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NYT: Right-Wing Lawyer Pitched Trump On Martial Law Plan To Subvert Election; Biden Under Fire For Fist Bump With Saudi Crown Prince; Biden Administration Extends Public Health Emergency As BA.5 Sweeps U.S.; CDC: Nearly 1,500 Cases Of Monkeypox Confirmed In U.S.; Air Travel Roaring Back To Pre-Pandemic Levels. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 16, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:27]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The latest subpoena from the January 6 committee targeting the Secret Service over missing text messages.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): They've said they've got the texts and the Committee intends to get them all, ASAP.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meantime, "The New York Times" reporting a right- wing lawyer suggested Trump declare Martial Law to overturn the 2020 election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden returning from his controversial trip to the Middle East, where energy and security alliances may have been overshadowed by the murder of "Washington Post," journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time, and when I think of it now.

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: That Crown Prince pointed out that the US has made its own mistakes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With COVID cases and hospitalizations on the rise, Los Angeles likely reinstating indoor masking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With these very high rates, unless we start seeing a slowdown in spread, a slowdown in what's happening in our hospitals, in two weeks, we will do a universal indoor masking here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Londoners being urged not to travel as a heatwave engulfs Europe. Other cities now seeing all-time records as blistering temperatures bake the continent.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: I'm Laura Coates. Pamela Brown has the day off and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

On this Saturday, even more new information is coming to light on the vast efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a memo now obtained by "The New York Times" only surfacing now shows a conservative lawyer you may have never heard of, aggressively pushing a scheme that even he admitted would draw comparisons to Martial Law and the Saturday Night Massacre from Watergate.

Our Katelyn Polantz is with me now.

Katelyn, this centers around a supposed phone call between the lawyer and then President Trump on Christmas Day of 2020. Why are we just learning about this?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right. Well, this is a memo that "The New York Times" has obtained and put out there publicly and it fills in a little bit more of what we didn't know about who was in Donald Trump's ear at the end of 2020.

And so this memo is from a lawyer named, William Olson, and he was memorializing, in it a call that he and Donald Trump had, essentially where he was giving Trump advice on how to use the powers of the presidency to overturn the election results.

So I want to read two things from this memo because they are really forceful ideas that Donald Trump did carry forward ultimately. One, Olson is recommending to Trump to override the Justice Department, which at that time was refusing to sue to block the election, and they never did. They did not believe it was legally sound.

And he wrote: "Order the acting AG to file suit on behalf of the United States by 5:00 PM, tomorrow, December 29th. If the AG does not commit to exactly doing that, replace him. This step will likely bring on a thousand stories making an analogy to the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973." That's a reference to Richard Nixon.

And then Olson also recommends to Trump he should replace the White House Counsel, bring on other lawyers that might be more sympathetic to blocking the election result. And he says: "Our little band of lawyers is working on a memorandum that explains exactly what you can do. The media will call this Martial Law, but that is fake news, a concept with which you are well familiar."

COATES: Wow. I mean, and then you think about all those different pieces moving, not only do we know about the White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone and what's going on behind the scenes from these hearings we've seen about the idea of everyone knowing this was not the attack.

I almost think he sort of mocking the idea of "ha-ha, they're going to call this exactly what it sounds like it really is," you know, the Saturday Night Massacre.

We're also learning more about the January 6 Committee, Katelyn, in terms of these Secret Service messages that somehow went into the ether for some reason on those exact dates of January 5th and January 6th. What are we learning more about that? Where do things even stand?

POLANTZ: Right. So this is a really fascinating story. A lot has broken out about this in the last 72 hours. We didn't even know that there were missing text messages before on Secret Service phones, January 5th and 6th. That's something that the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General found and then flagged to Congress on July 13th, just a couple of days ago. And so now, the DHS Inspector General has spoken to the House Select Committee, the House Select Committee does want to know what happened. They're very concerned. They issued a subpoena last night asking the Secret Service to produce those text messages if they have them. The Secret Service says they might. There are text messages that the DHS Inspector General wanted and that they were able to turn over.

And the House Committee also wants any After Action Reports. What actually happened there? Because January 6th is very important in a lot of aspects, especially what the Secret Service witnessed. Those were the people that were right next to Donald Trump.

[18:05:13]

POLANTZ: And then the Secret Service, I should say, did put out an additional statement today. They've said that this was not malicious, that there was data lost, but they said today that they are still cooperating with the investigation. "We have voluntarily provided dozens of hours of formal testimony from Special Agents, and over 790,000 unredacted emails, radio transmissions, operational and planning records. We plan to continue that cooperation by responding swiftly to the Committee's subpoena." So we'll have to see if the Committee is satisfied with what they turn over.

COATES: We will have to see of course. It is the same -- the Secret Service excuse me, who said they would cooperate about after Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony and providing a witness. Not sure if that's actually been done yet or not. But if you're handing over everything, but what is being asked for of those two days, I've got some questions.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much.

We're going to go to talk to John Dean about all this in just a moment, but first, let me remind you of some of the most critical moments that have played at the January 6th hearings.

Right out of the gate, remember, we heard from Donald Trump's Attorney General, Bill Barr; his daughter, Ivanka Trump; and his campaign spokesman, Jason Miller. And recall, they all admitted they didn't buy into Trump's conspiracy theory about the election being stolen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER US ATTORNEY GENERAL: I made it clear, I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the President was bullshit.

Repeatedly told the President in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud and you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election. And frankly, a year and a half later, I haven't seen anything to change my mind on that.

QUESTION: How did that affect your perspective about the election when Attorney General Barr made that statement? IVANKA TRUMP, SENIOR ADVISER DONALD TRUMP: It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he said -- was saying.

JASON MILLER, 2020 TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: I was in the Oval Office, and at some point in that conversation, Matt Oczkowski, who was the lead data person was brought on and I remember he delivered to the President pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: We also learned more about another theory concocted by the man you see on the screen right there, conservative Trump lawyer John Eastman and others. I know Rudy Giuliani is right next to him. And their scheme was that the Vice President could singlehandedly somehow block the election from being certified.

Now, for the record, reminder again, the Vice President does not have that power. Witnesses would testify that President Trump was told that the plan was illegal, but he pushed for it anyway, and even Trump's own White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, well, he knew that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: I thought that the Vice President did not have the authority to do what is being suggested under proper reading of the law. I conveyed that. Okay?

I think I actually -- somebody, you know, in the Vice President's -- just playing me. I'm not a politician. You know, and you know, I just said, "I'm a lawyer. This is my legal opinion."

I think the Vice President did the right thing. I think he did the courageous thing. I think he did a great service to this country and I think I suggested to somebody that he should be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, we'll see about that.

We also learned that Eastman and other high profile Republicans tried, albeit, unsuccessfully, but they tried to even secure presidential pardons.

Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, he actually recalled a phone conversation he had with John Eastman the morning after the January 6th attack and Herschmann, he had this warning, remember?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HERSCHMANN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia and preserving something potentially for appeal. And I said to him, "Are you out of your effing mind?" I said -- I said, "I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on 'orderly transition.'" And I screamed, I said, "I don't want to hear any other effing words coming out of your mouth no matter what other than 'orderly transition.' Repeat those words to me."

Eventually, you said "Orderly transition." I said, "Good job. Now, I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. Get a great effing criminal defense lawyer, you're going to need it." Then I hung up on him.

[18:10:08]

COATES: "Orderly transition." Well, then there was this gripping testimony from two Georgia election workers, Shay Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman who revealed the racist attacks they received and how they were targeted by Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani after bogusly being accused of somehow passing a USB drive to each other in some kind of vote stealing scheme.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): What was your mom actually handing you on that video?

SHAYE MOSS, FORMER GEORGIA ELECTION WORKER: A ginger mint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: A mint, and the two women talked about the threats they face, and these are threats they now face, and still face even two years later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBY FREEMAN, FORMER GEORGIA ELECTION WORKER: There is nowhere I feel safe -- nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the President of the United States to target you?

The President of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one. But he targeted me, Lady Rudy, a small business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stand up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: An election worker threatened that way. And then there was this stunning moment from the hastily scheduled hearing that featured former Trump White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson. She was there recall, when the President was warned about armed protesters being at the rally before the insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE: I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the President say something to the effect of, you know, I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in and march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Still stunning given there was testimony that he knew some were armed before going to that Capitol.

And now, we have what may be the final January 6th hearing set for this coming Thursday. And just like that first public hearing, it is going to be in primetime, which of course, increases the expectations of what will be delivered.

Chairman Bennie Thompson hopes that it might just be and will be the last hearing before the issue, of course, a report. But as we have seen, even today, there is still new evidence still coming in still surfacing, and the Committee well, they may have to be flexible and willing to change its plans yet again.

With me now is John Dean, and of course, you know him. He was President Nixon's White House counsel and the star witness in the Watergate hearings.

John, it's so good to see you here today and everyone talks about the John Dean moments and what might come and the stunning revelations that are there. Let's talk about what we broke this hour and talking about the news, John, because we're not learning about another conservative lawyer, not one's name we may have heard most recently, but a conservative lawyer who is pushing Donald Trump to engage in election interference, and he seemed to mock the idea that it be called a Saturday Night Massacre or a Martial Law. I wonder, what you make of it in particular?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I was somewhat stunned by the story in "The Times" this morning when I read it. In fact, I've got the memo right in front of me today, looking at it, and pondering that it is really very radical conservatism, far right of the far right, and I think it is way out of line.

COATES: Well, I wonder, John, how this compares to other memos we've seen. We've heard about the consequential ones, up till now, of course, including things like how to have Vice President Mike Pence have some sort of what they called plenary power, meaning only he'd be the one to do so to sort of undermine the entire certification process, even though he knew it wouldn't work. How does this new effort compare to those other efforts that we were aware of?

DEAN: Well, the Eastman memo, the John Eastman memo was an equal stunner that tried to get Pence to change his role. Just really a figurehead in a process that would give him the ability to select the next President, and something that the founders never contemplated and Pence was wise enough and prudent enough to recognize that even though he'd had a Law Professor putting it down in a memo.

This latest memo, Laura, is really -- it's more speculative. This lawyer is claiming that not only should the President tell his Attorney General what to do and what to file and how to do it, but it will be based on -- I'm getting feedback on my line. Sorry about that.

[18:15:14]

COATES: It's okay, I only here at minorly, but I think you're thinking about the idea of, he is referencing what obviously, you know quite well. And the idea that, I mean, what stuns me as somebody who is a journalist and thinking about this is the idea of trying to get ahead of what would be accurately reported, the idea of saying, you know, let's get it out there now, and they are going to try to be dismissive of it or compare it in some way.

They were being dismissive of the notion that by trying to install a loyalist in a position to oversee the Department of Justice in particular, and at a time when you would remove that role from Vice President Pence, they seem to be mocking what actually happened during Watergate. It's pretty stunning, even at that notion.

DEAN: At one point they are doing that. Laura, what they're also doing is claiming that if the President reads the Constitution correctly, and understands his oath of office, he really is the superior branch of government, while others just given oath to support the Constitution.

The President really has a much deeper and more important oath that gives him authority to defend the Constitution using all of his presidential powers.

This is a subtle suggestion in the appendix of this memo, that indeed, Trump can do whatever he wants, however, he sees the situation. That's why it's so radical.

COATES: I mean, so much for three co-equal branches of government, or, of course, the head of the executive branch. Quick Civics lesson for everyone here, the head of that branch, making sure to actually enforce all the laws and execute them faithfully in the Constitution and beyond.

There's also new reporting, John, I want to alert you and the audience, we're learning a little bit more about an unnamed witness who Liz Cheney says that Trump tried to call after Cassidy Hutchinson testified.

Now, we don't know, obviously, as it wasn't answered. So, we don't know what the substance of the call may have been. But a member of the Trump White House support staff, who did not routinely communicate with Trump is said to be the person who was contacted by the former President.

Is the Committee risking though its credibility by not giving more information about who that person was? And of course, given that the call was never picked up, does that undermine some arguments to you?

DEAN: Not necessarily, I think they announced that they had referred it to the Department of Justice, and so Justice will proceed accordingly.

It's a pretty thin case right now, but I think what they're doing and what Liz Cheney is doing is sending a message to Donald Trump: "We know what you're doing, stop it, or you're going to be prosecuted for this effort to influence these witnesses."

Those are tough cases to make. I think just a call probably isn't going to cut with any prosecutors who is going to file an action on that, but it does certainly send a message to Donald Trump.

COATES: Quite a message and of course, hopefully a deterrent for anyone who might be considering trying to undermine the process and intimidate a witness for whatever reason in any case, by the way.

Thank you, John Dean. Always nice to get your perspective in particular.

DEAN: Thank you, Laura.

COATES: Everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM, and coming up, President Biden wrapping up a controversial trip to the Middle East as concerns about human rights are eclipsed by energy and security alliances, and of course, that fist bump seen around the world.

Also ahead, at least six people are dead after a freak dust storm caused a major pile up in Montana.

And LA County is weighing bringing back mask mandates as COVID cases rise nationwide.

We're going to be joined by Dr. Anthony Fauci live in just a few moments.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:23:01]

COATES: President Biden heading back to Washington, DC after wrapping up his first trip to the Middle East as the Commander-in-Chief. It has set off a storm of criticism after this, the President fist bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He was running for President, remember that then candidate Biden, he promised to make MBS a pariah over Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses and the murder of "Washington Post," journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The big question now is, will the Saudis open the spigot for more oil? CNN's Phil Mattingly is in Saudi Arabia.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Laura, if you wanted to know how the Saudis felt about the meeting between President Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, you just had to look at their social media accounts. There were photos, close-up photos, videos backed up photos of the President and the Crown Prince and the fist bump. It is the indelible image that will without question define this 48-hour period for years, if not decades to come.

White House officials knew that. They understood that. They recognized that it was a primary driving reason why Biden brought up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the very top of the meeting behind closed doors, and he proceeded to tell reporters about it after the more than two hours that he met with the Crown Prince and his team.

We are noting, Saudi officials also put out a video of the Crown Prince getting fist bumps to President Biden's entire National Security team. This was intentional, this was calibrated. This was an effort to bestow legitimacy on a ruler that has been given the cold shoulder by the US and its President over the course of its first 18 months in office.

But there were broader goals here. It wasn't just about oil. It wasn't just about a bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia. President Biden made clear, it is about the relationship with a rapidly transitioning region and a relationship that was so important that he was willing to take the sharpest criticism from Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee and explain why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am sorry or she feels that way. I was straightforward back then, I was straightforward today.

[18:25:05]

BIDEN: What I have -- this is a meeting not -- I didn't come here to meet with the Crown Prince. I came here to meet with the GCC, nine nations, to deal with the security and the needs of the free world and particularly the United States, and not leave a vacuum here, which is happening as it has in other parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, before Biden departed, he laid out a series of key principles defining the future US role in this region, something that was critically important for leaders in the region, who for months, have raised concerns about the US turning away from the region, creating that vacuum that Biden has talked so much about, giving China and Russia opportunities and questioning US resolve and commitment.

Biden, seeking very clearly to change that dynamic today. It is something that officials acknowledge will take work over time. And yes, it will take real efforts with the Saudis. However, Saudis are the biggest player in this region, obviously one of the biggest oil producers in the world. This relationship that they calculated was a necessity, despite the blowback that they had to move forward on, not just for the bilateral relationship, but for the entire region -- Laura.

COATES: Phil Mattingly in Saudi Arabia for us. Thank you so much.

Everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM and COVID cases in the United States, they are ticking up. But should our level of concern also be picking up, too? Dr. Anthony Fauci is here live to weigh in on that and much more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:41]

COATES: Now, this week the Biden administration extended the country's public health emergency for yet another three months. The declaration in place since January of 2020 has now been extended through the middle of October. Now, this move comes as the Omicron variant BA.5 continues to sweep across the country. The most contagious variant to date has case rates at the highest they've been in months, even though home testing means that new cases are even vastly undercounted.

Hospitalizations are also on the rise in many areas, look at this map, and sadly, so are deaths. The U.S. is now sitting between 300 and 400 per day. In L.A. County, officials are considering a return to indoor mask mandates as their case counts rise.

Joining me now with more on the latest strain of COVID, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden. My first question, of course, to you and I'm glad that you're here, particularly tonight, Dr. Fauci, is you recently suffered from COVID and we're all wondering how you are feeling and do you have any of the long-term symptoms you're worried about in terms of getting COVID in the first instance?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, thank you for asking, I'm actually doing really very well. I believe, Laura, that I've been really fortunate. I did get infected. I had minimal symptoms and I believe that I'm an example of why it's important to get vaccinated and boosted, because given my age, if I had not been vaccinated and doubly boosted, I would have fallen into the category of someone that a reasonably high risk of getting a serious outcome that might require hospitalization.

And fortunately, having recovered. I'm actually without symptoms now, so I'm really back to normal, just about a hundred percent.

COATES: That's really great to hear and a powerful reminder about the power of vaccination in the boosts as well, Dr. Fauci. Talk to me more about BA.5. We're hearing a lot about it. It's now the dominant strain in this country. And although hospitalizations and deaths are not at the highest rates they've been, and thank goodness for that, they are on the rise again and we're seeing even more contagious - from the past variants we've seen. So this BA.5 is it causing more severe infections and even the previous variants?

FAUCI: There's no evidence learned that it's causing, on a case by case basis, more severe disease. But when you have such an increase in cases, because of its ability to transmit and have an advantage over the prior variants, we saw it gradually take over and now it is the dominant variant in the United States. If you do BA.4 plus 5, that's about 80 plus percent of all the isolates and BA.5 itself is now about 60 percent. Which means it transmits better, because it alludes the protection from infection, as it were, for some of the vaccine protection.

However, fortunately for us, for those who have been vaccinated and boosted, the level of protection against severe diseases still high, but purely on a quantitative basis alone, because there are so many cases we're starting to see increase in hospitalization and even an uptick in deaths, we're between 300 and 400. That's not as bad as the 3,000 a day that we had many months ago. But it's still an unacceptably high level of deaths and hospitalizations.

So we've got to do better than what we're doing and we shouldn't because there are less hospitalizations than months ago, feel that it's okay and acceptable to have this rate of infection, it's not. We've got to do better than that.

COATES: We cannot rest on our laurels, of course. And I just quoted a figure but 300 to 400 deaths a day. I mean, how can this ever be acceptable in any world we live in? I know it's been a lot over the past several years, but I have to hone in on this, Dr. Fauci, because you know I'm a lawyer, I'm not a scientist.

I'm not a doctor by any stretch, so when I hear words like variant, I think about mutations, I think about does that mean if it's constantly evolving and these variants are happening, does that mean that our immune response is going to be lagging and we're going to always be sort of behind the eight ball chasing, hoping our immunity will catch up to or maybe outpace these variants?

[18:35:14]

FAUCI: It doesn't have to be that way, Laura. And the reason we say that is that it is true when you have a lot of dynamics of virus replication in the community, you give the virus more of an opportunity to mutate. When you give it more of an opportunity to mutate, it gets more likely you'll get a new variant. By diminishing the circulation of virus in the community by vaccinations and boosting, and masking where appropriate, and testing so that you could keep people separated who are infected, you cut down on that likelihood that you're going to get new variants.

And with regards to the vaccines, it's important that you try and not only get a booster, but as you get more variants, we're going to be upgrading and updating the next level of boosters so that by the time we get to the fall, it is very likely we'll have an updated booster that will address better the circulating variant at that time.

COATES: Well, I mean, what about the booster as the second booster is being authorized for those who are under 50? I mean, the idea of is that going to be earlier schedule of some kind, do we have more information about when we'll see these authorized? Selfishly I'm under the age of 50 and I want to know when they will be?

FAUCI: Yes, that's a great question. We have been very actively discussing this with the FDA and their colleagues. The FDA right now was looking at all the data and making the decision, which I think will be reasonably soon as to whether or not there will be the authorization of vaccination in the fourth boost for individuals less than 50, and if so, will there be subcategories? Like, people maybe were at a higher risk for complications. But let's leave that up to the FDA. They're the ones that are going to look very carefully at that data and hopefully, we'll get an answer reasonably soon. COATES: I mentioned that in L.A. County, Dr. Fauci, they're likely to bring back universal indoor mask mandates in the next two weeks or so. And given the uptick in numbers, albeit not the death rates tracking how we've seen in the past, do you think that other areas should also be doing that too? Other areas should also return to the indoor mask mandates?

FAUCI: Well, I think you have to just separate for a moment the strong recommendation to wear a mask versus the so called official mask mandate, which will be a local issue, not a national federal issue. If you look at the map that you're looking at now, a substantial proportion of the population is in that orange zone and a lot more in the yellow zone. So yellow means mask optional, orange means recommend wearing masks in an indoor congregate setting.

It is clear that some jurisdictions that have a high level of virus circulating will make that decision that they will mandate a mask, but that will be left up to the local jurisdictions to make that decision. Because each state each county might be different from the other. So you don't want to make a universal declaration about whether it's a good idea or not. It has to be decided at the local level.

COATES: Even when people are traveling back and forth and that's not been a restriction and that kind of goes away from that patchwork system, Dr. Fauci, of everyone's able to travel quite fluidly.

FAUCI: Travel is an issue. I mean, travel, particularly when you're in an airport, that's the reason why the CDC does recommend that you do wear masks. It's not mandated, the regulations don't say that. But if you're traveling, it is strongly recommended that you wear a mask, particularly in a crowded indoor setting like an airport.

And there's going to be a lot of travel, Laura, in the summer. People doing what they want to do, which is perfectly fine, to go out and travel for vacation or what have you. Just be a bit caution.

It's shouldn't let it be disrupting your life or disrupting the things you want to do. But there's a certain amount of prudent caution that we should all be exercising.

COATES: Dr. Fauci, stay right there. We'll be right back after a quick break with more of this conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:31]

COATES: We're back now with Dr. Anthony Fauci. And Dr. Fauci, I want to turn now to the global monkeypox outbreak, which is freaking a lot of people out. The Director of the World Health Organization says he's concerned by the scale and the spread of this virus.

Now, monkeypox, as you know, isn't new. But it's only been seen very rarely in the U.S. in the past, yet, the latest CDC numbers show nearly 1,500 documented cases across 44 states. So I'm concerned, is this going to become endemic here in some way? And is the fact that we've got this vaccine that's already out there, I mean, is it covering enough bases, even though it's not given out universally?

FAUCI: Well, we have the tools to do something about this, Laura. This is something we definitely need to take seriously. We don't know the scope and the potential of it yet, but we have to act like it will have the capability of spreading much more widely than it's spreading right now. Right now, it's fundamentally for the most part, not exclusively, but for the most part among men who have sex with men.

And the numbers that you gave, the 1,400, 1,500 is very likely an undercount because whenever you have the emergence of something like this, you will always probably looking at what might be - might be, we don't know - the tip of the iceberg. So that's the reason why we've got to get the testing out there in a much, much more vigorous way. And the good news is, we finally have now five capabilities of commercial testing.

[18:45:02]

We have LabCorp, we have Quest, we have Aegis, we have the Mayo Clinic and we have the CDC test in their local testing network. So we're going to now do many, many fold more testing than we've done. With regard to the vaccines, we've got to get more vaccines out into the community. It was about 150,000 that were put out there with another 130,000 coming imminently, when in fact, it probably already is getting distributed.

But hopefully, by the time we get to the end of July, we'll get up to 700 and more thousand vaccines out there for people because you want to protect the people at risk, not only the people who might have had an exposure that they know of, but also people by the virtue of the fact that they are in a risk situation that they need to get vaccinated. We've got to make those vaccines quite available to them, easily available to them and I hope that's what we're going to be seeing in the next few weeks.

COATES: Dr. Anthony Fauci, thank you so much for that. And it's important to hear and maintain your insight on all these matters. Thank you so much.

FAUCI: My pleasure. Good to be with you.

COATES: Thank you.

Everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. And if you're happy and you know it stay tuned.

We got our data guru, Harry Enten, is here, look at him clapping right there. He's here to run the numbers on the mood of Americans right now. I'm happy. I know it. He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:58]

COATES: Look, it's easy to be pessimistic right now. We got the economy struggling, prices are out of control, COVID hasn't gone away. Is the glass really half empty or should we be seeing it maybe as half full? CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten joins us now to run the numbers.

Look, Harry, the data shows that a lot of Americans think half empty, but what do the numbers actually show?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPOERTER: Yes. So I mean, look, if you look at the mood of the country, whether people think the country is on the right track or going in the wrong - right direction or going in the wrong track, what we see is that only 13 percent of recent New York Times-Siena College poll said that the country is going in the right direction, 77 percent say the country is on the wrong track.

And I will note that 13 percent is the lowest in any midterm since at least 1978, because they didn't ask that question before 1978, at least, in the midterm election. So right now, when it comes to viewing the country as a whole, most Americans think it's on the wrong track.

COATES: How about for people's personal lives? On the bright side, are things looking up there? Not a personal question to you about your personal life, but are things looking up?

ENTEN: I'll answer both questions for individuals that are not me and me. This is a great question that Gallup asked a few months ago, did you experience a lot of happiness yesterday? As it turns out, most Americans say yes to that question, 73 percent, just 27 percent said no.

So most Americans, even if they're not feeling good about the country as a whole, in their own individual lives, they do experience a lot of happiness. And I can say for myself, I have a lot of happiness, too. I'm going out to dinner with my girlfriend later tonight. That should be fun. It's her birthday. She's turning 30. So it's a very nice time for me. So I think Americans experience a lot of happiness in their own lives and I experience a lot of happiness in my life.

COATES: We'll ask your girlfriend tomorrow, whether the gift you got her made her happy or not. That's in tomorrow's segment of Run the Numbers, everyone. I also - no pressure for you, Harry, but similarly do people seem less depressed than they were during earlier points in the COVID pandemic and - this includes you too, of course.

ENTEN: Yes. So look at Google searches for depression this week compared to this past week in 2021 and compare it to the week in 2020. What we see is that searches for depression on Google are down 13 percent compared to the week that was in 2021 and down 21 percent compared to the week that was in 2020.

So there is no doubt looking at the data that fewer people are at least searching for depression. I honestly think Google might give us a true insight into how people are really feeling at this point.

COATES: Well, does that mean you too?

ENTEN: I think it does mean me too. And you can get an idea of that by this photo that you see on your screen right now. That is me. That is me earlier on during the pandemic back in May. I had this full beard. And the reason I grew that beard was because in all honesty, I was depressed.

I was in New York City during the heart of it. I was in a one bedroom apartment. I was stuck inside. We went out for this one little photo shoot, but I grew out that beard. I really thought I was failing at my job. I was like a lot of Americans who felt really depressed. Fortunately, though, the job the 2020 election took kind of hold. I shaved that beard, I kept going on air, so I feel a lot better now.

COATES: Too bad because this just in, I think Tom Hanks is casting for Castaway 2 right now and you could have had an opportunity. Sorry, you just - it's coming in a year right now, you just missed it. But lastly, I want to talk about your latest episode of your podcast, it looks into different ways of traveling. Tell me what inspired this episode.

ENTEN: Yes. What inspired this was I hear all this stuff about the travel industry and how much people travel by plane and so on so forth. But if you look, if you do not travel by plane, you're actually in the majority. In 2021, 62 percent of Americans never traveled by plane and that's just not a COVID pandemic thing. In 2015, the last time they asked before the COVID pandemic, the majority of Americans again said they didn't travel by plane.

[18:55:00]

So in that podcast episode we look at a lot of different ways to travel, the ultimate road trip traveling by train and ways that we could in fact board an airplane faster. So we do all of that in the podcast. It's a lot of fun just like this segment was a lot of fun, Laura.

COATES: Oh, thank you and happy birthday to your girlfriend. I hope you do have a wonderful time at dinner. I'll be having Chick-fil-A, but thank you. I'm happy for you. Harry Enten ...

ENTEN: Chick-fil-A is great.

COATES: ... thank you so much, everyone. And be sure to check out Harry's podcast, Margins of Error. You can find it on your favorite podcast app or at cnn.com/audio.

Now, Democrats in the Senate are facing an uphill battle to restore abortion rights. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet is here next to weigh in on what federal lawmakers plan to do now. And we'll ask about Sen. Joe Manchin disrupting the Biden agenda too, that's next.

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