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New Day Sunday
Trump Doubles Down On Divisive Messaging In July Fourth Speech; Protesters Topple Christopher Columbus Status In Baltimore; Florida Sets New Record Of Highest Coronavirus Cases In One Day; Trump Incorrectly Claims 99 Percent Of COVID-19 Cases "Totally Harmless"; Florida Reported More Than 11,000 Cases On Saturday; Two Dead, Eight Injured In South Carolina Nightclub Shooting. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired July 05, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:13]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This Independence Day is like none other. The coronavirus pandemic forced much of the country to cancel the usual public celebrations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump this evening for the second night in a row focusing his Independence Day remarks on exploding cultural divisions.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are now in the process of defeating the radical left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Holiday celebrations were overshadowed in some places by demands for social justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore toppled by protesters and dumped in the harbor.
TRUMP: We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We want to wish you a good morning on this Sunday, July fifth. I'm Christi Paul.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savidge in today for Victor Blackwell.
PAUL: Yes. All right. Fourth of July weekend has been unlike any we've ever seen, isn't it? Americans trying to find the balance between celebrating, staying safe during a pandemic. The president doubling down on the country's cultural tensions.
SAVIDGE: In his Independence Day speech last night, President Trump at one point equated the fight to defeat what he calls the radical left with America's battle against the Nazis and terrorists. The president also raged against the angry mob he says wants to erase our history invoking divisive figures like Christopher Columbus. Just last night protesters in Baltimore, Maryland tore down a statue of Columbus and then threw it into the harbor.
PAUL: The focus of a lot of people this weekend has been getting control over the coronavirus. It's not under control in Florida. The state reported a new single-day record yesterday, 11,458 new cases in one day. That's more than the previous highest single-day total reported by New York which happened back in April.
SAVIDGE: Many beaches in the state are closed this weekend. But of those that remain open like Clearwater Beach, crowds showed up. A similar attempt to make the most of the holidays playing out across the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): As America celebrated her 244th birthday, public health officials pleaded with Americans to keep safe, noting the worst public health crisis in anyone's memory isn't going away. The numbers tell the story. Coronavirus infections are spreading like wildfire in 36 states with Arizona, Texas, Florida and California posting record infection rates this past week alone.
Nationwide, the death toll is nearing 130,000. And almost 3 million people had been infected. So for this weekend anyway, the hope was that Americans would be mindful and avoid large crowds to help prevent COVID spread. Well, the results seemed to be a mixed bag.
On the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Fourth of July crowd size did appear to be much smaller than in years past. Even so, few of the spectators watching the grand fireworks show from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial were donning masks.
At the White House, the president and first lady hosted a Fourth of July event on the lawn. And there, too, little sign of social distancing or masks in use. In New York City, which was hard hit by the coronavirus spread early on the show did go on. But city officials were hopeful many revelers would watch the spectacular fireworks show from home.
Meanwhile, video footage from North Carolina's Outer Banks, Alabama's Orange Beach and California's Manhattan Beach all showed people putting safety to the side in favor of a little fun in the sun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not necessarily concerned. It's not more about partying. It's about celebrating America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very afraid of coronavirus. So, I'm here far from other people.
SAVIDGE: Health officials are quick to point out the current surge followed similar public behavior over the long Memorial Day weekend. The fear now is the surge may only get worse. And once again, we may see hospitals overwhelmed with patients.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: And at least 12 states are experiencing a sharp rise in the number of daily hospitalizations. And with more patients comes critical shortages. Things like beds, ventilators and ultimately medical staff.
PAUL: Yes. Martin, President Trump is comparing the nation's fight against the Nazis and terrorists to his efforts to defeat American political opponents.
SAVIDGE: He falsely claimed that 99 percent of coronavirus cases in the U.S. are totally harmless in his words.
[06:05:05]
We have to remind you nearly 130,000 Americans have died of coronavirus. CNN's Sarah Westwood joins us now from the White House.
Sarah, what more can you tell us about what is clearly a strategy on the part of the president here?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, good morning, Martin.
Yes. We heard from President Trump the doubling down on that message of preserving American history. It's clearly a message that he is intent to amplify because it was very similar to what we heard from the president at Mount Rushmore. Another shot fired in this culture war that he is intent on fighting.
He claimed the goal of his political opponents is the demolition of American history. Those are his words. And like you said he likened that fight to the fight against Nazis and against terrorists.
Independence Day speeches for presidents are not typically partisan affairs but during that speech last night, the president talked about defeating the left.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WESTWOOD: Now, the president also claims without evidence that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are harmless. That's not the case. Although there is a large degree of asymptomatic spread. Nearly 130,000 Americans have died at this point and hospitalizations, we are seeing an uptick of those in some states.
Also at that July Fourth party at the White House hosted on the south lawn last night, we did not see a whole lot of social distancing. There were not that many guests that CNN saw wearing masks. Many of them because of the heat were congregated in tight clusters in the shade. So, it is also not clear if the White House was checking temperatures
or screening guests who arrived. We've asked but the White House hasn't provided that information, Martin and Christi.
PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, appreciate it so much. As always thank you.
So, we want to get a reality check on this with CNN medical analyst, Dr. Kent Sepkowitz. He's a deputy physician and chief for quality safety, also an infection control expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Doctor, thank you so much for being with us. First, we want to get your reaction.
DR. KENT SEPKOWITZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
PAUL: Good morning.
First we want to get your reaction to President Trump's claim, again, on testing, driving the case count right now and that 99 percent are totally harmless.
SEPKOWITZ: Yes. I think it all is of appease with his decision to never wear a mask and his hope that it will go away if he wills it away.
The one percent number is ridiculous. I mean, I think we've seen a U.S. death rate in the range of four to five percent. We know that.
Many of the survivors have a very long, difficult road ahead. So, I think that these are incredibly irresponsible claims. None more so than the notion that testing is the problem rather than the solution. It's the only way out of this. His blaming of testing is the most preposterous of all the misinformation.
SAVIDGE: Doctor, let me ask you this. You may have seen the crowds over the beaches, of course, at the Washington, D.C. festivities maybe, you saw them in your own area. And I'm wondering just from what you've observed, are you satisfied with the precautions that people took or are you worried now that we could see more spread?
SEPKOWITZ: Absolutely worried. Absolutely appalled. It's very hard to watch.
I mean, we went through this in March and April and May in New York. And it was the most horrifying experience I've been through as a physician. And now we're seeing it play out elsewhere. And we're seeing that doctors and nurses in Arizona and Florida and Texas and California going through what New York City went through needlessly. One could argue that New York could have prepared better but nobody really knew how bad this could get.
On the other hand, with the current states that are ablaze with this infection, we all knew what to do. We all knew how to prevent it. So, this is really agonizing to watch such a preventable problem devastate family after family after family. PAUL: So, when we're talking about cases in Florida where we've seen more than 11,000 cases just overnight, what do you think at this point needs to happen to keep this from getting worse?
SEPKOWITZ: Yes. The only good news in all of this is that simple interventions really, really work.
[06:10:00]
The governor there and the president everywhere has to get behind social distancing, really active testing and masks. It's not pretty. It's not fun. But it works.
You know, how many people do we have to sort of see get sick and even die before every little town and every city and every state and governor realizes that it's not popular? It might even lose votes, but you have to step up and demand these three simple interventions. It's just exasperating. It's exasperating.
SAVIDGE: Doctor, if I could I'd like to ask you, the death rate most recently has been lower than what we're accustomed to seeing.
SEPKOWITZ: Yes.
SAVIDGE: And I'm wondering whether that is encouraging to you or you just see this as a lagging indicator. In other words the deaths will rise as the numbers rise.
SEPKOWITZ: All of the above. I don't think we will see the devastation that we saw in New York in terms of deaths, New Jersey, Connecticut. So much of the first wave of deaths the early April -- March, April, May, deaths were nursing home patients and staff.
"The New York Times" has done a remarkable job calling nursing homes. In an article this week, they found that 54,000 of the 120 whatever thousand deaths were nursing home residents or staff. Mostly the residents, 43 percent of all the deaths. So I think that the infection got into the nursing homes in the northeast and the Midwest, the upper Midwest. It doesn't seem to be happening yet in Texas, California, Florida, Arizona to the same extent.
SAVIDGE: Yes.
SEPKOWITZ: (INAUDIBLE) a lot that it will.
SAVIDGE: Well, let's hope it doesn't. Doctor Kent Sepkowitz, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
SEPKOWITZ: Thank you so much.
PAUL: Thank you, Doctor.
SAVIDGE: We should point out later this morning on "STATE OF THE UNION" FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn discusses the surge in coronavirus cases. Plus, as the president calls Russian bounties on U.S. troops a hoax, senators Joni Ernst and Tammy Duckworth will weigh in. That's on "STATE OF THE UNION." It will be live and it starts this morning at 9:00.
PAUL: Following some breaking news this hour, we understand at least two people were killed and eight injured in a nightclub shooting. This happened in South Carolina.
SAVIDGE: Sheriff's deputies in Greenville County were responding to a call when they heard shots -- gunshots inside of the club. Investigators say it was packed for the Fourth of July -- for a concert that was taking place at the time.
PAUL: Pandemic restrictions are still in place, by the way, across South Carolina. So, it's not clear if the club had permission to host the event. Investigators say there have been no arrests made as of yet. But we're going to continue obviously to track the story.
Coming up in the next half hour, we will speak with the Greenville County sheriff as well to get the latest information for you.
Stay with us. Because still to come, CNN goes inside a Texas hospital that is overwhelmed with coronavirus cases. You do not want to miss this. It's really a gripping look at life for the staff and for the patients right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:30]
SAVIDGE: Hospital across the country are preparing for a flood of new COVID-19 patients as cases rapidly climb. This week the director of the CDC says that at least 12 states are seeing a rise in daily hospitalizations.
PAUL: Now, this increase can once again overwhelm hospitals and limit critical resources talking about staffing, beds and ventilators. CNN's Miguel Marquez takes a look at what's happening inside one hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): San Antonio Methodist Hospital, the lungs of a 29-year-old badly damaged by the coronavirus need a CAT scan. Patients so critically ill, what should be easy takes enormous coordination and a small army just to get them from A to B.
ADAM SAHYOUNI, COVID ICU NURSE MANAGER, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: We are having an explosion of COVID. We aren't overrun yet, but it's overwhelming.
MARQUEZ: Overwhelming now and expected to get worse in the days ahead. San Antonio's Bear County has seen a sharp rise in the percent of those testing positive for the virus. In just the last 30 days, the weekly average of those testing positive has gone from 3.6 percent to more than 20 percent.
So many infections increasingly moms to be infected with the coronavirus. Methodist Hospital now has a dedicated unit in its NICU for babies born to mothers who have it.
(on camera): That picture that every mom wants of the baby being born and holding the baby, does that happen with babies in COVID?
MEAGAN VANDEWARK, NICU CHARGE NURSE, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: Unfortunately, no. We have to -- as soon as the baby is born, they do bring them right to us outside of the door. So, it's just a very brief moment that the mom might get a glimpse.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): In the womb, the virus isn't typically transmitted from mother to child. But during the birthing process, the risk of infection goes up, and treating newborns with the coronavirus, much more complicated. Though these babies have tested negative, they are treated as suspect positive. Health care workers wear full PPE. And these babies born to moms with the coronavirus are kept separated from others just in case.
(on camera): You have five babies in here right now?
VANDEWARK: Yes.
MARQUEZ: You have room for 16.
VANDEWARK: Yes.
MARQUEZ: Do you think you're going to be full up?
VANDEWARK: I do. The way things are going, we're admitting pretty frequently, yes.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Christy Labastida, only 36-years-old is expecting her fourth child. Both she and her fiance have the coronavirus.
[06:20:02]
CHRISTY LABASTIDA, COVID PATIENT AND EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT: Mainly the thing that really hurt was my bones were just -- I couldn't lay down. It was just hurting.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Your bones?
LABASTIDA: My bones. It just --
MARQUEZ: Like your entire skeleton, your body.
LABASTIDA: Like my bones -- yes, even to my pinky of my toes.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Pregnancy hard enough without that. She took precautions and isn't sure how she got it, now only hoping she recovers and she, her three kids and fiance are coronavirus free, by the time she gives birth in about a month.
LABASTIDA: I'm extremely stressed. I am a very strong woman. I tend to do a lot, and now that I can't and I need that help, it's taking a toll. MARQUEZ: Methodist Hospital may be seeing the beginning of a sharp increase nationwide of moms with coronavirus giving birth.
DR. KELLY MORALES, OBSTETRICIAN/GYNECOLOGIST, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: There's actually some literature out there to support it with 30 percent asymptomatic rate. So that means --
MARQUEZ (on camera): Thirty percent?
MORALES: Thirty percent asymptomatic rate.
MARQUEZ: Of moms coming in?
MORALES: Of moms coming in.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Pregnancy and coronavirus only one piece of the pandemic. Methodist Hospital treating a rising tides of critically sick patients.
DR. JEFFREY DELLAVOLPE, PULMONARY PHYSICIAN, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: The last few weeks has just been overwhelming is how I would describe it. There's been more and more patients than we really know what to do with. The patients are getting younger and they're more sick. And --
MARQUEZ (on camera): How much younger?
DELLAVOLPE: It's going from, you know, probably 50s and 60s for the first wave to -- I've lost track of how many 20 -- people in their 20s.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): This is Methodist's COVID Unit II. It's one of three specialized COVID units at the hospital. Patient rooms sealed off, each one turned into negative pressure chambers, so staff only need to don PPE if they go into one of the bays.
MARQUEZ (on camera): So you have 14 rooms, how many are filled?
SAHYOUNI: Fourteen.
MARQUEZ: Wow.
SAHYOUNI: With a waiting list.
MARQUEZ: How long is that list?
SAHYOUNI: It's long.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): The hospital is creating more beds, but for now this is where the sickest of the sick are treated.
DELLAVOLPE: Yesterday was probably one of my worst days that I've ever had.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Why? DELLAVOLPE: I got 10 calls, all of whom young people who otherwise would be excellent candidates to be able to put on ECMO. They're so sick that if they don't get put on, they don't get that support, they're probably going to die. I had three beds. And making that decision, being able to figure out who really is going to benefit. It is a level of decision making that I don't think a lot of us are prepared for.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Those calls coming from other hospitals across South Texas with patients so sick that Methodist may be their last hope.
Methodist Hospital uses a procedure to oxygenate the blood and keep patients off ventilators. It's called ECMO or Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation. Today Dr. Dellavolpe is inserting large tubes in the veins of a 33-year-old. They run from the groin all the way to the heart, the blood comes out of the body is mechanically oxygenated, then returned back to the heart almost immediately. The Methodist team has had a lot of practice, the procedure taking only a few minutes.
DELLAVOLPE: It involves being able to take a large cannula -- they're almost like small garden hoses is how I would describe them. They have to be able to pump about two or three gallons of blood per minute through them. So, one is draining blood out, and the other one is return.
MARQUEZ: The blood coming out of the patient is dark. It just looks unhealthy. The blood returning is bright red, loaded with oxygen. Almost immediately oxygen level in the patient's blood goes back to near normal. Their chance of survival now better than if they were on a ventilator.
DELLAVOLPE: I think the ventilator really causes a lot of harm. We're finding that causes harm in general, but it certainly causes harm when we're talking about patients with COVID.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Because their lungs are so weak to begin with?
DELLAVOLPE: Because their lungs are so weak and because probably there's other reasons why patients are having trouble.
MARQUEZ: The ventilator is pushing oxygen into the lung.
DELLAVOLPE: That's right.
MARQUEZ: Into damaged lungs.
DELLAVOLPE: That's right. So not only are you having all of the problems with the blood vessels and the clotting in your blood vessels, not only are you have having all of the problems of oxygen not being able to get to your organs and organs shutting down from that. But now you're artificially pushing air into your lungs and causing more damage that way.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Another hard lesson that the pandemic and the virus healthcare providers everywhere are still struggling to understand.
SAHYOUNI: We don't quite understand why one person with lab values of X does well, while a person with lab values that appear to be better doesn't make it. And a mask is not a big ask to help save your life.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): The work and stress for healthcare workers everywhere crushing with rates of infection rising, they expect more work and stress ahead.
[06:25:03]
Stressful for patients as well, who are sick, isolated from everyone.
MARQUEZ (on camera): How tough is it to be in your room all day just sitting there?
MICHAEL VASQUEZ, COVID PATIENT: Oh, man, if you could just hear that unit in the room, it will drive you nuts at first, but you get past it.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Twenty-eight year old Michael Vasquez works in a warehouse. He isn't sure how he got sick. He's part of a new program here to get patients up and walking as soon as possible, even a little bit helping both physically and mentally.
(on camera): What has it done to your lungs?
VASQUEZ: It really made them fatigue, really bad, with the -- sorry--
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Vasquez isn't sure if there will be any long- term effects to his lungs. Right now he's focused on getting home to his wife and seven-year-old son.
VASQUEZ: I just miss, you know, their presence there. You know, miss holding your wife, kissing your son goodnight, going to his room, making sure he is OK. I miss that a lot.
DR. MISHA PETER, PULMONARY CRITICAL CARE, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: We know that when people walk, when people sleep better, when people see bright light, they get better sooner. We know all of this. I think on some level, we're having to re-learn it with COVID, because of our response to it. You know, obviously, our need to keep ourselves safe, to keep staff safe.
So, it's not unexpected that we kind of ended up isolating people, whether we meant to or not.
MARQUEZ: Another lesson of the pandemic trying to reduce recovery times and free up beds badly needed for an expected growing surge of people seriously sick with the coronavirus.
DR. JENNIFER GEMMILL, EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT PHYSICIAN MEDICAL DIRECTOR: Right now we are so full upstairs that we are having some delays in getting the patients upstairs because there just aren't beds that are prepared and ready for COVID patients. So, we are holding a lot of them in the emergency department right now. Some for hours, some for days.
MARQUEZ: What's driving the surge here? Doctors aren't entirely sure, but based on what they hear from patients, there was a sense that the worst was behind us.
GEMMILL: I don't think that there was one specific incidence that really led to this spike. I think people after March and April were extremely frustrated with being inside and as soon as those restrictions lifted, they wanted to get out, some protected themselves, some didn't, and now we're just seeing the results of that.
MARQUEZ: With the holiday weekend coming up, the fear now the surge of patients will become a tidal wave.
SAHYOUNI: I don't think I've seen anything like this ever. And I would say that if you want to see August first, then maybe you should stay indoors and isolate on July fourth.
MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: And our thanks to Miguel for that incredible look in what the medical community is up against there in Texas.
In other news, protesters destroyed yet another controversial monument. This one a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore.
Coming up, how President Trump used his Independence Day message to target demonstrations just like this one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
PAUL: Following some breaking news this hour. At least two people killed and eight have been injured in a nightclub shooting in South Carolina this morning.
SAVIDGE: It happened very early this morning in Greenville County, South Carolina. And joining us by telephone is the Greenville County sheriff, Hobart Lewis. And, Sheriff, thank you for taking time out of what we know has been an extremely busy night. How about the basics of what we know about what happened?
SHERIFF HOBART LEWIS, GREENVILLE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: Around 1:50 this morning, our deputies were traveling down White Horse Road here in Greenville County. They saw a large commotion and pulled in to check it out. It was an actively involved shooting at that time. The deputies made entry and started rendering aid.
By this time, the shooters had all left in various cars. There were several hundred people inside. EMS or first responders showed up and transported four people to the hospital. We have ten total that were injured and two of those have passed away as a result of the gunshots. And we're working now on identifying suspects. We don't really know what started the shooting inside the club. We don't know who initiated it. There was a band or a group performing. I think they had some involvement. I don't know if they initiated it, but they were involved at some point.
PAUL: So the band was -- band members you suspected were involved in this.
LEWIS: That's correct.
PAUL: But you say suspects. How many suspects are you looking for right now?
LEWIS: We know certainly two. There may be more. There were multiple shots fired. We don't even have a round count yet of how actually many rounds were shot. But we do know for sure from video that was posted that there were at least two shooters.
SAVIDGE: Sheriff, can I ask you about this gathering? I know that South Carolina is under restrictions due to COVID-19. What do we know about -- was this legal? Was it appropriate to be gathering in this number at this time?
LEWIS: No, it was not. It was directly in violation of the executive orders signed by Governor Henry McMaster here in South Carolina, which is 2020-42 that restricts nightclubs as well as any type of concerts.
Now, they could have possibly filed for an appeal with the governor's office to see if they tried to appeal that order in which case they would have been allowed to operate.
[06:35:03]
So we're working on finding out whether or not they had done that.
PAUL: All right. Sheriff Hobart Lewis, I thank you for bringing us up to date. We wish you the very best trying to figure this out. Please keep us posted this morning. We'll do what we can to get word out about what's happening. But thank you for your time.
SAVIDGE: Thank you.
LEWIS: Yes, thank you, Martin.
PAUL: And we'll keep you posted as well as we learn more information. Again, two people dead, eight people injured and at least two suspects being sought right now. So we'll let you know what we hear.
Independence Day, of course, saw more protests across the country, including in Baltimore. Protesters down a statue of Christopher Columbus.
SAVIDGE: Witnesses say about 300 people gathered in the downtown before marching to that statue. They say, the statue broke into pieces when it was toppled. Protesters then dragged the pieces to the harbor and threw them in. The statue had stood in the Little Italy area for more than 30 years.
The city council president said he had previously suggested that it should be removed.
PAUL: So President Trump delivered another divisive speech to mark Independence Day in Washington.
SAVIDGE: It's on a day that's dedicated to the unity of this nation. The president promised to protect American values from enemies within. He painted protests against racial injustice sweeping the country as a plot to destroy America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not allow anyone to divide our citizens by race or background. We will not allow them to foment hate, discord and distrust. We will hold fast and true to the sacred loyalties that link us all as neighbors, as Americans and as patriots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: All right. Let's bring in now CNN Chief Media Correspondent and Host of Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter. And, Brian, this 4th of July, many Americans are grappling with this country as it relates to racial inequality. They're also grappling with the pandemic. But all of that seems almost lost on the president.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, basically no mention of the pandemic in the president's 4th of July remarks but lots of talk about the culture war issues that are dividing the country and that are being stoked by right-wing media.
A great headline in "The Washington Post" overnight, saying, in Trump's new version of American carnage, the threat is not immigrants or foreign nations, it is other Americans.
Now, the president is leaning into this message about far-left radicals claiming that essentially that protesters are really extremists out to tear down the country. That does not relate in any way to the pictures we see on television, the protests that we see that are largely about peaceful marches down streets all across this country.
But it also speaks to how hollow the rhetoric is, because you mentioned what happened in Baltimore, where there was a statue torn down, one of three Columbus statues in Baltimore. So that's important context, I think.
When that's happening, exactly the same time that's happening, the president is promising he will never let an angry mob tear down a statue. So he's mostly about talk, not action. But that talk is something that certainly does try to deepen divides heading into the general election campaign.
PAUL: So, Brian, one thing that I've noticed as I watch the president at the last 48 hours, he seems to be, and please correct me if I'm wrong, staying on script, which means that the things he's saying are speeches that are intentionally written, this is not impromptu on his part. What does that tell us about whether these are his own thoughts or if this is something he has support for in his administration?
STELTER: Yes, that's a very good point. This is what we used to call Teleprompter Trump, where he would sometimes stick to the script for big moments. He has been doing that, it seems. These are pre-prepared speeches, Mt. Rushmore and then Washington. To me, it's kind of a Stephen Miller-type of rhetoric about the real America, so it sounds like to me. And it does show that this is a strategy, you know, that he is sticking to the script in some ways.
And he does what I think of as the trump two-step. And I think, rhetorically, this is impressive. What he does is he says, we're all united, we're all Americans. He talks the same way every other president has and says, we're all in this together. But then he attacks people that he calls anarchists and agitators.
So he says things for both audiences. He says enough in these speeches that sounds uniting, that sounds like it's all about the best of America and those are the quotes that the Fox News world will promote and highlight. But then he also talks in a very divisive way is about fellow Americans. So he can do both in the same speech and create different kinds of conversations around his speeches as a result.
[06:40:04]
I think so much of this, so much of politics right now comes back to a simple idea that Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute talked about. He said, for decades, for centuries actually, for centuries, white people controlled the table and invited other people to have a chair at the table over time.
Now, nobody controls the table. Nobody has complete control of the table. The country is more and more of a multicultural melting pot. White people get a chair at the table, just like everybody else, pull up a chair, everybody is invited. But that loss of control, that fear of cultural change, is so profound, it's essentially white identity politics. And the president, more and more, is leaning into that fear of cultural change.
PAUL: Brian Stelter, great information this morning. Thank you so much, always good to see you, Stelter.
STELTER: Thank you.
PAUL And you can catch him on Reliable Sources later today at 11:00 A.M. Eastern right here on CNN, of course.
SAVIDGE: And still to come, as coronavirus spike, Chicago is also dealing with a rise in gun violence. We'll explain the city's gun a violence amid this incredible pandemic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:45:00]
PAUL: So, as coronavirus are rising across the country, we're talking about gun violence persisting. Chicago has seen an increase in shootings. They're up 33 percent from the same time last year. That's according to police.
SAVIDGE: Yes. Just last weekend, a toddler and ten-year-old were killed in separate incidents. And over Father's Day weekend, 11 people were killed, including four children.
CNN's Omar Jimenez takes a look at the gun violence of the city's gun violence with the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's become an all too familiar scene, the intersection of coronavirus and gun violence in Chicago.
Compared to last year, shootings up 40 percent, homicides up more than 30 percent. So, just point-blank, what is happening right now?
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO, IL: All of these forces are coming together at the same time and making it very difficult.
JIMENEZ: Officials point to months of people cooped up indoors, first responders, including police that have either been infected with COVID or died. The Cook County Jail was hit with hundreds of detainees either infected or dead. Courts have had to close, and more.
LIGHTFOOT: These layers and layers and layers of things that have complicated. The ecosystem of public system, that isn't just law enforcement. But as local community-based, they too have really been hit hard by COVID and are now just kind of coming back online and getting their footing.
JIMENEZ: Over the course of nearly two weeks alone, a ten-year-old was shot and killed, so was a one-year-old.
Mekhi James was three.
MARTHESHA JAMES, AUNT OF MEKHI JAMES: Never see him again.
JIMENEZ: Mekhi was riding with his dad when someone opened fire on the car.
CHRISTAL ALLEN, AUNT OF MEKHI JAMES: He and children (ph) talk about that. I feel as if they shouldn't know anything about death at a young age.
JAMES: But they do.
ALLEN: But they do.
JIMENEZ: Their children now carrying the caskets of children.
ALLEN: We had to say that he is okay. We're walking to the steps, be strong, hold your head up, don't drop the casket.
JIMENEZ: Citywide, 2020 is on pace to be one of the deadliest years in decades for the city despite months of people staying inside. At the jail, the population is at its lowest levels ever but the reluctance to add more inmates.
KIM FOXX, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: We have a jail that can only maintain a limited population because of COVID-19. And we should be making sure that our attention is going after those who are causing harm to our communities. The jail is the last stop on a system of failure long before they get to us.
JIMENEZ: Among the alternatives to jailing, electronic home monitoring, already at a record level of 2,500 people pre-COVID, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office. Now, that number is up to more than 3,300.
SHERIFF TOM DART, COOK COUNTY JAIL: The home monitoring population not only has gone up dramatically but the people on it are now charged with more violent offenses. These devices were not meant for monitoring those types of people.
JIMENEZ: A task stretching resources dangerously thin.
LIGHTFOOT: Having someone with that kind of history out on the street is highly problematic. We have got to make sure that electronic monitoring is not just electronic and no monitoring.
JIMENEZ: And stopping the cycle of violence will take more than just figuring out where to put the violent.
JAMES: Maybe if they give us a chance to become better and just not think about our past, maybe the guns will stop. When we don't got a chance, we look to the streets.
JIMENEZ: All factors within an ecosystem of public safety already complicated but now more than ever at the intersection of two emergencies, neither with a clear end in sight.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Chicago.
PAUL: That's a tough one to take, isn't it, when you hear those families and what they have to talk to their kids about and what the kids have to experience.
[06:50:00]
We'll continue to watch what's happening in Chicago for you, of course.
We want to take you to England because pub life is a real thing for them. It's officially reopened. And for some, it was a lot like a pre- pandemic Saturday night out. Look at these pictures. We'll tell you what happened. Stay close.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) JIMENEZ: Londoners took advantage of the pubs and restaurants that reopened for the first time since March. And the horrifying thing of looking at this video is, of course, there seems to be no regard whatsoever for social distancing guidelines and, of course, no masks either.
PAUL: Yes. It almost looks as though this is a scene from before any sort of shutdown would have occurred.
[06:55:02]
This is in the famous Soho district of the west end just last night. But they are packed in there, and as martin said, close together, no face coverings.
We did hear reports that the -- that one of the law authorities there was criticizing people for some drunken behavior, let's say. But, I mean, I guess they've been waiting for this. We know they've been waiting for this. But we'll watch and see if anything comes from that in terms of new numbers of cases in England there.
JIMENEZ: Yes. That's the unfortunate consequences. I get it, people have been pent up and they want to get out and socialize. But the consequence is that you're only going to end up back where you were, and that's the bitter and horrible lesson we're learning in this country as well.
PAUL: Yes, I know. And people felt like that too yesterday as we had this chance to celebrate Independence Day. We wanted to be together. We wanted to be in our groups. We wanted to be safe about it. And in case you missed it. We wanted to give you a sweet moment here.
The New York Philharmonic performing America the Beautiful as fireworks light up the sky there. We hope that you enjoy this.
We'll be next in the next hour of New Day starting right after the break.
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[07:00:00]
