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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Says Florida is "Doing Really Well" After The State Reports Record Deaths for 4th Day in a Row; Trump Downplays Coronavirus Death as CDC Predicts Up to 30,000 More Deaths in Three Weeks; Hurricane Heads Toward Florida Coast as State Sets New Record for Virus Deaths for Fourth Straight Day; DHS Warns Foreign Enemies Could "Confuse" Public on Mail-In Voting as Trump Pushes Unproven Claims of Fraud; Still No Winner in New York Primary Race 38 Days After Election; ESPN: MLB Commissioner Warns Season Could End After Cases Rise. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired July 31, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'll be back tomorrow night for a special edition to THE SITUATION ROOM 7:00 p.m. Eastern. See you then.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, the CDC warns up to 30,000 more Americans could die in the next three weeks. The President night downplaying coronavirus deaths though in a state that had a record death toll today.
Plus, breaking news, hurricane warnings in effect for Florida. The Governor declaring a state of emergency for the hurricane as Florida does hit a record number of coronavirus deaths.
And the President fear mongering about an election. The Department of Homeland Security tonight with a warning against the President's words. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight the breaking news, President Trump downplaying the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I hate it anywhere. But if you look at other countries, other countries are doing terribly. So they were doing really well in Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, today, Florida did post a record number of deaths. That is something, in fact, that he's done now for four days running. And when you compare the American death toll to other countries as he did, you can see what it looks like. The United States in green and the other countries, well, you see them at the bottom. In just the past eight days, half a million Americans that we know
have become infected, which is 43 Americans every minute. Obviously, many more than that we don't know about. And the thing you do know about those deaths, right, and that has hit record highs in at least two states. Nationally, we're now closing in on 153,000 and tonight the CDC is forecasting that the United States could report 30,000 more dead Americans in the next three weeks, people who are alive right now, some of whom may not even be sick yet.
And tonight, Trump went ahead and held a campaign event in a hurricane prep event in Florida. The state with a record death toll today. There's the campaign event in Tampa, as you see, no social distancing, few masks at the hurricane preparedness event, it was the same scene.
The President did not just model behavior that shows disrespect for the only two things that can save lives right now, masks and social distance, he also continued to mislead the American people tweeting during a Capitol Hill hearing with his coronavirus task force, "We do MUCH MORE testing than any other country in the World. If we had no testing, or bad testing, we would show very few CASES."
OK. Well, sure, if you don't test you're not going to know who has it. It's a moot point because people will still die. In fact, more of them will die than if you actually knew who had it early on and could treat them and prevent them from spreading it. So his argument is on its face inhumane. Listen to Dr. Fauci.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NYDIA VELAZQUEZ (D-NY): So are we seeing more COVID-19 cases in the U.S. because of the testing results?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, obviously if you do more testing, you're going to see more cases.
VELAZQUEZ: OK.
FAUCI: But the increases that we're seeing are real increasing in cases as also reflected by increasing in hospitalization and increasing in deaths.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. According to the CDC, five national models now show the number of hospitalizations is expected to increase over the next four weeks, hospitalizations from coronavirus specifically and when it comes to death also. This country will not get the pandemic under control until we know who has the virus so we can stop it spreading to people who do get very sick and die, which means people need to get the results of their tests in less than 72 hours, OK? That is not possible in the United States. It's just not possible.
Anyone who's trying to get a test you know that and Trump's go-to man on testing knows it too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: It is not a possible benchmark we can achieve today given the demand and the supply.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Not a possible benchmark. I mean 72 hours by the way on its face is kind of a joke too. I mean, some people are waiting seven to 10 days for results, which may obviously renders them worthless and that should alarm everyone. Contract tracing is what we need to do. You find out who has it. You find out who they interacted with. That's how you stop it from spreading.
And you're not able to do it if test results are delayed by more than five days. And now, when you look at where we are right now, part of what you see, of course, is that we're learning that it just doesn't work unless you get the contract tracing. And Jared Kushner had a national testing plan this past spring to do that. But according to a new report in Vanity Fair, one team member suggested that because the virus had hit Democratic voting states hardest, a national plan was not necessary.
Think about that. Test didn't matter in democratic voting states, so the pandemic didn't matter to them. I'm going to speak to the reporter who broke that story in a moment. But the delays, the shortage of supplies is why Dr. Ashish Jha, the Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, one of the top experts in this country on testing today says the U.S. needs a new strategy where every morning you wake up, you spit on a special piece of paper, two minutes later you know if you have the coronavirus or not. That way you can go to school or go to work. That's how you get an economy functioning.
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And that is what the President should be pushing every single time he opens his mouth. More testing saves lives and it is the only way to save an economy now in total chaos. More testing is the path to fewer cases and fewer deaths, Mr. President.
Erica Hill is OUTFRONT live in New York to begin our coverage tonight. And Erica, despite what the President says, the pandemic tonight not under control in this country.
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, Erin. It's absolutely not under control. Surpassing 4.5 million cases as we know though, we heard from the CDC more than a month ago, the number of people who've been affected could be 10 times that. As you point out, though, without proper testing, without quick test results, without contact tracing, getting this virus under control is increasingly difficult.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: I think there was such a diversity of response in this country from different states that we really did not have a unified bringing everything down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL (voice-over): There was not one national plan to get the virus under control and despite guidelines from the White House, there wasn't a unified plan to reopen either.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LEANA WEN, FORMER BALTIMORE CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We should have been able to anticipate that these surges of infections would occur and I think so much of our response has been reacting to what's happened rather than anticipating what's ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL (voice-over): Those decisions now playing out in real time. While things are looking better over the past week, even in the recent hotspots of Arizona, California and Florida, Texas seeing a slight decline in new cases, infections are growing in the Midwest and deaths which lag by at least two to four weeks are rising.
The CDC now predicting fatalities could top 173,000 in the next three weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. PHIL SCOTT (R) VERMONT: Taking personal responsibility is the best way to keep this in check and win the war against this invisible enemy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL (voice-over): Hospitalizations are hitting record highs in several states. Earlier this month, the administration moved to bypass the CDC telling hospitals to send their data directly to HHS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Dr. Redfield, when did you first learn? Where were you first told? When were you first notified?
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Again, as I mentioned, I wasn't involved in the decision.
WATERS: So you were never told?
REDFIELD: I don't remember the exact date.
WATERS: Am I to understand that you were not told at all?
REDFIELD: Well, I was told actually once the Secretary's office made the decision that that was the decision and we work together.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL (voice-over): In the early epicenter, just 1 percent of tests are
now coming back positive. New York City, the nation's largest school district, releasing new details about the plan for hybrid learning and how it will deal with an outbreak.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED LONG, EXEC. DIR. TEST AND TRACE CORPS: If as a case in a classroom, the kids, students and the teacher are going to quarantine for 14 days, no matter what.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL (voice-over): Schools in Indiana and Georgia already welcoming kids back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're ready to start. We need to get our kids in school.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL (voice-over): As a new study finds infections could be controlled at colleges this fall if students are tested every two days, though many universities have already decided to move learning online instead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Another study out of the CDC that is giving some folks pause as they look at what to do for back to school, this study looked at a Georgia overnight camp where more than 40 percent of the kids there contracted the virus. Now, they followed most of the guidelines from the CDC for summer camps. One thing the 600 campers did not do though, Erin, the kids did not wear masks. The staff did, but the CDC notes in that study, there was daily vigorous singing and cheering which may have led to the transmission and that is raising new questions about the fall.
BURNETT: All right. Erica, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at GW who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
So, Sanjay, 15 days to go from 3 million to 4 million cases, and obviously your positives are far away the testing here. The President though still saying that this is because we test more and saying today if we had no testing, we'd show very few cases as if that just deny the reality and so it goes away. I mean, what are the facts here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, that is absolutely a complete denial of reality, putting your head in the sand. I mean, obviously, the testing is not causing people to become infected. There are a lot of people out there infected, probably, maybe 10 times as many as we're actually seeing, so we're definitely not doing enough testing.
I mean, the one thing that is true is that we're doing so little testing that it's not accomplishing what we want it to accomplish in terms of finding people, being able to isolate them, quarantine their context, as you mentioned, Erin, and eventually bringing the numbers down. I mean, if you had a good testing program, not only would you be finding people who are symptomatic and sick, you'd be doing surveillance testing so people who are asymptomatic, you'd be doing what you described assurance testing, right? It could be like a weather app, do I need to carry an umbrella today or not.
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It could be that simple in terms of the testing if we had some significant breakthroughs and investments and recognition of the importance of testing, but we're still minimizing it seven months into this.
BURNETT: I mean, it's incredible. Imagine if you just wake up, spit on that piece of paper, I mean, you could get the whole thing under control. You have an economy that just shrunk at an annualized rate of more than 30 percent by a third.
I mean, we're looking into an abyss here and testing is a big part of why. I mean, Dr. Reiner, at the hearing, the experts all agreed, CDC Testing Chief, we're not where we need to be and we're not even frankly close. But the President keeps coming out and saying we're doing such a great job and, in fact, we shouldn't be doing all this testing because it's why we're seeing cases. Why does he continue to say this? He knows that what he's saying is patently false, I assume.
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, does he? There are really only two explanations, either the President is willfully deceiving the public or the President just cannot understand this.
The two cardinal tools that we have to suppress the pandemic are the two things the President has consistently cast doubt on. The President has called testing overrated. You heard him do that as recently as today, as you just said, and the President refuses to wear a mask.
The President was in Florida today, the epicenter of the United States pandemic, not wearing a mask and visiting with the crowd without a mask. And when I saw that, my heart broke for the nurses and docs and the staff in the hospitals like Jackson Memorial and Tampa General that are flooded with people dying of this virus and the President comes down to Florida without a mask. That's like smoking a cigarette in a cancer ward.
What a slap in the face. Either he doesn't get it or he refuses to tell the public the truth. Either way, it's unacceptable.
BURNETT: Sanjay, I mean, I will say after what happened to Herman Cain, we don't know exactly where he got it, although it's obviously extremely possibly he got it at that rally in Oklahoma. You would think as the President of the United States the possibility that someone who's coming to see you could die, that you would do everything possible for that not to happen. He's not doing it.
We had the record of deaths for the fourth day in a row in Florida where he went for a campaign stop. He then held a rally of sorts on the tarmac, right? Now, it was outside but you can see, no social distance and maybe I see a mask there.
GUPTA: Yes.
BURNETT: Maybe. I'm not even sure that I see a single one. Roundtable again, same scene. How dangerous is this for some of the people who are there, not him, people who are coming to support him?
GUPTA: Well, first of all, Jonathan Reiner said about the fact that he knows this and is choosing not to abide by this I think is the case. I mean, we know the coronavirus task force members when they're asked questions about what they're telling the President, they're telling him the importance of testing and masks and all these things.
So, I mean, it's not like the information is not getting to the President at this point. So just to sort of keep that in the back of mind. It's obviously a very dangerous sort of thing not only for those people who are closely clustered and I don't know how long they were clustered, but for the President. I mean, I realized that he gets tested every day, but getting a test doesn't inoculate you against the virus.
So there are people around him within six feet. Have they been tested? Might they be transmitting the virus to the President of the United States? I mean, it's kind of shocking. You got to think about this from a National Security perspective as well to some extent.
BURNETT: Right.
GUPTA: Just because you can't see the virus doesn't mean it's not there.
BURNETT: Right. And the President, as we've pointed out, he's 74 years old, he has comorbidities including obesity. You've talked about that with heart issue, Sanjay. I mean, he should be concern and he's right in a risk zone.
So Dr. Reiner, the rally from the President today, that mini rally on the tarmac that we just showed again, comes right a day after Herman Cain died, his friend, who contracted the virus at some point possibly at the Tulsa rally where he didn't wear a mask, right around that time frame somehow. The President was asked about that today. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you worried he caught COVID in Tulsa?
TRUMP: No, I don't think he did, so thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Obviously, Dr. Reiner, there's no way for him to know that.
Herman Cain was hospitalized with coronavirus 11 days after that rally. It's extremely possible he got it there. He could have gotten it somewhere else.
His website says, "We don't know where he contracted, we do know he travelled extensively in the week he was diagnosed. On planes between several cities. It's not impossible he contracted it at the Tulsa rally." But the President is obviously not even, I guess, he can't - look, anyone who went to that who wasn't a VIP like Herman Cain had to sign on a waiver where they couldn't hold the President responsible if they got coronavirus and got sick or died.
REINER: Well, he completely lacks empathy. The response to that question should have been, oh, god, I hope not. Mr. Cain got hospitalized about 12 days after the rally. It takes about five days to become symptomatic after exposure on average and then typically about a week to get sick enough to get hospitalized and that's exactly 12 days.
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So I don't know where he got it but he certainly could have gotten it at the rally, but it doesn't matter. What matter is that the President was willing to expose thousands of people, about 6,000 people that day to the virus, no social distancing, no requirement for masks. And whether or not Mr. Cain got it there, it doesn't matter because the President was willing to have his supporters risk their lives to stroke his ego.
BURNETT: Quickly before we go, Sanjay, what Erica mentioned, 44 percent of campers and counselors at that Georgia overnight camp getting coronavirus. Obviously, most of them aren't - maybe none of them are going to get really sick, but they could spread it. What does this mean for schools?
GUPTA: I think it's a big sort of marker for schools. I mean, I know this camp by the way and a lot of my kids and my kids' friends they know this camp, and 260 kids got infected. I don't know if we have the numbers, but you just quickly it was kids who are pretty young that made up the vast majority of infections as well.
As you point out, Erica - I'm sorry, Erin, even if you're not getting sick, the idea that these kids can still transmit the virus is a real concern. I think it's a fundamental point. I hope people understand that. People say, well, the kids are immune, they're not immune. They may not get as sick, but they can still spread the virus and I think that's becoming increasingly clearer.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both.
And next, Florida's one, two punch, that grim record on deaths today in the deadly pandemic and now a hurricane that is heading straight for the coasts, warnings are up, testing sites now for coronavirus shut down. And Vanity Fair tonight reporting Jared Kushner was working on a
national testing plan. But the plan then just went poof into thin air. Why? Maybe it just came down to politics. The reporter who broke the story is my guest.
And breaking news, baseball's commissioner reportedly now warning if the league can't get the cases under control the season is over.
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BURNETT: Breaking news, a hurricane warning issued in Florida. The Governor there declaring a state of emergency. Hurricane Isaias is strengthening as it barrels towards the state as Florida had a record day of deaths from coronavirus for the fourth day in a row. Ryan Nobles is OUTFRONT live in Clearwater Beach.
So Ryan, the pandemic obviously there 10 percent positivity, a record day of death. Now you have the hurricane coming. Testing sites are going to be shutting down. Is there a sense that this is the sort of the straw that breaks the camel's back and the bad analogy is it's obviously not a straw, but any more than the state can handle.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't think there's any doubt, Erin, under normal circumstances, Hurricane Isaias would be a huge issue for the state to deal with. The Governor already declaring a state of emergency, but when you take into the context of dealing with this pandemic, it becomes a major problem.
And you mentioned that the COVID testing sites have been forced to be shut down in many places across the state. You also have the companion problem as to what they're going to do about shelters. The Governor already warning that Florida residents should have at least seven days worth of food and water in case power goes out. There is a worry about widespread power outages.
That often leads to folks needing to access shelters and that means FEMA has been asking the counties to put special precautions in place to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus, meaning only 50 people per shelter, a lot of hand sanitizers, mandatory masks and social distancing.
Erin, they're suggesting that each person be given up to 60 square feet inside the shelters. That is going to be a very difficult task to manage, especially if there's high demand for those shelters. Now, right now, shelters have yet to even open across the state as they wait and see how the storm progresses. There is still a hope that it stays largely off the coast and is mainly just a rainmaker. But, Erin, they are preparing for the worst here in Florida for the next 24 to 48 hours.
BURNETT: Yes. Sixty square meters, look, we all know that they are not going to happen. Ryan, thank you very much.
So what is it going to look like? Let's go to our meteorologist Jennifer Gray. So Jennifer, you've heard obviously the hopes here, but you got a hurricane warning now parts of the East Coast that forecast to strengthen as it comes closer, right?
JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You're exactly right. We're within that window of strengthening right now and it does look like the storm is getting a little bit better organized as we speak and possibly strengthening just a little bit. So new as of the 5 pm advisory as you mentioned those hurricane warnings in place from Palm Beach County all the way up to the space (ph) coast.
We do have hurricane warnings in place with the Bahamas where the storm is bearing down as we speak. The storm currently has 75-mile per hour winds with gusts of 90 moving to the northwest at 15 miles per hour. Isaias is going to maintain that category one strength, but possibly strengthen to an 85-mile per hour storm. And depending on how close it gets to Florida will determine the impact.
So the cone still does include much of Florida, so we could have a landfall or we could have just a glancing blow. Either way though, we are going to see impacts for not only Florida, but all up and down the eastern seaboard, the Carolinas, the Outer Banks and then well into the Northeast is a possible 65 mile per hour storm by the time we get into the next few days.
So this is going to be one to watch all the way through the middle part of next week, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jennifer.
And next, Jared Kushner, he led a team that reportedly had a national testing plan. Can you imagine how different this world might have been, well, it went away. What happened to it and was it scrapped because Democrats were dying? The Vanity Fair reporter who broke the story is my guest.
And breaking news, the Department of Homeland Security tonight warning that foreign adversaries could seize on Trump's claims of voter fraud to sow war confusion and weakness in this country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is going to be the greatest election disaster in history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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BURNETT: New tonight, Vanity Fair reporting that Jared Kushner was working on a secret national testing plan to bring coronavirus under control in the spring. And that by early April, some who worked on the plan believed it was actually about to be announced. But then the report says the plan 'just went poof into thin air'.
Today, more than 153,000 Americans have lost their lives to the virus. More than any other country in the world in part because of testing.
OUTFRONT now, the Vanity Fair journalist who broke the story, Katherine Eban. And Katherine, I really appreciate your time. I mean, so look, this story is amazing, I hope everyone reads it. But this would have been the beginning of something so crucial that could have made the difference of 10s of thousands of lives, many 10s of thousands, the national testing plan, something that medical experts have been saying from the very beginning was what we needed. What happened to it?
KATHERINE EBAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, VANITY FAIR: Erin, thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate being here. So this plan was hammered out in secret with a sort of brain trust of Jared Kushner's, which included his college roommate, but also experts from the diagnostic testing industry. They work night and day in secret using the WhatsApp encrypted platform and they did develop a cogent national plan and it's a plan that every other industrialized nation that has gotten - flatten their curve has used where you nationalize the response to testing, you surge supplies nationally, you divvy up laboratory capacity nationally.
Then, as one participant told me, the plan just went poof into thin air. So behind the scenes, yes, sorry, go ahead.
BURNETT: No. So I want to ask you about that, because what did happen behind the scenes, I mean, I know you talked to several people who were involved with this, who knew about it. You talked about one who was in frequent contact with the official coronavirus task force.
[19:30:05]
And they told you that someone on Kushner's team said, oh, well, we don't need a national plan because at that time, right, it's blue states being hit the hardest, you know, Democrat states.
And you quote the expert as saying the political folks believe that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors and that would be an effective political strategy.
Look, it's a stunning thing, Katherine. I mean, this is basically saying they did not care if people died in Democratic states. That somebody really did not care. I mean, it's a stunning thing.
Tell me what you know.
KATHERINE EBAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, VANITY FAIR: Yeah. So, the plan which was going to be announced hit changing sentiment at the White House. There was a shared feeling, which would -- turned out to be spectacularly wrong, that the virus was receding, it was going to be under control. And at the time, it was just are the blue states where the virus was surging.
So, the idea was, why go through all the effort to surge up a national plan. It wasn't going to have political resonance, was a phrase that I was given, and that, you know, if there was a political response that was needed, the blue state governors could just be blamed and that the national plan wasn't needed.
And of course, in retrospect, we look at what's happened this summer, it's surging in numerous states across the country, a national plan is very much needed.
BURNETT: The White House press secretary today said the premise of your article is entirely false, the article consistently misstates and misrepresents. Further the article is completely incorrect in its assertion that any plan was stopped for political or other reasons.
What's your response to Kayleigh McEnany?
EBAN: Well, I mean, we -- you know, we very much stand by the story. It isn't false. There was absolutely a national plan. We obtained a copy. We also obtained an invoice of secretly procured tests that the White House had purchased which ended up not working.
And I think it's just -- the proof is in the pudding, which is that you have Americans waiting, you know, seven to 14 days for test results, and that essentially makes the tests useless, right?
BURNETT: Yes.
EBAN: The only reason to do the test is so that you can take action as the result of what the test tells you. And if you're getting results back that late, you do not have an effective testing system.
BURNETT: All right. Katherine, I appreciate your time and your reporting. Thank you very much.
EBAN: I want to go now to Dr. Leana Wen, former health commissioner for Baltimore.
So, Dr. Wen, when you hear this reporting from Katherine, how much difference do you think a national testing plan like this would have made back in the spring. We're looking now at a death toll of 153,000, that just today the CDC says could go up 30,000 in the next few weeks. How much of a difference would a testing plan have made?
DR. LEANA WEN, FORMER BALTIMORE CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER: A huge difference, Erin. I mean, this was the single biggest mistake that the U.S. made from the get-go. You look at a country like South Korea that has the first case of diagnosed COVID the same day we did. They have 300 deaths because they were able to mobilize their testing, because they were able to contact trace each infected individual, they were able to isolate, and quarantine those people and basically contain coronavirus.
We didn't. And actually by the time that we figured out that we had a problem, we had such wide community spread that the only thing we could do at that point was to implement the lockdown. So, all these other things we saw, students not being able to go to school, the economy being shutdown, it was because of lack of testing.
But I think all is not too late. We can still come up with a national testing strategy. And we need to have much better reporting. There needs to be a national, real time dashboard where we have all
the information about percent positives for each region, broken down by demographics so that we are also able to track racial and ethic data so that we can target those individuals most affected and we need to know number of tests coming back within a 48-hour period too.
BURNETT: What -- what do you make of the part of the reporting, part of the reason it was scrapped at the time it was hitting Democratic states? There's no other way to put it. Those lives were not worthy of them putting the time in.
WEN: It's unconscionable. This is the reason we can't have politicians drive this response. This needs to be driven by public health officials because the science is there. The technology is there.
That's not what we're missing here. What we're missing is the political will and the willingness for us to put aside whatever partisan differences and come together to save lives.
BURNETT: Dr. Wen, thank you very much. It's good to see you.
And next, the breaking news, the Department of Homeland Security warning that foreign countries may try and take advantage of Trump's unproven claims of voter fraud as Trump's own intelligence officials refuse to back up his allegation.
[19:35:06]
Plus, ESPN reporting, baseball's commissioner warning he may be forced to end the nascent season.
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BURNETT: Breaking news. The Department of Homeland Security releasing a new report, warning foreign enemies could seize on President Trump's unproven claims of voter fraud. The report saying, quote, these threat actors may mislead the public about the mechanics of mail-in voting in order to cause chaos and provoke distrust in the election administration and electoral results.
This report coming just hours after President Trump said this.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They think they're going to send hundreds of millions of ballots all over the United States and it's going to come out. You won't know the election results for weeks, months, maybe years. Maybe you'll never know the election result.
And that's what I'm concerned with it. It'll be fixed. It'll be rigged.
This is going to be the greatest election disaster in history.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Just think for a second that's the sitting president of the United States saying the American election is a rigged disaster. It's bad.
[19:40:03]
I don't know how else to put it.
I see you shaking your head, former Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich.
Governor, I mean, what do you -- what do you make of this? His own intelligence officials aren't backing up his claims but he's saying this stuff.
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Erin, the hits keep coming every day. And this is an outrageous one, because what you don't want to do is have the president convincing his folks, 25, 25 percent of the American electorate here, the American people that the election that we have is fraudulent. I mean, that is a disaster.
And, look, we have two examples that we could point to. One was Richard Nixon. In a razor thin election back in 1960 and he conceded, he said, for the good of the country. Of course, Al Gore did the same thing. You remember the hanging chads and the counts in Florida. He did the same thing.
Now, I don't expect this is going to be that close, but he's already sowing the doubt, the mistrust and driving down another institution, the institution of voting in our country and saying it's going to be deeply flawed. It's just -- it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. There's no evidence to support it, by the way.
I've got a friend who served on the board of election in this state, and he said over the course of his time serving, he saw very, very few cases of fraud and some of them involved maybe somebody older who voted absentee and they forgot and went in to vote. It doesn't exist.
And mail-in voting will work and it will be fine.
BURNETT: Right, and I think that's really important. There's absolutely nothing to support this, right? It's like this thing about, you know, millions of people, you know, people who are in this country illegally voting, right? It didn't add up.
The Republican secretaries of state said it didn't add up. But he continues to make these sorts of claims. The president is basically -- you know, you heard what he's trying to say. That any delay in results is equivalent to fraud, which seems deeply troubling, right? Because the definition of mail-in voting if you have enough of it which you probably will does mean there will be a delay.
A delay does not mean fraud. A delay means you take the time to count the votes correctly, right?
KASICH: It's exactly right. But there are states right now that do mail-in voting. We do absentee voting here in Ohio. It's fine. And there's protections.
And I'll tell you, if you take somebody else's ballot and you mark it and you do something that violates the law, you can be prosecuted. This is -- this is just -- it's just a phony, phony argument that he's making. It makes no sense.
But I'm concerned, Erin, if it begins to sow distrust in the minds of Americans, some percentage of Americans, and that -- I don't want to go farther than to say it's really, to me, it is -- it borders on dangerous to do that.
BURNETT: So, this comes as we've got more than 25 million people, as you know tonight, governor, losing unemployment benefits, right? They've gone home for the weekend. We've got no signs of any kind of deal. You know, how significant is this?
KASICH: It's -- it's just -- I mean -- it's like -- think about if you were living in Florida. You've got a hurricane coming your way. You've got COVID and deaths exploding in Florida. Now you've lost a big chunk of that that you're living on. It's like a perfect storm. And, you know, why did they have to leave?
I've been through lots of negotiations when I was Congress, I mean, lots of negotiations, went through government shutdowns. But we never put people's -- you know, their survival or their well being at risk. And I'm just stunned.
And the other thing is, Erin, I understand that there was an offer made to extend everything for one week so they can negotiate. Apparently Democrats said no. I don't know what's behind that, but --
BURNETT: That doesn't make sense.
KASICH: -- just get something done.
BURNETT: Right.
KASICH: Get something done.
BURNETT: I hear you.
KASICH: Get it done. You're losing all credibility.
BURNETT: So, I want to give you a chance -- something you've been waving the flag and not getting attention which is Democrats saying they're open to get rid of the Senate filibuster which, by the way, has forced people on the extremes of both parties to work together. Many could go 50/50. The polls could win.
Here's President Obama yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that's what we should do. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Joe Biden said he also thinks they should take a look at it. But you've got a warning. What is it?
KASICH: Well, I hope they don't do it. What this does, what the filibuster does is it requires both parties to work together.
BURNETT: Yes.
KASICH: And you can't have one party just jamming something through like they did on Obamacare and it's been unsettled in this country since they did it without any Republicans.
The filibuster is critical for slowing down the passage, a freight train by one party or another. It's not good for Democrats. It's not for Republicans.
And I will tell you, Erin, if in fact, they keep the filibuster, in my judgment, people will be more comfortable with being able to vote for something that is not usual for them like voting across -- across party lines.
[19:45:07]
It's possible.
BURNETT: Fair point. Not so when you think about courts. You don't want to take courts that are full of all people on one end and not the other. You've got a filibuster. I mean, you raise the point.
Governor, I always appreciate talking to you. Thank you.
KASICH: Thank you. Have a good weekend.
BURNETT: You too.
And next, 38 days since New York's primary and we still don't know all the results. That is not okay. What is going on?
And ESPN reporting the Major League Baseball commissioner is threatening to end the season. More players tonight testing positive for coronavirus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, it's been 38 days since the New York primary, the result of one congressional race though still unknown. How troubling is this as the president is seizing on what he says will be problems with mail-in voting?
Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Democratic primary between incumbent Carolyn Maloney and challenger Suraj Patel was held more than five weeks ago.
[19:50:02]
As of today, there's still no winner.
SURAJ PATEL, RAN IN NY 12TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT PRIMARY: The voters in New York 12 got screwed.
CARROLL: The problem, Patel says, is the city board of elections and the U.S. Postal Service were grossly underprepared for the massive number of people voting by mail due to coronavirus pandemic. According to the city board of elections, roughly 400,000 mail-in ballots were counted compared to fewer than 30,000 during the 2016 primary.
Problems with the race drawing the attention of President Trump.
TRUMP: Everyone knows mail-in ballots are a disaster. Take a look at New York City. Look at New York.
CARROLL: Adding to the county concerns in New York, Patel says, are thousands of absentee ballots rejected for late or missing postmarks or signatures.
PATEL: Most of them have signatures and dates by the voter that say voted June 18th, signed June 16th. They're not going to get counted. Thousands of voters that have been disenfranchised.
CARROLL: So, what does the city or state board of elections have to say about these problems? Our repeated request for an interview or statement were denied.
The state board of elections provided a statement saying local jurisdictions had to deal with a more than 12-fold increase in absentee ballots and had to follow appropriate social distancing and staffing protocol so a longer canvassing process was one outcome.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who decided in April to send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters acknowledged the system needs to be improved and the clock is ticking.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We did have -- not we, the boards of elections had operation wishes. Some better, some worse. And they have to learn from them and we want to get the lessons and make the system better. And make it better for November.
STATE SEN. ZELLNOR MYRIE (D-NY): I think there is blame to go all around.
CARROLL: New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie says the infrastructure needs an upgrade before November. One recent poll found 38 percent of Americans would prefer to vote by mail this fall.
MYRIE: Our post offices were not prepared for this. They weren't prepared for the volume. Our boards of elections operating at minimized capacity and dealing with a condensed timeline and increased volume. We're not totally prepared for this. CARROLL: Patel says he just wants to make sure every vote is counted.
PATEL: We want to make sure that we do this right and count every vote so we don't supply Donald Trump and Republicans with any sort of argument to discredit vote by mail.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And, Erin, the board of elections is finally going to certify Carolyn Maloney, the winner in the 12th districted, expected to happen Tuesday once all the votes are finally certified -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jason.
And next, breaking news, ESPN reporting baseball's commissioner warning the league could be shutting down. Could baseball give us a lesson here, though, about reopening? To return to the workplace, commissioner could be shutting down. Workplace, commissioner could be shutting down. Could baseball give us a lesson about reopening?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:09]
BURNETT: Breaking news, it could be game over for Major League Baseball this year. ESPN reporting the commissioner warned the head of the players' union he could shut down the season if teams don't do a better job with coronavirus protocols.
This comes as MLB announced 29 players and teams employees tested positive just this week.
Martin Savidge is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sports leagues are using shortened seasons, bubbles, team sequestering, and rapid testing to let the games begin.
Could the winners and losers teach us something?
Take baseball. Already a number of games are on hold as 20 members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for coronavirus. Players aren't sequestered and teams travel to outbreak hot spots.
The Washington Nationals were so concerned about going to Florida, they put it to a vote.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all decided that it was probably unsafe to go there.
SAVIDGE: Friday, the Cardinals-Brewers game postponed after two members of the St. Louis team tested positive.
Meanwhile, the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association have opted for a different approach. Keeping participants in a closed environment where they live, practice and play their games, the bubble.
So far, so good. During training camp, the NHL tested more than 800 players. There were two positive the first week and none the second. The teams now face-off in two secure zones in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are feeling good about the fact that we've got a contained environment. In fact, one player was quoted as saying from the bubble this is the safest he's felt since the middle of March.
SAVIDGE: At the NBA bubble in Orlando where the season resumed Thursday, they are also declaring success. The league says only two players inside the bubble have tested positive and that was over two weeks ago.
ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: In essence, everyone is tested on a nightly basis and then they, as a practical matter, don't leave their room until they have the results the next morning.
SAVIDGE: Still to come, football. The NFL says it takes safety seriously reconfiguring locker rooms, reducing travel schedules, doing away with preseason games. But like baseball, the NFL is allowing players and staff to go home, increasing their risk of getting infected.
In an open letter, Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote: In a year that's been extraordinary difficult for our country and the world, we hope that the energy of this moment will provide some much needed optimism.
But growing numbers of NFL players opting out of the 2020 season would seem to indicate they don't share that optimism.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: So what have sports taught us? Pretty much what we already knew -- that quarantine and ample access to testing is a winning strategy -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah, that one hopefully, Martin, we can use for everything else, for schools, for -- like we started the show. Dr. Jha said, wake up in the morning, spit on a special piece of paper, two minutes later, you know. If you're sick, you don't spread.
All right. Thank you so much all of you for joining us. Please, have a good weekend, a safe weekend.
Don't forget, you can watch "OUTFRONT" any time on CNN go.
Anderson starts now.
