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COVID-19 Case Counts Break Records As White House Walks Back Meadows' Viral Control Statement; Interview With American Medical Association President Susan Bailey; Presidential Campaign Enters Final Stretch. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 26, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:12]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, it's the top of the hour, I'm Brianna Keilar. And right now, the U.S. is losing the fight to contain the coronavirus. This is a disaster that is getting worse. the seven-day average of new daily cases has reached its highest level ever. Friday and Saturday saw back-to-back days of new cases topping 83,000. Every single state is not moving in the right direction. Hospitalizations are up, hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. More Americans are dying.

And on Sunday, the White House admitted it's not trying to control the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Here's what we have to do. We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas (ph) --

(CROSSTALK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Why aren't we going to get control of the pandemic?

MEADOWS: -- because it is a contagious virus, just like the flu is contained --

TAPPER: Yes, but why not make efforts to contain it?

MEADOWS: Well, we are making efforts to contain it, and that's --

TAPPER: By running all over the country, not wearing a mask? That's what the --

MEADOWS: Jake, we can --

TAPPER: -- vice president's doing.

MEADOWS: -- get into the back and forth. Let me just say this, is what we need to do is make sure that we have the proper mitigation factors, whether it's therapies or vaccines or treatments, to make sure that people don't die from this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, the White House is on cleanup duty today after that statement: The president denied it before his rally in Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you given up on controlling the virus?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, not at all. In fact, the opposite, absolutely the opposite. We've done an incredible job. We're doing a great job, we are absolutely rounding the corner. Other than the fake news wants to scare everybody, we are absolutely rounding the corner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I want to bring in CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen on this. I mean, just based on these numbers that we're seeing where he says we're rounding the corner. Fact-check that for us.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the first fact-check is that he has said we're rounding the corner so many times that I have lost count. How many corners are there to round? Obviously, we are not rounding the corner. Just take a look at this map and you'll see what I mean.

The states that are in orange or dark red is where the rates of coronavirus are going up. And the states in dark red, they're going up at a particularly high rate -- more than a 50 percent increase in the past week versus the previous week. The yellow states are where it's holding steady, that's just 13 states. Nobody's green, nowhere in the country is it going down.

And if you take a look at case counts, we broke a record this weekend. On Friday, we broke a record -- and not the good kind: more cases in a single day than at any other time in the pandemic, even if you go back to the spring where the rates were so high -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And there are growing calls for a national mask mandate from some of the biggest medical voices. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If everyone agrees that this is something that's important and they mandate it and everybody pulls together and say, you know, we're going to mandate it but let's just do it? I think that would be a great idea, to have everybody do it uniformly.

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Doesn't need to be backed up with fines or a stringent enforcement, we have other requirements that we expect of a civil society, that we enforce with, you know, political jawboning, leadership. We give people warnings at first. So I think masks are one thing that we could be doing. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I wonder, Elizabeth, at this point, with the way masks have been politicized, if a national mask mandate would work and how challenging it would be to enforce.

COHEN: Yes, Brianna, I'm going to have faith in humankind and think that is -- when people really start to learn how effective masks are, and sadly when they see COVID spreading in their communities, that they're going to realize that such a simple thing as wearing a mask -- simple thing, doesn't cause any harm, super-cheap -- that it's useful to save lives.

Let's take a look at how Dr. Gottlieb broke it down when he wrote his "Wall Street Journal" editorial. He said studies show that widespread mask use can reduce COVID-19 spread. Masks can help prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed so that when you -- God forbid -- have to go to the hospital, there'll be fewer people there, the doctors and nurses can take care of you because people wore masks.

Also, widespread mask use could allow businesses and schools to stay open, and we all want that. So look at what masks can do. They can -- you know, forget about how they can help everybody, they can help you. You might be able to go to places -- to stores or whatever -- that you haven't been to, your kids could maybe go back to school if everyone routinely wore masks, especially in indoor settings -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. Elizabeth, thank you so much for fact-checking all of that for us, we really appreciate it.

We do have some breaking news out of Wall Street, the Dow is down more than 800 points right now as COVID cases are surging across the U.S. I want to go straight to the New York Stock Exchange to figure out what is happening here. And Alison Kosik is going to do just that for us.

What's behind this sharp selloff?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, I think at this point investors are contending with this growing buffet of uncertainty. And we're seeing stocks sink today as new COVID cases hit record levels, as you just pointed out.

[14:05:09]

Also what you pointed out at the top of your show, not helping here -- and despite the backpedaling by the White House -- not helping is this statement from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, telling Jake Tapper, we are not going to control the pandemic. Yes, that is making investors nervous.

So the reality is, there's a lot for investors to grapple with as the uncertainty grows about how the global economy is being affected by restrictions. We're seeing that happen overseas, restrictions are being tightened across major countries overseas. It's raising the probability of further pullback in business operations that could create a slowdown of economic activity globally. We're also seeing, Brianna, the selloff accelerating as stimulus talks stall again, meaning there's nothing around the corner for millions of families in need of help to pay their bills, to put food on the table. And nothing to help these businesses, especially these small businesses that are struggling just to survive the pandemic.

And then there's the election. As we get closer to Election Day, there are concerns that the outcome will be contested, and that is making Wall Street very nervous because that could wind up being weeks of uncertainty -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange, thank you.

Eight days away now from this critical presidential election, and the White House is in the middle of a second recent outbreak of the virus. At least five of Vice President Pence's inner circle have tested positive.

And this includes his body man, a person who is very close to him and really helps with speech text or handing him pens for autographs. This is the guy who holds the breath mints and the hand sanitizer, just to give you some context for how close in proximity the president would be to this aide. Also, his chief of staff.

The White House says that Pence tested negative today. However, CDC protocol recommends that he should quarantine for 14 days. Well instead, the president is on the campaign trail. And Kaitlan Collins is at the White House covering this for us.

Why isn't the White House taking Pence off the road, Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, they're citing that he is an essential worker. But of course, the question is, is what he's going essential? Because it's not like he's going into the Situation Room or calling in with the president and a world leader, he's actually on the campaign trail.

And that's what he did yesterday, that's what he's doing today and that's what, according to his schedule, he's going to continue to do this week despite the fact that he's the head of the Task Force and the own (ph) administration's guidelines say that you should go into quarantine if you've been in close contact with someone who's tested positive.

And as you showed from that graphic, it's not just one aide, it's multiple people that the vice president has been around in the last seven days or so, since he was first on the trail and since they first found out Marty Obst, that top outside political advisor, had tested positive for coronavirus after traveling with the vice president on Air Force Two.

Now, Brianna, they are changing a few things to the vice president's schedule because we heard him on Friday, saying he would not miss that vote tonight for Amy Coney Barrett, to confirm her to the Supreme Court, for the world. But we are now told he's actually going to miss it because he's not going to go unless there's a need to break a tie, and they're not foreseeing that of course.

KEILAR: And just to be clear, essential workers under CDC guidelines are not exempt from the quarantine process, right?

COLLINS: Right, they're not. And what it says basically, if you are someone who cannot go into quarantine, you should be wearing a mask at all times. And we know the vice president has not been doing that. They have changed that in recent -- the last few events, where you saw yesterday in North Carolina, he wore his mask up until he got to the lectern, and then he took it off to give his remarks.

But we have not seen them religiously wearing masks on the plane, at these other events.

KEILAR: All right, Kaitlan, thank you so much for that, really appreciate it.

The president's chief of staff says they can't control the pandemic. As you heard in Kaitlan's report, it's no wonder. The administration can't even control outbreaks within their own ranks.

I want to bring in Dr. Susan Bailey, she is the president of the American Medical Association. Dr. Bailey, thank you for being with us. And first, I just want to get your reaction to the administration saying what we heard from the chief of staff. They basically surrendered to the pandemic, they're looking instead at therapeutics and making sure that when people get COVID, they have a better chance of survival.

SUSAN BAILEY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Thanks for having me on. And it is incredibly frustrating to hear anyone say that we can't control this virus. No, we can't control a virus' behavior, but we can control our own behavior.

And as has been mentioned in this segment, multiple times, we know that wearing masks -- you need to wear them properly, over your nose -- washing hands, keeping your distance and staying home if you don't feel well really do make a difference in controlling the spread of the virus.

We don't want to wait until people are sick enough to need therapeutics. A vaccine is going to trickle out very slowly. We need to work on prevention and work together, now.

KEILAR: I want you to listen to a comment that the president said about COVID numbers. Let's listen.

[14:10:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, some countries, they report differently. If somebody's sick with a heard problem and they die of COVID, they say they die of a heart problem. If somebody's terminally ill with cancer and they have COVID, we report them. And you know, doctors get more money and hospitals get more money -- think of this incentive. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You know, I just want you to fact-check this. Because I've talked to other doctors about this, and the reaction from them is that as they are in the middle of taking care of people, shouldering this burden and taking on risks themselves, they're being accused essentially of fraud. This is no small thing they're being accused of, so just can you react to what he said?

BAILEY: It is true that hospitals do get reimbursed a little more when they take care of COVID patients, because taking care of COVID patients is hard and requires a lot of extra equipment. But doctors certainly don't get paid more for taking care of COVID patients.

Indeed, many doctors' offices are struggling to stay open because people are concerned about going to the doctor. Some practices are even closing. And the fact that someone would suggest that we would violate our code of ethics, which tells us to put our patients first, to me is really offensive.

KEILAR: You know, I wonder what you think about these weeks that are ahead of us. I think a lot of people in the country kind of feel like they're getting used to having COVID be out there, but now we're looking at these numbers spike, and we're expecting them to continue to go up. Can you describe the fear of what the next few weeks will look like?

BAILEY: We have seen from the beginning of this pandemic that the case numbers rise before the hospitalizations rise, and the hospitalizations rise before the death counts rise.

Now, we do a better job now of taking care of COVID patients in the hospital because we've learned an awful lot in the past eight months, but it's a very frightening prospect if people don't all stick together and try to keep from getting COVID-19 in the first place so that our hospitals don't get overwhelmed.

It's also a great idea to go ahead and get your flu shot because we don't need to pile that on top of everything else.

KEILAR: Can you speak to -- I mean just anecdotally, you know what I've seen is people might be in an area where the cases are not particularly high right now, and they have been taking more risks as weather is driving social gatherings indoors.

And they look at those case numbers and there's a sense of security they have from the fact that there may be some low case numbers -- like you said, deaths and hospitalizations lag that. So what would you say to people who are looking at the case numbers and saying, you know, I feel OK taking some of these risks right now?

BAILEY: COVID fatigue is real and we're all tired of having to deal with this, but the fact of the matter is, COVID is not tired of us. And this is not the time to let down our guard. This is a time to double down and make sure that we wear masks, wash our hands and stay physically distanced as we go into the holidays. Now more than ever, I think we need to be extra careful, even if the

numbers in your individual community may not look that frightening, we're afraid that they're going to get frightening real soon.

KEILAR: Dr. Bailey, thank you so much for being with us.

BAILEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: Next, we are live from Maryland on the first day of early voting there, as the nationwide totals break records for ballots cast before Election Day.

Plus, a conservative paper in New Hampshire endorses Joe Biden. It's the first time they've backed a Democrat in a century.

[14:13:48]

And hospitals in Utah are warning they may soon have to ration care as COVID cases surge. I'll be speaking to a doctor on the frontlines there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Eight days to go until Election Day, roughly 178 hours -- but who's counting -- and that leaves plenty of time for the candidates to make their final push to convince voters. Here's what the map looks like with the planned campaign stops so far. There will be additional stops along the way, plenty of visits from surrogates as well, including former President Barack Obama, who will stop in Orlando, Florida tomorrow in support of Joe Biden.

But it's been Election Day in some states for weeks now. So far 60 million ballots have already been cast, and this tops all of the early voting that was done in 2016, way ahead of 2008 -- as you can imagine -- and 2012. And we still have a week to go, as I mentioned.

So there's an interesting surge that we're seeing as well among younger voters, from just under eight percent of the early vote tally in 2016 to 10 percent so far this year, and the biggest jump is in the 18-to-21-year-old age group. Our Pete Muntean is live for us in Silver Spring, Maryland, where it is the first day of early in-person voting. Pete, what are you seeing there?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is busy here, Brianna, 800 people have already voted at this polling location alone, especially when you consider that it's only been open since 7:00 a.m.

You know, what's so interesting here is that the lines have been long, not only here in Montgomery County -- one of the most affluent and educated counties in the country -- but also across the state of Maryland. When the doors opened here at 7:00 a.m., the line was 260 people long, socially distanced out. It was about a quarter mile long.

You know, I've been talking to voters who say they want to vote early, as early as they possibly can. They say there is too much on the ballot here in 2020, not only when it comes to issues but also about election security.

[14:20:03]

They're worried about what things will look like on November 3rd, they're worried about the safety of the mail, even though about two thirds of voters here in Montgomery County have already requested a mail-in ballot. Here's what voters have been telling me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot going on, and we've got to get that fool out. And I'm sick of his tail (ph), so he got to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This election year is very different than the -- you know, in the past. Maybe this is my first time voting early. I'm very, like, motivated and make sure that I use my voice heard correctly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Those voting early are facing an entirely different experience. You can the COVID protocols in place here, the plexiglass barriers, it's operating almost like a DMV. Here in Maryland, you can register to vote the same day that you vote. Early voting here in Montgomery County will look like this for the next seven days until the day before Election Day -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Pete, thank you so much for showing us the scene there in Silver Spring, Maryland, outside the nation's capital.

And back on the campaign trail, President Trump has a triple play in Pennsylvania today. He's in the middle of back-to-back-to-back stops right now, while former Vice President Joe Biden has no events outside of his home state of Delaware today.

I want to bring in CNN Chief Political Analyst, Gloria Borger. All right, so you're looking at their travel plans --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I am.

KEILAR: -- we're eight days out. What do these travel plans tell you?

BORGER: Well, they're kind of like a Rosetta Stone, Brianna, telling you where they need to go, what they think is important to them.

For example, you say, OK, Trump has three rallies today in Pennsylvania, we all know how important Pennsylvania is. He's looking to bring out the vote there. He's talking a lot about fracking, a lot about oil.

Tomorrow, what else is important to him? Michigan, Wisconsin. You know, those states were the key to his victory last time around. He wants to win them this time, and he's behind in those states. He's going to Nebraska, thinking that maybe he can pick up an electoral vote because Nebraska is one of those states that doesn't do winner- take-all. But if you look at Joe Biden, where is he going tomorrow? Georgia,

Georgia. They think that they have a really good shot in Georgia, which is a tie right now. And then on Thursday, Biden is going to Florida.

Now, he's going to Broward County where there are a lot of older people. You have Barack Obama going to Orlando, where there are a lot of younger people, more minority voters. So you see how they're kind of splitting this up.

One thing that is so interesting to me, Brianna -- again in my -- reading my Rosetta Stone here -- is that Kamala Harris is going to Texas on Friday, Texas. That should be --

KEILAR: Yes.

BORGER: -- in the bag for the Republicans, but it's almost a tie, it's about a one-point race now, believe it or not. And the Democrats right now are going to try and bring out their voters in Texas. Right now, it's all about motivation, not persuasion.

KEILAR: And the president's latest rallies -- we're seeing, Gloria, this glimpse of a strategy he has in the final stretch, if we can just --

BORGER: Yes.

KEILAR: -- play this clip of how he talked about COVID in Allentown, PA today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And we're rounding the turn. You know, all they want to talk about is COVID. By the way, on November 4th, you won't be hearing so much about it.

(APPLAUSE)

COVID, COVID, COVID. COVID.

(APPLAUSE)

Today, let's talk about COVID. All over Europe, right? Europe's -- they don't talk about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And we're talking about America because we're in the middle of an election here in America. But this --

BORGER: Yes.

KEILAR: -- idea where he's basically saying -- I mean he's saying, again, that this is a hoax. We are going to be hearing about this, Gloria. We're in the middle of a bunch of trouble right now. BORGER: Yes, it -- you know, we've always talked about the fact that

he tried to ignore COVID and said it's going to disappear -- and we all know how that worked out for him.

Now, instead of saying it's going to disappear, he's taking on COVID, almost as if COVID is a Democrat, almost as if COVID is personally attacking him. It's one more grievance that he has.

His grievance is about COVID, his grievance is that it hasn't gone away and his grievance is that some people have the audacity to continue to talk about it and to continue to tell people that they need to pay attention to is because his administration has faltered. So it's just one more talking point for him that he's decided he's got to attack head-on.

KEILAR: Yes. We're going to keep talking about it. It's killing people, it's going to be killing more people. We're seeing these case numbers rise, the deaths, the hospitalizations are going to be right behind.

BORGER: That's right.

KEILAR: Gloria Borger, thank you so much --

BORGER: Thanks, Bri.

KEILAR: -- for being with us.

And still ahead, Illinois' top health official chokes up while announcing a spike in COVID deaths there. She is pleading with people to do their part to stop the spread.

[14:25:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGOZI EZIKE, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Fight the urge to give up on social distancing. Fight for your kids to have safe, healthy opportunity to have in-person learning in school with teachers who are trained to teach them. This does mean wearing your mask.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:00]

KEILAR: The top medical officer in Illinois is begging the people in her state to wear masks, and to social distance amid a disturbing new spike in coronavirus cases and deaths there.