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Trump Attends White House Halloween Event; How Masks Can Help Prevent Spread of COVID-19; More Than 100,000 People Voted in NYC Sunday; Israel Easing Its Second National Lockdown; Police Chief Deploys Entire Police Force to Halt Violence in Nigeria; France Recalls Ambassador to Turkey After Erdogan Comments. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 26, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

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 continued 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 is 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.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about this with Dr. Chris Leffler. He's an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Thank you so much for being with us today.

I want to ask you. You know, we know masks work to reduce transmission. There are some protective effects for the people wearing it, but mainly we know overall if people wear masks, it stops transmission.

The question I had is about mask mandates. What happens when governments force everybody to wear a mask? And the reason I want to explore this with you is that we had, you know, Dr. Fauci said the other day, it may be time to consider a mask mandate.

And then we had the former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, just wrote a piece, saying, it is time to consider a limited temporary national mask mandate. He made that point again yesterday on TV. Listen to this.

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FDA: There's things that we can do to slow the spread. I mean a national mask mandate can be put into place. It doesn't need to be backed up with fines or 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.

BRUNHUBER: So that's why I want to speak with you, doctor. You were a co-author of a study looking at that very question. Do mask mandates work? When did you find?

CHRISTOPHER LEFFLER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, VCU MEDICAL CENTER: We did find that it helps the countries where governments recommended that the public wear masks. Within 20 days of the onset of their outbreak, they had mortality by May 9th of just 1.5 per million, whereas the countries that did not recommend masks had a mortality of over 200 per million on average such as the United States, which was at 240 per million.

And so I think a mandate from the government, whether it's nationally or whether you did it by 50 states, each making their own mandate, either way, it's the government communicating to people how important it is to really wear the mask. And I think it can help lower both infection and mortality.

BRUNHUBER: All right. So, some might hear this and wonder, OK, maybe your study did a control for certain variables, maybe it was an outlier, but there have been several other studies done, as well, some are comparing different countries, others comparing different states and when they introduced mask mandates. So, let's say we were to throw at your study, would your conclusions still stand?

LEFFLER: I think so. The one you were looking at with other states was a study in health affairs. And they found that the states that implemented masks or mask mandates quicker also had lower infection rates. And you mentioned controlling for factors. We controlled for lockdowns, temperature, obesity of the population, age of the population, all sorts of variables were controlled in our -- in our study.

BRUNHUBER: So given the increased number of cases that we are seeing, given the fact that we are going to have to spend more time indoors with the bad weather and so on, do you think there should be a federal mask mandate? LEFFLER: Well, again, whether it's -- whether it is done nationally or whether you have 50 states doing it one way or another, I think it's a good idea for the government to require it.

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BRUNHUBER: And that was Dr. Christopher Leffler speaking with me a little earlier.

Well, the number of Americans casting their ballots early shows how energized voters are this year. Already almost 59 million people have voted across the country. That's more than all of the pre-election voting back in 2016. In New York, more than 100,000 people voted Sunday, breaking the record from just the day before. Athena Jones filed this report for us earlier.

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ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we're here in Brooklyn, where the 2nd day of early voting is well underway. 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 that is 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 three 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.

[04:35:00]

Now, I talked about the long lines. We saw it in the city, as well, in the city of Manhattan, in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, in Queens. Lines stretching blocks long at some of these voting locations. There are 88 locations throughout the 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's ultimately a good thing that we're forced to wait.

Lots of working Americans can't afford to wait three 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 from the first day of early voting, nearly 94,000 people cast their ballot, and that is more than voted in all nine days of early voting in 2019.

So, we expect to see this enthusiasm continue, and folks are coming out on a day like today have got to just bundle up and, of course, pack their patience.

Athena Jones, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: So, with a little more than a week to election day, an astronaut living in the international space station is showing her fellow Americans that there is no excuse not to vote. This is Kate Rubins showing off her makeshift voting booth aboard the ISS. She tells us how she's able to make her voice heard all the way back on earth.

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KATE RUBINS, NASA ASTRONAUT: There's legislation passed a number of years ago to allow astronauts to vote in space. I think a lot of astronauts do this. They feel that it's very important. It's critical to participate in our democracy. We consider it an honor to be able to vote from space, and so we fill out a form and we vote via absentee ballot, and I plan on doing that in November. I think it's really important for everybody to vote, and if we could do it from space, then I believe folks can do it from the ground, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. All right, coming up, Nigeria's police chief says enough is enough, as he deploys the country's entire police force, trying to stop the ongoing violence there. We'll have more. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: British Special Forces stormed an oil tanker in the English Channel Sunday night, following reports of a hijacking. Authorities said stowaways made threats to the crew. Seven suspects have been detained and the crew is said to be safe. Liberia flagged vessel left Nigeria and was expected to arrive in the port of South Hampton. Instead it made several zigzag maneuvers off the Isle of Wight in a possible attempt to alert authorities.

Israel is starting to ease its second nationwide coronavirus lock down, and people there have mixed feelings about it. The country has reported more than 309,000 infections according to Johns Hopkins University, but new daily cases are dropping steadily. Israel saw fewer than 700 Saturday down from a peak of more than 9,000 a few weeks ago. Now, while there's relief that Israel's latest lock down appears to be working, there's been a lot of finger pointing over why the situation got this bad in the first place. Oren Liebermann explains.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL 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.

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

TAL OHANA, YERUHAM, ISRAEL, MAYOR: I need to fight the COVID, and I need to give them hope. I need to work for their community. And I must do everything I that they will trust me.

LIEBERMANN (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.

LIEBERMANN (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 30, 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 a lockdown was less strict.

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

LIEBERMANN: Yeruham saw a similar drop, from 27 in a day in September, to less than 5 in the last week. Here, they take seriously the commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself.

RABBI YITZHAK SHALEV, CHIEF RABBI, YERUHAM (through translator): The country of Israel is like a hand. The hand has a lot of fingers. There's 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.

LIEBERMANN: As Israel slowly reopens, there is a fear that it's too soon. The numbers now are significantly worse than they were at the end of the first lockdown in May.

Yeruham is not immune to that fear, but here they say their greatest strength is a community united against coronavirus.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Yeruham.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And CNN NEWSROOM will be right back. Stay with us.

[04:45:00]

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BRUNHUBER: Nigeria's chief of police has deployed the country's entire police force to deal with ongoing unrest there. Africa's most populous nation is seeing the worst violence in decades with widespread looting and destruction. Protests calling for an end to police brutality began earlier this month and started with calls for a police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, to be disbanded over claims of kidnapping, harassment and extortion.

On Sunday, Pope Francis expressed his concern asking his faithful to pray for Nigeria following the violent clashes there.

So, let's head to Lagos, Nigeria now. We are joined by, there we go, we have Rinu Oduala, she's the human rights activist and has been actively involved with the protests against police brutality. Thank you so much for joining us. I just wanted to know what brought you and the thousands of other young people out on to the streets.

RINU ODUALA, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Well, here in Nigeria, (INAUDIBLE) of so many things have been call and during, police brutality and during harassment, and during the injustice that by the police, and coupled with the coronavirus and, you know, the lock down. People lost their jobs. Everything just became too much, and it just spewed over and that's it came out in the street.

BRUNHUBER: So, you went out there. You were protesting at one point. I understand the police surrounded you.

[04:50:00]

As a young person when the police were aiming their guns at you, you were lying on the ground, what was going through your mind, what were you thinking?

ODUALA: Well, during those times, I felt if this is going to be it, then we're going to die standing up for what is right. That was all that was going through my mind, and I just said, this just recite the Nigerian national anthem and just that. BRUNHUBER: Wow. It's hard to believe, I mean, somebody so young having

to go through all of this, and many other people were actually killed. You know, what can you tell us about the deadly violence that's been going on there, and the government's response to that?

ODUALA: For me, the government response is not as effective and loud as we would want it to be. Because we're all protesting against police brutality. And we're still being harassed. You know, we have asked for SARS to be disbanded four to five times over the past four to five years now. And in 2020 we're still seeing the brutality and harassment. Reports as of yesterday, five officers just seeing on the streets, you know, are harassing people. Meanwhile, the IGP said that this same unit has been disbanded. It has not been what people expected.

BRUNHUBER: So, you're saying even though President Bihari said he dissolved the SARS unit, you're saying it's still active. It's still out there.

ODUALA: Yes, was a quest yesterday that they were still out in the street.

BRUNHUBER: Now, there's been of course plenty of peaceful protesting, but some of the pictures we're showing as well, there has been looting and rioting. Are you afraid the cause has been hijacked and that's giving authorities a legitimate reason to crack down now?

CHURCH: The protests had been peacefully. You know, it started with well-meaning people coming together to say they want to make their voices heard. For me, the looting and the rioting is just the result of objective of public servants in Lagos. You know, when some people say that this opportunity -- some people say this protest is an opportunity to express their frustrations against police brutality, while others see it as an opportunity to just cry out against not having basic things, no jobs, no life, you know, so there's this disconnect, which is not on the fault of the protesters. It's on the fault of the government for having failed to deliver what job loss are meant for. So, I don't think got them away, the message that has been passed, of course we have made our voices loud and clear.

BRUNHUBER: Before we go, we just have a few seconds, but I know you had said a couple of days ago, that you felt like you lost all hope. I'm just wondering now, are you hopeful at all?

ODUALA: Well, it is going to depend on the next actions that the government is going to take. We investigate into these crimes, so I feel let us see what these actions are going to mean in the next few days, few weeks.

BRUNHUBER: All right, well, best of luck to you, and all the young people in Nigeria. We really appreciate you coming on and speaking to us about this important issue. Rinu Oduala, thank you.

Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right, now to growing tensions between France and Turkey. France is recalling its ambassador over comments the Turkish President made about French President Emmanuel Macron. Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Mr. Macron needed, quote, some sort of mental treatment over his attitude toward Muslims in France. It comes after Mr. Macron vowed to crack down on radical Islamism after a French teacher who used controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class was beheaded. CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon has more now from Istanbul. What's behind all of this?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the one hand, Kim, you do have these growing tensions between France and Turkey, over Turkey's oil explorations and other explorations in the eastern Mediterranean, and then over the ongoing fighting in Libya.

[04:55:00]

So, it's not the first time that the two leaders have traded barbs, although this does take the public commentary one step further to a certain degree. Especially since France has now recalled its ambassador to Turkey, but one also needs to look at this to a certain degree, the broader context of how the rest of the Arab and Muslim world have reacted as well.

And while no one is condoning that horrific beheading of a French teacher, many are expressing their concerns over France's attitude and response to this, viewing it as being unnecessarily inflammatory, highlighting examples like France is part of the commemorations for the death of that beheaded French teacher, including broadcasting those images of Prophet Mohammed on some government buildings, as well as this crackdown against radical groups. There have been a handful of attacks in France, especially Paris, against Muslims.

And this has caused a backlash in many Arab and Muslim countries, calling for the boycott of French goods. And so, on the one hand, you have these ongoing dynamics that have been unfolding for quite some time now, specifically between France and Turkey but on the other hand you also have this broader attention that once again risks rising to the surface between France, i.e., the West, and the Muslim world.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thank you very much, Arwa Damon in Istanbul.

And thank you for your company. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN.

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