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Biden Holds Rally In North Carolinas 16 Days Before Election Day; Trump Tries To Recreate 2016 Atmosphere In Final Push To Election Day; Ten States Report Highest Number Of New COVID Cases On Friday; More Than 21 Million Votes Cast In 45 States And D.C.; Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Sets 48-Hour Deadline For Stimulus Deal; Critical California Homeless Crisis Made Worse By Pandemic. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired October 18, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:19]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Sixteen days now before election day and the candidates are stumping this weekend. Democratic nominee Joe Biden right now in Durham, North Carolina. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'll tell you why, for real. I'll tell you why. It's about wiping Obamacare off the books. That's what it's about, because their nominee has said in the past the law should be struck down.

If they get their way, 100 million Americans will lose their protections for pre-existing conditions, complication of COVID-19, over 7 million people infected will become the next preexisting condition, allowing insurers to jack up your premiums or deny your coverage all together. And women will again be charged more for their health just because they are women.

Folks, we can do so much better. I will build on the Affordable Care Act so you can keep your private insurance. You can choose the Medicare-like option. We're going to increase subsidies and lower your premiums for the doctor for out-of-pocket spending.

Look your governor has been working hard to expand Medicaid. But it's being blocked by Republican legislature.

My plan will automatically enroll 357,000 uninsured North Carolinians in a public option for free, automatically. It's going to make a life changing difference for so many families.

We can only do any of this if we come together as a country. We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in this country. The spirit of being able to work with one another.

When I say that, and I've said that from the moment I announced, I'm told well, that maybe you used to be able do that, Joe. That was your reputation in the Senate and Vice President but things have changed. They don't work that way anymore.

Well, I'm here to tell you, they can, they will and they must if we're going to get anything done in America.

Folks, I'm running as a proud Democrat. But I will -- I -- are govern as an American president. No red states, no blue states, just the United States.

I promise you, I'll work as hard for those who don't support me as those who did. That's the job of a president, a duty to care, to care for everyone in America.

Folks, and you too have a sacred duty to vote and it matters. North Carolina matters. And Senator Harris and I are asking you for your trust and support.

we'll always have your back, I promise you. So please. vote and help get out the vote. Go to IWillVote.com/NC. Early voting started on Thursday. We've got to keep the incredible momentum going. We can't let up. You can vote early in-person until the 31st.

But don't wait. Go vote today and don't just votes for me and Senator Harris. You've got a governor's race, a Senate race, a record number of black women on the ballot, Congress, lieutenant governor, labor commissioner and the courts.

Folks, they're ready to deliver for the North Carolina families, so vote. Vote. It's time. It really is time. when I announced my candidacy -- I hadn't planned on running again, to be very blunt. And I've said it before. My son had just died and I had no interest.

And then I saw those folks come out (INAUDIBLE) in Charlottesville, carrying torches. Close your eyes, and remember what it looked like. Their veins bulging, shouting anti-Semitic bile, the same bile that was shouted in the streets of Germany in the 30s, carrying Nazi flags accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan. And a young woman was killed in the protest in the opposite direction.

And when asked for comment, this president said something no other president has ever said in the history of the United States of America. He said there were very fine people on both sides. Very fine people.

[14:04:51]

BIDEN: Folks, I mean it when I say this. It's time to restore America's soul. It's time to rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class. And this time bring everybody along, no matter your race, your age, your religion, your gender and ethnicity or disability.

We can do this.

The blinders have been taken off the American people. They've seen what's happening. It's time to unite America. Look, I'll never forget what President Kennedy said when I was a kid

and that we're going to the moon. Every kid in school had to hear his speech. He used the line in that speech, my senate colleagues and in the White House heard me use all the time.

He made the most impression on me, he asked the unasked question. Why are we doing this? His response was, he said, because we refuse to postpone. This is America. We refuse to postpone America's work. It must be done.

There is nothing beyond our capacity. We have never, never, never, never failed. There's no limit on our future. The only thing that can tear America apart is America itself.

Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. So let's get to know who we are. We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. Science over fiction. And yes, we choose truth over lies.

So folks, it's time to stand up. Stand up and take back our democracy. No more time left.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. 16 days now before the last day of election. With all of the millions who are taking advantage of the early voting you see Democratic nominee Joe Biden there at a drive-in rally there in Durham, North Carolina talking about health care, and then expressing and reminding people about the moment that inspired him and around Charlottesville rally, white supremacy, rally there -- that was the inspiration for him getting into the race.

He said he had no intention of running for presidency but that was the moment that inspired him to do so.

And quite the contrast there of the social distancing in contrast to President Trump at a really yesterday in Michigan -- this very packed- in rally that he continues to carry out.

Arlette Saenz traveling with Joe Biden at that rally in Durham, North Carolina. So it looked people were pretty fired up with the horns honking. What was the goal?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, Joe Biden is here in North Carolina, as in-person early voting is under way in the state and he is simply tries to get his supporters out to vote, encouraging them to make a plan to vote in these final weeks before the election.

And you heard Joe Biden really keep his focus on the coronavirus pandemic at the start of the speech, again hammering away at the president for his response, criticizing some of his recent comments suggesting that coronavirus was about to turn the corner in this country.

And you also heard Biden hone in on the issue of health care. That is something that we expect the former vice president to really hit several times over the course of the next few weeks, as the campaign really believe that health care touches many facets, the through-line for this campaign as many people right now are dependent on health care due to the coronavirus pandemic and they believe that healthcare and, in expanding and protecting the Affordable Care Act, can be a winning argument for that.

Now you also heard Biden talk about the need for bipartisanship. That is something that he stressed over the course of the campaign. And something he is trying to do more of that he is trying argue that the nation doesn't need to be so divisive in these times to get things done.

Now, Biden is here in North Carolina, this critical battleground state. Tomorrow, we will actually see Kamala Harris back out on the campaign trail. She'll be traveling down to Florida.

This comes after she had suspended some of her campaign travel after some members of her team had tested positive for coronavirus. But tomorrow she'll be traveling down to Florida as both of these candidates are trying to get out that vote in these final 16 days of the election.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much. We'll check back with you. Appreciate it.

All right. So with the elections happening in a little more than two weeks -- we should say the final day of voting -- all of that combined with the coronavirus pandemic surging across the country, signs of growing desperation now from President Donald J. Trump. As many states consider another lockdown, the president threatened to lock up his political opponents, doubling down on his attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was the target of a plot by domestic terrorists to kidnap and kill her.

[14:09:58]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You've got to get your governor to open up your state, ok? And get your schools open. Get your schools open. The schools have to be open, right.

Lock them all up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Today the president's campaign telling CNN the attacks on Whitmer were just Trump having some fun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARA TRUMP, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: He wasn't doing anything, I don't think, to provoke people to threaten this woman at all. He was having fun at a Trump rally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Kevin Liptak is in Las Vegas, where the president attended a church service today and will hold a rally later on in another part of the state.

So Kevin, how is Whitmer responding to the president's attacks?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, she's basically saying the President is fanning the flames of domestic terrorism.

And Fredricka, I was at that rally last night is Muskegon, Michigan. That was by far the loudest, most vitriolic reaction to anything the president said in that 90-minute rally. Of course, the president has made his views of Gretchen Whitmer known over the past several months. He's called a dictator, and he did nothing tamp down on this "lock her up" chant. He sort of paused, basked in it for a while and said lock them all up.

Now Gretchen Whitmer was on NBC this morning responding. Listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR GRETCHEN WHITMER (D), MICHIGAN: You know, it's incredibly disturbing that the president of the United States, ten days after a plot to kidnap, put me on trial and execute me, ten days after that was uncovered, the president is at it again, and inspiring and incentivizing, and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism. It is wrong. It's got to end.

It is dangerous, not just for me and my family, but for public servants everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now that sentiment was echoed by Whitmer's digital director who wrote on Twitter that every time the president does this sort of rally, the violent rhetoric towards the governor escalates on social media.

Now, of course, the lock her up chant is nothing new at a Trump rally. He's used it -- or his crowds have used it against Hillary Clinton, against Joe Biden.

What is different this time is that plot uncovered by the FBI earlier this month by militia members to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. They were dissatisfied by her coronavirus lockdown orders. In the past the president has fanned some of those sentiments, he's tweeted out in all caps "Liberate Michigan".

When armed protesters stormed the state capitol on Lansing in the spring, he backed them as well, saying that Whitmer should talk to them and negotiate them.

Now the president made only passing mention of that plot last night in his rally. He seemed to tone it down a little bit, minimize it somewhat saying I guess they say she was threatened, and saying that instead the FBI should be looking at Antifa, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So Kevin, let's take a look at another example of how the president appears to be using some of the same methods that he used in the 2016 campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Biden family is a criminal enterprise.

Hillary Clinton is the ringleader of a criminal enterprise.

They're going to release 400,000 criminals onto your streets and into your neighborhoods if Crazy Joe becomes president.

This is Hillary Clinton's agenda, too, to release the violent criminals from jail. She wants them all released.

Lock them all up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So the president clearly believes that's a winning strategy. It may have worked for him in 2016, but can it, will it in 2020?

LIPTAK: Well, that's the big open question. And what we're hearing from advisers is that the president is digging into the strategy that he thinks worked four years ago. He's trying to recreate some of the atmospherics around his first campaign for president. He's assembled the same group of aides. He's trying to go on that same breakneck pace of rallies around the country despite the coronavirus.

But what we're hearing from Republicans is there's deep concern. The political calculus has totally changed since then. For one the president is the incumbent. He carries all of the responsibilities and burden that a sitting president does.

And the second is we're in a middle of a public health crisis that many Americans say in polls, the president has mishandled.

Now today, the president is going to Orange County. He's just left here in Las Vegas to raise campaign cash. The last fundraising report from his campaign showed him far and well behind Joe Biden.

He's also planning a campaign rally in Carson City later this afternoon. This morning he attended a church service here in Las Vegas. What we saw there was ample praise from the pastors on stage, saying that he was doing a great job.

[14:14:55]

LIPTAK: But in the crowd, the crowd was not socially distanced. It was an indoor service, and masks there were somewhat hit or miss, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much. Keep us posted. We'll check back with you. All right. Let's talk further now. Joining me right now CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston. You know, we'll talk about the elections in a moment but first, you know, the Trump campaign and RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel are defending President Trump's attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer just days after authorities foiled, you know, that plot by extremists to kidnap here. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. TRUMP: Look this is -- he wasn't doing anything, I don't think, to provoke people to threaten this woman at all. He was having fun at a Trump really and quite frankly, there are bigger issues than this. Right now for everyday Americans people want to get the country reopened. They want to get back to work.

RONNA MCDANIEL, RNC CHAIRMAN: The president and his FBI foiled this plot. And I think that Governor Whitmer is really inappropriate to try and labeling that the president -- these were sick individuals.

JASON MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: The fact of the matter is people in Michigan want to get their state opened back up. They feel that it's been way too heavy of a hand. It's hurting their economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Defending and deflecting, how is that helpful to the president?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well look, I mean it's helpful to the president in the sense that if they can try to convince anybody to believe them and not the president, then it's a victory for them.

It's just an incredibly hard position for any of the president's defenders right when they go up because they have to defend the indefensible.

You know, we talk about this in political terms, and of course, you know we're just a couple of weeks away from the election.

But when you look at it in moral terms is really what the president's biggest problem is right now, right? I mean the morality that we would go out and continue to incite violence in the way of rhetoric, and who knows who he could have incited at that rally last night or beyond, at a time when the FBI is putting people behind bars, because it was a credible threat to kidnap her and probably kill her.

So look, I do think that Trump's biggest problem right now, Fred, is his likability, his empathy and his ability to try to connect with everyday people. And what he's doing right now is not helping.

WHITFIELD: And you know, the governor is putting, you know, a very confident face on. You know, she says she and her family continue to be threatened. And you know, it's shocking that the president would be, you know, potentially fanning the flames. So here we are in the homestretch of this 2020 election, what will the next couple of weeks look like. We have a debate coming up, you've had these the rallies for the president, you know people are packed in. you see, we just saw, the drive-in rally of the vice president.

Really have people not made up their minds? Or at most, really made up their minds, it's just an issue of getting to the polls?

PRESTON: You know, I think heading into this election, it's more likely that more people have made up their minds than we have in the past, and that's because of the polarization that we have seen on both sides, quite frankly.

So we have both camps that are firmly entrenched. But I do think that the sway voters, these Independents, these Reagan Catholic voters -- you know, we used to call them out in the Midwest where Democrats who became Republicans tend to be a little bit more conservative, I do think that the way that the president is carrying himself and acting right now is extremely detrimental to trying to get those folks to support him.

I don't think he's going to change. I think he's going to be even worse. And I think what we just saw at the top of this hour where you've had Joe Biden going out there talking about coming together, and empathy and we're all one, is really the two contrasting images and messages that we're going to head into these final weeks and certainly the final days of the election.

WHITFIELD: Earlier today, Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor and Trump supporter, who also helped prepare the president for his debate, said he gave the president this advice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: The president should be focused on the economic message. I think almost exclusively because that's where he has the greatest credibility.

As you'll remember, on this show we talked about the memo I sent to the president over 110 days ago now, where I said if you run the campaign, you ran the 2016 in 2020, it's not going to be a winning campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Uh-oh. Because doesn't it appear as though this is very much like the 2016 campaign?

PRESTON: Very much so. And look, I mean if we -- if we look at where we are right now, and if we're to peel back what's happened the past six or seven months that COVID had never happened, ok? That we were moving along, Donald Trump would be in a very good position right now to win reelection, potentially would be ahead in the polls.

We may have seen something a little bit different in the primary but likely would have been against Joe Biden. But the way that the stock market is continuing to perform during this COVID is the same race, and that's where Chris Christie is right about Donald Trump.

It's just that he can't stay on message and he has no empathy and that's what's going to hurt him.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mark Preston, thanks so much.

PRESTON: Thanks, Fred.

[14:19:59]

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, falsehoods and flat-out wrong information from a member of the White House task force undermining the importance of masks. CNN fact-checks Dr. Scott Atlas.

Plus a little movement in the fight to get financial help to struggling Americans. House speaker Pelosi signaling the Democrats and the White House must reach a deal in the next 48 hours. Will that happen?

And Americans desperate for help are now living in storage containers, as the pandemic rips away their livelihoods. We'll take you there live.

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[11:24:40]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

An ominous benchmark in the spread of the coronavirus. Ten states reported their highest single-day tallies of new COVID-19 infections Friday. The U.S. reported its highest one-day total since July, this as experts warn a dangerous fall surge is under way.

I want to hear now from a medical doctor on this. Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist and executive associate dean of Emory University Medical School. Always good to see you, Doctor.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL: Great to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So in your view, what may be behind this one-day, you know, record that is being broken in ten states.

DR. DEL RIO: Well, Fred, this has been brewing up for several days and I think we know several things. Number one, people have a little bit of pandemic fatigue so they're not as good as they should be in, you know, doing wearing a mask and socially distancing.

We're also seeing a lot people at gatherings. And CDC has told that a lot of corona outbreaks is due to people gathering in homes and in other places, restaurants, et cetera.

And finally I think there's a component of simply thinking that this is over when it really isn't over. And I think, you know, having seen the president recover so quickly, I think people say, well this is no big deal. We're going to get over.

And they're forgetting the several hundreds of people are dying still every day from this disease and therefore we're beginning to see an increase and I'm very concerned about it.

WHITFIELD: And it's not just the president, right, you know, recovering quickly but he was seen, you know, getting on board aircraft with Hope Hicks, who had tested positive, you know, among others. So perhaps a signal is being sent that really it's no big deal. And that's what the president kind of wants, you know.

Meantime, Twitter, you know, has removed a tweet from the president's coronavirus adviser, Scott Atlas tweeted that masks don't work. I mean this is the voice the president most closely listens to. Twitter took down the tweet, but Atlas still has Trump's ear.

And then there were people at the Trump rally yesterday in Michigan saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you wearing a mask today?

DAVID DUDENHOFFER, ATTENDED TRUMP RALLY: I'm going as-is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not?

DUDENHOFFER: I'm not going to wear a mask.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not.

DUDENHOFFER: No, I'm good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not.

DUDENHOFFER: I'm good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?

DUDENHOFER: You know, I'm not buying into this theory that, you know, that the virus is out there and it's going to grab all of us. I think that we've seen that there are so many people who are not affected by this at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there is science behind it, I would use it more, but the science is very sketchy with the masks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So this might be an uphill battle, you know, particularly when you're dealing with, you know, is it a pretty sizeable segment of the populace who say it doesn't matter.

DR. DEL RIO: Absolutely, I agree. And I think first of all, let me just say, that I congratulate Governor Christie, who had a very tough time. He was a week in the ICU but he's come out saying please wear a mask, I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. This is important.

And I really think that's the message we need. This is not a partisan issue. This is a public health issue. The most important thing you can do is not to get infected.

And again, I go with the science. The science of the value of masks is pretty clear. We know how this virus is transmitted. And we know very clearly if people are wearing masks. If we could get 95 percent of the population wearing masks, first of all we can stop transmission of this virus but second we can probably decrease the number of deaths that are going to occur over the next 60 to 90 days by about 100,000. That's not trivial. That really isn't trivial

WHITFIELD: It's at nine months now, and you know -- an argument is still being made about the importance of wearing masks. Is it your feeling that, you're not going to be able to convince everybody, uniformly about its importance.

DR. DEL RIO: I think you're absolutely right. I think we need -- you know, again, it took a long time to get people to wear seat belts. I think we need an ideal strategy. I think we need mandates, but I also think we need enforcement. And finally we need peer pressure.

Remember, seat belts initially were just as dismissed as masks are today. And now nobody gets in a car without wearing a seat belt.

So I think it may take some time. What I worry about is the number of people that are going to get infected and going to die during that time.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Carlos del Rio, always good to see you. Thank you so much. Be well.

DR. DEL RIO: Good seeing you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Next, voters turning out on a Sunday to cast their ballots.

Natasha Chen joins us live from Atlanta with more.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, yesterday alone more than 60,000 Georgians cast ballots in person across the state shattering records, continuing to shatter records compared to this point in the 2016 election.

So coming up, we'll talk to some voters about how they had a much easier time voting today, compared to many experiences yesterday.

[14:29:22]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Voters continue to flock to the polls in record numbers. More than 21 million Americans have already voted. Georgia is one of the states seeing a record turnout for early voting. Natasha Chen is in Atlanta for us. So, Natasha, what are you seeing on a Sunday, no less?

CHEN: Exactly, Fred, on a Sunday. A lot of people didn't actually know that some locations are open on Sunday for voting, which is one of the maybe we're not seeing a line at all at this Buckhead location.

But we are seeing that just based on yesterday's voting numbers that the record continues to be shattered. We're talking about more than 60,000 people across the state of Georgia who cast their ballots in person yesterday alone.

And when you combine all of the early votes, plus all of the absentee ballots that have come in so far, that is a 149 percent increase compared to this point in the election in 2016, both six days into these elections, comparing 2016 with this year, 149 percent higher, incredible.

And so we did talk to some people who had a very easy time coming in and out of this location within just a few minutes talking to them about why they felt it was so important for them to be here to make sure their vote was cast.

[14:35:00]

Here is what one voter said to us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm an African-American. So it's -- there are a lot of people who paid a lot of dues for us to be out and be able to come out and vote like this. So it is a matter of respect but also -- and being able to manage the process and have some say-so in the process and have some say-so in the decisions that are being made, on my behalf as well as other people's behalves.

So, it's important that I come out and it's great to see the turnout too though, just the enthusiasm for at least expressing your opinion and having a vote, and having a chance to impact the direction we're going in in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And some of the people we've talked to who have waited in long lines for early voting tell me that they chose to do that and they didn't mind waiting because they really just didn't trust that mailing a ballot back would actually guarantee that vote being counted. They just wanted to make sure they could touch the screen of the machine and see that sign across the screen that said their vote had been cast. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Natasha Chen, thank you so much.

All right, coming up, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demands a deal within 48 hours with the White House to assist the millions of Americans struggling. Can they work it out before her deadline?

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[14:40:00]

WHITFIELD: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin must reach an agreement within 48 hours if they want to pass a coronavirus stimulus relief bill before Election Day, November 3rd. She told ABC this morning that if an agreement is to be done, then both sides need to stick with a framework.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're saying to them, we have to freeze the design on some of these things, are we going with it or not, and what is the language? I'm optimistic, because, again, we've been back and forth on all of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Democrats have been pushing for a relief bill worth more than $2 trillion and are far apart with Republicans on how much money is needed and how it should be spent.

Last week on CNN, Speaker Pelosi responded to criticism from within her own party who complained about a lack of transparency and urgency in the negotiations. Here is an exchange with Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: Honest to God, I can't get over it, because Andrew Yang, he's lovely, Ro Khanna, he's lovely. They are not negotiating this situation. They have no idea of the particulars. They have no idea of what the language is here.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Madam Speaker, I certainly respect you, but I also respect Ro Khanna, I respect Andrew Yang, I respect members of the Democrats, who are members of the problem solvers, they want a deal, because so many people right now are suffering.

PELOSI: Well, the problem solvers, by the way, don't have any earned income tax credit or (INAUDIBLE) tax credit in their proposal either, but let's not go into that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he is moving ahead with votes on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week on stimulus measures, including a standalone paycheck protection program.

I want to bring in now Diane Swonk, she is Chief Economist at Grant Thornton and adviser to the Federal Reserve. Diane, good to see you.

All right, so what do you think needs to be in this stimulus plan?

DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, GRANT THORNTON: Well, we know now that the effective bang for the dollar is help and aid households, supplements in those unemployment insurance checks. We also know there needs to be money for testing and tracing and some aid for business. But more importantly, there needs to be money and transfers for the states. If we do not get transfers for the states, we know from the recession and subpar recovery that followed after '08 and '09 that we're going to see even longer time before we reach our previous peak in employment. You're going to see headwinds as layoffs at the state and local level compound. And that's something that's really important.

We know the paycheck protection plan, actually, we had less bang for the dollar than many had hoped, and, in fact, it's one of the reasons it wasn't fully subscribed. There's a little over $130 billion in the PPP that did not get used. It could be reallocated. We certainly like to see that money reallocated but reallocated in a way that small businesses can really stay afloat in these COVID-tainted waters.

WHITFIELD: And then when realistically can the stimulus plan come about? This was House Speaker Pelosi today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Are Americans going to get relief before Election Day?

PELOSI: Well, that depends on the administration. The fact is is that we cannot -- the heart of the matter is to stop the spread of the virus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So, elaborate further on what would happen, in your view, if no stimulus plan in the short-term?

SWONNK: My concern is that what we see in the economy is after a big third quarter, we're going to see more than 30 percent gains in the third quarter, after two quarters record losses. This big bounce back the U.S. economy could stall or worse, we could metastasize into a longer lasting, more traditional recession with more scarring for the labor market. And that really means pointblank, this is food insecurity, which is already at a record high.

By the beginning weeks of September, 10.5 percent of adults in the United States were reporting that they are living in households where they couldn't feed their families for an entire week. That's really startling. And that's up for May. So we're moving in the wrong direction at a time when supplements to unemployment insurance have already lapsed, and it's nonlinear.

And so what we worry about is how this can metastasize into something worse, much more scarring, much more long lasting with a shadow that COVID cast on our economy for some time to come. We may not be able to regain what we lost in jobs until we get well into 2024, 2025 if we do not get stimulus today.

[14:45:03]

WHITFIELD: That is hardship for a really long time. Diane Swonk, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

All right, straight ahead, Paul Vercammen reports on a creative solution to the homeless crisis.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred, shipping container homes. We talked to one parent of five children. He had been couch surfing, floor surfing, and this shipping container home just was a breath of fresh air. That's coming up. Stay with us.

WHITFIELD: Okay. And, first, are you looking for a socially distanced way to de-stress? In today's Staying Well, see how alone time in an isolation tank or float pool can do the trick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SAHIO KHALSA, LAUREATE INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN RESEARCH: There's about 2,000 pounds of Epsom salt in the water, more salt than the Dead Sea. The salt will do the work and it will keep you right at the top of the water.

Floating does seem to modulate body signals, so it lowers your blood pressure, eases muscle tension.

KADRA TOMILOV, FLOAT THERAPY CLIENT: It's work that I have done, I did experience of being calm.

KHALSA: We looked at individuals with anxiety disorders, eating disorders. And we found floating is safe for those individuals, and that we see a pretty strong short-term reduction in anxiety after people float.

TOMILOV: I think stress is what brings all the sicknesses in people. Having children, working, it's a lot to deal with. And when you nurture your body, you are doing something for yourself.

KHALSA: Certainly, we have a lot more information coming at us these days than we did, say, a hundred years ago, although the architecture hasn't fundamentally changed. I think there is a feeling from some people that there's a need to disconnect.

TOMILOV: It's not that scary. I mean, I'm a scared person. If I can do it, anybody can do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:50:00]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has Southern California's homeless crisis at critical levels. The situation is so dire, some people are now living in shipping container communities.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Newport Beach. Well, is this solution working? VERCAMMEN: Well, we're seeing now a groundswell. It's in its infancy. We know that there's a veterans facility here called Potter's Lane. That's a shipping container community. We're seeing it in other spots.

One thing that the key to Los Angeles is there's a social worker who lives in the container home and that social worker guides people through everything, from how to pay rent, to transportation, that sort of thing.

We met up with John Kilgore, a father in his early 60s, five children. They had been couch surfing, floor surfing, moving from friend's spot to friend's spot, and finally got a call from People Concern and FlyawayHomes. They are partners in a project, and they told him we have got the keys to your shipping container homes. He had suffered through bad times. But when he walked in, the family was ecstatic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KILGORE, SHIPPING CONTAINER HOME RESIDENT: We came in and, you know, it had been furnished and everything. We had everything we needed in there already. All we had to do is bring what little clothes we had. When we walked in there, their face lit up, and they were full of smiles and cheering. And they were just so happy to have you on the (INAUDIBLE), which made me happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where I live.

VERCAMMEN: And you like it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So that house has four bedrooms. It's made up of four containers. It has a bathroom and a kitchen. Many other projects are in the pipeline in Southern California. And FlyawayHomes has three in the pipeline, another under construction. So we're watching this closely to see if this is a solution.

What the advocates say is they can build these faster, they can get it through the design process more quickly, and these homes, these container homes are malleable. You can move them, and put them in odd- shaped lots. So we're going to watch and see if this ends up being a long-term solution, as they're experimenting through Southern California, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Wow, that's an amazing sign of the times. Paul Vercammen, thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, President Trump attacks the governor of Michigan. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell responds coming up live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:00] WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

With just 16 days until the election and the coronavirus pandemic surging across the country, signs of growing desperation from President Trump as many states consider another lockdown, the president continues to threaten lock up his political opponents, doubling down on his attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was the target of a plot by domestic terrorists to kidnap and kill her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You've got to get your governor to open up your state, okay? And get your schools open. Get your schools open. The schools have to be open, right?

Lock them all up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Despite the president's efforts to downplay the pandemic, the virus is soaring across the country. Ten states just recorded their highest single-day case counts. Trump held a big rally in one of those states yesterday where few in the Wisconsin wore masks and there was no social distancing. Joe Biden slamming the president's recklessness, accusing him of trying to, quote, wish the virus away.

[15:00:02]