was a conspiracy crime. And he actually left the office.

So this has been going on for a long time.

It is not the fault of free speech. It is the fault of vocabulary. Because too often people talk about the media and they lump in straight fact-based news with the media.

There's a huge difference between Facebook and QAnon and various different platforms online and organizations that work to tell the public the truth.

Fact-based news does exist. And unfortunately, the president has attempted to corrupt it by mixing it in with an awful lot of garbage on the Internet.

KEILAR: When you think about some of that, when you think about some of the media that's not fact-based, there's never any accountability.

Some things, say, pushed by FOX and the president is completely refuted, it's proven not to be truth.

Like you had unmasking. You had the president's Voter Fraud Commission haven't to do with the 2016 election. It doesn't find fraud, they just kind of move on to the next thing. But here it is in the bloodstream.

Is that the strategy, repeat, repeat, repeat, no accountability, just move on?

CAMERON: Sure. But we can't just blame Trump for things that he says that aren't true, or the conspiracies that he concocts in order to take down an opponent.

He's had help. He's had help from members of the U.S. Senate. He's had help from the Republican Congress, the Republicans in Congress. He's had help from Republican governors and Republican operatives all over the country.

He has been saying forever that Obama-gate or the unmasking was going to be the biggest scandal of the century, bigger than anything the country has ever had. That has now been dismissed. It's gone.

So those Senators, those House members, those Republican officeholders, who bought into the conspiracy theory, a false conspiracy, one that didn't ever exist, they have a lot to answer for.

The news has a responsibility to talk about the falsehoods that politicians talk about on both sides.

The media has become so bifurcated, such a Wild, Wild West, that it can often shout down facts. That's part of the problem.

And American voters going to polls need to be discerning. Don't just buy into the stuff your family and friends send you to on Facebook. That isn't necessarily the news. It might be entertaining, but it isn't going to be educating for a good vote.

KEILAR: Tonight, we have some dueling town halls. Are they going to be educating? CAMERON: Right.

KEILAR: We'll see, right? You have Trump on NBC. Biden is on ABC.

Do you think NBC deserves the backlash it's been getting for giving Trump a platform right opposite Joe Biden at the same time when he refused to debate Joe Biden as scheduled?

CAMERON: Well, I don't understand the inside workings of either of those two networks.

The fact of the matter is the president refused to take part in a bipartisan commission that's been around for almost half a century.

And had said, look, we'll have a town hall meeting, but it will be virtual because of coronavirus. That's just good health regulation at this point. Trump said absolutely not.

[14:35:03]

So, OK, then one network says, OK, then we'll give a town hall meeting with just Biden.

It seems to me, now that they're both at the same time, those two networks ought to basically say, for the good of the country, they'll mesh the two together and make Trump and Biden talk to each other across networks.

Of course, that's ridiculous and it's not going to happen.

KEILAR: Yes.

CAMERON: But that's -- what should have happened was the debate. The one that refused to do it was Trump, not Biden.

KEILAR: Carl, you'll remember back to the primaries in 2016, Trump skipped a debate, a Republican debate in Iowa. And he actually paid for it, right? That didn't go his way in the end. He had a big veterans event. But, in the end, it wasn't good news for him.

I wonder what you think the outcome will be this time. Is it going to cost him or this -- will this actually benefit him that he's not going to be debating?

CAMERON: Well, that kind of depends on the questions that come from the town hall.

If a well-spoken Democrat gets a question for Trump, and he doesn't like it, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Chances are in a well-spoken Republican gives Biden a question, he'll give him a straight answer. The Republican may not like it.

But it's not likely to be the kind of thing we have learned and seen from Trump over the course of the last four years.

This is a really strange turn of events. And it's unfortunate the news operations are sort of caught in the middle of it.

We should be having debates. We should be having a conversation about the possible instead of trying to break down the institutions and the norms of what the American election has been in the past.

The fact that we have ballot issue questions and that Trump is saying that the whole thing will be a mess, it's never been like that. There's no evidence in our history of the kind of stuff that he's talking about.

He's making the election sound like a conspiracy theory.

KEILAR: Carl, thank you so much for joining us. It's great to talk to you.

CAMERON: Thanks, Brianna. Hope we get in contact soon.

KEILAR: All right, we will.

Bye, Carl.

Still ahead, Alabama's head football coach tests positive for coronavirus, but the team is still set to play this Saturday.

Plus, an American tennis player is accused of going into hiding after testing positive for coronavirus while in Russia. We'll have details on his escape by private jet next.

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[14:41:23]

KEILAR: The California Republican Party is defending its use of unofficial ballot drop boxes.

I want to show you exactly what I'm talking about here. You have, on the left, pictures of official ballot drop boxes. Then, on the right, unofficial ballot boxes, which has been found in at least four counties.

State officials calling the unauthorized boxes, quote, "illegal."

The California GOP is accepting responsibility. Yes, indeed, they are putting out the boxes, but they say they don't have plans to stop.

They're going to remove the word "official" from the side of the boxes, they say, but they will keep using them, blatantly disregarding the cease-and-desist order from the state.

They have this to say in response to California's secretary of state, quote, "The program you now falsely claim to be illegal is a perfect example of what you proudly stated to be permissible just last year."

I'm joined by CNN election law analyst, Jonathan Diaz.

Jonathan, the GOP in California says it's not going to comply with the cease-and-desist order.

How does it play out? And what happened to the ballots that go into the unofficial ballot boxes?

JONATHAN DIAZ, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: So it's unclear what is going to happen to these ballots that go into unofficial ballot boxes.

And that's the problem that California election officials are trying to address by directing the California GOP to cease and desist their use of these boxes.

There's two sets of California election laws at play here. Number one is the ballot drop boxes, which, in California, only election officials are authorized to establish and maintain.

That way they can be sure that ballots deposited in the boxes make their way into election offices and are counted on Election Day.

The other set of laws has to do with ballot collection.

In California, a voter is allowed to designate another person to deliver collect and return their ballot for them, whether it's a relative, neighbor or a political party or a campaign volunteer.

But it has to be one specific person. That person has to give their name, their signature, and their relationship to the voter.

And so, if the California Republican Party wanted to have its volunteers or campaign workers collect ballots on behalf of Republican voters, they can do that. But it needs to be a person-to-person connection.

They can't just set up a drop box the same way that an election office can and have voters deposit them in without having them designate a specific individual to turn in their ballot for them.

KEILAR: That seems so obvious. So what is the objective here on the part of the state party, of the California Republican Party?

DIAZ: I don't want to speculate as to what their motives are. But California is a universal vote-by-mail state. Every California voters gets their ballot in the mail.

So it makes sense that the California Republican Party would want to encourage its voters to turn in their mail ballots.

But it's the way they're going about it that's causing problems. They should be encouraging voters to deposit their ballots in the drop boxes that are maintained by California election officials.

Or they should have, you know, individual volunteers or campaign members reaching out to voters, contacting them on a one-by-one basis to get the proper authorization to collect these ballots.

I'll note that the Republican Party has taken a very different approach to drop boxes in other states. They are currently engaged in litigation in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, and

in Texas, to try to limit the official use of drop boxes by election officials.

And so the disconnect here is pretty stark.

[14:45:03]

KEILAR: Yes, it definitely is.

Jonathan, thanks so much for making that clear. Jonathan Diaz, we appreciate it.

DIAZ: Thank you.

KEILAR: Be sure to watch "CNN TONIGHT" with Don Lemon. Vice presidential candidate, Senator Kamala Harris, will be Don's guest. That will start at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Next, college football's reckoning as outbreaks soar among teams. The latest positive result is Alabama's head football coach. And my next guest says this was all utterly predictable.

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[14:49:58]

KEILAR: College football is facing a reckoning as coronavirus hits the SEC in a big way. Alabama head coach, Nick Saban, and the school's athletic director among those who tested positive for the virus.

The same goes for 21 Florida players now forcing the conference to delay the game against rival, LSU.

Before that, the Vanderbilt and Missouri game was postponed because of positive COVID tests and the subsequent quarantining of players.

With me now is Christine Brennan, CNN sports analyst and sports columnist at "USA Today."

Christine, it is great to see you. It's terrible to have to talk about what's going on here.

You wrote, quote, "This was utterly predictable. And what's happening is utterly shameful."

Did arrogance lead to this moment, in your opinion?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Absolutely, Brianna. Arrogance.

And, among a lot of college football coaches and players -- this has been true for decades because I've covered this sport a long time -- there's a sense you can never show weakness. You can never have anything other than this grand, grand confidence.

And it's a big-shouldered sport. We love it. I love college football. I grew up watching it in Toledo and the University of Michigan.

But that is certainly right now the problem. The sense that college football can take on COVID.

We know that just is not the case, that college football is going to have a difficult time handling COVID-19. You knew it when they decided to play college football, frankly. And now we see it in a bigger way, Brianna.

Frankly, this is the riskiest roll of the dice we've ever seen in college life, frankly, not just college sports.

And 18 to 22 years old being used as props so these colleges can make money and people can be entertain, which is great. But at what cost?

And now we're starting to see the price in terms of cancellations. There are postponements of games.

Obviously, the biggest name in the sport, Nick Saban, 68-year-old coach at Alabama, now has said he's COVID positive. Although, he says, thankfully, he is exhibiting no symptoms at this time.

KEILAR: At this time. And certainly, he'll be keeping an eye on that and those around him will be as well as the days go on here.

Do you think the Big-10 had it right early on, even though they gave in?

BRENNAN: I do. I absolutely do.

The Big-10 made the decision back in August not to play football and the Pac-12 followed suit.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Brianna, back in June, June 18th, said that to have football he thought it would have to be played in a bubble.

There's no bubblizing these on college campuses. And there's no in NFL football either. But Fauci knew what he was talking about once again.

So the Big-10 used -- relied on science. And the great minds of those wonderful Big-10 schools made a decision not to play. And a month later, they caved.

It was basically FOMO, "fear of missing out," as they saw Notre Dame and other schools starting to play. And they caved. They totally caved.

Shocked me. I'm -- full disclosure, I'm on the board, the 64-person board of trustees at Northwestern, my alma mater. I had nothing to do with the decisions being made in this area.

Now the Big-10 is getting ready to play next week, as is the Pac-12.

I think they would have looked really smart if they were sitting here today still not playing this game. Again, not because we don't want college football. It's because it's just not safe. It's not just the players, Brianna. It's also stadium workers. It's

the janitors.

It's the janitors who go home to their families that will be in those stadiums and those facilities because the Big-10 presidents, as well as other presidents of universities, have decided they are going to play football.

KEILAR: FOMO is real, as you say, Christine, is real, but the risks are so huge.

Christine, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it.

BRENNAN: Thank you, Brianna. Thank you.

KEILAR: President Trump is making a pit stop in North Carolina on his way to the NBC town hall. And he's taking the opportunity to try to drag Dr. Anthony Fauci into politics again, something that he has repeatedly said he doesn't want to be involved in.

[14:54:02]

Plus, an American tennis player is accused of fleeing Russia in a private jet after testing positive before a tournament there. We're going to explain why.

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KEILAR: An American tennis player now in hiding after fleeing Russia on a private jet after testing positive.

Fred Pleitgen is following this from Moscow.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're talking about Sam Querrey, from California, who is very well known for an extremely powerful first serve and lots of aces.

He was supposed to play at this tournament in St. Petersburg in Russia. However, a day before the tournament was supposed to start, he and his wife tested positive for COVID-19.

The organizers then say they put Querrey and his family into self- isolation in the hotel. But when doctors wanted to visit the family, he refused to open the door.

They were also supposed to get tested again for the novel coronavirus on October 15th but they weren't there anymore.

Surveillance cameras in the hotel showed that they all left the hotel in the very early morning hours of October 13th.

And later, apparently, Querrey told the ATP that he had left Russia with his family on a private plane. And now, no one really knows where he is.

We tried to reach out to Querrey's representatives, however, they have not gotten back to us.

[14:59:57]

And the ATP has acknowledged that this incident happened. And they called on all players to provide by coronavirus protocols or risk jeopardizing these tournaments being carried out -- Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Fred, thank you for that.