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The Situation Room
President Trump Holds News Conference; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Passes 136,000, Cases Rise In 37 States; Trump Attacks Biden, Repeats False Claims As Virus Rages; New Study: Moderna Vaccine Induced Immune Responses In All Participants, No Safety Concerns Identified; Texas Reports Daily Record 10,745 Cases. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired July 14, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They said to the governor that they need about 800 contact tracers. They also said that there needs to be some type of long-term strategy here, which they're not seeing.
And then the mayor of Miami Beach, who I know is on SITUATION ROOM quite a bit, said to the governor, you know what? He said, the messaging has been all wrong. That's why, unless you say people need to wear masks and there's an urgency to it, people just aren't going to do it.
And, meantime, Wolf, here in Palm Beach County, where I am, the mayor has decided that restaurants, starting Thursday night, will now close at 11:00 p.m., just like in Miami-Dade, because he thinks that they're turning into clubs late night and breeding grounds for the virus -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Yes, Miami-Dade, I think they're going to be closing. That curfew is at 10:00 p.m. down in Miami-Dade, 11:00 p.m. down where -- up where you are in Palm Beach County.
These are significant developments that we're watching right now.
And stand by, Randi, because I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
We're following the breaking news, and the significant breaking news, a potential vaccine against the coronavirus. A just released study found the vaccine being developed by Moderna induced immune responses in all the participants, without raising any significant safety concerns, some side effects, but not really significant, we're told.
Moderna is now set to begin late-stage clinical trials involving 30,000 Americans later this month. All of this comes as the virus is infecting and killing many, many Americans, hundreds every single day, the U.S. death toll now above 136,000 over the past four months.
All this comes as the virus is infecting people in all aspects of the country, but especially in the South; 37 states are now seeing new rises in cases once again, especially in the Southern part of the United States.
So, we're watching all of these developments very closely. We're also monitoring the president of the United States. He's in the Rose Garden right now. He's still railing against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden.
We will see if he answers questions in the Rose Garden. We're monitoring all of that as well.
In the meantime, let's get some more on the spread of the coronavirus. That's the issue that's affecting millions and millions of people here in the U.S. and certainly around the world, alarming spikes in new cases, alarming spikes in hospitalizations and deaths.
Our national correspondent, Erica Hill, is joining us right now.
Erica, another virus hot spot is shattering all these records tonight.
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right.
We're just getting some new numbers in from Texas, Wolf, and another record single-day high for new cases, 10,745. This brings the total in the states to more than 275,000 confirmed cases. And, as you point out, the virus continues to spread.
More than half of the states in this country are now on either a pause or rolling back some of their reopening, as they try to figure out what comes next.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILL (voice-over): Across the country, reality setting in.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We should have known that this was coming and planned ahead of time. And this is the problem. There is no road map, no plan for the country.
HILL: The U.S. now averaging more than 60,000 new cases a day, 20 states starting the week with their highest seven-day average. Reopening is paused or in reverse in more than half of all states.
DAN GELBER (D), MAYOR OF MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA: People aren't respecting this virus, especially younger people.
HILL: The positivity rate in Miami-Dade County, which accounts for nearly a quarter of Florida's cases, is almost 30 percent. California posting new daily highs for hospitalizations and ICU admissions, the majority of those in Los Angeles County.
In Harris county, Texas, home to Houston, hospitals are approaching surge capacity.
JUDGE LINA HIDALGO, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: The longer we keep this going, pretending like these incrementalist restrictions are going to fix the problem, the longer it's going to take to recover. HILL: Officials there urging the governor to let them bring back a stay-at-home order, testing and a significant lag in getting those results still an issue months into the pandemic.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): If you swab, and then you get the results back in seven days, that's not ideal, and particularly if you're -- if you have symptoms.
HILL: Forty percent of infected cases are asymptomatic, according to the CDC, yet the country's testing czar is encouraging some Americans to hold off.
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: In places like Arizona and Texas, if you wake up in the morning, and just feel like you want a test, you might not need to do that, right? We need to think about those who are at high risk or in high-risk situations.
HILL: Schools a flash point, as the administration insists that in- person learning be the standard, though without offering a strategy.
New polling from Axios and Ipsos shows most parents say it would be risky to send their kids back in the fall.
CINDY MARTEN, SUPERINTENDENT, SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: The countries that managed to safely reopen schools, they have done so with declining infection rates, not rising infection rates. And they (AUDIO GAP) on-demand testing available. California has neither of those.
[18:05:08]
HILL: Best Buy announcing a nationwide mask mandate for shoppers in its stores, Walmart mulling the same, as the nation's top infectious disease expert admits early mask messaging was a miss.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: What got I think a little bit misrepresented in that message was not that it was just we wanted to preserve them, but they don't really work that well anyway.
So, that was the mistake, because, in fact, there's no doubt that wearing a mask is better than not having a mask for the general public.
HILL: Another mistake, thinking the virus would slow down in the summer.
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: I was really one of the individuals who thought we would get a little break in July and August.
HILL: The head of the CDC admitting there is still a lot to learn about the coronavirus, while offering a stark warning for what's ahead.
REDFIELD: I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we have experienced in American public health.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And in terms of what's ahead, we are seeing more mask ordinances go into effect across the country, announced in Milwaukee.
The governor of Virginia, Governor Northam, saying that it needs to be no shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. And he talked about the rise in community spread in his state, as he talked about a mask requirement, and said they will continue to watch the numbers.
If they're going in the wrong direction, there may need to be additional measures, including, Wolf, limiting the size of gatherings.
BLITZER: Erica Hill in New York for us.
Erica, thanks for that report.
I want to bring back our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Also joining us, William Haseltine. He's the chair and president of ACCESS Health International. He's written an important book entitled "A Family Guide to COVID."
Professor Haseltine, let's talk a little bit about the first published results of this phase one Moderna vaccine trial that we're learning about right now. All of these participants had an immune response. Some of them who had the higher dosage had some serious side effects. Those in the medium dosage or lower dosage didn't really have significant side effects.
We still don't know how long the immunity to this virus lasts as they go into the next phase. But are you encouraged?
DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: First of all, you have done a great summary of that paper. And it's great to see published results.
I would say that everything you have said is on target. What concerns me is the safety signals that they saw in three out of the 15 people given at the high dose. That's worrying, when you think those were young, healthy people, and that we're going to be giving this to young children and a lot of older people who aren't so healthy.
On the other hand, the positive news is, the antibody responses that they made to this new kind of vaccine were very robust. There were some neutralizing antibodies, which means they can inactivate the virus, also very positive.
The ratio between that was about 1,000-1, which isn't so good. You would rather have more neutralizing and less general antibodies. But on the whole, this is a good sign. It's progress.
And as I think you and Sanjay have talked about before, we have to wait for the results for a much larger study. But it's going to be interesting, and this is certainly some positive news.
BLITZER: Yes.
And as Sanjay as I have discussed, Dr. Haseltine, this was only 45 people; 15 got the dosage of a very small dosage of only 25 micrograms, which wasn't enough to deal significantly with this problem; 15 got 100 micrograms, and 15 got 250 micrograms.
The significant side effects, I'm told, were with those who got the 250 micrograms. The medium, the 100 micrograms, they got a little bit, but not nearly as significant.
And, Dr. Haseltine, the new study, the 30,000 Americans who at the end of this month are going to start the next phase, they will get the 100 micrograms. The 250 micrograms, I'm told, have gone away. Is that significant?
HASELTINE: It's significant.
But when you're dealing with a very large population -- and, remember, we're going to think about using this vaccine if it's successful on all Americans. That's about 320 million people. Any side effect at any dose is a question.
One out of 1,000 adverse effects is serious. And that's the most concern. We can tolerate a vaccine which is partially successful in reducing disease in many people. But we can't tolerate a vaccine that's not safe.
And so the real thing to watch here is safety, because it's very likely that some of these vaccines will at least be partially effective. So we have got to be very careful about the safety profile and compare, as I'm sure the NIH and others are doing, one type of vaccine with another.
[18:10:03]
This is a good step forward, but it's by no means the final show. We have to wait to see, compare safety, compare efficacy. Look what's happening. But this is certainly hopeful news.
BLITZER: Yes, this is really hopeful.
And you're absolutely right, Dr. Haseltine. You have to wait for this much bigger study. That's going to take a few months.
Sanjay, usually, there are -- in almost any medication you take nowadays, you read the -- you read the regulations, you read the guidelines, there's always some side effects. But, usually, they're for a very, very small chunk of the population.
Isn't that right?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And they and they will usually tell you what percentage of people are likely to be affected by this.
I should point out -- and I think you have just said it again -- but even at the 100-microgram dose, I just want to be clear that there were -- there were -- everyone actually within that medium dosing did have some sort of side effect here.
They were transient side effects. There was typically just one side effect, whether it be muscle aches or fever, chills. You can see the list of things there. And, as Dr. Haseltine has pointed out, I mean, this is something that we have to keep a close eye on in the larger populations of people, older, younger people with preexisting conditions.
I know just we have we have put on the banner here no safety concerns identified. I'm not sure that I would say that that is necessarily the case. It's just that there weren't enough safety concerns identified to stop the trial.
The trial is going to go on, but we have got to keep a close eye on these things, especially given the idea that there's understandable, I think, to some extent, concern by people about whether or not they want to take this vaccine.
Some people are hearing, look, this has been a rushed vaccine. Is it going to be OK? And I hear that quite a bit. We got to make sure these safety issues are identified and addressed as these trials go on.
BLITZER: Yes, you're absolutely right.
And I'm told some of these side effects from the medium dosage of 100 micrograms, a little pain in your arm as a result of the shot, which, eventually, as you pointed out, went away. And there's some other side effects as well.
This is really, really significant, because if there are too many side effects, Dr. Haseltine, a lot of Americans, a lot of people all over the world will be reluctant to get a shot and then a booster shot, let's say, a month later. So that's a serious problem.
HASELTINE: Right.
And you have to remember, vaccines -- and you raise the problem of safety of drugs. But there's a big difference between vaccines and most drugs. Most drugs are given to sick people, and not a lot of people. Vaccines are given to fully healthy people and (AUDIO GAP) want to do any harm.
And I think that's the real concern that people have. It's the safety issues. And if you look at the paper, the issues that they had are a lot more in some cases than a little pain in the arm.
At least at the higher doses, there's hospitalization.
BLITZER: But they say, Dr. Haseltine, they're going to eliminate the higher dose in this full study of 30,000 Americans.
HASELTINE: Right.
BLITZER: They are just going to keep the medium dose. That's a significant development.
HASELTINE: It is significant.
But if a vaccine is giving, even at a higher dose, very serious side effects, for some people, a lower dose is going to be equivalent to a higher dose. It's that there's a huge variation.
Everybody in medicine knows that we're not all the same. We don't react to the same medicines the same way. So, you have got to be super careful.
I'm not saying it's a problem yet. It's something to watch. And what is really going to be interesting and important to do is compare all the different vaccines. There are about five or six major vaccines that we're pushing in the United States alone.
And we're going to be able to compare one with the other. And that's really positive news. It's really the kind of thing we should be doing. I'm very encouraged to see it. And we're -- as time goes on, we're going to have a lot to discuss about A vs. B vs. C.
It's going to be a very exciting time, and I think a very positive time.
BLITZER: Very quickly, Dr. Haseltine, there are about five main vaccine trials under way right now, the Moderna trial that we have been talking about, the Oxford University trial that's been going on in the U.K., Johnson & Johnson, this German firm BioNTech, and Novavax here in this area as well.
HASELTINE: Right.
BLITZER: Do you see any significant difference between these five? Are they all roughly at the same point right now?
HASELTINE: Well, there is a vaccine which has got emergency use authorization in China that's already approved and being used for its military. It's already approved.
So I would say that's by far ahead of all the others. Whether we know anything about safety or efficacy is another question.
But in terms of all of these different vaccines, I'd say they're -- it's a horse race. They're all neck and neck. They're all seeming to have good immune responses. Some of them seem to have good neutralizing responses.
And it's going to be an extremely interesting story to cover.
BLITZER: It certainly will be.
HASELTINE: And for the scientific (AUDIO GAP) it's exciting.
BLITZER: These are life-and-death decisions that have to be made. These studies clearly could be so, so significant.
[18:15:03]
Dr. Haseltine, thank you so much for joining us.
Sanjay, I know you're going to be back with us. You can't run away yet.
We're going to have a lot more on all these developments.
The major story we're following right now, the search for a coronavirus vaccine. I will speak to a former acting director of the CDC.
Plus, President Trump, asked why black people are killed by police, he responds -- and I'm quoting the president right now in a new interview today -- "So are white people."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're following our breaking news on a potential coronavirus vaccine moving into the final stage of clinical trials, after a new study shows a promising safety and immune response. It's still early, though.
[18:20:00]
As the virus rages across the U.S., President Trump has been sounding off on a variety of topics.
I want to bring in our White House correspondent, John Harwood, and our senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson.
John, we continue to hear the president patently have these false claims when it comes to the virus. But Dr. Fauci earlier today had some advice for Americans. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I would stick with respected medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth, who have a track record of giving information and policy and recommendations based on scientific evidence and good data.
So, if I were to give advice to you and your family and your friends of your family, I would say that's the safest bet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That's very good advice from Dr. Fauci, don't you think, John?
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely it's good advice.
The American people already know that. And you see that from the polling. Two-thirds of the American people trust Anthony Fauci. Fewer than 30 percent trust President Bush (sic). And Dr. Fauci stated a pretty clear contrast, people who are honest, who speak on science, who make good-faith recommendations on that basis. President Trump doesn't do that. He's not honest. He doesn't make recommendations based on the latest scientific information.
He tries to ignore it in many cases, and, in fact, undermine people like Dr. Fauci who's delivering it.
And I got to say. When you combine the nonsense statements the president's made recently about 99 percent of cases being harmless and cases only going up because we're testing more, combined with that rambling news conference that continues to go on, makes it all the more urgent to listen to people like Dr. Fauci.
BLITZER: Yes.
You know, Nia, the president using this event in the Rose Garden largely to go after Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, barely addressing the pandemic, hardly at all.
And he did repeat that -- what we just pointed out, what John just pointed out, that nonsense claim. He said, at one point: "If we did half the testing, we'd have half the cases."
How badly is he failing right now in dealing with this spiraling crisis?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: He's doing terrible.
I mean, the president gets an F in terms of the handling of this global pandemic. You see in some of these states across the country the cases are going up. There's a crisis in terms of whether or not...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Well, hold on a second, Nia, because the president is going to start taking some questions from reporters.
Let's listen in...
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... Intracoastal in Florida, you look at the lakes, you see thousands of boats with Trump signs, American signs.
You've got the Trump-Pence sign all over. You look at what's going on, you look at bikers for miles and miles riding up highways proudly with their signs.
I have -- look, we won a race where it was the same thing, 2016. We had polls that were fake. They turned out to be fake, not all. A couple of them got it right, three of them, to be exact, three of them. One of them was unsuspecting, but they got it right. They were very proud of it. But we had in 2016 something even more so.
BLITZER: Is this in response to question?
TRUMP: But we got in, and we had 306 to I guess, 223, which was a tremendous margin of difference. You remember, they all said, he cannot get to 270. I went to Maine a number of times, where we just freed up lobster fishing and fishing.
Just they took away 5,000 square miles from Maine. I just opened it up. And I just got rid of tariffs in China. And we're working on European Union, which charge our fishermen tariffs, and I said, you're not going to do that.
So we freed it up for Maine, but if you take a look, we went up there recently. There were crowds. Thousands of people lined up going over to a factory where we were opening up for. We're making swabs, a beautiful big, new factory making swabs.
I think that the enthusiasm now is greater and maybe far greater than it was in 2016. I think a lot of people don't want to talk about it. I think they're not going to say, hey, I'm for Trump, I'm for Trump. They don't want to go through the process. And I fully understand that, because the process is not fair.
The media doesn't treat us fairly. They never have, and perhaps they never will. But maybe they will when we turn this around for a second time, and it's going to happen very quickly. When we turn it around for a second time, maybe they will.
I think we're doing very well in the polls, and I think you have a silent majority, the likes of which this country has never seen before. This is a very important election. We've done a great job. We had to turn it off, as I said, turn it off, and now we've started it again.
As you know, they announced two weeks ago record job numbers, almost five million people. And that beat the last month, which was also a record, 2.8 million people. Nobody's ever done what we've done, and now we're doing it twice.
[18:25:09]
And I think, by Election Day, you're going to see some incredible numbers. The third quarter is going to be really good. Fourth quarter's going to be great, but next year's going to be one of the best economic years.
So, hopefully, I will be able to be the president where we say, look at the great job I did.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) this point?
TRUMP: I think great. I think we have a great chance. I think we're going to have a lot of people show up. I'm very worried about mail-in voting, because I think it's subject to
tremendous fraud and being rigged. Do you see that Paterson, New Jersey, where I believe it was 20 percent of the vote was fraudulent?
It was -- all sorts of things happened. I understand a mailman was recently indicted someplace for playing games with the mail-in ballots.
You will have tremendous fraud if you do these mail-in ballots. Now, absentee ballots are OK, because absentee ballots, you have to get applications. You have to go through a process. If I'm here, and I vote in Florida, you get an absentee ballot. But you have to go through a process. Absentee ballots are great.
But mail-in voting, where a governor mails millions of ballots to people all over the state, California, millions and millions of ballots, as an example, and then they come back, they don't come back. Who got them? Did you forget to send them to a Republican area or a Democrat area, I guess you could say?
But if you take a look at all of the unbelievable fraud that's been involved with mail-in voting over the last even short period of a while, but look at Paterson, New Jersey. It was a massive error and a massive miscalculation, and there was incredible fraud. Look at the city council, what's happened to it.
This is one place, but you have many places, and they're all over.
Yes, please?
QUESTION: Thank you, sir.
I wanted to know, when's the last time you spoke with President Xi of China, and do you plan to speak with him in the near future?
TRUMP: No, I haven't spoken to him. No, I don't. I have no plan to speak to him.
Yes, please. Go.
QUESTION: Sir, a follow (OFF-MIKE)
QUESTION: You want to do a follow-up?
QUESTION: Yes, if you don't mind.
QUESTION: OK. Yes. Is it OK?
TRUMP: Yes, go ahead.
QUESTION: I just wanted to know. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized today with an infection. Wanted to know if you had any reaction to that news?
TRUMP: No, I wish her the best. I hope she's better. I didn't hear that, actually. She was just hospitalized? No, that's too bad. No, I wish her the best.
She's actually giving me some good rulings. OK? So, you know that, right? People were surprised.
No, I wish her the absolute best.
Please.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
So, you were mentioning the travel bans. And I wondered, when do you plan to review that? Because the European continent in -- the situation is under control, much better place than the U.S. And there is ban for other hot spots like Russia and India.
So, what will be the criteria to change that? And I -- another question...
TRUMP: Well, you know, we banned for Europe, and, at some point, that'll come off. And we're dealing with them all the time.
The relationship's very good. They just don't treat us very well on trade. They are -- they have been very unfair to us over many, many decades.
And we're doing that. It's very easy to solve. I was all set to solve it, actually, and then we got hit with the plague. But we have a travel ban on various countries, and that travel ban remains until such time as we say it doesn't remain.
QUESTION: And Mr...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: We want our country safe.
We don't -- unlike Biden, we don't want to have criminals pouring into our country. We don't want to have open borders. We're not going to have that. And we want to take care of our police. We want to actually fund our police, not defund them. And we're not going to abolish our police. And we're not going to make our military small and weak, because, probably or at least at top of the level, we need our military right now.
Yes, go ahead, please.
QUESTION: Mr. -- so, how do you think an America-first policy can work during a pandemic? Aren't you concerned that this could actually damage the U.S. and make China more influence around the world?
TRUMP: OK, look, my policy's America first.
We've lost hundreds of billions of dollars a year with China and many other countries. And what we're doing is just handing everybody everything. It's just sad. I've watched it. I've looked at it. We did the U.S.-Mexico. You saw that, USMCA. We made a very fair deal on trade. We had the worst deal ever, right? You know that. We had the worst deal ever. And it replaced that. It replaced that horrible NAFTA deal that was one of the worst trade deals ever made.
I will tell you, the only deal that might be worse is the WTO, World Trade Organization. Maybe worse.
OAN, please.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
Your administration has taken tangible steps to ensure that Chinese companies are not taking advantage of our U.S. stock markets...
TRUMP: It's true.
QUESTION: ... our -- our trade.
[18:30:00]
Last week, your administration sent a letter to the Railroad Retirement Board, asking them to reconsider investments in Chinese defense firms.
TRUMP: Meaning not invest.
REPORTER: Correct.
TRUMP: That's correct.
REPORTER: So where is that request now and are you taking tangible actions to ensure that U.S. investments don't continue to fund defense firms in China?
TRUMP: Yes, you'll see more coming. This was a very important bill that we signed, but you're going to see more coming over the next short period of time. But, yes, we don't want them investing in Chinese military companies.
REPORTER: I mean, what actions can be taken to ensure that does not happen?
TRUMP: Well, you have a lot of actions we could take including the -- including the increase. Right now people don't know China is paying a lot of tariffs. We made a China deal and they bought I think just the third highest amount of corn ever in the world history. They just bought from us, the highest amount, which is great for our farmers.
But I view it differently than I did before I made the deal. When I made the deal, I thought this was a great deal. After what happened to us and what happened to the world coming from China, I view it much differently. But we can impose massive tariffs on China if we want and other countries if we want, and we'll see. We just want to be treated fairly. We want a level playing field. Our farmers were never treated properly by anybody, and they were targeted by China. I've paid our farmers $28 billion over a two-year period because they were targeted to that amount of money, to that exact amount of money, 28. It was $16 billion, and it was $12 billion, 28 over a two-year period. And we gave $28 billion to our farmers. That's why they're all here and now they're doing very well.
Our farmers are doing very well because we made really great trade deals. USMCA just kicked in. The China deal, they're buying a lot. They are buying a lot, I will say that. They're buying a lot. A lot of people ask how are they doing on the trade deal. They're buying a lot.
So I want to thank everybody and we'll be having these conferences again. We're going to be signing an immigration act very soon. It's going to be based on merit. It's going to be very strong. We're going to work on DACA because we want to make people happy. And I'll tell you, even conservative Republicans want to see something happen with DACA.
The Democrats had their chance for three years to do something with DACA, and they always turned it down. They always turned it down. They used it as politics. I'm using it to get something done. But we'll be signing a very powerful immigration act. It'll be great. It'll be merit-based. The country has tried to get it for 25 or 30 years. It'll be strong on the border but you'll come in legally and you'll be able to come in legally.
And, very importantly, we'll be taking care of people from DACA in a very Republican way. Republicans -- I've spoken to many Republicans and some would like to leave it out. But, really, they understand that it's the right thing to do. so we're going to be taking care of DACA. We will be doing for DACA what the Democrats had a chance to do and they never did it, okay?
Thank you all very much.
BLITZER: All right, so there's the president walking out of the Rose Garden. He spent about 63 minutes in the Rose Garden, almost all of it, maybe 50 minutes or so, delivering a so-called opening statement, mostly railing against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden. Started with a statement on China and Hong Kong, but then it quickly, quickly went into a campaign-type speech in the Rose Garden going after Biden on point after point after point.
John Harwood is with us right now. John, you had a chance to listen to a lot of what the president was saying. He answered a few questions at the end, maybe 10 or 12 minutes of questions from reporters. That first question, by the way, is do you consider yourself the underdog in this campaign, and he clearly suggested, no, he thinks he's doing just great and is going to go onto win a second term.
HARWOOD: He's obviously the underdog in the race no matter what he says, and it's hard to imagine him having improved his position at this news conference.
First of all, he was rambling all over the place, not expressing coherent thoughts for the most part. And then secondly, he avoided the issue that is convulsing the country right now, which is the coronavirus.
It's wrecked the economy, it has killed 135,000 Americans, it has put the daily lives of American voters into chaos, not certain what's going to happen with businesses and schools in the fall, and he barely addressed that other than to blame China for inflicting the plague.
This has now been in the United States for half of a year and the president has not shown any indication in the last few days that he's got a plan for ameliorating this brush fire that's burning around the country.
[18:35:00]
BLITZER: Yes, that's important.
Our Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, is in the Rose Garden. You were there for the entire 63 minutes that the president spent delivering his opening statement and then answering a few reporters' question. What jumped out at you, Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, wolf, I mean, I've been here covering the White House for almost eight years. I've never seen a president turn the Rose Garden into a campaign rally in the way President Trump over the last -- more than an hour. This was obviously the campaign rally he wanted to in New Hampshire that his campaign wasn't able to have last weekend. He instead decided to have it here in the Rose Garden.
And, I mean, you can just go through line by line, section by section of what the president had to say here in almost the same fashion we do with the campaign rallies to debunk, you know, the myths, the lies, the stretching of the truth and so on. That is what took place here in the Rose Garden.
Wolf, starting on China, the president went after China repeatedly throughout this what he called a news conference. It was barely a news conference. You know, the president sounded at times like he was the challenger running against an incumbent in the 2020 election. He has had over three years to solve these problems with China. He was praising China for its handling of the virus at the beginning of this pandemic, as most Americans should know by now.
He also moved on to other areas, like immigration. He attacked Joe Biden repeatedly throughout this event here in the Rose Garden. But one thing that just stood out as a bald faced lie in terms of what the president had to say, at one point, he suggested that the wall was almost completed down on the border.
I mean, this just gets to the extent of what John Harwood was just saying a few moments ago, that there was almost a rambling unhinged quality to what the president was trying to say here in the Rose Garden.
He was also trying to make the case that he's been on top of this virus from day one when, in reality, Wolf, the virus has been on top of him. He is the president who urged these states to race ahead of the administration's own gating criteria in terms of reopening their economies. Now, many of those states are experiencing spikes in coronavirus that are causing a lot of backpedaling and backsliding on the parts of those governors in those states.
And then, Wolf, I mean, you know, at the very end here, the president was trying to say he's going to be coming out with a new act on immigration here in the coming days. The president can't create law over here at the White House. He can take executive action and so on with administration policy but he can't create immigration laws out of the White House. That's just a misunderstanding of the law that the president has.
So, by and large, Wolf, what you heard the president talk about was essentially what he would have talked about had he been able to give that rally in New Hampshire last weekend. He simply wasn't able to do it. The campaign blamed it on the weather, when it was sunny, in fact, and the skies were clearing in New Hampshire that afternoon. And instead, he decided to have it here in the Rose Garden.
When the White House calls a press conference, as you know, Wolf, because you've covered the White House, and the press assembles here in the Rose Garden, we expect there to be a number of questions asked of the president. There were only three or four people called on before he raced out of here.
He spent much of the time, the bulk of the time that he had here for this event attacking Joe Biden, trying to rewrite history and essentially create a fairy tale of his own handling of the coronavirus when, in fact, it's been a gross mishandling of this pandemic.
One other final thing we should point out, there was Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned during the president's remarks but it was almost as if the president was tipping his hat to Dr. Fauci and noting Dr. Fauci has praised a part of handling of this virus early on in this pandemic.
But, Wolf, make no mistake this wasn't really a news conference. The White House can call it a press conference. This was another one of those rambling, incoherent rally speeches that we see the president give out on the campaign trail.
BLITZER: Yes, he was there for, as I said, 63 minutes, 50 minutes or so just a speech, a campaign-type speech against Joe Biden, a little news -- very little news on China, here and there. Hong Kong may be significant, but it was mostly an attack on Joe Biden and then maybe 12, 13 minutes he answered a few reporters' questions.
Standby, Nia-Malika Henderson, I want to get her thoughts as well. What did you think, Nia?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, a low- energy speech from this presidency, a lack of urgency in terms of what his vision for the next four years, his kind of rambling incoherently, I thought, on going at Joe Biden, at one point, attacking Joe Biden for failing to fix the roads and bridges during his time in the White House with President Obama. But there was no follow-up, right, from the president saying this is what he's done for infrastructure or any number of things over the last couple of years.
I mean, this is obviously a president who wants to give these kinds of speeches out on the road with an adoring crowd.
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But, my goodness, I mean, I imagine if there was a crowd there of supporters, they would be incredibly bored by this speech and uninspired by the lack of vision for where he wants to -- what he wants to do for his voters, what he wants to do for the country going forward.
This is president who clearly is looking at these polls, looking at Joe Biden gain traction in states like Texas, in states like Georgia, in states like North Carolina, and trying to figure out how he's going to run against someone like Joe Biden at a time when this president has basically failed the American public in terms of how he's doing with the coronavirus pandemic.
At every turn he has failed, whether it's not recommending that the economy reopen. That's hasn't worked out so well. You look at the rates of infections in these different states all across the country, particularly in southern states, where those Republican governors were very much following the president's lead.
So he just seemed all over the place kind of lost in terms of what his message is going to be. I think the big question for this president is if he can come up with some sort of cohesive argument for why Americans should give him another four years.
He talks about, for instance, that he's tough on China. Well, if you're so tough on China, why was this Chinese virus, as he likes to call it, why was it so pervasive? Why wasn't he able to stop that? Instead, he's been congratulatory in terms of China in the early days of this virus.
So, my goodness, I don't know if this was a speech that was a written by his advisers. Clearly, at some point, he goes off script, but what a lazy, lazy effort by this president at a time of urgent crisis in this country.
BLITZER: Yes, really urgent. Let's not forget that more than 136,000 Americans have died over the past four months or so. Hundreds of Americans are dying every single day, and, unfortunately, sadly it's going to continue for weeks and months to come. This virus is, by no means, over.
Everyone, stand by. We're going to have much more on all the late breaking developments involving the coronavirus pandemic. Our special coverage continues here in The Situation Room right after this.
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[08:47:02] BLITZER: We're following the breaking news on the results of a new study of a potential, potential coronavirus vaccine.
Let's discuss with Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the CDC.
Dr. Besser, thanks as usual for joining us.
You've had a chance to look at the results so far, still early, but how much hope should people take away from the first published results of this potential American vaccine?
DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: Well, you know, Wolf, I think that it's better than having negative results. But I would -- I would like to inject caution that it's stilly early. You know, the vaccine was shown to induce an immune response, and that's something you'd like to see.
But it hasn't been tried in terms of does it prevent infection, and that's going to be key. It hasn't been tested in terms of safety.
So we have a long way to go. And during that long way to go, we need to be focused on the public health response here in America to get this under control.
BLITZER: So, what do we need to do now, Doctor, to get this under control? Clearly, it's by no means under control?
BESSER: Yeah. Well, you know, I think one of the biggest challenges we're seeing right now, Wolf, is the politicization of this, the injection of politics into a public health response. You know, never in my career at CDC did I see things happening in this way.
And when you have every public health leader in the nation talking about what we need to do to control this virus, wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands, making sure that everyone has the resources to take care of themselves, and then you hear politicians, some of whom saying, don't listen to CDC, don't listen to state and local public health officials, it's a recipe for disaster and it's a recipe for people losing their lives.
BLITZER: You join three other former heads of the CDC to write in "The Washington Post" an article responding to the recent attacks on public health experts. Among other things you write this: Trying to fight this pandemic while subverting scientific expertise is like fighting blindfolded.
Do you have any hope that the president, the White House will reverse course and really start listening to the experts and let all the experts, including Dr. Fauci, speak directly on a daily basis to the American public?
BESSER: Well, I'm by nature a hopeful person, and I know if we take that approach. If we let public health lead here, if we unify and have this be the American way that we're all looking out for each other, we can see the same kind of impact that they're seeing in Europe, that they're seeing in so many Asian countries, where they're getting this under control and they're using public health as a road map to reopening the economy. That's what we need to do.
But we need to federal government to step up and make sure the supports are there so that lower income Americans have what they need, so that essential workers are protected. And if we want to get our schools open, Wolf, we can't even think about doing that until we have this under control in the community.
BLITZER: Yes, Dr. Fauci said today at Georgetown University, this is pandemic of historic proportions. Yesterday, he said we haven't even begun to see the end of it yet.
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And the current CDC director said today that the fall and winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we've experienced in American public health.
Do you see the administration right now taking the national steps that are needed to prepare for this?
BESSER: Well, you know, I think Dr. Redfield is right that this will be a challenging winter because we'll be facing not only COVID, but we'll have flu going on at the same time. And those can look a lot, a lot alike.
I think that we need to come together. And I hope that the threat of what might happen this winter if we don't will motivate people to see that there are things we can do, there are things we can do to ensure that black Americans, Latino Americans, low income Americans don't continue to get devastated by this. Things we can do so that every child in America can get back to school. That's what we need to do, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, we certainly do. Dr. Besser, as usual, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for everything you are doing.
Texas, by the way, is reporting more than 10,000 new infections, a single-day record for that state. Despite the surge in cases, the governor there is resisting calls to shutdown.
Let's get some more on the escalating crisis in Texas. Joining us, the mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg.
Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.
So, what -- what is the latest information you're getting about what's going on in Texas, in your state? And specifically in your city, how worried are you?
MAYOR RON NIRENBERG (I), SAN ANTONIO, TX: Well, it's concerning, Wolf. In all of the urban centers in Texas, we're seeing a very fast-moving infection. The acceleration of case rates over the month of June and now into July has our hospitals really stretched to capacity. And pretty much all of the major cities in Texas now are going through different surge management protocols, including ending elective surgeries, bringing in nurses from out of town, and also standing up field hospitals.
We are now at a point where we have real concern about the availability of staff beds, of ICUs, of ventilators, and even of spaces in the morgues inside the hospitals are getting stretched. So, this is a very dire situation, and it's one that deserves everyone's attention.
BLITZER: I spoke with one of your colleagues, the Houston mayor, Sylvester Turner, yesterday. He's suggesting the governor allow him to order a two-week shutdown in his city. Have you made a similar request for San Antonio?
NIRENBERG: We've been asking for roll back of the reopening plans for quite some time now. And the truth of the matter is Texas opened before the gating criteria was met in terms of the capacity to test and to isolate and trace. We've also been opening very fast through the different phases of reopening.
And so, it has led to a feeling among many that we can let our guards down. And the low infection rates that we had earlier have given people a false sense of security. And we're paying the price for that now.
So, we've asked the governor to roll things back, reduce density, limit some of the extraordinary number of exceptions for some of these mass gatherings and so forth to really help us get this back under control, because again, we're only in the first phase of this.
We have to restore capacity to treat those who are ill if we're going to get through the fall that Dr. Besser was talking about.
BLITZER: It's a real crisis in Texas, in Arizona, in California and Florida, of course. As far as Texas is concerned, Mayor, do you think there should be a statewide shutdown right now preemptively out of an abundance of caution?
NIRENBERG: I believe that there should be a roll back, definitely a roll back to earlier phases of the reopening plan. And I think some areas of Texas do need to shut down for some time. But the truth of the matter is we've gotten into this situation because everyone has let their -- has created an environment where people have a false sense of security. We had no mask order in place for over a month even though the local governments had instituted one that was stripped away by the state government.
So, we have to learn to live with this virus, and part of that is going to reduce density, to limit the number of activities and also the getting together of households that often is tied to this spread of this infection.
BLITZER: Very quickly, we're almost out of time, Mayor. Will it be safe for kids to go back to school next month in San Antonio?
NIRENBERG: We have some schools, Wolf, that are opening up within weeks. And so, we want more flexibility for our local school districts to slow that down, start with distance learning, Internet activities and then slowly go back into schools. And a city like San Antonio, we have 17 different school districts and they're not all one size fits all approach would be smart for them.
So, we're asking for more flexibility. We want to be able to approach this in a way that keeps our students, our teachers and our environment in better shape.
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BLITZER: That's priority number one. Good luck, Mayor Nirenberg. Thanks so much for joining us.
NIRENBERG: Thank you.
BLITZER: And we're going to have much more news right after this.
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BLITZER: Finally, tonight, we have more profiles of Americans we've lost to the coronavirus.
Angela White of Ohio was 56 years old and was about to celebrate her 34th wedding anniversary. Her sister says she was a wonderful mother of four girls.
Guy Tetro of New Jersey was 50. He survived by two brothers who say he was passionate about music and dungeons and dragons and founded a software company.
May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
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