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Dow Tumbles Over Pandemic Concerns; Trump: We're Absolutely Rounding The Corner; Mark Meadows: White House Has Done Contact Tracing Among Reporters; Pence Taking Precautions At Campaign Stops After Aides Test Positive; State Of The Race With Eight Days To Go. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 26, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: European markets also in the red across the board today. That part of the world also facing a major COVID surge right now.

Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is the top of the hour. I am John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very important day with us. To start a very important week, and out of control pandemic, colliding with the final 2020 campaign sprint, the president in Pennsylvania this hour part of the Trump Campaign's battleground focuses today.

The vice president heading to Minnesota disregarding warnings from doctors that it is not safe for him to be around crowds. That after exposure to Coronavirus, there is a cluster right now in the vice president's own office. The president says in tweets this morning that he is winning and winning big.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Amazing. Amazing attendance and amazing poll numbers. We have poll numbers that I'll be talking about up there that have been very extraordinary. I think we are leading in Pennsylvania. I think we will win Pennsylvania. So I don't think I have to worry about that. I think we are going to win Pennsylvania by more than we did last time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The public polling numbers and there are new ones today, they show just the opposite. That Joe Biden has a stable and quite significant lead eight days out. And the president if he wants four more years must engineer in these final days, a historic turnaround. The president's Coronavirus tweets also run counter to the realty the president says, we are making progress. The new numbers show something far different and far scarier.

60,000 new cases on Sunday, that's the second highest Sunday of new cases since the beginning of this pandemic. Over the last seven days, the United States grew its case count by a numbing 481,000 new cases. It's the highest single week of cases over the course of the entire pandemic. It took eleven weeks to rack up that many new infections at the start of this pandemic.

In the spring spike, the president claimed the virus would simply go away, but we all know it hasn't. And Sunday, the White House Chief of Staff sounded a message of surrender, "We are not going to control the pandemic." Today the president insists the country is coming down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are rounding the turn. You know? All they want to talk about is COVID. By the way on November 4th, you will be hearing so much about it. COVID, COVID, COVID! We're rounding the turn, that we have the vaccines coming out very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's begin our conversation this hour, CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Michael Shear of the "The New York Times". Kaitlan I want to play a little bit more of the president now in town this morning because the American people are seeing this was looking at some of the local newspapers across the country this morning. Everywhere they live, everywhere they live, 37 states right now the count is going up. Listen to more of the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No, not at all. In fact, the opposite absolutely the opposite. We've done an incredible job. We are doing a great job. We are absolutely rounding the corner. Other than the fake news--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There are a lot of things in politics you can well away or tweet away or just keep talking in a way to get people to believe you. How does he think he can convince people that we are rounding the corner when we set a new record on Friday, almost matched it on Saturday and most of the experts say we will be 100,000 new infections within a matter of days?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, clearly the president thinks this is the message that he should be portraying to voters, because we know voters so far do not like the way the president has responded to the pandemic.

And now he has come out with this new message that he has been using over the last several days at the rallies that I've been to including the one this morning in Pennsylvania where he said, he believes the media is only talking about the Coronavirus pandemic repeatedly, so let us do that until the election happens and then no one will talk about it again after that.

Of course John, that is not even close to being true. We've been covering the pandemic for ten months now and that's because it's devastated American life and killed over 200,000 Americans. But I think the president understands that people do not like the way that he's handled this and that could very well decide his fate on Election Day. And clearly, the president and other staffers were not happy with that

answer from Mark Meadows yesterday saying, we are not going to get the pandemic under control, because we saw Jared Kushner doing cleanup this morning and then the president there saying, he doesn't agree with that statement from Meadows yesterday.

So they are trying to really portray it like that, but it comes of course as the president is saying we are rounding the corner and he is continuing to hold rally after rally where you're seeing there is no social distancing, no mask wearing hardly on the attendees who were there as the president is trying to make this final pitch to voters.

KING: And Michael, this is a problem in some cases, at least several of the examples of their own making. The president had his own COVID case, he is trying now and turn that into a plus saying see tough it out, but he had access to unique medical care. They had the super spreader event in rolling out Judge Barrett and now they have a cluster in the vice president's office.

You write about this in the newspaper across the White House complex, there was a mixture of anxiety about what the outbreak means for the election, and intense frustration with Mr. Short who's been among the leaders in the administration in arguing the risks of the virus have been overblown. Mr. Short has also played down the value of mask wearing.

Administration officials said Mr. Short was expected to stay home for at least ten days. So you have another cluster in the White House. When one of the issues in this campaign, Joe Biden has those socially distanced event, he gives fewer speeches, he gets mocked by the president for being in the basement. He says I am being responsible. And now you have another cluster in the White House. Voters get and decide.

[12:05:00]

MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And look, I think Kaitlan is absolutely right. The president has spent the last four years demonstrating that he likes to will things away with the force of his bully pulpit with his 80 million Twitter followers. He imagines that he can simply kind of bully the American public opinion in the sort of thinking that the way he describes reality is actually so.

And I really think that he doesn't understand that this is different, that this is not something that you can just will away. And inside the White House, you know, the people like Mark Short who you mentioned, who is the Vice President's Chief of Staff, were among those who sort of bought into the president's ideas, bought into the president's notions and helped buck the president up when the president would say, you know, this isn't a problem or we don't need to take this seriously or we can sort of will this away.

And I think that some of the other more sober-minded people in the White House are realizing now the damage that that has done, not only, obviously, to the health and welfare of the American public economically and all of the deaths, but also the damage it has done to his campaign, because it's spiking at exactly the moment that he is trying to get the American people to give him another four years. And that's going to be a tough sale.

KING: Right, you want four more years, you get judged on the four you're having in the first term. And in this case, the president is simply wrong today. When he says we are going down, when he says we've turned the corner, he is simply wrong. Today, Kaitlan Collins, this is eight months ago to the day. He's wrong today and he was very wrong then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. We are going down, not up. We are going very substantially down, not up. We have it so well under control, we've really have done a very good job. We are testing everybody that we need to test and we are finding very little problem, very little problem. Now, you treat this like flu.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: 15 people will soon be down to zero. Look at the right of your screen. 8.6 million Infections in the United States and counting 8.6 million infections in the United States and counting 225,000 deaths. Wrong, a consistent, I guess, very wrong eight months ago to this day and wrong again today.

COLLINS: Yes, it is not being dramatic to say that the president has underestimated Coronavirus since day one. And while there have been brief moments where the White House seems to have recognized the severity of what's going on like when the president himself was hospitalized with Coronavirus, despite what Jared Kushner said today that most of the cases in the West Wing had been largely benign.

Of course, the president was basically medevaced to the hospital, so we know that's not the case. So there has been a West Wing outbreak, there is now an outbreak in the vice president's office. So they've not only underestimated it on a national scale and really a global scale, but even in their own corners and their own offices.

You've seen how they've underestimated it. And so, that's why people are questioning things like, what they are doing tonight holding another event for Amy Coney Barret after she is presumably confirmed to the Supreme Court as a new justice win.

That last event that they held here was it really rocketed the West Wing because that's when you saw all of those people get Coronavirus. Yet despite that, it doesn't seem that they've learned from that, because they are still going to hold another one tonight, they are inviting lawmakers, they are inviting guests. And we've not been told that every single person who comes in will be tested.

We've not been told that mask will be required; we've been told that there will be social distance in outdoors. But of course, that was what their argument was the last time around. So you're seeing from a small scale to a large scale that it doesn't appear that they have learned from their mistakes when it comes to their response from something is small as an event at the White House or something is big as the national response to this pandemic.

KING: And Michael, the last time around you were among those who contracted the Coronavirus. And so, first, I hope you're doing well. Please answer that on the other side of this. This is the White House Chief of Staff talking about that experience. I want to ask you if this sounds true or not. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: There is also contact tracing.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That is not leading!

MEADOWS: Jake!

TAPPER: That is not leading!

MEADOWS: There is also being contact tracing from reporters, some with your own group where they actually have worn masks religiously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Hey, how are you feeling? And when the Chief of Staff says, there has been this contact tracing and all that, what's the fact?

SHEAR: So thank you for asking. I'm feeling a whole lot better, but it was two plus weeks of pretty intense sickness. This thing is no joke and, obviously, some people have different and more mild symptoms. Myself and my wife had pretty severe symptoms and so, it's nice to be feeling better.

Look, Mark Meadows' response does not comport with my experience. I obviously can't speak to all of the contact tracing that may or may not have been done. But what I can say is that, I was on Air Force One, the night after that Amy Coney Barrett event in the Rose Garden. I contracted the virus a few days later. And up from that point until today, I still have not heard anything from the White House.

[12:10:00]

SHEAR: They never called to ask whether or who I might have been in touch with, whether it might be on their staff or other reporters. There was some contact tracing done by my local health department here in Virginia, but nothing from the White House.

KING: Nothing from the White House. Well, we're glad you're feeling better and your wife as well. Michael Shear, Kaitlan Collins grateful for the reporting and the insights. Up next for us we continue the conversation. Again, the vice president is on the road, despite a cluster of Coronavirus among his top aides. I'll talk to a woman who was once the vice president's doctor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The Coronavirus numbers were tough this weekend. And all of the public health experts say brace, brace for a tough week and weeks ahead. Let's look at where we are right now. For those of you familiar, red and orange is bad on the map and there's a whole lot of red and orange. 37 of the 50 states, 37 of the 50 United States right now trending in the wrong direction. That means more new COVID infections now compared to the data one week ago.

[12:15:00]

KING: You see California, Wisconsin, Alabama, Vermont, and Rhode Island 50 percent Alaska as well. More than 50 percent new cases right now compared to a week ago, the rest of the orange also higher. Again 37 states heading in the wrong direction, 13 states, that's the Beige, holding steady, none, zero of the 50 states trending down right now in the Coronavirus fight.

If you look right now at the average of deaths right now, this is the seven day moving average of deaths per 10 million residents and you see the deeper states, the deeper red states starting to have a higher death count, especially the biggest problem right now, Midwest cross the prairie out into the mountain plains. That is where you have the biggest problem right now.

There is an at the most populous state, so the case counts, even the death counts not as high as we saw in the summer surge where we are going through California, Texas and Florida, but the numbers are mounting as we go through that. The case trend line is very troubling.

Friday, the first new record, the new record, I mean, I'm sorry 83,757. Saturday came in very close behind it. Sunday did drop back down to 60,789. But the weekends do tend to drop. We will see as this heads up. The experts say 100,000 is most likely in our future. The hospitalization trend, again, follow the trend line, right?

It's more important than the numbers, the trend line and it is starting to head up as well. And this is where you say, it's with us today and it will be with us again tomorrow and the day after and the day after. Because 35 states right now, you see them in red, 35 of the 50 states reporting a higher positivity rate, a new COVID test now compared to a week ago.

Higher positivity rate today means more infections tomorrow. So you see this positivity up just about everywhere in the country, back to the state trend map new COVID infections up in 37 of the 50 states. The president says he knows it is election a week from tomorrow. President says, he should not be getting criticism, he should be getting praised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I really think we saved two million lives. They never say that. The fake news will never say this. And we will deliver 100 million doses of a safe vaccine before the end of the year. Seniors will be first in line for the vaccine because they are the most vulnerable as you know. We learned that. We must take the virus seriously. We must keep our people safe, but we must not give in to panic and fear. They want me to say everybody! Everybody! Please! We don't want to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's turn now to Dr. Jennifer Pena, she was the Vice President Pence's Doctor, while she served in the army at the White House Medical unit. Dr. Pena it's great to see you again.

Just on the last part there, as a public health professional, as a doctor, when the president says, they want me to say give in to fear. Is asking people to be careful to wear a mask to social distant, to limit going indoors and crowded places, is that giving in to fear or is that common sense?

DR. JENNIFER PENA, FORMER PHYSICIAN TO THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hi, John. Thank you for having me back. It's common sense, but sometimes common sense is not so common evidently. The president says that this will be all over on the 4th of November. Actually, it's probably going to get worse. We haven't even started to see the spikes in the flu cases, which is happening at the same time as the Coronavirus spikes.

And so, Mr. Meadows this weekend said, we are not going to control this pandemic and that's because we are letting it control us. He talks about vaccines, therapeutics and mitigations. I like to prefer prevention over mitigation. And so, again that kind of rhetoric is false its hyperbole and it's not true.

KING: I wanted to tap your expertise, meaning your work in the former vice president's office to understand what we are facing right now, which is the vice president is going on the road today. He was on the road over the weekend. You have a cluster at least five of his aides, including his Chief of Staff and the top Outside Political Advisor have tested positive.

Mr. Short and Mr. Obst especially Obst who were in close proximity the president's body man Zach Bauer close proximity to the former vice president they say he is the Head of the Coronavirus Task Force, the vice president, he understands he will be safe and he can get on Air Force Two and he can travel.

And they say the reason he can do this, while most Americans would be asked to be in quarantine is because, he is an essential worker. Is that within the definition of essential worker or is that stretching it?

DR. PENA: So it is a huge stretch, John. The White House is using an incredibly liberal interpretation of what an essential worker is and critical infrastructure worker when referring to the vice president. Campaigning is not an essential surface or function. It doesn't save any lives. It only saves political survival, really nobody else's survival.

And so, the CDC has specific guidelines as to - that are based on science as to how to deal with this. They are not friendly suggestions based on science fiction. Their aim is to risk mitigate. And so, the vice president's refusal to quarantine is in defiance of this own CDC - already of course being that he is the Head of the Coronavirus Task Force, which honestly appears nonexistent at this point, but he should be setting the example.

[12:20:00]

DR. PENA: I like to say it's like the ace of fable of the tale of the two crabs. Don't tell others how of act unless you can set an example, the example is really the best precept. And so, we should follow examples like Senator Harris when some of her senior staff got infected around her, she appropriately suspended campaigning. And so, if the vice presidential candidate gets it, why doesn't the current vice president get it?

KING: Well, the campaigning, as we've been having this conversation, the Trump Campaign just announced new rallies for the vice president in Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Nevada, so the plan clearly is full speed ahead. I just want to add, so clearly if you were still his doctor you would say, I know it's his call, sir; I think this is a bad idea.

I want you to listen to the Chief of Staff right here. We know that the political adviser tested positive sometime last week, in the middle of the week. Mark Short's test was over the weekend. I believe the body man's test was over the weekend as well.

These are public officials, all but one. The outside political adviser is on a campaign payroll, not on the public payroll. But these are people where tax payers are paying for. Listen to the Chief of Staff talking about our need to know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEADOWS: Sharing personal information is not something that we should do, not something that we do actually do, unless it's the vice president or the president or someone that is very close to them where there are people in harm's way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I completely respect the privacy here. And we don't even necessarily, I don't think, need the names. But is there an obligation on the White House? If you have people who are on the public payroll who are traveling on Air Force Two, Marine Two, travelling with the vice president to be more public, more transparent, more immediate and letting people know when this is happening?

DR. PENA: Absolutely. As a health care professional, privacy is of utmost importance to me, but this is not a matter of privacy, John. This is a matter of public health in the middle of a pandemic. I would refer Mr. Meadows to his own hhs.gov website where the HIPAA rule and law is spelled out. And there are permitted uses and disclosures of private information and public health is one of them.

And so, we have to use our professional ethics and best judgments when we decide which disclosures to make. And this is one I would make in the interest of public safety. And you asked me if I was still there, what would I say? Listen. This Vice President, this office of the Vice President, Mr. Short, Mr. Obst, Zach Bauer all of these folks, I took care of at one point. And at one point they trusted my medical opinion and recommendations.

And so, I would say to all of them, including the vice president, with all due respect, stay home. Set the example for the American people and don't place yourself, your families or others at risk.

KING: Dr. Pena, grateful again for your time and your very important expertise, especially given this cluster, grateful for your time thank you.

DR. PENA: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us, the state of the race, just eight days until we count the votes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: Eight days out. Advantage Biden and no, look at this map. This is not 2016. Yes, just like four years ago we have the Democratic candidate passed the finish line, Joe Biden at 290 electoral votes right now to 163 for President Trump. Dark blue, solid Biden, light blue, like Nevada, like Colorado, like Arizona, lean Biden, the dark red solid Trump. Light red like Texas, lean Trump.

290 for Joe Biden, it takes 270 to win. Can Donald Trump comeback? Here is what is troublesome for Donald Trump. If you look at the battleground state polling, including some today, this is our averages. The poll of poll, so it's not just one poll ever invest in just one poll.

But your average out all the state polls, look, Biden plus nine in Michigan, Biden plus seven in Pennsylvania, Biden plus four in Arizona, Bill Clinton, the last Democrat to carry that state. Wisconsin, Biden plus seven, Florida, Biden plus four, North Carolina, Biden plus three, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Texas, the president has leads narrow leads in Texas and Ohio. Look at these states though where Biden is in play either well ahead comfortably ahead or in play.

He has so many more options as you look at the map. So look at this map. The five tossup states, Maine second congressional district, let's just say for the sake of argument, the president gets momentum in the end. And he comes back, and he wins them all. It still wouldn't be enough. Joe Biden would still be at 290. What would the president have to do?

Well, remember, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He would have to flip something, preferably something big. The vice president is off to Minnesota today. The president was in New Hampshire yesterday. If they can't get a big piece, then look to get - put piece together, some smaller pieces, but Pennsylvania is the biggest prize 20 electoral votes. The president wants it back like he had it. This is the president earlier today. A bit of an exaggeration here,

but the president says, if Joe Biden wins, if you work in the fracking industry, you work for fossil fuels, and then you will lose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Joe Biden confirmed his plan to abolish the entire U.S. oil industry. That means no fracking, no jobs, and no energy for Pennsylvania families. He will eradicate your energy and send Pennsylvania into a crippling depression.

Joe Biden is a die-hard globalist who wiped out your steel mills. You know it better than almost any place in this country. Closed down your factories, kill your coal jobs, outsource your industries and supported every terrible and disastrous trade deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's discuss state of the race now with our CNN's Maeve Reston.