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COVID-19 Cases Expected to Surge; Mitt Romney Announces Trump Voting Record; AstraZeneca Trial Volunteer Dies, Trial Will Continue. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 21, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:09]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: Hello, it is the top of the hour, I'm Brianna Keilar. And the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise, and it's only expected to get worse. That's the forecast from former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who warns the nation is about a week away now from a, quote, "rapid acceleration in cases."

Right now, the U.S. reported more than 60,000 new cases Tuesday alone. This is a number that has not been seen since late July. The seven-day average isn't much better, 59,000 cases per day, a level that has not been seen since early August.

Fourteen states have test positivity rates above 10 percent; ten states just set hospitalization records. Nationwide, no states have declining case numbers. You look at this map, there is no green and that is a very bad sign. Three states -- Washington, New Mexico and Illinois -- are putting restrictions in place to try to curb the spread.

Today, the nation's top infectious disease expert is giving this stark assessment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: As of two days ago, the numbers throughout the globe have been stunning, making this already the most disastrous pandemic that we have experienced in our civilization in over 102 years.

Unfortunately for the United States, we have been hit more hard than virtually any other country on the planet.

Now, unfortunately, we've plateaued again to about 40 to 50,000 cases a day. And as we're getting into the cooler weather, we're getting more and more cases. So this looks like we're going to have a very difficult fall and winter.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Dr. Peter Hotez is with us, he is a professor and he is the dean of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. So, Doctor, I mean, you look at this forecast, it's bad. Just put this into context for Americans who, look, we've already been through months of this. They want to know how bad is this going to get.

PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes I know, Brianna, everyone's exhausted and nobody wants to hear more bad news, but it's pretty clear that this fall- winter surge is now finally arriving.

Before I go into dreary details, let me just preface it by one thing, in that this will not go on forever. By next year at this time and probably by next summer, we're going to be in a much better position. Vaccines will become available, that's looking really promising. This is not in perpetuity.

It's a matter of getting, now, through the next few months, when we'll start seeing a steep surge, we'll start hitting 70,000 new cases a day on a regular basis. It'll continue to climb from there, the deaths will increase. I think the northern part of the country is clearly already getting hit, and that will continue, it will move into the northeast.

And so it's a matter of identifying, now, your social distancing unit, the people that you need and want to be with now for the next few months, to limit contact. Try not to be alone if you don't have to be, and look after your mental health because this is going to be a scary time again. I don't know that it'll be as bad as what we saw in March and April in New York with sirens day and night, I hope it won't be that bad. But there is that possibility.

Again, good news is that this will not go on for perpetuity, things will be much better next year. But this is going to be a horrible winter, unfortunately.

KEILAR: Yes. And all right. So back to basics: social distancing, you're talking about restricting the number of people you allow in your circle. Masks of course, hand-washing. These are all things that people need to keep in mind right now.

I do want to ask you about something the U.S. surgeon general said. Jerome Adams, today, dismissed herd immunity as a public health strategy. He said in a tweet, quote, "This could overwhelm health care systems and lead to many complications and deaths."

I mean, he clearly felt it was necessary to say this. Do you understand why that might be?

HOTEZ: Yes. He said it and I'm glad he said it. He said it because he knows what we know, in that there is an active anti-science disinformation campaign coming out of the White House. And among its central tenets is that there's this concept of herd immunity, that once the percentage of the American people in, say, a city like New York that goes over 20 percent don't worry about it. Transmission stops itself. It's -- there's no basis for it, and it's clearly incorrect. We've

already seen in Manaus, in Brazil, it go up to 66 percent. If there is any herd immunity, that means two thirds of the American population would get it and it would mean over 1 to 2 million deaths. So forget about herd immunity.

[14:05:03]

The other thing the White House has been doing with their disinformation campaign is trying to discredit masks. Twitter made Scott Atlas take down that terrible tweet. So this is doing a lot of damage to the American people.

And that disinformation campaign, that anti-science disinformation campaign, has been -- is responsible for a significant percentage of the 220,000 Americans who perished from this epidemic, and we're not out of it. Those numbers are projected to double by the time the inauguration comes around.

And so I'm really worried, assuming that the election goes against the president and we're in this lame duck session, all we've had out of the White House, we haven't had a national containment strategy for the virus. We've had disinformation. Presumably now they may be checked out.

And so I don't -- you know, we're not going to have a very efficient or well-functioning executive branch of the government. So I think people are going to feel abandoned. And hopefully the governors of the states are ready for it, it's going to be a tough time for the American people.

KEILAR: Yes, we are right here on the precipice of it. I'm going to have you stand by, Dr. Peter Hotez, while we check out our other news that we're following.

The election of course, quickly approaching. And instead of President Trump selling the American people on what he wants to do in his second term, he appears to be celebrating Festivus. The airing of grievances is in full effect right now here in the nation's capital.

And the president is railing against Leslie Stahl, the veteran journalist and "60 Minutes" host, who was interviewing the president yesterday when he abruptly ended the session after 45 minutes, and did not return for a planned second session, claiming that she is biased according to what sources have told CNN.

He's also slamming Dr. Fauci, the nation's trusted top infectious disease expert. The president is accusing Fauci of being a Democrat, and a disaster. Fauci, to be clear, is not registered with a political party and he has served under Democratic and Republican presidents going back to Ronald Reagan. Fauci dismissed this as a distraction, and he said he just wants to keep doing his job.

The president is targeting CNN as well. He says that we focus too much coverage on the coronavirus. He's hitting the bipartisan Presidential Debate Commission, he's criticizing the moderator of tomorrow night's debate before the debate even happens, NBC's Kristen Welker, who is a respected journalist.

He's taking aim at Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden as well as Biden's son Hunter. And toilets and showers also don't escape a presidential diatribe here, the president registering his frustration with water pressure that does not meet his personal standards and apparently how it makes his hair look.

Democratic Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, the subject of the 2020 version of "Lock her up" at a recent Trump rally, and Andrew Cuomo of New York, who the president called a "lowlife," also on this long list.

And then last but not least is Republican Senator Ben Sasse, who, despite voting with the president 86 percent of the time and voting against his impeachment, is criticizing the head of his party in private calls with supporters. For that, the Nebraska lawmaker earned a new nickname from the president, "Little Ben Sasse."

With me now is CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. Dana, the chief of staff of the White House, Mark Meadows, says there's a high probability that President Trump will release the interview with "60 Minutes" before it airs on Sunday.

I mean, so they recorded this, right? Tell me what you make of that. But also, why threaten to release it for so many hours now and then not release it?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Because they're trying to keep the distraction going, and I'm guessing that -- maybe an informed guess -- that Mark Meadows is hearing from his boss that, you know, he wants to keep the pressure on, he wants to keep this distraction out there.

I mean, you and I have done interviews before, Brianna, where the interview subject or their staff almost always records -- like either on their phone or with an old-fashioned tape recorder -- the interview. I'm not so sure what he means when he ways he watched it, if they actually videotaped it, which would be a unusual, but we'll see what happens there.

But I use the word "distraction" for a reason, and that is because that is the kind of thing that is being described to me by his fellow Republicans. I talked to one yesterday who is on the ballot, fighting for their political life, who says that everybody who is in that same boat also trying to win re-election in Congress.

Especially they are going bat-blank-crazy because the president keeps either talking about our friend Kristen Welker, who is an outstanding and straight-down-the-middle reporter, and Anthony Fauci, and you know, the Debate Commission, and on and on and on and on and on.

Instead of focusing where every Republican, either on the ballot or off, wants him to focus, which is on the things that he actually did accomplish in the first term of the White House, whether it is on trade deals or some things he can point to on foreign policy. Focus on the economy, which is the one issue, Brianna -- I know you see this in polls too -- where he is at least competitive with Joe Biden.

[14:10:11]

And they can't understand why the president doesn't get out of his own way, and frankly get out of the way of his colleagues who want to be in public service next year, but they don't think that they -- they're getting hurt by that by the guy at the top of the ticket.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, it's very clear at this point that his impulse control problem is on full display right now --

BASH: Yes.

KEILAR: -- and you know, it may be no surprise, I want to ask you about what we've learned from Republican Senator Mitt Romney. He just told reporters that he did not vote for President Trump.

BASH: I think the professional word for that is "duh." I mean, you remember, Bri, what Mitt Romney did during the election in 2016. I mean, he did something very unusual, which is he was a private citizen, he held an event and he talked in very stark, very vivid terms about how horrible of a candidate -- and frankly a person and a potential president -- Donald Trump would be.

So by saying it very carefully, "I did not vote for" Donald Trump in 2016, there is no other way to take that other than he's not going to or will not or did not -- given the fact that Utah has mail-in voting -- vote for President Trump now. He just doesn't want to explicitly say that.

And that was in response to a question, I think, from our colleague Manu Raju, asking if he's going to vote for Donald Trump in 2020.

KEILAR: All right, we'll have to see what other Republicans do, or if they are as vocal -- even in this sort of side way that he did it. Dana, it's great to see you. Thank you.

BASH: You too, thanks.

KEILAR: We have some breaking news, CNN has just confirmed that a volunteer in one of the COVID-19 vaccine trials has died. This was in the AstraZeneca trial, which was in its third phase but it has recently been paused because some participants became ill.

With me now is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he's our chief medical correspondent at CNN. What are you hearing, Sanjay?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, this is some sad news, obviously. You know, we've been following these trials for some time. This is one of the volunteers in the experimental coronavirus trial, AstraZeneca, in Brazil. And we hear that this death occurred on Monday.

The public health agency now just alerting other people to this death, but also saying at the same time, Brianna, that the trial will continue. It's not clear -- at least initially, when you hear these sorts of reports of deaths -- exactly what happened or even if the person received the vaccine or received the placebo.

When you're dealing with tens of thousands of people in these trials, I think the point that they're making is that sometimes these deaths can occur, even in placebo groups, for reasons unrelated. The fact that they're continuing the trial may be a little bit of a clue. But still, we're getting more details about this.

And you'll remember now, Brianna, this is now the third time that we've had some sort of adverse effect like this reported, again not clear that this was due to the vaccine. But back in July, the AstraZeneca trial was paused briefly, and then again at the beginning of September, about six weeks ago.

You may remember it was a person who developed these neurological symptoms at that point, difficulty with walking. These sort of symptoms that were suggestive that maybe there'd been some impact of the medicine on the spinal cord. That person subsequently recovered.

But this is the sort of thing that these investigators are looking out for. Are there adverse side effects, are those side effects related to the vaccine specifically or unrelated? Are they in the placebo trial? And those are the sort of details that we're going to keep trying to get, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. Why won't they just put that out there? Because certainly I think if this was someone where they were taking a placebo, it might be less concerning. Or if there's something they can say about the kind of symptoms or the cause of death.

GUPTA: Yes, no doubt. I mean, it's sometimes a source of frustration. And you'll remember that even going back to September again, it was some time before we started to get the details about specifically what happened to that patient. My colleague Elizabeth Cohen was getting some of those details. The trial was halted in the United States, but then resumed in the U.K. So it does seem like a bit of a mishmash.

What happens, I think, is that there is an independent entity, which is the Data Safety Monitoring Board, and they're really the only ones that are supposed to be able to unblind the data. The researchers who are actually giving the vaccine don't know if they're giving vaccine or placebo. The people who are receiving this, the volunteers, they don't know.

So the way that it's supposed to work is that you have one entity that is independent, that can unblind the data and see specifically what happened here. That can sometimes take a while. It shouldn't take that long, I guess to your point. And they should release that data, and we're hoping that they do.

[14:15:00]

But as of right now, all we know is that there was a volunteer in the trial who has died. We don't know much more in specifics in terms of anything about the person, their age, pre-existing conditions. And most importantly, we don't even know if they received the vaccine or not. So as we get those details -- which I think we will -- we'll certainly

have a little bit clearer light on exactly what happened here.

KEILAR: All right. Yes, we'll be waiting to see. Dr. Gupta, thank you so much.

And still ahead, record-shattering early voter turnout in states across the country as both campaigns are pitching their closing messages to voters, and President Obama hits the campaign trail.

Plus, coronavirus cases surge in Boston, prompting that city to suspend in-person instruction in public schools.

And the Trump administration, going all-in on foreign policy in an effort to put more wins on the board in the run-up to Election Day.

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[14:20:12]

KEILAR: Voting lines in parts of Wisconsin are getting longer on day two of early voting there. Election officials are trying to manage the turnout while protecting people from the coronavirus as new cases rip through the state.

And in North Carolina, where both President Trump and Senator Kamala Harris are campaigning today, more than 2 million votes have already been cast.

CNN national correspondent Dianne Gallagher is in Charlotte, but we begin with CNN's Omar Jimenez who is watching the lines in Milwaukee -- Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, day two of early in- person voting here in Wisconsin, as the state really deals with two issues: trying to process their voters of course, but also COVID-19 safety as the state is seeing a positivity rate of more than 20 percent and daily case counts coming in the thousands.

Now, state and local election officials hope that by increasing the number of poll workers and giving them plexiglass barriers, protective equipment, even keeping voters outside if at all possible, that all of those factors will combine for a smoother election process than what we saw with the primary here in Wisconsin back in the spring.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dianne Gallagher in Charlotte. More than 2.1 million people in North Carolina have already cast their ballots for the 2020 general election. Now, look, most of them did what these people are doing here, they voted early in person. That's only been going on for about six days now. The rest of them, they mailed their ballots in.

Now, they're looking at at least 30 percent right now of the 7.2 million registered voters in North Carolina that have already voted. An election official told me yesterday, they think between 70 and 80 percent of all votes may be cast before the polls even open on November 3rd.

KEILAR: All right, Dianne and Omar, thank you so much for that.

Less than two weeks now to go until Election Day, and a familiar face is about to hit the campaign trail for the first time this season. Former President Barack Obama is stumping for his former vice president, Joe Biden. That is tonight in Philadelphia.

And last night, he tweeted a video that praised young voters and encouraged them to create a new normal. CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, has more on what kind of impact the former president could have on Biden's final campaign push.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, there is a reason that Barack Obama is coming to make his first campaign stop in the final two-week push here in Philadelphia, trying to recreate some of that enthusiasm that he experienced back in the 2008 campaign and the 2012 campaign.

Of course, Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state of Pennsylvania four years ago, largely because some voters just simply didn't turn out, some Democratic voters.

Well, the former president is making his first of a series of campaign stops where voting is already under way, trying to increase enthusiasm. Again, particularly among younger voters and African- American voters.

Now, the race certainly is fully joined (ph) between Barack Obama and Donald Trump, they've been going after one another for four years. It is deeply personal, no question about that. But Barack Obama coming back to the campaign trail is trying to, A, sort of salvage his legacy, but, B, try and offer a new direction for the country. He is trying to get behind the Biden campaign.

He's also injecting himself squarely in key Senate races. So Barack Obama is all-in to this campaign. Now, there are questions of his appeal. Will he still be able to transfer his huge popularity to voters that he certainly has on his own? So this is the first of several stops we're going to see of the Obama campaign. But here in Philadelphia, if they win Pennsylvania, that's a big roadblock for President Trump -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you.

As Election Day is drawing near here, new financial filings show Joe Biden's campaign has a substantial cash advantage. They have nearly triple the war chest of the Trump campaign.

CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson is joining me now. And, I mean, tell us what we know about his cash on hand, Nia.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, listen, Biden is in a really good position down the stretch. As you said, $100 million more, more than $100 million more at this point than Donald Trump had. This is a reversal of fortune in many ways for Biden, who had trouble raising money in the primary.

And Trump started out, and the Republicans started out with a much bigger lead. And you see now that Donald Trump is lagging in terms of cash on hand. Both of these campaigns will spend a lot of this money on ads in these battleground states.

But what we also know about money is that it can't buy the presidency. If you remember back to 2016, Hillary Clinton had much more money on hand than Donald Trump did at that time, almost double the amount that he had, and she obviously did not become president. But listen, you'd rather have more money at this point in a race than less money.

KEILAR: And Senate races, I mean, when we talk about money and what we're seeing, there are some records that are being broken in several key races. Tell us about this.

[14:25:05]

HENDERSON: Well, the record-breaking amount that sticks out for everybody? $57.9 million for Jaime Harrison who is locked in a very tight race in South Carolina, broke the record that Beto O'Rourke had from 2018 by about $20 million.

But also, you look at Sara Gideon in Maine in this tight race against Susan Collins, dwarfing what Susan Collins -- who is of course the incumbent -- has been able to raise in this race. And then Mark Kelly over in Arizona, $16 million more than Martha McSally, who again is the incumbent.

So listen, again, money can't buy an election, it can't buy you love either. But again, you'd rather have $57.9 million in your war chest to spend on ads in these races, all these other numbers.

So Democrats feel pretty good, but they're also cautious down the stretch, trying to figure out where they spend this money nationally, in key races and in battleground states and then in select counties, trying to reach voters with their messaging as well as Republicans trying to do the same thing in these races.

But this is a sign, the kind of enthusiasm the Democrats have all across the country and at this point, at least in the money race, Republicans lagging behind in these key races.

KEILAR: YEs. We'll have to see if the votes come with the money --

HENDERSON: Exactly.

KEILAR: -- Nia, thank you so much.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

KEILAR: Boston is changing course, suspending in-person instruction, ordering schools to go all-remote as coronavirus cases surge.

And as states head in the wrong direction when it comes to cases and hospitalizations, there are cracks beginning to emerge in the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

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