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New Day Sunday

More Than 61,000 COVID-19 Cases Recorded In The U.S. On Saturday; Trump Wears Mask Publicly For The First Time As Virus Surges And Cases Soar; Mueller Defends Stone Prosecution: "His Conviction Stands; How Countries Around The World Have Responded To COVID-19; Trump Commuted Sentence Of Roger Stone, Who Was Found Guilty Of Lying To Protect Trump. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired July 12, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: It's NEW DAY, it's a new hour. It's good to be with you. Sunday, July 12th, I'm Victor Blackwell.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Abby Phillip, in for Christi Paul this morning. Thanks for joining us.

This morning, a top medical expert warns that if the U.S. stays on the current path dealing with this coronavirus epidemic, it will reach, quote, one of the most unstable times in the history of our country.

[07:00:07]

Right now, coronavirus cases here in America are surging. More than 61,000 cases were reported on Saturday alone. COVID-19 has killed 685 Americans yesterday.

BLACKWELL: And after months of refusing to wear a mask in public against the recommendations of his administration, President Trump finally wore one during a visit to Walter Reed Medical Center yesterday.

PHILLIP: And meantime, as the president defends his decision to intervene in the case of a former adviser, Robert Mueller, the former special counsel, makes a rare public statement declaring that Roger Stone remains a convicted felon and rightly so.

BLACKWELL: And in just a few minutes, former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe will join us to talk about this.

PHILLIP: The U.S. saw a surge of coronavirus infections in the weeks after Memorial Day and now, new cell phone data suggests that more people are hitting -- or hit the road over the Fourth of July weekend.

BLACKWELL: So, we look at that cellphone data and we see there were lots of visitors to ten states that are now seeing some of the highest spikes and, of course, the question then is how will those states handle the next wave of infections?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL (voice-over): At least 26 states are pausing or rolling back reopening plans in an effort to get the virus spread under control. But Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas all reported record or near-record high numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections in a single day on Saturday.

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D), AUSTIN, TEXAS: Numbers are going up and it is precarious and we're on the edge. Our ICUs are getting more stressed. We're looking at horizons that scare us. But we're also now beginning to get calls from other parts of the state that are hit harder even than we are, asking if we can take folks. It's a scary time.

BLACKWELL: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he's working to secure tests with faster results after a hospital system president stressed the need for more resources.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Of course, our mission really focuses on protecting the vulnerable from the very beginning, we wanted to expand testing. We're definitely doing that.

BLACKWELL: Disney World in Florida reopened its gates on Saturday to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Epcot and Hollywood Studios scheduled to reopen Wednesday.

REP. DONNA SHALALA (D-FL): I'm not as worried about people that are in the Disney enterprise. But what happens when they leave? And what happens when they travel to get there? That's the worry.

Disney has millions dollars to spend. It tells you how difficult it's going to be to open schools if we don't have billions of dollars.

BLACKWELL: Educators across the country are trying to find a way to get students back in classrooms safely. Atlanta public schools will not bring students back into the classrooms as the school year starts because in Georgia, one of the earliest states to reopen, there are more than 114,000 confirmed cases and almost 3,000 deaths.

LISA HERRING, SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We had to make a serious decision relative to the safety and the wellness of our staff and students for reopening. Initially, our first day of school would have been August 10th. The recommendation is for us to move back to August 24th. And then, most importantly, to do that in a virtual capacity.

BLACKWELL: The U.S. has more than 3.2 million cumulative cases. That's more than the population of 21 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. And the CDC now estimates 40 percent of the people infected with COVID-19 have no symptoms.

There is some good news. The state of Vermont has a seven-day positivity rate of 0.5 percent. That's the lowest in the country, Governor Phil Scott said in a tweet yesterday.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: It's the few states moving in the right direction and, of course, Abby, we're going to talk more about trying to reopen schools in the fall and with plans, administrators are trying to put together across the country.

PHILLIP: That still remains the biggest issue, it seems, for many parents and families, Victor. Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PHILLIP: After months of refusing to wear a mask in public, President Trump is finally putting one on while visiting service members at Walter Reed Medical Center on Sunday.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Sarah Westwood joins us now from the White House.

So, you know, he should have been doing this for the entire length of the time that the CDC has recommended that people wear them in public. But it is something that he's wearing it. We don't know if this is going to happen again or often?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Victor. And this is the result of a long evolution for the president on the issue of wearing masks, he had for weeks resisting, going out in public with his face covered despite the push from even within his own circle that he needed to lead by example. Some of his supporters had started to see it as a political statement of sorts. That's something that the president had more or less encouraged in the past.

[07:05:00]

Nonetheless, this was a big step for him, allowing himself to be photographed wearing a mask while visiting Walter Reed Military Medical Center yesterday. He was visiting wounded troops there.

And notably, around him, his senior staff, his chief of staff Mark Meadows, for example, was also seen wearing a mask and the Secret Service agents protecting him. And we have seen Secret Service agents not wearing masks, despite the fact there were a number of agents who have come down with the coronavirus while traveling with the president. So, even that sent a big message that the president is taking this more seriously.

But even so, before he left for Walter Reed, the president told reporters that it was specific to the hospital setting that he planned to wear a mask, suggesting that this may not be a regular occurrence for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll probably have a mask if you must know. I'll probably have a mask. I think when you're in a hospital, especially in that particular setting where you're talking to a lot of soldiers and people in some cases just got off the operating tables, I think it's a great thing to wear a mask. I've never been against masks. But I believe they have a time and a place. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Advisers had been pleading for more than a week to step out wearing a mask. There had been a recognition that the reopening that the president pushed so hard for, the economic recover that he's touted so highly would be put in jeopardy if people didn't start adhering to social distancing guidelines and wearing masks. We have seen some states roll back their reopenings.

For Vice President Joe Biden, his campaign hit back at the president. I want to read you what Biden spokesperson what Biden spokesperson said after the president emerged in that masks. Rather than taking responsibility and leading, he wasted four months that Americans have been making sacrifices by stoking divisions and actively discouraging people from taking a very basic step to protect each other.

Now, the president hasn't really actively discouraged people from wearing masks but he's merely paid lip service to them up to this point. So, again, a big shift for the president on his approach to masks. But, of course, it remains to be seen whether that's something that will last, and we should note that Trump has mocked former Vice President Biden in the past, Biden has been appearing in public with a masks for a couple of months now, Abby and Victor.

PHILLIP: Yes, Sarah, it's a big question whether it will last and whether it's coming too little too late for a lot of the country. Thanks, Sarah.

Let's bring in now Dr. Uche Blackstock, emergency medicine fashion at New York City, in New York City, and a Yahoo News contributor.

Thank you so much for being here, Doctor.

Just to start, I mean, one of the things we've seen is that new data suggests from the CDC that about 40 percent of people who have the coronavirus are asymptomatic. And yet, around the country, we're still seeing all of these symptomatic-based screening procedures, you're seeing in some cases people unable to get tests unless they have symptoms.

What does this say about our ability to really get this virus under control and stop the community spread that seems to be rampant in so many states right now?

DR. UCHE BLACKSTOCK, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: So we are clearly in a dire and very tenuous situation. I'm here in New York City and I was hoping that the rest of the country would learn from what we had gone through in March and April and use that time to ramp up the testing and tracing infrastructure.

Look, things are bad and we need to institute a universal mask mandate. We need to make sure that American manufacturers are producing testing supplies that we need to get these testing rates up. You know, I think that we're in this for a long time and we're going to have a difficult time to control this virus if we don't act now. PHILLIP: And one the issue of masks, the recent letter from 239 scientists claim that coronavirus is airborne and it lingers indoors. One of the reasons why New York City, you know, determined that indoor dining really needed to be put on hold. But it also calls into question, the efficacy of masks and surgical masks, these cloth masks that people are using. How effective do you think they really are?

BLACKSTOCK: That's a great question. Cloth masks, about 30 percent effective. Surgical masks, 60 percent effective. So, this new data says maybe we should be wearing N95 masks. But the problem is we don't have the productionability to make N95 masks. This is especially going into the fall and winter when everyone is going to be indoors, we have a lot of cause for concern seeing the surges that we have now going into that time will cause some issues.

PHILLIP: Yeah. It really does call into question whether we're doing enough now to ramp up that capacity. I wanted to ask you about schools, because we've been talking so much about that on this program. You know, you said in the past that elementary school age children perhaps could go back to school.

But, you know, we've seen in a recent case that just came across in Arizona, three teachers, they shared a classroom over the summer and all three of them got sick. One of them died.

Where are we on this issue of reopening and I mean, do you really think that schools are prepared to put in place the kinds of precautions that they need in order to keep both students and teachers and administrators safe?

BLACKSTOCK: I should definitely clarify that. Elementary school would be safer if we had the infrastructure in place to support an educational environment where we had, you know, cleaning supplies, we could do physical distancing, make sure everyone is wearing masks.

But we also have a situation where there are a considerable number of cases surging. It's definitely not safe to open schools until we get the case loads to a decent level. That's not going to happen any time soon.

So, we can lower the risk by probably instituting remote learning as probably mandatory for most school districts at this point.

PHILLIP: I do want to talk to you about the racial disparities in COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths that we're still seeing all over the country. You know, we talked a hot about the social determinants of health, but for the people listening, for black and brown people across the country, as a doctor, what would you say to them about how they can protect themselves, how they can reduce their own risks and how they can advocate for themselves in the healthcare setting in order to not be at greater risk from having a bad outcome from the coronavirus?

BLACKSTOCK: So, that's a great question. It's an unfortunate question that we have to ask because really it's almost as if the system is stacked against black and brown communities. I would say definitely that in this moment we want to make sure that our community members are wearing masks, enforcing social distancing as much as possible and using good hand washing techniques and sanitizing.

But I think what we need to realize is that we have a situation where through systemic racism, we have placed black and brown communities at a disadvantage in terms of what jobs are available and what -- and housing opportunities. So, ultimately, we're going to need state and local and federal governments to really invest in our communities to ensure that we are safe and healthy.

PHILLIP: It's about accountability, I guess, at the end of the day in the future as well.

BLACKSTOCK: Ultimately.

PHILLIP: Thank you, Dr. Uche Blackstock. Thank you for joining us this morning.

BLACKSTOCK: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Coming up on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning, Jake Tapper will speak with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos and the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Gimenez. That's today at 9:00, right here on CNN.

Still to come this hour, Robert Mueller defends his investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign, I should say against commuting of the sentence for Roger Stone. We'll explain what led to this public statement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:17:34]

BLACKWELL: Former special counsel Robert Mueller is defending his office prosecution of Roger Stone after President Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime adviser.

PHILLIP: Stone celebrated his freedom talking to reporters outside of his home in Florida on Friday. But in a "Washington Post" op-ed, Mueller says Stone is still a convicted felon and rightly so.

BLACKWELL: And with us is CNN Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz.

It's the first time, Katelyn, that we've heard from the former special prosecutor since he testified before Congress almost a year ago.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right. This is an incredibly unusual statement from the special counsel, Robert Mueller. This is someone who led and investigation for two years and said nothing. No comment, constantly throughout that investigation, reluctantly testified before Congress a year ago and has been silent since.

He and his team have let the facts speak for themselves regarding their findings are. But for some reason, because what the White House has been saying has been so inflammatory, Mueller went and wrote an op-ed in "The Washington Post."

This is what he wrote about Stone. It's more than just the fact. He says, I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives improper were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was the victim of our office. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon and rightly so.

So what Mueller is saying here is that he's reiterating this wasn't just an investigation. It was also a finding of guilt by a jury and that Roger Stone still has that conviction. That's much different than what the White House has been saying.

PHILLIP: That's right, Katelyn.

So, President Trump is facing some criticism from Democrats and from some Republicans on this decision. But, of course, President Trump is not being silent. What is he saying?

POLANTZ: Well, the president is -- has been attacking the special counsel since Friday when the White House released the statement announcing Stone's commutation. It has been so inflammatory for people on both sides of the political spectrum because Roger Stone was found guilty for attempting to protect the president, by lying to Congress.

This is what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Roger Stone was treated horribly.

[07:20:01]

Roger Stone was treated very unfairly. Roger Stone was brought into this witch hunt, this whole political witch hunt and the Mueller scam. People are extremely happy because in this country they want justice and roger stone was not treated properly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: And this is a very different thing than what special counsel Mueller has said and a reminder, not a single fact has been proven incompetent correct -- Victor and Abby.

BLACKWELL: Katelyn Polantz for us, thank you so much.

Joining us now is former director of the FBI and CNN senior law enforcement analyst, Andrew McCabe.

Good morning to you.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Victor. BLACKWELL: So, I want to start here with what you told one of my

producers. That it is hard to overstate the significance of Mueller speaking out in this op-ed. Tell us why.

MCCABE: Well, Victor, it's very simple. Robert Mueller, in all of his time in government service, not just as the special counsel, he has always been known to be a person who does not speak to or through the media. So for Director Mueller to have sat down and composed this very clear, very cutting, I might add, op-ed regarding not just Roger Stone but also the way that his investigation and his investigators have been treated, I can only imagine was motivated by an intense level of frustration about how the results of the investigation have been manipulated by the president.

PHILLIP: He probably has some reason to be a little bit concerned. Because what we've seen over the last several months is what seems to be an attempt by the president and in some cases the Justice Department to roll back so much of this investigation. I do want to play what Attorney General Bill Barr said on Friday about the Stone case and about whether or not that investigation was properly handled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, as you know, the stone case was prosecuted while I was attorney general and I supported it. I think it was established, he was convicted of obstructing Congress and witness tampering and I thought that was a righteous prosecution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So the president disagrees with that, obviously. But that's Stone. There's also Michael Flynn, there's also Paul Manafort in the sense that all of these cases could be, you know, subject to pardons or clemency.

What do you think this does to the Justice Department to have this kind of activity going on by the president and in some cases by the department itself?

MCCABE: Well, it's incredibly corrosive to the men and women in the Department of Justice to sit back and watch legitimate, righteous investigations and prosecutions to be constantly debased and attacked by the president.

It's got to be very frustrating for those folks, and it's got to make them wonder about the very, the substance, the foundations of the rule of law they're trying to enforce. It's no secret why the president is frustrated with the conviction of Stone, with the investigation the guilty plea of Flynn and the incredibly complicated status of that matter.

The president doesn't like the fact that these investigations exposed his eventual reliance on Russian assistance to get elected. Russians weighed in, in our political system in 2016 in a way that I think everybody understands now and they did so for the benefit of President Trump. That's a narrative that he will spend the rest of his life trying to rewrite.

So, each one of these individual cases, in this case, Stone receiving his commutation, Flynn, the entire prosecution being undermined by the attorney general and the department, these are all a considered effort to continue to unwind the work and the conclusions of the special prosecutor. We see now that Director Mueller is likely very frustrated by that.

BLACKWELL: No mention of the Russian interference in that 600-word statement that came out from the White House on Friday.

Let me ask you this, because defenders of the president pointed to controversial pardons or commutations, namely Marc Rich in the Clinton administration. But as it relates to Stone, this is especially different. Why?

MCCABE: Well, it's different, Victor, because Stone was convicted for -- specifically for the assistance he was giving the president in the campaign. So this isn't just a matter of a president using his pardon powers to benefit someone who he might have had a preexisting relationship with or might be friends with, something along those lines. Those are questionable calls as well.

This is far beyond that line. It is a president essentially saving one of his political supporters, one of his political operatives from the administration of justice, which in this case was absolutely fair and transparent and above board.

[07:25:05]

So I think it goes considerably beyond some of the other pardons in the last few years.

PHILLIP: So, Robert Mueller defended not charging President Trump in this case in part because of DOJ guidelines. But he also pointed to impeachment as the remedy for this kind of thing. The president was not impeached over the Russia investigation and he was impeached for another reason and acquitted. We're now seeing President Trump acting as if there are no consequences.

Do you think Mueller regrets that decision or is rethinking that decision to not bring charges against President Trump or what he found in the Mueller report?

MCCABE: You know, knowing Director Mueller, I would suspect -- I don't know how he thinks about this because I haven't spoken to him about it. But just knowing him as a person and understanding the seriousness of his convictions, I'm sure he doesn't regret his view of the law and whether or not it would have been proper or permissible to charge a sitting president. And, of course, his determination was it was not.

So, I don't think he regrets that decision. I think he thinks it probably wasn't a decision of his. It was nearly his compliance with I would bet very confidently that he regrets the way the work that team has done has been misrepresented by the president and by the administration. BLACKWELL: Yes, you told Anderson back in February when DOJ dropped

the criminal investigation that being labeled a liar was one of quote, the most sickening and demeaning experiences of our life. And we have to remember that there were prosecutors and investigators, a whole team that worked with Robert Mueller and the president has attacked them for three years now.

Andrew McCabe, always good to have you, sir.

MCCABE: Thanks, Victor.

PHILLIP: Thanks, Andrew.

Up next, we'll look at how other countries are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic compared to the U.S. The contrast, as you can imagine is quite shocking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:22]

PHILLIP: The coronavirus continues to spiral out of control in the U.S., but around the world, many countries have nearly beaten the virus or avoided it altogether.

BLACKWELL: So many countries acted quickly and used various containment strategies to mitigate the spread, something health experts say the U.S. can learn from.

CNN's Max Foster reports from England.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They need help, because there's this horrible virus has hit 188 countries.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is reminding us that plenty of others have struggled with COVID- 19.

But here's the reality: for every 100,000 Americans, at least 40 are dead. And the number of new cases is soaring.

Meanwhile, many parts of the world have either recovered or avoided the brunt of the pandemic altogether.

(on camera): No two strategies were the same. But public health experts tell us that around the world, there was some commonality to the place that is got it right. They took the virus seriously and they acted quickly.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When we shut down as a nation, in reality, only about 50 percent of the nation shut down with regard to other things allowed. In many of the European countries, 90, 95 percent of all activities were shut down. FOSTER: One strategy, quick and total lockdown.

(voice-over): There's a lot we don't know about when COVID-19 first surfaced. The Chinese government suppressed the earliest reports of the virus. Silencing whistle-blower like Dr. Li Wenliang, who would eventually succumb to the disease.

But when the scale became clear, China led the way with the lockdown strategy. They ordered Wuhan's 11 million residents to stay home. Then more and more, 62 million by early February. There was a high toll of the epicenter. But the official nationwide death rate of 100,000 is less than 1.

Its curve of new coronavirus cases way down. New Zealand, one of the first democracies to shutdown. Just two weeks after the first case was discovered at the end of February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced mandatory quarantine for anyone entering the country.

That was followed by a ban on almost all noncitizens and residents entering at all. After that, total lockdown. The government reports that just over 20 people total have died, less than one per 100,000, its curve down.

Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and proves that COVID-19 wouldn't stay in East Asia. Infections and death spiraled. Cemeteries filled and Italy's hospitals, especially in the hard hit Lombardi region were overwhelmed and overrun. More than 100 doctors died in less than two months of the initial outbreak there.

But the government knew when to change tact, eventually locking down the entire country. The reported death toll was high, 58 per 100,000. Higher than the U.S.. But it's not climbing much anymore. The COVID curve is now down.

Denmark also adopted the early lockdown, the second European country after Italy, and before it had a single confirmed death. Its strategy stood in stark contrast to Sweden which refused to lockdown to pursue immunity. Masks have never been widely adopted in Denmark. Mass testing is only just taking off.

But extreme social distancing allowed Danes to become one of the first European countries to reopen.

[07:35:04]

It's reported ten deaths per 100,000. Their curve, way down.

TRUMP: When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down, please.

FOSTER: Another common technique, mass testing to the virus and tracing its spread.

(voice-over): Vietnam has the potential to be a COVID-19 hotspot. But they knew a lot about fighting disease. They also had an aggressive and innovative communication strategy. The government says not a single person has died from COVID-19 there. Their curve down.

South Korea also made its own test. Just weeks after Chinese scientists published the virus's RNA sequence. They haven't had an even a single confirmed case at the time, just the genetic code.

They quickly ramped up testing, setting up it before it was commonplace around the world. South Korea has reported a total confirmed death rate of 1 per 100,000. Their curve is down.

Iceland, I saw firsthand last month, is home to one of the leading genetics labs in the world. They used that scientific know how to trace the contacts of anyone who had COVID-19. I met this woman told to quarantine after being in contact with a waiter who had. Days later, quarantines at home, she also got sick. The government reports three per 100,000 have died. Iceland's curve is down.

TRUMP: I just don't want to wear one myself. It's a recommendation. They recommend it.

FOSTER (on camera): It took months for President Trump to say he was all for masks. For many places around the world, they simply weren't controversial.

(voice-over): While the West endlessly debated face coverings, East Asia through years of standard practice. Japan long declined to lockdown, but masks already popular became near universal. Official death rate, one. The COVID curve is now down.

America's northern neighbor, had its struggles with coronavirus, especially in elderly care homes.

But the Canadian government was able to keep its response free of political bickering. Masks aren't controversial in Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just respectable, being respectful to other people.

FOSTER: Canada has a reported 24 deaths per 100,000. Its curve down.

Turkey may not have had the mask culture of East Asia. But face coverings were mandatory in public places way back in April. Just six people for 100,000 are reported to have died there. And their curve is down.

(on camera): American doctors know this as well as their counterparts abroad. COVID-19 is new and it requires innovation. Here at the University of Oxford, for example, scientists developed the power of the steroid dexamethasone, at least according to preliminary results.

(voice-over): Germany avoided the worst of it by massively increasing its ICU capacity. They have so many extra beds, the patients were flown from hospitals in France and Italy.

Like the U.S., Germany is a federal system, but Chancellor Angela Merkel avoided the pitfalls of political infighting. Eleven per 100,000 are reported to have died there. Their curve, way down.

(on camera): Here in the U.K., the government is under heavy criticism for its response to the virus, particularly how it didn't go into an immediate lockdown. The attention now is focused on place like the University of Oxford, which is leading the way in vaccine development.

Above all, the most successful countries empower the public health experts from the very beginning.

(voice-over): The Icelandic prime minister told me why she stepped out of the way.

KATRIN JAKOBSDOTTIR, PRIME MINISTER OF ICELAND: We left it to the experts. That was a conscious decision. Now, we're going to follow their guidelines and not put up a show around it.

TRUMP: I think we're going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that's going to sort of just disappear, I hope.

REPORTER: You still believe so?

TRUMP: Yes, I do, I do. Yes, sure, at some point.

FOSTER (on camera): The American president hoping for the best. But scientists will tell you, there's still no end in sight to this pandemic.

Max Foster, CNN, Oxford, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: So just two Republican senators have taken issue with the president's commuting of Roger Stone's sentence. CNN's political analyst Julian Zelizer who is in his coat and tie is with us next to talk about it.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:44:22]

BLACKWELL: While President Trump defends his commuting of the Roger Stone's sentence, only two Republican senators have denounced the decision. Utah Senator Mitt Romney called it historic corruption. Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey says it was a mistake.

Joining me now to talk about this, CNN political analyst, Julian Zelizer, author of the new book, "Burning the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of the Speaker and the Rise of the New Republican Party".

We're going to talk about the book in a moment.

Good morning to you, Julian.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here. I mean, to hear from only two Republican senators. I mean, it seems kind of like a par for what we're hearing from Republicans over the president's term.

[07:45:03]

But we're just a couple of months out from the election. As we get closer, do these infractions as some see them by the president and the lack of any response from Republicans, do they become more potent potentially?

ZELIZER: It's unlikely. The Trump presidency has been a series of moments where Senate Republicans sometimes grumble or a few of them complain about what the president has done.

But the pattern is eventually they come home. Eventually, they either support the president open and directly or indirectly, and that's likely to be the story in the coming months. They see their states are very red. They still see a lot of strong Trump support, and I don't think they're going to have a lot of stomach to go against the president.

BLACKWELL: Well, someone who is not in a state that is very red, Maine Senator Susan Collins.

Let's just get a reminder. This was right before the Senate impeachment vote, what she said and why she said she would not vote to convict the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I believe that the president has learned from this case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president says he did nothing wrong. Why do you think he learned something?

COLLINS: He was impeached and there has been criticism by both Republican and Democratic senators of his call. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: You can guess at home or decide at home if that aged well.

How closely is her race tied to what we're seeing from the president and responses like that?

ZELIZER: Very much. Her seat is in trouble. I don't think she knows which direction to go in. On the one hand, the president's polls are pulling her down in the non-Republican parts of the state. On the other hand, she doesn't want to anger Republicans by going against the president.

So, she is in the bind she's in the whole time. I think by playing it in the middle and by keep giving these halfway answers, she doesn't actually help herself. She just keeps thinking.

So, she's a case where the president might bring down a Republican seat.

BLACKWELL: Put this commutation in the historical perspective as some are trying to defend this president, comparing it to Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich.

ZELIZER: Two differences. One, this is someone who was directly connected to the president's election and to the scandal that surrounded it. And B, this is happening before his re-election bid. That makes a difference in someone like Marc Rich and the Bill Clinton pardon. And that's why it's so controversial.

It seems like a return of a favor for someone who has been very helpful to the president.

BLACKWELL: Let me talk about this book, "Burning the House: New Gingrich, the Fall of the Speaker and the Rise of the New Republican Party". You write about how President Trump is employing a lot of the tools we saw Newt Gingrich introduced, the manipulation of the media, certain descriptions of Democrats. And you've seen, we've all this seen before.

ZELIZER: Absolutely. My point is this, it's cooked into the party, partisanship without guardrails. Whether it's the blistering rhetoric about opponents that we hear today from President Trump, you heard this from Newt Gingrich in the 1980s or its the use of every institution for partisan purposes like commutations and pardons.

This kind of partisanship was something Newt Gingrich imagined when he came into Congress in the '80s and he once supported the Republican Party for this approach. And the party is still living with it. That's why President Trump is a product of the GOP, not a cause of the modern GOP.

BLACKWELL: Julian Zelizer, good to have you back on the show. Have a good morning.

ZELIZER: Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: All right. Abby?

PHILLIP: And many NBA stars will be wearing social justice slogans jerseys when the league returns in the fall. But LeBron James will not be one of them. We'll tell you why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:38]

PHILLIP: L.A. Lakers star LeBron James says he will not be wearing a slogan on his jersey promoting social justice when the season restarts at the end of July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: It is something that didn't really, you know, seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal. I would have loved to have a say so on what went on the back of my jersey. I had a couple of things in mind but I wasn't part of that process, which is okay. I'm absolutely okay with that.

So what I will continue to do, you know, off the floor and when I'm talking to you guys and when I'm -- everything that I do has a purpose and has a meaning. So I don't need to have something on the back of my jersey for people to understand my mission or know what I'm about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The NBA players association says equality is the most popular option of the NBA's 29 preapproved messages. Second popular is "Black Lives Matter".

I'd love to see the rest of the list.

PHILLIP: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Forty years after its release, this is back on top.

"The Empire Strikes Back", Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Hans Solo.

PHILLIP: This is a little wild. "Deadline" reports it's topping the box office this weekend thanks mainly to people going to drive-in theaters.

[07:55:06]

That and the lack of new releases.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: A lot easier these days, huh.

BLACKWELL: I've never seen -- I've never seen it. I've never seen it.

PHILLIP: Me either.

BLACKWELL: Oh, have you seen any of the "Star Wars" movies?

PHILLIP: Victor, I don't think we can admit to that today. This is --

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: So, I saw one. I saw -- and this is why probably I've never seen another one. I saw the one with Jar Jar Binks in it and I said, I'm never watching one of these ever again. Maybe I should give it another shot.

PHILLIP: We should give it another shot.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PHILLIP: Thanks for starting your morning us with, everyone. Have a great day.

BLACKWELL: Abby, it's been great to have you this weekend.

PHILLIP: Thanks for having me, Victor.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" with Phil Mattingly this morning is up next.