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More Than Half a Million Americans Infected in Past Week; New Poll Shows Biden Leads Trump in Wisconsin, Michigan; Player Pulled from World Series Game after Positive COVID Test. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired October 28, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: More than half a million Americans have tested positive for coronavirus in just the last week. Contrast that with listening to the president at his campaign rallies. He says we've rounded the corner, all is well. But let's look at some of the numbers. All is not well, and let's start with the map.

If you look right now, you see can see here orange and red, 40 states, 40 states right now reporting more new COVID-19 infections now compared to the data one week ago, 40 of the 50 states. You see nine states holding steady, only one, Missouri, middle of America there, right now reporting fewer new infections now compared to a week ago, 40 states trending in the wrong direction.

With that, you get this case count and you see Tuesday 73,000, 73,000- plus cases on Tuesday. The red line tells you everything you need to know, we are trending up and trending up in quite a steep way.

Now, look to your left. You see the peak of the summer surge. We are now higher than that and climbing just about every day.

And with this comes hospitalizations as well. The hospitalization line you see Tuesday 44,212 Americans hospitalized because of the coronavirus. Significantly, each one of those individuals, now, look at the blue line, a trend line going up again.

And, again, look to your left, the hospitalization was highest at the beginning, the first peak, then it got right about the same spot again in the second peak. The question is how high do we go in this third peak?

Use this. Look at it this way. Normally, you see only a few states on the map and you think it's positive, no. Only three states, only three of the 50 states have had a hospitalizations decrease since the 1st of October, only three of the 50 states pointing down when it comes to hospitalizations.

Let's bring to the conversation now Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, she's a Chief Clinical Officer at Providence Health System. Dr. Compton- Phillips, it's great to see you.

I wish we were discussing better numbers, better maps and better statistics. But what I just went through there with the direction the country is headed in right now, just hours before I discussed those numbers with you, the White House released a document, it's designed to present the achievements of the president in his first term as he runs for re-election.

And among the president's achievements, it says right there, it's ending the COVID-19 pandemic. It's right there in writing in an official White House document. Have we ended the COVID-19 pandemic?

DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We have not even come close to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, John. This is really when, I think, spinning turns into gaslighting. And the message we need to hear right now is that we need to double down those efforts that everybody is sick and tired with but we're not done. We have to stick with them.

[11:35:00]

Simply having consistent, coherent messaging about the critical importance of mask-wearing and social distancing would do a huge service to the country in getting control of this, rather than telling people that it's already done, don't worry, we're going the wrong direction.

KING: And so if we go back in time and you go back to April, middle of March, the White House announces the initial guidelines to stop the spread. One month later, the president is getting antsy. He sees the economic shutdown, he believes it's hurting his re-election so he wants the reopening guidelines.

If you read reopening guidelines, they're still published, they're actually pretty reasonable. Three steps, you have to pass this test, wait two weeks, if you pass the next test, you go further. But the problem was states didn't follow them. States didn't follow them. And the president encouraged states to reopen quickly, essentially encouraging them to run the yellow lights and the red lights.

Dr. Fauci this morning saying that is why we're still in such trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When we were trying to open up the economy again or open up the country, and we did, and I was very much involved with Dr. Deborah Birx in putting together these guidelines, which were a gateway of phase one, phase two, to tell you how you can gradually, safely and prudently open up the country. That would have been nice if all of the states did that the same way.

If everybody had done that uniformly, I don't think we would be in the position we're in right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: They actually had a plan. And on paper, most experts say it was a pretty good plan. It's just states didn't follow it and the president encouraged them not to.

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: They had a plan, they had a playbook, they had a lot of ways that we could have succeeded. And, unfortunately, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory here. In fact, this week, the Columbia University Center for Disaster Preparedness put out a report that said, if we had had effective national leadership, we could have saved somewhere between 130,000 and 210,000 lives from this pandemic.

And so I really do believe that the wish, the desire to just make it all go away and pretend that it didn't exist and to just go from where we were to where we wanted to be without doing the hard work in between actually caused, you know, somewhere well north of 100,000 Americans to not be with their family today.

KING: That is a sober, sad way to put it. Look, no matter what your politics, no matter who you believe, those numbers, 8.7 million, 8.7 million cases, 226,000, almost 227,000 dead Americans, everyone of them is a neighbor, a parent, a child, no matter what you think, those should make you sober.

Dr. Compton-Phillips, grateful for your time and your insights, as always.

Up next, we get back to the campaign in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. The polls say the president is leading. Should we believe them this time?

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[11:40:00]

KING: New numbers yesterday just how difficult it is for President Trump to re-create his 2016 map. Michigan and Wisconsin were critical four years ago. But look here, a just-released Washington Post/ABC News poll finds Joe Biden's lead widening in both states, with as much as a 17-point spread in Wisconsin, well beyond the margin of era.

Now, the CNN poll of polls average is more conservative but still significant. You see it right there.

Today, Vice President Pence stumping in Wisconsin and Michigan just a day after the president held rallies in both states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Seven days from now, we're going to win the great state of Michigan.

Now you have a president who is standing up for America and standing up for the great people of Wisconsin.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Joining us now, Chad Livegood, Senior Editor for Crain's Business in Detroit, and Corrinne Hess, Reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio.

Corrinne, I want to start with you. Again, I do not believe, no bone in my body can convince me that a state as competitive as Wisconsin has a 17-point Biden edge right now, right now. But polls capture moments in time. And this poll was in the field in the time your state is going through a horrific spike in the coronavirus. This is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here, worst day yet again, the state journal, now a nightmare scenario.

Is it possible that maybe it comes back some but right now because of the collision, if you will, of the campaign and coronavirus, is that why the numbers for the president are so bad?

CORRINNE HESS, REPORTER, WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO: I think it's very possible, John. Yesterday was our worst day. We had 5,000 new coronavirus cases, and we had 64 deaths. And I think that these numbers are finally catching up with voters and with the president.

The poll that you're referring to earlier, 63 percent of registered voters said that they're very or somewhat worried that they themselves or someone in their family would catch the coronavirus.

KING: That is tough. So let's move over to Michigan. And, Chad, it's largely the same dynamic. Here is the headline here, president delivers fiery remarks in Lansing, but your state is dealing with this as well. And you say is -- we have one more headline, I like all of the papers here, Detroit News, women drive Biden's Michigan lead, women, without a doubt.

But one of the interesting dynamics in Michigan, which right now has a lower positivity rate but still is seeing cases go up a little bit, is throughout the pandemic, the president has picked fights with Democratic governors.

[11:45:08]

It's true in Wisconsin but it's even more true where you are in Michigan. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm also getting your husbands, they want to get back to work, right? They want to get back to work. We're getting your husbands back to work and everybody wants it.

Your governor -- I don't think she likes me too much. Hey, hey, hey, I'm the one -- it was our people that helped her out with her problem. And we'll have to see if it's a problem, right? People are entitled to say, maybe it was a problem. Maybe it wasn't. It was our people, my people, our people that helped her out, and then she blamed me for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: I mean, we could spend a month on this one. Maybe it's a problem. Maybe it's not. People were arrested for threatening to kidnap the governor, tried to overthrow the state government, that's a problem.

But getting at the dynamic in the state right now, again, Hillary Clinton had a narrow lead four years ago, Donald Trump carried it on Election Day. Joe Biden's lead is bigger now. What is the dynamic on the ground? And, again, you have this collision between this pandemic and this election.

CHAD LIVENGOOD, SENIOR EDITOR, CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS: That's right, John. The big dynamic is women voters and how they turn out. Right now, the polling is not good for Donald Trump. The Detroit News/NBC affiliate polling that came out last night showed a 25-point lead for Joe Biden among all women and more hurting the president, a three-point lead within the margin of error in women outside of metro Detroit.

This is the area where Donald Trump really clocked in a lot of votes and flipped some counties like Saginaw, Bay County, that had been Barack Obama territory for many years prior to that.

And so now, this is where the president is really struggling is with the female voters. And he's in Lansing yesterday. He was starting to question the validity of his own FBI's charges against these 14 men who allegedly plotted to kidnap and possibly kill Governor Whitmer.

So this is all done on the backdrop of we had the highest seven-day average yet in Michigan with 2,100 new average cases yesterday. And we're in the middle of what most public health experts say is the second wave and a surge right now showing no sight of subsiding.

KING: Chad Livengood, Corrinne Hess, grateful, it's critical to us to get out of Washington and get some reporting from these battleground states, grateful for your time and your great insights today. We'll check back in with both of you.

Up next for us, we go back to the coronavirus. A positive coronavirus test interrupting, yes, even the final game of the World Series.

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[11:50:00]

KING: The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series champions. The Dodgers defeating the Tampa Bay Rays, winning its first World Series title in 32 years. But not even Major League Baseball could escape the reality of this coronavirus pandemic. The Dodgers third baseman Justine Turner was pulled midgame after a positive coronavirus test. Turner wrote in a tweet that tweeted he feels great and has no symptoms at all.

CNN Sports Anchor Andy Scholes joins me now. A dramatic series and, wow, is that little late ending or mid ending drama show, we say, added to it. ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: It certainly was, John. And you've got to feel a little bit for Turner. Two innings away from a realizing a lifelong dream of winning the World Series and someone walks up to you in the dugout and says, hey, you tested positive for coronavirus. You've got to leave. I can't even imagine what that was like.

The Major League Baseball getting in the World Series just in time. They went this entire post-season without any players testing positive in game six of the World Series, one of Dodgers star players testing positive as they were about to clinch World Series title.

So, Turner was pulled from the game in the eighth inning after Major League Baseball learned he had tested positive in the latest round of testing, really odd timing to get these results. ESPN's Jeff Passan reports that they got the results of Monday's test in the second inning. Those were inconclusive. Samples taken from Tuesday then arrived later on. And sources told ESPN those were the ones that showed up positive.

The Dodgers were leading 3-1 when Turner left the game in the eighth inning. Julio Urias striking out Willy Adames to get that final out and clinched that elusive World Series title for L.A., for the champs for the first time since 1988.

Corey Seager was World Series MVP. And he said after the game, it's really tough for the team to not have Turner out there to celebrate at the final out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COREY SEAGER, WORLD SERIES MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: To take that away from him is gut wrenching. It hurts me. I can't imagine how he feels. If I could switch places with him right now, I would.

CLAYTON KERSHAW, PITCHER, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: I'm sure it's really hard tonight. And we all feel for him. But I hope that he can take solace in the fact we're not here without him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So, Turner not on the field in the final out, but he did eventually return to the field wearing a mask celebrate, hug some of his teammates then sat next to his manager, Dave Roberts, for a team photo, and as you can see, lowered his mask there so he could smile for the camera.

[11:55:07]

And, John, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, said the entire team was going to get tested when they got back to the hotel last night. We've reached out to the Dodgers about those results, haven't heard back yet. Also, I haven't heard back yet if the team is going to be able to travel back to Los Angeles from Texas any time soon. I guess it all depends on those results.

KING: The disruption continues, we learn more every day. We'll watch as that plays out. I get the emotions there, I'm not sure that was the wisest choice but watch how that one plays out. Andy Scholes, I appreciate it very much.

More coronavirus sports-related news, the Big Ten Conference today canceling this week's big football game between Wisconsin and Nebraska, that after several players and coaches tested positive for coronavirus.

The game won't be rescheduled because there's no time to do it. Big Ten started its season late, of course, after reversing an initial decision to scrap the season all together. And there was no time built in for bye weeks or weeks where teams just don't play.

Up next for us, we get back to the campaign trail. President Trump on the road today. He is out west trying to take states that right now lean blue and flipping back to him. Why? Because he's trailing in the race to 270 electoral votes.

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