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New Day Saturday

Key Model Predicts 310,000 Deaths In U.S. By December; Democrats Vote This Morning On Bill To Prevent Interference With Election Mail; Trump Campaign And RNC Accuse Dems Of Conspiracy Theory About Post Office; Former Green Beret Allegedly Gave National Defense Secrets To Russia; CA Firefighters Struggle To Contain 500-Plus Wildfires; CDC Director: COVID-19 Deaths Could Drop Soon In Parts Of The U.S.; Millions At Risk Of Eviction As Stimulus Talks Hit Dead-End. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired August 22, 2020 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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LOUIS DEJOY, USPS POSTMASTER GENERAL: I think the American public should be able to vote by mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Postmaster General DeJoy did not commit to transparency.

DEJOY: And the Postal Service will support it. So I guess that's yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He did not clearly understand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines?

DEJOY: There's no intention to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to hold his feet to the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The future here is not pre-ordained. These models are based on our behaviors today.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: New modeling from the University of Washington projecting nearly 310,000 COVID fatalities by December 1st.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It means that if we do everything we can, we can actually reduce the number of deaths.

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)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul. VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Live look across the city of New York at the top of the hour. Good morning, New York. Good morning to you and this morning, House members, they're back in Washington. You know, this is after a bit of a break from their August recess.

The expectation is that they'll vote on a $25 billion package to help the Post Office and the aim is really to prevent interference with election mail. The White House is threatening to veto that bill.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Also, there are two tropical storms officially now heading toward the Gulf Coast. Both have the potential to become hurricanes and make landfall simultaneously. Meteorologists say that is unprecedented and they're warning everyone from Texas to Florida to be prepared.

BLACKWELL: And the Department of Justice says a former Army green beret has been arrested and charged. They say he leaked U.S. national defense secrets to Russian agents.

PAUL: We do want to start this morning with some coronavirus pandemic projections here, grim projection from a model that's often cited by the White House. Three-hundred-ten-thousand Americans, they say, could be dead by the beginning of December.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Polo Sandoval has the latest for us this morning. Polo, the head of the World Health Organization says he hopes this pandemic will be under two years, but, you know, who knows? But these latest numbers are quite grim, as Christi said.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Grim and sobering, Victor, and consider this right now. Coronavirus infections, those are dropping in some areas, but that stubborn (ph) death rate is not and that is really what's concerning health officials, particularly those at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, now projecting that we could potentially see close to 310 deaths in the country, COVID related deaths by December here and that number is up by about 15,000 compared to the forecast that we saw about two weeks ago, but officials also saying that it's not too late. It's a number that could drop significantly if more people wear masks.

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SANDOVAL: A new model released Friday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicting daily deaths in the United States from COVID-19, which now number about 1,000 a day, will decrease slowly in September, but then rise to nearly 2,000 a day by the start of December. It also raised its estimate of how many people will die by December.

CHRIS MURRAY, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS & EVALUATION, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: We have a worse scenario in what we release and that's many, many more deaths and in fact, by the time December rolls around, if we don't do anything at all, the daily death toll in the U.S. would be much higher than the sort of 2,000 deaths a day we would expect by December. It could be as high as 6,000 deaths a day. So it really depends what we do, both as individuals and what governments do. SANDOVAL: The CDC released new guidelines for schools Friday as children and teachers across the country are returning to the classroom. Rather than shut everything down immediately for a long period of time, the guidelines suggest one option is an initial short- term class suspension and cancellation of events and after school activities. The guidelines also recommending schools offer counseling and ensure mental health services.

WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASES DIVISION, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: 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.

SANDOVAL: Among the largest 101 school districts in the U.S., 65 are starting the school year online and as university campuses welcome students into dorms, colleges across at least 15 states have reported COVID cases tracking back to athletics, Greek life or off-campus gathering. In rural areas, super spreading events have been especially important in helping drive the pandemic, researchers in Georgia said this week. Super spreading events like parties, conferences and large gatherings have been cautioned against by leaders throughout the country.

[06:05:01]

Earlier this month, experts raised concern about a motorcycle rally in a small South Dakota town which was expected to bring tens of thousands of visitors. This week, health officials said at least seven COVID-19 cases in Nebraska's panhandle region have been tied to the rally. Some good news Friday, coronavirus hospitalizations in Los Angeles are down to the lowest level since April according to the mayor.

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SANDOVAL: And here in Illinois, we're monitoring about 20 counties that health officials are concerned about that we have seen a slight increase there, mainly because of mass gatherings, Victor and Christi, and that's one of the reasons why, come the 2020 season, NFL season, you won't see any folks in the stands at Bears games. They had considered perhaps allowing a limited number of fans in the stands, but at this point, they said it's just too unsafe.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Understandable there. Polo Sandoval for us in Chicago this morning. Thanks so much. Let's go to Washington now where the White House has threatened to veto a proposed House bill that would provide, as I said, $25 billion to the U.S. Postal Service.

PAUL: Yes. The measure would also block changes to the service critics say could endanger the November election. Here's CNN's Pamela Brown.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, today, leaders are bringing the House back into session today in the wake of mounting pressure and criticism that Democrats weren't doing enough surrounding this Postal Service controversy and so one of the things Democrats are going to be voting on is this bill that would restrict any actions that could hamper election mail.

There have been a lot of criticism that actions the Postmaster General have put into place were slowing down mail and that could have a big impact on the election. Now, earlier in this week, the Postmaster General put a halt to that, saying he would wait until after the election, but Democrats want it in writing, they want it guaranteed in a bill. They're also looking for $25 billion in funding for the Postal Service.

But all of this comes as DeJoy testified for the first time publicly in this virtual hearing before senators and during that hearing, he distanced himself from President Trump. He said he's a big believer in mail-in ballots. It's something he does himself. He says every American should be able to do so, that the Postal Service will be able to handle the demand and he says that election mail will automatically be upgraded to first-class mail and he also said that ...

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If people vote within seven days of election, are they -- are they highly confident, are you highly confident that those ballots would then be received?

DEJOY: Extremely, highly confident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And he also said that he has never spoken to President Trump about any of those actions that he had took, those controversial actions. He said the only interaction he has had with the president recently is a congratulatory meeting. Now, it is worth noting that DeJoy will be in front of the Democratic-led House committee on Monday. Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

PAUL: And thanks to Pamela there. Want to go to Sarah Westwood who's live at the White House for us right now because the Trump campaign is accusing Democrats of pushing these conspiracy theories, but the President himself has promoted conspiracy theories about mail-in voting.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Victor and Christi. Were words (ph) here with the Trump campaign and the RNC firing a shot last night and distributing talking points that framed Democrats' concerns about the Postal Service as conspiracy theories.

They say the problem is not with changes to the Postal Services, not with any lack of funding for USPS, but with the fact that mail-in voting at the levels Democrats are suggesting is new, that states may not have time to implement that kind of system before November and that the chaos will be caused by mail-in voting itself and has nothing to do with USPS.

And in fact, the Trump campaign and the RNC are highlighting the fact that the Postal Service has had financial problems that predated the Trump administration. They cite a figure that claims the USPS has lost $78 billion since 2007 and has been operating at a loss for years. So they are trying to paint this as not the faults of the Trump administration, but perhaps even the fault of the Obama administration and previous administrations that made decisions about the Postal Service that affected its profitability.

But as you mentioned, the president himself has been framing his own opposition of more funding for USPS as a way to stop mail-in voting from being expanded. So that is not a conspiracy theory. That's something that came out of the President's own mouth during an interview last week.

The Postal Service is also working to clear up some of this misinformation and said in a tweet, "Despite expected increases in mail-in voting, we anticipate election mail will account for less than two percent of all mail volume from mid-September until Election Day."

And as you guys mentioned, the White House last night issued a veto threat for the House's bill that would add more funding to USPS. They say they want more strings attached to that $25 billion. They wanted less obviously, but they want more strings attached to the funding. They want it to be specifically earmarked for COVID purposes and for election purposes and they don't just want a lifeline for the Postal Service essentially, Victor and Christi.

[06:10:03]

PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, good to see you this morning as always. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's discuss now with CNN political analyst and White House reporter for "The Washington Post," Toluse Olorunnipa. Toluse, welcome back. It is rich that the Trump campaign is now suggesting that someone else is a conspiracy theorist when the President says the entire election will be rigged and flirted with QAnon this week. Let's start with what the President has said about the Post Office's ability to handle mail-in voting and then what we heard from the Postmaster General during this Senate hearing.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes ...

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TRUMP: Now they want to send in millions and millions of ballots and you see what's happening. They're being lost, they're being discarded, they're finding them in piles. It's going to be a catastrophe and this is beyond the Post Office.

DEJOY: As we head into the election season, I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on time.

BLACKWELL: So ...

DEJOY: This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and Election Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Toluse, I mean, what the President is suggesting is a conspiracy theory on its own.

OLORUNNIPA: Yes. That's a pretty stark difference between those two sound bites, the President saying the Postal Service can't handle all this mail and the Postal Service Postmaster General essentially saying we can do this. He actually also said I support mail-in balloting, I support people sending in voting by mail. He said that he personally votes by mail.

So the president has been trying to stoke all of this fear and confusion about the safety of voting by mail in part because he knows Democrats have said and told pollsters that they are more likely to vote by mail because of the pandemic and Republicans who listen to the president are more likely to vote in person because they're not as concerned about the pandemic and that's part of the reason you've seen this stark difference between public health practices, Democrats saying they are happy to wear masks, Republicans saying that they do not want to wear masks.

And it's clear that the president is trying to use that to his political advantage by spreading misinformation about the state of the Postal Service and the safety of mail-in voting. There is no sign, no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in balloting, but the president constantly says that that's the case.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We got a lot to get to. Let's talk about this first interview, joint interview with the Democratic ticket. Here's a portion. We're going to watch this. This is from "ABC News."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump has referred to you as nasty, a sort of mad woman, a disaster, the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate. How do you -- how do you define what you hear from the President?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Listen, I really -- I think that there is so much about what comes out of 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So it's interesting. This is not engaging through defense against the narrative, not rising above it either. The former vice president then talked about incompetence. What does this tell us, this exchange, about the strategy of the Democratic ticket? OLORUNNIPA: Well, it's clear that they are trying to downplay and pivot from the President's attacks. I think they see the President's comments, even though for any other president that would be, you know, groundbreaking or completely out of -- out of line in terms of the kind of language he's used, but I think they've realized that the American people have gotten used to the President using language like nasty and mad woman and horrible and terrible and, you know, all this sort of aggressive language against Kamala Harris.

So they're trying to pivot and say that the President is simply trying to distract and they want to focus instead on the President's failures, on the coronavirus and other parts of his administration. So there you have a very clear strategy by not taking the bait, not, you know, seeming like they're outraged by the President's language, but then flipping it back towards, you know, this is a distraction tactic, the President trying to distract Americans from his own failures.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Coming off the DNC, there was this interesting interview that Anderson Cooper had yesterday with Nina Turner who was co-chair of Bernie Sanders campaign. Listen to this exchange and then let's talk about it.

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NINA TURNER, CO-CHAIR, BERNIE SANDERS' 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: If there are Republicans out there who, for now, believe that they got to stand to try to defeat President Donald J. Trump and they want to come on over and help do that, that's fine, but what was not fine is to highlight Republicans at the expense of the progressives. That's not fine. You cannot throw away the base of the party, Anderson, and expect to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Does your reporting show that progressives are dissatisfied after this week?

OLORUNNIPA: Well, some are. There's a good chunk of the progressive part of the base who wanted more from this convention. They wanted to have more prominence in the convention, they want to be -- wanted to be featured more.

[06:15:00]

They saw, you know, the speech by Bernie Sanders just sort of a capitulation to the -- to the establishment, but I think there is a broad consensus within the Democratic party that President Trump is an existential threat and they want to get rid of him at all costs.

You've heard a lot of progressives say we're going to fight to get Joe Biden into the White House and then on day one, we're going to start fighting to push him to the left, we're going to start fighting to get him to shift some of his policy positions, but there does seem to be a consensus around the idea of getting Trump out of office even if some of these progressives are not happy with the way Joe Biden is running his campaign, the number of Republicans he's trying to recruit and bring on board.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

OLORUNNIPA: The base is not necessarily happy about that, but I do think they see President Trump as their number one enemy at this point and they want to do anything they can to get him out of office and then work on fighting the internal party battles after that.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The focus on Republicans was prime during the primetime hour. Toluse Olorunnipa, thanks so much for being with us.

OLORUNNIPA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: So breaking overnight, the justice -- or the Department of Justice says a former Army green beret has been arrested and charged now. They say he leaked U.S. national defense secrets to Russian agents. Prosecutors say Peter Debbins met with Russian operatives on multiple occasions from 1996 until 2011. If convicted, he's facing maximum life in prison. We'll continue to follow this story of course, bring you the details as we get them.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the raging wildfires in California. They've burned nearly a half million acres. We are there as firefighters are now trying to stop more homes from being destroyed.

PAUL: And not one, but two official tropical storms now in the Atlantic are headed toward the Gulf Coast. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking those storms. She'll tell us when and where they're expected to make landfall.

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[06:20:00]

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PAUL: I want to get you some new numbers that we're hearing now. We know thousands of firefighters in California are battling more than, now we know, 500 fires across the state, including two of the largest wildfires recorded in the state's history.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to CNN's Dan Simon. He's reporting from Napa Valley.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christi, we are in a neighborhood near the town of Napa which has absolutely been ravaged by these wildfires. You can see right here several homes have been destroyed and the risk to the region is far from over. It's going to be a very busy weekend for firefighters and temperatures remain quite hot.

Authorities have said that California has really been under siege the past few days with lightning strikes, nearly 12,000 lightning strikes and that has resulted literally in hundreds of wildfires, about two dozen of them considered to be major and we're not just talking about the fire. There's also the smoke. The quality of the air in the Bay Area is considered right now to be the very worst in the world and of course all this is happening during the middle of a pandemic.

You have tens of thousands of people who have evacuated and they have to make the decision whether or not they actually want to sleep in a shelter. We actually found some folks who were too scared to go sleep in a shelter because they were worried about getting the virus. They were actually sleeping in their cars.

That said, the Red Cross is trying to mitigate the risk, asking people when they come in if they have any COVID-19 symptoms and also taking their temperatures. Victor and Christi, we'll send it back to you.

BLACKWELL: Dan, thank you. The state is also facing a heat wave and dwindling resources, of course because of the fight against the COVID- 19 pandemic. So let's go from that coast to the Gulf Coast here. We're watching two tropical storms. I know this map looks really messy. We're going to clear it up for you there. One of those storms is Laura. It's set to impact Puerto Rico later today and then Marco to the west is moving north toward the U.S..

BLACKWELL: Yes. They could hit the U.S., make landfall along the Gulf Coast sometime early next week.

PAUL: CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking both of these for us and we cannot let the moment go to remind us how rare it is for two tropical storms to be in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It's been 60 years, over 60 years. It was back in 1959, June 18th, 1959 and the only other time prior to that was 1933 and here's the thing. If both of them get to hurricane strength, which is still a possibility at this point, it would be the first time that that's ever happened in history where you have two hurricanes in the Gulf at the same time.

So let's break down where they are right now because they're not in the Gulf technically yet. You've got Laura basically hovering right over Puerto Rico right now. Then you have Marco just to the east of the Yucatan Peninsula, but both are headed into the Gulf in the coming days. Here's a look at Marco. Again, sustained winds at 45 miles per hour, moving northwest at 12 miles per hour. It's a little bit slower than Laura is moving.

Watches and warnings, you do have a hurricane watch and portions of a tropical storm warning in effect for the Yucatan Peninsula. Again, this is for Marco. Now we transition back to tropical storm Laura. This storm, again, is going to be sliding over Puerto Rico as we go through the day today, bringing with it very gusty winds and the potential for some very heavy rain. Winds here are 40 miles per hour, so slightly lower winds, but west at 21 miles per hour, so much, much faster.

You've got the tropical storm warnings in effect for much of the Caribbean at this point as it continues to move. Here's the thing. Laura's track alone goes from Texas all the way to Florida. So again, there's a lot of areas where this could potentially go. Marco mainly focused right now around Texas and Louisiana.

But I want to point one thing out, Victor and Christi. Notice there are some communities like Houston and Beaumont, Texas that are actually in both cones. So it is possible they could get hit by both storms, but I want to emphasize not at the same time. Because Marco is considerably faster, it will make landfall about a day before we expect tropical storm Laura to make landfall, most likely on Wednesday.

PAUL: Either way it doesn't sound good and I would not be happy if I was in that area. We are keeping our thoughts on everybody there and we'll keep everybody obviously informed of what happens. Thank you so much, Allison. Appreciate it.

[06:25:02]

BLACKWELL: Allison, thank you. Still to come, CNN medical analyst Dr. Saju Mathew says he knows how the economy can fully reopen in just a few weeks and he's going to explain how when we come back.

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BLACKWELL: The director of the CDC says that parts of the U.S. should start to see coronavirus death rates drop as early as next week and he says it's largely because people are doing what they're supposed to to control the spread by social distancing, wearing masks and washing their hands.

PAUL: Now, not every region is improving. He warned of a third wave in the heartland. Let's bring in primary care physician and CNN medical analyst Dr. Saju Mathew. Saju, it's good to see you today. I need to get right to something that you were telling us about yesterday for this segment.

[06:30:03]

You said that the economy can fully reopen in a matter of weeks. How is that so?

SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: Yes, good morning Christi. With about 300,000 deaths projected by December and an additional 20 deaths in the next two weeks, the question is, can we test ourselves out of the pandemic, and the answer to that question is simple if we have the right test.

According to this Harvard scientist at the School of Public Health, we might be focusing on the wrong test. As you know, Christi, we've got the traditional PCR test which looks at the genetic material of the virus. It takes a long time. It's highly sophisticated. It's very accurate. Almost too accurate.

And remember, when you're infected by the virus, you're mostly infectious in the first five to seven days, and that is when you want to pick up most people who could be transmitting the virus to other people. The rapid test, that's the second test that we have, the saliva test was just approved last weekend, those tests apparently are more accurate in the sense that it picks up people that are in that infectious zone which is in the first five to seven days.

If you've got two viral particles that's positive with the PRC test, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're infectious. So, the bottom line is, we want a good test, not a great test, but a good test that tells me am I infectious or not? And it sound like the rapid test is the way to go.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I've got to focus on a specific priority of these tests. Let me ask you about what I said at the top of this, is that Director Redfield says that the death rate will drop as early as next week. It's been north of a 1,000 by average for 24 days or so straight now. Do you see indicators to support that suggestion from Dr. Redfield?

MATHEW: As much as I want to be optimistic, Victor, I think that is just going to be very temporary. And the reason Dr. Redfield said that is because if you look at states that are using masks consistently, not all states, but a good number of states, a lot of people are following the mitigation efforts of the three Ws that we talk about, and as a result of that the overall number of new cases in the U.S. is falling.

But I hate to be pessimistic. That's just going to be temporary. In the Fall, we're going to expect that second peak and we're going to be dealing with both COVID-19 and the flu at the same time and we're going to see deaths go back up again.

PAUL: OK, so that's what we wanted to ask you about. I think there are a lot of people out there that are thinking, I usually get the flu in the Fall, I know how this works and what does this mean? Is it more imperative than right now to get the flu shot.

MATHEW: One hundred percent. I'm a primary care doctor, Christi, I see about 15 to 20 patients a day, and I'm telling you of all the years that I've been in medicine practicing, this Fall season scares me. It worries me. We only had 45 percent of people get the flu vaccine last year. We've got to convince people to get the flu vaccine, and guess what?

We have even a harder task, we've got to convince people to really be sure about protecting themselves, and maybe even getting the vaccine for COVID-19 when and if that's available. So we've got a big hurdle here by primary care doctors to convince people about the importance of vaccinations.

BLACKWELL: Hey, Saju, there's something that stood out to me, we just talked about the wildfires out in California, nearly a million acres burned. I read this morning that smoke can make people more susceptible to coronavirus. Explain that.

MATHEW: Yes, the reason for that, Victor, is fairly straightforward. When you have these wildfires, you get these particles that are pollutants to the lungs. So now, you're getting patients that are coughing, whose respiratory systems are inflamed, and they're having shortness of breath. And if you have a respiratory illness that compromises your lung function, now you're even more susceptible to getting COVID-19.

BLACKWELL: Wow, Saju Mathew, thanks so much, always good to have you.

MATHEW: Thank you.

PAUL: Thanks, Saju. You know, millions of people are at risk of eviction starting on Monday. So financial expert Ted Jenkin is with us next. He's breaking down what protections you need to know about if you have a fear of losing your home.

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[06:35:00]

PAUL: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour and millions of people -- and they're still struggling, they're waiting for financial help from the government during this pandemic. Right now, the unemployment rate is at 10.2 percent which is higher than at any point during the great recession. Let's talk to Ted Jenkin; financial adviser and CEO of Oxygen Financial for us. Ted, good morning to see you --

TED JENKIN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, OXYGEN FINANCIAL: Good morning, Christi.

PAUL: So, help us understand here. What is your projected lifeline, let's say for the stimulus package? How long do you think it will take?

JENKIN: I mean, Christi, it could take a couple of days, but it could go until the election because the parties are still very far apart right now, a couple of trillion dollars. And look, President Trump recently put in this moratorium of putting in this $300 of extended unemployment benefits, and this essentially is what the GOP proposal is, Christi, and 11 states have taken the money so far. One state in South Dakota has declined, but the big issue here is that FEMA is doling out this money, and they've only given the states the money for three weeks here and then after that, it's only going to be week by week.

So, millions of Americans could be in the dark if no compromise is reached. I think this is another example of the ready, fire, aim leadership we are seeing.

[06:40:00]

PAUL: So, on that note, how much has the president's executive order on payroll, on the payroll tax, how much has that done to alleviate the financial pain?

JENKIN: I don't think it's going to help at all, Christi, look, Americans pay payroll tax is roughly 6.2 percent into Social Security, and 1.45 percent into Medicare. But this is a payroll tax deferral, it's not a payroll tax holiday which means that people when they get money in their paychecks, somebody making $50,000 a year from September to December will get roughly $1,100, Christi. But guess what? They're going to have to pay it back. And Christi, with the average family in America having more than $6,000 in credit card debt, it's extremely dangerous to add a $1,000 of debt when the president says, look, I'll make this go away if I get re-elected when the likelihood is, it will not.

PAUL: Well, not only do people have debt, but there are people who are at risk of losing their home right now because of evictions. How do tenants know if they have any protection from eviction, and how can people at risk of eviction, how can they get help?

JENKIN: I mean, Christi, unfortunately, it's gone right now. The protection under the CARES Act ended at the end of July. And as you mentioned, starting Monday, those folks can start to get an eviction letter. So you need to get in front of the bus and talk to your landlord right now because 40 percent of the 40 million Americans are at risk of eviction.

So, there are some great organizations, 211.org is great, if you need rental assistance, justshelter.org is great, a nonprofit that helps people who are facing eviction, get match with organizations that can help them or talk to your landlord about even using your security deposit, Christi, to pay this month or partial of this month's rent right now, until you get back up on your feet or our politicians come to a compromise.

PAUL: Is there any indication, Ted, that landlords are being a little less stringent about this right now?

JENKIN: Well, I think so, Christi. Look it doesn't help them to have an empty apartment building and it certainly doesn't help somebody to get evicted. So, this is why I say talk to your landlord now and try and work something out because certainly, with a lot of vacancies, they simply can't run an apartment building.

PAUL: Good point, Ted Jenkin, always good to have you with us, thank you, sir.

JENKIN: Right, thanks, Christi.

BLACKWELL: Up next, we'll tell you about a top college that is cutting a number of sports -- sports, I should say, as it tries to stay afloat. Coy Wire has the story when we come back.

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[06:45:00]

BLACKWELL: One of college sports biggest programs is cutting several sports it says it can no longer afford because of the pandemic.

PAUL: So is the football this Fall for instance. The University of Iowa is also dropping men's tennis, men's gymnastics and swimming and diving. Coy Wire is here with us. I mean, it's bad enough that things are going virtual, you know, for these students who are so excited to go to college, but this, Coy, I mean, what do you make of the announcement? COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Yes, good morning Christi and Victor.

These decisions to cut sports programs not only affect the athletes, coaches and staff, already at the school, but potentially thousands of high school athletes with dreams of playing the sport they love in college.

In an open letter to Hawkeye nation, Iowa school president and the athletic director say they are heartbroken. They expect the Athletics Department to finish the year with as much as a $75 million deficit, forcing them to cut the four programs you mentioned, Christi.

Title IX expenses and the sports history depending on which one it was were all things that a school considered. This could be a glimpse into the future of college sports even beyond a pandemic. Last month, Stanford University announced they will cut 11 sports due to financial strain. Both the PAC-12 and Big 10 are considering moving four sports including football to next Spring.

Now, for today's difference makers, when MLS returned last month, players had just formed Black Players for Change and vowed that social justice wouldn't take a back seat to the game, staging an eight minute, 46 second protest in tribute to George Floyd. Now their efforts are the focus of the documentary, "Say It Loud" produced by the black-owned Black Arrow FC.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First and foremost, athletes are humans, and humans molded through different experiences. Me as a Black-American, obviously, I have faced certain experiences, the second I went pro, I wanted to make sure that I was speaking for people who didn't have that voice. We were really appreciative of all the partners involved and particularly Black Arrow who followed us in a little bit more depth.

AARON DOLORES, BLACK ARROW FC: The MLS players coming together and then reaching out to us and saying, hey, would you come cover this because we want you to tell our story. That was super powerful what you saw was just very candid in face-to-face conversations.

JEREMY EBOBISSE, PORTLAND TIMBERS: Unifying voices through Black Lives for Change has been a vehicle for continued conversation. Photo ops are powerful. Symbol strikes narratives and that's what we put out before that first game. But we want those symbols and those narratives that we are pushing to lead to tangible action as well.

DOLORES: Just working with those guys hand-in-hand, I could tell you that they're not -- they're not playing around, this symbolic gesture of this protest, they were already thinking past that of like what are we actually going to do.

EBOBISSE: But now it's our job to continue to use our organization to push for those changes that we want to see within the MLS ecosystem, but also within the local communities which we want to see better marketing, we want to see the league and different professional teams showing up in the black community and not for a photo op, but in a concerted programming effort so that black youth can say, hey, I see someone that looks like me. This sport might be for me in the long run as well. I can continue. I will be given every opportunity if I work hard to succeed in this sport too.

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[06:50:00]

WIRE: Difference makers, creating positive change. I'm going to post a link to Twitter @coywire to the entire documentary, "Say It Loud", Victor, Christi, it's eight minutes and 46 seconds long.

BLACKWELL: Wow, potential message there. Coy Wire, thanks so much.

PAUL: Thanks, Coy. So Metallica is set to perform their first concert in a year. This is going to be virtual. What band members told Chloe Melas, stay close.

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[06:55:00]

PAUL: There they are. Rock band Metallica set to perform their first concert in a year. They'd be performing next weekend. The virtual show is part of a drive-in night series at theaters across the country and in Canada.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Blake Shelton and Garth Brooks did this recently, it was pretty successful.

PAUL: CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas is with us now. And Chloe, I know that you actually talked with some of the band numbers. What are they saying about this new way of doing things and what they want their fans to know?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, good morning, Christi and Victor, we all miss going see concerts. I know that I miss seeing live music in person. And like you guys said, they're following in the footsteps of very successful drive-in concert series that had been put on by this company called Encore drive across the country. Blake Shelton, Garth Brooks now Metallica, I caught up with Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo about why they decided to do this.

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LARS ULRICH, METALLICA CO-FOUNDER & DRUMMER: Obviously, it's been a surreal five months for everybody, musicians included. So our whole MO really is always to try to figure out how we would connect to an audience, how we would connect to our fans, how do we get music out there for our own sanity, for everybody else's, hopefully wellbeing.

We're happy to hopefully find another way to connect to our fans, and like I said to just get music out there. We filed this under an experiment. We understand that it's probably not something that you can return to over and over again, be the value of these things may be once or twice. So, whatever and obviously, also hoping that we will be able to get back out there and play at some point, you know, six months to a year from now.

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MELAS: Right, so in case you guys are wondering how this works, you guys -- you buy one ticket, six people can fit into the car, it's going to be in Atlanta, New York even in Canada, cities all across the country. You drive up and you stay in your car, the music gets piped in through your radio.

You're not actually going to be seeing Metallica in the flesh on stage, this is a concert that they pre-taped recently at a secret location, but I can tell you, it was in Sedona. And you know, it's a way for them to connect with fans and for us all to feel like we're a part of that concert experience.

Now, they did say it's probably going to be a year until they tour again. The date before this concert on August 29th, actually their new album "S&M" too drops, and that was with the San Francisco symphony. But something else that we spoke about which I think is really important because so many celebrities and music artists are weighing in on this is masks becoming a political statement, whether masks should be politicized, and here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ULRICH: There's a speed limit on the street outside my house, there's a speed limit on the freeways around the United States for a reason, for the citizens' safety. And so -- and obviously, there are a thousands of examples like that.

So wearing masks, of course, it's been politicized like everything else in this country is being politicized in the last few years or even beyond that. But at some point, I think it's also OK too in the conversation to just go, you know -- if you want to politicize it, fine, but you can also just put it into a common sense, you know, it's just common sense.

ROBERT TRUJILLO, BASSIST, METALLICA: There are different types of people, some people are losing -- obviously losing their temper on this stuff. And I'm always telling people, just keep a positive mindset and try and create happiness, you know, it goes a long way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: So, you know, we heard Stevie Nicks, we've heard Matthew McConaughey, Christi and Victor, talk about the importance of wearing a mask no matter where your political values lie. And you know, they also talked about their time that they're spending with their family. You had Robert telling me that he has become his family's chef and he's cooking every single night.

And I can relate to that because I can say my cooking is not that great and everybody is having to eat it right now. And then obviously Lars also spoke to me about just spending that time with his children and his sons and talking about rock music, and kind of talking about things that they've never really spoken about before and just enjoying this time together.

PAUL: New times. New times today --

BLACKWELL: We call it, Christi, the reset.

PAUL: I call it the reset.

BLACKWELL: It is the reset.

PAUL: It is the sort of resetting the way we run our lives, maybe some of our priorities.

BLACKWELL: Our roles.

PAUL: Trying to find the good, yes, trying to find the good --

BLACKWELL: And our families, absolutely.

PAUL: All right, thank you Chloe, we appreciate you.

BLACKWELL: Thanks Chloe.

MELAS: Thanks guys, good to see you.

PAUL: You, too.