Return to Transcripts main page

Quest Means Business

Stocks Up after Trump Halts Stimulus, then Backtracks; Trump Doctor Says He is Feeling Great and Symptom-Free; VP Candidates to Debate Behind Plexiglas Barriers. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 07, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:15]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: Start of a new week and the markets are having the best day that they've had in some time.

Look at the way Dow Jones is going up sharply. It's been up all session, straight up out the gate like a bullet, and it has never looked back. We're

at the best of the day.

The markets love what they're seeing. But frankly, when you look at the reasons or the underlying strategies, but after all, here we go.

Donald Trump has torn up the plans for new stimulus. Now, the economy is being left to pick up the pieces.

The vice presidential debate is only a few hours away, and new polls are showing the Biden-Harris ticket is pulling away.

And in Paris, acute hospital beds are quickly getting filled up with more coronavirus patients.

We are alive from New York. It is Wednesday. It's October 7th. I'm Richard Quest, and yes, I mean business.

Good evening. Tonight, there is absolute confusion over the state of U.S. stimulus, and whether anything is going to be forthcoming sooner rather

than later.

American workers and companies are being left completely out on a limb as the disarray, disagreement, and downright dysfunction of the U.S.

government is on display for all to see.

They are watching Donald Trump's stimulus plan destruct before their very eyes. And believe me, I don't use any of these terms lightly. But it is a

situation that we've never seen before.

It's an extraordinary 24 hours. Let me take you through it, and you'll see, and yet the markets are rallying after Tuesday's fall because of confusion.

They believed the Feds only there.

Let us start with the Fed. The Fed Chair, Jay Powell, who sounded the alarm, admittedly in Fed Speak, but this was as clear, a clarion call as

you're ever going to get.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and

businesses. Over time, household insolvencies and business bankruptcies would rise, harming the productive capacity of the economy and holding back

wage growth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: If you look at the events, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Steve Mnuchin were meant to meet to discuss and have further

negotiations. In fact, only earlier in the week last week, we've been told that things were going very well, and that there was a possibility of a

real deal.

Then Donald Trump pulled the plug. He tweeted, "I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election." Now since

then, the President has tweeted nearly a hundred times, a lot of it is just conspiracy theories, and he has backtracked on his stop the stimulus train.

First, he agreed with Powell calling for a bigger stimulus package. There you have it, chairman Powell called for it. Then he goes on to say, he

wants an airline stimulus and a small business aid stimulus package; then finally he tweets, he will approve a new $1,200.00 stimulus checks for all,

and after he told Nancy Pelosi in a tweet, "I am waiting to sign." She rejected these standalone direct payments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Well, it's hard to see any clear sane path on anything that he is doing. But the fact is, is that he saw the political

downside of his statement of walking away from the negotiations.

It's interesting that he said he would send out those checks if we just sent him that bill because all he has ever wanted in the negotiation was to

send out a check with his name printed on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Julia Chatterley of "First Move" is with me. There are a million ways I can talk to you on this. So let's just start with what's happening?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Fifty shades of chaos or 50 tweets of chaos, quite frankly, but as you said, it's more like a

hundred.

It is incredibly confusing, I think for everybody. There's one of two options either the President is willing to press the self-destruct button

on his presidential candidacy here. Let's rule that out.

[15:05:10]

CHATTERLEY: The second thing is, I think he simply believed that the Democrats weren't willing to compromise any further, and so we've seen this

before in the trade negotiations. It's a kind of negotiating strategy.

What we need now, Richard, ultimately, is transparency that the Republicans have to say why they aren't willing to sign the $2.2 trillion stimulus that

the Democrats have proposed, and likewise, the Democrats have to explain why they're not willing to sign the $1.6 trillion that the Republicans have

proposed. They go win the election and come back and do the rest.

The bottom line is, we've got 26 million Americans claiming some form of benefit; one in seven American families saying they simply can't feed

themselves on a weekly basis. They're owed an explanation and they're owed a compromise deal, and that's the bottom line: compromise.

QUEST: Yes, well, that's a dirty word at the moment for the President, as he is getting ready to fight an election -- or he is fighting the election,

but I think I just want to dwell for a moment on the absurdity if it wasn't so serious of in the morning saying no negotiations, and by the nighttime,

saying, we'll do these various standalones.

Some are suggesting, and we'll talk more about this with others, but some are suggesting that the President isn't playing with a full deck of cards.

CHATTERLEY: Well, there are those suggesting that, you know, the President has COVID. The President has taken a whole host of drugs. He may still be

on a number of those drugs. He is also in control of a social media operation here and loosely doing so and also has influence over millions of

Americans.

You can argue lots of things that shouldn't be happening here. The problem is the President tweets a lot. And this is what we're left with.

But I think even the negotiators were blindsided by this. There are clearly bones of contention in this negotiations. There's talk that on the money

for the state and local governments that the Democrats want to use this money, any which way they want to, so to top up pension funds, to use it to

push for greater voter registration. The Republicans simply want this to be used for COVID related purposes.

So you can see that there's disagreements here. I do think the President weighed in here with enormous feat and blew everything up and then the

scramble ensued to say, look, we want some deals. This wasn't the way to handle it politically, Richard, that's the bottom line.

QUEST: Julia Chatterley. Julia, thank you. And so there are a number, as Julia was outlining of plausible scenarios that we can go through here, but

this question of stimulus before never mind, the election, let's talk about stimulus before January, when there could be any change in administration.

That is looking doubtful, and the economy is screaming for help wherever we look for it.

For instance, new layoffs are mounting. The airlines: we know that there are tens of thousands of jobs that will be furloughed, which will become

permanent. Disney, 24,000 jobs. WEF says nearly one in four small businesses have closed and the U.S. Census Bureau, which is what Julia was

referring to, says 32 percent of adults say paying bills is difficult.

So now, look at Wall Street and the disconnect that is taking place. Just remember what we've just been talking about, stimulus chaos, Americans who

can't pay their bills and companies going bankrupt, and more to come.

Very strange that we've got a NASDAQ up two percent, a Dow up two percent, and S&P up two percent.

Mohamed El-Erian is the man to make sense of it all. He even has a new title to go. This is very -- oh, a new title, and the nice bit of wood

paneling to go with it. Mohamed El-Erian is now the President of Queens' College, Cambridge University. He has returned to an ivory tower from which

is speaking to us today.

Congratulations, President on your new role at Cambridge, a fine distinction, too.

But please help me understand a market that is up two percent on the one hand, when on the other hand, I'm talking about chaos, confusion, disarray

and dysfunction in the U.S. government.

MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, PRESIDENT, QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: Thank you, Richard. This is the disconnect that we've had for a while and it is

getting worse.

You cannot deny that the economic recovery is slowing and we risk stall speed. You cannot deny that there is complete confusion if not chaos on the

policy front, but the market is not looking there. The market has been conditioned to expect that policy support will come, and if it doesn't come

from the fiscal agency, from Congress, it will come from the Central Bank, from the Federal Reserve, and that conditioning is so deep, Richard, that

you need a major shock. And what's happening in Washington simply isn't enough of a shock.

[15:10:19]

QUEST: Good grief. If this isn't enough of a shock, I would hate to see something that does jolt everybody, because I was looking this morning, the

number of small businesses that have failed in America, according to one study, one in seven small businesses have failed. Just walking outside my

front door here, you know, a whole block of shops just closed. What then does the economy need? How valid is this call for stimulus now?

EL-ERIAN: Well, first, it is not stimulus, it is relief and that's a really important distinction because you're trying to contain the damage.

You're trying to stop short term problems becoming long term problems. It is one thing, if a company has a liquidity problem, if it goes bankrupt,

that is permanent in nature.

So we have to understand this is about relief and it is just one of the four things that the policymakers have to come up with, and the longer they

wait, the more the scarring, the more it is difficult for the economy to pick up.

So it's absolutely needed, and right now, it has become hostage to political issues.

QUEST: What worries you now between now and the -- what worries you between now and the election? Because obviously, post-election, an entirely

different set of considerations will apply. But for the moment, over the next four weeks, what's your concern?

EL-ERIAN: First and foremost is the people experiencing massive suffering, massive pain and suffering. It is real, and you see it in the lines outside

food banks. Second, is that this recovery is losing steam and we risk, yes, we risk even looking at a double dip recession, which would not be a good

thing.

And then finally, at some point, and I don't know what when that point is, the markets can't continue disconnecting from the economy. And if markets

come down, that's going to be yet another headwind. So it is really important that policymakers move. Otherwise, you may end up getting the

perfect storm with three things coming at the same time, which would put us back not months, but years.

QUEST: Since you are in this new elevated role in academia, I feel safe in asking, do you see any merit from what we've seen from the President's

negotiating strategy, this idea of stop negotiations, my negotiators, but I will do -- I'm open to a standalone on airlines. I'm open to a standalone

on $1,200.00 checks. Do you see any sense in that?

EL-ERIAN: So you can see something where someone goes from a comprehensive response to a policy meal, hoping to get a compromise, you can see, you

know, an argument for people saying you know what, you want to be unpredictable, so that the other side is unbalanced. But remember, we are

running out of time.

I mean, one thing we didn't talk about, suppose -- suppose -- you've got agreement to move forward, how many days have you left in the Senate? And

you know what, the Senate wants to consider something else, which is much bigger for the parties involved.

So the trouble is, time is running out. So you know, this maneuvering may be smart. But at the end of the day, you may run out of time, even if the

maneuvering works.

QUEST: Mohamed El-Erian, just the man we needed to talk to you. Thank you, sir, and congratulations again, on starting your new role as President of

Queens' College in Cambridge. It's good to see you, sir. Thank you.

Now, Donald Trump's doctors say that he is feeling great. According to the latest reports that we've had, the doctor's letter says he has been

symptom-free -- the President is symptom-free for 24 hours, and he is looking to end home isolation and return to the Oval Office.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi's question if the treatment is behind the erratic rhetoric, Boris Sanchez is with us from the White House. Boris, all right,

so we've got the doctor's statement, but we need to take that with a generous helping of salt bearing in mind what the doctor has said to us on

several occasions.

More bluntly, forgive me, I know it's not particularly pleasant, but people are now talking about the President not playing with a full deck of cards,

that the treatment and the steroids may be affecting his judgment.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's absolutely right, Richard, anything we hear from the White House physicians at this

point has to be taken with an immense helping of salt because they have been less than transparent when it comes to giving information about the

President's health with a number of contradictions.

And today, there are more contradictions afoot. For one, you had Larry Kudlow, the National Economic adviser, saying that the President was able

to go into the Oval Office yesterday, then you had the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, saying that that was actually not the case that the President

didn't leave his isolation and go into the Oval Office even though they told us that there was this cart prepared for the President with all sorts

of PPE and gowns and respirator masks prepared for the President to go ahead and do that.

We were told that he has been insistent on getting out of isolation. Notably, he apparently filmed a video yesterday evening talking about his

health, reportedly. That video not released to the public. We have not seen any images of him since returning to the White House and there is that

concern out there that perhaps, these steroids, these very powerful medications that the President has been taking has altered his mindset.

He has obviously been affected by this medication. He said he felt the way he hasn't felt in some 20 years. Of course, what does that do to his mind?

There is a lot of concern after he sent out some 40 tweets in a span of an hour and a half, a lot of them in all caps. The President very angry over a

number of issues.

But that's kind of part and parcel with President Trump. The concern is not just among folks you mentioned like Nancy Pelosi, but also among aides at

the White House. This is a very real and delicate situation. And we're still waiting for word from officials on when his last negative test was.

That of course a gives us an adequate picture of the timeline of events how the White House handled the President's exposure to Hope Hicks testing

positive to coronavirus, still not something that they are willing to reveal to reporters -- Richard.

QUEST: Boris Sanchez who is in Washington. Thank you. Tonight, of course is the first and only vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and

Kamala Harris. We'll have a live coverage on that.

And before that on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, we're going to discuss how the logistics of this debate taking place in a moment.

It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:01]

QUEST: So tonight is the presidential debate, 27 days before the election, and the arrangements, of course have been as much an interest as anything

else. The two candidates will be 12 feet -- I think it is 12 feet three inches apart. They've measured it that closely.

And Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, they will be behind Plexiglas, and, and of course, bearing in mind, Donald Trump's diagnosis, and the Joe Biden's

age, both of these VPs whoever gets it will be in the line of succession.

Kyung Lah is outside the Debate Hall at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Kyung is with me.

Now, so why did the Vice President's team balk at the Plexiglas? I mean, they've gone along with it in the end, but why did they think it wasn't

necessary?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start just by actually looking at the Plexiglas, Richard. What you have, when you look at

the stage and the Plexiglas sitting between these two candidates, it is a visual cue, it is a reminder that every part of American life has changed

from your grocery store, to the debate stage, to what is happening in the West Wing.

So what people cannot look away from and why the Pence team didn't want this is because of that. Everyone knows, and it is a visual reminder of

that. So that is part of it. The reason why they moved forward is, you know, this is being run by the Cleveland Clinic, by the Commission on

Presidential Elections and what they want is to make sure that this goes forward.

The Vice President eager, though to debate Kamala Harris -- Richard.

QUEST: Okay. But as we -- as this continues, I mean, obviously, we are not going to get anything like the bad tempered, ill-tempered debate that we

had last week. Both of these people are extremely sophisticated debaters.

I'm guessing there will be an abundance of decorum as they fall over each other to be polite.

LAH: Yes, you're not going to see anything like what we saw with the presidential debate. Mike Pence is known as being very smooth, as being

very controlled. And in a call with reporters this morning, what the Harris team said is that they are preparing for that.

They believe that the Vice President is equally from the Trump camp as he is and that anything he says should be taken with the same grain of salt

that the President said during his debate with Vice President Biden.

Kamala Harris, I traveled with her for more than a year, and you rarely saw her ever elevate her voice. She was always controlled, controlling her

demeanor, what she thinks, how she says it. That is key to the Harris cam.

QUEST: All right, thank you, Kyung Lah who is in Salt Lake City.

And our coverage, of course continues tonight. It starts at midnight. That's London time, which is 3:00 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, 7:00 a.m. in Hong

Kong, and the debate itself starts a couple of hours into that.

Donald Trump is losing voter confidence on key issues, such as the economy if you look at the latest numbers, and perhaps not surprising bearing in

mind the way the economy has gone downhill so fast.

A CNN poll says 50 percent of likely voters say Joe Biden would handle the economy better, 48 percent for Donald Trump. Goldman Sachs says the blue

wave could speed up the recovery.

Harry Enten is with me. Harry, is there -- I mean, as we look at the polls at the moment, this massive lead that Joe Biden has, but people like you,

always chastise people like me to remind me that that's a national number, it doesn't take account of the Electoral College.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, I mean, that's absolutely true. It's a national number, and we learned from last time,

obviously, that the national polls and in fact what ended up happening in the Popular Vote was Hillary Clinton won there, but in the Electoral

College, it's the race to 270 electoral votes that matters.

But here's what I will point out, Richard, is we have had a number of polls conducted in the key swing states over the past few days since the first

debate. And really, there hasn't been a lot of good signs for the President of the United States. In pretty much all of the swing state polls that I

think are trustworthy, Donald Trump is trailing Joe Biden at this particular point.

QUEST: Okay, so he is trailing, and those key swing states like Pennsylvania, like Wisconsin, if you were to take a totality of them at the

moment that would suit -- the way that the way the situation is in those key states. Donald Trump loses, is that correct?

ENTEN: Absolutely. I mean, right now, if you were basically to take the polling averages, and then assign the winner in each of those states, you

know, assign in the Electoral College, what you would see is that Joe Biden would be ahead with 350 to 360, perhaps upwards of 375 electoral votes. You

only need to get to 270 to win, so Joe Biden is well ahead.

[15:25:21]

ENTEN: And I'll give you one extra little point, Richard, even if you had the polling error that you had in 2016, right, and let's just say we

subtract X number of points from Joe Biden's leads in the individual states based upon the errors in 2016, Joe Biden would still be at 319 electoral

votes, so he would be well out ahead of where he needs to be.

So at this particular point, we are still a little about four weeks to go, right, Joe Biden is certainly in the driver's seat, even in the Electoral

College.

QUEST: Okay, I get that. But that moves us on to this question, which maybe, is the question. If we get on Election Night, and there isn't a

result, if the trend is looking like you are suggesting, I mean, all the -- all the polls, even the poll on the night won't be enough if the incumbent

says it's fake, and it's a fix, and it's all been ballot stuffed.

ENTEN: I mean, look, President Trump can say whatever he wants to say, right, and you follow his Twitter, Boris was talking about his Twitter. He

can say whatever he wants to say. But here's the fact of the matter.

The fact of the matter is, is that the votes are counted by the individual states, the Board of Elections in those states, the Secretaries of States

in those states, and then you even go down to the county level. The President of the United States has no real control over those individual

vote counts.

So look, he can try and throw the results in a chaos and perhaps cast some doubt on it, but at the end of the day, he really doesn't have any say. And

if you look at our last CNN poll, for example, or you look at the polls in general, more and more voters say that they're going to be trusting of the

results that come in, regardless of what President Trump actually says.

QUEST: Good to talk to you. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

ENTEN: Be well.

QUEST: Now, we keep talking about this disconnect between the real economy and what the stock markets are showing.

After the break, we'll talk to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the real business of what's happening in America at this time of the pandemic and

with such dysfunction. That's still -- lots more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment.

[15:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. The head of the

International Pilots Union says that unless this -- there is more stimulus money for an airline bailout, then pilots' jobs will permanently be lost.

And France is imposing new economic restrictions, as a second wave of Coronavirus is hitting the country hard. We'll be in Paris to see what

those restrictions are. It all comes after the news headlines because this is CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first.

President Trump's physician Dr. Sean Conley has released a brief memo on the President's health on Wednesday. He paints an overall positive image

saying the President hasn't had a fever for four days. His physical exam, his oxygen saturation and respiration rate all remain stable in normal

range. It's unclear if the President is currently taking any fever reducers. Two accused ISIS fighters are due to appear in U.S. Federal

Courts in the coming hours. Authorities say they are members of an ISIS execution team dubbed The Beatles. They are suspected in the deaths of at

least four Americans as part of a hostage taking scheme in Syria. British authorities agreed to extradite them -- excuse me -- after negotiations

with the U.S. Attorney General.

Hurricane Delta has slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday morning. About halfway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the widespread

power outages and downed trees. The storm is expected to strengthen as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico before then aiming to cross the Louisiana Coast.

Live pictures of the White House for you. Donald Trump apparently is back inside the Oval Office. He's being briefed on stimulus on Hurricane Delta

despite Coronavirus infection. Now, let's just remind ourselves of what the -- what the advice usually is here. You're supposed to self-Quarantine for

10 to 14 days after the end of your symptoms. That's according to the CDC. And even if that isn't an exact number, bearing in mind, that Donald Trump

only went to hospital last Friday. So, we have no idea what the situation is.

The President has been extremely erratic in the last 24 hours on the question of stimulus. Wall Street's been warning what would happen without

it. The numbers are grim and don't look good. Goldman Sachs says a recovery will slow considerably. Morgan Stanley says market volatility a V-shaped to

flatten. And the Business Roundtable says it could worsen in prolonged economic crises. The economist and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry

Summers says no stimulus is irrational.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SUMMERS, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: We're taking a big chance, bigger chance on having another recession. We're going to have more

people out of work. We're going to have more people in poverty. We're going to have more people probably dying, because there's not going to be safety

on the streets and adequate health care in municipal hospitals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Neil Bradley is Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he joins me now. Reading your statement, you

said, Washington's failure to enact additional COVID relief will be felt on Main Street. It's disappointing, ever since there was a compromised

agreement. And -- but I'm not sure what the situation is. In a nutshell, do you understand whether there will be stimulus or not?

NEIL BRADLEY, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF POLICY OFFICER, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: What we can say is, right now, there are negotiations over the

type of support that our economy needs are not occurring. And so, now we have these discussions on Twitter and in the press about different ideas.

We don't really have time for that. We need economic support to get done now. And so, that's why we believe it's really important that all the

parties, Democrats, Republicans, Congress and the administration, get back to the table. There is an outline of a reasonable compromise that's been

presented by a bipartisan group of members in the House. That ought to be the outline that they work from. And they ought to get this deal done

before they go home for the election.

[15:35:20]

QUEST: How bad is the situation? I'm hearing all sorts of numbers about the number of small businesses that have failed one in seven, I've heard; the

number of Americans who are still out of work. I mean, if you look at it from a corporate point of view, how serious is the situation?

BRADLEY: Well, we're in the middle of what we would call K-shaped recovery. There are certain sectors of the economy that have really bounced back from

what happened this spring, financial services, for example. So, it is that V-shaped type recovery. We have other sectors of the economy, leisure and

hospitality, where, for example, one out of five jobs that existed in February is now gone, the travel and transportation, the entertainment

industries, they're at the bottom end of the K.

You know, Congress and the administration said, hey, we're going to build these folks a bridge across this pandemic. What they built for those folks

at the bottom end of the K isn't a bridge, it's a pier. And if they don't extend the pier, what's going to happen is that millions of Americans and

thousands of small businesses are going to fall right off that pier. And it risks exactly what Secretary Summers said, turning that bottom end of the K

into a much broader recession, that brings down the overall economy.

QUEST: Here's the problem. And I don't want to -- I mean, I know you try to be apolitical at the Chamber of Commerce. But here's the problem.

Republicans in Congress know fully well what you're talking about. I mean, the President may sound, telling my negotiators to stop, but the leadership

in the House and the leadership in the Senate quite capable of saying, actually, we need to pass this. We're going to get on with passing it.

BRADLEY: Listen, I think there's blame to go around on both sides and in both leaderships. You know, we know stimulus is not an option. The $3

trillion package that some Democrats were pushing earlier is an over exaggeration and risks running up the debt for no reason. That's why a

middle compromise is the place where this needs to be. Interestingly, rank and file members of Congress seem to get that. What we need is the

leadership in both parties to embrace that and get this done.

QUEST: Between the -- between the Democrats' multi-trillion-dollar package and the Republicans' trillion-dollar package, which do you prefer?

BRADLEY: Well, it ought to be the compromise in the middle, right? So, somewhere around 1-1/2 trillion is probably the number that allows you to

address all of the needs that we see that are out there, and to address the priorities that both parties have without going above it as necessary.

QUEST: Well, one thought has occurred to me. And a couple of weeks ago, I heard the British Chancellor, the finance minister, when talking about

protecting jobs, he talked about viable jobs. I'm not hearing that discussed over here. In other words, propping up companies that frankly,

have no economic future, zombie companies, if you like, because they are not viable. Is that something you're concerned about?

BRADLEY: It is something we're concerned about. The proposal and our recommendations to Congress that the U.S. Chamber put out at the beginning

of the summer, we recognize that. As much -- as much effort as we might provide, there are some businesses that are not going to return and there

are some jobs that are not going to return. What we need to do is help individuals in those jobs who aren't coming back, not just to keep them on

unemployment assistance, we need to get them the job placement programs, and the training programs, to get the new jobs that will emerge in their

place. And so, this isn't just about propping up the status quo. It's about getting to a better future. To get to that better future, we're going to

have to be smart with some of these investments.

QUEST: Neil, good to see you, sir. Neil, thank you. As we continue after the break, so the government has been not necessarily forced into action,

but after the break, just what can be done. In a moment.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: As we look around the world, in Europe, more restrictions are being introduced at all levels to help beat off the second wave of Coronavirus

that's hitting the continent. So, for example, Germany is limiting domestic travel. Making it -- in Italy, they are making it mandatory to wear face

masks outdoors. And new infections in both countries have hit the highest daily levels since April. Just look at the way that is moving forward. In

the last hour, France has announced new restrictions. Melissa Bell is with us. OK. And first of all, what are the new restrictions? And secondly,

related to that, how bad is the situation getting?

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Things are pretty bad, Richard. I mean, you mentioned Italy and Germany, Germany making parliamentarians wear

the mask indoors because parts of Berlin have become such hotspots. Italians who had been dealing with the second wave so much better than

neighboring countries announcing that masks will be mandatory outdoors. France has had mandatory masks for weeks now. And that does not seem to

have prevented this second wave from hitting it really hard.

Within the last hour, we've heard the French President speak and warn that there may be further restrictions, because what we've seen tonight is the

largest increase in the number of new cases ever. Even in the first wave, we never saw anything like it, more than 18,000 new cases were announced

earlier this evening. The previous 24 hours. So, the restrictions that have been in place so far have simply not prevented this second wave from

hitting France as hard as it has. Mandatory masks, what we saw from Tuesday was bars and cafes closed, restaurants escaped with fresh regulations.

So, the regulations have gotten tighter. But for the time being, here in France and elsewhere in Europe, the figures, Richard, are getting worse.

Take the number of people in ICUs, it has doubled in the greater Paris region in just 10 days. And that's the point. This is an illness. This is

an infection, it is a disease that increases very quickly. And it's very difficult to make sure therefore, as we saw in the first wave that the

health system can't cope. On current trajectories, if things continue as they are and for the time being, we've seen no impact of any of those

restrictions in terms of lessening the number of people entering ICUs and those crisis numbers, we're going to be hitting numbers over the course the

next few weeks that are going to mean that the health system here in France will simply not be able to cope.

Let me just give you an idea of how quickly things have moved here in France. A month ago, there were just over 400 people in ICUs who are COVID-

19 patients. That figure now is closer to 1500, 1,000 extra people in just a month. It's moved really fast, and for the time being, the regulations

have simply not been enough, Richard.

[15:44:59]

QUEST: All right. Thank you, Melissa Bell, who's in Paris. Thank you. Now, after the break, we all know that the airline industry has been the one

calling for the most help for obvious reasons. Donald Trump now says he wants a standalone airline bailout. After the break, The International

Airline Pilots Association with me to talk about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Donald Trump is back inside the Oval Office. We know that because look at this video coming to us now from the White House. There's the White

House and there is the Marine who's standing outside the West Wing. And the Marine stands there when the President is in the Oval Office. Well, it just

implies and certainly more people are telling us. Now, this is despite him being contagious, despite the fact that the CDC regulations, guidelines

suggest that you should still isolate for many more days. Donald Trump is back in the White House.

Airline stocks have rallied and they've been boosted by Donald Trump last night, tweeting that there should be a standalone airline bailout package,

25 billion or so, after having earlier in the day said that there should there be no further negotiations. It's a promise of help to an industry

that is reeling and has already made quite clear, it will furlough tens of thousands, if it hasn't already, of employees. Our aviation correspondent

is Pete Muntean

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BREAUNNA ROSS, FURLOUGHED AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANT: As all of you know, the airline industry has been impacted greatly by this global

pandemic.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: One flight attendant Breaunna Ross addressed the passengers of her American Airlines flight, she didn't

expect to leave them with a tearful goodbye.

ROSS: For myself and one other crew member on our flight today, this means we'll be furloughed October 1st, and unfortunately, this was my last

working flight before that day comes.

MUNTEAN: Airlines say they will recall Ross and the roughly 50,000 workers they cut last week, but only if they get $25 billion in a new stimulus

bill. New tweets from President Trump have thrown a deal into disarray. It's the latest breakdown in talks with House Democrats that airlines

called disheartening.

ROSS: People see numbers on T.V. but we are real people that are really struggling right now.

MUNTEAN: Ross says she's living on savings from her last few months on the job. Just furloughed workers say new federal help is their best hope. 8,000

flight attendants at American Airlines alone, are now looking for jobs.

[15:50:12]

ALLIE MALIS, FURLOUGHED AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANT: It's been a roller coaster. We've been high, we've been low. We've been on this verge

of making this happen for so long. And then, for it to all just fall apart.

MUNTEAN: In a new letter, airline unions are urging Congress to pass a standalone stimulus for airlines. President Trump tweeted his support, but

House leaders stress the bill failed in the Senate. Airline unions say lawmakers must end this stimulus standoff with workers caught in the

middle.

SARA NELSON, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: These are people who have been on the front lines since the beginning of this virus.

Fighting is cruel and it's got to be reversed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Captain Joe DePete is with me. He's the president of the Air Line Pilots Association International. He joins me now. There's blame to go

around on both sides. We've heard that already. I suppose the reality now is, though, your members, if furloughed, it's very difficult to bring them

in and out and to retrain and all of those sorts of things in the future. So, are you more confident tonight of some form of standalone or not?

CPT. JOE DEPETE, PRESIDENT, AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL: Well, look, Richard, thank you for having me on, number one. And, you know,

I'll speak with my colleague, Sara Nelson, who you just had on before from the Association of Flight Attendants. This is -- this has tremendous amount

of ramifications. And yes, we are working in every way we possibly can to support whatever form this legislation takes, whether it's a broader base

bill or standalone piece, what we're tired of is a lot of excuses and putting it off. Time has literally run out for Congress and the

administration.

On October 1st, as you know, the Payroll Support Program expired, so thousands of aviation workers have been furloughed through no fault of

their own. Workers who have courageously stepped forward and flown into some pretty tough situations, both internationally, here domestically. You

know, we have the safest form of transportation known to man and you have trained people trying to keep it that way. So, I'm hopeful, but to avoid

further damage to our economy, to our national security, right, through the CRAF Program, which I know you're very familiar with, the Civilian Reserve

Aircraft Fleet.

QUEST: Right, right.

DEPETE: We really need the solution.

QUEST: The problem is, and I don't want to be too blunt about it, but we've known about this for a long time. And Congress has known about this cliff

deadline, and nobody's done anything about it. And that's the bit I find inexplicable.

DEPETE: Oh, you're absolutely correct. And we're equally as frustrated. Everybody on both sides of the aisle, and in the White House, have all said

the right words, but the action isn't taking place. And trust me, when I tell you, and you know how valuable aviation is to the rest of the economy,

because if we go down, everyone goes down. This affects everything that we do, and it will only protract the recovery even more, if we -- if we don't

act what -- and that's what we need. We're doing our jobs, all the aviation workers that you see out there, we're doing our jobs we need -- we need

Congress and we need the White House to do theirs.

QUEST: Pete (PH), what do you think is that window that the airlines have, which started at the beginning of this month, that furlough window, before

pilots really can't be brought back without serious retraining, serious efforts, how long have you got?

DEPETE: We only have -- well, we're already past the deadline, where we should have been before. Let's just face that right away. Because we have

people on the street right now. So, it's already going to be very difficult to unscramble the egg. But at every day that goes by, you know, to train --

we have a highly-trained crew force. And you know, depending on where they are in their training cycles, if they've gone beyond the limits of their

training cycles, this gets more and more complicated and it gets more and more expensive for the carriers to bring back. And what a lot of people

don't realize is we've worked collaboratively with our carriers in our industry, we -- everything that good that happens in aviation happens

because we collaborate.

I will say this, some of the agreements that we have formed with our individual companies to share the load, right, to protect one another,

remember, these early retirements, these people are gone. They're not coming back. They sacrificed to get out early to save their companies and

their fellow pilots' jobs, and you can't even include them as possibly coming back. So, the furloughed folks are a whole another -- a whole

another situation. The security, after 30 days, your security clearances are all gone. You got to stop -- you got to go right back to the start

again. So, lots of complications. And you know, the sad part about it is, Richard, it's all preventable. It's all preventable. It makes no sense to

let good paying jobs, essentially --

[15:55:15]

QUEST: All right, Pete -- all right, Captain --

DEPETE: -- to the economy to go and then have to support them on already burdened over in state and local governments. No sense.

QUEST: Captain, I'm grateful for your time. I thank you for talking to us today. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

DEPETE: Thank you for --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. A very busy day as you can hear. A lot more coming. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper is next. Whatever

you're up to in the hours ahead -- we always have the bell -- I'll see you tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END