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Bon Jovi Rallies for Biden in Pennsylvania; Two Top Pence Aides Test Positive; Voter Intimidation Concerns in U.S.; Exclusive with Russian Vaccine's Main Developer; COVID-19 Triggers Rise in Asian American Unemployment Rate; Nigerian Police Force Mobilize to Quell Worst Unrest in 20 Years; Steve Bannon behind "Shoddy" Research about Coronavirus Origin. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 25, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in here United States on the world I'm Kim Brunhuber this is CNN NEWSROOM and we will start with breaking. News
New cases of COVID-19 are escalating so rapidly in the United States that even the office of the U.S. vice president is directly affected. Two senior aides to vice president Mike Pence have tested positive in recent days. Pence's office revealed chief of staff Marc Short has begun quarantine and that the vice president and the second lady have tested negative.
CNN has learned another senior adviser, Marty Obst, also tested positive, though it is not clear exactly when. This is a big deal for a couple of reasons, one of them because the vice president is head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
But those members have often publicly ignored the same rules they recommend to the rest of the country. That includes quarantine for anyone who has had close contact with an infected person, as the vice president has.
But Pence isn't leaving the campaign trail. Instead, his schedule is packed with rallies and events, where face masks are few and social distancing is nonexistent.
More than 83,000 Americans tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, a day after the U.S. reached a new daily high. The virus is front and center on the campaign trail, with just 9 days to go until the presidential election,
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are hitting key. States so we begin with Jeremy Diamond as the president fights for a second term.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump campaigning again in the battleground state of Wisconsin against a grim backdrop of the coronavirus, not only with a surge of cases across the country, a record number of new coronavirus cases, just before the president arrived here on Friday. But also here in Wisconsin.
On Friday, Wisconsin experiencing its highest number of coronavirus cases in a single day during this entire pandemic. Hospitalizations, they are on the rise, not only across the country but here in the state of Wisconsin.
What we see here, is the president gathering thousands of his supporters once again, closely packed together and most people as usual not wearing masks. The president also continues to spout misinformation about the virus, downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic, making a false claim as he often does that, if there wasn't so much testing in the United States, that there wouldn't be as many cases as there are.
What we know is that the surge of the coronavirus cases in the U.S. is very real. That's despite what the president is saying. The president did highlight the importance of this battleground state as he was campaigning here, saying that if he wins the state of Wisconsin, he believes that he's going to win the election -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Waukesha, Wisconsin.
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BRUNHUBER: Joe Biden struck a very different tone as he stumped in Pennsylvania and he got some help Saturday from his former, boss Barack Obama. CNN's Arlette Saenz brings us that part of the story from Florida.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former president Barack Obama traveled here to the critical battleground state of Florida, reminding voters that they helped deliver the White House to him in 2008 and 2012 and asking them to do the same for Joe Biden this time around.
He also predicted that if Biden wins Florida, the election will basically be over, as he urged supporters and volunteers to keep up their final work for the vice president. And while he touted the work and leadership style of his former partner, he also took aim at President Trump, slamming his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and also criticizing President Trump's behavior in office, saying that it is not normal.
And President Obama also talked about that upcoming interview Trump did with "60 Minutes."
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When "60 Minutes" and Lesley Stahl are too tough for you, you ain't all that tough. If you got to walk out of a "60 Minutes" interview, then you're never going to stand up to a dictator.
If you're spending all your time complaining about how mean reporters are to you, you're not going to stand up to Putin.
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SAENZ: While President Obama was here in Florida, Joe Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania, holding a drive in rally with musical artist Jon Bon Jovi. That event took place in Lucerne County, a county that President Obama and Joe Biden won in 2008 and 2012 but a county that President Trump flipped in 2016.
Biden trying to make a play for those Obama trumped (ph) counties as the election nears. And both Obama and Biden had a message when it came to early voting. They have reached that point in the campaign where the Biden campaign is really focusing on turnout as the election is now just 9 days away -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, North Miami, Florida.
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BRUNHUBER: All right, to discuss all of this, let's bring in Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University at Essex, who joins us from Colchester, England.
Thank you so much for being with us. The news from the vice president's office, Mike Pence's chief of staff diagnosed with. COVID- 19.
What are the political ramifications given?
Pence is head of the Coronavirus Task Force and also the vice president's campaigning without his chief of staff.
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: This just isn't good news for the Trump campaign. It may not really matter. But Trump is at a point where he needs all the help he could get. And this shows that the Trump administration can't even contain a virus in the White House.
With the case of Pence, his chief of staff tested positive, his lead adviser tested positive and three other important advisers in his team. Reportedly the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows wanted to keep it private. And there is a reason why he wanted to keep it private. It's not good news.
But what you have seen with this task force, once Mike Pence took over, it became politicized and it wasn't really about listening to experts and listening to science. In fact they wanted to downplay the virus. And the vice president's chief of staff in particular wanted to downplay things.
They also wanted to ensure that all communication from public health agencies, all of it had to go through Mike Pence's team and this was to try to be in step with what Trump wanted, that this is going to go away and this is what we are seeing Trump doing on the campaign. Trail.
He keeps telling people that this is going away, we're rounding the corner now. Yet he just had a superspreader life event in the Villages in Florida. So they are ignoring all the safety protocols and really not being honest with the American public and this is really important because Trump is the most important communicator to the American public about the dangers of the virus.
BRUNHUBER: Right and, as you say, Mike Pence, his chief of staff, the people around him are often seen there on the campaign trail, going to rallies, packed with people, just like the president and vice president is continuing, planning to continue campaigning.
And that contrast with vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who took off a couple of days, off of campaigning when a close aide tested positive earlier this month.
So will the campaign pay any political price for this type of behavior or will it be seen as a sign of strength to carry on?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, we have been seeing the polls haven't shifted very much; the base is incredibly loyal to Trump. They get alternative sources of news. They don't believe a lot of the legitimate news media, what they are trying to offer and explain to them.
So we see that one group of people, it doesn't really matter for them. Then you also have Biden supporters who are on the other side, are wanting more regulations, want the federal effort to be more concerted and stronger, better organized.
But for Trump, what he needs to do is win over these last undecided voters. At the exact same time in 2016, this is where the polls really started to tighten for Clinton and Trump started to make a lot of ground, because the FBI, of course, had announced they were investigating her emails.
Trump needed some big shake-up, some big thing to happen that was going to really shift the polls and move the voters in his direction. And this type of news story just isn't going to help him.
BRUNHUBER: So essentially will it use up all the oxygen, I guess, or some valuable oxygen as we're heading into the last days of the campaign?
Will this be a big and unwelcome distraction from their message of shifting the focus away from COVID?
LINDSTAEDT: I think it just makes it harder for the American people to think that we are rounding the corner here, as Trump likes to say. That is really what the key issue was of the final debate.
[03:10:00] LINDSTAEDT: We saw that Biden kept criticizing Trump about the COVID crisis, that we're about to head into a very long winter, that he is downplaying it too much and that we need to have a strong federal response.
Trump keeps trying to tell people, we are almost over this thing. That is really dangerous, because Trump feels he has to say this because it's vital for the economy. And the economy is the other big issue in the campaign.
But I think what many Americans know is that we are not going to recover economically until we get the COVID crisis under control. So if this continues to be the key issue of the campaign and not other issues that may play to Trump's strengths, like this idea that he is this law and order president or that the economy is only going to be good under him, then that is going to be problematic for him.
I think that, with COVID being the focus, he is not going to be able to distract voters that are in the middle or undecided for whatever reason, that he is the best person to take us through the next four years.
BRUNHUBER: Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much. We appreciate. It
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, millions of Americans aren't waiting until November 3rd to vote. They are out now, making their voices heard and they are telling us why this year's election is so important. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, just 9 days to the presidential election, candidates and the voters are making their voices heard. Donald Trump and Joe Biden hitting key battleground states while early voters spent hours in line in New York. It was the state's first day of early in-person voting. And officials say almost 94,000 people cast ballots in New York City alone.
More than 52,000 Americans have cast ballots so far. CNN is reporting from polling stations across the country and asking why they are motivated this year. Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles but we're going to start here in Georgia with Natasha Chen.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as of noon on Saturday, more than 2.6 million votes have been cast in the state of Georgia. And when you look at both the in person and early voting as well as the absentee ballots that have been cast, that's a 114 percent increase over the same point in the 2016 election.
We've been seeing tremendous enthusiasm and energy, even in the rain, as people continue to wait to cast their votes. Now we have talked to a number of people in line, who represent the changing demographics in Georgia, a younger, more diverse group that is joining the voter rolls.
We met this one young couple in Atlanta, who said they are considering some very important issues as they cast their ballots this time.
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WILLIE SMITH, GEORGIA VOTER: I really do think it's about the character of this country, about who we vote for. So I think -- I just want my voice heard on that.
STEPHANIE SMITH, GEORGIA VOTER: I think, also, having a young daughter, we're also setting up the world for her. And I think our vote now speaks even more than it did as single people, that it's not just for right now. It's for the future.
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CHEN: Over the past 20 years, there's been a significant increase in the percentage of African American voters making up the electorate here in Georgia. And according to a recent study by Pew Research, Georgia also has the largest growth of any state in the country of eligible immigrant voters.
In fact we met voter here who was recently naturalized and excited about participating in her first U.S. election. Something that's also changing the electorate, Georgia in 2016 started automatically registering people to vote when they got their driver's license. So a lot of young people are joining the voter rolls -- Natasha Chen, CNN, Marietta, Georgia.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So one of the places where the early voting began in person in a specialized location in Los Angeles County, Staples Center. This is also home to the Lakers, the Sparks and the Kings. Along with AEG, they put on this event live long in the morning.
And the people here came in and cast those ballots in person. Many of them were Laker fans and they heeded the urging of LeBron James, who had said from the NBA bubble, we need to get more people, especially African Americans, out and voting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are lines because number one, this is Staples Center, home of the Lakers. Number two, I want to make a difference, cast out my vote and in a better place, the Staples Center.
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VERCAMMEN: We did a little exit polling here. Of course California is a blue state and here in the center of Los Angeles, we met one woman who echoed the sentiments of many, who said she was voting for Joe Biden.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because I felt that was the best choice to vote for today. And if anybody could vote, I urge you to vote your heart. But I just felt better about voting for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, because I felt that the country needs to come together.
And they will be the best party for the -- to bring the country together.
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VERCAMMEN: And in Los Angeles County so far, 1.3 million votes have been cast early and, overall for the state, a little over 6 million votes cast. At the Staples Center, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. national security experts have warned for a while that the presidential election would be a target for countries such as Russia, Iran and China but one possible threat for voters comes from a source much closer to home. CNN's Pamela Brown explains.
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PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New concerns about possible voter intimidation after the Trump campaigned film voters at a Philadelphia polling station. The campaign claims they found at least 3 people dropping off more than one ballot each.
What Trump team's attorney believes is just the tip of the iceberg and what can constitute unlawful absentee voting. The voters are allowed to drop off ballots for people who are disabled.
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BROWN (voice-over): And state officials warned the videos might be interpreted as intimidation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Voter intimidation is illegal under state and federal law and videotaping, you're taking pictures of you without your consent is part of that. BROWN (voice-over): Which the Trump campaign calls categorically absurd.
On election interference, intelligence officials confirm Russian hackers have stolen election data. But it's unclear how the information will be used. Officials say Iran used voter information to send threatening emails that came to light this week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran and Russia have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our elections.
BROWN (voice-over): The federal government issued two new cyber security alerts, warning that state and local governments were targeted. But officials say that election infrastructure has not been compromised.
The intelligence community generally agrees that the Russians interfered 4 years ago to help Trump win. Despite that, Trump slammed the assessment again.
TRUMP: They both want you to lose because there's been nobody tougher to Russia, with -- between the sanctions. Nobody tougher than me on Russia.
BROWN (voice-over): Intelligence experts agree, stopping Russia should be the priority.
JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Russia has been interfering in the run-up to our election already and, for my part at least, it's a far more serious threat than Iran.
BROWN (voice-over): More than 50 million Americans have already turned in their ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'd rather get it done and over with and deliver it early. That way I know I've voted.
BROWN (voice-over): And more than half of those votes come from CNN's 16 most competitive states and one of the fiercest battlegrounds, North Carolina, over 2.5 million ballots have been cast. That's more than half of the total turnout in 2016.
BROWN: We are learning more about 2020's first election ransomware attack. It happened in Georgia and in one Georgia county, officials there said, the hack affected a voter signature database and precinct maps.
They do not believe that it affected the election infrastructure and security experts say that it was likely more about profit than politics. But they are concerned about these ransomware attacks, as we get closer to Election Day, because they can cause chaos and confusion -- Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Joining me now in San Francisco, California, Renee DiResta, the tactical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory.
Thank you so much for being here on this very important topic. Given what happened in 2016, there's so much misinformation being spread, primarily by Russia.
Going into this election, there were a lot of concerns about the international and intentional spread of misinformation and how it might affect the vote.
From what you've seen, has it been as bad in this campaign?
And what if any are the differences between 2016 and now?
RENEE DIRESTA, STANFORD INTERNET OBSERVATORY: Sure, so right now we're seeing there's a lot more misinformation originating from domestic sources. So misinformation, meaning information that's inadvertently wrong, as opposed to disinformation campaigns with regard to Russia.
So what we're seeing today instead is information that oftentimes starts because somebody snaps a photo, maybe of a ballot that's been misplaced, something they see in the trash. And then that's amplified by domestic influencers, who want to spread a political narrative to benefit a partisan side.
And then that act of influence, picking it up and sharing it, means that it reaches many more people because these are unfortunately authentic accounts often with very large followings.
BRUNHUBER: Who is being targeted here?
The way you make it sound is that it's just kind of pumped into the online world for anyone to consume or is it specifically aimed it smaller but influential constituencies of voters?
DIRESTA: We're seeing a lot of different types of narratives spread. There's suppression type narratives, right now. We're very concerned about some of the footage that is real that is showing very long lines at polling stations but then implying that people are not going to be allowed to vote.
We're seeing footage that is taken out of context, suggesting that police officers will interfere in the voting process, targeting people on the Left.
We're seeing narratives of misleading ballot, claims about ballots being thrown away or mail-in ballots being, multiple people submitting multiple mail-in ballots. That one is really more targeted at the Right.
We're just constantly hearing about how voter fraud is going to be committed in the proceed of the mail-in vote we're going to see a lot of because of coronavirus. So it's really running the gamut. There's really no one community that is more targeted than another this point.
We are seeing a little bit more, however, of these narratives about mail-in ballot fraud disrupting the election.
BRUNHUBER: That's what I was going to say. It sounds like a lot of the misinformation or disinformation, depending on who's doing it.
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BRUNHUBER: Centers around either voting or the general theme of democracy.
What is the aim here?
DIRESTA: Well, unfortunately, the aim really seems to be discrediting confidence in the outcome of the election by discrediting confidence in the result of the election. So insinuating that if we can't run a free and fair election, in which one person, one vote, ballots are counted fairly, everybody's vote counts.
The concern now is that there's substantial lack of confidence in the process. What that might mean is that 50 percent of the population doesn't trust the outcome if their preferred candidate doesn't win because they've been hearing about how the election is going to be stolen or manipulated by the other side.
BRUNHUBER: It sounds obviously like what you're saying is echoing a lot of what President Trump is saying out loud.
Is this in any way to help him or to help his followers?
DIRESTA: Well, unfortunately, one of the things we never expected to see was the president of the United States participating in this process. That was not on anybody's -- things that we expected to see back in 2016.
In 2016, what we saw a lot of, with regard to these narratives about election machines not working or people fraudulently voting, was actually coming from Russian trolls.
Interestingly enough, that was one of the common themes they tried to amplify back in 2016. They were targeting the Right-leaning communities and had built pages for and create fake personas around and those pages and personas really leaned into the idea that the election was going to be stolen in the weeks leading up to the election of 2016.
Now we're seeing those themes echoed but instead of by Russian trolls, we're seeing them echoed by extremely prominent influencers with very large followings.
BRUNHUBER: Thank you very much, Renee DiResta, we appreciate it.
DIRESTA: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: A Russian coronavirus vaccine went public a few months ago without even starting phase 3 trials. The major developer now tells us it's not safe for everyone yet. Our exclusive interview coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to you our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. More now on our top story.
CNN has learned two senior aides to U.S. vice president Mike Pence tested positive for coronavirus. That includes the man you see there, his chief of staff. Despite Pence being in close contact with him as recently as Friday, Pence continues to continue campaigning.
He was in Florida on Saturday and plans to go to North Carolina. Today this comes as the United States reports its second highest day of coronavirus since the pandemic began. On Saturday, more than 83,000 people were diagnosed, just shy of the record high set on Friday, according Johns Hopkins University.
A White House report warns several regions in the U.S. are showing signs of deterioration with the virus surging; 35 states are reporting case increases of 10 percent or more. Not one state, not one of them is trending in the right direction.
Several European countries are hitting their record highs of COVID-19 infections. Many fear cases will continue to go up as we approach winter. Plus more European leaders are testing positive, including Poland's leader. CNN's Scott McLean is standby in Berlin.
You've been tracking all the major developments across the continent.
What's the latest?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The coronavirus numbers continue to rise across Europe. Each country is trying to find the silver bullet to tamp down this second wave. So far that search is continuing. What all these countries have in common is that the restrictions they have managed are much more localized and much more targeted and much more limited than the first time around.
I want to show you a couple of graphics that really illustrate the situation that we see here in Europe.
The first one is a rolling average of the coronavirus cases. You can see that the second wave of the virus ahs long eclipsed the first wave. But pay attention to those dates at the bottom as we now show you the coronavirus deaths, the rolling average of coronavirus deaths. Obviously, deaths are lagging behind the number of cases. And the
second wave has been slow to come when it comes to deaths. But I want to show you one other thing. There's a big divide between western European countries and eastern European countries.
Here's a graphic that shows the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Spain has been one of the worst, Germany is the best but that second wave has really paled in comparison to what we saw earlier in the year.
But then we flip over and see countries in eastern Europe, Croatia, Poland, Hungarian, Romania and especially the Czech Republic, it is a very different picture. Their first wave was much more subtle, much more muted, than in Western Europe. They didn't see the death tolls.
But now they were seeing them in a really big way. In Poland, they're seeing 4 times more deaths than the peak of the first wave, the Czech Republic is seeing 9 times more cases. Their health care system is really in dire straits. The health minister set a day where he thinks the hospitals are going to be overwhelmed.
He thinks that could happen as soon as November 7th. They are bringing in medic, doctors from the U.S. National Guard an also setting up a field hospital that they think they might need by the end of this month.
One note on the Polish president he tweeted yesterday that he tested positive, he is isolating but so far no symptoms.
BRUNHUBER: Well, that graphic you showed was quite disturbing indeed. Thanks so much, Scott McLean in Berlin. Appreciate it.
Well, even if there were a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, only about half of Americans say they would take it. That's obviously a huge problem.
The director of the National Institutes of Health says the virus could be here for years if only half the Americans take the vaccine.
Dozens of pharmaceutical companies around the world are racing to find a vaccine that can slow the spread of the virus. Nine are here in the U.S., 12 in China and 2 in Russia, including Sputnik V registered for public use.
Of course, Russia has been bragging about the speed at which it developed that coronavirus vaccine.
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BRUNHUBER: But in an exclusive interview with CNN, the vaccine's main developer also admits that it's not recommended for some most at risk from COVID-19. CNN's Fred Pleitgen explains.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As Russia deals with a major spike in new coronavirus infections, despite already having approved two vaccines for emergency use, the head of the Gamaleya Institute in charge of the development of the most prominent vaccine, Sputnik V, told us it may take up to a year for the majority of Russians to get shots, as production sites are still in the process of going online.
ALEXANDER GINTSBURG, GAMALEYE INSTITUTE (through translator): Planned capacity of these full sites by next year should reach about 5 million doses per month, which will allow 70 percent of our population to be vaccinated with this vaccine within nine, to 10, to a maximum of 12 months.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russia's certified the Sputnik V vaccine with great fanfare in August after testing it in only a few dozen people. The move hailed as a major PR victory for Vladimir Putin as Russia claims to be outpacing Western pharma firms. But in current large phase 3 trials, Sputnik V is lagging well behind Western vaccine candidates.
Sputnik V's makers said only about 6,000 participants have so far received the two doses necessary to achieve complete immunization and start collecting data, compared to almost 30,000 in some large Western trials.
All this as Russian state TV is trashing the U.K.'s vaccine candidate, calling it, quote, "a monkey vaccine," despite the fact that Russia itself has made a deal to produce this very vaccine under license. The head of Russia's direct investment fund which is bankrolling Sputnik V claiming Moscow's vaccine is superior because it uses so-called human adenovirus technology.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we decided to use something already existing, something already safe, something already proven. And many people in the West failed to think about this.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But even the Sputnik vaccine's instructions say it's only indicated for people 18-60 and not for people with some allergies and illnesses, meaning now older age groups and people with health conditions, some of the most vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19.
The head of the Gamaleya Institute told CNN the vaccine simply hasn't been tested on older people but he believes the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions can still take it.
GINTSBURG (through translator): With many chronic diseases, in particular people with diabetes, it is not just that it is carried out; it is prescribed to vaccinate people because these are risk groups that need to be protected. But these people, people with cardiac diseases, these are all chronic diseases, as we know, you need to vaccinate.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russia says it will still soon wrap ramp up production of Sputnik V to vaccinate more medical workers and other high risk groups, a move Konstantin Chumakov, a top vaccine expert at the Global Virus Network, called dangerously risky. KONSTANTIN CHUMAKOV, GLOBAL VIRUS NETWORK: I think that there is a
reason why they call it Russian roulette. So this is exactly it.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): One Russian who isn't taking the Sputnik V vaccine so far is the president, Vladimir Putin, his spokesman telling CNN, Putin is, quote, "thinking about it" -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
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BRUNHUBER: Asian Americans contract COVID-19 at about the same rate as white Americans, according to the CDC. Yet they are also dealing with another blow from the pandemic, soaring unemployment rate. CNN's Amara Walker has the details.
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AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Lunchtime at this Chinese restaurant is typically a busy hour. That was before the pandemic. Now at Canton House in Atlanta, it's mostly empty tables and an unusually quiet dining room.
CAM VUONG, RESTAURATEUR: My God, the business dropped 98 percent.
WALKER (voice-over): The restaurant industry was among the hardest hit among the coronavirus pandemic. But the owner here is facing a struggle unique to Asian Americans, a double whammy of historic unemployment and discrimination.
VUONG: At the time we closed, we do have our window was broken and -- with a hammer without any reason whatsoever. At that time, we really think that's racist.
WALKER (voice-over): As COVID-19 has spread, so has the racism and xenophobia. Members of the United Nations Committee on Discrimination recently expressed concern over an alarming level of racially motivated incidents against Asian Americans, saying president Trump's rhetoric seems to play a role in legitimizing the hate crimes.
Sixty-year-old Vuong reopened his dining room in May. Business is down still 50 percent. He wonders if discrimination is slowing down recovery.
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VUONG: When we first opening, I do have a feeling that the people say don't go to Chinese restaurants.
MARLENE KIM, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: People were avoiding Asian businesses because they thought they would get the coronavirus from these businesses.
WALKER (voice-over): An economics professor at the University of Massachusetts says COVID-19 has taken a heavy economic toll on Asian Americans. According to government statistics, from February to June, Asian American unemployment rates increased more by more than 450 percent.
KIM: Asians typically have among the lowest unemployment rates. And it's really shot up during COVID.
WALKER (voice-over): A visit to Atlanta's Chinatown underscores the struggle. This gift shop is closing at the end of the month. Other businesses here are telling us they are just trying to survive. Yet Kim says few are taking notice.
KIM: I think it's been overlooked because people don't think that Asians have problems. People think of Asians as a model minority.
VUONG: No, we are just not desperate, we are struggling.
WALKER (voice-over): But Vuong, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam, remains hopeful. He says he's been living the American dream for 40 years and hopes for 40 more.
VUONG: We have a dream, to get the business, to have a house, to have a stable life, a peaceful life, have a family and then raise our kids. But hopefully our dreams are not broken because of this COVID-19.
WALKER: Vuong tells me that he just got started breaking even so he's got quite a way to go still. He's concerned about a second wave of COVID-19 hurting his business. But he says he's the most concerned about the outcome of the presidential election and whether that will inflame racial tensions -- back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: Nigeria's police chief is saying enough is enough but protesters are saying the government isn't doing enough to end police brutality. Now there are more police on the streets. We'll have a full report just ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: In Nigeria, chaotic scenes of looting and destruction prompted the deployment of the nation's entire police force. Now this comes after weeks of protests across the country over police brutality.
The government shut down the special anti robbery squad over accusations that members of that union have harassed, kidnapped, extorted even murdered people. As CNN's Nima Elbagir reports, this past week was a bloody one in Lagos.
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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Broken glass and debris on the streets of Lagos. Shattered remnants of protests in Nigeria over police brutality that quickly turned from peaceful to deadly.
There is a tense calm in the city now. But on Tuesday night, the city erupted into chaos after eyewitnesses say multiple protesters were shot and killed by army soldiers. The army has dismissed reports of the incident as "fake news."
The shooting set off a wave of anger across the country. Many shops and businesses have been burned or damaged and there is widespread looting in the worst unrest in the country since its return to civilian rule in 1999.
It is one of the biggest political challenges so far for the country's president, Muhammadu Buhari. On Thursday he addressed the nation, appealing for calm.
MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA: Your voice has been heard loud and clear and we are responding.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): But critics say he waited too long to make a public statement and didn't even address the events on Tuesday, which has further angered many Nigerians.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People died, people and their loved ones, and he didn't mention anything about. It
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The speech was baseless, hopeless.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): The state governor spoke to CNN and said he is committed to a full investigation of what happened and people will be held accountable but also says demonstrators should have left when they were told, as a curfew was in effect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The protesters had the time to also have left the site we're talking about. But it's totally condemning (ph).
ELBAGIR (voice-over): The protests began more than 2 weeks ago and has been largely driven by young people in Nigeria, organizing on social media under the #EndSARS who initially called for a police unit known as a special anti-robbery squad to be disbanded because of allegations of kidnapping, harassment and extortion.
Under intense pressure, the government agreed to dissolve the unit and redeploy officers to a different team. But the movement continued, widening to include economic reforms and more protections against the police.
The voices raised here in a call for justice have found willing echoes around the world, gaining international attention from celebrities like Beyonce and Rihanna, placing a spotlight on shootings that have yet to be fully explained and the growing discontent from the country's youth -- Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Samsung's chairman Lee Kun-hee has died after years of
illness. He had been comatose after suffering a heart attack in 2014. His son has been leading the company since becoming vice chairman in 2012 and is expected to inherit his father's title. Lee Kun-hee was 78 years old.
We will be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: According to one popular conspiracy theory, the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab as a bioweapon. Now there's no actual evidence of that and experts say that the science doesn't hold up.
But even so the theory has been embraced by many allies and supporters of the U.S. president. In fact, the theory has a direct link to one of Trump's biggest backers. Here's Drew Griffin with a CNN exclusive investigation.
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DREW GRIFFIN CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It is a right-wing fueled conspiracy theory pushed to millions of Americans.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Li-Meng Yan.
GRIFFIN: Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a Chinese scientist in hiding but appears everywhere on right wing media and claiming her two research papers prove the virus that causes COVID-19 was created in a Chinese lab and is a Chinese bio weapon.
DR. LI-MENG YAN, M.D. PHD, VIROLOGIST, WHISTLEBLOWER: It is modern bio weapon in unrestricted way.
GRIFFIN: But a CNN investigation has found shoddy citations, questionable sourcing and so many scientists who say it's bunk, Yan's paper is not a credible, scientific work. But it is directly linked to one of Donald Trump's former top strategists, Steve Bannon.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: Do you believe that a super spreader or some -- was actually sent and somehow has been focused on the White House or focused on President Trump?
MILES GUO: One hundred percent.
GRIFFIN: That 100 percent comes from Chinese billionaire and exile Miles Guo, who's using his money and Bannon's media expertise to try to discredit the Chinese government. Bannon and Guo appeared together on Bannon's podcast, fill the pages of a website called "G News" and began two non-profits together, The Rule of Law Society and Rule of Law Foundation. These are the groups who say they support Dr. Li-Meng Yan and appear on the top of her research reports.
Columbia University virologist Angela Rasmussen says the papers are scientific junk.
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ANGELA RASMUSSEN, VIROLOGIST, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Anybody with an actual background in virology or molecular biology who reads this paper will realize that much of it is actually nonsense.
GRIFFIN: CNN spoke to a half dozen scientists who say Yan's papers are filled with half-truths, not scientifically tenable. One who even met with Yan and said, her first study wasn't plausible. University of Michigan Professor Anna Mapp says the paper lacked a basic obligation to scientific practices.
ANNA MAPP, PROFESSOR OF CHEMICAL BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: I was also really disturbed to see such a shoddy piece of work.
GRIFFIN: And CNN could find no trace of Yan's three co-authors in the U.S. or China. Yan didn't respond to tell us why, but a source tells us that those three co-authors are pseudonyms for U.S.-based Chinese scientist who fear using their own names, but the source offered no proof.
Miles Guo told us Yan's work is Yan's work, independent of any editorial control by me. Steve Bannon offered no response.
Yet there is more about Yan's work. Some of the sources of her research appear not to be credible. Amanda Peiffer, who's getting a Ph.D. in chemical biology, first alerted CNN to issues with the citations at the very end of Yan's paper.
AMANDA PEIFFER, CHEMICAL BIOLOGY PH.D. CANDIDATE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: People who aren't experts, people who aren't scientists, people who really haven't done anything, these are not coming from credible sources. I think that's really concerning.
GRIFFIN: A CNN analyst finds Yan's citations include a paper that appeared only as a post on a LinkedIn, a report written by a person that CNN cannot locate, running a company that does not seem to exist, three of the citations that linked to posts on a website opposed to genetically modified food.
Then there is citation 23, which links to anonymous blog posts published back in March. Parts of Yan's papers appear to be pulled directly from these anonymous blogs.
GRIFFIN (on camera): I don't want to say copied and pasted, but it almost has that same effect.
PEIFFER: They took the exact same figures, the exact same phrasing and the exact same captions and put those into the report that was Yan's paper. And that -- that does not happen in science.
GRIFFIN (voice over): And guess where one of those blogs first appeared months before Yan's paper?
"G News," the disinformation news site linked to Steve Bannon and Miles Guo.
RASMUSSEN: And as much as I hate to think of the idea of component scientists using their work for political propaganda, to me that's what this seems to be.
GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, I'm Kim Brunhuber and I'll have more from the CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. Please stay with us.
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