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Trump Versus Biden In Rural Pennsylvania; Biden Leads In Polls, Warns Against Complacency; Ten U.S. States Break COVID-19 Records; Italy Reports Record New Cases As Second Wave Grips Europe; French Cities Under Nighttime Curfew; French Prosecutor Releases New Details On Paris Attack; New Zealand Rugby's Win Against COVID-19; Women's March Focus: Protest Trump And Get Voters To Polls. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired October 18, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The president rallies as COVID spikes. Both battleground states he visited Saturday are seeing rising cases. But Donald Trump hardly mentioned the pandemic.
Millions of Americans already have made up their minds and cast their ballots. We'll look at what record setting early voting numbers mean for the election.
And later, what pandemic?
New Zealand enables 46,000 rugby fans to watch the All Blacks with no masks or social distancing.
Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Anna Coren. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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COREN: Almost 14 million cases of COVID-19 have now been documented worldwide since the pandemic began. The virus is spreading unchecked almost everywhere. The global map is glowing with hot spots from the U.K. to Japan. We'll have the latest from Europe just ahead.
No country has been hit harder than the United States. It only has a fraction of the world's population yet it accounts for one-fifth of all COVID infections and deaths. At least 10 states are reporting record numbers of new cases.
That includes Michigan and Wisconsin. U.S. president Donald Trump held packed rallies in both states Saturday. Precautions such as masks and social distancing were largely ignored.
Addressing the severity of the health crisis was not on the president's agenda. Instead, he continued to attack Michigan's governor for trying to shield her state from the virus. His words incited an ugly reaction. Take a listen.
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TRUMP: Get your schools open. The schools have to be open. Right?
Lock them all up.
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COREN: The FBI says Whitmer was recently the target of a foiled kidnapping plot. She posted this reaction to the president on Twitter.
"This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials' lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans. It needs to stop."
One factor pushing President Trump to hold the rallies is the poor poll numbers ahead of the election. We get more from Joe Johns in Muskegon, Michigan.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The president in Muskegon, Michigan, a battleground state he narrowly won in 2016 for another Make America Great Again rally on an airport tarmac with a packed audience.
This is a state where the president has a running feud with the governor over coronavirus restrictions. But here, there was not an overwhelming number of people wearing masks. And there was relatively no social distancing. People were packed in here like sardines.
This state does not have a good record right now on coronavirus. In fact, on Friday 2,000 new cases were reported by the state and, on Saturday, about 1,800. So far Michigan has not turned the corner on the pandemic -- Joe Johns, CNN, Muskegon, Michigan.
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COREN: Although Joe Biden has a significant lead in most polls, his campaign is warning supporters not to become complacent in the final two weeks. Here's Jason Carroll.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As expected, the campaign putting much of its time, resources and energy in the battleground states. And states that are doing early in-person voting, we're seeing some of those same images coming out of places like North Carolina.
For his part, Vice President Joe Biden will be in Durham, North Carolina, today, speaking to voters, telling them to be patient and to get out there and vote. Senator Kamala Harris will be doing the same in Florida on Monday; should be making two stops there.
Biden not out on the campaign trail on Saturday, neither was Harris. Biden met with advisers from his campaign on Saturday.
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CARROLL: Harris, for her part, as you know, a couple of people in her orbit have tested positive For COVID-19. So they physically took her off the campaign trail for a couple of days.
She did test negative for COVID-19 on Saturday. So looking ahead, again, you've got Biden; he's going to be in North Carolina today. You've got Senator Harris in Florida; she will be there on Monday. Jill Biden will be in Pennsylvania on Monday, she will be in Michigan on Tuesday.
But Wednesday is the big day. That is the day that former President Barack Obama will be out there campaigning for Biden. He'll be doing that in Philadelphia. And a number of Democrats are saying that, if there's one surrogate you want out there stumping for you, that would be the one.
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COREN: It's set to be a record-breaking year for early and mail-in voting ahead of the November 3rd U.S. election. Early voting officially begins on Monday in Florida. Around 2.5 million people have already cast mail-in ballots.
About 2.7 million people voted by mail in 2016. More than 3 million mailed ballots have yet to be cast this year.
Out west in Nevada, early voting began Saturday in Las Vegas and elsewhere in Clark County. So many cars streamed into drive-in polling locations, officials are calling it a ballot dropoff parade.
In Georgia, early in-person voting keeps setting records. More than 1.3 million votes cast by mid Saturday. That's more than a 130 percent increase from 2016. But a high turnout isn't always a good thing for people who want quick and easy voting. CNN's Natasha Chen spent Saturday at a busy polling station in Georgia.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The wait in the afternoon is significantly shorter than what we saw this morning when the doors opened a 8 am. We saw people here who said that they had already been waiting more than 3 hours just to make sure that they could cast their vote.
In fact if you see the fence line and the yellow tape over there that's currently empty, this morning at 7 or 8 that was completely full. So a lot of energy and enthusiasm from voters who say it's so important for them to cast their vote.
In fact, across the state of Georgia, we are seeing more than a 100 percent increase in turnout, combining both early in-person voting with absentee ballots compared to this point in the 2016 election.
We also met some first-time voters in line, who said they're very excited to be. . is what they said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need change in this country right now and honestly it's important for the younger people to come out, because it's our country to run at this point. It's not for the older generation anymore. It's us that are coming up now.
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CHEN: We also talked to her brother, Douglas (ph), who is 23. He said he missed Voting in the 2016 election because he made the mistake of thinking that the outcome was guaranteed. So he and his family talked to me about how every vote matters.
A lot with similar sentiments, saying that the issues driving them to the polls is the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic and the government's response to police brutality -- Natasha Chen, CNN, Marietta, Georgia.
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COREN: Let's bring in Robert Gutsche, who teaches sociology at Lancaster University in England.
What is your take on the scenes we're witnessing across the U.S., where Americans are casting early voting?
What does it say?
ROBERT GUTSCHE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY IN ENGLAND: For those who rallied for the republic as soon as a huge win and shows us maybe how voting needs to change and has needed to change for a long time in the United States. Not just in terms of early voting but through technology and through the Postal Service, something that Donald Trump actually was trying to get rid of.
But this is showing a lot of enthusiasm and maybe having us think differently about trying to get everything done in such a short time. Now I don't know if that means people are going to want to wait a few days for results. That may need a few more years before we can do that over a few days.
But this is a good sign for those who want to see the Republican, the democracy take hold.
COREN: Just over two weeks until Election Day. And obviously the sprint is both on for Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
What strategies are you expecting from both sides?
GUTSCHE: Donald Trump's strategy all along has been to attack, attack and to make fun and shame. He's going to need to figure out how to balance that out with some policy. It's not just about make America great again like it was the first campaign. And it's not just about the emotion, either. Certainly that's driving
a lot of his supporters. He's going to have to come down with more specific policies if he wants to get those people off the fence.
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GUTSCHE: And for Joe Biden, he has to do the same thing. He's been laying low, trying to keep his gaffes low and trying to let Donald Trump make a ruckus and react to that.
But we don't know what kind of president Joe Biden would be. So he needs to step up and tell us more about how he would govern, not just how he would govern differently from Donald Trump.
COREN: And what about seeing Obama on the campaign trail this week?
Do you think that will be an obvious boost for Joe Biden?
GUTSCHE: Well, that's his ace in the hole. Right?
And Barack Obama came out earlier for Biden. He's been playing it fair in the background, quiet, because this isn't Barack Obama's campaign. This is Joe Biden's campaign.
But it is about time for Barack Obama to come out and do that for Harris and Biden. But that also might have a bit of a flip side to it.
If people start to look at Joe Biden as Barack Obama and, said, well we didn't want him in office anyway, let's flip back to Trump. So all this stuff is coming down to what people find as a fundamental aspect of what they want in a president. So it will help. But for others, it might just rally even more Donald Trump support.
COREN: Robert, it's been a tumultuous first term for Donald Trump. Support for the president is eroding across the country, according to national polls.
What do you think Trump can do to win back the voters who were with him in 2016?
GUTSCHE: Well, I do think some of what he might be losing is support among white women. That was a huge push for him in his first election. And I think we saw in this last town hall debate a softer side maybe to Donald Trump or how he can try and tone it down a bit.
I think for him that might help, to keep it softer, not just for women but in that sense he wasn't attacking the woman sitting across from him, which we would hope and expect a candidate to behave that way.
But for Donald Trump, that was something a bit new. And I think that response to seeing a lack of support or slipping support from that strong base that he's had. So he's going to have to think about that strategy.
At the end of the day, people have to judge him on the way he's treated women in that case. That hasn't looked good. He has to figure out who he is and how he's going to answer to those past times, because, in the last few weeks, they have a lot of dirt they could dig up on Donald Trump and put out on the ads.
And Democrats have to decide if they want to go that route.
COREN: President Trump only has two weeks to turn that image around. Great to get your analysis, Robert Gutsche, joining us from Lancaster University in England.
Pennsylvania, nicknamed the Keystone State, is certainly a key battleground for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The Democrat hopes to return the state back to his party's column. In one county in particular, an intense political dogfight has broken out between the two sides. CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash paid a visit.
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DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A line forms outside well before opening waiting to enter the Trump House.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're ready for the next group to come in.
BASH: A mecca of sorts for the President's supporters in southwest, Pennsylvania where Trump's record turnout four years ago helped deliver his surprise Pennsylvania victory and the White House.
LESLIE ROSSI, OWNER AND CREATOR, THE TRUMP HOUSE: Shirt or hat per person. You get a sign or flag.
BASH: Leslie Rossi created the Trump House in 2016, where she pushed disaffected Democrats and never before voters to choose Trump.
ROSSI: We gave people a place to come to believe they could win.
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BASH: Now Trump supporters show up daily for swag and yard signs and help registering to vote.
SCOTT HARRER, TRUMP SUPPORTER & FIRST-TIME VOTER: We need Trump in here again. I'm 65. I think it's time to register.
BASH (on camera): Have you not voted ever?
HARRER: No.
BASH (voice-over): Rural Westmoreland County has seen a surge in Republican registrations. They help with that here too.
RITA BLAIR, FORMER DEMOCRAT: I changed my registration from Democrat to Republican.
BASH (on camera): Why?
BLAIR: From what I've seen in the last past couple of years, I was ashamed to say I was a Democrat. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a great honor to have you here in -- (INAUDIBLE).
BASH (voice-over): But Joe Biden isn't giving up here, campaigning in Westmoreland County this month. Hillary Clinton didn't come here in the general election.
(on camera): It's not an area Democrats come in and campaign very often, but you're here. Why?
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DR. JILL BIDEN, WIFE OF JOE BIDEN: I'm here because, like I said, we are not taking any vote for granted.
GINA CERILLI, (D), COUNTY COMMISSIONER, WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PA: They've seen the past four with the --
BASH (voice-over): Gina Cerilli is county commissioner of Westmoreland, P.A.
Ten years ago, she was Ms. Pennsylvania in Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant. Now she's an elected Democrat working to blunt Trump's advantage here.
CERILLI: In 2016, Donald Trump was a fresh face. He was new to politics. Everyone was excited. He made big promises. Bring back jobs. But frankly, Donald Trump broke those promises.
BASH: In small town Pennsylvania, signs matter. Trumps are everywhere, big and bold. But Biden's are out there, too.
CERILLI: When you see signs like this, it makes the Republicans and Democrats that voted for Trump in 2016 realize, I'm not alone.
BASH: A big Biden challenge, his supporters are being COVID careful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never did we think we would be meeting via Zoom.
BASH: Phyllis Friend, head of Democratic Women of Westmoreland County, organizes from home. She's clear eyed about the Democrats' goal here in Trump country.
PHYLLIS FRIEND, HEAD OF DEMOCRATIC WOMEN OF WESTMORELAND: We can't win Pennsylvania for him, but we can add to the total numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, David, this is Jim. I volunteer for the Trump campaign. How are you doing?
BASH: As for Republicans, they never stopped traditional ways of getting out the vote: knocking on doors, walking in neighborhoods in masks and using a GOP data-driven app to find and persuade voters.
BRITTNEY ROBINSON, OPERATIONS MANAGER, PENNSYLVANIA RNC: Depending on who that voter is, we're able to tailor that message at the door and on the phone to how we think we need to target that voter and turn them out.
BASH: Given that President struggles in the suburbs, boosting the vote here is critical for Trump.
(on camera): How important is it for him to get his numbers even higher than it was four years ago?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do think that we need to increase our voter turnout here for the president to offset some of what might be happening in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania.
BASH (voice-over): Back at the Trump, Leslie Rossi shows us the log of visits from thousands of Trump supporters.
(on camera): What do you think this year?
ROSSI: Oh, my numbers have tripled, tripled.
Four years ago, my work was really hard here. I had to convince the voters to vote for the candidate. I had to convince them President Trump was the best choice for them. This time, I don't have to do any of that. They're all in.
BASH (voice-over): Whether enough are all in, could determine whether Trump wins Pennsylvania and a second term -- Dana Bash, CNN, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
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COREN: Health experts have warned coronavirus cases could rise as temperatures fall. That predicted surge may have arrived in the U.S. A look at the data straight ahead.
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COREN: Welcome back.
New coronavirus infections are on the upswing in the United States. And health experts are worried the long feared cold weather case surge has arrived. On Friday 10 states reported their highest ever single- day case tallies. Evan McMorris-Santoro has more.
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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Public health officials in the United States are sounding the alarm as cases rise across the country and winter swiftly approaches.
As you can see from this graphic, 10 states across the country recently reported their highest single-day total of new COVID cases since the pandemic began. Now Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that more states are showing bad numbers and things can get a lot worse.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You can't enter into the cool months of the fall and the cold months of the winter with a high community infection baseline.
And looking at the map and seeing the heat map, how it lights up with test positivity that is in more than 30-plus states, it is going in the wrong direction. It's still not too late to vigorously apply good public health measures. And again I emphasize, without necessarily shutting down the country.
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MCMORRIS-SANTORO: What Dr. Fauci is saying is that people need to realize the things that kept the virus in check in the spring are also important for the winter. A diligent adherence to social distancing rules and mask requirements. Without it, Fauci says, America could be in for a very tough winter -- Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.
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COREN: We're now joined by Dr. Peter Drobac, an infectious disease and global health expert at the University of Oxford.
What's your take on the rallies President Trump is holding in states where we are seeing record surges of coronavirus infections?
DR. PETER DROBAC, INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Frankly, it's irresponsible. Minnesota has been tracking the outcomes of a rally held there a couple weeks ago and has already documented 20 cases among people who attended the rally or counterprotested. And likely there are more infections seeded from there.
We can very much see the rallies, which most people are in close contact and not wearing masks, can be super spreader events. And that they're happening in places where the amount of transmission is exploding is concerning.
COREN: The White House Coronavirus Task Force urged officials in Wisconsin last month and this week to prevent large social gatherings. It's being labeled a red zone with the fourth highest rate of positive cases per capita in the U.S.
You have to assume that what the president has been doing is highly dangerous and could potentially be causing preventable deaths.
DROBAC: It certainly could. It's another example of the White House not following its own guidance. In Wisconsin we've seen a surge not just in infections but in hospitalizations up well over a third over the last week. There's a field hospital that's been set up in anticipation of a crush of new COVID patients coming.
And so we may be starting to see the kinds of terrible scenes that we saw in New York and other places last spring occurring in places like the Midwest. [04:25:00]
COREN: And Doctor, the fact that many of the people attending the rallies are not wearing masks, even though that is commonplace across much of the world?
DROBAC: It's one thing we know works. They are a tool to prevent the spread and also a tool of freedom. The more of us that wear masks, the higher likelihood we can keep things open and never have to lock down.
If everybody was doing it, models estimate we could prevent 75,000 deaths with a simple intervention. It's extremely important. And the continued politicization of masks and the talk about so-called herd immunity strategy is dangerous right now.
We're just on the cusp of things here. We've seen this wave of cases across much of the country right now. It's different than what we saw before, where -- in the spring where the virus hadn't seeded everywhere. Now it really has. As we move indoors to the winter, the ongoing first wave could turn into a tsunami.
COREN: I want to ask you about the 70,000 new infections reported in the U.S. on Friday. It's the highest number in a single day since July.
Why are numbers still going up and will it get worse with winter?
DROBAC: Yes, there are a number of reasons why things aren't going up. The first is we don't have a coordinated national strategy for trying to address the COVID-19 pandemic. What we've seen obviously is that, as we move into the cooler months of the fall, more people are moving indoors, where the risk of transmission is much higher versus outdoors.
We've had kids back in school, students back in universities. All of these things are starting to drive things up.
Also if you go back to the spring, most of our cases were concentrated in a few areas. It hadn't, again, seeded some of the Midwest and Mountain West states to the extent they are now.
We're seeing a much more kind of distributed surge in infections and a high level of community transmission across almost all the country. That's why I'm so worried. I think it's going to potentially get much worse unless we act quickly to turn the tide.
COREN: Well, you're in the U.K. and, as we know, cases in Europe are rising as are hospitalizations. Some countries like the U.K. have brought in restrictions.
But will it be enough to stop a new wave?
DROBAC: I hope so. It's a real struggle in Europe and the U.K. One of the strategies is that of localized restrictions. In hot spots, trying to bring in restrictions, like closures of bars and restaurants and limitations on gatherings. I hope it will be enough. We have seen sort of an exponential growth in cases in the U.K. and
some other parts of Europe. I'm a little worried that the current measures in place may not be enough. Time will tell.
COREN: Dr. Peter Drobac at the University of Oxford in England. Great to get your insight. Many thanks.
DROBAC: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: After the break, the coronavirus is surging once again across Europe. We'll take you to Italy to find out how it's changing tactics as it fights a second wave.
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COREN: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Anna Coren. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
European governments are scrambling to get coronavirus spread under control. New cases are sweeping the continent. The red and orange show areas where the virus has spread from last week, at least 10 percent more than the week before.
Germany recorded more than 7,800 new cases Saturday, a new record. One German governor warned the nation is in danger of, quote, "losing control in some areas."
In Italy which was one of the hardest hit nations at the start of the pandemic, there were nearly 11,000 new infections recorded from Friday to Saturday. That's a new daily high.
CNN has reporters covering the COVID crisis from all angles in Europe. Let's begin with Ben Wedeman.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For the fourth day in a row, Italy has reported record high daily increases in the number of new coronavirus cases.
Numbers far higher than we saw earlier in the year, when Italy was the European epicenter of the pandemic. Yet deaths remain relatively low from coronavirus. Still, in the double digits.
We are in Naples where the governor of this region has ordered schools and universities to be closed. Restaurants have to close their doors by 9 pm. We also had the time to speak with the region's senior infectious disease specialist, who told us that this region is taking a much more aggressive approach to testing.
In the past in Italy you actually had to show symptoms of the disease. Now all you need is a doctor's referral. So testing is much more easily available for those who want it, regardless of whether they show symptoms.
All of this it is hoped, will help stop this latest alarming surge, a second wave in this pandemic. I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Naples.
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COREN: After a summer of managing COVID-19, France is setting shocking daily records for infections. A nighttime curfew is in effect in major cities to try to bring numbers down. Melissa Bell joins us from Paris.
Why the spike and how do people feel about the new curfew?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been going on for some weeks. We've seen the numbers regularly rising. Last week we saw several records broken. And again on Saturday another record broken.
The French president said on national television the trouble is, with the second wave, the virus is spread out all over the country, even if there are major hot spots in some big cities, like, for instance, in greater Paris.
It is the urban centers that are particularly worrying in terms of the pressure that's already being brought to bear on ICUs.
For instance, here in the greater Paris region, there are more than 46 percent of ICU beds taken up by COVID-19 patients and those figures really threaten the function of the health care system that have led to this attempt through curfews to bring the figures down.
[04:35:00]
BELL: Last night a full night from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am, some 20 million French people found themselves ordered to be at home between 9:00 pm and 1:00 am. That seems to be fairly well respected.
The question is whether it will bring down the massive rises as quickly as it needs to. We're seeing not only the number of new cases rise daily but also the positivity rate. It's now nationally at 13.1 percent. And that for authorities is extremely worrying.
From yesterday as well, France has been in a state of emergency. So local authorities really can't introduce any further measures they feel are necessary, should the curfews not work fast enough.
COREN: Melissa Bell, joining us from Paris. Great to see you. Many thanks.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise in northern England, prime minister Boris Johnson and the mayor of Manchester remain at loggerheads over imposing additional restrictions. Mr. Johnson has threatened to intervene if there's no agreement. Let's go to Salma Abdelaziz, live in Manchester.
Salma, what's the issue?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: This is essentially for the authorities of Manchester this is a risk versus reward calculation. They say the risk to businesses shutting down under this tier system is too high compared to the reward in terms of the number of infections that would be brought down.
They argue a nationwide lockdown would provide more economic support for businesses and would be more effective in bringing case numbers down.
Of course the prime minister disagrees. Take a look at how this dispute has played out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): An ordinary act of defiance from the mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham.
ANDY BURNHAM, MANCHESTER MAYOR: We've unanimously opposed the government's plans for tier 3. They are flawed and unfair.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The city now faces an ultimatum from prime minister Boris Johnson.
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: If agreement cannot be reached, I will need to intervene.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Downing Street implemented a 3 tier COVID-19 alert system to curb a second wave of coronavirus cases. Not abiding by these new measures, the government says, means more people will die. But Afzal Khan, a member of Parliament from Manchester, says it's the prime minister, not the mayor, who is putting lives at risk.
AFZAL KHAN, MANCHESTER GORTON MP: I'm disappointed. I think they've been incompetent. I've never seen anything like this from a British government.
ABDELAZIZ: So why won't you just implement tier 3 restrictions as the government requested?
KHAN: Of course it will help but it will not be what we need. We need more. I think that's my first concern. And second point is the impact economically will be huge.
ABDELAZIZ: This shopping district is absolutely packed. And that's what this debate is about. Even under the country's highest (INAUDIBLE) restrictions (INAUDIBLE) shut down, households would be banned from mixing together like this would still be allowed. That's why some, including the country's scientific advisers, say a nationwide lockdown is needed.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): It would also come with more financial support to help businesses survive a second hit. Pub owner Tim Flynn says, if he closes his doors under the 3 tier system, he may never be able to reopen. Again
TIM FLYNN, ,PUB OWNER: A local lockdown will not do. It I have no problem with the sharp two week (INAUDIBLE) lockdown but this local lockdown will not do it.
And the packages they're offering the businesses is only peanuts.
ABDELAZIZ: Do you support the mayor and him -- ?
FLYNN: I do support Andy Burnham 110 percent.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): He is not alone. On the streets of Manchester, it is hard to find support for the prime minister.
ABDELAZIZ: We are asking whether you support the mayor or the prime minister on coronavirus restrictions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the mayor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mayor. I'm on the mayor's side, definitely. Yes, I'm siding with the mayor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the mayor, yes.
ABDELAZIZ: What's your opinion of prime minister Boris Johnson?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't say it on TV.
ABDELAZIZ: While the government remains in a state of paralysis, the virus continues to spread.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABDELAZIZ: Now talks between these two sides have stalled. There have been no direct negotiations between the officials from Manchester and Downing Street since Thursday. That MP we did speak to in the piece says his personal expectation is that talks could resume on Monday.
We'll be hearing from both Boris Johnson officials and the mayor himself on the Sunday morning talk shows in Britain.
It's important to remember this is just one city in the U.K. Imagine having to negotiate each individual region and level -- Anna.
COREN: Yes. A lot of division. Salma Abdelaziz, joining us from Manchester, many thanks.
Coming up on CNN, President Trump reacts to a horrific attack on a teacher in Paris. When we return, what he had to say during a political rally.
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COREN: U.S. president Donald Trump is offering his condolences to the French president after Friday's gruesome beheading of a teacher in Paris. Mr. Trump condemned the attack while speaking on Saturday in Wisconsin.
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TRUMP: On behalf of the United States, I'd like to extend my sincere condolences to a friend of mine, president Macron of France where they had just yesterday a vicious, vicious Islamic terrorist attack. Beheading an innocent teacher near Paris. A horrible thing. They've apprehended nine people, who knows?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: CNN's Jim Bittermann is in Paris with the latest on the investigation and he filed this report.
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JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The French anti-terrorism prosecutor has now added considerable detail to Friday's deadly attack on a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb.
According to the prosecutor, the teacher, identified as 47-year-old Samuel Paty, was knifed to death and decapitated as he walked home from his school, by an 18-year-old refugee living in France.
Earlier this month the teacher and led a class discussion about freedom of speech using pictures from the controversial magazine "Charlie Hebdo," which itself provoked a deadly attack in 2015 when it published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
At least one father of the school took offense, filed a complaint with police and distributed the teacher's identity on the Internet. The assailant, gunned down by police when he refused to surrender his weapons, posted a message just after the attack saying he was responsible.
It read, "I have executed one of thy dogs from hell who dared to belittle Muhammad" -- Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Absolutely tragic.
It's a double victory for New Zealand.
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COREN: How this rugby match became a symbolic win against COVID-19. That's ahead.
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TRUMP: They will kill your jobs, dismantle your police departments, dissolve your borders, raise your taxes, destroy your suburbs. And I saved your suburbs. Women, suburban women, you're supposed to love Trump.
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COREN: U.S. polls show that U.S. president Donald Trump is deeply unpopular among many women voters and he's aware of that gender gap, as you saw, barely more than two weeks before Election Day.
And there's this. Crowds in Washington, D.C., and several other cities are the second Women's March of the year. Some of the people there spoke with Melisa Raney. Here's why they say they're turning out.
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MELISA RANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands participating in the second's Women's March on Washington. Unlike January's event, the second one is coming in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RACHEL O'LEARY CARMONA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WOMEN'S MARCH: We are sicker, we are poorer, we are scared, we don't see ourselves in the future that is to come. And women are, here we are fired, up we are fed up and we are voting
Trump out of office.
RANEY: Protesters required to wear masks and observe social distancing.
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RANEY: Organizers telling supporters and states on D.C.'s self- quarantine list to join remotely or to join local marches. Saturday's event still drawing large crowds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world is pretty much going in opposite directions, no matter whether it's Black Lives Matter, whether it's women's rights. It's all connected in some way, shape or (INAUDIBLE) --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want safety protocols on the job, we want paycheck protections and we want that all before we go back to work. And that we're going to vote on this issue.
RANEY: Still it's a far cry from the 2017 Women's March on Washington, which may have been the largest single day protest in U.S. history. Protesters say they're also voicing their opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of judge Amy Coney Barrett.
CARMONA: The process is a sham from start to finish. It's deeply undemocratic and the majority of the people don't want this nomination to happen until the inauguration.
RANEY: With huge turnouts for early in-person voting, organizers say they hope to bring a final show of force before the November 3rd election -- I'm Melisa Raney reporting.
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And the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will get a statue in her native Brooklyn, New York. The statue will be unveiled on March 15th, which would've been the justice's 88th birthday. She was born back in Brooklyn back in 1933.
And one of the organizers involved says her spirit will continue to inspire people there for generations to come.
Rugby's second Bledisloe Cup match wrapped up a short time ago with a win for New Zealand. They beat Australia 27-7. The real test may have been New Zealand versus the coronavirus. More than 46,000 fans were able to watch the match in person after the country's successful effort to halt COVID-19.
You can see the crowds here at Coopers Catch, better known Eden Park, it's also about what you don't see. No masks. No social distancing.
I'm joined by Patrick McKendry, a sports writer and columnist with "The New Zealand Herald."
Patrick, firstly, congratulations. That's big coming from an Aussie. Well done on a win.
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COREN: Much of the world in awe of the way New Zealand has managed to contain the coronavirus and we're seeing the scenes, 46,000 people crammed into Eden Park.
Do you think the people in the stadium realize the anomaly that this is?
PATRICK MCKENDRY, COLUMNIST, "THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD": I think so. You can see there are thousands of people in that stadium. No social distancing, as you say, no face masks. I don't think they take it for granted. I think we do because we can only -- we can look on the Internet or read newspapers and see what's happening around the rest of the world, which is very different.
So we are very lucky here in New Zealand. And to be able to go this afternoon to a rugby match, you know, with 46,000 other people really was a tremendous thing to be able to do, really.
COREN: I think for everyone else, that's life before COVID.
Why do you think New Zealand has done such an exceptional job in handling this pandemic?
MCKENDRY: Well, obviously we have an advantage in that we're a long way from anywhere else, a small island nation. But we do have a prime minister in Jacinda Ardern, who led from the front. She trusted the science, believes in it. She showed incredible attention to detail and also a fantastic communicator.
And basically she got the nation of 5 million behind together, working together to stamp out the virus. And that's what happened. Last night, there was an election and she won by a massive landslide, nearly unprecedented the support she got from New Zealanders. And that was a testament to her achievement in leading the country against the coronavirus.
COREN: I wanted to ask about her overwhelming victory and her strategy in fighting COVID-19. I'm sure there's plenty of people around the world who wish they had a leader like Jacinda Ardern.
Do you think it's because of the way she handled this crisis that led to such a huge margin, huge victory for her?
MCKENDRY: One hundred percent. That's it. She obviously is a very good communicator. I think she's known around the world as that now. But every message she gave during the crisis, you know, it was logical. You could believe in it. You couldn't really poke holes in it. That's how she got buy-in from the public.
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MCKENDRY: I have to say it's tempting fate a little bit talking about it as a fait accompli. It's not over yet, obviously. There's no vaccine or it could still come into the country. But at the moment, we're doing a good job and it's down to her and her public health officials that have done so well.
And I think the other side is there's no one in the hospital with COVID. And so if it did happen to come back, I think we're in a pretty good place to deal with it again.
COREN: That's pretty extraordinary, nobody in hospital with COVID. As you say, it's not over. And obviously, if it was to come back in, then New Zealand could very well go into lockdown as it has over the past many months. But a testament to you guys getting on top of this.
As for the game, it's not over until the fat lady sings. We'll see you in Australia.
MCKENDRY: Two more tests to go.
COREN: That's right. That's right. This ain't over. Patrick McKendry, joining us from Auckland, New Zealand, Great to have you with us. Many thanks.
MCKENDRY: Thank you.
COREN: Well, that wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. I'll be back in just a moment with more news.
