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Five of Vice President Mike Pence's Staff Infected with COVID- 19; Surging New Coronavirus Cases All Over Europe; Israel Starts Easing Lockdown Restrictions; Melbourne to Exit COVID-19 Lockdown; U.S. Reporting More Than 8.6 Million Infections; Pence Won't Quarantine Despite Contact With Infected Staff; Pre-Election Voting Surpasses 2016 Early Ballots. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 26, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Staying the course, despite top aides testing positive for coronavirus, the U.S. vice president will not leave the campaign trail.

Americans are energized for the U.S. presidential election as early voters cast ballots in record numbers.

And, the United States, and Europe, both seeing spikes in the virus. We go live to France where they are seeing a new record number of cases for a fourth day in a row.

Hello everyone, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You are watching "CNN Newsroom."

With eight days remaining the U.S. election season, the country is enduring its worst stretch of the coronavirus pandemic. For the seventh straight day, it has confirmed more than 58,000 new infections, with a couple of days well over 80,000 thrown in the mix.

And once again, the virus hitting the White House. CNN has learned at least 5 people close to the vice president have tested positive. Among them, Mike Pence's chief of staff and one of his closest aides.

Pence was in close contact with some of those staff members, but his office says he has so far tested negative and is so far refusing to quarantine. Instead, he held a campaign rally in North Carolina and plans to hold more up until Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are all standing out here in the rain for one reason and one reason only. And that is in North Carolina and America need 4 more years of President Donald Trump in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: And President Trump was also on the campaign trail rallying support in Maine. He was asked if the vice president's refusal to quarantine was a good idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have to ask him, he's doing very well, good crowds, very socially distanced. He's doing very well. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, meanwhile, also defending the vice president's decision to continue campaigning, but admitting the nationwide outbreak is getting out of hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Why can't we control it?

MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.

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

MEADOWS: Well, we are making efforts to contain it.

TAPPER: By running all over the country not wearing a mask? That's what the vice president is doing.

MEADOWS: Jake, we can get in to 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 people don't die from this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, the vice president, who we should remember, is also the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, brought some energy to a Sunday rally while at the same, time breaking his own administration's public health guidelines. CNN's John Harwood with more about the confusing messaging.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Events on Sunday encapsulated the dilemma facing President Trump and his campaign with just over a week to go before Election Day. The president was campaigning in both Maine and New Hampshire, insisting we are rounding the corner on the pandemic, appearing without masks or social distancing, getting very close to voters.

But reality intruded with a major outbreak of coronavirus with people close to the vice president, including his chief of staff, Marc Short, as well as his body man, the one who travels most closely with Mike Pence.

Now, despite that, the White House continue to have Mike Pence out on the campaign trail. He disregarded CDC guidelines, did not quarantine himself. The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, confessed in a conversation with Jake Tapper that we can't control the pandemic. We are simply waiting for therapeutics and a vaccine.

The challenge, of course, is for the president, the coronavirus pandemic is the number one issue for voters and they have a harsh judgment of the president's handling of it. Nevertheless, he's pressing on. He ended the evening on Sunday with a trick or treat Halloween event at the White House.

The president appearing without a mask, however, he was not handing out the candy itself. That was done by White House staffers who were wearing masks and gloves in a different location. John Harwood, CNN, the White House.

[02:05:05]

HOLMES: Democratic vice presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, was back on the campaign trail this weekend. The difference with her, is she canceled all travel a week ago after two people in her orbit tested positive for the virus.

Sunday in Michigan, Harris criticizing the vice president for ignoring the advice of his own health experts and refusing to quarantine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARIS (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He should be following the guidelines. We are doing it. I think we have models, the right and good behavior, and they should take our lead.

We are breaking records for the number of people that are contracting a deadly virus. And this administration fails to take personal responsibility or responsibility in terms of leading the nation through this dangers and deadly mass casualty events. And that is why they have forfeited their right to a second term in office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, Harris made multiple campaign stops in Michigan and here is why. Michigan is traditionally a blue state. President Trump was the first Republican to win there since 1988. But he did win by a razor thin margin, fewer than 11,000 votes.

Michigan is home to the block of blue collared workers that delivered the election to conservative Ronald Reagan back in the 80's. Both Democratic and Republican camps are vying for this key group of workers that has the ability to swing the vote. CNN's Jessica Dean explains the Biden camp wants to shake things up in traditionally red states.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are now entering the closing week of the 2020 presidential election. And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are hitting the campaign trail going into states that really tell you a lot about where the campaign sees things right now.

Joe Biden will be heading to Georgia later this week. That's a state that no Democrat has carried since 1992 when Bill Clinton carried that state. For her part, Kamala Harris will include Texas on her travel schedule. Again, Democrats haven't had any luck in Texas in a long, long time.

But the Biden-Harris campaign, sending Harris into Texas in this closing days hoping to up their chances of carrying that state and all of its electoral votes come next Tuesday.

HOLMES: CNN politics White House reporter Stephen Collinson joins me now to talk about all of this. So, we're going to start with the five people in Vice President Mike Pence's orbit testing positive for coronavirus, his chief of staff among them. And that follows of course the president, his wife, his child, and many others in the White House. How damaging politically is it for the administration, which is already, of course, fighting claims of mismanagement?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think what it does is that the administration and the White House simply can't get out from under this coronavirus pandemic. We're heading into the last week of the campaign.

The president doesn't want to be talking about coronavirus at all, but he cannot escape it. And the fact now that the vice president is now in the middle of another coronavirus hot spot in the White House, really advances the point that the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is trying to make.

He is basically saying that Trump and Pence, the president and the vice president, can't keep themselves safe, can't keep the people around them safe, so how are they going to keep the rest of the American people safe? And that really plays into this issue of whether the White House is mishandling of the pandemic should disqualify the president and the vice president from claiming a second term.

HOLMES: How do you see it playing out on the electoral map? I mean, there are some surprising states in play.

COLLINSON: I think what's very interesting is the fact that the president is playing defense on a lot of territory that he wouldn't want to be defending in the last week of the campaign. If you think about states like Georgia, Arizona, even Texas where Democrats think they can do very well even if they don't pull off that state.

At the end of the day, these are places where the president should have been strong and should have had locked up. Arizona, for example, in the southwest, is one of these classic changing states. They're showing us the future of American politics.

Big urban, suburban centers are changing states that used to be rural and conservative into swing states and potentially Democratic states going forward. Not just in this election, but in the elections to come. That's also the case with a state like Georgia, you know, a real solid conservative state that's changing demographically and is coming into play.

So, the president is fighting not just in those big Midwest battlegrounds, but all across the map. And he can't really afford to lose many or any, in fact, of those big seven or eight swing states if he's going to get a second term.

[02:10:57]

HOLMES: You know, it's interesting because, you know, he has slipped (ph) with, you know, women, suburban women of course with -- and even among some of the non-college educated whites, but the thing is, among the immovable base, you know, and many of them are the non-college educated whites, and lower income people.

They are most affected by potential things like health care loss, the cuts already to social safety nets like food stamps and so on, income inequality. So, all the things the Trump administration has negatively impacted, and yet, they are still loyal. Why is that?

COLLINSON: I think, in conservative politics especially and with, in particular, with this president, he has forged a cultural collection with many of these voters that supersedes some of the economic issues. You know, he has styled himself as the voice for the (inaudible) American, people who feel that they have not been served well by Washington D.C.

The trade, global trade, seeing their jobs disappear abroad to low wage economies. They believe that America is being ripped off by foreign countries. They culturally feel this America first philosophy in their bones. So I think that's one reason why they stick together.

Now, you talked about all those constituencies where the president has been losing shares of the vote according to the polls to the Democrats. The theory of his campaign, basically, is that there are millions of untapped Trumpy-style voters out there, many of whom who didn't vote for the president in 2016. They didn't vote for anybody.

And the campaign believes it can get those kinds of voters out and that will kind of, you know, play against some of those (inaudible) constituencies (ph) where the president (ph) is in trouble. You know, it does seem a long shot when a campaign has to talk about finding new voters, millions of them.

It's usually a sign they are in trouble. But, the campaign, the Trump campaign is convinced that these are the voters he's going to find and they're going to confound all of the pollsters, you know, conception of what the actual electorate will look like on November 3rd.

HOLMES: Stephen Collinson, thanks so much.

COLLINSON: Thanks.

HOLMES: Well, the U.S. has recorded more than 8.6 million cases of coronavirus, by far, the most in the world. And with infections soaring at record rates, health experts are now calling for drastic measures to slow the spread. The former Food and Drug commissioner says it is time to consider a

limited and temporary national mask mandate, warning of more deaths, than hospital admissions in the weeks ahead. His suggestion comes days after the nation's top infectious disease expert also signaled he would support a nationwide mandate.

France breaks its own daily record for new COVID-19 infections. It's only one of many European countries hoping to slow down the virus with new restrictions. We'll have that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:15:00]

HOLMES: Welcome back. Countries across Europe are in the midst of a new surge of the coronavirus and new restrictions are being put in place as infections break records. Italy surpassed its record for new daily cases on Sunday. The prime minister saying Italy can't, though, afford another lockdown.

As a result, the government ordering bars and restaurants to close by 6:00 p.m. while businesses like movie theaters, casinos, and gyms have to close their doors altogether, for now.

Now, France reporting more than 52,000 new cases on Sunday, breaking its daily record for the fourth day in a row. The country's positivity rate, more than double that of the U.S. And the U.K. reported nearly 20,000 new infections on Sunday.

Wales, largely spared from the virus earlier this year, is now under a so-called firebreak lockdown with cases rising. CNN's Nina Dos Santos explains how it will work and the mixed response it's getting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR (voice-over): Shutting up shop and locking down. Friday's last orders were filled with uncertainty in Cardiff. As come sundown, Wales' 3 million residents were once more ordered to stay at home for the next two weeks. A firebreak deemed essential to stop COVID in its tracks.

MARK DRAKEFORD, WELSH FIRST MINISTER: A short but deep period of restrictions that will interrupt the virus, break the chains of transmission, but that is the best hope we have of being able to get things back on track.

DO SANTOS (voice-over): The decision was welcomed by these shoppers on the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about time that somebody took this bull by the horns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people dying at the end of the day, you know, we've just got to stay in and just respect that.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): But not so much in the supermarkets or a ban on the sale of nonessential items prompted the petition to loosen the new laws almost immediately. Meanwhile, businesses brace themselves for meager takings.

JONATHAN PANGELLI, MANAGER 39 DESSERTS: If this didn't work the first time, why is it going to work the second time? We have hand sanitizers and stuff for the customers. We wash our hands every 10 minutes. We socially distance in the store. Why can't we stay open safely?

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Like Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales has its own government with autonomy over matters like health. It claims this national lockdown is needed to prevent the virus spreading from big cities to remote places where it hasn't yet gained a foothold.

The poorest border with England is also a source of concern. Here in (inaudible) in the mountains of North Wales, they were spared the first wave of the pandemic only to recently witness an uptick in cases, thanks largely to tourists bringing the virus over the border from hotspots in England.

The Welsh government says that it's following scientific advice. Part of that science confirms that genetic material from COVID-19 caught by people in neighboring parts of England is now popping up in wastewater in Wales.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because it was very, very busy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very busy here in the summer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, in the summer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very busy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, it's lovely to see people, but it was really busy.

[02:20:02]

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Thousands of visitors were streaming into Snowdonia every day. Now, not even the locals are allowed out without good reason. Halloween is off the cards so that maybe Christmas can be saved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't do anything and you can't diversify. We've all built our business is up over 15, 20 years. You know, what can you do?

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Wales is taking a different approach to other parts of Britain still focused on local tiered restrictions. This lockdown will last until November 9th whether the picture will look less bleak thereafter, it may be many more weeks before that becomes clear. Nina dos Santos, CNN, Wales.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, let's return to Paris and CNN's Melissa Bell following the story there of some incredibly worrying numbers from where you are. Fill us in.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You've mentioned early on, Michael, that positivity rate here in France compared to the United States for instance, 17 percent. It's what we've seen over the course of the last few days are several rises of more than 40,000 new cases announced every day.

That's been going on now over the course of the weekend every single day. And last night, again, a new record. More than 52,000 new cases in a single day. And this week of course is going to be crucial.

The head of the regional health authority here in the greater Paris region says that Tuesday or Wednesday will be a crucial period to look at whether those rises continue, Michael, because it will have been now more than a week that the curfew has been in place in places like here in Paris.

And that should begin to have an impact on those figures. If it doesn't, then they're going to have to look at fresh restrictions. And that is something we are seeing elsewhere in Europe as well, is as the numbers continues to rise, everyone is trying to avoid that second lockdown.

But everyone is being brought pretty close to it. There are things that the French can bring in still, for instance. Things like bringing the curfew slightly lower, making it closer to 7:00 p.m. than it is currently at the 9:00 p.m.

There are further restrictions that can be brought in, and of course, the crucial figure that everyone is looking at and in places like Paris, the greater Paris region, that proportion of ICU beds taken up by COVID-19 patients. And that is now at 65 percent here in the greater Paris area.

HOLMES: That is very concerning. And, as you touched on there, the situation equally worrying elsewhere in Europe.

BELL: Again, Michael, we have seen over the course of the last two days, worrying rises in a number of European countries. When you look at those figures, the countries that have the highest infection rates, as compared to their population, the five top countries in the world right now are in Europe.

It gives you an idea of how bad things are. And I think Giuseppe Conte, the Italian prime minister really summed it up. Yesterday when he announced fresh measures for Italy where, for instance, from now on, all bars and restaurants are going to have to close beyond 6:00 p.m. and things like gyms, beauty parlors, close altogether.

As he announced them, he said, look, we simply can't afford a second lockdown. So again, countries really taking their restrictions as high as they can, but avoiding going back into the full lockdown that we saw in the spring.

Spain, as well, where the city around -- the area around the capital, Madrid, already on partial lockdown. Their fresh restrictions also introduced, Michael, yesterday. Things like fresh curfews0 placed nationwide and new restrictions on travelling between regions.

Every single country right now in Europe looking at how we can get their figures down without those full lockdowns, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, very concerning. Melissa, thank you. Melissa Bell there in Paris for us.

Now, Israel is starting to ease its second nationwide lockdown over coronavirus. And people there have some mixed feelings about it. The country has reported more than 309,000 infections. That's according to Johns Hopkins University, but new daily cases are dropping steadily.

Israel saw a fewer than 700 on Saturday. That's down from a peak of more than 9,000 just a few weeks ago. Now, while there is relief that Israel's latest lockdown appears to be working, there is also a lot of finger pointing over why the situation got this bad in the first place. Oren Liebermann explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the heart of the Negev Desert, the second wave of coronavirus hit hard. The town of Yeruham was labeled a red zone because of a high infection rate. A second lockdown was inevitable. But, it was also embraced.

DEBBIE GOLAN, YERUHAM RESIDENT: There was definitely an awareness in the community of the seriousness of the situation and the need for severe measures, measures that would be effective.

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): The town closed schools early, going above and beyond ministry of health requirements. Religious services removed outdoors before it was mandatory. And in late spring, the mayor created a local contact tracing network, not relying on a national plan.

TAL CHANA. YERUHAM, ISRAEL MAYOR: I need to fight COVID and I need to give them hope. I need to work for their immunity.

[02:24:58]

And I must do everything I can that they will trust me.

LIEBERMAN (on camera): Across the country, public trust in the national leadership's handling of the coronavirus crisis has plummeted. The different sectors in Israeli society, religious, secular, ultra-orthodox, and Arab, attacked and blamed each other for a second wave of infections that was much worse than the first. A second general lockdown only exacerbated that bitterness even as it brought down the numbers.

ERAN SEGAL, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: Anytime you reach the point where you need a lockdown, that's a failure of managing the pandemic. The lockdown itself is likely to work because everybody stays at home, but reaching that point is, in my view, a failure.

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): Eran Segal at the Weizmann Institute of Science says it was a surprise that Israel's second lockdown worked so quickly. On September 30th, Israel hit more than 9,000 new cases in one day. Three weeks later, the numbers were down to around 1,000 a day even though the lockdown was less strict.

SEGAL: All other activities like allowing people to be more outdoors to do sports, to drive more, but be kind of more on their own, those are not drivers of the pandemic. So, the fact that we allow those during the second lockdown and not the first, didn't have an effect.

LIEBERMAN (voice-over): Yeruham saw a similar drop, from 27 in a day in September, to less than five in the last week. Here, they take seriously the commandment to love thy neighbor as thy self.

YITZHAK SHALEV, CHIEF RABBI, YERUHAM: The country of Israel is like a hand. The hand has a lot of fingers. There is no finger worth more than others. But only all the fingers together can make one hand. A hand without a finger is not a complete hand. The same thing for us. We have many different men and women, everyone with his opinions, desires, ideas, but we are all truly one.

As Israel slowly reopens, there is a fear that it's too soon. The numbers now are significant worse than they were at the end of the first lockdown in May. Yeruham is not immuned to that fear. But here they say their greatest strength is a community united against coronavirus. Oren Liebermann, CNN, Yeruham.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, the Australian state of Victoria will ease COVID-19 restrictions after reporting no new cases for the first time in more than four months. From Wednesday, the city of Melbourne will move out of lockdown with residents allowed to leave their homes.

All retail shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs will also be allowed to reopen. Victoria's premier is urging people to stay vigilant saying that, until a vaccine comes, there is no normal. There is only COVID normal.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back on "CNN Newsroom," Americans already waiting in long lines to cast their ballots for president, but there are concerns those lines are not be a good thing. One voter, tells us why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Michael Holmes, appreciate your company. Now with eight days to go until the U.S. election, the country reporting some of its worst coronavirus numbers since the pandemic began.

More than 60,000 new cases on Sunday pushing the total past 8.6 million. Now five members of the Vice President's inner circle have also tested positive including Mike Pence's Chief of Staff and also a close side but the Vice President refusing to quarantine despite health guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His office says he's tested negative and will continue to hold campaign rallies until Election Day. The number of Americans casting their ballots early shows how energized voters are this year, already more than 58.7 million people have voted across the country.

That's more than all of the pre-election voting back in 2016 and it is shattering records in several states and let's remember there's still eight days left until the election. Now of course, part of the reason people are turning out early is to avoid crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic but so far that hasn't made the lines any shorter. CNN correspondents are talking to voters all across the U.S.

In New York, more than a 100,000 people voted Sunday, breaking the record from just the day before. Many waiting in long lines to make their voices heard. Athena Jones filed this report for us earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATHENA JONES, CNN U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we're here in Brooklyn where the second day of early voting is well under way and what we're seeing today is much of what we saw across the city on the first day of early voting on Saturday, which is huge enthusiasm, high voter turnout and very long lines. Here at the Brooklyn Museum there's a line of about hundreds of people long that wraps all the way around the building. Several of the folks we spoke with saying that they waited about 3:00 hours to cast their vote.

All of them telling us that it was important for them to show up in person to cast their ballot in person because they had concerns about making sure their vote is counted. Now I talked about the long lines. We saw it in the city as well in the city of Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Bronx and Queens, lines stretching blocks long at some of these voting locations.

There are 88 locations throughout this city and I spoke with one voter who said look, it's good to see the voter enthusiasm but she had some issues and some questions about the long lines. Listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I actually don't feel like it's great. I feel like that's still a form of voter suppression. I don't think that long lines should be celebrated. I think it's great that people are turning out but I don't think that that's ultimately a good thing that we're forced to wait. Lots of working Americans can't afford to wait 3:00 hours in line. It's a privilege to be able to do that but we're also compromised because we're afraid that if we vote by mail, our votes might get lost.

JONES: So that voter there concerned about the long wait times. One thing that's important to note and a sign of the enthusiasm is that already just in the first day of early voting, nearly 94000 people cast their ballot and that is more than voted in all nine days early voting in 2019.

So we expect to see this enthusiasm continue and folks who are coming out on a day like today have got to just bundle up and of course back their patients. Athena Jones, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now Nigeria has been rocked by violent demonstrations, following weeks of protests, the president calling for peace. Just ahead, we're going to get a live report on the situation there. We'll be right back.

[02:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: The world is watching to see what this new week brings for Nigerians. For weeks now the African nation has been embroiled in a level of unrest, not seen there for decades. Dozens of people have been killed. Demonstrators demanding an end to police brutality amid claims of kidnapping, harassment, extortion and murder.

Joining me now from Johannesburg to talk more about this is CNN correspondent Eleni Giokos. Eleni, I think there's a curfew now in parts of Nigeria. The whole police force is being deployed. How has this impacted the protest?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes exactly and as you say, we have seen violence erupting across the country. The entire police force has been deployed and there is a curfew in place and specifically in Lagos from 8:00 PM until 6:00 AM and Michael, if you ever go to Lagos, it's known as the city that never sleeps.

There's always traffic on the road regardless of the time of day so this goes to show the extent of the impact that you've seen on the ground. You've got to remember that last week Tuesday, a man dressed in military uniforms opened fire on peaceful protesters and this causing an eruption of violence in parts of the country and this is part of the ENDSARS campaign that started two weeks ago where you saw localized issues playing out in the country and then now it's turning violent.

But the ENDSARS campaign protesters say that they are distancing themselves from the violence that we've seen around the country. Now interestingly here I was looking at some of the headlines from the key newspapers in Nigeria, The Business Day says a generation without a future explodes in Nigeria's protest. Guardian says looting continues nationwide and this is indicative of the underlying issues that we've seen in Nigeria that of lack of governance.

Remember the ENDSARS campaign was part of fighting for the end of police brutality and of course it cut across the entire social spectrum of people. You had executives, government officials as well as unemployed youth joining in the protest action and now you're seeing opportunists coming to the fore. That is what many people have told us that is resulting in the violence.

[02:40:00]

Now the one voice that Nigerians wanted to hear from was President Muhammadu Buhari that addressed the nation on Friday but he failed to really talk about the Lekki shooting. Now this is very important because Nigerians feel frustrated. They feel that the president didn't sympathize with the victims of the Lekki shooting and of course he didn't also address any sense of accountability or responsibility.

Was it the military? Who put the orders in place? Now this chorus of people are speaking out across Nigeria from government officials, business people as well as the religious communities to try and call for unity and calm in the country.

HOLMES: Wow. Yes worrying situation there. Eleni, thanks for being on top of it for us, Eleni Giokos there in Johannesburg. And for our international viewers, thanks for spending part of your day with me. You can have World Sport up next for our viewers in the United States. I'll be right back with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

HOLMES: President Trump is hosting a swearing in event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House Monday night after her expected confirmation to the Supreme Court. Democrats have called their Republican colleague hypocrites for pushing this through so close to the election, especial of course, after Republicans refused to even consider Barack Obama's nominee back in 2016.

Republicans say they're simple following the constitution. And as the U.S. presidential election approaches. President Trump is trying to turn attention away from the coronavirus pandemic towards other issues. For one, he's framing himself as a champion of fracking.

A controversial process for extracting oil and gas. Now Mr. Trump says his opponent Joe Biden would get rid of it all, move away from it and that's a big fear for voters in Pennsylvania, a state that could swing the election one way or the other.

Now for them, fracking isn't a far away political issues, it's personal. Vanessa Yurkevich tells us why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Western Pennsylvania natural gas is king.

EMANUEL PARIS, SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, ALEX E. PARIS CONTRACTING CO. INC.: The natural gas industry put this area on the map.

YURKEVICH: Fracking or the drilling for natural gas in shale rock has transformed the economic landscape of this area. Today the industry employees nearly 30,000 people in the state. Where would your company be today if not for the natural gas industry?

PARIS: I'd say pretty nonexistent.

YURKEVICH: Emanuel Paris' family contracting business is almost 100 years old but almost didn't make it when the pole (ph) industry started to fade in the 90s, the company was just barely hanging on. But then came fracking, so they pivoted, providing piping and rig construction to natural gas companies.

PARIS: So our company went from approximately 250 employees to 400 to about 650 within years.

YURKEVICH: And that's why he's watching closely what President Trump and Joe Biden are saying.

TRUMP: Joe Biden will ban fracking.

BIDEN: I will not ban fracking.

YURKEVICH: In the last weeks of the presidential race, the future of the fracking industry here is directly tied to voters' livelihoods. And for Paris, that decides his vote.

PARIS: President Trump has a more clear prospective on keeping fracking going with minimal regulations where Biden in the past and through the campaign has kind of gone back and forth on what he wants to do.

YURKEVICH: Before the pandemic, the industry was already shedding jobs because of over production of natural gas, bringing down prices. The pandemic only made that worse. Paris laid off 130 people last week.

SHARLO TKALCEVIC, OWNER, T'S LOCKER ROOM BAR AND GRILLE: If they're not working then I don't have business.

YURKEVICH: Sharlo Tkalcevic owns the only restaurant in her small town in West Pittsburgh.

TKALCEVIC: Everything's good?

YURKEVICH: More than 50 percent of her business is from oil and gas workers. She's seen a dramatic slowdown.

TKALCEVIC: It's almost like a domino effect and it could just be disastrous, in my eyes, if -- if -- you know first the pandemic and then fracking is banned.

You guys all right back here.

YURKEVICH: Twelve years of hard work to keep the doors open cover the walls. What would it mean to have to give this all up?

TKALCEVIC: It'd be a lot. Sorry.

YURKEVICH: It's OK.

TKALCEVIC: It would be a lot because I've -- I worked hard for this and for it to just go away overnight I don't ...

YURKEVICH: For David Roule, it did all go away overnight. After 26 years in the industry he was out of a job as a single parent at the height of the pandemic.

DAVID ROULE, PROJECT MANAGER: It was tough, I mean because you didn't know how things were going to go on a month to month basis. You know I -- I -- at a time I wasn't even sure whether I was going to be able to take -- take care of my own daughter.

YURKEVICH: He sold his home and moved into a rental condo. He didn't qualify for unemployment. Finally, after seven months he found a new job after dozens of rejection letters.

ROULE: It was probably more than 50. I actually kept a folder in case I ever needed it but it was a lot.

YURKEVICH: Are you still concerned about your job security?

ROULE: I think we have to be because you just never know how things are going turn out. So absolutely.

YURKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Atlasburg, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:50:00]

HOLMES: Robert Schuwerk is the North American executive director of the carbon tracker initiative here to talk about this. And thanks for doing so. I mean Republicans did seize on Joe Biden's comments at the debate about moving away from oil reliance in favor of renewables. Republicans trying to make that a negative. But most people see it as a positive. Is that right? I mean the fact is, the world is moving that way, even some oil companies are moving that way.

ROBERT SCHUWERK, NORTH AMERICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CARBON TRACKER INITIATIVE: Yes, I think that's very much the case that the -- that the world is moving that way. And in fact, you know, one of the things that you kind of hear in that rhetoric is this idea that somehow Biden is going to shut the industry down. The issue is that the industries have and continues to have a number of major issues that it's grappling with that have nothing to do with what Biden may or may not do.

We have the pandemic that not only has the short-term implications but has some major oil companies to say we think 2019 might have been the year of peak oil. BP has put that out there and two-thirds of the U.S. shale executives think we've reached peak production already in the U.S.

HOLMES: Yes, which is interesting, and at the same time, renewables, that industry seems by all accounts to be booming. I mean, wind, solar, I think even wave technology as well, but wind and solar in particular. It's true those industries are already providing more and better paying jobs than oil or coal, right?

SCHUWERK: Yes, so we have -- I mean I think it's something like 600,000 something renewables jobs. If you add in energy efficiency, which is related to carbon obviously, that's another 2.3 million jobs. Meanwhile, coal, about 50,000 jobs in the U.S. and even though President Trump had to do many things to help that industry, what we see is about 1,000 less jobs than when he started.

HOLMES: Yes, it's amazing, isn't it? According to the polls, this sort of transition away from oil is supported by the majority of Americans. There was a pew (ph) survey that said 79 percent say doing that is a priority. And yet we get debates where the discourse is centered around who will love and protect big oil the most. Why is that? Is the writing not on the wall here? And not immediately but in the next few decades?

SCHUWERK: Well, I think observing U.S. politics over the last decade or so has recognized a certain tribalism in it. And so, there is a bit of that where you say, you know, your opponent is against something that everyone on your side should be for. So, I think, you know, that certainly has something to do with it.

HOLMES: Yes, I think I read a report that said more than 70 percent of new generation of electricity worldwide came from renewables. How will the renewable sector grow in terms of energy supply and job growth, economic benefit, environmental benefit as well over the next decade or two? How do you see that road ahead?

SCHUWERK: Well, I think it's pretty clearly evident that when you have renewables, you have -- you obviously don't have the pollution associated with using fossil fuels. The jobs we're already seeing evidence of that, that's going to increasingly grow. But I think one of the things that is important to remember here is that part of the reason that this is happening is because renewables are so much more cost effective.

We did a study on this earlier this year and found basically in every part of the United States except for parts of the western United States; wind power is more cost effective today than the existing fleet of coal-fired power plants. Forget building a new plant, it's the old plant that you think should be cheaper, it's actually not. And those kinds of economics basically open up opportunities for everyone. That means people can have cheaper energy and cheaper energy can also drive all kinds of other economically productive activities.

HOLMES: Yes, it seems that environmental arguments aside and whether you love or hate oil, it's just got to happen. Robert, really appreciate it. Great to have that conversation. Robert Schuwerk, thanks.

SCHUWERK: Thank you, Michael, pleasure to be here.

HOLMES: Tropical Storm Zeta is expected to bring heavy rainfall and storm surge and flooding to parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. Now, the hurricane -- the National Hurricane Center is projecting that the storm could make landfall on the U.S. gulf coast a little later this week. Let's bring in CNN Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri to give us the latest. Hey, Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, METEOROLOGIST: Hi Michael, good seeing you. Storm season of course, it's six weeks or so before it officially comes to an end. But of course you take a look, the activity across the region of the gulf coast, taking place, and of course we've had 21 storms in the National Hurricane Center Atlantic season and then six additional now in the Greek alphabet which pushes up to 27 total and Tropical Storm Zeta as you noted, our next storm in line.

And this storm is poised to strengthen here on approach towards Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Recall it was about 18 days ago we had Hurricane Delta make landfall here as a category 2; made landfall just south of Cancun. I'll tell you what, this storm systems forecast to make landfall in almost an identical spot, potentially as a Category 1 system again, just less than three weeks since the previous storm made landfall here.

[02:55:00]

But notice where it ends up, once again it reemerges over the Gulf of Mexico and the concern is the long term outlet takes it very close towards, you guessed it, the state of Louisiana, which has been impacted four times this season.

Now, look at the variabilities in models, the American, the European model, quite a bit of differences. You kind of break out the models here and look at them one by one. Any time you get late into the season, the steering environment in the atmosphere begins to weaken, the water temperatures also begin to cool off, so all of these play a role in how strong of a system we have.

And really a wide range of forecasts here from where this system ends up. We think Wednesday afternoon or evening along the coast of potentially Louisiana, Alabama or the Florida panhandle and quite a bit of wet weather regardless of the (INAUDIBLE) is strong tropical storm or maybe even a hurricane. But at this point, that is what we're watching.

Now, look at what's happening across the Western Pacific. Molave, this is our next typhoon, this particular storm Category 1 equivalent as it moved across portions of the Philippines. The concern is where it ends up in the next say 36 to 48 hours.

That's coastal Vietnam. This would be the third storm in about four week's time to impact this region. We're coming fresh off the heels of Saudel, which was a storm that made landfall here just a couple of days ago, Michael. And you'll notice the rainfall amounts on the immediate coast, and especially as you work your way across portions of Vietnam here, are insignificant, not climatologically speaking.

This is the time of year you expect a lot of rainfall and in part to tropical systems. So quite a bit of damage in place there from recent storms and another one coming.

HOLMES: Yes, yes. Great information. Not all of it good information for people out there. But, wow, there's a lot happening. Thank you so much Pedram Javaheri. Appreciate it.

And thank you for watching. I'm Michael Holmes. Kim Brunhuber is along with another hour of CNN Newsroom after a break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00]