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Trump Accuses Fauci Of Not Being Team Player Without Reason; Clock Ticks, Deadline For COVID Stimulus Deal; Woman In Her 30s Dies From Coronavirus During Flight. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 20, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It's two years ago, but it's still pretty rare.

[13:00:01]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: I think I'm supposed to root (ph) for rookie bets. Still hard though, Andy, still hard. Enjoy the games.

Thanks for joining us today. I hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar and, I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.

Today, we're covering the coronavirus crisis in the hardest-hit country in the world which the president made clear last night he wants to ignore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're getting tired of the pandemic, aren't they? Getting tired of the pandemic. You turn on CNN, that's all they cover. COVID, COVID, pandemic, COVID, COVID. You know why, they're trying to talk everybody out of voting. People aren't buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards. They're not buying it. It's all they talk about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: There are 220,417 reasons to talk about coronavirus. There are nearly 60,000 cases per day in the U.S. and rising. The person whose response failed upon most objective measures is not fixing his government's approach to the crisis, instead he is suggesting we just ignore it. The president doesn't even regularly acknowledge the huge loss of life that we have experienced here in the last nine months. In fact, he has instead questioned whether the horrifying number is accurate.

220,000 dead, we cover COVID for them and the ones who they leave behind, forced to say goodbye through a phone screen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAUREEN LEWINGER, LSOT 42-YEAR-OLD-HUSBAND TO CORONAVIRUS: I thanked him. I thanked him for being the most amazing husband for making me feel cherished and loved every single day. Every single day my husband wrote me beautiful love letters in my lunch box, not just have a great day, but just beautiful letters about what I meant to him.

I thanked him. I thanked him. And then I prayed and then the doctor took the phone and he said, I'm sorry, but there's no more pulse. And then I played our wedding song for him. And then that was it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We cover COVID for those who never got the chance to say goodbye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLE BUCHANAN, HUSBAND DIED OF CORONAVIRUS: He was starting to decline because he did not have a horrible cough the whole time and the 22nd is when I brought him to the hospital and I never saw him again.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Skye, give your mom a hug for us right here.

You dropped him off at the hospital. He went inside and they intubated him immediately. Did you have a chance to say goodbye?

N. BUCHANAN: No, they wouldn't let me in the hospital as he was begging that -- I need my wife, my wife makes my decisions. They told me to park the car. We thought that I was going to get to go in with him. And when I walked up to the doors, the hospital is on lockdown, they wouldn't let anybody in. After that, no, that was it, I never got to say, I love you, nothing.

SKYE BUCHANAN, FATHER DIED OF CORONAVIRUS: He would do ballet with me because we had like daddy daughter things at ballet sometimes. And I remember I was trying to take it really seriously and my dad dropped me and I got so upset. But then I started having fun and then we did this funny lift and it was really funny.

And we just like shared everything. He brought me to school, he brought me to ballet, like he was my everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We cover COVID for the children who bury their mother and then two weeks later their father.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAIAH GARCIA, BOTH PARENTS DIED FROM COVID-19: I didn't get to say goodbye to my mom or my dad now, and that's what hurts me the most right now.

Since he passed, at least we got to be our family. We didn't have to go to an orphanage or anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: We cover COVID for the doctors, the nurses, the hospitals workers, the janitors forced to see the suffering that we don't see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANDREW PASTEWSKI, ICU MEDICAL DIRECTOR, JACKSON SOUTH MEDICAL CENTER: One of the issues with the complacency in this country is that people really think it's just the old people in the nursing homes who are dying and that's just crazy.

I mean, it's not old people in nursing homes that are just sitting there dying, it is the 82-year-old grandma who lives in the house, who takes care of the grandkids so that people can go to school so that the mother can work, who makes that special sauce. I have these people dying.

These aren't 80-year-olds that should die. These aren't 80-year-olds that are going to die next week. These are 80-year-olds that contracted the virus because a group of people just didn't want to wear a mask and they had to go out and have fun.

[13:05:03]

And it really upsets me when everybody says it is just old people and it's not a big deal. I had a mom and grandmother drive themselves into my hospital and only one drove home. It is really upsetting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The ones lucky to survive are still dealing with the impact of the virus months later, others who are trying to stay alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KELLY, COVID-19 SURVIVOR: This disease affects not only individuals but their entire families. And I feel so much for the people who lost loved ones. And I just want everybody to wear their mask, you know. We don't want this. We don't want this. It was not easy that I'm here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We cover COVID for the ones that not only lost multiple family members to this virus but their livelihoods too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARDO AGUIRRE, LOST FAMILY MEMBERS AND BUSINESS TO COVID-19: I feel I'm very incompetent, a man not being able to go back to where it was. I lost my dad. It is very hard. It is hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We cover COVID for the millions who are relying on overwhelmed food banks for their next meals. We cover COVID for the ones struggling to keep a roof over their heads, forced to leave everything they own behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Constable, need to come to the door.

ISRAEL RODRIGUEZ, FAMILY EVICTED FROM APARTMENT: It's my (INAUDIBLE) eviction. It was like going on during corona. When it hit, I lost my job. So took me like a month to get another job.

This is my check but I ain't making it with $300. It is literally $300.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRSEPONDENT: Their stroller now carries their possessions.

RODRIGUEZ: It's mainly the kid's clothes. Because me and her, we wear the same clothes almost every day, make sure we have toilet, a little bit of snacks for the kids.

LAH: What are you doing with all of your stuff?

RODRIGUEZ: That's trash. They can throw it in the trash because we don't have a car, we don't have help, we don't have nobody that can come help us out right now, nobody. We got ourselves, me and the kids and her. That's it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We covered COVID for the ones who fear they may be next.

LAH: At this apartment, the tenant is an elderly woman who can no longer afford the rent. The landlords move her. Francisco Munoz works, though he doesn't want to.

FRANCISCO MUNOZ, HELPED MOVE EVICTED TENANT: I have a family. I have a sister. I have my mom. And we never know. Maybe today, it's her, tomorrow it's me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We cover COVID for the students who can't go to school safely and for the parents who are juggling their children and their jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANA COOMBS, MOTHER: I just took that picture because I wanted people to see reality. And tehn he came over and we hugged, I was crying right along with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We cover COVID because at least 14 states report record hospitalizations in the last week because we just saw the highest number of cases on a Monday since the peak in July, because experts say the next few weeks are going to be the darkest yet, and we are not, quote, rounding the turn, as the president claims. We cover it because the task force in charge of the response doesn't brief the public any more.

The president says everyone is tired of the virus. Yes, we are. But that's where a president is supposed to come in and show leadership that can help Americans push through when they're already spent. Instead, he's talked more over the past 24 hours about Anthony Fauci's pitching arm than any of these victims that you just saw there, or the ones who are suffering and struggling. This is why we cover COVID. And until these numbers on your screen slow down, we're not going to stop.

And even though President Trump held his last in person meeting with Dr. Fauci in mid-August, he's escalating attacks on the nation's top infectious disease expert with just two weeks until Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He's a nice guy, but he's been wrong. First of all, he said don't wear a masks, very strong, I'm sure you have that clip. He said don't wear masks. He said many things. He said, let the people from China that are heavily infected, let them come in. He admits that he was wrong on that and he admits that I saved thousands of lives.

Reporters like him because they think he's against me. He's not really against me. He is a little bit sometimes not a team player, but he is a Democrat and I think that he's just fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:10:01]

KEILAR: For his part, Dr. Fauci says the president's comments are just a distraction and he is keeping his focus on fighting the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's like in The Godfather, nothing personal, strictly business, as far as I'm concerned. I just want to do my job and take care of the people of this country. That's all I want to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Gloria Borger is CNN's Chief Political Analyst. She's with us now.

And, Gloria, there's this recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll that shows 68 percent of Americans trust Dr. Fauci to provide reliable information when it comes to COVID-19. And then you compare that to President Trump, he's at just 40 percent. Of those who trust Fauci, nearly half of them are Republicans. So, I wonder, Gloria, for the president's closing argument, does this even make sense?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No. Of course, it doesn't make any sense. And when you talk to people in the campaign, they will tell you that it doesn't make any sense. You should be talking about the economy, what his plan is for the next four years, but instead what he's doing is talking about personal grievance. And when he ran in 2016, one of the reasons he was successful, Bri, was because he talked about other people's personal grievances. Now, he's talking about his own personal grievances. And one of his own is obviously Tony Fauci whom he is clearly jealous of, not only because people trust him more, he is more popular, but because he was on 60 Minutes and Donald Trump wasn't on 60 Minutes.

And he said he wasn't surprised that Donald Trump actually contracted COVID-19, because he hosted a super-spreader event in the White House. And on one hand, he uses Tony Fauci in a political ad to make his point about how great he is, takes his words out of context, and what does Fauci do? He says that was wrong, and that he was harassed and that should not have happened. So he doesn't like Tony Fauci because he begs to differ with him in public.

KEILAR: You have this great new op-ed out on cnn.com. And you write about how badly the president needs a reset. I mean, that's very clear.

BORGER: Yes.

KEILAR: You also point out it likely is not going to happen.

BORGER: Sure, it is not going to happen. When he was sick with COVID, some friends of his were calling him at the hospital and I was told by a source familiar with these conversations that they tried to kind of gently nudge him and say, look, this is a moment for you to tell the American public that you understand what they're going through, those stories, Brianna, that you just showed. His friend said to him, you can tell the public now you get it.

And, of course, that is not what he did. He marched up on to a balcony at the White House, he ripped off his mask and he proceeded to say, I've beaten it. You can beat it. Don't let it dominate your life.

And I was talking to one of his biographers who explained it to me this way. And I thought it was very accurate. He said, look, Donald Trump can never backtrack, he can never admit he's made a mistake, because once he has done that, then he can't be the best at everything any more. He can't know more than the doctors. So it is not within his lexicon to say, I'm sorry, I made a mistake, I learned, let's move on together. That's just never going to happen, Bri.

KEILAR: No. I think we have seen that after four years now, definitely. Gloria, thank you so much. Great to see you.

BORGER: Sure.

KEILAR: The clock is ticking. Tonight is the deadline for Congress and the White House to reach a stimulus deal. So are they anywhere close?

Plus, we're learning that a woman in her 30s died from the coronavirus after boarding a flight.

And a sobering timetable for a coronavirus vaccine.

This is CNN special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:00]

KEILAR: Right now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House have just hours left to reach a deal by day's end to get desperately needed stimulus relief to millions of Americans before Election Day. Pelosi and the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will speak at 3:00 P.M. today, and the president, again, this morning, said he wants a bigger stimulus deal than what even Democrats want.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I want to do it even bigger than the Democrats. Now, not every Republican agrees with me, but they will. But I want to do it even bigger than the Democrats because this is money going to people that did not deserve what happened to them coming out of China.

Now, to just put it very simply, we want to do it, but Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN Business Anchor Julia Chatterley is with us now to discuss this. I mean, how likely is a deal, really?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Brianna, if hope slopes, we are sinking fast. There is just deep skepticism that any deal can be reached here, never mind getting it enshrined in law before the election, quite frankly.

And what you've got to remember here is this is not a two way fight, it is a three way-plus fight. Who is winning in this case? The president can suggest that he wants to do a deal that's bigger than the Democrats, but if he doesn't have enough of his own Senate Republicans on board, then a deal ultimately is not going to happen, even if negotiators can agree to one here.

And I think to illuminate that point, Senate Republicans are still talking about presenting a super skinny $500 billion deal in the Senate tomorrow for small businesses. The Democrats are expected to vote that down once again. And the irony here is that both sides agree small businesses need support. But, Brianna, it is not even just about the size of the deal, it's also about simply how the money is going to be spent.

And we know this, we've discussed it before. And I can give you a whole list of issues here. Earlier this week, Nancy Pelosi talking about the specific language with regards testing and tracing, we've got the expansion of unemployment insurance, funds for state and local governments, specifically how money is spent.

The Republicans want it focused on COVID related issues, the Democrats want more leeway here to spend it on things like pension top-ups. You can read for yourself, there's a whole host of other issues. All of the loose ends need tying up. It's simply tough and difficult to see a deal being agreed in the coming hours here.

And while lawmakers can fight over the politics here, millions of Americans are fighting for survival and that's the tragedy.

KEILAR: They are. I mean, they are trying to put food on the tables and are trying to keep a roof over their heads. And assuming, look, it is not looking good here, so if these talks fail, how long will struggling Americans have to wait for relief?

CHATTERLEY: And this is a great question. And the risk is that they have to wait a lot longer. Look, there is a window of opportunity post-election, clearly depends on who wins the election. Lawmakers have to come back before December 11th to fund the government to prevent a shutdown. So, perhaps there's room for legislation there. But I think the real risk is that we have to wait until next year until after the inauguration to actually see something done.

And then, Brianna, we are talking approaching a year since the CARES Act was signed and people got desperately needed stimulus checks into their hands. It is unimaginable and it is unacceptable.

KEILAR: Indeed, unacceptable. Julia Chatterley, thank you so much for joining us.

There are some new details about a woman in her 30s who died from the coronavirus while on a flight.

Plus, there's a new study just in about whether it is safe for kids to go back to school.

And just in, with 14 days to go, news on Melania Trump's COVID recovery and Joe Biden's debate prep. Stand by for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:00]

KEILAR: In Texas, Dallas County officials say a woman that was just in her 30s died from coronavirus during a flight.

Let's get right now to CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean. And, Pete, officials do say this victim had some serious pre-existing conditions. What can you tell us?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. And this could be the first case of somebody dying of coronavirus on board a U.S. flight since the pandemic began.

Here is what we know from the Dallas County judge who certifies local coronavirus deaths in his area. This woman was in her 30s, had significant pre-existing conditions and died while on board a domestic flight.

And what do not know is which airline this involves. We checked with American and Southwest, both have significant presences in Dallas, they are denying any involvement. We also do not know how a person with coronavirus was able to board a flight in the first place. For months, airlines have been asking passengers to certify that they do not have coronavirus symptoms when they check in for their flight.

What's so interesting here is that all of this is coming down when more and more studies say that being on an airplane is relatively safe in the pandemic. Just last week, the Department of Defense says the risk of aerosol transmission of coronavirus is relatively low. But just today, the Centers for Disease Control said a mask must be worn by passengers and airline workers at all times during all parts of a travel experience, that includes the terminal and security where people get bottled up, and the risk of COVID transmission is relatively high.

What this will do for the fears of fliers still remains to be seen. Just on Sunday, TSA says a million people passed through security at America's airports, a first in the pandemic. But those figures are still only about 40 percent of a year ago.

KEILAR: Just to underscore, the CDC just said that about masks.

MUNTEAN: They just said that. And it's not been given much teeth because of the federal government not lending any new regulations. The FAA shying away from requiring masks on board planes. It's been airlines since the beginning of the pandemic requiring that passengers wear masks.

KEILAR: All right. Pete, thank you for that report.

There's a just released study that is suggesting ways to reduce transmission of coronavirus inside a classroom. Physicists at the University of New Mexico set up a test classroom of students nearly eight feet from each other, and they conducted 20 simulations. The researchers found that it helps to open windows, of course, turn on air conditioning or heat to get air circulating, and to attach shields to the front of desks.

They also recommend that students stay away from A.C. or heat outlets where the particles gather and to reduce or get rid of a middle seat.

Dr. Roshini Raj is an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Contributing Medical Editor at Health Magazine.

Dr. Raj, what did you take away from these findings?

DR. ROSHINI RAJ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, NYU LANGONE HEALTH: Well, I think it was an interesting study. They did computer simulations to get all of the data that you just presented. And it shows us that there are steps we can take to make schools safer for kids going back to school.

But remember, this was a very sort of rarified situation where the desks were very far apart, as you said, almost eight feet apart, so more than six feet that we generally talk about.

[13:30:08]