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Erin Burnett Outfront
New Model: U.S. Death Toll Could Reach 310,000 by December, But 70,000 Lives Could be Saved by Consistent Mask-Wearing; Pence Defends Trump's Response to Virus; Claims Ban on Travel from China Bought Time for Work on Vaccine; Texas Becomes Fourth State to Surpass 11,000 Virus Death; W.H.O.: Virus Not Showing "Wave-Like Pattern" Like 1918 Pandemic; Trump Claims Election with Expanded Mail Voting Will Be An "Embarrassment" And "You'll Never Know Who Won"; Harris Accuses Trump of Attacking Her to Distract from "Harm" He is Doing to Country. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 21, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing. Thanks for watching. I'll be back tomorrow night for a special edition to THE SITUATION ROOM 7 pm Eastern.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the influential model often cited by the White House now projecting 310,000 Americans could die by December as top experts at the World Health Organization warn of new outbreaks.
Plus, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris speaking tonight in their first joint TV interview. Harris firing back at Trump's attacks, which he calls her nasty and a disaster.
And Trump claiming tonight we may never know the outcome of this year's presidential election because of mail-in voting. The Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court during the 2000 recount with a major warning tonight. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, that grim new projection. The model often cited by the White House now predicts the United States' death toll could we 310,000 deaths by the beginning of December. That's up 15,000 from its previous forecast just two weeks ago. 15,000 individual lives lost.
And experts say that number could, the number could be cut by almost 70,000, OK, from 300,000 if people just wore masks and yet today, this was the message from the President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In everything we do, my administration is fighting for the American people and delivering one victory after another. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: One victory after another, everything he. Does tone deaf words at best right now, of course, but also factually wrong when it comes to the pandemic, 175,000 American deaths is nothing to ever call a victory.
Here are the facts, the United States has more dead people than any other country in the world from coronavirus, 4 percent of the world's population live in the U.S., yet the death toll here is nearly 25 percent of the global total. And as a share of population, the United States doesn't just trail all of these countries that we always talk about in Europe and Asia, but the U.S. is doing worse than places like Iraq and Iran and Trump's declaring one victory after another, comes just hours before that latest projection, which projects, I'm sorry, 310,000 deaths by December.
So we did the math, that now calculates to more than 1,000 deaths on average every single day for every day of the next three and a half months. The head of the CDC says that the one thing that could stop this from happening is masks and social distancing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: This is why it's so important for Middle America to recognize the mitigation steps that we talked about, about mask, social distancing, handwashing, closing bars, being smart about crowds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Be smart. In fact, just to be loud and clear about this, I'm going to say it again, the model used by the White House says that 70,000 of those 310,000 lives could be saved if people wear masks. So did the commander-in-chief act smartly today? Did he do that today? No.
And not only did he not do that, he held an indoor event where you can see for yourself, right? So you're indoor, maskless people are sitting at tables with no social distancing. In fact, if I showed you this picture and I didn't tell you that it was today, you might think it was last year. But no, that happened today, an indoor event, no social distancing, no masks, none by the President.
At this point when you look at the math, and when you look at the numbers, and when you look at the projections, and when you look at what masks do, it is clear that Trump does not care that masks save lives, otherwise he would require people to wear them in his event. His behavior would have changed long ago or at least it would have changed when one of the 170,000 deaths we've seen in this country thus far was that of his friend Herman Cain, who died from coronavirus after attending Trump's Tulsa rally, mask free.
Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live outside the White House tonight. And Kaitlan, Democrats spent the week at their convention, hammering the President on his response to coronavirus. Obviously, now he's next up to bat, what are you learning about his plans for his convention next week? Will he defend himself? How much on coronavirus here?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's not clear that there's going to be any kind of focus on COVID-19, not significantly, at least. Judging on the conversations that we've had, as we've been reporting out what the convention is expected to look like and what aides are working on when it comes to speeches, when it comes to themes of the days.
We do know the Vice President said today he will address COVID-19. Of course, he's the head of the coronavirus task force. So that's not a surprise there when he speaks on Wednesday night, but we have not heard from any sources that the President is in any way expected to do some kind of address or focus on that, which is notable given, like you've said, for the last four days, you've seen Democrats at this convention hammering away on the President's response to COVID-19 but really culminating in what Joe Biden said last night when he was saying that basically the President abandoned the one core principle of the job which is taking care of the American people.
[19:05:00]
And Biden argued that it was disqualifying for the President. So the question is how does he defend in his response, what does he say about it. You noted there that there were people in the audience with the President today.
They are expected to have an audience of some sort next week. Some of the speeches will be indoors at the Mellon Auditorium here in Washington. They're hoping to have an audience there. Though it's unclear still what the mask and the social distancing of that is going to look like. And then, of course, when the President speaks outdoors on the South Lawn, they're also going to have an audience there on Thursday night.
BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much with all those details.
I want to go to Dr. Sanjay Gupta now and Dr. dJonathanr, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at GW who advised President George W. Bush's medical team.
So Dr. Reiner, you heard the President declaring victory on everything he does. Coming on tonight when we have 175,000 dead Americans from coronavirus and the new projection from the model often cited by the White House is 310,000 total deaths by December. I'm just going to say it again. That's more than one 1,000 deaths per day for every single day from now until then. OK, that's what that means.
And 70,000 of those lives, they say, could be saved, 70,000 if people wear mask which, of course, didn't happen at the President's event today. Is there any way to legitimately claim victory when it comes to the virus right now?
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, if this commander is (inaudible) with a thousand Americans dying every day, we need a new commander. Let's look at the facts. Let's just look at where we were two months ago and compare it to where we are now.
So, all right, let me start with the good news. Two months ago, we were doing about 500,000 tests a day. We're doing more, we're doing a little less than 700,000 tests per day. That's good. Let's look at the positivity rate, that shows us how much virus is in the community.
Two months ago the positivity rate was 5.2 percent, now it's 6.4 percent. More virus in the community, daily positive cases. Two months ago, 26,000 average daily positive tests. Today 46,000 positive tests. And finally, really the only number that really matters to me, which is number of people dying two months ago, every day 560 Americans were dying of this virus way too much, now it's a thousand. A thousand Americans dying every day.
That's not my definition of victory. That's a failure. We must do better. We can do better. We will do better. It's mind boggling.
BURNETT: To me it's just mind boggling when you see these numbers. And by the way, the thousand deaths a day is just what we've been seeing over the past 25 days, right, and we've been seeing since the spring.
REINER: Right.
BURNETT: So it's not as if it's something that the President doesn't know can happen. They say mask could save those lives and yet nobody wears them today. He doesn't wear them. No one wears them in this event.
I mean, Sanjay, the WHO today says that the progress that's been made, right, when you see some cases dropping in places like the U.S. doesn't equal victory. They're talking about outbreaks, coming second surge type events. But the President obviously holding that event today with no mask, no social distancing.
And then Vice President Pence said this today to defend the administration's response. Here it is, Sanjay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I truly believe that when President Trump suspended all travel from China before the end of January, that bought us an invaluable amount of time to begin work on a vaccine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Sanjay, no vaccine yet, 175,000 people died from when that travel suspension happened until now. What's the Vice President talking about?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think he's commingling to two different issues here. I mean, the travel ban and the vaccine really have nothing to do with each other. It is true that the work on the vaccine started very early. There was a genetic sequence that was shared with the United States. We followed that story very carefully and that was happening, but it has nothing to do with the travel ban.
And the thing about the travel ban that may in fact be a misnomer. You may remember, Erin, there was a ban put in place, but it was a pretty porous ban because a lot of people were still coming back in through airports. They were doing temperature screenings. When we look back, there was really nobody stopped at those temperature screening points.
So there was a lot of people coming into the country. We're talking the end of January, beginning of February. The real problem was that there was a month after that, as you well know. But really nothing was done, while a contagious virus continued to spread in this country.
And if you go back, I think that was one of the big original problems here. If you have a virus that contagious and nothing's being done to slow its spread, there was a testing failure in the beginning, as you remember, that is what really seeded this virus in this country. Then we know the virus started coming in from Europe as well.
So there was all sorts of problems. But I heard that, I spoken to the Vice President about this. He always points to the travel ban, he calls it that. But it was, obviously, insufficient to really accomplish slowing down the spread.
BURNETT: Right. It wasn't a ban and, of course, the sequencing has shown the virus, in fact, then seeded so much of this country actually came from Europe, right, which at the time was not under ban.
[19:10:07]
So it just doesn't add up in any way. Nevermind that the President of the United States at the time was saying there's one death, there's 15 cases, they're going to zero. It's going away.
So Dr. Reiner, the Trump administration today now add this one other additional thing, which I think is important to try to understand. They now say the FDA will no longer require pre market review of some lab tests, which includes certain coronavirus tests. OK. So what does that mean? I mean, they're going to say that's to try to speed things up, but obviously what matters here is that these things are accurate and they work.
So when you see this review that the FDA would always have taken away, you think what?
REINER: Well, the first thing that I noticed was this is the HHS, the parent department for the FDA fighting with their agency. So essentially the political leadership of HHS is fighting with the professional people who staff the FDA.
The FDA, early on in the pandemic, invoked a frequently used requirement to have these private labs, submit an EUA, emergency use authorization for tests for the COVID virus. They took way too long to approve those tests. The first patient tested positive in the U.S. January 20th, FDA didn't
approve any of these private labs until February 29th and the FDA received a lot of criticism for how long it took them to approve these labs. Now, they do completely the opposite and remove all oversight.
So certainly there is a middle space between having a ponderous review of these lab tests and no review of the lab test. And I think, certainly we should be able to have a rapid review, know that our tests are accurate. Not sort of washing your hands and letting labs just produce any lab that they think is a workable system.
BURNETT: So Sanjay today the CDC Director talked about Rhode Island. Dr. Redfield did, as an example, successfully reopening child care centers. And he gave some numbers that did look very strong, basically saying, look, if you do everything right then we can open all of these institutions. It's sort of the implication. Does it add up when you look at the numbers?
GUPTA: Well, the thing about it is that you look at the community like Rhode Island and we can show you some of the things that CDC is recommending. But one thing you have to remember always and people have to evaluate this in their own community is how is the community doing specifically.
So Rhode Island has a positivity rate. Dr. Reiner was just talking about positivity rates. They're 2.5 percent over there, so a good favorable positivity rating. All of the things you see in the list are things that probably makes sense; physical distancing, face masking, proper ventilation.
The bottom one, Erin, I think is really critical and it's going to come up again and again, whether you're a daycare center, a place of work, school, what is your plan if positive cases start to arise in your institution, what is the plan for that. It has to be very transparent and well spelled out for people, otherwise it's going to get confusing.
And in Rhode Island, the plan was to immediately isolate, have enough testing, isolate positive cases and quarantine. So when you're doing that, as they're doing there, there's some 800 people who are now under quarantine as part of these daycare centers as well, right? So you got to keep that in mind.
They are acting very quickly, but it does leave an impact. There's repercussions to doing this.
BURNETT: Yes.
GUPTA: Because if you open up, people go into quarantine, then they're not doing anything for 14 days.
BURNETT: Right. And you think about what that means for schools and the implications. All right. Thank you both. I leave everyone just with this one thought, of course, is that again that model cited by the White House, more than half of the deaths they're projecting between now and December they're saying would be saved if people wore masks. And again, the President had an event today inside with no mask and no social distancing. All right. Thank you both.
Next, Florida just reporting its youngest coronavirus victim, a six- year-old girl. As the CDC is releasing new guidelines for schools, what are they recommending?
Plus, Joe Biden speaking out in a new interview tonight and taking on Trump for what he has said about Kamala Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: No president has ever said anything like that. No president has ever used those words.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And growing concerns about the upcoming election and mail-in voting. Could 2020 be a repeat of what happened in 2000. Remember the hanging chad? One person at the center of the 2000 recount with a huge warning tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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BURNETT: New tonight, Texas becoming just the fourth state to surpass 11,000 deaths from coronavirus. It comes as nearly half of the states across this country are seeing new deaths trending higher. Nick Watt is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, more COVID- 19 deaths logged in Arkansas than ever before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): We're not back to normal. We have more work to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT (voice-over): On average more than a thousand Americans have died every day for about a month now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REDFIELD: Hopefully this week and next week you're going to start seeing the death rate really start to drop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT (voice-over): His optimism is based upon the nationwide new infection rate dropping at the moment. But ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're gonna see in the fall another spike
and I just don't see it not happening given the burden of disease that's circulating in the community today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT (voice-over): There's a width (ph) already.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REDFIELD: Middle America right now is getting stuck. We don't need to have a third wave in the heartland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT (voice-over): Case counts climbing in Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, now looking a little sunnier in the south, the rate of new cases now falling in Texas Even so today in Dallas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HINOJOSA, SUPERINTENDENT, DALLS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: All the medical professionals were unanimous in their recommendation that there should be no in-person learning on September the 8th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT (voice-over): Of the 101 largest districts in the nation, 64 now reopening online-only despite pressure from the president and some of his acolytes who are not medical professionals. July 8th, the President tweeted this, "In Germany, schools are open with no problems." That day, 356 new cases in Germany, yesterday, more than four times that.
New York crushed the curve, still nervous about schools.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): They're still working out what the plan would be. I would have a lot of questions, parents do have a lot of questions. This is a risky proposition no matter how you do it.
[19:20:10]
WATT (voice-over): Kicking up to college level cases now confirmed on campuses in at least 19 states, some reverting to remote learning, gatherings like this, proving a problem. Penn State's president asking the question, "Do you want to be the person responsible for sending everyone home?"
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: And the CDC has updated its guidelines for reopening K through 12 and it's very clear that they want to have a situation where if you've got one case in a school, you do not need to shut the whole place down. They are, as the administration is, very eager for schools to open brick and mortar, but I think you mentioned this, Erin, earlier, a six-year-old girl die in Florida from COVID-19.
Yes, kids generally do not get it as seriously. But they do get it, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Nick, thank you very much. I want to go straight to Dr. William Schaffner now. He's a former CDC official and now Professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. You heard that Nick just talked about the CDC in schools. Well, Dr. Schaffner, the Florida education Commissioner just spoke with Jake Tapper here on CNN about Florida's decision to mandate in- person classes in the fall, currently that's being fought in court.
But he said sending kids back to school is safe, because they have less risk of catching coronavirus than they do seasonal flu. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD CORCORAN, FLORIDA EDUCATION COMMISSIONER: The risks that are known are certain, are profound on not sending kids back, child abuse cases, suicide deaths, drug overdoses, achievement gap exacerbation, food insecurities. Those are on this site. It's far greater than the low, low risk of - even less than seasonal flu.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What's your reaction to that conclusion?
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIVISION, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: He doesn't know that. I don't know what data he's using. As Nick said, opening schools is a risky business. We're doing it all over the country in various ways, trying to do it carefully. But we all know, in effect, we're doing an experiment. We'll have to see what happens and we must have a plan to respond if there are cases.
Dr. Gupta said that in your previous segment. He's absolutely right about that. We have to be flexible and be able to respond if cases occur in a school.
BURNETT: So one top WHO official earlier today, Doctor, compared the patterns of this pandemic with those that we saw in the 1918 influenza, in which more than 50 million people, the WHO says died. Here's what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MIKE RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WHO HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAM: It took three waves for the disease to infect most of the susceptible individuals and then settle down probably into a seasonal pattern. But this virus is not displaying similar wave-like pattern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So what's the significance of this, Dr. Schaffner, that he's basically saying it took three waves then and then the most susceptible people all had it, then it became seasonal and much less of a threat, right? But he's saying that this is not acting that way. What does that mean?
SCHAFFNER: Well, it means that first of all, this virus didn't go away during the summer, only to come back in the winter. It's kept spreading. So we don't think this is going to be a very seasonal virus. Remember, this is a new virus. It's writing the textbook as it goes along.
The other thing we have to remember back in 1918, we didn't travel. We didn't communicate the way we did. We had a much smaller population. We were much more rural and separated. It took much longer for that virus to find us all because We were fewer and more separate. Today we're together, we can get in the car and go almost everywhere. So this virus has many more opportunities to spread widely as it's doing now.
BURNETT: Well, you make a really good point, because I think we all now remember as you were saying that maybe other people's memories were jogged as well, right? All of the experts were saying that in the summer, they did think it would get a little bit better, right, because of all of the statistics that CDC has put out, right?
We know that the half life of the virus plunges in humidity and heat and in sunlight and they said, go outdoor and they really expected there to be a benefit. And yet we've been at this a thousand deaths a day now non-stop. So what does that say to you that the experts and with all the information that they had were wrong about that?
SCHAFFNER: Well, we were very careful about it. We said we didn't know whether this virus would do that. It's human cousins, the ones that caused us colds. They are somewhat seasonal, so we thought that cousins would behave similarly.
[19:25:05]
This virus said, nope, not going to do that. We're going to keep spreading. This virus is not going to just disappear and we need a vaccine. But the vaccine is not the complete answer. This virus has to be also combatted with masks, social distancing and avoiding large groups. That's going to be part of the program for months ongoing. Otherwise, we'll continue to suffer these deaths.
BURNETT: Dr. Schaffner, thank you.
SCHAFFNER: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Trump claiming the Postal Service is not prepared to handle 51 million ballots, which is anticipated to have to. The judge from Florida's 2000 recount is my guest to talk about why he is deeply concerned about this upcoming election.
Plus, President Trump going after the Democrats convention. Does his attack add up?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest
convention in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:29:59]
BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump claiming that widespread voting by mail in the presidential election could mean never knowing who won.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're not prepared for this, 51 million ballots. It will be a tremendous embarrassment to our country. It'll go on forever, and you'll never know who won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This, as Trump's handpicked postmaster general testified today that the U.S. Postal Service will make delivering mail ballots on time a priority, and in fact, said that he plans to vote by mail as well.
OUTFRONT now, Charles Wells. He was the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court during the 2000 presidential election and recount. As you see this coming, you have seen the last time there was such uncertainty and insecurity in the vote, in the count, in the outcome. We remember the images, punch card ballots, hanging chads, dimpled chad, the magnifying glass. It was awful. It was scary. We all count on this system.
Right now, nine states have vote by mail as the primary way of voting. We're going to see a lot more now, right? There's going to be a lot more states with tens of millions of ballots that no one expected to happen by mail.
What do we need to do to get this right?
CHARLES WELLS, FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF FLORIDA SUPREME COURT, 2000- 2002: The first thing that occurs to me, Erin, is we have got to learn from the contested elections that we have had in this country. There's nothing as important to our democracy as electing the president of the United States.
And in 2000, one of the things we learned was that there are two levels of law that are applied to presidential campaign and elections. And the presidential election is different than the electing of a governor, electing of a senator or county commission. But the state laws that apply to those state offices, they apply.
In Florida, we had a number of mistakes, which if our state had gone back and corrected, we could have corrected those mistakes like the punch card ballots, the hanging chads, the pregnant chads and all that. We had the butterfly ballot. That was a form of a ballot, and that
should have been corrected prior to Election Day.
But we also have federal law. And the election of a president is controlled through the Electoral College, and that has laws that limit the time of counting and contesting in order to get under the safe harbor provisions of the federal statute.
That's what we learned in Florida in 2000. That's a lesson that has to be learned this year.
BURNETT: And the president says, of course, this is going to go on and on, we'll never know who wins. He strongly opposed mail-in ballots even though he himself has voted absentee mail-in. He says if he doesn't win, the whole thing is going to be rigged because it's mail- in.
Here's some of what he said recently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This whole thing with this mail-in ballot, that's a rigged election waiting to happen.
The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. Remember that.
It'll end up being a rigged election or they'll never come out with an outcome. They'll have to do it again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What do you say to that? How worrisome is that?
WELLS: Our experience in Florida -- and we have been voting by mail for a considerable period of time now. And during the period of time that I was on Florida Supreme Court, which spanned a term of approximately 15 years, we did not have any alleged fraud arising out of the method by which we were voting.
But we do have the problem that we had in 2000, that those ballots do need to be gotten to the county supervisors early and that on election night, the counting must begin. Because the thing that I want everyone to understand is that in this presidential election, that in order for states to make sure that they get to protect their own votes for their citizens, they have to have all county and they have to have the contest by December 8th.
[19:35:04]
BURNETT: Or else (ph) we won't -- we don't get those votes then. Well, Justice Wells, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, sir.
WELLS: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Kamala Harris responding moments ago to President Trump after he calls her nasty and a disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is so much about what comes out of Donald Trump's mouth that is designed to distract the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And why millions of Americans are now at risk of losing their homes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just got into our apartment. We've been there for a year. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: All right. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris just tonight sitting down for their first joint television interview after the Democratic National Convention, and both of them said this about President Trump's recent attacks on hairs. He called her, nasty, quote, sort of a mad woman. And he also said she is the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anyone in the U.S. Senate.
Their response?
[19:40:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I think that there is so much about what comes out of the Donald Trump's mouth that is designed to distract the American people from what he is doing every day, that is about neglect, negligence, and harm to the American people.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And incompetence.
HARRIS: Absolutely, absolutely.
BIDEN: The idea he would say something like that, no president -- no president -- no president has ever said anything like that. No president has ever used those words.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's probably true. The meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody, sort of a mad woman, nasty, Biden would be accurate.
Karen Finney is OUTFRONT now, former communications director for the DNC and a senior spokesperson for Clinton's 2016 campaign and John Kasich, two-term Republican governor of Ohio, who spoke during the DNC and to supporting Joe Biden.
So, Karen, attacks like this from Donald Trump are nothing new, although, you know, adding them all up here, it is quite an ensemble. You did have to deal with them in the 2016 campaign as well, right? The nasty woman rolled out then.
How do you rate Senator Harris and Joe Biden's response?
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I thought it was pitch perfect. I mean, look, they are right to call it out as a distraction because a lot of what Donald Trump's strategy thus far in this campaign has been about focusing on atmospherics or trying to create attacks on Joe Biden, for Sleepy Joe, and now going after these sexist and racist attacks on Kamala Harris instead of making the case for himself, what he's accomplished over these last four years and where he wants to take the country.
We hear nothing about that. It's all about attacks on others. And so, I think it's important to call that out.
The second thing I'll also mention is I do think it is for others outside of the campaign to point out that the goal that Trump has in doing this is about othering. It is about saying she's not one of us. She's something else. She's mean.
And that's a long-held trope and stereotype that is held about women. Rather than, you know, talking about qualifications, he's attacking her on personal traits.
BURNETT: Right, I mean, just to state the obvious, we have this special this weekend on 100 years since women's suffrage. I mean, you would never call a male candidate mean. You just wouldn't do it. It would be silly.
Governor Kasich know, Joe Biden last night said President Trump, his quote, was cloaked America in darkness for too long. And today, President Trump came back and said it was the DNC that was committing this darkness.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Over the last week, the Democrats held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history. They spent four straight days attacking America as racist and a horrible country that must be redeemed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Was he watching the same DNC that you were and that you spoke at, Governor?
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First of all, Erin, look, I'm for Joe Biden. But I want you to know for the rest of the campaign, I'm going to call them like I see them, just so you know, as I do all the time even as a Republican when I criticize Republicans.
So -- but in terms of what Donald Trump said, he wasn't watching the convention I was watching. I thought it was pretty good. I have to say to you that I've heard nothing but praise for Joe Biden's speech last night. People are saying for those that say he's slow and he doesn't have it and he's bad health and all this other stuff, I think he knocked it out of the park.
It was very, very hopeful speech, and I think that convention all in all was extremely hopeful. And I was glad to be part of it. I hope I was part of the hope side of it, not the dark side of it.
BURNETT: So, Karen, the Biden campaign says that the campaign, the DNC and fundraising committee, the combination of all these different things raised $70 million during the convention. They had 48 million and got that initial energy and 70 million over the four days.
Our own Jeff Zeleny is reporting there are no plans for Biden to go back to the campaign trail because the coronavirus pandemic is still raging, until it's done, which it's not going to be during this campaign. So, is it going to be hard to keep that fundraising enthusiasm up without being physically out on the trail with crowds of any sort, Karen?
FINNEY: I don't think so. Look, just as you pointed out, look at the amount of money that was raised just putting Kamala Harris on the ticket and the energy and enthusiasm and excitement around that. They're going to have to -- just in the same way that we had to bring in that vision and reimagine the convention, that's what they're going to have to continue to do on the campaign trail between now and November.
[19:45:02]
And whether that is more Zoom calls -- how many Zoom calls can you do in a day -- and town hall meetings with people. Maybe we'll see additional -- I thought the tailgate rally was pretty fun. Just going to have to be creative and find other ways to reach people.
I mean, one irony about this is is yes, you can't do the big speech with the big crowd. But you get to have more conversations with people actually. So, I think you'll have to be inventive about that.
BURNETT: Well, I have to say, either just from a mathematical point of view, you know, they don't -- you don't have all this travel. That takes a chunk of the budget away. You can spend it on ads and have a targeted audience.
I'm thinking in terms of reinventing this, there's a lot to think through there. Governor, during the interview we just saw a clip of with Senator Harris, Biden said he is willing to shut the country down if necessary to fight coronavirus, even though we never had a full one, but to go back there to those days of early spring. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: We cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing and people employed, you have to fix the virus. You have to deal with the virus.
DAVID MUIR, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: So, if the scientists say shut it down --
BIDEN: I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, Governor, you know, he was wearing the mask very early on and was scorned, the president retweeting, I believe Brit Hume scorning him.
But, look, the U.S. never really fully shut down. But the shutdown that happened is -- was awful for many Americans, right, and had horrible economic implications. He is right, economists do say, right, that you can't reopen if the virus is there because the economic damage will be even worse.
But when he comes out and says I'm willing to shut it down again, is that a politically smart thing to say?
KASICH: Well, let -- I think what Joe's trying to do is to say that I'm not going to fool around with this, you know, that you had the president calling it a hoax. So, I think Joe is trying to show that, you know, he's going to be tough. For me, as a leader, when I was governor, I would listen to scientists, but I would make up my own mind.
But I think this was a matter of his trying to be very strong. Where I think this will go, Erin, is I don't know any of these epidemiologists or most of these doctors who say shut it all down again. I think what they say is the hammer and the dance. In other words, where things are under control, that's fine. But where things are getting out of control, that may take much tougher action.
So, I think that's where we would end up on this and where we are going to end up on this. I think what he was trying to say is I'm going to listen to scientists and I'm going to do the things that they say that make sense. And that's, I think, the effort to look strong.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both.
Now months of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans are out of work. Now, look, you're seeing people not able to pay the rent. You're seeing eviction.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number of people in the household.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not the only parent out here that's struggling. I can't imagine how many other parents are sitting here.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here at the Los Angeles food bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put it park, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my first time coming up and grabbing food.
LAH: Today is the first day of virtual school for Juana Moore's two children.
JUANA MOORE, VISITING THE FOOD BANK FOR THE FIRST TIME: My kids are in there right now like we don't have anything to eat. I'm like I know, let me go see what I can do.
We were homeless and then we just got into our apartment. We've been there a year. We just got the car in November. So, everything has been a stair step for me and now the stair steps are going back down. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
LAH: The single mother is thousands behind in rent, unable to work while also home schooling her kids. The $600 a week federal stimulus, that's gone, as Congress fights over a new deal, just as eviction moratoriums expire in nearly half of the states in the U.S., leaving an estimated 20 million Americans at risk of eviction by September 30th, like Tai Chen.
TY CHEN, BEHIND ON RENT: I'm paying around 1,100 a month and obviously I don't have that amount of income at all anymore.
LAH: Before the pandemic, Chen was a photographer, restaurant server, and actor with small roles on hit shows like "Grey's Anatomy."
He was able to pay partial rent with stimulus money. But now?
CHEN: I was actually only approved for $117 per week on state unemployment.
LAH (on camera): What does that get you?
CHEN: Like there's kind of a running clock of, you know, ticking time bomb of when things are going to happen.
[19:50:05]
I think my best bet is to stay here until they try to evict.
LAH (voice-over): What we keep hearing from Americans in all sectors of the economy, frustration.
CHRIS FAHEY, OUT OF WORK PRODUCTION MANAGER: I don't want your unemployment. I don't want the $600 extra. I want to work. I want to work at what I do, and I want to utilize my 30 years of experience. LAH: For three decades, Chris Fahey, he has been a live production
manager, making six figures last year, great money, the single father says for him and his two kids, but his entire industry is shut down. Live entertainment likely won't come back in full until sometime next year, thousands are out of work, with no options. He is left choosing what bills to pay and how much rent he can fall behind on.
FAHEY: There is no direction, no answer, no plan. There's no hope. It's like there is no outcome that is going to be financially viable for anyone at the moment.
I love ya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Lawmakers in this state, California, are scrambling to keep people in their apartment. That's something, Erin, that's facing a lot of states and there is no deal yet.
So here is the reality check, though, that we're hearing from renters, even if there is a deal, they have no idea how they would be able to pay the running tab -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Kyung, thank you.
And next, claims of a cover-up after critic of Putin believed to have been poisoned. What his family and Russia are saying tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:38]
BURNETT: A fierce critic of Vladimir Putin suspected of being poisoned could soon be heading to Germany for treatment. Forty-four-year-old now currently in a coma joins a growing list of anyone that criticized Putin, he became very sick or died.
Matthew Chance is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Russia, the price of a position can be painfully high. The grunts from Alexei Navalny, his medics evacuated him from this commercial flight forced to make an emergency landing when he was suddenly taken ill. A fellow passenger recorded the anti-corruption campaigner appearing unconscious, being stretchered into an ambulance on the tarmac outside.
Russian doctors say they found no evidence of poisoning. But Navalny's wife and his supporters insist it's a cover-up and delays to his evacuation from Siberia to Germany for medical treatment were an attempt to hide the truth.
YULIA NAVALNAYA, ALEXEY NAVALNY'S WIFE (through translator): We certainly believe it was made to be a chemical substance in his body. That's why he's handed over to make sure part of this will be solved.
CHANCE: The hospital says that's not true and that it's worried about his clinical state. Navalny certainly knew the risks more than any other opposition figure in Russia. He got ordinary people out to protest with an unrelenting campaign to highlight corruption, challenging the Kremlin making enemies. In Russia, that's dangerous.
(on camera): A man appeared with a gun and shot three times in the chest and once --
(voice-over): Over years now, Russia has gained a reputation for silencing critics. This was me in 2006 reporting on the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, one of the journalist most critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies. She was gunned down in her Moscow apartment block.
Shortly afterwards, Alexander Litvinenko, also critical of the Kremlin, suffered a slow agonizing death after being poisoned with a radioactive isotope in London.
In 2015, Russia's leading opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed as he walked over a bridge near the Kremlin with his girlfriend.
More recently in 2018, a sleepily corner of England was shocked when a military grade nerve agent was used to poison a former Russia spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
In all the cases, the Kremlin has denied any involvement. It isn't accepting a connection to the sudden Navalny sickness either, but for the moment at least, yet another outspoken Kremlin critic has been silenced.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Thanks to Matthew.
Now, this was a historic week for women. It has so many of us talking about barriers many of us face in this country. So, in my new report, "Women Represented", which airs tomorrow night, I spoke with many women, including Jessica Alba. She told me a personal story about a movie executive who refused to cast her after she had a baby, and then what she did about it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: If you do have any story from your career, anything that you went through of sexual harassment that you had to endure and get through that was really hard for you. Is there any sort of a story you might be able to share with young women watching?
JESSICA ALBA, ACTRESS: I was told that after I had my kid, I was not -- an executive who is running a studio, president of a studio said I wasn't -- he used a much crasser words, that basically, I wasn't desirable anymore because I was a mom now and moms aren't that, and I just can't believe that this person would say this.
And I think that's sort of what got me to stop caring so much about my career in Hollywood as it had been and these (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that are running this business, I don't need them. I spent about three and a half years dreaming up the Honest Company and really found my purpose in building this company.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, her company, the Honest Company became more than a billion-dollar company. Hear the conversation with Alba and many incredible women in our special report, "Women Represented: The 100- Year Battle for Equality", tomorrow night, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Anderson starts now.
