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Bundesstadt Divided Over Restrictions In Germany; France On High Alert After Nice Stabbings; Biden & Trump: Divergent Messages On The Even Of Election; Unrelenting Community Spread In The West & Midwest; One-Third of U.S. Voters Have Already Cast Ballots; 82 percent of Trump Rallies Followed by Sharp Rises in COVID-19; Trump Touting Record GDP Growth Rate. Aired 1-1:45a ET
Aired October 30, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Ahead this hour. The very different worlds of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump claims the pandemic is all but over, Biden prepares the nation for worse to come.
Trump vows to defeat the radical left, the anarchists, Biden calls for unity.
My freedom versus your health. The protests and anger over pandemic restrictions now going viral in Europe.
And the French president declares his country under attack after a deadly stabbing spree in a church. He raises the national security status to its highest level.
Never before have so many Americans voted this early in a U.S. election. Nationwide, they've been turning out in record numbers, as of last count.
As of last count, 81 million had already cast their ballots, which is likely to foreshadow one of the biggest, if not the biggest, turnouts ever.
Many who are voting early, especially by mail, are doing so because of the pandemic.
And right now, the U.S. is close to 9 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Thursday alone, a new daily record with more than 88,000 new cases.
And what seems to be not surprising at all, new data shows most places where President Trump has held large campaign rallies there have been sharp increases in the number of new cases. More on that in a moment.
But first, we begin with CNN's Kaitlan Collins reporting in from the battleground state of north Carolina. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump and Joe Biden crossing paths in Tampa, Florida today with dueling rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Five days from now, we are going to win Florida, we are going to win four more years in the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT AND DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The heart and soul of this country's at stake, right here in Florida. It's up to you. You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it's over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: With cases rising, the closing days of the 2020 race are being defined by the pandemic and two wildly different closing messages from the candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're making the turn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Thank you for wearing your masks and thank you for social distancing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Trump has been eager to point out the differences bragging about his mostly maskless crowds as he flouts coronavirus guidelines while Biden adheres to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now they and say it's because of COVID. The fact that he has nobody at all show up is because of COVID. No, it's because nobody shows up.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's right.
CROWD: (Applause)
TRUMP: And I think that's the ultimate poll.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: Today, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was pressed by "CBS News" on why the administration isn't following its own guidelines on the pandemic. And instead talked about Purell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I can tell you that I'm following the guidelines and a number of us are following the guidelines.
TONY DOKOUPIL, ANCHOR, "CBS THIS MORNING:" A number --
MEADOWS: For all of you that are watching this morning is if you can carry a little container of Purell. I probably have used more Purell than any American here in the United States over the last seven or eight months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Dr. Scott Atlas is now the president's go-to advisor on coronavirus and new CNN reporting goes inside his push to mainly test only symptomatic people. Even as other medical experts warned about the dangers of asymptomatic spread.
Dr. Atlas shared those views with governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis. And during a stop in the state in August said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: And so when you start introducing closure of schools because people have positive asymptomatic tests, that's sort of not the purpose of testing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The rise of Atlas within the task force has coincided with what friends describe as the self exile of Dr. Deborah Birx who instead of being by the president's side now spends her days on the road advising state officials on transmission rates.
Today, the president focused less on new COVID-19 cases and instead on the third quarter economic growth number he's been waiting to tout for weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And wait until you see that number on GDP, I don't know what it is. The Fed said it may be a 35 percent increase in GDP.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The economy grew a record 7.4 percent from July to September which means, at an annualized rate, the growth was 33 percent, the sharpest improvement on record but far from where it was pre-pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Did you see the number today? 33.1 GDP.
CROWD: (Applause)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Meanwhile, the White House press secretary once again blurred the lines between government and politics today by appearing on "Fox News" not as a taxpayer funded government official, but with this new title.
[01:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE DOOCY, ANCHOR, "FOX & FRIENDS:" Let's bring in Kayleigh McEnaney. She is a Trump 2020 campaign adviser.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:00]
COLLINS: In more on the emerging rift between Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Scott Atlas. We're told that over the summer she emerged from a meeting with a resolution.
That she wasn't going to sit there and listen to Dr. Atlas pontificate about the pandemic she believed so instead she decided to make a different use of her time by going on the road to nearly 40 states in recent weeks including lately Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota to meet with those state officials.
Because he was getting more time with the president and she was getting less.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN. Traveling with the president in North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining me now is CNN politics and White House reporter, Stephen Collinson.
So Stephen, good to see you, it's been a while.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Hey.
VAUSE: OK. So as this coronavirus surges and directly tanks Trump's poll numbers, it seems the president's strategy is to ignore reality.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know the bottom line though, you're going to get better. If can get better, anybody can get better. I got better fast.
CROWD: (Applause)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Expect the bottom line is almost 230,000 Americans did not get better and a lot more will die in the coming months.
This strategy seems best described as trying to perform a jedi mind trick on the entire country. And for those who don't know what that is, here it is.
(CLIP FROM STAR WARS):
STORMTROOPER: "Let me see your identification."
OBI-WAN KENOBI, JEDI MASTER: "You don't need to see his identification."
STORMTROOPER: "We don't need to his identification."
OBI-WAN KENOBI: These aren't the droids you're looking for.
STORMTROOPER: These aren't the droids we're looking for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes. Plant a suggestion in a weak mind and hope that they will believe it. But the problem is Trump is not a jedi because jedis are not real.
The pandemic is real, so too is that death toll.
So why is it that Trump has been so locked into this strategy which has been devastating in both terms of public health and politics?
COLLINSON: I think the president has realized that if the election is a referendum on his handling of the pandemic in which, as you say, 227,000 Americans have now died, he can't win.
He has been going around the country basically saying all the media wants to talk about is COVID, COVID, COVID. And he's asking to be judged on the state of the country before the pandemic hit.
Even, though of course, guiding the country through crisis is what presidents are for.
So we have a choice for voters. They can stick with a president with no clear appointment plan to get out of this and a policy that looks an awful lot like herd immunity in which many more Americans will die, or they can choose vice president -- former vice president Joe Biden who is at least pledging to lead the country, to listen to scientists, unlike the president, and get Americans out of this.
That really is what election is coming down to. VAUSE: And this battle between the White House on the one hand,
science, facts and the experts on the other, at least according to Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, came to an end back in April.
Here's Kushner talking to journalist, Bob Woodward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED KUSHNER, SNR. ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT: We've now put out rules to get back to work. Trump's now back in charge, it's not the doctors. They've got a -- we have like a negotiated settlement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What is a negotiated settlement? That's not entirely unclear.
But what is clear is that these tapes reveal how the administration was all too willing to put political gain way ahead of public health.
COLLINSON: Right. A negotiated settlement suggests that there was some kind of war going on inside the Administration. That, in fact, is what all the reporting of the early days of this pandemic revealed.
To begin with, the president didn't want to talk about the pandemic. He downplayed it, he said it would never be a problem.
When that became clear and when that Jared Kushner tape was recorded in the interview with Bob Woodward, there were about 40,000 American deaths.
There was a period of about a month when the president listened to scientist, he carried on daily briefings, trying to make it look as though he was addressing the pandemic.
But, of course, as soon as the economic toll of shutdowns became clear, he started to push very aggressively for openings. He stopped listening to the scientists.
And the reason, of course, is that the economy was his number one argument for re-election.
VAUSE: This plan which Kushner and Trump came up with and whoever else was involved, it's really backfired at the worst possible moment for the Trump campaign.
Poll after poll has Biden up nationally. A new Quinnipiac poll gives a Biden three-point lead in the swing state of Florida. A statistical dead heat in Iowa which Trump won four years ago by more than nine points. Biden up seven in Pennsylvania, a crucial state. Also five points up in Ohio.
But the ultra liberal filmmaker, Michael Moore, who predicted a 2016 Trump win is among those Democrats who remain very skeptical of the polling.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MOORE, U.S. FILMMAKER: Don't believe these polls, first of all. And second of all, the Trump vote has always been undercounted.
Pollsters, when they actually call a real Trump voter, the Trump voter's very suspicious of the deep state calling them and asking them who they're voting for. And they -- it's all fake news to them, remember.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:10:00]
VAUSE: Is there any way -- how many shy Trump voters are out there? The ones who like the racism, the misogyny, the bigotry, the chaos, the bullying, the name-calling and all the rest of it but don't want to admit it to a stranger on the other end of a phone?
COLLINSON: Biden is the clear favorite. The president would need a lot of polls to be wrong for him to win this race. But at the same time, this is the U.S.
It's not a popular vote election. It plays out in 50 separate states.
While Biden does have many more routes to 270 electoral votes you need to be president, there are several viable parts of the south and the industrial Midwest that the president could activate if he performs -- if he outperforms the polls.
VAUSE: Stephen, thank you. Good to see you.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
VAUSE: The current health crisis in the United States is forecast to only get worse in the coming months.
The University of Washington predicts the daily death toll could triple.
CNN's Nick Watt has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There's going to be a lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations and deaths.
We are on a very difficult trajectory. We are going in the wrong direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now, the next two months.
We'll cross 100,000 infections at some point in the next couple of weeks, probably. We might do it this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: He's talking 100,000 new infections a day.
Here's the graph. Spring surge, summer surge, now this.
The country averaging well over 70,000 new cases every day right now, record territory. And climbing even higher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. CRAIG SPENCER, DIRECTOR GLOBAL HEALTH IN ER MEDICINE, NY- PRESBYTERIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: It's true that testing has gone up since October 1st by 14 percent which is great. But new cases have gone up by over 60 percent so it's not just testing, it's a lot more virus. And this virus is everywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: "We continue to see unrelenting broad community spread in the Midwest, upper Midwest and West," says the White House coronavirus task force's latest report.
Kansas and South Dakota just logged record daily case counts. And four days in a row, Wisconsin has broken its record for most COVID patients in the hospital. Now forced to use overflow facilities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR TOM BARRETT, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: The hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last month. We've got this situation that is clearly out of control right now in the state of Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: And many places getting hit right hard right now don't have the hospital infrastructure of, say, New York.
But the president still not taking this seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have to eat through the mask. Its --
CROWD: [Laughs]
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: Dr. Fauci now wants a nationwide mask mandate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: Yes. If that works, let's do it. I don't think it's going to happen nationally because it might -- it may not come from the White House to do it. And if it doesn't then I think that the mayors and the governors should do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: Right now, not a single state in the nation has fewer new cases this week than last. Not even one is headed in the right direction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ALI KHAN, DEA, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER'S COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This is the greatest political failure since the Vietnam war, probably. And we've killed five times as many people.
It's unbelievable. The virus is no longer the enemy, we are the enemy; our friends, our neighbors, our politicians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTS: And we can look at Ohio almost as a microcosm of the entire United States right now. They just set a record, most new cases in a day, 3,590.
And the governor? Direct quote, "The virus is raging throughout the state of Ohio, there is no place to hide.
Nick Watt. CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A month-long partial lockdown in Germany will take effect Monday as the government tries to rein in a surging number of new infections.
As she announced these new pandemic restrictions, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of real world harm caused by disinformation and conspiracy theories.
And she said if nothing was done, intensive care units would soon be overwhelmed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (Through Translator): We are in a dramatic situation at the beginning of this cold season. And it affects us all. The situation is worrying and cannot be talked away.
Placating wishful thinking or populist trivializations are not just untruthful, they are irresponsible.
Lies and disinformation, conspiracy theories and hate damage not only democratic debate but also the fight against the virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: To Los Angeles now and CNN's European affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas. Dominic, it's good to see you.
DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Good to see you, John.
VAUSE: We just heard from Angela Merkel addressing the Bundesstadt there. She's talking about the disinformation, the conspiracy theories, the lies. And this was a point she kept returning to again and again.
Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERKEL (Through Translator): We cannot allow the line between true and untrue, right and wrong, to be smudged.
When science has proven something is false then it must be clearly stated. Because our relation to facts and information not only affects democratic debate but human lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, I get it. There's pandemic fatigue, there's pandemic fatigue everywhere. But this rebellion against science and fact seems to be very un-German.
Is it possible to know how much of it is being driven by what the people in Germany are seeing play out in the United States?
THOMAS: They certainly are watching the United States, they have been all along. Especially with the election coming up.
But there is a kind of global Venn diagram that brings together some of the aspects that Angela Merkel mentioned; the conspiracy theories, the denialists, the anti-maskers and so on.
And clearly, when a U.S. president having caught the coronavirus, downplays it, comparing it to a mild flu at best, it has an influence. And so parties like the AfD, the far right party in Germany, have exploited this.
But it's not just the fringe parties now. What we've seen is an evolution over the past eight months. And today in the German Parliament, we saw the FDP, the Free Democratic Party, pro business, talking about these kinds of issues and so on.
And I think one year out of the German federal election, exploiting the government's failure, as they would argue in any case, to sort of shut down this virus as a way to bolster their electoral hopes.
So we're seeing a shift here in kind of tolerance for the government's way of dealing with things.
VAUSE: While she was explaining this need to reimpose a soft lockdown, listen to this as Chancellor Merkel was talking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERKEL: (In German)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: (Interrupt in German)
MERKEL: (In German)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: (Interrupt in German)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (In German)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: (Inaudible) there's constant interruption. At one point, she was accused of running a corona dictatorship.
But here's the catch. The more that people refused to comply with these lockdown measures and other restrictions, the longer the pandemic will last and the worse it will get.
And it's sort of like a feedback loop.
THOMAS: Yes, it is, John. And it's absolutely -- the case that -- there is a real health crisis here. And these questions, the health response, cannot be downplayed.
And yet you're seeing these increasing divisions over the ways in which to respond to this question.
It's clear that after what we could have called phase one in Europe, the situation became far too relaxed over the summer months. And the consequences of that are being seen clearly and unambiguously now.
And it's a tremendous concern.
Because back in the spring, the situation was terrible in Europe then it worsened in the United States and we see a return to that situation in Europe today.
And unless there's a dramatic policy change both there and in the United States, it does not bode well for the winter months ahead.
VAUSE: And also if you look at what's happening in the U.K. where have the city of Manchester, one of the biggest cities, which seems to be refusing to willingly follow any further pandemic restrictions.
Listen to the mayor speaking earlier this month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ANDY BURNHAM, MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM: They are asking us to gamble our residents' jobs, homes, and businesses and a large chunk of our economy on a strategy that their own experts tell them might not work. We would never sign up for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Sure. It might not work but then again it might just work. And all these measures which we're talking about have been effective, they have been proven to be effective.
And there just seems to be this reluctance to accept the fact that you cannot get this pandemic -- you cannot get the economy back up, rather, without getting the pandemic under control.
THOMAS: Yes. And we can't turn the clock back and start talking about what would have happened if we'd done this and so on.
Back to Angela Merkel. Science and facts we know can help us fight this particular virus.
And what you are seeing in Manchester is not unique. We've seen it in Italy, in France, Germany, The Netherlands and other places over the past few days.
We're now eight, nine months into this. And in these areas where there has been a lack of government support in the face of these lockdown measures -- as I said, eight months into this -- it's becoming increasingly evident that the lockdown is OK for the few, but not the many.
And this is why we're seeing resistance to some of these measures. Particularly in the case too when some of these governments are ignoring their own health guidelines. As the case was with the British Government not so long ago.
VAUSE: Yes. It's a difficult situation all round and it does seem to be dragging on for much longer than it should. But it is dragging and it's still there.
Dominic, good to see you. Thank you.
THOMAS: Right.
VAUSE: Dominic Thomas there in Los Angeles.
THOMAS: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: Well, three are dead after a knife attack in France. Investigators say it was an act of terrorism.
We'll have the very latest when we come back.
Also, doctors and nurses in Belgium say they soon may have to decide who lives and who dies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:00]
VAUSE: In France, an investigation is underway after three people were killed in a knife attack in a church in Nice.
President Emmanuel Macron says the country will not give in to terrorism.
Here is CNN's Cyril Vanier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As France was waking up Thursday morning preparing for a second national coronavirus lockdown, the country was brutally reminded of the enduring terror threat here.
Around 9:00 a.m. local time, an assailant entered the Notre Dame Basilica, a church in the very heart of the southern city of Nice.
The assailant was wielding a knife and the ensuing attack left three people dead. A victim whose throat was sliced, another victim who died of multiple stab wounds, and a third one who had originally managed to flee the church but then sadly died of her wounds very shortly after that.
We understand from bystanders that law enforcements were called very quickly. They arrived on the scene quickly as well and then opened fire on the assailant, neutralizing him. They did not kill him.
The assailant sustained multiple wounds and we understand is now receiving medical attention.
The Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who arrived on the scene shortly after the attack says that the assailant, even as he is receiving care, said the words, "Allahu akbar," multiple times which of course mean, "God is great," in in Arabic.
This is the third terror attack in five weeks in France.
The first two were connected to publications of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, something which is considered blasphemous in Islam.
We don't yet know where Thursday's attack in Nice is connected to that and to that controversy. But certainly the timing of it raises some very serious questions.
Cyril Vanier, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, the attack comes amid rising tensions between France and a number of other countries, including Turkey which says it condemns the knife attacks.
But makes it clear Turkey will not be taking -- will not be held responsible.
The Turkish government communications director said --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"We categorically deny any effort to associate us with any kind of violence." (...) "Turkey does not owe an apology to anyone for expressing strong opposition to racism and xenophobia."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
He's talking about comments by French President Emmanuel Macron about Islam as well as a new cartoon in the French publication "Charlie Hebdo "that mocks the Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan.
The official went on to say, quote, "Such senseless violence has nothing to do with Islam or Muslims."
New Zealand is set to legalize euthanasia in case of terminal illness. Preliminary results from a referendum show almost two-thirds of voters approve the measure.
The law would allow patients with less than six months to live to request an assisted suicide. They must be 18 years or older and need approval from two doctors.
[01:25:00]
The official results from the referendum will be published November 6th.
Belgium has been reporting about 13,000 new cases a day this past week. The country's coronavirus spokesman says at this rate, intensive care units could reach capacity in two weeks.
In the city of Liege, some health workers who have COVID but have not had symptoms are even being asked to continue to work.
CNN's Melissa Bell talked to some overwhelmed ICU doctors and nurses.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the sound of the ICU that many of the nurses can hear even at night.
All is calm until one of their COVID patients has trouble breathing so they get kitted up and head in.
Part of a workload that is 200 percent heavier than with a non-COVID patient, according to the ward's head nurse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PASCAL ENNAFLA, HEAD NURSE ICU UNIT, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL: They have to be really fast to get there, to protect themselves, to avoid taking risks even as they revive patients.
But with all those extra layers on, when they come out, they'll be sweating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: These ICU nurses have already been through the first wave. Some haven't had a break since.
Now they're on the frontline of one of the fastest spreading COVID outbreaks in the world.
The graph says it all. The positivity rate recorded daily in the hospital's lab shows a vertical climb from early October.
Tuesday, 2,000 people were tested by this lab; more than half were COVID-19 positive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. HENRY PARIDAENS, BIOLOGIST, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL: The 27 October we have a very alarming positivity rate of 60 percent.
Which means, say the doctors here, that an exponential rise in patients needing hospitalization will follow within the next few days.
Today, this ICU has just one spare bed. All too soon, doctors are going to start having to make impossible decisions about who gets a bed and who does not, about who is most likely to survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Dr. STEPHANE DEGESVES, HEAD OF EMERGENCIES, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL (Through Translator): It's the sort of decision that is contrary to everything we do. The dream of a doctor is to save lives. It's certainly not to say I will not save this person and I know it.
So it's not the type of decision that we take alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: Already the medical staff at this hospital gets psychological help. Techniques borrowed from the Israeli army that allow them to identify those struggling with being on the front line of a war that no one is winning and that few outside the hospital really understand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MARITAL MOONEN, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL (Through Translator): The message is very clear. That all those people who don't respect the rules, who make anti-mask propaganda should come and spend a day with me at the hospital to see the patients who can't breathe and for whom we can't do very much.
To see them isolated from their families because no one can visit, to see them die alone, which is psychologically very, very difficult.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BELL: These children have come to say happy birthday from a distance. Their only consolation? That their loved one was one of those who got a bed when he needed it.
CHILDREN'S VOICES: Papa, (inaudible).
Melissa Bell, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, for months, there have been warnings that Donald Trump's campaign rallies are super spreader events. And there is strong evidence that is exactly what has happened.
New figures are just staggering. Details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Well, this U.S. election already notable for the numbers who have already voted, about a third of all eligible voters. Many are sending mail-in ballots. Counting the tsunami of ballots is already a logistical nightmare. And recent court decisions could complicate everything even further.
CNN's Pamela Brown explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: With five days to go until election day more than a third of America's registered voters have already cast their ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's more a sense of security when we vote in person.
BROWN: 28 states have received more than 50 percent of total ballots cast in 2016. In Florida, where more than seven million people have voted, the Democrats' big early turnout lead has narrowed to just over 200,000.
The Texas turnout is already massive with more than eight million votes cast so far. Early voting there is on track to eclipse its entire 2016 vote total.
SYLVIA GARCIA, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: We want to make it as easy as can be, and make it accessible. So this location is open 24 hours.
BROWN: There are also new legal battles over whether late arriving mail-in ballots will be counted. In two key states, the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in.
North Carolina can count ballots up to nine days after the election if they are clearly postmarked by November 3rd.
In Pennsylvania, the decision is trickier, allowing ballots received by November 6th to be counted for now. but the court made clear, they could be disputed later.
Pennsylvania officials announcing, they will securely segregate votes by setting aside ballots that arrived after election day. Setting up a potential nightmare legal battle if late arrival ballots end up being enough to swing the election.
KATHY BOOCKVAR, PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF STATE: I know there is confusion about (INAUDIBLE) court decisions, make a plan today to vote. Right now, do not wait.
BROWN: And each county has a different counting plan. Cumberland County won't begin counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday. Prioritizing in-person voting. Dauphin County wants to have it all done by Tuesday night, but mail-in ballots could lag.
MIKE PRIES, COMMISSIONER DAUPHIN COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: We now believe, that election night, we'll have all the in person voting done, and approximately, if everything goes well 50,000 mail-in ballots completed.
BROWN: New Hampshire is already getting started. As election officials there begin partially processing absentee ballots today.
And in Minnesota, a bipartisan message from former governors urging patience, warning the count may not be complete on election night.
JESSE VENTURA, FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: A delay just means our system is working, and that we are counting every single ballot.
TIM PAWLENTY, FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: But no matter who wins, let's demonstrate the civility and decency that Minnesotans are known for.
BROWN: Pamela Brown, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The U.S. President cannot say he was not warned, despite almost every credible health expert expressing concern about his campaign rallies with thousands of supporters crammed together with rarely a face mask in sight. Well, we now know the end result, just as expected, spikes in COVID infections after more than 80 percent of those campaign rallies.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All you hear is COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: At rallies like this, Dr. Tom Inglesby is less focused on the speaking, and more on the crowds of people listening.
DR. TOM INGLESBY, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HEALTH AND SECURITY, JOHNS HOPSKINS: There seemed to be hundreds or thousands of people, closely standing together for a prolonged period of time without masks. Lots of yelling and shouting.
GUPTA: Inglesby is director for the Center of Health Security at Johns Hopkins. And he is concerned about the rallies.
DR. INGLESBY: The rallies really do pose high risks for transmission. But I wanted to better understand what that meant.
[01:34:54]
DR. GUPTA: So CNN investigated what happened at 17 recent Trump rallies. Specifically, looking at infection rates in the counties where the rallies took place four weeks before and four weeks after. And then also comparing them to the corresponding rates at the state level.
The results were startling. 82 percent of the time, the rate of new cases in the county jumped after President Trump's visit. More than half the time, the county rate of new cases grew faster than the state's rate.
For example September 12th Minden, Nevada. In the month going into that rally, cases had begun to fall. But fast forward four weeks and the rate of new cases in the county skyrocketed by 225 percent, far outpacing the 74 percent increase the state experienced.
Or September 18th. Bemidji, Minnesota -- fates of infection were already climbing in the month before the rally. By the day of the rally, the rate of infection was 6.36 for every 100,000 people in the county. About half the rate of Minnesota.
But a month after the rally, the rate of infection in the county had jumped by more than 385 percent. And quickly bypassed the state's rate of infection.
DR. INGLESBY: Those places are already going to be concerned about rising rates of hospitalization, increasing risk of community transmission.
TRUMP: We have had no problem whatsoever. It is outside.
DR. GUPTA: It's true that being outdoors is far safer than being indoors. But take a look at how the virus leaves the nose and the mouth, like a puff of smoke. Sitting so close, no mask, and the risk rises dramatically.
DR. INGLESBY: None of these, in and of themselves are a strong barrier to spread. But if you take them all together they would help to decrease the risk.
DR. GUPTA: Here's another way to think about it. If you attend a gathering like this, according to new research and most places in the United States, there is now a 99 percent chance that the virus is attending right alongside with you.
And now, at least 70,000 times a day, the virus is finding a new home inside one of us.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Better late than never, we suppose, the Trump campaign will now limit Friday's rally at Manchester, Minnesota to just 250 people. Officially the new restrictions on numbers is not because of any concern for the health of Trump supporters, instead the campaign is blaming, quote, "the free speech stifling dictators" of Minnesota's governor and attorney general for enforcing the state's health guidelines.
Still to come, President Trump celebrating some record economic figures. So why are economists worried. Find out what's behind the numbers, and what could be ahead for the U.S. economy?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:39:59]
VAUSE: The U.S. President is talking up a major rebound in economic growth. But the latest numbers don't tell the whole story. The GDP did grow at a stunning 33.1 percent annual rate this past quarter. But before that it declined, at an annual rate of 31.4 percent. That is because of the COVID pandemic. That was the deepest downturn on record. So the U.S. economy is still well below its pre-pandemic peak.
Donald Trump called the GDP numbers the biggest and best in the history of the country. Economists say there could be real obstacles though as we move forward.
CNN's Eleni Giokos joins us now with some more perspective on this.
You know the pandemic taketh and it gives it back but you know, this whole economic growth number is not as good as Donald Trump would like us all to believe.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. You've got to look it under the hood, right. And yes, we saw a record economic growth rate in the second quarter and in the third quarter but in the second quarter we saw the deepest decline on record and we're coming off a low base. It was inevitable that we'd see a really strong growth rate number.
The question is can we maintain this momentum? We have got to look at today. We're already sitting in the 4th quarter and economic growth recovery rates have already started to dampen. We're hearing from economists saying that they are looking at very important metrics of what restaurants are telling us where they still only have 15 percent capacity. Hoteliers 30 percent lower than what they were pre-pandemic levels. And the overall size of the U.S. economy is down $690 billion. So we still have a way to go. Now, in that tweet by Donald Trump, he says that next year is going to fantastic. Now, the question is how do you maintain this momentum, and this economic recovery?
And of course, with the stimulus talk and we've seen an impasse happening in Washington D.C. that is going to possibly derail the economic recovery plans that many people had touted as the saving grace in the United States.
Now, the question is, why did we see such a huge growth rate number? The (INAUDIBLE) that we saw in place, the stimulus plan had really created positive momentum and put money in the pockets of very vulnerable Americans. And also created a buffer that we saw lasting around two months after benefits expired at the end of July. But now, that doesn't exist anymore and there's major concern about what the next few months will look like.
Now, I'm also taking a look at today, and I'm looking at the Dow Jones futures, and I'm seeing, you know, negativity coming through today. We are down almost 360 points this morning, and that is because we had earnings out of the big tech stocks.
Now remember, you and I have spoken about this quite a lot. We have seen a lot of positivity coming through from these kinds of pandemic positivity stocks so to speak where a lot of consumers have been spending time online.
Alphabet came out with a result saying that they had seen a record number in ad sales. Apple, as well as Amazon. But these stocks are under pressure in extended trading hours yesterday and that is causing a lot of concern because the markets want some kind of clarity (ph). They want to know what's going to happen in the future. And these stocks are not giving -- these companies are not giving real kind of forecast that investors can get excited about.
And remember, there is a dual economy that is playing out in the U.S. right now where the markets are telling us one thing, we're seeing a very different story on the ground. And we're just a few days away from elections in the U.S. and that, of course, is creating uncertainty and a lot of reticence.
So I think the next few days with the markets is going to be interesting and tell us what investors are thinking, and that coupled with the reality of earnings, is going to be also a big one to watch, John.
VAUSE: And Tuesday is the big day, election night in the U.S.
Eleni thank you -- Eleni Giokos there in Johannesburg.
And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Stay with us.
15 minutes of "WORLD SPORT" starts after the break. I'll see you at the top of the hour. [01:43:53]
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