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Inside Politics
GOP Convention Begins Tomorrow, After Dems Make Case For Biden; WaPo: President Trump's Sister Says He Is "Cruel," Has "No Principles" And "You Can't Trust Him"; White House Announces Trump News Conference To Discuss "A Major Therapeutic Breakthrough;" Ten-Week Sprint To Election Day; Interview With Michigan Secretary Of State Jocelyn Benson; Can Colleges Open Safely this Fall? Aired 8-9a ET
Aired August 23, 2020 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:24]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): Vote by mail is a 2020 flashpoint.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It is all designed to suppress the vote.
LOUIS DEJOY, U.S. POSTMASTER GENERAL: The American people can feel comfortable that the postal service will deliver on this election.
KING: Plus, one convention down.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Character is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy, they're all on the ballot.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is no vaccine for racism.
KING: This week is the incumbent's turn.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left movement.
KING: And back to campus in the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty nerve-wracking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does concern me. I try to take all the precautions I can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King. To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you so much for sharing your Sunday.
The Republican convention will dominate the week ahead. President Trump's big stage to make his case for four more years. One big goal for the president is to counter what we heard repeatedly from the Democratic convention this past week, that President Trump is selfish, inept, untrustworthy.
Today, this Sunday, the Democrats have a powerful new character witness. The president's own sister, who is a respected federal judge.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY: This goddamn tweet and the lying. Oh, my God, I'm talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories the lack of preparation, the lying, the -- holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KING: Judge Maryanne Trump Barry was secretly recorded by her niece, Mary Trump, who recently published a scathing account of her uncle, the president. Team Trump at the time the book came out dismissed it as lies. But now, it is clear, the president's own sister was one of Mary Trump's sources.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY: Donald is out for Donald, period. When he said -- he started to say something to me, boy, look at what I've done for you. And I said, you have done nothing.
Deliberately, I have never asked him for a favor since 1981 when I was being highly considered to go to the federal court, on my own merits.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KING: These tapes were first reported by "The Washington Post" which also included this in its account. It is the phoniness of it all, it is the phoniness and the cruelty, Donald is cruel.
That from that from the president's own sister, a judge, calling him unprincipled, and untrustworthy, a liar and a fraud, she says arranged for someone else to take his college entrance exam. And the tapes now a reminder 2016's disruptive outsider is 2020's beleaguered incumbent, in the middle of a pandemic voters believe he handled miserably.
Seven in ten Americans are embarrassed by the country's coronavirus response, 62 percent believe the president could be doing more to help, 79 percent of Americans are angry about the way things are going in the country right now.
With us to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Kaitlan Collins, and Toluse Olorunnipa of "The Washington Post".
Kaitlan, I'll start with you at the White House.
The president putting out a statement last night that doesn't really address anything his sister says and the shocking tapes. It says every day it is something else who cares, I miss my brother and I'll continue to work hard for the American people, not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before. It does not address the substance of what his sister, highly respected
federal judge, says, which essentially is that her brother is cruel and mean and not trustworthy.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Which is not how the president and his aides wanted to kick off this Republican convention week, this convention that was meant to prove Joe Biden wrong, contrasted with what Democrats were saying about the president last week, which is really an indictment of his character every single day. You saw in the major speeches, they were going after the president, not only saying he was unable to do the job, but also talking about his character, talking about decency a lot and now they got this tape on their laps that comes out where it is his own sister saying these things, unknowingly, apparently, because they were secretly recorded by her niece, saying things like Donald is cruel, going after his immigration policies, saying that there was an illegal substance behind the immigration policies.
And that's certainly not how they wanted to begin this week, they wanted to show he is presidential, he does deserve to be re-elected and now they have his sister on tape saying some things that you do not want said about you publicly ever, probably, but also if you are trying to convince the nation that you are able to take this job to continue it for four more years.
[08:05:03]
KING: And, Toluse, the question becomes, can they just continue to ignore it? That will be all over television today. It will be and tomorrow as the president prepares to open his convention.
This is his sister, again, a highly respected federal judge, following his niece, the president said was making this up for some personal reason, but it also tracks what we heard from his former chief of staff, John Kelly, his former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, both of them retired generals with great credibility, his former secretary of state, former communications director, Omarosa who worked in the White House for a little bit after being on "The Apprentice", it tracks from what we heard from other people very close to this president, but this is his own sister.
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, and they are going to try to dismiss it, the president is going to try to stage this reality TV style convention next week and he's going to have a lot of members of his own family speaking on his behalf. But there is nothing quite as revealing as when your older sister, someone who essentially has known you since you were born says and comments that were not scripted, speaking from the heart, that you are cruel, that you are unprincipled, that you are a liar, you're a fraud, you care only about yourself.
This is the exact image that the Democrats put out about President Trump during their convention in which they showed sort of his character in comparison to Joe Biden's character, which they said, you know, showed decency and showed empathy, things that President Trump lacked. So, it will be very difficult for President Trump and his family to try to dismiss this, and try to paper over it and say that this is just maybe a disgruntled family member, because this is a family member.
It's one of the president's closest siblings, someone known him since he was born and who can speak to his character, not only from when he was younger, but also throughout his life. So, it will be difficult for President Trump to put forward an image of, you know, being a family man or someone empathetic or cares about everyday Americans when this very revealing tape from his sister says the exact opposite.
KING: And we did get a bit of a preview on Friday from the president. He has an four-night convention. His aides say we'll see and hear from him every night of the convention. Here is a bit of a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If our opponents prevail, no one will be safe in our country, and no one will be spared. I'm the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos. And that's what it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: -- Kaitlan, the president has said in the past, maybe you don't like me, but judge me on my performance. I think that test is even higher now that you have this scathing account, these words played over and over again from his own sister. But his performance is an issue because of the coronavirus pandemic and you're part of the reporting on this on CNN.com, though the coronavirus pandemic will provide an unspoken subtext for the drastic a little altered convention, Trump advisers said they did not expect the health crisis to be a heavy focus of the proceedings as it was during the Democrats' or has been during Democrats'.
How can that be? The president thinks he can push aside the biggest threat to the country now?
COLLINS: It is something that he's done at the White House. There were several periods during the pandemic where the president did not address it, substantively for weeks at a time, for days at a time where the president would not talk about it. So, it is not expected to be a main focus during this, because you saw what Democrats did, they talked about COVID-19 and Joe Biden spoke about what he would do if he was elected, but also most of their response on it was criticizing the president's response, and hitting him for that. They know it is something that voters are not with the president on.
You saw the polls you were reading in the top of the hour, 62 percent of people think the president should be doing more on COVID-19. Now, the vice president will speak about it. Of course, he's the head of the task force, so he will be talking about it on Wednesday. But it's not clear how much he'll address it, what exactly he'll say about it, likely things we already heard the vice president say in recent weeks, defending their response. But it is not expected to be a main topic for President Trump. And so, that's really what it all comes down to, is they have made
this argument that you may not like what the president says, you may not like what he tweets and how he acts, but at least you can point to the economy and point to the fact that while he's been in office he hasn't started any major wars. Those are the kind of topics they used.
But, of course, what Americans care about and what is showing up in these polls that we're looking at about what voters are looking for when they're going to elect a president in November, COVID-19 is obviously a major topic. It is hard to see how they do avoid it, it is not in the background this week during this convention.
KING: Kaitlan Collins, Toluse Olorunnipa, appreciate the reporting and the insights, fascinating week ahead for the president and the Republican convention, especially now that the words -- scathing words of the sister will echo throughout the week.
Thanks both of you for getting up early on this Sunday.
Up next for us, the pandemic seven months in, new infections are finally trending down. But estimates of the death toll keep climbing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:14:12]
KING: The White House is promising a major breakthrough in the coronavirus fight. The president will announce progress on a treatment for COVID patients. That will come later today. We do not have any details yet.
It is seven months now since the CDC reported the first confirmed case of coronavirus here in the United States. Back on that late January day, the CDC said the risk to Americans was very low. Now that same CDC projects the U.S. death toll will likely climb past 200,000 in the next three weeks.
Two hundred 200,000 people is everyone in Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, Michigan. The risk was and is very high. Some of the latest numbers are better, but it would be wrong to call them good.
Let's look at the trend map as we go through 50 states, nine of them right now reporting more cases now than a week ago, nine states orange and red, the case count trending up. Fifteen states, that's the beige, steady case count, about the same this week as last week, today as last week.
[08:15:05]
Twenty-six states, a majority, are going down, meaning fewer cases today than a week ago. That includes Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, the four states that drove the summer surge at the moment are pushing down their case count. That's important.
If you look at the case curve, here is where we were at the beginning of June, 17,000 cases a day, this is the summer surge that most public health experts say never should have been allowed to happen. Got as high as 77,000. Right now, we're down around 42,000. That's the average right now coming to the weekend.
So, some drop here, but still the summer surge, a lot of cases and in the wake of those cases a lot of deaths. Positivity testing right now, 27 states, the red and the orange, their testing rate above 5 percent. That's what public health experts say you want to push down, push the testing rate, the positivity rate down below 5 percent, get it as close to zero as you can.
Twenty-two states at 5 percent or lower, the green on the map, pretty much all of the northeast starting to stretch across the Midwest. This has been the sadder map, 20 states reporting more deaths this week than last week. That tends to lag the case count.
Again, if you look at the curve, you see, that's the beginning of the summer, we were down here, come back up, and for the past month, for the past month essentially on average, a thousand Americans a day dying.
Now, Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the CDC says with the case count starting to trickle down, this should come down as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: And then hopefully this week and next week, you're going to start seeing the death rate really start to drop again. We got down under 500, we got as low as 250 one day, and I think we're going to start to see decline in mortality across the country now next week as we continue to control these cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us this Sunday to share their expertise, Dr. Megan Ranney. She's an emergency room physician affiliated with Brown University, and Dr. Ashish Jha, he's the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. Doctors, thank you for coming in on a Sunday.
It's curious. The White House says there will be a big therapeutic breakthrough announced by the president tonight, the FDA commissioner and secretary of health and human services will be with him when the president makes that announcement.
It comes just a day after the president tweeted: The deep state or whoever over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they're hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Let's focus on speed and saving lives, and it includes the Twitter handle of the FDA commissioner there.
Just yesterday, the president saying the deep state was stalling something. Do we have any idea of a therapeutic that we believe is close to the finish line here?
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: So let me get started, good morning, John. We don't know which -- what the announcement is going to be obviously. The one that I think many of us have been tracking very closely is convalescent plasma, that's the therapy you get from somebody who has recovered and give the plasma to somebody that we know that those have been going on in clinical trials. It is possible that we now have much clearer data on that.
But we just don't know. And we would love to see this stuff announced from the medical professionals themselves, out of the FDA head or the CDC, or really Dr. Fauci who has been overseeing so much of the scientific progress. So, we'll have to see what the White House comes out with later today.
KING: And as we wait for that, Dr. Ranney, the hard part going through the numbers, yes, the case count is starting it drop from the summer surge peak of around 77,000 or so to the 42,000, but you heard Dr. Redfield and the CDC changing its estimate, by the middle of September, about 200,000 people will have died. The new IHME estimate projects out through early December, 309,000 Americans are like to die by early December.
Is there -- is there any way to reverse the number or by the middle of next month, are we essentially going to wipe Salt Lake City off the map?
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, LIFESPAN/BROWN UNIVERSITY: They're terrifying numbers, aren't they, John? I mean, they're just so, so -- to look at where we are now versus where we are back in March. There is still ways for us to reverse that. It is the things that Dr. Jha and I and others have been talking about, with you and with others for months now.
Right now, the only effective prevention that we have for this virus are those very basic public health measures which we have shown have worked. Things like universal mask wearing. Which can decrease the transmission of the virus from 50 and 80 percent, depending on the type of masks, staying outdoors as much as possible during social gatherings, not getting together indoors, trying to maintain that social distancing from people who are not part of your own household, and, of course, as Dr. Jha talks about quite well, the importance of doing testing, contact tracing, setting up that whole public health infrastructure.
If we can do those things, there have been multiple studies showing that those methods are just as effective as a full lockdown at decreasing case counts.
[08:20:07]
And we have seen it in states, and in countries that have put those public health measures in place. This is not a foregone conclusion. We can change those productions.
KING: And the test is, you mentioned testing, you mentioned masking, I love the sign behind you, Dr. Ranney, that's a good way to get the message out to people there, but, look, this is data given about people's mobility, if you go back to May, traffic to malls was down 52 percent, now down only 27 percent. Traffic to bars was down 86 percent, now down only 41 percent. If you look at airports, still pretty far down, casual dining, though, down 80 percent back in may, Dr. Jha now down only 38 percent.
So people are going out. People are deciding out of necessity or just their need for company to go out. The question is, are they following safe procedures when they do that?
JHA: Yeah, so, first of all, John, there are places in the country where it is getting safer to do those things. In the Northeast, where they got that percent positive is low, case numbers are low, people are -- it is safe to do that. But I think when you look across the country, the broader theme here is we have pandemic fatigue. People are getting tired of being locked down, tired of feeling like their lives have been disrupted.
And the main message from public health folks like me and Dr. Ranney and others has been, the more we can do the things that Dr. Ranney talked about, the more we can make it safer for people to get out, to go to the mall occasionally. Avoiding prolonged periods of time indoors is the key, but it is fine to go out as a place where there isn't a large outbreak, fine to go sit outside at a restaurant and have a meal with a friend. That is what we want to be pushing towards, but we got to make it reasonably safe with those public health measures.
KING: And we'll watch what the president has for us tonight and continue to track the data in the week ahead. Doctors Ranney and Jha, again, appreciate your time this Sunday, we'll continue the conversation.
And up next for us, a shift back to politics, the Democrats big week, Joe Biden cast the vote as a referendum, a choice between darkness and light he says. Plus, every convention detail was different because of COVID, including a very colorful road show roll call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we want to honor John Louis' incredible life, let's restore the Voting Rights Act.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden believed in us and together we fought to save our auto industry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And 51 for our next president, Joe Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll create millions of new jobs, building back better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Hoosier State is ready to lead America's recovery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And our state appetizer, calamari, is available in all 50 states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:26:42]
KING: Joe Biden is the challenger, which is why the Democratic convention was all about drawing a contrast with the incumbent asking you for four more years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear and light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission.
History will be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here, tonight, as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation. And this is a battle we will win and we'll do it together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, there are ten weeks left including the Republican convention this week and three presidential debates on the calendar. But the former vice president leads his convention with a healthy lead.
Let's look at the map. Dark red means solid Republican, dark blue means solid Democrat, the light blue leans Democrat, the light red leans Republican.
If you look at the map as we have it right now, Joe Biden is leading in states that hold 268 electoral votes, 268. It takes 270 to win. He's leading in Pennsylvania, we lean it blue, he's leading in Michigan, we lean it blue.
If Joe Biden can hold this map and just win Wisconsin, he would win the presidential election. Remember, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, those three old blue wall states President Trump flipped red, which is why a lot of Democrats say just go right there, focus on those, hold Pennsylvania, hold Michigan, get Wisconsin, you're the next president of the United States.
Other Democrats say, look, battleground Florida, battleground Georgia, battleground North Carolina, maybe we have a chance in Ohio, let's flip Arizona, the demographics there are changing.
This is the big debate of the Democratic Party. Go bold and run it up, go safe and go reliable once reliable blue states.
We do know this, one reason Democrats think they could push in places even Texas some Democrats say where they haven't succeeded before is because of the president's leadership on the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: The president keeps telling us, the virus going to disappear. He keeps waiting for a miracle. Well, I have news for him, no miracle is coming.
Our economy is in tatters, with black, Latino, Asian-American, Native American communities bearing the brunt of it. And after all this time, the president still does not have a plan. Well, I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us this Sunday to share their reporting and their insights, "Politico's" Laura Barron-Lopez and Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times".
Jonathan, I want to start with you. You heard the vice president there making the case the president has failed. One of the calculations, I think this is a fascinating test, let's listen to more, he did a post- convention interview with ABC News. The president says keep the economy open. We have the virus under control. The vice president says no, we don't.
And listen here, he says if our scientists came to him and said we need to shut it down again, he would.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Whatever it takes to save lives, because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with.
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)
[08:29:48]
KING: This will be an interesting contrast. Both on the question of would you shut it down and the broader question that some Democrats think they didn't spend enough time on the convention is the economy.
JONATHAN MARTIN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, I think Joe Biden's campaign would probably have preferred him to say only the second part of that line. "I would listen to the scientists". They probably could have done without the "I would shut it down" sound bite.
But that said, I am so struck by what a fundamental difference there is between the President and Joe Biden in terms of their approach to this virus and their bet, their wager on which voters they're going to respond to.
The President is going back to in-person campaigning. There was Mike Pence -- in fact they're mocking Joe Biden for not having been to Wisconsin in x number of days and for (INAUDIBLE) Wisconsin as they put it and not having his convention there.
Joe Biden's very different. His guess (ph) is that the American people are going to reward him for taking this pandemic seriously, taking precautionary measures and not being out there campaigning in person.
I think you could not find a starker contrast at how they are taking this -- this virus, than their physical approach to campaigning itself. I think this is a real test of what voters want and how voters are viewing this virus, especially voters in the vanishing middle -- you know, more moderate voters.
KING: Right. The smaller group of -- the small group of movable voters.
Another big challenge for the convention --
MARTIN: Right.
KING: -- Laura, was for the former vice president, you know, the President of the United States, the Republican incumbent, keeps saying, you know, he says something is going on there. Joe Biden is missing a step. He's getting too old.
Joe Biden gave a pretty forceful speech late into primetime -- Democrats are very happy with that. And listen to his answer here in this ABC interview him saying, "All right, Mr. President, you want to raise that bar, I'll meet it."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Watch me. Mr. President, watch me. Look at us both. what we say, what we do, what we control, what we know, what kind of shape we're in -- come on.
Look, I think it is a legitimate question to ask anybody over 70 years old whether or not they're fit and whether they're ready. But I just -- only thing I can say to the American people is it is a legitimate question to ask anybody. Watch me.
DAVID MUIR, ABC HOST: You would be 78 entering office and you have said yourself that you are a transition candidate. Does that mean a one-term president?
BIDEN: No, it doesn't mean that.
MUIR: So you're leaving open the possibility you'll serve eight years if elected.
BIDEN: Absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It is interesting, both on essentially bring it on, Mr. President, when it comes to fitness and mental acuity, but leaving the door open there to two terms. That's interesting as well.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: That is. Especially since throughout the primary we had heard there was talk of Biden saying that he would only potentially be a one-term president. And also when he was searching for his VP, there was a lot of speculation that he may go for a vice president that was, you know, of the younger generation, someone who could lead a transition and Kamala Harris is that figure. So if he were to serve one term, she would clearly be the heir-apparent to potentially run in 2024.
But again, as you said, John, Biden pretty much hit Trump's attack on him very forcefully by delivering a strong speech at the Democratic convention. He's continued to do interviews since then. And Trump himself has also been questioned whether or not his cognitive ability is at the level that it should be for someone who is in office as well.
KING: Right. And now again we talk about the (INAUDIBLE) program, now you have the voice of the sister saying things about the President that are not at all kind.
Jonathan -- one of the interesting tests for the contravention was to try to build Joe Biden up some because the incumbent party comes last. And so the Republicans will have their convention this week.
But it is fascinating to look, if you go back and look at Joe Biden's favorability ratings, they're 46 percent back in May of 2019. He's been under constant attack from the President and the Republican Party. Today they are 46 percent.
So essentially he has held steady throughout all these attack.
MARTIN: Yes.
KING: The question is did he move up a little bit from his convention? And then can the Republicans push him down?
MARTIN: Well, the first surveys that we have seen have not shown much of a bounce for Joe Biden. I think that's partly because of the pandemic because you had fewer people focused on this.
However (AUDIO GAP) John, there's just unmovable (ph) voters. I mean, the unwritten story of this campaign is just how stable it has been for all the -- for all the back and forth, Joe Biden had a pretty steady lead over Donald Trump, since before the pandemic, since 2019. It just has not changed that much.
I think we're getting down to the final weeks here, unless there is some major event in this country, or something major happens in these three debates the race isn't changing.
I think that's because, John, people are just locked in. People have a fixed view of Donald Trump and they have a fixed view of Joe Biden and there's just not a lot of folks who are moving.
KING: And Laura, one question, you wrote about this the other day is Biden is in a strong position, but there has been some grumbling from very liberal voters, some grumbling from some of the younger Black Lives Matter activists.
[08:35:00] KING: Part of it was about you had so many Republicans at your
convention, part of it is they just want to -- they want to get a better sense that he means what he says.
BARRON-LOPEZ: That's right. They're looking for more policy, which across the board the convention didn't go as in-depth on policy as you mentioned earlier even on the economy. And so that's what they're looking for.
really want answers on stuff like whether or not he will outright end qualified immunity, which is a doctrine that shields police officers from civil suits or what exactly does "blame it" (ph) mean, which is what his policy is about.
But what we did see is there was a little bit tick up in Biden's favorability after the convention according to an ABC poll. What was interesting was that he still -- his favorability is highest across racial groups with African-Americans then next Hispanics and then whites.
So he does have a strong base of support from African-Americans. The question is whether or not younger voters of color are as enthusiastic about his candidacy.
KING: Ten weeks to go, everyone strap in. Laura Barron-Lopez, Jonathan Martin -- grateful for your reporting and insights this Sunday.
Up next for us. the vote by mail debate leads to a very rare Saturday vote in the congress.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: This is the pandemic election and how you vote is as much an issue as who you choose. So much so that the House of Representatives was in session on Saturday, that's rare in any year. And extraordinary, given the pandemic and its safety protocols right now.
Necessary, Democrats argue, because they believe the Trump campaign donor now turned new postmaster general is making changes that slow service, so that when a record number of Americans vote by mail, the Democrats are worried that many ballots will not be collected or delivered on time to be counted.
[08:39:47]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: In my conversations with the postmaster general, which were most unsatisfactory, he said he had no intention of restoring the post office boxes that were removed, no intention of restoring the sorting machinery in the postal services and other infrastructure very essential to keeping the mail on time.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: The Democratic legislation passed on Saturday provides $25 billion in extra funding for the post office. It prohibits the removal of mailboxes. It guarantees overtime payments for workers and requires all election mail be treated as first class mail.
26 Republicans joined 231 Democrats in passing that legislation. But most GOP lawmakers accuse Democrats of fabricating a crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. GREG PENCE (R-IN): We need to stop wasting time on a sham political vote like HR 8015.
REP. DEBBIE LESKO (R-AZ): Phony political theater to once again bash President Trump.
REP. ROGER WILLIAMS (R-TX): For the past week the American people have been told they cannot trust the postal service to do their job. And that Republicans along with President Trump are trying to undermine the agency. That could not be further from the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The postmaster general testifies at a House hearing Monday, tomorrow. He told Senators on Friday he has enough money to handle the election crush, and he called outrageous any suggestion he would slow the mail to help the President.
But Democrats see no coincidence in the fact that this summer has featured both a spike in constituent complaints about mail service and a spike in presidential rants about mail in voting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It is fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen and we have to be very, very careful.
This is just a way they're trying to steal the election and everybody knows that. Because the only way they're going to win is by a rigged election.
It will be a tremendous embarrassment to our country. It will go on forever and you'll never know who won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The Michigan secretary of state Jocelyn Benson is with us now. Madam Secretary, your job includes fact-checking in addition to counting votes now because it's just what -- much of what the President says about this is simply not true.
And he's added again this Sunday -- I want to read a tweet from the President just moments ago. "So now the Democrats are using mail drop boxes which are a voter security disaster. Among other things they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also who controls them? Are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They're not COVID sanitized. A big fraud."
Not true. But I'll -- let me give you a chance to answer that.
JOCELYN BENSON (D), MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes. I mean in many way drop boxes are more secure than mail boxes. We've got security footage of them. They're monitored 24 hours a day and what we're doing is simply a response to the increasing unreliable delivery of the mail in Michigan that we have been experiencing for several weeks now.
So the drop boxes are in place. They're more secure than many other ways including mailboxes in various ways in part because again, they're monitored and there is a lot of attention on them. And they're placed by bipartisan, nonpartisan individuals, election administrators who are committed to ensuring they're convenient and accessible to every voter, regardless of who that voter votes for.
KING: This legislation passed yesterday by the House is an extraordinary statement, but it is unlikely to get anywhere. The Republican Senate is unlikely to at least go the $25 billion route. Maybe there'll be some money in a later COVID relief package. The President doesn't like the house bill.
Tell me about the situation in your state. Some of those big mail sorting machines, for example, were removed. The postmaster general says they're not necessary. Are they?
BENSON: They are necessary. In fact, 26 were removed from Michigan at least that we know of, all across the state -- Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Pontiac. And as we have been tracking the development in consistent collaborative communication with the postal service here in Michigan, we have seen the slowdown firsthand as a result of the loss of these sorting machines.
And what we also have seen as a result of the changes is that chaos and confusion and doubt has been created where it didn't exist before. And so we have now got a number of citizens, record numbers who want to vote by mail in our state on both sides of the aisle.
And even as we work to address and create work arounds to protect the security of the process, the efficiency of vote by mail, we've got more voters than ever before also now doubting the efficacy of that which a significant issue for us because my goal is just to make sure that everyone has faith in the system.
KING: Right. And you mentioned the increase because of COVID. You had 1.27 million absentee ballots from the 2016 general election. You had 1.6 million just in the August 2020 primary. So there is no doubt the general election is going to blow away the previous record not just in Michigan, but everywhere.
So I want to bring it into context of this map. The deadline for returning ballots. If you look, your state is among those where it has to be received -- received by Election Day. Right, Michigan. You see battleground Wisconsin. You see battleground North Carolina, battleground Florida, battleground Arizona -- I could go on, battleground Pennsylvania -- many of these states that are going to decide who the next president is requires that the ballot be received, that it be in your custody by Election Day which is why I found it interesting when the Speaker of the House said this.
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PELOSI: Ignore them. Make a plan to vote, do so to vote early, so that we will have an outcome that is clear as close to election night as possible.
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KING: It's the last part I think is a fascinating dilemma going forward, as close to election night as possible. If you get swamped with mail-in ballots, when will you count them? How quickly can you count them? Because what you hear the scenario Democrats are worried about as the President has repeatedly questioned the integrity of this, that if he's leading in the Election Day count, he's going to come out and declare victory. And that as we saw in 2018 in the House races, days later, sometimes a week or more later, the mail-in ballots shift, how quickly will you count them?
BENSON: Well, we have processes in place to efficiently move to the ballots and begin delivering results in the days that follow. By the end of the week we should have the complete results. We've asked for legislative changes to help move that up and speed that up to begin -- to then allow us to begin processing, opening envelopes of ballots sent through the mail even prior to Election Day like most other states do. But it may be well to Thursday or Friday before we have the full complete results for Michigan.
And I want to emphasize that that is the accurate reflection of the results, not any exit polls, not any prognostications that you may hear prior to that. And we'll be working overtime as well to communicate and be transparent every step of the way from the moment the polls close to the moment we have the full count results available to explain exactly where we are in the process and exactly what any early numbers that may be trickling out may actually mean.
KING: Right.
BENSON: So we're going to continue to counter any type of hyperbole with the facts and the data. But it is going to be an uphill battle as, you know, every day has shown as we consistently do that in the face of a lot of rhetoric from the President.
KING: Well, I hope the secretaries of state which historically have worked on a bipartisan basis with each other, I hope that many of your Republican colleagues will say the same thing. That this is normal, we're counting, we're safe. This is secure, both parties get to watch us do this, so there's no fraud happening here. I hope that's what happens as we go through it.
Madam Secretary, appreciate your time this Sunday. We'll stay in touch as we get closer to Election Day. Up next, back to campus in the age of coronavirus. New cases pop up quickly and there are big debates over testing and campus safety measures.
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KING: Back to campus is now a big part of the coronavirus challenge. At least 19 states have reported college outbreaks. And as you can see, many of them are in states that at the moment that's the green and the beige were either trending down or at least holding steady in their count of new infections.
"The Chronicle of Higher Education" says about a third of four-year colleges plan to have students fully or primarily back in classes. 23 percent of the four-year colleges it tracks plan a hybrid approach. And 35 percent are fully or primarily starting the year with remote learning.
Penn State which has nearly 100,000 students starts classes tomorrow. And some faculty members are worried the school does not have an adequate testing and safety plan.
Sarah Townsend is a professor of Spanish and Portuguese and an organizer of the Coalition for a Just University. Professor Townsend, thank you for sharing your Sunday morning with us.
What are you most worried about? We can put up here the Penn State testing plan. 30,000 students required to take pre-arrival tests and return it in the mail. Randomly, 1 percent of students will be tested -- 1 percent of the community, not just students will be tested. Encouraged to use a system tracker app essentially for contact tracing. What is it about the plan that worries you about your personal safety and the students' safety?
SARAH TOWNSEND, PROFESSOR, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, first, just a small point of correction. I guess only 25,000 students are supposed to be tested.
Basically the plan is just entirely insufficient to stop an outbreak. And we have faculty in the college Science and Engineering, who have shown that with simulations. You know, you can compare it to better plans such as the University of Illinois where they are testing all students twice a week.
They have developed the capacity to process 10,000 tests per day in their on-campus labs which means they are not dependent on commercial labs which are really overburdened right now.
At Penn State, each student will be tested on average once every 100 days. They are doing 1 percent daily surveillance testing. So you compare twice a week to once every 100 days. And, you know, as the simulations that our faculty and science and engineering have shown, if Penn State continues with this plan, we can expect about 2,500 infections by Thanksgiving, which means you have a lot of students returning home to their local communities and seeding potential outbreaks especially because a majority of those cases will be asymptomatic. And we have a possibility of two student deaths.
And that, of course, does not discount the effects on the faculty staff and the broader community who are generally older and more likely to suffer serious complications.
KING: And so what does the school administration say when your group, other members of the faculty and staff raising your hands saying hey, this is not enough? I know you had preferred that they wait, that they would delay opening classes until they have a better plan. Apparently they're not listening. What do they say?
TOWNSEND: Well, you know, they've really just dismissed our simulations which have been done by very distinguished faculty. And they come back and they say that they have, you know, a nimble plan, a multi-layered approach. But, you know, that's not science. And, you know, once again to sort of cite Illinois they did epidemiological data modeling. They gave a public presentation of their model. It's on YouTube, anybody can see it.
And Penn State has never given us any scientific evidence. We don't know if they've done any data modeling. And so our answer is, you know, show us your science, like show us that your plan will work because we don't believe that it will. And we are really concerned about the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and community members.
KING: We have some cell phone video, and this is cell phone video from the Penn State community of students who are back to campus before classes start. You see them in close proximity. It's a little grainy, but a lot of them, most of them are not wearing masks. We've seen this on other campuses as well whether there are social gatherings or parties or whether they're just students who have been at home, you know, cooped up the last six months, suddenly back in an environment where they can socialize.
When you see images like this, I assume it just adds to your worries?
[08:54:58]
TOWNSEND: Yes, of course, it's very troubling, you know. At the same time, it's to be expected. You know, you can't bring this many people into close contact, this many young people who are just leaving home and not expect that these kinds of things are going to happen, which is why if you're going to take the very risky move of re-opening in the middle of a pandemic, you have to have a rock-solid plan in place.
And you know, so I don't think it's really fair to cast all the blame onto 18 and 19-year-olds when, you know, university leaders are also behaving irresponsibly.
KING: Right. The president of the university said I asked students flouting the university's health and safety expectations is a simple question. Do you want to be the person responsible for sending everyone home? Your position is that the university president should have a better plan before he lectures to students. Is that what you're saying?
TOWNSEND: Exactly. You know, I think it's a really bad move to, as I said, be casting the blame on 18 and 19-year-olds when even the students know that the administration does not have a good plan. You know, from what we've heard and I haven't been able to confirm this yet because I haven't had time, you know, student government leaders just a couple of days overwhelmingly advised the administration not to follow through with re-opening because they know that the administration doesn't have a handle on it.
And then also we heard that a couple of days ago the university task forces met. These are task forces that were appointed by the administration to handle re-opening plans. And the provost was doing a Q&A and one of the task group members put in the chat there is a widespread sentiment that the emperor has no clothes. And I think that's really how people feel.
KING: Professor Sarah Townsend I certainly wish you the best through this dicey precarious situation. I understand the administration's not going to listen. We'll keep in touch as classes reopen at Penn State. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you so much for your time.
TOWNSEND: All right. Thank you so much John, for having.
KING: No, thank you.
And that's it for INSIDE POLITICS. Hope you can catch us week days as well, we're at Noon eastern.
Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER". Busy "STATE OF THE UNION" ahead. Jake's guest includes the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the acting homeland security Secretary Chad Wolf, and the former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
Thanks again for sharing your Sunday. Have a great day.
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