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Interview with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD); COVID-19 Cases Rise in Italy and Britain; Supreme Court Will Hear Immigration and Border Wall Cases Next Year. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired October 19, 2020 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: You've got a number of Democrats like Congressman Ro Khanna saying, make a deal, it is time to make a deal. And even your colleague in the House, freshman Democrat Max Rose, said this to Wolf just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAX ROSE (D-NY): I'm happy to hear he wants a big stimulus. Suffice it to say, that's not where he was two months ago. The Democratic Party needs to learn, to a certain extent, how to declare victory and go home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Majority Leader, he's saying declare victory, go home. We got the Republicans up, let's make a deal. Is he right?
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): No. The president's rhetoric is good from time to time. When he says, two months ago, some days ago, and he was saying no negotiations. He then changed, well, maybe a little negotiations. Then he said, well, let's talk about --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: I'm not talking about what the president has said, I know he's all over the map on this stuff. I totally hear you --
HOYER: But the point --
HARLOW: -- but the deal on the table is $1.8 trillion, and you guys have gotten the Republicans way up. Why not take this deal?
HOYER: Yes -- the deal on the table -- the deal on the table is not $1.8 trillion. Why? Because the Senate has clearly indicated they're not interested in $1.8 trillion. McConnell does not want a deal, McConnell indicated that from the beginning. The problem Mnuchin has is, in negotiating with the speaker, I think they could come to a deal.
They came to four deals, they came to four deals that passed overwhelmingly, the two of them. They came to a budget deal that passed overwhelmingly. The problem is, yes, the president says $1.8 and the secretary now says $1.8. But then he goes over to Mnuchin's office, and Mnuchin says -- excuse me, McConnell's office, and he says, I can't buy that number.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Then -- then let it get -- I guess my question is, should you let it get to that point and let McConnell say, no, I'm not going to take this to the floor? Right now there's not even a deal laid out between Mnuchin --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: -- and the speaker right now, when 8 million more people, Majority Leader, have fallen into poverty since the beginning of this pandemic, when 41 percent of homes of African-Americans in this country with children don't have enough to eat. That is how dire this is.
HOYER: Poppy, we passed a $3.4 trillion bill on May 5th (ph) --
HARLOW: I understand.
HOYER: -- which would have precluded that from happening. And the Senate simply ignored it. And the House later --
HARLOW: I know, but you don't have the majority in the Senate. I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: -- so --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: -- is half a sandwich better than no sandwich for these people that -- as you rightly put it -- are on the Titanic?
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: I agree with you 100 percent. Half of the people are going to go down and drown. Half of the --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: But right now all of them are. Right now all of them --
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: -- taken care of, state employees, teachers, that's not taken care of. Sanitation workers, police, fire, that's not taken care of. So when you say, you know, take half a loaf, what you're doing is leaving half the loaf --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: For now.
HOYER: -- I (INAUDIBLE) for now --
HARLOW: It's not perfect. But no one's getting anything right now.
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: But, Poppy, you say there's a $1.8 trillion? McConnell's going to offer a bill, as I understand it, tomorrow. And then on Wednesday. It doesn't get -- it's less than almost a third of that $1.8 trillion. So don't say that we have $1.8 trillion on the table because McConnell --
HARLOW: That's what Mnuchin has on the table, with support from the president. That's what I'm saying.
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: Yes, but he can't (INAUDIBLE) Senate -- Poppy, he can't sell it to the Senate. So you know, when you say he has it on the table, Mnuchin can't do anything. He can't do anything with the president. And the president doesn't have anything on the table. The president just says --
HARLOW: So nothing gets done?
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: I (INAUDIBLE) speaker is trying to do -- and what I hope we get an agreement to do -- is to take care of the problems that confront us that are undermining the health of our people and our economic wellbeing. That's what the speaker's trying to do.
We reduced -- you know, you say we've stuck (ph) -- 35 percent, what we determined was the necessary figure to do everything we wanted. So we reduced that very substantially, by 35 percent.
Now, I said -- as you pointed out the other day -- yes, we could come down $400 billion. I don't think that would be as good as the $2.2 that we've offered. But having said that, they -- it's not only the number, it's who they leave behind. They leave children behind, they leave families behind, they leave restaurants behind that are really hurting. They -- you know, that's the -- then the testing. Yes, the speaker made that point.
But the whole problem we've had is this administration has denied any kind of unified national plan to confront this virus. They've been negligent, they've been incompetent in dealing with this. So we've --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Majority --
HOYER: -- policymakers, and they pretend that, oh, we'll take their $75 billion. Well, that's not a deal when they undermine the implementation of a plan. So -- HARLOW: Majority --
[10:35:00]
HOYER: -- you can hear my voice, I'm frustrated, others are frustrated -- we need --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: I hear it, I hear it. I hear it.
HOYER: -- an agreement.
HARLOW: And I'm glad you're here and I appreciate the time. And you know, I wish Mitch McConnell would join us as well, he's always welcome on this. But there is huge desperation out there so we're wishing --
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: Well, he's --
HARLOW: -- all sides luck in getting a deal for as many people as they can. I'm sorry we're out of time but you're welcome back.
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: -- the American people luck, right?
HARLOW: Thank you very much for joining us.
HOYER: You bet, thanks.
HARLOW: OK, thank you -- Jim.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well let's hope they get to a deal.
A second wave of coronavirus infections is spreading now throughout Italy. You remember those images from early on in the pandemic? But this surge is much different than the first. We're going to tell you why, we'll have a live report from Naples, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:22]
HARLOW: Well, Italy this morning is cracking down as a second wave of coronavirus infections have hit that country incredibly hard.
SCIUTTO: Yes, remember, it was the epicenter of Europe's outbreak at the start of the pandemic. The images from there, just devastating. CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Italy is well into the second wave of coronavirus, though it's not immediately apparent in Naples, the capital of the Campania region, which has one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Infectious disease specialist Alessandro Perrella says it's not just about the numbers.
ALESSANDRO PERRELLA, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: We have an increasing number of positive people, positive. Not an increasing number of patients. It's very different.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): What's different is the testing. Earlier this year, only those showing COVID-like symptoms were tested. Now, everyone can do it. The majority of people who prove positive are asymptomatic, isolating until recovery. The number of people in intensive care, now approximately a fifth of what it was before.
WEDEMAN: Day after day, Italy is reporting record increases in the number of new coronavirus cases. But at the same time Italy is testing like never before at this hospital here in Naples. Seven days a week, at least a thousand tests are conducted, quickly and for free. Five times as many tests are being conducted now than at the height of the first wave in March, a once unwieldy process now routine.
How long was the wait? Half an hour, says Abramo (ph).
When will you receive the result? I ask.
The whole family did it. Tomorrow morning, we'll get a message with the results by phone, he says.
There's no air of panic, but there is concern.
We're not worried, says Valentina (ph). What worries us is not being able to work.
The number of new cases is erupting in Italy, and the peak of this wave is far off. Better prepared this time, Italy is still bracing for a long, hard winter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN: And we're really just at the beginning of this second wave. And if you look at the numbers, they are worrying. At the moment, there are around 126,000 active cases here in Italy. That's about 18,000 more than the peak of the first wave. And as you can see, the weather here in Naples is beautiful and we have months ahead of us of cold, rainy weather -- Jim, Poppy.
SCIUTTO: Yes, if it's this bad now, the concern it gets worse. Ben Wedeman, good to have you there, thanks very much.
Well, the city of Manchester, England is reporting a sharp rise as well in the number of new coronavirus infections, but the city -- city's mayor is fighting with the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, on whether to impose any new restrictions.
HARLOW: That's right. Our Salma Abdelaziz is in Manchester. Good morning, Salma. This dispute has created a lot of confusion.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: That's absolutely right, Poppy and Jim. The mayor of Greater Manchester has been locked in a bitter battle with the central government in London over their plans to raise the alert level of the city to tier three restrictions. That would shut down pubs, bars, potentially gyms -- and ban households from mixing together.
The mayor's argument is essentially one of risk versus reward. He says, under these limited local lockdowns, the risk to local businesses that would be affected is too high in comparison to the reward in terms of how much COVID infection rates would be brought down in the city. That's why he's arguing for a nationwide lockdown. He's not the only one. The country's scientific advisors have also called for a nationwide lockdown, the prime minister's answer though has been a resounding no.
But after days of stalled talks, we do have a breakthrough today. The mayor says he has held a constructive dialogue with senior officials. We've also heard from a member of government that the city will be offered a larger financial package to help affected businesses. But it's important to remember this is just one city. Imagine negotiating country -- city by city, town by town as the virus spreads through the population -- Poppy and Jim.
HARLOW: Exactly. Salma, thank you for the reporting. Thanks for being there, very much.
[10:44:54]
Back here in the United States, very long lines forming -- especially there, that's Miami this morning -- for the first day of in-person early voting. We'll get the details, next, on whether early voting trends are a predictor at all of where this election is headed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:04]
HARLOW: All right, this just in to CNN, the Supreme Court will hear cases concerning President Trump's border wall funding as well as a controversial Trump administration policy that requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico.
SCIUTTO: CNN's Jessica Schneider covers the court, joins us now with more.
Tell us what the timing of this means, right? In terms of the effect on these policies, but when they'll likely come through, decisions will come through.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that's the big thing here, Jim and Poppy, is the timing on this. So the Supreme Court, agreeing to hear these two controversial and consequential cases, but they won't actually hear it until likely after the election, and probably early next year, likely February. So it's possible that if the president is not re-elected and some of
these policies change, these issues could actually be moot by the time they get to the Supreme Court. But the two cases, they include the Remain in Mexico policy, one of Trump's immigration policies that requires Central American migrants who have crossed the border to actually wait in Mexico while they seek these asylum hearings.
Many civil rights groups have spoken out about this, saying that essentially you're sending these asylum seekers back to dangerous conditions that they've been trying to flee.
Now lower courts, they have struck this policy down. But the Supreme Court allowed the policy to remain in effect to send these asylum seekers back to Mexico while these appeals were pending. So really, nothing changes in the interim here as we wait for the Supreme Court to actually hear the arguments.
The other case that they'll hear regards the border wall. It was back in 2019 that President Trump declared an emergency and siphoned off some of these Pentagon funds to fund the border wall on the Mexican border. It was about $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds. Again, the lower courts struck this down but the Supreme Court allowed this border wall funding to continue as the appeals played out.
So really, the timing here is -- the practical effect is that these policies will continue to remain in effect, and we won't actually see these arguments play out until early next year -- guys.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HARLOW: Jess, thank you very much on that.
Also to early voting, setting records already in a number of states with over 27 million ballots cast so far.
SCIUTTO: Listen, it's good to see. People are exercising their right to vote, and we're going to be watching Florida in particular today as in-person early voting starts across the majority of counties in that key swing state, all counties there will start early voting by the end of next week.
Early voting also begins in other states today: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho and North Dakota
HARLOW: Our Abby Phillip joins us. Good morning to you, Abby. What should we watch out for in Florida? We've seen some of those lines, even in a lot of rain in South Florida this morning. They're long.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are long, Jim and Poppy. Good morning. So this is the story of this 2020 election cycle, long lines, lots of people taking advantage of the new ways to vote. And Florida has always been a state that has a fairly robust mail-in voting program, but this year already 2.4 million voters have already cast their ballots in Florida. That is about 260,000 less than all of the ballots cast in all of 2016 by mail. So you can already see that the enthusiasm for mail-in voting has been
extremely high. And now that early voting has started, I think what we can expect to see is more and more people taking advantage of that as well. That's basically the story that we're seeing all over the country.
SCIUTTO: President is one of them, as we've noted on this broadcast before.
PHILLIP: Yes.
SCIUTTO: OK. So we're watching these numbers tick up, enormous interest in this election, a lot of early voting. Do we know if it favors one part or does it favor one party?
PHILLIP: Well, yes and no. So in some states, we know about the party affiliation of the people who have cast their ballots. So take a look at this. This year -- look at these numbers of this year compared to 2016. You're seeing an uptick in Democrats who are utilizing mail-in voting. And the disparity between Democrats and Republicans has actually increased pretty dramatically.
This is the number of total ballots cast this year, 27 million, which is about 20 percent of the vote total. But we're seeing Democrats voting by mail with more frequency this year compared to four years ago. That's a little bit of a change.
But one thing that you should keep in mind with numbers like this is that while some states report party affiliation, not every state does. And some people are not casting Democrat or Republican ballots. Some people could be voting independent or no party registration at all. So it tells you some of the picture, but not all of it.
HARLOW: Also, I thought this was interesting, the memo over the weekend from Jen O'Malley Dillon, of course, about the Biden campaign and essentially sending it out and saying the race is far closer than -- she writes -- some of the punditry we're seeing on Twitter and TV would suggest.
TEXT: Biden Campaign Urges Supporters to Remain Active: "We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire."
HARLOW: What should we make of that? Is there internal polling really showing a much closer race than the public polling? Or is this a push to you know, get more money, fundraising?
[10:55:08]
PHILLIP: Well, I think it's a little hard to tell. But what she's trying to say is something that I think we all should keep in mind, which is that the road to the White House is not through national polls, which show a double-digit lead. It's through these state-by- state polls. And Democrats have a lot of PTSD from four years ago when they looked
at a picture of the electoral landscape that's pretty similar to what we're seeing today: Hillary Clinton lead, and then of course we know what happened on Election Day.
So you're seeing Democrats warning that in the closest states in 2016 -- especially in states like Pennsylvania, states like Florida, the Sun Belt states and the Upper Midwest states, you're going to see a closer race. And of course, we still have a lot of days of voting left. So there's a lot that can change in the 15 days before Election Day.
SCIUTTO: No question. Abby Phillip, always good to have you on. Thanks very much.
All right, so this is key. If you want to find your polling station, your voter registration status or get information about exactly how to cast your absentee ballot or to vote early, we have all the information in one place. Go to CNN.com/vote. Ignore the disinformation, we have the facts.
HARLOW: Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.
SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with John King starts right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:00]
