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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Briefly Escorted from WH Briefing Room, Says Secret Service Involved in Shooting Outside WH; Trump: U.S. Will be in "Very Good Shape" in Short Period of Time; W.H.O.: "Virus is Proving Exceptionally Difficult to Stop"; Report: Number of U.S. Child Covid Cases Up 90% Last 4 Weeks. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 10, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
ACOSTA: Gloria Borger, thanks for breaking that down. I'm Jim Acosta. Thanks very much for watching. A fast paced our more with Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the United States passing 5 million coronavirus cases as President Trump says tonight we're about to be in very, very good shape all over the country.
Plus, nearly 500 students quarantine near Atlanta after a school outbreak. You see the school and we're going to talk to a doctor about why he is sending his child back to school.
And Republican Governor John Kasich. He'll be speaking next week at the DNC. What will his message be? He's my guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight the breaking news, President Trump says the Secret Service was involved in a shooting outside the White House. The scare coming just as the President was beginning his coronavirus briefing moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It looks like they're just about going to be tapping records hopefully soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, we're just going to have to step outside.
TRUMP: Excuse me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to step outside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: They're escorting him out of the room. They ended up shooting the perpetrator. That's all we know at this point. The President then returned continuing to talk about the administration's response to the deadly pandemic, which as of tonight is continuing to spread across the globe.
Tonight, the world is closing in on a sobering news statistic. The number of known coronavirus cases across the globe about to hit 20 million. A quarter of them in the United States and yet just moments ago, the President says we're about to be in very, very good shape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I do want to say that I think at the end of a fairly short period of time, we're going to be in very, very good shape all over our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He says that this country is going to be in very, very good shape across the country. But listen to what the top experts today said at the World Health Organization. Again, same day that he said that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MIKE RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION'S HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAMME: This virus is proving exceptionally difficult to stop.
MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, WHO'S TECHNICAL LEAD FOR COVID-19: We know that if the virus has an opportunity to spread, it will and it hasn't gone away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And the President has continued to give the virus the opportunity to spread. Listen to his response when questioned why there were people at his New Jersey Golf Club not wearing masks when they were gathered to hear him speak.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: No, they don't have to, this is a political activity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is that (inaudible), Mr. President?
TRUMP: You're wrong on that because it's a political activity. They have exceptions, political activity, and it's also a peaceful protest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He says that they don't have to wear masks. Never mind that they should, they could be putting their lives or others at risk. They do have to wear them. The executive order from the New Jersey Governor states, "Whereas, all indoor gatherings, whatever their nature, must continue to utilize protective measures, including use of masks and social distancing."
So the President was not only encouraging people to go against public health officials, but to break the law in the state he was in. The President also, again, saying something wrong about the more than 5 million American known coronavirus cases.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Because we're so far ahead of testing, we have more cases. If we had much smaller testing, we'd have fewer ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. Again, here we go again, it's just not right, right? Testing does not change the number of people who have coronavirus. That's absolutely obviously an absurd thing to say. It only changes the number that we know about. And of course, the growth in cases has far outpaced any growth in testing. Simply put, the virus spread has accelerated and the President has not only created confusion about the virus, but also about what Washington will do to help the hundreds of millions reeling economically from it.
While Trump tries to take credit for an executive order that bypassed Congress, even Republicans are crying foul tonight. Republican Senator Ben Sasse, among others, he came out today and called Trump's executive actions on the payroll tax 'unconstitutional slop'.
Jeremy Diamond is OUTFRONT live at the White House to begin our coverage. And Jeremy, I just want to start with that moment I began the program explaining. You were in the briefing room, the President was escorted out, which is obviously just to make the point here, that just doesn't happen. It's a very, very unusual thing and then he came back in, what happened?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It was really a remarkable moment and one that, as you said, does not happen often. It's very rare for the President to be escorted out in any kind of circumstance, but that is exactly what happened here.
You had a Secret Service agent come over to the President while he was speaking at the podium right behind me. And he said, "Sir, we're just going to have to step outside." And the President seemed to not understand that person. The Secret Service agent repeated step outside.
The President was then, according to him, taken to the Oval Office where he was for about eight and a half minutes until he returned here to the briefing room.
[19:05:01]
When he returned, I did ask the President whether he was taken to that underground bunker under the White House, because that is where he was taken, for example, when there were those protests in Lafayette Park.
The President told me that he was not taken to the bunker, that he was instead taken to the Oval Office. We also know that some of the White House aides here were rushed downstairs and certainly this entire area was locked down. We typically are able to go from outside this briefing room over to our live shot position outside. We are still locked down inside of the White House building itself. As for the situation that happened with this shooting, details are
scant as of now, but the President did say that it appears that a secret service officer shot this suspect, our photo journalist Peter Morris (ph) actually heard one shot while he was standing outside and it appear this incident happened about a half a block from here at 17th in Pennsylvania Avenue, which is just outside of the White House perimeter.
But certainly, this is an Unusual incident. We're still waiting to get details, but the Secret Service has at least confirm that there was an officer involved shooting and we do understand that as of now, one person has been taken to the hospital. So we're still waiting to get some more details, but the President, certainly after eight and a half minutes, being outside of here, came back in and then went on to go on and take questions on a whole host of news of day items, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jeremy. And I just want to let our viewers know as we find out more, we're going to let you know through the hour here. Because, obviously, it is extremely unusual for them to have a single shooter anywhere near the fact that they took him out, that they did this. So if we get more information, I'm going to go straight to it and bring it to you.
In the meantime, though, I want to go to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Larry Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox, which is obviously a crucial thing tonight, because I want to talk about vaccines.
First Sanjay, though, I mentioned the number of cases. We're hitting this 20 million cases globally, 5 million in the United States. So I just did a quick back-of-the-envelope and if there's at least 10 additional cases for every single one we know about, that's only 2.6 percent of the world population that's actually been infected. Now, it may be higher but no matter how you look at it, it's tiny.
Dr. Fauci said the other day, we got to get to 50 percent to 75 percent if you even think there is herd immunity. So when you look at it that way, it's like Sanjay, gosh, are we in for a really, really long haul?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, there's obviously countries around the world that have not had the sort of virus spread that we've had in the United States. So we can curb these numbers or slow down this trajectory of growth without the vaccine. But I think if the question is, look, we just have to get the herd immunity through natural infection, that would be a long haul. It would take a long time and that's not the way to go.
I mean, a lot of people will get sick, a lot of people would die in order for that to happen. It would take a long time, probably four or five years, to get to herd immunity. So that's why the vaccine or some of these therapeutics that we're talking about, like convalescent serum are so important.
When I look at numbers like that, Erin, that means that there's a lot more people out there that can still become infected. I think people have looked at this like they look at a hurricane. It comes for a few days and then it's gone. This is a storm of sorts, but the timeframe is totally different here.
BURNETT: Yes. And when you talk four to five years, I think people should understand the economic destruction that would come with letting it go would be beyond anything that anybody can comprehend.
So Dr. Brilliant, in terms of what we do to mitigate it, in the meantime, this weekend, large crowds, that motorcycle rally that we covered in South Dakota was one. Then, there was a gathering in Chicago. The City's Mayor posted this. And then, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says there is a true resurgence, their words, in several countries across Europe.
So when you look at all of these things, do you think we're about to see another surge overall or is that too negative?
LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me, Erin. And we're all really glad that nothing happened to the President and no one was harmed inside the White House. This could have been - who knows what this might have been.
We just heard from WHO a series of press releases over the last week, reminding us that this is the worst pandemic in our lifetimes, perhaps the worst pandemic in five or 10 generations that it is a wily virus. For one that doesn't have a brain, it seems to be outsmarting us at every corner. It is a terrible disease and in the midst of these historically bad numbers that we're seeing 20 million cases in the world almost, three quarters of a million deaths worldwide to have a gathering of 250,000 people is it boggles the mind, not the motorcycles.
Many of us have had a love affair with motorcycles. But these 250,000 people rode those motorcycles from over 50 states, all over. And we just hope they're not going to bring souvenirs back that they hadn't expected and ignite outbreaks again everywhere in the country.
[19:10:07]
BURNETT: Sanjay, the President recently said that he's optimistic a vaccine would be ready around election day. And obviously, I think we've all come to realize that it's not. It's going to need more than one vaccine and it may be certain levels of effectiveness, right? You might have a vaccine that's not that effective, but on top of your other treatments, right? Like, this isn't just like a sudden thing.
But for people who are hoping that it is, CNN obtained data from Moderna, which we know is the company in the U.S. really seems to be farthest along in the vaccine development process. And it appears to show that that is not true, that they are not on track for a vaccine ready to go by election day. Is there any way the President is right on this?
GUPTA: I really don't think so. I mean, everybody wants a vaccine and you're right, it's not a switch when we do get the vaccine that everything suddenly goes back to normal regardless. But aside from that, it just doesn't make sense. There's two shots involved. They may get to their number of people they need in their trial by the end of September, early October. That means that it would be the end of October before you'd even get the two shots and then you have to, obviously, follow these patients for a period of time. The data has to be analyzed.
It just doesn't make sense in terms of just the time. I will note as well, Erin, that in the press conference today, the President did sort of change his language a bit and say now by the end of the year, again. So he said that a couple times. I made note of that, so maybe he's realized that or his experts have told him, but as much as we want the vaccine, that's too accelerated.
BURNETT: And Dr. Brilliant, when you look at history and what you know about smallpox as past perhaps being a precedent, is there any vaccine that would be a switch over the next six, eight months or is that people who hope that need to really, really realign their expectations?
BRILLIANT: No. I think that when you get a vaccine, you don't get rainbows and unicorns. You get a vaccination campaign and we had a vaccine against smallpox for 200 years before we eradicated - he had a vaccine against polio for 70 years before we got this close.
It's going to be a lot of work. It's going to be jeeps and ice containers going into 200 different countries trying to push this vaccine back to where it came from. And we need to be prepared for something like that. That doesn't mean the world is going to end. We will figure out a way to live with this virus, but we can't let it get so far ahead of us that we'll never catch up.
BURNETT: Sanjay, I want to ask you one other thing. As Jeremy said, the President talked about various things, Russian meddling, China, he also was asked about his announcement that he's considering an executive order that would require health insurers to cover pre existing conditions. Now, why one would needed an executive order to do that when that is what Obamacare does was a question, here's the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you need to issue an executive order for a law that is already existing?
TRUMP: Yes, but I didn't say it. I said as an executive order, as you said, as an executive order it hasn't been done before. We want to be able to assure people that pre existing condition is always taken care of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you need, sir, to do an executive order if it's already a part of existing law?
TRUMP: Just a double safety net and just to let people know that the Republicans are totally, strongly in favor of pre existing condition, taking care of people with pre existing conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Sanjay, can you just from a medical point of view, I mean, is there any answer to this? He's basically saying, well, sure, there's something that passed Congress, but I'm going to do it by executive order, because no one did it by executive order before. Would there be any point to this?
GUPTA: I don't think so, Erin. I mean, I listened to that very closely. I've been covering the story of Obamacare for 11 years and the pre existing conditions. We can show you the exact language that's up on the Health and Human Services website. It basically mandates that insurance companies not charge anybody anything more because of pre existing conditions. I mean, that's been the law of the land for some time.
I mean, I'm not sure a double safety net means in this sort of case. It is true that the individual mandate is something that was repealed and that's an important part of the Affordable Care Act overall. But the pre existing conditions, which has frankly helped a lot of people get health care insurance that otherwise wouldn't have, it's still the law of the land. It exists.
BURNETT: Right.
GUPTA: Which is, I think, a good thing and that's what the President is saying as well.
BURNETT: Right.
GUPTA: It's a good thing. I'm going to double safety net it. I'm not sure what that means.
BURNETT: No. It was a nonsensical thing to say. All right. Dr. Gupta and Dr. Brilliant, thank you both.
And next, hundreds of students quarantined in the Atlanta area after a COVID outbreak. So what does this mean for kids going back to school? I'm going to speak to a doctor who has made the choice to send his daughter back. He'll explain why.
Plus, a 21-year-old who did not take the virus seriously even after testing positive, right, seem to be totally fine. But then all of a sudden diagnosed with multiple organ failure.
[19:15:03]
What does he think now? He's our guest.
And high profile Republican, ready to address the Democratic convention. Former presidential candidate John Kasich is OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:18:58]
BURNETT: Breaking news, there has been a 90 percent increase in the number of coronavirus cases among American children over the past four weeks. This is according to a new report which now says children represent 9 percent of all reported cases in states that report by age. And this comes as thousands of students are returning to the classroom. Athena Jones is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Just act like the virus isn't there and we kind of go for it and try to tough it out. It won't work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT(voice over): Public health experts warned this would happen and now it has. Schools in states with high rates of COVID-19 infections opening up too quickly without the proper precautions and suffering the consequences as new cases pile up.
The Georgia High School made famous in this viral photo now temporarily closed after nine students or employees tested positive. The school where masks are not required, holding classes remotely while it undergoes a deep cleaning.
At least 16 schools in Cherokee County, Georgia have reported COVID cases among students or staff underlining the challenge of holding in- person classes in a state with the highest number of COVID cases per capita in the country.
[19:20:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIVISION, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: The reason all of this is happening is because we haven't controlled the virus spread in the community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES(voice over): The lack of a mask mandate in most Georgia schools and concerns about crowding prompting fear among teachers and families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETH MOORE, (D) GEORGIA STATE HOUSE: I have over 200 emails over the course of less than 48 hours from teachers, students, parents, staff members at school, all with really the same message that schools in Georgia are not prepared to go back to face-to-face instruction right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP) JONES(voice over): The trouble with schools coming as the American
Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association say nearly a hundred thousand children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID in just the last two weeks of July. With COVID positivity rates rising in 35 states compared to last week, there are new concerns in places like Idaho, Indiana. Illinois where Chicago's Mayor tweeted this image of a crowded beach.
In California, CNN affiliate KABC captured tense moments outside a church holding an indoor service Sunday in defiance of a judge's order. Average daily deaths nationwide have topped a thousand for the past two weeks and several states are seeing record hospitalizations.
Meanwhile, college football is hanging in the balance. Multiple sports outlets reporting leaders of the power five sports conferences are in discussions about postponing the season due to COVID concerns. A move the Mid-American Conference announced over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEINBRECHER, COMMISSIONER, MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE: This was a crushing decision to be made by our membership. It was a decision that was made based on the advice of our medical experts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: And there's one more thing about COVID-19 in children, new CDC data shows that Hispanic children are eight times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID complications than white children and black children are five times more likely to be hospitalized than white children. One experts saying that testing and prevention resources must be focused in these high risk communities, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Athena, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to Dr. Leonard Krilov, Chairman of the Pediatric Department at NYU, Winthrop Hospital on Long Island and the Chief of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division.
So Dr. Krilov, you deal with infectious disease, you deal with children, you've treated children with coronavirus, some of them extremely ill, respiratory issues as severe as adults. You've treated children who have that inflammatory syndrome, that multi system one that has been so toxic. But yet you have a 10-year-old daughter who's going to be entering fifth grade and you've, knowing all this, going through all of the pluses and minuses, you've decided to let her go back to school. So you know more than almost any parent watching what led you to make that choice.
DR. LEONARD KRILOV, CHAIRMAN, PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENT AT NYU, WINTHROP: So thank you, Erin, and thank you for giving me this opportunity to discuss this. So I think it's certainly not an easy decision and I won't say it didn't come with a lot of angst on our part. But I think contrast to some of the information you were just showing in other areas in the country, that here where we are in New York where the virus levels, the infection rates are quite low and with emphasis on a program or a school plan to minimize, you can't totally eliminate unfortunately, the risk for COVID infection, balanced against the benefits of school.
The impacts that have been so negative on our children from homeschooling, lack of any social or minimal social interactions, the mental health benefits, then unfortunately, it has, looking at the whole picture, not just a we're totally safe, we can move on with our lives, we're far from that. And I think if with the precautions in place, with monitoring, realizing we may have to backtrack, but hopefully being in a different situation with low rates of infection and strong adherence to developing policies to minimize the risk, we can do this as safely as possible.
BURNETT: Yes. All right. So we're looking at those numbers, 97,000 children testing positive in the past two weeks of July. We've seen that big surge. Now, we don't know how many of them will get very sick. We don't yet know their role in transmission. We know young children can have multiples of the more of the virus in their noses than adults, but we don't know what that means.
We have been told in one study that children the age of your daughter, 10 years old and older can spread the virus just as effectively as adults, so they can both get sick and they can spread. And now you've got almost 10 percent of cases as children. So as you look at where this is going, what are the factors that you look at and say, OK, if this changes, I change my mind, as it not just positivity in your state, which is now at 1 percent.
I know New York City public schools as it goes to three, everyone goes home. Aside from positivity, what else are you watching, that would make you say, I'm changing my mind?
[19:25:01]
KRILOV: So it's one, how are the procedures really being implemented, are masks feasible, are small class size, are distancing protocols working, are symptom checks being done, because you're right, we're not going to wait for testing or knowing what rates go even regionally, never mind in the state. But are we seeing more absences with even mild respiratory illness.
I think it's looking at all of those in conjunction with the protocols in place that are going to impact whether we need to change our decisions.
BURNETT: All right. We'll Dr. Krilov, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you sharing it with us. I know, like I said, there's a lot of people watching who really, really want to hear what you have to say on this as they face that tough decision, so thanks so much.
KRILOV: Thank you for having me and I think don't be the weak link in the chain, everybody follow precautions and we'll do the best we can.
BURNETT: All right. And next, a young man, 21 years old. He recovered from coronavirus, mild case, thought it was a joke. Then, his organs shut down. He thought he would die and he's going to tell you about what happened and what he thinks now.
And then the former governor of Ohio, a Republican, going to take a big step in a few days. John Kasich, is he really going to address the Democratic Convention? He's OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:13]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Tonight, troubling new signs about the long- term effects of coronavirus. Twenty-one-year-old Spencer Rollyson had only mild symptoms when he had coronavirus back in May and he recovered. He returned to work after testing negative. But then two weeks later, he was rushed to ICU.
He learned he had multi-organ failure. Now, fortunately, Spencer survived and he is joining me tonight to share his story so that hopefully others can hear and learn.
I mean, Spencer, I know originally this started in May and you had a mild case and, sort of, you got -- you got pretty well quickly. I mean, what did you think initially when you got it, found out you had it and bounced back so quickly?
SPENCER ROLLYSON, DIAGNOSED WITH MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE AFTER RECOVERING FROM COVID-19: So at first I didn't think too much about it. I figured it was just any other flu or cold. And I had symptoms for a few days and it went away after a couple weeks and I was fine after that so I thought.
BURNETT: So you thought. All right. So then how soon did you go from being better and then I know you even tested negative. And then all of a sudden, you knew something was really, really wrong.
ROLLYSON: Yes. So about a week and a half, two weeks later, I started feeling bad on -- it was a Thursday. I went to work and I work outside. So, it's obviously in Florida.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ROLLYSON: I worked on the morning, just because it was raining I was trying to keep myself dry and throughout the day, it stopped raining like 97, 98 degrees outside. I ended up taking the jacket off and I was still freezing. So, I knew something wasn't right. So, I had to go home and ended up going to MedFast and trying to figure out what was going on. They sent me home with an antibiotic at first.
BURNETT: So, they sent you home with an antibiotic and then what happens? Because you go from there suddenly to the ICU and just absolutely terrifying thing of multiple organ failure.
ROLLYSON: I ended up going to med fast, the ER, actually the ER in Waterford Lakes. I told them I had a fever of 103.4. They started doing blood work. They did a chest X-ray, a CT scan. And everything came back clear. They had no idea what was going on.
And two days later is when I ended up in the ICU. And that is when everything started shutting down. So, in that two days, my body rapidly declined.
BURNETT: I mean, it's incredible, Spencer. We're so glad you're OK. Do they know what happened? Do they know whether that was the coronavirus or related to the coronavirus or obviously you were otherwise a healthy 21-year-old?
ROLLYSON: Yes. I have had no health issues before. They are telling me my body was trying to fight off the coronavirus and went into hyperactive mode and eventually started attacking my own body and that led to the sepsis and septic shock and all that.
BURNETT: And I understand, Spencer, that -- you know, look, luckily, you look fine, but I know you are still recovering in some ways. I know doctors are still monitoring your heart, blood pressure medications. You've got to avoid a high heart rate. When you think about what you did working outside in the heat, I know these are things now that are life changing for you.
Do you have -- do the doctors have any sense of how long this will continue or is it possibly, or are the doctors telling you they just don't know?
ROLLYSON: So they don't know exactly right now. Basically, what they told me is I'm going to be on these medications for the next year or two. I am actually going to a cardiologist on Wednesday to find out if my heart has gone back to normal at all.
They had a heart monitor on me for a while. I haven't gotten any word back on it yet. I guess they just haven't gotten back to me. But that's all I know right now.
BURNETT: I wish you the best with that appointment.
Spencer, there are so many people in your case, young people, I'm not saying they all think this is a joke but, you know, they're being social. They don't think it is going to affect them. We all know it. We all see them -- we all see them out and about.
What do you say to some of them when you think about what happened to you? You were fine. You got better. Then something awful happened that has changed your life.
ROLLYSON: So I'm healthy and young. No prior health issues. All I have to say is just because you're young doesn't mean it won't affect you. I never thought at 21 I would be on the verge of death. It almost took my life a month ago.
So it is not something to play around with. Just be safe. Wear your masks. Wash your hands. I can't urge it enough.
BURNETT: Well, I hope people listen. I know people listen, Spencer, and I know it takes courage to come out and tell the story. [19:35:02]
And again, I hope that appointment goes well. We're rooting for you. Thank you.
ROLLYSON: Thank you very much.
BURNETT: I want to bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner now, director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at G.W. who advised the White House medical unit under President George W. Bush.
So, Dr. Reiner, when you hear Spencer's story, mild case, everything is fine, doctors now think and are telling him that his immune system went into overdrive and basically attacked itself. It was going to kill him. He ends up back in the hospital.
Twenty-one years old. No preexisting conditions, still almost died, when he was technically better testing negative. What do you make of that?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This is an unpredictable illness and the best advice is not to get it. The best advice is to protect yourself and your community. Take all the precautions that we talk about here every single night -- wear masks, social distance, stay out of crowds. Don't go to bars. Do all those good things.
Look, we're learning about this new disease and it is a new disease in real time. And never in my professional career have I seen such a new disease affect so many people in such a short period of time. You know, the most sort of similar constellation of diseases I think we saw after 9/11 when the first responders on the pile at Ground Zero started to develop a constellation of cancers, and autoimmune diseases, and things like that in the months and years following and we learned from their experiences about a new -- really a new constellation of disease.
And this coronavirus is sort of similar but on a much higher level. It's unpredictable. Although you would say a 21-year-old should breeze through this, it doesn't always happen. A 21-year-old can die from this, actually anyone can die from this, much less likely in the young, much more common in the elderly. But it's very unpredictable and supremely lethal disease in some people.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, just hearing his story I think gives a lot of people -- I hope it gives a lot of people pause when they think about their recent behavior.
Look, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association because I know that you obviously as a cardiologist found that 78 percent of patients who had recovered from coronavirus had some kind of cardiac abnormality, and we're not just talking about the people who were really sick, right? We're talking about the people who two-thirds of the patients in that study, two-thirds, had mild or no symptoms at all.
So, basically, they weren't sick from coronavirus. They might not have even known they had it. Now they have this cardiac abnormality that we don't know if it is temporary or long term or what it could mean. How concerned are you about the long term effects of the virus on the heart?
REINER: I'm concerned. There are actually two studies in that same issue of JAMA. One was the study that used MRI and very sensitive blood tests to detect inflammation in the heart and they found it in as you said about 78 percent of patients. And they also published an autopsy study in obviously less fortunate people who contracted the virus that showed actually evidence of the virus in almost two-thirds of people who had died.
So, time will tell. I think most people will recover. I think most people will not have important cardiac sequelae from this virus, but some will. We're only six months into our experience with this. So, we'll have to see as we go forward.
BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, thank you.
REINER: My pleasure.
BURNETT: And next, former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich will address Democrats at their convention. He joins me to tell you why.
And issues at the U.S. Postal Service which Democrats are calling sabotage. Could these issues impact the election and mail-in ballots?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are having trucks leave our buildings with zero mail on the trucks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:42:56]
BURNETT: Tonight one of the headline speakers during next week's DNC will be a Republican, former Ohio governor and current CNN senior political commentator John Kasich will give a speech to make the case for Joe Biden. Governor Kasich is now OUTFRONT.
And, Governor, I appreciate your time.
So, you know, last time around obviously, you didn't support Donald Trump. You wrote in another Republican, John McCain, for president, which is a far cry from actually supporting the Democratic candidate for president, right? You were anti-Trump but you were not -- not taking that extra step. What changed?
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Conscience, Erin. You know, the reason I didn't support Trump the last time is I was afraid that he would be a divider and not a unifier and our best leaders historically have been unifiers, Republicans and Democrats. But, unfortunately, as I've watched him over the last three and a half
years now, he's continued to do that. And I don't think the country does well when we're divided. And so I had to search my conscience. When the Democrats asked me to speak, I had to think about it. I believe we need a new direction.
We just can't keep going the way that we're going because I know historically and I served in the Congress. I was governor. What I've known is that when people work together, remarkable and good things can happen. But when we constantly are divided, when we can't work together, you know, we can see what's happening when we look at Washington even today.
So it was necessary to do this, and I felt it's the right thing to do and I would encourage other Republicans to know that it is okay to take off a partisan hat, take off your partisan hat and vote on the basis of what your conscience tells you about the future of our country not just for yourself but for your kids as well.
BURNETT: You are a moderate, right? You are -- you are not someone who represents the progressive wing of the Democratic Party which is hugely influential right now. Yet you are comfortable with Joe Biden. Why is that? What has made you come to the conclusion?
KASICH: Well, I -- first of all -- yeah, first of all, I am a conservative which is the interesting thing. Why would I say that? Well, I was the chairman of the Budget Committee when we balanced the budget in Washington.
BURNETT: Yeah.
KASICH: We ran surpluses for a number of years and surpluses.
[19:45:03]
And over here in Ohio, we fixed the state and cut taxes and grew almost half a million jobs and left almost 3 billion in the rainy day fund for the governor we have now.
So I am conservative. And people are going to say, oh, well, he's really not. Yes I have been. But I believe that Biden can bring us together.
I'm going to disagree with Joe on things and they expected that when they asked me to do this. I said, yeah, there's things I'm going to disagree with Biden on. There's things I'm concerned about.
But at the end of the day, I think he is a man of faith. I think he is a man -- look, his history has been an ability to bring people together. That's the way it was when I was in Congress, when we balanced the budget, were able to do welfare reform.
And I think he can -- he can restore civility and I don't think he'll go hard left. I think he is a pretty tough guy. So I'm comfortable with the fact that he would be our leader. And I expect he'll have Republicans that will be part of anything he does going forward. That's the way -- that is his nature and has been history. And he is a
man of deep faith and, you know, a man that has suffered some tremendous grief that has shaped his character. All some of the things I will talk about in my speech.
BURNETT: So, you know, what your a he doing is going to stand out. And it has when it has happened before. I'm thinking of Zell Miller, then Democratic senator, you know, who spoke for President Bush at the RNC in 2004. And then it was Joe Lieberman who was an independent but caucused with the Democrats and in 2008, he spoke at the RNC and supported John McCain.
You know, they both became persona non grata in their party, right? You know, they were -- they were, you know, blackballed. Are you worried the same could happen to you?
KASICH: I think I have a right to define what it means to be a conservative and that means a government when necessary not opposed to it that what the conservative movement ought to be is opportunity for everyone. The Republican Party ought to be a party that has a positive message of lifting everyone.
But, you know, Erin, look. Leaders walk a lonely road. If you're not prepared to walk a lonely road and do the things that your conscience tells you to do, then how do you think about yourself when you look in the mirror?
I mean, I'm comfortable with the decisions I make. Of course, there's blowback. Republicans are critical. Some are praising me. Democrats are debating themselves. Should he be able to do this?
But this is not an unusual place for me to be. I've been a reformer almost all of my life. I've been very independent. I'm a Republican but the Republican Party has always been my vehicle but never my master. You have to do what you think is right in your heart and I'm comfortable here.
BURNETT: So, Southern Baptist minister, he is ordained, Mike Huckabee, said the other day in part, I don't know if anybody, people of faith who think Joe Biden is a great choice. I tell you they're not going to go with Biden. That's not an option.
What do you say?
KASICH: Well, I'm clued into a lot of people of faith, a number of them, who are very happy that I'm making this decision. I can give you names. I don't want to say it on the air but I can give you names of them if we have to come back and do that.
And the fact is, you know, the faith is a matter of your personal relationship. And so I don't know why that's been said about Joe. I think he is a man of faith. I don't sit down and talk about all of his religion with him. But I'm comfortable with him.
And like I say, I consider myself to be a man of faith. A flawed man of faith for sure, but aren't we all? So I don't think anybody can speak for the entire faith community and
try to say that this person is good and that person isn't. A lot of people scratch their heads about why some of these very conservative evangelicals support Trump. It seems not to be consistent with the things that they believe in, as promoted in the Old and New Testament.
BURNETT: Right. Thank you very much, Governor Kasich. I appreciate your time.
KASICH: All right, Erin.
BURNETT: And, of course, going to be speaking next week at the convention for Joe Biden.
And, look. We still don't know who is going to be appearing with Joe Biden there. We do not know who his vice presidential pick.
OUTFRONT now, former special adviser to President Obama, Van Jones.
So, Van, you and other prominent male African-American leaders including Sean "Diddy" Combs and Charlamagne Tha God released a letter to Joe Biden today and you urged him to pick an African-American woman as V.P., and in part your letter reads, quote, failing to select a black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election.
Do you believe it's that clear, Van, that Biden will lose with a woman who is not black?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it is going to be very hard for him to win without that because, first of all, we're relying on the African-American female vote in the Democratic Party to come out, not 80 percent, not 90 percent, but 98 percent, almost unanimity, once again, to try and save this party.
And yet no African-American woman for whatever reason has been given the opportunity to help to lead the party. So they can save the party but they can't lead it. That doesn't make any sense.
And you also now have whatever the criteria is, there is an African- American woman who meets it.
[19:50:04]
If you're talking about having served well in the Senate, you've got Kamala Harris. If you're talking about having served well in Congress, you've got Karen Bass and Val Deming. You're talking about having served well at a local level, you have Mayor Keisha down there in Atlanta.
If you're talking about somebody who's been part of law enforcement, a critic of law enforcement -- you now have six, seven African-American women who are ready to serve -- the executive branch, Susan Rice. They are ready. You've got the people who are there.
You can't say that you don't have the talent. You can't say that you don't have the ability. And so the question then becomes and there is -- not like there is a rock star from some other demographic that you can point to.
And so, if there is -- if this is not the time to do it, I don't know when the time to do it is.
BURNETT: So, you know, Jim Clyburn so instrumental to Joe Biden when people thought his campaign was done in South Carolina, right, his huge comeback. He's basically said to me it would be a plus, not a must to pick a black woman. Do the vetting in the polling but ultimately go with your head and heart.
We were supposed to hear last week. We haven't heard yet. That to me seems like Joe Biden is really, he's really struggling to make this final decision.
The only woman we know Biden has met with about the VP spot is the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. She is white.
Could you see, Van, a scenario where Joe Biden picks Governor Whitmer? And if so, what would you say?
JONES: Well, the rationale for doing that -- look, she's a great leader and she's a rising star in our party. The rationale for doing that, managing would be she can appeal in the Midwest to, you know, maybe suburban swing voting in swing counties and that kind of thing.
The problem is you have is that we're going down the same road we went down in 2016, where the party can assume they take the black party and Latino party for granted and give us literally an all white ticket again and expect people to crawl through broken glass and the pandemic and whatever else is stand line and vote for somebody. And there is no excitement there.
Is Gretchen a great leader? A hundred percent. Would she a great vice president? A hundred percent.
She might be a great president some day, but there are black women who are equally capable, equally competent and can deliver a bigger bang for the buck even in industrial heartland than she is for her to become the front runner passing over these women as a problem.
BURNETT: All right. Van, appreciate your time, and your thoughts. Thank you.
JONES: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, problems tonight with mail not being delivered in many states. Could sweeping changes from a major Trump donor impact mail in ballots? Special report next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:01]
BURNETT: Tonight, new concerns changes in the Post Office could impact mail-in ballots in the election, coronavirus, cost-cutting measures, backlogs of letters all raising serious concerns. Pete Muntean is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Postal Service slogan might be we deliver, but it's not what reality appears to be.
NICK CASSELLI, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION LOCAL 89: We're having trucks leave our buildings with zero mail on the trucks.
MUNTEAN: For Nick Casselli who head as postal worker union in Philadelphia, the mail is moving too slow.
CASSELLI: My union reps, you know, they call me throughout the night, in the morning saying, Nick, the mail is all over the place. We're just not getting it out.
MUNTEAN: In 35 years with the United States Postal Service, Casselli says he's never seen issues this severe. The new changes have Democrats worried that slow mail could slow mail in ballots, crucial in an election year overshadowed by the pandemic.
CASSELLI: We're not providing the service that we provided 24/7 before Mr. DeJoy was appointed to postmaster general.
MUNTEAN: In June, President Trump appointed longtime supporter Louis DeJoy to head the Postal Service, the first postmaster general in two decades with no postal experience.
It is his newly implemented changes like eliminating over time and ending extra trips by carriers that Casselli says are causing delays nationwide. In Baltimore, people waited two hours in hopes of getting their mail that never showed up.
KASANDRA PEROS, BALTIMORE RESIDENT: I'm waiting an unemployment, a card, and it's not showing up. So, yeah, should be here today but it should have been here a week ago, too. So I don't really know.
MUNTEAN: Mail delays have also been reported from Minneapolis to North Carolina and in Philadelphia.
BARRY RAYMOND, PHILADELPHIA RESIDENT: A lot of them were bills and want to charge you late charges.
JAMES MAYO, PHILADELPHIA RESIDENT: We've missed six collection days in the last four weeks, which means they are not delivering, they are not collecting. It's a problem. Medicines aren't being delivered. Bills aren't going out in the mail.
MUNTEAN: James Mayo says the problem got so bad he called his congressman and he's not the only one.
REP. DWIGHT EVANS (D), PENNSYLVANIA: People are calling us are raising concerns about the mail system.
MUNTEAN: House Democrat Dwight Evans and 80 other members of Congress wrote DeJoy, demanding the Postal Service not reduce mail delivery hours. DeJoy denies that any intentional slowdown is taking place.
LOUIS DEJOY, USPS POSTMASTER GENERAL: Despite any assertions to the country, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail.
MUNTEAN: Postal carriers live by the motto neither rain nor snow. Now, the concern is politics will keep those like James Mayo waiting on the mail.
MAYO: Both sides of the aisle need to look at this. They need to fund the postal service properly so these guys can go back to work.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MUNTEAN: Even in spite of all this, President Trump continues to support DeJoy's changes. In a new interview, the president calls mail in voting a catastrophe even though the American postal workers union says the only real catastrophe is the squeeze being put on the Postal Service. DeJoy will have to face a congressional hearing and answer to the mail delays but not until September 18th -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Pete, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you.
Anderson starts now.
