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Trump to Hold First of Three Pennsylvania Rallies Tonight; Italy Braces as COVID-10 Numbers Already Set New Highs; Interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg Book Co-Author Amanda Tyler. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 26, 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: OK, that's interesting. When -- when you talk to the parents -- and I know you're trying to convince more parents to have their children participate in this -- what's the number one question you get?

ROBERT FRENCK JR., PEDIATRIC VACCINE SPECIALIST: So the first thing people always want to know is about safety. And so we tell them what we know. The next thing is that they want to know, will this vaccine give them COVID? And we explain absolutely it will not, this is not a live virus, it cannot give you COVID.

And then the other thing they want to know is -- all the teens want to know, is how many needle sticks am I going to have? How many vaccines and how many blood draws? That's -- those are the main things that teens want to know.

HARLOW: I guess my final question would be, what do you say to those who have argued you shouldn't start any trial on children until the adult trials are 100 percent complete and the vaccine is FDA-approved for adults? What do you say to them?

FRENCK: Well, we do have a number of vaccines where we -- in the past that are approved vaccines, where we started vaccine trials in children. I mean: pneumococcal vaccine, Haemophilus vaccine. So we have a long history of starting in children for children's diseases.

You know, we're doing it in children now, I think for two reasons. One is that for the direct effect for the child, is that -- to protect them.

But I think what's important is going to be the indirect effect. Because what we're seeing is while children do get infected, the likelihood they're going to get severe disease is a lot lower. However, because their severe disease is a lot lower, they may not know they have COVID and then they're transmitting it to others: their teachers, their parents, their grandparents. So I think there's really two main reasons why we want to immunize.

HARLOW: Thank you for being here and for the work you're doing on this. It's going to make a difference for so many kids and their parents and their grandparents and their teachers out there. We hope everything works out. Thanks, Doctor.

FRENCK: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: Of course -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good for him, we need those efforts.

A final push to the finish line, what do the candidates' campaign strategies say about the state of the race?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:36:40]

HARLOW: All right, you're looking at live pictures. This is Allentown, Pennsylvania where, in the next hour, the president will hold the first of three rallies today in that key battleground state. The Trump campaign has laid out a flurry of campaign events in just the next few days.

SCIUTTO: Yes, shows how focused they are on Pennsylvania. Former Vice President Joe Biden, he is off the trail today but is expected to stump in several key states later in the week.

Joining us now, CNN's senior political analyst Mark Preston. Mark, big question for you. You could tell a lot from campaigns about what they know and believe about the state of the race based on where they allocate their candidates' limited time in the final stretch.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

SCIUTTO: What do you see? You know, three rallies in one day in Pennsylvania for the president, and the Bidens' travel later this week.

PRESTON: You know, look, I think there's a level of desperation right now we're seeing with the Trump campaign. They see the same polls that we do, they have internal numbers that are likely tracking what we're seeing publicly. If not, then, you know, there's something wrong with their pollster.

And Donald Trump right now is seeing that the key to his victory is very much a path that he took back in 2016. And he thinks that these big rallies in these big Rust Belt states in -- Pennsylvania is a Rust Belt state if you were to divide it in half, right? You go to the western part of the state, Jim.

But the fact of the matter is, he's trying to make an appeal to these blue-collar workers, and trying to offer them hope about bringing back manufacturing jobs and about fracking and about coal. But the fact of that matter is is that he is losing across the board in just about every demographic, and he's in trouble.

HARLOW: Why is Joe Biden not on the trail in the -- nearly the way that the president is? I don't think he has any events planned today, at least in person. PRESTON: You know, Poppy, in football, they call this pre-event

defense, right? So if the team is winning --

HARLOW: I knew that Mark.

PRESTON: -- which (ph) towards -- I know, I know, but just for everyone else that's out there, you know, that doesn't watch football. And certainly shouldn't watch it this year because the New England Patriots are doing terrible, let's just move on and have this be a forgotten year.

HARLOW: Can we not talk about the Vikings? But anyway.

PRESTON: I know, I know, I know. But look, it's pre-event defense, right? The idea is if you're up by X amount of points, you're going to allow your opponent to get some yardage, with the idea of just containing that person. And I think that's what you're seeing with Joe Biden in some ways.

Why put him out on the campaign trail right now where he could, A, get sick; B, have a flub or a gaffe or say something that could totally turn the race around. Let's put him back in his bunker. Look, Republicans are right about that. Joe Biden, if I'm running his campaign, I am certainly calibrating how much he is going out there and talking to the people.

SCIUTTO: I want to talk about the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, telling our colleague Jake Tapper yesterday that we are not going to control the pandemic. And I know where this view comes from because you and I have heard it from Trump supporters and maybe even family members, right? Saying, throw your hands up in the air, man, we just got to live through it.

Politically though, given that we are setting records now on new infections and deaths are going up as well on a daily basis, smart politics?

PRESTON: You know, it's interesting. They said because we do have those conversations with friends and family and others, because this is -- becomes a very divisive issue. I will say though, for many of the folks that are saying that, they probably haven't lost someone very close to them, right? During the pandemic. They may know somebody who has died, but they don't have somebody who has died to them that is very, very close.

[10:40:08]

Look, desperation, Mark Meadows is going out there now saying, we can't do anything about this. But what we can do is get the therapeutics. Well, of course the therapeutics are going to be helpful and they're (ph) the ones, you know -- and the vaccine -- that is going to get us over this hump. But it's a desperation message right now.

And I will tell you what, let's talk in two weeks, Jim, we'll see what the messaging is out if -- if Joe Biden wins the presidency, it'll be entirely different.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Mark, there's still no stimulus deal. And I kind of can't believe it --

PRESTON: Right.

HARLOW: -- and you've got this letter now from the governors of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, pleading for help. By the way, pleading with both sides. Like, Nancy Pelosi, White House, everyone, please make a deal.

They say that they're on a dangerous fiscal cliff. The scale of their needs exceeds what they can address. And they even went on to say if we don't get funding this month, we may need to scale back or cancel our contact tracing, testing and additional PPE. Who pays the bigger political price if nothing gets done soon?

PRESTON: Well, look, I mean, we are coming right down to the end right now. So look, I think that Republicans are going to pay the political price. Maybe not because a deal wasn't done necessarily, we've already seen so many people vote already. But more importantly, that there wasn't a willingness to try to get something done.

And quite frankly, Republicans are -- in the House and the Senate, through their own doing, are being dragged down by Donald Trump. And we are starting to see some Republicans try to distance themselves from him as well.

What is interesting though too to note is that they're all democratic governors, right? That wrote that letter. And Mike Pence is going to be in Minnesota today.

HARLOW: Yes.

PRESTON: So it just goes to tell you -- goes back to what Jim was saying. And to tie it up with you, Poppy, is that these rallies, where are they going, what are they doing? Well guess what, when they go into these states, they're also going to take some incoming, some political flak from their opponents. And that's what we've seen today.

SCIUTTO: Mark Preston, good to have you cut through it all. Thanks very much.

PRESTON: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, as new coronavirus infections spike in Italy, first responders there are gearing up for a second wave that could potentially look -- well, some say more like a tsunami. An inside look at how one of the country's ICUs is preparing, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:47:11] SCIUTTO: Overseas now, Italy recorded another 21,000 new coronavirus infections on Sunday. That is a new daily record there. The prime minister has put some new restrictions in place, but he warns his country cannot afford another total lockdown.

HARLOW: Our colleague Ben Wedeman joins us this morning from Rome. Ben, you went inside of a hospital in one of Italy's hardest hit regions. What did you see in terms of how doctors are preparing for the next wave?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting, Poppy, because we were actually in that very same hospital in March at the beginning of the pandemic. We saw already that those doctors were almost traumatized by what they'd seen back then. Now, you really get this sense of dread as they ponder what lies ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEDEMAN (voice-over): The intensive care unit is a place of total concentration: no small talk, just the rhythmic beeping of the machines, the steady breathing of patients on ventilators.

The Ospedale Maggiore di Lodi was in the front line of Italy's coronavirus pandemic earlier this year. And now, the staff is bracing for the second wave.

Dr. Matteo Brambati anticipates another nightmare.

It's like the second jump for a paratrooper, he tells me. The first time, you don't know what to expect. The second jump is more problematic because you know what's coming.

At the moment, Italian hospitals are able to deal with the number of patients in intensive care. However, that could change as the numbers continue to skyrocket.

ICU director Dr. Enrico Storti regularly gathers his colleagues for a debrief.

ENRICO STORTI, ICU DIRECTOR: -- to evaluate, to measure, evaluate to what we need, and how we can now put on the floor and bring on the table our ideas, our solutions --

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Gathered in this room are some of Italy's, perhaps some of the world's most experienced soldiers in the fight against COVID-19.

Dr. Annalisa Malara diagnosed the first Italian coronavirus patient on the 20th of February.

ANNALISA MALARA, ICU DOCTOR: We are ready because we learned a lot.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): But this war, like all wars, takes a toll.

MICHELE INTRONA, ICU DOCTOR: I think I felt like the soldiers during the world wars. I don't know, I think I experienced what these young boys experienced at that time, when they were going, fighting of -- I mean (ph) a war, knowing that they could die.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): The empty beds, ready for more casualties.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[10:50:09]

WEDEMAN: And at this point, the authorities here are very concerned because the numbers, we're already seeing twice as many cases -- positive, active cases of coronavirus -- now than we saw at the height of the pandemic earlier this year.

And as the head of that ICU was telling me, we are at the very, very, very, very beginning of the second wave. And those are his words -- Jim, Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Yes, you remember how devastating the first wave was for Italy in the spring, sad to imagine that again. Ben Wedeman, thanks very much.

HARLOW: All right, well a hugely consequential vote -- it is tonight -- the Senate will vote to confirm the president's Supreme Court pick, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a major victory for the party and for this president, eight days before the election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:11]

HARLOW: Well later tonight, Judge Amy Coney Barrett is set to become the next U.S. Supreme Court justice, and only the fifth woman to sit on the High Court.

All Democrats in the Senate are expected to vote no. They have decried the confirmation process as Republicans have pushed ahead with one of the quickest in modern history. And this is set to solidify a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Barrett will of course fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who, at the time of her passing, was actually working on what would be her final book. The title? "Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life's Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union." And that book is cowritten by one of her former clerks. University of California- Berkeley law professor Amanda Tyler, and Professor Tyler joins me now.

Thank you for being here. I'm sorry for your loss, I know this was far beyond just a professional relationship, there was a deep friendship between the two of you. So thank you for being with us this morning.

AMANDA TYLER, PROFESSOR OF LAW, U.C. BERKELEY: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: What was she fighting hardest for in her final months as she returned to the hospital again and again with health complications -- what was in her mind as her biggest fight?

TYLER: I think one of the things that those of us who knew her saw -- but the public saw this as well -- is that she was incredibly resilient. And she was profoundly dedicated to being a public servant. So what I saw over the summer was someone who was working, still, as much as she could.

And so you know, I think she was trying to stay the course. She had seen so much adversity in her life, but had this will and determination that was pretty much superhuman. And I think even though things didn't look like they were going in the right direction, a lot of us thought by this point that she was invincible. And thought she would just keep going.

HARLOW: I know there is new information that is going to come in your book. And I'm not telling you to share all of it, but can you share a bit of what is new that people don't know before that they will read in your book?

TYLER: So I think one of the most special things about the book is that she and I spent time hand-picking things that she thought would be -- would tell her story.

So to begin, the book is built around a conversation that we had about her life, where she tells her life story in her own words. But then she's hand-picked things from her time as an advocate and from her time on the court, including her very favorite opinions that she would like -- if people read nothing else, she would like them to read those to have a sense of who she was as a justice.

HARLOW: Right.

TYLER: And then also, some of her final speeches. And in those speeches, you hear her talk in very personal terms about her family, about how, you know, her parents were -- and grandparents were immigrants, she talks about the American dream.

And she talks -- I think this is a really important theme of the book, and it's why we try to gear it toward a general audience. She talks about how important it is for everyone -- not just the justices of the Supreme Court, but everyone -- to take ownership of this grand experiment, and to work toward building a more perfect union as the Constitution calls on us to do.

HARLOW: You talk about her decisions, and she became known for her dissent. She didn't want it to be that way, but she became known as a great dissenter. And I think about her dissent in Shelby v. Holder, the voting rights decision just in 2013. And when she wrote in that dissent, "The sad irony of today's decision lies in the utter failure to grasp why the Voting Rights Act has proven effective."

In this moment of so many questions about voting rights in this country, eight days from an election, did she talk to you about that?

TYLER: We didn't talk too much about the election, but I've been thinking a lot about that dissent and also the statement she read from the bench in announcing her dissent. You know, it's rare -- as you know -- for justices to read a statement when they're dissenting from the bench, but that's an indication of how important and how powerfully they feel about their dissent.

And I keep coming back to that statement because I think she left us with what she would say in this moment. You know, she quoted from Dr. King, and she talked about that great man who led the march from Selma to Montgomery, and how he spoke about the fact that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. And she continued the phrase to say if there is a steadfast commitment to see the task through to completion.

[11:00:00]

And I think that's another indication of where she's calling on the American people, get invested and vote and make it your Constitution.