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Erin Burnett Outfront
Postal Service Warns Ballots May Not be Delivered on Time; Obama: Trump is Trying to "Discourage People from Voting"; Exclusive: USPS Watchdog Reviewing Policy Changes & Potential Ethics Conflicts by Postmaster General, a Trump Donor; White House Fuels Birther Attack on Kamala Harris; Coronavirus Deaths Averaging 1,000+ A Day for 19 Days Straight; Trump Dodges Question About QAnon Conspiracy Theory; Harris Finds Political Power in Nation's Oldest Black Sorority. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 14, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: And to all of the caregivers during this crisis, we say thank you.
I'm Jim Acosta. Thanks very much for watching.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the Postal Service warning states it may not be able to deliver election ballots on time. This as President Obama accuses President Trump of trying to 'kneecap' the postal service in order to win the election.
Plus, Jared Kushner fanning the birther attack on Kamala Harris. So why aren't Republicans stepping up and shutting down this racist conspiracy theory?
And tonight, the U.S. already topping another 1,000 coronavirus deaths today as CNN is learning another controversial doctor now has the President's ear. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan in for Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, kneecap the postal service to win an election. A serious accusation tonight coming from former President Barack Obama aimed directly at President Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we've seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a President who is explicit trying to discourage people from voting, right?
What we've never seen before is a President say, "I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting, and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: This comes as the Postal Service tonight is reportedly warning 46 states that mail-in ballots may not be returned in time to count for the election because of lags in mail delivery. Why a lag? Because the Postal Service is starved for cash at a time when demand for mail-in ballots has never been higher.
All the while, President Trump's handpicked Postmaster General, a campaign donor, is behind a major restructuring of the agency that includes cuts to employ hours, banning extra trips to deliver mail on time and removing hundreds of high volume mail processing machines across the country.
All of these moves will very likely lead to even more logjams, something the Postmaster General admitted in a letter to employees saying this, "Unfortunately, this transformative initiative has had unintended consequences that impacted our overall service levels."
The President today says he'll continue to oppose $25 billion in funding for the Postal Service unless Democrats give in to his demands.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you be willing to accept the $25 billion for the Postal Service including the $3.5 billion for mail-in voting?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sure, if they gave us what we want and it's not what I want, it's what the American people want.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if they were to give you that ...
TRUMP: Yes, if they would do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... you would sign off on the money for the postal service?
TRUMP: Yes. But they're not giving it to me, they're giving it to the American people. I mean, giving it ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You agree to that.
TRUMP: Yes. I would certainly do that. Sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: It seems more than clear now he has no desire to allow this to happen because he said the quiet part out loud yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. If they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: So look, there's no way to know for sure if one party
benefits more than the other from vote by mail, but it's crystal clear one party is more willing to consider it. A new Monmouth poll this week found that 72 percent of Democratic voters were either very or somewhat likely to vote by mail, compared to 65 percent of Republicans who said they were not at all likely to do so.
It seems clear what the President is doing, trying to use the Postal Service to his advantage in the election. Jessica Schneider is OUTFRONT. Jessica, is the message from the President honestly that he would rather have people, let's risk their health in the middle of a pandemic to vote rather than allow mail-in ballots that he believes will hurt his chances?
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the President has been persistent in this message that he does not want widespread mail-in balloting, despite the fact that this pandemic has caused a lot of concern for many Americans about actually going to the polls. So tonight while the President continues to push this false claim about widespread voter fraud and also points to possible problems at the post office, well, his and First Lady Melania Trump's mail-in ballots, well, they're getting ready to go.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): When Florida holds its primary election on Tuesday, President Trump and the First Lady will be voting by mail. The couple requesting ballots as President Trump has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I said it will end up being fraudulent because if you look at what's happened over the last few weeks, just look at the few instances where this has happened. It's turned out to be fraudulent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): But CNN's fact checking team has consistently debunked that claim.
[19:05:01]
More states are adopting universal mail-in balloting where ballots are automatically mailed to every registered voter. New Jersey is just the latest state that makes nine states plus Washington, D.C. that will now give all voters the option to vote by mail and most also have in- person voting known as a hybrid model.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Everybody gets a ballot. So we're going to have a hybrid model in November.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Meanwhile, some voters in Virginia, New
Hampshire and D.C. say they are increasingly confused by election information they're receiving in the mail. In D.C. there were erroneous instructions and in New Hampshire and Virginia, the mailers contained errors in the return address.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans are racing toward a Friday night deadline to turn over evidence that proves their claims of mail and voter fraud in the state's primaries. It will be a pivotal point in a critical battleground state. The Trump campaign has sued to demand changes to Pennsylvania's mail-in balloting process, but now a judge is making them prove there are problems.
Democrats saying Republicans should not be permitted to raise such spectacular fraud related claims, particularly in this national climate. This as the fight over funding at the U.S. Postal Service continues with a new letter from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy obtained by CNN showing the Trump appointee and longtime Republican donor acknowledging some of the recent changes have had unintended consequences impacting the level of service. But DeJoy says the cuts are necessary since the USPS' financial condition is dire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: People will have to go to the polls and vote like the old days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): CNN has learned the President met with Postmaster DeJoy last week at the height of funding talks as he opposed widespread vote by mail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENA GRISWOLD (D), COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: President Trump is lying about vote by mail. He is lying about mail ballots. Colorado has a very clean history of running great elections with vote by mail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: And we've just learned that the internal watchdog for the Postal Service is now reviewing some of those recent changes by the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, also looking into whether DeJoy properly followed the federal ethics rules. Now, top Democrats have also just sent a joy a 10-page letter demanding answers. But Kate, DeJoy has denied that all of these changes would disrupt service instead saying that these cuts are necessary because of the financial condition that the USPS is in. Kate.
BOLDUAN: Jessica, thanks for laying it out. I really appreciate it.
OUTFRONT now, the Democratic Secretary of State of Vermont, Jim Condos. Thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate it, Mr. Secretary. So The Washington Post is reporting that 46 states got letters from the Postal Service that they might not be able to deliver ballots in time. Have you received one of these letters?
JIM CONDOS (D), VERMONT SECRETARY OF STATE: To my knowledge, we have not received a letter from the Postmaster General at this point. I guess it could still be in the mail.
BOLDUAN: And there's some joke there. What do you think of this warning though, Secretary, 46 states? I mean, it's likely to be an issue for Vermont as well if they think that they're not going to be able to turn ballots, get ballots back in time. What do you make of this morning?
CONDOS: So it's very concerning. And we've been working with our postal liaison since probably mid April and we've been meeting with her weekly, and we've been assured that election mail will be given a high priority. We've followed all the regulations on the post office. We've got the post office logo on there for election mail and everything is really to the letter to meet the Postal Service needs as well.
And we just came off of a primary on Tuesday this week, overwhelming primary that had an increase of close to 50 percent over our previous record and probably 75 percent of that was vote by mail. We had stories coming from town clerks around Vermont that talked about how the postmasters in the local post offices were calling them to tell them that they just received two or three more election ballots and the town clerk would send someone down to pick those up.
So we feel pretty confident here in Vermont. I am concerned about my colleagues across the country. And let me be clear, Kate, this is not a red state, blue state issue. This is about our democracy. The more voters that we have, it strengthens our democracy.
BOLDUAN: Everything that we've laid out that's going on with the Postal Service and when you look at what the President has said that he is trying to do, do you think it's voter suppression?
CONDOS: Absolutely, I do. I think this is blatant voter suppression and I find it remarkable that we have a President of the United States who is in that position to push the voter fraud mantra.
[19:10:01]
If you think about it, the real voter fraud in this country, the really true voter fraud in this country is to deny any eligible American their constitutional right to vote. That's why dismantling the postal service is so dangerous to our democracy.
BOLDUAN: Knowing this even with the plan you have in place, are you thinking of changing how you're going to run voting in the state come November? Do you need to come up with contingency plans? Are you nervous?
CONDOS: Well, we're going to look at all our options and we will continue to adjust as necessary. I work with our legislature to have the authority to move quickly and nimbly in making some decisions that we normally wouldn't be able to do and all because of COVID. You said it earlier, that no American, no voter should have to choose between their health and their right to vote.
BOLDUAN: It's true. I mean, that's just the honest goodness truth. Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time.
OUTFRONT with me right now, CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger and Melissa Murray. She's a professor of law at New York University.
Gloria, you just heard the Vermont Secretary of State. You got almost 50 states now being warned mail-in ballots may not be received in time to count. President Trump repeatedly says he's opposed to mail-in balloting and he's holding up funds for the service. I mean, are there any doubts at this point what is happening here?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No. I think quite clearly when you look at, for example, what the Secretary of State was saying and what the President is saying, this is nothing less than an effort to undermine democracy in this country. The President on the one hand complaining about a rigged election, on the other hand, he seems to be complicit in trying to rig it.
The President is telling people effectively, your ballots won't be counted. The post office can't do the job. They're supposed to do. The funding they need they are not getting. His handpicked Postmaster General of all things decided to streamline and I'm using an air quote, "streamline" the post office during a pandemic and right before an election. How silly is that?
And so what you have is a system that is clearly under stress and a White House that is putting it under more stress as people want to figure out how they can vote in a safe way.
BOLDUAN: And look, Melissa, we heard it from the Secretary of State right there of Vermont. You heard it from the Secretary of State of Colorado yesterday here on the program, voter suppression. Do you see it that way, I mean, when you look at the law?
MELISSA MURRAY, LAW PROFESSOR, NYU SCHOOL OF LAW: Well, I think there's very little other way to read this. I mean, it's very clear that mail-in balloting and voting by mail does not increase voter fraud. So the President's claims that this would increase fraud seems to fall on deaf ears. And instead, what you're left with is the two choices.
It's either a situation where he's trying to prevent certain voters from going to the polls or alternatively set up a narrative that if he loses that there's something nefarious at work here.
BORGER: Yes.
BOLDUAN: Yes. Gloria, former President Obama weighed in today tweeting that the Trump administration is, the way he put it is more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus. And then he also talked about it in a podcast as well. Let me replay that for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: What we've seen in a way that is unique to modern political
history is a President who is explicit trying to discourage people from voting, right?
What we've never seen before is a President say, "I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting, and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Did you ever think that you'd see a sitting President of the United States go to the lengths to prevent Americans from voting in the election. I mean, you hear Obama kind of laughing because it is pretty unbelievable how it's playing out.
BORGER: It is. It is unbelievable. It's also unbelievable to hear a former President talk this way about a member of the President's club, he's effectively saying this guy is trying to undermine this election and he's the guy sitting in the Oval Office. And that's, even though it's an election year, it's kind of striking to me to hear it from a former president.
But given everything we've gone through with Donald Trump, in a way, perhaps, it's not surprising. What is more surprising is that he can't get the message straight on this, politically. I mean, on the one hand, he and his wife are going to vote absentee ballot, which is the same as voting by mail in the state of Florida. And he's also saying, oh, by the way, some states are good like if you want to vote by mail- in Florida, that's fine, but not in other states that are run by Democratic governors.
[19:15:02]
I mean, people have to scratch their heads about that and say, wait a minute, what is the truth here and what is he really trying to do, and understand that a lot of Republicans are going to him and saying, wait a minute, you may suppress Democrats here, if that's your goal, but you're also going to suppress some of your own voters.
BOLDUAN: So that's part of the head scratching bit. It seems that even Republicans at this point don't want to hold up funding for the Postal Service. I want to play for you, Kevin McCarthy speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The Postal Service will have the funding that it needs and we'll make sure of that. We want to make sure that we have an accurate election. I think any Republican that gets their ballot in the mail should vote that and make sure that their vote is counted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: That's exactly what you would want to hear, Melissa. I mean, he says the funding is going to be there and I'm just scratching my head how this is playing out. I mean, from your perspective, what questions do you have? What do you want to know now?
MURRAY: Funny, it's very clear that voting by mail doesn't necessarily advantage either party, it just benefits democracy because more people are allowed to participate. The thing that I find striking here goes back to something that Gloria just said, is this so unbelievable. It really isn't for this particular president.
This is a president who has never been orthodox or cared about the rules or how things have played out. And it's not surprising that on an eve of an election where he's being pilloried for his terrible handling of a global health crisis, that he is now doubling down on the one situation, the Post Office, that could possibly facilitate voting in a safe way in an election he's likely to be unsuccessful in.
BOLDUAN: Thank you both very much. I appreciate it.
OUTFRONT for us next, Jared Kushner is fanning the flames of what really is a racist lie about Kamala Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the Trump campaign accept that Kamala Harris is a qualified candidate?
JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Look, at the end of the day, it's something that's out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Why are Republicans silent on this?
Plus, President Trump has a new person briefing him on coronavirus. Who is Scott Atlas and why is the controversial doctor in task force meetings and the Oval Office?
And Kamala Harris in her first interview since joining the Democratic ticket.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Joe Biden had the audacity to choose a black woman to beat his running mate, how incredible is that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:35]
BOLDUAN: Tonight, the White House continuing to fuel the unfounded birther conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUSHNER: His words were, I don't know anything about that. I'll take him at his word that he said he doesn't know anything about that.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Kamala Harris is African-American, she's Indian-American and she's a woman. So you've got racist overtones, you've got misogynistic overtones, why would the President want to be associated with somebody who wrote that?
KUSHNER: So Christiane, again, I have so much respect for you. So I'll answer this in the most polite way possible, which again is that the President was asked the question, he said he didn't know anything about it.
AMANPOUR: Would you apologize on behalf of your candidate for him spreading that information?
KUSHNER: Yes. Look, the President is about to do a press conference any minute. I'll let the CNN reporters ask him about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Jared Kushner, a top campaign adviser to the President, top aide at the White House to the President repeatedly claiming that the President didn't know anything about it. But here is fully what the President actually said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you definitively say whether or not Kamala Harris is eligible and meets the legal requirements to run as vice president?
TRUMP: So I just heard that. I heard it today, that she doesn't meet the requirements. And by the way the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And that's not exactly Kushner tried to spin it today. The President knows better. He could have said he didn't believe it. He says he doesn't believe a multitude of facts and reality on a daily basis. He knew what he was doing.
OUTFRONT now, Bakari Sellers, CNN Political Commentator and former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent.
Bakari, you heard Kushner repeatedly saying the President didn't know anything about it. Is that like a wink-wink, nod-nod way of doing something trying to have it both ways?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. And I don't have a lot of faith in Jared Kushner, I don't have a lot of faith in the people around the President of the United States to push back on his racism, on his xenophobia, on his bigotry. The biggest problem that the Republican Party has is that this country is becoming browner and there's no one who will step in the way of the President of the United States' racism. We know that to be a fact.
And so Jared Kushner's cowardice today is what we expect him to be day in and day out. But this is simply a distraction. And what we realize is that while Donald Trump and Mike Pence and Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller are trying to build a wall, while they are trying to do everything they can to divide us and embrace the confederacy, you have a president and a vice president who will look like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris who resemble the future and what we want this country to look like, a melting pot, which it is where we value diversity.
And so there is no clearer contrast and we don't even get to the point where you have a president trying to dissemble the United States Postal Service and 130,000 - 140,000 people dead on his watch. And so this is pure and utter racism and we have to call it such.
BOLDUAN: Congressman, Kushner also was pressed about this on CBS this Morning. Let me just play for you how he went about it this time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUSHNER: He just said that he had no idea whether that's right or wrong. I don't see that as promoting it. But, look, at the end of the day, it's something that's out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: It's something that's out there. He's one of his main campaign advisors and he apparently also does have a brain in his head. He knows better. I mean, what is also though noticeable is the silence from other Republicans. The only Republican who has spoken out is Lindsey Graham, tweeting that there's no question that Kamala is an American citizen. Why do they want, I'm speaking about Republicans, this nonsense and racism attached to the party?
CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER CONGRESSMAN FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Well, it makes absolutely no sense to me, Erin, because this is clearly a smear and at worst, it's a dog whistle to the QAnon conspiracy theory black helicopter tinfoil hat types who are going to take this and run with it. They tried to do this birtherism, nativism against Barack Obama, it didn't work. He won the presidency two times.
It's not going to work against Kamala Harris. This will further alienate many voters, Republicans, particularly in the suburbs and suburban women, college educated voters and frankly any voter who can read.
[19:25:05]
Because this charge is easily disproven that she was in fact born in California. So I don't understand what they're thinking how this helps, but it isn't maybe a dog whistle to the nativist element, maybe to try to drive them out. But that's not going to be a successful tactic.
BOLDUAN: I would even go as far as don't offend people who can't read, because I think even people who can't read could get this right. I mean, Bakari, the President was asked today, whether he has an issue
with powerful women of color, watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have an issue with a strong woman of color being in this presidential race?
TRUMP: None whatsoever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't see her as threat?
TRUMP: No. None whatsoever. No. Not at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: I mean, watching that and I wonder if in that answer is concern over the power of black women voters, how concerned should he be?
SELLERS: Well, he should be very concerned. I mean, my mom and her friends are organizing already, so he should be concerned on a very practical level. I think that the congressman can tell you that one of the most difficult constituencies that Republicans have had to crack when they get mobilized have been black women. But let's talk about his disrespect to black women as well.
I mean, we can go back to people who worked for him like Omarosa who there's no love lost between the two of us or we can actually talk about very well respected women like April Ryan or Yamiche or Abby Phillip. I mean, the list goes on and on and on, the women and the black women and the women of color who he's disrespected.
But I also don't want to leave out the white woman that he continues to categorize as something other than being human. Donald Trump is a misogynist. Donald Trump is an awful human being. I mean, that's what we have as President of the United States. We have to reconcile that that's where we are. And so the question is, are women just deduced to being nasty and suburban housewives or can they be powerful voting blocks that change the trajectory of this great country.
BOLDUAN: And look, I hear you and I agree with you that it is a distraction from the larger issues that are facing the country like COVID deaths, like what's happening with the Postal Service. Worthy though of calling out when calling out need be. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
SELLERS: Amen. Thank you.
BOLDUAN: OUTFRONT next, the elusive truth about coronavirus. Why is it so difficult for those in charge to say what they mean?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're minimizing, testing you did talk about just focusing on symptomatic people yesterday, so I ...
DR. BRETT GIROIR, TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS TESTING CZAR: No, I've never and I'm sorry if that's the way it was interpreted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And a controversial congressional candidate in Georgia who believes the QAnon conspiracy theories. Why is Trump still backing her?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:39]
BOLDUAN: Breaking news, the White House testing czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, saying the Trump administration has done everything possible to increase testing in the United States. He said in an interview on CNN just moments ago, where he also seemed to walk that comments that he made just yesterday that the goal should not be testing as many people as possible and frequently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: I've got to be candid. You sort of seem like you were minimizing testing yesterday again. You're striking a different tone right now which is great. But you were minimizing testing. You did talk about just focusing on symptomatic people yesterday. So --
GIROIR: No, I've never -- and I'm sorry if that's the way it was interpreted, but we've never, ever talked about just testing symptomatic people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: We're going to talk to Sanjay about that exchange in just a moment.
But, first, Athena Jones is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, new potentially promising developments in the search for a coronavirus vaccine. Results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating early trials of a Chinese vaccine says it is safe and induces an immune response. But more study is needed to determine whether it actually protects people from the virus.
This as updated guidance from the CDC suggests people who recover from coronavirus may be protected for up to three months. The agency saying people who have tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to three months as long as they do not develop symptoms again.
Meanwhile --
DR. TOM INGLESBY, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY, JOHNS HOPKINS: We're still in a really bad place with this pandemic.
JONES: The CDC is now forecasting America could see another 22,000 COVID-19 deaths in just the next three weeks. The agency says nearly 189,000 people will have died from coronavirus by September 5th, a startling prediction made concerning since deaths have surpassed the roughly 165,000 the CDC predicted by Saturday.
INGLESBY: This virus hasn't changed. It's the same as it was before, and it's doing very substantial damage to the country.
JONES: While new infections are steady or falling in 44 states, over the last week, the United States has added more than 365,000 cases. That's enough people to fill up Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium more than five times.
California becoming the first state to report 600,000 COVID-19 cases. And 35 states seeing higher COVID test positivity rates this week than last.
Georgia, where deaths are also on the rise, is leading the nation in new cases per 100,000 people, averaged over the past seven days. "The Atlanta Journal Constitution" obtained the White House Coronavirus Task Force's recommendations for the state which argued on August 9th there is widespread expanding community viral spread.
And the state's current policies are not enough, the report calling for mask mandate and other measures, an advice Governor Brian Kemp, so far, hasn't followed.
In a statement to CNN, the governor's office said he continues to rely on data and the advice of the state's health commissioner and that this fight is about protecting the lives and livelihoods of all Georgians.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: There's a misunderstanding that somehow there's a trade off between lives and livelihoods. There isn't. Places that do well on protecting public health can get their economy going much faster and much better.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: And speaking of those White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations for Georgia, one of the main ones is a mask mandate, something polls show the vast majority of Americans support but that Governor Kemp has, so far, strenuously resisted.
[19:35:08]
Georgia is one of only a dozen states without a statewide mask requirement -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: Athena, thank you so much.
OUTFRONT now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, director of the cardiac cath lab at George Washington University. He advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush. Sanjay, we played that exchange you had with the man leading the White
House effort on testing. What did you take from that conversation this afternoon?
GUPTA: Well, I was confused by it because he almost directly said the opposite thing today as compared to what he said yesterday. It was a recorded conversation yesterday, in which he said, look, we've got the winning strategy is to focus on testing symptomatic people. And, you know, we're doing plenty of testing. Today, it was a little bit of a different message, where he said no we do have to focus on people who don't have symptoms, acknowledging that they often are the ones who spread the virus unintentionally, unknowingly.
I was so confused that I called him afterward because I wanted to just understand. And we had this conversation. I took notes. What he said was yes, clearly, what he said was yes, clearly, we need to be doing more testing in this country. They're working on all sorts of strategies to do that in terms of new technologies.
But he does continue to say, look, he feels they've done everything they can with what he's been given in terms of establishing testing. It's clearly not enough testing. That's for certain. And I think even he would acknowledge that.
BOLDUAN: Dr. Reiner, Giroir also was responding and clearly want to respond to something that Dr. Ashish Jha of the Harvard Global Health Institute told me earlier in our conversation today that to really get control of the virus that we as a country need to be doing up to 4 million to 5 million tests per day.
When the administration then says we've done everything that we can. That's what he said, we've done everything possible that we can. Do you believe it?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, we clearly haven't done everything that we can. Look at the positivity rate for the virus in the United States. As a whole, the United States has a positivity rate, testing positivity rate of about 7.3 percent which is way too high. And if you look at parts of the South, places like Florida, we're at 17 percent or Texas where it's 20 percent, Mississippi at that level. That shows you that we're still not testing enough people.
The more people you test, the more virus you find, the more people you can quarantine. And that's how you disrupt the chain of transmission. So, in order to test more, we have to be innovative. We have to bring new tests online quicker, antigen tests, point of care tests, cheap tests, paper-based tests that people can take in their house, that you can take when you get to work and be sent home if you're positive. That's how we're going to open schools.
We need to widely pool samples, test large numbers of samples together and then retest batches where there are positivities. So, there are ways of ramping this up. We have to have the will to do it, not to throw our arms up in the air.
It's insufficient. And you're right. Every public health expert in the United States says the same thing. We need to test way more, right, about 30 million a week. That's about the number.
BOLDUAN: And you need it to be a priority of the leader, of the president of the United States to lead that effort.
REINER: Right.
BOLDUAN: Sanjay, you also just learned that President Trump has a new adviser on COVID response, Dr. Scott Atlas. He's formerly a doctor at Stanford who has been a proponent of controversial strategies relating to coronavirus. He's now in the room, in the Oval Office. Why?
GUPTA: Yes, that's a good question. I talked to sources at the White House, and they were sort of -- they were concerned about that. I mean, Dr. Atlas -- and I don't really know much about him. Nobody really seems to. But he is a proponent for something known as herd immunity which many people may not know this term, but basically is this idea of letting people just become infected and something that the many task force members have talked about and said is a terrible idea.
Now, someone who's a proponent of this is in the Oval Office with the president talking about it. By the way, people think it's a terrible idea because in order to get to herd immunity, it would take a very long time, four years according to some models. But a lot of people would die. More than a million people would likely die according to Dr. Fauci.
So, that's why they're against it. He is for it, advocating for it, and spending time with the president in the Oval Office.
BOLDUAN: Dr. Reiner, you've -- you know, what do you think that he's one of the people giving advice to the president?
REINER: Well, he did the audition. He went on Fox News on Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, and said to the Fox News audience exactly what the president wanted to hear. So, he's a radiologist. The people who I know who know him say that he's quite a good neuro radiologist. And if you're having an MRI of the back, he's your guy.
[19:40:00]
But the president has sidelined people like Tony Fauci who runs the world's premiere institute for infectious disease in favor of this radiologist who promotes essentially herd immunity.
And to amplify what Sanjay said, to get 70 percent of the country infected at 0.6 percent mortality, if indeed it is that low, equates to 1.4 million deaths in this country. That's what herd immunity, as advocated by Dr. Atlas would mean, 1.4 million deaths.
BURNETT: That's also called unacceptable. Gentleman, thank you both.
Tonight, a stunning number, 922, 922 U.S. health care workers have died of coronavirus. We honor those who courageously serve on the frontlines day in, day out of this battle, including Daniel Morales, a 39-year-old nurse from El Paso, Texas. Daniel, his wife, and their four children, they didn't know when he
went to work on July 6th, he wouldn't be returning home. He had contracted the virus while treating sick patients and he was immediately hospitalized. For 29 days, his condition fluctuated, though through it all, Daniel was brave. But the virus prevailed, and it took Daniel's life just days before his 40th birthday.
May his memory be a blessing.
OUTFRONT for us next, President Trump is again praising a believer in the deep state and that 9/11 was a hoax. She also happens to be running for Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, she did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She was very popular.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And Kamala Harris, she's a member of an exclusive group of powerful black women, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, how that network could help her get all the way to the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:57]
BOLDUAN: President Trump dodging a question on the QAnon conspiracy theory. But really it's more of a virtual cult. Earlier this week, the president congratulated Republican House candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene on her primary victory. Green is a vocal supporter of the QAnon cult.
So the president was asked today about the group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Greene has been a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory. She said it's something worth listening to. Do you agree with her on that?
TRUMP: Well, she's done very well in the election. She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state. And she had a tremendous victory, so absolutely I did congratulate her.
Please, go ahead. Go ahead, please?
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: -- embrace that conspiracy theory, do you agree with her on that, that was the question?
TRUMP: Go ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Ignored and ignored again.
OUTFRONT now, John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio, who's announced he will be speaking next week during the Democratic National Convention.
Governor, thank you for being here.
The president very clearly is ignoring the question on purpose. But this conspiracy group is one that pushes beliefs like top Democrats and celebrities are involved in a vast sex trafficking scheme, even involved in cannibalism. I mean, what is going on in the Republican Party when supporters of this conspiracy theory are running for Congress, all but certain to win, and Republican leaders aren't denouncing her?
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I can tell you there has been a disruption in the U.S. House about this. There is a question about the strategy that was employed by Republicans. And it shows another split inside the Republican Party.
And so, Kate, this is -- what's going on inside the party is they're trying to figure out what are they? Are they the party that's dictated to by one guy, one person, the president? Or are they going to begin to address issues that appeal to the majority, the growing majority in this country which are the Gen-Xers and the millennials. I mean, things are changing in our country. The Democrats are changing.
So, the Republican Party is engaged internally about where it's going to go. If Donald Trump wins, that's going to have implications for the future about how people feel about his policies. If he loses, we're going to be in a situation where there will be a fight to claim the mantle of what it means to be a conservative and to be a Republican.
But the issues of the environment, immigration, economic growth, health care, the wealth gap, all these issues have to be addressed and right now, really virtually, none of them are being addressed. That's a real problem for the party.
Not that the Democrats have it all together because they're also fighting but the fighting is muted at this point. But inside the Republican Party, there's an ongoing, very significant debate going on about the future.
BOLDUAN: And add to the conversation now, and we talked about earlier, but I want to get your take because this distraction that is out there now of another attempt at another conspiracy theory, this time against Kamala Harris. I mean, the president is not pushing back when asked about this at all.
What is your reaction to seeing this? I mean, do you -- do you think -- do you think Republicans --
(CROSSTALK)
KASICH: The lady was born -- you know, it's kind of hard to say. The politics today is so crazy that people are absorbing only that that they kind of agree with.
So, if you let that out there and you don't say anything, it starts to get fire going over here. She really isn't qualified. She was born in the United States of America. That's all you have to be in order to be the president of the United States, which she might be if something happens to Joe Biden or she runs later.
There's no scholars I can think of outside of one guy that's written a story that because of the world we live in has caught fire. But, you know, it's absurd. It didn't work the last time. It isn't going to work this time either.
That's just -- I think they're trying to throw things on the wall and see what will stick. This isn't going to stick.
BOLDUAN: You know, since you're talking about the struggle within the Democratic Party and the struggle within the Republican Party that's going on. Since you announced you will be speaking at the Democratic convention, it has been met by applause.
[19:50:05]
KASICH: Yes.
But some progressives are quite unhappy. They're mad that Democrats -- that the convention is allowing this and that Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she's only getting one minute in a pre- recorded message, and you get a speech.
Do you think the criticism is fair?
KASICH: Oh, you know, it's criticism all the time. There's criticism inside the Republican Party. There's praise. I mean, I'm like -- you know, look, in my lifetime I've always been willing to walk a lonely road and I don't pay much attention to that.
But here's what concerns me, it's like in our country today we're so tribal, you know? And for those that are watching that are Democrats, you can't hate Republicans, and if you're a Republican and you're watching, you can't hate Democrats.
Sometimes we have to take off partisan hats because nothing gets achieved in this country that is of any significance when all we do is fight with one another. And that's what is happening today. The politicians are fighting and the public is fighting, Kate, and it's like nothing I've ever seen.
I'm doing this for a variety of reasons but one of them is, somebody has to stop saying all we can do is fight and somebody has to provide space for others to go through to say let's knock this off and let's be Americans before we're Republicans and Democrats.
BOLDUAN: I'm looking forward to seeing your speech, Governor. Thank you for coming on.
KASICH: OK. Thanks, Kate. OUTFRONT for us next, Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest black sorority in
the country. Members include Toni Morrison, Coretta Scott King and Kamala Harris. Why this powerful group could propel Harris to the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:01]
BOLDUAN: Tonight, Kamala Harris speaking out in her first interview as Joe Biden's running mate. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He decided that he was going to do that thing that was about breaking one of the most substantial barriers that has existed in our country, and that he made that decision with whatever risk that brings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And Harris has a secret weapon in the race. She's a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest black sorority in the country, 300,000 members strong.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kamala Harris, vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket, the first black and only third woman to do so. Celebrated --
MONIQUE POYDRAS, AKA SORORITY MEMBER WITH SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: We were all on a zoom call.
LAH: -- by the sorority sisters watching one of their own step forward.
POYDRAS: The whole place, everyone is screaming and crying, completely overwhelmed, over the moon, so proud.
LAH: We met them during Harris' presidential run.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were all just right there tonight. We were all just, you know, regular girls and now here is Kamala.
LAH: They were all students at Howard University, a historically black college that was formed when white schools shutout black students, the women joined in 1986 becoming line sisters. AKA has a national membership of 300,000 women, the first black sorority in the U.S. established more than 100 years ago.
JILL LOUIS, AKA SORORITY MEMBER WITH SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: When you think about it, in 1908 people were just a few ticks off emancipation and now find themselves in college and what are they trying to do? It's really an uplift mission.
LAH: Bound by that history these women forge their own paths, year after year, their lives weaving together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were down at the senate. She had a formal swearing in. At the time Vice President Biden had sworn her in.
LAH (on camera): This is a very recent picture?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a recent picture, yes, so this picture was at her G.W. book event and we were there to support her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're also AKA?
HARRIS: Yes, I am.
POYDRAS: She talked about being a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and the room exploded. The appropriate response was (INAUDIBLE)
HARRIS: Those are my sorors and my fans are in the room, as well.
POYDRAS: You could see her response and our response, that it's all love.
LAH: This isn't just a friendship or sister hood, we're talking about political power.
LORRI SADLER RICE, AKA SORORITY MEMBER WITH SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: We're talking about political power and we have it. We have it and we're going to leverage it, and you'll see it's going to make a difference.
LAH (voice-over): Black voters in South Carolina propelled Joe Biden to victory in the Democratic primary. Overall, black women have supported Democrats more than any other voting subgroup.
During her presidential run, Harris reminded voters of the power of that vote from the debate stage.
HARRIS: Candidates have taken for granted constituencies that are the backbone of the Democratic Party.
LAH: To social media.
HARRIS: We can't forget what is happening to black women.
LAH: Taking the lessons of the sister hood learned decades ago to a nation today.
POYDRAS: It says that we can succeed and that we can be ambitious, that we can strive to be at the boardroom table and lead where women can now aspire and say, you know, I want to be like kamala.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: You can see how important those relationships are in the AKA network. But here is something else. It's also a built in network to organize and to fund raise. Expand that out to the HBCU Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, Kate, and we're talking about potentially hundreds of thousands of people -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: For sure. Great to see you, Kyung. Great piece. Thank you very much.
And thank you all so much for joining us tonight. I'm Kate Bolduan.
"AC360" starts now.
